Author Topic: Boss teaser video, "Nova"  (Read 3968 times)

Offline Misery

  • Arcen Volunteer
  • Core Member Mark V
  • *****
  • Posts: 4,109
Boss teaser video, "Nova"
« on: February 21, 2017, 04:25:43 am »
This isn't going to become a regular thing... or even happen hardly at all... but I figured, after showing a few of the screenshots, maybe I could show something in action.  Just for the heck of it.  And bosses aren't exactly the focus of this expansion, so... I'm not spoiling the "major" stuff about this expansion.  The "big" stuff, I don't think has even been hinted at yet.

Either way though, showing THIS one off.  This is (for now) a mid-game boss.  Three phases.  As mid-game bosses go, this might be one of the tougher ones.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuvyvFNHGrY



Anyway, so there's that.  It's not perfect, the second pattern will need tweaking to prevent slowdown, but I'll get to that later.  The expansion is still quite a ways off and I'm feeling lazy today anyway.


That's probably it for teaser videos for now.  Maybe if one of the others wants to show off an item or two or.... whatever, up to them if they might want to show something later.... but for me, this is all for now. 


If it looks too easy I'll make it worse.

Offline Cinth

  • Core Member Mark II
  • *****
  • Posts: 2,527
  • Resident Zombie
Re: Boss teaser video, "Nova"
« Reply #1 on: February 21, 2017, 05:48:48 am »
That doesn't even look near as bad as Skittles does.
Quote from: keith.lamothe
Opened your save. My computer wept. Switched to the ST planet and ship icons filled my screen, so I zoomed out. Game told me that it _was_ totally zoomed out. You could seriously walk from one end of the inner grav well to the other without getting your feet cold.

Offline Misery

  • Arcen Volunteer
  • Core Member Mark V
  • *****
  • Posts: 4,109
Re: Boss teaser video, "Nova"
« Reply #2 on: February 21, 2017, 06:10:16 am »
That doesn't even look near as bad as Skittles does.

I.... what?   What the heck is a Skittles?

Offline Cinth

  • Core Member Mark II
  • *****
  • Posts: 2,527
  • Resident Zombie
Re: Boss teaser video, "Nova"
« Reply #3 on: February 21, 2017, 09:00:19 am »
Quote from: keith.lamothe
Opened your save. My computer wept. Switched to the ST planet and ship icons filled my screen, so I zoomed out. Game told me that it _was_ totally zoomed out. You could seriously walk from one end of the inner grav well to the other without getting your feet cold.

Offline Mánagarmr

  • Core Member Mark V
  • *****
  • Posts: 4,272
  • if (isInRange(target)) { kill(target); }
Re: Boss teaser video, "Nova"
« Reply #4 on: February 21, 2017, 09:01:18 am »
Me: "Huh, that doesn't look so bad."

*Hits phase 2.*

Me. "Oh my god..."
Click here to get started with Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports.

Thank you for contributing to making the game better!

Offline Misery

  • Arcen Volunteer
  • Core Member Mark V
  • *****
  • Posts: 4,109
Re: Boss teaser video, "Nova"
« Reply #5 on: February 21, 2017, 09:07:25 am »
That doesn't even look near as bad as Skittles does.

I.... what?   What the heck is a Skittles?


https://forums.arcengames.com/starward-rogue/centrifuge-misery-mode/

Oh, that awful horror.  I'd wondered if you meant Sunder, since that boss is usually the one that gets the "too hard" comments from people (well, the one I've seen mentioned the most so far).

I should hope it doesn't seem as awful as something on Misery mode though, considering this is supposed to be for Normal mode.


Me: "Huh, that doesn't look so bad."

*Hits phase 2.*

Me. "Oh my god..."

It's not that bad.  There's a reason why all the bullets move purely outwards from the boss.  The pattern is actually inspired by one from an old arcade game by the name of Progear (fantastic shmup, that one), where the second boss would do a very similar (yet more threatening in appearance) pattern, that would scare the crap out of the player... until they realized that it's actually kinda easy to dodge, probably the easiest of all the attacks that boss uses (most of which have like, 1/5th the number of bullets that one does).  It's like I often say about bullet-hell games:  More bullets does not necessarily equal more challenge.  But they DO terrify the player, which is the actual point.  In the case of this boss, the third pattern is actually the most dangerous.

As long as the player doesn't panic with a pattern like that second one, it's not too bad.  Just gotta take it slow.

....Wheras something like Centrifuge on Misery isn't meant to scare the player, but to squash them.  That one's different.
« Last Edit: February 21, 2017, 09:09:34 am by Misery »

Offline Cinth

  • Core Member Mark II
  • *****
  • Posts: 2,527
  • Resident Zombie
Re: Boss teaser video, "Nova"
« Reply #6 on: February 21, 2017, 09:12:10 am »
Heh, Centi on Normal still gets me on occasion.  There's another early-mid boss that gets me often enough, though I can't recall the name.  The rest I can handle if I don't get impatient ;)
Quote from: keith.lamothe
Opened your save. My computer wept. Switched to the ST planet and ship icons filled my screen, so I zoomed out. Game told me that it _was_ totally zoomed out. You could seriously walk from one end of the inner grav well to the other without getting your feet cold.

Offline keith.lamothe

  • Arcen Games Staff
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 19,505
Re: Boss teaser video, "Nova"
« Reply #7 on: February 21, 2017, 09:24:22 am »
Nova.

As in, No Va.

As in, spanish for "Not Going".

As in, "it's cute that you've gotten this far, but now you are not going anywhere, have a nice day".

Which is The Arcen Way, of course.

Looks awesome, great work :)
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games? Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Offline Misery

  • Arcen Volunteer
  • Core Member Mark V
  • *****
  • Posts: 4,109
Re: Boss teaser video, "Nova"
« Reply #8 on: February 21, 2017, 09:41:34 am »
Heh, Centi on Normal still gets me on occasion.  There's another early-mid boss that gets me often enough, though I can't recall the name.  The rest I can handle if I don't get impatient ;)

If I'm being honest Centrifuge is actually one of the ones that gives me the most trouble too.  It's the hard mode version one that does it.

Aside from the fact that I have no bloody clue how the pattern works (seriously, I don't know what I did to get it to do that on Hard mode, I just rolled with it) I tend to get caught up in it really easily.  Other stuff on Hard?  Not a problem.  Centrifuge?  That's an "Uuuuuuuugh not this guy again" moment.   If I'm going to make desperate use of consumables against a boss, it's most likely going to happen against that one.

Nova.

As in, No Va.

As in, spanish for "Not Going".

As in, "it's cute that you've gotten this far, but now you are not going anywhere, have a nice day".

Which is The Arcen Way, of course.

Looks awesome, great work :)

Yes, happy to be keeping up the time-honored Arcen tradition of making sure the player dies a lot.  It's not proper behavior for an Arcen game if that isn't happening.  Instead, it's a bug :P

.....That being said I hope the thing doesn't come out to be TOO hard.  It's meant to be a mid-game boss... though as always I'm not so good at judging these.

I really wish we had people testing this stuff though.  Right now, all of these bosses are entirely based on just my own testing.  Might prove to be an issue later on.  Granted there's only so much content available to test at the moment since a lot of stuff is in a half-ready state.

Offline x4000

  • Chris McElligott Park, Arcen Founder and Lead Dev
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,651
Re: Boss teaser video, "Nova"
« Reply #9 on: February 21, 2017, 10:13:04 am »
Niiiice. :)
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games?  Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Offline TheVampire100

  • Master Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,382
  • Ordinary Vampire
Re: Boss teaser video, "Nova"
« Reply #10 on: February 21, 2017, 12:47:07 pm »
The first phase looked fairly easy. But then it turned to the second phase and all I thought was "Nope, not this one, count me out."
Second phase is pixel perfect dodging and I HATE pixel perfect dodging because you have to, well, be perfect and doding and are not allowed to make a tiny mistake. Older bosses at least had wider gaps, so even if you moved a sliglty the wrong direction, you still won't get hurt. Combine this with the fact that all bosses drag awefully long and you have pretty much a dead end for people like me.
Also, as if two stages weren't enough, it dies, i creates another phase. I guess this is kinda it's thing to surprise the player? But please make phase two easier, there is nothing worse than pixel perfect dodging.

Offline Logorouge

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 514
Re: Boss teaser video, "Nova"
« Reply #11 on: February 21, 2017, 04:44:05 pm »
Second phase is pixel perfect dodging and I HATE pixel perfect dodging because you have to, well, be perfect and dodging and are not allowed to make a tiny mistake.
With gaps as wide as 1 to 3 times the mech's sprite (not the hitbox), I think that phase is pretty safety far away from the pixel perfect category. It may look intimidating, but it doesn't look nearly as dangerous as the third phase. Plus, consider that the normal length of the boss will be shorter after several floors of powerups since it's a midboss.

Offline Misery

  • Arcen Volunteer
  • Core Member Mark V
  • *****
  • Posts: 4,109
Re: Boss teaser video, "Nova"
« Reply #12 on: February 21, 2017, 07:31:52 pm »
The first phase looked fairly easy. But then it turned to the second phase and all I thought was "Nope, not this one, count me out."
Second phase is pixel perfect dodging and I HATE pixel perfect dodging because you have to, well, be perfect and doding and are not allowed to make a tiny mistake. Older bosses at least had wider gaps, so even if you moved a sliglty the wrong direction, you still won't get hurt. Combine this with the fact that all bosses drag awefully long and you have pretty much a dead end for people like me.
Also, as if two stages weren't enough, it dies, i creates another phase. I guess this is kinda it's thing to surprise the player? But please make phase two easier, there is nothing worse than pixel perfect dodging.

It's not pixel-perfect. 

Firstly, that'd be too much for a mid-game boss that isn't on the game's highest difficulty.

....Secondly, I'm too blasted lazy to make something like that.  Making a normal boss pattern is hard enough:  But making one that takes that level of precision?  I've never even tried that.  I know of very few professionally-made bullet-hell games that go so far (which is to say, I know of exactly two of them). 

Most games of this type eventually pull something like this:  The "that looks impossible" boss that then has the player going "Oh.  Well I didn't think it'd die that easy" sort of thing.  Phase 2 is just meant to be intimidating.  Notice though, I only get HIT on phase 3.  Phase 2 is easier than 1 or 3.    Like I said, more bullets doesn't equal more difficulty.  Now, if I were doing strange things with the angles of those shots...  that'd be different.  But they are straight-fire shots from a single origin point for a reason.  The only thing you need to keep in mind when fighting this boss and doing that phase is "hold down the slow-move button".

....Also keep in mind this is AWHILE from being ready for anything.  A good couple of months.  These bosses and enemies and items and gizmos and cool stuffs are all going to be getting tweaking/testing between now and then.  We're going to have a lot of testing to do.  If stuff turns out to be balanced incorrectly, it gets changed, same as always.  If you can take down bosses like Centrifuge on Normal though, you can probably handle this dude without all that much trouble. 

Besides, along with these monsters will be coming new tools for the player to use against them (which is where the expansion will get INTERESTING, yep). 

 

SMF spam blocked by CleanTalk