Insane Difficulty: Gameplay and Development Discussion - Insane Difficulty

With the release of the Second Sigma Stage in version 0.8.3, I'm here to announce that the next version will be the first playable full Beta.

Next version will include both Sigma Stage 3, and the final battle against Sigma and Velguarder.

Stay tuned!!

The end is near..

After the long deserved break, I'm back for good. It's time to finish Sigma stage 3, redesign some bits of armored armadillo and design the final battle against Sigma and his loyal pet Velguarder.

From the videos I've been watching of you guys playing, I've been able to get the feedback I've been needing. Weapons will now have a greater impact on boss fights, instead of being little to useless. The invisible frames after hit will be slightly reduced, being now the same as in vanilla. Also, the dash buster will now deal 1 damage to all bosses, instead of 2 to some, 1 to the others.

Stay tuned!!

Sigma 3 is now completely modded but not ready to be released, and that is because I still have to design and mod the final battle and redesign the little bits that I didn't like about Armored Armadillo.

Damage done by weapons has been altered again. It basically is the same as vanilla but instead of dealing 3 damage with the weaknesses, X now deals 2. In addition to that, the Fire Wave and the Electric Spark now deal 2 damage to bosses as well (except for bosses immune to either of them), to make them all around, awesome weapons.

Bospider's AI has been polished and made a little bit harder, and the pit in the middle of the arena has been removed, since more often than not the spiders would drop there.

D-Rex has a much more polished AI, which perfectly suits the new arena for him. If you expected a big fight against him, then you called it right!

More to come!

So I'm beat from working with Battle Network 3... And working with MMX seemed like a fun idea

I have LOTS of plans for the version 2.0.0 which, while it's not around the corner, will include all of the following:
-"You Get" animation Fix
-Complete redesign of: Intro Stage, Armored Armadillo (yes, from scratch)
-Redesign of most of: Chill Penguin, Sting Chameleon, Launch Octopus
-Polishes (meaning, small redesigns) on the following stages: Storm Eagle, Spark Mandrill, Boomer Kuwanger
-AI enhancements on ALL bosses
-Update on the boss' arenas to fit the newly AIs
-Fixes on every single bug reported
-Rerebalance of enemies' HP

If you have followed this project from the very beginning, then you may notice that the stages that will suffer the most changes are the very same ones that got designed first (+ Armored Armadillo). That is simply because my modding capabilities have grown a lot from there, as has my knowledge of the code. I feel very confident now that I'll be able to make the definitive version of those stages, to resemble more the original Megaman X spirit (fast paced) while preserving the Hard Type challenge (good examples of this are Spark Mandrill and Flame Mammoth's stages. Same with Boomer Kuwanger and Storm Eagle).

A little thing to add is that a special consideration will be had when designing the stages. I want them to be speedrun friendly. There are already in the current version some speedrun tactics (that are left to discover), and to give an example, I'm currently considering adding back the old Vile cutscene skip in Sigma 1.

Also, you've read right. AI enhancements on all bosses. Those are already modded here in my laptop and let me tell you, all of the bosses are pretty beast right now (yes, including Flame Mammoth and Chill Penguin). The arenas will be rethought now to add more mobility to the player when possible (except on special cases, like Storm Eagle).

So, I hope you get hyped with this!! If there is any ideas you would like to see revolving any of the regular enemies, let me know! Your ideas might be just what I need for the redesigns! Especially with Armored Armadillo (man, I love that stage, but I hate modding it).

My name is Advent Handburglar and I approve this message.

Well, you might just fix all the BS that I hated in Chill Penguin's stage. I'll try it again when you finish.

Hart-Hunt, on 10 September 2014 - 10:08 PM, said:

Thank you Advent for private testing the new Intro Stage.

We'll see how long you keep that tune when I murder and rape -- in that order -- each and every one of your chickens, one by one, slowly, while I make you watch.

In another news, I'm planning on reversing what I had done with HP. Heart Tanks will again add 2 to your max HP, and your initial HP will again be 16, just like in vanilla. So basically the old formula of 16 initial HP + 2*(8 heart tanks) = 32HP

I addition to this, I've just finished a hack that makes the Armor Upgrade reduce damage to 75%, instead of 50%. This will make the armor be less of a mandatory pick, since 50%reduction is essentially doubling up your HP. The end result should be players opting to do other stuff before grabbing the (previously almighty) still pretty damn good upgrade.

To preserve the feeling of having less life overall, I'll be tuning the damage done by each enemy. The result will be a game adjusted to the progression of grabbing the Heart Tanks, without being overpowered in the end-game by 1. The Armor Upgrade, and 2. 32 HP (as opposed to the current 20 HP).

And it will also fix the (aesthetic) bug that shows a fixed 20 max HP bar in the start menu, a bug that was introduced into the game by me to fix a soft-lock that occured when having an odd number of max HP (which won't happen anymore since Heart Tanks will add even HP now).

As a last note, it also seems like the damage reduction applied to the SPIKES damage (After grabbing the Armor Upgrade) lies in a different subroutine, which makes me think that I'll keep that as is, netting a 25% reduction on normal damage, and a 50% reduction on spikes.

Stay tuned! Any suggestions, you're more than welcome to post them here!

HP has been reversed to the original, AI has been enhanced, damage values have been documented on every single source of damage, designed and edited. All that's left is the redesigns of the stages, and we will have the ultimate, 2.0.0 version!

Gotta say, it feels good looking at that big HP bar once again. And the new AI man... The bosses ain't no joke. You're gonna have a surprise with most of them.

Stages to be redesigned:
Intro stage (already done!)
Chill Penguin
Sting Chameleon
Armored Armadillo

Stages to be partially redesigned:
Storm Eagle (only final part before getting into the ship)
Launch Octopus (after the checkpoint)

Stay hyped people, the redesign is looking better and better. Sting Chameleon will be a classic platformer level, designed to be more of a begginer-type of stage, but it will be fun as hell because of all of the varied jumps and platforms. You may compare it to Storm Eagle in this sense.

Want a little tease? Here's the rough layout of the new cave:


Yes, the breakable blocks are there as an aesthetic way of making it feel more cave-y.

Again, stay hyped!! This is getting closer and closer!!

my thoughts thus far on the AI changes:



saving my feedback until i play through the rest, but wow i love the looks of the intro and chameleon stages. very smooth design-wise, vast improvements in atmosphere.

Vexium, on 26 September 2014 - 12:18 AM, said:

I feed with your tears.

I mean, I approve of this message. I made that gy extra evil. Gotta earn that upgrade!

Hey Hart, check your PMs, if you haven't already.

So, I have been quiet these past few days, only because I'm working a fucking lot on this.

Chill Penguin has been completely redesigned and made worth playing, essentially. It's a relatively easy stage, with no Axe Max shenanigans (since there's already a few in Sting Chameleon). The first half of the stage has a consistently medium difficulty, because it's a long way til the checkpoint. There's a lot more risk on dying from low health, than from jumping into a pit. The second half of the stage is a duel against a few Ride Armors, with a wide open area for you to dodge, jump, dash and shoot. The Ride Armors can pack a punch, so decide when to ride your own Armor (you only get one at the beginning), and when to jump off the Armor to manually shoot those beasts so you can save your Armor for... well perhaps a Heart Tank? I'm saying too much already.

For the next update, I'm lowering the enemies' HP even more (goodbye damage sponges). The increased damage was spot on, in which it makes the game feel a lot harder, but because of the right reasons.

The AI changes on the bosses was something else I'm glad I worked on. Flame Mammoth now will change the stage floor twice (in a similar fashion as in the refight). Chill Penguin doesn't flinch anymore after being hit, which makes it a decent boss now.

Anyway, I'm so glad about the AI changes, that I'm enhancing the AI of most of not all of the regular enemies in the game. As this project is supposed to be a balance, then an enemy that takes 2 seconds to shoot a slow projectile in a fast paced game isn't very spot on, right? (Flammingle, I'm looking at you). But again, fear not, because not all enemies are getting enhanced (the beloved Jammingers, for example are staying the same), and when I say enhancement, I mostly mean removing unnecesary delay before attacks, so the stage feels more engaging.

I may be forgetting something... If you guys have any questions, feel free to ask. Same with suggestions.

On a last note. Do you think I should release the new Chill Penguin stage as soon as I finish the AI enhancement on the regular enemies? Or would you wait until I finish ALL of the other stages? There's still a lot to change before v.2.0.0 (which is supposed to be the definitive version, btw), but I like to tease you guys with bits of gameplay before it.

Stay tuned!!!

Sounds good. I'm excited to see how you changed Chill Penguin's stage. Feel free to release it whenever you feel.

As I was saying in PM, my main concern with reverting to original health bar is that some damage effects from certain enemies seems relatively weaker (e.g. Launch Octopus' projectiles and the light-sparks in the early portion of Spark Mandrill's stage).

The other main issue I had was the spikes being survivable for 3 hits with full HP / armor, such that you can just take the damage if need be. One place in particular I thought this was an issue was in Launch Octopus' stage, as mistakes on the spike sections became much more forgiving.

Those 2 things aside, loving the AI changes and of course Sting Chameleon's stage and the Intro Stage are really fun to play now.

And, not sure if this is intended or not, but Spark Mandrill's lightning balls just kind of disappear upon hitting the ground rather than circulate his stage's boss room (they do circulate on the 2nd fight), making them largely ineffective IMO.

First of all, thank you for reposting it in the forums. It helps keeping the discussion going.

Vexium, on 03 October 2014 - 04:00 PM, said:

This is something I wanted to ask the rest about. As is, the Body Upgrade gives 25% reduction of normal damage, and 50% reduction to spikes. There are obvious cons and pros about the spikes. What do you guys think about it? Should I keep the 50% reduction, or make it 25% as with the rest of the damage?

Vexium, on 03 October 2014 - 04:00 PM, said:

The current arena for Spark Mandrill is this (palettes aside):

As is, the only case where the lightning balls disappear should be if Spark is standing right above one of the two pits. Does it happen in another case? (if the boss is standing on solid ground)

Alright. Current progress for v.2.0.0:
-AI of all enemies enhanced (or stayed the same)
-AI of all bosses enhanced

Stages at their definitive version:
-Chill Penguin
-Sting Chameleon
-Flame Mammoth
-Boomer Kuwanger
-Sigma Stages

Some changes I've done last night was making the Electric Spark faster, and the Boomerang Cutter and Rolling Shield slightly faster. Those changes are meant to balance the weapons all around, making them more useful. As a reference, the Shotgun Ice is still the fastest of all 8 weapons (uncharged), but now all of the 8 weapons are quite useful on their own. So as you can see the speed increase was only meant as a balance - each weapon still holds its original spirit.

Some Arenas at the Sigma Stages have been redesigned, namely Sting Chameleon, Armored Armadillo, and D-Rex (in general, no spikes in neither of those arenas, except for the ceiling).

Flame Mammoth now jumps higher, and to balance that I've raised the ceiling up to the original height (in both the first fight and the refight of course). That gives the player a lot more mobility, while keeping the difficulty close to intact. It's now a more balanced fight.

The only part I'm not absoultely content with is Boomer Kuwanger's refight arena. What do you guys think about it? Yay, nay? suggestions?

In general, for the stages that I've listed above, I've replayed them and analyzed them carefully, and I've added more mobility on quite a few places for the player, so he/she doesn't feel confined and forced to confront each single enemy. Part of what makes Mega Man X what it is is also the ability to dodge certain encounters.

So, things to do before 2.0.0 (that I can think of right now):
-Redesign Armored Armadillo (the whole stage)
-Redesign bits of Spark Mandrill
-Redesign bits of Launch Octopus
-Redesign last part of Storm Eagle

I need your feedback guys! You are the ones who help me do this amount of work on the hack!!