Adrian Marceau | Mega Man RPG Prototype Leaderboard

Hey guys! A new batch of updates have been completed. 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

2015/07/05 EDIT:

- Buster Charge has been completed and can now be used in battle after purchasing from Reggae's Shop. Ability serves as an alternative to consumable items (Weapon Pellet, Capsule, Tank) for situations when items are not available or not allowed. Because it takes a full ability slot, I'm open to buffing its recovery from 40% to something higher, but wanted to get some feedback first.

I've updated this build of the game again. All recent changes can be found on the GitHub page, but the most notable are the changes to the robot limits, battle points, and zenny awarded at the end of battle.

Robot limits are now a suggestion (like turns) rather than a forced restriction. Missions now have target turns and target team sizes that you can try to meet. You can bring as many or as few robots as you want, but taking too many can negatively affect your score and zenny reward.

From now on, there will be a printout at the end of battle showing the base rewards for points and zenny, your target turns and robots, and the final reward after penalties and rewards. You'll notice that the percentage bonuses and penalties are vastly different than the were before, and work on a simple +/-10% for each turn or robot your come under or go over the target.

Because of these changes it is now MUCH MUCH harder to get ridiculous amounts of points and almost impossible to get some of the numbers you guys were getting before. Leaderboard changes may be in order (like the disastrous comet event we talked about in chat). It is also possible to get ZERO points and zenny if you do horrible enough, so watch out.

I've also decreased the difficulty of the darkness battles a bit. Darkness-afflicted robot masters will no longer be immune to everything, but will instead take neutral damage from everything (as in - no weaknesses, no resistances, no affinities, and no immunities). The boosts to life energy have also been removed - the other stats are enough to deal with and super-high energy makes the battles drag too long. Lastly, I added a placeholder fix for robots that don't have dark sprites yet so they appear as "robot" instead of invisible.

Let me know what you guys think, and I'll post again next time I have a batch of updates. :)

Here's a list of changes recently made to the prototype dev build:

- Removed ability and item menus from prototype navigation until they're ready to be accessed.

- Updated robot editor to allow equipping abilities again. It's functional but may be a bit buggy still. Right now you can simply equip or unequip abilities from the list but you can't do any dragging yet for reordering purposes. The player select dropdown has also been removed (and will be replaced with something else later) but in the mean time you can still drag robots between player containers. Lastly, the item selector has been disabled until it's ready to be used. Don't want to confuse anyone too much.

- Prevented players from editing each other's robots when viewing the leaderboard.

- Removed the difficulty modes, defaulted to "normal" settings, and replaced appearance in prototype menu with a new "rank" title (just for fun).

Thanks for the feedback so far guys. I'll keep making changes in the background and trying to fix all the bugs and miscalculations, and then I'll post little updates here to let you know what's new.

As always, check and/or subscribe to the GitHub repository to track changes. :)

PROTOTYPE STORY COMIC (2015/04/03)


[float-left:400px]
[type-empty:100%,300px]
[background-light-laboratory]
[foreground-light-laboratory]
[player:right:06:0,-5]{dr-light} [tab] [robot:right:shoot]{mega-man} [tab][tab][tab] [mecha:left:taunt]{met} [mecha:left:base:0,-10]{met} [mecha:left:shoot:0,-5]{met}
[/foreground-light-laboratory]
[/background-light-laboratory]
[align-left]Mega Man decides that it's time to do something about the Mets in the lab. He charges into the room and aims his buster at the targets.[/align]
[align-left][[robot:right:shoot]{mega-man}[tab] Stand down, Mets! We're taking back the lab!]{copy}[/align]
[align-right][Never! [tab][mecha:left:shoot]{met} [mecha:left:defend]{met} [mecha:left:defend]{met}]{none}[/align]
[align-left][[robot:right:shoot]{mega-man}[tab] Then you leave me no choice!]{copy}[/align]
[/type]
[/float]

[float-left:400px]
[type-empty:100%,300px]
[background-light-laboratory]
[foreground-light-laboratory]
[layer:66%][sprite] [tab] [sprite] [tab][tab][tab] [ability:left:03:-5,-5]{attachment-defeat} [ability:left:02:-5,-15]{attachment-defeat} [ability:left:03:-5,-10]{attachment-defeat}[/layer]
[layer][player:right:03:0,-5]{dr-light} [tab] [robot:left:taunt]{mega-man} [tab][tab][tab] [mecha:left:defeat]{met} [mecha:left:defeat:0,-10]{met} [mecha:left:defeat:0,-5]{met}[/layer]
[/foreground-light-laboratory]
[/background-light-laboratory]
[align-left]After an unsurprisingly quick battle, Mega Man defeats the enemy mechas in the lab. He and Dr. Light quickly decide to search for Roll. [/align]
[align-left][[player:right:03]{dr-light}[tab] That was quick! Thank you, Mega Man!]{defense}[/align]
[align-right][No problem, Dr. Light! Now let's find Roll! [tab][robot:left:taunt]{mega-man}]{copy}[/align]
[align-left][[player:left:05]{dr-light}[tab] That's right! We're coming for you Roll!]{defense}[/align]
[/type]
[/float]

[float-left:400px]
[type-empty:100%,300px]
[background-light-laboratory:left,top]
[foreground-light-laboratory]
[tab][tab][tab] [player:left:base]{dr-light} [tab] [robot:left:base:0,-10]{mega-man} [tab] [shop:right:base]{auto}
[/foreground]
[/background]
[align-left]Dr. Light and Mega Man discover a fully functional backup of Auto and digital versions of nearly all their equipment, but no sign of Roll.[/align]
[align-right][I feel like we should have found her by now... [tab][robot:left:base]{mega-man}]{copy}[/align]
[align-left][[player:left:base]{dr-light}[tab] Where could she be? Auto-bot, have you seen anything?]{defense}[/align]
[align-right][Negative, sir. I've only been active for a few minutes. [tab][shop:right:base]{auto}]{energy}[/align]
[/type]
[/float]

[float-left:400px]
[type-empty:100%,300px]
[background-light-laboratory:left,bottom]
[foreground-light-laboratory]
[ability:right:07]{super-arm-8} [tab][tab][tab] [robot:right:defend:0,-10]{roll} [tab][tab][tab] [boss:left:shoot:0,-10]{trill} [tab] [ability:right:07]{super-arm-8}
[/foreground]
[/background]
[align-left]Meanwhile in another part of the lab, Roll comes face to face with a new threat. An alien lifeform named Trill sent to cleanse the planet of evil...[/align]
[align-left][[robot:right:defend]{roll} I don't understand, what do you want from us?]{none}[/align]
[align-right][Want? The cosmos [i]demands[/i] justice! And balance! [tab][boss:right:summon]{trill}]{space}[/align]
[align-right][Your planet has neither and must end. [tab][boss:left:shoot]{trill}]{space}[/align]
[/type]
[/float]

@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.

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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.

---

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!

---

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.

SparkChaser, this is the kind of thing you talk about in chat or add to your profile page, but it's not something you should be creating a topic about. If everyone who's been here more than a year created a new thread the community would be flooded almost instantly. Please mind yourself and only create topics that actually benefit the community in some, not just yourself. Thank you for your understanding.

This was on purpose, actually. I always wanted Bomb Man to have a move that makes use of his affinity but wasn't ready until this update. The move has fairly low accuracy, so I don't think it's too broken, and Bomb Man is the only one who benefits this way sooo..... I think I'm gonna leave it. :)

@Reisrat : Noticed a typo in paragraph three, so thanks for posting this. Fixed it and re-uploaded, so future messages should make more sense. :P

Also, loving this thread - keep posting guys! :D

@Reisrat : On the leaderboard profiles? We're not talking about the heart tank item, right? Hover over the symbols on the leaderboard bar and they let you know what they're for. The heart ♥ is obtained when completing Dr. Light's game, the clubs ♣ for Wily and the diamond ♦ for Cossack. The star ★ is awarded to players who have reached first place at least once... though that was only implemented recently so it's not on all the profiles that technically should have it (like TailsMK4). I may manually add it to those games, but I'm not sure if possible yet.

Yes, this thread is no longer necessary. Brorman (and maybe someone else?) figured out how to glitch the game and unlock MM3 bots early. That's been fixed, and the robots have been released officially now, so there shouldn't be any more confusion.

@SparkChaser : The heart tank item didn't work out. Turned out to be more trouble than it was worth (as a player, not a developer) so I scrapped it. Trust me when tell it would not have been a fun addition - I tested it out and it was annoying.


@Reisrat : What are you referring to, exactly? I'm a little confused. :P

Please keep suggestions in the appropriate thread (like the one linked by Reisrat). Thank you!

But yes, I want to add fortress boss but, at the moment, they are not priority. Would need to spent a few days coding allowances for much bigger sprites. >_>

@coolbie16 : While I really appreciate your enthusiasm and posts, I do have to ask you to stay on-topic. This thread is for comments and questions regarding the formatting options on the website. Other comments should either go in the appropriate thread, or discussed in our new chatroom. Thank you for your understanding.

I'm locking this thread now. Not because I don't like it, but because I'd added an official chatroom to the website! :D Just log out of your account (if you're logged in right now) and then log back in to see a "Chat" link added to the far-right of the community categories. Or you can just click here. You cannot chat unless you're logged in, however, so don't bother clicking that link unless you are.

@MegaBossMan : Please, before you continue, let me clarify. These are NOT random new robot masters. I'm simply looking for design and ability ideas for THE CACHE ROBOTS only. Not new ones. If you think a "create a robot" thread would be fun, please create one, but that is not what this thread is for. Sorry!

The recent MM3 update completely recoded the Mecha Support system so if there are any more bugs relating to them please create a new thread so we can start over. Thank you!

Closing this bug report as the 99 item part of the glitch has long since been fixed. If endless loading happens again, it is very likely for another reason and should be a new thread or another existing thread (not this one though).

@TailsMK4 : I know, I absolutely agree. Both the community and the leaderboard need better search, filter, and sorting functions and they are absolutely planned... someday. >_>

Hello, and HOLY KARP there have been a lot of quotes and revisions since I last updated. I guess six months will do that to a thread... >_> Anyway, I'm posting here to say that all the quotes up to this point have now been added to the game and now appear in the database and in battle (where applicable). This checkpoint will also help me find my place next time I need to do a bulk update.

If you don't see a specific quote from the set added or the text is tweaked slightly, please do not take offense. Several quotes were submit multiple times and there were a few that had small things I didn't like (out of the hundreds of things I LOVED) that I decided to change or combine into new quotes. This was mostly for consistency or tone and creatively, but overall I think the changes were minor and most quotes were pretty spot-on.

Thank you so much for all your hard work on these, and I'm sorry it took so long. Next up are the robot bios, and then I can start applying sprite updates.

I too think this has to do with the Gemini Laser running out of power, but I'll have to do some testing to be sure. The Gemini Laser looses about 10% of its power after each hit, and when you combine that with the benched-robots-take-less-damage-based-on-position mechanic, I could see the ability sometimes running out of juice before it makes it to the end. Also, I used to always round UP the damage to ensure it was always at least 1 point, but that didn't seem fair for robots with super high defense so I changed to round properly (which sometimes goes down to zero). I will look into this though, just in case.

Hello and welcome to the community! Please copy paste this post and put it in the proper introduction thread. I will be locking this one later today as it's against the rules. Thank you.

@megaspeed : Each of the different Mega/Proto/Bass colours are unlocked when you find your first core in battle. For example, once you've found your first Flame Core you can change your Mega, Proto, or Bass avatar into a red Flame Core one. :) If you have any other questions not-related to formatting, please post them in the general Q&A thread. Thanks!

@MegaBossMan : There was a system put into place to prevent you from battling the same player over and over, but I think it was a little strict so I've loosened it up a bit. Now it only excludes the last two people you've defeated rather than all of them for that session. Sorry!

@coolbie16 : One day I will make it more visually clear which Snake Man is the "real" one you can unlock for use in battle. Maybe all the copy ones will appear in a slightly different colour or with some kind of visual marker... or maybe the opposite where "original" robot masters (and thus unlockable) have some kind of star or something above their head. Sorry for the present confusion.

@Avocadora : I'm not sure what's wrong with the Dust Crusher but I'll look into it. Strange. As for the other ones, I've removed the ability unlocks from the Final Destination and fortress stages as they're now obtainable in the shop, but I'll look into making the other ones not appear when you've already unlocked them as that player. Sorry about that.

@TailsMK4 : I know this might be a controversial change, but I just updated the player battles with some new rules...

Firstly, I made it so 1-vs-1 would no longer happen unless you specifically left one robot on your team, and made them appear in 2-vs-2, 4-vs-4, and 8-vs-8 again. And the next change I made - and this is the big one - experience points and stat bonuses will NOT be awarded in player battles anymore. You still get double BP, but that's it. I know the change might seem harsh, but given that I'm looking to Pokémon for inspiration and they have never let you gain EXP from player battles I don't think it's that bad. From now on, player battles are for ratings only and if you want to get stronger you have to do so in the main-game like everyone else had to.

I didn't realize how easily the 9999 stats would spread once the first few people got them, and it's really gotten out of control, with people pretty much abusing the player battles for easy 99+ boosts after each match. I'm so sorry Tails, I didn't mean for this to happen and for your hard work to go to waste. Hopefully this change will allow people who truly work hard for their stats to keep them a little longer.

And for all the other reported bugs and inaccuracies... I'm working on. >_>

Sorry to spam the comments guys, but there's one more example of new formatting I'd like to show off:



[size-large][robot:right:victory]{proto-man} [u]New Community Formatting Options![/u][/size-large]

[type-empty_cutter]
[item]{energy-pellet} [item]{energy-capsule} [item]{energy-tank}
-----
[item]{weapon-pellet} [item]{weapon-capsule} [item]{weapon-tank}
-----
[item:right]{screw-small} [item:left]{screw-large}
-----
[item]{heart} [item]{star}
-----
[item]{core-electric} [item]{core-flame} [item]{core-water}
[/type-empty_cutter]

[type-nature][size-large]New Community Formatting Options![/size-large][/type-nature]
[type-empty][size-medium]
There are many variations of passages of Lorem Ipsum available, but the [i]majority have suffered[/i] alteration in some form, by injected humour, or randomised words which don't look even slightly believable. If you are going to use a [b]passage[/b] of Lorem Ipsum, you need to be sure there isn't anything embarrassing hidden in the middle of text. All the Lorem Ipsum generators on the Internet tend to repeat predefined chunks as necessary, making this [u]the first true generator[/u] on the Internet. It uses a dictionary of over 200 Latin words, combined with a handful of model sentence structures, to generate Lorem Ipsum which looks reasonable. The generated Lorem Ipsum is therefore always free from repetition, injected humour, or non-characteristic words etc.
[size-small]* This is just a test, you see...[/size-small]
[/size-medium][/type-empty]

[type-flame][size-large]New Community Formatting Options![/size-large][/type-flame]
[type-empty][size-medium]
There are many variations of passages of Lorem Ipsum available, but the majority have suffered alteration in some form, by injected humour, or randomised words which don't look even slightly believable. If you are going to use a passage of Lorem Ipsum, you need to be sure there isn't anything embarrassing hidden. In the middle of text. All the Lorem Ipsum generators on the Internet tend to repeat predefined chunks as necessary, making this the first true generator on the Internet. It uses a dictionary of over 200 Latin words, combined with a handful of model sentence structures, to generate Lorem Ipsum which looks reasonable. The generated Lorem Ipsum is therefore always free from repetition, injected humour, or non-characteristic words etc.
[/size-medium][/type-empty]

[type-flame][size-medium]
There are many variations of passages of Lorem Ipsum available, but the majority have suffered alteration in some form, by injected humour, or randomised words which don't look even slightly believable. If you are going to use a passage of Lorem Ipsum, you need to be sure there isn't anything embarrassing hidden. -----
In the middle of text. All the Lorem Ipsum generators on the Internet tend to repeat predefined chunks as necessary, making this the first true generator on the Internet. It uses a dictionary of over 200 Latin words, combined with a handful of model sentence structures, to generate Lorem Ipsum which looks reasonable. The generated Lorem Ipsum is therefore always free from repetition, injected humour, or non-characteristic words etc.
-----
In the middle of text. All the Lorem Ipsum generators on the Internet tend to repeat predefined chunks as necessary, making this the first true generator on the Internet. It uses a dictionary of over 200 Latin words, combined with a handful of model sentence structures, to generate Lorem Ipsum which looks reasonable. The generated Lorem Ipsum is therefore always free from repetition, injected humour, or non-characteristic words etc.
-----
In the middle of text. All the Lorem Ipsum generators on the Internet tend to repeat predefined chunks as necessary, making this the first true generator on the Internet. It uses a dictionary of over 200 Latin words, combined with a handful of model sentence structures, to generate Lorem Ipsum which looks reasonable. The generated Lorem Ipsum is therefore always free from repetition, injected humour, or non-characteristic words etc.
[/size-medium][/type-flame]

Hello to everyone who has joined since my last appearance and thank you all SO MUCH for playing! As of today we're just over 1200 members and it feels like only yesterday we were still in the low hundreds - I'm so happy to see that so many new people like what we're doing here and decided to sign up. Thank you all I we hope you have a fantastic time with the game and with the new update! :D

@MegaBossMan : Hey, check the "edit profile" page. I've made it so you can customize what your credits bio says and where your entry links to. This way you guys can revise or add to your contributions without waiting for me to release the next update. Let me know if that helps. :)

Also, yes, I will absolutely check the updated bios and updates stats in the next few days and update, i just wanted to make sure you guys could start playing and unlocking stuff as soon as possible. Thank you for understanding.

And I'm glad the background changes for rival battles are there too. And the randomize boss music on the bonsu fields. I think they add a nice layout of customization and - in the case of the music - variation to the game that wasn't there before. :)

Also I think making little scenes with the new formatting options is super duper fun. Maybe too fun...


[background-intro-field][foreground-intro-field]
[mecha:right:victory]{beetle-borg} [item:left:01]{energy-capsule} [mecha:left:damage]{beetle-borg}
[/foreground-intro-field][/background-intro-field]

@MegaBossMan : That's wrong, I'm sorry. I guess I'm still tired and was thinking of the damage amount maybe? I forgot that experience was limited to prevent display bugs, though it's possible the damage and recovery would also have been affected by this bug... I can't remember. >_< I'm so sorry for basically lying in a post.

@MegaBossMan : I think what you're trying to accomplish with the formatting is this maybe?

I told her that she is the one, her answer is a brother with a loaded gun.

[[robot:right]{magnet-man} I told her that she is the one, her answer is a brother with a loaded gun.]{missile}

It's a little complicated, but I wanted to give people the most flexibility possible in their formatting and sprite options. :P

A robot sprite can be inserted into a page with any one of these tags formats, simply changing out the robot token (its lower-case url in the database) and the direction or frame. Here are a few examples:



[robot]{magnet-man}



[robot:left]{magnet-man} [robot:right]{magnet-man}



[robot:right:shoot]{magnet-man} [robot:left:victory]{magnet-man} [robot:right:damage]{magnet-man}

This can also be done with any of the mechas like below:



[mecha]{petit-snakey-2}



[mecha:left]{petit-snakey-2} [mecha:right]{petit-snakey-2}



[mecha:right:shoot]{petit-snakey-2} [mecha:left:victory]{petit-snakey-2} [mecha:right:damage]{petit-snakey-2}

@coolbie16 : Hi coolbie. In order to get the MM3 robots, you must first purchase their fields from Kalinka's Shop. Kalinka's Shop is unlocked once you've beaten the prototype with all three characters, and she will sell you any MM3 field if you've scanned the robot master somewhere else in the game (like the bonus stage). After that, you add the new stage to your game in the Player Editor and then go fight! Let me know if you need a better explanation.

@Spinstrike : I've yet to encounter this bug in my testing but I'll keep my eye out. Sounds strange...

Sorry MegaBossMan, it's been added to the post. I knew I forgot something last night! >_>

Otherwise, I'm so happy to finally have this done. I will likely be doing smaller updates in the coming weeks to revise bios and fix bugs, but at least the meat of the new system is up and runny with relatively few bugs so far. Yay! Still SUPER tired though...

You can also add fields to your posts:

[background-waterfall-institute][/background-waterfall-institute]
[background-waterfall-institute-top][/background-waterfall-institute-top]
[background-waterfall-institute-center][/background-waterfall-institute-center]
[background-waterfall-institute-bottom][/background-waterfall-institute-bottom]

---

[foreground-waterfall-institute][/foreground-waterfall-institute]

---

[background-waterfall-institute][foreground-waterfall-institute][/foreground-waterfall-institute][/background-waterfall-institute]
[background-waterfall-institute-top][foreground-waterfall-institute][/foreground-waterfall-institute][/background-waterfall-institute-top]
[background-waterfall-institute-center][foreground-waterfall-institute][/foreground-waterfall-institute][/background-waterfall-institute-center]
[background-waterfall-institute-bottom][foreground-waterfall-institute][/foreground-waterfall-institute][/background-waterfall-institute-bottom]

Lots of new formatting options have been added to the community! Use [ code ] tags if you ever need to explain code to other users. Like this here:



Mega Man throws an Ice Slasher at the enemy!



What? likes

What is this?
I'm not sure...



[size-small]
[type-water]
New Community Formatting Options!
New Community Formatting Options!
New Community Formatting Options!
There are many variations of passages of Lorem Ipsum available, but the majority have suffered alteration in some form, by injected humour, or randomised words which don't look even slightly believable. If you are going to use a passage of Lorem Ipsum, you need to be sure there isn't anything embarrassing hidden in the middle of text. All the Lorem Ipsum generators on the Internet tend to repeat predefined chunks as necessary, making this the first true generator on the Internet. It uses a dictionary of over 200 Latin words, combined with a handful of model sentence structures, to generate Lorem Ipsum which looks reasonable. The generated Lorem Ipsum is therefore always free from repetition, injected humour, or non-characteristic words etc.
[/type-water]
[/size-small]

[size-medium]
[type-nature]
It is with great pleasure that I announce a whole slew of new formatting options added to the Mega Man RPG community including some super-fun stuff with robot and ability sprites. Let's get started, shall we?
[/type-nature]
[/size-medium]

[size-small]
[type-water]
It is with great pleasure that I announce a whole slew of new formatting options added to the Mega Man RPG community including some super-fun stuff with robot and ability sprites. Let's get started, shall we?
[/type-water]
[/size-small]

[[robot:right:throw]{mega-man} Mega Man throws an Ice Slasher at the enemy!]{freeze_cutter}

[align-left]
[[robot:right]{elec-man} Ladies and gentlemen... Elec Man!]{electric}
[[robot:right]{toad-man} I am Toad Man! Ribbit!]{water}
[[robot:right]{wave-man} Wave Man reporting for duty, sir!]{water}
[/align-left]

[align-right]
[Fire, fire, fire! [robot:left]{fire-man}]{flame}
[Kings of old, please lend me your strength! [robot:left]{pharaoh-man}]{flame}
[Needle Man summoned a storm of needles on the target! [robot:left:summon]{needle-man}]{cutter_nature}
[/align-right]

[WoodMug](images/robots/wood-man/mug_right_40x40.png)

[robot:left]{bubble-man}[robot:right]{bubble-man} What? [robot:left]{fire-man} likes [robot:right]{roll}

[robot]{jewel-man} What is this?
[robot]{guts-man} I'm not sure...

[align-center]
[robot]{mega-man-copy} [robot:right]{proto-man-copy} [robot]{bass-copy}
[/align-center]

While I don't like the bug forum being used as a chatroom, legitimate information about the bugs we're discussing is always helpful. Details like this help me track down the source of the bug much easier and determine where in the code I should be looking. For those who are unaware, the amount of code required for this game is easily over several hundred thousand lines separates across hundreds of files, so any piece of information that helps me narrow it down to only a few files is very, very much appreciated.

That being said, I'm still working on finding a fix to this bug. :| Thank you all for your patience!

To be honest, I like ALL the ideas posted and will likely be implementing them all at some point. The player battle thing would probably be highest priority, but everything else sounds like a great idea too! Thank you guys so much - our combined efforts are really gonna make this the best fangame EVER! XD

From the Facebook page:

Enter the phrase "Ability Get : Cutter of Darkness!" into either player's password prompt and you'll be rewarded with the Shadow Blade ability - one of first dual type abilities added to the game. The ability is Shadow and Cutter type and as such can be used by ANY Copy Core (Mega Man, Proto Man), Shadow Core or Cutter Core (Cut Man, Metal Man) robot!

:)

This is awesome! Thank you so much for making it! ^_^

Shows off the mechanics very well and gives people an honest, full impression of what the project is all about. THANK YOU! XD

I'm sorry I haven't responded to this topic yet - I've been so busy trying to reduce memory and fix all these bugs that I haven't had time to properly reply to people or add any new features to game. :|

I do love the idea of robot bios, as I mentioned before when Spinstrike asked about it, and I will eventually add them to the database. These for example are pretty great and I'm sure when/if Spinstrike starts submitting they'll be great too.

Thanks again and I'll obviously let you guys know as soon as they have been added to the game. :)

Awesome guys! Don't forget that the pause button is your friend when you wanna take screenshots! ;)

I've been working on a pretty big rewrite for a lot of the code this last week that should bring the memory use back down to appropriate levels. Once that has launched, some of these bugs might be fixed. Of course, they could also get worse... We'll just have to say. Thank you all for keeping me updated on the bugs and glitches you find - it makes it a lot easier to troubleshoot overall. Fingers crossed that it gets better from here!

P.S. I have absolutely zero idea when the new optimization update will be complete, so don't ask. :P

This is an excellent thread and discussion to have, and I'm glad someone formally brought it up.

I can assure you that I want to keep as much of your files as possible, regardless of how the game progresses. As some of you know from past updates, dramatic changes in story/mission structure have required me resetting people's completed missions a few times, but I've always tried to keep all the robots and abilities and especially battle points.

The battle point exploit found by Gigggas has been fixed so that shouldn't be too much of a concern anymore - yes he has a really high score, but I know someone will eventually surpass it even with the rule change and they'll feel better as a result. Absolute worst-case scenario is that I reset battle points and give +1000 for every robot, every ability, etc. or something similar... but I don't see that happening any time soon.

For everything else, you guys have fantastic ideas. I like the idea of locking the field stars until post-game but not removing them entirely, but for the robots and abilities it's definitely something we should continue thinking about. We obviously have a lot of time before we have to choose, but it's good to put this out there now.

At the end of the day though, my number one priority in this development cycle is keeping progress and stats accumulated over the prototype stage and rewarding veterans when it's all done. If it's ever done. But I will always make sure the veterans get something for their hard work.

I should also note that the "final version" that I keep talking about is not going to just appear one day. It's something that you'll all be a part of the entire way there and most if not all progress is gonna carry over unless a specific aspect of the game changes completely. Also, the prototype gets updated with new features all the time - new characters, new mechanics, new abilities, new fields - and it may never actually be "done". Even when we have all the robots in the entire database complete (years from now), there's still so much more we can do and I believe we may never truly have a "final version".

Either way though, good topic and keep discussing ideas if you want - just know that I DO value the veteran players and will do my best to accommodate them in any way I can.

I absolutely LOVE this! Reading this totally made my day, and you added narrative and reasons to things I hadn't even considered in the world of the prototype. I love the personality you gave Roll and the way you wrote her, but even more so I love the way you've fleshed out the setting of the story in ways that I have so far failed to convey as eloquently. This is seriously cool and I look forward to any and all other stories you do like this - seeing the mechanics and scenarios of the MMRPG written into a short-story like this brings so much joy to my heart. Thank you. ^_^ You might also like to know I shared your story on our Facebook page the other day - that's how much I liked it!

Oh, that's great! Thanks for finding them - I had no idea. ^_^

I'll put this on my list of things to update - will certainly make the fights more engaging and unique from each other. :)

Thanks again!

Awesome, thanks for making this topic! :D

I've obviously played Mega Man RPG and Mega Man RPG 2 multiple times. Not necessarily because they were well-made or fun, but I really got lost in the idea behind them and found the concept fascinating so I kept playing. :P All in all they're pretty terrible games with lots of mixed sprite work and some of the most generic buttons in all fangames, but they got me started on this path so I owe them some respect.

My research on Mega Man RPGs also led me to the likes of Mega Man X RPG which I found particularily well-done. I never finished this game, nor have I technically finished the above two, but I got pretty close. I liked how well the animations for this one were done, but as much as I like the X series there's something inherently more thematic about the classic series robots that I missed.

I have also played Rokko Chan, like the rest of you, and found it delightful. In the far, far future (sometime in 20XX) when new robots are more easily added to the game without affecting the single-player too much, I would like to reach out to different fangame developers and cameo maybe one or two of their robots in a special holiday pack or something - Rokko Chan is a great example and had some fun robots.

Other Mega Man fangames listed here I have not played, and I'm having a hard time thinking of any others that I have. I've spent so much time researching and programming the last several years that I haven't had much time to actually play. It's gotten to the point that I watch Let's Plays of games while I'm programming instead of actually playing them myself just so I can say I've experienced them. >_>

Oh! And I played the MM7 8-bit remake and I LOVED it. Really great. Still need/want to play the MM8 one but not anytime soon.

I think a lot of MM1 and MM2 robots need a revamp for sure, but I would like to publically take the main characters off the table. Not that I don't trust Sean's work - I absolutely do and I love what he's done so far - I just want to keep the primary heroes of the series looking as close to their (now iconic) 8-bit representation as possible. Everyone else though, YES. I put together Time Man and Oil Man myself and I think they turned out pretty good, but if Sean can do them better then have at it. Personally, I'd like a Bomb Man update but I'm not sure much could be done with his design. Ice Man too - he's only two colours right now and I'm sure we could add a bit more detail or something. :)

These are all very interesting and I definitely like the idea. Something like Pokemon's abilities or the TCG's "Poke Body" or "Poke Power" mechanic I guess, but cooler. The infrastructure for this kind of feature does not yet exist in the prototype, but maybe in the future I'll find a way to implement it. Keep on speculating - I'll check back on this thread occasionally for inspiration. :)

Well, if you're asking I need all the fields for MM3 and MM5+, with 3 being the priority and the rest coming as the RMs are complete. That being said, I'm not sure if you want to. The fields are actually pretty complicated to create and require many steps.

If you're curious, check out one of the field's folders. The Rusty Scrapheap field is animated and is therefore a lot more complicated, though a non-animated field like the Abandoned Warehouse took a little less effort to throw together.



Either way, everything needs to be in very specific file types and sizes, and it's all created in Photoshop with very specific layer styles and guides to adhere to. If you're still interested and want to try creating one, I'll send you the raw photoshop file to play around with, but I warn you it's a pretty tedious process. :|

Thanks, these are great. Because the Trio character only has one database entry, I had to merge the proposed classes into one, but in-battle I'll make sure they each show their correct individual class when scanned. :D

@MegaBossMan : I'd considered an overworld map many times, but due to the way fields can be customized and, more importantly, the way fusion fields work, I'm not sure if I world map would even be possible. At least not a pre-drawn one. I'm not even sure where I'd start with that... :S I do like the idea a lot, I just don't know how feasible it is.

@CHAOS_FANTASY : I like the idea and I'll consider it. I would prefer to use something else from the same remixer - even if it's not technically the correct theme - until he finishes the MMGB remixes. If only because I want the style/instruments used to be consistent. Something misc or even one of the Wily Castle themes from MM3 or MM5+ might be fun. If you have any suggestions from within current TheLegendOfRenegade's library I'd be able to get it done faster and I'd be more comfortable with it, but if not I'll see what I can do with the provided links. :)

@Gigggas : That's a pretty good idea, and I think I might use a version of it in a future update. I would like to have the shop as it's own separate tab but it will work very similarly to what you describe. On the actual player editor screen, you totally guessed what one of the counters would represent - bolts. And I like your idea about only minor enemies dropping them. I think instead of having the shop integrated into the player editor itself, it will be its own tab and the player editor will instead allow you to customize which eight items are equipped to the selected player. Right now there are exactly eight items in the game simply because there's only enough room for eight in the menu. If I add a way for players to take eight different items into battle than those default eight we could add a lot of cool little extras - something else that would tie into the shop and make it more fun. But yeah, awesome stuff. ^_^

That would be pretty cool, actually. I'll see if I can tweak the code a bit to allow your own data to randomly show up as an option. Should be a rare occurrence though, so it feels special. :P

In the future I'm going to change the way robot data is stored and make it possible for Brorman to edit the stats directly without having to wait for me to implement his changes. I like this kind of fine-tuning but at the moment it's just too overwhelming to manually enter and update as frequently as we need to. :| Thank you for all the comments though - that stats that Brorman worked on were overall pretty impressive and I couldn't have gotten this far with the game were it not for his help! But yeah, we'll keep tweaking the stats until we get things right and thank you again for your input. ^_^

@MegaBossMan : A lark is a kind of bird, and I based the name off the net-navi from Mega Man Battle Network. The character's Japanese name was Swallow Man, but I decided to go with his English name Lark Man as I have for all the other characters.

Also, this thread is meant for requesting explanations about game mechanics or features. It's basically a way for you to request a new instructional thread like the others in this category of the forum. Small questions like this might be better asked elsewhere. ;)

Hmm, yes. Maybe that's a good idea. When I'm writing narrative and flavour text for the game, I often replace the robot's name with a Pokémon's name in my head to see how it flows. Because each of these robots represent a model or species rather than a specific member of that species. "The wild Pikachu wants to fight!" when thinking of "The Cut Man wants to fight!". Though it might seem better if a had a descriptor like the word "wild" in the other one. Maybe "The rogue Cut Man wants to fight!" or "The Cut Man data wants to fight!". Definitely something to ponder though. :| And yes, the "Doctor" / "Master" is something I need to work out as well. >_>

Because the Ice Slasher is Ice Man's second level-up ability and most initial encounters will only use their first level-up ability, I think it's okay. There are many, many instances of dual-type abilities messing with the weakness cycle, so one of my goals for the game (long-term) is to have each robot start with a single-type ability and then learn a dual-type one later. That's a long way off though so don't hold your breath. Hmmm. I will consider this and try to think of a way to prevent annoying fights, but I may end up leaving it just for the sake of keeping the abilities interesting. It is a good point though and something I need to think about for a while...

@CHAOS_FANTAZY :

I've been a bit all over the place with Slur's gender pronouns and I apologize. Anatomically, Slur is genderless as is Trill, but as far as personality and perceived gender I would classify Slur as female. I've been consciously trying to use the "it" pronoun as much as possible to give the impression that Slur is above binary gender roles, but it's really easy to accidentally slip into using feminine pronouns because of her (imagined) voice and disposition. To finally put an end to the debate, Slur is genderless but has feminine qualities and would not object to a lesser-being referring to it as a "her". Does that make sense? :S

Also, I've seen people give the "Evil Energy Robot" a few different names over the years and I made the decision to ignore all of them in the absence of anything official. The first one I saw was "Oud", which is just "Duo" backwards and feels pretty lazy and uninspired to me. Also it's near impossible to properly pronounce. The second one I saw is "Solo" as you mention, but having one robot named "Solo" and the other named "Duo" implies that they are somehow not equal when their designs appear to indicate more of a parallel relationship between the two rather than a 1st and 2nd type relationship. I personally think it makes more sense that the designation "Duo" applies to both robots as a group rather than one or the other, and given that these are aliens it's possible that their naming scheme for entities doesn't match what we're used to on our planet.

About Trio, you're right. When I said "identical" I should have said "incredibly similar". They, like Duo, are supposed to be three parts of the same whole. Each individual part may specialize in a particular affinity or skill, but they all fit together into one whole being. Your idea for having them split into mind, body, and soul seems pretty awesome to me and I may use it. Either that or some other facet of our reality/universe that's clearly split into three. I do like your ideas though, so it may hold some weight. :P

Like I said, most of these story details are being decided on as we go and it's pretty awesome having input from people like you to push us along. ^_^

@Brorman : Oh! Totally missed that! Thanks, I'll fix it when I get home. >_> Well, at least this way I'm killing two bugs with one stone. ^_^

@MolluskMan : I always get those two mixed up. >_> Thanks for the heads-up, I'll try to fix it when I get home. Also, about the "the Cut Man" thing, it's on purpose. I know it seems a little weird but it's important to understand that every enemy you fight in the game is not the original from years past. These are all just copies of that robot's AI data roaming the prototype and there are theoretically multiple copies of each. Saying "Cut Man" by itself makes it seems like it's THE Cut Man from MM1, when in fact it' just a single copy of the "Cut Man" model. So it's "a Cut Man" or "the [current target] Cut Man", but not "Cut Man". Hope that clears it up a bit. :S

Oh yeah, forgot about that. :S Each field has one type of mecha in three different "generations" (so basically three per stage). Thanks for the reminder. :)

@megaprotobassman : Like I've said in other threads, they'll be unlockable once they are complete. For me "complete" means their sprite is done, their special weapon is done, AND their field/stage is done. The MM3 robots still need fields, and everyone else needs sprites and/or weapons still.

@CHAOS_FANTAZY :

When deciding on the typing for robot masters and their abilities, there are a few things I need to consider. Firstly, it cannot be the same type as any other robot in their game else it would break the weakness cycle. Secondly, no robot master can be Neutral type as, again, it would break the weakness cycle. Lastly, and this is mostly subjective, sometimes I force a type on a robot masters simply because they don't comfortably fit into any other category and/or the game needs another one of those types for balance. For the most part these are justifiable but sometimes they end up feeling a little weird.

Crystal/Cutter does sound like a cool typing, but it's hard for me to justify a magic card being part crystal type. I went with Shadow in the end because I feel like Magic Man learning other dark-themed moves was more appropriate than learning other crystal themed-moves. This may be changed in the future if I feel like it makes sense, but for the most part I'm happy with Magic Man's typing. Oh, and I am fully aware of how underutilized the Crystal and Laser type is, but I plan to remedy that in other ways. In the same way that there were few Dragon types in Gen I of Pokémon but they still managed to be incredibly useful, so too will the Crystal / Laser core robots when they're added to the game.

Black Hole bomb and a lot of the other space-type abilities were difficult for me to come up with, especially given how strange some of them are. In the end I tried to go with a blend of making-sense where I could and simply promoting cool type combinations where I couldn't. Grab Buster is a perfect exactly of this - I get the impression it's made out of the element Mercury but what type would that be? It can't be Earth because two other Stardroids already have Earth in their attack typing and that would be boring, but there aren't many other options you could use that aren't duplicated multiple times elsewhere. Another difficulty I had was differentiating between GalaxyMan's Black Hole Bomb and Saturn's Black Hole - I decided to throw canon to the wind and switch up their typing and use a bit.

I know it doesn't always make sense, but everything is constantly changing and being added to and at the end of the day I just want things to be fun, interesting, and relatively balanced. Sorry for all the oddities that come out of this approach.

Oh, and the Constellations are not in the card yet because I don't like them, but neither are the Dimensions even though I do. Just like the PC Mega Man games, the canon of those robots is questionable and their priority is therefore really, really low. Also, do we need any more Space robots in the game? It's getting pretty hard to justify the including of all the others already, so if I ever do add characters from questionable games like this is will be very far off and likely not as part of the story. Sorry if that seems unfair... Also, the Constellation's designs are pretty bad and don't appear to add anything interesting to the story. :| Correct me if I'm wrong though.

(!) Before anyone comments about the clearly-not-canon robots at the end of the database (Blossom Woman, Shark Man, etc.), I have to make an exception for them. This is my fangame, they are my designs, and I have a very specific plan for them as far as the story is concerned. Sorry!

@megaprotobassman : Slur is going to be an important part of the story, but she's not done yet. That is why she does not appear in the game at this point. When she is ready, you'll know it. :)

Welcome Requiem and Rhythm_BCA! I'm glad you're enjoying the game and flattered that you like the concept behind Disco. I came up with the idea for her nearly 11 years ago but only recently was I able to flesh out her design a little more and include her in an actual game. Her and Rhythm are two of my favourite creations, so I'm glad they're appreciated. ^_^

Also, all the robots from MM1, MM2, and MM4 are currently unlockable as playable characters. Any robots from MM3 or MM5+ are not yet complete. They may appear in the post-game as random encounters (as a kind of preview bonus) but they will not be made unlockable until their respective special weapons and home fields have been completed.

@ChaosFantasy and @Retro Pikachu : You're both right, actually. :P I also made Roll weak to Freeze as a tribute to Ice Man's crush on her in the manga. ^_^ Also, Bass's two weapons the "Bass Crush" and Bass Baroque" are an homage to Bass and Treble's prototype name when they were still just concept artwork - Bass was called "Crush" and Treble was called "Baroque". ;)

To all the other questions, the answers are basically with MegabossMan said.

@MegabossMan : You'll need to take a screenshot with your computer first - there are many ways to do so and it depends on your current setup. If you're on Windows search "windows take screenshot" and if you're on Mac do "Mac take screenshot". After that you upload it to an image hosting service like Photobucket and then link it with the appropriate formatting code.

@CHAOS_FANTAZY : I'd say you should try to avoid swearing completely. I'm personally okay with "hell" and "damn" but I have a biased adult perspective and I've had people complain/mention those words before when they were part of the story (Wily said "damn"). There amount of younger players is unsurprisingly high, so I think we should play it safe else alienate our biggest audience.

@QuickLikeQuickman : @MegabossMan : Yes, there are no file uploads on the website yet and you have to upload them to another service fix (like Photobucket or the like). With all the memory issues with the game itself I do not want to risk adding image-uploads to the mix and crashing the server over something as trivial as JPGs. At least... not yet. Let's see how this new server goes first.

Yes, the first thing is a logic bug where Bubble Man's quote has the {this_player} variable in it which is supposed to be replaced by the current user's name. It doesn't work so well when they're fighting on their own so I generally to avoid using the variable in quotes, but there are a few... >_> I will try to add some kind of context-sensitive logic to the quotes in the future or maybe have it say "master" instead. Might imply something storyline-related. ;)

The second thing... happens sometimes. I'm still investigating the cause but it tends to happen when disabling a robot on the bench of disabling multiple at the same time. It's not game-breaking but can be a bit annoying and creepy. :| I'm working on it though! >_>

When I took the prototype offline I only took the login-button off the page, but didn't technically prevent the page from showing if you already knew the URL. This allowed a few people to log in when they shouldn't have and play around, but I'd since fixed/prevented that and it's all over now so we should be fine. :P

The general forever-loading or blank screen bugs are almost always memory overloads or timeouts, and I'm constantly looking for ways to reduce or fix them. Keep on reporting them, but know that it's going to be a long and drawn-out process for me to fix them all.

That being said, I did fix the issue with the player battles and (unless you trigger a totally unrelated bug) you should be able to finish the battles fine now and get your hard-earned battle points. Sorry for the trouble!

Lastly, yes, the Super Arm takes on the current field type as it's secondary typing. The only field that the Super Arm is not dual-type on is the Mountain Mines (because it is Impact already). This was on purpose and (I think) a pretty cool mechanic. :)

@Brorman : Fixed the typo, thanks.

@QuickLikeQuickman : That... was... a... mistake. I guess. C***. That makes a lot more sense, given he's a light bulb, and I'm honestly pretty embarrassed that I made such a stupid typo. :S I unfortunately cannot fix it now, given how many people have already played the stage and unlocked field stars for it... I mean, it's not the end of the world and I wish I had caught that, but I'd corrupt too many games if I fixed it now. >_> I fixed the Rhythm Buster's description though - thanks for the heads-up.

@CHAOS_FANTAZY : Again, I feel like a bit of an idiot here. I think I was toying with the idea of making Dive Man a Missile/Water type robot (as far as abilities are concerned) and changed the weapon to "Dive Torpedo", but then I realized the conflict that would have with the MM4 weakness cycle (Toad Man's water affinity) and I removed the water typing... but didn't change the name back. Again, this is something that I cannot change without corrupting game files, but I apologize 100 times over for these canon mistakes.

Maybe if I ever have to completely reset the prototype I'll change these names back to their canon versions, but until then I just have to leave them be and feel shamed every time I look at them. Serves me right for programming at 2, 3, 4am on a regular basis. Even I need sleep! >_>

The shop is a great idea, I will add it someday, and it will let you purchase battle items (like the Energy Capsule, Weapon Pellet, etc.), new fields (like the MM3/MM5+ robot master stages), abilities (like the suggested X-series DLC), and so much more - it's just a matter of me working out the logic and mechanics in my head and then programming it. :| Oh, and implementing bolts into the game... That too. :P

Well, you see... the plot is a W.I.P. so some of these aren't ready to be answered yet. I will go into a little more detail about the star robots though... or are they aliens? Star...droids? Maybe "stardroids" could be a blanket turn for all space-based robot/alien hybrids? Whatever, it's doesn't really matter yet. This is their backstory as I see it:


Slur and Trill are like ambassadors for an intergalactic space council that surveys and passed judgement on planets.

The council is a hierarchy made up of three tiers - the first is headed by Solo, the second is/was headed by two Duo units, and the third tier is comprised of three identical Trio units.

The Duo units were responsible for surveying the good and evil of planets and passing passing judgement on those that had run out of balance. During a mission to survey Earth, the two Duo units could not come to an agreement on the fate of the planet and a great battle was fought. The dark side of the Duo unit was destroyed, but the light side appears to have forgotten it's origins and allied with the planet it was meant to destroy.

After years of no contact from the Duo units, the council set out to find them and were naturally lead to Earth by their energy signatures. Unfortunately for our planet, the council has been watching from afar for years as their asteroid drifted slowly toward our solar system. This gave them plenty of time to evaluate our past, present, and future and discover that despite our best attempts we will always lose and always succumb to the darkness.

The council sends Slur and its partner Trill to the Earth to collect data on our technological progress and then reset our planet back to its evolutionary beginnings. The two oblige, having completed missions like this hundreds of times over in their lives, and head to Earth together with absolutely perfect timing, crashing the unveiling of the prototype with terrifying style.

Because Slur enjoys its job and has a bit of an arrogant personality, it decides to play a bit of a game with the humans and their robot slaves before putting them out of their mercy. Using highly advanced alien technology (because aliens) they fling the planet's primary heroes figures into the prototype itself and force them to fight their way out.

The doctors and their robots fight Trill and a slurry of other robots under the idea and promise that doing so will allow them to escape and to free their planet, but whether or not Slur plans to keep it's word is another matter. It does have a job, after all.

What actually happens from here as displayed in-game is up to anyone's interpretation, up and and including the player-battles, the end-game scenario, and other/potential future content, it's really all up in the air at this point and I'm getting more and more ideas the more I read your comments.

Also, Slur and Trill have complete control over the prototype simply because they are powerful beings with highly advanced technological skills, assimilated from a multitude of fallen planets and peoples. What's happening to our players is a combination of Slur and Trill's messing around with the system and mechanics already present in the system from the start. That being said, the prototype's database is quite vast and there may be parts of its memory space that the two ambassadors are not fully paying attention to during this event... Who knows what kind of junk data has been accumulating in that vast, empty place...

@MegabossMan : @QuickLikeQuickman : Yes, it's just a way to quickly scroll to the top of the page. The new "@ reply" links simply scroll to the bottom of the comment form for you. One day I want to have these reply buttons also copy/paste the user's name for you with their formatting code, but that'll have to come later on when I have more time. :|

@QuickLikeQuickman : I updated the player battle code and I believe I've fixed the issue. I just completed about 5 or 6 as one of my alt-accounts and there doesn't seem to be a problem anymore. Thanks for the report! :D

@Brorman : Some threads have their colours hard-coded with a certain colour. All the stickies, for example have specific colours assigned to them. Specific user profile settings have lower priority than thread colour settings. All other non-sticky threads should abide by your preferences though, so there's that. :P

@CHAOS_FANTAZY : I knew someone was watching me! The Google Analytics data showed that several people were lurking around while I was previewing and bug-testing in admin-mode. Felt kind of weird going around answering questions and fixing bugs in silence, but but it was a necessary step in preventing save file corruption. :|

@MegabossMan : @QuickLikeQuickman : @TheDoc : Thank you all very much, you words mean more to me and the project than you know. The work can be incredibly long and grueling at times but knowing others are having fun with the game makes it all worth the trouble. ^_^ Thank you!!

@Brorman : @megaprotobassman : @MegabossMan About the error you posted, the MySQL server was crashing when it's memory got overloaded and I had to keep restarting it. Luckily I have complete control of the server to once I realized what was happening I created a swap file for memory emergencies. It hasn't crashed again like that yet so it should be okay now, but we'll see.

I know there are still a lot of issues, but I'm going to be spending the next few weeks lurking on the website and watching for error reports and user behaviour. I might not add much in the way of new content for a little while, but I'm going to be trying to fix the errors that are within my control and then smooth out some of the rougher edges after the move. Thanks for dealing with all the game's quirks and for posting in the community! Reading comments and honestly one of my favourite things to do before bed. ^_^

Aaaaaand we're back! For now. :P The server was really easy to set up and as far as I can tell the speeds are a marked improvement over the old one. For the time being, I'd like to ask that you NOT try to break the game. If a bug occurs naturally then yes, of course, report it. But please do not forcibly try to break the game for a little while - I want a fair review of this new server else we might have to move again in the future. Yes, I am paying for this out of my own pocket, but honestly there are few things I'd rather spend my money on. This project is my entire life right now and I absolutely love working on it. As long as I can continue to afford it, I will keep this game online. And if the day even comes where it has to be taken offline, I will absolutely make the source code public for someone else to take the reigns.

That out of the way, I've fixed a whole bunch of minor bugs and implemented several suggestions that were made before the shutdown. I obviously have not fixed everything yet but hopefully I will be able to in the coming weeks. I also have another robot to add to game/database from MMX100 - Plug Man - and he's been waiting in the queue for a while. Hope you all like the new features and let me know what you think of the new server! :P

@Shadownnico : I think I've fixed the issue with the field levels. I made it so that field levels cannot exceed 100 anymore, as it should have been. Any of your fields that have already accidentally gone to level 100 cannot be reverted and will continue to be that high, I but I believe all your other fields and all future ones will behave normally now. Sorry about that.

Excellent ideas and I will absolutely consider them all. I love the skinning idea and we could take it in all kinds of fun directions for sure. Maybe that's how we'll get all these other fan characters in that people keep requesting? :P

And about the player purposes, I completely understand where you're coming from. I'm constantly trying to think of new ways to differentiate their campaigns while still allowing for a lot of flexibility and I think you've given me some fabulous ideas.

Another possibility I've been mulling over (maybe in addition to what you've mentioned) is having player-specific post-game robot masters. Right now all the post-game ones show up randomly regardless of campaign, but I think it might be fun if (like Pokémon) Jewel Man only appeared in Light's campaign and Crystal Man only in Cossack's etc. etc. Because all the other robots will eventually be unlockable in a way tied to encountering them in battle, I think that might be a fun reason to play them all.

Also note that each campaign has different starting levels for the mission, so depending on the level of robot you're trying to train it might be more helpful to use Light's campaign with its lower levels of Cossack's with it's super-high ones. But yeah, I really like your ideas and I think player abilities might be pretty cool. :)

I know this isn't directly related to what you asked, but given the thread name this seemed like the best place to put these. Here are two little intro/bios I wrote for Disco and Rhythm and posted in a thread over at the Cutstuff forums. Maybe they'll give you guys a little more insight into their purposes while I work out the final details of their story.

----

"There are two new fan-made support robots for Dr. Wily and Dr. Cossack that act as parallels to Roll and, when viewed as a group side-by-side, have a very similar feel to that of Alia, Layer, and Pallet from the X series."



"Disco is a new apprentice robot built by Dr. Wily as an analogue to Roll, providing obedience and loyalty in ways that Bass never could
or would. Opposite to the way Roll specializes in boost and support abilities, Disco specializes in break and assault abilities, lowering the targets' stats to dangerously low levels in short time and setting them up to be KOed."



"Rhythm is the second new support robot and she was built by Dr. Cossack as a kind of failsafe for the prototype, laying dormant in the system's random access memory until needed in an emergency. Rhythm is a genius hacker and excels in abilities that modify the system from the inside to alter the conditions of battle in strange and unusual ways. With abilities that allow her to swap and shuffle robot stats at will, Rhythm is both a great ally and a formidable, unpredictable foe."

I watched this a few days ago thanks to your link but forgot to comment. At first I didn't like the point he was making because that dialogue doesn't happen in the Japanese version, but overall his point still held a lot of weight and I enjoyed the video. I ended up going on to subscribe to his channel and have watched many videos since then, so thanks again. ^_^

Welcome to all our new members! Thank you so much for signing up and for sticking it out until we could get the game back online. Your words mean the world and I'm so happy you enjoy what I... no, we have put together. ^_^

Super-duper excellent work, Brorman! I cleared up a misconception about the image tag's title text and added a brief comment guideline at the bottom. I also colour-coded this like the rest of the threads here and stickied it. Thank you soooooo much! :D

I like ALL the ideas presented above, or at least some form of them.

I really like the idea of skins because it would be (relatively) easy to implement and add a whole awesome layer of customization. And customizing the background is a great idea too! I'll add it to the list. :)

And I absolutely agree about the thread suggesting. I'll try to work something out as it is getting a bit... wordy in here. -_- Sorry about that.

EDIT : Just added a page-system to the comments. Only ten comments a page, but it preloads the entire list so you don't have to wait for each page to load. Hopefully this helps a bit. :)

EDIT2 : Just added the ability to customize your banner background and tweaked the way player colours and fields are used. Whatever you select as your player background will now be used on all posts, which is pretty great IMO. Let me know what you guys think!

@xColdxFusionx :

As boring as it might sound, my thought process on those was actually pretty simple. The universe seems to always give us things in threes, especially in video games, and Mega Man was no exception.

There are three known doctors in the classic Mega Man series (Dr. Light, Dr. Wily, and Dr. Cossack), there are three primary hero-type robots that have been playable and can all apparently use the Variable Weapons System (Mega Man, Proto Man, and Bass), and - not counting Energy - we have three main stats in the game (Attack, Defense, and Speed).

It just seemed natural to use these coincidences to my advantage and create a set of moves and mechanics around them. After I had decided on the three main busters, I assigned them based on how I thought each doctor would behave in battle. Wily is the most aggressive so his robot gets an Attack booster, Light appears to be more docile and defensive so his robot naturally gets a Defense boost, and then we have Cossack with Speed just because. It ends up working out well for balance, and while we don't know much about Cossack or his style I doubt he'd be against using Speed to his advantage. :P

The Roll Buster came next, and I wanted it to have similarities to Mega Man but be much more support-oriented. Once I decided the first turn would heal Energy instead of any one stat, I tied it in with Mega's buster by decreasing the target's Defense while his would raise his own. This felt like a nice parallel and allowed Roll to step up as the support robot I needed her to be. Adding Roll to the game exposed an obvious imbalance though - the other two doctors did not have a counterpart to support their Attack and Speed stats. In a lengthy process that I'll go into another time, Disco and Rhythm were created to fill that void and the effects of their abilities followed naturally.

The Light, Wily, and Cossack Busters were introduced much later in an effort to give elemental-core robots more options in battle without actually allowing them to equip the hero's busters. They really are just palette swaps, and I realize it seems lazy, but I wanted to make sure the robot masters had comparable ability options to the Copy/Neutral robots without letting them equip hero abilities and it was the easiest option. :|

Weaknesses and resistances were decided by Brorman, so I'll let him answer you on that one. :)

@Shadownnico :

Fixed! I remember changing the menu order one day and saying "I have to remember to change the rest of the page too" but then never remembering... -_- Thanks for the heads up! :D


@CHAOSFANTAZY @xColdxFusionx :

I am aware of the official weapon names and as much I wanted to adhere to them I chose not to for the sake of consistency and understandability. As you might have been able to discern from the current MM1 abilities, I make absolutely sure each of a robot's level-up abilities carry one of the same words in its name. Rolling Cutter -> Rising Cutter -> ??? Cutter, Ice Breath -> Ice Slasher -> Ice ???, etc. This makes it easy for people to guess which abilities come from which robot masters and provides the game with an overall sense of cohesiveness.

Because Time Man already owned the word "Time" and he comes first chronologically, I decided to rename Flash Man's weapon according to his name and called it the Flash Stopper. Fully knowing that the ability already existed for Bright Man, I took it one more step further and gave Bright Man a new ability - the Bright Burst that actually used his name and allowed him to have a unique typing (which is awesome for game variety). I realize this may bother some, but it's a detail I thought long and hard over and I'm pretty confident in my decision. As far as the stat it lowers... I'll think it over. :P


@TheDoc :

This has been fixed as well. I made it so that it actually displays all the abilities you earn in the battle rather than just the first one. Originally all robots were unlocked at Level 1 and I didn't have to make these considerations - the unlocking-at-their-current-level is fairly new so I'm still working out the kinds. :S Thanks for helping me debug the process though - should be all good now. :)

There are two ways to unlock Field Support, as well as the Mecha Support.

Method 1:
Beat any of the intro fields eight times in total. By that point there will be eight Mets to fight and defeating all of them in battle will net you the Mecha Support. Beat it a second time and it will unlock the Field Support.

Method 2:
Complete the Bonus Field at the end of the game (with the mechas) to get the Mecha Support ability. Complete the Bonus Field II in the same chapter (with the robot masters) to get the Field Support ability.

Let me know if you have any problems and I'll look into it. :)

@megaprotobassman : Please use the "edit" option instead of making double-posts. Thanks!

And to everyone else, sorry again. :| I think decreasing the amount of robots per side might be my only option right now, though I really have to consider whether it's worth it. :S

Wow, either you've replayed those stages many, MANY times (they go up by one level per victory) or the difficulty logic is acting up (pretty sure it's the latter). Also, there should definitely be a cap at Lv. 100 so I have to tweak the mission generation logic again. Thanks!

What the?! I knew that ability was gonna give me problems. -_- Consider it added to my list - that obviously does not make any sense...

Sorry but I had to move this topic to the development forum. As important and cool as the thread is, it's not exactly "news". Sorry, MetalMan. :|

I do look forward to what people request, of course, and I encourage anyone who's interested to reply!

The bug above has been fixed, btw, and for real this time.

Regarding your suggestions about Sword Man and Turbo Man, I hear you and I agree. I think it would be more appropriate for Turbo Man to learn other Swift moves than more Flame moves and I feel it would be more appropriate for Sword Man to learn other Cutter moves than Flame ones. I agreed the last few times it was suggested but I keep forgetting to change it. Thanks for the reminders!

@TheDoc Wow, I really suck sometimes... I went into the code again and I made a very silly, stupid mistake that was preventing the "convert robot abilities to player abilities" script from working. I logged in as a new user and replayed a few missions, specifically Ice Man's, and I can confirm that the Ice Breath and Slasher were both unlocked for Dr. Light. Sorry again for the trouble - cross-equipping abilities is one of the coolest features and being unable to utilize it must have really been a pain. Thank you again for your patience!

@CHAOSFANTAZY @Brorman : You're both right, I should have a proper formatting guide up somewhere. -_- Anyone wanna write one for me? :P But to quickly answer your questions, you put the words you want coloured in square brackets [like this] and then immediately after you add the type name in curly braces like {this}. There cannot be any spaces in between the two different brackets and the type names have to be all lower case. That way something like [Adrian sucks] and {time} would produce Adrian sucks once you remove the space in between. For dual types, you just connect them with an underscore. [Adrian isn't so bad] and {water_electric} combine when stuck together to form Adrian isn't so bad. Does that help at all? :S

Yes, every ability that your robot learns by level-up the [original] player should automatically learn as well. The fact that your Dr. Light did not have Ice Slasher for equipping is a bug, though it should be fixed now. Sorry about that! :P

@xColdxFusionx: You are correct in the method, but if it's not working that's a problem. I've tweaked the code for the unlocks - can you reload the window when you get a chance and let me know if it pops up or not? :S

@TheDoc : I think I'm going to remove the other FAQ thread, it didn't make a lot of sense and I like this one better. About the abilities though, you are correct in how it should be working. As long as Dr. Light himself has unlocked the Ice Slasher, he can equip it to other robots. I've made a few tweaks to the code - could you also try reloading and then going to the robot editor? I think I might have fixed it.

Looks like this is gonna be another bug-report thread, huh. :|

Oh boy. Looks like more memory issues. On the one hand, this is absolutely horrible and I'm crying inside every day that the problem persists. Both on the other hand it's forcing me to re-evaluate a lot of my code and make the optimizations necessary for the next 10, 20, 30, 100 robots added to the game. I will keep this open until I can fix everything, and thanks again for reporting. It at first your refresh doesn't succeed, just wait a moment and try again I guess. :|

I am not positive, but I'm thinking this might be related to the memory issues. If the memory runs out prematurely and the background script crashes, there's nothing telling the foreground one that there was a problem. It just waits..........

I really, really need to get these memory issues figures out but it's going to be hard. I know that the number of robots taken into battle is having a huge impact on memory but I don't want to start limiting the game simply because I can't afford a better hosting plan. :|

I'll do my best guys, and thank you again for your patience. This is still a beta / prototype, so you gotta cut me some slack... right? :S

I should find a way to prevent that! :o

Now that we know it exists, try not to do it too much. My server's memory is at about 96-98% and if it goes over 100% again I'm gonna get the game suspended again. >_>

But yes, I'll keep this topic open until I fix it.

Oh, and @Shadownnico, the formatting help is back! I didn't realize the latest update removed it but I'm glad everyone told me! I had a name collision where I casually named the container div "tooltip" but forgot that the actual tooltip script used that name for other functions. -_-

I really need to implement some kind of poll system for topics, as you guys really seem like these survey-type topics. :P But yes, my favourite games...

I have played a great many Mega Man games in my day and while my taste is definitely more refined now and probably would judge these games more harshly as an adult, I cannot deny the impact they had on me as a kid and the immense amount of joy I had experiencing them. Here they are!

1. Mega Man X
2. Mega Man Battle Network 2
3. Mega Man Legends 2
4. Mega Man Powered Up
5. Maverick Hunter X
6. Mega Man 3
7. Mega Man 4
8. Mega Man Zero
9. Mega Man 6
10. Mega Man 5

Wow... that was pretty hard. And I'm not even sure if I'm remembering them all! There are soooo many Mega Man games and I've always known that but the sheer number and variable is just hitting me now. Incredible. And a lot of them are like comparing apples to oranges - it's hard to say one of the other is better when they're both so great!

You know, there are very few Mega Man games that I dislike and in spite of what some haters may say I think having this many different games in a series is a good thing. If Capcom wasn't so willing to experiment with the Mega Man IP in the 80s and 90s we wouldn't have amazing spinoffs like Mega Man freaking Legends, Zero, Battle Network or even X! Few video game franchises have gone through this much evolution, this much change in their main character and the state of his surrounding universe than the likes of Mega Man (maybe Zelda). Even with the limited dialogue in most Mega Man games, they've managed to create this incredible decades-spanning narrative about the rise and fall of robots, mankind, and eventually our entire planet through the use of clever game mechanics, beautiful character design and artwork, and obviously some of the most addictive and tight gameplay known to the industry.

It's just incredible... and sad given how few official games there are on the horizon. Anyway, I guess I went off on a tangent there... >_>

@QuickLikeQuickman : You are correct, it is a bug. There is a thread about it open in the bug forum. It's... gonna take a while for me to figure out a fix. I searched Google high and low and all the solutions I've found have not worked. :| It's the main reason I added the "Pause" button to the top of the battle window - it's the only way to prevent it from crashing when you're in another tab (and even then it sometimes has problems!). But yeah, sorry about that. The moment I find I fix I'll be sure to implement it! :P

Also, thank you so much everyone! ^_^ It's been a really, really long and tiring journey but I knew in my heart that I had something special and I'm glad I persevered. Now we have several other contributing members to the project and everything is coming together beautifully. We have an almost fully fleshed out campaign (three, actually), amazing remixes, beautiful new sprites, hilariously punny dialogue, diverse and interesting stats, types, and weakness cycles, sooooo many new features and mechanics, and (in my opinion) one of the coolest and most detailed enemy databases of any Mega Man game ever. We still have a looooooooong way to go until we're done, but it's been an amazing ride so far and I anxiously look forward to each new day of working on it. Thank you all again! ^_^

Fixed, thanks for the heads-up! :D

You are all very astute and all very correct. :P

Previously, there were no restrictions in regards to posting on the community other than having an account. In light of recent events, however, I had to implement some kind of anti-spam and anti-harassment rules to prevent further abuse of the system.

Now, someone has to have at least 5,000 posts to make a new post and 10,000 points to make a new topic. Points are incredibly easy to get and anyone has has played the game for more than 2 minutes will have enough to make a post at the very least. New threads can really clutter the forum if they're created too often so wanted to encourage people to post in existing ones instead before getting to that level, hence why the thread costs more. I think that it might feel unfair or jarring to new users at first, but eventually they will understand the reasoning.

That being said, I hadn't considered the implications of this on the bug-submission process... I could see it being a problem if someone tried to report a legitimate bug in the early-game but did not have enough points yet, though at the same time if I make the bug-report forum more lenient it could lead to the same problems I was trying to avoid - just more localized.

This is a perfect example of an issue I'd like everyone's feedback on as it will affect all new users and both make the community a bit safer but also make it a tiny bit less accessible. So, what do you all think? Keep the restriction, lower it, change it? Something else entirely? Please let me know! :P

Oh no! Roll, Disco, and Rhythm are meant to be unlocked after you fail a certain number of times. I noticed that this was somehow reversed when I went into the code for the aforementioned event and I changed them back. >_> What your friends experienced was the bug, and your (current) file is functioning properly. I'm so sorry you reset your game before I got a chance to fix it! D:

I deleted him and then I absorbed his data.

@SmashBroPlusB : Thanks for the reminder. I've had a lot of people ask me about that and I keep forgetting to put some kind of event/message explaining it. I just added an event popup that appears directly after the first battle, hinting but not directly giving away how to unlock them. "Simply disabling a robot master will download its special weapon data for you, but if you can disable it using only Neutral Type abilities we might be able to download even more!" Hopefully this helps clear a bit of confusion for new players while still letting them feel a bit surprised when it happens. Thanks again for all the help!

The Copy Shot has been fixed and now works as it should (testing on Ice Man just to be sure). Thanks so much for reporting! :D

Hmmm, the Copy Shot is not meant to be utterly useless and is the only way to get certain abilities post-game (like those from the MM3 robots). If it's not working at all that's a problem I'll look into right now, but it's definitely supposed to work regardless of the current unlock system. The only abilities that the Copy Shot cannot copy are ones you already have equipped to the current robot or "mecha" abilities. Ice Man's "Ice Breath" and "Ice Slasher" should be completely copyable so I'll look into this ASAP. Thanks for the report once again! :D

Hey, thanks for the bug report! I've taken a look at the switch panel code and I think I found the problem. Super Throw is supposed to prevent you from switching back to the same robot, but it looks like the logic was off. I've revised the script a bit and uploaded the changes. I'm gonna test it now but let me know when/if you do and whether it worked or not. Thanks again!

No problem, and thank you for your totally civil bug report. :P I'm actually glad you reset your game - you'll get a much better idea of how the progression works and everything will make much more sense.

Rather than reset everyone's progress every time a game-changing update is made, I leave it up to each user to decide if they want to keep their "grandfathered" file and deal with it's oddities or reset their game/missions to experience it properly from the beginning. Whether or not someone takes advantage of it is really up to how much time they've invested.

Anyway, thank you for playing and for your comment. I'm glad the game is back online (even if it is still experiencing memory issues every now and then). I'm actively tracking them and fixing leaks as I go, so I hope your next/current playthrough is much more fun and less confusing than your first. :P

@accpikachu2 : TheDoc was simply reporting a bug, and a legitimate one too. Take a look at his leaderboard profile and you can see his Bomb Man does not have the Hyper Bomb ability at all. Please do not go overboard with the whole anti-spam thing as this was definitely not spam.

@TheDoc : Something must have happened between the time you last logged in and the latest updates. Please try fighting Bomb Man on his stage again (with anyone) and Dr. Light should unlock the Hyper Bomb ability automatically. Once you have unlocked it again, just go to the robot editor and equip it to Bomb Man. If that doesn't work and you're unable to progress at all, the only other thing I can suggest is to go into the "save" menu and "reset missions" for Dr. Light. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Let me copy/paste it for you:

Notice : Due to excessive server load and memory exhaustion the prototype has been taken offline again. I really tried my best to optimize the code and comply with my web host's requests for a less resource-intensive script but it may be beyond my abilities. It feels like the more I try to fix it the worse it gets, and I unfortunately do not have any idea when these issues will be resolved. Please discuss the outage on the forums if you need to, and know that I am very sorry for all the trouble and seemingly wasted time on this project. I will update the website when I have more information on the project's future, but for now consider the game on hiatus. :(

What part do you not understand? What can I clarify?

EDIT : Isn't anyone gonna back me up here? Seriously? Am I the only one who feels this entire situation is incredibly unfair and ridiculous? Please?

It says right on the home page, the server is having serious memory issues and I need to find a way to fix them and reduce memory before my hosting provider will allow the game back online. It was not my choice to take the game offline, and it's very unfair that everyone is so mad at me.

I am an adult and I work a full-time job during the day. Unless I'm really lucky, I do not have time to work on the game from Mon-Fri and I mostly can only program on the weekend. I spent many, many, many hours last week trying to fix this issue. I stayed up to 2, 3, 4am regularly trying to reduce memory and suffered at my real job as a result of being overtired.

When I finally thought I had fixed the problem and reduced memory enough, I took the game offline for maintenance and I uploaded the changes. I tested the game myself without anyone else online for about an hour and felt that it was stable enough to launch again. Unfortunately, as soon as everyone started coming back to the website the memory got out of control again and (as you can see above) issues started popping up that were not there before. It was almost 3am at the time (as you can again see above) and I was barely able to keep my eyes open anymore. Searinox's really, really nasty post and the fact that my host already noticed the memory explosion and emailed me was the last straw. I had to take the game down again. I had failed in trying to fix it and there was nothing else I could do that night.

It's been a few days and I am constantly thinking about ways I might be able to reduce the memory further, but I have not come up with anything yet and I am leaving the prototype offline until further notice. Dealing with these spam attacks have not made matters any easier and I have no idea if things are going to get better. I would say "please bare with me" and "thank you for your patience", but apparently no one has that anymore.

Yes, and I believe I have taken care of it. I will keep an eye on the forums and take further action if necessary. Thank you for your co-operation with the rules.

Alright, I need to clear up a few things to make them absolutely clear.

1. This is a FREE fangame project programmed by ONE person

2. You do not have to play this game if you don't like it, and it owes you NOTHING

3. This game is INCOMPLETE and you are part of a huge BETA test that has been absolutely clear since the start

4. If I find anyone abusing the systems, being offensive to other users (myself included) or otherwise injecting the community with negative energy, I CAN and I WILL delete your account without prejudice.

This is an in-progress game that's constantly being tweaked and changed. There will be and always have been bugs and while I try to keep them to a minimum I am not perfect and I make mistakes. I have no obligation to fix them and I do so out of my own free time and out of the goodness of my own heart. This game is supposed to be a fun distraction for people, not some institution where you last out at "the man" when things aren't going smoothly.

The attitude in this thread and the sense of entitlement is baffling. I do not owe you anything and I could easily take the game offline in an instant - the only reason it's still around is because I and a handful of other like-minded people thought it would be fun to create an RPG using Mega Man characters. If you cannot be a constructive, positive part of the community, please leave.

Given how much time you've invested into the game and how high you are on the leaderboards, I expected better from you Searinox. I'm more than a little disappointed and honestly quite sad how quickly one of our most active members turned into a monster. And you, megaprotobassman - your attitude and language as of late are not appreciated either. You have both been warned, and I will not hesitate to delete your accounts and ban your a**es if you lash out like this again. Bug reports are always welcomed - threads and posts like these are absolutely not.

You can leave the notice up. When and if the prototype gets fixed I'll remove it myself. For the time being, I'm not sure what the future of the project is and do not want to raise false hope. Thank you so much for all you've done so far, either way.

@megaprotobassman : Please watch your tone and treat the other members of the community with respect. If I see you talking to anyone else with that tone or otherwise being offensive and bringing down the community, I will delete your account and all progress and ban your IP from the website entirely. I'm getting really sick of all the negativity going down the last few days and I refuse to let it continue. you have been warned.

It's probably still there. I had to prioritize simply getting it back online, but I will continue to look into this. I made small adjustments to the code to address the issue Searinox mentioned above, but I can't guarantee it fixed anything yet. >_>

Yes it is! Finally!!!!!

I just made a complete backup of the database in case there are any critical, game-breaking bugs, but I've spent the last several hours testing and I think I got everything ironed out. If you notice anything please either post it here or create a new topic depending on how severe or complex you think it might be. Worst case scenario I'll have to take the game offline for a few hours again and restore the backup to prevent losing progress up to this point.

That out of the way, YAY! Even if there are some hiccups in the next few days, I managed to save almost 50% of the memory! From about 26MB at its peak (it was a little higher than I initially thought) to a little under 14.5MB now. A lot of the optimizations were made to the mission-generation code, but some of them are tied to in-battle functionality as well and may benefit from a bit more stability and potentially a bit faster response time.

Again, I'm sooooo sorry for the inconvenience and I'm so relieved to be back online again. Fingers crossed I don't go over my memory limit again, but even if I do it's only because the game is getting a bit more popular. Silver lining, right? :P

I can assure the Star Force mechanic will not be taken away or modified. It's more about the number of calculations and functions that take place when generating missions than any one mechanic or object.

As an example, whenever you select your player it sends a request for all that player's missions. Because the missions are dynamic, every single one of them will change slightly when a new request is sent and need to be regenerated from scratch. At its highest point (when a player has completed the main campaign) as many as 25 different missions may need to be generated on the spot and all within a few seconds of runtime.

To give you an idea of how much processing this actually requires, this is what needs to be calculated for each mission:

- Mission name, description, battle points, goal turns, and level
- Missions records about how many times completed, failed, max points, etc.
- Field multipliers, field type(s), which foreground/background image to use, and which music
- Background and foreground mechas need to be decided and placed with randomized animations
- The number of kind of robot masters and robot mechas need to be decided
- The levels and stats of those robots/mechas need to be calculated (even more so for player battles)
- Each robot needs to have their current abilities generated, which is actually a complex process based on how many times they have been defeated, which level they are, their core type, etc.
- Which fusion or field star should appear and its typing (probably the least intensive part of the script)

After all that is decided, the actual HTML for the mission buttons need to be generated. The physical size of the images is not important to the script as the browser takes care of that, but the markup requires to display those images can be pretty complex and verbose which is the final kick-in-the-balls as far as memory is concerns.

So, my goal is not to remove anything but to try to streamline the way those things are generated. Stuff like making sure unnecessary data isn't loaded into memory too early, finding ways to not regenerate stuff that doesn't need regenerating, reorganizing my code to be more efficient, etc. When the game comes back it should be almost identical from your end, albeit (hopefully) a little faster.

Hopefully that helps to outline the issue. I am still painstakingly working on optimizing the script at home and I'll let you guys know the moment it's back up and working. Thank you again for your patience!

OH! And for your image question, just use the following format:
[Image Tooltip] (http://domain.com/image.jpg)
but without the space in between. :)

I'd just like to update everyone on the status of this issue.

The script that was blocked is the one responsible for generating missions and all the robots/abilities/rewards associated with them. Because the missions are so dynamic / constantly changing and because there are so many of them, it takes up an incredibly high amount of memory and CPU cycles. This is partially by design, partially because I decided to write the game in PHP (not recommended), and partially because I'm still a fairly novice programmer (in my opinion).

The hosting provider will not unlock the script until I have revised it to use significantly less memory, so that's what I'm going to be doing for the next few days. I spent my entire night yesterday shaving off a mere 1.5MB from the script (of about 25MB at its peak). I still have a long way to go.

As you might imagine, the game is pretty much unplayable until I get this fixed. The demo mode still works because it (luckily) uses a different and much smaller script and the missions are not dynamic. Until I get this fixed/optimized, players will be unable to access the mission select menu at all and can only really use their account for posting on the community.

I'm really sorry and I promise to try and have the game back up ASAP. :'(

I'll look into this later tonight. I knew it wasn't a 100% perfect fix but thought it might help a bit. Thanks.

Thanks for the tip MegabossMan - I was able to find the bug and it was absolutely in the code that generated the bonus fields. :) It's been fixed and the abilities should show up again. The real culprit was the Super Arm - when it tried to determine current field type it was unable to and then killed itself prematurely. Any abilities that came after it would be skipped as well. >_> But yes, fixed now. Thanks guys!

I'm so sorry everyone, I wish I knew what was causing it. >_<

In the mean time I've added a timer into the code. If you submit your action and nothing happens for 30 60 seconds, the script will ask you if you would like to try sending it the request again. Saying yes may cause the battle to behave in bizarre ways (as if one full turn just disappeared) but at the very least you have a chance of finishing the battle.

Again, I'm so sorry but hopefully this eases the pain a bit while I continue investigating from my end. :|

WOW! That's crazy! I can't believe you've found that many already! 0_o

But yes, +940% is incredibly overpowered.... though I think that's okay. The Star Force is introduced as a post-game mechanic because of how powerful it is and how much fun it (I think) to absolutely obliterate enemies that were once challenging or annoying. One might say it makes the game too easy, but does that really matter when you've already completed the entire campaign? I think not. I do have the fix the graphics though - your 940% electricity bar doesn't fit inside its container anymore. >_>

EDIT: YES! I got another Field Star! Now I'm totally gonna catch up to you guys![/sarcasm]

Or not. :P

Aaaaaaand here's another one! I'm still working on the Field Stars so no Fusions yet, but whatever. :P

And another!

This has happened to me several times too and I still trying to find a solution. Sometimes the server just decides to stop responding for some reason and you need to reload the battle. Very frustrating for sure. >_< I'll do my best to figure out the cause - sorry everyone!

That's.... weird. So you equip Guts Man with those abilities but when he goes into battle he doesn't have them? I have not had that happen to me before but I'll definitely look into it. Sorry!

Oh, I guess I didn't mention any thing about Attack/Defense Break. :o

If a robot's Attack stat reaches absolute zero, it goes into "Attack Break". While in this state, the robot cannot do ANY damage to anyone, regardless of their Defense. If you switch this robot back to the bench, they'll recover 1 Attack point per turn.

If a robot's Defense stat reaches absolute zero, it goes into "Defense Break". While in this state, damage done to this robot will result in a OHKO regardless of the user's Attack. If you switch this robot back to the bench, they'll recover 1 Defense point per turn.

If a robot's Speed stat reaches absolute zero, it goes into "Speed Break". While in this state, all abilities this robot attempts to use will miss. If you switch this robot back to the bench, they'll recovery 1 Speed point per turn.

If a situation occurs where the user in in Attack Break and the target is in Defense Break... it will be a very boring battle until someone boosts their stats again. :P

Merry Serbian Christmas! :D

Wow, that's awesome! I can't believe how many stars you've already found! Like, holy ****! :o Haha, you guys have no idea how giddy it makes me seeing all these star counts go up - very surreal. ^_^ Thank you all so much!

Btw, Searinox, could you wrap your image URLs in the appropriate tags when you post them? That way they show up on the page and people don't have to copy/paste the URL to see them. Just use the form [Image Title] (http://domain.com/image.jpg) but without the space in between. I've edited your last two posts to show you how it's done, but let me know if you have any other questions. :)

Thank you! And no, it's on purpose. I decided that, since you see the MM4 robots before you see the MM3 robots, they should come first. Each is only loosely based off a specific game, after all. Several robots that appear on the first page are not from MM1, for example. I may change the order in the future, but for right now I like this way better. I don't want to give new players the impression they missed something while they're playing Cossack's game and notice an entire page missing.

Hello everyone! Metal Man's sprite sheet has been updated again by Sean and he's fixed up a few issues with the chest area and I tweaked the red a bit to make it look less loud. I think we have a pretty fantastic sheet now! Compare the one above and the new one below (you may need to do a hard refresh to see the differences):

Metal Man V2


Metal Man V3 (link)


Doesn't he look AMAZING?!?! I love it! Great work Sean!

Thanks again for all your suggestions guys, they will definitely be taken into consideration. :)

@MegabossMan : I have to add a few more mechanics to the game before Ballade's second form can make an appearance, but I'd like his second form to function like other second forms in the original series in that he "transforms" once you deplete his Life Energy to zero. There's a slim chance I'll make it work as an ability instead - maybe transforming back-and-forth between forms each time you use it and maybe each one excels in a certain stat or something? Kind of like a (reversible) Mega Evolution in Pokemon? We'll see...

@MMX100 : Yes, I definitely still want to add the shop and if not Battle Points then Bolts/Screws will be the currency of choice. I think alternate costumes would be fun, as would a few more types of items and obviously support robots and shop-only abilities. That being said, there are already 8 different items available in the prototype including the 1-UP, it's just that it's a pretty rare drop that can usually be found on event stages (like the rival missions or the final destination stages). It (and the other super-rare item) appear very infrequently, but they ARE in the game. :)

Ah... See? I was missing something! >_>

Also, how does everyone like the new coat of paint on the leaderboards? Not only do the little leaderboard banners contain more information on them now, the actual leaderboard pages let you view SO much more information about everyone's files. You basically get to browse every player's editors, starforce, and database screens remotely. Pretty awesome, if I do say so myself! :P

EDIT:

Oh, the actual fields in the player editor. Derp. Forgive me I'm tired... I'll just give a full overview.

The experience field is a grand total of all the experience collected by that player's own robots (even if they have been transferred). It doesn't mean or do anything but it's fun to see. The individual Battle Point totals should be straight-forward. Completed Missions counts only unique completed missions, same for the Failed Missions, and then the Total Victories and Total Defeats count all wins/losses even on the same stage. Field and Fusion Star counts are obvious. The two ??? fields are hidden because they're coming in a future update.

And then... the Battle Fields themselves. They represent which fields appear in Chapter Two of that player's campaign and, by extension, which Fusion Fields appear in Chapter Four. It may not be obvious from only looking at your own file, but the exact order of the fields in each person's game file is randomized and the Fusion Fields that appear in Chapter Four are based on that randomized order. Once you complete the prototype (and you have) you can edit these fields by clicking on them. From there you can swap out any field slot with a field from another player's campaign, just like you switch abilities on a robot. By doing this, new Fusion Stars can be discovered and collected to increase your Star Force much, much more than otherwise possible.

Let me know if that clears anything up. ^_^

@MegabossMan : I'll do what I can to look into these issues. If not by tomorrow hopefully I fix them in the coming weeks. :S

@Shadownnico : I'll answer your questions one by one. :P

1. All doctors benefit from collected starforce equally.

2. I... guess not. Other than in the equipment screen. I should fix that soon. >_>

3. It looks like you haven't discovered the robot-transfer feature yet. Click the player name to transfer to other doctors. Transferred robots earn double experience and can be equipped with more abilities, but they do not benefit from player bonuses when transferred... unless I misunderstood what you were referring to.

4. Also not sure what the 2+2=5 part means. For the most part, you should be able to hover your mouse over things to see what they mean, but if you can be more specific I'll try to figure out what I'm missing. >_>

Sorry for any confusion. :S

As a side note, anyone who wants to know more about the mechanics of Field and Fusion stars should check the comments of this thread where I discuss them with MegabossMan. :)

It sure is! :P

Well, here's my first contribution. It's not a Fusion Star but it's a start! :D

Well, at the moment there are 24 Field Stars (8 for each Dr.) and 12 Fusion Stars (4 for each Dr.)... by default. If you go into the Player Editor and click on any of the 8 field slots, you'll see that a new mechanic has been unlocked and you can now customize which fields appear in which campaigns and where! ^_^

So while there will only ever by 24 Field Stars (until I add more stages), the combinations of different fields and therefore different Fusion Stars is almost endless. There's actually a way - mathematically - to calculate how many combinations / Fusion Stars are possible, but I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise here in the thread. ;)

To make sure it's absolutely clear though, every theoretical combination of two stages has it's own unique Fusion Star. Rainy Sewers and Space Simulator for example, could produce either a Rainy Simulator Star or a Space Sewers Star depending on how you choose to mix it up. And it doesn't stop there, stages are shared among all campaigns so you could combine any other stage with either of those two up there for even more Rainy and/or Space type stages. You can imagine how many possibilities there are if you put the time into looking. :P

Hmmm, if it's happening to more than one person that's worrying. I will do my best to isolate the issue(s) and iron them out in the next few days, but I apologize for all the trouble. >_> In the mean time, please try not to switch between tabs too much during a fight and/or use the pause option if you have to. Boooooo at bugs! :'(