Katuko

Meh. As fun as it might be, please don't fill my topic with jokes from 2006.

Fixed what? I said what I meant to say... 

He's joking about the old Piraka commercials, where they had a silly "YO YO PIRAKA" rap in the background.

On another note, I guess that the "windows 8 bugfix" option is no longer relevant since the issue is related to the game trying to play too many sounds at once. Be awesome if Windows PC's had any actual backwards compatibility at all

Actually, I have changed the code related to that button. It no longer shuts off the problematic attacks, it just mutes their most frequent sound effects. It appears to have solved most issues on my PC, at least for now.

 

I haven't tried running the EXE in compatibility mode.

I'd like to know the specs of your computer, yes. The game is rather heavy to run, but if it's so bad that the movement input has delays I don't think there's much I can do even if I optimize better.

Oh, and a new version is out, guys.

sorry it's a french word ^^' a new version...

Ah, I see. Well, due to the way GM works, you sadly have to come back here and download a new version entirely each time I post an update. This is also one of the reasons why you get updates so rarely: It's a hassle for both me and you, and I therefore try to make the updates big and "worth it".

 

Well I think you shouldn't be able to move when using the miru (cuz that's how it works in the story) it should just make you hover.

It's actually getting rebalanced in the new engine, so we get something like this (keep in mind that Kanohi are getting their own separate energy bar):

 

Miru (Levitation): While active, the effect of gravity is decreased while going up, and nullified entirely when going down or sideways. This will allow you to jump much higher, glide long distances, and hover almost indefinitely. The mask consumes energy rather slowly. Toa of Air and Toa of Gravity may give themselves some speed while in the air simply by using the movement keys - this drains some elemental energy. When the mask energy runs out, the power shuts off and you drop, though it will still manage to slow your fall enough to avoid you hurting yourself. Toa of Gravity have Levitation as their passive ability, mapped to the Jump key for activation. Their version drains elemental energy instead of mask energy. If the Miru is also active, the mask is prioritized, saving you the elemental energy.

 

Rahkshi do not use Kanohi, so their special energy bar will instead work for Flight. When Flight is activated, you begin hovering. In this mode you do not touch the ground, and you have increased max speed. You can move quickly sideways, and float upwards at decent speed. In this mode you can not block, and not all of your attacks/abilities may be available. Still, it offers a huge range of movement, and switching between walking and flying modes should be quick. Just get close to the ground before you switch away, you no longer have basic levitation to avoid fall damage. When they run out of energy for flight, Rahkshi revert to using no-power Levitation instead: They drop slowly to the ground, unable to gain altitude.

 

The Kadin has full-powered flight. You will shoot off at great speed in almost any direction... but you will be completely unable to stop without switching the mask off. It also has a higher energy consumption than the Mask of Levitation. The Kadin does not prevent fall damage. If you wish to land, you will need to run close to the ground first so that the fall won't be so great.

Okay I understand now 

 

then  have an other question : when you make a maj , were can we download it ?

Maj? Do you mean map (as in, the levels you plan in) or the things I post on MajHost?

-why the kadin isn't usable yet ? we can fly with miru and rakshis

To go slightly more in-depth: I tried to add a better mechanic for the Kadin, but messed it up. I considered making the Kadin use the standard flight script which is used by other things, but didn't for some reason.

 

-Do you provide to make the Vahi and the Ignika,the missing toa's masks and weapons ?

These masks have extreme power in the story, though I did sketch out a weaker time-slow effect for the Vahi. The only problem is that slowing time means that I have to program the entire game to work with that mechanic, and that could add a lot of unnecessary lag for a power that would not even be used all the time.

 

The Mask of Life is iconic, but is planned mostly as an objective for maps based on Voya Nui. That is: I don't think it will be freely available to everyone.

Is this PC (windows) exclusive or is there a version for Mac? If not, will there be a port for mac?

Developing for Mac requires me to both own a Mac and pay a developer license fee, so this game will stay Windows-only for the foreseeable future. I would need to finish my new engine before I can even think about exporting to Mac anyways, as the program I'm using did not support exporting to other platforms until a more recent version.

A little suggestion: Could you add rolling to the game, like in Oxeye Studio's game Cobalt? (Check out a video and know what I mean ) It would make ranged weapons less OP

I considered adding a combat roll for dodging, but if it gets added it will only be available for certain character loadouts (such as the Kanohi Calix). I am basing my system around the ability to block instead, which has unfortunately not been added yet due to animation issues. I am making progress on a new game engine which will have blocking and new melee animations in it, though, so hopefully it won't be too long before things get a bit more even for melee fighters.

 

Speaking of ranged weapons... Denevol is very good at sprites. He made some weapons I was missing in large format, which I then shrunk down to produce the following:

Now all the Piraka have their tools in sprite form.

 

I'm currently making sure that the new engine can handle different sets of sprites, so that I can easily let you choose between Mata/Metru/Inika style for your Toa's body. Incidentally it also makes it easy to stuff Rahkshi, Skakdi and Vortixx graphics onto the exact same base character without having to duplicate code. It's a hassle to recolor the sprites to have the same base colors, but that was already an issue with the current engine, so I can't complain. Once I'm done it will be much easier to color-shift any part of the sprites, giving you the wonderful option of having (for example) two-toned masks.

 

 

EDIT: I've also tried narrowing down the exact issue with Makuta, where he freezes up and stops attacking. I already know that he uses the Shadow Hand way too often - it's supposed to be a finisher for targets with low health - but it's hard to find the exact lines where it bugs out. give me some more time on this and I'll hopefully have it fixed and ready for a new release. I am aiming for a release this weekend, as the next few weeks are (or at least, should be) filled with exam preparations, followed by the holidays.

Far enough off that I should probably not have put it in the title in the first place. That's not to say that it won't be coming at some point, but with all the other bugs and glitches and errors I'd prefer to have a functional game before I put a complex online connection system into it.

Also, I made some new stuff!

That looks pretty spiffy, JacobLazer, but we'll see what I end up putting in-game. Shields kinda need rotated angles, and the staff is very big (and also pretty much a flipped version of the Staff of Light). You can put almost any blade on a stick, but don't make them so wide that they become axes. I've loaded some of your previous sprites into the new engine under the batch of custom swords, though. There's gonna be plenty of room for sleeker weapons.

Done recently:

- Toa Mata didn't spawn properly on Kini Nui. They do now.

- Items will now spawn in the joint Kini Nui/Mangaia map.

- Gravity lift fixed, it will now let you glide gracefully to the ground, and also exit the hole in the opposite direction.

- Added a column of light which will act as a lift to get you out after Makuta is defeated.

 

Bug fixes will be uploaded soon-ish.

WOAH!!!! Does this mean what I think it means- alternate Toa bodies?

Well, the weapons are my sprites, but Rayg's Toa Metru bodies have the same proportions as Toa Mata, so giving you the alternative won't be hard. It'll have to wait, though, because my old and outdated engine makes it a hassle to add.

So, yesterday I actually felt like programming games, but then I had to spend somewhere between 6 and 8 hours doing server configuration with two friends of mine for a school assignment. One that I already finished myself but I am too nice to say "you're on your own" on. We were up until 4 AM fixing tiny errors in stupid text files.

 

Therefore I don't really have any programming news for you, but here are some more sprites I have been working on.

 

 

As always, free to use for anyone who might need them.

 

 

EDIT: Hi there, Denevol. I get a warm fuzzy feeling when someone makes their first post in my topic! I'm happy you like the game.

Interestingly, out of all the scenarios brought up, this is actually the one where the Toa were in least danger. Not only was Norik a Toa of Fire, but he had a tool with the power of lava in it. If Miserix hadn't insulted their power by rescuing them, they probably would still be around.

I thought his spear could only shoot a stream of lava, not control it. And even if it could, Norik was magnetized to wall and could not move.

Items don't drop on the kini-nui part of the joint map is that normal?

Another oversight on my part. I forgot to enable the item drops.

 

so my question is. will there be a version of this game for mac and linux in the future?

Not in the foreseeable future, no. I need a Mac with the proper setup in order to export the game to that platform, and I'm not a Mac user. Linux could potentially happen, but I'd need another computer running Ubuntu for that. Currently I only have this laptop, and since I need to have both running at the same time for the export to work I don't think I can just dual-boot. Plus, the export modules for Mac and Linux cost quite a bit each, so I won't be getting them just for this game.

 

Glad you like the gameplay in its current state, though!

So it seems I do in fact have some faithful followers. I love you guys. ;_; If it weren't for you I wouldn't still be working on this.

 

I have taken a break for a while due to schoolwork and other things taking up my time, but I hope to get back in the groove soon. I really need to fix those glitches from the last version, and get some serious work in on the new engine. I've started a small, original project (that is, not BIONICLE-related) which I'm using to test out some new platform physics. I already got jump-through platforms working 85%, so you'll definitely be seeing those in the future.

 

are you going to include the bionicle 2015 weapons?

With this game I aim to capture the Matoran Universe as we knew it from 2001 to 2008, so anything beyond that will not be implemented. I've used a few graphics for weapons from Bara Magna (and made some custom ones), but I'll have to devote my time to use what I have already. A few of you have even helped me out with sprites which I still haven't implemented, so I think it's best to keep things slow as far as new things go.

 

Sprite work: I am currently working on a new and improved Proto Piton. I tried my hand at Matau's Aero Slicer, but got a bit annoyed and gave up for the time being. Earlier in this topic JacobLazer sent me some Inika and Hagah armor that had been ported to Toa Mata sprites. I will try to do the same for Nuva Armor to Toa Metru bodies, then we'll see how that works in-game. I'll also grab Norik's armor and stick it on some Rahkshi sprites, so that maybe they'll finally get visible armor too.

But aren't we talking about what happens when it is stolen involuntarily? Draining it outside of the normal procedure doesn't induce a transformation, so in my mind the only real question is: do you need Toa power to fuel the transformation? I would say no, as it is a one-time deal that reduces mass, and therefore should not need much more than a custom version of a standard transformative power.

Why would it work any other way? You can give up Toa energy on its own, and that process might include a subroutine for triggering a transformation once the supply is depleted, but the reverse - choosing to turn into a Turaga - should just as easily be able to give up the rest of the energy as part of the process. From an engineering standpoint, the system would contain a routine for both of those actions, but not necessarily require them both to be activated in any specific order.

In short: No.

 

You make a choice to turn into a Turaga, with the prerequisite being that you have fulfilled your destiny. You must also give up your power, but as far as making the system work it should be as simple as possible. The destiny check is the only one that really matters. The rest is just a method of disposing of any leftover Toa energy, which may or may not require a valid target to drain it to, but should not in and of itself have any effect on the ability to initiate the transformation.

how is that consistent with that Greg quote? Specifically this part: "CHOOSE to give up your Toa power"

You choose to give up your power and become a Turaga, but if there is no Toa energy left you just become a Turaga without having to spend the remaining energy right there and then. There isn't really anything else to it.

BIONICLE hasn't exactly been all that big on the conservation of energy when it comes to transformations.

 

But I guess a more prudent question would be what happened to Lhikan, who made Toa Stones from all his energy and then turned into a Turaga pretty much immediately once they were used. Did the existence of his stones prevent his trigger from activating because it was still "his" energy until the Toa Metru received it? Or was his destiny perhaps to bring more Toa into being, so that he was just sitting there going "ah, finally" when he felt the stones activate?

It would act on a mental trigger. Whether or not the energy is gone wouldn't matter much, only whether or not the Toa's destiny was complete. If yes, vent all remaining Toa energy and transform. If there is no energy, it doesn't factor in.

I am a programmer. As a programmer, I see this as a very simple logic operation, especially when dealing with mostly robotic characters.

 

The Toa activates the "turn into a Turaga" routine by mental command. In order for the Toa to actually run this program to its conclusion, it needs to fulfill two simple criteria: The Toa's destiny must be completed, and its Toa energy must be drained to zero. I personally believe this last part is simply a by-process meant to eliminate any quirks that might occur in the MU from having a Turaga retain Toa energy. So the program would look like this (in pseudo-code):

//Script run upon mental trigger at any time
 
If Toa.destiny_complete == False
    Exit
 
If Toa.energy_amount > 0
    //Run script for venting energy. This script checks for a target (such as a Toa Stone or Matoran Sphere), if it can't find one it just vents into the air.
 
If Toa.energy_amount <= 0
    //Run script for transforming the Toa into a Turaga

That is: If you had completed your destiny and given up your energy, you could turn into a Turaga. If you have Toa energy left, it is first drained as part of the process. If you have not completed your destiny, the rest does not matter. You can have a full tank of Toa energy or you can have zero, but the "transform into Turaga" command simply won't work. The command for "transfer Toa energy" would still be available as a separate program, and possibly it'd have a reverse check to auto-trigger the transformation. But I do not think that forcefully draining all of a Toa's energy will have any impact on whatever function makes the transformation work. As far as we know it is not fueled by Toa Energy, it's simply a pre-programmed shapeshifting power that removes any remaining Toa energy as it happens.