CHARACTER BUNDLE, AS ALWAYS, IS DOWNLOADABLE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POST
Im also trying out the "purchase by post" feature that got added to patreon. I't sset for a 1 time purchase for unpaid members. If this is still trying to charge my already subscribed members, let me know and I'll disable it for the time being. I just wanna have the one-time purchase option available to non-subs.
One more quick note, I am using one of the more recent nightly builds. If my characters are causing issue for your build, shoot me a message and I'll pass off my build to you!.
At long last, I'm back and now with a reduced focus on commissions, I'm going to be much more active on this project. This update is focused on Rael and Feliro, who both received re-works. I'm not charging current patrons for this update. Thanks for sticking around, and Happy Holidays!
RAEL: The reasons for Rael's was the trouble I was having of figuring out exactly how I want her to play, but I feel pretty confident now that I have her on the right track. I just need to fill in some gaps on her normals and P button moves on the ground. Some new moves were added along with some adjustments to previous experimental moves.
Ability tweaks: Rael no longer has 2 air-jump/dash stocks. She has the standard 1. The reason for this is that now, she has a ton of air mobility options built into her moves. So I've left her to use those recourses. Her air-dash is also the move efficient in the roster so far, being a true momentum shift, which other characters don't have.
SUPER JUMP is now a unique command she has as a trade for the 2nd air movement stock. Super jumps, for characters that have the ability get them, are done by inputting D, U + a. This is not a universal skill, but something that only certain characters will get.
Power Moves of the now: Standing b - Wing slash: This is largely still an experimental placeholder. This is subject to change.
Air b : Glider! While the button is held down, Rael will begin to glide, the direction of which can be influenced with up or down inputs. Diving down will persist the move longer, upward will end it sooner. Releasing the button will cause Rael to start a combo chain, which can be continued with two more presses of the b button.
The attacks on this move at dummied up from other moves at the moment. I'm going to make 3 "wing attack" slashes done with the wings she forms for the glide.
As if right now, this glider can also become "Bail-out bomber" by pressing y during the glide. She will lunge backward slightly while dropping a bomb a bit in front of her.
This move can also be air-dash canceled if she still has her air-jump/dash stock.
Special Moves of the now: Pew pew [D,DF,F x] This is a simplified version of the laser gun idea. She just fires one basic shot forward. Damage reduces the further it travels.
Barrel Roll [D,DF,F y] This is a new, air-only special move. She will do a lateral spin sideways in the direction of the input, canceling any previous momentum. This attack does two basic hits, but also nullifies and hits non-super projectiles. Good air combo/juggle tool as well
TAKE OFF! [F, D, DF x or b] This attack is a Sakura-styled DP attack. x version goes a very short distance on the ground before launching up into an upper cut. The b version travels far on the ground first. Both versions of the attack leave her air-actionable after she stops rising, so they are combo starters or extensions from the ground to take the combo to the air.
Nose-Dive Grapple [D, U y or b] This attack is generally the same as it was before, but with the ability to cancel and re-jump with a y or b input during the arc. I felt this made the move have too much stall potential. The move as is, already has versatility as a dodging psudo-grab (it's blockable).
SUPER Moves of the now: Fire Rael [B,D,F y+b] This is the same super she's had for a while, I just made a small tweek to it to prevent my universal steering from altering it's movement.
I'm still thinking on another super to give her, along with an Omega super. I have ideas, I just need to test them.
FELIRO: The reason for Feliro's rework is that I felkt his game place was far too linier. In play testing I found myself responding to situations with the same one or 2 combo strings, and that was really the only options he had. Now, I've opened up more variance in the ways you can chain his moves together. I've decided that I really want to ground this lil guy more, instead of being so heavy on longer air-combos. So his kit relies more on shorter burst in the air to juggle with rejumps and such.
Special Moves of the now: Flurry Feets [D,DF,F x] This move was formally a unique normal, now a special move. I felt options previously were a bit redundant. So now, this is a fixed hit-count, linkable attack. The attack does 4 to 6 hits based on when the attack lands. if the first 3 kicks miss, Feliro will auto-end the attack quickly. If the move hits by the 3rd kick. he will continue to 6 kicks, with the last being a finisher attack. This attack is linkable to some normals. The air version is much weaker, but has juggle utility or each air-to-ground combo potential.
A limiter will be put on this attack, as he can currently infinity with links until my preventor kicks in at the hard cap. I will either build a limiter into this move. OR I've been thinking on a universal mechanic on my combo scalers that always force a fall-state on targets by the 8th attack used, forcing all combos to convert to juggles by that point, by which the juggle scaler will kick in.
Bolt Kick [D,DF,F y or b] This attack got a MASSIVE rework, and now has two forms. It no longer has a variable hold period, but two fixed timings and spacings based on the button used. The y variant is quicker and as a closer angle, along with less damage. The air versions of this move fall at much sharper angles downward. The attack has 2 hits: the initial drop kick and the spot where he hits the ground, causing a small lightning bolt and a juggle starter if the sweet spot connects.
This move can hit OTG and have a tight window continue a juggle after OTG from shorter combos.
Twist Gale [D,U y or b] This attack got a slight rework to make hits and the final placement of the target more consistent, making it much less likely for targets to fall out before the move finishes.
Mirage dash was dropped for the time being and might be fully replaced with another attack, but I haven't figured out what to replace it with yet. I've come to the conclusion with my rework that the utility it had was boring, or redundant to other tools.
Feliro's dash attack is now just his Dust Devil Dance, but with a high starting speed. I'm likely dropping "Dash Attack" as a universal input and just making them situationally unique for some characters.
SUPER Moves of the now: Lightning Rod [D,D,D y+b] Feliro will summon a big lightning bolt from high above to strike himself. The resulting blast does 2 hits of damage. The bolt itself and the blast. Too high up and the target will only get hit by the bolt, too far to the side, the target will only get hit by the blast. Generally it's easy enough to consistently hit the sweet spot though.
Hyper Flurry Blitz [F,D,FD y+b] This attack got some adjustments. I had not realized originally that this attack was doing different amount of hits (and damage) based on when in the starting travel the attack connects and starts. I decided to keep and embrace this and adjusted it a bit. This attack's top damage is slightly weaker than the lightning rod, but it's more versatile. I now have him use the animation of air-flurry feets, which he will do for a certain amount of time from activation before a finishing 4 hits.
As far as Feliro's Omega super goes. I will end up replacing this concept with a more straight forward move. If I keep the custom combo nature of it, what I might do instead is something akin to "Deadly Rave" but more variable. Something where the initial hit needs to land, but if it does, it opens up the window for a more fixed, structured custom combo.
OR, what I could do instead is swap one of the supers into an Omega (likely Hyper Flurry Blitz) and make this install a fixed-timer super instead. I think I'm liking the idea of Omega's being more of a set spectacle rather than an install. So installs going forward will instead be "EXs" or Supers.
That should be it for now. There's various other small changes I made to these characters, but nothing is sticking around 100% yet. I'm waiting to see how things refine before I go into SO much detail.
Thanks again and happy New Year and hope your holidays were great!
Hiatus on the game work has taken longer than I expected. Things are starting to look better as I've reached the point with my commission queue where I see the light at the end of the tunnel. Lots of big projects are in the final stages. Then I just have hand full or smaller things to knock out.
It's just been a bit of an adjustment getting used to my new routine and I've wanted to prioritize finishing lingering coms while giving myself time to avoid burnout.
I'm looking forward to having a lot more time to work on personal projects once this is all done, and it looks like it'll be a nice fresh slate to bring in the new year.
Ive been doing small amounts of work on the game here and there. But not enough to be substantial. I'm gonna start going hog wild on it come January. I have at least another two characters I want to add to the roster.
Payment cycles were put on hold again and might be again at the end of this month as well. When the hiatus is cleared, I'll make an announcement.
Like the title says. I'm still not quite up to speed on the game stuff yet. Some other priorities came up, so I'm not gonna charge until I get another good update ready for the next cycle.
Workin this new job and takin care of some other lingering projects. So I just need a bit more time before I get crackin again on the next wave of updates for the characters.
I may do a mid-month update, and then another for next month and then let the pay-cycle go for that month. Will see!
Just givin a quick lil update lettin you all know.
As promised, here's the free update for current patrons.
Download attachment at bottom of post. IKEMENGO ONLY. (nightly build may be required)
So, this update has a handful of smaller updates I've made over the last couple of months. AS HAS BEEN USUAL, I've been a bit of a scatterbrain with juggling tasks and my game work kinda fell into the background. I was looking to charge for this month, but eh, one more freebie until my gears shift for new life changes as I mentioned a bit in my post a couple days ago.
Ciacyl's and Shiren's AI have been polished up a bit more from the pre-AnthroCon Update I posted a couple months ago. Ciacyl's AI does not use his new projectile yet tho. It might still use the Dropped Spark Burst attack.
MANGO: Mango got a small change, I got rid of his unique parry. This is in preparation for the new update to universal guard I would like to make that has a sort of "perfect" defense option. I also think that Mango's defenses are already really good without it, so I'll instead convert some of that idea over to the new universal defensive gimmick.
FELIRO: Feliro got a small tweak to Dust Devil slightly increasing the startup a small amount. I also increased the mid-air recovery of it to hinder stalling ability a bit more.
I may later end up building in a universal anti-stalling mechanic that starts taking meter away if a character refuses to engage with a target for too long. I don't want to hurt zoners, I just want to discourage playing keep away over long distances without interacting with a target. But this is a task for a later day.
RAEL: Rael is holding a new experimental universal mechanic I've put in to avoid allowing characters to move too fast horizontally for too long. It is a soft limiter that starts reducing speed (currently 5% per frame) if over the threshold. Doing this to avoid additive and motion canceling from gettin out of hand. When I finish tweaking this, I will be putting this in onto the rest of the characters and adjusting some things on them as needed.
Rael's main update is a new experimental air-jump cancel to most of her air normals (excluding her down 1 and down 2 air attacks). I THINK that this route is FINALLY starting to feel more right for her. I may give some other characters an air-jump/air-dash cancelable normal here or there, but I wanted her kit to center around the gimmick.
The current Power button attack she has is a projectile idea I wanted to test out for her. I'm going to be replacing it with something different to be determined.
I have dropped the Kick ender to her Jab combo for now. I might give this a new ender option that acts as a simpler, but fast grounded combo option that isn't as rewarding as a juggle starter like her up-1 and up-2 attacks on the ground.
Grounded Up-2 jumps slightly lower.
In trying to figure out more what to do with her, I kinda looked at more material and I think maybe something like some of Alfred's gimmicks from Real Bout Fatal Fury might be interesting for her.
I instead might drop that long jet punch (or move/repropose it) in favor of a unique angled or U-shaped arching flying attack.
Rael does have a different functioning Super now, which is a large fiery version of the flying punch, which will be staying.
I tweaked the upward knockback of Rael's air-back-2 to better work with jump/dash cancel chaining into a Jigglypuff styled "wall of pain" style latter combo with her 2 air-jumps. It's a light skill-based timing combo that I think is rewarding enough to currently net about 300-350 damage without meter, pending on the move used to start the juggle latter and finished with The "heady-copter" special move.
Rael also has an experimental placeholder projectile in place of [D,DF,F + 1 ]. I'm going to make a new graphic and animation set for this attack, but the idea is to be just a basic, short ranged projectile. I'm going to call it "Wing Slash" where she'll do a two-handed swing to generate a quick swirling vortex that hits a few times before fading. It can be a basic ground combo ender, or a possible juggle tool.
CIACYL: Ciacyl's changes are small so far. I've droped the "Spark Burst" special attack to drop some redundancy in the moveset, but the BURST [x+y] version of it is still there.
Ciacyl has a new experimental projectile that he can use independent of the Psy Spark. It has two input commands: [B,D,F] OR [B, U, F] + 2. Performing the UPWARD half-circle throws the disk at his chest level. doing the DOWNWARD half-circle throws it low at a crouching position.
Ciacyl can now use Teleport even while the Psy Spark is in "Bound Mode." This opens up some fun movement options along with a fun way to cancel air-normals and play around with more combo options while it's still bound to him.
Ciacyl now has a rough draft of an Ax Kick that starts a juggle as his UP-2 attack. It's slow, but it hits hard and is a great combo tool.
Teleport now always makes Ciacyl airborne for consistent interactions.
Teleport now has a limiter to only allow it to be used once until he lands.
While the Spark is in "Away Mode" the spark somewhat follows his motion at about 67% speed.
THAT'S THE JIST OF THIS UPDATE. I think there might be a few small tweaks I made to other characters, but I honestly can't remember everything in all the business and how touch and go my updates to it have been.
With my new life changes, I'm intending to work a lot more consistently on this project once the rest of my commissions are finished. I really want to make my personal projects more the focus of my art time while doing commissions here and there in small bits instead of constantly like I have been doing. The fulltime Job I just landed will allow me to avoid art-related burnout while giving me a great personal gain of a good consistent income with a predictable steady schedule for once.
Just making a quick post while I'm away that I'm missing the deadline for the end of the month because I'm a butt and away from home for the weekend.
Doin one more no-charge month and on MONDAY I will post the bits of character updates to AI and Rael and Ciacyl experimental changes for free.
Mango is loosing his personal parry, as I will be bringing back a party like defensive option that is universal to all characters, functioning more as a 'perfect guard's or deflecting parry that don't give a huge frame advantage. I just wanted some kind of better universal defensive option that I will be coding this month.
PERSONAL UPDATE:
I'm soon starting a new job that's full-time and close to home. With this change. I'll be focusing a lot less on commissions and more on personal projects, this game stuff being a major one a lot more time will be going into each month. I still will do commissions but in much smaller controlled queues. this will be so that my art time leads to less art burnout.
It's a huge positive change for my personal life that will keep my art much more passion driven for the better.
More details about stuff should be posted on Monday along with the free update for current patrons.
I'm super excited about these changes that will enable a lot of new great things for me. Am excited.
Just lettin you all know I'm pausing monthly charges again for August 1st. I have some more updates, like the tweaked AI and some changes to Ciacyl (swapped out Spark Burst for a projectile that comes right from Ciacy.)
I'm still going to go ahead and post up This month's update in a day or two. It's just, again, not a very big update and this end of the month got a lil crazy with being busy busy.
The reason I swapped out this move is that Spark Burst felt too redundant for Ciacyl's Teleport attack. So rather than have 2 versions of the same move, I opted to instead give Ciacyl a new, better tool. I also have reworked Ciacyl's projectile reflector to use new features in the most recent NightlyBuild of IkemenGo. I wanted to experiment a bit with some new features that were added, namely a new way to actually grab player/entity ID's from ghost-hits, which is amazing. This helps make Ciacyl's reflect (and reflects in general) a bit more universally compatible. I have noticed some left over quirks with some characters made by The_None, as those projectiles have some special rules to them. I'm gonna keep picking at this, but it's much, much better.
ANYWAY, I think come August, I'm going to have a much bigger update coming along for you all, and possibly and 8th character added to the roster. I kinda hit a burnout after AnthroCon and had other things to take care of. I'll be gettin a lot more o nthe game done this month.
So look out over the next few days for that next (free) update!
WELP, keeping this short because I accidentally lost what I previously typed by accidentally backing out.
I wanted to get this update out free-for-patrons as promised either way.
This update includes:
WIP AI for CIACYL, RAEL, and SHIREN. All these AI are unfinished, Ciacyl's is the most behaved right now. I'll be polishing these out more during the long car-ride to AnthroCon24.
CIACYL got some new normals and such tweaked. A new Counter attack/Reflect (unfinished) , and an unfinished variant of the teleport move as a dodge and counter style move while the Spark is in follow mode. It still behaves very oddly in certain situations and I didn't get a chance to iron it out as it was a last minute addition while working on his AI. His AI did it, and I liked the idea.
ALSO INCLUDED:
3D WIP remake of my dock-side-day stage. I originally made this in Crocotile3D but that program lacked certain tools I needed to animate certain elements for IkemenGo, so I'll be reworking it in Blender with a plugin I found.
The version in this package is lacking the shading as I turned it off to have it export better over to blender, but didn't get much further than that.
THE 3D stage folder must be added to your stages folder intact. Don't remove the files from it. Similar to addeding folder'd characters just add: "stages\DockSideDay\Dock_Side_Day-3D.def"
ALSO, A PLATFORM TEST vertion of "Bunkle's Cosmic Training" is included. Only Mango's character is mostly compatible with it right now, as the current feature set of IkemenGo's recent nightly build lacks a universal option for compatibility.
For the platforms to appear, make sure you add the "VOID_TEST" character to your "chara" folder. I'll rewrite this later to draw from the states folder like the 3D stage. It's just how I ended up testing it out, as the "attachedchar" is technically a character I wrote and tested first before "attaching" it.
I stopped program on that, because IkemenGo's devs are adding in a new State Controller called "GroundLevel" which will make platform behavior more universal. So I wanted to stop and wait for that update rather than waste effort adding stuff to all my characters that won't be needed later.
That's all for now. I will try to post in another update of whatever AI tweaks I make on the road, AFTER AnthroCon next week.
I goofed up with last month's update I intended to drop in. I'm preparing my AnthroCon presentation for it, I'll be dropping my update here FOR PATRONS by Tuesday.
Just wanted to drop in a quick post that it's coming along with some other info and my true-3d stage WIP I started.
Just a quick post saying that I'm not charging for June, but I still have a small update coming that is a mainly a massive rework to Rael.
I wasn't really happy with the way her zoner build was panning out and I felt she was way too situationally reliant on spamming the hell out of her projectiles to get small combo windows. I felt if I made the projectiles any better, they'd just be TOO annoying. SO I've instead had inspiration after some chats with a couple friends to take elements of my Smash main, Jigglypuff and make her a lil bit more of a floaty bait-and-punish kind of character with good air movement. I'm also adding in some more movement into her specials moves that are replacing some of the projectiles. Already, she feels like a lot more fun with simple combos into juggle situations. She feel more fun and intuitive with this new design theory.
I'm saving the projectile code to use for other characters I think they will fit well for.
The free (for patrons) update is coming later tonight or sometime over the weekend!
More info about what I've been up to will be included in that post. See ya then!
Files included at the bottom of this post, but.... YOU CAN MESSAGE ME FOR A DOWNLOAD OF MY BUILD WITH MY CHARACTERS, STAGESAND STREENPACK ALREADY INSTALLED. If I don't respond here because it's easy for me to miss messages, I'm open to Telegram and Discord messages. I'm VinVulpis on both. Just leave me a message here on patreon and poke me on one of those two chat programs to let me know and I'll provide you the link.
Just posting a quick vid again. This shows off the finally working in IKEMENGO, Zoom function that I've started playing with.
Gejhi is the only character that currently has zoom function working, as I started learning how to use this towards the end of the month here. THIS MIGHT ONLY WORK AS INTENDED IN THE NIGHTLY BUILD OF IKEMENGO. I'm not certain, but discussions in the discord seem to imply that.
ALSO SOMETHING OF NOTE. I'm likely going to start offloading a lot of the mechanical stuff that all of my characters share, to it's own "VV_commons" file that will be needed for my cahracter to function. I want to do this because when I update universal mechanics, I now have to do it 7 TIMES. It's gettin a bit tedious to do. SO, The commons file will make my updates a lot easier. This will just be a file you slap into IKEMENGO's data folder and it'll work. It's rather nice because Mugen didn't have this ability to add on to negative state information. So I will be using this soon. Possibly next update.
I'm trying to avoid using too many "nightly build only" functions until they are fully implemented. There are options now for me to GREATLY simplify a lot of code, particularly for Armor states, where I wont have to worry about state-looping anymore for it. I can just call a special hit-override and a couple extra functions and it just works. But I know this is Nightly Build only.
NEW 3D STAGE WIP INCLUDED IN DOWNLOAD!This is my progress on remaking one of my old 2D stages in proper 3D now that the feature is available to IKEMENGO. This will be included in the bundle. It's still pretty early in, but I'm starting to figure out a good amount on how to do the 3D stuff, along with animating some of the assets in the stage.
YOU CAN MESSAGE ME FOR A DOWNLOAD OF MY BUILD WITH MY CHARACTERS, STAGESAND STREENPACK ALREADY INSTALLED.
The screenpack is still very unfinished, but I've grabed assets from another old MUGEN set I was making and started toying with new features here.
I've been doing a lot of reading and there's a LOT of stuff I want to start playing around with in the engine soon.
ALL THAT BEING SAID. I'll get to a quick run down of changes made. Gejhi, Aurumo, Feliro and Mango all have working command lists now from the IkemenGo built in Pause menu (pressing select). They will probs be tweaked quite a bit, but they are there and working now that I looked into how to install them. They are using default glyphs for now to make sure they generally work, but I'm modding mine to have unique glyphs.
Also, the nightly build of IkemenGo reworked how wall-counterpush works (when you slide backwards when hitting a foe against the wall. and I noticed some situations caused some crazy slides because of how I over compensated for Mugen's buggy counterpush. This is slowly being reworked on all attacks. I may write a new custom code for this as a catch all. I'll see how it works out.
GEJHI Inline with tweaking his moveset, I've moved some stuff around and gave him a new move. Phantom Tempest was moved to (D,DF,F + y) in the air. The same command as Phantom Leap, but in the air.
Gejhi now has a (temporary) version of Phantom Kick as his new Air Power attack. The attack's function is generally how I want it. BUT, the animations are placeholders.
Camera Zoom effects were added to his Omega attack on start up, and if the attack hits a target. (again, might be buggy in 0.99, the nightly build has it working properly.)
I dropped the animation of long-idle for Gejhi for now. This will likely be reimplemented later on.
AURUMO His jab was tweaked to come out 1 frame faster. His standing 2 was made 2 frames slower and no longer links from Jab. Effects were added to how Great Glacial Hammer, both a variable screenshake and a "burst" effect when the hammer hits the ground. Scaled based on how powered up the hammer is. NEW EX MOVE: BURST BREAKER. (B,D,F x+y) This attack is an enhanced version of his breaker Slash. It costs 1-bar like other EX moves. It has even stronger guard breaking ability and causes his to burst-slide forward during the slash. He has ARMOR during the charging period of this attack.
HIS AI HAS BEEN FIXED. There was a minor bug that was causing his AI to lock up if you whiffed throws at him. I realized there was an older version of the throw-tech code I wrote that the AI was breaking on. I made sure the proper throw-tech was installed on all characters.
Shield Parry had it's behavior against projectiles tweaked slightly. Mostly internal stuff changed, but only 1 hit will trigger it now, rather than a possible multi-hit projectile like it was occasionally able to before.
CIACYL Various small tweaks were done to what I have working for him so far, but nothing particularly new yet. His Psy Spark helper had it's HP tweaked (it's less now). It now costs a bit of it's HP to command it to attack while it's called out. It recovers HP quickly while it's in follow-mode.
Some of Ciacyl's attacks now get special properties while the Spark is in follow-mode. Great Crescent (his big power attack kick) gets Armor on the start-up. His throws have larger hitboxes and do more damage while it's in follow mode.
He has a placeholder air-throw now. Also has an air version (likely temp as a placeholder) of his standing-2 kick as his back-air-2.
The Psy Spark now properly stops at stage walls.
Psy Spark Warp Shot (D,DF,F x -OR- B,D,F x) had it's properties changed. It now only hits once on the returning shot. It's juggle abilities were tweaked a bit to make juggles slightly easier, but still playing with this.
Psy Spark Burst (D,DF,F y) now has new hit properties based on if it's in follow or away mode. It's hits away from him in Follow mode, and towards Ciacyl in Away mode.
He has an experimental SUPER ATTACK (F, D, DF y+b). Was just an idea I wanted to try. Not sure if I'm going to keep it.
MANGO Very small tweak, his ground slippery-ness was slightly reduced.
There is likely more that I'm forgetting, but I'm been ALOVER the place this month and I jumped around a lot on this and other projects.
Feel free to contact me like mentioned above if you have any questions.
Figured I'd try out the video feature for this one. Buuuut, this month we have the 7th WIP added, Ciacyl!.
Files are attached at the bottom of the post as usual.
Also sorry if I forget stuff, I'm in a rush and my memory is butt and forgot how busy I'd be this weekend. I'll update this post in a day or two if I remember anything I left out!
Ciacyl is still pretty early in, but he's already turning out to be a lot of fun to work on with his "Psy Spark" helper. Inspriration just kinda hit me hard to work on him. I've been unusually focused and motivated recently. I think it's the new pre-workout drink I've been taking that kinda gets me pumped to do things. Just a guess!
Either way, I've managed to get a lot of work done for Ciacyl out of nowhere along with trying out the new 3D stage feature IkemenGo added support for in the nightly build they have available. I will be going low-poly 3D for my stage work going forward, as this method is so much easier to work with. Crocotile3D is the program I ended up using to throw a quick test stage together and within a few hours I had most of the important stuff figured out.
I'll include this 3D test stage in the bundle if you wanna grab the nightly build and try it out. It was mostly just a testing ground for me to get basics down. All of really need to do is replace the ikemengo app file with the nightly app and it works.
UNIVERSAL CHANGES:
I made a set of quick fixes to every character to make sure their constant-variables were all accurate as it's something I forgot to do before. I fixed this to make certain character actions able to vary based on the size of the character they are interacting with.
OTHER QUICK CHARACTER CHANGES:
Feliro's throws will now make him jump up based on the character size he's throwing. Numbers will be tweaked a bit, but it works.
Mango's "Toy Box" balls now have a reworked bounce-on block code. This makes the bounce off the target a bit more varied based on where it bounces on the target. I also added a lil extra bit to make it unable to bounce straight up and bounce on the target multiple times.
SHIREN Had the command on her "power bomb" command grab changed to a simpler, half circle. The move had a slight damage reduction.
Shiren also has a Test OMEGA super now. (HC y+b) this is a dashing grab attack that can't be blocked. I will be tweaking the away this move works a lil bit in the future, but this can also catch falling targets during juggles. I just need to make it not grab regular air-targets.
Shiren's super command was changed to (HC x+y)
SO... CIACYL!
Ciacyl's focus is put around his Psy Spark helper. So far, 3 command specials are tied to it. The spark itself has 200 life points. It can be hit and even "broken" which will force it to go into a recharge state. The Spark will however, passively heal while it's in follow-mode.
NORMALS SO FAR:
Standing x is a multi-hit "jab". Holding the button makes it do more hits.
Stand Up-x is an upward multi-hit flick that's useful for juggles or anti-airing. It can be jump-canceled on hit.
Standing y is a big spinning kick. Ciacyl is throw-invincible while his feet are off the ground. This attack can be drifted right or left during the spin or during attack contact with a target. So you can drift it forward, and then backwards a slight bit when the attack hits a target if desired. (This attack currently also serves as his standing back-y just as a placeholder).
Air y is a standard Jump kick. It does more damage if it comes in contact with a target within the first 3 active frames. This knocked the target far away from Ciacyl.
Air-Back y is currently an altered copy of it's standing y. It does slightly less damage and has some of it's drift functions altered to only change slightly on hit based on the direction held. And usual, this attack can be performed in the forward direction by inputting B,F + y. If this attack hits an air-target, it will spike them to the floor.
GRABS:
I note the grabs in particular for him because his spark effects them. The normal grab range is increased, and the throws do extra damage while the spark is in follow-mode. This also applies to his air-throws, which has placeholder animations for now.
POWER ATTACK SO FAR:
Ciacyl only has 1 attack on his b-button so far. It's his big Crescent Kick. This attack is a chargable attack that has a variety of different effects based on when in the kick it hits. Up close on the earliest frames will launch the target up and over him. Further away will send them flying away from him. Above him will send them behind him. Behind him will spike them to the ground.
This attack gains an ARMOR effect while the Spark is in follow-mode.
SPECIALS SO FAR:
Warp Shot - Quarter Circle OR Half Circle + x This command send the spark out in a warping pattern. It will stop short if only a quarter circle is performed, and go twice the distance if a half circle is performed. Doing this command again when the spark is in an idle-away state, will make it Warp Shot faster back to him.
This attack can be angled upward on the ground (hold Up), and downward in the air (hold down)
This attack hit multiple times when traveling away from Ciacyl, but only once when it's called back.
Using this attack costs the spark 40 Life Points when it's cast away from him.
Spark Burst - QC + y This attack commands the spark to use a projectile based burst surrounding itself. When in follow-mode, the spark will move in front of Ciacyl and the burst will juggle targets up and away from him. When the spark is in away-mode, the burst will juggle the target towards Ciacyl. Using this attack costs the spark 40 Life Points.
Teleport - HC + b This move can be performed while the spark is in away-mode. Ciacyl will teleport to it's location with an attack box surrounding his body. Ciacyl will move out fo the teleport in the direction the half-circle is performed. So if the attack is done R,D,L + b, Ciacyl will end the teleport moving and facing to the left. This can be used to vary the teleport behavior and mix things up a bit.
SUPERS SO FAR:
I gave Ciacyl 1 test super so far. I will be changing the function of this super later on, but I wanted to giving him something to test an idea.
it has no name yet but is performed with F, D, DF, y+b. It is a short leaping spin kick into his big crescent kick, but this version of the crescent kick binds the target to his foot and slams them down behind him.
I THINK THIS IS EVERYTHING, but I probably am forgetting some things because I'm in a bit of a rush at the moment, the end of the month snuck up on me and I forgot this was gonna be a busy weekend, so I at least wanted to get this out before the first!
As usual, Character files with bonus Tag.zss is included at the bottom of the post. Also as a reminder, my characters are being focused for IKEMENGO now. My characters will likely crash MUGEN.
EDIT FOR QUICK PATCH: I made a quick patch today that changes a few things. The main thing is that I realized my characters all had different wake up times, and most of them way too fast. I have standardized them to a universal 20-tick wakeup time. I might give some characters a slight difference for character specific antic reasons, but for now, universal timing is 20 ticks.
The other EDIT is specific to SHIREN. I forgot about her Counter Grab attack [Half-circle + Guard] and I wanted to make a couple of quick changes to it. It now only has 1 varient. I got rid fo the experimental low and expanded the function of the base.
Her counter grab now has a grab attempt on activation, this is a nerf so that she cant grab super far away. She will use a (temp) animation to reach out a grab. This can miss, so disjointed attacks can still be safe from this counter. Another nerf is that the active time is slightly shorter by 2 ticks, and the failure recovery is increased to 24 ticks.
A buff is that she will now ARMOR projectile based attacks during the startup and active frames, but not try to counter. The hitbox for the counter start is much bigger vertically, and reaches lower, so it can catch lower attacks. This may or may not change.
I wanted her counter to not be as good as Aurumo's, but I feel like the way I had it, called for too many situational guesses. So I think most counter style moves will have more general coverage, but be more punishable on failure. I'll have to see as I play test more and more.
Files attached at the bottom have been updated!
EDIT OVER
This month's update is mostly focused on SHIREN. I did some small tweaks to a couple other characters, but I honestly cant remember the small tweaks I made. So I'll focus on the updates for Shiren.
Shiren got a major update to many moves. I think I'm finding the right grove for her with this month's changes. I was struggling for a while to find the exact way I wanted her moveset to function, within the system I have built.
"st." = standing "cr." = crouching "ar." = air
Auto-combo [st.1, 1, 1] last hit (and the Down-Forward unique attack that mimics it) "Down Pound" had a major change after a lot of testing. The attack now forces a floor-bounce state that Shiren can make various follow-ups for. The attack bounces air-targets higher up. The solo unique version of the attack also bounces higher and does more damage than the auto-combo version, allowing for even more follow up options.
Low Sweep (the new D+2) has a WIP animation now. The attack's attributes have been tweaked from the Aurumo based placeholder that was there before. The sweep flings the target up slightly higher, it also cancels right into standing 2.
St. U+2 is a high version of standing 2. The attack is generally just an anti-air normal. It cannot be canceled with Jump like st.U+1 can. but it can be special canceled. It also forces standing targets into knockdown.
St. F+2 is a new forward kick where she thrusts her foot forward after a short delay. This attack hits decently hard and can be canceled with a forward dash when it makes contact with a target. This allows it to be a strong hitting combo starter on hit, or a guard pressure option if the kick is blocked.
Burst Hook had it's command changed to [L,D,R or R, D, L (half circle) + 1] from it's former quarter circle input. The attack has been changed significantly, now starting with a command dash that will activate the attack portion when she is near a target. The dash portion of the attack armors projectiles (but can still be hit out by other attack types). The knockdown arch has be changed to juggle lower than before, but this attack now has an added 1-bar EX follow-up with Leaping Leg Grapple, which always does the stronger version of the attack. The projectile element of the attack has been turned off for now, so the attack only hits once. This MIGHT be brought back.
Leaping Leg Grapple [F,D,DF + 2 or 3] had it's damage values tweaked, generally nerfed a bit to fit the new combos she's acquired. But the attack now still hits grounded foes, but only knocks them down for a weak hit, so the "grab" only affects air targets.
Power Bomb has only gotten a small change to it, becoming active on frame 3 instead of frame 2. Other changes will happen once I get the animation out for it instead of Aurumo's placeholders.
NOTE: I intend to better tweak the Hit animation scripting for the target being thrown by both the Leaping Leg and the Power Bomb.
Flip Tackle [L,D,R or R, D, L (half circle) + 2] was slightly nerfed in damage for reasons mentioned before, but it's still one of her strongest specials in terms of base-damage. The travel arch was tweaked a bit to has a little more steering when holding back or forward into it.
NEW SUPER! I gave her her first Super Move for now called "Triple Pound" until I think of a better name. It starts out similar to Burst Hook, as it starts with a dash, but faster. It also has projectile armor and a brief total invincibility for 8 frames at the very start. When the attack activates, she will do 3 big hits based on Burst Hook, Down-Pound and Launch Upper. The last hit sends the target into a free juggle state, launching them up pretty high into an unrecoverable fall state, leaving them at her mercy for further follow-up.
I had some issues gettin this attack to land all 3 hits consistently after the first, but I think I have it functioning well enough for now. I'm going to do more work on this tho. Perhaps making the first hit force-stand even from an air-state.
IDEAS FOR WHAT'S TO COME:
I have some other ideas floating around my head for a 2nd super, but I'm not 100% settled on it. It may very well be a grab-super. I DO however have a good idea for what her Omega will be. Something much like Abel's Ultra 2 from SF4, a chargeable dashing grab with armor. I'm just deciding on what exactly I want her to do with this grab.
I have solid ideas for Ar.3 and Ar.D+3 for her, one of them in the works animation-wise.
I still need to figure out a Cr.1 for her and a Cr.3. Cr.1 will probs just be something simple. Cr.3 I have no idea quite yet. I also need to figure out how I want to handle her Turn-2 both on the ground and in the air. They will both likely be kick related. I may also add in a close varient for St.2, like Gejhi has.
I also want to do something unique with all of her normal throws to play into her kit, but I'm not 100% on that yet.
I want to advance RAEL along a bit more as well, as she still has too many placeholders. I'm likely going to change her Omega attack to some sort of air-strike type of attack to fit her motif a lil more.
I also want to Start working on Jeibu and/or Zandur very soon.
ALL SUPERNOVA PATRONS CAN CONTACT ME FOR A PREBUILT IKEMENGO WITH MY SETTINGS AND CHARACTERS (and various wip stages) ALREADY INSTALLED.
So as per the feedback I've received from multiple sources, I have decided to start going fully into IkemenGo and am in the process of moving the code that I previously separated from the base Mugen code, into the spaces where it belongs. I'm also starting to rewrite various bits of the code to optimize performance and smooth out some features by using new IkemenGo state controllers and triggers within the mainline code. So I'm in the process of finally dropping Mugen support.
SO THIS PATCH IS IKEMENGO ONLY (some characters aren't fully converted yet).
My custom TAG.ZSS was updated to change round-win behavior when the ally jumps in. They now will just in from the side like normal, but simpler walk towards the ally to stand close with them to do victory poses together. It's not quite finished tho. As sometimes the character wont make it there in time before the roundstate transitions to win poses. I might just add in a lil flag to wait until the characters are together, or make the initial jump in stronger based on distance.
THE UPDATED TAG.ZSS IS INCLUDED IN THE BUNDLE.
This update has done lil bits for most characters. Largely tweaks to various moves and the kits.
A "To Do" for all characters is of course, finish their animations. So I'm gonna say that here as a universal thing. Most of my To-dos are largely for gameplay tweaks.
GEJHI: He received a minor update to his air-1 "double kick" to slow his x-movement slightly on movecontact and the knockback of the kicks was adjusted slightly. This was largely done to improve linking a short-hopped double kick for a juggle into his Omega move more consistent. Done do avoid overshooting and passing the target before Omega is used.
Air-2, his dark projectile-based slashing attack, has more hitstun time on air targets, making juggles a bit better with it.
To do: I want to add in an air variant of his super "Phantom Barrage" based on his Jet Dive kick. I also might shift some of his moves around to give him some more options in the air, with air variants of his specials.
AURUMO: Aurumo's super armor was tweaked to give him red-life based on the damage he takes while armored.
Push Kick (Half circle + 1) had it's stun time tweaked slightly, and had it's forward movement tweaked to not trigger or help his x-movement when the kick hits. The counter push when he hits a foe backed into the corner was increased. This was done to prevent it from being a block-stun loop, as he was able to keep his opponents stuck this way.
To do : Give him (and all characters) an armor point value for how much damage they can take during an armor, by which the armor state can be broken. I also want to replace his Up-3 power attack to something a lil bit different maybe. I also intend to give him an air version of his burst attack, where he drops sharply downward with a hitbox directly below him once he freezes himself.
I also intend to update his normal idle animation to make him slightly taller during it to match his actual height. The sprites are done for this, I just need to re-import them.
FELIRO: Experimental changes were made to his QC-1 move "Bolt Kick." I think I did this last update and forgot to mention it. The attack portion of the move is now done by pressing 1 again while holding a direction. The spinning portion of the attack can be canceled with the guard button, or by air-jumping out of it.
Small improvements were made to "Twist Gale" (D,U + 2 or 3) to the knock back math to help prevent targets from falling out of the attack when he's moving during it or hitting in specific situations. The knockback had some stuff added to better pull towards his center and is now also effected by his motion. EX Twist Gale, (when twist gale is done during Dust Devil Dance) had the lightning tweaked to better improve consistency similar to the normal forms. The Lightning now has no hit-pause applied to the target, and will knock them towards Feliro and a bit more upward.
To do: I plan to tweak some of his knockback numbers a bit to reduce some juggle ability in some small bits.
MANGO: "Keess" (QC+1) was nerfed slightly by reducing the effect of holding back while controlling the heart. It now only slows down the heart's acceleration a small amount. I felt that making it almost stop and hover over foes that were knocked down was a bit TOO good. This can still be done, but now you have to better time it when trying to trap downed/stunned targets with it.
To Do: I might make his current Air-3 into a down-air-3 input and give him a new move that is a variation if his Wind-up Punch.
RAEL: I originally thought that Rael was underpowered, but as I started gettin good at playing her with what she currently has, I started thinking she was overpowered. So a lot of focus was put on toning down some of the moveset I made over this month.
Her base-gravity was reduced to make her slightly more floaty. Inversely, her base jump ability was reduced slightly to keep the same heights. Rael was given an extra air-movement point. So she can now air-jump/air-dash twice before touching the ground. I got rid of the perma-glide of her air-dash, for now. I might reintroduce this gimmick OR give her a float mechanic that allows her to hover in place for a short bit. I'll be experimenting with this to see how it feels.
Pew Pew Laser Gun (QC+2) was nerfed a bit. Shorts now travel slightly slower, thusly giving them a bit less range. The Charged shot still travels the same speed and distance. Stun time on the charged shot is longer.
The recharge timing was tweaked and a visual was added just under her to her to show how many lasers she can shoot until it's fully charged. The exact location of this is subject to change, under her was just the simplest to test with.
Taser Baton Toss (QC+1) has some throw angles changed. Notably the air base angle is now slightly downward. After experimenting with timings, the start-up on the throw of the projectile was made longer.
Sticky Bomb Toss (QC+3) had all of it's angles tweaked a bit, though I'm still making lil adjustments here and there. A set of air throw angles were added, so that holding back will make her just drop it down, the neutral and forward angles have a lower arc than the standing toss.
Barrel Roll Jump (Hold D for 12 frames, U + 2) was tweaked a lil bit to fit into her gravity changes, though she falls slightly faster during it making the Head-y-copter grab a lil easier to land.
I new move was added to cancel the Barrel Roll Jump into Pew Pew Downward Lasers (Press 2 again during the arc) with a re-jump arc when this is initiated. The lasers used are always the normal lasers and function off of the same stocks as the normal lasers.
Grappling Taser (Standing or Air 3) had some changes made where if the taser is blocked, she can't lunge into the target, but if the attack hits, she auto-lunges. I felt like this was the simplest way to go. I might change this, but it feels the best for now.
The taser also counts as a projectile now. So it can hit other projectiles and will trigger projectile counters.
Standing Up-2 has it's momentum changed. She now will sharply fly upward into a quick stop. She can cancel the spin at the end of the arc with Neutral-Air-2.
An experimental Up-Air-2 was added using Gejhi's old assets for concept testing. This move is subject to big changes once I fully decide what this should be, but I wanna give her a bit more air-utility as an air-based zoner.
A temp sliding low-kick was added as Crouching 2. The function is basically what I want, but the animation is borrowed. This Kick is a simple tripping kick, it isn't really a combo tool, but it can be super canceled on hit for a combo from that.
Her button 1 auto combo was changed to 1 punches with a short hop kick. The short hop kick can be done solo as a new Standing Up-1. Up-1 is stronger and jumps a lil bit higher and further than the auto combo version.
The Tail whip that was the old auto ender is now Standing 2. It was given a better disjointed hitbox for poking. I might change the animation to have the tail reach out a lil bit further as a better poke tool.
A SUPER PEOWW attack was added as (QC + 2+3). The animation is just borrowed stuff from her normal laser shots, but functionally, it's a 5-hit large projectile.
OMEGA BATON was added as an Omega attack concept. It's just a larger version of the normal baton, but it sucks hit-targets in for a weak series of hits you can land a few extra hits on while they are trapped. The baton has an internal timer that counts down but counts down faster for each hit it lands. So Damage output on this super can vary based on when the opponent it hit into it. I debated taking Feliro's "Omega Super" and giving it to her, and I still might, and make Feliro's "Omega Super" a lil different. Will see how that pans out, but I might just keep Rael's Omega as a big projectile like this.
To Do: I think I'm already pretty happy with how she's turning out. I just need to finalize some ideas to finish off her kit with a couple more moves, and she'll functionally be finished. She'll mostly just need a lot of proper animation.
SHIREN: Most of what I did for Shiren this month was just better test the ideas I have for her, with the temp assets I still have for her. I wanted to focus on making her a little better at gettin in closer to her target as I felt that's where she was too weak.
Shiren is a bit taller now. Mostly her standing animation was updated to reflect this. A few other small things need to be updated to match. I wanted her a lil taller, along with some small anatomy fixes on my critters I've been nudging towards.
Flip Tackle (HC + 2) now has armor on start-up.
Burst Hook (QC + 1) now has projectile invincibility on startup, along with a bit more forward motion.
Similar to Aurumo, her super armor was given a red-life gain to allow her to heal back damage taken in the state. This is mostly a universal change to my armor system that will be carried over to any character that will end up using it.
Some of the knock-back and hitstun on attacks where tweaked in small amounts. Still figuring out the exact combo structure I want for her, but I generally want them short and sweet for her.
To Do: Shiren really just needs more concept testing. I think I'm on the right track, I just need to commit to things and make some proper animations for her so I can lay off of Aurumo's borrowed assets. She needs supers too, which I do think I have the ideas for mostly figured out. I'm just not certain on what Idea should be her Omega.
PHEW, I THINK THAT'S EVERYTHING. I think. I tweaked and tinkered a LOT with all of this this month.
Does anyone here care if I drop Mugen support in favor of going IkemenGo exclusive?
I ask this because over time, I'm running into more issues that are piling up that I need to figure out workarounds to maintain compatibility with Mugen.
I know Mugen is what is most familiar, but again, IkemenGo can take all of your Mugen stuff. You should be able to just drop most stuff in and it works just fine.
I can point people towards the IkemenGo resources and also give you a build with my latest stuff already installed.
Mugen has limitations that IkemenGo just doesn't. Mango's main gimmick just will not work in Mugen, which made me already opt to make him exclusive to IkemenGo.
There are also things I could much better optimize for the IkemenGo versions of the characters, if I didn't have to keep worrying about the code/triggers/state-controllers that will crash Mugen.
If people really want me to keep trying for Mugen support, I'll do what I can. I'd just make things a lot simpler for me to stop caring about the dead-end engine, when there is a clone-engine of it out there that is simply better.
Again, I'll try to help peeps move over to IkemenGo. BUT, If you know how to install stuff in Mugen, then you already know how to do it for IkemenGo. It's the same process, same folders. Just some new stuff added should you want it.
EDIT: I also did figure out a actual hot-fix for my AI-controlled characters gettin stuck in blocking states while trying to tag out. I finally figured out where exactly it was happening.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR! As usual, download ZIP file, with included custom tag.zss file is included.
Also a quick note, I was wrong about my tag glitch with my characters AI, it's still there when they tag out will trying to block. I still haven't it figured out but will try for the next patch so that the AI don't risk soft-locking the matches.
So, I did a lot of work this moth to progress Rael and Shiren, but much more was done on Rael as I'd been experimenting a lot to feel out ideas for her, and I think I settled on the key aspects on her special attacks. Shiren got 2 new rough draft animations for attacks I changed and some experimental changes to try feeling out her design concept more and trying to make her better.
Both of these characters still use a ton of borrowed assets from Gejhi and Aurumo as placeholders until I crank out more assets for these 2. I'll go on now about the changes in this update.
NOTE: RAEL MIGHT CRASH MUGEN. I'm currently using an IKEMENGO trigger in her main code line for her sticky bombs to stick onto stage walls AND her boomerang to bounce off the stage walls. I MIGHT change this over to another section in a later update to maintain SOME backwards compatibility. IF YOU ARE A PATRON I CAN GIVE YOU A PREBUILT IKEMENGO LINK. Just contact me in PMs and I'll pass it over to ya.
RAEL She has received 3 more special moves to fill out her command moves. I'm opting to embrace the zoner archetype for her. She now has 3 projectiles specials and an evasive attack that can end with a pseudo-grab.
Quarter circle + 1 :Baton Boomerang is now a boomerang styled projectile. It will pass through targets on hit and apply another hit as it comes back.
This attack has a temporary animation I'm using as a placeholder for an attack concept I dropped.
On block or hitting another projectile, it will just bounce back. The projectile itself can also be hit away but normal attacks.
It can be directed upwards or downwards with up and down inputs during the start-up. It will bounce off the floor and the stage walls (IkemenGo only).
The projectile will attempt to return to Rael, but it can miss if she moves. She will then have to wait for the projectile to despawn off screen before she can use it again.
There is a minor issue I need to fix with this where sometimes it gets stuck treading the floor on the way back, preventing it from properly returning to Rael.
Quarter Circle + 2: Laser Gun is still her laser gun, but some changes were made to it. The gun takes 4 ticks longer to fire off both forms of the shot. Rapid fire shoots faster. Charged shot stuns longer. The gun still has a hidden recharge time for shots that I'm going to eventually tweak, and visualize some way I haven't figured out yet.
There is still a 3 stock charge to the shots. Charged shots need all 3.
I also added in a custom get-hit state for these shots to uniquely effect the target's knockback momentum but instead, only slowing down the horizontal motion they were in before the shots landed.
Quarter Circle 3:Sticky Bomb Is now a sticky bomb projectile. This is a small bomb that she will lob at 3 different arcs based on forward, back, or no direction input being held during the startup.
Forward throws it as a low arc, and forward. No input will arc it more upwards and slower. Holding back will make it arc more more up and closer to Rael.
This attack has a temporary animation I'm using as a placeholder for an attack concept I dropped.
If the bomb misses and hits the floor or a stage wall, it will stick to the spot it lands until it explodes. If it hits an opponent that wasn't blocking, it will stick to the target, marking them until it explodes shortly after. If the target blocks the attack, it will explode instantly, I might change this to just make it softly bounce off of them and land on the floor. If the bomb is attacked while it's mid-flight, it will explode.
The explosion from this bomb can hurt anyone on both sides, including Rael, so be careful when attacking a marked opponent up-close.
The bomb's explosion can be nullified by the marked target tagging out.
There is still some issues with this bomb I'm trying to work out, where sometimes it gets stuck floating in place when it hits other projectiles, or gets parried/reversaldef'd.
Down-Up 2: Barrel Roll -> Headicopter Is a dodging jump move. Rael is strike and projectile invincible (she can still be air-thrown) while she is traveling upwards until just before she starts to fall back down. She is granted much tighter left/right air-movement control during this move.
On the way down, she has an attack box that is just under her, which is a blockable pseudo-grab attack.
When the attack hits, she latches onto the target and spins around the target's head, helicoptering around and carrying them upwards for several hits before letting go.
If the attack is blocked, she'll bounce back up from them.
The animation for this is still dummied with recycled assets I made for other stuff, but I wanted to get the concept working.
I might add a fake-out rejump this attack can be canceled with, where she'll instead shoot a few shots downward with her laser gun, but I will still keep the punishable aspects of the main attack, if I do add this idea. I want to keep things balanced, but I'll liking the slippery aspect of this attack a lot.
OTHER NOTES: So from this point, I made some other small tweaks to some of the normals I gave her so far. I think I'm going to have to move her down-2 low kicks over to button one, and make them less stubby, and I feel the range is so bad on them they are useless.
I changed air-1 from the spinning taser baton to having her do a double-fisted spin that hits twice. I liked the baton attack, but felt it was a bit too much? I might integrate elements of it into her spin, or make something similar to it, but less... big, over to another command.
I took the spinning baton attack and made it her 1+2 burst attack instead, but made the taser MUCH bigger.
I changed the command from the previous "air-grab" taser and just moved it to air-3 for now, as I think I'm going to make this type of thing part of her power attack set for button 3 I have planned. I dummied up a ground version of this attack as well. I'll probs end up making some kind of usual charging gimmick she can play around with for this attack BUT, I'm also looking to make a "tool switch" gimmick for her power attacks, where these grappler tasers are swapped with a laser blade set of moves instead, changing the utility of the button for something like a ranged/up-close mode change.
SHIREN Shiren's update here not as big as Rael's as I've still been stuck on figuring out the specifics of how I want her to work, and Rael took most of the attention. BUT, there are changes. I changed her standing animation to be slightly taller and wider in keeping with her canon size. I still need to change some other anims to fit this.
Auto combo changes Changes made to this were mainly on the last attack. She now has an over-head punch that slams the target down onto the ground. Small tweaks were made to the second hit to apply less knockback for more consistent follow-up to this new third punch.
This new overhead punch was given it's own unique command, holding down-forward+1. I MIGHT change this command a lil bit, but it was the first thing that came to mind as I wanted a good stand-alone form of this attack.
Target combo stuff I made a lil bit of a couple new combos for her from her (dummied) down-2. Her down-2 will eventually be a spinning low-kick that trips. It's still using Aurumo's down-2 assets. But this low attack will now combo into her standing 2, but also the new over-head punch (down-forward + 1) for a low-high mix option.
(Names for following attacks will be changed, just naming them for what they do)
Half-circle + 2: Flip Tackle I changed this attack away from the spinning downward kick into a flipping tackle instead and I felt this was much more of what she would do. This new tackle can hit opponents laying down, which is a good follow-up to the new overhead punch.
This new attack has super-armor before the attack is active.
F, D, DF + (2 or 3): Leaping Leg Grab I gave these moves some small changes. Both versions move forward a lil bit more, fixed an issue with hitboxes still active and animations being a lil screwy on the way down.
Quarter Circle +1 : Burst Hook I made some small changes to this move. Knockback isn't a clear juggle anymore, it hits lower and further away. It has some projectile invincibility now. It moves forward a bit more as well. When combined with dash buffer canceling, she'll slide pretty far into this attack.
Other small stuff or to-do: I made her command grab (R,L,R or L,R,L + 3) more lax on the time to do the move. It's still using Aurumo assets as a placeholder, but a lot of her kit still does.
I messed a lil bit with her forward-2 into dash cancel slightly. I wanna do more with this gimmick, I just didn't have the time yet.
I generally want to give her more tools for gettin in closer to her opponent, as I feel like she's struggling a lil too much with this for what I'd like for her. I don't want her too dodgy, but more armor might be in order for her. She's big and I want to kinda have a bit more brute force to some of her attacks to over-power her foes. Mobility is generally really strong for a lot of my cast. My slower more power oriented characters will need that extra oomph to keep up. I might beef up her damage a lil more too, but I'm reluctant to take that too far when thinking about some of my other, even more power oriented characters. Shiren still has a lot of combo routes, so I'll find the balance on that for her as I progress.
SO I think that's it for now. I think that about wraps it up for now. I had a lot of fun working on these two this month. I think I'm working on the kinks I was stuck on for Shiren especially. For January, I think I'll focus on filling out a bit more of there moves with proper rough-draft animations to get rid of some placeholders, but I also might go ahead and add in a 7th WIP character to the mix. I have a few in mind I've had ideas I'm itching to start working on.
At long last, I have some new updates for the game. With another New WIP character, Rael. We up to 6 characters now. Took a break from commissions to get this update rolled out.
ZIP FILE AT BOTTOM OF POST. Custom tag.zss file included for IkemenGo. YOU CAN ASK ME FOR AN IKEMENGO BUILD WITH CHARACTERS, STAGES AND SUCH PRE INSTALLED. (Various unfinished assets, but it's functional)
I grinded hard to get a lot of ground work done for her recently. I built her on top of Gejhi's file, so a lot of base functions are still similar to him (along with the usual altered palette temp sprites hangin in there.
Before I talk about Real, some universal fixes for all characters in IKEMENGO: I did a quick patch that (I think) fixes the AI issues with taggin, when they were getting stuck in place and not taggin out properly. I THINK my AI's variable usage was to blame. So I added a bit of code for that.
I also did a quick fix for the IKEMENGO 0.99 set that makes them properly run in/out when neutral tagging. I code my runs a bit unusual for the engine, so I patched that for them.
I also changed the debug "damage/frame ADV" text I have displaying in IkemenGo. The recent engine updates changed the default fonts for this, so I changed them, (for now) to use one of the default lifebar fonts. I know this may have different effects with other lifebar sets so I'm gonna play with this more for next patch maybe. It's not a huge priority right now, but the text now appears behind the characters either way.
I still want to do another patch for the human player buffer system with tagging and round in stuff. Just to stop them doing extra attacks before taggin out, or not attacking when jumping in at match end. I know where to fix that. Next update will have that taken care of.
Now, on to Rael... RAEL doesn't have any portaits yet. They still show Gejhi. WHAT SHE HAS SO FAR: Stand-1 She has a basic auto combo Stand-2 She has a 2 hit auto combo, still borrowing Gejhi's kick and the tail whip from auto-1. for testing ideas.
Air-1 is a mutli hit, low priority attack. Makes her float slightly. Air-2 is a double kick, 2nd hit makes her bounce away.
Air Down-2 is a Dive kick that slides on the ground based on how close to the ground she was at the start. I'm still deciding on what exactly to do with the mid-air hit, but the sliding part hits low and starts a juggle. The sliding portion can also be jump or special canceled.
Quarter circle-2 (D, F or D,B) is a laser gun attack. It has a cool down timer built into it, and will be deciding on how I'd like to visualize it, but it can shoot 3 shots in a row, or 1 charged shot by holding the button down, rather than tapping it. This can be done on ground or mid air. Each shot takes 90 ticks (1.5 sec) to recharge. The charged shot needs all 3 stock.
Air-Grab (Guard + 1 or 2) isn't really a grab. It's a grapler beam similar to tether based z-air moves in Smash but with an added gimmick. The attack will just do a light-hit on a target. During the hit-pause of the attack, pressing button1 or 2 will make her pull into the target with a kick, which will knock down as she kicks off of them.The attack makes her floaty for a bit as the taser is out.
WHAT I HAVE PLANNED FOR HER (SO FAR): I know I want to give her another special on button 1, that' is a multi-hit "rekka" style move using the spinning taser similar to air-1.
I'm going to possibly give her another projectile that is a latch-on bomb similar to Mega Man's crash bomb in Smash, but possibly with a different flight trajectory, rather than just straight forward.
Her power button attacks, I'm thinking on having a 2-mode thing going on, where she has 2 tools she can swap between with a command, which will change the attacks on this button. I want them to synergize in some way, so I'm still thinking on this.
I know I want to give her a super (or make it the Omega) that is largely a reference to Fox's (Smash) Fire Fox attack, with a burst of fire/energy around her before she flies doing multi hits in the direction the player holds.
At least 1 super move will be a large projectile.
I want to play around with her air-handling more. Giving her some kind of float gimmick or just plan better air-handling than the rest of the cast. Maybe an extra jump (but will make her normal jump shorter if I do that). I already messed around with making her air-dash more an an actual fly that weakens with time, but it's very unfinished.
While I started workin on gettin a new character, Rael, into the mix, I still ended up behind on my game work as I was grinding out work on a couple of animation projects.
I don't feel the work is significant enough to charge for just yet, so I'm letting you all have another free month. I will have a much more significant update this month.... finally and I'm gonna try making sure that I give some solid time each week into the game stuff, as the itch to get back to it has been too strong. The other animation work plus my birthday, then Furpoc23 happened which ate up the rest of my time at the end of the month before I could squeeze out anything more significant.
Rael is another small critter, with a unique full run that counts as in-air, as she lifts off the ground slightly during it. A lot of her gimmicks will be stronger air-game and some ranged type attacks with gadgets. Her air-jump will behave differently as well, more like a float that a full on jump.
I'll have a bunch of WIP animations done for her within a couple of weeks here, and then I'll start programming her and have her mostly functional this month. I'll try to push Shiren a bit further along as well. I kinda hit a wall with Shiren where I wasn't totally sure what I wanted her full kit to consist of but I think at this point I'm gonna throw ideas at the wall and see what sticks.
So keep an eye out for that last this month, it's finally coming!
I needed one more month before I was able to resume. Knocked out a handful of other things, a touch of burn out and other distractions this month had my inspiration and time a bit low.
October will finally be the return though, because the itch is really needing to be scratched to get back onto working on my critters.
I have some Animations for Feliro planned and I wanna get another 1 or 2 critters rolling out along side progressing Shiren. Possible Rael, Athis or Svasha.
Sorry bout the lag this summer, but yeah, no charging when I'm lagging is my rule. This fall will be a new wave of character work coming out.
I've really been lagging on work on my game over the bulk of the summer here. I've just had a lot of other stuff going on and it's been hard to squeeze in.
That being said, I do have lil bits of work I've picked at for the characters. A bunch of small tweaks to moves, some code adjustments for IKEMENGO's recent V0.99 RC2 update they put out.
I'm adding in air versions of all characters 1+2 burst move and tweaked how the meter burn works when using them. Raw or canceling normals, it's 1-bar, but canceling a special is 2-bars.
I STARTED picking at my character Svasha a bit, but haven't gotten very far yet. I felt compelled to get her started. I made a couple of portraits for her and Athis.
It uses the IkemenGo features where you can change the color and sprites of the bars as values change. I might end up changing the tag-team bar for later in another engine. I might wanna separate them so that I can have the bars animated flip around eachother when a tag happens, but that's a plan for much later on.
This coming month I'm intending to get back on the grind for work on this project. I've just had a lot going on with a new job and commissions I'm trying to prioritize to knock out. Also a couple of time sensitive projects got dropped in my lap that I needed to delay work on other stuff for. Once I have another chunk of commissions done, I'll have a LOT more time to progress this game regularly.
I'm happy to see all the new patrons tho. I'll have a new update coming for you all within the next month for sure. I might drop in a smaller temp-update with some fo the tweaks I made already, but I wanna have something more significant for the next update proper.
LASTLY, if any of you would like a preset build of my IKEMENGO with my tag settings and characters such already installed, feel free to contact me. I have the bars installed, but much of the rest of it is still using the system defaults for now. I'm going to slowly work in all of my own UI designs into the screenpack.
Just stopping in to let you all know that I'm not charging current patrons for August. I've not had a ton of time to work on the game stuff since Anthrocon. Been focused on gettin commissions done from Anthrocon and such, also adjusting to my new job I picked up.
I'll still be droping in an update for you soonish, as I did a lil bit of work on it, just not enough for me to justify charging supporters for. I also started work on a lifebar pack, so I'm slowly gonna be putting together a complete IkemenGo packadge for patrons to download.
I'm adjusting to my new routine tho. So over this next month I should start speeding up as more commissions are knocked out and such.
I need to make this post a lil bit on the quicker side because I'm preparing to leave for AnthroCon23 and need to sleep soon. I've been super busy with a LOT of stuff for the con but also life stuff, which I'll make another post about explaining a lil more when I return. (Nothing bad, don't worry!)
SO, in this update, Mango and Feliro both have AI now. They aren't quite finished, but they are functional for now. I prepared what I can to display these two at my dealer table at Anthrocon.
The AI isn't using everything so far and optimizations still need to be made to what they do use, but it's functional for now.
Shiren hasn't recieved any major updates this time around (that I can remember, it's been hectic).
Some tweaks and changes were made to most of the AI-enabled characters. Small adjustments to some moves, some tweaks made and such.
Notably, Gejhi's air-guard state was REMOVED. I decided for now to keep air-guard out of the game, even with parry being gone, there are other defensive options in-air that could be done, and generally, I want the air to be more risk-reward based. The new defensive moves that each character gets with the universal command of Guard+Power in the air I think covers enough.
Mango's G+P move, his parry was tweaked slightly, animation frames were adjusted to properly show.
Aurumo has a new effect for his OMEGA, Great Glacial Fortress Burst, it's not finished and I intend to make more changes.
Aurumo was also given his own form of an air-guard using his G+P in the air. He tanks hits at much reduced damage. I removed his air down-2 attack and used the animation from that for this.
Gejhi's G+P in the air was tweaked to move further when used in the air.
Mango has a new OMEGA super, "Itty Bitty Kiss" it's a highly explosive mini kiss that floats along very slowly. It's actually a modified form of his Toy Box balls, so it is hittable to change the direction. Mango too, can still be hit by it. The opponent can also hit it. I may change this later on, as I'm still juggling ideas for his supers around.
I feel like there were other changes in there, but I honestly can't remember for the life of me everything else I did as it's been hectic this month. The AI for Feliro and Mango were the BULK of this update.
After AC I intend to work a lot more time on these projects, as I'll be starting a new job and doing less commissions (taking them in smaller controlled bits). That's partly the life change stuff coming up.
After the con, I'll post again with some more info on my plans for this going forward.
I'm turnign the monthly charge off for the start of June, I've been pushing hard on commissions this past month and knocked out half of my backlog, but then ended up going on the trip to see my father far outta state. I partly hoped to have some open time to do some game work while I was away with down time, but I had almost no downtime.
I got SOME work done of the characters, but not enough for me to feel like the charge is justified.
So whatever I post in once I get home later this week, will pretty much be a freebe update for patrons. They were mostly small adjustments and tweaks to characters which I'll have better notes for when I post in.
I don't like charging for lackluster updates. I've just had some major shakeups in my life recently that's leading to a lot of changes (for the better). I'd rahter not get too personal, but I'm oki, so no worries.
Thanks for stickin around and supporting my projects here.<3
I'm goin to add in the usual preview gif for this a bit later tonight, but the monthly download (with my special Tag.zss file included for my IkemenGo tag system) and notes are still below. I just wanted to get this posted and playable for you.
This month's update is a bit smaller than I'd have liked, but this month hit me hard and I needed to divert my attention to other things, especially commissions.
I tossed in a couple more previews to a couple of other characters I would like to add to the roster soon. The Ghast looking figure is Athis, I may have shown an earlier version of him at some point, but this is an almost completed animation of him. It was quite an undertaking to animate him, used a lot of layers and I almost ended up hating the animation as it felt too much like a dance. I slowed it down and increased it all the way to 28 frames and I think I like it again. hahah
Athis is who I plan to have the strongest defensive game, even more than Aurumo in terms of being a tank. An interesting quirk to this tho is that he will have a small lifebar, but instead a defensive multiplier that reduces incoming damage. He will have an install move that also ups this defense multiplier even further which will diminish as he takes damage, where then he will have to reinstall the defense boost. The reasons for this dynamic is lore-based, as he's a bit sick and frail, but through the use of his gear and pure willpower he takes less damage. Athis will also have a command grab that can life-steal to aid to his survival. (probably something like 50% of the damage done, will see when balance time comes.)
Athis is planned to have an alternative form called Athis EX, but I'm likely at this point to make that it's own character, but give them a unique transformation attack when tagging. Athis EX Will lack the added defense and be a glass-cannon with added mobility. The full body cloak will transform into back mounted wings that sprout out for certain actions.
I kinda want to play with a special dynamic for when both forms are selected as a team, where they maybe share the same life, or EX's life is dependent on the main form's life. In this situation, EX can be KO'd and force him to change back, but is normal Athis is KO'd they both loose. In exchange for this tho, I will give them a special team perk to make up for the significantly reduced life resource in a tag-team setting.
The other character is Chuney. He's a sort of companion fighter for Shiren. They both have the same base style of fighting, but he focuses much more on strikes and direct combos. He's a bit more of a rush-down focused take on the style, with no command grabs, but lots of pressure tools. He wants to get in and press lots of buttons, at least this is how I imagine him playing out so far. Development can always end up shifting things a bit.
This update has a universal change that now the command run was changed to the z-button instead of of it being c + left or right. My original intent was to make the feel of it feel a lil bit like smash, since dash trot has some minor evasive properties. I think it kinda overlapped or got in the way of certain other commands, such as trying to turn a throw attempt. I decided to experiment with run being it's own button. I think I like it because I made it much more lax where you can just hold the button during any state and hold left or right,. and the character will run as soon as possible. It also makes canceling dash into a special much easier to do so you can use that momentum into special moves much easier.
Taunt was changed to be c+z instead. I still need to play around with how holdable taunts will handle without canceling to guard.
Shiren got most of the character focused work this month.
She has 2 new special moves. A counter attack and a command throw.
The counter attack is done by doing a half-circle in the desired direction + c. Holding down-forward will do a low version of the counter, otherwise you'll get the high version, but I have been having some issue with accidentals being done of one of the other, so I'm thinkin on how to better differ the command to avoid the accidental inputs.
The High version is a counter throw, the low version is a juggle starter.
The command grab is done by doing L,R,L or R,L,R + Power attack (b). I'm not certain if I will keep this command, but I wanted something that was simple enough to do, but mimicked the full-circle input command throws usually have.
This attack is still using dummied assets from Aurumo just to get the concept down before I animate it.
The command grab has 2 versions. the "raw" version, which is significantly stronger, or the "combo" version, which can be performed after certain attacks, or linked if the grab hits a stunned opponent that is still on the ground. The two versions are communicated by how high Shiren jumps with the target when the grab connects along with an altered landing sound and screen shake.
There is also another alternative version she will do when the target is turned away from her, which will do more damage, but follows the same rules as the regular command grab.
Better function and armor was given to Shiren's Flash Chop styled Standing power attack. (It's still using Aurumo assets). But the armor effect on it is much better for counter attack or armoring a hit to dash or jump cancel it. When the target is on the ground, the attack can be canceled on hit with her command grab or normal throw to get a follow up. When the target is in the air, it puts them into a juggle state.
I removed the fire ball attack on button 1. I was struggling to feel like it fit her kit. I haven't entirely removed it from the code tho, just incase I decide to bring it back. I just feel like I want her to focus more on gettin in and it felt a bit redundant with her launching version of the move, which has been moved to take it's place on Button 1. The projectile element of that attack can still cover a bit of the function if shielding her from some projectiles.
I played around with the still borrowed assets from Aurumo that Shiren is using to test out other ideas. Her version of the dash attack is faster. I also messed around with the forward-2 attack making it faster a little more hit stun, but dropped the sweet-spot element of it. So that she can poke and dash cancel it to get closer. I' like the idea, so I need to just decide what sort of attack it'll be.
OTHER THAN SHIREN, other characters got some small tweaks to hitstun/frame data. Making Gejhi and Aurumo having minor nerfs to them to dampen that raw pressure they have a little bit when pressuring guard, as it felt a little too oppressive still. Since I dropped parries, this is something that I need to take into account, so I'm trying to make more attack unsafe when not properly spaced or used in a block chain to push the target away (or movement used to get away from a punish attempt).
Mango got a new WIP animation to his jumping 2 attack. The attack now reaches much further for poking, but has a very horizontal hitbox, so it wont reach as high or low, knockback was equalized with Standing 2. When Jumping 2 hits, Mango's horizontal movement is halved to make it a better poking tool on block without being so easy to punch because he too easily falls into punish range on block.
I adjusted the hit boxes on his air-turn-2 attack to hit slightly lower.
Damage values were increased slightly on Mango's Standing 2, Air 2, Air-Turn 2.
Mango is now slightly more slippery on the ground. I nudged his ground friction down by .2 so that wave dashing or canceling dash makes him slide around more. It's an added silly-factor I want him to have.
So.. I think that's about it for this month. I couldn't put that much time into it this month. I have so much more I plan to do, but I need a lil more time because things have been a tight this month and I'm at the point where I am aware of a goofy cycle I go through that I need to break. hahah
EDIT: Everything should be in order now for this post, I just had something personal and important to take care of before I was able to finish making images and typing up this post. ----------------------------------------------------------------- No jokes here, just wanna specify that before I go ahead to detail what's in this update, cuz I did a LOT of stuff this month.
I ran into an issues while trying to redo and rewrite my parry code for a major IkemenGo update Ver 0.99RC1 which added in certain things I thought might have worked nicely, but every way I turned, I ran into other issues. I SANK A WHOLE DAY into trouble shooting more and more problems before the whole matter ended up making me reconsider parry as a universal mechanic.
AN UPDATED TAG.ZSS file was added to the download zip, this is a redo of changes I made to the system to go along with the IkemenGo .99RC1 update. I intend to edit this code further.
One last note about Mango before I move on to the patch notes: Mango is becoming IKEMENGO EXCLUSIVE. There is just too many things that his gimmicks rely on at this point and It's just far too much work to figure out how to make all of his stuff work with in the MUGEN limitations, if it's even possible. This stuff takes me long enough, and I want to stress that IkemenGo isn't something totally new and different. Mugen content works in IkemenGo. I'm not going to hold back my creativity to keep trying to support a dead engine when IkemenGO exists and is a clear and EASY replacement for Mugen.
If you want to play Mango, please upgrade to IkemenGo. His files will crash Mugen.
UNIVERSAL DEFENSIVE COMMAND So, I'm experimenting with dropping parry as a universal mechanic for all characters. This was kind of a hard decision to make, but I think it might be for the better in the long run. Some of the issue was just that I never really got parry to work EXACTLY how I would have liked it to. I still saved all the code for it in the characters, it's just disabled.
Some of my reasoning was also because of the divisiveness of parries as a concept. I think they are fun, but I can see how they can easier become a gate-keeper mechanic that's overbearing.
That said, I'm trying out something different. A Universal Defensive Command thing as I'm calling it for now. It's preformed for all characters by pressing GUARD+P (c+b by button defaults).
Each character has a unique move or ability tied to this command. Some characters have a dodge, some have a blow-back move, or some might even get a parry (tho a bit different from the universal one I programmed) This command can be raw in neutral, or performed when you block and attack (tho this will cost 1 bar of meter). There may be slight differences between the raw and guard canceling versions depending on the character.
I'm also debating turning air-guard universally back on for all characters and allowing their attacks to be air-blocked. I'm not 100% desided on this, but Gejhi can air block and most of his attacks can be air-blocked. I'm considering this to replace parry as a universal gimmick. THE TRADE OFF: If air-blocking is turned back on, guard-meter-damage will be 3x. This means it will be much easier to break a mid-air target's guard. So use it wisely.
Oki then, onto the characters.
SHIREN has been added back into the mix, I update most of her code to catch her up to the rest of the critters. I also gave her a WIP rough concept move that mimics Alex's Knee Smash from SF3. This attack is done with A "DP" or "Z" input. This attack can only hit mid-air targets. (F,D,DF + y) - She will jump forward and low to the ground. This version of the attack dose less damage, but it easier to combo from juggles or catch short-hop approaches with. (F,D,DF + b) - This version jumps up much higher but will weak forward motion. This version hits much harder, but is better as a timed response. It's harder to combo from other attacks unless you have the target against the wall.
Combos she does or did have have been tweaked to move in line with the changes I made universally a while ago. I added a NEW upwards kick follow up to her Up-1 punch, though the animation was hastily done for testing purposes.
A auto-combo version of her spin kick has been added as the 3rd attack of standing button 1. Alternative version of his combo is done by holding up after the first jab, which forces a knockdown further away from her.
GEJHI Primary changes for Gejhi was just for his UDC, which I'm made a dodging move called "Phantom Shift." It's pretty straight forward in concept. It leaves him vulnerable for 12 frames after use, so doing it wrecklessly in nuetral will lead to you eating a combo. It can also be done mid air.
FELIRO Feliro's main update was to Dust Devil Dance, which now has added sounds and visual effects. He also gets an added lightning strike when EX Chaining into Twist Gale. which counts as a projectile that does about 80 damage. This still needs some balance tweaking and I need to disable the meter re-growth on the EX chained version of Twist Gale.
His UDC is a dodge move called "Feliport." Similar in function to Gejhi's UDC, but he has a bit better control of it, more universal motion. Since he's a small lifebar "pixie" archetype, I think this works.
AURUMO With parry being gone I've been retooling some of Aurumo's defensive mechanics, because some of them almost seemed TOO powerful with parry being gone. So...
Glacial Shield Counter (D, F + c) now has pre-scripted responses on a successful counter. The default counter attack is a (temp) slashing attack that covered the whole area in front of him. The projectile response has instead been turned into an icy spray. When up-close against a grounded foe, Aurumo will Riposte. The Riposte's damage output has been increased to pretty much big command grab levels. This command also has a negative edge input so that you can do it by releasing the C button as well.
MANGO Mango's UDC is actually a parry. Done with a different input and a clear whiffing period that is punishable. When done through a guard cancel, it's instead a bi-directional push-back attack.
Mango's 12 Palettes are all filled in and existing palettes were adjusted.
Mango's lifebar increased from 850 to 900.
This boy has a lot f new wacky stuff added. His D,F+y move is probs being renamed the "Toy Box" and now has some variety to the balls that are spawned. 50% of the time, it's a normal heart ball. The other 50% it's one of the other 3 random balls. Mini-Mango Ball - Weaker damage multiplier. bounces off screen edges, not just the stage edge. (Just like Mango Bounce does.) 8 Ball - This ball has very weak gravity. Higher damage multiplier. Always flies in an almost straight shot at top speed when hit. Bowling Ball - This ball has super strong gravity and will not bounce. Higher damage multiplier, but a slower top-speed. It will roll in the direction it was sent and gradually slow down. This ball has an actives hit-box at lower speeds and always forced the target into a juggle state when hit by it.
I think that's everything! Thanks for the continued support all! Feel free to leave me your feedback.
As the title says. I'm thinking that I'm gonna start picking at a fully customized IkemenGo build to post in here, or at least link here if it's too big.
It'll pretty much has all the customized settings and extensions I'm picking at and adding to the engine. It's way too nice to be able to add in a bunch of universal custom code that effects all characters universally without needing to copy it into every character manually. It'll largely be a bunch of custom stuff for better presentation, like more camera control, special match-win effects for winning teams and the like, and it'll probs be easier than just posting files and telling folks how to manually add them to IkemenGo.
My custom build right now has Tag-mode as the default (and only) mode, since I am building with 2-character tag teams in mind. I'll have all the engine settings optimized for the way I'm building the mechanics and such.
It's not a major priority right now, but it is something I've been picking at in lil bits on the side. When I have my added extensions all tweaked worked out, I'll make some custom interface stuff and drop the build here as an added bonus. The goal is to eventually have a "closed" game build that works best for my critters, I think once I have a few more WIP characters added to the line-up, it'll start being worth just dropping them as a game-package, ready to play. I might call it something silly like the "Prototype arena" as an indicator that it'll be an evolving build for all the WIP critters as well as the engine mods.
OR, what I might do is still package them separately, so the files are easy to drop into your preferred builds, but I'll have the character-select file already set up for my roster, so you could just drop the folders right into the engine.
So this here is the late update mentioned. (Files at bottom of post.)
NOTE: I seem to have issues uploading my usual gifs with this post, they aren't displaying, so I'm gonna just make this post and see if they show. If they are still broken, I'm going to assume soemthing is maybe up with Patreon at the moment? The gifs play fine on my PC. So I'm not sure what the problem is. I'll see if I can fix it later if they are broken after I post this.
I did a massive rework to almost every attack these 4 WIPs have to better manage the frame data of them along with a big fix to something I hadn't realized about the engine, which was causing stun-locks on block in a lot of situations. Aurumo in particular has the issue. I hadn't realized that ground.slidetime effected guard stun, and it really makes no sense, but it is what it is. So I added new parameters to most of the attacks to handle this, while certain specials will be gettin their own attention later on where it's needed.
There may still be some issues with the frame data on certain moves as I tired to convert everything quickly, but functionally, but it'll be super easy for me to make adjustments to the vast majority of attacks now with some new math I added to all these attacks, where I can pretty much write in the frame advantage, right into the move without testing and checking animation data, which speeds things up quite a bit for me.
I also added in another lil test feature ( WORKS FOR IKEMENGO ONLY! ) along with the damage tracker that pops up, it now also displays frame advantage. It's accurate for MOST attacks, but it's a lil bit weird with certain attacks still, but for the most part, it's functional for my needs.
With that said, various attacks have gotten some further adjustments with damage.
FELIRO'S Dust Devil Dance was completely reworked. I combined both the ground and air versions of the attack into 1 move. It's no longer a charge move, but instead, a mashing move, where tapping the button now makes him spin a lil longer and start to rise up. Its carries some of the momentum of Feliro just before the move was used, so you can do some fun movement stuff with it. When this attack is blocked, Feliro will bounce away like a top.
MANGO now has his own throw animations. They aren't finished yet, but the general purpose and damage changes are there. I still need to make a back-grab variant, and an air-throw, since he will be able to air-throw like Aurumo.
MANGO now has a DASH ATTACK. It's still being toyed around with. But it's there, currently has a stand=in animation, but the actually animation for it will be very similar, along with it's function of making him land into a crouching state for a crouch attack follow-up.
MANGO'S IMAGINATION was changed to be his universal 1+2 EX. It now has invincibly frames and an animation dummied in temporarily for the mobility portion of the attack. It still needs some tweaking, but I intend for it to be a metered dodge and counter and a juggle extender to link between certain attacks. This will be gettin a reworked animation to go with the new idea.
MANGO'S Play Ball now can bounce off screen and vanish if it goes too far. IT STILL BOUNCES OFF STAGE WALLS. (Yet another IKEMENGO only feature Mango is relying on, since this can't be done in MUGEN.) I did this to make neutral and stage position more interesting for his gimmicks. So now, the ball can fly off screen and make a noise when it "vanishes." Once it's gone, Mango can spawn another one. So it makes it MORE spammable in a way, but gives him a special stage wall play with it.
MANGO HAS AN EX PLAY BALL. Done with D,F 1+2. This make a larger ball with a kitty face on it. This basically replaces the 2nd super I gave him. The new ball is a time-bomb type ball. It's effected less by knockback and decays motion faster. When it explodes, it puts anyone (including Mango) into a free juggle state. It will HEAVILY damage guard when the explosion is blocked.
MANGO'S "MANGO BOUNCE" was reworked a bit. I'm doing this going forward for all attacks that count as "projectiles" but are physical in nature. I just programmed an invisible helper to mimic along side the attack to act as the attack box. This was done to have projectile counter attacks behave better without breaking the character. I'll be doing this to any other attacks that have this type of special "projectile" property. Everything seems to be working for this attack with the changes, but I noticed there is ONE thing that isn't quite working right and I'm not sure why, but it's minor. He's not bouncing OVER opponents hit while lying down.
TAG.ZSS file included for my tag mod made for IKEMENGO as usual.
SHIREN Will be reintroduced in the WIP updates soon. I've just made SO MANY changes I think it'd be best to report everything as once to her file as I start to expand the roster with these 4. Like I mentioned in my previous post. I intend to start workin in more characters into the WIP bundles. My plan is to try to hammer out as much quick- WIP animations for a handful of characters to get more playable content in the works and work on refining them overtime as I polish all the animations. Get some more variety into the mix to avoid burnout on working on the same things so often.
That's it for now. Plenty more work to do, but this is at least a good stopping point for this update.
Just posting this in as a hold-over until my next playable update is ready. I've been tryin to make the end of the month dead line, but slightly shorter month and there were some major things I discovered about Mugen (with also applied to IkemenGo) that I've been goin over and checking EVERY MOVE to fix the issue now that I understand it well.
TL;DR version of what's ahead, I just need a lil more time before I drop in the monthly character updates. I wanna get these sweeping fixes out of the way before I continue. I will drop them before the end of the week. What follows are some of the details and some info about other characters I wanna add to the mix soon since most of my WIPs are almost fully functional.
APPARERNTLY I never realized that - for whatever goofy reason - "ground.slidetime" is linked vias a goofy chain of things all the way to "guard.ctrltime." I had no idea for the longest time and it explains why it seemed like certain character (AURUMO IN PARTUCULAR) were able to block-stun lock opponents when the data didn't make sense as to why.
Even if you set guard.hittime lower then guard.ctrl time (or ground.slidetime if omitted) it'd STILL guard-lock the target. I had left various moves with higher slidetime values thinking that it didn't matter as long as it covered the hitttime value, but nope, this is linked in a VERY odd way to guard's ctrltime and it has very odd side effects with guard.hittime, like still visually keeping the target in guard lock but being able to act out of it anyway. This feels so goofy and redundant. SOOOOO to make sure all of this is taken care of, I'm trying to go through every move and make corrections.
I've made a new debugger/trainer feature for IkemenGo users that also displays frame data, on both hit and block so I can better understand how to balance my moves without needing to test out every little thing dozens of times. This will be active in the next update.
I made some changes to Mango and gave him some actual throw animations, but he still needs a back and air throw. Feliro got a majo change to Dust Devil Dance which is a ton of fun. I'll go more into that details when I post those characters.
But here, a portion of def time when into settin up more character to join the WIP bundle soon. A brand new character, Rael, was made from an old Tails concept animation I did a while ago. I really liked the animation, so wanted to convert it into something I could use. So, I made Rael. She'll be a item/gadget user of sorts.
Athis is the ghost-lookin critter that will be a super tanky defensive type.
Tek, the blue boy, has been around for a while, but I've been wanting to add him into the mix for a while. He'll be likea heavy semi-ranged grappler type.
Sheth, who has no animation yet, will also be a fire/ice user like Aurumo, but with inverted buttons and a more mobile projectile based sort of all-rounder.
So, yeah, gimme a few more days and the next round of updates will be dropped.
Quick Edit: I forgot to mention that the AI I have on the character's wasn't changed for the new combo system yet. So they are able to break these rules and do combos they aren't supposed to do, making them a bit busted. This will be tweaked in the next update, along with a proper AI being made for Mango and Feliro.
Oki, I have a much bigger update this time for you all.
I've pushed hard to make some serious progress on these characters this month particularly with animation works for them but I've also been tweaking the way their combos work to go along with the changes I've set up with Gejhi.
So now Aurumo, Mango and Feliro all have changes to fit this new structure. (Shiren hasn't been updated yet, but I will make sweeping changes to her as well once I get to update her with more attention.)
Aurumo has a new button-1 auto combo, which is two fiery punches. The 2nd punch has different effects on the enemy based on when it hits. The close hit will set up a juggle situation, the far hit just hits them away.
I made a special lil helper thingy for Aurumo's fire punches so that the fire effect animation syncs up with the actual punches during hit-stops and such. "Explods" can't do this correctly.
Aurumo's kick was moved to a special command input of a half-circle input. (L, D, R OR R, D, L + button 1). This might be temporary, I'm trying to consider how I might go about moving this move, otherwise I'll leave it to this input.
Aurumo's Pyro Burst has more start-up now. and I'm probs going to tweak this attack further for balance reasons.
Aurumo has a new "target combo" from his button 1 auto. After the 2nd punch, you can cancel the move into up-1 for juggle setups higher up in the air. I'm thinking on ways I might slightly change Up-1's attack for this purpose.
Aurumo can't cancel his jab into button 2 anymore, but it still currently links, which I might keep.
For those unfamiliar, when I say "link" this means that that attack can still combo, but only when the hit-stun is long enough for another attack to still combo.
Mango's direct combo ability was nerfed, but he does more damage on various attacks, which is pretty standard for this combo rework, but Mango got hit harder because I wanna push him more into a zoner and trickster archetype.
Mango's Kiss now takes twice as long to explode. This is both a nerf and a buff at the same time. It makes it easier for the foe to react to, but it also delays the hit-stun more for him to run in and get a combo or juggle from it.
Mango's Up-1, up-1. air 2 target combo is preserved, but it hit the target further away to set up zoning.
Mango can't change is button-1 slaps into his tail attack on button 2 anymore (standard) but the hit-stun is slightly longer on them so that he can finish off with his P button attack consistently.
He can currently link certain attacks that I may or may not keep. Like Linking a slap into Up-1.
I plan to make some larger changes to Mango as well on the next update. I'm gonna move his Up-P (the rainbow attack) to be his 1-bar universal 1+2 attack and add a lil spin to the attack that he can shift his position with a little added invincibility. I might give him a new Up-P attack.
I'm also thinking I'm going to get rid of the super Ball attack (Quarter circle 2+P) and give him something different in it's place. It will be another projectile based attack though. I'm thinking something goofy like a set of fireworks he'll fire out in some fassion. I'll be experimenting with the idea.
I'm also going to give him an "EX" version of his play ball, where the ball is a cartoonish bomb. This will cost 1 bar. It can still be slapped around, but it will have stronger gravity and not bounce quite as much. This will count as the ball itself tho, so he won't be able to have both out at the same time. I think that'd be too bonkers for anyone trying to defend against all of that chaos.
Feliro generally got the universal changes so far. Slightly more damage on some of his attacks but lost the ability to chain button 1 and 2, which is the standard change. He still keeps the cancel from Flurry Feets (Hold button 1 after the first kick) to button 2 as a Target Combo.
I also nerfed Feliro's air-stocks to just be the standard. So he can only air-dash or air-jump once. He still has the best air mobility because of his air-specials when combined with his single stock. I wanted nerf his ability to stall.
I got rid of his projectile i-frames from his Spinning Bolt Kick (quarter circle + 1) special. He's got so much mobility, he didn't need this.
There might be a few things I missed on this update, but it's a big one. I'm gonna have another nice update for you folks this coming month. I'm making sure that I make time for this every month now. I've had to raise my commission prices a bit and I might be picking up my old parttime job again to allow for more time flexibility.
HAPPY NEW YEAR and I hope your holidays have been nice too.
It's been a busy month for me and I've been doing some post surgery catchup on things as I've been gettin back into the swing fo things.
That said, I've not been able to do a ton of work on the game material, so I'm not gonna be charging my patrons come the end of this month. I'll let that resume next month when I have a good update for you all.
I have some plans for reworking my monthly schedule and I think that I can manage something good out now that I am feeling much better in many ways. Post surgery and after treating my lack of B12 so far.
I'm just gonna be trying out various ways to balance out work on this along with commission work (and some catch-up work) so that everything progresses nicely. I've still just been a lil distracted with the holidays and trying to catch up on my slow month in November because of the surgery.
2022 has been an interesting year. Some good personal growth but still always figuring out how to better my progress on stuff. I've been very focused on my health this year and fixing all of the things I've been neglecting about my health and I've been on a great track with that. The surgery recovery was the hardest part of it all, and the rest of it has been the long game with diet, figuring out the vitamins and supplements I need and going to the gym.
Once everything calms down in January, I'm gonna be gettin down and hardcore workin to wrangle my focus down and manage time and projects better, as it's the next step since I'm figuring out a lot of my health stuff now. I have a good outlook and I've been feeling fantastic this month since I've been taking care of the B12 thing. Apparently it's a super important vitamin and I've been low in it for a long time.
SO, I'll be dropping some updates for you next month. I've ben picking at the combo rework for the other characters and adding in and tweaking how a few moves work to make this fill out more. I'm liking the feel of it in testing, I just need to unlearn my old habits when play testing. Hahah.
Thanks all for sticking around! Here's to a good 2023!
This update is kind of special. This one features a major change to GEJHI this time.
Usual files are included down below, along with the experimental forest stage and the customized IkemenGO Tag.zss file.
I'm starting his new version of sprites and slowly make all the new sprites and toss them in. I had to go through the whole old sprite set manually adapt them to his new palette that his new sprites are using (he has more colors, in addition to being larger). This was a tedious task, but it needed to be done to make the gradual transition from old-to-new smoother.
Along with these new sprites, I tweaked all of his palettes and made them look a bit nicer. AURUMO Also has the rest of his missing palettes filled in, as I realized I never filled them all in.
NOW FOR THE COMBO/BUTTON REWORK
I've been feeling now for a while that the system need some changes for various reasons. A MAJOR reason is that I felt like the combos were gettin a little too crazy in terms of the strings. While I know they are still pretty tame by some standards, I felt like the strings were still a little too directly long with the sort of "dial up" or "magic series" styled format I had ended up with.
On that note, that's the other reason I wanted to change the system up, as I felt like it was just too heavily focused on starting every combo with button 1. This rework it steering the system away from that and instead giving button 1 and button 2 more of their own uses and purpose.
Combos are somewhat simplified but also made more complex at the same time. The "dial up aspect" was significantly in favor of a more "juggle" focused combo system. More attacks will pop targets off the ground to set up juggle situations, but these juggles are going to have a bit more escape options between certain links. This is to play into the "juggle scaling" rework I put into the last update, this will make the flow of combos more focused into that system and reduce periods of grounded stun locking.
DAMAGE VALUES HAVE BEEN BUFFED BUT DAMAGE SCALING RAMPS UP HARDER. (from 5% to 8% per attack). This was done to account for the nerfing of combos.
GEJHI is the only character that has the sweeping changes so far. Next month, all of the characters will have their kits reworked for the new system.
Button 1 (x) is focused more now on "auto combo" and "light" function attacks. Button 2 (y) is focused more on stronger attacks with spacing options.
Gejhi's standing button 1 is now an auto-combo. The first two hits are the same as before, but inputting a 3rd press DURING the 2nd punch, will make him attack with his knee. You can still LINK the old jab-cross sequence into itself by timing you button presses for when Gejhi finishes the 2nd punch. This was done to emulate beat'em-up sequence combos, which each character will get in some form. These are your faster attack options which will usually do smaller amounts of damage. They are the simple option for combos to special attacks in most cases.
Gejhi has a new standing 2. The animation is still a WIP, but it's now a longer reaching kick. This new attack gives him a spacing option to poke from mid-range. IT ALSO HAS A CLOSE VARIANT which has a hitbox that changes the animation to a knee attack when it connects. The close version hits harder and pops the target up into a juggle state. Gejhi's Target combo (Close st.2 > Up.1) is preserved in this form, so you still have a clean juggle setup to Omega)
Gejhi can still use the far version of standing to as his step into Phantom Kick (Power attack/B button). He can special cancel it still, but it will not cleanly combo into each of them.
This system is going to carry over to most other characters. Button 2 will be gettin an alternative close-version as a utility option.
Gejhi has a new EX attack, Up.1+2. It is a stronger version of his Up.2 attack. This attack can OTG and is not effected by juggle scaling. This functions as a way to extend juggles for meter.
Gejhi's Universal Burst EX (1+2) Had it's juggle properties changed where it can extend force the air-target into a juggle state and throw them in the direction of your facing (or when turned with a back input).
Gejhi's Air Down-2 now has slower startup, but will hit harder, force a juggle state on air-targets and cross through the target.
Gejhi's Dash Attack (F+p during a run) Now lands both hits more reliably. I noticed a problem where the 2nd hit wouldn't always cleanly link from the 1st and leave Gejhi negative and punishable. This was fixed with a slight tweak to knock-back and movement when the first hit lands.
I THINK THAT'S EVERYTHING FOR NOW It's kinda of a big update, but also kinda not, thanks to my surgery. This will be more fleshed out with the next update, as I plan to give Gejhi 1 or 2 more new attacks as well. A smash styled "Multi-jab" will be added to button 1 for Gejhi similar to how it's implemented for Feliro. I've been mulling over an air-version of his projectile as well.
Each character will also be gettin an air-version of there Universal EX attack like Feliro.
I'll leave it at that for now. Next month's update will be great with all the changes.
This is my progress on remaking one of my old 2D stages in proper 3D now that the feature is available to IKEMENGO. This will be included in the bundle. It's still pretty early in, but I'm starting to figure out a good amount on how to do the 3D stuff, along with animating some of the assets in the stage.
The screenpack is still very unfinished, but I've grabed assets from another old MUGEN set I was making and started toying with new features here. 
Also, the nightly build of IkemenGo reworked how wall-counterpush works (when you slide backwards when hitting a foe against the wall. and I noticed some situations caused some crazy slides because of how I over compensated for Mugen's buggy counterpush. This is slowly being reworked on all attacks. I may write a new custom code for this as a catch all. I'll see how it works out.
