Godsent

[Meiscool]

Update on life: got an internship at a hospital working 40 hours a week... which doesn't allow much time to work on this game. Hopefully I can get the hours cut back, because I really don't like 40 hour weeks.

Update on game: Added a 4th element to the game, which is wind. Wind daggers have a slight homing effect on enemies. Wind boomerang doesn't actually throw anything, but instead causes your character to briefly restore stamina at a very fast rate.
This element has a lot of combo potential, especially when you factor in that the increased stamina regen can allow you to flip -> throw 3 seeking daggers in a pretty spam-able way. Visually, I feel this element is one of the nicer ones too. The homing effect will be used to solve some puzzles, which is also coooool.

Other than that, not much to say. Made a few maps, touched up a few of my older maps by adding some shadows, and fixed a few scripts here and there to improve the quality of the game.

[daoman89]

Congrats on your internship!

[Meiscool]

Thanks. Even though I hate it, still glad to have it in a way.

So, spent the last few hours changing up the element system in my game to allow you to switch elements on the fly. I've always had a script that let me switch when I wanted to, but I had planned to take it out upon release. With the old script, changing elements while a boomerang/dagger is out would mess with what was already out and make some pretty screwy stuff happen, but I didn't worry about it since I knew when to switch.
Now, if you use the ice shield then switch to another element, the ice shield will remain unchanged and will still detonate ice shards. Or, if you make the fire boomerang circle you then change to wind element and burst the fire ring, it will still shoot out fire daggers. Etc.
This might not seem like a big change, but I feel that allowing players to change between elements whenever they want will add to the gameplay and allow me to make more interesting puzzles that don't have to be right by a save point.

The downside is that piercing daggers are still really overpowered... which isn't a real big problem except against bosses. Having access to piercing daggers at all times may force me to make bosses immune to them, or at least the stationary bosses.

[Kerberos]

Boha 
Amazing! And all with the RPG Maker 2003.
Can you tell me how to make a Pixel Movement?
It looks like you are using you as a script.

[Meiscool]

I could, but this already exists and does a very good job: http://rpgmaker.net/tutorials/498/

[ZeroKirbyX]

Sweet baby jesus.

[Meiscool]

Since I do not want to release any of the underwater dungeon without having it more complete, I've decided to map out a small area of the next part of the game and turn that into a tech demo.
Progress is good, as the maps are done and all that is left is making the enemies for them, 3 of which I made this weekend.

Just giving a small update atm, more will come later.

[Meiscool]

Update:
So, enemy creation is the main thing I am doing atm. I've coded for enemies to shoot and throw projectiles that go in a straight line or circle. Coded for airborne enemies that can move over some terrain that your hero and other enemies cannot. Coded for spawn-on-death enemies (enemies that explode into other enemies). Coded for more types of enemy movement (as of last update, the only enemy movement existing was "towards hero" movement).

At this moment, I am going to start implementing status effects into the game. As I'm making enemies, I'm noticing that they are all starting to become the same due to the fact that they are all geared towards dealing damage, and really the only difference between them is how they do it. Making some enemies geared towards giving status effects and such will allow more variety (I hope) and actually make the game a bit easier (due to not every attack hurting your HP pool).

So... what kind of status effects do you think I should put? What kind of effects do you think are outright annoying/stupid and hate when they are in a game?

At the moment, I was thinking:
Confusion: Movement keys are reversed.
Paralyze: Sword/Boomer/Dagger disabled.
Blind: Large part of the screen visually obstructed.

Poison: Actually going to try to stay away from this one, as it is just a damage effect for the most part.

And possible ones that might be a bit harder to code or seem like more annoyances than interesting status effects:
Slow: Movement speed halved.
Fatigue: Stamina regen lowered.

[fruckert]

You can totally make poison do something else besides DOT.
Weakening stats is a pretty easy one, but you could make it more interesting by making it get progressively worse over time.
Poison doesn't HAVE to be boring, but it's so easy to typecast it.

[Meiscool]

I guess I could make poison damage your special meter rather than health. Kinda lack luster though.

[ZeroKirbyX]

Any preventative status like bind, paralyze, freeze will get gratingly annoying if you put multiple sources of it in room.

So area filled with projectile ice monsters.

[Meiscool]

Well, a lot of coding has occurred this weekend. We've got:
Enemy Movement:
Coded "circling" movement for enemies. Basically, these enemies circle around your hero, then move in to attack.
Coded random movement for enemies. I'm particularly pleased with this one. With some enemies moving randomly, the game changed pretty drastically. Though easier, also less predictable. Thus... I can make enemies a little stronger in certain regards.
Coded for horizontal and vertical strafing in enemies. Think projectile targeting.
Coded for "run from hero".
Coded for charging movement. Think stampede.
Coded for teleporting movement.
Coded for objective movement. Essentially, pathing for guards and such who have not seen your character yet. Those of you who have played the original demo of this might remember a room with a guard who had vision... think that.
Status Effects:
Coded paralyze (no attacking/throwing)
Coded Blind (darkness around hero)
Coded Confusion (movement keys reversed)
Coded Fatigue/Poison (Stamina Regen decreased)
Coded Burning (Can't stop moving and move with increased speed, kinda comical. May actually be used for some puzzles if I can figure some out)
Coded priority system for statuses. Basically, if inflicted with one status then inflicted with another, depending on the severity of the two statuses, the more severe one will be applied and the second will not. This is to help keep visuals more practical. I don't intend to put several sources of negative status in the same area at once though, so I may have just coded that for no reason, but we'll see.

Going to experiment with a freezing/slowing effect... not sure just how feasible it is. Other than that I think I have my status effects. May make some simple str down or something effects if I feel these aren't enough, but I've never been a fan of raw stats being reduced.

Lastly, my biggest supporting play tester keeps telling me that I need a heal spell or item in the game. I don't really want to code items at this point (mostly because of the menu associated work they come with), so I thought long and hard and figured that I could make the sword arts into the extra spells I need. So, every element will have two sword arts... one for targeting enemies, and one for targeting yourself. During the time period you have to position the spell, if you are in the spell ring by the end of the targeting period, then a different spell will go off. Probably will be something like...
Ice: Heals HP, maybe remove status effects too.
Fire: Inflicts self with burning. (for potential puzzle solving goodness)
Wind: Temporarily increases hero slash range by a large amount.
Pierce (which I may remake visually into earth at some point): fudge if I know. Open to suggestions.

The idea of this is to add more usefulness to the art system than just a powerfully attack every so often, and also provide that much needed heal to the game.


Not really much of a post, but just wanted to say how things were going and what's all done. Steadily working towards getting a polished product to release to yas.

[Prpl_Mage]

Lastly, my biggest supporting play tester keeps telling me that I need a heal spell or item in the game. I don't really want to code items at this point (mostly because of the menu associated work they come with), so I thought long and hard and figured that I could make the sword arts into the extra spells I need. So, every element will have two sword arts... one for targeting enemies, and one for targeting yourself. During the time period you have to position the spell, if you are in the spell ring by the end of the targeting period, then a different spell will go off. Probably will be something like...
Ice: Heals HP, maybe remove status effects too.
Fire: Inflicts self with burning. (for potential puzzle solving goodness)
Wind: Temporarily increases hero slash range by a large amount.
Pierce (which I may remake visually into earth at some point): fudge if I know. Open to suggestions.

Sounds like a great idea,
Don't suppose you could make the pierce element give you the ability to reflect projectiles for puzzle solving or just a spiky shield that hurts enemies that walk into you like 1-3 times?

[Meiscool]

Sounds like a great idea,
Don't suppose you could make the pierce element give you the ability to reflect projectiles for puzzle solving or just a spiky shield that hurts enemies that walk into you like 1-3 times?

Ice boomerang already nullifies projectiles for puzzle purposes (something I didn't mention yet). Not sure about how reflecting them would impact game-play.
Spike shield isn't a bad idea. I'd like to hear more ideas before I run with that one though.

[desiderata]

Could you also use the spike shield to possibly push 'spiky' objects that would otherwise hurt you?  Or to catch certain projectiles for defense boosts, so that for instance, you 'catch' a flaming... ball, or whatever, your next block also retaliates with fire damage, a wind-based object with extra knockback, ice with a short freezing, poison, a 'piercing' object that causes bleedout damage, and so on.  These could also be used in puzzles, I think.  Just a thought from a fan.

Also, totes magoats excited to see some of my work in your demo vid!  Looking great so far!

Also also, I'm temporarily back by absolutely no popular demand.