Vortex00 I’m not totally sure exactly where I’m going this, but this is kind what I had in mind
link: remember you need to unzip this first
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v2 version with Phia and Ari’s M. LaWS
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v3 version with bombs and laser stage hazards. you can click the bombs to remove them.
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v4 I realized in v3 the bombs actually don’t do anything, except just cause panic i guess lol. Added Amp and Phia ability. when you duck down with phia and come back up her top will be down for a while making enemies shoot less frequently and they wont use bombs while she is up (if the comes down it wont take effect) the longer to stay down the longer the effect will last. Also if Phia has a full shoot bar she has a 50% chance to 1-hit KO the enemy.
added a crappy character select at the start
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here is a pic of the hit box btw
For Ari (and the other girls) I will probably aim the gun up a little bit. and make some recoil animation.
For the agents I’m not sure what to really do with them. I’m not sure they will move around from side to side, but they will probably be hiding behind stuff. ducking down they same way the playable character can.
sentential bosses and maybe certain agents will have a few other tricks the require you to duck because it affect all areas of the screen.
after playing this or watching the video you should be able to specifically mention some feedback suggestions. I doubt I’ll veer very far away from this because I want to make this style of play work.
these were upgrades/abilities/passives I mentioned earlier, they seem to still apply.
Arielle:
all basic attacks have a cooldown time/ reload time but do heavy damage.
Arielle’s attack can also damage cover
hitting anywhere on the enemy does the same amount of damage
M.laser – to clear all enemies from the screen and a number of them in the reserve.
Phia:
shooting enemies in the head does more damage
attacks are low damage but very quick/spammy
reveal – can flash boobs(or something) to make enemies stay out of cover longer
can hold down the button for a constant damage stream
Amp:
passive regen
Attack boost
effortless – clicking anywhere will damage all exposed enemies. (maybe too OP idk)
some other abilities can be:
all enemy agents begin with only 75% hp (Amp?)
agents will attempt to flee if they have 5 or less people remaining. (Ari?)
less chance agents will shoot at this character (phia?)
also different difficulties of this include:
sentinel bosses (the black sphere things that float around and shoot lasers in raids) and specific agents and GemCo employees. I’m thinking Phia’s brother actually comes back alter in the story if you used Phia to send him away.
also harder modes include enemies having a higher rate of fire, more damage and more likely to duck down under for cover.
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good, just need the abilities.
I think this “M.laser – to clear all enemies from the screen and a number of them in the reserve.” it will be like M.LaWS ? and a have a ideia for she ability, she overcharge her canon and shot 3 times conssecutives with full bar ?
Passive for phia “reflex” will be good because she not tanky and will make her survive, flash boobs can cause blind too.
for amp I will think more.
yeah the weapon Arielle carries is like a portable version of cannon her ship has.
Nice idea yeah i think I’ll try it where her attack does a lot of damage if you are fully charged up but it drains the entire sho
yes phia passively moves faster. I’m working on phia right now.
I actually like this mini it is well made.
Thanks i was trying to think of how to have lasers shoot from their weapons but I’m not sure it will look right.
Lot’s of fun so far! Can’t wait to see it polished up and in the game~
going to try to get the groundwork for Phia in there
Cool so far.
To be sure, the currently proposed “effortless” strikes me as sounding too OP.
This’ll be even more interesting when actual destructible cover etc is in the game.
yeah I’ll have that in here coming up. i just don’t have it sorted out in my head yet.
yeah for Amp’s ability well have to try it. she is the OP most skilled character for this mini. kind of like Luma in space battles. or Jeo in the early areas.
[Game functionality/mechanics]
Obviously it’s just a WIP and needs more animations, sounds, visuals, etc. But mechanically speaking it’s pretty solid. The hit-boxing is perfect and the overall game idea is pretty innovative. I think that weapons should charge while ducking/behind cover though. Not at the same rate as out in the open, but at a 1/10 speed or something, because having to expose yourself to reload seems a bit silly and having the in-the-open recharge speed significantly faster than the behind-cover speed would add further incentive to put yourself at risk. (At least for Ari, with the other’s I don’t quite know yet)
Having enemies almost constantly behind cover would probably be more realistic for actual combat, and to be expected from trained agents, but it would also allow for a much better telegraph as to when an enemy is going to fire.
I like the idea of a difficulty ramp-up as you progress throughout the stars. Having tougher, faster, or more numerous enemies as you get closer and closer to your final goal is a cool mechanic, as well as add another layer of difficulty to the game and encourage better strategizing/preparation.
I think that moving around should mess up enemies aim on you, staying in one place would have them zero-in on your location much tighter and moving around would have them try to anticipate your movements or try to follow you. With this kind of mechanic staying in place would have it’s benefits, as a sudden movement would almost guarantee all enemy shots to miss and would give you greater control of the battlefield and make the combat pacing your own rather than looking for openings in the enemy gunfire and shooting when you have the chance. Not that I don’t like the way the game is played now, of course. I think that both are entire viable options and could work well together, or in different scenarios.
I think that in this kind of game, environment could be everything. Creating an environment/using a still image and building a combat world around it could be both simple and efficient at adding a certain level of depth to a currently (and understandable so) flat environment. (Ex: Having a hallway and at the end of the hallway or doorways in the hall have agents pop out before telegraphing shooting) Having crates/barrels for agents to stand near and hide behind would also be a really nice mechanic, and having them be destructible or add explosive barrels/other environmental hazards to use to your advantage would be a really cool thing to add much later in development.
I think a cool thing to add would be a “reinforcement” type mechanic where only a set number of enemies can be on field at once but the squadron consists of more than that, so as soon as one unit dies another runs in to take his place until the reserves run dry or they flee for fear of losing more units. This would be a cool way to end battles faster, killing enemies quicker would scare them or something and have them just straight up flee, like you mentioned.
[Abilities]
With the abilities I think most of them look pretty good, but I have a few ideas with some of them.
For Ari I think that her Mega Laser could be something you charge by holding down LMB or something, and instead of killing all enemies it fires a penetrating laser that basically kills all in a circle and could be used as many times as you can charge it, but it must be charged in the open, leaving you exposed for a painful punish if you’re not careful.
With Phia I like the idea of keeping enemies out of cover, but at what cost? Would the enemies be forced from a defensive stance into their aggressive one or into a new kind of “awestruck” stance or something? And the usefulness of this mostly depends on how often enemies will stay behind cover. If they hug their protection then this could be an amazing asset, and could easily be used to take out pesky targets. But if enemies are reckless then this seems more or less arbitrary, unless it does do something like slow down their fire rate or stop it all together.
Amp’s “effortless” skill could be anywhere from quite useful to unbelievably overpowered depending on how many enemies are on field at once and how often enemies will stay behind cover. With a mix of reckless and careful adversaries, this could be an amazing asset to fire when the more defensive units are exposed and have the more aggressive ones take collateral damage.
(Hope I was useful, sorry for long post. Went kinda overboard XD)
I actually thought about enemies zeroing in you like that if you are standing still and purposefully did not do it.
It makes it where you never need to duck. yes you need to wait for openings. I don’t plan for all the enemies to shoot at the exact same time like how it is thoguh.
since Phia can’t destroy cover she needs some way to hit enemies. yes they will be behind cover a lot later on.
got phia and ari m.laser in, but it only works in one direction atm ><
I updated this minigame. was struggling all day trying to figure out why Ari’s laser worked in only one direction but I figured it out.
v2 has Phia added, but not her ability yet because I’m not 100% sure on what it will be yet. I think it will make the enemies less likely to shoot instead of staying out of cover.
Phia weapon does weak damage unless fully charged. so you want to wait until she is ready to shoot.
That is why i think I’ll get well with the enemies being less likely to shoot at her. Since there are male and female agents shooting at her. I might it where Phia can auto win the battle if she kill all the females and only males are remaining. or it will unlock her orgy later… or both ? lol.
I’m also trying to not have extra buttons to click. I just want moment keys and mouse for this if possible. to to activate Phia ability it might be to just duck down for a few seconds or so.
need to know about difficulty and lag when shooting, esp Ari’s cannon.
I actually haven’t beat it with Phia myself but I only tried it once.
Tested V2, I beat it with Phia four times you need to hide a lot in order to get these fuckers. With Arielle I was taking more damage with her than with Phia but two of that mega lazier kills all the troops. Don’t get it twisted it is easier said than done. Because by the time you have a second shoot at them you might be in low health. So you must avoid dodge a lot. They shoot like crazy. Phia ability is speed. So the second bar haste her, makes her bar move even faster, to build up. You can do the ability as many times. That way a tactic of getting ride of the female agent, than using the special ability to seduce instead of haste. LOL
thanks working on v3. will be harder. just as a example of how it can get harder starting from v1
posted version 3.
has bombs and laser stage hazards.
testing difficulty and lag again. Phia is pretty hard because she has no abilities yet. and you have to be pretty pro skill with Ari to clear this.
you can click the bombs to remove them before they explode. ducking will not help you if you are too close to them.
planing to add Amp next.
V3 yeah it is very hard indeed with those bombs, yes you can shoot them… but those god damn yellow lasers make it impossible with Phia. I think a special trooper that throws those bombs and throws those yellow lasers that close the gap. Need to be in so that there is a chance you can kill them. there are two types… One throws those bombs that you can eliminate the other throws those yellow lazers. As a matter of fact there not troopers there Sentinels helping the troopers. Getting ride of those might be a good idea. Also more sentinels can randomly show up again. The point is the troopers is what really needs to be killed. I beat it twice with arielle. None with Phia.
Thanks for trying it out lol
maybe a sentinel boss will be all bombs ^_^
Those are good ideas to be able to turn off the lasers. But before I do that I want to add in Phia’s ability because it should help her out quite a bit. And I need to add in Amp
It’s not like the lasers are anything big in ship raids: should just be able to destroy them with one shot.
that thought crossed my mind when I made them but that would be way too easy. too much mobility makes this easy.
Doesn’t change the fact that there’s no reason for them to be this kind of a problem here.
Also you have amp blowing up everybody with one click, and you gon’ worry about it bein’ “Too easy”?
K
Well, I should say you’re “considering” having Amp blow up everybody with one shot.
But yeah, V4 is doable with all characters, and reasonably entertaining to boot.
it does change the fact.
you are missing the point of Amp bro and chill on the snakry sarcasm.
Vortex with the burns XD
The relevant point I’m making is that there’s no reason whatsoever for one-shot insignificant laser-sources to become the severe obstacle that they are here.
There may be a gameplay-mechanic-related reason to restrict mobility, but the method taken to achieve that goal makes no sense.
these are things we are testing for. but the lasers in the Raid may not always be one hit. or the restriction here might be lasers with a off screen source. or a shield around them, or not a laser at all. for now I am just working out mechanics.
and yes Amp is supposed to me OP. like Jeo and Luma, and even Bri in exploration, everything eventually with have a OP character that can do it easily. currently not in raids yet but I’m still thinking about that one.
Fairnough.
And Ari post-training comes close enough to an OP raid character that I just assumed she WAS it.
If you want an even buffer one for raids, though, maybe Amp can serve double-duty.
v4 added. I reduced enemy damage a bit also.
I beat this with all 3 girls without too much effort.
This is really fun. When I went through ARIA for the first time I was disappointed that the combat was nothing like Vandread Love Quest (I love bullet hell games) so this is an awesome addition.
I still want to put the scrolling shooter minigame in there also. it is mostly done just need to swap out the graphics.
i like the idea of the game, but i hate those laser beams^^ i think adding a warning or something if you get hit by the laser beams would help^^
AMP is really really strong
Yeah Amp is like a super soldier type agent.
I’ll try to have some effect that lets you know the laser is touching you.
Tested v2 and v3
I like how Phia’s damage mechanic works, using her entire bar for significantly more damage.
And I like how risky Ari’s M.Laser is, but also how useful it is. I think the charge rate is perfect, if not a little fast. Being forced to put yourself in danger for an amazing burst of damage is a great way to utilize a tank.
Tried to beat v3 with Phia, pretty sure it can’t be done XD
Even with Ari v3 was a challenge, which I loved, I just hope there’s a difficulty ramp and not have all encounters be next to impossible XD
I think next WIP could do with a background picture, basically anything XD
this is one of the harder modes yes. But you should be able to get through anything here with Amp.
I don’t want to put too much graphic visual stuff here since I’m still working on basic mechanics. BG will come in time.
Just played v4
I like being able to switch characters, makes it better for testing.
Amp seems a bit OP, I actually tried to die with her, not easy. You basically have to stand in the lasers for 10 seconds to die XD
I like the 2 additions to Phia, the bonus chance to Insta-kill and the reduced gunfire after ducking are great balances to her.
Thanks for testing it.
Amp is supposed to be OP. Amp is the Jeo/Luma of space battles. If Amp was in space battles she’d be OP there also.
It’s hard but possible to beat with all 3 girls congrats. Like Phia ability LOL. If you can make the males blush would be even funnier.
Thanks. might try some bosses also
I found it quite hard with Arielle and Phia but ok with Amp. Great work so far!
The exe version had some performance issues for me but the swf was better.
This looks pretty fun, I love gallery shooters like these 😀
hopefully it is both fun and challenging.