Riis's Project Log "Ordeal Paradise" REDUX

Hi everybody!

I've finally crawled out of my puddle of shame to talk about my project again as I start over. After having so much changed I can't bring myself to continue posting on the original topic, if that's Ok with you guys. ^^;

If anyone remembers me or my topic of my project from a year ago and was looking forward to it but wondered what happened in this gap of time, then here's what happened in a nutshell(s).

WHAT HAPPENED?

A1- Many times over I've attempted to do everything myself, starting with making at least one theme or tune from the famitracker before I could get over myself enough to ask for a scriptwriter(programing) and a musician, and probably some peeps to pitch in ideas for random monsters. Of course I got stuck. In hindsight it turns out my issues with thinking up music then writing it down is a task super difficult for me because I am used to playing it in real time and got no sense in plotting notes. I've tried to find some information about making changing the sprite limit, among other things the engine's limits has hindered me with as I continue creating more problems for myself. That with my lack of focus made me breakdown and totally stop. (and reluctantly look for a more powerful, but equally cheap RPG engine)
(......I did chose to keep working with the OHRRPGCE engine, cause I just like you guys and ladies here and the freedom I (almost) got with this engine :3)

A2- In my last posts I've mentioned I had to make changes. Sometime later I made alot of changes. I'm happier with these changes but now I'm back to square 1, only with some things I'm feeling much, much more solid about.

Recently I've picked up where I left off, tried a few things, and now I'm starting over. Little of the progress will be recycled so that sames me some time with 6 of the walkabouts.

WHAT'S IS THE PROJECT
This project is based from a comic project I'm working on, with the game's story involving some characters from it at a point they abilities/powers are well manifested along, but have been resetted and eeringly, vastly improved. The overall story takes place well in the supernaturally altered future setting, with large war machines and monster animals included.

STORY
The game takes place over a small set of small islands named the O'Dale Islands where a paradise resort is housed at. It's like Hawaii out far far in the middle of nowhere in the vast seas of the Atlantic.
For a late birthday gift to himself, superhero vigilante/superhero local TV actor Triptolemus Mayflowers takes his closest friends and free loaders and their friends (total of 18) away from North-West Coast USA on a vacation to the O'Dale Paradise Resort by boat to have a nice escape from the madness at home. A sudden giant shark attack destroyed the boat close to the island, but all of them got away.

Hours after the shark incident the gang finds themselves and the inhabitants of the O'Dale Islands not only stranded, but trapped within the Islands perimeters by the malfunctioning ultimate power (uP) inhibiting zone established on and overlaying/encasing the islands. The malfunction in the anti-uP zone has somehow cut off communication to the outside world totally and digitized all the ultimate power and made everything seemingly invincible and extremely powerful, making it too dangerous for even experienced fighters and hunters to travel alone on the islands. The gang knows what the cause of the problem is but are not sure which of the several generators spread out all around O'Dale is the root of the malfunction.

Voted leader of the exploration party, and also voted item master, by drawing, Trip and 3 members will explore the islands to fix and correct the 8 generators to reverse the effects and most importantly free the islands.

PLANS
PARTY
So first off: I intend on locking Trip's slot, so he will always be the party leader to keep somethings about his and other character interactions consistent. Even though Trip is the item master, everyone else is able to use items. It's just that he's the one carrying most of the inventory. The nature of how Trip stores the items plays into his abilities.

Originally when the drawing results were called, some of future/eventual party members objected to Trip being the leader or the whole organized party thing as a whole and had gone off to fix the problem on their own. Some will be won over by certain mishaps that will occur, others will go back to the hotel after they have been found, and some others have to be bribed to join the party. Other eventuall party members who were not part of this group have sat out, confident that Trip's team will fix everything without their help and will have fun with what's left of the vacation, most of them will have favors or will need to be bribed; very few will join unconditionally. The ones already on the island for sometime or was not there for the drawing vary with whatever they were doing, most of them provide specific services. I hope a total of 30 members isn't too much.

Some characters in the party set up shop of their own, but only at the hotel. For this reason I might disable the caterpillar party train, but if I can somehow disable it in the central HUB zones, then that would be great, cause I don't want one guy and his evil money grubbing twin in the same room.

DEALING WITH LIMITS with CHARACTER SPRITES
The game will be like 8 bit, and hopefully with character outlines. (want 8bit music or chiptunes with that too)

The size limits on the sprites often throws a wench in my good times with larger and complex characters. Sure the range is 3'11" ~ 16+ feet tall, but I'm not about to go through the trouble and make the size of each character's walkabouts in accurate proportions to each other with any form of detail, but if I can just up the limit to 40x40 just for the sake of more detail then that would be great.

I'm going the walkabout sprites for the in-battle hero sprites, so I will have an easier time animation them rather than go through the same but consequently worse problem than with the walkabout sprites. If I can somehow square the proportion of the sprite box then I would be less restricted in the hero sprites, especially when the party member is KO'd.

The costume party demo Master K made a while back still makes me believe I can add different armored/costumed sprites to the game, but I'm sure I'll need help. I think I will also need a script to change Trip's walkabout sprite to a horse when holding SPRINT, meaning I might need help, since, I'm not confident with plotscripting due to my inexperience.

MENUS
I'm intending removing the save option and have the video cards (save points) scattered through out the maps. I've also intended on making a info menu that describe the backgrounds of characters, story, uP, special races and such, filled with like a single illustration for like the characters, so it won't really get in the way of the flow of the immediate story. That might be going too far with it with that alone, but I'm just going to stick with the relevant note and not go off the deep end with a bunch of super needless junk that has nothing to do with anything. Lastly I want to add a button for the player to fast travel back to the Hotel if they want to restock, get out without trouble, or just to get out quick.

DAMAGE

The hero each have their weaknesses and strengths to different damage types.
[Damage Types=Intended after effects and general effectiveness]

Fire= Impairs Special Defenses, great against furry things
Water=Impairs Speed and sometimes strength, great against light foes
Lightning= Always Impairs Physical Defenses, some stuns too, effective vs. machines and engineered races
Earth=Impairs HIT, effective vs heavier foes
Wind=Often Impairs Evasion and HIT, always has added side effect.
HEAT=Attacks are of excessive heat, it doesn't work well against certain foils and other heat resistance armor. Normally paired with piercing damage.
Cold=Impairs Speed and Strength, has very few but devastating stuns, effective vs the cold blooded, including dragons. Not effective vs insulated foes
Mind= Attack channeled directly through the mind, impairs special attack, works better on itself.
True=attacks are real
False=attacks are imaginary, and can bring healing joy and laughter to most targets
Direct=Attacks strike thru all forms of armor, but are have still subjected to resistance.
Light=Color based and work best on darker enemies, useless to whites
Dark=Color based and work best on lighter enemies, heals blacks
Healing=Heals anything alive
Repair=Repairs dolls and machines.
Poison= Not very effective to humans
Demonic= Different from Magic, always powerful or helpful, always has a nasty con from each use. Demons are less affected by these cons.
Magic=Imagination at it's finest and are down right unexplainable.
Ultimate= The ultimate power, it's more common than you'll think, but no worries, it's just normal special damage
Kinetic= Normal, Physical damage
Striking=Damage made by blunt force, not effective vs Flat armor
Slashing=Slash attacks from swords, claws, or discs, effective vs less armor
Piercing=damage made from bullets, arrows, or spears, effective vs larger foes including dragons.
Nerve- damage that makes victims panic and lock up, does not work on foes who can't feel anything. (emotionless)
Silence- Damage that seals skills by silencing the fool. Only the mute are immune.
Seal- Alternative to silence only that it does seal skills and saps the victim of all power no matter what, we but deals catastrophic damage to Triptolemus and a few other characters who have consumed a shadow beast or is a shadow beast. Player characters can only use this damage type through items.
Front- Damage from the front
Back- Damage from the back
Under-Damage from under
Above-Damage from above
Scan- Informs user what the enemies' weakness is.

So what do you guys think of it so far?
Got more going on, but I don't want to flood just one post with everything. ^^

Well, I don't know about the other stuff, but for the using larger sprites this is the perfect way to go about it.

The menus part seems like it wouldn't be too difficult to do. I don't think you'd even need to do a whole lot of complicated scripting to do it.

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Being from the third world, I reserve the right to speak in the third person.

Using Editor version wip 20170527 gfx_sdl+fb music_sdl

Welcome back Riiswolf!

Your plans seem good!

Some limitations in the engine are tough to lift (like the sprite-related ones), but other limitations are easier. Please let me know about whichever limitations your are running into. I won't always be able to help, but when I can, I will :)

I'll try and fix the typos in my previous post as I catch them. My proofreading skills SUCK. x_x

@BMR: The walktall script will work greatly for what I need, but after looking at the HSS file with Hamster Speak, I'm having issues understanding how the text is supposed to be set up for future conversions.

@Bob the Hamster: Thanks
There is one or two things I had on mind to ask.

Was there any known/reported issues with the extra hit stat?
Whenever I try some tests, the hero only occasionally strike the enemy multiple times rather than always while the "ignore hit stat" is off. I was hoping it was the test mode causing the hiccups, but even if I open the game file for real it still only sometimes does it right. I'm using the OHRRPGCE alectormancy build, and I had only just found the beelzebufo build is out. So I'm going to install that version really soon.


PLANS
GEAR

Primary Weapon= affects default attack

Secondary Weapon = Doesn't necessarily affect only attack.
Tertiary Weapon = Doesn't necessarily mean these are the least useful weapons or affect only attack.
Attire = Cloths, eerily ultra protective undergarment!, old super gear, armor
Accessory= Radiator packs, demon talismans, Dragon monocles (It's simple a monocle too big for smaller users to wear.)

STATS

The stats:

♥= HP
dP = Digital Power/Skill Points
ATTACK
DEFENSE
SPECIAL
SP.DEFENSE
SIGHT= Base Accuracy
EVADE=Dodge Rate
SPEED
ENERGY= Counter stat.
COMFORT = Spell cost
EX HIT= Extra Hits
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DAMAGES and ULTRA POWERED DISCOMFORT

Because everything on the islands are seemingly invincible, the gang must use attacks of extreme power that under normal circumstances, damage would be catastrophic, but requires the extra push to achieve this level of output. A lot of physical skills will hurt the target more than the user; dP skills will often sear the user and/or cause noticeable discomfort, making them lose focus and burn more power if they use more dP skills without restoring their comfort level. Weapon skills, as in their main weapon default attack, will restore comfort levels as they strike with mostly the tools.

By default most characters have their COMFORT stat at 50. Some members including a doll (can't fell anything), tank piloted by three (VERY Disgruntled) pilots, psychic (life made easy with the power of the MIND), and others have a generally mixed levels of comfort.

Although, when I applied this to idea to the test build by comboing the subtracting effect with a fire spell and a recovery effect to the main attack, I had one glaring issue. Often times, the when I restore the stat, the MP cost do not update as though the combo did not trigger properly, or the stat wasn't recovered. Something is not right with that. Gonna try again with the beelzebufo build soon so it might not be a problem, but did anyone ever had this kind of problem before?

Sorry for the short handed update, but I had just discovered the new beelzebufo version. Plus I jumped in on the update without having some concept art and testing the general system. The comfort is not all though.

More to come soon. =D

What do you mean future conversions?

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Being from the third world, I reserve the right to speak in the third person.

Using Editor version wip 20170527 gfx_sdl+fb music_sdl

Well I saw in the script that there was 3 things that was converted to using the larger, "hero" sprites in the walkabouts' places. The PC, Bear, and Trees have their placeholders (walkabouts), scripts designating each sprite specifically and hero sprites.

To complete the roster, I need to replicate this script properly for at least 6 characters.

No you don't, it'll work for all npcs/heroes that you make. You just run it in the autorun after you've added everything and then it'll run smoothly.

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Being from the third world, I reserve the right to speak in the third person.

Using Editor version wip 20170527 gfx_sdl+fb music_sdl

The extra hit hero stat and the extra hit attack setting actually work differently. One guarantees the extra hits, the other hits a random number of extra times (chosen uniformly). (The attack damage screen shows the details). This is why I think we should convert part of the battle script to scripts...

@BMR: Oh. That explains why it made little sense.

@TMC: I know the extra attack settings in the "edit attacks" menus will always do it. I assumed the extra hit stat also always hit multiple times kind of like in FF5 and such with a similar stat.

Hey Riis, you seem to have a lot of awesome and unique ideas for your project, I hope most of them pan out. I've seen lots of crazy, how-the-hell-did-they-do-that stuff done with Hamsterspeak, so where there's a will there's probably a way.

Some advice though: before getting into lots of detailed stuff like design and producing audio tracks, you should definitely lay out a framework for it all to fit into and make sure that the mechanics you'd like to showcase in the game work smoothly with the engine (and, equally as important, make sure you know HOW they work with the engine). If you haven't already done so, I would use placeholder graphics/heroes/enemies and run some basic tests on some of those mechanics, especially the ones regarding discomfort and dP skills. That way you'll become well acquainted with how the engine and Hamsterspeak handles the mechanics ahead of time, and be able to proceed with the design-ey phases with less bumps and impasses.

I learned this years ago on my first major OHRRPGCE project back in the early 00s, I got so into design/aesthetic details that I completely ignored laying out a foundation of solid/fun gameplay mechanics first, and when I had to face that part of the development phase I just froze up, burned out, and gave up. (Learning experience, right?)

Best of luck on your game!

I still have the test build from before I gave up the first time, so I got the actually testing part settled, otherwise I wouldn't be able to name any of the aforementioned issues I have came across specifically, among others that had yet to be mentioned and/or resolved. :3

But again, I'm not being short with the updates cause I don't have much planned; I'm being short cause I don't want to blow my load all in one go and make a single post too long to read. while I still need to test and before I provide concepts. Got to pace it.

@ last part: Sure is. My issue was going in face first without a plan and tried to do everything myself, even though I'm better at the art and writing (so I've been told a lot) than writing music and plotscripts. Lesson there for me was: Don't do everything yourself.

Will I do it again?

.........Force of habit says:

~Maybe

I've updated my OHRRPGCE to the beelzebufo, and I love it!
Now I can go with some concepts I couldn't do before because of the lack of battle menu settings and attack stats.

Using the test build I was about to get the major side effects functional, all that's left is the limits and balance.




This update will be HUGE.
Hopefully it the images are not too large.

LIMITS AND BALANCE
One thing that had has me concerned always for the game is the numerical limits to balance the overall flow of combat and late game battles. Even though I can use phases, I can add more challenge and fun to the battles if the max ♥ is 999 for organic members. All stats are 9999 for party members who are not fleshy....as far as party members goes.
Click to see full view
The plan is officially to adjust damage and health as though the maximum HP is 999, even though the damage without armor will still rip apart the party members such as, Hazel (a shadow beast that is possessing the large doll) whose body is made of unprotective fabrics like cotton, does get ripped to pieces very easy, but because it doesn't go down from damage like getting a giant hole in its gut or even getting its head torn off, it has more ♥ than most of its fellow party members.

STORY: KNOWING THE CAUSE BUT NOT WHICH
The gang already know what the problem is, but they don't know which of the eight ultra power inhibitors has caused the zone to trap everyone within the O'Dale islands.

I intend on making all 8 areas available from the start of the game, and use the tags to scale enemy progression and the allies who will join you unconditionally from the 8 locations. I think the tags will be based on the cleared bosses. I think I might plotscripts to make the game look for multiple tags to unlock a single tag, or maybe the engine can already do that on its own. I did not look into tags well. I'm going to look into that again.
The zones include:
The paradise resort/safe zone (gold)
A blinding forest (teal)
Undersea Facility (dark purple at sea)
Sky Rock (light yellow green)
Dark Valley (darker purple on north island)
Forest Mountain (dark green)
Frozen Side (white)
Lava Tunnels (the volcano)
Arena Island (grey artificial island)
and more.

....Ok it wasn't that huge.
I've been trying to write this for hours now xD
So I'm going to cut the update off here. ^^

Next update I'll be focusing on the party leader and item master of the group Trip (...the left twin). Oh and energy, gear, attire, and specific skillsets only some characters can use, like for the entirety of the ordeal, Trip is the only one able to use items.
Click to see full view.

What the heck are those ^
._.

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dOn'T MiNd mE! i'M jUsT CoNtAgIoUs!!!
Play Orbs CCG: http://orbsccg.com/r/4r6x

I bet there will be more of "???" the more characters (and/or issues) I reveal. ^^;

Rangalodon
A shapeshifting monster humanoid sentient race originally created as super soldiers built for adaptability. For that purpose they were made to be shapeshifters and easy to evolve/mutate. Because they were created primarily with the ultimate power, they radiate power more than other sentient races in general, most commonly through their eyes. To boost their numbers cheaply, they are compatible with almost every living reptile and mammal. After what they were initially created for ended, they lived on among sentiments as a part of society. At the story's point it's been 300+ years, and there is three variants of the race named in marks. Rangolodons are also categorized by tier based solely on their shapeshifting abilities. Their only known weakness is involuntary spasms, causing them to lose complete control over their shapeshifting and frequently their muscles too. They can not grow/create fat; they can fake fat up to a certain extent. Backstory of the race as a whole has little to do with anything in this game. :3

Mark:
1) When pure, they appear more dragon and/or lion/tiger like, always with at least one horn and a set of tusks. They are the most unrefined of all sub species, making them the most common of any tier 3 and 4 rangalodon.

2) Originated 70 years before this point. When pure, they appear as with more avian like features, but none with beaks, and normally have two or more horns but no tusks. Unlike mark 1, they are compactible with birds also, and their ability to transform is usually limited, making them the least common tier 4 and 3.

Proto 3 An unofficial(all records were missing, buried or destroyed) variant that went wrong as far as appearances goes. Their bodies seem like one big body with another body without legs as the head (kind of like a centaur). These double bodied monsters are compatible with any living organism. All are telekinetic to varying degrees as long as they have power devoted to it. All of them have terrible shapeshifting abilities, and are usually Tier 1.

Abilities
Their radiant power allows them to generate power faster than other races, but what it does is up to the user's capability to create the effects.
Their only natural ability is shapeshifting. They physically take the shape of another animal, including humans if they want or need. The transformations can be done to any desired body part. However this ability is fueled by calories to use and depending on the form, to maintain. This eats away at their bodies starting with their the contents of their digestive system, then fat, then muscles and then everything else. For this cost, most rangalodons who use this ability often are fat and/or seen porking down something or a lot of food before/after transforming, and with the exception of the most lesser forms or tier 4s to some degree, these transformations are strictly temporary. Involuntary spasms will cause them to spontaneously transform a random body part or the entire body into random forms they've taken before and/or had on mind, or if they were already transformed, they will be reverted back to their normal body structure, both will never be in the right colors and their muscles will stop functioning for a short time.


Tiers:
1) Are limited to transforming into others with a similar shape and height. They have a normal amount of control over their body. (the only proto 3 member is this)

2) Are limited only by height. They can make larger changes, but can only be slightly taller or siginfically shorter (2~10 feet). They have an above average level of control over their body. (one female member is this)

3) Are limited by gravity or how much they can take the pressure their weight puts on them. Namely, these rangolodons are capable of transforming to city toppling heights, provided they can find a source of calories to match. They must be registered, and they have near total control over their body (they just can't go brain dead). (the aforementioned twins are this)

4) Are limited by gravity or how much they can take the pressure their weight puts on them also. Just like the kaiju-capable tier 3 they can take on any height they can handle or live in. The one thing that sets them apart from all those below them is their ability to add/removed flesh and bones, and have some changes remain permanently. They must also register, and they have complete control over their body. They are super thinkers, but half of the time they seem insane or legally (or actually is) incompetent to make choices. (one party member is this)

Appearance
Almost all rangalodons are red heads (red manes on their heads). Most are dark colors, if not black. Depending on their family lines they will show features that set them apart from other rangalodons who are not related to them. Their body structure reflects and retains traits from forms they take the most often over frequent transformations. Because of this, most of the time they can guess just by fur/scale patterns and horns alone visually.
Due to the nature of their shiftshaping and if they use it often they are frequently fat to store calories.


The name rangalodon, is based on that "ranga-" is used to describe red heads in the urban dictionary, and "-lodon" is just cause I want to have part of "megalodon" in the name. So at moments when a rangalodon appears, it'd add more to "it's a shark!" or "mighty enemy" moments.

I'll be talking more about Trip and how the ENERGY stat will be used later. I believe I can explain it better with two different unique characters. So consequently I'll be showing off one of the dragon/healer party members named Sol in the next post.

By the way is there a way to change the HUD in the battle screen to track energy?

It would be nice for us all to beable to visually track that rather than rely on memory and math, but if not then OK. :3

I find the extreme contrast between different art bits there....well, extreme.
I also find those creatures I pointed to rather disturbing. Are they the Rangalodons you speak of?

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dOn'T MiNd mE! i'M jUsT CoNtAgIoUs!!!
Play Orbs CCG: http://orbsccg.com/r/4r6x