(Troper Project) Dystropia

Good.

"Hipsters: the most dangerous gang in the US." - Pacific Mackerel

Sounds good.

Swordsman Troper — Reclaiming The Blade — Watch

So far, have started work on figuring out how to work with sprites in Python. I've at least gotten as far as drawing images to the screen and moving them around with the keyboard— I managed to set up a stupid little program that puts a sprite of Vergil onscreen and then moves him with the arrow keys.

Will shortly be putting myself to work on animations.

月を見るたび思い出せ

Alright. I have a very basic grasp of animation now. It's going to take a little working to hammer out the kinks, but I'll get to it. As soon as I can manage, I'll try to integrate animation with player input.

月を見るたび思い出せ

Excellent.

"Hipsters: the most dangerous gang in the US." - Pacific Mackerel

Awesome.

...Damn, I feel like there's nothing else I can really do other than cheer Blackmoon on from the bleachers...

One of my few regrets about being born female is the inability to grow a handlebar mustache. -Landstander

That's about all anyone is doing.

月を見るたび思い出せ

MOONY MOONY MOONY

OI OI OI

-throws hands into the air-

Swordsman Troper — Reclaiming The Blade — Watch

The sin of silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.

2, 4, 6, 8
Why can't I get a date
Doesn't matter, I don't care!
Moony's codin' Python here!
Goooooooooo Moony!

oh, that's why I need this binary mind // ⌘

Hmm. Okay, I've mostly got animation tied to input, but there're still some niggling little details that I need to fix. Not difficult stuff.

Furiko, the idea we were working with is that your character's ability is represented by slowing down the opponent so that they're easier to read; the only options I can see right now, though (at least in terms of being something I could conceivably do without giving myself a headache) would be either slowing the entire game down, or lowering the priority of the opponent's attacks by a set amount— in other words, for a limited time*

enemy attacks that would normally not be blockable could be blocked, Seino's attacks would stand a greater chance of "canceling out" others, and stuff that works like Blackmoon's parries wouldn't be able to defend against as much. It's up to you which to go with.

月を見るたび思い出せ

What you were saying earlier about combining the two methods for a more intriguing visual effect sounds good; if it's not too much extra trouble, I say go with that.

A True Lady's Quest - A Jojo is You!

Well, plenty of games have slow-down functions, I imagine it won't be that hard to code.

"Hipsters: the most dangerous gang in the US." - Pacific Mackerel

Well, I will put it this way:

Slowing just one player down will be... tricky. Like, to the point where I'm not sure how I'd do that.

Slowing everything down involves changing exactly one variable.

月を見るたび思い出せ

In that case, I say go with both. Slow everyone down and increase Seino's attack priority.

Swordsman Troper — Reclaiming The Blade — Watch

I'll do that, then.

Okay, here's a character balance thing (I don't have access to a computer with a Python environment while I'm at school, so if I do anything for the eight hours or so I'm either working or in class, it's almost entirely conceptual). I will be giving every character the following:

1. A "Special Attack" button.
2. A "Guard" button.

The Guard button will function as follows: You press it, you go into a blocking stance that reduces or negates damage. If you time things just right and press basically a split-second before the attack lands, you will instead Parry— for most moves, this will mean reducing damage to 0, stopping the attack animation, and giving you a couple frames in which to act. During said frames, you can do either nothing at all, or press any attack button, and use a counterattack, typically for a modest amount of damage and the advantage of knocking back the attacker to give you some breathing room.

The Special Attack button will be situational. Pressing it on its own will do something very simple but character-specific; pressing it as part of a special move or during a combo will produce a much greater effect.

This is all planning right now, so I can axe it if you guys want, but do you think it would be fair if Blackmoon, being the Fragile Speedster focused on avoiding damage and quick attacks, has his Special Attack button linked to what is basically an auto-parry? Which is to say, it puts him in the same stance as if he had hit the Guard button, only the entire (admittedly brief) animation would be considered a viable window to parry an incoming attack, during which he has more flexibility to choose a counterattack for slightly stronger damage or different effects than everyone else's?

To use an example, say... Milos manages to Parry an attack. The opponent is thrown off-guard for a second, Milos hits the Medium Attack button, knees the dude in the gut and knocks him back a couple feet.
Blackmoon manages to Parry an attack (using the Guard button). Basically, the exact same effect happens. However, if Blackmoon were to Parry an attack using his Special Attack button, he could hit Forward+Special Attack to dash past the enemy while drawing his sword, for an average amount of damage and reversing which side of the screen each of them is on. Or, alternately, after the Parry happens, he could hit Back+Special Attack to strike while dashing away from the enemy, thus giving him some breathing room.

Thoughts?

月を見るたび思い出せ

I really like the general control system. As for Blackmoon's special attack, the second option seems better and more balanced.

The sin of silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.

Sounds balanced enough to me. Although I'd caution you against throwing too much emphasis on counterattackiness, since your character would risk being uncompetitive if the concept was taken too far.

Swordsman Troper — Reclaiming The Blade — Watch

Mmmkay. I'd say that if you give Blackmoon a dedicated parry button, he better have to do something special for each separate type of attack to be able to counter it. Or, give people moves that can beat the counter.

Because what you don't want is the logical extreme: a Blackmoon player who can, quite literally, counter absolutely every attack thrown at him and get a flawless victory every time. And all they have to do is have decent timing on the parry.

One of my few regrets about being born female is the inability to grow a handlebar mustache. -Landstander

Hmm... yes, I might want to avoid being the Exdeath here. I'll think it over.

月を見るたび思い出せ

Yeah, this is gonna require some balancing work.

"Hipsters: the most dangerous gang in the US." - Pacific Mackerel

That's why I was working it over in my head in advance.

月を見るたび思い出せ

You could do stuff like...

• Make his special parry half as long as a regular guard
• Recovery gauge to limit use of Moonparry, or recovery frames so he can be punished if it fails.
• Separate commands for parring different attacks. +Moonparry blocks heavy attacks, +Moonparry blocks light attacks, things like that.

One of my few regrets about being born female is the inability to grow a handlebar mustache. -Landstander

Hm. Maybe; I sorta like the different inputs.

What about if, as the Fragile Speedster, he takes more damage than other characters for failing his parries?

月を見るたび思い出せ

That would be nice.

If you ask me, he should be a Difficult, but Awesome character. The counterattacks are hard to use and take copious amounts of skill, but he becomes a defensive beast once you start using him correctly.

One of my few regrets about being born female is the inability to grow a handlebar mustache. -Landstander