[ACTIVE] Another Story in Halcyon

[Dash]

Well, the way I envision it is that every area where you can potentially have a fight with a Reaver will have that areas theme...and then underneath have a "combat" theme for said area. Whenever you enter battle, the area music still plays, but the combat theme fades-in.

It's more or less layering things to give that particular theme a combative feel. I can make an example track if you're not clear on the idea.

[Dashe]

I get it, but I can't speak for Truner.

[JMC47]

Well, considering the recent interest in how music works, I bring to you the third video of the ASH dev series: Mood Swings.

Because I explained a lot of the basics of ASH’s gameplay in the previous episodes, this one is actually going to focus on simple dig to the bottom of one of the random ruins, featuring the dynamic music in action. Unlike the previous videos, which had editing, cuts, and other things to prevent glitches and errors of any sort, this one is one continuous playthrough all the way to the bottom. As I explain in the video, please do not take this as a finished product, or even a representation of how digging is going to be in ASH. With a single reaverbot active and many of the animations incomplete, a lot of the options are stymied.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=07jOGyUghtA

As always, I’m already looking for more suggestions for upcoming videos, so feel free to post your ideas or message me privately.

[Mikéy]

Aaaaaawesome!

Those Foo-Roos must've been working out, taking more than one shot to take down. They're a whole lot scarier in the dark. :22:

The rainbow armor bit was pretty funny. Glad you included it for the full-fledged Watchers.

The sound engine is clearly working in tune with the Foo-Roos, and everything else is just plain brilliant. What really had me curious was how all of the lights go out when the refractor is taken. Do you have to go all the way back up the same way you came? Will the place be smothered with reaverbots? I crave your plans for this. The escape is always the most exciting part.


edit: oh yeah, The title "Mood Swings" was the name of the song chain my marching band class played out and rehearsed over and over and over again back in Freshman Year. Thanks for reminding me of all the pain, exhaustion, and downright fun time. I actually got a bit of a chuckle out of it.

[Dashe]

I'm getting a serious Jet Force Gemini vibe from this latest installment. This is a good thing.

As for questions and possible topics of interest, what does the epoxy kit do? Is there an item synthesis system in the works or something? Is there going to be some way to actually view the items in your inventory? Which Reaverbot's next on your development list? And how are you planning on handling special weapons?

[JMC47]

The Epoxy Kit is an unfinished item. Mixed with items you can make items stick to walls and reaverbots. My personal favorite item, which is sadly disabled, is the sticky bomb. I believe I've stuck twenty or more on a single foo roo.

[MayImilae]

Do you have to go all the way back up the same way you came? Will the place be smothered with reaverbots? I crave your plans for this. The escape is always the most exciting part.

The random ruins is sorta a "challenge mode", so it's a bit different from what the main game will be like. But in the main game, our plan for the reaverbots is to avoid the classic "respawn" as much as we can. When you kill a reaver that patrols a specific spot, it stays dead. You can leave the room and reenter, go down to other floors, on and on, and the patroller that filled that spot will still be gone. Reaverbots will never reappear in the same spot. However, if you get spotted by a reaver, reinforcements will come fairly quickly and replace them in the room. But they instead of just going to the exact spot and adapting the same exact position, they go to the general area the previous reaverbot was in and then adopt their own patrol. Of course, this means the reaverbot "ping" is far more important. If you can kill all the reaverbots in an area without them noticing, that area will remain empty for the rest of the dig.


I kinda wish JMC kept going with the vid through the escape... The refractor makes you easy to spot, and the reaverbots are mad as hell! Oh well, we can always show it in a future video .

[JMC47]

The reason I didn't show the way up, other than the fact that it would have probably added another ten minutes to the video, is that there are some silly things that are a bit incomplete. I mean, maybe in an upcoming vid, I'll at least show the differences in AI and playstyle required, as well as a few tricks I learned to help. But, unless I can get a really clean run from refractor on, I probably won't show a complete run.

[Raijin]

The music transitions were certainly impressive...though I'm not sure they're what I would want most of the time. A lot of times in that video, the music would suddenly get all tense a moment before the reavers actually appear, basically giving away the surprise. That feeling of not knowing what's around the next corner is one of the great things about MML. Still, the dynamic music style ought to be fun if used sparingly. It probably depends on how many tunes like that Dash can make where the different moods transition so seamlessly.

[JMC47]

Heh, we noticed that in testing after I did the record. That was literally my second attempt, and since then we toned down the sensitivity of the combat music.

The problem is, you don't want it going off too early, but you also don't want it being completely crazy out of nowhere. Combat has been tweaked heavily, it doesn't even come on when you're just fighting on reaverbot unless it drags on for a bit. So if you get into a quick skirmish, it won't even ramp up all the way any more. We also tweaked tension to not come up from such great distances so that the player would clearly get a shot of the reaverbot before the music kicks in.

One of the issues though, is the fact that we sometimes don't know if a player has seen a reaverbot or not in certain situations. In low light, do we just assume they didn't? Do we keep the calm music when you're sneaking through a room? Do we only go to the second stage when multiple reaverbots are around? We have a lot of options to consider, and the two videos I recorded were basically test runs of the system. The music is supposed to come after you react, but, of course, it isn't perfect... yet.

I hope this clarifies everything for you!

[Trege]

I always loved seamless transitions whether it's stage or music transitions it adds creepy factor to the ruins when something suddenly finds you.

In the future do you guys plan on adding knockdown at all like the original games have where if you get hit while jumping you fall or if you take a big hit you get knocked down?

[JMC47]

It's a two part problem actually.

One is that the current rig (it's being fixed) isn't too cooperative to being moved much. As such, knockback and knockdown haven't been animated. To put her on her back would lead to some polygon problems that it isn't worth fixing until a new rig is ready.

The bigger part of the knockdown equation is the tech needed to do it right. Simple animations might cut it for testing and such, but, we're actually aiming for proper ragdoll physics. Not the first generation stuff that just flops down with no real regard for how people react, but more modern with some intelligence put into it.

So, in the videos, it's basically an incomplete feature because of our rig and incomplete physics engine.

[Loken]

We understand this isn't the finished project JMC.
When you have the refractor can you use your gun? Because if not that's awesome, I'd love to have to run past all the reavers with the refractor in my hands.

[JMC47]

I prefer dropping the refractor and using it to reflect shots around corners, but that's just me.

EDIT: I should probably answer the question too, instead of just giving out tricks I learned. I don't know, to be honest. Either it's going to limit mobility some, or it'll force you to use both hands. Right now it doesn't affect gameplay, which is why I didn't show the trip to the surface.

[Qwertman]

Wow, this looks really slick. When do we get a demo?
I wonder how you can make the explosions look better... They seem to be a little behind everything else in terms of polish.