Reply to Re: Day of the Carcass v1.01
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It's been over a year since I posted something in this thread. Man, time flies. 
I haven't been working as much on the update for Day of the Carcass as I wanted to last year but I have been able to come up with some new ideas and fixes.
I've made a list of all the things I want to do for the new version. (Which provided me with some necessary order within the chaos of ideas )
I figured it would be a good idea to post the list here and keep posting about my progress if anybody is interested.
This is useful because:
1: You can provide me with some feedback so I can improve my ideas.
2: You get an overview of what Day of the Carcass is going to be like.
3: You can see what's being worked on and what's finished.
4: Posting about things I've finished will hopefully motivate me to keep working.
Here is the list.
[ ] = Not completed task
[X] = Completed task
[?] = A possible task (Something I may or may not add)
// = A comment (used to better explain what a certain thing is or just to tell myself how to fix something)
(?) = Me asking for your opinion
_-_-Fixing-_-_
[X] Redesign main control script
//The control script takes care of a lot of the new things.
//It's currently slowing the game down a bit but I'm going to rewrite it to improve performance.
[ ] David shouldn't be able to hurt Nadine
- Remove David's damage and instead add hurt (amount is David's strength variable) command
in hit procedure of enemies' scripts
//The only way I found to properly prevent David from hurting Nadine would be to
//give David no attack damage (sp_strength of 0). In order to make David hurt enemies I'll let them check
//upon getting hit if it was David who hit them.
//If it is David hurt the enemy (sp_hurt) equal to the variable that remembers David's strength.
//This should solve the problem but remove random damage for David. I could make the damage random again.
(?)Do you prefer dealing random damage or would you rather damage your enemies with exactly your attack minus their defense?
[ ] Disable David's Phase Shift for cutscenes
//If David is Phase Shifted during a cutscene this will cause problems.
//So I'll make sure he's in his normal state once a cutscene starts.
_-_-New Features-_-_
[ ] Nadine melee wand
//This is Nadine's melee weapon.
//I figured some magic effect in front of Nadine would be much easier to make than a whole new attack animation.
//That's basically why I chose to give her a wand.
//Wand has single target and multiple target attack
//I think I'll let the wand deal less damage than the bow to make it more of a secondary weapon instead of an alternative.
//On the other hand if it's an alternative it would give the player more freedom to choose between melee and ranged combat.
[ ] Yellow Magic
//Not really called yellow magic.
//In the game it's called something else but since the name has something to do with
//the storyline, I'll stick with yellow magic for now.
- [ ] Add yellow magic bar
//Yellow magic won't refill like mana but can instead be gained from killing enemies (not a pickup, gained like xp)
//Yellow magic bar is actually yellow (what a surprise!) hence the name.
- [ ] Gain yellow magic from killing enemies
- [ ] Ultimate requires full yellow magic and mana bar
- [ ] Every spell has a special version (Much like the EX moves from Street Fighter) which requires
yellow magic and mana but is more powerful
[ ] Spider's webs slow you down instead of getting you stuck. They also won't be hittable but instead disappear after a while.
[ ] New jumping spider
[ ] Spiders deal poison damage
[ ] Spiders (and later other creatures) spawn within in a screen once the first 'wave' has been eliminated (probably show this in earlier areas (definitely in tutorial) to make the player get used to it)
//This will decrease the usefulness of the ultimate since you'll be weakened if you clear a screen of monsters and won't
//have time to recover because a new wave will arrive
[ ] New spells
- [ ] Focus Mark
//(just made the name up so it may change. It's basically Hunter's Mark from WoW)
//Focus Mark isn't really a spell but more of a new feature.
//Both David and Nadine have it. (Red mark for Nadine and blue for David) The marked monster's defense is reduced.
//This encourages focusing on one monster at a time.
//It also makes 'melee aoeing' (hitting a group of monsters with one hit) less effective by comparison.
//Especially if every monster gets a defense boost but Focus Mark removes a big chunk of that defense.
//(Needs balance testing of course.)
//Focus Mark will target the target closest to you by default but can also target random targets or the next target.
//David will always Focus Mark his target.
- [?] Stun
//Low mana spell for David that stuns a single monster for a short time.
//Useful for interrupting an attack, saving David the time it takes him to dodge.
- [?] //not sure about name or properties yet but I need a spell that can weaken a monster so that Nadine can finish it off and the other way around. This should encourage co-op a bit.
//Perhaps a short charge attack (stand still for a second or something). Could be a follow up of stun.
- [?] Push spell - Push an enemy back. Useful for giving yourself some breathing space and pushing them into a hazardous environment
- [?] Ability to create hazards in the environment - set ground on fire and the like
- [?] Environment to use to your advantage - spikes, flames, holes and the like to push enemies into.
- [?] Enemies always grant xp upon death.
[ ] Improve/Redesign David's dodging
//Use fast sprites to scout the area ahead of David so data can be collected
//about where he should move towards in order to dodge.
//create sprites left right and in the opposite direction of the enemy. Use move_stop for sprites.
//When sprite has reached its destination move David towards it. If no sprites reach their destination phase shift David.
[ ] David AI configurations
- [ ] Switch between ways of targeting: nearest, random or next enemy //nearest by default.
- [ ] Enable/Disable dodging
- [ ] Enable/Disable melee attack dodging
- [ ] Enable/Disable range attack dodging
- [ ] Enable/Disable automatic spellcasting per spell or for all spells
- [?] Disable AI completely (in case of a second player) //that is if I want to give DotC 2 player playability
[ ] Improve/Redesign Soreth boss fight
- [ ] Soreth has a shield that makes him immune to all non yellow magic damage.
- [ ] Yellow magic will pierce his shield and hurt him but won't break it.
- [ ] An ultimate will break his shield.
- [ ] Soreth can recast his shield. (Will cost mana and probably time as well to cast.)
- [ ] Fire Dragon's fireball explodes when it reaches target area or on impact. //This will make avoiding the fireball more difficult and will also decrease the need for precise shooting.
- [ ] Redo Fire Dragon's script to improve performance
[ ] Spellbook/Journal
[ ] Easy spell selection/casting
[ ] Potion guy will sell mana potions and antidote potions
[ ] Add ability to rest in safe areas. Will refill mana and health instantly. //No more waiting for mana outside of combat!
[ ] Fast fire bow
[ ] Nadine bow graphics
[?] Ability to switch between David and Nadine //Only doable if proper shooting AI can be made for Nadine
[ ] Add an object or something sticking out of the water indicating that the water can be frozen.
Shooting the object will freeze the water.
_-_-New Areas-_-_
[ ] Tutorial
//Will probably be quite long, add a bit of story line and let the player get accustomed to every new thing in the game that they should know about.
Wow. Looking at that big list makes me realise why it took me so long to finally post this
I may have forgotten to add a thing or two. If that's the case I'll update the list in the future.
Let me know what you think about it. Any comment about anything in this list (or perhaps about something not in this list) is welcome. Don't let this wall of text keep you from posting just as it kept me from posting it
I haven't been working as much on the update for Day of the Carcass as I wanted to last year but I have been able to come up with some new ideas and fixes.
I've made a list of all the things I want to do for the new version. (Which provided me with some necessary order within the chaos of ideas
)I figured it would be a good idea to post the list here and keep posting about my progress if anybody is interested.
This is useful because:
1: You can provide me with some feedback so I can improve my ideas.
2: You get an overview of what Day of the Carcass is going to be like.
3: You can see what's being worked on and what's finished.
4: Posting about things I've finished will hopefully motivate me to keep working.
Here is the list.
[ ] = Not completed task
[X] = Completed task
[?] = A possible task (Something I may or may not add)
// = A comment (used to better explain what a certain thing is or just to tell myself how to fix something)
(?) = Me asking for your opinion
_-_-Fixing-_-_
[X] Redesign main control script
//The control script takes care of a lot of the new things.
//It's currently slowing the game down a bit but I'm going to rewrite it to improve performance.
[ ] David shouldn't be able to hurt Nadine
- Remove David's damage and instead add hurt (amount is David's strength variable) command
in hit procedure of enemies' scripts
//The only way I found to properly prevent David from hurting Nadine would be to
//give David no attack damage (sp_strength of 0). In order to make David hurt enemies I'll let them check
//upon getting hit if it was David who hit them.
//If it is David hurt the enemy (sp_hurt) equal to the variable that remembers David's strength.
//This should solve the problem but remove random damage for David. I could make the damage random again.
(?)Do you prefer dealing random damage or would you rather damage your enemies with exactly your attack minus their defense?
[ ] Disable David's Phase Shift for cutscenes
//If David is Phase Shifted during a cutscene this will cause problems.
//So I'll make sure he's in his normal state once a cutscene starts.
_-_-New Features-_-_
[ ] Nadine melee wand
//This is Nadine's melee weapon.
//I figured some magic effect in front of Nadine would be much easier to make than a whole new attack animation.
//That's basically why I chose to give her a wand.
//Wand has single target and multiple target attack
//I think I'll let the wand deal less damage than the bow to make it more of a secondary weapon instead of an alternative.
//On the other hand if it's an alternative it would give the player more freedom to choose between melee and ranged combat.
[ ] Yellow Magic
//Not really called yellow magic.
//In the game it's called something else but since the name has something to do with
//the storyline, I'll stick with yellow magic for now.
- [ ] Add yellow magic bar
//Yellow magic won't refill like mana but can instead be gained from killing enemies (not a pickup, gained like xp)
//Yellow magic bar is actually yellow (what a surprise!) hence the name.
- [ ] Gain yellow magic from killing enemies
- [ ] Ultimate requires full yellow magic and mana bar
- [ ] Every spell has a special version (Much like the EX moves from Street Fighter) which requires
yellow magic and mana but is more powerful
[ ] Spider's webs slow you down instead of getting you stuck. They also won't be hittable but instead disappear after a while.
[ ] New jumping spider
[ ] Spiders deal poison damage
[ ] Spiders (and later other creatures) spawn within in a screen once the first 'wave' has been eliminated (probably show this in earlier areas (definitely in tutorial) to make the player get used to it)
//This will decrease the usefulness of the ultimate since you'll be weakened if you clear a screen of monsters and won't
//have time to recover because a new wave will arrive
[ ] New spells
- [ ] Focus Mark
//(just made the name up so it may change. It's basically Hunter's Mark from WoW)
//Focus Mark isn't really a spell but more of a new feature.
//Both David and Nadine have it. (Red mark for Nadine and blue for David) The marked monster's defense is reduced.
//This encourages focusing on one monster at a time.
//It also makes 'melee aoeing' (hitting a group of monsters with one hit) less effective by comparison.
//Especially if every monster gets a defense boost but Focus Mark removes a big chunk of that defense.
//(Needs balance testing of course.)
//Focus Mark will target the target closest to you by default but can also target random targets or the next target.
//David will always Focus Mark his target.
- [?] Stun
//Low mana spell for David that stuns a single monster for a short time.
//Useful for interrupting an attack, saving David the time it takes him to dodge.
- [?] //not sure about name or properties yet but I need a spell that can weaken a monster so that Nadine can finish it off and the other way around. This should encourage co-op a bit.
//Perhaps a short charge attack (stand still for a second or something). Could be a follow up of stun.
- [?] Push spell - Push an enemy back. Useful for giving yourself some breathing space and pushing them into a hazardous environment
- [?] Ability to create hazards in the environment - set ground on fire and the like
- [?] Environment to use to your advantage - spikes, flames, holes and the like to push enemies into.
- [?] Enemies always grant xp upon death.
[ ] Improve/Redesign David's dodging
//Use fast sprites to scout the area ahead of David so data can be collected
//about where he should move towards in order to dodge.
//create sprites left right and in the opposite direction of the enemy. Use move_stop for sprites.
//When sprite has reached its destination move David towards it. If no sprites reach their destination phase shift David.
[ ] David AI configurations
- [ ] Switch between ways of targeting: nearest, random or next enemy //nearest by default.
- [ ] Enable/Disable dodging
- [ ] Enable/Disable melee attack dodging
- [ ] Enable/Disable range attack dodging
- [ ] Enable/Disable automatic spellcasting per spell or for all spells
- [?] Disable AI completely (in case of a second player) //that is if I want to give DotC 2 player playability
[ ] Improve/Redesign Soreth boss fight
- [ ] Soreth has a shield that makes him immune to all non yellow magic damage.
- [ ] Yellow magic will pierce his shield and hurt him but won't break it.
- [ ] An ultimate will break his shield.
- [ ] Soreth can recast his shield. (Will cost mana and probably time as well to cast.)
- [ ] Fire Dragon's fireball explodes when it reaches target area or on impact. //This will make avoiding the fireball more difficult and will also decrease the need for precise shooting.
- [ ] Redo Fire Dragon's script to improve performance
[ ] Spellbook/Journal
[ ] Easy spell selection/casting
[ ] Potion guy will sell mana potions and antidote potions
[ ] Add ability to rest in safe areas. Will refill mana and health instantly. //No more waiting for mana outside of combat!
[ ] Fast fire bow
[ ] Nadine bow graphics
[?] Ability to switch between David and Nadine //Only doable if proper shooting AI can be made for Nadine
[ ] Add an object or something sticking out of the water indicating that the water can be frozen.
Shooting the object will freeze the water.
_-_-New Areas-_-_
[ ] Tutorial
//Will probably be quite long, add a bit of story line and let the player get accustomed to every new thing in the game that they should know about.
Wow. Looking at that big list makes me realise why it took me so long to finally post this
I may have forgotten to add a thing or two. If that's the case I'll update the list in the future.
Let me know what you think about it. Any comment about anything in this list (or perhaps about something not in this list) is welcome. Don't let this wall of text keep you from posting just as it kept me from posting it
