Vikings Revamp 2020

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Moderators: Bob the Hamster, marionline, SDHawk

Which final boss to use?

A "kefka's tower" style enemy.
6
32%
Some weird mashup of monsters, ala FF5.
5
26%
Both! (You monster)
8
42%
 
Total votes: 19

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Fenrir-Lunaris
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Post by Fenrir-Lunaris »

Well it's 2020 and the world itself seems to be falling apart. It's only appropriate that Vikings of Midgard is almost ready for go time.

I've been making some much needed tweaks to Act II's scenes while I work on the ending artwork. Just like a certain JRPG with a malevolent TREE as the villain, Vikings now has a scene that straight up shows almost every extra boss that you'll have to take down on the road to 100% completion. And it's going to be a LONG journey. My best speedrun for near total completion is a bit over 12 hours, and that's knowing optimal routes and enemy weaknesses.

The naming rework definitely gave the game a more consistent "norse mythology" feeling to it. There's still pop culture and especially OHRRPGCE cameos and references, but they seem to fit a bit more cohesively. The world of Midgard is populated with characters like Bjilli the Jotun, Dr Motsognir Utgardloki, Bob the Hersir, and Gagnradr. And if you figured out that those are homages to characters from other games, then perhaps you'll see why it was so important to do a full naming rework.

Staying within a consistent theme has always been a weakness of mine, but I'm hoping that this project at least FEELS like a modern retelling of some Norse stories. Case in point, Loki being a bad guy at Ragnarok is completely out of character considering the nature of his other stories - if anything the point of his character is that he doesn't think things through which causes trouble, but his quick thinking is usually enough to get himself and his companions out of a jam and usually come out on top.

Probably the biggest hurdle in writing out the ending is that different players will end up with potentially different party members than what I'd expect. While the bare minimum party still leaves the player with 60% of the cast reunited, Eric, Kitt, Night, and Styrge are somewhat out of the way to collect. In the big final showdown, their speaking roles might even be taken up by a different character if they're not around!
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Act 2 just got a LOT more crowded
Act 2 just got a LOT more crowded
Viking0023.png (52.48 KiB) Viewed 3331 times
BLOOD OCEAN
BLOOD OCEAN
Viking0025.png (26.8 KiB) Viewed 3331 times
BILLY ADVENTURE!!!1
BILLY ADVENTURE!!!1
Viking0026.gif (573.99 KiB) Viewed 3331 times
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Fenrir-Lunaris
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Post by Fenrir-Lunaris »

SOON
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You said it big guy!
You said it big guy!
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Spoonweaver
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Post by Spoonweaver »

looking great as always.
TMC
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Post by TMC »

Absolutely. Fenrir has been wowing us with backdrops and enemies he's redrawn, which amazingly are a huge improvement on already great originals (OK, I admit some of the original backdrops had perspective and lighting issues, etc)

It's a race! And I'm losing!

(Referring to 24-bit color backdrops for Vikings)
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Fenrir-Lunaris
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Post by Fenrir-Lunaris »

TMC wrote:It's a race! And I'm losing!

(Referring to 24-bit color backdrops for Vikings)
No worries, I might have to go back and bring a few more of the battle backdrops up to 24-bit color glory if you need the extra time? :v:
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...looked like this?
...looked like this?
Viking0003.png (95.77 KiB) Viewed 3230 times
Could you imagine if this...
Could you imagine if this...
Viking0005.png (54.58 KiB) Viewed 3230 times
ArtimusBena
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Post by ArtimusBena »

One more new song to write. Then it'll be a matter of mastering and cutting for loops, and the full soundtrack shall be complete! BWAHAHAHA
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Post by Idontknow »

24-bit color backdrops would be a dream come true!
Working as intended!
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Fenrir-Lunaris
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Post by Fenrir-Lunaris »

We've now come full circle.

I'm just waiting on the last of the music, the finalization of the "H" name, and some last minute code cleanup and checks, before passing it off to a pre-selected list of playtesters and reviewers.

Consider this my Swan Song to the OHRRPGCE community - you've meant so much and helped me through some difficult times these last 15+ years. To friends long gone, and those I've yet to meet - thank you.
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Full Circle
Full Circle
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RMZ
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Post by RMZ »

Fenrir-Lunaris wrote:We've now come full circle.

I'm just waiting on the last of the music, the finalization of the "H" name, and some last minute code cleanup and checks, before passing it off to a pre-selected list of playtesters and reviewers.

Consider this my Swan Song to the OHRRPGCE community - you've meant so much and helped me through some difficult times these last 15+ years. To friends long gone, and those I've yet to meet - thank you.
I totally understand the idea behind the "swan song" as I'm likely doing it myself. Really happy to see you, the developer, happy with a definitive final cut of Vikings. I know it's been a super long time coming. Everything looks really great.
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Post by SwordPlay »

such romance in your soul, true artist you are, yoda i am for some reason
"Imagination. Life is your creation."
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Fenrir-Lunaris
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Post by Fenrir-Lunaris »

One week into code clean-up and bug hunting. There's been several revisions thrown around with last minute "patches" being frequent. The most common ones are NOT spelling errors (like I expected) but rather the odd mis-colored pixel or tile, and of course wallmap issues. Of course the BIGGEST errors came barreling in from a particular last minute change that was suggested by one of my playtesters...

Originally, Vikings didn't really care who was in your party - the very first version was built without any considerations to character personality whatsoever, so having a party of all fighters was something that COULD be done quite easily. Later revisions took the same basic game and gave each character their own personality, and made them radically different from each other too - you'd have them join the party at different times, they'd have their own character arcs, and generally grow and develop as time went on. But when it came time for a character to jump in to steal the spotlight, they would literally jump in front of the party lineup and then proceed to get creamed in the next fight - especially if they had no equipment to speak of. Vikings is one of those games where the enemies like to preferentially target whoever's at the front of the party, after all!

The biggest change in the "final" release changes that up again - sort of. A character whose time it is to shine will still appear to be leading the group - BUT - the game will now retain whatever party order you had going into those scenes. In short, whatever group you had will be remembered by the game, regardless of whoever it shows representing the party. If you have a party comprised of nothing but healers (I'm not judging), but a scene starts up where the fighters are taking point and a fight starts.. you'll find yourself with your preferred group. No worries, there's still parts where the game locks certain members out of the active lineup, but for a while there it was like playing a certain Terrible Contest game where your active party would be shuffled around at random and there was nothing you could do about it - aside from playing with the hand you were dealt!

Now that that enormous hurdle has been cleared, it looks like smooth sailing once again. I'm still making tweaks to item and equipment effectiveness, but once the playtesters report no further bugs.. it's showtime.

Also Gisli's boat looks more like a boat, and not a barge. That's kind of been bugging me for a while.
Attachments
I'M ON A BOAT!!
I'M ON A BOAT!!
Viking0033.png (30.04 KiB) Viewed 3074 times
They sell paperclips and adventuring supplies. Too bad there's no door.
They sell paperclips and adventuring supplies. Too bad there's no door.
Viking0037.png (45.13 KiB) Viewed 3074 times
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Bob the Hamster
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Post by Bob the Hamster »

Gisli's boat looks fantastic!

And the party-order preservation seems like a great feature
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Fenrir-Lunaris
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Post by Fenrir-Lunaris »

One week later, and I've all but wrapped up the OHR group playtest, thanks to Charbile, Idontknow, Foxley, and Bird & Mircea. They're a diverse lot, all with their own game design philosophies! (Diverse you say? Fenrir, they're all furries... ) And while they've caught more than their fair share of bugs, errors, and had some odd issues come up during the playtest, for the most part we made it through far enough to conclude that VoM is *about* as good as it's going to get.

Except Vikings is THE "Flagship" / "Pack-In" title.

That means that the level of polish and idiot-proofing needs to be especially high. Because aside from those games on Steam (Surfasaurus, Kaiju Big Battle, CKane, Void Pyramid), this might very well be people's FIRST OHRRPGCE game they come across. If it doesn't impress in the visuals and sound departments, then there's a real possibility that people could be turned off from making their own games with the engine. Thus it's time to move onto the second phase of testing.

The "second phase" includes people who do not regularly play OHRRPGCE games, and do not develop them, but otherwise are into the "retro" videogame aesthetic. I already know well ahead of time that they are going to report "bugs" that ARE NOT ACTUAL BUGS in the game, but are simply things that are common in the engine itself and that it is not capable of doing at this time. People giving these games a quick glance already forgive the sprite based aesthetic and even a little wonkiness here and there with the scripting, text display, the odd choice of frame rate, and so on. But there's ONE thing that I keep hearing complaints about from non-OHR people, and why only a small group of people will willingly play OHR games.

It's the lack of 24-bit color backdrops. More than ANY other requested feature, this is THE ONE that people unfamiliar with the limitations of the engine have repeatedly looked and said "these games look ugly". If there's only one more thing that can / or will ever be added to the engine, this is it. More than battlescripting. More than adding new slice functions and even potentially more color options in sprites. This needs to be priority number 1 for the foreseeable future. Vikings will "ship" with or without this one thing. I'd like this community to grow in the coming years. Some of us have our own children that we're beginning to pass on our own legacies of gaming to. So let's address the Elephant in the room that everyone's thinking about.

Vikings was NEVER designed with children in mind - but it isn't R-rated. The game is probably along the lines of something like an 1980's action thriller movie (so PG-13). Violence, suggestive themes, crude humor, blood, gambling... beer? One entire F-bomb in the whole game. Nudity gets little more than a "teehee" from the characters before moving on. Nintendo would probably still balk at slapping their seal of approval on it, but all things considered I'd have expected to see Vikings on the Genesis/Master System way back in the day. For those who will go "but think of the children", my reply will be "what parent allows their preteens unfettered access to the internet".

There's also the potential complaint about historical inaccuracy that I'm sure I'm going to hear about a video game that has the word "Vikings" in the title. I'm not going to completely sanitize norse mythology and their worldview to fit in with modern cultural sensibilities - they were violent, bloodthirsty, sexist, horrible people who did horrible things on a regular basis. There was also good - an eagerness to explore, adopting many of the aspects other cultures they met, a greater degree of rights for women than other peoples at the time, and so on. To deny the bad would also be to disregard their positive contributions to western culture.

Once the last round of testing wraps up with the non-OHR community folks, and their concerns with any perceived bugs or flaws are addressed as best as I can - I'm sending the completed game to two people before I disappear into the proverbial background once again and become an expy of Tuxedo Mask or Racer X. First - The Wobbler. He wrote the first review of Vikings way, waaaayyyy back in its earliest days. I'd like to get his opinion first and foremost since he'd likely be the one most familiar with how it's changed since then. Second - James. You get the final call on whether it's ready. This might be the "flagship" - but you're the captain.
Attachments
Sorry Gizmog, this is as indecent as things get.
Sorry Gizmog, this is as indecent as things get.
Viking0038.png (27.01 KiB) Viewed 2999 times
She's just huffy because there isn't a dark corner to go brood in.
She's just huffy because there isn't a dark corner to go brood in.
Viking0040.png (30.68 KiB) Viewed 2999 times
Only a fool feels no fear.
Only a fool feels no fear.
Viking0029.png (29.57 KiB) Viewed 2999 times
Behind his beard there is only another fist.
Behind his beard there is only another fist.
Viking0014.png (52.23 KiB) Viewed 2999 times
If an enemy appears before me, I will destroy it!
If an enemy appears before me, I will destroy it!
Viking0007.png (24.7 KiB) Viewed 2999 times
Last edited by Fenrir-Lunaris on Wed Jul 01, 2020 4:52 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Fenrir-Lunaris
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Post by Fenrir-Lunaris »

One week into non-OHRer testing now. I'd like to give another round of thanks to the OHR testers for running into literally every tree and tile in the game to check for wall-map issues. At this point, barring any major bugs the prevent game completion on the player's end - the only outstanding issues with the game are engine quirks, or the odd spelling error that I might've missed.

The notable engine quirks of course are:

-> Staying at an INN only recovers the heroes in the active party, not those in reserve. Special thanks to Foxley for writing up a workaround.

-> That funkiness with the mouse cursor being over certain menus such as the party selection when mouse controls are enabled.

-> Some occasional weirdness with the fade to white command for enemy dissolves. I can't reliably reproduce this, but I've seen it on three different machines so far.

-> Party members who aren't in the active party, but gain a share of experience show up in the after battle rewards notices. While this isn't a bug itself, it does spoil whether certain heroes might rejoin the group at a later point. There should probably be a bitset to only show rewards for heroes in the active party, but also...

-> ALL party members who gain a share of exp after battle reduce the split rewards proportionately. TMC has suggested a "Maximum XP Divisor" that could be set which would divide up XP rewards, which would be a good solution for games that use lots of heroes at once.

Concerning the last two, it MIGHT be possible to script a workaround that compares the amount of XP an active party member has before and after a battle, then gives that amount to reserve members instead. My addled brain says this would be simple enough, if a "Before Battle" script function existed. And in regards to the complaints about too many encounters in Vikings - rejoice, for I have added a toggle in the menu to turn them on and off.
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No, Daddyrir! No!
No, Daddyrir! No!
viking0059.png (45.68 KiB) Viewed 2904 times
Last edited by Fenrir-Lunaris on Thu Jul 09, 2020 9:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Nathan Karr
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Post by Nathan Karr »

Come now, we all know dad jokes are the best kind of jokes.

For a dad who is an animal they might even be the beast of jokes.
Remeber: God made you special and he loves you very much. Bye!
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