openCS

Jun 3, 2017 at 3:01 AM
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This mod had me floored. Pretty great stuff you made. It also looks like you're using beta CS stuff in there in a creative way, level layouts are well thought of so far too, and the fact you can be four different classes makes gameplay very unique too. Can't wait to see more!
 
Jun 3, 2017 at 5:45 AM
lol
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I got to Ekkin Bridge and got hit by a bat to see what's in the chest to the left of the section without having to become to scout to check...
It wouldn't open, -I received "disappointment in myself"-
 
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Jun 3, 2017 at 11:03 AM
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EDIT: Just replayed the mod as the frog and it was VERY fun. Messing around with the blade was extremely satisfying. Finished the Blue Fang Dungeon. Is there anything else or is that all there is atm? I can't wait to see more of this mod in the future.

I really enjoy the frog alot as well. I try to balance every character out and make them fun in their own way, but that goes with alot of going back and replaying things on a constant basis... Might just consider making a room specifically for character testing, that'd do myself a huge favor.

After completing the dungeon, that is it. The overworld at it's current state is quite barren and there's not much else left to do. Next release should have a much larger focus on exploration in the overworld, as it would probably be a good idea to take a break from designing another dungeon, maybe

I also want to thank everyone again for providing some really killer ideas. I've already made some implementations with how the map system works, as it just needs some more polishing. Be on the lookout for some new light spills of content showcasing on the devblog in the OP...

I got to Ekkin Bridge and got hit by a bat to see what's in the chest to the left of the section without having to become to scout to check...
It wouldn't open, -I received "disappointment in myself"-

Yeah... sorry that chest kept so many spirits and hopes so high. I have a serious tendency of placing entities before even working with them, it's just the way I design stuff. :toroko2:
 
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Jun 3, 2017 at 5:18 PM
lol
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Yeah... sorry that chest kept so many spirits and hopes so high. I have a serious tendency of placing entities before even working with them, it's just the way I design stuff. :toroko2:
I'm glad to know it's something I can look forward on! It's awesome you fill your world up with doors and chests that at least I know I can go towards in later updates.

Something that interested me was how only the Mimiga didn't get their weapons lowered.
Lower4_zpse5ikin9c.png

But this doesn't apply to the other characters:
Lower2_zpsst4bfena.png

Lower1_zpsghukogdc.png

Lower3_zps436m9wqg.png


Is there a reason to this??
 
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Jun 3, 2017 at 10:42 PM
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That was the placeholder trait (pure) for the mimiga. It is not final, and will be removed.
 
Jun 4, 2017 at 2:46 AM
lol
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That was the placeholder trait (pure) for the mimiga. It is not final, and will be removed.
Okay cool. Also after coming back and getting the missile launcher I found the Balrog bosses to have died rather easily, not sure if the launcher's overpowered or the bubbler/shooting are inferior. I had an easier time fighting the Balrog onslaughts with the blade and snake weapons but the launcher definitely had the greatest power to it.
 
Jun 4, 2017 at 11:09 PM
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Jun 5, 2017 at 3:35 AM
lol
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Jun 5, 2017 at 5:54 PM
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Hi. I want to see more of the mod before I leave a long-ass post about gameplay, balance and design decisions because I find it promising enough that it's worth waiting for a more polished version.

In the meantime, I wanted to report some mistakes:
- When starting a game with a new character, if you die before saving once, it will automatically load the last save from your previous playthrough, forcing you to leave to the title screen and start a new game again.
- The scout can go out of bounds in several maps: Start Point, Hermit Hovel, Mine Shaft (with a bit of help from the boss), maybe others.
p358705-0-sggllkv.png
- In the weapon Shelter, sometimes there are three chests, sometimes there are two.
- Once during one of my playthroughs, a soul/ghost/flame thing was here (approx. where the bullet is).
p358705-1-u9azwg5.png
It wasn't moving, and had an active hurtbox that didn't seem to deplete its health (I dealt it more than 500 damage without killing it). Once I got closer, it seemed to activate its health bar because it died after a few more hits. Can't reproduce. I guess I got within its spawn range at the same time it spawned, and that broke something? idk
- I said I wouldn't talk about design decisions but those shitty souls/ghosts/flame things are obnoxious and bad. The Scout's weapon is also obnoxious and bad. The two do not go well together.
 
Jun 5, 2017 at 6:15 PM
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Hi. I want to see more of the mod before I leave a long-ass post about gameplay, balance and design decisions because I find it promising enough that it's worth waiting for a more polished version.

In the meantime, I wanted to report some mistakes:
- When starting a game with a new character, if you die before saving once, it will automatically load the last save from your previous playthrough, forcing you to leave to the title screen and start a new game again.
- The scout can go out of bounds in several maps: Start Point, Hermit Hovel, Mine Shaft (with a bit of help from the boss), maybe others.
p358705-0-sggllkv.png
- In the weapon Shelter, sometimes there are three chests, sometimes there are two.
- Once during one of my playthroughs, a soul/ghost/flame thing was here (approx. where the bullet is).
p358705-1-u9azwg5.png
It wasn't moving, and had an active hurtbox that didn't seem to deplete its health (I dealt it more than 500 damage without killing it). Once I got closer, it seemed to activate its health bar because it died after a few more hits. Can't reproduce. I guess I got within its spawn range at the same time it spawned, and that broke something? idk
- I said I wouldn't talk about design decisions but those shitty souls/ghosts/flame things are obnoxious and bad. The Scout's weapon is also obnoxious and bad. The two do not go well together.

Excellent. I have already taken some of these mistakes and fixed them up, as I was being told that as the scout, you're capable of leaping out of bounds. As far as the ghosts/homing flames go, I definitely saw them as a nuisance, although I did want to add some sort of element to the level to help it distinguish itself from the rest of the dungeon.

Perhaps I can change them drastically and make them function more fairly (maybe flames transforming into homing flames and not being able to clip through solid surfaces), alongside with increasing their hitbox by a considerable margin. I'll have to try these out and see how it all works, but ultimately I may just remove them entirely.

As far as stating that the scout's weapon is obnoxious, do you mean it by just how it functions or how it sounds? I'm a bit a unclear about what your input was on that. I'd like to find a way to make the scout's weapon a little more balanced and less weak and clunky at some point in the future.

A skipflag should remedy the saving issue, thanks for pointing that out.

Great input, I'm looking forward to making some fixes on those mistakes you glossed over.
 
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Jun 5, 2017 at 11:04 PM
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As far as the ghosts/homing flames go, I definitely saw them as a nuisance, although I did want to add some sort of element to the level to help it distinguish itself from the rest of the dungeon.

Perhaps I can change them drastically and make them function more fairly (maybe flames transforming into homing flames and not being able to clip through solid surfaces), alongside with increasing their hitbox by a considerable margin. I'll have to do try these out and see how it all works, but ultimately I may just remove them entirely.

It would be sad to remove them entirely, but fixing them seems hard as well. They are hard to hit and kill, and can't be avoided when they come from the ground suddenly. If you made them harmless and made them spawn projectiles, they would still be able to come from below and spawn stuff in your face. But there definitely is something to do with them. They are a meaningful addition to that eerie map, you should be able to find something that makes them work nicely.

As far as stating that the scout's weapon is obnoxious, do you mean it by just how it functions or how it sounds? I'm a bit a unclear about what your input was on that. I'd like to find a way to make the scout's weapon a little more balanced and less weak and clunky at some point in the future.

Yeah sorry I was being grumpy when I wrote this. I'm going to write my thoughts about the Scout's weapon as if the game were finished. I understand that you're still tweaking the balance and so I want you to take what I'm about to say as a warning rather than a complaint.
Anyways. My main problem with the Shooting Star is this:
Given that this gun is your main source of damage as the Scout (the Missile Launcher has limited ammo as well, except it doesn't reload automatically so you can't use it as your main weapon), you want to be able to spam it. Some boss fights and hard-to-hit enemies (read: the flame ghost things) require you to shoot lots of bullets for extended periods of time. Plus, since it doesn't even deal a lot of damage (compare with the Blade) or protect effectively against enemy bullets (compare with the Bubbler and also the Blade), you need to be able to spam it even more.
But since each bullet splits into several mini-bullets whenever you shoot, the gun's output is heavily throttled (because of limitations on the number of bullets that can be displayed on-screen). You can't have a consistent shooting frequency, because once a bullet splits you can't shoot anymore until enough bullets disappear. That means you can't spam the shooting button to deal optimal damage to bosses, and one press is not equal to one bullet. Moreover, the fact that the gun has limited ammo further limits your damage output.
The fight against Puu Black, for example, is atrocious. The gun can't destroy bubbles efficiently, does very little damage, can't hit the boss consistently, and on top of that, after a few seconds of spamming you can barely shoot bullets anymore. Plus, since bullets don't split when they hit something, it's actually better not to shoot bubbles directly but to stay away at a far enough distance that bullets split before they hit bubbles. Which means you can spam even less (because of the on-screen bullet limitation) AND deal even less damage to the boss.
I understand that the Scout should have a less powerful weapon since he has the best mobility, but his weaknesses are far superior to his strengths. Right now I would choose a traitless Frog or Mimiga over the Scout any day.

I suggest solving this spamming problem by somehow removing the hard limit on displayed bullets, and somehow making bullets split regardless of whether they hit something or not. If you do so, I think the ammo limitation and the damage can stay low (wouldn't want to make it OP).
Although I guess those two changes seem harder to do than just changing damage and ammo limit, so in the end it's up to you.

Edit: Oh yeah, I almost forgot the fact that one or two hits are enough to get a Level DOWN. I think it's a bit too frustrating since boss fights are already hard enough as it is.

Edit 2: oh hey it happened again.
p358711-0-pouxbvp.png
It seems like it appeared at the exact spot where the bat mommy died. Maybe there's a correlation.
It's unkillable, even when I get closer (which wasn't the case last time, that's extra weird!), but it still hurts me when I touch it.
Edit 3: nevermind, it happened again, this time in the ground, even though the bat wasn't there at all. I think it just happens all the time but at different positions.
 
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Jun 6, 2017 at 12:43 AM
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Aha, yes. I'll definitely look into fixing up the shooting star to make it more sustainable for the scout. I also find it to be a bit challenging to fight bosses with his weapons, but sometimes when I test on my own I just don't realize how challenging it would be for others, so i'm pretty thankful to get some insight on that.

I'll be sad to remove the flames, but i'm going to do what I can to make them more viable for the map. Currently, there's only H/V triggers that spawn them and they just spawn on the edges of the map, which would leave me to believe that may be the reason why they are so prone to glitching out. Also, they are entities that are unused in vanilla Cave Story after all, so it doesnt surprise me that they're going to do some weird stuff.
 
Jun 6, 2017 at 2:23 AM
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Also: I'm pretty sure it's possible to go out of bounds in the Beast Den as well. Get a damage boost from a flame with the exact timing, booster up, get another damage boost from a missile. I never managed to pull it off, but I came veeery close.
Nonetheless, I think it's safer to always close off those ceilings, regardless of their reachability.
 
Jun 6, 2017 at 2:42 AM
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One for-sure way to close up a wall/ceiling is to have an H/V trigger, and set the flags "Solid (Hard Sides)" and "Ignore Solid".

This basically makes a wall/ceiling that stretches infinitely, since the player can't pass the trigger and the trigger goes through walls.

It will fail if you are going at a ridiculous speed or are pushed through, but in your case I don't think that's an issue. (Tiles are of-course the best way though)
 
Jun 6, 2017 at 2:53 AM
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One for-sure way to close up a wall/ceiling is to have an H/V trigger, and set the flags "Solid (Hard Sides)" and "Ignore Solid".

This basically makes a wall/ceiling that stretches infinitely, since the player can't pass the trigger and the trigger goes through walls.

It will fail if you are going at a ridiculous speed or are pushed through, but in your case I don't think that's an issue. (Tiles are of-course the best way though)

Good call. I recall placing a null (entity 0) with the solid (hard sides) element in an open spot in the first Blue Fang Cavern map, but strangely enough I have not gotten around or at least remembered to test it to see if it prevented the scout to boost right through. Neat that you can use H/V triggers like that though, i'll tinker with it and see what comes out. Otherwise, transparent solid tiles might just do the trick.
 
Jun 12, 2017 at 1:38 AM
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W H Y D O E S T H E . 7 Z E X T R A C T I O N P R O C E S S T A K E S O L O N G
 
Jun 16, 2017 at 2:42 AM
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good mod

but

how you get those MODS folder
and what site (or this forum) you get from?
 
Jun 16, 2017 at 4:30 AM
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how you get those MODS folder
and what site (or this forum) you get from?
I'm not sure what the second line's referring to, but I'm gonna assume it's referring to the "mods" folder.
It's from @Clownacy's DLL mod loader, which is on this very forum.
 
Jun 16, 2017 at 12:50 PM
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I'm not sure what the second line's referring to, but I'm gonna assume it's referring to the "mods" folder.
It's from @Clownacy's DLL mod loader, which is on this very forum.
ok I will test this mods folder on original cave story
 
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