[2k3] Touhou Fantasy

So since Graphicus has been helping me with Hope's sprites, I've been thinking of fixing up all of the character sprites to be...bigger. Of course, this means a crapton of work that'll need to be done and a lot of fixing but...well, I'd rather not have his nice spriting animation put to waste by downsizing too much. So, what's a good size for characters to be?

Default size the sprite is (around 83x96), which seems TOO BIG for 4 characters on that side of the screen at once. Not to mention I don't know how the cursor would like handling that and other things like status icons:





Normal size (aka the size that most of my sprites are at. 66 height is usually the rough maximum). It really butchers the spriting badly, and it makes me feel really bad:




Current size (between 96 and 66, so around 80 for height is roughly the estimate). This seems to be the way to go for this particular sprite, as it's not TOO degraded like the other sprite. Cursor doesn't seem too far off, though I can't speak on status icons. Those shouldn't be too hard to deal with though):




I also tested this particular sprite with 4 characters (having them all use Hope's default sprite):




So...would the default size be good to use (or is it too big)? Would the above be good (not TOO big, but not TOO small nor degraded)? Or...would the normal size sprites that I use for battle animations be fine (smaller so can see the characters, but really degraded sprites)? Just trying to find that right medium before I attempt to fix up character sprites and all that.


EDIT - I GUESS I should probably show this new animation too, right? Right! Skill use animation for Hope~

Dayum. Do you have any links to other work this person has done?

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dyXzTm7I8U" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dyXzTm7I8U</a>

See video description for more information. Basically just testing this kind of sprite resizing. It's blurry, yeah, but it's not all garbled up. Hmm...


@Acolyte: Here you go: http://mugenguild.com/forum/topics/graphicus-sprite-extravaganza-170782.0.html

Of note, he doesn't have any other RPG sprites since he mainly does MUGEN sprites, and this was his first time doing these styled of sprites at all (Touhou Hisoutensoku), but...well, I'll let his other works speak for themselves.

See this map? You'll see this 4 times. You cannot go any further in the hallways due to a barrier. That's my cop out. Yes, I'm copping out of doing the rest of the mansion. I already got the main pocket dimension rooms done, and there will be the 4-5 rooms for the treasures, but the rest of the mansion? Won't be mapped. I don't see any need to do so, mostly because there's nothing else to put in there that's relevant to the dungeon. So...gonna do this. Is this lazy?? Probably yeah, but...well...I don't need this to be Scarlet Devil Mansion 2.0. Very bland hallways, I'm aware too, but I'm not too worried about this.

Don't worry, whenever I get around to it, I'll have a much MUCH better screenshot later on, whenever I start doing Hokkai. THAT should be fun. Unless anyone has ideas for the rest of this mansion without it being super big or having a lot of rooms? Eh...it should be fine as it is. I still need to fix up a couple bosses too (as mentioned in my Help thread, still got PC-98 Marisa to revamp completely since she's bleh. Still got Death's special Doom coding to do, and still got Fire Magic Stone to deal with. THAT one is hard only because I don't know what to do with its gimmick and abilities. You see, it attacks the party with a bunch of FIRE attacks *gasp!*, but...in doing so, it hurts itself too. It has another boss with it (Kotohime) who primarily uses Mystic-elemental attacks and healing, and if the stone dies before her, she has Full-Life to revive it. In addition, she has Renew I believe to heal 9999 HP. So the objective is to defeat her first, then defeat the stone. The problem is...how much damage should each ability do to the stone, or if there should be other gimmicks with the stone as well?)

In other news, once this dungeon is done, I only have Hokkai left to map for beta5, then just all the monsters/events to do and I'm done with beta5 after 4 years! Then beta6 is next and oh god...

I'm kinda tired of the default 2k3 EXP system, so I'm thinking of potentially changing that for some other method of leveling up the player. I'm not sure what would be the most effective way of doing so...anyone have any ideas?

In the meantime...new update!

http://www.mediafire.com/download/66m3l4360klrb4t/Touhou_Fantasy.rar

For those interested, yes, this DOES go pretty deep into beta5, up to Reimaden. If anyone is willing to test beta5 out to help find bugs and the likes, that would be great. I haven't been back to the earlier parts of it in a long time, so I don't remember if everything is up to par. Also, some earlier parts may need readjusted (there's a boss that needs updated really badly, for instance). You may need to rebeat the beta4 final boss in order to continue, but hopefully those willing to test aren't TOO overleveled? ^^;

In other news, there's this:

================================================
             CHARACTERS
================================================

Suwako:

*Frog's Rest no longer cures Poison, Blind, or Slow, but now grants Regen/MP Regen per level, starting at level 2 up to level 8 at max level.


Nue:

*Danmaku Chimera now removes all buffs from all enemies instead of just Reflect.


================================================
                 ENEMIES
================================================

*Advent Cirno now uses Aura Whirl less and now has -20 Speed than before.


Not too much new for characters otherwise. Suwako might get the Doom command that Shikieiki once had, since Shikieiki is no longer usable (dummied out completely). Suwako's Ancient Jade might also become an Earth-elemental attack to give her another offensive option. She's got a looooot of work to become more useful. In addition, you are now FORCED to go to the Human Village before you can go to Misty Lake (you just have to enter the village in order to trigger the switch to go to Misty Lake, don't have to do anything else). I did this as many people weren't going to the village to get items and skills and the like. I also fixed some tile errors on maps (world map and Forest of Magic). In addition, Yuuka's location is more obviously marked. Forests might become unwalkable too, to prevent confusion as to where you can go (meaning I'll have to make a teleport event to the area where Mokou is later). There were probably a bunch of other updates that I've forgotten, but those are all the ones I remember at the current time! I still need ideas for Suwako's skills, btw, which what I have are these (once again):

**Monstrous Toad God: Attempts to force enemies to flee from battle. The higher the level of the skill, the greater the chance of forcing enemies to flee. No rewards are given for enemies that flee in this manner. Starts at 25% or less of Suwako's level for enemies to flee at level 1 (if Suwako is level 50, then enemies of level 12-13 or less will flee at a 100% chance), with +25% each level up. Does not work on all enemies and fails on bosses.
**Native God's Curse: Deals X damage to all enemies, dealing more damage the more allies that are KO'd. Higher levels increase the amount of damage increased by how many dead allies there are. 4 levels.
**Blighted Earth: Attempts to halve all enemies status resistances for X turns. The duration of the turns increases the higher the level of the skill. 4 levels.
**Brave the Elements: Attempts to halve all elemental resistances on all enemies. Higher levels increases duration of debuff. 5 levels.
**Seven Stones:
**Frog God: Doubles effect of chosen character's battle passive for X turn. Higher levels increases the duration of the buff. 5 levels.


**Blighted Earth: Inflicts non-elemental damage to all enemies equal to 1/4 of current HP. +25% increase in damage per level, up to current HP at max level.

Various ideas for her. Some more doable than others perhaps. In addition, I may need ideas on how to update the crafting shop as well. I will probably be adding in the shops for the materials in there from SDM so that you can access them whenever, at the very least.

Get hyped, ya'll! Because beta5 is nearing completion finally! Once Reimaden is done, all that remains is True Pandaemonium, Silent Shrine, Palanquin Ship, and finally Hokkai! After nearly 4-5 years too! \ o /

=============================================
            SYSTEM
=============================================

*The SDM crafting shop is now available in the crafting room.
*Aya should now automatically level up to level 10 during Youkai Mountain if she is not level 10.
*While doing the Youkai Mountain segment, enemies have a high chance of running away (bar the Kedama Stack). Once Suwako is defeated, this is removed and the enemies will fight as normal.
*Revival items all get buffed bar Angel's Prayer and Divine Spirit. 1-Up Piece (10%), 1-Up (25%), Cherry Points (50%), and Spirit Essence (75%).
*Faith now cures Zombie and Doom. The Faith item is now set to the proper animation.
*All armor, helmets, and shields have their flavor text removed in favor of showing actual stat gains. All accessories had their descriptions updated.
*All of Aya's Veiling Scrolls have doubled in price.
*All of Remilia's Chain Scrolls have increased in price, from 2000 each level to 2500 each level.
*Nitori's Head Parts, Arm Parts, Leg Parts, and Torso Parts have had their prices changed and are now available in the shop (bar Torso Parts)


=============================================
            CHARACTERS
=============================================

*Reimu's Pray has been buffed. Instead of healing 10%, 20%, and 30% per level respectfully, it now heals 15%, 30%, and 45%.
*Cirno now has Fairy's Revival as a passive, which is the same passive that all fairy enemies have (if dead and not revived within 20 turns, she'll automatically revive with 50% Max HP). This passive cannot be upgraded at all.
*Aya's Wind Sickle Veiling now costs more MP to use, starting at 25 MP at level 1 up to 100 MP at max level.
*Nitori's Call Crafting Shop has been removed and turned into an item that Nitori gives upon joining the party after Youkai Mountain (May still need fixed up as I may have forgotten to actually give this...).
*Remilia's Chain Gang has increased in power:
  *Level 1: 3 MP > 10 MP
  *Level 2: 6 MP > 20 MP
  *Level 3: 9 MP > 30 MP
  *Level 4: 12 MP > 40 MP
  *Level 5: 15 MP > 50 MP
*Remilia's Miserable Change has increased in power from 15 MP to 20 MP.
*Koishi's Meteor went from 80% accuracy to 70% accuracy. MP cost went from 99 MP to 60 MP.



=============================================
            ENEMIES
=============================================

*Hades went from 55,535 HP to 33,333.


Updated version here: http://www.mediafire.com/file/66m3l4360klrb4t/Touhou_Fantasy.rar

Expect some more changes here and there later on for beta1-4 content. For instance, some abilities will get lower fixed duration on their statuses (Cirno's Icicle Fall's Freeze, Meiling's Yellow Tremor Step's Paralysis, etc.) so that they're not completely busted and the dedicated status skills can actually be more useful. This also holds true for enemy status effects in earlier parts of the games, where their status effects will be of shorter durations, so you won't end up in situations where you have Paralyze: 50 turns in the 2nd dungeon.

Beta5 is getting even so slightly closer to being done (just got 2 bosses to test out, then onto next dungeon!). Then that leaves 4 more dungeons left to do, and then beta5 is done! \ o /

Debating on what to do with these bosses. On one hand, I have the final boss of this dungeon's skillset set up. I just haven't implemented it. On the other hand, I have another boss, first fought solo with a specific character and then later with a forced party, that has nothing yet.

Well, let's start with the boss that's already got stuff set up:

Shinki:

Void Slice: Inflicts non-elemental physical damage to one party member that inflicts Disable.
Fortuna: For the next 50 turns, there is a 50% chance of Shinki restoring 50% of the damage she takes.
Ether Blaze: Reduces the party's MP to 0 and inflicts damage to the party's HP equal to the amount of MP lost.
Fatal Illusion: Summons 7 invisible enemies and Shinki becomes invulnerable. If the wrong invisible enemy is hit, the party will take 500 damage. Hitting the right one will dispel the effect of this ability. If 3 wrong ones are hit, it will randomize which one is the correct one.
"Missing Sanctuary": Grants NulPhysical/NulMagic: 20 turns, Omni Resist Up: 20 turns, and restores 5000 HP. Requires 1 Bomb Charge to use.
"Last Crisis": Sets the party's HP to 1 and MP to 0. Requires 2 Bomb Charges to use.
"Armageddon Memory": Inflicts 5000 Mystic-elemental damage to the party. 80% accuracy. Requires 3 Bomb Charges to use.

This is with a forced party (all final fights in this dungeon are with specific parties. The game even warns the player before entering the boss area to equip everyone and make sure they're up to snuff), so making sure that it's balanced is the hard part. "Armageddon Memory" is basically the instant kill move and is meant to be used if the fight drags on TOO long. "Last Crisis" I feel isn't THAT scary, nothing a Potion Berry or two (1000 HP recovery to the party) can't fix, as well as a couple Oni Wine (100 MP recovery to the party). I'm wondering if "Missing Sanctuary" might be too much though as a level 1 Limit Break?

The ones that I'm wondering is too much though is Ether Blaze and Fatal Illusion. The thing that people have asked me about Fatal Illusion is what happens if the player uses an AoE to hit everything? The plan is that the wrong choices would happen first BEFORE the right one (so that means all the 500 damage first, then the correct one), meaning...3000 damage to the party before the right one is found, meaning the party is probably dead. However, I'm not sure on how I would code such a thing yet, or if it's doable in 2k3. Ether Blaze I'm only worried about due to how powerful it is. Or is the entire skillset too much? It feels very final boss-esque even though this isn't the final boss (she's supposed to be REALLY powerful though so...).

With that out of the way, Yumeko is the one that I'm struggling with. She's known for...throwing lots and lots of swords and teleporting around in the canon games. Not much else on her abilities, so I'm kinda left with that. I'm thinking of having her just throwing various specific weapons from the FF series or something, with an ability that lets her avoid all damage for X turns thrown in somewhere. She is vulnerable to Paralysis, Stop, and Slow, all of which the solo character (Sakuya) can use, and Sakuya's also included in the 2nd fight with her (alongside Remilia who doesn't have any status attacks IIRC, and Momiji, who can also inflict Paralysis with Cross Slash). Thinking of beefing her up potentially for that fight due to there being 3 characters instead of 1. Not sure yet. Any ideas??

http://www.mediafire.com/file/9355r8j58cvz9pp/Touhou_Fantasy_Update.rar

Quick little update patch to fix Rinnosuke's and Yumemi's coding for if they have weapons on or not. For some reason, Rinnosuke never had coding for if he had the Kusanagi equipped or not, meaning he never got any of his abilities while it was equipped. Yumemi, on the other hand, got all of her abilities set for when she has specific weapons on and depending on her level. So hopefully that'll make her more useful now! Still haven't gotten around to figuring out what's going on with Nitori's Gear Change, and I'll have to set it so that you can't use any of her 0 MP cost abilities outside of battle. Don't want free healing that easily, ya know!

On that note, True Pandaemonium just got done, so for anyone that wants to test that and Reimaden, you can with that update patch. I haven't tested True Pandaemonium yet, so it'll probably be a bit rough. Next up is the Silent Shrine, which I'm going to do a different way with the switch puzzle (easier on myself, but still going to be a thing for the player). It's only 5 rooms big, with 4 side rooms, so the dungeon isn't super long or anything. Shouldn't take too long to actually do the events and monsters and whatnot. Once THAT'S done, that leaves Palanquin Ship next which is all mapped out, dialogue is mostly done, but no events yet. Haven't decided on the dungeon gimmick outside of "find this key to open this door to get this key to open that door". Unzan will probably be involved in that dungeon's gimmick somehow.

Once Palanquin Ship is done, that leaves Hokkai, the final dungeon of beta5, and then the final 4 dungeons of the game (End of Gensokyo, Gaplands, The Void, and Heart of Pandora), meaning the main story is about to be done after 8 years! Get hyped! Of course, that means that once that's done and bugs are resolved and whatnot, that there's still the sidequest stuff that I want to do, if I ever get around to it, and I would like to fix up the crafting system somehow too...>_<

Hey there, everyone! I've been kinda dead lately, mostly working on boss designs in a document and whatnot. Finally getting back to working on the game again having finished my Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- Let's Play, so that's what's up! I'm currently testing True Pandaemonium, and it's a really dozy! I'm actually being forced to grind characters I haven't used since I got them! Not sure if that's a good thing or not. It gives the player a chance to catch them up as well as buy skills they haven't gotten yet (especially if they find the right encounters in this area. Three Hecteyes = 5600 Yen and 3200 EXP, which is the best fight in this area). However, I've been trying to keep the game grind-free for the most part (there's only one part in particular where you'd have to grind at all, and that's way back at Youkai Mountain after finishing it for the first time if you wanted to get everyone's skills, which isn't REQUIRED but it's nice to have everyone decked out). Back then, if you were to swap out every character once they hit level 20, that'd be just about enough to get everyone's skills. Here? I got characters that are level 20-25, whilst my main party is about level 35 or so, and it's really hard to keep up in the dungeon due to how the enemies are (Archaeodaemons are jerks and can wipe a low-leveled party out with an untimely Gigaflare or two, and Tri-Faces are the same way with Poison Gas). Anima is of course a big jerk, and apparently I forgot to code her Graviga spell (same with Archaeodaemon's Lifebreak). It's still not bad for a party that's up to speed in the game, but for lower leveled ones? Yeah, pretty tough. And you cannot leave Pandaemonium either since you're locked into the dungeon.

So I guess the question is this: Should the player be forced to grind in this particular dungeon or not? The reason I ask is that, for those who don't know, the bosses of this dungeon force the player to use every character bar Byakuren/Hope in set boss fights (for example, the first boss fight forces you to use the team of Meiling/Aya/Nitori). I don't want to make the area TOO difficult despite being near endgame (it's the 5th to last final dungeon of the game), but I still want it to have difficulty. >_<