The Survey Thread!

[Liazon]

[TheStorm]

Yeah as much as one page is good I think more features are better.

[DigiTan]

Well, it looks like option 2: "Dynamic Camera for bosses and major enemies" takes the win with a distant lead in this poll.

So basically all the game's heavy-hitters will invoke the camera. This includes the Ironclad, Leadfoot, Calcimite, Giant Wasp, Giant Mantis, Marauder and anything else in that league. In the flash version, it'll have some kind of options screen where you can control the camera on an on/off/auto basis. Or something really close.

[DigiTan]

Here's a new poll for the summer. This one deals with the cluster of shots Edgar shoots off at once.

So far, we got yer melee attacks and unlockable ranged attacks. Ranged attacks not only go far, but also come in clusters of 2, 3, or 4. Single-shots were removed because they don't have much practical advantage over using melee. So all ranged moves are fired in pairs by default, and anything stronger is considered an upgrade.

Anyway, something needs to determine how many shots you can shoot at once. Based on the current code, here are some likely possibilities:

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Powerups
Here, something like a temporary powerup item could provide you with increased cluster sizes. The effect could diminish over time or all at once. It's a good way to ensure players are paying attention to what enemies are dropping.

Equipment
Under this rule, you could carry some special item to increase your cluster sizes. For instance using WATER requires that you carry the Blue Gemstone at all times. By carrying multiple stones, you increase your cluster sizes to x3, or x4 if you want.

Usage/Experience
Under this, only experience points or something along those lines will result in larger clusters. For example a counter could keep track of how many kills you're scored using FIRE. Then with enough fire kills, you gain x3 and finally x4 clusters. Hence, the more you use it, the stronger it gets.

Rate of Fire
Here, the rate that you use ranged attacks will determine your cluster size. Your first shot might come out as a x4 or x3, then decline all the way to x1 as the character gets exhausted. It's a good way to discourage careless button-mashing.
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Also, be sure to check out the preliminary Quick Start Guide at Maxcoderz.org.

[justusdude]

I vote for powerups. My 2nd choice would be experience.

[Liazon]

all good choices. the power up is my first choice because it seems to go w/ the theme of this game better.

rate of fire is second because of anti-button mashing, making it a bit more strategic. That being said, it might take all the action/madness people (like me ) are expecting from this game.

maybe stay away from usage/experience because it encourages rpg grinding. unless usage of one decreases XP slightly of others (at random) equipment is better than this option imho.

[Art_of_camelot]

My first choice would be usage/xp, I like the idea that the more you use a particular element the stronger it becomes. This adds to the RPG side more for me. Why go with just one though? If you include temporary power-ups that would add more to the action side of it and add some balance.(IE current range attack that is equipped has its multiplyer increased by 1 for 10 secs. and is nullified if you switch to a different range attack). As for equipment, maybe you could have a generic piece of equipment that increases the multiplyer by 1 regardless of what type of range attack you are using. The only idea I don't care for is the rate of fire. If you're facing enemies that are weak to a particular range attack and it keeps getting weaker as you fight that would put you in a bad situation (Especially with bosses). Just my thoughts anyhow.

*Edited for grammar

[DarkerLine]

I like the rate-of-fire idea, as long as it's not too extreme. Unfortunately, on the flip side, it might encourage people to wait around after fighting even a few enemies, until their rate of fire gets restored.

[bananaman]

I likewise cast my vote for rate-of-fire followed closely by experience.

[Liazon]

this is a pretty close poll

[luby]

I said Equipment because usually machine guns (used just for comparison) don't fire faster the longer you shoot them. But if you get a faster machine gun or a faster clip loader... then it shoots faster.

[DigiTan]

Also, as a side-topic...roughly how many different kinds of items would you expect to see in this game (in the full FlashApp version). Keeping in mind that about 10 are already confirmed.

And how many should you be allowed to carry?

[Art_of_camelot]

That depends on what you mean by items. I consider items to be anything a character can carry; armor, weapons, food, items that boost stats ect. I can't really see that item capacity is an issue. If you want realism you can put a cap on it, but i don't know that you'd even be able to carry enough items in your inventory for it to be an issue.

[Liazon]

as for the number of different kinds, the more the merrier. although I'd pick more levels over more item types.

[DigiTan]

Okay, it looks like I have enough info here. I'll be going with experience as the deciding factor for ranged attack sizes. That goes with the original idea for 2 summers ago that the final boss will grow in power in real-time.

Right now there is a ranking system for all 5 elements. You can see this in the stats screen. Presently, your rank is shown as a simple fraction (0/4 for "can't use", 2/4 for "x2 attacks, 3/4 for "x3 attacks, etc). For practical reasons, that's being retooled even further to a display showing "x0" "x2," "x3," or "x4."

I also have a new pill-shaped "vitamin" item in the library that will provide a boost to all non-zero ranks. Whether it will be temporary powerup or equipment is uncertain.

[Delnar_Ersike]

I'd say a combination of items and rate of fire would be good. However, keep the rate of fire balanced: don't let it punish people for button mashing, only degrade their attacks. Have the recharging to the "power meter" be fast. Here is the thing I thought of and was trying to explain: allow the player to fire either 4 shots every 2 seconds (increase the power of the shots as well), 3 shots every second (increase the power slightly here, too), or button-mash 2 shots. You could also add an "overheating meter", but make it separate from the "power meter".

As for the items, have all the augmenting items appear frequently as drops from killed enemies, but set an "inventory limit" to make sure the player can't hoard all the items he/she gets. Another step would be to make all items augment a specific attribute of all attacks, rather than all attributes of a specific attack (e.g. rather than increasing every attribute for only fire attacks, the item increases only damage for every attack type). A third step (it would seriously be overkill by now, but one can dream...) builds on to the previous step (have items boost a specific attribute for all attack types), but instead of improving all attack types, every specific item will boost all attack types except for one (e.g. an elemental shard will boost all attack types' rate of fire except for metal's)... heck, you can even make it that the item gives a penalty, too, to that one specific attack type (e.g. a frozen tomahawk axe of the phoenix [yes, I am going overboard here] gives extra speed to water, wind, metal, and fire attacks, but reduces the speed of wood/earth attacks). Different items will boost/penaltize different attributes of different attacks, and really allows the player to tweak the bonuses/penalties the way he/she wants (the player could probably even turn fire attacks into defensive moves if he wants). Remember, the goal here is that each item is unique, balanced, and easily gotten hold of, but there is a limit to how many of these items one can have at the same time.

Oh, and if you really want to overkill, have the enemies scale and behave differently based on what items the player has.

Of the two, I'd rather like to see the rate of fire, but it would be great if you could implement items as well. And remember, the suggestions I made are only dreams; I'd truly be surprised if you successfully implemented all of them.

[DigiTan]

It looks like what I'm gonna go with now is a mix of Experience-based upgrades and Equipment. After finally adding a routine to limit EP (notice all footage before has the EP fixed at 40 points) it struck me that the ammo limit will be an effective button-mashing deterrent just in it's own right. Believe me, those 40 shots get used up a lot quicker than expected. True, the herb item can replenish the ammo, but I'll wager at least half of the combat will be done with the oldschool "slash" moves, just to keep things challenging.

The vitamin power is still in the works. So far, it functions more as equipment than foods like meat or herbs. The current item limit is 6 equipment and 7 foods. Or alternately, you can carry equipment -- but only if you have no food at all.

Each equipment is associated with what can best be descripted as a struct. Those tables inform the game which stats the equipment effects, and by how much at just a few bytes each. For vitamins for example, they increase your attack_cluster stat by +1. Since most stats are signed, it would be easy to add items that can potentially lower certain stats as well. In fact, there is already a small class of "nuisance items" that are made for this purpose.

[Galandros]

wow this game is getting very detailed.

To understand half of already made I had to read a lot. I do not have a TI-82 to test. Port would be a great idea thought.

[DigiTan]

Yeah, there,s some pretty elabort stuff still not even announced. For RAM reasons, I've gotta hold back on a few ideas a mostly work within the code that's already in the system. Especially since the TI82 version is around 2kB over budget. The upcoming Flash ports will help somewhat.

[DigiTan]

This Month: If you found a combo item, would you use it?
Keeping with RW tradition, this game has combinational items that are calculator-themed. Add, negate, multiply, and divide are returning...along with the brand-new summation. To set them apart from the other items, combinationals will sport a paper-like appearance with their corresponding symbol on the face. Once used, combo items disappear.

Note that combo items can't work on other combinationals. Also keep in mind: all items will have dual effects each (example: Light Armor = DEF+5, SPE-5).

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Add
It basically takes a normal item or food, and puts it into overdrive. Any item combined with add becomes roughly 10% stronger.

Negate
Does a +/- reversal on all item effects. So how does this help? Well, some items tend to be a tad more trouble than they're worth...unless you negate! Second, items that are exclusively negative can be thrown as weapons! :biggrin: EX: Negated food will do 5 HP damage instantly!

Multiply
Multiply will clone any item you combine it with. So if you only have 1 Bread left, just hit it with multiply and now you've got 2!

Divide
Breaks an item's primary and secondary effects into 2 separate items. Negative halves can be used as weapons just like with "negate."

Summation New!
Takes two items and combines them into a one. It's a great way to free up new space in your item pack.