Insane Difficulty: Gameplay and Development Discussion - Insane Difficulty

I actually found the spikes in Armored Armadillo's Sigma stage fight rather annoying, so I like that change a lot. I thought the spikes on Chameleon's were fine, and on D-rex, they were negligible since you really have to be wall-hopping a lot anyway.

Digging the Flame Mammoth jump adjustment, that's a good idea.

Boomer Kuwanger's refight is definitely a tough one. I will say that I found it satisfying to beat, though. It is annoying (for the first time, at least) that you can beat him and then fall through afterwards, however. Not sure what you can make of that, since spikes can't currently replace the gaps.

As for the spark attack from Spark Mandrill on his stage's fight, I don't know where he was positioned, but I remember purposefully dying and resetting the fight 3-4 times to see if they would ever circulate the room, and they never did. So if they do circulate, either I got lucky, or it is, IMO, rarer than it should be (it is definitely one of the more challenging components to his refight in Sigma 3).

I would recommend letting people test your Pre-final adjustments for HP/Enemy DMG/Enemy HP/All AI changes before releasing 2.0.0, imo. But if you feel you've done enough testing, then by all means.

That's all I've got for now!

Vexium, on 05 October 2014 - 09:38 PM, said:

I'd bet then that what you're remembering is from his old arena:



As there was no wall to collision with, the sparks used to go off screen and de-spawn, aka not circulating. If you ever happen to experience it in the new arena, let me know through here or PM and I'll check it out again. (I'd puzzle the hell out of me though, since I haven't touched that AI whatsoever)

Yes, when I get even closer to what 2.0.0 would be (hint, it's not *that* far away), I'll be asking for a few testers (2 or 3 should be enough), more than anything to rule out any unexpected camera locks / weird enemy positioning... stuff like that, which by now is unlikely to happen (afaik, 2.0.0 so far is glitch free). But, you never know.

Thanks for the feedback.

You are 100% right about the spark-wall collisions. I was definitely thinking of the older version with the lack of floor there. I think I remembered having feedback on it, and I recalled my old feedback instead. My bad on that. What I was actually thinking of for this version was that the spark balls mostly stop after traversing the ceiling once and on the opposite wall's 'spike' area, so my thoughts were to extend the duration ever so slightly (so that they reached the mid-point on the wall instead). My bad for the confusion!

Also, remember all that stuff relating to damage I was mentioning? I think my main issue lies with the Armor Upgrade still. Trying to beat the levels w/o the armor upgrade, the damage is appropriately brutal. Is it possible that the Armor Upgrade is affecting damage differently for certain enemy projectiles/effects? It felt that way to me, I think. All I know is the Armor Upgrade still provides a massive boost to survivability, with the higher life meter and what I perceived as differing levels of damage reduction from enemy attacks. The light sparks in the early portion of Spark Mandrill's stage come to mind again. Without the armor, they hurt like hell. With the armor, you can tank the damage if necessary. Just something to consider.

Vexium, on 05 October 2014 - 10:44 PM, said:

Ah, good stuff. I'll be checking that out today, it's definitely a possibility. I know for a fact that the Upgrade doesn't affect spikes damage, but it could also not affect the sparks, and certain types of projectiles. I'll be checking that out today, thanks! That's the exact thing I need to polish them changes.

About the sparks... I'll consider it. Since in the refight the duration of them is quite long already, I'd have to make an exception for it to only be in the first fight. But it could be for the better, since I've noticed the duration could be nerfed for the refight. I'll be checking that out as well.

Armored Armadillo's stage is fully modded, and that makes two stages compeltely redesigned from scratch!

That makes me wanna release a version!! So tay on your toes, because there will be yet another version before 2.0.0!

To do for 2.0.0:
-Redesign second half of Launch Octopus
-(Possible redesign of Storm Eagle's stage?)
-Redesign to optimize some parts of Spark Mandrill's stage
-Feedback you guys provide after the release of the next version!

I'll be testing with a selected few the new version before releasing it. It should be up before the end of the weekend.

Stay hyped!!!

Current and last version before v2 is v.1.4.8!!!

Remember guys, I need all of the possible feedback for the very last version!!

Just remember that Launch Octopus, and Storm Eagle are getting redesigned as well!!

SEVEN EXCLAMATION MARKS!!!!!!!

Kaffe Myers, on 12 October 2014 - 07:08 PM, said:

You'll get ten!!!!!!!!


!!

I've just finished the last edition to the menu. Now, where the life counter was, there's now a counter for how many Heart Tanks you have collected. Two examples below:

My only suggestion so far is to change the flamethrower somehow so it doesn't start firing if you switch to it while you're charging a shot. Weapon energy is so crucial that I start charging and then switch to the weapon that I want to fire a charged shot with, but once you hit the flamethrower, it immediately starts shooting and consuming energy and you can't switch from it.

Stann, on 17 October 2014 - 11:51 PM, said:

That's a good suggestion. It will take a little while, but I'm sure I can do that for v2, thanks.

Storm Eagle's stage just got redesigned from scratch. With Sting Chameleon's stage, they both form the group of "intended first stages" (labeled 'Novice'). This one gives lots of freedom to Mega Man to move, in comparison to other stages such as Armored Armadillo (where you are literally in a cave).

One big gripe I had with this stage was the platforms at the very middle of it. After quite a few hours I was able to modify them at my leasure. They form a fun yet kind-of-predictable speedy area.

One thing to note - I wasn't able to do anything fun with the Head Upgrade. None of the upgrades are forced now, but the Head Upgrade just demands a somewhat precise wall jump, sadly.

To do for v2:
-Redesign Boomer Kuwanger
-Redesign bits of Spark Mandrill
-Redesign second half of Launch Octopus
-Redesign bits of Sigma 1
-Polish the very beginning of Sigma 2 with the platforms (of hell)
-Enhance the rest of the regular enemies' AI

-Make a patch (for self use) that converts Hard Type into Soft Type (more of that later)

Stay tuned!!!!

Finally got rid of a really annoying bug present in the original. There are certain enemies that have solid collisions, where you can stand, or wall jump from them (e.g. Axe Max, Laser Sensors, Walls from Boomer's stage). All of those wouldn't let you Dash Jump off them while climbing. I've fixed this for the player to be able to dash jump off as with any other platform.

As certain level designs work with these collisions (By making you interact with them), this change was pretty much required. It should help the player feel the designs more natural and dynamic.

Now off to redesign Boomer Kuwanger's Stage!

I"m guessing that would also apply to sprite-based objects like the Sigma 1 platforms? those have a huge issue with dashing.

Yep, exactly those, sprite based objects. From the top of my head I remember those I listed above. I don't remember if you could Climb dash off Sigma's platforms (Also, Sigma2, not 1, aka Sigma Head). But if it is, I simply negated a branch that affects all of them, so it will be fixed as well.

that is possibly the most beautiful change you've implemented yet... super excited to see how it turned out

Even more than the neon jumps?

So since dash is not forced, can you complete the game without it? I feel like if you could the game with dash would be too easy.

The head upgrade never saw much use anyway, its a bit awkward tbh. I wonder if there was some way to give it another use?

Dash is still forced after the Intro Stage, I haven't touched that. What I meant with "no upgrade is forced", I meant it more to the old designs of Storm Eagle and Chill Penguin, where you were forced to go past an E-Tank, a Heart Tank, and the Head Upgrade.

I'm not sure I wanna open that window about the head upgrade aura. I've already tried my best to implement the feature into the levels (notable the new Sting Chameleon), and coding something more for the upgrade could cause bugs, and delay V2 (not to mention the time it'd take to actually code it, since I'm no master hacker myself).

Hart-Hunt, on 20 October 2014 - 06:51 PM, said:

honestly, it's about even. those sigma 1 floating platforms are hell even in the original to deal with because of that bug. this is a huge addition honestly.