Xeno Fighters R (2019 GM Studio Port)

[Udderdude]

It looks so ugly covering up part of the ship. Place it in a stationary position IMO.

[emphatic]

It would be cool if the boss lifebar was vertical and dropping from the top down as the life decreases. Perhaps on the far left side?

[monkeyman]

I agree that the RTS style life bar you put in looks out of place and it's a shame it covers up part of the boss. I would say make it stationary and make it so it's behind the game sprites.

[EddyMRA]

Before I make the change, I propose to make the lifebar stationary near the top of the screen, like a typical Cave boss lifebar. What's everyone's take on this? Thanks for the feedback.

[Udderdude]

Before I make the change, I propose to make the lifebar stationary near the top of the screen, like a typical Cave boss lifebar. What's everyone's take on this? Thanks for the feedback.

Can't go wrong with that.

[Twiddle]

Can you make "phase destruction" notches so people can time chain events?

[BPzeBanshee]

Before I make the change, I propose to make the lifebar stationary near the top of the screen, like a typical Cave boss lifebar. What's everyone's take on this? Thanks for the feedback.

Coming from a Total Annihilation (Win95 era RTS) player that sees those style of healthbars in action a lot, I certainly agree with all of the above statements. Not terribly familiar with Cave games but I understand the concept.

[EddyMRA]

Can you make "phase destruction" notches so people can time chain events?

For bosses like those in the EX stages, each phase has its own standalone healthbar. They'd be stacked on each other. Example is the Walrus in EX-1. He'd have 3 bars appearing.

On another note, I'm considering another game name change. "Xeno Fighers EX-R" is a mouthful to say. I am thinking about dropping the "EX" part and simply calling it "Xeno Fighters R". It's no longer a remake of Xeno Fighters EX, but more of a revival.

[Twiddle]

R could also stand for Revision as well, so that would be nice.

[EddyMRA]

Revision 2 of the boss lifebars, thanks to feedback of multiple people on the forums:

The single bar mode has a phase destruction marker to denote when the boss will go into its second form.


For more complex boss phases, lifebars are stacked onto each other, displaying as many bars as phases.

As before, the boss lifebar display can be turned off in the options menu.

[monkeyman]

I still think it would be better if the life bars were layered behind the game sprites. It's just personal taste I guess but i'd rather the boss obscured the lifebar slightly than the lifebar obscured the boss sprite.
Otherwise you could try making them partially transparent.

Other than that, all the info is there and it's definately an improvement on the RTS style ones.

[emphatic]

Very cool. Is it possible to have transparency, so that the backgrounds "shine through" the black bg of the bar? Or maybe it just looks intrusive in the screens, and not at all within the actual game?

[EddyMRA]

How's this?

[emphatic]

Two thumbs up from me.

[monkeyman]

How's this?

Works for me!

[nZero]

Yeah, the transparency helps a lot, both for visibility of overlapping objects and being less distractingly bright.
Is it going to change color abruptly from green->yellow->red as the health goes down or is it more of a gradient?
I'm not sure if I like the stacked lifebars for multiphase bosses or not... too used to separate healthbars per phase, guess I'll have to try it.

On another note, I'm considering another game name change. "Xeno Fighers EX-R" is a mouthful to say. I am thinking about dropping the "EX" part and simply calling it "Xeno Fighters R". It's no longer a remake of Xeno Fighters EX, but more of a revival.

[NARFNra]

Why not "Xeno Fighters XR?" It's what I always call it. I suppose Xeno Fighters R works.

[BPzeBanshee]

Indeed it does - a problem I have with telling people about this new version compared to the old one is that the existing name is too easily confused with the original. A simple R at the end will make things a lot easier for simpler-minded people, I suspect.

[EddyMRA]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Na19Gq5L02w

A special unlocked fighter after doing an all clear of all B-stages, including the true final stage 9!

The American WWII fighter plane, the P-38 Lightning joins Xeno Fighters R! It is a composite of the P-38 in both Capcom's 1943: The Battle of Midway and Psikyo's Strikers 1945. The P-38 is a single-weapon mode fighter. It can use either the Laser or Missile weapon at one time.

Weapon Array
MISSILE: Auto-Shell - (1943 weapon) Fires powerful shells forward. Lacks defensive coverage, but that's covered by...
LASER: 3-Way Gun - (1943 weapon) Machine gun fires in three directions.
BOMBER: 1-ton Bomb - (Strikers 1945 special) The P-38 performs a loop-de-loop, dropping a powerful incendiary bomb.
SLAVES: 1943 Wingmen in standard Raiden Fighters Slave behavior.

It is a very strategic fighter to use. Neither its Missile nor its Laser have an advantage towards or disadvantage compared to the other. The Auto-Shell provides high-damage potential for the expense of defensive coverage. The 3-Way Gun provides the defensive coverage, but lacks in attack power unless you point-blank with it. Each subweapon has its own situational use, as demonstrated in the video.

=================

Other new updates:
*Game name has been changed to "Xeno Fighters R". It is no longer a remake of Xeno Fighters EX, but more of a revival.
*Vastly improved ambient sounds for Stage 3-B.
*Boss lifebars.

[emphatic]

I'm really liking the new graphics for stage loading and the Game Over screen.

[Twiddle]

pro plane

[BPzeBanshee]

That is really awesome man. I like the introduction stuff too.
Speaking of which, what do you use for the voice creation?

[Aru-san]

That is really awesome man. I like the introduction stuff too.
Speaking of which, what do you use for the voice creation?

From what I hear in the menus and such, I'm assuming he uses this site to get his voices. The Japanese voice sounds like it originated from this site.

[BPzeBanshee]

Okay, thanks for the help. Was considering using the voice for a little project of my own.

Also, I saw the car where nZero's "Type R" came from today! Any chance of a Mitsubishi boss in the future? [kidding]

[Skyknight]

Aren't the Reisen in st. 1 Mitsubishi presence enough?

[nZero]

Also, I saw the car where nZero's "Type R" came from today! Any chance of a Mitsubishi boss in the future? [kidding]

There's a ship idea, how about the car from Video System's Turbo Force? [also kidding]

Xeno Fighters R was kind of tough to find something good for



Using Xeno Fighters EX made it a bit easier



Something tells me the Mitsubishi fightercraft never had badges quite like these

[BPzeBanshee]

Video System's Turbo Force

TURBO FORCE! That was it!
I remember that game - I've played it on its actual arcade machine, quite the interesting game though I swear their blue laser ripped off of Raiden.

[Drum]

This is super amazing. It plays awesomely and smoothly - you basically out-Raiden-Fightersed Raiden Fighters. You are doing very slick things with Game Maker here.

[EddyMRA]

Finally, Conquest Mode is 100% done, complete with separate scoreboards for each and every stage:


Notes:
*Conquest Mode allows you to select any stage and play through it only. It is essentially a score-attack mode. When you complete a stage in Conquest mode, a '9' appears in your final score's ones digit.
*In the upcoming v0.6 RC1 Beta release, all stages will be available to play in Conquest Mode. Unplayable stages will have a big UNAVAILABLE text banner flashing on the stage portraits.
*In the final version, only Stage 1 will be available in Conquest Mode. All others will be locked. To unlock them, you must reach these stages in Arcade Mode.
*Conquest Mode can serve as a sort of practice mode for the individual stages, especially helpful for learning the EX stages.

[EddyMRA]

At long last, Xeno Fighters R v0.6 Beta RC1 has been released. Mirroring these downloads will be much appreciated.

Game EXE, DLLs, and external resources - music NOT INCLUDED (23.33 MB): http://www.sendspace.com/file/f5p0oa
MP3 music pack - place into 'music' folder (38.52 MB): http://www.sendspace.com/file/fzay3j

So many major new features and fixes have been done that four minor version numbers were skipped. Here is a brief rundown of what's new:
*New playable ships: Phyxius, Xelcor, Vic Viper, Solvalou, Gyaraga, Raiden mk-IIβ, Blue Javelin, Lord British, Jade Knight, Michael (Parodius), Hikaru (Parodius), Twinbee, and P-38 (Capcom and Psikyo hybrid).
*Alternate Ship system (press the Bomb button in the ship select screen to toggle ship alts)
*New 100% complete stages: Stage 2 (2035 American Midwest), Stage 4-A (2035 Portugal), Stage EX-1 (Gemini Canyon), Stage EX-3 (Parobee Fusion)
*Conquest Mode is complete.
*The Raiden Fighters Fairy bonus has been implemented.
*DESTROYED AT A TIME bonus is implemented.
*Slave Formations (three Raiden Fighters, one original) implemented.
*Menu system with Options menu.
*Customizable bullet colors.
*All-new high score table to replace the default Game Maker highscore table.
*Stage branching system in place, with placeholders in-game.
*Audible boss timeout warnings.
*Optional Dodonpachi Boss Warning animation sequence.
*Pause menu (Hit the Enter key to pause the game)

Some improvements thanks to Game Maker 8:
*Improved graphics in Stage 3-B. Huts and trees now cast shadows.
*Game now loads much faster compared to when Xeno Fighters was made in Game Maker 7.
*Improved explosion sprites.

Other notes:
*Arcade Mode no longer has the Stage Select screen. That has been retooled into the Conquest Mode screen.
*Incomplete, but playable, stages: Stage 3-A (1995 Chechnya), Stage 5-C (Ravaged Earth), Stage 6-B (Dimensional Abyss), Stage EX-6 (San Diego Hell)
*Raiden mk-II laser is still unreliable. Use this ship at your own risk.
*Various balance fixes on several ships.
*This game is not fully tested on Windows 7. Users of this OS may experience trouble running the game, or intermittent crashing.

Please report any serious bugs, along with how to reproduce them.