Xeno Fighters R (2019 GM Studio Port)

Skyknight · Post by **Skyknight** » Sat Apr 18, 2009 2:57 am

The 3-A stage is already planned to be quite a bit shorter than the 3-B stage.

As to an early end if only A stages are gained, I suggest at st. 6 or 7. You succeeded at stopping BRES's attempt to alter history, yes...but not much more. They're still out there, ready to strike, potentially very soon...

Mix of A and B: St. 8. BRES isn't in particularly good shape—they lost both the time alteration scheme AND the Echidna—but they're not completely out of it, not yet...

All B: St. 9. BRES is in TERRIBLE shape. Even if they manage to rally from the loss of their main base, it'll take them a LONG time to get back to their previous level. And by the time they do that, it still won't be sufficient...

EddyMRA · Post by **EddyMRA** » Sat Apr 18, 2009 10:32 am

nZero wrote: b) there's some kind of indicator that objectives were passed/failed and that branching stages exist, instead of people who aren't good at the game or continue saying "that was it?"

What would be a good way to indicate objectives failed or passed? Have a popup during the game with something like "OBJECTIVE COMPLETE!" or have it done at the end of the stage? I'm open to ideas.

But it also means more work on designing more stages, that will not be played in high-scoring runs. This is more like icing on the cake to me. I would focus on the main path, then if it turns out there's still interest in making the game deeper this would be a great idea.

You are 100% correct. The branching level idea is more of a late-development idea at this point, and I will focus on the main path levels for the moment. I did discuss with Skyknight, however, one branching path that's now set in stone:

Here's the idea I have for the condition juncture for st. 3. I remember that when Silver Banshee begins summoning missiles, it actually only sends out two waves before the beacon self-destructs. Hence, my idea: access to 3-B is gained if you can destroy the beacon before the second "wail" sounds.

Stage 3-A (2003 Afghanistan): Failing to complete the objective against the Stage 2 boss will send you to this level.

Stage 3-B (1974 Vietnam): This level as it is made in the remake is long and quite difficult, and will serve as an alternate "expert" level for the player.

EddyMRA · Post by **EddyMRA** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 11:11 am

EDIT: Uploaded new video showing a better playthrough.

*Zapdos' Slaves are now Articuno and Moltres.
*Nullified enemy bullets now explode.
*Jade Hydra, endboss for Stage 3-B, added with all-new attacks.

Also changed the Stage 3-B BGM to the Hangar theme from Timesplitters 2.

BPzeBanshee · Post by **BPzeBanshee** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 8:08 am

Yar, TimeSplitters 2 tracks are great.

I can't help but recommend Spacestation for one of the darker space levels or something.

Twiddle · Post by **Twiddle** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 9:18 am

Is a rank system going to be in for Normal, since Expert seems like it'll be at max all the time?

EddyMRA · Post by **EddyMRA** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 1:16 pm

Twiddle wrote:Is a rank system going to be in for Normal, since Expert seems like it'll be at max all the time?

Eventually, there will be a rank system put in. I'll keep it as simple as the speed of the enemy bullets and the tightness of spread patterns.

Also, I uploaded a much better playthrough video. It shows a balanced-out, but still difficult, Jade Hydra.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVhV505IXoI

It's my first HD video, so I highly recommend watching this video in HD for the best viewing experience.

Skyknight · Post by **Skyknight** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 5:58 am

...Are Jade Hydra's secondary guns going to get to do anything? The whole reason I called that thing a Hydra was because of all the guns, analagous to the Lernaean Hydra's heads.

Although, with the escort tanks, I doubt one needs even more bullets. Hmmm...destroyable missiles?

A/B juncture idea: Jade Hydra's already laying siege to a base (no idea yet whether American, South Vietnamese, or Vietcong). Either take out the main turret, or obliterate Jade Hydra completely, before it destroys too much of the base (yes, even if it's Vietcong; history would warp regardless)! Think in terms of the jungle stage in RF1, where the boss would try to wipe out the village before it engaged you. Only this time, it's attacking you and the base simultaneously...

And here's an idea on how it does it: It will turret sweep with a frequency such that each time, one of the last two salvos will hit a building. If more than two buildings are destroyed, the A juncture triggers. Bombs DO count for saving buildings from the sweeps.

Twiddle · Post by **Twiddle** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 7:13 am

the rapidfire small tanks on jade hydra will be a bit much clutter if you implement the patterns involving the secondary turrets. replace them with slower-firing fast shot sniper tanks ala raiden series maybe?

also, dead zone for ground targets sil vous plait

lilmanjs · Post by **lilmanjs** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 7:19 pm

when will we get another demo?

Post by **Shatterhand** » Sat Apr 25, 2009 5:08 am

Hi Alluro.

Just to welcome you at Game Maker (even though it seems you are working with it for some time)

I've worked for some time as a full-time professional coder, and I still prefer using Game Maker to code games mainly becuase it makes the whole process a lot faster and simple.

I really think Game Maker is an amazing tool which is a lot underused.

BPzeBanshee · Post by **BPzeBanshee** » Sat Apr 25, 2009 10:33 am

Just watched the latest latest vid you made, Alluro, and I couldn't help but notice that the Jade Hydra sprites really stick out from the rest of the background.
As a solution, I'm going to try and find some good pics of that Wild Weasel thing from Raiden Fighters to use instead (which you could adjust the hue to be green) or maybe snapshot it myself.

Anyhow, what do you agree at all with this? I may or may not just be nitpicking again, but this time Im determined to offer a solution that minimises your work effort. : /

EddyMRA · Post by **EddyMRA** » Sat Apr 25, 2009 10:41 am

lilmanjs: I will have a four-level demo by the end of May for my game-design class final project. By then, I'll release a public demo and announce it here.

Twiddle: I agree. I will replace the rapid-fire support tanks with single-shot slower rate, but faster bullet speed, tanks. They will be much-needed when I code the other guns on Jade Hydra to fire. And *shot* I keep forgetting to add in the dead zones for the player against ground-based enemies to stop the enemies from firing when the player's close to them.

Shatterhand: Thanks! I do also notice many people who have passing knowledge of Game Maker tend to think it's a cheap tool used for making only simple games. Those people usually know its Drag and Drop functionality, and that's it. Game Maker Language (GML) is what makes stellar games possible.

BPzeBanshee wrote:Anyhow, what do you agree at all with this? I may or may not just be nitpicking again, but this time Im determined to offer a solution that minimises your work effort. : /

If I change Jade Hydra's sprites, then I will have to redo its entire attack patterns. That would actually add to my workload.

Herr Schatten · Post by **Herr Schatten** » Sat Apr 25, 2009 1:36 pm

Alluro wrote:If I change Jade Hydra's sprites, then I will have to redo its entire attack patterns. That would actually add to my workload.

A possible solution would be to just retouch the existing sprites to make them look less out of place, while at the same time leaving its "functionality" untouched. So far, I can see three reasons why it looks odd:

1. The colour hue. Maybe this could be adressed by either putting the dark filter you applied to the background graphics of the level on top of Jade Hydra, too, or just changing the colour palette to something sufficiently dark and blue-ish.
2. The perspective. Your whole game's done in a Raiden-esque strict top-down perspective, so the slightly tilted Cave-ish perspective of the tank looks odd. This could only be adressed by re-drawing the sprites, I'm afraid.
3. The main gun. It's hard to make out from the video, but it looks like the main gun uses anti-aliasing, which makes it look blurred. Again, redrawing the frames would be the only solution I could think of.

I think complaints like BPzeBanshee's above will never stop popping up, unless you get a bunch of skilled pixel artists to re-do everything in a matching style. After sorting out the gameplay (which should always come first), I think you really should consider getting some talented artists on board, as your game is shaping up fantastically, and it would benefit tremendously from using only custom graphics instead of ripped ones.

EddyMRA · Post by **EddyMRA** » Sat Apr 25, 2009 3:22 pm

The Jade Hydra visual anomaly is an oversight by me. I forgot to put it behind the darkness filter I applied to the rest of the level.

Herr Schatten wrote: I think complaints like BPzeBanshee's above will never stop popping up, unless you get a bunch of skilled pixel artists to re-do everything in a matching style. After sorting out the gameplay (which should always come first), I think you really should consider getting some talented artists on board, as your game is shaping up fantastically, and it would benefit tremendously from using only custom graphics instead of ripped ones.

The borrowed graphics are all placeholders for now. I'd love to eventually have all-custom-drawn graphics in the game, and it certainly will have all-custom graphics in its final iteration.

emphatic · Post by **emphatic** » Sat Apr 25, 2009 3:59 pm

Also, that huge tank would leave a trail of some kind, would that be a huge task to put in? I don't know anything about game programming, but I'd say that there's some quality work in this game for sure. Kudos.

Emph

EddyMRA · Post by **EddyMRA** » Sat May 02, 2009 8:07 am

Small updates:

*Finally put in a player ship deadzone, in which ground enemies will not fire upon the player if he/she is too close to a ground enemy. This is to avoid cheap deaths by being point-blanked by tanks and such. The dead zone is currently a 64-pixel radius around the ship's hitbox.
*Added in selectable starting lives stock as a crude means of difficulty selection.

I will begin adding Slave formations soon. If there are any original Slave formations you'd like to see, feel free to post them here. Also, if the Shadow formation were to be put in, should the Slaves fire double shots like in RF1 and RF2, or Lasers as in RFJet?

Autofire will be added as well.

As mentioned earlier, the next demo will come out at the end of May, when I submit it as a final project for my game design class in college, so keep a look out for it. It will consist of four levels (possibly five) and much improved game mechanics over the first public demo, thanks to everyone's feedback here.

Post by **undamned** » Sat May 02, 2009 8:30 am

Dude, Alluro, it's been forever since I've peeped in here and now I see what you've been up to!

Looks amazing and very challenging (of course I'd expect some challenge from the guy who can destroy Strikers 1999

)! Great work!
-ud

BPzeBanshee · Post by **BPzeBanshee** » Sun May 03, 2009 3:29 am

should the Slaves fire double shots like in RF1 and RF2, or Lasers as in RFJet?

I wish I could say Lasers (cause they look cool), but I think the Double-Shots would be more easier to manage as the Lasers may be a bit too overpowering even if they're made to be extra-weak as it punches up through the screen. :/

Twiddle · Post by **Twiddle** » Sun May 03, 2009 8:06 am

The Shadow formation is a Gradius reference so I'd go with lasers.

Please get rid of Tracking unless you intend to make invincible non-bullet-eating modes for slaves.

Gespenst · Post by **Gespenst** » Sun May 03, 2009 11:02 am

May I suggest some extra ships? Here's the list:
ADFX-02 Morgan from Ace Combat Zero

CFA-44 Nosferatu from Ace Combat 6

XFA-27 from Ace Combat X and Ace Combat 2

there's lots of stuffes to be an example of sprite
http://sky.geocities.jp/ngbsc419/iconkai.htm

and X-Ray (or whatever it is) from Rayforce, Kamui,or YF-19 and YF-21 as cameo ships

EDIT : Awesome shump! Keep out the good work.

EddyMRA · Post by **EddyMRA** » Sun May 03, 2009 3:13 pm

Twiddle wrote:Please get rid of Tracking unless you intend to make invincible non-bullet-eating modes for slaves.

Hehe, you read my mind. I've always hated the Tracking formation in the RF games because Slaves always die so quickly. I was thinking of replacing Tracking with a new formation that takes advantage of their bullet-eating attribute. It'd be a rotating formation I'd call "Orbiting", in which the slaves rotate around the ship. This formation would have the Slaves shooting regular single shots.

So, that's two votes for lasers for the Shadow formation.

@Gespenst: Those would be cool fighters to put in. Those sprites would have to be scaled down to about 40x48 pixels, which is the size of all the fighters in this game.

Gespenst · Post by **Gespenst** » Mon May 04, 2009 12:43 am

Alluro wrote: @Gespenst: Those would be cool fighters to put in. Those sprites would have to be scaled down to about 40x48 pixels, which is the size of all the fighters in this game.

Hehe. Thanks

.
Oh yeah. Here's the apparent armaments for XFA-27, ADFX-01, and CFA-44
ADFX-01: missile : normal missile
laser : TLS (1x powerful laser, similar to Eraser's in RF2 and RFJ)
bomb : MPBM (real morgan's MPBM)
CFA-44: missile : ADMM (RF's Beast Wing style missile storm)
laser : rail gun (high speed, high power piercing shell)
bomb : Super Tomahawk (similar to F/A18 in Strikers1999)
XFA-27: missile : quad missile (4 normal missiles)
laser : baryon laser? or whatever
bomb : Huge Laser (Aero Fighter's Ninja Beam - styled laser)
EDIT : Did the Souvalou based from Xevious 3D/G or the original ones?
And the Galaga. I prefer the Destination Earth (Hasbro) version

BPzeBanshee · Post by **BPzeBanshee** » Thu May 21, 2009 6:45 am

Alluro wrote: It'd be a rotating formation I'd call "Orbiting", in which the slaves rotate around the ship. This formation would have the Slaves shooting regular single shots.

Best idea for the slaves yet! I think this might help open people's eyes up about the whole "tribute to Raiden Fighters" thing as RF (if I recall correctly) doesn't have Orbiting.

Alluro wrote:Those sprites would have to be scaled down to about 40x48 pixels, which is the size of all the fighters in this game.

Oh, bummer. No chance for my little 64x64 pal here then.

EddyMRA · Post by **EddyMRA** » Thu May 28, 2009 10:30 pm

Time to narrow my task list. Before I do a new release, I will complete the following:

*Starting stock ships: Amada Vipros, Phyxius, Zaiva, Xelcor
*Slave Formations
*Autofire

The Amada Vipros is 100% complete. It uses the updated sprites by Herr Schatten, which replaces the old blurry 3D renders. Here are some screenshots:

Amada Vipros ship portrait and stats. The next picture shows its Slaves.

Description: The Amada Vipros is a completely well-balanced ship. It has no pros or cons. It behaves pretty much like a clone of the Aegis fighters in the Raiden Fighters games.

Name origin: Amada Vipros was named by Isotoxin, who created the ship's 3D model for the original XF-EX. The name originates from the Amada Vipros line of metalworking machines known as turret punches.

Weapon Array:

MISSILE: Impact Missile
Fires dumb-fire missiles that travel straight ahead. The explosions deal secondary overlap damage.

LASER: Serpent Seeker
Fires green homing energy rays. The trails also deal a small amount of overlap damage. This weapon is not too powerful against larger enemies.

BOMBER: Quantum Bomb
A run-of-the-mill Bomb with fair damaging power. It has a significant deploy time, so it is not effective as a panic bomb.

Video comparing the original version Amada Vipros with the remake's Amada Vipros: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4GDUdrSJlU

Gespenst · Post by **Gespenst** » Fri May 29, 2009 8:00 am

Wow. Much cooler than the original version

Anyway, what's the purple ship below Zapdos?

emphatic · Post by **emphatic** » Fri May 29, 2009 8:28 am

VERY nice!

null1024 · Post by **null1024** » Fri May 29, 2009 7:52 pm

Is that purple ship a Gengar?

Skyknight · Post by **Skyknight** » Sat May 30, 2009 1:15 am

Yes, and apparently it's going to be this edition's version of the Ultima-X. (Let me think...Laser-Dark Pulse, Missile-Shadow Ball, Bomb-Night Shade?)

For the record, this is what Alluro has planned for the stage progression...

St. 1: 1942 Midway Islands
St. 2: 2035 North American Midwest

From 3-7, there are A and B stages. You get a B stage by defeating the previous boss while fulfilling a condition.

St. 3-A: 1995 Chechnya
St. 3-B: 1974 Vietnam

St. 4-A: 2035 Portugal (BRES set off a new Great Lisbon Earthquake)
St. 4-B: 2035 Iceland (this is where you try to KEEP that from happening)

St. 5-A: 2003 Afghanistan
St. 5-B: 1991 Persian Gulf

St. 6-A: 1915 France
St. 6-B: ???? ???? Thermosphere

St. 7-A: 2035 Asteroid Belt (game ends here if you only got A stages)
St. 7-B: 2035 Moon

St. 8: 2035 Earth/Fomoire Warp, Dreadnought Echidna (game ends here if you had a mix of A and B stages)

St. 9: 2035 Fomoire (the other-solar-system dwarf planet where BRES's main base is situated. If you get all B stages, you get to attack this place)

Waiting with bated breath for Zaiva--my favorite ship from the first game...

EddyMRA · Post by **EddyMRA** » Sat May 30, 2009 5:43 am

One thing I am aiming for with the remake is customization.

In the original, you can customize the music, but you were limited to the filenames that the game used. This meant you had to rename your custom mp3s. You also could not give every endboss its own music theme, as some boss themes are reused (for example, the Stage 2 and Stage 7 boss used the same theme).

Not anymore.

In the remake, the music will be freely customizable. Instead of hard-coding what music will play for certain events, this information is now stored in an external INI file, which is easily edited in any text editor. Here's an example of the contents of the INI file:

Code: Select all

[Stage1]
Path   = music/Stage_1.mp3
Title  = Boss Theme (Sky Soldiers)
Artist = 1988 Alpha Denshi

[Stage1Boss]
Path   = music/Boss5.mp3
Title  = Metal Storm (Raiden IV)
Artist = Akira "Go" Satoh

[Stage3B]
Path   = music/Stage_3B.mp3
Title  = Hangar (TimeSplitters 2)
Artist = Graeme Norgate

[Stage3BBoss]
Path   = music/Boss2.mp3
Title  = Shudder (Einhander)
Artist = Kenichiro Fukui

No longer are you constrained to the hard-coded filenames like in the original. Now, you can keep the filenames of your custom mp3s and simply edit the INI files and update the paths to the music in the stage of your choice. If you choose, you can even give every boss its own music theme!

With the Title and Artist keys, those are used to display the BGM information briefly whenever they start playing, similar to Raizing SHMUPs. All music will have this feature:

Level BGMs...

Boss BGMs...

and even Stage clear and auxiliary BGMs.

I will make the titles translucent so that they will not obscure bullets, or use a smaller font. Keep in mind that this is a demonstration of a new feature that will introduce a level of customization not found in the original XFEX.

Post by **nZero** » Sat May 30, 2009 6:15 am

Ace

Can't wait to play around with it