Charas-Project
Off-Topic => Archive => Old Game Discussion => Topic started by: SaiKar on September 25, 2009, 03:10:44 AM
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Okay okay, I’m putting too much time into this game these days not to want to create a thread here about it. So, here we go.
Click on most of the screenshots for a full-sized image.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/CoD2Title.png)
Basic Plot Summary: Micras was a planet chosen by a hostile alien race to support alien life at the expense of all living things on the planet. Working slowly and manipulating geological events of
the planet from the far past into the uncomfortably near future, these aliens prepared the planet of Micras for a crushing defeat at their hands that would annihilate all life on the planet and make it prime for alien habitation.
They probably would have gotten away with it too, if the people of Micras hadn’t invented a time machine, uncovered the alien plot, and put an end to it. Over the course of the so-called “Control of Destiny” campaign, heroes from Micras banded together, discovered a lot of unsettling things about their planet’s past, eventually triumphed, and returned to the present day to use their newly acquired knowledge and skills to turn the small country of Jasonia into the Flying Islands of Jasonia, a sky empire superpower floating on poorly understood gravitron engines with an unrivaled air force.
A year passed, and the short time has had a dramatic effect on Micras. The weather has grown unseasonably stranger. The computer systems the world relies on to make day to day life possible
became unstable and unreliable. And strange disturbances, seemingly rifts in time-space itself, began to appear at random, swallowing people or entire buildings. The global economy, strained under the pressure, has begun to completely unravel. Some entire small nations were plunged entirely into chaos as dissident rioting populations overturned their governments in frustration, confusion, and fear.
The Flying Islands of Jasonia, the world’s last remaining superpower, has fared better than most due to its technological edge, but even it has begun to unravel as the freedoms people once enjoyed are being replaced with soldier patrols and nightly curfews, and money once spent on the tourist and leisure industry is being funneled into a bloated national defense budget in an attempt to enforce worldwide peace.
In the midst of this crisis, the same scientist that invented time travel a year ago makes a new, equally shocking discovery – there are parallel worlds coexisting around Micras, and powerful distortions that are having an effect on time and space seem to be centered around them. It is believed that these distortions, possibly caused by the time-traveling efforts of the Control of Destiny team, are responsible for the instability in Micras.
A machine is constructed in secret that would allow passage to these parallel worlds, and the Control of Destiny team, the protectors of Micras, are called into action once again. Their mission: infiltrate the parallel world, discover the source of the distortions, and put an end to them using any means necessary.
As you could perhaps expect, not everything goes to plan…
Game Features:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/LearnedFirstAbilitySM.png) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/LearnedFirstAbility-1.png)
Special abilities
Every single playable character has a special ability that can be used to help exploration, transportation, training, or other in-game functions. These abilities can be activated or deactivated by a touch of a button and their current status will display in the in-game interface.
The use of special abilities is necessary towards progressing in the game. They also give you plenty of opportunities to fully explore the environments as well as offset the difficulties in certain situations. A strong grasp on your character’s abilities and what they can accomplish will well reward the player for their cunning. They also happen to be a lot of fun to use.
Some of the special abilities in the game are explained in each character’s introduction, below.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/ComboTutorial2.png)
Combination Techniques
Though the game largely uses the default battle system, the number of available characters and their many in-combat options provides a lot of variety. A good example of this is combination techniques. Some characters will gain additional techniques depending on the presence of other characters in the party. Not a true dual-tech system, as that would be a complete bear to program, but enough to stand out and make you conscious of the party choices you make.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/PlotBranchSM.png) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/PlotBranch.png)
Plot-branching Gameplay
The adventure changes depending on your actions, adding to replay value. In some cases you will have two ways to complete a goal which may lead in two entirely different directions. In others, your choices will affect what characters join your party, how the public perceives you, what rewards you receive, and other plot-related issues. When confronted with any option, give it some thought before making a decision, because every action may have long-reaching repercussions.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/CityOfTheSunSM.png) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/CityOfTheSun.png)
Minigames
There are scattered minigames and other minor events to break up the exploration and combat aspects of the game. These vary from running beating on moving enemies, tests of reflexes, gambling, and logic puzzles. I absolutely guarantee that some of you will have very strong opinions on the City of the Sun Orb-based puzzles. Some feedback I have gotten has been from people that want to enter a minigame selector to fool with the puzzles and not worry about the main quest. I’m considering the idea.
Length
If you enjoy this game, there is lots to have fun with. I estimate completion time at about 20 hours, give or take depending on how many optional subquests and fights you search for.
Minor Systems
Lots of other polished bells and whistles that you should expect from a game like this, including:
• Fully drawn battle character sets, including sets for custom attacks and status effects
• Character set expressions, stances, and emotions that vary between characters. Each character has pleeeenty of custom sprite animations.
• A save system that records the location you saved on the file screen.
• Actual playtesting and balancing, which really shouldn’t be uncommon enough to make this list, but so it goes.
Major Characters
The game has a lot of playable characters. Here are some of the ones you’ll run across early on.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/JasonSprites.png)
Jason
The President of the Flying Islands of Jasonia and the leader of the Control of Destiny team; this makes Jason the most powerful person on Micras. Fortunately, he is also an idealist dedicated towards protecting the planet from all threats and focuses the efforts of his technophile nation towards those ends. He is well-liked through his persistence, self-sacrifice, and humorously sarcastic nature, though he tends to complain a bit too much when the going gets rough and is sometimes prone to trying to handle everything on his own instead of fully using his teammates abilities. He also has a little bit of an inferiority complex since many of his teammates are better at direct combat than he is.
Jason has a wide variety of psychic-based powers known collectively as Empathy. This includes telekinesis, mind-reading, force-projection, and the occasional uncontrollable psychic vision of the past, present, or future. The other members of the team have grown to rely on Jason’s intuition and control of these abilities.
In combat, Jason can use his psychic powers to reshape the battlefield, increasing the powers of his allies, weakening his enemies, and having other effects. He also has a very strong connection to Fire-based magic and can cast stronger spells more often than his allies. His direct damage abilities are a bit limited, but Jason is the core of the party; skillful use of this support character will mean the difference between life and death.
Example Techs:
• PSI Sharpen – uses psychic powers to make an ally’s weapon stronger, increasing damage.
• Flame Line – damages all enemies with fire magic
• PSI Transfer – transfers some of Jason’s massive MP reserves to an ally
• PSI Reforge – a combination technique, this significantly increases the defense of all party members.
Jason’s special ability is Empathy. When using this ability, you can read the minds of NPCs you encounter. This may provide tips and clues for your adventure and is sometimes the only way of discovering vital information necessary to the quest.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/BillSprites.png)
Bill
Bill was the former leader of the Republic of Tapfer, an oversea nation that willingly joined Jasonia. Since then, Jason and Bill have been very close friends. Jason and Bill are two opposites to the leadership coin – Jason is prone to slow, methodical decision-making while Bill is quick and impulsive, invigorating the group with his enthusiasm when things may bog down. Bill gets a lot of flak for being unrefined and brash, but he knows an amazing amount about combat, swordsmanship, and worldly issues like traveling and staying safe. He is also the spiritual leader of the people of Tapfer and is the mayor of the Jasonian city Thassala, a city of Tapfer immigrants seeking a better life in the sky kingdom.
Bill is an accomplished swordsman, one of the best in Jasonia. He learned fire magic to be like his best friend Jason and has blended some of it into his physical style, becoming a Sword Mage. He is also very defensive in combat and has numerous ways to protect himself and others.
Example Techs:
• Power Up – increase’s Bill’s attack and magic power
• Fire Sword – combines a physical attack with sword magic
• Block – drastically increase’s Bill’s defense for a duration
• Brotherhood Twister - a combination technique with his brother that deals damage to all enemies.
Bill’s special ability is Toughening. While active, every time you win an enemy encounter, there is a random chance that the entire party will gain a permanent boost to HP, attack, or defense. If active at the end of a boss battle, it will trigger 100% of the time.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/MattSprites.png)
Matt
Bill’s brother and one cool customer. Matt is an accomplished scientist and entrepreneur and is responsible for many of the Control of Destiny team’s more outlandish inventions, such as the dimensional travel machine. He is an extremely ethical scientist and runs a government-funded science center, DERA, with the intent of protecting Jasonia and ensuring their technological advancement.
Matt enters combat with his custom-built weapon, a laser sword, as well as his variety of technical machines and his earth magic powers. Although useful in many situations, he is most deadly when going toe-to-toe with a single, formidable opponent.
Example Techs:
• Ping – an energy blast that does double damage to robots or other machines
• Overclock – doubles an ally’s combat speed for a duration
• Brambles – earth magic that covers the enemies in thorny plants, possibly poisoning them
• Missing Link – a combination technique, this restores HP while increasing combat speed
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/TechnicalDeviceSM.png) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/TechnicalDevice.png)
Matt’s special ability is Use Technical Device. This has a varying effect depending on the situation and what devices Matt has built, bought, or scavenged through the game. Unlike many special abilities, Matt’s has the potential to change and expand depending on devices found in the game.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/ErikaSprites.png)
Erika
The second child of royalty, Erika is one of the most accomplished fighters in all of the alternate dimension of Sunscorch. Due to a past filled with conflict and loss, she has abandoned her home city and searches tirelessly for General Awaldock, a man she blames for most of her troubles.
Erika has potent wind magic powers, much to the chagrin of her hometown of traditionally earth-based mages. Through tireless training and development of skills, Erika can now effortlessly use the wind in conjunction with her own muscles, increasing her movement speed, making her arms swing harder, and increasing her ability to dodge attacks. She’s not the strongest person in the world, but man is she fast. She can also command the winds directly and blend wind magic into her combat in a style similar to Bill’s.
Example Techs:
• Sky Slash – by using the power of the wind, Erika makes a tremendous leap at an enemy’s head, ignoring their defense in her attack.
• Wind Slash – a sword magic skill that lowers an enemy’s resistance to wind damage.
• Sword Combo – doubles all of Erika’s normal physical attacks for the remainder of the battle.
• Mind Slash – a combination technique that disrupts an enemy’s concentration, leaving them open for attacks directly upon their mind.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/Levitate2SM.png) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/Levitate2.png)
Erika’s special ability is Levitate, one of the coolest in the game. This calls upon her mastery of the winds to lift the party above the ground. With Levitate active, you can fly straight up, down, or across certain structures, pits, and other otherwise inaccessible areas. Don't look down!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/SaiSprites.png)
Sai’Kar
Everyone’s favorite light-based Micron holy woman! Sai’Kar’s origins, past, and motives are a boggling mystery to the Control of Destiny team, and getting to the bottom of them will lead towards a whole new level of complexity for the adventure.
Sai’Kar has extremely potent light-based abilities. She can deal direct damage to her enemies with searing beams or turn the energy into life-giving curative powers. She also has several, more bizarre spells that hint of a very strange origin…
Example Techs:
• Mithun Soloral –a blast of sunlight that deals damage and has a good chance to inflict blindness
• Lumsam Rolon – heals the entire party
• Micak Soloral – revives fallen party members
• Chronar Gulsomb – a combination technique that damages all enemies with pure time magic and has a chance to lower their combat speed
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/TimeStopSM.png) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/TimeStop.png)
Sai’Kar’s special ability is Chronar Serlomb, which translates to Time Stop. With this active, all motion will cease – NPCs will stop moving and become totally irresponsive, smoke and flags will stop billowing in the wind, and machinery and other mechanical devices will freeze in place. As for the practical upsides of this, well, I will leave those for you to discover…
Timetable
Eventually.
No, but more seriously, probably in a month or two. I’ll post occasional updates / additional teaser information things get close.
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Looks awesome but...Halo 2 2?
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looks really great. It kinda remindes me of Golden Sun
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This looks really, really good.
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Dude.....This game looks killer. Nice job Sai. The abilities look fun to play with! ^ ^
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I feel like throwing up due to the radio active rays of asomeness coming out of this. I also ate to much.
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Sweet
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Still working on this.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/CorruptMatt.png)
HARD HARD FIGHTS. Each character has a "corrupt version" of themselves scattered throughout the game. Defeating these optional boss battles earns the character one half of their ultimate weapon as well as having various other beneficial effects to the quest. But these rewards are not without trial - the battles reduce your party to a certain level cap and are generally extremely overpowered. Added to satisfy my urge to make extremely difficult boss battles without making them part of the story and making the game impossible to finish.
Because some of the level caps are pretty low level, you encounter some of these fights very early on. And while they are very difficult when you first encounter them, they ARE beatable with a bit of luck and some sneaky planning. So give 'em a try, if you're hard enough.
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Still working on this.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/CorruptMatt.png)
HARD HARD FIGHTS. Each character has a "corrupt version" of themselves scattered throughout the game. Defeating these optional boss battles earns the character one half of their ultimate weapon as well as having various other beneficial effects to the quest. But these rewards are not without trial - the battles reduce your party to a certain level cap and are generally extremely overpowered. Added to satisfy my urge to make extremely difficult boss battles without making them part of the story and making the game impossible to finish.
Because some of the level caps are pretty low level, you encounter some of these fights very early on. And while they are very difficult when you first encounter them, they ARE beatable with a bit of luck and some sneaky planning. So give 'em a try, if you're hard enough.
Sounds fun and challenging. ^_- Surprised no one has thought of this before.
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How did you put "chi" in the names of moves? I really don't think it's on a keyboard. :s
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It's not. RPGMaker has "hidden" letters. PSI Sharpen is coded as $K$sPSI Sharpen. $K makes the h with the line and $s is the up arrow. There's more about those symbols in the help file.
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WHERE IS MY PROFILE! I DEMAND MY STUFF UP! SUPPORT FTW!!!!!!!
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Cool deal. Where's the first one?
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Did anybody else notice the Spiderman and Halo text in the title screen? Anyway, looks neat.
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It's not. RPGMaker has "hidden" letters. PSI Sharpen is coded as $K$sPSI Sharpen. $K makes the h with the line and $s is the up arrow. There's more about those symbols in the help file.
I knew that. I just didn't know there were japanese letters in there.
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I knew that. I just didn't know there were japanese letters in there.
They aren't Japanese. Some are very old style astrological signs I believe.
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I'm pretty sure that the "H with the line through it" is "chi". At least that's what it looks like to me.
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Isn't it the ancient symbol for Saturn?
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We need a demoman!
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Looks great sakair.
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We need a demoman!
But we alreadly have Chisouku,Tri Emerald and Alford Grant. o.o
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But we alreadly have Chisouku,Tri Emerald and Alford Grant. o.o
DO we? I haven't seen 'em around much lately. D:
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The game sounds cool. I like the characters poses and that your small on the world map. Can't say I'm a big fan of the rtp hero though. And some of the maps could need some work. They are kinda empty.
But I wish you good luck. And I will play the game when it's out.
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The RTP hero is in there because the vast majority of the main cast of this game is based on real people. Bill is a real friend of mine. He live in New York. He wanted the RTP hero to be his character's avatar in the game. I don't particularly agree with the choice, but it's his character, so what the hell.
I really should write a FAQ that clears up oddities like that.
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FAQ!
Q. CoD? Like Call of Duty?
A. No, NOT like Call of Duty! I had this name first, way back in 2000! If anything, they ripped me off!
Q. What happened to CoD1?
A. When my friend and I got into RPG programming way back in the day, we started making CoD(1) together. But two people can't really work at the same time on a game in RPGMaker that well so I started working on a sequel in the downtime. That became CoD2. There are a few versions of CoD1 hovering around - my friend Bill posted a topic here on the forums (http://www.charas-project.net/forum/index.php?topic=17812.msg9399#msg9399) about it a while ago.
Q. What's with all the Zeal stuff? Is this a Chrono Trigger fangame?
A. Not really. This is a difficult question to answer without walls of text, but the short of it is that the country in the game, the Flying Islands of Jasonia, was a government project I worked on back in 2000-2001. The project was based on the map of Zeal from Chrono Trigger, but none of Chrono Trigger's actual plot or anything. So there's a city named Kajar where Trigger's Kajar is because the government simulation stole the map, but CoD2's city of Kajar is nothing like Trigger's since CoD2 isn't based on Trigger's plot. There used to be a really nifty website that explained this better but geocities's closing deleted it. :(
After a while though, I realized the Chrono Trigger references and comparisons weren't going to go away no matter how much I tried to explain things so I started to roll with it. It's a game about parallel worlds. I'll let you consider the possibilities I could come up with...
Q. Why are some of the heroes RTP characters?
A. Because a lot of the characters in the game were participants in the government simulation explained above. Most of the cast is either directly or loosly based on a real person in real life. Because I'm a softy, I let them pick their own graphics and some of them went with RTP stuff. Bill is RTP Alex because that is who real-Bill wants CoD2-Bill to look like. Dems the breaks.
Q. Is there a demo available?
A. Right now, no. I'm working on finishing the game once and for all, but when I get to a convenient stopping point, I'll package it as a demo. And by "demo" I mean 2/3 of a full game that is like 20 hours long with lots of subquests. The full game will be made available on Feb 19th, 2010 - exactly 10 years after the FIoJ government sim project began. Man I'm getting old...
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Sai'Kar is right with the "Saturn" thing, although it is scarily close to chi.
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The game looks pretty fun to play. Though I'd have to agree with ZE about the RTP Hero, but if that's what your friend really wants, then whatever I guess.
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DO we? I haven't seen 'em around much lately. D:
Sadly I don't think Bluhman has any intention to continue Alpha Force. So we may never see them again. Aslo interesting FAQ. More game makers should write them.
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I've played the first one and it wasn't bad =). I wish you luck on this project. I may attempt to do a portrait of Saikar one day since I need some practice drawing females.
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I've played the first one and it wasn't bad =). I wish you luck on this project. I may attempt to do a portrait of Saikar one day since I need some practice drawing females.
I would love you forever. Or at the least try to return the favor somehow.
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Saikar in 15mins!
Eh something I drew up in Dino Class today while watching a movie. I've tried to go all different with the bangs but in the end Im not satisfied. I could drew her from memory after seeing your sig so many times lol. If I spent more time with her I could work on her anatomy a bit.
P.S. I haven't drawn boobs in LONG while so I made them a bit bigger.. As you can see.
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I really like your take on her. You captured her face perfectly. And I like the bangs - I've always been extremely skeptical at how realistic Sai's bangs would be realistically the way I draw them.
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Additional characters:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/AISprites.png)
AI5903
During the first CoD mission, the team used time travel to encounter an alien species that was fighting a winning war against humanity in the uncomfortably near future. One of the alien's newest weapons was the AI-series: 10,000 war robots with individual robot "brains" designed to simulate humans in order to better fight against them. Upon activation, the AI series met, collectively decided that humanity wasn't so bad after all, and launched a brutal rebellion against the aliens. After months of combat, most of the AI series was destroyed along with several major alien outposts. The remaining AI robots, too useful to be scrapped, had their free will suppressed and were reassigned to guard duties, but several of the cunning robots managed to evade this process. AI5903 was one such robot. Upon meeting the CoD team, it immediately joined up with them in order to help them alter time and win the war against the aliens that created it.
AI and Matt developed an unusual friendship based on their mutual love for electronics and technology. The two frequently work together to meet the Control of Destiny's constant need for new weapons and devices.
In combat, AI's long-range weaponry is very effective against flying or lightly armored foes. It is also equipped with a healing beam designed to repair alien tissue; it works just as well on humans.
Example Techs:
• Rapidfire - hits all enemies
• Energize - heals minor wounds
• Scan - reveals enemy HP and elemental weaknesses
• Windpipe Crush - a combination tech that delivers a harsh blow against the enemy that may leave them silenced.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/XRaySM.png)
AI's special ability is X-Ray Scanners. This ability makes any hidden items or doorways sparkle - they can be investigated as normal. It is also useful for navigating areas of low or bright light.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/TahnSprites.png)
Tahndelaya
A religious woman living in a snowy alternate world, Tahndelaya comes from a long line of holy warriors trained to fight evil and the undead. She is a worshiper of the Goddess of Spring that is said to end the ice age with her flaming arms, and believes that she alone is destined to find the Paladin's Cloak, a legendary garment worn by a great warrior of antiquity. Her self-absorbed standoffish nature about her beliefs and destiny make her difficult and unpleasant to be around, leading to strains within the group.
Rhetoric aside, Tahndelaya excels at destroying evil creations and keeping the party healthy.
Example Techs:
• Cure - heals the party
• Purify - damages all enemies with holy light
• Holy Suction - drains HP and MP from the target, damaging them and replenishing Tahn's reserves in one.
• Force of Will - a combination tech that delivers a powerful physical blow from Tahn's magic staff.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/FaithsVirtue.png)
Tahndelaya's special ability is Faith's Virtue, which keeps the regen status effect on the party indefinitely. This provides an easy way to keep the party moving though less threatening battles, though the MP cost to maintain the ability can be troublesome.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/MithiaSprites.png)
Mithia
Little is known about this mysterious rogue. She is ordered to accompany your party in an hour of need and does so out of respect of her masters. She doesn't want to talk to you. Stop bothering her.
Mithia does not take orders from you and is permanently under AI control. That said, she is frightfully competent. Her combat speed is lightning fast and dual-wields deadly daggers that can fell opponents in a single hit.
Example Techs:
• Cloak of Shadows - increases defense and speed and reduces damage from most weapon types
• Soul Killer - does damage to both HP and MP
• Homing Shatter - a powerful tech designed to cripple magic users
Mithia's special ability is to sprint. While active, this doubles your party's movement speed.
WHERE IS MY PROFILE! I DEMAND MY STUFF UP! SUPPORT FTW!!!!!!!
FINE!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/MyrinSprites.png)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/MyrinExpose.png)
Myrin
Myrin is a casual and laid-back girl, easy to laugh and slow to anger, but unleashing a fury that few wish to see twice when provoked. She is a long-time friend and adventuring companion of Sai'Kar and is far less naive and sheltered when it comes to the harshness of the world.
Myrin is hunted by an extremely powerful organization that believe her abilities and very existence are a threat to the entire universe. So far, they have yet to make a move against her due to internal strife about if she should be merely observed or actively taken out. Ever resourceful and perceptive, Myrin has caught wind of the plots against her and struggles to keep a few steps ahead.
To defend herself, Myrin is proficient with a large number of weapons such as daggers, wrist blades, and short swords, and can wield two of them at once. She excels in close quarters combat and can go toe-to-toe with powerful foes. Myrin can also use her mysterious Echo ability to surprise the unaware.
Example Techs:
• Shank - a stab with a knife that lowers defense.
• Sword Dulling - deals damage and drastically lowers enemy attack
Many more available with Echo, below.
Myrin's special ability is Echo, which gives her access to techs used by up to three other party members. Echoed members, once assigned, can leave the party without her losing access to their abilities. The techs that can be echoed are limited and predetermined, but generally are composed of some of each character's better moves. This ability allows players to build a Myrin with a unique ability list that can suit their needs.
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Nobody ever talks in my game threads. :-\
I'm aiming for a Christmas-y release of... whatever I have done by Christmas-y time. The full game is still on schedule for a Feb 19th release.
Current new system: MP Threshold
Characters will slowly recover MP up to a certain percentage, which is called their MP Threshold. The threshold is higher for mages and lower for physical characters. You can also equip gear that increases the threshold.
For example, Jason's natural MP Threshold is 25%. If his MP drops below 25%, it will slowly raise up to 25%. He can also equip a ring that increases the threshold by an additional 5%, so with that ring on he will recover up to 30% max MP without the need of items or inns.
Certain quests and extremely powerful items can give the character a permanent boost to their MP Threshold. It's possible to obtain 100% by completing enough quests.
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I like all of your characters, especially AI. Maybe its cause he's Robo from Chrono Trigger, but his background story is great too. Keep up the good work Sai! Get that damn demo out!
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The MP Threshold seems like a really useful system. I can't tell you how sick and tired I am of RPG games that arn't "magic friendly" forcing players to use expensive recovery items as the only way to heal MP.
It also encourages the player to make use of MP-skills, instead of just physical attacking enemies over and over.
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A few screenshots of one of the game's dungeons, the Tenema Plant volcanic mine.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/TenemaPlant.png)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/IfYouSaySo.png)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/MineCartCourse.png)
In order to get though, and maybe find some cool loot in the process, you have to make good use of Sai's Chronar Selomb (Time Stop) and Scott's Water Walk (which also works on lava) to bypass obstacles and get to otherwise unobtainable areas. Some of the puzzles are a little sneaky, plus there is that nifty mine cart ride to add to the fun. I had a good time designing and programming this one.
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Vocano mine dungeon?
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Yes. It's like a volcano mine dungeon, but with about 25% less spellchecking.
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Neat concept! However, there's alot of oddities concerning the mapping. Most of these oddities are depth issues. For instance, some of the floor tiles (especially on the stone bridge, and the railing on the second screen) just "ends." Maybe from lack of chipset space? The cart in the first screenshot is off. Also the Dungeon part in the first screen doesn't mesh well with the lava, it could work if you "red" the dungeon part and experiment with it.
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The cart is off because it's in motion and composed of four individual events moving in the same direction. In the freeze-frame, some of the events lag a pixel or two behind; when in motion, it's moving so fast that you can't tell anything is wrong.
You're right about some of the mapping oddities, and also right about their reason: lack of chipset space. I made that chipset from three others with a few custom sprites and didn't leave much room left over for fancy stuff like directional cracked stone or railing curves. I could PROBABLY squeeze a bit of it in if it bothers people a lot, which is will, but I have to balance little fixes against big content not added and a deadline I refuse to move back. But I might be able to whip up a few easy fixes; we'll see.
Edit: I stopped being lame, crammed a few more chips in there, and made some corners look better. So consider the advice taken.
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Yes. It's like a volcano mine dungeon, but with about 25% less spellchecking.
bahaha
This game really gets me in the mood for RPG Maker. =D
Its that amazing looking.
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Looks really good. I agree with Rowan about how some of the tiles look odd. Like where the tracks end and there is lava, it doesn't look proper.
If you don't have enough space on your chipset to add pieces like that, use charsets. That would look better imo.
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I personally absolutely love everything i have read/seen and uh... heard?
i like the additions to the gameplay.
Cant wait for this one.
What a Christmas Gift /pressure
Rowan: i also love your saikar drawing. The bangs are indeed awesome.
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A version of the game has been released to my beta testers. Once I'm satisfied any major problems have been dealt with, I will post a download link on Charas.
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:D
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I will post a download link on Charas.
We need a thumbs up smiley or something.
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(http://www.charas-project.net/forum/Themes/Charas_Blue/images/post/msgicon3.gif)
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Four fatal errors, roughly ten graphical glitches, and about 50 spelling mistakes found so far! Is that all? I think this is my most flawless version yet!
So yeah. Still pending. May be a few more days.
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My beta tester's work is complete, and he did an amazing job. The majority of his findings are minor, such as spelling mistakes, but a couple of them touch on deeper issues like "these battles are too easy" or "this move seems sort of useless" or, the worst of all, "this scene could be more fun". Hard stuff to handle since it's not just changing a couple lines of code.
The release WILL happen, and soon, but this is kind of a bad time for me since I'm flying home tomorrow and busy most of today. So, I dunno, maybe Monday or Tuesday. Hey, at least it's happening at all! That puts me head of 95%+ of the game threads around here!
In the meantime, have an animated Amy:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/AmyAnimate3x.gif)
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Yeah, having beta testers is a REALLY good idea. Self-testing usually doesn't work 100% of the time, since it's quite easy to get starry-eyed about the things you're creating. That, and they also spot spelling errors you make. (Tristrkie. Bah. Thanks, coasterkrazy.)
Oh, and I'm flying away from home right now. Ho ho. I'm in a Chicago airport.
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Gee, it sure is Christmas. And here I am showing my face without actually having a demo or anything. Disgraceful! Yeah, my beta testers found a lot of stuff and it's a chore to go through it all. Plus I keep getting distracted by things such as the following.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/TaylethDouble.png)
Tayleth Zealot and her two laser swords, "Trantor" and "Terminus." Tayleth becomes an important character far, far into the game.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/Art/Tayleth2-1.png) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/Art/Tayleth2.png)
Tayleth character art. Click on the image for a full-body shot.
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...she's staring into my soul.
She also looks a lot like saikar.
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I REFUSE TO SPECULATE ON POSSIBLE CHARACTER CONNECTIONS!!! SPOILER ALERT!
... no, really, there aren't any. And it's mostly just the pointy tiara thing, I think, or maybe my art style.
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*Patiently waiting for demo.......*
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Nice nipples.
Nah, but really, she actually has a really good design.
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Ya looks awesome Saikar, although that one nipple pokin out made laugh briefly. I love The Sprite also.
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She really should know better than to wear a skintight bodysuit.
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At least the bodysuit is less revealing than most things we see in games these days.
Anyway, I just noticed that this was up and runnin' again and I gotta say that it sounds great.
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So far so good Sai. ^_- Still loving all the little things you're doing and awaiting that demo over eagerly. ^^
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Looks and sounds very promising. I like it. You going to have a demo?
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I think she's far surpassed a Demo Stage. I think its an All or nothing at this point. But then again its Her decision.
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*cough*His*cough*
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Capitalizing "her" makes me think she did it on purpose.
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Saikar is a guy?! My world is blown
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Saikar is a guy?! My world is blown
[spoiler](http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/1/Posters/fp0209~Monty-Python-Gumby-Man-Posters.jpg)[/spoiler]
I wanna see a demo... this looks awesome.
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Wow. Sai is still being mistaken by a woman. And it's still funny too.
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Never gets old.
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(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/TheShowcase.png)
Finally. The entire cast created in battle characters with weapons ready. The game needs a ridiculous amount of work left but this is a milestone I honestly never thought I'd ever hit. Success!
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Finally. The entire cast created in battle characters with weapons ready. The game needs a ridiculous amount of work left but this is a milestone I honestly never thought I'd ever hit. Success!
Good work, Sai. I remember doing these types of characters in RoA and it was a hell of a chore.
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Yay! Woot! Party time. ♪♫♪♪♫
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(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/TheShowcase.png)
Finally. The entire cast created in battle characters with weapons ready. The game needs a ridiculous amount of work left but this is a milestone I honestly never thought I'd ever hit. Success!
O.O You have a bigger cast than Warped's! I didn't even think that was possible with my including charas members in there...Congrats on that XD
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Reeaaally lovin Warvoid and Awaldock Especially. But they are all awesome.
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Impressive line of characters. Keep it up Sai!
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Nice cast of characters. That WarVoid is my favourite.
Oh and hey, I've always wondered... is it pronounced like "Skala" or "Shala" ?
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oh man i remember when i first started making those guys! i have a few in the complete resources theres probably something you could use or reference if you want =P
i know i used your character Bill to make my character Gravin hes got completely diff armor =)
My character Bills has a lighting aura thing i saw on a large rtp like character before that come in handy for something as well =)
Def great work you got there tho Magus is so exact!
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Magus and Schala look badass.
John looks like a Jedi Pornstar. Therefore, John is badass as well.
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(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CameoFight2.png)
You either understand this or you don't. And if you don't you pretty much fail.
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I totally understand this.
Can you just remind me?
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Oh, right. L4D3.
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That is quite awesome.
Rose came out looking a li'l too much like Mandy off of Grim Adventures, though.
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Suddenly, CoD2. Making vague attempt to make good on that promise / threat to get it done by the end of this year.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/GlissenLab.png)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/Sumeria.png)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/OmegaSealBattle.png)
Working on the structure of my "cameo battles" in the game. Essentially each one is opened by an item called a Glissen, found during exploration, which is taken to this shoddy lab for the fight. Like other optional battles, these have level caps that temporarily lower your levels so that you can't just go stomp these guys. Of course, any techs you've learned from gaining more levels and any equipment you have from adventuring can still be used. Of course, if you wait, then the items gained from the fights, which are all superior to the stuff you have when you can first challenge them, won't seem so dramatic. Your call.
I'm still looking for more of these actually. I only have 3 so far: Ace's Omega Seal, Bluhman's Alpha Force, and Homestuck. I might toss in random RPGs I like (hey, didn't I do a Kratos and a Zelos sprite at some point... ?) if I don't get enough but I'd like to give homages if at all possible.
Other than that, just polishing, rebalancing, fixing bugs, working through the huge amount of new areas that need to be updated for abilities and all the poses that need to be drawn. Mostly just sayin' that I'm working on this again.
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Looking great.
I could lend you one of my characters from my many unfinished projects... But the fact that they are unfinished and that most charasians never heard of my cool ones could lead to the cameos sucking.
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It can't get that bad. I don't think half of the people here even remember what the Omega Seal was, and Alpha Force wasn't that long lived either. Also, I haven't even heard of homestruck at all.
Shady Ultima, what is RMN.
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Also, I haven't even heard of homestruck at all.
Tisk tisk
http://www.mspaintadventures.com/
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It can't get that bad. I don't think half of the people here even remember what the Omega Seal was, and Alpha Force wasn't that long lived either. Also, I haven't even heard of homestruck at all.
Oddly, I found someone searching for Alpha Force on RMN the other day.
Looking good Sai, I hope I get to play this one.
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If you want Sai, I could PM you some stuff about my pro- or antagonist from my game for a cameo battle. (I'll hopefully be posting a thread for it soon.) Just let me know, I guess.
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I remember Alpha Force, I've heard of Omega seal, and Homestruck... i looked that up once.
If you need anything, I can do an RTP battlechar of one of the characters from my current project.
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The game's got to at least have a thread for me to put in a cameo battle. Obscure games, games that never even hit demo, that's fine. But it's not really a cameo if nobody has ever heard of it at all.
If you've got at least that, PM away. I'll gladly put ya in.
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I'll get to it in the morning. Its kinda 2 AM right now..
Yeah, it has a thread. I've been working on the CBS and CMS before I got a demo out. Once those are done it should be pretty quick after. Actually, there's been a thread for more than a year... >.<
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Looking forward to this one! :D
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I'll get to it in the morning. Its kinda 2 AM right now..
Yeah, it has a thread. I've been working on the CBS and CMS before I got a demo out. Once those are done it should be pretty quick after. Actually, there's been a thread for more than a year... >.<
Was more referring to Emerates than you.
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Woooooorks for me. =P
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Didn't you have a thread for cameo battles earlier? Or maybe that was some kind of "what would you be like a boss in a famous game"-thread... Can't remember.
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I did have http://www.charas-project.net/forum/index.php?topic=26380.0 but the whole thing was strangely unpopular.
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Then I might just stirr up a boss battle in a minute.
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Must update more than Drak... yeah, that's probably not going to happen. But here's something I've been cutting my teeth over lately.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/HeartGold1.png)
Yep, you guessed it...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/HeartGold2.png)
BAM! It's on! For this cameo battle, you'll have to fight my totally untournament team favorites of Shiny Koffing, Espeon, Vaporeon, Golem, Gengar, and Ho-Oh, with their sprites lovingly stolen from Bulbapedia and their attacks and general weaknesses roughly corresponding to a competitive (but not cheesy) moveset that should feel familiar to veterans of the series.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/Lyrax3.png)
Bigger version of Lyra since that text box kinda cuts her off...
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/HeartGold3.png)
Here's the nasty trick to it though: you HAVE to fight by Pokemon rules. Both Lyra and Jason in this battle are invincible and also useless - they fully heal all damage every turn, but neither will ever act due to a permanent paralyze effect. Lyra will summon one Pokemon in a time in a set order (probably not that exact order I've got above though) and you will have to respond with one of your three teammates, so it's 6 vs 3 not in your favor. Once summoned they control like normal RPGMaker2k3 characters and can use all the normal commands including their inventory, but they can never be revived or revive another ally once they go down, so you have to make the best of your limited team.
You can't swap team members in mid-fight, but every time you defeat one of Lyra's Pokes or if one of your allies dies, you can swap to a non-KO'd member. Lyra's team will vary in tactics and weaknesses so I strongly recommend taking characters into this battle that compliment eachother by being able to do good physical damage, good magic damage, and have a number of different elemental attacks, as well as having decent defensive skills to stay alive. This might be one that takes a try or two to get right, but by the time this battle becomes available you have like a dozen party members to choose from to build a strong team. Just be sure to have someone that can take down Ho-Oh at the end; he's quite the beast.
Other than this, just cruisin' through updating stuff. I might post a character profile or two next time to show off some more of the game's many heroes.
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this is looking slick dude
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If both Lyra and Jason aren't supposed to act, then instead of putting them in the party with paralysis, you could just paste their battle sprites on the battle backdrop and use that image instead. So they'll appear on the screen but won't act anyway. Other wise it'll look strange in battle when you can see Jason's HP when he's technically not part of the fight.
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If both Lyra and Jason aren't supposed to act, then instead of putting them in the party with paralysis, you could just paste their battle sprites on the battle backdrop and use that image instead. So they'll appear on the screen but won't act anyway. Other wise it'll look strange in battle when you can see Jason's HP when he's technically not part of the fight.
Yeah, but if one side or the other has all members KO'd at any given time, the battle ends immediately. I could work around Lyra being there by revealing monsters before KOing the one you've been beating on using an event that triggers when it's at like 20% health or something, but without Jason in the party you'd lose the fight immediately in a game over if your Pokemon-esque solo teammate gets killed.
Slight awkwardness of the trainers being there aside, it's functional. All of the Pokemon attacks hit the entire party so they never target Jason by accident. The player can target Lyra if the reaaaallly want to, but she's fully invincible and heals every turn anyway, so there's not much point.
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Pretty neat. I remember having an idea of making a trainer + poke battle system once.
I think I made all poké attacks of a certain element that the trainer was immune to and made it hit all targets. The trainer could attack the enemy poke but the poke was immune to trainer damage.
So yeah, trainer vs trainer and poke vs poke. Couldn't damage the other type.
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Aw... I wish I actually had a game. I have plenty of characters, yet, no games or anything with any of them. The most known are Cerebus and Sarah C. and even they haven't appeared anywehre except for Avatar or Mascot proposal... :'(
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(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/MyrinSwim.png)
Underwater exploration combat is playing a larger role in the game, prompting some new combat styles. While underwater you cannot access the menu, change equipment, or use items. You will also be inflicted with "drowning" status unless you have some way to breath, which Myrin here clearly doesn't! Be careful.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/Splashdown1.png)
Some of the character sets for walking / swimming. Man, I wish I had a pair of flame swim shorts like that guy has.
Aw... I wish I actually had a game. I have plenty of characters, yet, no games or anything with any of them. The most known are Cerebus and Sarah C. and even they haven't appeared anywehre except for Avatar or Mascot proposal... :'(
I don't care, send a PM if you've got character sets.
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(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CoD2/SaiMyrinSwimmers.png)
Sai swimming may be my favorite bchar ever.
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I'd like to see those battlechars in action. I remember trying this once, I got awfully lazy after a while and simply turned the sprites 90 degress and turned the head in the right direction,
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(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/PoseBackup/MyrinSwim.png)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/PoseBackup/SaiKarSwim.png)
Here's the two sets if you want to plug them in. They're simplified since I'm not reeeeally sure how much time I'm going to spend on this water stuff, so things like defending and take damage and such just use the idle pose, and all bad/good status is just up and down arrow. Eh, works. I'm not amazing happy with Myrin's dagger attack, but the rest of it looks great when animated.
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I don't care, send a PM if you've got character sets.
Oh, yeah, that's another thing... but I'll try to stop being lazy and work on something. Not now, though. My computer keeps popping the Blue Screen once in a while, which is why I am rarely on it these days. Don't want a scenario such as "Holy sheet, can't believe I've made something this awesome, so proud of my own work! I'll save it befo- *Blue Screen*"