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Nex Machina |OT| Insert 80 Quarters

Wozman23

Member
P.S And hope it hasnt already been explained but what does Distance Morphing actually do.
Looking on steam forums and havent found any mention of it.
Whether i have it on or off my GPU usage remains pretty much the same and i cant spot what exactly its doing on screen.

It has to do with the visuals on the edges of the screen. At a certain distance from the player, the world becomes more blocky and slightly morphs up and down. It's actually really cool to watch the world deform, if you can find the time amidst the chaos.
 
The sword isn't entirely useless, I don't think. Obviously, it's nowhere on the same level as the rocket launcher or powershot, but I find it quite effective when I need to dash around the screen and take out enemies quickly, specifically the enemies that shoot tons of projectiles at you. And it seems like you can kill many enemies with just one swipe of your sword, I think? I need to experiment more with the sword.

And this game is absolutely nuts. There is just so much shit going on at once, it gets pretty crazy at times.
Concerning enemy and projectile clearing, the issue is that the Smartbomb sort of fulfils that job better. Has a longer cooldown than the Sword, but controlling your distance feels more intuitive (full stop vs dragging yourself forwards mid-dash) and it briefly offers you some invincibility frames after use too.
 
Concerning enemy and projectile clearing, the issue is that the Smartbomb sort of fulfils that job better. Has a longer cooldown than the Sword, but controlling your distance feels more intuitive (full stop vs dragging yourself forwards mid-dash) and it briefly offers you some invincibility frames after use too.

I just like the quickness of the sword and its ability to take out even the tougher enemies with one swipe. Dashing around the screen like a madman, swiping and taking out enemies as I go, it makes me feel like a ninja - lol. While not the best weapon by far, it's not as bad as people are making it out to be, at least in my eyes.
 
Man, now I feel bad. I wasn't hiding anything, as I'd just been posting about the PC version before you posted.

Since I already had the PC version, I would not have purchased the PS4 version outright on my own, but it's pretty cool seeing it in HDR.

Can I maybe send you some of the cost back? I will PM.

No worries. What's done is done. No hard feelings :) If you wanna repay me, just beat the game on Veteran 1cc ;)

The sword isn't entirely useless, I don't think. Obviously, it's nowhere on the same level as the rocket launcher or powershot, but I find it quite effective when I need to dash around the screen and take out enemies quickly, specifically the enemies that shoot tons of projectiles at you. And it seems like you can kill many enemies with just one swipe of your sword, I think? I need to experiment more with the sword.

And this game is absolutely nuts. There is just so much shit going on at once, it gets pretty crazy at times.

I felt the Sword was garbage the first time around but I really like it now.

Sword + Triple Dash has you going around the map, slicing everything up. A really satisfying feeling.

I've also become a fan of Powershot.

On my way home now to put some more hours into this. Going to work on some feats and possibly more 1cc runs for practice.
 

shmoglish

Member
It'd be nice if a page was taken from Assault Android Cactus' book for the sword sub-weapon. To illustrate:

bkznuj.gif
https://my.mixtape.moe/exhdpl.gif[/IMG[/QUOTE]

Bought Aac at launch, but had some problems with it. Seeing these gifs make me want to try it out again.

Maybe I should finally finish the game and not close it everytime I need a continue. At least I made it to world 4 yesterday (where I lost all of my lives 😌)
 
I felt the Sword was garbage the first time around but I really like it now.Sword + Triple Dash has you going around the map, slicing everything up. A really satisfying feeling.

Yes, this is exactly what I'm talking about. If you know how to use it effectively, it's quite a fun weapon to use. I just dash everywhere and slice the harder enemies up.
 

scitek

Member
I've given this game a fair shot. Developers need to stop thinking everything needs to be like Dark Souls. It almost always ruins a perfectly fun game.
 

Renekton

Member
What the hell, the view-obscured levels where I cannot see my character are BS.

Unless someone explains how I'm playing those wrong, refunding this game.
 

fanboi

Banned
You die, you lose your powerup where you died and all enemies respawn.

Starting the stage over everytime you die makes harder difficulties maddening.

Hasn't that been the case for these types of games since forever? And not souls like.
 

shmoglish

Member
You die, you lose your powerup where you died and all enemies respawn.

Starting the stage over everytime you die makes harder difficulties maddening.
You only lose one powerup when you die and it is not that hard to collect it after respawn. Losing all of your lifes (and with that all powerups) is hard, sure. But thats normal for games from that genre and I dont see a connection to souls tbh.
 

Cotrip

Member
Does anyone know how to get the Dank beams trophy? The description says "Dash through 3 beams with single dash".

Tried to do that with some random enemies, but I imagine this should be done on a specific kind of beam.

Btw, any tips for reaching the 50x multiplier?
 

scitek

Member
Hasn't that been the case for these types of games since forever? And not souls like.

Maybe I just don't play the ones where it's common, but it is Souls-like in that Souls games do the exact same thing. I just know this game's not for me. Still glad I bought it to support more efforts from Housemarque on the PC, but I hope they don't skimp on HDR for no reason next time. It's pretty fucking inexcusable if they don't patch it in at some point.
 

Gen X

Trust no one. Eat steaks.
Been trying to progress on the Arena on various levels but just don't find myself getting "in the zone". Went back to Arcade on Novice and managed to get the Human combo and multiplier up and beyond 50 so easily. Happy with my sub 200 rank for now, now onto Experienced.
 

bombshell

Member
Does anyone know how to get the Dank beams trophy? The description says "Dash through 3 beams with single dash".

Tried to do that with some random enemies, but I imagine this should be done on a specific kind of beam.

Btw, any tips for reaching the 50x multiplier?

Level 4-5 is an easy level to get it, right as you spawn there's 3 enemies that shoot a beam towards your position. You can easily dash through all 3 beams there.

For the multiplier, I think the only things that deduct from it are deaths (-3?) and humans being abducted/lost. So don't die and don't let any humans get abducted. Easy :)
I don't have it yet...
 
I just like the quickness of the sword and its ability to take out even the tougher enemies with one swipe. Dashing around the screen like a madman, swiping and taking out enemies as I go, it makes me feel like a ninja - lol. While not the best weapon by far, it's not as bad as people are making it out to be, at least in my eyes.
Oh, I agree it's not outright bad in non-boss encounters, I just wish it had an unique element about it. In its current condition it's fairly redundant due to the aforementioned overlapping niches and I'd like to see it gain an area of expertise that other weapons don't share.

Bought Aac at launch, but had some problems with it. Seeing these gifs make me want to try it out again.
If it helps, you gain invincibility frames when you swap from your standard gun to your alt fire and vice versa. You can tell based off of your character briefly turning white as you change weapons, as seen in the .gif with the boss. Shutdown (the EMP) also gives you a full health refill upon pick-up. There's other mechanical nuances to Assault Android Cactus that fly below the radar, but these are important subtleties to know for good defense.

I've given this game a fair shot. Developers need to stop thinking everything needs to be like Dark Souls. It almost always ruins a perfectly fun game.
You die, you lose your powerup where you died and all enemies respawn.

Starting the stage over everytime you die makes harder difficulties maddening.
Maybe I just don't play the ones where it's common, but it is Souls-like in that Souls games do the exact same thing. I just know this game's not for me.
You know how dubious this sounds when arcade-y games, including those Eugene Jarvis worked on, have been punishing death with dropped weapons (or other imposed setbacks) literal decades before Dark Souls was even conceived, right? This is nothing new to score-hunting games and your view on this is absurdly hokey.

What the hell, the view-obscured levels where I cannot see my character are BS.

Unless someone explains how I'm playing those wrong, refunding this game.
View obscured how?

Btw, any tips for reaching the 50x multiplier?
In all seriousness? Don't die. Aside from killing robots, there's numerous multiplier increasing components that reward good play:

- Hidden Extra Lives turn into +1 multiplayer tokens when you have a the max total of lives.
- Yellow blocks also leave said tokens behind and can seemingly only be destroyed by your sub-weapon.
- Disruptors leave behind a multiplier increase, i.e. those scurrying robots with the green bulb.
- Ditto re: those train-like enemies called Visitors. You'll see a green pathing line prior to their arrival on certain floors.
- The power-up bar (bottom left corner) drops Shield, Triple Dash, ... when filled up and it'll award multiplier boosts after acquiring everything else.
- Saving and losing humans does influence impact the bigger number too.​

Losing a 1UP naturally takes the multiplier down a notch, but that should go without saying.
 

tassletine

Member
It's a good game but I was expecting more. As someone who loves shootemups (and can basically play Robotron indefinitely) I actually find some of this game a bit cheap.
I don't like the fact that dash is mapped to the triggers as it's not accurate enough, and I also don't like that dash seems to give more invincibility at the end of the dash than at the beginning. I know this is intentional but the timing always feels off. My main complaint though is that it's hard to see your character at times. The game just isn't as tight as I was hoping it would be. Everything is a bit too spongy and loose.
Robotron is still the better game. It's faster, more accurate, it enables you to perform by the skin of your teeth much more efficiently, and the sound effects are better.
 

bombshell

Member
In all seriousness? Don't die. Aside from killing robots, there's numerous multiplier increasing components that reward good play:

- Hidden Extra Lives turn into +1 multiplayer tokens when you have a the max total of lives.
- Yellow blocks also leave said tokens behind and can seemingly only be destroyed by your sub-weapon.
- Disruptors leave behind a multiplier increase, i.e. those scurrying robots with the green bulb.
- Ditto re: those train-like enemies called Visitors. You'll see a green pathing line prior to their arrival on certain floors.
- The power-up bar (bottom left corner) drops Shield, Triple Dash, ... when filled up and it'll award multiplier boosts after acquiring everything else.
- Humans operate under their own independent multiplier, so those don't negatively impact the bigger number.​

Losing a 1UP naturally takes the multiplier down a notch, but that should go without saying.

Thanks for these tips for the 50x multiplier, you went into more details than my post above :)

Are you sure about your last point? I'm fairly sure that the multiplier goes down when a human is abducted/lost. Not nearly as much as when you die, but still some.

A final tip is to go for it on Rookie.
 
There was a level where my view is blocked by a ceiling 90% of the time, I can neither see my character nor his shots, and can only see the outlines of enemies.
That's not natural. It's a bug a few others in this thread have stumbled into and have sorted out if memory serves. Worth a shot looking back a couple pages.
 

Black_Stride

do not tempt fate do not contrain Wonder Woman's thighs do not do not
It has to do with the visuals on the edges of the screen. At a certain distance from the player, the world becomes more blocky and slightly morphs up and down. It's actually really cool to watch the world deform, if you can find the time amidst the chaos.

Ohh thanks.
Ill keep it enabled and try spotting it....but i legit think my eyes are just a bit too slow.
 

scitek

Member
It's a good game but I was expecting more. As someone who loves shootemups (and can basically play Robotron indefinitely) I actually find some of this game a bit cheap.

The game is cheap, and the punishments for death are too strict. I could see resetting the entire stage after a continue, but doing it after each death makes having continues at all pointless.
 

JJShadow

Member
FUCK YEAH! Just beat the final boss (world 6) on Experienced without Powerups (well, and with the aid of a Rocket Launcher lol). I'm so thrilled, a few days ago I barely made it to the final stage and now I've managed to reached the final boss using just three continues, I think that with some more practice I could do that 1CC Experienced run

Love this game so much, that feeling of progression and becoming more and more skilled it's so rewarding

EDIT: by the way, that star-shaped laser dash of the final boss can be avoided without Powerup, just tested it. You have to time perfectly your dash and just dash through her, it's a bit tough but doable
 
It's a good game but I was expecting more. As someone who loves shootemups (and can basically play Robotron indefinitely) I actually find some of this game a bit cheap.
I don't like the fact that dash is mapped to the triggers as it's not accurate enough, and I also don't like that dash seems to give more invincibility at the end of the dash than at the beginning. I know this is intentional but the timing always feels off. My main complaint though is that it's hard to see your character at times. The game just isn't as tight as I was hoping it would be. Everything is a bit too spongy and loose.
Robotron is still the better game. It's faster, more accurate, it enables you to perform by the skin of your teeth much more efficiently, and the sound effects are better.

I also agree that Robotron is still the better game as well. I also think the sound effects are really lacking in this game, as Robotron's sound effects were much more prominent. When shooting at enemies, it feels like there's little impact. Also, I tend to sometimes get my character stuck in places or lose my character altogether, due to the environment, which I find unacceptable in a game like this.

Despite its faults, though, it's still a solid game. I'm just thankful we have a developer that still makes the kinds of games that I loved growing up as a kid.
 

Wozman23

Member
Made it to the 5th boss on Veteran again with full upgrades and a full bar of lives... and got destroyed within seconds during his final phase again.

Too much bullet hell, plus laser hell. I'm thinking I might need to let go of my trusty rocket launcher and use the Smartbomb for that boss to cut through the bullets. Or maybe it's time to make use of the replay feature to figure out strategies others used.
 
The game is cheap, and the punishments for death are too strict. I could see resetting the entire stage after a continue, but doing it after each death makes having continues at all pointless.
Using a continue should probably reset the whole world so that the player can stock up again / practice more. But I guess the way it's setup right now is really about teaching you that they want you to try to beat the game on one credit.
 

Eridani

Member
Just wondering, is there a text guide listing which levels have secret humans/levels/visitors/beacons? I know I can just watch replays to see where they are, but I'd prefer to have it in text/pic form, since that would be easier to reference, and since replays take quite a bit of time to sit through if I just want to see which ones I'm missing.
 
*spends time learning Fire Cavern on Single World*

scrfrsta4kld.png


*freakin' half an hour later*

scrscndw4kr0.png


Oh...

c-xtl-jw0aqgikj_slxyre.png


Are you sure about your last point? I'm fairly sure that the multiplier goes down when a human is abducted/lost. Not nearly as much as when you die, but still some.
Yup, you're right. Did some double-checking and humans do in fact impact the bigger multiplier number. Edited that little mistake, thanks.

The game is cheap, and the punishments for death are too strict. I could see resetting the entire stage after a continue, but doing it after each death makes having continues at all pointless.
I disagree. There's very little in the way of legitimate cheapness, with scant few rooms like 6-6's insta-laser (the one you can't dodge through) being the rare exception. Losing every power-up after a continue isn't particularly harsh either - it's common place in the arcade-y games it's inspired by after all - and if nothing else, continues exist for inexperienced players to hop back onto the saddle to gather information for a later attempt. A disclaimer warning about the looming uphill climb upon spending a continue would be appropriate I suppose, regardless of the challenge still being fair without upgrades.

Made it to the 5th boss on Veteran again with full upgrades and a full bar of lives... and got destroyed within seconds during his final phase again.

Too much bullet hell, plus laser hell. I'm thinking I might need to let go of my trusty rocket launcher and use the Smartbomb for that boss to cut through the bullets. Or maybe it's time to make use of the replay feature to figure out strategies others used.
Detonater is solid as well for bullet barf patterns; although it's more of a pro-active pick-up rather than a defensive tool like Smartbomb in this context, you can potentially create bigger gaps for yourself once you know the timing of specific patterns without putting yourself in as precarious of a position.
 
Just wondering, is there a text guide listing which levels have secret humans/levels/visitors/beacons? I know I can just watch replays to see where they are, but I'd prefer to have it in text/pic form, since that would be easier to reference, and since replays take quite a bit of time to sit through if I just want to see which ones I'm missing.

I've been working on the secret exits:

World 1
https://flic.kr/s/aHskY1abhe

World 2
https://flic.kr/s/aHskXComEd

World 3
https://flic.kr/s/aHsm3jRoG6

World 4
https://flic.kr/s/aHskXRNJJu

World 5
https://flic.kr/s/aHskYMntnk

World 6
https://flic.kr/s/aHsm3m8fNn

I need to upload World 6 soon, which has 3 exits.

Is there a better place to upload pictures? Maybe Flickr? Imgur works when it wants to and I'm kinda fed up with it lol. If that's the way to go, I'll re-upload these pics then.

Been working on Arena, specifically, Chain Rescue. I've made it to #3 but now I need to strike a balance with how I save humans in order to maximize my multiplier. #1 was able to get 28x, while I finished with 27x.

This game, man.
 

MrS

Banned
Made it to the 5th boss on Veteran again with full upgrades and a full bar of lives... and got destroyed within seconds during his final phase again.

Too much bullet hell, plus laser hell. I'm thinking I might need to let go of my trusty rocket launcher and use the Smartbomb for that boss to cut through the bullets. Or maybe it's time to make use of the replay feature to figure out strategies others used.
You'll get it, you just need to perfect the art of triple dashing across the room and managing the lasers. I've been getting my ass kicked ALL WEEKEND by Architect, beat him a couple of times, but on my last run I finished him with 4 lives left. It's all about triple dash management. Get em, Wozman!

Good job with the videos too, Hispanicguy!

Edit: FINALLY beat Veteran. Hard as balls. 1CC'd it too. Feels like after World 3 on Vet it's a 1CC or bust because the enemies are too tough without any power ups
 

Wozman23

Member
You'll get it, you just need to perfect the art of triple dashing across the room and managing the lasers. I've been getting my ass kicked ALL WEEKEND by Architect, beat him a couple of times, but on my last run I finished him with 4 lives left. It's all about triple dash management. Get em, Wozman!

Good job with the videos too, Hispanicguy!

I've got good with triple dash, moving from top left to bottom right to find small pockets of safety, but once the purple-y death laser comes, I have to abandon that strategy.

I think the key might be using a single dash forward then walking backwards in the void it creates for as long as possible, so that will probably be my next attempt. Doesn't help that the space for that boss fight is so confined.

I'm determined to keep trying. I assume beating everything on Veteran will be tougher than just beating Techno Forest on Master since I'm very familiar with it.

Edit: Congrats on the Veteran 1CC.
 

MrS

Banned
I've got good with triple dash, moving from top left to bottom right to find small pockets of safety, but once the purple-y death laser comes, I have to abandon that strategy.

I think the key might be using a single dash forward then walking backwards in the void it creates for as long as possible, so that will probably be my next attempt. Doesn't help that the space for that boss fight is so confined.

I'm determined to keep trying. I assume beating everything on Veteran will be tougher than just beating Techno Forest on Master since I'm very familiar with it.

Edit: Congrats on the Veteran 1CC.
Thank you. Felt amazing to beat it after literally days of trying. Techno Forest on Master is definitely doable but it's considerably harder due to revenge bullets. Enemy speed isn't that different. You'll lose a couple of lives but you should have the hang of it by 1-10

If you dash from the far left side of the room to the middle back and forth firing off rockets and bullets, you should be fine. Rockets/bullets will take out some skulls too. You could also try weakening the purple death beam so it only takes one shot to kill when you're at phase 3.
 

Eridani

Member

kikonawa

Member
just found out you can rewatch other peoples play. wow at those number one's..
crazy .

Just playing further in rookie mode for now :D
 

Wozman23

Member
Thank you. Felt amazing to beat it after literally days of trying. Techno Forest on Master is definitely doable but it's considerably harder due to revenge bullets. Enemy speed isn't that different. You'll lose a couple of lives but you should have the hang of it by 1-10

If you dash from the far left side of the room to the middle back and forth firing off rockets and bullets, you should be fine. Rockets/bullets will take out some skulls too. You could also try weakening the purple death beam so it only takes one shot to kill when you're at phase 3.

I spent some time in Single World mode and found out I had a much easier time when trying to hang out in the far right bottom corner away from the bullet spammer, whereas before I was hanging right in the middle of the room. Once I got to the third phase, its easier to dash around the skulls and take out the death laser from that corner as well.

Went back to Arcade, and blew through it with a few lives to spare. The platinum is now mine!

My hands were shaking during the last boss, but I actually think it's much easier than the previous boss.

If I had to rank the bosses in order of difficulty:

1. Beamtron (1)
A nice introductory boss with easy patterns.

2. Enforcer Prime (4)
Easily predictable patterns and wide spaces between bullets. Probably one of my favorites, because it does throw a lot at you, but there's plenty of room for error.

3. Yeti Kong (2)
Phase 3 gives you a lot to deal with and obstacles obscure you shots. I usually pick up the laser for that fight, since it shoots through the rocks. Still, every so often I die once here.

4. Supreme AI (6)
Similar to boss 4, with a little more to account for. Still, the area between lines of bullets gives you a decent amount of space.

5. Helltron (3)
Unpredictable movement patterns spawn bullets that move in all directions. Plus, it's easy to find yourself right underneath him if he jumps your way. That makes it hard to stay close. But when you're far away, it's harder to hit him with any of your weapons. Every so often, this is where I'd have to burn a continue.

6. The Architect (5)
Phase 3 just throws everything at you in a small space. It's chaos. Between the fanning bullets, standard lasers, deadly purple laser, and the occassional enemies, you're pretty much guaranteed to die, and once you start dying, you'll keep dying until you kill him. I just watched Jimmyqballs run on youtube, and even he fared about the same, so I don't feel so bad.

Such a great game!

Not sure where I go from here. Master is probably insane. Or maybe I try to beat the final boss on Experienced.
 

Vitacat

Member
I hope they fix alt tabbing and borderless window on PC, pretty damn quick.

Alt tabbing out of Fullscreen does this-
Puts into windowed mode.
Have to press the minimize button to look at another tab.
You then have to go to options, turn it to window mode, apply, then back to fullscreen, apply.

borderless window does this



Notice the weird thing on the right side, and the bottom of the tabs in windows 10 on the lower part of the screen. Not to mention it's chopping up the left side of side of the screen.

YES. I have this too now, but even worse than yours!

UPDATE:

OK, I was able to fix this. For anyone with this issue, try these things:

First, apply the latest hot fix per the devs: http://steamcommunity.com/app/404540/discussions/0/1369506834142406820/

Then go to your user folder... AppData\Nex Machina, and delete settings.json.

Then look at the file windows_pos.cfg, and change it to main loc 0, 0 size 3840 x 2160. Mine was originally main loc -8, -8 size 3840 x 2160, which would maybe explain th weird offset.
 

tok9

Member
I was just about to get to the boss on World 2 with no deaths on Arcade Veteran when I accidentally exited out of the game. Was absolutely gutted. Was my first run of it too.

Anyway, I love this game. It's so incredibly addictive and it's just amazing how quickly you adjust to the difficulty.

One minor complaint, the challenges in Arena are a bit all over the place. Some are very easy and then all the quick ones have ridiculously high scores to beat where you seem to have to be in the top 30 people to get a gold. I did persist and got all the golds but damn was it tough for those specific challenges.
 

JJShadow

Member
I've been working on the secret exits:

World 1
https://flic.kr/s/aHskY1abhe

World 2
https://flic.kr/s/aHskXComEd

World 3
https://flic.kr/s/aHsm3jRoG6

World 4
https://flic.kr/s/aHskXRNJJu

World 5
https://flic.kr/s/aHskYMntnk


I need to upload World 6 soon, which has 3 exits.

Is there a better place to upload pictures? Maybe Flickr? Imgur works when it wants to and I'm kinda fed up with it lol. If that's the way to go, I'll re-upload these pics then.

Been working on Arena, specifically, Chain Rescue. I've made it to #3 but now I need to strike a balance with how I save humans in order to maximize my multiplier. #1 was able to get 28x, while I finished with 27x.

This game, man.

Thanks for this, it's extremely helpful. Are you also working on secret humans and beacons?
 
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