Saturday, January 21, 2012

Where'd I go?

Just a quick note to everyone.  Yes, the site was down.  No, I don't know why.  Google sent me an e-mail demanding a cell phone number.  Once I entered it, the site returned.  Sadly, that's all the information I have.  I don't know if there was a complaint against the site, or if I triggered some sort of alarm on their end, or if this is some sort of preliminary SOPA/PIPA defense they're rolling out.  (Maybe one of the admins there is just such a huge fan that they wanted my phone number?  lol).

Whatever it is, site's back up.  I'm grateful that the fix was so easy, but damn it'd be nice to know WHY it was gone in the first place.  Something I'd like to avoid in the future.

DirtyC101


Saturday, January 14, 2012

Save Me!




I suspect most of you recognize the two scenes above.  From a play standpoint, they're almost identical.  They're both 'run up & save them' mini-quests.  And perhaps you were wondering why I'd put the exact same content in twice?  Anyone?  No?  Okay, well, let's pretend you said yes anyway, cuz this post gets really boring otherwise.  ;P

Fair warning, this isn't directly about code, but it is definitely about the magic behind the curtain.  If that's not your thing, ya might wanna stop now.

The main code allows for two different things that can interact with the character - monsters & items.  Monsters are fairly straightforward, they're the things attacking you.  Items represent almost everything else.  If you hit spacebar to interact with it, it's an item.  So that means most doors, cabinets, quest NPCs, weapons or clothing on the ground, etc.

There's some rules (okay a lot of rules) in the code to handle each.  And between the two, I can usually make everything happen that I need.

The time when I have trouble is when I need both monsters & items at the same time, and they interact conditionally with each other.  Take the rescue events above.  There's a monster (or monsters) and an item (the girl), and you need to be able to interact with her after she's saved, but until then she needs to stay unselectable.

When I originally set up the LeiLei rescue, I had the item (LeiLei) drive the event.  Once you get within a certain range, the monster is 'released' so to speak.  At first I was really happy with this.  But on later playthroughs, I noticed that it was possible to get just outside the trigger range, and swing a reach weapon right through the monster's sprite.  The monster should be hit by this & react, but because it's all slaved to the item, instead he just stands there & the attack passes through him harmlessly.

That's the kind of bug I'd like to avoid.  Operative word however is like.  It's not game breaking, it doesn't lock the game or force you to start over.  It just doesn't work 'right'.  We see the weapon pass right through him, and whatever immersion we had in the game is broken.

So to answer my earlier question, the reason I did the exact same event again with K. Fox is because I wanted to see if I could do better.  This time around, the monster closest to the PC is driving the event.  Again, if you get too close he'll turn around & attack.  But now you can also hit him from range & surprise him.  This also caused all manner of problems if you can imagine.  The code wants to walk monsters towards the player, so I had to find a way to turn that off, but just for these two.  Then it wants to throw attacks at the player, had to disable that too.  Then it wants to grab the player if you get too close, but I have to tell it to release the animation with K first.  Oh, and if you jump him, then I have to release not just him but also his buddy & K Fox, so that combat works as it should.  Oh, and then K has to know if the monsters are dead or alive, so that you aren't accidentally talking to her while fighting.  I was re-re-re-writing the code for this right up until the game was posted.  I kept finding bugs I never thought of (like if you one shot them with the meteor, or if you run up & try to join the grapple).

This is the one area where I was sure I'd get a bug complaint.  There's just too many variables at play.  Although everything seemed ok, I was sure there was going to be some combination of distance-attack-player that I wasn't considering which would break the game.  I haven't heard any though, so perhaps I got them all after all?  That's sort of comforting of course, but not what I was expecting either.  hah.

Anyway, this event was a large part of the reason why I released the 0.50 beta.  There's other reasons too of course, but this is one of the prime examples where there were just too many permutations for me to test them all.  And now that it's working, I'll probably never use it again (hahah).  Okay, not entirely true.  There won't shouldn't be another 'rescue' event, but the same code tricks can be used in other areas as well.

And yes, Farah will make an appearance in Act 3.  Just not in a 'help, save me' quick event.  =D

DirtyC101





Friday, January 6, 2012

Weapons

I've wanted to write this post for a while, but I held off because I didn't think it would make much sense.  There's five major groups of weapons in LotTO.  They are:

Two handed weapons (fire-axe & maul)
One handed weapons (longsword, wooden sword, torch)
Martial Arts (unarmed, weighted gloves)
Wands (starter wand, fire wand)
Staves (staff of water, staff of earth)

Before you read any further, take a second & rank those five groups in your head.  Is there one group that's your favorite?  Why?  How about is there one you always ignore?  Although it may not be obvious, I'm trying fairly had to balance all five against each other.  Now that I've played with them a bit, there's going to be some buffs coming.

So, here's my opinion on the 5 groups.  If you're feeling chatty, now's a great time to disagree.  =D

1. One handed weapons.  Grade: A+   Not too long ago I re-tuned this special attack so that monsters wouldn't be knocked clear on the first hit.  That really put these weapons over the top, as now you have a very safe attack that does fantastic damage.  These weapons were supposed to have problems with ranged casters & with monsters creeping up behind them.  To a minor extent that's true, but it's not nearly the downside I was expecting.  Changes: None planned.  They're powerful, but I'm okay with that (and I hate nerfs).  New one handed weapons may suffer slightly though, as I will likely only apply very minor bonuses.  If they still feel too powerful after a round of changes, I may slightly reduce their reach, but I'd rather not go that route yet.

I'll also note that I think this is a large part of why folks say Farah is too powerful.  Her default weapon is simply better than anything else out there.

2. Martial Arts.  Grade: B+  Martial arts combines good damage with a fair bit of movement.  In most cases that movement is a good thing, as it keeps any monsters from creeping up behind you.  It also has the best special in the game (arguable perhaps, but it does have the longest invincibility).  The downside of martial arts is that it can be downright terrible if the monster is immune to knockback (tentacles) or merely highly resistant (slime boss).  More so than any other weapon group, I think this one requires a backup weapon.  Other than that drawback though, I think martial arts are quite solid.  Changes: None planned, although later weapons will probably get some reach on them.

3. Wands.  Grade: B-   I hear that wands are terrible.  I'll grant that they're not awesome, but I think they're really solid.    Wands have the ability to keep mobs offscreen, making them the safest weapon of the bunch.  They do very good damage and they bypass damage reduction.  Their special attack has the highest DPS of any weapon class out there, making them my boss killer of choice.  Their only real drawback is they aren't good when you're surrounded by multiple monsters.  The basic attack has a slow fire rate, and the special attack grants almost no invulnerability.  I think it's the last part that makes folks dislike wands.  If you're about to break a grapple & you're surrounded by multiple monsters, the wand is probably the worst choice for making some space.  Changes:  I have been playing with how projectiles work.  You can now cancel enemy projectile attacks with your own (assuming they touch).  That wasn't meant to be a buff honestly, just something I wanted to include.  But I'm noticing that it makes wands a tad stronger.  The actual planned buff here is that I'm going to extend the minimum range a bit.  It's supposed to be the ranged weapon, but for a low spirit character I think the normal sword has a longer reach.  I'm also hoping to include some better wands earlier in the game.

4. Two handed weapons.  Grade: C   Let me back up here.  Every weapon has a 'difficulty' assigned to them.  So for example, many of you noticed that when K. Fox first equips the weighted gloves, she loses her fifth attack.  For the gloves, that last attack requires a body score of 7 for her, and typically she'll have a 5 or a 6 when she first finds them.  Similarly, the wooden sword & the longsword both have the same attack chain, but getting the entire attack chain with the longsword requires a much higher body score.

I'm pointing that out because so far I've only introduced two extremely heavy, off-balance two handed weapons.  They both have an extremely high difficulty rating.  I don't think it's even possible to see the final attack in the chain yet.  I'm of the opinion that these weapons are actually great.  As soon as y'all see the fourth attack in the animation, I think that this class of weapons will jump up there with the 1 handed weapons.  Maybe not quite as good, but definitely viable (Grade A or A-).  Changes: None, other than adding some better weapons in this group.

5. Staves.  Grade: F   Staves are in a rather distant last place right now.   Which I find funny, as the special attacks are crazy powerful (imo).  I'm pretty sure a fully powered meteor would one-shot the slime boss, just to give you some idea.  But their basic attacks are terrible, and the special move has no invulnerability.  So, it's really tough to justify using them (other than as a backup weapon for their special). Changes: I'm playing with having the projectile continue after it hits.  It makes it sort of a baby AoE attack, as it can hit & push back multiple monsters.  What I'm seeing right now may actually be too powerful, but I think I can balance it out.  I don't think it will make Farah players jealous, but it will definitely makes casters pause & think which weapon class they want.


So that's my mindset at the moment.  Although I don't think it's possible to get them all perfectly balanced, I'd like to be able to grade all five of them as either an A or at least a high B.  I'm not there right now, but I think I'm on my way.  For whatever reason, this is one of the most enjoyable parts of making the game for me, so don't be shocked if this part comes up again.  =)

DirtyC101


Sunday, January 1, 2012

Too Soon for Nostalgia?

I've always been really proud of my first game - Kay Fox & the Magic Sword.  I had no knowledge of Flash when I started, but I had a one month free trial and a full pile of sprites I could rip from Playshapes' game.  And sure enough, I manged to make something playable before the trial ran out.  I constantly think back to that & wonder why I can't crank out a new game every single month.

Well, during my downtime I went back & played it.  Or tried to anyway.  The animations were so bad I quit before I got to the bar.  I don't mean Playshapes' artwork, that's outstanding as always.  I mean everywhere I animated it.  It was just hard to watch.  The punch & kick animation are both glitchy, like they're missing half their frames.  And for whatever reason I have Kay's head on funny as well - it doesn't sit on her neck correctly.  It's bad enough to make me want to go back & re-make the game.

I'm not going to do that of course, I've got my current game to finish.  Plus I think it's cool to leave a trail behind & show where I've been.  I just think it's amazing how much I've improved in only 2 years.  Now if only I could also release a game every month, then I'd really be somewhere... haha.


(This is the middle frame of animation from the punch.  It's supposed to be an elbow smash IIRC, but instead it looks like her arm is cut off)



Anyway, I am in fact working on LotTO again.  The color options are done, but buggy.  In certain grapples, some body parts revert back to their original color, and I have no idea why.  I'll battle it again later, for now I'm simply noting where it happens.  Seems to always be hands & feet, which are also the sprites that often change layers & have the most variety.  So I have to believe it has something to do with one of those.  But everything I've checked so far says that's not the case.  I'll keep looking, I'm sure it'll turn out to be something stupid.  Not that that's ever happened before...    ;P


(New fetish time! Ladies with multi-colored legs!)

Update - Turns out the problem was in fact something pretty dumb, and had very little to do with how I'm setting the color.  The other thing hands & feet have in common is that they are both used in the unarmed attack.  In order to for the code to check if you're hitting something, I had to name both of them in the property menu.  Looks like I was sloppy with some copy/paste, as there were multiple body parts with the same name in any given frame of animation.  For example, in the picture above both of LeiLei's feet were named 'foothitbox'.  Kinda funny that this is the first time it cropped up as a problem, seems like it would have caused other errors before this.  Anyway, problem found & fixed, moving on.  =)

And lastly, while I was on break there was one more game I played that really deserves your attention.  The Legend of Queen Opala II.  Much like my game, what's posted is only the first half of the game, but what's there is really good if you like old school RPG's.  Fair warning, if you don't like HUGE tits or beastiality, then the porn isn't going to appeal to you.  Also, it's heavy on 'game' & light on 'porn' imo.  Still, I played through what's there twice, something on the order of 40 hours, so clearly I liked it.

Looking forward to 2012  :)
DirtyC101