Jumpingbananaboat wrote:WELP, IM DONE! *collapse onto keyboard*.... Ya I know big review but that because I thoroughly dissected the new stuff because I like it!
Likes:
-The bone trick is still here! Yay!.....What? I find it stupidly funny even if it doesn't really doesn't do anything.
-Eating falling enemies is in! Thank you! (What about adding frames for eating enemies as they fall onto you later on? Like a 4 frame loop where Samus just has 2 frames of her reaching up and pulling down repeated once as the enemy model goes down roughly in fourths then leading into the swallowing animation.)
-The sound mechanic is pretty good idea for stealth and detection, I see many new ways it can influence map and enemy design.
-The new dash power is a nice addition and it opens up new moment options (Double jump then dash to cross large gaps and such.)
-That new rocket projectiles not only hurts you but stuns enemies if they hit them.
- Yes, bone was actually an intentional thing from the start! There was no good way to have attacks interrupt the digest end animation without it breaking a lot of stuff, so the addition of the bone was to give you a bit of reprieve from enemies that may be giving you a beatdown while you're just tryna finish a meal.
- I didn't even know I'd added eating falling enemies honestly till I remembered it was due to how I changed the vore system! Yes though, alternate animations are planned for eating falling enemies, but not sure how soon they'll see the light of day.
Jumpingbananaboat wrote:Dislikes:
-Disliked certain things about the new dasher enemy. Not the concept itself but more that it still feels a bit rough. (Though now I feel it's becuase most of them are in small hallways.)
-The new rockets share the same sound effect as the missiles which can be confusing if a missile bot is nearby and shooting at you. A lower pitch BOOM would be better.
-How loud the rocket hit sound is multiplied if they explode at the same time. The last rocket hall showed that in spades when there were 3 exploding at the same time.
-The action buttons probably should be reassigned, as they now are a bit troublesome to test out certain combinations repeatedly.
- The dasher feels rough to me as well, it could use polishing - initially my plan was to have a much more horizontally focused level to compliment enemies that were fast and used dash attacks, but I think I forgot that narrow hallways also removed the player's ability to adequately move around them, at least for a first encounter and especially without the dash yet.
- New sfx were planned for those and will happen soon, I was mostly leaning on existing sounds as placeholders to be able to get the update out sooner.
- This is also an issue I was aware of, however am not certain on how to fix - this is just inherent in multiple entities triggering the same sound at the same time, and the best option I have currently is to create a check to only play the sound if it's not already playing. This presents an issue for ones that shoot slightly after the first one shoots, as they will then have no sound, and could also just not work at all since most of the sounds ARE still triggered at the exact same time, so the engine might not be happy with that. Hopefully though the new sounds I make will be lower in frequency and not quite so offensive at the increased volumes when played multiple times.
- I'll get to the control scheme!
Jumpingbananaboat wrote:New Enemies:
-Drake-
-The drake is pretty good so far.
-Like that if you make no noise by crouching it will walk right past you without notice. On the other hand after it spots you, I wish you could lose it by staying out of reach and standing still where it will lose interest after a set amount of time unless you move again.
-The drake will camp the vent if it noticed you before hand and won't leave till it eats you. (A loses interest timer would help there.)
-The damage it does is fine but seems random because the struggle mechanics aren't really explained yet. (When do we start struggling the moment we're eaten? If other preds will be like this then maybe a prompt appears to let you know when to start mashing. Also knowing how much and which buttons to press would be helpful.)
-It's grab detection feels a wonky IMO I feel the head should only eat you on the way down, once it starts to go back up you should be able to pass through without being grabbed. You could also change the green lumps to another color signaling when its in it grabbing frames as well.
-Mashing buttons to escape can still soft lock you into the struggling animation loop and can't get out regardless. This happened twice, one where the damage stops and one where I lost all my health but the struggle loop kept going even after I stop pressing keys and I had no luck recreating consistently.
-If you want to enforce the blindness aspect then how about redesigning the head without eyes? Make it all scales or horns just to get the visual design across that it can't see.
-If it's suppose to be blind why does it home in on Samus after she shoots it from a sizeable distance away? What if when it's hit it will charge a certain amount toward the direction the shot came from eating anything that crosses it path before stopping? That will come in handy when you add enemies eating each other where you could shot it to eat some enemies in front of it.
-Same thing with chasing Samus after she escaped and is kneeling making no noise some distance away. Making only react to sound would be a cool way to have some great hide n seek moments being chased by it.
- An interest loss timer is a great idea, I'll have it in as soon as I'm able.
- The struggle mechanics are actually super straightforward - every time you struggle it adds to a counter, once that counter hits it's maximum, you're regurgitated. You can start struggling as soon as you're pressing directional keys and you see a struggle happen as a result! Until the struggle counter is maxed you'll take damage over time, but once it is you can keep struggling (really just for fun) and you
shouldn't take any further damage. Regurgitation will happen as soon as you stop struggling.
- This is just due to how hitboxes work currently and attacking variables being based off animations right now - I plan to rework this as soon as I'm able, but again can't be sure just how soon that will be.
- This struggle bug I've been made aware of from other people running into the issue, and have been working on patching it, but it's a real head-scratcher of a bug tbh. It will only happen when two or more struggle buttons are held at once - there's what seems to be an obvious cause, which I added a check to prevent, HOWEVER while you can now hold down 2 directions at once without getting soft locked, holding 3 or more will still cause it, and I have no idea why.
- That was my original intention to enforce the blindness, not having eyes - however it looked odd with nothing whatsoever there, and it was an absolute PAIN to animate at the size that it is already so adding more complex detail in place of eyes was also out. It's another thing I'll have to look into at a later time when I can spare the effort.
- The drake has a rather sizeable chase range, and if shot while inside the chase range, will home in on the player. Being shot outside of it will not cause it to pursue however (though it's usually offscreen at this point anyway - I do plan to add a way to look further than the default boundaries at some point). I do like the idea of using it to bait them into eating crew though, it'll be something I'll probably add when I'm working on their behavior with interactions.
- That would simply be a matter of coding more advanced reaction to sound - something I'd like to do but yet again, am not sure when I'll be able!
Jumpingbananaboat wrote:-Melee Dasher- *
-Dashers need a bit of fine tuning, I feel a few tweaks could make it more fun to approach if spotted. Though I do note most of them were in hallways so it was kind of hard to really test them.
-I think there should be a wind-up frame with a brief pause before they attack because after they spot you they will dash the moment they get close enough. Which is fine when on the same floor but if your jumping down they always charge when your about 1 background tile about the ground.
-If the auto digest animation starts when chased by one they will at least get in two hits if not more before you can move again. Having a delay buffer would help keep it at 2 hits only.
-Can you put a state were if she hits the wall it stops her for a bit? As is now if she hits a wall she 'bounces' off of it and attacks again with no delay making her constantly dashing you in small spaces. example: the top right area, the pit that's exited by vents, if she falls in there she'll bounce back n fourth till you stun her.
*
My initial complaints came from testing dashers in the rocket hallways where jumping was limited but remembering the top right area had 1 with more open space I tested her out more thoroughly there and most of my issues disappeared. 
Though I did keep what I thought were still valid suggestions, I'll put what I found testing that one below.
-She has good range on her dash attack and without hit a wall she skids to a stop which looks good.
-Her 2 hit counter I find it interesting in that if you hit her once and dodge all attacks the second hit will stun her regardless but if she hits you at all it reset back to 2 hits. (But not if you've shot her once in the same hitting dash.)
-Like that you can dodge by playing a game of chicken to try and jump over her head to avoid the dash though I feel her attacking point should be a bit father away as it was a bit to hard to do it consistently by running. Sprinting I had no problem with but maybe considering moving her attack point a bit father back?
-Noticed that if you do jump over her how close you land to her will determine if she dashes ahead or if she turns around to hit you. If that wasn't intended pleases keep it in.
-I do like that she will both run and dash into laser walls and be fully stunned, maybe consider doubling the stun time if she dashes into it to make it a more risky but rewarding strategy? Ether way tricking them to dash into a laser wall then jumping over to eat them feels good every time.
-What if later on they have a charge up dash that's powerful and knocks you far back but you can stop it by simply holding devour and they charge directly into you stomach? (With half the knockback and no damage.)
They really need more work in general - frankly the level design where they've been placed thus far hasn't exactly been the best either I don't think. However, the stun counter should not be resetting upon the player taking a hit - I was unable to reproduce this myself, could you give me any more info on it?
Having her start the dash further back would be good, however it causes issues when shes against the wall but the player is still in range - I've been working on a fix for it, but to no avail thus far, so we'll have to see. Having a sort of windup is more feasible, as I would like the player to have more time to get out of the way. The incorrect dash direction happens because if you're in attack range, she will dash in the direction she's already facing, and she only changes directions when she needs to run closer - it was not originally intended, but when I discovered it while testing I decided I liked it too since it gives the player a little more room to work with in dodging them.
Charging into the player's mouth is also a fine idea, but not one I can devote focus to till later!
Jumpingbananaboat wrote:New powers:
-Dash-
The dash power while easy to do and looks good I feel better if it was a button+direction key input. It kind of feels a bit short to me IMO, I used the background tiles to roughly measure the distance travelled by standing in the middle of a tile to test it. It looks like you travel about round 3-4 tiles ahead with the first 3 are safe while the 4rd tile is where invulnerable frames ends, I say 4-5 tiles would be the sweet spot for this powerup.
-Maybe you can dash through certain door or lasers later on?
The dash is something I plan to be upgradable, so stay tuned! I did however just tweak it to go slightly further (~4 tiles).
Jumpingbananaboat wrote:Observations:
-When you start getting over 100 bullets the ones digit will be off screen till you back under 100. Might want to move the bullet counter a bit to the left.
-Pressing sprint while crawling will use stamina but Samus won't go faster. Is that supposed to work or not? Level 2 showed that having a faster crawl would be much appreciated.
-Having 5 noise levels is nice but I think doubling up to ten would be better for later on. (I don't remember what I did to get lvl 5 but somehow I did so I'm guessing there's 5 levels.)
-Noise detection or at least the level of noise you make need tweaking a bit but its not a big deal ATM because alpha.
-Weird that standing still makes noise along with falling, moving or not. You would think those 2 state wouldn't give off any sound at all. With prey I get but alone?
-Quickly learned that you can use the manual digestion to make enough noise to lure enemies to your spot which does give more 'stealth' options.
-I did find the vents in level 2 and while its nice to more hidden paths I'd call those crawlspaces.
-Now just noticing that the button stands still have their 'Z' prompt on them even after they have been pushed. Just a heads up.
-Indigestion happing in mid-jump tends to stop moment along with blocking any button input which tend to get annoying at times.
-I found 4 way getting through the rocket halls: Jumping over them, going under them, shooting them, and powering though, hello big belly perks! (and yes you can jump through all 4 floors, just need to learn how hard you press the jump button.
-Will we ever get a power up to knockout or even eat those wall cannons?
-Rocket hall is challenging but nice. Feels a bit to early for this lvl of challenge though as it come out of nowhere and the player up to that point had little experience with them.
-Thought I had found some no damage glitch with the waist high rockets but I was wrong. I was crawling while moving forward and shooting at the rockets and I noticed at certain times it appeared that the rockets would, when they flashed for damage, pass through Samus without damaging her. Looking over at what happened it's clear now that Samus's hitbox isn't really kneeling to shoot even though she's shooting. So not a glitch just the weird button commands that only worked with the rockets as with all other enemies I was hit while doing that command.
- Faster crawling while holding sprint was supposed to be a thing before, I have no idea what happened to it - it's back in now though!
- The sound system is going to be completely reworked next update, where it will be replaced with a bar instead that can adjust dynamically for everything you do in the game, as opposed to just having blocked/stepped levels. There is however a minimum amount of noise you will emit which will still be true with the new system unless you're crouching and not moving - however, both currently and with the future system, the radius of the sound emitted at the lowest level above 0 is smaller than the player's own collision box, so this really only matters in incidents with blind enemies, who will still be able to hear you when moving past you unless you're crouching. In the case of all other enemies, at the point where they're hearing your sound emission at level 1, they're also already directly on top of you, so you would have been seen.
- Z prompt will now no longer show after pressing!
- With the coming rework to the vore system, airborn indigestion should no longer be an issue.
- I have no idea why I didn't make the wall cannons destructible, I'll be sure to add that!
- Difficulty scaling is something I've been playing with a lot - if this game ever gets to the point of a full release, you can bet that there will be a LOT of reworking going into almost all of the levels. Currently, I'm building more for the sake of showcasing and getting use out of the things I program, and just for having essentially drafts of pieces of the whole game.
- That rocket thing was actually definitely a bug - the issue was the player's collision box was still set to be the crawl box if you started shooting while crawling. Fixed now!
Jumpingbananaboat wrote:Suggestions:
-For map ideas why not have a stage that has a lot of wall lasers sectioning off space and enemies and the more lasers you turn off the more space they start to roam.
-Can you change the action buttons layout? Every so often I hit the windows key and the manual digest is assigned to the shift key when I testing something I'll get a alert for hitting the shift key 5 times in a row. The QWE and ASD keys would be a better layout.
-I feel manual digestion takes takes too long, it should feel more of a quick health panic option or a way to get back to a small faster form. Right after the gut punch it feels like it should end after that but many times I thought I was done only to see the belly return full because I stopped to early. The last 7 frames can be cut down to 3-4 to make it end faster.
-What about making certain platform jump through? The hidden room in lvl 2 is annoying because the small platforms can't be jumped up from beneath them and the gap is 1 tile wide.
-The last part of the rocket hall with the 4 cannon will hit Samus 9 times out of 10 when trying to pass, might want to change that to allow more space to the drop.
-Think about the new noise mechanic how about there's a noise cap that covers your own? Areas can local noise levels of their own and as long as you don't go over them enemies won't hear you BUT as you progress through the level and defeat enemies the cap gets lower. EX: A area with laser walls and stomping missile bots have a noise cap of 2, defeating the bots or turning off the wall reduce the level by 1, doing both with reduce it to 0.
-What happening to the indigestion icons? There were a few times when indigestion stopped me and I didn't realize till a second later.
-Although it was nice using the manual digestion to attract foes to me the fact that I need to have eaten someone to use it means on a empty stomach I had no way to alert a foe other then getting close to be spotted. How about giving a option to make some noise to do the same thing?
-Maybe we can control the indegerstion RNG with a button. Say you keyed a belly interact button, pressing once does a short animation but if you hold it down for 5 seconds it will do another one or give a sound cue that will disable indigestion for a set amount of time? (Is it possible to code multiple sets that are randomized?)
-Here's' a idea, what doing coping early DOOM with the head health bar but for your stomach using what you've already made?
Fine/empty-------bored face
Fine/full----------happy face
indigestion/full--frowning face
- Part of my original intent with the current layout is to have something amenable to people who wanted to play with WASD controls - however, I think in favor of having a single more unified layout I'll probably scrap that in favor of just arrow keys for movement, freeing up the left side of the keyboard more for other commands. In the meantime I recommend disabling the sticky keys shortcut, that's what causes the windows alert for pressing shift multiple times!
- I was thinking the same thing about manual digestion a bit before releasing the update - however, again with the rework to the vore system, I may actually keep it at about the length it is for balance purposes (or I may still shorten it - will have to see how things come together).
- I would loveee to make a jump through platform, but it's next to physically impossible without overwhelmingly advanced code, doubling my existing code to have alternate checks for jump through platforms, OR rebuilding my game from the ground up with how it handles collisions, none of which are remotely worth the effort - not to mention it would render almost all existing bug testing/fixes null, as every single condition would have to be rechecked that they're still working as they should in regards to both the pass through platforms and on the ground.
After typing this, I did some more googling and have found alternate potential solutions - I'll look into it more, but I wouldn't get your hopes up- The 4 cannon wall was meant to teach the player on their second pass through the hallway with the dash ability that the dash could be used to get through - however I changed the firing frequency of the cannons some time later, and forgot to recheck that it was still possible prior to turning off the laser walls! Fixed now
- Ambient noise and noise caps could possibly work well with the new sound system, I'll keep it in mind.
- Status icons are another otw thing, but without a projected timeframe yet.
- I also plan on adding taunt abilities, such as being able to burp on command if full which can work to lure enemies around. However, I think I may keep abilities like this exclusive to being full - I'm playing a lot with the balance of the game in effort to add more pros and cons both to being full and empty. Generally, I want the player to be much quieter, faster, and vulnerable while empty, but much tankier, slower, and powerful while full. This should become much more apparent after the next update or two when I have both momentum and the updated sound system in game, which should both do a lot to demonstrate the differences in sound the player makes and the differences in not only speed but their ability to redirect while full (obviously momentum means it's harder to stop/turn while fuller).
- For the DOOM thing, already considering that except using a stomach icon of some sort!
Jumpingbananaboat wrote:BUGS:
-A bug that I could only replicate with the sentries in that if they follow you to a low wall, you jump up and they try to jump after but can't reach and they keep jumping. If you fall down onto the same spot they're in they'll teleport up and fall onto you repeatedly till you move or stun them.
-Somehow lost a enemy when I was stabbed mid-air by a sentry, couldn't replicate it again.
-Was hit while had indigestion in the burping frames part and lost a enemy.
I noticed I wasn't throwing up any enemies anytime I was hit with indigestion though I still lost them from my belly.
-Pressing shift on indigestion animations cause them to replay and repeat.
- First bug is due to their AI and how their current attacking collision works - they're designed to jump when pursuing the player, up against a wall, and the player is above them (but not so far above that they're completely out of reach). The jumping was likely just due to you almost being in reach, but not quite (or they didn't have a solid platform to land on and start attacking, as they won't move if otherwise in attack range). The teleporting was then caused by the fact that their collision box is extended while attacking, which then causes them to technically be inside a wall - next the safety net code triggers to get them OUT of walls, and suddenly they're on top of that wall you were on - or at least until they finish the attack and their collision box returns to normal, resulting in them falling back down again. HOWEVER, I recently wrote some cleaner code to do the same job which (somehow??) eliminates the teleporting issue entirely (they SHOULD just be bumped back first instead of up - GM Studio scares me when things work better than they're supposed to, it's usually a sign that something worse will happen later). This issue should become entirely redundant though when I switch to unique collision boxes for attacks, rather than relying on the entity's collision box.
- I haven't been able to replicate the regurgitate bug - did this happen every time you started the game from the main menu? Are you able to get it to happen again? Regurgitate still works fine for me upon indigestion and anything else - my best guess is somehow the prey types weren't stored upon eating the enemies, and the game didn't know what type of enemy to replace when regurgitating, but I can't tell for sure if I can't get it to happen myself.
- Indigestion shift thing fixed!
Thanks again for all your feedback, especially the bug/inconsistency reporting - it really helps out! I'll have an update uploaded shortly with the fixes I was able to do.
I'd originally decided to leave this in as a feature in case people wanted to enjoy struggling more without having to be re-eaten and losing more health.
