Mega Man RPG Prototype Community

Not even 12 days away and yet, here I am talking to all of you again. In the span of this past month, we’ve already had more updates than we had in the entirety of this year. Sure, the Scrooges among you may be quick to believe that’s a result of poor scheduling more than anything else, but isn’t it more likely… that it’s the magic of the holidays coming into full bloom?

Please don’t answer that.

Nonetheless, I doubt the majority of you reading into this thread are all that interested in my opening flavor text and prattle, so I should probably get into the meat of this general mechanics update as quick as possible. Though, if you frequent the site and somehow missed this, please also remember to check out the December 2018 New Robots Update as well; chances are, the fun new playable MM5 stuff the community so eagerly wants at every waking second would be found there instead. This thread, on the other hand….

Update Overview

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To the uninitiated among you, this may simply be a regular screenshot. Nothing particularly out of the ordinary. But, let’s take another second here… Magnify! Enhance!



That’s right! Dr. Light has been made ANGRIER-!!! ….. Wait no that’s not it at all. Sorry… . >_>



As you can evidently see, there are now… odd triangles located above Splash Woman’s attack stat? Not to mention the same specified slots exist for the defense and speed stats as well. And obviously, it’s worth noting that this is not only applicable to Splash Woman, but is system-wide between all of the combatants in the Prototype. So, let’s throw all this forced mystery aside and allow me to clarify what exactly is happening mechanically.

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To the Next Stage!




For some further context here, originally stat increases to the game were based on hard numbers and percentages; though this seemed relatively rudimentary and harmless at the time, basing all stat increases on hard-coded numbers would often grow to become either wildly obsolete in the late game or become too inconsistent and invariably fluid to be relied upon. As such, for years now, a change to the way we handle stat increases was kept at the forefront of our minds often, though was ultimately left to the backburner. However, taking a minor pinch of inspiration from the acclaimed Pokémon franchise (as we’ve certainly been known for doing time and time again), stat increases are now built upon the foundation of ‘Stages’ rather than abject numerical value.

Now, even to those of you who have played Pokémon beforehand, the concept of ‘Stages’ may still be foreign to you. Essentially, when using a move that directly tampers with the stats of an opponent, rather than the afflicted target lose an abject numerical value, they basically drop down a stage. In essence, “The target’s attack / defense / harshly fell!” Along with adding a new layer of consistency to techniques that relied heavily on percentages, we feel that this is a much more concise way of displaying a technique’s results to rookie players, while developing the sense of Prototype being a game rather than some routine number simulator. Stages go up through a system of five different levels, either towards the positive stat-buffing end or to the negative stat-decreasing end, and will be found in typical techniques or abilities that increase your stats or decrease the opponent’s stats. This also has an interesting effect on Rhythm’s signature stat-swapping abilities; rather than directly swapping the numerical values of two robot’s stats (which to be frank was awfully annoying and pestuous), stat-swapping will instead swap the stages between the two robots instead. In short, this new stat system will virtually affect a wide majority of the abilities found in Prototype, and massively shake up existing strategies.

Though I apologize if this wasn’t exactly the new content you were looking to find, this was nevertheless a technical change we essentially had to make at some point in our development. The way stat-handling was done before was simply counter-intuitive to a lot of general good game design, and this should hopefully strengthen a lot of underused abilities, while balancing some portions of the game that were far too stat-reliant to be even remotely fair, and thus fun, to the player. Of course, your feedback is absolutely imperative to our development, so if there are areas with these changes that you feel need improvement, please feel free to discuss it with us. As is, I’ve given you enough of a simplified and general overview, so below here’s a list of specific patch notes you may be looking for to see what this specially addresses and alters in matters of abilities.

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STAT BREAK ABILITIES

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- Spark Shock does damage and lowers target's attack stat
- Bright Burst does damage and sharply lowers target's attack stat (type reversed to Electric/Time)
- Bubble Bomb does damage and removes any attack stat buffs from the target (type reversed to Water/Explode)

- Hard Knuckle does damage and lowers target's defense stat
- Rising Cutter does damage and sharply lowers target's defense stat
- Drill Blitz does damage and removes any defense stat buffs from the target (is now Earth/Missile type, only 2 drills)

- Time Arrow does damage and lowers target's speed stat
- Time Slow does damage and sharply lowers target's speed stat (does damage and no longer requires charging)
- Ice Slasher does damage and removes any speed stat buffs from the target

- Shadow Blade does damage and lowers the target's highest stat
- Laser Trident does damage and removes any positive stat buffs from the target
- Slash Claw does damage and worsens any negative stat debuffs on the target

- Attack/Defense/Speed Break abilities harshly lower stat of one robot
- Attack/Defense/Speed Assault abilities lower stats of all enemy robots

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STAT BOOST ABILITIES

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- Thunder Beam does damage and raises the user's attack stat
- Oil Slider does damage and raises the user's speed stat

- Fire Storm still has three levels are charge but damage reduced
- sharply raises defense only after conclusion of uninterrupted combo
- Atomic Fire still has three levels are charge but damage reduced
- sharply raises attack only after conclusion of uninterrupted combo

- Attack/Defense/Speed Boost abilities sharply raise stat of one robot
- Attack/Defense/Speed Support abilities raise stats of all ally robots

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STAT MODE ABILITIES

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- Energy Mode harshly lowers own Attack, Defense, Speed to fully recover life energy
- Attack Mode harshly lowers Defense and Speed in exchange for a maxed-out attack stat
- Defense Mode harshly lowers Attack and Speed in exchange for a maxed-out defense stat
- Speed Mode harshly lowers Attack and Defense in exchange for a maxed-out speed stat

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STAT SWAP ABILITIES

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- All swapping abilities now double their weapon energy requirements after each use
- All swapping abilities automatically target opponent, cannot be aimed, however...
- Support bots can aim the swapping abilities freely and at their own teammates

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NOTES

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- Stat boosts/breaks are now guaranteed (no more RNG here)
- Consumable stat items are stronger, pellet sharply raises stat and capsule drastically raises stat
- Holdable stat items are nerfed a bit, they raise given stat by one stage per turn but only up to max (5)
- Several other abilities had power/accuracy/descriptions tweaked to rebalance
- Energy boost per level-up has been reduced to +1% (other stats still get +5%)

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Two New Robot Masters Added!




It hasn’t necessarily been a secret these past couple of days, but I suppose it hasn’t been officially addressed: Wave Man and Gravity Man from Mega Man 5 have joined the playable roster! As with the previous Robot Masters, they bring their signature abilities -- Water Wave and Gravity Hold respectively-- to the battlefield, and are dynamically illustrated by our very own Sean Adamson / MetalMan. If you’re unaware of the new method to unlock them, please check out the aforementioned December update thread. While I expect many of you have likely added these guys to your collection already, this is now the official decree. Currently, the plan is to continue adding more and more completed playable Robot Masters when we can, so we can continue to build upon the bricks and foundation that Prototype’s established. Please stay tuned for further updates throughout these coming weeks, and we, collectively as the staff, hope you enjoy the new ‘bots!

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Check out our Github page to find the latest updates, no matter how minute or technically here, for all you budding programmers.

Comments, questions, and general feedback about the update can be posted below this thread.
For bug reports, typos, and other issues please post in the Official Bug Report Thread.

Hey there! Thanks for playing!
- MBM