Adrian Marceau | Mega Man RPG World Leaderboard

Hello everyone, and thanks for your continued patience.

I've come with news of a small update to the Dev Build of the game and a new screenshot to boot.

I've restructured the starforce panel in the main menu to appear and function more like an excel sheet, as was suggested by the community many months ago to great reception. It is now very easy to see which stars you have already and which ones you need simply by scrolling through the robot master mugshots on each side.



Be sure to try it out yourself on the dev build and let us know what you think. Any feedback on the other updates Boss posted about above would also be greatly appreciated. The new hold items are really changing the meta game in (what I believe to be) a good way and the more feedback and testing the better.



With everyone's help I have confidence that we'll be able stabilizable the dev build and then we can finally apply it to the main website.

Thank you!

Hey guys! A new batch of updates have been completed on the developer's preview build of the prototype. See below for the highlights or check the GitHub page for the full list.

- Added new ability subclass field for further categorizing items into consumable, holdable, collectible, etc. Also added sorting patterns for new attack/defense/speed programs.

- Created placeholder files for the new energy/weapon/attack/defense/speed programs - the first exclusively holdable items.

- Increased accuracy of the break moves to match their boost counterparts.

- Updated the MM5 robot masters with their new alts.

- Added subclass of consumable to the score balls.

- Added subclass of treasure for the two screws. They will have no other purpose than to sell.

- Added the consumable subclass to all the pellets, capsules, and tanks, yashichi and extra life. They will not be holdable.

- Added the holdable subclass to all the cores so they would appear properly in select menus.

- Added the collectible class to all the shards as they have no other purpose than to collect (until they fuse into holdable cores, of course).

- Added code for selecting and equipping (or un-equipping) held items to/from a robot master. Right now only cores can be held, but the code here should support all kinds as long as they are subclass "holdable".

- Equipping cores to any non-Copy Core robot will expand their ability compatibility until removed. Copy Cores will only change colour if equipped with a core item.

- Added support for deferred damage/recovery (for abilities like Crash Bomber), and better flags for weakness/resistance/etc. modifiers (for abilities like Drill Blitz).

- Updated Crash Bomber to do normal damage (rather than a percent) based on the user's attack at the time the bomb is created. Made it so triggering too early decreases damage proportionately. Buffed the total damage to a high amount as a tradeoff.

- Updated Search Snake to ignore position modifiers and attack for normal damage regardless of the range so the ability has more utility.

- Updated Drill Blitz so that it specifically ignores resistances and immunities using the new damage option flags. Also buffed the ability slightly.

- Updated the various in-battle target displays (scan, switch, etc.) to be aware of held-items. Held items will now show in the hover popup and the robot's button will be coloured appropriately if that item is a core.

Thanks for playing, and please let me know what you think! :P

The alternate colours for all MM5 robots masters are now complete - this include the two starforce alts AND the darkness alt that all the MM1 - MM4 robots already have. I'll try to get the MM6+ robots done in the next few weeks as well, and then I can focus on some of the other graphic-related work (like abilities). :)

---

[[robot]{gravity-man_alt9} [tab]Gravity Man Σ[tab] [robot:left:base]{gravity-man_alt9}]{empty}
[[robot]{wave-man_alt9} [tab]Wave Man Σ[tab] [robot:left:base]{wave-man_alt9}]{empty}
[[robot]{stone-man_alt9} [tab]Stone Man Σ[tab] [robot:left:base]{stone-man_alt9}]{empty}
[[robot]{gyro-man_alt9} [tab]Gyro Man Σ[tab] [robot:left:base]{gyro-man_alt9}]{empty}
[[robot]{star-man_alt9} [tab]Star Man Σ[tab] [robot:left:base]{star-man_alt9}]{empty}
[[robot]{charge-man_alt9} [tab]Charge Man Σ[tab] [robot:left:base]{charge-man_alt9}]{empty}
[[robot]{napalm-man_alt9} [tab]Napalm Man Σ[tab] [robot:left:base]{napalm-man_alt9}]{empty}
[[robot]{crystal-man_alt9} [tab]Crystal Man Σ[tab] [robot:left:base]{crystal-man_alt9}]{empty}

The darkness alts for the MM4 robots are also complete. Here are their formatting codes:

---

[[robot]{bright-man_alt9} [tab]Bright Man Σ[tab] [robot:left:base]{bright-man_alt9}]{empty}
[[robot]{toad-man_alt9} [tab]Toad Man Σ[tab] [robot:left:base]{toad-man_alt9}]{empty}
[[robot]{drill-man_alt9} [tab]Drill Man Σ[tab] [robot:left:base]{drill-man_alt9}]{empty}
[[robot]{pharaoh-man_alt9} [tab]Pharaoh Man Σ[tab] [robot:left:base]{pharaoh-man_alt9}]{empty}
[[robot]{ring-man_alt9} [tab]Ring Man Σ[tab] [robot:left:base]{ring-man_alt9}]{empty}
[[robot]{dust-man_alt9} [tab]Dust Man Σ[tab] [robot:left:base]{dust-man_alt9}]{empty}
[[robot]{dive-man_alt9} [tab]Dive Man Σ[tab] [robot:left:base]{dive-man_alt9}]{empty}
[[robot]{skull-man_alt9} [tab]Skull Man Σ[tab] [robot:left:base]{skull-man_alt9}]{empty}

@Bt Man : I only have two days a week to work on the game and make progress on the update. Finishing these alts is high on the priority list right now because they're part of the story and parts of the game "break" without them. Once the MM4 darkness alts are done I can spread the work around more to other areas of development.

---

[[robot]{needle-man_alt9} [tab]Needle Man Σ[tab] [robot:left:base]{needle-man_alt9}]{empty}
[[robot]{magnet-man_alt9} [tab]Magnet Man Σ[tab] [robot:left:base]{magnet-man_alt9}]{empty}
[[robot]{gemini-man_alt9} [tab]Gemini Man Σ[tab] [robot:left:base]{gemini-man_alt9}]{empty}
[[robot]{hard-man_alt9} [tab]Hard Man Σ[tab] [robot:left:base]{hard-man_alt9}]{empty}
[[robot]{top-man_alt9} [tab]Top Man Σ[tab] [robot:left:base]{top-man_alt9}]{empty}
[[robot]{snake-man_alt9} [tab]Snake Man Σ[tab] [robot:left:base]{snake-man_alt9}]{empty}
[[robot]{spark-man_alt9} [tab]Spark Man Σ[tab] [robot:left:base]{spark-man_alt9}]{empty}
[[robot]{shadow-man_alt9} [tab]Shadow Man Σ[tab] [robot:left:base]{shadow-man_alt9}]{empty}

* Looks like I made these ones too dark compared to the others. Expect revisions in the next few days and the MM4 ones to finish up the unlockable batch. Revisions complete, they all use the same darkness levels now. :)

@Bt Man :

Sorry, I was trying to get the formatting correct and test to make sure they actually worked first. Thank you, though - I'm glad they turned out! Some might need tweaking, but overall I think they're pretty cool. :)

All these "dark" alts are saved in the 9th slot of unlockable RMs and can now be used with the following code in the community:

[robot:left:throw]{cut-man_alt9}

So far, only the MM1 robot masters have dark alts created, but eventually I will create sprite for all unlockable RMs. These are NOT the same as Greyscale or Gameboy sprites (which may or may not come later) but are distinctly "dark" versions of the master that tie into the other dark elements in the update's story. When more RMs have dark alts available I'll post here to let you guys know (or get MBM to).

@Tobyjoey :

Thanks Toby - I'm glad you like 'em. And hopefully the damage to the community's RP section isn't too bad. :P

@MegaBossMan : Thanks Boss, the issue has been fixed and Astro Man's field is now hidden instead of just plain wrong. :p

@Meta : Thanks, this has been fixed removed from the page (legacy no longer exists).

@TheDoc : I updated Hard Man's quotes and fixed the typo, though I'll have to look into the other issue a bit more closely. The pattern-matching for the formatting options might be a bit too greedy so I'll have to adjust the rules a bit. Thanks for the heads-up.

@TheDoc : There may be a few versions of the mission list floating around, but I've upload the most recent one and a bunch of other updated documents to a new dedicated preview folder on the website. Please take a look when you have a chance, but know that there are obviously going to be spoilers.

Regarding the mission progression document, the position and pairing of robots/bosses is pretty much set-in-stone at this point BUT I'm very much open to suggestions about mechanics and strategies and field names/types, etc. I like a lot of what has been presented so far, especially the King stuff. I didn't even realize he used Lasers, which is AWESOME given that it means he can posses the two rarest types in the game. :P

But yeah, just thought I throw these updated documents in the ring for you guys to peruse at your convenience. Maybe it'll help spark more ideas - I like where this is going.

This is awesome! Thanks Boss, Doc, and Retro. :D

Regarding the locked threads and community sections... I have two ideas.

Locked Threads

For the locked threads... why are they locked anyway? To prevent people from posting? I'm not sure that's necessary. I think it might be a better idea to edit and update the relevant threads with recent changes (just in case the update isn't complete for another 6 months) and then re-open them so users can ask questions and comment. When this update is eventually released and everything changes, THEN we'll lock these ones and create new threads. Until then it just feels weird to have everything locked.

Either update them or put a notice at the bottom saying "information in this thread may be out of date and requires updating, if you have questions please see [insert link here]". Does that sound reasonable? You, TheDoc, Rhythm or any other mod can edit my posts, and we should only lock the truly irrelevant threads. I know lots of those mechanics are still completely valid in-game. If you guys have any questions or need clarification, just let me know.


Community Categories

I'm both open and anxious to create new categories in the community so we can filter things better. Please, please let me know if you or anyone else has ideas for new sections I can create that would apply to several or many existing threads so we can move them. I feel the General category has become an anything-goes section with way too many threads so I'd like to organize it a bit better.

My first idea for a new section would be titled "Help" and appear right at the end after bugs. This would be completely different from the Strategies section, of course, and relate more to community guidelines, rules, events, and that kind of stuff. We could move this thread and all others like it to that category, un-sticky the ones that do not need it, and clean out the other categories a bit. I also considered calling this new section "Rules" but that felt too restrictive... Do you guys have any other ideas for a name? Or maybe a different section all-together? Let us know.

I'm also open to more rooms in the chat, by the way, so let us know if that's a thing you guys want to see added. :)

EDIT: Oh! What about a community section for fanart and fanfic and that kind of stuff? We could move the sprite showcases and stuff to the new section. Maybe call it "Media"? No, that sounds too official... "Creations"? Any ideas for a better name? This would be different from Roleplay, of course, with individual users to showing off their creations in their own threads, rather than collaborators making play-by-post stories. It might be fun.

Alright everyone, a NEW CHAT has been installed into the MMRPG (thanks to BossMan and Mikey for the link)!

If anyone is still using or in the Xat, please refresh the community page or update your bookmarks!

The chat can still be accessed at http://rpg.megamanpoweredup.net/community/chat/ but you can also bookmark the following other link if you want to view the chat in fullsize http://rpg.megamanpoweredup.net/chat/.

Some of the rules and the opening post may need to be revised, but overall I think it should be a straight forward transition. Enjoy!

@rotomslashblast : I... can't really explain that one. Every other stardroid has a pretty straight-forward dual typing except for Mercury. What is he? Liquid metal? Poison? How do we express that with the available elements? I admit I got really, really creative with this one (maybe just crazy?) but my line of thinking probably revolved around melting, shining, cold metal, or... something. :S Anyone have a better idea?

@Tobyjoey : I have changed Commando Man's second weakness to Electric, as suggested. Your reasoning makes sense and until a better option comes around I think this fits rather well. For a moment I thought you were going to suggest Shield, but then I understood where you were going with the antenna thing. :P

@TheDoc : It sounds like you're disagreeing with me but I think you may have just misread my post. We're actually on the same page. ;) I do think Strike Man should have a resistance to Electric type in addition to Impact and have updated his database entry as such. And obviously I agree about the creativity thing - this game offers a unique opportunity for us to view robot masters from a different perspective and I think we should take advantage like that. Sure these robots may act a certain way when confronted one-on-one in an action setting, but what kind of strengths and strategies would they use in an open field and - more importantly - on a team? I'm sure you agree.

Turbo Man has been changed to a Swift Core and Slash Man has been changed to Nature Core after much consideration and creative planning based on the feedback from everyone here. I think these were wise decisions.

Snake Man's resistance has been changed to Shadow after reading the arguments for and against. I agree that Snake Man as a character is already fairly shady, and with him being a snake he's already quite familiar with darkness and shadows. Also - as BossMan said - it ties well into his T2 ability the Venom Snake.

For Strike Man I have decided to give him weaknesses to Cutter and Crystal. This may seem unusual, but the only real way to destroy a baseball is to cut through it and the only other type that's even remotely sharp is... Crystal. I feel like this is the only available element that makes sense, so rather than have a single-weakness as TheDoc suggested I erred on the side of weakness variety. Don't hate me. As for his resistances, I have changed them to Electric and Impact. The first is obvious and the second is because I agree that baseballs are designed to be hit - very hard - with metal or wooden bats. Has anyone held a real baseball? They are firm and almost indestructible - it takes a lot of effort to destroy one short of manually cutting into it.

Lastly, Commando Man's weakness to Cutter has been changed to Swift. As for his weakness to Explode... I'm gonna let that discussion develop some more before I make any changes. :)

The decisions we make for this game may not always be canon, but I believe they are in the best interest of the prototype's future. I am personally prioritizing fun and variety of robots and abilities over the authenticity of each individual special weapon. Purists have plenty of other Mega Man fangames to choose from, and I'm more than okay with this one doing things a little different. As long as Slash Man looks the same and uses his claws in some way, who cares? Is he fun to play as? Against? Does it still feel like Slash Man? I believe that's all that matters.

Aaaaaand we have another! Welcome TheDoc as our second new addition to the team - he is now a Community Moderator and can offer his assistance with the day to day maintenance and upkeep of the prototype community. Thank you for accepting as well and I look forward to working with you more going forward! :D

@TailsMK4 : Which brings me to the next early change...

3. Effective immediately, Rain Flush now damages all other robots on the field just like it's description has suggested the entire time. The only robots that will not be affected by the Rain Flush damage are the user and any benched robots that have affinities or immunities to the Water type. Now the ability is much closer to the double-edged sword that is "Surf" from the Pokémon series (which is what I had imagined for the ability in the first place). Rain Flush can still be exploited by bringing in a specific team, but much less so than before. Enjoy (or not)!

I just wanted to publicly announce that I've made two early changed to the prototype well before the update is complete because I felt they were necessary and - more importantly - they were very easy to implement. The changes take effect immediately and you to not have to wait for the update to benefit from them.

1. Roll, Disco, and Rhythm now have a base WE of 15 instead of the usual 10. They are and will be the only unlockable robot masters to have this distinction and I believe it will further solidify their role as support robots in the game. Boost, break, and swap away my friends!

2. Target robots in Player Battles are now hidden until the fight starts and appear as dark, generic robots instead. No longer will you be able to select your opponent's weaknesses and gain the advantage before the battle has even begun, instead needing to rely on other strategies. Will you select your strongest? Your most versatile? Your most defensive or speedy? It's a long way from making Player Battles as balanced as they'll be in the update, but it's a start - right?

Let me know your thoughts if you have 'em, otherwise enjoy! :D

These are fantastic! OMG Disco!!!

Thank you for sharing these, sooo much! I have no more words. :')

Field Change on Hard: Higher chance of Dark Elements appearing in battle.

Totally agree with this. Doing it will make it much harder to abuse starforce in the later missions for the first few turns in a given battle, which is the whole point of the Dark Elements so I approve of this change.

AI Changes: Hard:
The changes that shouldn't require much new code: [...]
Changes that may be a bit more difficult to implement: [...]
The change that definitely will require some careful thought: [...]

I agree with every single one of these and may use a few of the more obvious ones for normal mode as well. Normal mode AI is pretty dumb right now so I few common-sense tweaks would be okay. Special attention to...

-In later battles, give AI more Starforce on their side to work with (could even go so far as to include Laser and Shield Starforce for AI).

I like this, but we'll need to think about how to represent it visually. It wouldn't make sense for a field star to give the enemy +100 (for example) if you only get +10 when you collect it... so do we give the enemies more stars? Do we give them something else that has the same overall effect on starforce levels but cannot be collected by the player? Maybe some kind of tower or spire on their side of the field? Just brainstorming here, but if it doesn't make sense in context it might be better to power them up in some other way.


Easy:
[...]
-Prevent Dark Towers from appearing.
-Disable bench modifiers for the enemy team.

I agree with all these but the last two, for different reasons.

Regarding the Dark Towers... they may actually end up being story-related and tied to the early parts of the game so that might not work. "Why would Dark Towers appear before Starforce?" you might ask, but it's possible for these to serve other purposes in the early game and it's not until much later that the player realizes the full scope of their power.

I think I might use the Dark Towers as MacGuffins in the early game. In Chapter Two there may be a Dark Fortress or other form of blockade that prevents you from progressing to Chapter Three and can only be removed by destroying the Dark Towers in the other eight RM missions. The player would technically be doing the same thing as they're doing now - going into each of the eight missions and disabling all the enemies - but the "goal" would be less ambiguous than downloading their data (whatever that means) and wouldn't be tied to unlocking the RMs for use in battle.

Imagine going through the story mode in the first pass, destroying Dark Towers along the way as a means to remove Dark Fortresses blockades at the end of each chapter and progress to the next. Dark Towers will be destroyed and removed once a mission has been completed and will appear in all single and double RM missions all the way to the conclusion of phase 1 when you meet Slur and get introduced to starforce. On your second run through the game in phase 2 those original single/double missions now have field/fusion stars to collect instead of towers to destroy. Collecting all those stars unlocks the last few chapters of the game where Dark Towers are present once again in triple missions (stardroids) but have a new meaning to the player given how much starforce they would have been collected by that point.

Maybe I went a bit too much into that idea though... expect it to be tweaked and played around with before launch. :P

The problem I have with the bench modifiers should be simpler to understand - there may be future abilities that use this as their gimmick (ignoring bench modifiers) so I feel that putting as a core mechanic of Easy Mode might make those abilities redundant... I'll have to think about it.



Otherwise, WOW. These are fantastic ideas and most of them will surely be implemented into the game before the update. Thank you!!

Yay! Now that ThatGuyNamedMikey has acknowledged and accepted the offer I can publicly talk about it and say thank you from the bottom of my heart for joining the team! ^_^

I know we don't always seem to get along, but I also know it's only because we both love this game so much and want what we feel is the best for it going forward. Thanks for keeping me on my feet and thanks for always bringing new ideas to the table - I look forward to your unique brand of no-nonsense in the community and will very much appreciate the extra hand in keeping order around here. :)

I've updated Reisrat's opening post with your name so people know your new role, FYI.

I've updated the preview link again to fix a few spelling mistakes (thanks TheDoc) and rename a few other abilities. Please see this link for the most updated version (and yes, the first post has been revised with the new link as well):
mmrpg-database_2015-04-05.html

I just added a link to the bottom of the first post with a preview of the entire database page. This is the version of the database I am working with at this moment on my home computer and I will update the link occasionally to show you my progress on the update. Please check the link below and hover over any of the icons for more info. :)
mmrpg-database_2015-04-04.html

@TailsMK4 : Regarding the AI, we just talked about this briefly in chat but I'd love to hear more ideas on the subject here so we can discuss. You suggested having the enemy switch out when WE is low, which I totally agree with, so I'm interested to see what other ideas you have. I have my own, naturally, but I'd love to hear yours and everyone else's so I can review and see which are possible.

@Reisrat : Fantastic idea. That way you the same mechanic is present but it doesn't waste a turn activating it AND you can pre-meditate their abilities better when you're equipping stuff. Unless there are any objections, I think this is a great alternative and will probably use it in the update. Thanks.

Wow! This is... something else.

Alright, so BossMan let me know about this thread through email and I came to check it out as soon as I got home this morning. After looking through the database I could see that, yes, everything had been reset. After some snooping around the code and testing things, I found the problem.

Last night after fixing a typo in Hard Man's quotes, I logged into the game's admin panel and ran the update_robots() function. Everything went fine and there were no visible errors so I refreshed Hard Man's database page, saw that the quote had been changed, and logged out. It was then that all the stats were reset.

After some digging around I realized that Google had changed the public address of our stats spreadsheet and my update script was being returned an empty file. Unfortunately my script wasn't smart enough to halt operations when an external file was empty so it just defaulted to the 100/100/100/100 spread for each robot.

I just finished updating the script and fixing the issue, and after reloading the database everyone's stats seem to be fine again. I'm really sorry for this oversight and I hope it haven't done any permanent damage... I was just trying to update a quote! :'(

I feel bad for users who played the game for the first time last night or this morning - progressing through Chapter Two must have been a nightmare. >_>

@MetaKirbSter : There are four opponents in that screenshot because I adjusted how many show up on the Bonus Field II mission. It might change back before launch but there's a related idea I'm still debating with myself. I'll let you know when/if this changes.

@Bt Man : Yes, Tomahawk Man will eventually be in the game when the update is released. He wont be unlockable but you will be able to challenge him on the bonus fields and any Earth type starforce missions like the other preview bots.

@ThatOneEnderMan : Yes, when the new update is released the mechanics of starforce will change. Rather than boosting all abilities of a certain element by 10%, starforce will instead grant +10 Attack toward and/or +10 Defense against all damage of that type.

@Retro Pikachu : Thanks for responding. I'll take your words into consideration for possible mechanics in the update. I am a huge fan of super forms too - it's the reason I put that mechanic into the game in the first place - but after player with the system I felt it added little to the game. Maybe I was mistaken. I'll let you guys know if anything changes.

---

I also have some additional information to reveal. Mostly revisions to existing mechanics, but also a bit of clarification on some new ones.


Hold Item Mechanics
The hold mechanics for items have been revised again after discussing them in the last few SNC sessions. I am fairly confident that these options provide the most balance while still allowing for some creative strategy. Please see the following document for the new draft of the mechanics:
item-hold-mechanics.txt

Battle Points Mechanics
The battle point mechanics have remained relatively unchanged with one important addition. Much like it is right now, missions have a base reward value and a target amount of turns that are used together to determine you final points - the new mechanic here is that missions will also have a target amount of robots in your party. You can easily select more of less of those robots (min 1 and max 8 like always) but your choices will affect your final reward in the same way the turn counter does. Please see the following document for more details:
battle-point-mechanics.txt

Difficulty Mode Mechanics
After the announcement of the difficulty modes many users started to panic about the effect on their games and the logic and math involved, but I'm here to assure you it's not that bad and come a long way since it's initial conception. The basic calculations for battle points will not change between difficulties and will instead only impact the final reward by +/-10% of the base. The target amount of turns and the party size limits will also remain consistent between mode and have no modifiers. Instead, there will be changes to the enemy intelligence level and the consistency and type of item drops. Please see the below document for more details:
difficulty-mode-mechanics.txt

@ZeroDXZ : I like the idea, and I think it would be cool, but then Slash Man would have two dual-type abilities which isn't very balanced... I know that I'm the one who created them, but sometimes these restrictions are very hard to work with. >_>

@Tobyjoey : I think you bring up some very solid points, Toby, and I'm inclined to agree.

I'll keep Slash Man as a Nature core robot with primarily Nature type moves. Too much Cutter / Swift is redundant and boring, which we want to avoid. We need to make sure his first ability is pure Nature type though, and have either Slash or Claw in its name... this is gonna be hard. I'd like to use his dash attack or that glue-like projectile he uses in the games, but I'm not sure how to make it work with the name format.

Maybe we could replace one of the two words with something else? "Slash" and "Claw" are both cutter-like words so they're a little redundant - maybe "beast" is a good substitute? We could have ___ Beast (which is way more flexible) as a first tier Nature type, and then Slash Beast as his second tier Nature / Cutter type. I'm open to other suggestions though...

I know that focusing on small details like these might seem silly or unnecessary, but naming things has turned out to be a very important and delicate task that must be handled with care. It's very hard to "fix" save files that have references to old file or character names, so changing things in the future might be too late. It was quite a pain fixing spelling errors in the past (like Lightning Facility vs Lighting Facility) and I'm not eager to do that again.

In fact, I may kick myself later, but I'd like to have all the abilities planned out by the time the update is released. Not finished, of course, but named and organized so I don't have to reorganize the database again and we can have a clearer road map of the prototype's eventual "complete" version. I know it's an impossible goal but I want to try anyway.

Anyway, back to Turbo Man, maybe you're right about the Flame Core. He's super fast but being able to produce a wheel of fire definitely suggests Flame core potential but leaving him as Swift would make it very difficult to give Nitro Man a unique spin. I think I'll change him back, as your reasoning is solid and I tend of agree. TheDoc, you have any additional thoughts on this?

Lastly, Turbo Man's abilities (sorry I have to go there). If he's a Flame core his first ability should be Flame and his second should be Flame / Something. We have Scorch Wheel as his official ability, so the other one has to use either "scorch" or "wheel". I think wheel would have made more sense visually, but as a Flame core maybe scorch would be the better option. Scorch Drive? Maybe Scorch Wheel is the single-type tier one and Scorch Drive is the dual-type tier two (flame / swift)? Maybe he only uses pure Flame type abilities?

No rush to reply, and I'm not asking YOU specifically, I'm just putting it out there for you guys to think about while I continue coding away. :P

(sorry for double-post, even I'm subject to the character limit on this forum...)



Slash Man being a Cutter core was admittedly a bit of a cop-out on my part, but you're right in suggesting that Nature suits him much more. If this game didn't have the core-match mechanic for abilities it might not matter, but because do we're confronted with the question "should Slash Man be able to learn all Nature abilities or all Cutter abilities?" and I was... pretty torn.

He has sharp claws, so of course he can learn all the abilities that cut things! Right? As you've illustrated, it's not that simple. I can more easily imagine Slash Man raising a Leaf Shield or summoning a Search Snake than throwing a Rolling Cutter or a Metal Blade at the enemy, so making him Cutter core wouldn't work. And so, Nature type it is.

'robot_token' => 'slash-man',
'robot_core' => 'nature',
'robot_weaknesses' => array('freeze', 'flame'),
'robot_immunities' => array('swift'),

What about his own abilities though? Slash Claw is currently Cutter and Swift type, neither of which match his new Nature core. I suppose we could make Slash Claw the only Nature and Cutter type ability but I'm not sure if that makes sense? Of course, whatever we do the ability has to be upgraded to second tier because it's dual-type and that leaves us with an unknown first tier ability. Do we create it as a pure Nature ability to match his core (maybe that purple poison he throws?) or do we give it some other type?

I can see this going a few ways but here are my ideas:

---

Scenario A:

Slash Man is a Nature core robot who unusually leans Cutter type abilities on his own - Slash _____ and Slash Claw. This would give him the unique position of being able to equip two distinct elements without any external assistance - the two Cutter type abilities he learns by level-up and then any Nature types are available to the player.

This would be pretty cool, but I'm not comfortable with only one robot in the whole game having this ability (unless it's a special or bonus character). We would need to find another robot - preferably from the same game - to give this same mechanic to (learning abilities that don't match one's core). Spring Man perhaps?

Scenario B:

Slash Man is a Nature core who learns Nature abilities like everyone else. - ____ Claw and Slash Claw. This would make him easier to work with for sure but I'm not sure if it would match his character or make sense. If we need to change the naming scheme of his abilities to something other than "Slash" or "Claw" I'm open to it (we've done it before) but we still need to stick with the theme of both abilities sharing a common word.

---

I'm not sure which is better, but I think it's important to figure this out before we make these characters unlockable. We don't want another Top Man situation where everyone equips Explode type abilities and then his core changes in the next update. :|

Anyway, thanks for discussing this guys and helping to sort out all the details parallel to me working on the update - makes it much easier to skim the community for recommended changes and apply them all at once. :)

Regarding Spring Man, if electricity healed him in his original game then I agree that Electric should be his affinity. I have updated his data to reflect this, let me know if this looks good.


'robot_token' => 'spring-man',
'robot_core' => 'impact',
'robot_weaknesses' => array('cutter', 'flame'),
'robot_resistances' => array('impact'),
'robot_affinities' => array('electric'),



I think Turbo Man on the other hand should have an immunity to Electric type damage, mainly due to his rubber wheels (at least I assume they're rubber). I also think you're right about his typing, so I changed him to a Swift core. This of course means his first tier ability will have to be a pure Swift type and Scorch Wheel will have to be upgraded to a second tier ability. Let me know if you have any ideas.


'robot_token' => 'turbo-man',
'robot_core' => 'swift',
'robot_weaknesses' => array('shadow', 'earth'),
'robot_resistances' => array('swift'),
'robot_immunities' => array('electric'),



Now, I would have normally given Cloud Man an affinity Electric (given his design and appearance) but as you said we don't want two robots from the same game with the same affinity so... maybe just let him have it as a resistance? Or would giving two robots with an Electric affinity not be that big of a deal and I should just do it?


'robot_token' => 'cloud-man',
'robot_core' => 'electric',
'robot_weaknesses' => array('explode', 'wind'),
'robot_affinities' => array('electric'),
'robot_immunities' => array('earth'),

@MetaKirbSter : Meta, you need to stop being rude to other members. And please stop it with the COPPA thing. You're underage, you lied about your age on the login form, and now you need to have a parent or guardian send in permission or I'll have to close and delete your account. It's unfortunate but true and necessary. Spend less time worrying about getting banned for being underage and more time worrying about me banning you for poor behavior. No celebration for you until you get your stuff together.

@MetaKirbSter : @Everyone Else : If you're going to use this thread to "announce" when you're in chat (which I do not personally like but understand the reasoning behind), this will be the ONLY thread you're allowed to announce your chat presence in. Formal warning here - if I see any more of your or anyone else's "IN CHAT!!!" or similar posts in other topics, I will go through and delete them or ask MegaBossMan or one of the other moderators to. I enjoy seeing the "New Post!" icons every day but when I check and there's nothing but spam all the time it gets pretty frustrating. Please stop.

Just wanted to post a few new update screenshots. Tomahawk Man - sprite editing by The Zion and assembly by myself - has finally been added to the update and will appear in post-game battles just like the rest of the preview bots. You can catch a gimps of him on the bench in these two Bonus Field screens:





Note that in these screenshots, my game only has 4 Impact Stars and 0 Earth Stars - this is why Rhythm's defense against the Oil Slider is only boosted by 40 points as opposed to the 2,520 points that our "1024 club" would benefit from post-update. :)

@AlphaOmegaZX : Thanks AlphaOmegaZX - welcome to the community and I'm glad you enjoy the game! :D

@Jdude330 : I believe the new mechanics proposed earlier in the thread should solve all those balancing problems in regards to player battles (single-player campaign effects are another beast) but thank you for your input.

@Bt Man : Yes, that is correct. Because Guts Man does not get WE reduction bonuses from abilities equipped this way, the Fire Chaser would still cost 8 WE to use (out of 10) which is quite a lot. I think there will still be a lot of strategy involved.

@Jdude330 : I don't think equipping Guts Man with a Flame ability is totally useless. Under the right circumstances he would do a lot of damage. If you have him hold a Flame Core he could theoretically equip Fire Chaser and another move like Flame Buster in a second slot. Charging the Flame Buster boosts Flame type abilities by 50% as long as you have the glow, so if you use Fire Chaser right after that Guts Man could easily do lots of damage and function as a dual type robot if you wanted him to (just as any one else could). It's just one of many options though - maybe you value added WE/LE instead of more moves - it's completely up to you.

@Retro Pikachu : I'd be curious to know what you liked about the mechanic. Whenever I was playtesting I found it kind of boring and of little use - the WE and damage bonuses didn't seem worth blocking off the rest of your move pool. Please let me know how you used it effectively or why you liked it and I'll see if I can leave it in some way. Maybe if a Copy Core holds onto a core it also changes their colour? Let me know what you think.

I've updated the post regarding the secondary effects of hold items and changed the description for holding robot cores. In light of last night's discussion and the confusion about my proposed mechanics for the cores, I have decided to streamline the feature slightly. Here is the revised description:

@TheDoc : I agree! I wonder what happened to it? Kind of which I hadn't closed my chat window so soon and kept a copy for myself. :S Maybe it was accidentally listed with an expiry date? In light of this, I'm willing to re-answer any questions in the update threads if you guys have 'em. I do hope this gets sorted out though...

Meta, please don't post topics like this. If the form is a little late I'm willing to be lenient about the issue - I'm not going to delete your data or anything I just need to make sure my butt is covered legally as the law says you cannot technically be here. I'll extend your time limit by another week but I'm going to close this thread in the mean time. Please do not spam the forum with personal threads. Thank you.

@MegaBossMan :

Robots holding Items :

I understand your concerns but yes, you'll have to wait and see how it feels. Try to compare the effect of holding a core to that of a Pokémon holding a Mega Stone. Incredibly powerful items that often grant brand new type coverage and abilities, but at the cost of not equipping any of the other and possibly more useful items.

There are many different variables at play and in reality you'll still be pretty restricted in what you do - go ahead and equip Roll with that Electric Core and give her all Electric abilities, but when you run out of WE on the first turn and can't do anything else we'll see how overpowered you feel. And you have to remember that a robot is only holding one core at any given time - once you switch to a different item any abilities that are not otherwise compatible are unequipped so it's not like robots will suddenly have every ability type available to them at once.

Maybe my Roll is great at Electric abilities but you have decided to make yours a master of Shield type abilities, but reasonably you'll still have to include non-elemental attacks in your 8 ability slots else you run the risk of running out of WE too soon. And to answer your question about Elec Man holding a second Electric Core, the ability to equip Electric type moves would obviously be redundant in this case but the boosted damage/recovery would stack on top of Elec Man's internal core. Instead of doing +50% more damage with Electric type attacks, he would instead do +75% more damage. Of course by equipping him with the same core type you're opting for more powerful native abilities versus a great variety of borrowed ones.

Bosses and Versus Mode :

I think it's been mentioned in the chat before, but at some point I would like to add some kind of mission creator/editor that lets you make your own missions and post them for other people to "download" and try. Maybe when that becomes a thing, I can let you unlock bosses for use in that mode as targets instead of in the main story. The mission creator would let you choose the field(s), multipliers, targets (robot, mecha, or boss), and maybe even some custom dialogue or something. That's not planned for this update, but it's something I'm thinking about all the same.

@TailsMK4 @MegaBossMan @MetaKirbSter :

Thank you for your posts, I'm glad you're excited! :D I look forward to uploading these changes some day and once again dramatically shifting the direction of the game - it will be a fun day indeed. ^_^

@TheDoc :

1. It's not done yet, but I plan to remove that restriction going forward. Unlocked abilities will be shared with all doctors once you reach a certain point in the game and I will update Reggae's shop top remove the Light/Wily/Cossack buttons and employ a single "Buy" button instead. Purchasing an ability via Reggae's shop will add it to the global pool and allow all doctors to equip it to their robots without transferring back and forth. Much easier than before.

2. I'm going to ask that you trust me on this one until the update is out and you're able to test the mechanic for yourself. After it's in the wild and people have some hands-on experience I'll be open to revising it again. Allowing a robot to equip other elemental abilities may seem crazy, but it's really not that bad. Robots only have 10 WE to work with, as you know, and a 25% reduction in cost is not that much in the end. Thunder Beam, for example, is an 8 WE ability that deals a respectable amount of damage. When equipped to someone like Elec Man, the cost for Thunder Beam is reduced to only 2 WE, allowing him to use it again and again. A robot like Roll on the other hand - using an Electric Core to grant access to the ability - would still require 6 WE to use. That only let's her use it once before needing to wait for a recharge or using something else. Couple that with the fact that they only get a +25% damage boost instead of +50% damage boost and the effects are further balanced. Besides, opting to give your robot a core means not giving them some other item - something that has it's own pros and cons.

3. I've amended the post to include this information, but in the Dark Frags and Spires also differ in their abilities and stats. Frags are much weaker in stats and use the Dark Boost ability to raise their own stats, while the Spires are more powerful in stats and use the Dark Break ability as well to lower the target's stats. I know this isn't a major difference, but they're not supposed to be incredibly deep characters. They're not even sentient, really - just automated objects that seek out elemental energy. I can understand your concerns though.

Thanks for your post, it helps me pin down what people are most worried about and quell any fears before we move forward. :)

And that's it for today. I'm going to be reviewing the posts I just made for spelling and grammar and other typos, but that's the state of things as they are right now. Please feel free to read over them at your own pace and consider discussing them in tomorrow's development chat. I may or may not make it there myself, but as always I will be reviewing your feedback there and here on the community and taking it into account as development progresses on the update. Thank you!!!!

About the Boss Database? Will any of the robots in it be unlockable?

No, they will not. Most if not all of these targets will reward you with their special weapons, but I do not believe any of them will be unlockable. The killers were a very tough decision me, but in the end I decided to lean in the direction of making them more interesting and challenging rather than more balanced and compatible with the other characters. Maybe in the year 20XX I'll add some special code to allow unlocking bosses but with some kind of limit, but not for this update and not anytime in the near future. Sorry everyone.

What about the other robot master fields? I see ones for Crystal Man and Jewel Man, but what about the others?

Eventually all unlockable robot masters should have fields, but there are no plans for any more in this update. The two crystal fields were only created as placeholders now because I wanted to carefully plan out my use of crystalline nouns and adjectives. The other types are important too, but Crystal is so rare I wanted to give it special attention. Mega Man 5+ fields will be a thing, but I think it would be best to save the straight-forward content updates like those until I have a better development pipeline worked out with more people. Thank you for your patience.

Are experience points or the leveling system being changed in any way?

First and foremost, overkill bonuses will be capped. The maximum overkill possible on any robot/mecha/boss will be equal to the max LE and no more. A Mega Man with 100 LE, for example, would have a max overkill value of 100 damage, meaning you'd have to deal 200+ damage to him in order to get the full reward. This will prevent most instances of 9999 experience points simply for hitting a level 1 Met with a level 100 Buster Shot.

Additionally, the experience required for the next level will no longer be equally 1000 indefinitely. At level 1 you'll need exactly 1000 experience to get to level 2, but from level 2 to 3 it will require exponentially more until you get to level 99 where the required amount to reach the level 100 will be insanely high. This will definitely prevent players from easily reaching level 100 in just a few battles, but I believe it will also allow users to build up more bonus stats before the next reward cycle and make the process feel more impactful.

And what about Field Support? Will that change?

Field Support will likely change as well, though the details have not been decided on yet. It will likely be split into three separate moves like Mecha Support with each being slightly more powerful than the other. This will also coincide with a big change to the default Field Multipliers for all robot master stages.

No longer will fields start out with x2.0 multipliers for the stage boss and unfairly low multipliers for others - instead the values will be much more conservative in their boosts/breaks and work within an range of x0.8 to x1.2 for any given element. This will allow for more reasonable battles in the earlier parts of the game, but it will also allow the above Field Support abilities to exist without being overly broken.

You will still be able to get field multipliers to insanely low levels like x9.9 and x0.1 like before, it just might take a bit more effort than last time.

Will the Mecha Support ability be any less useless?

This mechanic is not programmed yet and still open to changes, but I plan to split the Mecha Support ability into three separate ones - Mecha Support, Mecha Support II, and Mecha Support III.

The first tier Mecha Support ability will require 4 WE and summon the robot master's first generation support mecha. The summoned mecha will be 1/3 the level of its owner and also benefit from 1/3 of its owner's bonus stats. The mecha will also have one randomly generated support ability in addition to their signature move. Abilities available to first generation mechas include Energy Boost, Attack Boost, Defense Boost, and Speed Boost.

The second tier Mecha Support II ability will require 6 WE and summon the robot master's second generation support mecha (where applicable). The summoned mecha will be 2/3 the level of its owner and also benefit from 1/3 of its owner's bonus stats. The mecha will also have two randomly generated support abilities in addition to their signature move. Abilities available to the second generation include all those mentioned above, but with the addition of Energy Break, Attack Break, Defense Break, and Speed Break.

The third and final tier Mecha Support III ability will require 8 WE and summon the robot master's third generation mecha (where applicable). The summoned mecha will be the same level as its owner and benefit from all of its owner's bonus stats. The mecha will also have three randomly generated support abilities in addition to their signature move. Abilities available to the third generation include all those mentioned above, but with the addition of Energy Swap, Attack Swap, Defense Swap, and Speed Swap.

I know these abilities and the mecha support changes will be controversial as several people have spent time grinding to level up their characters, but I believe this is the best way forward and I'm sorry to anyone who feels cheated by the new update. Please understand where I'm coming from with this.

And what about those Dark Elements? Are they still a thing?

Yes, they are, though there have naturally been a lot of changes.



Dark Frags, Dark Spires, and Dark Towers are three new enemy types that will appear in the game. The first two can actually be targeted and attacked in battle, while the latter appears as a background object that cannot be destroyed. Regardless of how they appear, the presence of any Dark Elements on the field completely suppress the effects of starforce on both sides. As long as at least one Dark Element remains on the field, neither player will have boosted elemental abilities.



It should also be noted that Dark Elements are classified as "empty" types and absorb all elemental energy, with Dark Frags having an immunity to every elemental type while Dark Spires have an affinity to every elemental type. In addition to absorbing elements differently, the Dark Frags and Spires also use different abilities in battle. Dark Frags are weaker and will continuously raise their own stats with the Dark Boost ability, while Dark Spires are more powerful and use the Dark Break ability to lower the target's stats. These two enemies can only be damaged with Neutral type attacks, throwing a pretty big wrench into most sweeping strategies. Once all Dark Elements have been destroyed, however, starforce comes back into effect and the sweeping can begin again. Because Dark Towers appear in the background and cannot be targeted, their suppressing effects unfortunately last for the entire mission.







Dark Elements appear in various places throughout the story, often near alien targets or in areas where elemental energy is high. Trill and Slur, for example, are able to summon Dark Elements to the field and prevent players from using non-Neutral abilities, while other instances of the Dark Frags and Dark Spires appear more organically on the robot master fields of Chapters Two and Four. Their appearance rates are much higher when a field or fusion star is in the mission, but they may still show up in cleared missions to feast on remnant energy signatures.

Yes! Star Force is broken! What are you doing to fix it?!

I know a lot of other ideas and tweaks and mechanics were proposed to "fix" starforce but most of them were (in my opinion) bad and I think the new system will be much less convoluted and broken. When we start changing other mechanics to balance the flaws of another we need to really think if it's worth it and in these cases it was not.




In the new update, starforce will continue to boost elemental abilities but in a different way. Previously, starforce boosted the damage output of all abilities by a set percentage. A single star granted +10% power to all abilities of the same type, and because they could be stacked players were eventually able to boost certain types by almost 2000% damage. While the added power was incredibly fun, battles quickly became too easy and unfair opponents had no defense against the effects of starforce. This was especially painful in player battles where your characters were completely unable to defend themselves against OHKO attacks. This entire system needed to be changes. Some suggested that I remove it all together, but I believed there was a better way.

The new update will have starforce boosting Attack and Defense values by hard-coded amounts instead of percentages, and because it applies to both sides of the field its use in player battles will be much balanced. Collecting a single field star grants the user +10 Attack towards and +10 Defense against all abilities of the same type.

This means that a player who has collected all 1024 stars, for example, would benefit from +1890 Attack toward and +1890 Defense against all Flame type damage (rather than +1890%) and if they were facing another member of the 1024 club the effects on both sides would automatically balance each other (based on how Attack/Defense are used to calculate damage). Your Flame type ability would benefit from +1890 Attack (making it do more damage) but your opponent would also be benefiting from +1890 Defense (making it do less damage) so the boosts/breaks would cancel each other out. Starfoce in player battles is no longer a one-sided thing.



It should also be noted that your robots on your opponent's team in a player battle are now hidden until the battle actually starts, preventing challengers from simply picking the robots that are super effective against the targets. This adds a lot more strategy to team selection and prevents player battles from feeling too unfair for the target.



It may be hard to wrap your head around this idea, but the in-battle HUD makes it a little easier to visualize. When you target an opponent with an ability, your current Attack stat and the target's current Defense stat appear side-by-side in a vs. display so you can compare them yourself. These values are naturally affected by starforce boosts, and if you pause or slow down the action you can review see that starforce boosted values have a little star next to their digits. This makes it easy to see what you're up against in player battles and other situations where the target benefits from starforce too.

Aren't some of these new mechanics a little overpowered?



I do not think so. Players on both sides have access to the new mechanics and it's up to the members of the community to decide which items and strategies they find the most useful and equip to their robots accordingly. I think these changes makes the starforce feature self-balancing and the new core mechanics allow for much more flexibility in team strategies and ability sets. Because each robot can only hold one item at a time, it forces the player to choose between boosted stats versus a greatly expanded move pool.



Are you going to give your Roll a Flame Core and grant her access to Flame type elemental abilities like the Flame Buster, or are you going to give her a Yashichi to double her life and weapon energy stats? Maybe you want your robot to start off with much stronger Attack/Defense/Speed stats instead and opt to go for the Super Capsule. It's really a matter of which strategy you want for that particular robot, and it allows two players with the exact same team to still have completely different strategies.



It should be noted that consumable items function differently in player battles. Their effects are still the same, but the items are not actually consumed at the end of battle. Because of the asynchronous nature of player battles it would be unfair if one side permanently lost items while the other did not, so consumable items are only "used up" in the single-player campaign. With this in mind, it should be clear that the larger, more expensive items like the Yashichi are obviously the best choice for player battles but might be overkill and wasteful for many of the single-player missions. Equip with care.

You know what is a little overpowered? Starforce.

So what are the effects then? What will items do when held?

-- Consumable Items --
These item are consumed after one use, and new ones will have to be equipped before the next battle.

Energy Pellet
When held by a robot master, the Energy Pellet grants +20% max LE at the start of battle.

Energy Capsule
Acts just like the Energy Pellet, but grants +50% max LE at the start of battle.

Energy Tank
Acts just like the Energy Pellet and Capsule, but grants +100% max LE at the start of battle.

Weapon Pellet/Capsule/Tank
These items function just like the Energy items but with WE instead of LE.

Attack/Defense/Speed/Super Pellet/Capsule

Same as above but with Attack/Defense/Speed or all three for the super items.

(I considered having these items function like Berries instead, acting like they normally do but being automatically consumed when necessary... but that felt a little too boring and predictable when you can already use an item during your turn without repercussions).

Extra Life
When held by a robot master, an Extra Life will automatically revive the user with 50% of their max LE and WE if defeated in battle (similar to the Auto Phoenix / Phoenix Down in Final Fantasy games). Obviously one of the most useful of the consumable items.

Yashichi
When held by a robot master, the Yashichi grants +100% max LE +100% max WE at the start of battle. Obviously another very useful consumable item.

-- Persistent Items --
These items are not consumed after one use and instead stay with your robot until removed by the player or by the effects of an attack in battle (such as switching or dropping items).

Robot Cores


When held by a robot master, a robot core allows the user to equip any ability of the same type - even if it does not match their internal core type. Secondary cores do not grant any reduction in WE nor boost damage/recovery like primary cores, however, so plan accordingly. Additionally, just like internal cores, held ones increase the power and decrease the weapon energy requirements of like-typed abilities - just by 25% instead of 50%.

-- No Effect --

Mecha Shards


Unlike their eventual forms, mecha shards have no effect when held by a robot in battle.

Small and Large Screw
These items unfortunately also have no effect when held by a robot in battle.

Score Balls
These items also have no effect when held by a robot in battle. Don't bother.

Wait, what? Robots can hold items now? Like in Pokémon?



Yes, finally. As expected, robot masters will only be able to hold onto one item at a time and they will each have varying degrees of usefulness. Pellets, capsules, tanks, shards, cores, extra lives, yashichis, and even small and large screws can be held, though it should be noted that only a few have effects worth exploring. Stars cannot be held even though they appear in the item database. Their power is too strong and the are too precious to risk loosing in battle so the doctors refuse to do it.

Okay, and what about those Mecha Shards I heard about? How do they play into this?




Support mechas drop elemental items now too. Mecha shards are dropped when you defeat support mechas with super effective abilities, just like cores from robot masters. The difference here is that while mecha shards are initially useless, collecting four will trigger a fusion effect and a new robot core will be born (much like Pieces of Heart / Heart Containers in the Zelda series). In this way, it will be possible to collect robot cores of otherwise unobtainable types.



Laser type, for example, currently has no robot masters to collect cores from but the Beak support mecha can easily be farmed for Laser Shards. The shards will eventually fuse into a new core, and boom - new Laser Core. Same with Shield type being dropped by the new Sniper Joe mecha - all robot core types will be obtainable.

"So that's it? Robot cores just deal damage now?" you might ask and the answer is yes, robot cores only deal damage now when used in battle, but as mentioned before they're also pretty valuable when traded in at Reggae's shop and there's one more mechanic that lets the robot cores shine in a brand new way - the ability for a robot master to hold an item.

No Core Guard, huh? Will there be any changes to the Robot Cores?




Robot cores will continue to be dropped by robot masters when defeated with a super effective weapons, but they will have different effects when used in battle. Cores used to raise the field multiplier and potentially shift Copy Core robots into other types, but that mechanic turned out to be relatively boring and has been replaced with a new one. When used in battle, robot cores will now be thrown at the target to inflict elemental damage . The amount will be respectable, likely percent-based, but will have no other effect. Clean, simple, and useful - especially given the rarity of certain types in the game. Speaking of which...

About those robot cores... Didn't you say something about "Core Guard"?



I did and I take it back. I was trying to give the cores a more meaningful place in the game while simultaneously balancing out the overpowered starforce mechanic. That was a mistake and the idea was killed off as soon as I came to my senses. Coreguard would have given the player boosted elemental defenses based on the number of cores collected, but a fair and sensible formula for that boost could not be agreed upon and the concept fell out of favour. Instead, cores will have other uses unrelated to the starforce mechanic. Starforce can balance itself out (we'll get to that later).

Okay, so Auto is getting new items. What about Reggae?



When Reggae starts off, he'll have a small collection of Neutral type abilities for purchase. These are your Energy Boost, Attack Support, Defense Break, Experience Booster, and other similar support abilities. While these abilities are helpful, they are not Reggae's speciality.



As his dialogue implies, Reggae loves collecting robot cores and will trade the player a respectable amount of zenny for them... but why? Well, it turns out Reggae uses the elemental power of those cores to create new abilities. Collect and sell enough cores of a certain type and Reggae will begin stocking abilities of a matching element. Give enough Flame Cores to Reggae and his shop will begin to carry abilities like Flame Buster, Flame Overdive, Attack Burn and Defense Blaze in the rotation. The same goes for almost every other core type - sell them to Reggae some sweet Zenny and then come back later to see what new moves he has on offer. The only cores that has no additional effect when sold are Neutral Cores (because those abilities are already available). Even the elusive Copy Core might unlock some new abilities in the shop...



Many of the elemental Shot, Buster, and Overdrive abilities as well as the elemental Boost and Break ones can only be obtained in Reggae's shop using the above method, so it's well worth the effort to collect and trade them in. It should be noted that Reggae's exchange rate for any given core will still be heavily influenced by the player's starforce, though the exact strength of that influence may be tweaked.

What about the shop then? Will anything be new there?



Yes, there are several new items being added to Auto's Shop. Most are pretty straight-forward, but I believe they'll add a bit more strategy and flexibility to battles.





The first set of new items are the pellets and capsules for the other stats. Just like Life Energy and Weapon Energy, there will now be items to restore/boost Attack, Defense, and Speed. There are even Super Pellets and Capsules that boosts all three at once! The Attack Capsule, Defense Pellet, Super Capsule, and the other stat pellets aren't available initially, but appear soon after progressing a bit in the story.





The next set of new items are the score balls. These items grant additional bonus points at the end of a battle, either as a flat amount or as a percentage of the base reward value. A score ball is used mid-battle like any other item but it's effects are not seen until the very end, and even then it's only if you win. Score balls can only be purchased after completing the main game and acquiring the "prototype complete" marker on your save file.

We're still getting alternate outfits... right?



Yes, absolutely. The alts for all unlockable robot masters are already complete, coded into the game, and the mechanics for unlocking them are already in place. Alternate colours/costumes for your robots masters will be unlocked based on how many times you have summoned them into battle, and this unlocking is retroactive. Most users will already have most of the alts unlocked when the update comes out, because any summons you used before the update still count toward the unlock requirements.



It was suggested that I put them in a shop instead (which lead to the concept of a robot named Tron who would run said shop) but in the end I decided against it. Alts will be unlocked automatically based on summon count. Maybe passwords in the future. But no shop. Sorry. Too much extra work for a purely aesthetic feature, and the alts people will want most are likely already the robots they use the most frequently in battle so it's not as bad as a few have suggested. If you like a given robot master and have used them in battle, you likely already have one of their alts. Maybe all of them.



It should be noted that alts have no effect in battle but can be used in story battles, player battles, and even on the leaderboard for a bit of extra flare. Alternately colours robot masters will also appear in-game as enemies for robot masters that have already been unlocked by the player, with the normal-coloured versions being replaced by alpha/beta versions of them in applicable missions. These colours are only there to represent the upgraded power of the robot and the alts themselves have no special properties. Just making that clear.



Standard robot masters each have two new alts (currently) and unlock them after 100 and 200 summons respectively. The support robots each have five new alts (currently) and unlock them after 50, 100, 150, 200, and 250 summons respectively. Copy core robots do not have alts simply because they already change colour frequently in battle. Maybe someday we'll make an exception, but not for this update.

Is the stat thing still happening? "No more 9999"?




Yes, stats are still getting capped as per previous screenshots suggested. The max amount will be 10x their otherwise unboosted max values. Mega Man has an unboosted max life energy of 595, for example, so his max life energy including stat bonuses would be 5950. Any overflow from robots who have already gained more stats then will be technically allowed will automatically be converted into Zenny. That Zenny can be used to buy anything you want in the shop so I think this is fair.

When will the update be ready/done/complete?



I have no idea. I'm hoping sometime before the end of the year but I'm making no promises. I initially thought it would be done by the end of Winter but that never happened so we all have to adjust our expectations. Know that I have not stopped working on it and I'll let you guys know when it's close to being ready. Otherwise, please stop asking. :)

In lieu of a cancelled chat, here are a few preview screenshots to mull over until next week:

I come with news of more changes in the next update, as well as the introduction of a new(ish) character! Say hello to "Tron", a servebot created by Kalinka to help with lab duties and routine maintenance. Though she's unable to offer any real assistance to our heroes in the world of the prototype, she has found a way to make your robots "more beautiful" by tweaking their colour and appearance variables.



Tron will be a new support character that owns the fourth shop, unlocked after you finish the single-player campaign for each doctor. With Tron's inclusion comes a few other changes to the game, listed below. Please note that even these ideas are in-progress and could change before the final release date.

Auto's Shop
- Complete Dr. Light's first chapter to unlock Auto's Shop
- Auto sells battle items and score balls to the player for zenny at full price
- Auto buys battle items and metal screws from the player for zenny at half price
- Inventory of items starts off small but grows as you collect more battle points until all are unlocked
- Immediately useful to the player, mechanics do not change as the game progresses

Reggae's Shop
- Complete Dr. Wily's first chapter to unlock Reggae's Shop
- Reggae sells support abilities to the player for zenny at prices inflated by high starforce values
- Reggae buys robot cores from the player for zenny at prices inflated by high starforce values
- Inventory of abilities starts with only Neutral abilities, but grows to include other elements based on the cores you sell him
- Moderately useful to the player as inventory is randomize and changes only once hourly in real time

Kalinka's Shop
- Complete Dr. Cossack's first chapter to unlock Kalinka's Shop
- Kalinka sells new battle fields to the player for zenny at prices inflated by high coreguard values
- Kalinka buys field/fusion stars from the player for zenny at prices inflated by high coreguard values
- Inventory of fields is constant but each is locked until you can find and scan the associated robot master in battle
- Wishlist of field and fusion stars she is willing to buy changes only once daily in real time
- Not useful to the player until much later in the story when they find their first field or fusion star
- Essential to the player if they want to unlock more robots and collect new types of elemental cores and field/fusion stars

Tron's Shop
- Complete the final chapter in each Dr.'s campaign to unlock Tron's Shop
- Tron sells new alternate outfits to the player for zenny at prices reduced by higher summons counts
- Tron does not buy anything from the player, you'll have to get your zenny elsewhere
- Inventory is randomized each time you reload the shop and expands as you unlock more robots
- Optional to the player with no in-battle effects other than aesthetic changes, purely cosmetic
- Alternate outfits unlocked in this way can also be used as your leaderboard avatar

@Daroach : You've brought it up yourself several times now. Please stop harping on it. You were kicked because you were interrupting a strictly development talk among senior members who are trying to plan future updates for the game. You are always welcome to sign in and listen, but if you're going to talk during a legacy chat you must stay on topic. No posting youtube videos or links to anything else that isn't on-topic as it wastes time and prevents real work from getting done. Please understand and keep your youtube videos and casual chat in the Xat room, otherwise you may be kicked again... and again. Thank you.

It's been a few weeks now, so I think it's okay to share these screenshots with the community at large. That way members who don't frequent the dev chats can still see what's in the works. I wont go into too much detail about them as they may change, but at the very least they'll be fun to analyze and speculate on.

For starters, here are a few updated database page previews:








And here are some screenshots I took today to illustrate the (updated) starforce and coreguard mechanics a bit more:





These changes allow for a slightly more balanced relationship between the two and also allow Neutral-type robots to benefit from the boosts as well. As previously stated, elemental attacks will still be ineffective against the Empty Type Dark Frags, Dark Spires, and Dark Towers but outside of those specific circumstances there's still a lot to be gained from collecting the elemental shards/cores/stars throughout the game.

And just for those wondering what this means for stats, I'll break it down quickly. One of the most common types right now is the Flame Type, and as a result there are currently 183 Flame type stars (6 of which are fusion stars). This translates to a potential maximum +1890 Attack boost whenever you deal Flame type damage. Compare this with the x282 (x99 + x183) limit for Flame Cores, and you have a potential maximum +1410 Defense boost whenever you receive Flame type damage. Not exactly equal, but pretty close and as more updates are released in the future the theoretical maximums will keep each other in check.

That's all for today, and sorry for the gigantic delay but I promise it'll be worth it with all the new content and fixes and mechanics that'll come into play. Thank you for your patience!

@MerryBossMan :

Thanks again for helping me get these previews out. The development process is often long and confusing, but being able to share the highlights and fun parts with the community via whatever means is always nice. :)

@TheGrinch :

I completely agree with what you and Mike are saying about it being too easy to level up and there needing to be changed, but I feel like I should clear something up about how levels work.

The required EXP per level is always equal to 1,000 - as you're all aware - but the actual amount of EXP awarded by each knock-out does change as you level-up your robots. The base EXP for a given enemy regardless of level is equal to the sum of its base Energy, Attack, Defense, and Speed stats. Once calculated, a percentage of that base EXP is awarded based on the target's level compared to your own. If you defeat a robot of a much higher level and therefore stronger than you, you'll receive more EXP. If you defeat a robot that is of a lower level and therefore weaker than you, you'll receive less EXP.

Even though I like this mechanic and I don't want to change it completely, I do agree that it's too easy to exploit and the relative level modifier isn't as effective as I'd hoped. I'll try to include some kind of fix for this update but we'll see what happens.

Back to the Dark Elements / Structures / Crystal-things I'm glad you appreciate the new benefit to Neutral-type abilities. For a long time now (years!) I've been telling people not to worry about the Neutral-types and that - in the long run - they would balance themselves out. Now I'm finally able to show you all how. I sure hope everything works out! :P

And for the collection effort of stars and cores, I will absolutely tweak drop rates but not for the cores or stars. I think that, given the effect of a core is only a 0.5% boost and stars are a full 5% (or 10% for fusion), it makes sense that one would be much easier to collect than the other. That being said, diligent players could easily collect all 99 of a given core before the end of their campaign and therefore block half of all matching elemental damage... but that's not as bad as it sounds.

I'm going to lower the drop rate of restorative items to being very rare (pellet, capsule, tank), and increase the drop rate of small and large screws in instead. Restorative items will still be dropped occasionally, but it will be much easier to get them in the shop. As it stands there is little reason to purchase items in Auto's shop because everything he has in stock can be found in battle with little effort. I think that when enemy forces only drop screws and cores, players will have more of a reason to exchange their rewards for zenny in the shop and trade them for better items. Given that cores have very good sell prices and individually their effect is quite small, I think it stands to reason that new players may underestimate them and sell whatever is plentiful. And as for post-game balance, we can move forward knowing that advanced players will likely be blocking half of all elemental damage and adjust challenge from there.

Or at least that's my thought process right now. As always things are not set in stone and may change next week, tomorrow, or even five minutes from now. "We'll see what happens." :P

@Shadownnico : Thanks for the heads-up. I adjusted the sheet with the x0.01 values and cascaded the results, see the new numbers here:
MMRPG / Elemental Trinity / Calculations V3

Now these make a lot more sense to me. The ideal scenario would be that if two players are evenly matched - both robots are fully trained, all available starforce/coreguard is collected - the damage from their abilities should be pretty low and close to zero. In these scenarios, players are forced to come up with alternate strategies and/or use the available field multipliers and weakness/resistances to their advantage. This is yet another reason why Neutral type abilities are not and will not be as useless as people keep saying they are. Just be patient and all will become clear.

@Santastrike : I was actually making more a reference to Control Spires in terms of function and to the Dark Crystals and Crystal Tokyo of Sailor Moon in terms of appearance, but that works too. :P

Oh, and BossMan has another piece of concept artwork to share with everyone so look forward to that. It will explain the Dark Spire mechanic a bit more and how they'll appear in battle. Pretty exciting stuff!

@Mikey McScrooge :

You've created a unneeded game mechanic to moderate 2 other unneeded game mechanics.
I created the third pillar in a game mechanic relationship that you don't like. From a visual perspective, it all fits together nicely, from a narrative perspective, it makes sense, and from a player perspective it makes you feel super awesome and mega powerful but only in specific situations. Once again, if you want a plain-vanilla Mega Man RPG without lots of moving parts and mechanics, you have other options than the Prototype. I and many other people love when multiple, seemingly straight-forward mechanics come together to balance each other out to provide new contexts and gameplay scenarios.

Of course, you can remedy this by including Star Force in the storyline...
I am. What you consider the storyline and what I do are obviously different things. If it happens in-game and doesn't say otherwise, you can consider the events part of the storyline. Even the player buying new fields from Kalinka is storyline. What we refer to as post-game is really just post-final-destination. Things aren't as rigid as you constantly assume.

It's actually more like than 12,000+ or 13,000+% for some types [Cutter, for example] after all 10,000+
I know that Mike, I was making a fun Dragon Ball Z reference with the "over 9000". I clearly said "over", so I'm not sure how many credit points you expect to get by correcting that specific value. And if you want to get technical, only 102 robot masters are playable and only 96 of them are elemental and capable of producing field stars. Using this handy tool or a little bit of math, you can see that there will be a total of 9120 fusion stars plus the initial 96 field stars when this is all over (9216 total). Because only 8 of the 96 robots in question are Cutter Core, that means the absolute maximum amount of Cutter type Star Force is 7680% (8 field + 760 fusion * 10% boost).

More complaining
I'm sorry if you don't like the way the game is developing, but if you really hate my ideas then you should wait until I upload the game's source code to GitHub. Once it's up there and publicly available, and you can download and tweak settings and features to your heart's content then upload to your own server and run the show there. Maybe even reskin the game with other characters. Might be fun. But so long as you're playing this particular Mega Man RPG, you need to accept that I'm not always going to agree with your ideas and I have no obligation to.

By the way, I'm not the kind of guy who would ban someone or take away their posting privileges for (aggressively) disagreeing with me but you really need to stop with the disrespect and talking down to me like I'm some kind of inexperienced flake. I promise I'll be using that downvote button when it's implemented and I imagine there will be others who have been waiting for it too.

@Mikey McScrooge :

For the love of all that is fun and colourful in the world, would you please just back off for once? I get that you're a Fox-only, Final Destination kind of guy but I'm not and you need to get over that.

I am the lead developer of this game, and at the end of the day I make the calls even if they're unpopular with a small minority of users. I've heard your arguments and suggestions, and I am well aware of all the circumstances you mention, but once again you forget that I am infinitely more knowledgeable about what's going on behind the scenes, what is or isn't possible withing the framework of the game, and what ideas of mechanics are coming up in the future. Add to that the fact that a whole lot of what you're saying is based on assumptions. You assume that all 102 robot masters will be added to the story and affect target enemy levels, you assumed that Neutral stars would be a thing, you assumed that Cache had something to do with Star Force and spent weeks writing a fanfic that is likely now all messed up, and you assume that the "post-game" as it is now will always be considered "post-game". I've been building this thing in layers for years, and many things have changed over that time both in purpose and utility.

Sometimes I know that all the parts of a certain feature or relationship will not be completed together in the same time frame, so I temporarily give them a purpose or stat or mechanic to make them at least a little useful until their true meaning is revealed. Star Force is getting a nerf, Robot Cores are getting a buff, and a new sub-mechanic will start to take place in the latter stages of the game. And no, not just the "post-game" as it is now. When this is all fleshed out, what we refer to as the "end" now may actually only be the middle, and I've long anticipated adding maybe one or two more chapters to the game after the final destination battles and the Slur events, but that's a long ways away it's really not worth fussing over right now.

The elemental forces in the world of the Prototype are quickly getting out of control, but a new mechanic looms in the distance...

Robot Cores - conceived and programmed by Dr.'s Light and Cossack - act as the energy sources for the robots that appear in the Prototype. They allow a robot to use abilities that match their core, and grant a +1% defense boost to received elemental damage of the same type. When collected by the player, their combined Core Guard can boost the elemental resistance of a given type by up to 99%!

Field and Fusion Stars are a powerful, alien energy source introduced into the Prototype by Slur as a means to revive her fallen army and prevent our heroes from escaping her plan. Field Stars grant a +10% attack boost to dealt elemental damage of the same type. Fusion Stars work in much the same way, but contain the power of two different Field Stars in one. When collected by the player, their combined Star Force can boost the elemental effectiveness of a given type by over 9000%!

Overwhelmed by the players' ability to harness the powerful elemental forces within the Prototype, Dark Spires are mysterious and monolithic entities created by Slur as her last stand effort to take out our heroes. Dark Spires appear in battle alongside enemy forces and completely nullify the effects of all elemental forces, rendering Star Force and Core Guard useless. Dark Spires absorb all other elements, so players will have to defeat enemy forces without the aid of their Robot Cores, Field Stars, and Fusion Stars - or - destroy the Dark Spires using only Neutral-type attacks and restore elemental powers to the battlefield.

The goal is to have these new mechanics ready for the Winter Update... but we'll see what happens. Either way, a trinity of forces balancing each other out is something I've wanted to do for a while but I (once again) needed to wait until other pieces were in place. In the mean time, here's some concept artwork I whipped up demonstrating how the Core Guard, Star Force, and Dark Spires will work together in tandem. Thanks again for your patience and please bare with me if it takes a little longer to get everything finished. :P



And for anyone who wants to run the numbers and don't mind getting into depth with calculations, you can review my in-progress findings at the following pastebin link. Please excuse my writing style and any typos you find, I'm more concerned with concept and numbers right now. Calculations are rounded to no more than six decimal places in these calculations, though in-game values may use more precise floating numbers.

MMRPG / Elemental Trinity / Calculations V2
MMRPG / Elemental Trinity / Calculations V3

Idea #7: Star Force is extremely broken, and should go.

Another nope. I am always going to side with the "change it" option rather than the "remove it" option. The negative effect starforce has had on the game's balance and economy cannot be understated, but the solution is not to remove it. It is to re-purpose it, tweak it, or introduce another element that balances it. Coreguard's mechanics and introduction notwithstanding, there are other ways to balance this and I think a lot of people other than yourself would be peeved if we removed a feature they spent 100s of hours with. I think we should scale back the effect of starforce, finalize the coreguard to even things out, and then most importantly, introduce a game element or mechanic that temporarily nullifies both those effects in certain situations. Imagine an enemy or object that - when on the field - prevents all starforce and coreguard from taking effect until destroyed? Maybe we could do something with the elusive "empty" type? Many possibilities.


Idea #8 [last one]: Level 100 isn't enough.

I still do not want to go past level 100. At least grinding for starforce was kind of fun for a while. Each star is a fun colour or combination of two, the field combinations with their mixed backgrounds and mechas are sometimes fun to look at and the different music is always a pleasure. Grinding levels though? Not nearly as interesting. I think increasing a robot's strength or usefulness post-level 100 can be done in other ways than increasing the cap. Maybe, upon reaching level 100, a robot is finally able to use that awesome core-swapping feature that I've heard so much about? Or maybe level 100s have some other thing they can improve upon or upgrade other than their level itself. Reaching level 100 should feel like an accomplishment, not one boring step on the way to 200 or 250 or more.

---

And that's it for today. I need to go to do something that doesn't involve typing, these suggestion replies really take a lot out of me. >_> Either way, thank you for the suggestions and discussions and for getting these ideas out there. Even if I don't agree with your solutions, most of your observations are spot-on and the conversations resulting from them are never a waste. Thank you.

Idea #3: Mechas don't have to be a joke.

I don't want to spent too much time on this one because I agree that mechas are currently bad and need to change, but I already have a few ideas of how to tweak them swirling around in my head. Again, I do not think breaking the stat-mold is the answer, but we'll come back to this after future changes have been implemented.


Idea #4: Critical Hits need to go.

I think there's some confusion about the exact rates, but I do agree that randomness can be... frustrating.

Critical hits happen, by default, 10% of the time. Certain abilities can increase it higher, to like 20%. And yes it is completely random, as far as percent-based chances go. And crits always do 2x damage. I've been playing Pokemon since the Red and Blue days and I had no idea crits ever did anything but 2x... I based the MMRPG's crits on that fact. Guess I need to look something up...

Anyway, I will take this suggestion to heart. Not removing critical hits altogether (I hate that all your ideas are about removing stuff!) - but definitely changing how they work in some way to be more fair and controllable.


Idea #5: No damage-dealing attacks should ignore stats.

I agree on some fronts and not others. I definitely agree about the Needle Cannon (how does one "ignore defense" when it's required for the damage calculation? what is actually happening with that ability?!) but not so much about some of the others.

Rain Flush, as well as any other percent-based actions need to be revised to NOT be affected by starforce or any other modifiers. We'll get into that in the next point though. Needle Cannon should ignore defense boosts (and use the base value), ignore 50% of the current defense, or something else, but it should not ignore defense entirely. Same with Drill Blitz. Others can be tweaked on an individual basis.

I completely disagree about the speed abilities though. Speed is not "ignored" by certain abilities, it's just prioritized lower. As you might have noticed in the database, every ability has a speed. Most have the same speed. A select few are faster than others and "trump" the default speed calculation when used... UNLESS both robots use one of these high-priority abilities. If both abilities have equally boosted speed, it's cancelled out and the robot's speed is taken into account once again. I feel like this alone balances the mechanic. Don't like getting trumped by Quick Boomerang? Use Proto Strike. Don't like getting trumped by Proto Strike? Use it or Mega Slide or Bass Baroque and your speed with triumph once again.


Idea #6: Attacks that deal with percentages are broken.

Yes, they are. I currently have all the percentage-based ability actions being processed as elemental - like the defense boost from Leaf Shield is calculated as a Nature-type action and thus it benefits from starforce. This is because the "damage" and "recovery" mechanics in the game are actually incredibly similar and use lots of the same code - they're just inverted +/- values with a few exceptions. I do agree that this isn't working, however, and some changes are in order.

Possible solutions that are not removing abilities?

1. Make it so all percent-based actions are non-elemental, even if the ability is elemental. The boost from raising a Leaf Shield would be neutral and would therefore ignore any nature starforce or coreboost, making it always recovery the same percent. I don't like this idea because it means certain in-game effects would no longer occur. For example, using Fire Storm after using Leaf Shield will burn the Leaf Shield away and remove its effect. This only happens because the Leaf Shield is weak to flame, and the Fire Storm rotator attaching itself to you knows it's flame type. Attachment weakness triggered.

2. Make it so all recovery actions ignore starforce and coreboost. There are few percent-based actions that should benefit from any kind of boosts without making them broken. This idea feels like it would fix most issues, except for Rain Flush...

3. Do some combination of the two and/or manually reprogram Rain Flush to make it unaffected by starforce. Maybe coreboost is still okay? This topic definitely needs more thought and planning.

I do like Mikey's ideas for status ideas, or some version of it, but it will take a lot of reprogramming and planning. That stat limit thing we'll revisit after the next update, and... neutral starforce will never be a thing. Adjust your expectations accordingly. Neutral type is the lack of a type. It is not a type in itself. In the programming, every other type has a lower-case token/value except neutral type (which has a value or nothing, null, empty, the lack of a value). It just wouldn't work.

[continued in next comment]

Just finished reading through the pastebin for the recent dev chat and the one for your ideas, here are my quick thoughts on your ideas for now. I will continue thinking about them as I go about my week, of course, but these are my initial thoughts.

Idea #1: The base stats of all currently available opponents need a refit.

Nope. All robots that are to be unlockable (as per this image) need to have the same base stats. I feel like this should be incredibly obvious as to why. What would be the point of ever using the MM1 robots after you've unlocked the MM2 or MM3 robots? All playable RMs should have an equal chance of being useful, and giving some higher base stats than others works against that goal in every way.

If the robot masters are currently unbalanced (hint: they are), it's not because of their stats and changing them is not going to fix it. Current imbalances stem from many different things, including but not limited to available abilities, available starforce, field multipliers, current mechanics, and so many other factors. Any one or all of these mechanics can be tweaked to be more beneficial to the robot and - more importantly - many, many abilities are not yet programmed into the game. Wood Man may be useless now with nothing but the Leaf Shield, but with a new ability, a retooling of his current one, and/or a few more nature starforce and you never know. I'm just saying that external factors play a huge role here and a base stat increase is not the answer.

That being said, if this suggestion is in the name of making the game more challenging then we're all forgetting about the bonus stats. These are like EVs in Pokemon - effort values - that get added on top of your robot's base stats for a given level (up until a point), allowing you to surpass your pre-programmed limits. These bonus stats are not reserved for player-characters either, target robots can have them too. I could easily give target RMs in Chapter 1 maybe +100 bonus points for each stat, or +10%, or something, and then +200 in Chapter 2, etc. Whatever the case, I can increase the stats and/or difficulty of future robots without changing their base stats and messing up the whole game.


Idea #2: More Robots need attacks that are theirs and theirs alone.

I agree with the sentiment of this suggestion, but not the suggestion itself. The rules we have established for this game, for this universe, in terms of robot cores and who can equip what, are pretty common knowledge at this point and make for some very interesting and fun scenarios in both the game itself and the fanon around it. I really like them, myself, and while they may strike some as odd at first it definitely goes a long way to making each robot capable of a range of abilities (hypothetically speaking, not all abilities are done of course).

I do agree that it would be nice if other robots had truly unique abilities, and ones that only they could use, but I do not think changing the existing mechanics are the answer. Do you know how much reprogramming that would take? And I'm not just talking about the game itself, but everyone's save file? How many robot I would have to loop through and un-equip abilities that would now be illegal under Mikey's rule? And replace them, programatically, with what? Buster Shots? It doesn't make sense. I think we should find ways to work within the system. Always.

Given that weapon energy is a thing, all abilities have it, and the exact requirements change on a per-robot basis anyway... why not use that? Each robot has a total WE of 10, correct? And WE requirements are halved if the move is the same type and halved again if the move is learned by level-up? Reverse-engineer that. Imagine an ability that requires 40 WE to use. No one could use it... unless they matched the type and learned the move by level-up. What if we made Tier 3 abilities fill this void? Imagine Ice Man having a Tier 3 ability that did some crazy-awesome effect and had a 40 WE cost? When used by Ice Man, that cost would be reduced to 10 exactly... the maximum amount of WE any robot can have. It would almost be like a Giga Attack in the X series - super powerful but uses all energy and leaves you at a disadvantage for a while.

It's just one idea but it's one of many potential additions that don't scrap the foundations we've already built.

[continued in next comment]

Chat still in progress, but here's part 1:
Sunday Night Chatroom 2014/11/30
and part 2:
Sunday Night Chatroom 2014/11/30 #2

@MetaKirbSter : Two things. First, I don't really think p*** is a swear word but I edited my response anyway. I was just quoting something Mikey said. And two, if you're only 10 years old you're not supposed to be here. The login and registration pages both clearly state that you need to be at least 13 years of age to join and the login form even forces you to confirm your date of birth before you can continue. This means that you obviously lied about your birth date. The ONLY way someone under 13 would be allowed to join is if they had their parent complete the COPPA form and send it to me, of which I have received a total of zero. I could get in legal trouble for not banning you, so please read the registration page again and have your parent send me the completed form. Thank you.

@ThatGhostNamedMike : I'm honestly getting really tired of dealing with this, and your attitude is not appreciated. Whether or not you agree with every single rule I make or don't make, the fact of the matter is that I've spent the last 8 years of my life programming this game and its community from scratch and I think I deserve a little bit of respect from of you. You created a chat room. You didn't program it, you simply set it up. Yes it's more technologically advanced than the IRC-based chat we had before and better in several ways, but that doesn't automatically make you some kind of super-mod or give you the right to talk to me like this. You pushed for a new chat when I said no, you went behind my back and created one anyway, and then when I was nice enough to approve the chat and add it on the website, you started letting that small bit of power go to your head. Now you're publicly calling me out on my website and aggressively questioning my authority? I've always been open to discussion and democracy, but this is just ridiculous.

Several months ago you said the following:
I just wanna make sure I don't make any Mods *pissed off*. BIG difference. Well guess what? I'm one of those mods - THE mod - and you're really starting to get on my nerves. I did like you at first, but now I'm not so sure anymore.

I think you're being overzealous with the chat rules and your position and you really need to cool down. Is it really so bad if someone who isn't a member joins the chat? If they're acting up, you can ban them or kick them. If they're not acting up you can leave them alone. What does someone's username have to do with their behavior? If you can't verify who someone is, simply don't make them a mod. It's not rocket science. It's getting to the point where I don't even want a chat anymore, as this is been more of a headache than any server issues or bugs in the game. You've single-handedly sucked all the fun out of working on this game and made me question my motivation for completing the update. How can I when every time I visit the website or check my email I have to read stuff like this?

For everyone else, PLEASE chime in. I need to know if I'm just being crazy or if Mikey really is causing as many problems in the community as my inbox suggests. Either way, don't expect to see me around much anymore and have fun with whatever chat rules you all come up with. This is not what I signed up for and I need a break more than ever now. So ridiculous.

---

This matter has been resolved.-MBM

I'm sorry, but I had to remove the below rule and replace it with something else. I did not fully agree with it and I hope you will understand why I made this move.


#9. YOU MUST USE ONE OF THE TWO FOLLOWING NAME TEMPLATES: (effective 11/1/2014)

A. PrototypeName
or
B. XatName[PrototypeName]

Option A is to simply use your Prototype name; the name on your MMRPG Prototype file. Any changes you make to your official Prototype name in the Prototype website must also reflect on your Chat name, as well.

In my case, I'd be using MY Prototype name, ThatGhostNamedMikey.


Option B is to use your Xat name, which can be almost whatever you wish, with your official Prototype name right next to it in brackets or parentheses for clear identification and verification purposes.
Needless to say, you can't use any Xat Names that are offensive, religious or are curse words, and, like with option A, any changes you make to your official Prototype name on the Prototype site will need to reflect in the Prototype Name in the Xat, as well; it's very important that we chat staffers know who everybody is.

In my case, I could use any of the following examples:
Mikey[ThatGhostNamedMikey]
TheMikester[ThatGhostNamedMikey]
ThatGuy[ThatGhostNamedMikey]
Anonymous[ThatGhostNamedMikey]


To change your name, simply double click on your Xat Name in the column on the right side of the Xat box.

Failure to follow either of these templates as your Xat name [after 11/1/14] may result in your being unable to speak in the Xat unless and until you do so.

Thank you, everyone. Your understanding and kind words mean a lot. I'll definitely try not to burn myself out - I'm still not that good at pacing myself and taking appropriate breaks when I program, but I'm much better at it than I was in the beginning and am getting a little better every year. Luckily, I'm also getting a little bit more efficient in my programming each year so I think it evens out. :P

For the overflow conversion, I'm glad I asked - it looks like there are a lot of different opinions and ideas on this one but I want to make sure everyone walks away happy. There's another, unrelated idea I was throwing around last week, but now I'm thinking it might be the perfect solution to this problem. Let me explain...

Score Balls are an item that appeared in Mega Man 1 on the NES and were never heard from again. Only briefly re-appearing in Powered Up, the items have long since been forgotten and why wouldn't they be? Mega Man games haven't had points or scores for a long time now (sadly). You know what does have points? The MMRPG.

I want to add several varieties of Score Balls to the RPG, but I'm going to twist the purpose slightly into something much more appropriate for our game. Please understand, these are just ideas right now and might not make it into the final update, but I wanted to bounce the idea off you guys all the same.

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Red Score Ball 2000z
A small red sphere that glows with a mysterious power. Using this item in battle increases the point reward for the current mission by 500!

Blue Score Ball 2000z
A small blue sphere that glows with a mysterious power. Using this item in battle increases the point reward for the current mission by 5%!

Green Score Ball 4000z
A large green sphere that radiates with a mysterious power. Using this item in battle increases the point reward for the current mission by 1000 for each active robot master on your opponent's side of the field!

Purple Score Ball 4000z
A large purple sphere that radiates with a mysterious power. Using this item in battle increases the point reward for the current mission by 10% for each disabled robot master on your opponent's side of the field!

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I was originally going to have these items be dropped by robots/mechas and be much weaker, but there are already plenty of in-battle drops to collect and sell and high-level players need something more meaningful to spend their money on. As such, these items will be sold in Auto's Shop post-game as a fun way to play the system and boost your BP for non-player-battle missions. I think it will be fun, and using the right ball at the right time will add another layer to BP grinding that isn't so rinse-repeat.

How does this solve the stat conversion problem? Well, I'm thinking that if I convert everything to Zenny, you guys could either keep the zenny, or buy Score Balls from the shop and do your own conversion into battle points. It'll be up to each individual what they do with the reward that way, and could easily be chained for a whole buttload of BP.

Let me know what you guys think of this idea, and thank you again for all your support and ideas and everything else you great people do. :)

Despite years of watching YouTube videos and reading blogs about the dangers of "power creep" in game design, I made a huge mistake and succumbed to it anyway. I apologize to all players for my folly, and hope you'll understand why I need to fix it - no matter how frustrating it might feel now.

This whole 9999 stat thing was fun while it lasted, but it's really messed with the balance of the game and the uniqueness of the characters. As such I'm revising the way stats are calculated and allowing each robot master to retain their unique stat-spread even at "maxed" levels. Some players will undoubtedly be upset by this change as it means they will no longer have robots with a 9999 stat in anything, but I feel it is absolutely necessary to keep the prototype fun and sustainable long-term.

Anyway, "Winter" was purposefully ambiguous because I'm not quite sure how long it'll take for update to come out but I'm optimistic it'll be during or before December. If I was just doing the costumes it might take less time, but I really wanted to fix this stat thing before I even considered adding MM5+ content. There would be no point otherwise. :|

I hope the other changes and additions are enough to ease-over those most upset, but I promise it's for the best. Thank you for playing and for dealing with my sometimes erratic programming through the development of this game. It really means a lot that you've all stuck around as long as you have. ^_^

Apologies for not being around as much anymore, but thank you so much to all the new users who have joined in the last few months and I'm so happy you've decided to be part of our community. Welcome! :D

We clearly have a wide variety of age groups represented by our players, which I personally think is super cool. It's awesome knowing that the core values of this game can be appreciated by someone as young as a ten year old (!) to someone as old as I (currently 27) and even beyond! Really, really cool. ^_^

As long as we're dropping previews of upcoming content...







I'll try to finish the update in the next few weeks, but no promises. I think this extra layer of customization will give something for the veteran players to fool around with and newcomers a fun little distraction as well. How exactly these will be unlocked will be revealed later, but I promise it will be much easier and more convenient than Roll's costume changes in past 8-bit games. >_>

Yes, as always I'm reading everyone's messages and suggestions and I agree wholeheartedly with most if not all of them. It's just a matter of time before I get around to programming these requests/fixes and creating the art necessary for all the other stuff players want.

I know alt costumes don't sound like high priority work, but I'm "on break", remember? And besides, who could say no to playing as golden alt Hard Man?



And by the way, for those who don't know. I have two copies of the game at all times - the live version that everyone here is playing and then a local copy on my laptop. I try to update my local version with leaderboard changes every now and then, but sometimes I can go for months without syncing and as a result my test-environment is pretty out-dated. :P

Also the reason I often use leaderboard-dominating accounts like MegaBossMan and TailsMK4 in my tests or preview screenshots is because their accounts (and others) have pretty much everything unlocked and provide an efficient environment to play with new features. All their unlocks also inflate their save file sizes which in turn push the limits of the prototype and make it easier for me to see when a new feature or function is too resource intensive for the game. I use new and lower-level accounts too, just not as often.

Another small update, this time to the prototype's main menu. I've made it so that your robot avatar appears in the header of the prototype, right next to your display name. I've also made it so that it's easier to change your player colour (and therefore theme) and the aforementioned robot avatar from the in-game "save" menu. Hopefully this encourages new players to try the customization features earlier and makes it easier for us veterans to play around with our settings. :)

@Retro Pikachu : There are a few things happening here.

First and foremost, both of the sort options toggle between ascending and descending order. The first time you select it will go one way, the next time you click the same button it'll reverse them. Second, it orders them by their serial number alphabetically - meaning it includes the "DLN-" or "DWN-" or any other prefix. Lastly, it doesn't auto-sort when you transfer robots to other players - once a robot is moved it will always be appended to the very end of the new player's list.

That being said, there do seem to be one or two small oddities there that I'll look into. Thanks for the heads-up.

Unfortunately, I have never played a Fire Emblem game so most of today's reveal was lost on me. That being said, the characters themselves look fun and interesting and I really like the art style but... more sword users? Really? Oh well. I do applaud Nintendo for adding so many female fighters though, and I mean that. And it couldn't have come at a better time (looking at you, Ubisoft). But whatever, there's nothing they could reveal now that would be any cooler than the Mega Man reveal we already got. At least to me. That was like a dream come true. :')

@MegaBossMan : Actually, I remembered you and TailsMK4. Shadownnico is the one I forgot about. :o

My post has been updated accordingly. >_>

Hey everyone, just wanted to post about a small update to the player editor - specially the Player Fields section. I've made it easier to generate and hunt for starforce in the game. Under each player's collection of eight battle fields there are now two new info panels.

The panel on the bottom-left will show you the current number of field and fusion stars available for collection in that player's save file. These values are updated in real-time and will fluctuate as you rearrange your fields and generate new fusion stars.

The panel on the bottom-right contains two new tools or options for configuring your player fields. The first option "shuffle" does exactly that - it shuffles the order of the fields you've already equipped. This is useful for quickly generating new fusion fields and by extension new fusion stars. The second option "randomize" works in a similar manner but equips the player with eight random fields out of your entire collection of unlocked battle fields. Another useful tool in your hunt for extra starforce.

I apologize for not creating these tools earlier - as I'm sure the two three 1024-players would have appreciated them - but hopefully they make the starforce system a lot more accessible for new and upcoming players that have not yet reaches that milestone.

Let me know if you have any questions and thanks for playing! :D

Well if you can necropost then so can I. :P

Some actual prototypes I made even earlier than the one above. These are not even playable - they're just little display tests but I thought it might be fun to post them.

Battle Layout Template #1

Battle Layout Template #2

Battle Layout Template #3

Battle Animation Test

@MegaBossMan : That does seem counter-intuitive, but Brorman put a lot of effort into balancing these so I think we should run it by him first. Mostly just to see what his thought process was and if we can change it without breaking anything. Maybe send him a personal message? When he updates it in the spreadsheet, I'll run my admin script and we'll be good to go.

@TailsMK4 : Surprised I didn't notice that typo when I was running the import script. :S Thanks for catching it though, and it's been fixed now.

@Spinstrike : Fixed the view more link for mechas. Thanks.

@TheDoc : I fixed the Dust Crusher bug, but I've thus far been unable to replicate the Metal Blade one. I tried in my file and in a few other files and it's always 1 WE for me. I'll keep trying different things until I figure it out. Sorry. :/

@Retro Pikachu : Yes, Rhythm_BCA altered Disco's height for me so it would look more proportionally accurate next to Mega Man and company. Roll was redone completely, also by Rhythm_BCA, and for the same reasons. The original sprite I used was from Mobile Roll, which was really cute (in my opinion) but horribly inaccurate. She was much taller than Mega Man (which is wrong) so Rhythm created a sprite sheet more in line with her more accurate MM1 appearance. Bass was tweaked in multiple ways, and just made better overall. :P

@MegaBossMan : I think that would be pretty fun, actually. I will definitely make sure people can turn them off if they don't like seeing them, but it would be this place a lot more like a real forum for sure. First, however, I need to add proper page functionality to posts (so every post doesn't load at once) and also make it see the community has search functions. >_>

Sorry, just listing priorities somewhere so I don't forget. :P

@MegaBossMan : Forgot about that, thanks! The energy capsule has been added. ^_^

To all four of you - write whatever you want on your credits bio, just make sure you mention that you're a community moderator in the "Contributor Credits" field somewhere.

And I know you didn't formally accept, or were even asked, but when you said you were okay with being an op in the chat room I assumed you'd be okay with a similar role in the community. Sorry if that was hasty, I just really wanted to get this new functionality programmed. >_>

Thank you for making this post, and thank you for accepting the position! Hopefully you don't use your powers for evil purposes, else I may have to code in a banhammer. ;)

All jokes aside, I'm sure all four of you will do an excellent job upholding the spirit and quality of the community we've worked so hard to build. You all have been well-spoken, positive influences so far and I don't expect anything less going forward. Thank you again! ^_^

@TheDoc : Totally forgot to mention that I gave the Yashichi a boost too, and I think you're one of the people who suggested it. Now it also grants a single turn of full immunity to damage, so it's a bit more useful than the extra life nice. :)

So far as I know, Chrome is superior to IE in oh-so-many ways and is absolutely not obsolete, but maybe I've been living under a rock? :P Honestly I'm surprised the game runs at all on IE. >_> But I'm glad you got it figured out, so I'm locking this thread. Thanks!

@Spinstrike : I agree that the intro fields should be different and I would like to make them so using your ideas, however I'm not completely sure what the future is of these missions so I don't want to spend too much time working on them. Once more of the story-related missions and characters are complete, some or all of them might be replaced with something entirely different - I'm not sure. In the mean time they are just super-easy ways to level-grind weak robots and try out new abilities. Oh, and unlock an ability I guess. But if I do leave them as-is, then absolutely I will use these ideas or some version of them. :)

@TheDoc : I completely get what you're saying and think you may be right. I've decreased the damage/recovery to 20% of recoil to nerf it a bit. Let me know if you think this helps, and thanks for the feedback. :)

@MegaBossMan : The only thing that affects your player battle ghost data is your starforce, which is viewable at the very top of the starforce tab as a % percent. The ratings you see on your leaderboard profile for community and player battle stats have no effect on your or anyone else's game and are just there for looks. They represent nothing more than a numerical estimate of that user's positive presence on the community and in their games.

The community rating is equal to ceil((Posts * 2.0) - (Threads * 0.5)), meaning you get more more points for posting comments in existing threads and less points if you constantly create your own topics. It's not a harsh penalty, and it has no effect on your account, but I thought it was important to have it visibly publically to encourage good behaviour.

The player battle rating is similar but inverted, with ceil((Victories * 2.0) - (Defeats * 0.5)) so you get more points for victories and only suffer minor penalties for defeats (which are largely out of your control). Once again I think this gives a good indication of how difficult or easy someone's ghost data is and/or how well the player does in matches themselves, and I think this encourages people to get better without being too harsh.

This is definitely a good strategy to power up a specific type. I wonder if having a new discussion board for "Tips" or "Strategies" would be helpful?

@ShadowBlade : TheDoc is correct, you should introduce yourself in the appropriate thread. That being said, welcome!

I'm currently looking into this. Much, much harder to reproduce than I thought it would be. Guts Man has used Super Throw zero times on me and I must have gone through that battle like, 20 times by now. >_>

@Spinstrike : I agree completely, which is why Color Man is listed as a "Reflecting Prism Robot" in the database. I think it would be the perfect prism-and-rainbow-based robot, actually, and it's related to the BN robot by name only. It's for the same reason that Gate Man is listed as an "Eternal Portal Robot" - we're changing it up and making it a Time Core, so let's try to reflect that.

If there's any future confusion over the designs (until I finish updating this thread) please just check the database. At the very least I have classes for all the robots and their core type should also give a pretty good idea of their visual appearance requirements. Thank you all for your contributions, they're giving me a lot of ideas. Keep on submitting! :D

This was, and is a good idea, but I feel like it's more appropriate for it to be placed in the official game suggestions thread. And once it is, there's not need to suggest individual weapons until the feature is actually implemented. Because it is not yet in the game, I'm closing this thread. Sorry.

Once again, the General Discussion board is not a chat room. The Chat Room is a chat room. Please keep casual conversation there or in PMs. Thank you.

Repair Man, whoever he is, does not appear in the prototype. Robots from MM3, and MM5+ appear randomly in stages with fusion stars, but are not unlockable yet. Otherwise, this thread has served its purpose. Locking.