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.