4964 replies to this topic

[blue_knight]

The idea of different weapons is awesome SpacemanDan. I like it when games make different weapon types worth using for different reasons and situations.

As for me, I continued to work on Test Build 3. I'm maybe 50% way through the middle portion of the Tower and then have to work on the Stalfos and some more on the Phantoms.

The demo/dungeon is coming along pretty quickly now.

[Schwa]

Today, this guy.

[Schwa]

I hate double posting. Even when it's permitted. Just a pet peeve of mine I guess. I was "raised" at Acmlm's Board, they were way strict about it there.

Anyway! Here's what I did the other day: invented the beginnings of an A.I. system that can allow walking enemies to move on the 8x8 grid like normal instead of the 16x16 grid. If I can wrench all the kinks and knots out of it, I will be using it prominently in my quest gameplay, and possibly making it public for others.

Here's what I'm doing today: realizing one major flaw in that system is how enemy knockback is processed. Since every enemy in my game is scripted and is type "Other", I have to define everything myself. Just as I thought, telling the enemy to move backwards from its NPC->Dir variable isn't quite enough; it works, but it looks silly and stupid sometimes if you hit an enemy from below while it's facing left, and it's launched to the right by the attack.

Looks like I'll need to script brand new Knockback System Physics for the whole quest! I honestly don't know whether I'm looking forward to it or dreading it. Probably a little of both. It's a little irritating that this is mandatory instead of "hey I feel like adding another cool feature today", but hey, them's the Hy-Rules when you use lots of prominent and protein-filled scripts.

There is one nice thing, and that is I have the overly complicated base components of such a physics rewrite already laid out and present in my other physics rewrites. I might be able to tack this onto it with relatively no problems, instead of extend the weight of the quest's script file by an entire wing. I was smart to design it the way I did, since I knew things like this might come up.

[Moosh]

So Schwa won't have to commit the deadly sin of triple posting, I'll tell you guys what I did today. I scripted a boss. Is that a surprise to any of you? If so, get yourself checked.

And no, there is no video because this boss is somewhat...final...

[Nightmeres]

I finished floor one of my first level today

[MoscowModder]

Yesterday, I did a ton of scripting, and planned the next sub-dungeon in PoS.

Scripts I made:
~ Flowing water
~ Fast/slow conveyors
~ Extra triggers/secrets
~ Same as above with global variables

BTW, said plan for PoS includes the first of those scripts in an environment filled with holes. Be afraid...

[blue_knight]

Yesterday I got the Stalfos working again. I did some recoloring work but it's still not good enough but I decided to focus on functionality and worry about finishing the graphics during the polishing phase. Anyway I still have to tweak their attacks and make them go up slopes properly (currently they only collide with non-sloping combos). But collision detection, falling, down thrust and basic attacks work.

After this version is working, I plan on making a Bow wielding version of the Stalfos that will shoot you from above while you fight Stalfos at ground level and switch back to the sword if you get too close. And this version of the Stalfos will jump and try to downthrust into Link's head sometimes as well.

Edited by blue_knight, 07 December 2011 - 02:42 PM.

[Moosh]

I worked on that boss some more. Also, I learned about rectangles and made a boss health bar.

[Schwa]

Today I got Octoroks working! They're awesome, but something about them caused ZC to crash when I knocked one into the water to kill it ('cause that's an insta-kill attack now against land-based enemies). Going to look into what that is.

Edit: Got it fixed, I think. Not sure. That was so weird. If it does it again then I guess I'll be worried.

Edit 2, to Pokemonmaster64: Yes! Rectangles are fun, aren't they! Just wait 'till you get to circles, they can be either a ton more fun or really really aggravating.

Edited by Schwa, 08 December 2011 - 07:06 AM.

[Moosh]

Edit 2, to Pokemonmaster64: Yes! Rectangles are fun, aren't they! Just wait 'till you get to circles, they can be either a ton more fun or really really aggravating.

I haven't thought up a use for circles yet...power bombs maybe?


Here's that boss I was working on.
Notice how all for enemies have 1 shared health bar.

Edited by Pokemonmaster64, 08 December 2011 - 10:29 AM.

[Nightmeres]

IDK I kind of feel that your weapon is over powered and the boss is too weak

i finished recoloring my giant leaves for my second floor to my 1st level last knight

[Moosh]

IDK I kind of feel that your weapon is over powered and the boss is too weak

The bombs are a WIP drop. Eventually, each enemy will drop a unique item granting you their magic powers. They will be less powerful than a hyper bomb for obvious reasons.

last knight

Knight - Night
Your typo is win.

[Schwa]

I haven't thought up a use for circles yet...power bombs maybe?

In mine, I use them when you charge up the Spin Attack. Little energy wisps gather from around you and spiral inwards, kinda what it looks like in the MegaMan X games when he charges his blaster.

When I'm actually drawing primitives to the screen instead of assisting the Subscreen, I scarcely use them alone-- most of the time they simply assist other special effect graphics that are actual tiles. I might have Screen->DrawTile() laid down and then several Screen->Circle() that use an algorithm to get their position and size, etc... That's more or less how I got the Spin Attack charging to work.

But there's no such thing as a wrong way, really! Whatever you can get to work will be great.

One thing I love about the primitives is you can change their size on the fly very easily, with math. If you want a projectile attack that expands bigger and bigger as it gains distance, you can just have an invisible EWeapon for the hitbox and place some appropriate primitives and maybe other graphics on top of that, and the effect would look much smoother when it grows in size.

Here's that boss I was working on.
Notice how all for enemies have 1 shared health bar.

I love that you have to watch for their elemental chain tied to the center as they move around. Other than that, it's a pretty decent boss fight, but a little too spammy, you know what I mean? They sorta just meander around and drop bullet hell on you, and you pretty much do the same thing back at them.

Got a couple of ideas for you to take or leave:

* Have the Mages regularly go into special formation attacks, in intervals, like what the Armos Knights boss did in LTTP. That sort of thing works wonders to give a boss fight a lot more depth and flavor.

* Have each Mage display their own attack style. I noticed the Water one uses an 8-way bubble shot at some point, but I mean something a bit more evident. For example, there's a huge difference to see one enemy that shoots fireballs at you at an alarming rate, and then another enemy that discharges waves of very slow-moving fireballs that fill up half the screen as if it were Touhou. Be creative too; you can have the Wind Attacks swerve around in a sine wave as they fly, for instance (Perfect Chaos's whirlwinds did that in Sonic Adventure).

Oh, but the Super-Bomb effect was really cool. Maybe a bit too powerful, I don't know, but it was real neat. ^^ Excellent work on that.

[Moosh]

A combination attack sounds like a cool idea, although it would be tricky since each mage uses a different script. As for sine wave bullet patterns, how would I do that for lweapons? I know ghost.zh lets eweapons do that, but what about lweapons?

[Schwa]

A combination attack sounds like a cool idea, although it would be tricky since each mage uses a different script. As for sine wave bullet patterns, how would I do that for lweapons? I know ghost.zh lets eweapons do that, but what about lweapons?

You'll figure something out. All you need is a routine that lets you alter its variables every frame on the fly. The rest will be a cakewalk for you.

If you try for a while and absolutely can't see a way, come to me in a PM.