Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[IndigoFenix]

Elemental melee attacks have been added.

[Kamani]

Okay. Thanks. Now I can make the attacks that should be guard proof actually guard proof.

Edit: Done and done. Set up elements and the flame spiral's improved design. Not sure what to do for my next attack, so that one might take a little longer, but I'll think of something.

Edit: Huh, still stuck for ideas. Any ideas for attacks?

[IndigoFenix]

How about a fire trap (similar to the spore cloud) and flame breath (similar to sorcery flames)?  Or perhaps summoning a small flame that moves around randomly.

I would suggest giving the boss a bit more random motion and taking away the ghostly property.  I'm going to try working out a system that allows a charge attack to work without getting stuck.

[Kamani]

I like them. I’ll do those. Thanks.

Considering that it is impossible for the boss to reach you in corners, even with a good angle, I’ll leave it as is for now and change it when that system is in place.

Edit: Oh, by the way, the second phase will have more random motion, as it is smaller and therefore will have less of these kind of issues. The second phase will also be a little more mobility themed when it comes to attacks, so that should work out well.

[IndigoFenix]

Okay, this is not entirely finished, but it's at least functional.  You can make item shops now.  The trading screen is opened through a function event.  You add items to a unit's inventory under the "Trading and Inventory" submenu; each inventory item represents a quantity held by that sprite (-1 to give it an infinite supply, as is standard for RPG shopkeepers) and you can also override the default item price to make special sales and the like.  Note that an item's "real" value as pertains to giving sparks to the world builder is still the default price even if a shopkeeper overrides it, so avoid going too far off the mark here.

Items can also have HP and MP now, which can be called using $itemname._hp or _mp.  Items can be stacked as well, but any item that is equipped, does not have full HP or MP, or has partition values set will be separated from the stack.  Using $itemname to call a partition value, hp or mp will prioritize an equipped item, otherwise it will use the first item of the given name on the list.  This method makes most basic item uses simple (equipped items take damage or can have limited uses, partitioned items are generally unique mementos and don't need to be stacked anyway), but more complicated systems will be trickier, so I'll have to add some less awkward methods of specifying exactly which inventory item you want to read/modify.

I've also improved the "Walk" event so the "Continue on failure" option actually works.  The sprite will evaluate whether it actually moved any closer to the destination each frame, if not, it will assume it is stuck on an obstacle and proceed to the next event.  By adjusting _speed and creating a Walk command, you can make a proper "charge" attack.  Note that unlike Jumps and Dashes, Walk events do not have a "fixed" timespan and are better used in functions rather than techniques (you can call a function from a technique and call a technique from a function though, to create an ability that utilizes both.)

[Kamani]

Cool! I don’t have any plans for using it now, but maybe on another world.

Okay.

Okay. But I think I’ll keep ghostly on the first phase anyway. Even with improved walk, the size of the hitbox works so that the player can hide in a corner either way, I believe.

Edit: Firebreath is done, as is another attack that hits three random spots with high damage explosions (Same as the one in the spiral flames, but this time with no spiraling flames). Up next is the fire trap one.
Edit: Hmm... I wonder if I could combine the three random spots with the fire trap. Would work better, seeing as they are similar concepts.

Edit: Well, I did that, but there seems to be a strange issue. The first time, it works normally except for the jumps, which fail (see the next edit). But then, after that, they aren't even working in the first place, so the create functions aren't working, and it isn't clear why.
Edit: It also seems that the projectile jumps are waiting until the last ones end, which is what is causing the jumps to fail. They shouldn't be waiting this way, so I am confused about that.

[IndigoFenix]

I've fixed the "waiting for jump to complete" issue, and also made aiming at a specific point work properly.  (Set _turn to 0 to prevent the sprite from rotating to face the player during a dash.)  Boss looks great - I tried testing it with all techniques active and it was craaazy (probably unfair but still fun to see how long I could last).  What are you planning for the second phase?

[Kamani]

Great! Now that dash attack and fire trap should actually work. Although I hope the create functions start working on it again too.

I’m not yet entirely sure of the specifics of the second phase, but I know that the boss will be normal spider sized instead of giant, and will be far more mobile. It will still forecast all the big attacks, but you’ll have less time, and they’ll do more like 20 damage instead of 35. The second phase will be less punishing for a single mistake, but since you’ll have less time to dodge, mistakes will be easier to make. If it works well, it should turn out pretty neat.

I still need to set up timers and stuff to control skill use. But the boss only had 100 life, so it even out a little. Still not sure how much health exactly to give the first phase.

[IndigoFenix]

Well, with no defensive abilities 100 HP can be drained in a few seconds.

Something to try: give him 1000 HP and make Flamestorm only usable when he has less than 100 HP remaining.  Flamestorm makes the battle much harder so it probably should only be active near the end.

If there's a dialogue in between the first and second phase, make sure to either destroy all fireballs or run a "physics disabled" cutscene event to avoid being hit during the dialogue.  Shadow Mage also has this issue, you can get hit during the ending dialogue.

[Kamani]

Exactly. Since it only had 100 health, beating it with all the skills is possible. Wouldn’t keep it that way, since that isn’t the point, but...

I’ll do that. I haven’t really tested out how the skills combine much, so I wasn’t aware how much of a difference it made.

Oh. Oops. Hadn’t considered that. Since I am thinking about redoing the Shadow Mage boss fight anyways, I’ll do those at the same time.

Side Question: would there be a easy way to save the entire state of the room (optional exclusion of life), and then reset to it later (including destroyed objects)? This isn’t relevant for this project, but it would be a neat thing for the next, as a boss attack (something similar was used in Undertale’s final boss (normal route), if you ever played it). It would fit with my concept for the next project excellently.

Also, I think I might combine all the mementos from my projects into one, since otherwise they might clutter people’s inventories too much. Using it would bring up the details of the stuff you have obtained. Opinions?

[IndigoFenix]

Combining mementos is always advisable when possible.  In addition to saving inventory space, it will also avoid the problem of players discarding one memento while holding onto others.

Persistent rooms are saved in their entirety when you leave and return.  It is entirely possible to make an function that passes the player to a different area and then returns them to the first one with all changes to the room retained.  (This only works as long as the player remains in the same world though.)

[Kamani]

I’ll do that moving forward then (and moving backwards, but I don’t think many people finished the other dungeon anyways).

That isn’t quite what I mean. I mean have the room continue and then go back to how it was when it was saved (health could be saved as a global variable, so I could make that not jump back. If I could save and load a room as persistent while in it that might work, but I don’t know if that would actually work. Also, room transfer load time would be annoying.

[IndigoFenix]

Oh, you mean like save states?  No, there's nothing like that right now.  (I guess you could save the position of each object as a variable and then move them to their proper position, though this would force you to take each and every active object into account.)

There will likely be a more elaborate checkpoint system at some point in the future, though; I'll consider making it in a way that allows something like this.

[Kamani]

Okay. Maybe there is some way I could do this with an each statement. I figure it will mess people up in an interesting way without being overly frustrating. Ah well, I’ll leave that idea alone for now.

[IndigoFenix]

I made a few minor updates, mostly related to status effects:

- Apply Effect and Remove Effect events work now
- Hitboxes can also apply effects on hit, so you don't need to make a new function for your poison attack or whatever
- New variables for sprites, _enemy and _ally.  It refers to either the closest enemy or ally in targeting range, or a specific enemy or ally if one is specifically targeted, and is equal to 0 if there is no enemy or ally in range.  Intended for attack or cure items.  (You can make the usage condition {_enemy != 0} to make an item only usable if there is a nearby enemy.)

I'm planning on adding some more complex AI so that units can have built-in behaviors more complicated than "mindlessly attack nearest unit on a different team".  Stuff like revenge, fear, protection, and cooperation.  I want there to be neutral creatures that you can either attack or feed and have them behave appropriately (right now neutral units just ignore you).