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Completed Ace revision and a new encounter system
Melkino- 03/30/2013 03:02 AM
- 4514 views
Outside of a couple of placeholder graphics and some rebalancing that needs to be done, I'm happy to announce that the Ace version of the game is finally up to where the VX demo ends! I pretty much blitzed through porting the Olivine Cave content in like two days, haha. i'm so faaaaast~
One thing that ended up changing between engines is the writing style. Ever have that moment where you look at something you wrote a long time ago, and then you end up hating most of it? Because of that, I rewrote a good bit of the dialogue and added some new small scenes while copying over event commands. The fact that I haven't looked at the writing in a long time probably helped in revising it with fresh eyes.
One of the harder things for me while working on this game is deciding what to do with the touch encounters. Some blog posts in the past had information about encounters too, but those older versions were too tedious for me to event lengthy self-switch checks and checking to make sure I didn't screw up event IDs in case I delete things in the future. And so, having had enough of that nonsense, I decided to scrap it all and put together something simpler and easier to manage--for me as well as the player.
As in the VX version, enemy groups are represented by the most common enemy type in it. But now, the color of the sprite determines its movement behavior.
Blue enemies walk up to you if you get close. The usual touch encounter behavior.
Green enemies run away if the party's average level is considerably high. The required level to make the blue enemies turn green varies, but they currently go up by multiples of 5.
Red enemies are stationary and will not respawn. However, they are the strongest non-boss encounter in the dungeon. They're like minibosses!
When winning a battle against a blue or green enemy, it will turn gray and fade out for a while before respawning again. If you run away, the enemy will fade out and move away from you for a couple of seconds. Finally, there's an item that temporarily prevents the wandering enemies from noticing you.
This new encounter system was made possible with the help of some scripts by Galv and rokan. :)
Smaller Progress Updates
- Made a small script snippet in which preemptive strikes and surprise encounters make pretty notification pictures pop up instead of text strings.
- Remapped Dust Valley with VX style tilesets instead of XP's.
- Added cutscene skip function for most cutscenes and an icon that says you can skip it. (still in progress) For those who find the icon distracting, it can be turned off in the options screen.
- Added additional effects such as ailments and debuffs to higher-tier magic skills; this should help differentiate what would have been bland fire/fira/firaga kinds of spells.
- Since I like poison-style states and the use of chemicals fits the game's setting and later plot events, the "Toxin" element has been added, replacing an older element. The older one's name and purpose in the story is pretty spoilery. Gameplay-wise it was like those Megido spells from SMT games, and just as pointless...for me, anyway. I didn't like burning through mp on something that doesn't exploit an enemy's weakness. >_>
One thing that ended up changing between engines is the writing style. Ever have that moment where you look at something you wrote a long time ago, and then you end up hating most of it? Because of that, I rewrote a good bit of the dialogue and added some new small scenes while copying over event commands. The fact that I haven't looked at the writing in a long time probably helped in revising it with fresh eyes.
One of the harder things for me while working on this game is deciding what to do with the touch encounters. Some blog posts in the past had information about encounters too, but those older versions were too tedious for me to event lengthy self-switch checks and checking to make sure I didn't screw up event IDs in case I delete things in the future. And so, having had enough of that nonsense, I decided to scrap it all and put together something simpler and easier to manage--for me as well as the player.
As in the VX version, enemy groups are represented by the most common enemy type in it. But now, the color of the sprite determines its movement behavior.
Blue enemies walk up to you if you get close. The usual touch encounter behavior.
Green enemies run away if the party's average level is considerably high. The required level to make the blue enemies turn green varies, but they currently go up by multiples of 5.
Red enemies are stationary and will not respawn. However, they are the strongest non-boss encounter in the dungeon. They're like minibosses!
When winning a battle against a blue or green enemy, it will turn gray and fade out for a while before respawning again. If you run away, the enemy will fade out and move away from you for a couple of seconds. Finally, there's an item that temporarily prevents the wandering enemies from noticing you.
This new encounter system was made possible with the help of some scripts by Galv and rokan. :)
Smaller Progress Updates
- Made a small script snippet in which preemptive strikes and surprise encounters make pretty notification pictures pop up instead of text strings.
- Remapped Dust Valley with VX style tilesets instead of XP's.
- Added cutscene skip function for most cutscenes and an icon that says you can skip it. (still in progress) For those who find the icon distracting, it can be turned off in the options screen.
- Added additional effects such as ailments and debuffs to higher-tier magic skills; this should help differentiate what would have been bland fire/fira/firaga kinds of spells.
- Since I like poison-style states and the use of chemicals fits the game's setting and later plot events, the "Toxin" element has been added, replacing an older element. The older one's name and purpose in the story is pretty spoilery. Gameplay-wise it was like those Megido spells from SMT games, and just as pointless...for me, anyway. I didn't like burning through mp on something that doesn't exploit an enemy's weakness. >_>
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CloseAlmighty damage is done well in a few games, but it honestly just undermines the entire idea of elemental affinity the SMT series/sub-series are based on.
I LIKE THIS WHOLE POST
EDIT: I've been the first reply on your latest four blogs, hahaha.
I LIKE THIS WHOLE POST
EDIT: I've been the first reply on your latest four blogs, hahaha.
First post x4 combo~
Naoto was my favorite character in Persona 4, but I didn't use her very often because her skills were so expensive and not very useful against bosses. :'(
Now that I think about it, I didn't really use the Almighty mantras when I played DDS1 either!
Naoto was my favorite character in Persona 4, but I didn't use her very often because her skills were so expensive and not very useful against bosses. :'(
Now that I think about it, I didn't really use the Almighty mantras when I played DDS1 either!
Irili
3198
Yay for status effects! So since you've gotten up to speed with the previous demo, will you be releasing a new demo with the updated do-das?
I wasn't intending to, since players would be playing through what is essentially the same content (story-wise) and the reviews would be become inaccurate. Also, I don't want to get stuck in a rut releasing and bugfixing the same stuff repeatedly in case it burns me out in the future...
Then again, posting these Ace-related blogs and screenshots while the old VX demo sits there could mislead people. And I want people to see the new stuff in action soon!
But anyway, I need to finish some more sprites and portraits that'll replace the placeholders, and do more playtesting and rebalancing first before deciding anything. (Damage formulas have been changed, and with the new built-in stats in Ace, I can't really copy everything over exactly)
Then again, posting these Ace-related blogs and screenshots while the old VX demo sits there could mislead people. And I want people to see the new stuff in action soon!
But anyway, I need to finish some more sprites and portraits that'll replace the placeholders, and do more playtesting and rebalancing first before deciding anything. (Damage formulas have been changed, and with the new built-in stats in Ace, I can't really copy everything over exactly)
Yes new demo plz k thx ...I've kinda been holding on feedback thinking on how much things may change between versions. ;P
i knew from the moment i first played the demo of catharsis that you were an SMT fan :3
it has that charm about it that draws me in
it has that charm about it that draws me in
I kinda know how to do this in common events, and I have idea how you do the red. Is there any variables invloved in this I know choices may come into play depends on the route you took. Branhces I know you put into play. Am I close to being correct or off? I think I will work on the encounter system and spelling in my game near the end. Once I get all my project priorty's straight I will be good I like doing the common events have not really dived into scripting yet. I have somewhat of a understanding of it but it's a pain.
Uh...yeah...I've been using variables and event pages to manage each encounter event.
(I'm having a hard time understanding your posts, to be honest)
(I'm having a hard time understanding your posts, to be honest)
thatbennyguy
1612
That whole blue/red/green colour coding system for event behaviour is genius. If a player can have immediate recognition of gameplay via simple yet subtle visual cues, then you've achieved something great - players having the ability to prove their smartness and skill of recognition due to experience with the game. Which is what any good game should rely on.
(Um, I'm not a guy haha)
Color theory is an important aspect in the game. Gameplay-wise, it's mostly for usability; hopefully the enemy sprites stand out enough from the environments so that the player can see them easily and react accordingly.
I've also been working on a worldbuilding document for the past few weeks, and there's a whole section full of notes about why I used certain colors in the character designs, the maps, and even the title screen :)
Color theory is an important aspect in the game. Gameplay-wise, it's mostly for usability; hopefully the enemy sprites stand out enough from the environments so that the player can see them easily and react accordingly.
I've also been working on a worldbuilding document for the past few weeks, and there's a whole section full of notes about why I used certain colors in the character designs, the maps, and even the title screen :)
I think the color code for touch encounters has been done elsewhere, although I can't exactly which RMN game(s). If I remember which, I'll post in another one. That said, the implementations of that concept have been quite good. So I expect the one for Catharsis to be so as well ...
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