Xeno Fighters R (2019 GM Studio Port)

[Avalon]

Thanks Alluro, for the EXP table...

Kind of an interesting day for me really -- first, for some stupid reason Windows 7 won't let me touch any files in the Windows folder (something wrecked my permissions settings, maybe a virus but I dunno). So instead of editing the text file out-of-game, I was able to use CheatEngine to force the new number (which makes me wonder why the new value could be saved by the program whilst I can't change it manually. wtf?)

Then I decided to play Einhander again, and after playing through it at 50% speed with a lot of save states (more of those used against the sattelite than against Hyperion) was able to unlock the Selene -- Hmm, I didn't know the Selene was actually the same design as the Astrea...

Maybe instead of adding Selene as an alternate to Astrea in your game, you could add the E.O.S. design instead...?

[BPzeBanshee]

for those recording with the new version of fraps it works for all of 3 minutes then slowdown happens again

orz

That's why PlayClaw's better. Last time I tried PlayClaw it wouldnt record sound on my machine though, you might have more luck.

[Baby Bonnie Hood]

I'd like to ask something regarding the old XFEX's ship select, stage clear, and game over musics. Where are they originally from (if they're from elsewhere), and how do I rip them from XFEX?

[Twiddle]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xm9EJCMJ ... ture=feedu

for those who haven't seen it already, stage 9 got a big upgrade in murder potential

also shows off new extend system

[EddyMRA]

I'd like to ask something regarding the old XFEX's ship select, stage clear, and game over musics. Where are they originally from (if they're from elsewhere), and how do I rip them from XFEX?

Ship Select = Action Point from Multimedia Fusion 1.2's sounds library
Stage Clear = a music clip from some sounds CD I had a long time ago
Game Over = from MMF 1.2's sounds library

The music are all external mp3's included with XFEX.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xm9EJCMJ_Ms
for those who haven't seen it already, stage 9 got a big upgrade in murder potential

And yep, thanks to the focus group providing positive feedback, Stage 9 is now very brutal, as a true final STAGE should be in maximum rank.

[emphatic]

Would it be possible to implement a sound menu in XFR so the sound effects/music levels can be tuned by the user? I personally have a hard time hearing the music because the SFX are really loud.

[EddyMRA]

Would it be possible to implement a sound menu in XFR so the sound effects/music levels can be tuned by the user? I personally have a hard time hearing the music because the SFX are really loud.

Already done in v0.10, but there's no in-game menu yet to set them. You have to edit the sound and music volumes directly in the INI.

[emphatic]

Would it be possible to implement a sound menu in XFR so the sound effects/music levels can be tuned by the user? I personally have a hard time hearing the music because the SFX are really loud.

Already done, but there's no in-game menu yet to set them. You have to edit the sound and music volumes directly in the INI.

Awesome, thanks! This is actually better, as you can fine tune the settings to fit the music if you release music packs. When v0.10 comes out I'm gonna start work on a new pack.

[EddyMRA]

Expect a release of v0.10 on or around January 30th, 2011! We are heavily in the private beta testing phase.

In other news, the Gemini Blue and Gemini Red have been given new names (Castor and Pollux respectively). Castor and Pollux are two brothers from Greek and Roman mythology who are associated with the Gemini constellation. It only makes sense that the Gemini Wing ships be given those names instead of the generic names from the V.A.F. Squadron days.

[Drum]

They need to summon a giant lactating wolf that shoots milk everywhere for their bomb attacks.

I ran a search on this Q but came up empty, so apologies if it's already come up: Any chance of online leaderboards? Would be nice to be able to feel inadequate on a higher level.
Also: This is probably stepping outside my bounds here as it's a non-trivial adjustment, but I've been getting back into Gradius Gaiden this weekend and thought it would be really nice to see the round laser on the Jade Knight in Xeno Fighters. Is that something you'd already considered and decided against or is it still a possibility for that craft? Round laser is such a Fun Weapon (TM) and would make the JK play significantly different from other ships in the game, but with that comes balancing and such, sooo ...

[burgerkingdiamond]

It is so awesome to see an indie shmup that pays tribute to so many great games (Gemini Wing in particular!). I am curious, how long has this been in the works, and do you plan on releasing this for sale? I would definitely pay $25-$30 for this game with a nice package and such.

[Skyknight]

Drum: Wrong twins. You're thinking of Romulus and Remus, whose legend is quite a bit younger than that of Kastor and Pollux (the brothers of Helen and Klytemnestra).

Burgerkingdiamond: Considering the wards in place stipulating that the game is NOT for commercial sale (in addition to all the copyright toes that would be stepped on, at least if sold in this format; between Seibu Kaihatsu, Capcom, SNK, Game Freak, Tecmo, Psikyo, Raizing, Toaplan, and Konami...), it's not exactly in the offering.

[burgerkingdiamond]

Drum: Wrong twins. You're thinking of Romulus and Remus, whose legend is quite a bit younger than that of Kastor and Pollux (the brothers of Helen and Klytemnestra).

Burgerkingdiamond: Considering the wards in place stipulating that the game is NOT for commercial sale (in addition to all the copyright toes that would be stepped on, at least if sold in this format; between Seibu Kaihatsu, Capcom, SNK, Game Freak, Tecmo, Psikyo, Raizing, Toaplan, and Konami...), it's not exactly in the offering.

Ah, well duh. I guess that was a stupid considering all the "borrowing" being done. But regardless I would have bought it. Too bad.

[Drum]

Drum: Wrong twins. You're thinking of Romulus and Remus, whose legend is quite a bit younger than that of Kastor and Pollux (the brothers of Helen and Klytemnestra).

I did three years of Classics and I don't remember a goddamn thing. Other than wolf tits, I guess. smh.

Suggest new bomb attack: Zeus raping a swan. Much better.

Something else: I know co-op has come up before, and a full-fledged 2 player mode is beyond the scope of the project. Have you thought about an asymmetrical co-op mode? I figured it could be sorta cute for a second player to control one or both drones. Wouldn't require rebalancing or rejiggering the engine to accomodate more bullets or anything, but I guess there's also a limited appeal.

[Drum]

Happy 1,000 btw!

[Skyknight]

Since it (somehow) hasn't been mentioned here yet, let the record show that the Vic Viper has been overhauled.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvQP3BMSFzw

[BPzeBanshee]

Since it (somehow) hasn't been mentioned here yet, let the record show that the Vic Viper has been overhauled.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvQP3BMSFzw

I briefly managed to watch that myself a few days ago before storms rolled in. Vic Viper's definitely a more viable choice for strategic scoring now if it wasn't one before (and it makes the angle shot look useful where its not in Gradius III too ).

[lilmanjs]

Since it (somehow) hasn't been mentioned here yet, let the record show that the Vic Viper has been overhauled.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvQP3BMSFzw

Vic Viper is usuable now? hells yea. also great runthrough.

[EddyMRA]

I have made a separate discussion forum for this project: http://xenofighters.virtuaboard.com/

Excuse the mess while I get everything in there straightened out.

[EddyMRA]

v0.10 Beta Download:
http://www.mediafire.com/?aegxpmetf4bcmaw (76.42MB ZIP file)
Extract ALL contents of the ZIP file to a folder of your choice, and run the XenoFightersRv0_10Beta.exe file to play.

Be sure to read the README file supplied with the game before posting feedback.

Changelog for v0.10 Beta:

Code: Select all

Xeno Fighters R - v0.10 Changelog
=================================
January 30, 2011

NEW COMPLETED STAGES:
=====================
Stage 3-A (1995 Chechnya)

NEW PLAYABLE STAGES:
====================
Stage 5-A (2003 Afghanistan)
Stage 5-B (1991 Persian Gulf)
Stage 6-B (Dimensional Abyss)
Stage 9 (BRES Colony)


Current Arcade Mode stage path:
1> 2> 3-A or 3-B>------4-A> 5-A or 5-B>------6-B> 9> WTF (Black Heart)
              |         |           |         |
              |         |           |         |
              |         |           |         |
              '--EX-1>--'           '--EX-3>--'

NEW SHIPS:
==========
Castor (Gemini Blue)
Pollux (Gemini Red)
Hoplon (Clone of Gyaraga)
Falchion β

REMOVED SHIPS:
==============
Strikers P-38

MAJOR CHANGES:
=============
*Difficulty settings implemented. There are six (Novice, Easy, Normal, Hard, Expert, Arcade).
*Extends (extra lives) implemented, awarded based on number of medals collected in a play session.
*Continue functionality implemented. Continuing does not record the score you have gotten before.
*Tap-dodging (moving in small increments by tapping on the joystick/arrow keys/gamepad) implemented.
Ships move very slowly for a split second before moving at their normal movement speeds. It is now
possible to dodge tight enemy bullet patterns safely with fast ships such as the Judge Spear
and the Phyxius.
*New title screen by emphatic and Herr Schatten.
*End-of-stage text briefings implemented, allowing the story to be incorporated into the game.
*Rebalanced sound effect volume levels, most were far too loud.
*User-configurable volume levels for sound effects and music now implemented (in XFCONFIG.INI).
*For music modders: the ability to define music loop points and individual track volumes is implemented (read the comments in XFMUSIC.INI for more details)
*Format for all external game music changed to OGG Vorbis.
*New Jade Knight sprites by Herr Schatten have been implemented.
*Fighters with their own shot impact sounds (Miria, P-38, Gemini Wing ships) given those sounds from the original games.
*Enemies hit by player weapons now flash a brighter white.

BALANCE CHANGES:
================
*Zaiva: Main shot firepower increased for lower levels
*Zapdos: Main shot firepower increased, all levels
*Xelcor: Main shot firepower increased, all levels; Sonic Disruptor firepower increased, all levels
*Raiden mk-IIβ: Nuclear Missile firepower increased, all levels
*Raiden mk-IIβ: It can now point-blank small ground enemies it overlaps properly.
*Lord British: Ripple Lasers decreased in firepower.
*Amada Vipros: Missile weapon now fires more rapidly.
*The deploy time for the Dimension Mine bomber (for both Judge Spear and Blue Javelin) has been slightly increased.
*Judge Spear and Blue Javelin:
**Vulcan Cannon firepower increased slightly, all levels.
**The damage the Dimension Mine bomber inflicts slightly increased. 
*Raiden mk-II: Damage inflicted by the Thermonuclear Bomb slightly increased. Plasma Lock-On Beam algorithm improved slightly...it now locks on multiple enemies more efficiently.
*Gyaraga: Space Blaster firepower increased, all levels; Bug Missile firepower increased

Stage 2 (2035 American Midwest)
*Stage 2's brownish round ships' bullet pattern adjusted to prevent uncharacteristic bullet hell patterns. Also, overly long waves of these ships have been broken up into several smaller waves with delays in between for that same purpose.
*Boss Silver Banshee's radar now has a lifebar, making it infinitely easier to gauge the amount of damage a player deals to it so that it can be timed for destruction during its timeout for an Objective Clear.

Stage 3 (1974 Vietnam)
*Jade Hydra has been rebalanced significantly, especially its second attack phase. The second phase has been changed as follows:
**Short grace period before beginning any attack after being knocked into the second phase.
**No more support tanks appear during the second phase.
**Each attack layer starts up one after the other.

Stage EX-1 (Gemini Canyon)
*Boss Green Walrus: Each of his three forms has lower health. However, his first and second forms last just 10 seconds before he goes into a swan dive.

BUGS AND ISSUES RESOLVED:
=========================
*FIXED: The bonus system is rewritten to fix a glitch regarding simultaneous bonuses gotten at the same time, as shown in the early screenshots. For example, before, when you get two Quick Shots and a At A Time simultaneously for a quick 3-chain, the bonuses would be 50000, 50000, and 100000x2. Now, it's been corrected, giving you 50000, 50000x2, and 100000x3 like it's supposed to. It is still the same bonus system with the x10 cap.
*FIXED: Bonus multipliers now advance properly (5-chain 20000x5 instead of 5-chain 20000x4 for example)
*FIXED: Game no longer hangs for a few seconds when resetting the game while music is playing.
*FIXED: Timeout sequence for Stage 1 boss Techno Ayako, 3-B midboss Teramanta, and 4-A boss Obsidian Peryton have been fixed to no longer crash or hang the game.
*FIXED: Small tanks now cast their shadows properly no matter what direction they're facing. The earlier tanks had their shadows already on the sprite itself, so when the sprite is rotated, the shadow is rotated as well, causing odd visual anomalies.
*FIXED: Can no longer pause the game immediately after the player dies.
*FIXED: Getting a 1st place high score in a conquest mode play now reflects on the in-game HUD when selecting Retry from the Conquest Mode menu.

PRIVATE BETA ISSUES SOLVED:
===========================
*Rank system redone. Deaths now take off 50% of current rank and reset the survival multiplier to 1x. Continuing sets rank to the lower bound defined by the chosen difficulty level.
*Fixed all remaining game crashing problems. They were related to not freeing the FMOD system when the game restarts.
*It is possible to get a DEFENDED THE BUILDING! bonus by being on the very edge opposite of a building being fired upon, which causes that building to be offscreen and immune to Jasper Gigas' turret shots.
*Homing weapons no longer chase enemies that are offscreen.
*Medals in wobble-mode stages gravitate towards center-top of screen now.
*EX Medals no longer reset medal values when dropped.
*In the Continue screen, you can move the selection below "No"
*After completing Stage 6-B in Arcade mode, you're supposed to go to Stage 9, not Stage EX-1. 
*When you select E-75 ship the charge meter appears on the Conquest Mode Stage Select screen, and stays there if you go back and will fire shots if you press the fire button.
*Raiden mk-II laser head sometimes remains onscreen after it dies.
*Very rare case of DIVISION BY ZERO when rank is at zero.
*Rank "overflow" display when the max rank cap is reached (i.e. 50003/50000)
*When selecting "Retry" in Stage 5-C in Conquest Mode, it returns to the title screen.
*Stage briefings did not update properly.
*Novice mode renamed to "Training" mode.
*Startup delay for sniper tanks adjusted with respect to rank.
*Jade Hydra's warning does not disappear and the Objective results text does not display when all 3-B Micluses are found and the EX Medal is collected. Fixed so that the warning does not appear when the EX-stage branching conditions are met.
*Gemini Blue and Gemini Red ship names changed to Castor and Pollux, respectively. Castor and Pollux are twin brothers from Greek and Roman mythology who are associated with the Gemini constellation.

*PREVIEW BETA ADDITION: Continuing in EX Stages and final stages (5-C, 9, WTF currently) will restart the entire stage. Oh, and your medals are reset to 10pts too.

*ADDED: Memory cleaning DLL (placed in same folder as XFR program)
*Stage 5-B (1991 Persian Gulf): Redesigned pre-boss Fortress area to have most of the structures closer to the center, while keeping sniper enemies at the sides.
*Stage 9 (BRES Colony): Extensively redesigned layout, some large enemies given new attacks, several new enemies
*Raiden mk-IIβ: Nuclear missiles reduced in power slightly
*Blue Javelin: Burst missiles reduced in power slightly
*Miyamoto: Daininjutsu-tsubute (Missile weapon) increased in fire rate and damage output.
*Techno Ayako: second form increased in HP.
*Jade Hydra revisited: increased HP slightly

PRIVATE BETA REVISION 2 ISSUES SOLVED:
======================================
*Gradius ships majorly rebalanced so that their firepower is not exponentially increased on each powerup.
**Vic Viper: Retooled into a single weapon use ship
***Missile weapon = Hawk Wind Double: shoots a second bullet diagonally in the direction the Vic Viper is moving. Gives Vic Viper a much needed boost in defensive coverage, but the firepower gains are minimal with each new Option gathered.
***Laser weapon = Laser Array: uses Jade Knight's Laser weapon array, from two types of Twin Lasers to two types of Cyclone Lasers. Gives a lot of forward firepower at the expense of defensive coverage.
***Spread Bombs are now always available after collecting at least one powerup.
***Options are added for each powerup collected.
***Vic Viper's Bomber remains the Mega Beam Cannon.
***Vic Viper still uses standard Raiden Fighters Slaves.

*Xelcor: Main shot overhauled...it now has burst fire capabilities, shooting a burst of bullets regularly instead of one bullet at a time like before. Xelcor is much more competent in taking out swarms of popcorn enemies now.

*All early stages: Enemy base bullet velocity increased so that in lowest ranks, the bullet speeds are not too slow.
*Bosses Techno-Ayako and Teramanta have been given significantly increased HP.
*Added bullet-clearing routine when boss Black Heart is destroyed.

KNOWN ISSUES:
=============
*DESTROYED AT A TIME bonuses for Stage 2 boss Silver Banshee's parts does not work properly.
*When continuing as a Gradius ship with selectable Shield formation, it defaults to the standard front-fixed formation.
*Autofire using the Shift key will break when the music changes. Workaround: use the 'Z' key to fire.
*Gemini Wing Gunball tail algorithm sometimes produces new tail segments that are disjointed temporarily when collecting an item that increases its length.
*Medals sometimes are created off center on ground enemies.
*Raiden lock on laser is still imperfect when compared to the actual Raiden II lock-on laser.
*Some computers may show tearing on the scrolling background tiles.

[Drum]

Awesome! Downloading now.

[emphatic]

Great!

[Skyknight]

And with a new release, I'll set the links to my music mod (plural because I left out the Objective Failed music by mistake in the initial upload).

http://www.mediafire.com/?w0mcyzkda3tpget
http://www.mediafire.com/?aumfsfn81h6ia34

I also included the songs I used for stages and bosses that haven't been implemented in XFR yet (well, not st. 7, because I used a TF5 song for that, I already have that game represented with Jade Hydra's theme, and I'm trying to have only one song from a given game utilized, not counting stage clears). Pre-emptivity, at least unless and until the XFR version proves to want a different sort of theme.

[emphatic]

I think I just found a bug. If you hit ENTER right after killing a stage boss (before the mission brief comes up), invoking the PAUSE menu, the game won't show the mission brief at all but end up in an endless loop of sorts. I tried playing both arcade and expert and it happened in both modes.

Not a bug then?

[Twiddle]

from the #coffeetable channel:

Code: Select all

[1100.45] <victolap> actually couldn't have been the bonus enemy thing either, I was playing on Normal diff
[1125.45] <tiwddol> free market
[1136.47] <victolap> ok I saw how it happened that time, kind of
[1137.05] <victolap> one was there, and then I moved over to fight the big silver plane in the center, and then when I wobbled back over both of them were there
[1137.40] <victolap> and yeah they do mostly overlap
[1138.03] <tiwddol> spirals probably need a bit pushback
[1138.12] <victolap> on the plus side the screen was a right death factory even on normal
[1138.40] <victolap> reason I saw it was because it was right after the section with the first sideramming medal carriers
[1138.49] <victolap> which meant I was back and center on the screen
[1138.58] <victolap> instead of pb-ing everything like I would otherwise
[1140.53] <victolap> http://www.voidaudio.net/images/deathfactory.png
[1140.59] <victolap> (hit printscreen instead of f9 whoops)
[1141.09] <tiwddol> error 500
[1141.18] <tiwddol> thhere we go
[1141.46] <tiwddol> yeah, shouldn't be happening
[1141.49] <victolap> this would be less of a problem if they weren't both the same palette heh
[1141.50] <tiwddol> which appeared first
[1141.56] <victolap> spiral I think
[1142.15] <victolap> lemme go check one more time
[1142.22] <victolap> now that I know exactly where it happens
[1147.11] <victolap> yeah
[1147.18] <victolap> spiral, then silver plane, then red striker
[1147.29] <tiwddol> red striker should be delayed a bit
[1148.09] <victolap> or not coming in on the edge of the screen like the spiraler is
[1148.26] <victolap> |   |
[1148.27] <victolap>   |
[1148.29] <victolap>  | |
[1148.31] <victolap> might work better
[1148.40] <victolap> er, strike that, reverse it
[1148.55] <tiwddol>  | |
[1148.56] <tiwddol>   |
[1148.58] <tiwddol> |   |
[1149.14] <victolap> ya

[EddyMRA]

from the #coffeetable channel:

(snipped IRC quote)

Would have been nice if you told me this before the release.

[Twiddle]

from the #coffeetable channel:

(snipped IRC quote)

Would have been nice if you told me this before the release.

I didn't catch or notice it during testing because I didn't test with ships with lower coverage than what I usually use (such as Blue Javelin), sorry.

There might be spawning speed differences in difficulties below Hard as well.

[emphatic]

Question: Why does the difficulty have to be chosen twice? Or does this only happen when you start an Arcade mode game?

Start Game->Arcade Mode->Select Ship->Select difficulty (same as Game mode, right?).

[EddyMRA]

Question: Why does the difficulty have to be chosen twice? Or does this only happen when you start an Arcade mode game?

Start Game->Arcade Mode->Select Ship->Select difficulty (same as Game mode, right?).

Arcade mode = play through each stage at a time, taking into account branching conditions.
Arcade difficulty = rank starts at minimum, goes all the way to maximum.

Not the same thing if that is what you are thinking.

[emphatic]

Arcade mode = play through each stage at a time, taking into account branching conditions.
Arcade difficulty = rank starts at minimum, goes all the way to maximum.

Not the same thing if that is what you are thinking.

Thanks for the explanation. I just thought it was odd and (in my case) confusing.

Feature request: If possible, the ability to select between different xfmusic.ini files from within the Game config. And if this is implemented, add in a line in the default one for "Soundtrack Name" that will show up in the Game menu, such as "Default", "Skyknight mod" or "Original soundtrack".

Also, is it possible to add a "keep aspect ratio" to the full screen mode? Playing this on a 16:10 monitor with TATE windows stretches the game and it would be much prettier.



Thanks again for a very classy release.