Insane Difficulty: Beta Testing - Feedback - Insane Difficulty

Windviper245, on 24 December 2014 - 10:19 AM, said:

So, you know how I said that. I had fallen into the "noob to difficulty mods" trap.

The battle became a breeze once I tried a different approach. Changing my unicoded, rigid folder to a more powerful , long ranged folder did it.

BubbleMan itself isn't that much harder from vanilla in his V1, tbh. The pain is left for the next versions.

Also! I'm documenting the drops from each single enemy, which means that I'll be able to fix some subtle parts of the mod, like Puffballs, Vineys, Brushmans and others not giving chips often enough. The change will be somewhat subtle, but the result will be the player having lots of more options when making folders and progressing through the game!

Alright, I started setting up the beginning of recordings to get the sound volumes right. And I did a test run for some of the initial stuff. My god, the beginning is much better than before. It's not overly crazy, but the setups are clever like the rock with the fishy and the blowing fan with the ratton and the mettaur. I can appreciate the setups for the fights now because all of them aren't designed to literally decimate Megaman before he can really set up some stronger folders.

I'll actually start getting the stuff done for Saturday. I'll try to get about a 30 minute segment each time. I also had to finish a playthough of a wretched game as part of the bargain, so I've been getting most of the recording practice for THAT. So now, I'm more accustomed speaking here so it'll be a lot better. I have more praise than anything else this time around from what I've seen.

Thank you, hearing that helps me a lot. I haven't had much feedback since the general nerf down and that's good.

There's still one final major change that will complete my vision for the game's economy: Redesigning the Green / Blue Mistery Datas and the shops around them. I'm gonna nerf the shops curve a bit and redesign the Mistery Datas from scratch. My idea behind it is that the expected zenny will be a lot lower, but it will depend on both the Mistery Datas and the battles.

There's a mindset from vanilla where 1. you expect to run out of money at some point, and 2. you will farm out Mistery Data to get said money. I want to change that in a way that you'll end up being able to buy some items from the new shop, or most items of the old shop, progress, and repeat with the next shop. Then end up with tons of money at the Post-Game part because of a few Mistery Datas. That should avoid most Zenny Farming.

Ehem. Anywho. Thanks for the feedback, I'll be looking forward to the vids.

So here's the first video. Like I said in the video, I'm going to do a 30 minute section each time so there's more to discuss for each section. I'll be back a little bit later to talk more.

Okay, I take many things from the video.

I'm at a weird place with the WindBox and Fan. They're suposed to be used until you get access to the UnderNet (where you fight StormBoxes instead), hence the 100 HP. Maybe lower them down to 80 HP?

The HP of most enemies seem right, but some of them are still too fast. I've nerfed Bunnies and Ratties for now, and nerfed Quaker's damage.

The biggest thing I take from the video is a totally different one though - it reinforced the feeling of the need to polish the whole economy of the game. Prices need to be lower, or drops need to be higher. I'll see how I work it out, I need some time to study it thoroughly.

In general though, I get a good feeling from the gameplay I saw, except for the low amount of Zenny you ended up with (which translates into less tools for the player). Still, these videos help me a ton, let me assure you. Thanks!

I understand with Windbox and Fans. I think I remember there not being 3 versions like most viruses. You think that it's possible to add some? Maybe you could use those viruses in place of Punk? Think about it: Punk doesn't actually drop anything, so you could, in theory get rid of Punk version 1 and Punk version 2 replace them with Viruses, buff Punk and make him a super boss that you can use to test folders against a relatively powerful opponent that drops a decent amount of Zenny. Now you have some other super boss outside of Bass for people to fight in a relatively safe location. If that's not possible, then yeah, I'd say 90 hp or 80 is fine. The main thing is that they should be able to be killed with 2 chips, because, while it's been years, I remember them always being to be killed by 2 chips and what made the boxes annoying is that they were generally with annoying mobs, not that they were pretty beefy (which they only are because of how early they are appearing now). As of now, the only chips that can 2HKO them are swords and minibombs. Speed of the bombs actually doesn't matter, but being perfectly 3 panels away does, as that could be difficult to maneuver to (though not impossible I suppose) for hitting them when they are pushing or yanking you around.

Yeah, I felt like the hp of all the enemy values was pretty spot on. Nothing too ridiculous for where I was. Everything was manageable. I don't mind them being slowed down either. It'd help because in the beginning you don't have many quick chips.

Another idea is to actually start the player out with money. Perhaps giving them around 3000 - 5000 Zenny at the start of the game? That gives them a little wiggle room to buy a few things with the current drop rate and still have money to buy healing items too without feeling like they have to grind. Plus, it gives them the option of buying HP Memories versus Chips. Do you want more offense or do you want chips? Or, you could buy 1 hp memory and a good chip (or a couple of weaker chips for extra customization) for the start. If you can't do that, then how about changing that blue treasure box in the beginning to a drop that's clearly made to get them started?

Augestein, on 19 January 2015 - 08:59 PM, said:

There's 4 actually, like all viruses. Windbox, Fan, StormBox, and WindboxOmega. Fan is the only one that does the fan effect, but I'll most likely be able to change StormBox into having a Fan effect.

StormBox and WindboxOmega will most likely have the same HP, and be used as Tier 3 viruses (for the UnderNet and beyond).

I've already modded the drop rates of each single Navi. You'll be able to get the Punk chip from Punk.

About the money... Instead of making Lan start with money, I'll design the BMDs to give fixed Zenny, in order to give him the tools to buy from the shops as you suggest.

Did not know that there were four of them. You know, it's nice to play this game again, because it's been so long since I've played the original. But yeah, BMD seems like the best way to give the player access to more money without destroying the economy in the game that's set from the base game. You'd have to overall change less, and you wouldn't have to worry about the standard ratio of enemy drops for Zenny and instead can focus on what you are absolutely sure that the player will have.




A bit late, I got a little sick this week. Ha.


Also, what the heck at all of your posts having "-1" on them. What's up with that!?

Someone probably went on a nerd rampage

Augestein, on 28 January 2015 - 09:00 PM, said:

Oh, that was me. I heard Hart was fucking other guys, so i got revenge.

What the hell? I didn't notice anything.

And who am I fucking with? O.o I'm here working with this ROM all alone, not even chatting.

Augestein, on 28 January 2015 - 09:00 PM, said:

Watched the video yesterday, what I mostly take from it is that, while the formations aren't horrible right now, they could still use some work. You're giving me a lot of perspective by watching your gameplay. I'd be mostly interested in seeing the boss battle coming up, especially with the folder you're building right now.

This time I spent more time finishing up the little parts of the story than most else. Also, I got slaughtered by Gutsman V2. But that was mostly due to shoddy playing than anything else. Although, that punch hit me like a truck.

Nice, I'll watch this tonight and post it afterwards. I'm interested in seeing those boss fights.

This was a good video for the feedback on the battles, thanks.

FlashMan seems about right as is, any faster or slower and he'd be either too crazy or vanilla-like. You also ended up with plenty of HP (~60) which means that it's dealing just enough damage for a first boss. It allowed you to adjust to his attacks and time your chips against him.

GutsMan sounded right as well. A very erratic boss, which randomly cracks a column and makes you think about your next move. If you're able to manipulate him, he's toast, which is what you did. And he gives a pretty good chip for the beginning.

Now GutsManV2, what happened there is pretty much my intention with him. The guy is totally beatable at that point, with the same strats as GutsMan, but he hits like a rock in this version, cracks more panels, and moves a lot faster. AND you're not even required to beat him, he's just a bonus price with the early GutsManV2 chip (which 1 shots most of the early battles, especiallly if you stack Atk+10 chips on it). This is meant to give a warning to the player about the mod, and about GutsMan in general (because let's face it, no one died to GutsManV2 in vanilla).

Damn, this sure motivated me to keep working on BN.

Alright, so the next video is in line today. I just finished getting it posted. Because there was a lot of running around in the story, it's a bit longer than normal. And this... Marks the first video where I actually die (everything is unedited, as I feel that it's better that way instead of only showing things where I win).

So here are my forum thoughts: some of the speeds of the enemies are really starting to rear their ugly heads at moments. I don't mind things being a bit faster, but some of the enemies in conjunction with each other make for some incredibly nasty combinations. And I feel like the mole enemies have a bit too much hp, as I actually looked that up and the original one had 10 hp. It's just an annoying enemy, and in the beginning the only real chip that you can use on it is Gutsman. This wouldn't be so bad under normal circumstances, but charging is the only real way to kill those things.




And yeah, I'm going to remember that Bug that makes Megaman do what I want: there was a combination that made it to where your rapid fire was mucked up and would force you to use a shield when you double tap B. It's incredibly useful. Although I'm tempted to cheat this by NOT using bugs until AFTER I get my style change (I'm hoping my style change is actually Elec, as this is easily my favorite style for the paralyze feature that you get.

I'll keep working on it for next week though. As I'm actually starting to be in the mood to play a lot now.Plus, I just cleared up some of my time because I've gotten my life in a really clean rhythm right now.

Augestein, on 08 February 2015 - 08:36 AM, said:

You're mistaking the Mole enemies from BN2. Those dohave 10 HP, and take 1 hp per hit, being buster or chips. BN3 Moles are called Momogras, and are common enemies with 4 versions as usual (regular, alpha, beta, omega).

As of now they have 60 HP iirc (unless I changed it to 60 in my own file for the next version). They used to have 80 HP but that was silly because they have their own defense. I might change it to 50 then.

I'll watch the vid now.

Glad to hear that you sorted your things out. That's always a good thing to hear.

Also, I don't consider bugs (Navi customizer bugs) as cheating, at all. Hell, I haven't used them yet, but I will in my next playthrough, because Bugstyle is my favourite one (especially ElecBug). Second one would be ElecCustom, third one AquaCustom.

Really? Mole was in MMBN2? Geez. Maybe I did check up the wrong one then.


Either way, that's good then, because that was easily my favorite one. Elec bug is nice because you can get the invincibility and just WRECK things with it in a short time frame.

But yeah, prepare for the videos to be a bit longer from now on.

I'm seeing lots of problems (from my end) here. Some of the Scilab formations are too obnoxious, same with ACDC3 (things like Quaker + Ratty, or Mettaur + Quaker + Fan will be gone, at least in the ACDC areas. I might add them in the FlashMan dungeon, we'll see), and the Needler charges too fast.

What the hell is that with the guy telling you the "evil navi" guy was in Scilab Square. That's stupid. I'll try and fix that dialogue before the next release.

The Arrow chips are incredibly good, they just have a bit of a learning curve to aim them. The Airstorm chips got an upgrade for the next version, they now deal more damage and their "fan" duration is shorter, so MegaMan isn't that much of a sitting duck while using the chip.

Another thing is that I'll make it so it's a bit easier to run away from battles. It should be a curve as well, where it should be a bit tougher in the mid-end game.

I'll be rewatching your previous videos because I'm noticing many things that could use improvement.

Also, I gotta emphasize about the economy. I've been thinking about it and I'll make the Scilab and ACDC Square shops *very* cheap, so that the player gets more than 1 or 2 items from each on his first visit. Also, the overall prices will be lower, because the main source of Zenny (green mistery data) will be nerfed. On top of that, battles will be a lot more Zenny (minimum zenny per battle will be 150 in the lowest rank, in the first formations). Now, the player won't be able to buy everything with little grinding, but that's not a concern. I'm planning on changing one of the BMDs in the post-game so that, once you get to a certain part of the post-game, you get the necessary money to buy everything. That should make up for a good spot on the economy during the main story, with little to no grinding required (and leaving the chance to the player to grind money if he so requires), and then reduce the boring aspect of grinding Zenny in the post-game.

Also, Momogras are definitely getting changed to 40 HP.

Small thing to note, Momogra is only there in the scripted battle, it's not a regular encounter... Until the next chapter.