1201 replies to this topic

[toa jalokim]

thanks!

[Meta-Mind]

Katuko, I think you have discovered the one way to make Throwing Knives more amazing. Forget Magnetism + Throwing Knives, Psionics + Throwing Knives = game.

[~Shockwave~]

Katuko, I think you have discovered the one way to make Throwing Knives more amazing. Forget Magnetism + Throwing Knives, Psionics + Throwing Knives = game.

 

wait... What does Magnetism plus Throwing knife do?

[Meta-Mind]

Katuko, I think you have discovered the one way to make Throwing Knives more amazing. Forget Magnetism + Throwing Knives, Psionics + Throwing Knives = game.

 
wait... What does Magnetism plus Throwing knife do?

If your knives landed correctly, you could retrieve them with Magnetism.

But yeah, the new Psionics Emanate is better.

[Katuko]

Katuko, I think you have discovered the one way to make Throwing Knives more amazing. Forget Magnetism + Throwing Knives, Psionics + Throwing Knives = game.

 

I had to deliberately program them to "split up" when targeted by the ability, otherwise the bundles were treated as a single object with an ammo count, like the gun-type weapons. But then I thought: "Wouldn't it be awesome to just lift them all without throwing each one first?"

And it was.

As for making knives more amazing? I could make it so it's "power" is to throw three at once when chosen, but that might interfere with my later plan to allow you to charge any weapon with your element/power effect.

Edited by Katuko, Dec 31 2012 - 07:48 PM.

[Damaracx 7.0]

Try to see if web-archive has your topic.

[Katuko]

The main post should now be mostly restored. I had an older backup in OpenOffice and a carbon copy on another forum, so luckily I didn't have to go digging through temp files or internet archives. Thanks for the tip, though.

[Flaredrick: Forgotten One]

I going to download this new version. Toa of Lightning and Plasma and some other elements were glitched. When I revive or just a few minutes into play, they can't move. I have to press the move button repeatably until they move.

[Katuko]

You didn't happen to be wearing Elemental Armor or Protosteel Claws or something, were you? It sounds like an issue that occurs when error messages are off but a steady stream of errors are still generated. Usually this comes from missing sprites, such as for those two items.

[Flaredrick: Forgotten One]

No I wasn't I wore Nuva Armor, always. Oh I just downloaded the new version and the new Psionc powers that you have, I can't get it. It still says unavailable on both powers. Unless its supposed to be the emanate power.

[Floridian Citrus]

Ah goody, finally managed to get this downloaded and unzipped.  I shall report back once I've gather sufficient data on this "update".

 

:3

[Katuko]

No I wasn't I wore Nuva Armor, always. Oh I just downloaded the new version and the new Psionc powers that you have, I can't get it. It still says unavailable on both powers. Unless its supposed to be the emanate power.

Hm, strange. Check the 'errors.txt' file in the game folder and see if you can find a repeating error related to lightning and plasma, then, if the problem persists.

And yes, the new Psionics power is mapped to Absorb/Emanate, since it's kind of a passive power once activated and Psioncs can't absorb EP anyways. Instead they got a 3x recharge rate compared to other elements in my game. THe primary attack, once programmed, will be a sort of energy blast and the secondary will be a "mind shield" which protects your entire body.

[Flaredrick: Forgotten One]

Is the emanate power mapped to the space bar?

 

Oh and also, I already deleted the 10.0 version.

[Katuko]

Is the emanate power mapped to the space bar?

Down+R, actually. It's in the instructions, but I suppose it can be easy to miss.

[Flaredrick: Forgotten One]

Yeah just found that out. It's really cool, the Psionics power. I may have some screenshots.

[Katuko]

That would be nice. I keep forgetting to capture screens to use in this topic.

[Meta-Mind]

I going to download this new version. Toa of Lightning and Plasma and some other elements were glitched. When I revive or just a few minutes into play, they can't move. I have to press the move button repeatably until they move.

This can happen with any character as far as I'm aware, but it happens only rarely for me. Just try tapping the directional keys in one direction for a minute or so, you get a little progress as you start running - get far enough away from where you spawned and eventually it'll work.

...I should really have finished that sheet by now, shouldn't I? *runs over to computer*

[Katuko]

This can happen with any character as far as I'm aware, but it happens only rarely for me. Just try tapping the directional keys in one direction for a minute or so, you get a little progress as you start running - get far enough away from where you spawned and eventually it'll work.

Hm. If you encounter the again, please quit immediately and check the error log for the most recent issues. If you see a repeating error message, that is most likely the cause.

...I should really have finished that sheet by now, shouldn't I? *runs over to computer*

Don't you worry about it. I actually have some sprites I'm supposed to be making for someone else too.

[Flaredrick: Forgotten One]

What folder did you say screen shots would appear in? Oh and also I was wearing elemental armor for both Toa of Lightning and Plasma.

[Katuko]

What folder did you say screen shots would appear in? Oh and also I was wearing elemental armor for both Toa of Lightning and Plasma.

Screenshots should appear in the same folder as the game itself.

Dying with E.Armor equipped might very well cause a stream of errors, I've discovered. Until I patch that, unimplemented items should not be used. Sorry for not blocking them off completely, but I thought that I had made the armor use the Nuva sprites everywhere.

[Flaredrick: Forgotten One]

I didn't see the folder of the screen shots in there. Looks like I'll have to re-do it.

[Chro]

Well, I downloaded the game by accident (don't ask), and I'm happy to say that it runs successfully via Wine. Quite slow and freezes in the character menu, but hey, it works.

[Katuko]

I didn't see the folder of the screen shots in there. Looks like I'll have to re-do it.

Hm, just pressing F9 should save a screenshot and place it in the same folder as the EXE. There is no other special thing about it, so you not finding your screenshots is strange.

Well, I downloaded the game by accident (don't ask), and I'm happy to say that it runs successfully via Wine. Quite slow and freezes in the character menu, but hey, it works.

I've recently gotten my hands on Game Maker Studio, which can export to Mac. I'll have to check if I must make any changes to the code in order to make it compatible, but you might get a proper Mac version relatively soon.

Edited by Katuko, Jan 12 2013 - 12:30 PM.

[sonyaxe]

Hi, remember me? Just asking, did the maps I made earlier get put into the WIP folder, because I didn't see them anywhere there.

[Katuko]

Addendum to Mac export:

Before beginning to work with the Mac module with GameMaker:Studio, you must be a registered Apple developer

...

This is due to Apple's policies. I'd say what I feel about this issue, but the word filter would just remove it.

 

Hi, remember me? Just asking, did the maps I made earlier get put into the WIP folder, because I didn't see them anywhere there.

I haven't done any map work at all since Kini-Nui, so your sketches are still in my folder but not in use yet.

[Flaredrick: Forgotten One]

I got them screenshots. All I needed to do was un-ZIP it. Though I clearly forgot how to post screenshots in here.

[Katuko]

I got them screenshots. All I needed to do was un-ZIP it. Though I clearly forgot how to post screenshots in here.

You may host them via Brickshelf or Majhost and then either post screenshots here (please use thumbnails or text links to prevent excessive page stretching and forced downloads) or PM them to me so that I can either put them in the Dropbox gallery (sadly it cannot be put on a slideshow or anything) or if they're good enough I'll use them right in the topic.

[Labouka]

You should also eventually start to implement those female Toa sprites you showed me the other day. This will really fill the game.

 

On that note, don't you think that it's a bit reduntant to have genders for suits of armor that are powered by worms? XD

Edited by Labouka, Jan 17 2013 - 06:12 PM.

[~Shockwave~]

I found a few bugs (I think) With Psionics:

When a weapon that is under your control touches a hau shield, it drops out of the air.

When a bot activates gravity emanate near you, weapons may sink into the ground.

they get caught incredibly easily on suvas, slopes etc.

 

Hope that's helpful! 

[Katuko]

Once Meta-Mind (*AHEM* ) gets back to me with the sprite work he's done, I'll continue my own and get females in-game. I know you're all just waiting for the glorious thing that is gender-equality in my game. Finally men and women can bash each others' faces in as equals!

Rahkshi will likely just get the gender option removed. It's hard to imagine a non-humanized Rahkshi that is both feral and feminine, at least in sprite form.


Now, here are some updates for you guys (and girls): Previews of the new attacks I've been programming!

First: Air primary, a cutting wind. It pushes people gently backwards for as long as they are in the stream, and if you use it while underwater it also refills some of your air so that you can breathe.




Next, Toa of Earth get an overhaul. Away with the dirt spray, in with tossing a big chunk of earth at people!

Preview GIF (~500 KB)

Toa of Earth secondary: Quake. First, a pulse is sent along the ground. Half a second later, anyone standing on that patch of ground gets knocked off their feet. This attack will only work on the ground, and only on people who are touching the ground when it goes off. If you are in the air or underwater, you'll most likely get the old dirt spray as a backup power, or perhaps just a dropped "pulse ball" like what Stone uses.

Preview GIF (~1.2 MB)


Toa of Water have gotten a secondary as well, letting you hit people with a massive wave.



This on looks better in motion, but I didn't have a GIF handy.


These attacks were all made over the course of a few days. I'm getting into the flow of After Effects and game programming again, so I'll most likely do more very soon. After implementing some more new powers, then it's time for other things. But for now... enjoy the beginnings of the
Let's Power On
update!

(Totally stole the idea of named updates from VALVe.)

found a few bugs (I think) With Psionics:

When a weapon that is under your control touches a hau shield, it drops out of the air.

When a bot activates gravity emanate near you, weapons may sink into the ground.

they get caught incredibly easily on suvas, slopes etc.

The Hau disabling is a feature of the mask. Gravity is supposed to ground the weapons, but not make them sink into the ground, if that is happening. Them getting caught in walls and stuff is a shortcoming of my current float code, which I will take a look at.

Edited by Katuko, Jan 17 2013 - 06:45 PM.

[~Shockwave~]

 

found a few bugs (I think) With Psionics:

When a weapon that is under your control touches a hau shield, it drops out of the air.

When a bot activates gravity emanate near you, weapons may sink into the ground.

they get caught incredibly easily on suvas, slopes etc.

The Hau disabling is a feature of the mask. Gravity is supposed to ground the weapons, but not make them sink into the ground, if that is happening. Them getting caught in walls and stuff is a shortcoming of my current float code, which I will take a look at.

 

That's a bit frustrating, honestly. I kinda figured gravity was supposed to affect them, but not that way. speaking of which, jumping through a tornado/whirlwind while having a bunch of weapons is just awesome.

[Chro]

I've recently gotten my hands on Game Maker Studio, which can export to Mac. I'll have to check if I must make any changes to the code in order to make it compatible, but you might get a proper Mac version relatively soon.

Awesome, thanks! Hopefully that'll run quicker for me than the regular version. Currently everything moves (for the most part) smoothly but slowly, until I die, and then the game accelerates (or rather, reverts to normal speed).

 

Also, a glitch I found: if you're using a Kualsi while it gets destroyed by an enemy, the teleport range circle display thing stays on screen. It can actually be quite helpful to "scout ahead", if you will, to see what's farther along the stage while moving.

[Katuko]

That's a bit frustrating, honestly. I kinda figured gravity was supposed to affect them, but not that way. speaking of which, jumping through a tornado/whirlwind while having a bunch of weapons is just awesome.

I might tune down the effects that Hau and Gravity have on the lifted weapons, but do remember that this is not supposed to be your primary - or at least not only - method of attack. Once Psionics gets fleshed out more I believe that losing a few floating weapons won't be too problematic. You can always just re-lift them, and there aren't all that many things that can even do anything about them at the moment. Gravity has little effect on flyers at the moment, so being a bit more effective against Psionics shouldn't be too bad.

Of course, I have said that I don't want this game to be "elemental rock-paper-scissors", so I'll balance them as best I can. Getting feedback from users is the best way of doing that, often, so I appreciate your input.
 
 

I've recently gotten my hands on Game Maker Studio, which can export to Mac. I'll have to check if I must make any changes to the code in order to make it compatible, but you might get a proper Mac version relatively soon.

Awesome, thanks! Hopefully that'll run quicker for me than the regular version. Currently everything moves (for the most part) smoothly but slowly, until I die, and then the game accelerates (or rather, reverts to normal speed).
 
Also, a glitch I found: if you're using a Kualsi while it gets destroyed by an enemy, the teleport range circle display thing stays on screen. It can actually be quite helpful to "scout ahead", if you will, to see what's farther along the stage while moving.
 

If the game accelerates after you die, then that just reinforces the notion that the player object is the primary bog-down, along with the bots who use much the same code. I have been looking at ways to make things more efficient, and I will get to work on optimization and other overhauls once I'm done with my churning out a few more powers. The idea is that you get those to keep yourself entertained while I perhaps have to spend some time fixing core issues.

Regarding the Mac version... I still have a major problem, and that is that I apparently need to actually own a Mac and have it registered with Apple as an indie developer before I can export to any of its formats. This is contrary to Windows and Windows 8 and even the Steam Workshop, where I can churn out as many EXEs as I like and nobody asks questions. Sure, I need to put a mark on a license agreement for the Steam Workshop, but Apple is pretty draconic when it comes to protecting its formats.

To someone like me, who loves open-source programs and formats and publishing to random internet users for free, it's a nightmare.

[The Lonesome Wanderer]

It costs 100$ to register man.

[Katuko]

It costs 100$ to register man.

Yeah, take a wild guess why a Mac version is not likely to happen any time soon after all. Sorry guys; get a PC next time.

[~Shockwave~]

I'm just using my boosted character and sprinting back and forth across the map. but I have discovered that a normal toa wielding these powers and a decent weapon is not likely to be killed alot, as the ability can create a sort of barrier. (I also managed to balance the number of weapons so the amount of energy I had stayed the same.) so I think this will be a good element. but, since that is the only form of power they have at the moment, I'ts a bit annoying when they drop out of the air. 

[Katuko]

I'm just using my boosted character and sprinting back and forth across the map. but I have discovered that a normal toa wielding these powers and a decent weapon is not likely to be killed alot, as the ability can create a sort of barrier. (I also managed to balance the number of weapons so the amount of energy I had stayed the same.) so I think this will be a good element. but, since that is the only form of power they have at the moment, I'ts a bit annoying when they drop out of the air. 

I can see the problem. Note that when you lift a weapon it cancels and later resets the fade-out timer, which means that more and more weapons might get piled up. You can potentially keep all the weapons around indefinitely just by re-lifting them after they've dropped. Though the EP drain prohibits prolonged use of a massive cloud of weapons, the sheer amount of them can eventually cause extra lag, which this game really doesn't need.

My primary objective after the next update will be fixing and revising the core game engine. This game sorely needs it, I think, and I've put it off for way too long.

[~Shockwave~]

That's good to hear. I have managed to make it run at what I am pretty sure it slightly slower than what it is supposed to be at, and with almost no lag. this is thanks to completely wiping my computer and starting mostly from scratch. so I'ts working much better for me.

[Katuko]

For those of you interested in behind-the-scenes stuff, here's what my redesign would consist of, code-wise:

 

- Replace per-step status effect checks with alarms or similar. Right now you take (for example) 0.1 fire damage every step. There would be virtually no difference in taking 1 damage every 10th step, however, apart from cutting the CPU usage for this action down by roughly 90%. Team Fortress 2 gets away with 2 fire checks per second, and most other games as well.

 

- Replace the spawn system. Right now it's an array; but a data grid and/or a data list would be easier to handle, sort and free from memory if a player disconnects for any reason. Yeah, planning for multiplayer as well, here.

 

- Move copy/paste code into scripts. This saves copy/paste, it saves time on editing said code, and it's simply because i've been jury-rigging everyting that I even have excessive copy/paste in the first place. Cleaner code means better development.

 

- Modify attack/power codes to use less per-step checks as well, plus adding in an option for friendly fire on/off.

 

- Re-code the player object to have less movement bugs (turbo moonwalk!) better animation options (shields, combat roll, different melee strikes, etc) and better power handling (some developers would cry if they saw my current way of handling mask powers ).

 

- Make game control capable of handling "proper" bots  that have names and respawn as the character they originally had (right now they all randomize when spawning and keep no score).

 

- Make the game control object finally have some proper score counting so that I can make a proper game mode without tearing my hairs out.

 

- More flexible item/mask/power system, to only show functional items and also make it easier to add/remove powers and items as a developer.

Edited by Katuko, Jan 22 2013 - 03:35 AM.

[Floridian Citrus]

So, I finally managed to play the new update for an extended peroid of time (about time, gawd i'm slow).

 

First off (let me don my shades first): Psionics eminate.

 

Telekinesis.

 

Awwwwwwww yeeeeeeah. B)

 

I must say, that single ability has got to one of the cleverest little things I've seen in this game.  Seriously, throwing weapons around at your target, how much better can it get?  The system used for elemental energy drain when using the ability works quite well, and really prevents any sort of overpowered cloud of swirling throwing knives.

 

Secondly, Toa of Light are no longer weak!   The laser revamp is looking goooood, and really fits well with the rest of the animations for the powers in-game.  I especially like how you melt enemies into slag rather than frying them alive, and the star-burst effect is a nice touch, given that before I couldn't quite tell if my attack hit or not.  However, with this updated, I don't really see the use of the secondary ability, as it just seems to me to be the same attack (but it doesn't burn through people), just slightly weaker.

 

Sonics is awesome, and finally has some sort of attacks.  New powers are always good.  Always.

 

On a slightly unrelated note, I noticed that the Rahkshi of Magnetism's secondary power doesn't count to your kills when you do actually kill someone with it.