Mega Man RPG Prototype Game Development

I'm glad for the change in the Field Star menu...just try to navigate mine as it is right now. X_X

Just out of curiousity, is Mecha Support now fixed? I've occasionally had to deal with mechas in Player Battles, and they just do not die sometimes. Also, is it possible for the mechas that players can spawn to have a higher level than 50? There probably is, but I haven't messed around with it too much.

@TailsMK4 Unless you edit the game, no.
Support Mechs (when summoned) are always equal to the equation of X (Mech Summoner's level) Divided by 2.
Since level 100 is the max level it is impossible to get a level 51+ Mech Support to fight a long side you.

@Toastman: Unless, of course, you're a computer opponent and you hacked the game for level 100 mechas on Bonus Field I.

@Retro Pikachu Those were programmed to spawn on that field as a random level between 1-100 by Adrian.

@Toastman: I figured that out already, I was just making a joke at how the computer has level 100 mechas, which is impossible under normal circumstances.

Lots of changes are coming in this update regarding items and how they are collected. Details are still being finalized, but this is what we have coming up in the new update:

- A player may now use ONE item per turn before they attack (instead of an infinite amount)
- All robot mechas have a 25% change of dropping an item
- All robot masters have a 50% chance of dropping an item
- Disabling any robot with a OHKO will double the chance of it dropping an item
- All robot mechas drop small screws, energy pellets, or weapon pellets
- All robot masters drop large screws, energy capsules, or weapon capsules
- Robots found in fortress and event stages may drop other items like Energy Tanks, Weapon Tanks, and Extra Lives
- Robot masters disabled using super effective attacks have a 66% chance of dropping an Elemental Core

More details incoming later...

So basically, if you OHKO a Robot Master, you're going to get an item no matter what? LET THE GRIND FEST BEGIN!

I'm guessing that the elemental cores can be placed in the copy core robots to alter their type.

Also, the fact that you can only use a single item once per turn definitely makes the bigger items more useful.

Perhaps the core could also/maybe boost a character.

EX: Crash Core boosts Crash Man's abilities.

I think it's more likely what Retro said, but since there's only three core types, it would only affect a small group. BUT they are the most important characters. Oh Adrian, your ways confuse me with your.....mystery. XD

Also, allowing only one item per turn definitely makes it more fair for the opponent, although I don't think that's going to help us.
I crack myself up with my terrible jokes. This is coming from the guy who made a "pun" thread. Now that was "punny"! No? I shouldn't have made that joke? Repeating everything you say is making it worse?

So if what Retro thinks is true, I'm guessing any moves that the core wouldn't be able to use, like Flash Stopper on a Freeze Core, would be removed from the Robot Master.

And yes E-Tanks and W-Tanks would be much more useful I think.

@Reisrat:

I'm guessing that the moves will stay on the copy core robots even if the types change. The abilities probably wouldn't get any energy reducers.

EDIT: Style changes from the Mega Man Battle Network series, anyone?

Will you somehow make items appear less/less valuable items appear depending on how low the enemy level is?
Someone could easily take their most powerful RM, go back to Chapter 1, and just grind the hell out of the easy RMs and load up their inventory. I'm fine either way; I was just wondering if that would be moderated.

A few more random previews to show you guys. What I'm working on right now might seem uninteresting or simple or "easy" to program, but what I'm really doing is building a solid foundation for all these new features I've been talking about. Doing it this way ensures better testing and planning, and honestly it's how I've been programming this game from the very start. Anyway, on to the screenshots!

--

The first thing you'll notice is that the height of banner area in the prototype has been reduced by about... 70 pixels? This leaves a lot more room for buttons and text and other content, which was necessary to fit some of the new features into the available screen-space. I know that you can technically scroll areas that are too big for the window, but I like to avoid scrolling as much as possible (it feels clunky in most game-contexts) and code for the lowest-possible screen resolution. It's just more accessible that way, in my opinion. Note that navigating to/from the "home" menu causes the banner to expand/shrink to its previous dimensions - they worked quite well for that tab. Anyway...



The in-game leaderboard has been fleshed out a little bit more and now shows the appropriate colours and avatars. Other changes may or may not be coming to this section depending on if I have time.

(inline) (inline)
The robot database now shows the robot's home-field. This is mostly just an aesthetic update to the page, but maybe cross-referencing will come in handy at some point.


The robot editor's functionality remains largely unchanged except for two small details - the robot selection area has been expanded and shows larger mugshots (so it's easier to review your teams) and now has a more fleshed-out sort option, allowing you to sort by either number or level, ascending or descending.


And finally, the player editor has been expanded a bit to include Player Items. As you may or may not have noticed, all players pull from the same "pool" or "inventory" of items. If a target robot drops an Extra Life in Dr. Light's game, both Wily and Cossack also have access to that same item and its quantity. This feature will remain unchanged, but the exact items that each player has access to in battle can now be customized. This would have been pointless before as there were exactly 8 items to collect in the game, but now that there's more... :)

Oh, and the "one item before you attack" limit has also been extended to switching. Now you can only switch and/or use an item once before your attack and no more. This should make the larger items a lot more useful and smaller ones... less so. With this in mind, I don't think over-grinding on the first stage will be too much of a problem as the only "useful" item you could get that late in the game are small screws and I think that's a perfectly acceptable strategy.

So... that's all for now. I think. ;)

Just found new email from Adrian! I asked him about the progress so far.

"Slow and steady. Shop is done but I gotta create a few new items, mega/bass/proto's new colour-change feature is done, there are also several bugs I need to fix and then I have to decide whether I have time to add any new fields to this update, but we'll see. Sorry it's taking so long... Again. >_>"

Color change? Yeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaah boy!

I like that aspect in the Mega Man games.......

Oh boy oh boy. Will it work with the Core items, or with using a move, I wonder.

hm... in the shop they're having that syche or whatever its called item from mega man 1 and easy mode in mega man 10?

Yashichi? It refills everything, by the way. It's also already in the game.

I actually have one of those Yashichis myself that I haven't used. I obtained it while fighting in the Bonus Chapters, so I assume there's a rare chance of getting one there. I think I obtained it while trying to get the extra weapons. For me, I'm mostly interested in the extra items...I don't know if they are permanent effects or temporary. I kind of wonder what the item limit will be now...

(Hoping permanent so that it'll be much harder to defeat me in Player Battles...logging in to the game only to get 10+ losing screens is something to look forward to. :/ )

I haven't used my Yashichi out of standard "What if I need this later" RPG fears.
You know, like never using those 100 damage items you get at the start of the game then hold on to even when you're hitting halfway to the damage cap with basic attacks.