VinVulpis

Quick Personal News Post.

SO, before I drop in this month's update (which is actually focused on the new version of Gejhi, being started, as well as a combo and button system rework.) I wanted to just make a quick personal update.

I recently had surgery, so my progress this month on like EVERYTHING slowed down. I had to get a small cyst removed. I'm recovering well it seems, but the process - frustratingly - slow. I'm generally able to sit more normally now (cuz it was on the top of my butt), but my sleep pattern is still all screwy since the surgery threw me off and my anxious butt can't seem to sleep properly.

I also had to buy a new tablet, which I'm still waiting for, tried to get one on a Black Friday sale. At the end of last month, the THIRD PEN I bought for my yiynova tablet internally exploded or something. Major overheat and fried something it it, so now it like, sort works but doesn't, so I've gone back to the 1st pen I had, which the power-saver is broken, so I need to unscrew it to save battery. 

So I decided to just tackle the problem by just gettin a new tablet at this point. The bad yiynova pens are like $40 a pop, and I'm not about to keep sinking more and more money into this thing and roll the dice on yet another pen on top of the batteries I need to keep feeding it. I had to custom cut my own replacement glass for this thing too. So yeah, stay away from yiynova.

The new tablet, an XP-Pen, don't need any batteries and I've gotten a good number of recommendations on them on top of seemingly positive research I've done on the brand.

So, yay~ 

All that said, I'll be compiling and dropping in the next monthly update pack for this month in a lil while.

WIP Character Update NOV 01 2022

Download pinned to bottom of post.

So this update isn't as big as I'd have liked it to be, but I'm still coming off of a commission grind. I'm still gonna need more commission grinding thanks to tablet issues I've encountered, but I'm going to try to make more time for these updates either way.

Personal stuff update in this part:
I'm going to FurPocalypes tomorrow (and sadly looks like I wont have an artist alley spot) but also I'm having tablet trouble now, right after my dang birthday. >:( The tablet still works fine, but the pens made for it are shotty and this is the 3rd one I've had bust on me. I still have my original pen working, but the powersaver is broken in it, so I need to unscrew it to preserve battery, not the worst thing. I'm gonna be looking into buying a new tablet at some point, because the stock on these bad pens seems to be running dry on the only distributer I could find, so I'm on limited time. It's just really bad timing but what can ya do?

Other small personal news is that I'll be gettin a small surgery next week to rid myself of a curse I've had for most of my life. Nothing huge, just a small thing that I'll be stuck recovering for 2 to 4 weeks after, but I'm expecting a nice quality of life boost with this stupid lil curse on my tailbone gone.

Game file updates here:
ANYWAY, this update is mostly just a mechanical change that's universal.

JUGGLE SCALING.
I've separated the knockback scaler to it's own variable, no longer links to the damage scale. This scale only get's applied when hitting a target that's mid-air OR in lay-down state. 

I did this to simplify certain aspects and make some combo behavior more predictable. So starting a longer combo on the ground wont instantly kill juggle ability. This makes everything a bit more stream-lined and also lets me more easily scale the x and y values in different ways. 

COMBO LIMITERS are now more strict though (and fixed). A SPECIAL KNOCKDOWN state is forced on the target once either:

The damage scaler hits 24 steps.
OR
The juggle scaler hits 12 steps.

This special state will force the target to fall at 2x speed into a hard knockdown state.

Damage scaling now starts right after the 1st attack, rather than the 2nd. I did this to scale stuff slightly harder in the damage area, especially because I feel like jabs are too easy to start combos with, so I'm playing around with ideas to make heavier hits more valuable to use raw.

I THINK I managed to catch every move that used the old juggle system and route them to the new variables. If I see more later, I'll fix them. I know Shiren still uses the old system, but she's still in her very early stages, as I've not been able to progress her much lately.

Later on I may also add another special action for when ground combos exceed a certain number of attacks. Something to possibly limit grounded loops that'd hit the 24 step mark. Something like forcing a normal fall for juggles at 12 steps so you MUST juggle to continue the combo.

I know Mango's corkscrew is still broken in this way, but that attack itself needs the adjustments to prevent that. 

MANGO TWEAKS
Mango got some small-ish changes to push him more into a zoner-game. I changed the way his juggle abilities work to make them shorter and more to create distance. I still kinda want him to be an annoying but squishy all-rounder, but I felt like some of his combos were too long. So he does a little more damage now on various moves, but can chain together less of them, and most of his enders now create distance for him to be annoying with his projectiles and Mango-ball attack.

BONUS WIP experimental forest stage included.
I tossed in another experiemtal stage into this bundle of a forest scene that I used to try out a different approach to stage creation for Mugen/IkemenGO. I'm probsbly gonna drop my insistence on the "as 3D as possible" I've been trying to go for because it just takes too long to make work as I'd like it. I'll save the 3D approach for later on when I start working inn Unreal Engine for my full game later.

IKEMENGO tag.zss included in zip file, as usual to make use of my tag-combo system.

SO that's about it for this update. It's not huge, but it's something coming off of my quiet period and the no-charge month I did last month.

I'll Likely be stuck home a lot after the surgery, so should have a lil extra time to squeeze in more work on these projects.

Thanks all for the continued support!

Not Charging Current Patrons for October

I've decided to pause the cycle for October because while I have been trying to do some work on the projects, I've ended up a failed experiment. (For now)

I was trying to rework the way the parry function works, but I've had some issues with gettin it to properly function in the IkemenGo engine. I've SAVED the work for whenever IkemenGo gets an update that will fix the issue, but I donno when that'll be. I've had to put that idea aside for the time being.

I kinda NEED the extra funds right now, but I don't feel okay charging patrons for a lack of a significant update. I've had to put the work I managed to do on the back burner, and I've had to focus a lot more on commissions to clear out my queue.

The unfortunate part is that I spent a LOT of time trying to get the parry rework to actually work as I wanted it, but I just couldn't figure it out with the way IkemenGo functions right now. But I should IDEALLY be able to use it if/when IkemenGo adds 1 single feature that I need to make sure it works.

I've been tweaking other features and doing some code-reworks to how some combos and juggle features work.

At this point it's way too close for me to rush in work to make the update in time for the end of the month. 

So with all that said. I'll be continuing to work on the projects more again soon and post an update for you all soon.

That said, if anyone would like a sketch commission or some basic sprite work from me, the work would be super appreciated right now. I'll even toss you a discount for being a patron here.

A lil something to help me make up the losses for not chargin yas here. I just wanna make sure you're actually gettin something when you give me money.

That's all for now! Thanks for continuing to be a patron!

Big WIP Character Update (Sept 01 2022)

Post update: I made a quick patch to Gejhi's (and Aurumo's) AI. I noticed for some reason Gejhi's AI was having an issue with jumping, so I added a quick fix for that. I'm also aware of another small bug with the AI with certain defensive things that seem to break the AI temporarily. This will be fixed soon.

ZIP FILE AT BOTTOM OF POST

So, the biggest focus of this update is Mango. I did a lot of work on him recently, but first let me go over a universal fix I did for all characters in the pack, and a couple of other smaller changes first.

NOTE : PLEASE GET IkemenGo and use this over Mugen. Mango's Play Ball will not function as intended do to a Mugen limitation that IkemenGo doesn't have.

You can get IkemenGo ---> HERE 

IkemenGo is compatible with Mugen content, but I've been relying on a lot of IkemenGo's expanded features and I can't promise I can find suitable alternatives for Mugen that will work as nicely. I'm likely going to have to completely replace Mango's Play Ball in Mugen with a simplified version of the move.

As usual, my modified tag.zss file is included for the tag mode features I have built into my characters to work.

Parry Fix VS. Projectiles.
All characters got a fix that I had to trial and error to make parries work better against projectiles. I generally refused to use the full game-pause method. My parries against normal strikes were fine, but there was issues with projetiles that I wasn't really happy with, and I figured out how to address this. 

The issue was with multi-hit projectiles, slowly going through the character in some cases when parrying each hit. I figured out a method that pauses the projectile right after the invisible parry helper is hit, it will also pause the projectile for the same amount of time if it's still there to hit again. This generally seems to work as intended now.

Feliro also got an update.
Feliro now has an added alternative super attack when his omega state is active. I think I worked all of the bugs out of the way it works, but I'm still plannign to make a few smaller adjustments to it, along with added visuals when I get around to polishing his sprites up more.

"Mirage Barrage" (same input as his normal super during active omega state. F,D,DF y+b) is the name of the new "omega-super" unique to him. It's designed to do a certain flat amount of unscaled damage as a finisher to his omega state. Using this move will remove any remaining timer he has left for his omega state. I plan to add in some additional cues for when the timer is running low for players to know they should use it or lose it. The attack will be meter-free, so I'll be balancing it based on that idea.

Aurumo got a small change.
He can no longer jump cancel his Up-2 (Up-y) on hit. I felt like this goes against his general design theory. This is hardly a nerf for him though, as the attack still forces a hard-knockdown and juggle state that give him plenty of options. You can still do the similar jump-follow ups if you wish by chaining a Cryosphere after hitting them, then doing your jump-juggles.

AND NOW, Mango.
This boy got a lot of new stuff and a lot of tweaks to his kit.

ANIMATION:
Mango now has blocking animations, an idle "hold" will be added later"
He also has Parry frames. I have plans to expand greatly on this as a unique character trait for him for the next update.
Some new attack WIP animation roughs were added for new attacks listed below.

A new special. "Mango Ball" (half-circle OR Z-motion + B).
Half circle (R,D,L or L, D, R) version will make mango fly in the direction you do the motion, in a shallow arc. The air-version is slower and won't travel as far.
Z-motion (R,D,DR or L,D,DL) version will cause mango to fly at an diagonal angle up or down depending if it was done from the ground or mid-air.

This move has special properties and control options. Firstly Mango's attack is considered a projectile in this state. This means his can collide with other projectiles and bounce off of them. He's also invulnerable to other projectiles in this state. (There is some issue still with certain TYPES of projectiles that I'll try to work out.) THE ONLY EXEPTION is SUPER projectile attacks, to which he will lose outright. The attack itself is also low-priority, which gives opponents a chance to hit him (or even air-throw) out of the attack. So be careful.

This attack can be canceled by itself 1 time per time in the air. So, if you first do the attack from the ground, you can chain it into itself with either command for the air-version. However, when the attack is started in the air, this cannot be done. You pretty much get one air-use. Mango is considered airborne once he enters the ball state from any version.

This attack will hit opponents that are in a laydown state and he will bounce forward off of them, instead of back like normal.

LASTLY, you can change the gravity of Mango during this attack by holding down, which will about double his falling speed while in the ball state. This gives you all sorts of different attack traveling angles to try out. Mango will simply bounce off the floor when he comes in contact with it. I ALSO PLAN to add similar behavior for walls.

Changes to Mango's Play Ball.
This move got a MASSIVE rework and recoding to both improve and fix various things about it. 

THE BIG ONE is that the ball almost never "trades" hits now as long as an attack box interacts with it. It's attack is now delayed by 1-frame when coming into contact with something it can hit, making sure the bounce box takes priority. This SIGNIFICANTLY improves the ability to volley the ball back and forth and off of walls and avoiding goofy trades or double hits it had before with some moves. The only way it can trade now is if an attack is poorly times too late and it comes into contact with a hurtbox with before there's an active hit-box over it.

The ball's damage was changed to more heavily be effected by the speed the ball is traveling, and generally does a lot more damage. But, it won't guarantee a juggle setup anymore, as the stun and knock-back are also effected by the speed of the ball when it hits. 

It no has an exploding hitbox. It's purely just for effect, so it only hits once and is then gone. Similarly, the ball will just blink and disappear after a while of not hitting any target. 

The ball's life-time was extended from 4 seconds to 6 seconds. 

The ball will not "explode" when hitting an armored target, (or something like a parry helper) and will simply bounce off of the target similar to if they blocked the ball. (There may be some hitches based on how the target armors the attack, but I think my code covers that, I will make a fix if it is discovered it still ends when hitting an armor's target.)

Changes to Mango's KEESS.
Damage was tweaked to generally increase it's damage more as the heart travels away from Mango. Right now, only the x-axis effects this, but I will change the math to account the y-distance as well.

The Heart graphic itself now grows with distance, and flashes two different ways to imply explosion size. The explosion size has 3 levels, each increasing the attack size by 20%.

This is purely all effected by distance from Mango, not the lifetime of the projectile. I MAY consider changing this to the lifetime instead. (or more dangerously a mix of the two?)

Changes to Mango's up-1 (up-x) "High kicks, High kicks."
This attack can no longer be jump canceled on hit but this attack gained a new extension of a 2nd jumping High-kick by inputting the command a 2nd time. This can set up some situational juggles, but it's main purpose is to give him a chain to use his new Air-P (air-b) attack.

The high kick's knock-back was adjusted to shorten the ability to do the repeat loop-chain of Up-1, stand 2, into itself. So a combo like 1, 2, up-1, 2, up-1,up-1 is possible.

Up-2 will no longer cancel up-1.

New Air-P attack, Flippity Floppity Split.
Mango finally has a proper Air-p attack in the form of a silly flip that he will land on the ground in a split pose. The air portion has a 3 different hitboxes. The first of which is a more standard hit, but the tail and falling hit-box interact with the target differently based on which one hits. The tail will spike the target down into a knock-down. The second will still knock-down and do less damage but only if the tail missed. The last hit-box is when he lands on the ground for the flop as the end of the attack.

This attack is very unsafe on block, and the ground landing split isn't great on-hit by itself either, it's best when the air hits already knocked the target down (or something else knocked them down for an OTG tag-juggle)

New standing Up-P attack, "IMAGINATION."
This attack is admittedly still a WIP concept. I'm definitly keeping the move, but it's function is still up to change. It's a very large, but low-priority attack where Mango creates a rainbow effect over and around his top-half as a disjoint.

While this move on the surface might seem like a great anti-air option. I'm not designing it to be, and actually made his top-half hurtboxes bigger to make this more unsafe to anti-air with. It's instead being made an a wide coverage move that can possibly lend itself to juggle options or try to cover both sides of him as a riskier defensive option.

I was experimenting with how to handle the hits when it's hitting foes on both sides of him, and it's still a lil janky thanks to IkemenGo's limitations on hit-defs, which is largely still the same from Mugen's behavior.

Changes to this attack are likely to come next patch.

WHEW... I THINK THAT'S EVERYTHING.
I've obviously been on a huge inspiration kick for Mango to hammer out a lot of new stuff for him... (admittedly at the expense of lagging on commission work) but it honestly felt good to get a lot of work done on this for a change.

I plan for Mango to also finally have his own get-hit animations on the next update and hopefully have all of his borrowed sprites filled out with WIP ones of his own. Feliro still needs a couple too, like his gaurd, parry and crouch transitions.

I put a ton of work into this update and I've been typing for like 2 hours, so I really hope you all enjoy it!

Thanks for the continued support! <3

WIP Character Update July 27 2022 - Mango

Hello all, I squeezed in some time this month between my heavy commission workload to get some more work on this stuff out.

This update is focused on Mango, But ALSO, I fixed the issue that was crashing the updated AI characters in the MUGEN Engine. I got some help to figure out the weird error message I was getting and it turned out the be a simple fix, it was just really hard to find. So the Mugen versions should now be working.

I haven't updated the AI work further just yet, as I've been swamped with work, but when I did get to this, inspiration slapped me to work on Mango some more. I'm gonna try to get some more AI done for the August update.

He's got 2 new attacks. The basic one is a new turning air-2 attack. Which is a slow, but strong double tail whip along the lines of a Mewtwo back-air in Smash. This attack can be canceled after the first upward tail swish with his Drill attack (down-1). I'm still playing with exactly how the attack should work. It feels a lil too slow right now, so I'll be tweaking it to make it more fun and useful.

The really fun new move he has is Mango Ball. This attack has two different input commands done with the Power Attack button (default to B button).
Forward Mango Ball is done by inputting a half circle (L,D,R or R,D,L)+ P in the desired direction. This version will send him barreling in the direction in a slight arc. When done in the air, he will move slower.
Angled Mango Ball is done with a Z-motion input (F,D,DF) + P in the desired direction. This version will send him at an upward angle as if an anti-air. When done from the air, Mango will dart downward sharply and bounce off the ground.
Both version of this attack can have the gravity accelerated by pressing down as he flies, giving lots of unique attack angles to play with.
He can also cancel any ground-based version into the air version as he flies. This can only be done once if the attack does not hit any targets.
As of right now, the attack can be repeated after he bounces off of a target. But I'm going to see about how I should limit this to not let it be too crazy and spamable. The only limit I have on this right now is that the target will be forced into knock-down after it's comboed or hits a 2nd time quickly.
This attack can also hit foes in a lie down state to tack on a lil more damage after a knockdown.

For now, this attack has the attack property of a projectile, so he can bounce back off of projectiles. Useful to hit a projectile and then use the 1 air-cancel to keep going. I might tweak this behavior and attribute later to make it more interesting, or interact differently with projectiles, but this is a decent stand-in behavior for now.

Another tweak was done to the Heart Bomb. I recoded how this attack works to make it operate smoother and have less clunky code. (This attack probs still doesn't work as intended in the Mugen version, if I can't remedy that, I'll just make alternative version for that engine, but it's going to lose the Wii-Fit Ball gimmick that makes it fun in IkemenGo. I also nerfed the speed that hitting it sends it off at, sending it at slightly different and weird angles. 

My goal is generally to make Mango goofy, with a weird moveset that's over the top with gimmicks. I'm liking what I have so far. I still have a few more moves to make for him, and I'm mulling over some ideas I have. Namely one to replace that temporary move I have for his air-P attack, which is going to get completely changed at this point, I'm just trying to decide with what exactly.

As usual, my altered tag script for IkemenGo is included in the pack.

Thanks all for the continued support! <3

WIP Update Jun 29 2022 - A.I. progress

As I said in the last post. I was going to focus on gettin the AI working so that I can present it at AnthroCon.

Download ZIP at the bottom of post.

I have Gejhi and Aurumo Presentable, but I didn't manage to get Feliro quite that far, but he has a basic level of stuff working here.

Mango and Shiren don't have any AI yet.

I'm going to try to squeeze in a lil more work on this while I'm in Pittsburgh before Friday, and whatever work I manage to squeeze in will be updated here after the con.

I spent hours several days doing a almost complete rewrite of this code. I thankfully have a cleaner system and pretty much all of the weird behavior and bugs are gone. The AI I have there could certainly use refining and filing it for more variance, but my goal was primarily to get it presentable, and I at least have two characters to showcase if I can't get Feliro's finished by Friday.

The gif used in this post is a small clip of a test video I recorded and posted to twitter of the AI playing on both sides.

The last couple of weeks have been nutty with me preparing for this. All worked up and anxious. I'll feel so relieved once I'm set up there. Hahah.

ONE LAST THING TO NOTE:
I'm not super sure if this makes base-Mugen 1.1 crash or not. I've been testing in IkemenGo as my main build, and I didn't get the time to make sure all this new code works right in Mugen. If it doesn't, I'll promptly fix it after I get back home next week!

WIP Character pack June 01 2022 (Shiren)

Well I have a new update finally, and this one features Shiren now. Sh'e still very early in development and is still using a lot of Aurumo's older assets as I worked on top of an older version of his file, (so had to port over some update code too)

ALSO INCLUDED IN THIS PACK is a "Tag.zss" file for The IkemenGO versions to function with in Tag-mode. This is a minor tweak to the system allow for free tagging during combos, which my characters use special tag-in-attacks to keep a combo going. To use this, replace the file of the same name in your IkemenGO "data" folder. 

(Also there is a note at the bottom of this poit about WIP changes to Gejhi's AI)

Some of the moves I gave her are using Aurumo's old assets as a concept tester. I wanted to play around with ideas on her moveset since I was feeling like I hit a creative wall and was trying to figure out the best sort of thing to go with for her. I wanted her to be a mixed sort of "half grappler."

I think I'm starting to like what I worked out for her so far and already feels pretty playable even if she's still a mess in terms of sprites.

There are still attack left overs from Aurumo that are still usable on her commands, and some of them I might actually end up using in terms of the code; reworking them to fit her moveset's goals.  Namely the forward dash cancel-able Fow-2 attack and the ram/tackle dash attack.

SPecial moves she her right now are:
D, F, x : Burst Punch
A short ranged projectile. Knocks down at close range.
D, F, y : Leaping Hammer Kick
A leaping high-damage kick that forces knockdown.
D, F, b : Burst Launcher Hook
A short ranged punch and projectile that launched the target up into the air for possible follow-up.

These attack concepts are still being tweaked as I test things out, so names and effects are likely to change for them, but I'm keeping the general idea of this attacks for her.

Her Power Button Attack (button b) is a temporary dummied move to test out the concept of a swinging Chop attack that forced the foe to spin around, and can lead to a grab follow-up if the range needed it met. It's based on Aurumo's turning-2 attack of the same effect, but Shiren's Power charge move will be a sliding/dashing version of this, in which the charge time effects the range and power of the attack. 

I plan to give her at least one command grab special and one other attack/grab hybrid attack that will hit or grab based on range it connects. I did PLAN on giving her a special roll, to bypass projectiles, but I'm wondering if it might be too strong for her type of character. So I'll see how that pans out in testing.

ALSO IN THIS UPDATE: GEJHI NEW A.I. W.I.P.
I've been meaning for a long time to completely rework Gejhi's AI as I had left a lot of issues in the public release from a while ago. To many small issues and odd behaviors I didn't intend, but I didn't have time to keep focusing on, as I really wanted to move on to making more characters. SO, what I have in this batch is the beginnings of this. 

Already, his behavior is much better and I made the parry gimmicks much more reasonable. But there's still a lot of stuff to reintroduce to the AI. I was taking it slow and trying to make sure the little bit I added so far, is working nicely. So far, so good.

SO THAT ABOUT DOES IT FOR THIS UPDATE. I'm trying my best to squeeze in work on this stuff, it's just been a bit difficult lately balancing with other life stuff.
My plans for THIS MONTH is to work on giving Other WIP characters a functional AI because I'll be at Anthro Con as a dealer and I wanna show off my work and let it auto-play at my table. So, AI work is gonna take a priority leading up to this.

Thanks for sticking with me! <3

Notes on progress updoots: AI Rewrite

I starting working on AI again. Starting specifically with rewriting Gejhi's AI. His previous AI was rushed because I wanted to get the character out for folks to finally play with, but after some patches I made, it also seemed to weirdly effect his behavior. 

SO, I'm rewriting his AI very carefully this time, and working out the kinks and weird glitches I overlooked and already fixed a LOT of the basic issues with the AI. I also have new ideas on how I'm going to implement the AI's combos with few tricks to make the AI do well put-together combos rather than leaning so heavily on the RNG to handle that.

I actually fixed the parry behavior this time. So even at max difficulty, he wont be an annoying parry god anymore (but I'm going to put in a flag to still let him parry god other AI, lol, it was something I intended to do a long while ago, but never got around to). So far I just have a much less frustration set of math for it, and I also restricted how often it can try for parries, and limited it to certain states. but I also plan to focus this into certain "modes" or special behavior sets where he's specifically waiting fishing for a parry and the likely hood for this behavior will be influenced by his well-being in the match. Also will be tossing in a flag for when attacks/actions finish, he'll try to parry a punish attempt if he recovers fast enough, of course, this will scale with the difficulty. 

With that said. I'm also making him respond better to throw attempts. He can tech throw attempts farely often now, even when throwing them in with a reset, which I noticed lots of AI seem to struggle with. I have Gejhi calling out my throw attempts in mix-ups and I nerfed the math a bit to not have it be aggravating. I will make this more complex as well to feel more natural.

SIMILARLY. I'll be making sure the AI also knows how to deal with command grabs. Mainly by avoiding the situation as the baseline by dashing away or jumping, or using throw-invincible moves in common situations where frame-1 grabs are a threat and also recognize when there's a grabbing attack he has a few frames to respond to. Command grabs are the destroyer of a lot of AI, and I've seen a lot of other AI with command grabs do that... a LOT.

Somewhere along my progress with this. I'm actually gonna put that "brainplace" helper I made a while ago (but never used) to use. It's mostly just gonna be there to alter the AI's behavior with variable flags to make him do certain things more or less often with a soft randomizer or alter the frequencies to avoid the AI being too strongly patterned or conditioned. That concept of having each palette behave differently will be more obviously presented in this form, where all the variables have different base values.

I'm rather happy with the progress and issues I've ironed out so far for it. Fixing all the weird movement blocking. I'll post up some progress on that soon once at least have most of my starter/neutral actions and combo trees set back up.

Not Charging current Patrons for May 1st

Yeah, like the title says. I wanna wave the charge coming up in a couple days for current patrons. I've been trying to pick at work on the characters, but I've not been able to do a satisfactory amount of work on them yet. I've been bogged down with other stuff lately.

As I usually say, I don't like my supporters being charged when my output is lacking. 

I'm gonna try to get something good out sometime mid next month. I'm gonna make it a point to dedicate a good week of work to the game stuff soon. I've been needing to focus more on commissions cuz a lot of big expenses have been hitting me. 

So yee, keep an eye out for the next updoot.

WIP Character Update Mar-30-2022

This month's update focused on Aurumo again.

Before I go over the Aurumo updates, a couple things of note are universal:
I adjusted the tag-in attack positioning of each character to reduce accidental crossups.

I had to tweak my special control code again because the recent IkemenGo update 0.98.2 changed/fixed their input reader a bit and it slightly broke my control system. Was easy enough to figure out and tweak and all is working well again after a few adjustments.

New tag.zss for IkemenGo file in in the zip package, which fixes a small glitch I discovered where KO'ed partners are being detected as active opponents, thus making the character tag in the wrong side of the screen. I changed a bit to make sure it no longer does that. (I still need to make alter the "jump in" code to fix a similar issue, but may change the behavior to the way this works.)

The reason for my customized tag code is because my characters can freely turn, and the default tag bases the tag direction purely on character facing. Mine instead bases it on position related to active enemy.

Aurumo:
Several animations have been updates to finished forms:
St 1 has added fire effect.
St 1-2 (kick) has been finished.
Cr 1 Is finished and has fire effect.
Up 1 Has been changed to a anti-air fire flash.
Air 1 Has added fire effect.
Air 2 Has been finished.

Animation work on his is continuing to get him finished.

Aurumo mechanic changes:
Fire normals reduce heat meter slightly.
Cr 1 is a bit slower, but had it's reach increased.
St 2 has slightly faster startup. (2 frames)
Air-2's sprite sizes have been reduced, hitboxes adjusted.
Air-2 has slightly slower startup. (2 frames)

I've been wanting to get more work prepared for Shiren still, but focus issues due to ADHD stuff and seeing a new doc for it had me a lil delayed for a while, but I'm figuring out a temporary solution to help me focus in the meantime. I've also been hit with a lot of expenses recently, so needed to grind out commission work to give me a much needed financial bump, but am trying to still make some time to continue game-work here. Working on finishing Aurumo has been be a bit easier for me to focus on at the moment. 

Thanks much for the continued support. It's a huge help! (Especially right now c..c;;)

Quick news update

Sorry for the lag on gettin Shiren and more character updates out. It really feels like my ADHD has been full-blown lately and I'm struggling to stay on top of things. (long story with meds and heart issues and trying other stuff) ionno. I was okay for a while but for some reason I've extreme slow paced on everything I've been picking at.

That said, I WILL have an update with Shiren and other character updates before this month is out. I'm aiming for a big post by mid-next week. 

I just wanted to break the silence and let ya know that I'm workin but just having some issues at the moment that I'm trying to remedy too. 

Thanks all for the support. More comin soon!

Tag Attack Update (WIPs FEB162022)

Ey, sorry for the delays on gettin Shiren out, but stuff has came up and I needed to shift my focus a bit, so I couldn't focus mega hard on this stuff recently, but I'm gonna try to get that Shiren WIP out before the month's end.

That said, here's an update to hold over. I've been picking a bit at the critters and a bit at how the tag system works for them in IkemenGo.

I also realized that I should start including in my modified tag.zss file for my characters, as the one that comes with IKEMEN GO since 0.98 is now a very basic tag system. My characters function best with the older "mvc1" style tag system. I just have mine modified to make characters stop differently and not allowing tags to break combos and steal turns. (too chaotic). I'm still looking to work more on it to make it flow better, but it's functional.

If you are using IkemenGO and want my tag system, just replace the "tag.zss" file with mine, if you are still using the basic default tag system.

I added in a "target tag-in." If you tag while having an active target being hit, the partner will jump in with an attack. This was done to help keep tag combos a bit more consistent between team combinations without needing to make bigger changes to how each move works for better tagging. This helps them stick with the solo (no tag mode) function as well. 

Each tag-in attack is slightly different, doing different amounts of damage and slightly different knock-back. I'm working to make these attack more unique to each critter and to better work with the characters move-kits.

I'm also looking to tweak the tag file so that the side one tags into is always the same side, regardless of facing. (The default relies of character facing, which is kinda janky for my critters who freely turn.)

Default mappings of buttons described are as follows. "1"=x, "2"=y, "P"=b

The critters themselves got some small tweaks.
Feliro was given a proper WIP animation for the overhead special move I had as D,F-1 for a while. I've also changed the function of the attack, being projectile invulnerable until the attack comes out. The movement of this attack is also effected by holding forward or back or nothing for mobility options. I also added the option to use it mid-air.

Feliro also has a new version of Twist Gale when done with D,U-P which now starts with a head-spin before launch. This is the higher-damage option for him, while the y-button version is the faster anti-air attack. The button-2 version will always launce upwards and slightly forward. The button-P version will always launch BEHIND and far away from him, to give the move more predictable launch angles to plan around.

Feliro's twist gale also now does more damage while in Hyper Charged state (his omega install move). I'm working on giving all of his special attacks special properties while his Hyper Charge is active.

Aurumo now has added super-armor to his Up-P and Down-P attacks before the attacks are active.

I'll try to have more updates along with Shiren's WIP out soon!

Thanks much!

Quickie news update (Shiren WIP coming)

I'm gonna be pushing to get another WIP critter out for you all! 

This here is Shiren. I have a file started for her in the game, but only basic movements so far.

She's gonna be a "half-grappler" archetype. Good movement on the ground but more limited in the air. (weak air-jump and air-dash, sluggish mid-air steering.) 

She'll have some throws that are worked into her combo strings, with moves that becomes throws when the hit connects. She'll have a special projectile dodging roll, a short-ranged projectile, and a couple of special command grabs, along with her anti-air being a grab.

To make up for her lack of air-jumps, her base jump is strong, and she'll have a unique super-jump. She'll also be able to air-throw, like Aurumo can.

I'm also going to play around with a wall-jump gimmick for her.

I'm gonna be posting an update with a download as soo as I can, I'm aiming for next week along with Mango's wip moveset being fully fleshed out in functionality. :3

Stay tuned and thanks much for the support! <3

Mango WIP UPDATE Jan 11, 2022

CHARACTER DOWNLOAD AT BOTTOM OF POST. 

EDIT: SMall change to add small and large portraits to Mango's file, instead of the placeholder Aurumo. Also Mango's Read-Me was updated.

Characters in this update are GEJHI, AURUMO, FELIRO and the featured one of this update, MANGO. Mango is mostly the only one with updates in this post. Aurumo got a small detail of perma-freeze when KOing a foe with a freezing attack.

SO, here's anotehr very fast update for Mango with almost all of his moves filled out as functional WIP. 

NOTE: Currently there is an issue for the MUGEN version where Mango can't hit his ball. The trick I used works in IKEMENGo, but not MUGEN. I need to make a work around for this for the Mugen version, but I STRONGLY suggest you just upgrade to IkemenGo. It's a significantly better upgrade to the Mugen engine.

Mango now has both of his Up 1 and 2 attacks working.

He's got a controllable kiss projectile. [D,F, x]

Also the fun ball. [D,F, y] (only working properly in IkemenGo). This attack can be knocked at
3 different angles by hitting it with a Standing, Crouching or Air attack.

He's got a standing power attack working. His Big Wind-Up Pawnch. [Standing B]

He's got 2 working supers now. The commands might be adjusted in a later version.
Super 1 : BONK [F,D,DF, y+b]
This attack forces dizzy on the opponent. I did manage to work in a MUGEN compatible version of this that will force a dizzy state on the opponent. It's simple right now though.
Super 2 : Super Heart Ball [D,F, y+b]
This attack slowly will bounce in the direction you use it, and with slightly home into the target it hits for repeated hits.

I'm keeping the post shorter this time. but you can consult the "README" file in his folder for more info about all of the moves he has working so far. But he's gotta some fun combos, although I've made them the bigger combos a bit more awkward and situational, since I want him to be more of an annoying trap/zoner sort of character.

I will see what I can do to get Mango's ball mechanics working properly in regular Mugen, but I know that his partner in Simul will likely not be able to interact with it like thei can in IKEMEN.

DID I MENTION TO UPGRADE TO IKEMEN GO!? DO IT.

Mango Featured WIP Character pack (Jan-01-2022)

Download pack is at the bottom of this post.

EDIT: Fixed an issue I overlooked with Aurumo and Mango not crashing the MUGEN versions on load. IkemenGO has a weird small difference it's fine with that MUGEN don't like with math involving brackets.

So, his pack features the new boy. Mango. A sassy trollish critter having fun and not takin anything seriously. 

Inspiration hit me to churn out work on this boy and I got pretty far. I think I'm going to do something similar like this and work on gettin a functional WIP of most of my characters going forward, then work on polishing most of them down the line, this will get more content out.

Mango's moveset is not finished yet. I have MOST of his normals implimented, and the ones that are missing, revert to Aurumo's moves for those commands (I worked on top of Aurumo's file)

Mango is pretty floaty. He jumps high and falls slower than normal.

Mango still have Aurumo's guarding frames and features, this will be removed and tweaked to a normal guard later.

His combo routes are kinda janky still and I'm still figuring out the exact details, but I'm aiming for him to be more relyant on juggles and zoning, rather than direct combos.

NORMALS
Most of the normals are pretty straight forward in their current form, but some special notes right now are for his two air 1 attacks.

> Air 1 is a rapid double kick in a sassy pose. The button can be held to keep kicking. If he lands on the ground while kicking, he'll land in his crouch pose, which is a special state where he can follow up with one of his crouch normals.

> DOWN Air 1 Is a "drill kick" where he spins and drops down at 2 fixed angles and speeds, based on your inputs of DOWN or FORWARD, which do slightly different damage. This move will likely get some adjustments.

SPECIALS
> He's got a special move projectile "Kissy" (D,F, y)  which is a projectile you can control with directional inputs and explode by releasing the button. There's still some small issues with the function where you can occationally get him to shoot a 2nd one before the first explodes. Limiter on the time will be added later. But I'm trying to make it a mid-ranged Combo starter, so the recovery framedata is staying fast on this attack.

This attack can also be used in the air. The heart is also hitable by foes to negate the attack before it explodes.

> The other special I have dummied up with temp-sprites, is "BALLOOOOON" (F, D, DF, x or b) which is a goofy arcing rise and fall attack. I'm still figuring out the details of how good the anti-air should be on the rise, and how much damage the move should do on each portion. As well as the function of the delay.

The x button version arcs him up higher, while the b button verion is lower, but lunges forward. Holding the button will delay the drop and make him float at the top of the arc.

This attack will be gettin it's own sprites of him doing a silly belly flop and puffing his body up in  a cartoonish fashion. 

TEMP OMEGA
He has an experimental Omega Super impimented, which I haven't given a name yet, because I'm toying with different cosmetic effects, but the function is pretty much that of Ranging Demon, but it can be used in a combo. It cannot grab foes in the air, unless they are in a hit/fall state, but this move is effectively, a grab and cannot be blocked. I have different ideas for the cosmetics, but right now it's a sort of reference to Rasputin's "Secret Garden" from World Heroes Perfect.

AURUMO also got some changes that I haven't finished yet. But the general idea is that now all of his button-2 attacks add to his heat meter slightly. All of his button one attacks will be gettin fire element to them, and will reduce his heat levels slightly.

AIR 1 was changed to a fire jab and is a good combo/juggle tool. 

The old air 1, the Shield Drop Was moved to Down-2 and retains it's functionality as a high priority, projectile blocking attack.

That's about it for this update for now. I'll have more coming along for Mango in a couple of weeks. With my new stratagy, I should be able to quickly churn out a lot of WIP characters in the same way I did for Mango, as most of the work for him was done in 1 week after I got covid and missed christmas, which was butt, but I guess I'll take the good I made of it.

Thanks much for all the support this year. I plan to be much better with my updates this year, but even still. I'm not charging if my updates don't come that month.

I hope you all are enjoying the holidays. Thanks so much again! <3

New WIP character being added to the next update batch

This here is Mango, a new WIP critter I'll be adding in the next batch of characters I'm planning to drop in tomorrow. Along with some updates given to Aurumo since the last drop, but I still have work to do on him with some changes I've made to his heat-system and a couple of his attacks.

But I managed to squeeze out work on this new boy gettin him pretty far along to a complete moveset, albeit with rough animations still. 

I just have a few things I need to do that I want a lil more time for before I drop this new update, so check back soon!

Aurumo WIP Assets Nov 30, 2021

It's been a bit since I've posted an update animation sprite set for download, so, here's a new set for Aurumo with all the frames and gif exports I made so far. It has a handful of updated animations that I finished. I have more on the way, so I'll be posting another Aurumo set next month, as I'm at the point of grinding out animation work for him.

This includes other unfinished assets in it along side the ones I finished so far!

Thanks a bunch for the support. <3
Happy holidays!

WIP character Update November 30, 2021

This update is largely focused on Aurumo, but also have a universal update for the other two characters.

AS USUAL, download is at the bottom of the post.

EDIT: Something small I missed with the matchwin splash that I missed the 2nd location that called it. It's turned off in team matches for the time being. (see below)

EDIT2: I think I finally found the issue with Aurumo dashing the wrong way seemingly at random during play. He was missing a buffer.time=0 on his "holdback" command. The universal buffer on that one command the input helper uses seemed to be the issue plaguing him. File updated again!

All 3 characters now have TWO .DEF FILES. Each one it named after the engine it is intended for.

Example:
Gejhi_Mugen11.def  <-- For MUGEN 1.1
Gejhi_IkemenGo.def <-- For IkemenGo

add the .def for the engine you are using. I had to start doing this because I wanted to use some of the new Ikemen features, but Mugen crashes when it sees certain things it can't recognize, so I was forced to made two .def files. The only difference is that the IkemenGo version loads 1 more page of code, otherwise the rest stays the same.

The universal update for for the GUARD METER in the Ikemen GO engine. Now when the character is put into Ikemen, the guard meter will sync up with the guard points setting in Ikemen. This means that the guard meter calculation works a lil bit differently than it does with the system I built for Mugen. Now it will use the "guardpoints" feature instead of being purely based on the number of hits.

When in TAG MODE in Ikemen, I turned on my special win splash when the match is over. This is so my characters don't hog the spotlight when winning with a teammate that isnt made by me. I will later be adding in a special version of my win splash when my characters see their partner is also made by me.

A small update was given to Feliro's file to fix his Omega meter not working as intended when with a Tag team in Ikemen.

and now for the main presentation of this update. AURUMO

[ANIMATIONS ADDED]
Finished: Jab, Ice Slash, Packed Ice Upper
Stand idle and walk have cleaner animation, finished full Run cycle animation. (Trot and turn need work)
ADDED NEW Breaker slash animation, finished.

[ADDED Attack] Breaker Slash
This attack is done by pressing (or holding) Y (button 2) after his standing 2 attack, the Ice Slash. This move can be held to charge and is designed to increase it's damage and guard breaking ability (Ikemen only) as it's held. A full charge will guarentee a guard break. This move will need it's mechanics adjusted for the MUGEN version so that it can mimic the effect it has in Ikemen. This attack's charge time might be shortened.

[Balancing]
I changed a lot of things in small tweaks to limit his combo ability and damage output, as he was becoming way to powerful and capable of longer combos than the design I had in mind for him. These combos ended up being fun, so I'm keeping elements of them, but making the longer strings harder to do.

Cyrosphere is now a couple of frames slower before the projectile is spawned. I'm moving this attack away from being a combo tool and focusing it more on being a space control tool, a means to start combos with, or a combo tool in more limited juggle situations. This was the main reason he ended up being so powerful, so this got a nerf. It does more damage now in exchange.

Jab (st.1) is 1 frame slower, damage reduced.
Ice Slash (st.2) had damage reduced.
Ice Sweep (cr.2) had damage reduced.
Packed Ice Upper (Up.2) had base damage increased, but is reduced to 67% when used in certain combos.
Turning Spike Slash (Back OR Back,Forward, 2) Damage is reduced to 67% when used in certain combos.

Glacial Hammer Now has more power added, as well as the added dizzy and guard breaking abilities in IkemenGo, which also scale with the charging power. BOth the ground and air versions have this.

Dizzy and guard points are slowly being added to all attacks, and eventually Gejhi and Feliro will have this added as well. Aurumo is just where I started on this one.

I think that about rounds up the details for this update. There might be some other small things, but these are the main changes. Aurumo will be gettin another animation update next month, and be ALMOST FINISHED. Soon.... SOON. (So ansy to finish him).

Thanks again for the support! More to come next month! <3
Happy Holidays!

IkemenGO compatibility update. (11-01-2021) (also not charging patrons again)

[Quick patch 11/13/21] Just posting this up at the top of this post. I noticed that Aurumo and Feliro's Omega supers didn't activate when the meter said so. I forgot to change one number in the two of them to match the changes I made to Omega meter. Feliro's move still have a sync issue when in tag team mode which I'm going to figure out for next update.
------------------------------------------------
Download of all 3 characters included in this update are attached to the bottom of this post!

It's not the work I promised to have progress on, so I'm not charging my current patrons again for this month on the 1st. The discovery of IKEMEN GO and it's improvements on the MUGEN engine compelled me to make this update.

All 3 characters should now play and handle the same in both engines.

Soooo, here's an update that took a good chunk of my time on this work this month. I worked heavily on debugging and and gettin my character to work nicely in Ikemen Go. Due to some differences in the engines. I ended up reworking my code for the movement/control features of them. There were BIG issues with compatibility that made my characters not function well in Ikemen Go.

I recoded testing update of Gejhi is also included in this update. He will get a public update once I am certain the recodes are working as intended, and I give him a few more updates, but he's gotten a long list of bug fixes to his system that the WIP's have gotten, and someother adjustments I've been working on. I also just need to work out a few small issues with his AI.

The reason for this sudden change for Ikemen Go compatibility is because it is a supririor engine to mugen, having many more features and actively being worked on, as the base Mugen had suddenly stopped development years ago, and it is a dead-end. Ikemen is greatly expanding on MUGEN while trying to be compatible with the stuff made for Mugen, but there are some issues they are still working out on that side of things. The biggest reason is for tag-team modes, which I've made the default play mode in my build. It's the main play style I want (2v2 tagteams in particular).

My recode is actually overall beneficial to my play design because now I am using an invisible helper entity attached to the characters that read the player's inputs and convert them to absolute left and right inputs, rather than forward and back, so this makes certain aspects of my control system much better, as well as opens the door to more input commands for specials, like half-circles or fow, back, fow type commands.

For the most part, I think all is working well with them all, but I seem to run into a small issue with Aurumo that I haven't found yet. It's rare, but he seems not to turn correctly for certain actions, seemingly at random, but I think it's conditional and is something I missed in his code. I dont wanna delay giving you folks an update any further, so here's the re-coded builds as they are.

Aurumo does indeed have some updated animations but not a a whole lot yet.

Aurumo's Forward-2 works differently now. It has a 2x damage sweet spot at the very tip of the poke. It reaches a bit further but does not slide as much. The attack can be dash canceled forward when it hits a target.

I did noticed a rare glitch, when playing in Ikemen where Aurumo can get stuck in the delayed CryoSphere animation sometimes. I think it's due to a very specific frame timing causing it with input and a variable not changing correctly on that frame, but I'll get that worked out.

In Ikemen's tag system, I did add in some custom stuff to make them move a certain way, but it's not perfect. The vanila tag system for ikemen changed in the 0.98 update, so I will be coding further to add in combo tagging to my system.

One change for tag-team (also effects mugen's simul mode) is that my characters will share the Omega meter. So when it's active, only one of them can use it, then it will reset to empty for both when used.

That's all for now. Thanks all for stickin around, Happy Halloween. Current patrons, enjoy the free update.

Update: Ikemen Go Engine Compatibility

So, the last couple of weeks I've been picking at working my code a bit to play nice with Ikemen Go, which is an engine that has expanded on the Mugen 1.1b engine considerably with a lot of added features. So, what I'm aiming to do is make my characters consistent in both engines at the base level, which I have achieved. I just need to fix a couple things on Aurumo and Feliro. This code rework is actually better overall than the system I have working prior, as I've managed to convert direction inputs to absolute left and right for command inputs, so more command inputs are able to be added to my characters now.

Aside from the consistent base functionality in both engines, I will be expending the code to make use of the added features in Ikemen Go, such as the Tag team feature, which I actually want to be my default (as a 2 character tag team.) Plenty of other features I plan to make use of as well. This will be build into the character files, but an some extra files will be added what should be added to MUGEN or IKEMEN's "select.def" respectively, depending on the engine being used.

I'm gonna be dropping in some new updates soon, probably around my birthday, which is this weekend! 

Personal update [Not charging for October]

Soooo, I'm letting October come free for current patrons again. I've been very bogged down with personal stuff going on lately and my motivation hasn't been the greatest. Among the issues, I've been going through doctor offices because of pending/unknown issues they are trying to figure out and some clues have been found. It's just been wearing at my mentally for a while, but rest assured that I am fine and well generally speaking. I just am not sure what some things may mean for me way down the line. I'm still active and gettin exercise and stuffs.

 I've been working a lot on trying to pump out commissions mostly and I've been neglecting my personal project updates that should be being posted to here. I have been picking at this work, but time is kind of escaping me in all the chaos.

During this last week I've been pushing to pump out progress on finishing Aurumo but it's gotten way too close for me to feel okay with charging my patrons for October when I dont feel like I've gotten enough done yet.

A big update for Aurumo will be coming within a couple of weeks and I plan to have him outright finished in October, maybe even before my birthday. (23rd)

Feliro will be following up behind him. I'm just at the point where I wanna hard focus on one of them as much as I can and get him out.

I also will be putting out a public update for Gejhi which is to be that last update before his major sprite/animation overhaul. I've just made some various system tweaks and I've been trying to fine tune them as best I can.

So, yeah, I'm well, I'm just a bit bogged down with personal stuff, but am tryin to catch up. Since I was quiet again this month, October is free to current patrons. I see there are some new folks here, and I hope to keep yas. I'll do my best to get new stuff out this month.

Thanks all. <3

Just a quick post to let folks know.

I'm not gonna charge supporters on September 1st. This month was a quiet one for meaningful updates outside of what I posted at the start of the month. I haven't had a ton of time to grind out animation for Aurumo and Feliro, so and just waving the charge for this month as usual when I have a quiet period.

Don't want folks payin me when I don't have good updates.

I am planning to try hammering out a lot of work on them in September. Looking to maybe have two two critters finished by some point in October.

Thanks all and have a good one. <3

WIP Character Update AUG 01, 2021

For this update, it's mostly a character mechanic and adjustments update. I did a lot of play testing and made various adjustments to the system.

Both Aurumo and Feliro got changes and fixes done in this update.

Character download zip file is at the bottom of this post.

After this post, I'm going to be focusing much more on finishing the animations for these two for the official releases. They are both still missing some universal animation assets and have some dummied up animations for some moves, but for the most part, they are both pretty much FUNCTIONALLY finished. Some more stuff may be added to them while I finish up their animations along with any other adjustments I make in testing.

I mostly just ended up being in the mood to iron out stuff in testing with this update.

I also will be adding in a lot more special effect animations and more proper sounds for them toward the end, since they are still using a lot of defaults from previous moves I programmed when it comes to the sounds.

This post is dated to Aug 01 for the public announcement/promo post date.

Universal:

Added in the universal ability to angle air-dashes. This was mainly an experiment, but I ended up liking the feel of it. This enables dashing to the ground at a small angle. The angle and usefulness of this will vary from character to character.

Super and Ultra attacks now have a unique bit of math added to make them less effected by the damage scaling factor. This was done to make using Supers after a long combo a bit more rewarding without feeling like it's a waste of meter. The amount varies slightly, from +25% to +50%, depending on the attack. The base damage output of most supers was slightly reduced to account for this, but generally, these attacks are more rewarding in longer combos. This is subject to further change with more testing, but the framework is set up for easy adjustments.

Edit here: I also forgot to mention that the Ultra meter now does not fully carry over between rounds, but is reduced to 50% of what it was at the end of the previous round. So, if your meter was full and you didn't use it, the following round it will be half-full. I did this to reduce the ability of opening the next round with ALL resources completely full to take a huge chunk of life out of the opponent. Saving up Super meter is still strong enough to open a round with, given the defensive nature of the Ultra meter, I felt this was more fitting to still at least leave some reward for saving it.

Aurumo:

The main thing for Aurumo is that I spotted a bug in his damage scaler that I overlooked when universally updating it for all characters so far. I left in something from another character that broke his scaler when using Ultra. I'm not certain if this was in fact in my last update, but it's something I spotted and fixed.

Changes were made to the base damage of various moves.

the 2nd attack of his button-1 auto-combo does less knock back, so that linking it back to the first hit at least once is more consistent.

Juggle moves, like His up-2 Packed Ice Upper had it's unique scaling effect changed to just cap to reduce the upward knockback ONCE by 2, instead of stacking after each use, which eventually would hit foes downward if the combo was long enough. I feel like this single reduction is enough to limit it's juggle potential with the main scaler in combos without feeling awkward. This change is being made to all moves that function like this. 

Aurumo can now use his normal throw on frozen opponents on the ground.

Feliro

Fixed the afterimage effect on Feliro's ultra when he's put into a custom state, which would show broken animations when being thrown. Now when in throw-states that don't use his own animation data, the effect will turn off until he's in his own state again. This is a side effect of mugen characters not being able to read animation data from the opponent throwing them.

Feliro's overall damage output got adjusted, with most moves base damage reduced in small amounts, but key attacks still have good damage output for him mixed in with his combo-ability.

EX Mirage Dash Got longer hit-shake-pause added to it, with a palette effect, and forces a juggle setup with no effect from the juggle scaling, since it costs meter to use. 

When Mirage Dash is used during his activated Ultra the EX version is always used at no meter cost, only ultra timer is spent. This sets up much more combo potential during his ultra's active state. The damage output of all his attacks during ultra are still not effected by scale, and have a flat .8 output.

I fixed an oversight where EX Twist Gale was able to be used from Dust Devil Dance, even if there wasn't enough meter to do it. The damage output of this attack was adjusted, along with both normal version of it. EX Twist Gale now does 4 more damage per hit. Feliro now flashes during EX Twist Gale. Electric and wind effects will be added to these moves.

Dust Devil Dance Had small damage adjustments and now will lift the foe being hit to a specific position if they are airborne. This was done to make hitting air-foes with it (and connecting EX Twist Gale) more consistent, and to not make Feliro end up negative if the air-foe is hit very low to the ground. Wind Effects will be added to this move.

Flurry Feets (the move performed by holding x during the first attack) got a smal damage adjustment (reduced slightly) and now has an added hit-pause effect added when the button is released. The frame data remains the same, but this was done to make using another attack after it a little bit easier without dropping the combo.

Similar to Aurumo, Feliro's up-2 attack Flippy Double also got a 1-time juggle reduction added to it, replacing the setup I had for it before. The normal juggle scaling still fulfills the juggle limiting without too heavily altering the move after the 1-time reduction. Some adjustments still need to be made to the mid-air version of this.

Feliro's down 1 or 2 attack Rapid Dive Kicks got various tweaks to make it more consistent for all hits to connect without just falling off of the target. He also will not perform the final hit where he bounces off of the target, if Down input is held. This allows him to keep traveling down to the ground instead of the bounce up.

Feliro (and Aurumo) WIP update 06-27-21

Downloads are at the bottom of this post.
This Update focuses on Feliro mainly.

Before I get into the Feliro-specific details. Some small adjustments were made to the internal mechanics for all characters. I made changes to my special buffer system. Doing cancels between moves is now more consistent with a 12-frame buffer for inputs during attacks. This was done for attack that move and have longer active periods, to make canceling them more lax without needing to specifically time the inputs within 3 frames of contact. I like having harder links between some attacks, but cancels I would like to be more lax. There are some special cases where the buffer will persist after certain moves, but these are special cases.

I also ran into some weird bugs when my characters were put into certain special hit-states by some other creators, and it ended up being because of my turning mechanics. When my critters where put into special hit-states numbered between 200 and 399, some inputs would glitch my characters' animations. This was fixed by moving my turning mechanics code to the -3 state, so it's only active when not in a special state.

I've only added in one animation with new assets, but a few other test concepts have been dummied in with previously existing assets.

In this update, Feliro has gotten a big overhaul. I've made moves to better focus his gameplay to focus a bit more on a 'stick and move' style. His comobs are a bit restricted, as the hit-stun on many of his moves have been nerfed, but the combos he has are a bit more meaningful and server different purposes, rather than him having, what I found to be, 1 or 2 strong (for him) go-to combos that I found myself always preferring to do. 

A major shift in his style is he now has a focus on "EX" style 1-bar moves that allow him to extend his combos. To compensate a lil bit for the nerfed combos, his base damage on a handful of moves was raised slightly. So his basic combos are a little bit more meaningful. His damage output is still overall low.

The meter build on some of his attacks was also nerfed. His was building meter during combos WAY TO EASILY I felt. So, some attacks now have 1/2 the gain they did before. He still builds meter quickly, which he will need, because now, he relies much more on using meter with these EX moves to put on bigger damage.

The big changes:

The first strike of the x-button auto-combo has been changed to just a knee attack. This was done to make punishing foes with his frame-3 attack a little harder, so foes can try to fight him better with proper spacing. I felt it was too easy to punish things after a block. So now the target's gotta be a lil closer.

Mirage Dash [L or R, y+b]
This attack got it's hit stun reduced, but damage slightly increased. It's main use now is for side-switching after a combo. He is left slightly +2 after the attack hits, allowing him to flee, or go for mix-up pressure. NOTE, Feliro will now bounce off of the foe if this attack is blocked, which will leave him in air and negative. 

There is no longer a combo-use limiter for Mirage Dash, do to the change in it's hit-stun and function. It still has the limiter to only being used once while in the air.

Something to note about this move is that it will still allow a juggle combo on an airborne foe, with a slightly longer hit stun when the target is hit mid-air, but grounded foes can still defend or attempt a reversal on Feliro if he tries to attack again.

The 2nd strike of this attack is now considered an EX attack, meaning that it will cost him 1 bar of meter. It will true-combo from the first dash, and will set up a juggle on the foe to extend the combo further. The hit stun on this attack is a knock down that can only be recovered after a 32 frames. It's useful for extending combos from the air to the ground when close enough to the ground. A useful way Feliro can get a grounded juggle with this move, without spending meter for the 2nd strike, is to cancel Flippy Kick [U,2] with this attack on the 2nd hit, and angle it downward back to the ground before Feliro is too high. This can be a good juggle combo for meterless damage, but requires quick timing and ideal spacing.

EX Twist Gale from Dust Devil Dance [ D,U, b - during Dust Devil Dance]
This is now a special version of Twist Gale that can be performed only during Dust Devil Dance. It's basically a way to tack on some extra easy damage after a combo you end with Dust Devil Dance. This combo makes the 2nd Super attack "Sand Breaker" redundant, so that super is removed.

Shine [Universal EX x+y]
This attack is a super fast, but very short-ranged attack that covers Feliro's body for 4 frames. It is active on frame 3, and grants him just 2 frames of invincibility before the move is active.
This attack can be jump canceled at any point after the flash. When this attack hits the foe, it will send them tumbling diagonally up and away from Felrio. The fall caused by this attack can only be tech'd close to the ground, so Feliro should be able to easily combo from this attack. This attack is very, VERY short ranged though, so Feliro needs to be very close and touching the foe, or do it on reaction to at attack that isn't disjointed. Feliro can also still jump cancel on block to try fleeing the foe.

A big change was made to "Flurry Feets"
This attack is no longer a special move, but is instead performed by holding x during the first attack of his main auto combo. If the button is held down before Feliro's knee drops, he will begin this attack.

This move can just be stopped by letting go of the button, which generally leaves Feliro safe, as this attack now pushes foes based on how close they are to Feliro. So closer, they will be pushed back faster. So at any distance, the foe will always be about the same distance from Feliro after 3 or 4 hits.and may fall out by the 5th or 6th hit.

This attack can however, be canceled with his standing y attack. And it is programmed so that it will always cancel at the same time after any active frame, to make the frame data consistent. The same is true for just simply ending the attack with no follow-up.

Temporary experimental moves:
One attack that I haven't named yet is an overhead special attack performed with [F,D,DF, y]. This move will make Feliro hope up and do an overhead 2-hit attack. It's got a slow start-up, so even when canceling a normal with it, it's not likely to combo. BUT, if the attack hits, Felrio will bounce off of them and back. The attack has enough hit-stun for Feliro to drift towards the foe while still in the air to hit them again and start a combo. This attack's animation is borrowing assets from his up-y attack for the time being.

The concept is a possible mix-up tool to pressure a blocking foe with. I'm not 100% decided on this attack. I feel like Feliro is lacking special attacks, so I'm trying to figure out what will compliment his kit well. I will probably stick with this attack, and give it two versions, I just need to deside on the exact mechanics.

His crouching Power attack  is also another temp/experimental attack that is borrowing assets from his cr.x moves. It's just a basic, advancing 2 hit, tripping attack. I'm likely going to make a dancing sweep attack for this, and give it the option to double up the sweeps. The concept will be something similar to Elena's Lynx Tail from SF3, but with his lil legs, but able to wiggle forward during it.

As noted before the 2nd super "Sand Breaker" is removed. This was made redundant with EX Twist Gale out of Dust Devil Dance. It's obviously weaker, but only uses 1 bar, which is reasonable for tacking on some extra easy damage.

These new moves are likely to get adjusted as I test and develop him further. 

That about does it for this update. I felt motivated to pick at Felly and retool how he works a bit, and I am really liking this. I still have some gaps to fill for his moves and animations, but he's coming along well. So he's not too far behind Aurumo in development.

Aurumo is included in this update, but his changes are mostly just the internal mechanics mentioned above.

Thanks much for the support! Enjoy and feel free to leave me feedback! <3

Aurumo Playable WIP 06-01-21 Update Download

Finally here, as I stated in the evening. Feliro is also included with a small universal update.
DOWNLOAD IS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS HUGE POST. There's a LOT of patch notes to this update.
Aurumo is FUNCTIONALLY finished, but just needs a few animations for intro/win/lose and a for his Riposte throw (and a possible frozen foe throw I may add)

Oh, he also still needs parry animation. That will be added soon.

This update is huge though:

Mechanics
The main change to mechanics in this update is the change made to tech fall recovery when doing the tech just as you hit the ground. ALL of my characters are getting this change. The character is now considered on the ground during this recovery, and gets proper invincibility when performing it. I may at a later time add in directional inputs for these recoveries, allowing for a left or right "roll" when teching in this way.

Animations
Pretty much all of Aurumo's universal animations have been filled, but many of them still need details added to them, but in terms of FUNTION, all of them are there, so he shouldn't turn into Gejhi anymore for normal play.

HOWEVER, he still lacks intro/win/lose by time animations and still uses placeholders from Gejhi from those. That still will all be added in this final detailing phase.

Aurumo's Attacks

Cryosphere:
This move got some big changes. The attack now has an angled variant, which is performed when using the power button with the command (D,F + Pow). The large slow variant can still be done by HOLDING the input button, which delays the attack slightly before firing it. The large version has more damage now.
Pyroburst:
This attack got it's range extended, and now does 3 hit, based on the range it hits from. All 3 hits will connect when done up close.

NOTE: Pyroburst and Cryosphere had there input buttons switched. Pyroburst is now done with [D,F + 1] and Cryosphere is done with [D,F + 2 OR P]

Turning Attack (on ground):
This attack is finally added. It it done by pressing back with button 2, as the universal turning attack on the ground. This attack does 2 hits, as has great damage. It can also be canceled with any of his normal facing button 2 attacks.
His UP-2 attack can only be cancel this attack from the first hit, the elbow portion.
Arc Slash (Up,  Power ATK):
This attack is a super wide slash that completely swings around Aurumo. The damage is strongest at the start, and the knock-back properties change depending on the frame it hits. It is possible to link other attacks from this with proper spacing.
Double Sweeping Slash (Down, Power ATK):
This attack is a sweeping attack that covers BOTH SIDES of Aurumo. It's a bit stronger than his normal sweep, but isn't really capable of extending a combo. This attack instead is a spacing tool, as it knocks foes away from him into a hard knock-down.

SUPER - Glacial Great Sword (F, D, DF,  2+P) :
This attack replaces the super attack I had a placeholder for. The mechanics in the placeholder have changed. This attack is now a high-damage combo extender with long-reach. Foes hit by this attack are frozen, and then are put into a free fall with a brief lift after the freeze.
This attack has super armor during the start up.
SUPER - Glacial Javelin (D, F, D, F, 1+2) :
This super attack is a large, fast moving projectile that plows through everything it comes into contact with. It does multiple hits as it flies through foes, it's best when done from mid to longer range. This attack still needs some work though, to make it function more consistently.
This move has a long start up after the super pause, but also has super armor until the projectile is thrown.

Air Throw (Changes)
Aurumo's Air throw is now able to grab foes who are also in fall states. The bounce when he hits the ground with them will scale with the damage scaler, to prevent some broken combos. BUT, it can start, continue, or end a combo for decent damage. This opens up a lot of combo routes for Aurumo, making him a way more fun I feel.

ALSO, I'm thinking of giving Aurumo a special throw against frozen foes, to kinda make him feel like a special sort of semi-grappler since he has a special "Riposte" throw when he throws a Shield Countered foe.

Landing air throw adds 2 steps to the scaler.

Packed Ice Uppercut (changes)
This attack got the grounded combo knock back reverted to still always force a hard knock-down. BUT, when it's used in a combo with a jab, the upward knock back is half.
This attack also now adds 2 steps to the scaler, to limit some of the catastrophic damage I was doing before that.

Various other stuff
I made a handful of other adjustments to stuff so far, mostly just small damage tweaks and other small things of that sort. Nothin is final though.

SO WHAT'S LEFT!?
Well, mostly just detailing the animations, doing the intro/win/lose animations and adding better effects and adjusting sounds and such. THEN, the AI work.

There is something I'm considering adding, is a different attack for AIR-1, and move the current Shield drop attack as AIR-DOWN-2. This is mostly just to keep the buttons in theme, making all of button 1's attacks "unarmed" and all of the 2 and P moves ice weapon moves, which is also why I moved Pyroburst to button 1.

OH, and also Riposte still needs it's own animation, which is still dummied with other move animations. I will get this done along with anything special I do for him throwing frozen foes.

Adjustments to the moves will be made as I move to properly finish the animations. Especially for the new moves I just added, as they haven't had time to go through a lot of testing yet.

From what I was able to add and do tonight, I think Aurumo is truely shaping up into a fun character, which is something I was struggling with, to not make his play style too boring. He's a lot of fun to me now.

ALSO INCLUDED IN THIS UPDATE IS A SMALL FELIRO UPDATE:
Feliro hasn't gotten a ton of work this time around, but I'm including him with this huge Aurumo update because he also got the universal fall tech update mentioned. Gejhi also got it, and I'll be making a public update for him soon, since he also got the other bug fixes and other tweaks since.

THANKS SO MUCH FOR STICKING AROUND WITH MY SLOWNESS! I really hope the free months make up for that. It's just tough to sneak in all this work with commissions. If I manage to build this patreon up more with more support, I can dedicate more time to this work.

For now, thank you all, and I hope you enjoy this update, it was a big one and took me a while.

Aurumo update within a few hours. June free to current patrons.

I'm almost done with the big wave of updates for Aurumo where his moveset will be complete with all animations except intro/win/time over loose animations.

I'm gonna drop in within a few hours, but I'm way too close to the deadline for the month for me to justify charging you all again. I tried, but I don't feel right charging, even if I'm putting it out in a lil while.

So yeah. Keep an eye out soon to see the new update and hope you enjoy an almost complete Aurumo.

I'll at that point, just need to add the pretty stuff, finish detailing animations, do whatever balancing and make his AI.

Thanks all <3

Quick News Post : Aurumo WIP update coming shortly

So, I've been trying to squeeze in work on Aurumo's file, and I'm dangerously close to the end of the month again. Commission work's been heavy, at least with me trying to finish various commission projects.

That said, I have rough animations of ALMOST everything needed for Aurumo. Just a couple of universal animations are missing (dizzy, guard flinch frames, and stand/couch transition frames remain).

I'm did a rough for an upwards Power attack, need to do one for a downwards power attack, and a standing turn attack (back + button 2).

I also changed the way his freeze projectile, Cryosphere works. I gave it an upward anti-air angle, which is done by doing the command with the power button. both the forward and upward angled versions can have the big, slow version, by holding the button.

I also made a major change to the fall tech recovery when done near the ground, making it a proper grounded state with proper invincibility, instead of the MUGEN default behavior, this change has been carried over to Gejhi and Feliro as well. (and all future characters)

Then, that's it! I'm calling that moveset complete. Then he will truely be in the final stage, of detailing his rough animations and writing his AI.

So, by sunday, I'm posting this WIP update for him. Regardless if I didn't get to the ALL of the animations. He's nearly complete in terms of play-function though.

Thanks all for hanging in there. I'm tryin my best, it's just hard to juggle with commission work, but it's also why I don't charge you all when I go through long periods of lag when trying to get updates out.

Thanks again <3

Not charging current patrons on May 1st

Just giving a quick news post. 

I'm not happy with my progress on Aurumo and Feliro that I've been trying to get out, and I haven't been able to implement missing things that I wanted done before the month was out. Some work on commissions was pushed to get those finished which also ate up potential time to work on the MUGEN content, and some of the animation work is taking longer than I'd like it to.

What I have done since my last news post: I've been trying to just outright finish up the animation for Aurumo's 2nd Super, which is a massive projectile, instead of the command grab concept I had before, which I felt, don't add much to his kit in terms of utility. I think a projectile based on works much better for some of his needs.

I made adjustments to his heat meter balancing and also tweaked the way Pyro Burst works, now being longer ranged and doing 3 hits when it connects up-close, so the attack does less hits (and by that means, less damage) at longer ranges.

I HAVE done a bunch of code fixes and adjustments this month, even to Gejhi for his next patch. But, I had a specific goal I wanted to meet before this month was out, and I haven't hit it.

So, I'm not charging for this month on the 1st since I'm not personally satisfied with where I'm at at far. My work time my also be limited for the next few days since I'm going on a weekend trip tomorrow. I will be taking work with me do do at various quiet times, I just cant promise anything HUGE will be done before May 1st. So I'd rather just play it safe and not charge you all. 

As usual, I only want my supporters here paying when I feel like the update is WORTH the monthly pledge. 

At this point, I'm just gonna ease up, not stress, and make sure the next big update on the 2 WIP characters is posted by the first 2 weeks in May. ALONG WITH A NEW SPRITE ASSET BUNDLE.

So, thanks all for the continued support to all my current patrons, you'll be gettin the next update for freebies since I'm a slow butt.

News Post! What I'm doin and what to expect!

So, I'm at the point with Aurumo and Feliro now where I can focus on cleaning and detailing up their animations while I fill in the last bits of what they are missing. So, even though the detailing may not be finished, the play mechanics and moves for the characters should be full filled out. I've already made some more adjustments to how some of their moves work as well. 

What to expect:
Well, in terms of animation work, this is the most time consuming part for me, so this will take a while, BUT, I'm gonna try to fill in the last missing bits in both of them and continue to make balance tweaks to them while I do this. At some point in 1 or 2 weeks, I'll be posting another big update for both of them with whatever updated animation I've done up to that point and also announce any changes I made.

I will also be dumping a new Sprite Asset Bundle as well when I release the new playable downloads.

I also have a Palette Masking Tutorial in the works to show how I produced a sprite that has 2 distinct images, in just one sprite, which can be swapped between by changing the palette data. This is useful for creating a 2-form character in MUGEN without breaking the the sprites display methods when the character it put into custom hit-states, which are bound to specific sprites in the character data.
The 2nd image on this post is a preview example of this. The character shown, "Sorl,"  is to be in development later. In the video, I will go over the techniques I found to make managing this as easy as possible and to make sure the palette data exports correctly, using Aseprite. Then, all you need it a remappal command in your Mugen code to switch between forms with no extra complicated code-around work needed for compatibility with custom states.

UPDATE TO DAMAGE SCALING COMING. I noticed that some aspect of my combo scale limiter wasn't working as intended, and Feliro was able in some situations to roll the scale so high that he started HEALING the target because of the subtractive "step" system I have, rather than a constant percentage reduction of the remaining scale. SO, this was fixed. The maximum scaling steps is now 20. So once the move counter hits 20, scaling will stop and the minimum damage each attack does is about 2% of it's base damage, with a minimum damage output of 1.

That's about all for now in this news post. I'll post another download update within a week or 2, before the month is out. I balance commission work along with these projects. So thanks much for hanging in there and supporting my work. If I an manage to build up a larger patron following, I can certainly devote much more time into this. All in time!

Thanks again all! 

Playable WIP 03-29-21 (Feliro and Aurumo)

So here's a double update for both of these critters.

For the most part this update is a balance and mechanical tweak for these two. I didn't get a chance to add in too much in the way of missing animations and attacks, but there is a significant amount of code and testing work that went into this round to iron out how these two play out. I wanted to pump out some more work on them, but, I also don't want to withhold the work. There's always more work at this phase, so it's best I just put them out now.

ON BOTH The pause menu feature has been added. 

Feliro:
Feliro got a HUGE nerf in terms of damage output. He was way too strong; Doing much more damage than Gejhi. 

I have refined how his ultra Hyper Fen Aura works and it's MUCH cleaner and functional now. The timer itself last longer, but now costs time with each hit confirm on a combo. Different attacks have different tiered cost values. During the aura, his attacks are not effected by damage scaling or use limiters, so as long as he has time on the meter, he can freely chain all of his moves together for any kind of custom combo. Once the timer expires, he can continue his combo, but scaling and limiters will take effect from there, preventing him from going on to infinity. 

Feliro's Flippy Double (Up+y) is still allowed to combo from his x button attacks, but the knock back is greatly effected by using it mid-combo, making him end up much higher than the target foe, changing how the combo string works, this is done to make his air juggles more situational. The knock back is still at max when the attack is used to START the combo, allowing him to continue with a full air-juggle from Wind Walker Triple (Air x-button auto combo). 

Feliro now has the ability to super cancel Dust Devil Dance (standing Power button) with the super Sand Breaker.

Dust Devil Dance along with damage and meter gain tweaks also had some changes in his body width, so that he can move in closer to the foes he's attacking. I'm thinking of adding in an "EX" action where he can spend 1 bar to cancel it with Twist Gale.

Feliro now has a standard Dash Attack (running+forward+b), which mimics the behavior is his air-2 (y) attack. 

Mirage Dash had the command changed to left or right + y+b. I experimented with using other inputs like quarter circles or DP motions, but I didn't like the feel of it along with the ability to angle it up or down, so, I just went with a 2-button input instead. 

Aurumo:
Aurumo got a bunch of tweeks as well.

An air version of Glacial Hammer was added, which uses any stored charge from the ground version. It has a slower startup than the ground version and it also a little bit weaker. It also has no armored frames on it. So the main benefit is to have a more mobile version of the attack at the expense of the other attributes.

Aurumo's damage was tweaked on most of his attacks, generally small nerfs to his strength to avoid him being too powerful for how much more "simple" his main combos are, he is still very capable of still putting out big damage when it comes to combos using his Cryosphere. 

His Packed Ice Upper (Up+y) had similar styled changes made to it as Feliro's Flippy Double. When used as a combo starter, the knockback forces the foe into a juggle state. When used in a combo after a Jab the attack instead does not launch, but puts the foe into a long-hitstun with the same heavy damage from the base hit. The idea is to allow the attack to be a rewarding combo if a jab hits the foe at close range, sine it's horizontal range is shorter than all of his other attacks. This change works nicely with Cryosphere combos for a high-damage combo to a freeze, where than the player can continue into another combo of their choice (and loop it as long as they have the heat meter for it).

I gave the heat scaling effect back to Aurumo's Pyro Burst so that it can make for a nice combo ender after he is no longer able to use another Cryosphere.  I'm also thinking that I'm going to tweak the flame's size/range based on the heat levels.

More tweaks are going to be made to Aurumo. He's honestly been a bit of an undertaking mainly because I was feeling he played too "simple" and was still too rewarding. So I'm working out more stuff for him to make him powerful, but more complex in terms of combo routes for various situations.

My next update I plan to fill in all of the missing animations on both of these critters. I've also already started cleaning up and refining Aurumo's animations.
I also just need to fill in a few missing attacks on them, but I'm gettin closer to being able to call these two finished.

I know the visuals aren't super interesting this time around, but these updates were largely mechanical and code-based in nature.

Thanks so much for the continued support. <3