Xeno Fighters R (2019 GM Studio Port)

[EddyMRA]

or even make the engines fire at you (Yes that's probably not a realistic idea, but I'd do it, haha)

Propellor engines with return fire on death? It's wild enough to work.

[nZero]

Please no suicide/revenge bullets
The game has plenty of potential to be sadistic enough without

[Skyknight]

Or small point-defense cannons mounted ON the engines...

[EddyMRA]

Or small point-defense cannons mounted ON the engines...

This works better. I should start keeping in mind that Raiden Fighters enemies need to be beefed up in XF, because their attacks take into account the variable hitboxes on the different ships.

[BPzeBanshee]

For those that like strange/political humor, I came across this picture I drew sometime last year as a response to "Gengar in a SHMUP being on the verge of ridiculousness".
See here.
In case you can't read my handwriting, the exact ship list consists of Amada Vipros, Phyxius, Raiden MK-II, Judge Spear, Pacman, Ms. Pacman, Miyamoto, Zaiva, Xelcor, Vic Viper, Lord British, United States of America, North Korea, Gengar, Spectre Challenger, Windows 7, Dalek, Stickman, Linux, Apple, Zapdos, Eonis Crystal, Wiimote, Nintendo GameCube Controller, Boot, Solvalou and Gyaraga.
Of course this is intended for a laugh, to point out that this might be what XFEX-R would look like if it got really ridiculous with non-shmup characters, and I apologise if you don't see the humor.

Also, Spectre Challenger and Eonis Crystal are ships of my own design. I haven't released my game projects for these because currently they suck really bad and make "euroshmups" look good.

[NARFNra]

I would totally fly in a Wii Remote. ADD IT NOW(just a joke)

[EddyMRA]

I would totally fly in a Wii Remote. ADD IT NOW(just a joke)

Wii Remote's Bomber should totally be the dreaded Nunchuck Swing. I've heard of incidents where over-exerting players swing the damn thing so wildly the Nunchuck flies right out of their hand, turning it into a high-velocity projectile before centrifugal force takes over and turns it into a sweeping bludgeoning object. Kills any boss instantly.

[Twiddle]

replace all slave carriers with televisions

[Udderdude]

I would totally fly in a Wii Remote. ADD IT NOW

I dunno, I kind of want to play as the Linux penguin. Eat open source!

[NARFNra]

the Linux penguin

His name is TUX.

I actually heard some people broke their televisions with their nunchuks...

Anyway, to relevant conversation, I think that making the engines fire may make it rather... difficult to destroy the planes in time.

[BPzeBanshee]

Wii Remote's Bomber should totally be the dreaded Nunchuck Swing. I've heard of incidents where over-exerting players swing the damn thing so wildly the Nunchuck flies right out of their hand, turning it into a high-velocity projectile before centrifugal force takes over and turns it into a sweeping bludgeoning object. Kills any boss instantly.

If you look at the Wii Sensor through a webcam or mobile phone camera, you can see it flashing invisible rays of searing light at you.
How about that for laser and ejecting AA batteries for missiles since they drain batteries so quickly?

EDIT:
Here's an idea of what my Thunder Force Music Mod is gonna sound like. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Currently I have music for every stage but Stage EX-3.

[EddyMRA]

Small update on a couple of ships:
*Raiden mk-II: Toothpaste laser algorithm slightly improved. Figuring this one out is infuriating.
*Zapdos: Significantly beefed up...Thunderbolt (Laser) damage increased...AncientPower (Missile) damage increased and can rapid fire overlapping a ground enemy. Zapdos now has an effective point-blank attack. (Thanks Twiddle)

[nZero]

New character art for Zapdos too, perhaps? :P

Are the other ships (like say the mk-IIß) able to attack enemies they're overlapping yet, or are they still front-fire only?

@BPzeBanshee

Are you going to use Alluro's sequence of Venus Fire from Thunderforce III? As I recall it made an appearance in the original XF in a level as of yet unrecreated in the remake…

[BPzeBanshee]

Oh wow, someone's actually interested in my mod.

Sorry nZero, but I've actually been strictly keeping any incarnation of Venus Fire off the Thunder Force Music Mod for the time being (though eventually I'll will put it in when XFEX-R reaches final release).

When I do though, it won't be Alluro's one specifically since Alluro is also getting the Vintage Xeno Fighters music mod together (will be complete when XFEX-R is if I understood correctly) and will most probably have it in that for Stage 4-B as it was in original XF, plus I'm not sure where it would fit in. I've also held back with Metal Squad (Stage 8 of TF IV) because I'm saving that for a level I think will fit it better.

By the way, what stage do you think it would fit in anyway? Do you have any other suggestions? I'm very interested in your opinion on this matter.

[Skyknight]

Come to think of it, regarding the lack of threat from Stymphalian Birds with only wings on-screen...what happened to the wingtip cannons in RF2?

{currently deciding what would be a better Zed Blade music inclusion: "Asteroid Circus" for 4-A, or "Bionic Life" for 4-B...never mind that the latter involves a good deal of guesswork...}

[EddyMRA]

what happened to the wingtip cannons in RF2?

Arghbhahsnxnc...

That solves the problem! What a brainfart that was forgetting those wingtip turrets. And here I was considering return fire from destroying the engines.

[Udderdude]

what happened to the wingtip cannons in RF2?

Arghbhahsnxnc...

That solves the problem! What a brainfart that was forgetting those wingtip turrets. And here I was considering return fire from destroying the engines.

Uh .. I did suggest putting guns on the wings, too >_>

[EddyMRA]

Uh .. I did suggest putting guns on the wings, too >_>

I know, but I interpreted it to mean putting turrets on the meat of the wing itself, not the wingtips.

[EddyMRA]

A few screens of the slightly improved Raiden laser algorithm.


It's still not game-perfect, but the lock-on capability has been improved somewhat. The numbered boxes are nodes that attach to enemies, serving as a path for the laser to follow. They were made visible for debugging purposes.

A preview of a large enemy rampaging through a ruined village in Stage 3-A (1995 Chechnya):


It's one of those giant landships from the Desert stage of Raiden Fighters 2, serving as a miniboss (not yet named).

[Skyknight]

Hmmm...Probably not high-speed or using the ground against you, but...Pyrite Barghest? (q.v. pyrite being a compound of iron and sulfur, in addition to being gold-brown itself)

[BPzeBanshee]

Wow, the beam's looking better Alluro. I'm keen to seeing how well it works when v0.4 finally gets released.

In other news, I still haven't gotten anything done for the Thunder Force Music Mod in terms of Stage EX-3. Basically the way I've been going about adding stuff to this mod is finding awesome remixes of stuff, and then amplifying and converting to OGGs and putting them into fitting levels based on how well the timing of the music fits with the stage.
Unfortunately I've had some problems finding actual composer details for a select few of the remixes and have mainly been trying to find details for those.

@Skyknight et al:
Speaking of names, how about Gravel Badger?

[NARFNra]

Hmm.. names.
Blast Silter? Dust Skirt? I suck at names...

[Gespenst]

A preview of a large enemy rampaging through a ruined village in Stage 3-A (1995 Chechnya):


It's one of those giant landships from the Desert stage of Raiden Fighters 2, serving as a miniboss (not yet named).

Uh, Tantalus? Ground Zero?

[NARFNra]

Well, the best I can come up with is Dust Devil, or possibly Mantalabra.

[rtw]

Well, the best I can come up with is Dust Devil, or possibly Mantalabra.

Or in German ErdeTeufel

[Herr Schatten]

Well, the best I can come up with is Dust Devil, or possibly Mantalabra.

Or in German ErdeTeufel

Actually, the more accurate translation would be Staubteufel.

"Erde" can mean 'soil', 'ground', 'land', or 'earth' in German, while "Staub" can only mean 'Dust'.
If you still want to use the word 'Erde' in the name, it would be 'Erdteufel', because in the composite form, you'd lose the 'e' at the end of 'Erde'.

[EddyMRA]

Actually, the more accurate translation would be Staubteufel.

Staubteufel is great. While end bosses generally follow a mineral-Celtic/Greek mythological beast naming convention, minibosses can use any name, like Teramanta.

[NARFNra]

Cool, my idea was included(although somewhat.. translated)!

Will Staubteufel move along, generally ignoring the background(like Teramanta), or will the screen stop?

[BPzeBanshee]

Considering it's a landship thing I'd imagine it could move along and crush buildings like what the Wild Weasel does, though that's only my imagination.

[EddyMRA]

Preliminary boss lifebars implemented. It is used for minibosses as well. Right now, it is just a simple RTS-style lifebar that follows the boss around.


It changes colors based on how much HP the boss has left. This feature can be turned on or off in the Options menu.