Mechamon input

Why are you a tripfag?

>>14176070
I like the colors, to start with. The metallic bits to it really do well with the theme, and it works. Personally, though, I find the layout to be a little...cluttered? It feels kind of crunched together and it's the one thing that really REALLY stands out to me. Also I would change the solid blue in the mon portrait, it's a little bland and could stand with a little more coloring to look less...thick, I guess.

I'm not good with words and I'm not art major, so take that with a grain of salt, but that's just my two cents in things. Also good to see this is progressing to a point where things can be shown as moving forward.

Have you got any new team members? or is it you and /that/ guy?

How close is the demo coming along?

And with the lack of progress on the forums, it's safe to assume that the game is a very slow crawl.

>>14176081
Makes it easier to identify when in threads.

>>14176084
I'll keep the cluttered thing in mind. I'll have to find out a way to reduce the clutter feeling without taking much data off the screen. Perhaps reducing font size and opening up some spaces might fix that.

>>14176086
Only team members that are consistent right now are myself and /that/ guy. Shu came back for a short bit and gave us his work and then we haven't heard from him again.

Demo progress is slow to say the least. Right now I'm focusing on the UI and /that/ guy is focusing on the map. We're hoping to have a fair chunk of it out for the Demo. Only about 40 units though.

Nothing on the forum right now since it's just the two of us. We haven't needed to document anything there, though to be fair I haven't been checking on it like I should.

File: Rust Town Alpha Final.png (118KB, 740x595px) Image search: [Google]

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Lookey at the starter town, it's not complete, but this way if you do start in the game, you won't know the entire layout just yet.

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>>14176098
Some testing using larger sprites. and seeing what happens when you are in fullscreen with some of these sprites.

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thoughts?

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>>14176156
Status effects already appear on the left side, by the top right of the unit.

I do like the idea of moving the type to the portrait. As well as moving the EXP sections. However, I feel like putting them next to each other like that wouldn't look too great.

I also like the top option 2 of tabs.


Also here's an update on what the battle screen currently looks like. The tracelines on each attach vary in color based on type. So here they're green, for a poison attack they're purple. Tracelines also vary with each attack type as well. So grass and poison have different tracelines. Figured this would help spice up the UI a little and make it less boring to look at each time.

File: Battle.png (83KB, 514x411px) Image search: [Google]

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>>14176245
Whoops. Lied, that one is outdated. THIS is the current screen. I've been debating on removing the IDE cables or adjust them.

>>14176245
Oh, the "exp" and "til next" markers were just so you knew what they were. I would just keep the numbers and assume the player knows what they are.

>>14176276
> I would just keep the numbers and assume the player knows what they are.

That is a terrible option. I do not trust the general populace of /m/ to understand random numbers.They have a hard enough time understand SRW when it's not 90% English.

>>14176284
I thought the layout of pokemon would be enough but if not then you can decide what to do. I think for the numbers you can put them into one box above the bar at least, and just have it "8385 / 876" but no idea what to put above it if you don't want them next to each other. Sorry.

>>14176291
> and just have it "8385 / 876" but no idea what to put above

Actually, I probably could just re-word it to give a X amount out of Y.
Like 40/100 EXP. That'd condense space and it'd be easy to read.

>>14176308
Then you'd have no area to say what your total exp is but I'm sure you can put it right above or something.

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>>14176404
What your next level is, rather. I'm a little tired. Anyway here's two more.

>>14176108
The "What will (X) do?" text is really dark; doesn't stand out much against the dark green textbox.

>>14176486
Text colors are temporary. They need fixed still.

>>14176445
I like the 1st option more. The 2nd feels too empty but the first feels more accurate. Also I feel like having the Item None on top of each other like that works out better, it allows for longer item names easier.

Also note that the "Species" box will probably be released by something like "Series" or similar.

Oh hey, and here I was worried you guys where slacking off. Those menus are looking a lot better than the lazy stuff I did.

One idea I had that I don't think I mentioned before is having unique cries for each species by taking stock mecha sound effects and modify them in various ways like changing the pitch and speed and layering some of them on top of each other. Gen 1 Pokemon cries were sort of like this, I think there was only something like twelve unique cry bases that were modified for each species. Of course, things like Eva-01 or Giant Robo could have their own signature cries.

I could probably slap together a batch of cries like this tomorrow morning if you're interested in this idea.

>>14177030
Oh, that'd be swell. heck i can give you a list of the Mecha in game at the moment. i'll shoot you a PM in the forums. I do know the first 3 Gundams have the standard Gundam "BWCHWENG" sound that's iconic as hell.

>>14177030
For generic units yea, that'd be cool. Like you said, specific units though would have a cry associated with them. Eva-01, Zaku II, Getter, etc.

The alternative to that I was thinking of would be to have them make a sound from their normal pilot. I.E. for Wing Gundam it'd be a short thing from Heero like "Let's go" or for Shining Gundam it'd be a shout from Domon. Then we could also have faint sounds based on those. Of course, that's a lot more work.

>>14178562
I'd stick with regular sounds for those units too. The GBA's sound compression is bad enough but it is especially noticeable on voice clips. The Last Promise (an FE hack) had them and it made the already cringey dialogue even more cringey.

>>14180297
This is an RPG Maker game now.

>>14180297
We're using RPG Maker XP now for it. We plan on using MV on a future version (should there be one) so that we can give it mobile ports and make it more like the GBA titles.

We wanted to make it a ROM hack, but the features we want to include make it too difficult for a ROM hack. Things like Shining Gundam's hyper mode or the Eva's berserk are actually quite difficult to make into a ROM hack. So we opted for RPG maker instead as they're FAR easier to implement and we have more freedom to use different sprites and higher quality sprites.

>>14180377
>>14181022
to further Expand up on this point.
The Rom Hack had issues with how big your sprites could get, and how many colours you were allowed. Heck, you couldn't even reposition shit on the Rom Hack. yes it's a novel idea, but that's for really bored people, who have too much time on their hands. Even the Great Mazinger (The starter of the project back in 2009) had opted for RPG Maker at 2010.

>>14176108
Look at this image, those are huge sprites, with complicated colour patterns, with a new HUD, and repositioned sprites. this way we don't need Back sprites. Now, unfortunetely with this, there is no 2v2 battles. it's all 1v1. but that's probably better for something like this anyway.

But feel free to ask any questions.

>>14181395
2v2 may see a return with minor revisions. But right now we're not focused on 2v2 battles as they're secondary at best.

Since you guys are using RPG Maker for the project now, and you have a lot more freesom in terms of what you want to implement, will you guys stick with a hard limit on how many robots you want in the game, or will you consider releasing updates that add more robots to the roster once the game reaches overall completion?

>>14183253
Right now we don't have a hard roster set, however we'll probably set a hard limit on how many we want in the initial release.

The only reason behind setting a hard limit is because we don't want to get over zealous and never finish.

As far as updates, I'm not up for adding extra units via updates unless they're included with bug fixes or something. Simply because I'd rather move onto the next venture like a 2nd title made in MV or something.

>>14183299
That makes sense; just like with actual Pokemon titles, new units would be added for the next game in the series.

So, in terms of unit "evolution", What are your plans?

I know that Getter units will be able to switch between three forms on the fly, as that was a goal from the start, but what about stuff like branching evolution paths?

Like, for example... The Gundam evolving into either the G3, or the Full Armor Gundam, as an example of what I'm talking about.

>>14183361
Well, Getter cannot change on the fly, we figured out that would be quite over powered. So we plan on an item you get that can change Getter Robo (or other variable type bots) while outside of combat.

Items are going to be used mostly to have mechamon change into other forms, like the Gundams and what not.

>>14183361
>So, in terms of unit "evolution", What are your plans?

Right now Evolution paths aren't fully set. However what I'd like to do for the odd evolution lines (like Gundam into G3 or FAG) would be to have them go through a specific event or special item. However the Gundam would still have it's normal evolution path of RX-78-2 to Nu to Hi-Nu.

G3 would be something like "Magnetic Coating + Evolve at X level" and Full Armor Gundam would be something like "Armor System + Evolve at X level". However that "Armor System" would also work for the Nu + HWS or Hi-Nu + HWS.

Now for units like the Hi-Nu + HWS which is a 4th evolution, it'd have higher than usual stats but nothing crazy and it'd be hard to get. It'd be something like level 70 + Armor System = Hi-Nu HWS or something. Just to try and keep things balanced without making them too strong. Don't want people to fall into "Well I want to use the Scopedog, but it's garbage so I have to use the Gundam instead because it's too OP not to use"

Also like my Associate said for the Getters, yea they're not going to be able to change on the fly. They'll be able to change outside of combat, but having them change in-combat without some form of a large hindrance would be too strong.

>>14183419
>However that "Armor System" would also work for the Nu + HWS or Hi-Nu + HWS.
Good idea.
What about, say, making such items a little more broad and apply to more units even outside of Gundam?
Like, you can use the same exact item on the VFs and get Armor pack VFs.

>>14183378
>>14183419
Makes sense. Also yeah, >>14184081 raises a good point; it'd be interesting to see items affecting units outside of a specific series, as long as it makes sense for that item to influence that unit.

Considering that FRIENDSHIP is often an integral part of a good number of older mecha shows, would units that evolve Lucario-style be feasible?

>>14184081
That was my exact intention, trying to avoid Item Bloating. and how annoying would it be if you had to find a Vf-1A armor pack, and then you had to look for a Vf-1J armor pack? and so forth and so forth.

>>14184081
Exactly how we intend it. Unless it's a very specific item for a specific unit (Like say the G Stone for GaoGaiGar, probably won't use it but just an example) then we'll keep the items generic and broad. That way players can use them on units they want to get the ones they want.

>>14184127
>would units that evolve Lucario-style be feasible?

Technically yes. However I'm not sure what units we plan on using would evolve in such a way. Nor would be really have a reliable way to raise friendship. Personally I'm not a fan of the friendship evolution, but if enough people want it we can find a way to implement it for units that make sense.