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AVWW Mods & Maps / Re: Megaman 8-bit Texture Pack (WIP)
« on: May 16, 2012, 10:29:56 AM »
Man, I love the new interface you've put together. Very slick.
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A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 / Re: Musings: Alternate progression mechanics.
« on: May 12, 2012, 12:02:31 AM »
I really, really like this idea. Sounds much better; less frustration from avoiding CP, and less boredom from four boss dungeons in a row.
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A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 / Re: New spell ideas? Let us hear them.
« on: May 11, 2012, 07:09:55 PM »
Oh man, I just had a great idea for a spell, or maybe a terrible idea for a spell, I have trouble distinguishing those.
Rainbow Filter of Love - A circle of spell energy stuff surrounds the player for a short time (maybe 0.5 to 1 seconds?), and any enemy projectile that passes through the circle is converted into some sort of positive effect, like healing or mana regen or an elemental buff or something. Different enemies' projectiles have different effects.
It'd probably be pretty hard to implement, but if it's not, I think it might be a cool addition.
Rainbow Filter of Love - A circle of spell energy stuff surrounds the player for a short time (maybe 0.5 to 1 seconds?), and any enemy projectile that passes through the circle is converted into some sort of positive effect, like healing or mana regen or an elemental buff or something. Different enemies' projectiles have different effects.
It'd probably be pretty hard to implement, but if it's not, I think it might be a cool addition.
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A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 / Re: If the game drags at any point, where would those points be?
« on: May 10, 2012, 02:13:49 PM »That'd be fine too, as long as I got the spells immediately instead of having to unlock them. Actually my original idea was for the player to keep the level of spells they didn't use at all in the previous continent, so they'd have to think strategically about what spells to use and upgrade, but I think I mentioned that somewhere else and it didn't seem relevant.I'm sick of grinding to get the spells I like every time I start a new continent. Let me keep some (or all!) of them, please. Especially double jump.
Actually, here's a crazy idea: let me pick which spells to keep when I move to a new continent. More choice is alway nice.
I don't think this is a good idea because people will keep using the same spells. One of the great things about the game is there are like 50+ spells. I think there should be some kind of mechanics that forces people to use different spells, possibly only make some of them available on specific continents. It doesn't help either that once you get a good right arm enchant for 60%+ dmg you tend to keep using that element.
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A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 / Re: If the game drags at any point, where would those points be?
« on: May 10, 2012, 12:10:39 PM »
I'm sick of grinding to get the spells I like every time I start a new continent. Let me keep some (or all!) of them, please. Especially double jump.
Actually, here's a crazy idea: let me pick which spells to keep when I move to a new continent. More choice is alway nice.
Actually, here's a crazy idea: let me pick which spells to keep when I move to a new continent. More choice is alway nice.
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A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 / Re: New spell ideas? Let us hear them.
« on: May 10, 2012, 12:02:21 PM »
Right, you asked for it.
Summon Scarecrow - a silly-looking scarecrow draws aggro for a while.
Explode Head - Exploding the heads of things is funny, but maybe too gross for AVWW.
Fortify [Attribute] - a temporary buff for things like movement speed or jumpiness. Might mess up balance though.
Water Walking - because it's awesome.
Silence - make a mob stop casting so many dang spells.
Mark and Recall - teleportation spells that let you mark one or more chunks, and return to those at will. I really liked Morrowind, can you tell?
Panic Button - teleport to a random chunk in the same region. This would be even better as an enchant that activates when a player's health gets too low. Obviously it'd be annoying as heck to some people, but it'd be funny so I say you should do it.
Sword Spin - very fast melee attack that hits in a circular area around the player. I want more Castlevania style melee, please.
Multi-shot - I'd really love a ranged attack that had three or more projectiles, shmup style.
Shotgun - Oh, or maybe a medium range blast of a whole bunch of little projectiles, that'd work too.
Spin Attack - like the Screw Attack from Metroid, basically.
Chain of Awesome Exploding Death - ranged attack that causes enemies to explode on death; and if the explosion kills another enemy, that enemy explodes too, and so on.
That's all for now, I'll probably have more later because I like making lists of things I want.
Okay, here's some more:
Wall Walking - walk on walls, ceilings, and so forth. Might be better as an enchant, but might not.
Fling Self - flings the player character at the cursor, damaging and bouncing off any enemies hit.
Call Land Shark - A big toothy shark jumps out of the ground in an arch then despawns when it lands, damaging anything it hits. Does not work in water (because it's funnier that way).
Fling Monster - extremely fast ranged attack that flings what it hits in a random direction (but always away from the player), damaging the enemy being flung (flinged?) and any enemies it hits.
Wall Jump - again, this might be better as an enchant. Is there a thread like this for enchants? I could have sworn there was, but now I can't find it.
Summon Scarecrow - a silly-looking scarecrow draws aggro for a while.
Explode Head - Exploding the heads of things is funny, but maybe too gross for AVWW.
Fortify [Attribute] - a temporary buff for things like movement speed or jumpiness. Might mess up balance though.
Water Walking - because it's awesome.
Silence - make a mob stop casting so many dang spells.
Mark and Recall - teleportation spells that let you mark one or more chunks, and return to those at will. I really liked Morrowind, can you tell?
Panic Button - teleport to a random chunk in the same region. This would be even better as an enchant that activates when a player's health gets too low. Obviously it'd be annoying as heck to some people, but it'd be funny so I say you should do it.
Sword Spin - very fast melee attack that hits in a circular area around the player. I want more Castlevania style melee, please.
Multi-shot - I'd really love a ranged attack that had three or more projectiles, shmup style.
Shotgun - Oh, or maybe a medium range blast of a whole bunch of little projectiles, that'd work too.
Spin Attack - like the Screw Attack from Metroid, basically.
Chain of Awesome Exploding Death - ranged attack that causes enemies to explode on death; and if the explosion kills another enemy, that enemy explodes too, and so on.
Okay, here's some more:
Wall Walking - walk on walls, ceilings, and so forth. Might be better as an enchant, but might not.
Fling Self - flings the player character at the cursor, damaging and bouncing off any enemies hit.
Call Land Shark - A big toothy shark jumps out of the ground in an arch then despawns when it lands, damaging anything it hits. Does not work in water (because it's funnier that way).
Fling Monster - extremely fast ranged attack that flings what it hits in a random direction (but always away from the player), damaging the enemy being flung (flinged?) and any enemies it hits.
Wall Jump - again, this might be better as an enchant. Is there a thread like this for enchants? I could have sworn there was, but now I can't find it.
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A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 / Re: If AVWW were only developed when there was 100% consensus on what to add:
« on: May 04, 2012, 02:50:35 PM »Let's all agree to not take ourselves (or each other) too seriouslyYeah, sorry about that. I'm not sure what came over me, that's gotta be the first time I've taken something seriously in years.
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A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 / Re: Do you use bear traps, and why not?
« on: May 04, 2012, 02:45:52 PM »
No, because I do more damage sneezing on the monster.
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A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 / Re: If AVWW were to be developed based on community consensus:
« on: May 02, 2012, 07:51:43 PM »I get it as well.It's certainly a reasonable point, and one I hope you guys take to heart. But jokes at the expense of critics rarely seem anything other than bitter to me, even if they're coming from a fan rather than the individual being criticized. And there seem to be a lot of threads recently complaining about people criticizing the game. I'm glad Arcen doesn't share that attitude, though.
Fortunately, while community feedback is super important, we don't operate based on consensus. Because, yeah: none would ever be forthcoming, about anything, ever. I don't think it's mean-spirited, it's just a very good insight into human nature.
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A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 / Re: A Personal Pledge
« on: May 02, 2012, 07:26:07 PM »
I thought it was really nice to see the heavily customizable controls. Not every gamer can use a mouse or a keyboard, and not every developer cares about that.
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A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 / Re: Disappointed in AVWW
« on: May 02, 2012, 07:24:15 PM »Also, the game doesn't need more enemy types - I kinda don't care about the ones that already exist - but it needs the enemies that do exist to be more unique. For example, I think the tanks in the towns are pretty cool. It's different to just about everything else in the game.Speaking of unique enemies, I absolutely love the giant green slime thing. We need more enemies like that, with complex behaviors that require strategy and planning and whatnot. I'm a bit tired of the other enemies, but man those green things are clever.
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A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 / Re: If AVWW were to be developed based on community consensus:
« on: May 02, 2012, 07:15:38 PM »
I get it, it's just rather mean-spirited, and not the funny kind unfortunately.
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AVWW Brainstorming / Re: Ideas for exploration enhancement
« on: May 02, 2012, 03:02:12 PM »Ultimately, this is only somewhat a game about exploration in the first place. It's a lot more about combat, choice, and so on.
In AVWW, the focus is on exploration, and seeing things you've never seen before. It's not on killing every enemy and feeling accomplished by the body count.
Can we get some clarification about this? Thanks.
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A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 / Re: What's with the hate on the visuals?
« on: May 01, 2012, 07:33:37 PM »
DISCLAIMER: I apologize in advance, I am being brutal here. It will seem rude, and it is a bit, but you asked and I want to answer honestly. I sincerely hope that what I say doesn't offend anyone, and I mean no disparagement to any of the many artists whose work this game includes. I love art, I even love ugly art, and I love this game, too.
Now then.
The textures are far too bright, the animations are hilariously bad, the GUI is spread out all over the place, nothing is scaled right, but most importantly colors and shapes are thrown together with absolutely no hint of coherence. There's no separation between foreground, background, and sprites. The important things are given exactly the same visual treatment as the unimportant things; background objects are exactly as crisp and vibrant as enemies if not more so. It looks, frankly, like a bunch of art assets stuck together completely at random.
Other games' art styles are largely irrelevant, but for an example of a similar aesthetic done competently, take a look at And Yet It Moves. For an example of an extremely colorful game that's still pleasant to view, try Botanicula. Those are both low-fi indie games with a gorgeous artistic style, and if you want I can give you a list of all the others I have installed to prove my street cred or whatever. Hell, most of the time I prefer indie games to big budget titles. The problem with the graphics isn't a retro style or a colorful presentation, those are fine things, in fact they're often good things. The problem is that the game does those things very badly. I love the game, but it's ugly, and not even the good kind of ugly, like Picasso, or Minecraft, or punk rock. The ugliness doesn't effect my enjoyment beyond occasional eye strain, but it's unfortunate, and I'm kind of amazed that anyone would dispute it.
Luckily it looks like we'll be getting official texture pack support soon, and I suspect people like me will be considerably less noisy once we can easily replace the art. I mean, I've never even mentioned the music since I replaced that. Wait, crap.
Now then.
The textures are far too bright, the animations are hilariously bad, the GUI is spread out all over the place, nothing is scaled right, but most importantly colors and shapes are thrown together with absolutely no hint of coherence. There's no separation between foreground, background, and sprites. The important things are given exactly the same visual treatment as the unimportant things; background objects are exactly as crisp and vibrant as enemies if not more so. It looks, frankly, like a bunch of art assets stuck together completely at random.
Other games' art styles are largely irrelevant, but for an example of a similar aesthetic done competently, take a look at And Yet It Moves. For an example of an extremely colorful game that's still pleasant to view, try Botanicula. Those are both low-fi indie games with a gorgeous artistic style, and if you want I can give you a list of all the others I have installed to prove my street cred or whatever. Hell, most of the time I prefer indie games to big budget titles. The problem with the graphics isn't a retro style or a colorful presentation, those are fine things, in fact they're often good things. The problem is that the game does those things very badly. I love the game, but it's ugly, and not even the good kind of ugly, like Picasso, or Minecraft, or punk rock. The ugliness doesn't effect my enjoyment beyond occasional eye strain, but it's unfortunate, and I'm kind of amazed that anyone would dispute it.
Luckily it looks like we'll be getting official texture pack support soon, and I suspect people like me will be considerably less noisy once we can easily replace the art. I mean, I've never even mentioned the music since I replaced that. Wait, crap.
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A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 / Re: Some feedback on AVWW - (face melting aesthetics)
« on: May 01, 2012, 03:39:39 PM »Sure.Awesome! I hope you're still planning to desaturate the LayerBases, I'd rather have 'em unblurred but some of 'em are in desperate need of less color.
Taking the feedback into account, I won't touch the LayerBases (stuff you walk on).
So far I'm considering doing:
- Three levels of desaturation: -20, -40, and -60%
- Blurred and non-blurred versions of each
That's six combinations already. Anything else I should try?
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