[VX ACE] The Fates We Weave (FIRST CHAPTER)

[Bleeb]

Ahh gotcha, so the butterfly enemy uses webbing more on itself for metamorphasis and shielding maybe. some nastier skills? you mean nastier than the caterpillar then?

Gotcha, good to know QTE's won't wipe you out if you do get hit by them. Gotcha on Aleya going down, though by cinematically cocooned you mean like, there's a pic or animation that plays showing her wrapped up as she goes down? Gotcha for the party members too, I figured it'd be pretty obvious what happens to the party then.

Ahh, I think you might've mentioned Game Overs once before, but never this detailed. Yeah, 1-3 sounds like what I expected, though good to hear what the plan is. so there will be some enemies that end Aleya in a cocoon after all? sounds good. The alpha had an animated game over? what was that? I never found that one. a game over for the spider you could play? or for Aleya? (in the demo I mean)

[polyedit2000]

Well, if a caterpillar hatches into a moth, a moth likes eating silk, so not only would it get a buff by eating its own cocoon, but it'll also deal much more damage to the party if they get cocooned. If a caterpillar hatches into a bee, it'll probably use attacks that can stun or poison the player.

Actually, this reminds me of another enemy concept: Eggsacs. These enemies will start the battle cocooned, and if they hatch, a powerful enemy comes out, so for these ones, it's probably best to keep wrapping them up while fighting them.

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I used the word cinematic wrong. Game Overs involving cocoons should have the same effort as Game Overs involving vore or those with neither. I do believe it is possible to animate these situations using pictures, though I have not worked enough on the dialogues to play around with this.

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The Game Over example appeared at the end of the demo since I doubt you could die in the Alpha, just by talking to Aleya (as the spider). Of course, she's only accessible if you manage to defeat the Goblin through cocooning.

But enemies that cocoon Aleya, if they can cocoon her in the game, it's most likely her Game Over will cocoon her again.

[DarkPinkie]

The Game Over example appeared at the end of the demo since I doubt you could die in the Alpha, just by talking to Aleya (as the spider). Of course, she's only accessible if you manage to defeat the Goblin through cocooning.

You know this would have been nice, if the demo didn't automatically boot me back to main menu after successfully doing that fight (winning without cocooning actually does not do the automatic main menu).

It seems my main gripe with the demo was hidden behind a bug. xD

[Bleeb]

Well, if a caterpillar hatches into a moth, a moth likes eating silk, so not only would it get a buff by eating its own cocoon, but it'll also deal much more damage to the party if they get cocooned. If a caterpillar hatches into a bee, it'll probably use attacks that can stun or poison the player.

Actually, this reminds me of another enemy concept: Eggsacs. These enemies will start the battle cocooned, and if they hatch, a powerful enemy comes out, so for these ones, it's probably best to keep wrapping them up while fighting them.

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I used the word cinematic wrong. Game Overs involving cocoons should have the same effort as Game Overs involving vore or those with neither. I do believe it is possible to animate these situations using pictures, though I have not worked enough on the dialogues to play around with this.

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The Game Over example appeared at the end of the demo since I doubt you could die in the Alpha, just by talking to Aleya (as the spider). Of course, she's only accessible if you manage to defeat the Goblin through cocooning.

But enemies that cocoon Aleya, if they can cocoon her in the game, it's most likely her Game Over will cocoon her again.

Ahh ok, I get what you mean with the caterpillars now. ahh, that's a different enemy lol, eggsacs.. so it's something you want to keep trapped, unless you're aiming to lose.

Ah, so you just meant the cocoon endings will have a similar pic ending to the vore ones, gotcha.

Gotcha, everytime I did that in the demo, it just went to a text game over scene, so it sounds like that's how it's supposed to work.

[polyedit2000]

Weekend update: Nothing major in the month of WoW. Since I wasn't using the shape-shift script's bigger features on my cocoon and that script is limited to one state, I thought I would just change to a state face/graphics script in case I have more states, but thinking about it, I would probably just rewrite the shape-shift script to simplify the skills available to cocooned players...

I also decided to create some battle backgrounds for inspiration. If you played the demo, you may have realized that there were clouds moving in the background...that's a third layer there. I figured that I would create a small script to have Battleback 1, then place a random Battleback 2 and 3 based on 1 so that there is some variety in battle (if Battleback 2 isn't preset). I suppose that's a good motivation as I realize I could probably put props in the background.

Otherwise, there's still no progress in the meat of the game. However, changing the shape-shift script out gave me an excuse to put some more scripts in...though I should review which scripts I actually need or which ones will amuse me.

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Hm, I'm thinking I may need to redesign my webbing states or how it is delivered. In the demo, you saw four webbing states: The Neematod would receive a Webbed state regardless of what you hit it with, and the Kobolds and Goblin would get a Head, Arms and Feet state depending on what you use, plus I had Wings planned for webbing as well. However, I doubt enemy AI could cocoon the party using three webbing skills successfully, and just making your party receive the Webbed state seems too simple.

Thankfully, I have a simple solution for that: if the user is an enemy, if the webbing state for a body part is already maxed out, do a different body part instead (I don't want to have players spam head wrapping for arms and legs after all). Oh boy, I probably would have to mess with the already big webbing state formulas...

[Bleeb]

Nice, sounds like a chiefly technical update, but good to hear about it either way. Sounds like the web status could be more tricky than I'd think.. good luck at it.

[Bleeb]

Anymore news yet?

[polyedit2000]

Again, nothing too major. It's mainly fiddling with code here and there (my rewrite of taunting seems nice but too effective). And also, trying to put in a few items into the database.

I figured if I spend too much time writing scripts for the ideal game and not in the database, then I don't have a game. Still, this news isn't much to be excited about. It's mainly about figuring out how to make a potion as attractive as a healing spell and which items would be necessary. I do this for both originality and for the current damage range.

[Bleeb]

ahh gotcha, so still working out those knots.

[polyedit2000]

Weekend update: My background script makes me happy, especially after making some backgrounds for it. By default, you can craft a background from two pieces, but my script should randomize one of that piece so the battle scene doesn't remain static. That script is also coded for a third layer for props and some simple animation. I also revisited an old motion for the battlers so we now have teleporters. Other things like database has been minor.

Sadly and gladly, this is the last week of my current WoW subscription...though a week before Black Friday and Final Fantasy 15. Thankfully, no subscription means a workable pace to me.

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Edit: It's not nice for me to hide what I've drawn, so I might as well say the locations I've been drawing and possible variants:

Grass - The first set as seen in the demo, and default for the overworld. It might serve as a base for a forest, and has a dry-grass and night variant.

Hive - Honeycombs all around, some with honey viewable through the ground. Deciding between light and dark-rimmed. Recolored background can also serve for an ice cave.

Swamp - A muddy place with some tall grass.

House - Bricks for exterior and wooden place for interior. Still need to decide if the windows are animated or only reflect the inside and outside. Hm, could also have a haunted house version.

Vore - Pulsing guts all around.

Metal - Just a metal walkway. The background might serve as a simple cave alternate. Need to add railings (third layer)?

[Bleeb]

Sounds good for the backgrounds.. what about caves tho? or other underground areas, I'd expect those early on.

[polyedit2000]

I do expect a cave if only because one of the spider bosses should be in a cave. Right now, I'm making more monsters; a digital boss, some more crazy Neematod people, and some...Vermin?

Apparently, I've drawn enough that I made a race, which in term helped me visualize the land this game will take place in. Anyway, Vermin are essentially small bipedal animals, a bit on the skinny side. Very few live in civilization as most cut out the middleman of money for food, and few are capable of human speech. Some are owned as pets.

That being said, they like to eat meat and humans are somewhat manageable sources of meat, though some humans won't hesitate to eat them as well. Sadly, the number of Vermin species that taste good are low.

I don't know if Aleya owns a Vermin or not...

[Bleeb]

Nice to hear you're still working at it. good to hear there's a cave too, I can't wait to see Aleya's cocoon perils.

[polyedit2000]

Weekly update as usual. The pattern with previous updates has usually been either messing with scripts or drawing non-spidery monsters. Well, I have decided to try something different this week: making maps.

As of the moment, they're mainly placeholders for me to put in teleports and probably a few events. So far, Aleya's House has the teleports set up mainly because it's a simple building; this two-story home should act as the hub for your adventures and would ideally be updated through quests.

Well, these are the maps I want to work on for the prologue/demo:

Fairy Village (village)- Fairies tend to hide away from large predators, so this literally small village is an oddity. It does seem to work when large people like Aleya come to aid them. They also offer a Naptrap flower for weary adventurers.

Mae's Maze (dungeon)- Mae loves spiders even though she hasn't met one, and from time to time, she tends to kidnap fairies and other things. To Aleya, this course is simply a refresher for her skills.

The Unbreakable Will (dungeon)- This airship broke and fell on Oryia. Diamont won't join you until she can contain the threats in what remains of this ship...

[Bleeb]

Oh yeah, I was starting to wonder what was going on with this. nice to hear of the progress tho. That said, I'm a little bit surprised there hasn't been more reference to cocoons/cocooning, in this game that's themed off of it..

[polyedit2000]

Hahaha...Yeah, I still haven't draw a spider yet, but the prologue dungeon demands spiders, so I will have to draw them sooner or later.

Anyway, I think the lack of cocooning updates before was mainly because the only map I had other than the alpha demo was a test map for trying out my scripts/events. Because I couldn't say "Aleya has a basement for keeping cocoons" without a basement to start with. (For the record, the basement is very likely to have cocoons). Once I have enough placeholder maps (until I redesign them to fit dungeons), that should get me a better idea of where to place events and how to conduct the flow of the game.

In other words, no cocooning-news today.

[Bleeb]

Ahh ok. Yeah, I'd really love to play through the new prologue with Aleya myself. thanks for the input again.

[polyedit2000]

Sorry for missing last week's update. I had gotten something new to play with...or rather, I had gotten something new to build and adjust, and I like it.

But over the weekend, I finally made Bleeb happy...I made three Spider battlers, though I probably would call them Spidori. Here's one of them.

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Anyway, the Spidori are a subterranean species, but a lack of routine extermination and the war between Synthon (formerly Emeral Empire) and Ventasia allowed the Spidori to build up their numbers and invade the surface. Their ability to cast webs instead of trying to bash heads and the addition of allies with similar capturing capabilities gave them little resistance from the humans. Only a few human cities remain unconquered, mainly Synthon's main city and its metal walls; Oryia didn't count as few humans want to go near that island.

The Spidori can be easily identified from their eight legs and eight eyes, though there are some sub-species like the poisonous Dark Widow and the bulky Rock Spidori. Their range of size seems to denote their gender, as males can be as small as a dog while females are as large as tanks. Some people also report seeing a human face under the female's head, though those that do usually flee without confirming it.

[Bleeb]

interesting spider, cant wait to see them in action

[polyedit2000]

Another one of those weekend updates. Just putting rough drafts of events on the map. Mainly dialogue and switches.

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First thing I thought when I test-played this was that "I should put up indicators". Mainly, a blinking arrow on the world map and probably some hints when checking out houses. Or maybe a hint button.

Initially, you would start in your house, then head over to Fairy Village, where you would then go through a tutorial in Mae's Maze that points out some features of the game. First of all, I figure some people don't need tutorials so I'll have to place that choice. Secondly, I forgot to equip a weapon and my script replaces an unarmed attack with something much weaker, so I'll change Mae's Maze into Forest of Sages and populate it with a few signs to point that out. That being said, this type of intro feels a bit weak, so it might change.

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Oh yeah, I need to populate the map with enemies. Since I have spider enemies that web players with an ambush, that means enemies are touch-based encounters. Thankfully, that means that the type of enemies on the map can be toggled with a switch. For example, the tutorial should remove enemies from the Forest of Sages until you actually go through the dungeon itself. In later parts of the game, some of those enemies should be swapped out with spiders or fairies to keep it interesting.