Author Topic: Submitting new enemy ships and modder questions  (Read 18168 times)

Offline Hearteater

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Submitting new enemy ships and modder questions
« on: February 02, 2016, 05:46:33 am »
So I just made up my first enemy ship last night and I'm finally happy with it. My goal was a "simple" Attacker_3x3 ship that fits well in early levels. I think it fits that role well. I've got some sister ships that follow a very similar idea that I want to put together tomorrow, thinking 3 or 4. Which brought me to a few questions:

1) How/where should I submit them? Here or mantis? I'm not convinced I haven't screwed anything up, so feedback is desirable.
2) Is there any default scaling on difficulty, or is it only what ships have explicitly?
3) What are good enemy non-boss health targets at Normal?
4) I'm really uncertain about damage to the player, specifically amounts and what happens with a tightly packed pattern. It appears the first bullet triggers immunity, so the rest hit for no damage?
5) Can math be used in the XML for variables? Like: <wait time="[DURATION]/[COUNT]" />, or when calling a variable like: $SomeVar DELAY=[DURATION]+10

Also, so I can brainstorm tomorrow, are there any specific holes in the enemy ship lineup that need filling?

Offline PokerChen

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Re: Submitting new enemy ships and modder questions
« Reply #1 on: February 02, 2016, 07:00:21 am »
1) A rar file here would be okay for feedback. Probably less likely to obtain feedback on Mantis, but is reliable to submit there.

2) There is default scaling of health and shot velocity on difficulty (and maybe other things). The specific tags in enemy folders is usually for additional/alternative shot patterns. You'll see that many enemies don't actually have any difficulty-dependent patterns.

3) Have a check with the existing folders. The standard faceripper pursuers are 25HP, 3x3 attackers range 100~200 or so, and more for the fearsomes. Your best bet to limit power creep on the enemy side is to pick the bog-standard enemies to base off (i.e. the easiest of the lot except for Misery's), and not the other submissions.

4) The player gains immunity to damage for a fraction of a second when being hit, so a tightly packed pattern can potentially hit multiple times or once depending on where they run.

5) Not as far as I can tell, or at least I haven't tried because others said no. If you do it and it actually works, let us know... :P

Re: Ship lineup - check the other thread. https://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,18342.msg198129.html#msg198129 note that ptarth and I have a couple of pursuers and deadly pursuers lined up.

Note that the 1x1 localguards, pursuers and jumpscares are rather hard to balance because you can face anywhere between 1 and 4 of them in a constrained area (up to 6 in a mixed bag). There are definitely default rooms that are now already impossible to beat without damage because of the additions, but we're finding that it's not easy to make them interesting while dumbing down the challenge further.
(So, the way forward may be to change up the default rooms to give players more breathing space)

« Last Edit: February 02, 2016, 07:07:48 am by zharmad »

Offline ptarth

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Re: Submitting new enemy ships and modder questions
« Reply #2 on: February 02, 2016, 02:45:56 pm »
  • Hi. Welcome to the clubhouse.
  • I believe zharmad answered most of your questions.
  • One addition is that your ships will probably be tweaked a bit, regardless what you do, so get them to 90-95% and go from there.
  • Getting feedback from players of all skill levels is important, so don't be afraid to post your code early to the forum to get some opinions.

Note: This post contains content that is meant to be whimsical. Any belittlement or trivialization of complex issues is only intended to lighten the mood and does not reflect upon the merit of those positions.

Offline Pepisolo

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Re: Submitting new enemy ships and modder questions
« Reply #3 on: February 02, 2016, 06:15:12 pm »
Yeah, I would say that if you're looking for feedback then you're better off posting your designs here. Once the designs are as complete as you want them to be, that's the best time to upload them to Mantis as a submission. Cheers!

Offline ptarth

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Re: Submitting new enemy ships and modder questions
« Reply #4 on: February 02, 2016, 06:16:51 pm »
And then Pepisolo will cry, tell you how messed up your ships are, and then fix them.

At least that's what he does to me.

 >D
Note: This post contains content that is meant to be whimsical. Any belittlement or trivialization of complex issues is only intended to lighten the mood and does not reflect upon the merit of those positions.

Offline Pepisolo

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Re: Submitting new enemy ships and modder questions
« Reply #5 on: February 02, 2016, 06:40:57 pm »
And then Pepisolo will cry, tell you how messed up your ships are, and then fix them.

At least that's what he does to me.

 >D

Oh, yeah, I've gotta practically redo Ptarth's stuff from scratch. Just kidding! :) A little tweak here and there usually does it. We do generally stick pretty much with the original design as closely as possible, it's usually just balance tweaks that are made.

Offline Cinth

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Re: Submitting new enemy ships and modder questions
« Reply #6 on: February 02, 2016, 06:46:48 pm »
Then it gets added to the game and I incessantly complain about it until it's nerfed into oblivion.   ;)
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 Pepisolo

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Re: Submitting new enemy ships and modder questions
« Reply #7 on: February 02, 2016, 06:47:40 pm »
Then it gets added to the game and I incessantly complain about it until it's nerfed into oblivion.   ;)

lol :D

Offline Cinth

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Re: Submitting new enemy ships and modder questions
« Reply #8 on: February 02, 2016, 06:59:05 pm »
Then it gets added to the game and I incessantly complain about it until it's nerfed into oblivion.   ;)

lol :D

You would laugh, that one was directed at you :D
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

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Re: Submitting new enemy ships and modder questions
« Reply #9 on: February 02, 2016, 07:55:04 pm »
And then Pepisolo will cry, tell you how messed up your ships are, and then fix them.

At least that's what he does to me.

 >D

Hm that reminds me that a solution still needs to be found for that boss.

Any further ideas on the bit with the spawns?  Second phase I think it was.

Offline Cinth

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Re: Submitting new enemy ships and modder questions
« Reply #10 on: February 02, 2016, 07:56:18 pm »
And then Pepisolo will cry, tell you how messed up your ships are, and then fix them.

At least that's what he does to me.

 >D

Hm that reminds me that a solution still needs to be found for that boss.

Any further ideas on the bit with the spawns?  Second phase I think it was.

That was my suggestion.  And then you said my suggested pattern was to much work.
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

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Re: Submitting new enemy ships and modder questions
« Reply #11 on: February 02, 2016, 08:02:01 pm »
And then Pepisolo will cry, tell you how messed up your ships are, and then fix them.

At least that's what he does to me.

 >D

Hm that reminds me that a solution still needs to be found for that boss.

Any further ideas on the bit with the spawns?  Second phase I think it was.

That was my suggestion.  And then you said my suggested pattern was to much work.

Actually I didn't phrase my last post right; I was referring to his OTHER boss.  Should have said that.

He's got another one coming that isnt active yet.  There are things to fix.  VERY different from Invader.... it should get interesting.  Provided nothing implodes, of course.  Unless that IS the part that makes it interesting, that is.

Offline Cinth

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Re: Submitting new enemy ships and modder questions
« Reply #12 on: February 02, 2016, 08:06:28 pm »
The Reanimator?
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 ptarth

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Re: Submitting new enemy ships and modder questions
« Reply #13 on: February 02, 2016, 08:12:10 pm »
And then Pepisolo will cry, tell you how messed up your ships are, and then fix them.

At least that's what he does to me.

 >D

Hm that reminds me that a solution still needs to be found for that boss.

Any further ideas on the bit with the spawns?  Second phase I think it was.

I sent you a PM a few days ago about it. At least I thought I did.
Note: This post contains content that is meant to be whimsical. Any belittlement or trivialization of complex issues is only intended to lighten the mood and does not reflect upon the merit of those positions.

Offline Misery

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Re: Submitting new enemy ships and modder questions
« Reply #14 on: February 02, 2016, 08:27:10 pm »
And then Pepisolo will cry, tell you how messed up your ships are, and then fix them.

At least that's what he does to me.

 >D

Hm that reminds me that a solution still needs to be found for that boss.

Any further ideas on the bit with the spawns?  Second phase I think it was.

I sent you a PM a few days ago about it. At least I thought I did.

Yeah, I know, I was just curious if you'd had any other thoughts since.

I didn't do anything with it today, you see.  Right now:  pain.   I'm blaming the weather.  So taking it easy with the computer use at the moment.