Xeno Fighters R (2019 GM Studio Port)

[Udderdude]

Galaga ship is still comically easy for survival play. Although I guess you don't really care about survival play at this point.

I made it through almost every stage on my first try on Expert with that ship, and only died a handful of times.

[BPzeBanshee]

Galaga ship is still comically easy for survival play. Although I guess you don't really care about survival play at this point.

I made it through almost every stage on my first try on Expert with that ship, and only died a handful of times.

Cool story bro. Now try and use it for pure scoring.

There's actually a few ships that are really useless for certain tiers of playing, and some balanced towards certain methodologies of playing exclusively, but with the amount of ships available to use and the competency of the existing ships generally increased further still there's no real loss there. But yeah, regarding the Stage 9 bit I didn't notice such an issue either. And I did complete Arcade playthoughs on Arcade difficulty on a legacy machine running the level at 30% speed so you'd think I would've spotted something so out of place.

I think what we should really be conserned about at the moment though is a thorough test of ships for scoring to see if there's any gaping issues to iron out stuff (not saying I dont trust Alluro in balancing but a more thorough discussion in what exact factors might be overpowered/underpowered for purpose/method x can go a long way towards assisting that) and then when the final release is on the radar as rolling in all of the remaining issues regardless of severity or 'nitpick' status should be reported and addressed (I'm talking literally the v1.00 final, there are still more important things to iron out like new levels and game functions as of now).

@emphatic:
That actually looks pretty neat to me even on a 16:10 monitor. I believe Game Maker has such a function for fixed aspect ratio scaling in fullscreen mode but I'm not so certain that its functions are adequate for behaving like it is now for normal screens and behaving fixed for TATE Windows.
For testing purposes would you be willing to test GMOSSE for me on your machine? If we can get on an IRC network (I really dont know how to get to the Shmups one) I can pass test builds with changes with that side of things if we're online at the same time.

[emphatic]

@emphatic:
That actually looks pretty neat to me even on a 16:10 monitor. I believe Game Maker has such a function for fixed aspect ratio scaling in fullscreen mode but I'm not so certain that its functions are adequate for behaving like it is now for normal screens and behaving fixed for TATE Windows.
For testing purposes would you be willing to test GMOSSE for me on your machine? If we can get on an IRC network (I really dont know how to get to the Shmups one) I can pass test builds with changes with that side of things if we're online at the same time.

Best thing would be if the "maximize" of the full screen could be defined in the .ini file. Like "maximize width" or "maximize height" while keeping the 4:3 AR. This way the default would be "maximize height" (for YOKO screens) and advanced users can go with "maximize width" for running Windows in TATE. I don't use IRC, but if you can upload files to MediaFire or Megaupload I'll gladly test 'em.

Sorry, Alluro if this is too off topic.

[Ixmucane2]

The error log is a very good thing:

ERROR in
action number 2
of End Step Event
for object obj_bullet12:

In script enemybulletspeedadjust:
Error in code at line 73:

enemytype_bulletspeed_adjust = percentagerange(minimumbulletspeed, 1, global.rank / global.rankmax)
^
at position 93: Division by 0.

It happened the first time I played, at the beginning (first enemy bullet?) of level 1 arcade.

Another little imperfection: if I press Alt-F4, the window maximizes itself before closing.

[BPzeBanshee]

The error log is a very good thing:

ERROR in
action number 2
of End Step Event
for object obj_bullet12:

In script enemybulletspeedadjust:
Error in code at line 73:

enemytype_bulletspeed_adjust = percentagerange(minimumbulletspeed, 1, global.rank / global.rankmax)
^
at position 93: Division by 0.

It happened the first time I played, at the beginning (first enemy bullet?) of level 1 arcade.

Another little imperfection: if I press Alt-F4, the window maximizes itself before closing.

The window maximises itself because F4 is the fullscreen toggle key.

As for the division by 0 error, I saw Alluro had apparently fixed this during the Private Betas, and I can't replicate it now. What difficulty were you playing at, and with what ship?

EDIT: Replicated the error successfully, it occurs on any game mode, any ship.
When you pick a difficulty, pressing ENTER on any difficulty mode will make the rank 0/0 and upon the first medium-sized plane showing up in Stage 1 it will pop up with this error IF it is your first run of the game.
If you've already started one game as eg Expert mode, then exited, gone to ship select and done that again it will retain whatever mode you had selected to begin with.

EDIT2: Black Heart's death cancels bullets, Twinbee's not hax0r AND AUTOFIRE WITH SHIFT KEY IS FIXED YAY

[burgerkingdiamond]

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.

oh nice, I didn't realize this game had TATE

[emphatic]

oh nice, I didn't realize this game had TATE

Not built in. But if you can TATE your windows, it will work very well.

[burgerkingdiamond]

oh nice, I didn't realize this game had TATE

Not built in. But if you can TATE your windows, it will work very well.

AHA

[lilmanjs]

just now getting the new beta and I think I'm gonna like it. Can't wait to get back to work on my music pack. I've changed some songs already, but thought it would be better to wait till the new beta is out to release an updated pack.

[Skyknight]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB6oyXpEsbk

And EX-2 is near to completion. (And we really should find this Crybringer and convince him/her to remix the Forest Corridor theme as well.) I'm not sure what the missing 5% is, though...

[BPzeBanshee]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB6oyXpEsbk

And EX-2 is near to completion. (And we really should find this Crybringer and convince him/her to remix the Forest Corridor theme as well.) I'm not sure what the missing 5% is, though...

I saw that when Alluro put it on his YouTube page some days ago. I'll be willing to bet that the missing 5% is probably enemies similar to Stage 9's medal carriers that will give out truckloads of medals, since I thought the EX stages were meant to have lots of medals and this stage is lacking of that.

Also, you mention EX-5 is already decided on that YouTube page Skyknight, but as much as I originally saw the Route 9001 blank stage (which I used for a Rickroll-ish intro to my TF Mod preview, and by the way had a single miclus in it) I thought that idea got ditched.

Really, this speculation really does need a clear message to sort the facts from fiction though.

By the way, anyone tried out some of the newer ships balance-wise? I find Twinbee is a lot more balanced out now (it's still competent for scoring), can't say the same for the A6M Zero although I swear its alternate uses the same weaponry but has more punch (still underpowered but with tight practice and a bit of luck one CAN get a fairy with it in Stage 1).

[lilmanjs]

new update for my music pack. new artists include Cornelius, Rotodrone, ManMadeMan, Vospi and others.
http://www.mediafire.com/?4g5d6zuzbte7ssk

[EddyMRA]

(And we really should find this Crybringer and convince him/her to remix the Forest Corridor theme as well.) I'm not sure what the missing 5% is, though...

I have some good news. I was able to get a response from Crybringer, and he is interested in helping out. I've emailed him regarding your request for remixing the Forest Corridor theme. The missing 5% has been taken care of. Here is the video of the complete EX-2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoOOyHjrqRg

Since the WIP video posted a week earlier, one new enemy has been made: an extremely annoying "striker" mushroom that bounces around the screen and fires streams of aimed shots. It will not go away until it is killed, by then producing three medals. Blue Optomon also has been made more difficult in his final attack phase, and all of his forms have increased health. He is an optional boss anyway, so he will be a difficult boss that will be a long and grueling fight.

The next version will be v0.11. So far, I've done the following fixes:

Code: Select all

-FIXED: Pressing ENTER Key at difficulty select will set rank to 0/0 if player has not played any game during before then. This results in a division by zero error on enemy shooting actions.
-Optimized shadow code to reduce performance hit when a lot of objects that cast shadows are active.
-EX Medals now fall slower than regular medals. This is to allow players to collect regular medals, while making it easier to drop the EX medal if the players choose not to enter an EX 
stage.

These issues are marked as known as of this post, and will be addressed in v0.11:

Code: Select all

-Bosses overhauled due to issues regarding difficulty selection, bullet speed, and rate of fire: Silver Banshee, Jasper Gigas
-Fix Xelcor's near useless rapid fire rate on its main shot

A new feature that should be implemented in v0.11 is key binding customizations.

[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?

[EddyMRA]

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?

Yes that is a bug. There are times I miss bug reports...I cannot keep track of everything all the time. Fixed.

[Drum]

Alluro, you are a champ - don't let the bugs grind you down! Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna spam ideas for feature creep all over the official forum.

[BPzeBanshee]

Alluro, you are a champ - don't let the bugs grind you down! Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna spam ideas for feature creep all over the official forum.

+1. Maybe not the creep bit though. Creeper's gonna creep.

[emphatic]

Alluro, you are a champ - don't let the bugs grind you down! Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna spam ideas for feature creep all over the official forum.

+1

+1. Thanks a lot for the only Raidenesque game I actually enjoy playing.

[Drum]

Oops, crash bug: Using Castor, on Normal, completed the Stymphalian Bird stage (destroyed all the Stymphs). Is this a Known Bug?

[S20-TBL]

Did a GM error window pop up? If so, that's a GM error, and you can try pasting the contents here. But if it's a regular Windows error message, it's most likely one of the GMFMOD sound DLLs acting up (which is a known issue), and not a coding error.

[Drum]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's a Windows error. To be honest, I'm only 90% certain of that - I was so excited about getting my first crash bug that I closed the error message as fast as I could and posted here about it. derp

[EddyMRA]

Yes, next time post what the error IS along with the details.

S20-TBL: the fmod dll problems have been taken care of already in v0.10. Have you gotten any FMOD DLL-related crashes in v0.10?

[S20-TBL]

Alluro: I haven't tested the current open beta very much yet (quite busy ATM, only managed to play it once), but I do remember one or two such crashes during the closed beta sessions involving the dmloader.dll file. If the FMOD DLL issues have been fixed in the current version, there's a possibility it might be a quirky internal error on my machine--and by extension, probably Drum's machine as well.

[Drum]

Yes, next time post what the error IS along with the details.

S20-TBL: the fmod dll problems have been taken care of already in v0.10. Have you gotten any FMOD DLL-related crashes in v0.10?

It was definitely a Windows error. Grey windows box, 'Send Error Report' button - it's all coming back now.

[EddyMRA]

Runtime errors are the standard Windows errors I get very rarely. Don't even ask me how those happen. They just occur at random times. Commercial software almost invariably crash at seemingly random times. If so, then this is something we will have to put up with.

It was definitely a Windows error. Grey windows box, 'Send Error Report' button - it's all coming back now.

And how is that supposed to help me? No offense, Drum, but you need to learn how to make better bug reports. That is the most ridiculously vague "problem report" I've ever seen. This tells me nothing. You essentially got trigger happy and impulsively posted a crash report on the first instance you got it. The sensible thing you could have done is to run the game again under the same conditions and see if the crash happens again. Honestly, it is frustrating when I get vague bug reports and it is expected for me to psychically know exactly what the problem is.

[Drum]

Runtime errors are the standard Windows errors I get very rarely. Don't even ask me how those happen. They just occur at random times. Commercial software almost invariably crash at seemingly random times. If so, then this is something we will have to put up with.

It was definitely a Windows error. Grey windows box, 'Send Error Report' button - it's all coming back now.

And how is that supposed to help me? No offense, Drum, but you need to learn how to make better bug reports. That is the most ridiculously vague "problem report" I've ever seen. This tells me nothing. You essentially got trigger happy and impulsively posted a crash report on the first instance you got it. The sensible thing you could have done is to run the game again under the same conditions and see if the crash happens again. Honestly, it is frustrating when I get vague bug reports and it is expected for me to psychically know exactly what the problem is.

Don't be like that, I beat myself up about it enough (I thought) - that report was just as much a confession of how dumb I am as anything else. I'll try harder from now on, and just because you're so handsome I'll try and recreate the error for you. SHEESH.

[nZero]

I just got a similarly unspecific error that crashed the game. I was playing Arcade mode with the Raiden mk-IIβ on Expert difficulty, stage path 1→2→3-B→EX1→4-A. I completed the objective on 4-A and after completing the level, the 5-B music started playing during the loading screen between stages, skipped and restarted, and then the game crashed with the Windows' generic error box "encountered an error and needs to shut down", no debug info just the option to send an error report or not. It's the first time I've seen this happen on the public 0.10 beta release.

Would have been a 200M+ run too No miss and just under 140M up to that point.

[EddyMRA]

I just got a similarly unspecific error that crashed the game. I was playing Arcade mode with the Raiden mk-IIβ on Expert difficulty, stage path 1→2→3-B→EX1→4-A. I completed the objective on 4-A and after completing the level, the 5-B music started playing during the loading screen between stages, skipped and restarted, and then the game crashed with the Windows' generic error box "encountered an error and needs to shut down", no debug info just the option to send an error report or not. It's the first time I've seen this happen on the public 0.10 beta release.

Would have been a 200M+ run too No miss and just under 140M up to that point.

That's what used to happen to me much more often in the previous versions. For me, the crashes just as the music starts when reaching a certain stage in Arcade more happens after the game restarts to the TEAM XF--MADE IN GAME MAKER screen, and I play another Arcade mode run. I think somewhere I forget to reset the FMOD system before it resets. At least this narrows down where I need to look.

[BPzeBanshee]

Speaking of bug reports, I tried to replicate Drum's error, got squat on that front...
Then I made it to Stage 9, I had picked the Falchion B. Lost all my lives, continued, picked the E-75......level restarted and I got the P-38. Twinbee was leering to the left as well when I scrolled through the ship selection.

[EddyMRA]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ce0KfGNC7Pg

For the upcoming v0.11 of Xeno Fighters R, several ships will get an overhaul. Obreck, whom I also worked with on Mushroom Kingdom Fusion, has created several new ships and tweaked an existing ship significantly. This video showcases three ships Obreck has worked on.

The first ship showcased is the Falchion β from Gradius Gaiden. It is actually the most average in terms of all attributes amongst the Gradius ships in XF-R. It uses the standard Option formation and switches between Laser and Missile weapons.
LASER: Auto Aimer - A short-ranged bullet is shot in the direction of the nearest enemy.
MISSILE: Gravity Bullet - A slow but powerful bullet is fired forward. When it hits an enemy it explodes into a purple explosion that deals overlap damage.
BOMBER: Energy Laser - The Falchion β and any Options it has generates a shell of energy that surrounds them as it increases in size, damaging enemies and nullifying enemy bullets. After the Energy Laser grows to its maximum size, it is released forward, damaging enemies and absorbing enemy fire along the way.

The next ship is the Jade Knight, also from Gradius Gaiden. This ship has been overhauled, since its v0.6 weaponry was given to the Vic Viper in v0.10. Its Option formation has been changed to the standard formation with a closer follow distance when compared to the Vic Viper and Falchion β.
LASER: Pulse Laser - Grants high forward firepower, upgrading from a small Twin Laser to a hyper version of the Twin Laser.
MISSILE: Round Laser - The Jade Knight and its Options generates a circular arc of energy that grows outward a certain distance before dissipating. This is an extremely short-range weapon, requiring the Jade Knight to get close to enemies in order to subject them to the highly damaging property of the Round Laser. Standard bullets are fired while the Round Laser is active to give some long range capability, but their firepower is minimal compared to that of the Round Laser.
BOMBER: Mega Crush - A blinding flash of light clears the screen instantly of bullets and lesser enemies. Its major disadvantage is that it does almost no damage to larger enemies. This is the weakest Bomber in the game, serving only as a panic bomb.

The final ship is the X-36 Warlord from Strikers 1999 (aka Strikers 1945 III) by Psikyo. I was actually planning to add the X-36 to the original Xeno Fighters EX, but the limitations of Multimedia Fusion made it impossible to do. As in Strikers 1999, the X-36 is a very high-tier ship, with decent speed, high firepower, and a subweapon that hits every enemy visible on the screen. There are no plans to incorporate the X-36's supershot attack. There is no way to be able to reliably adapt that attack into Xeno Fighters R's mechanics.
LASER: Variable Laser: Available after acquiring three powerups, a set of two fast lasers are fired towards the nearest visible enemy. The lasers pierce through multiple enemies, dealing overlap damage. The lasers are not particularly powerful against larger enemies. However, they make short work of large groups of lesser enemies.
MISSILE: None. Four of any powerup, M or L, will power up the X-36 fully. Its main shot increases in shot speed and rate of fire.
BOMBER: Mega Smasher - The X-36 transforms into a giant mech, generating a ball of energy in its hand, and tosses it to the ground, resulting in a massive explosion that deals high damage. The X-36 is invincible while in mech form, as well as absorbing all enemy fire. The mech form is controllable, albeit moving slowly, and the deploy sequence takes a while to complete.