So I restarted a hack...

I'm afraid I won't be continuing The Original Sin. If only because it's just not challenging enough. Sure, there are new weapons and enemies, a few tweaked mechanics, but no big engine changes.

So I thought up this idea and now know it to be feasible, after having refamiliarized myself with the code. I think it might turn out being quite a fun hack, both to make and to play. Here are some of the features I'm going to be implanting.

- When starting, you can pick one of 4 character "types." Each character gets different weapons, possibly different mechanics (faster running speed, more starting health, some stuff like that.)

- A level-up system will be implanted. Killing an enemy will net you some experience (visible on the menu screen) Gaining a level will increase your health, in some rare instances give you new "guns" (spells or abilities; see next point), or do some other beneficial thing.

- Spells and special abilities will be available (as weapons with limited ammo.) Expect to see some funky stuff here. A "cure" spell is a must, and only the beginning of what I could do with all this.

- A shop system will be implanted. Ammo and items can be purchased here. Enemies will drop money as well as their regular drops at random.

- All weapons will have limited ammo (unless it's a melee weapon of some sort) Before you get a weapon, you will be able to punch, however. (This is still undecided - I haven't looked into what implanting this would imply, but I doubt it'd be any harder than the other stuff. )

- While there is a main storyline to follow, a large, difficult dungeon is available as a side-quest. Goodies abound, but you'll have to go back and forth between this and the main storyline to get through some places. What's at the bottom? We'll see.

- As usual, this hack will have nothing to do with Cave Story (other than using its engine.)

(EDIT! I forgot the best part. I'll be resizing the main character sprite to be more 16-bit (possibly 24x32.) Expect to see other changes to the graphic engine, too.)

I will probably begin working on this a little later on during the week. I get next week off so I can do a bit of work during that time and see if I can come up with some sort of working concept.

(Edit 2: Ah yes. I expect the tweaked game will be of great use to whoever'll want to spice up their hack. >_> )

 

Hrm. It was just too tempting. Ok, so I've figured out how to set up a load screen...

 

That's great Rune!
Looks very smexy.

 

Sounds like a great idea.

 

Ambitious stuff, I wish you the best of luck with it.

 

That is truly amazing RuneLacer. I think Pixel will fall in love with you any time soon. Keep thinking and keep going!.

 

its so amazing to see all the inspiration and effort you put into ur works
i hope this is as good as the others (:

 

Do want.

Man I wish I knew all this crazy stuff you do... sounds absolutely wicked, can't wait for a demo.

 

WoW Epique lol.

 

Ok, some more details.

At the start, you can pick one of four classes. Each class has its own set of weapons, health, move/jump speed, and possibly a few other things.

Fighter: a close-range melee-type character with few long-range weapons. High speed, average health. The kind of character you'd use to run to and from enemies, cutting them up.

Gunner: a long-range character that'll play very much like Quote did. Average speed and low health, but the gunner's weapons make up for it.

Defender: a more defensive character with restorative abilities and a mixed bag of long/short range weapons. Average stats but high health to make up for this character's more tactical use.

Bomber: slow but with immense firepower. Most of the bomber's weapons are explosives with medium range.

The characters are not balanced. Some will be easier to play as, some harder. The general storyline is the same regardless of which character you pick, so you can play a challenging but fun game as a fighter, or take it a little easier and play a bomber or a gunner. Or to make things interesting, you can play a defender and spend less time blowing up critters and more finding ways to outsmart them.

Killing an enemy will give you experience points. The experience table is the same for all characters, going up to level 15. Gaining a level will reward you with extra health, spells/abilities, and/or more ammo.

Enemies also drop money. Money can be used to buy items, purchase new weapons, or upgrade existing weapons. Weapons no longer have experience but can be permanently upgraded (for hefty sums of money.) Adding extra ammo or tweaking some parameters (now that I can ditch the experience data, I can use it to hold extra weapon info) will also be a possibility: dissatisfied with your gun? Spend a bit of money and boost its firing rate.

There will be 40 weapons, 10 per class, each upgradable 3x. (This will require relocating the weapon pointer table. ) Weapons are not necessarily unique - one class may also have some weapons another class has. I'd say about 30 unique weapons, though... You are limited in the amount of weapons you carry, mind you, so you won't get all of a class' weapons the first time through.

Those are the new mechanics in a nutshell, for now. Expect the hack to have many new items (such as the double-jump boots from The Original Sin,) enemies, and others, aside from the above. The hack will also be slightly more action-oriented than Cave Story (better practice getting through The Original Sin's water area with those invincible enemies )

Current progress: working out how to rig up the character selection screen and working on some preliminary sprites...

 

This is so awesome D:
Whenever you got something, like a demo, no matter how unfinished it is, please post it

Keep up the good work!

 

	Fighter		Name		Found		Upgrade	Ammo
Weapon 01	Fist		Initial		-	No		Low damage and range. Hits right in front of the player.
Weapon 02	Rock		Found		Range	Yes		Low damage, decent range. Arcing projectile.
Weapon 03	Dagger		Bought		Damage	No		Medium damage, reasonably fast, hits right in front of the player.
Weapon 04	Katar		Found		Speed	No		Low damage, very fast, bigger range than the dagger. Rapid attack.
Weapon 05	Staff		Found		Range	No		Decent damage but very slow. Has good range - hits in a line. Can hit multiple targets.
Weapon 06	Th.Knife	Bought		Number	Yes		Low damage but can throw many at once. Travels in a straight line.
Weapon 07	Wave Blade	Found		Speed	Yes		Blade which fires a wave for good damage. Reasonable speed.
Weapon 08	Side-kick	Spell		-	-		Strong side-kick to the enemy. Cannot target upwards. Does good damage.
Weapon 09	Uppercut	Spell		-	-		Rising uppercut. High damage, can hit multiple targets.
Weapon 10	Fury Punch	Spell		-	-		Fast fist-based projectile. Can rapidly hit for average damage.

Gunner		Name		Found		Upgrade	Ammo
Weapon 01	CO2 Gun		Initial		-	No		Low damage and speed. Compressed air firearm.
Weapon 02	Bow		Found		Range	Yes		Slow but fairly strong. Fires at an arc.
Weapon 03	Magnum		Bought		Speed	Yes		Slow at first, but good damage.
Weapon 04	Uzi		Found		Speed	Yes		Speed only increases when upgraded, not while levelling. Can hold fire to attack.
Weapon 05	Shotgun		Found		Damage	Yes		Very slow and short ranged, but does high damage and can hit multiple targets.
Weapon 06	Laser		Bought		Speed	No		Weak weapon that can pass through walls.
Weapon 07	Minigun		Found		Damage	Yes		Lots of ammo but very low damage. Fires at top speed like the Uzi.
Weapon 08	Energy Shot	Spell		-	-		Fires a powerful projectile.
Weapon 09	Heal		Spell		-	-		Restores 5 health instantly per use.
Weapon 10	Seeker		Spell		-	-		Fires a powerful shot that attempts to home in on the target.

Defender	Name		Found		Upgrade	Ammo
Weapon 01	Fist		Initial		-	No		Low damage and range. Hits right in front of the player.
Weapon 02	Bow		Found		Range	Yes		Slow but fairly strong. Fires at an arc.
Weapon 03	Sword		Bought		Damage	No		A bit slow but decent range and damage.
Weapon 04	Stunner		Found		Durat.	Yes		Stops an enemy for 3 seconds. Does not work on bosses.
Weapon 05	Staff		Found		Range	No		Decent damage but very slow. Has good range - hits in a line. Can hit multiple targets.
Weapon 06	Crossbow	Bought		Speed	Yes		Weak at low levels but becomes powerful and fast.
Weapon 07	Avenger		Found		Damage	No		Blessed sword. Hits fast for decent damage. Has good range.
Weapon 08	Heal		Spell		-	-		Restores 5 health instantly per use.
Weapon 09	Shield		Spell		-	-		Reduces damage by 1 for 10 seconds.
Weapon 10	Regen		Spell		-	-		Restores 2 health per second for 5 seconds.

Bomber		Name		Found		Upgrade	Ammo
Weapon 01	Fist		Initial		-	No		Low damage and range. Hits right in front of the player.
Weapon 02	Rock		Found		Range	Yes		Low damage, decent range. Arcing projectile.
Weapon 03	Magnum		Bought		Speed	Yes		Slow at first, but good damage.
Weapon 04	Grenade		Found		Damage	Yes		Sticks to a surface and explodes after a short delay. Thrown in an arc. Can hit multiple targets.
Weapon 05	Shotgun		Found		Damage	Yes		Very slow and short ranged, but does high damage and can hit multiple targets.
Weapon 06	Explosive	Bought		Damage	Yes		Explodes on contact. Thrown in an arc. Does high damage and can hit multiple targets.
Weapon 07	Flamethrowr	Found		Width	Yes		Torches enemies; has a similare range to the shotgun. Can hold button.
Weapon 08	Energy Shot	Spell		-	-		Fires a powerful projectile.
Weapon 09	Fireball	Spell		-	-		Fires a projectile which explodes on contact.
Weapon 10	Explosion	Spell		-	-		Explosion, centered on the player.

The planned list of weapons. "Upgrade" is the property of the weapon that can be upgraded through the spending of money.

 

How hard is it to learn assembly?

 

How about a ninja or something.

One that moves very fast and has lots of cool moves that deal very little damage? xD

 

Yeah, a ninja would've been freaking awesome.

Also: I look forward to this mod. It seems like it will be extremely different from the mods around here.

 

How about a ninja or something.

One that moves very fast and has lots of cool moves that deal very little damage? xD

You reminded me of Ragnarok Online O:

Speaking of which, how about changing to another class once you get to a certain level-up.

Like Swordsman => Knight or Hunter => Sniper

Dunno if it's possible lol.

 

How about a ninja or something.

One that moves very fast and has lots of cool moves that deal very little damage? xD

Fighter: a close-range melee-type character with few long-range weapons. High speed, average health. The kind of character you'd use to run to and from enemies, cutting them up.

There's your ninja. High speed and close-range melee weapons? Seems about right. (An actual bona-fide oriental ninja would be terribly out of place with the rest of the more occidental classes and setting.)

It seems like it will be extremely different from the mods around here.

Have a look at The Original Sin if you haven't yet - though the game engine is the same, much of the content (items, weapons, enemies...) has been changed and rewritten to perform differently (double-jumping, for instance, or time-based weapons that explode after a delay.) It's got about 2-3 hours of gameplay; not a whole lot, but it should give you a taste of what's in store with this hack.

Speaking of which, how about changing to another class once you get to a certain level-up.

Upgrading classes isn't impossible (once I'll have the class system up, handling extra classes will be a piece of cake) but there's little point if it doesn't do anything. If you have suggestions though, I'm open to them (at least until I start coding things and make them definit.)

(By the way, if you have any suggestions, keep in mind that gaining levels increases your stats and I'm not going to code a new batch of weapons for upgraded classes. Aside from the sheer time and effort involved, it'd get messy dealing with what the player already owns considering there are only 8 weapon slots.)

Fake edit: the current weapon levelling system involves "buying" the levels. Although I could have upgraded classes take over this: upgrading your class also gives your weapons a level increase. Class-changing could cost money (once you're eligeable) to keep the player's money balanced and to prevent getting them too early. Dunno, just brainstorming a bit with your idea...

Fighter -> Assassin -> Baphomet?

 

Fighter -> Assassin -> Baphomet?

Forum Assassin? Will the character be equipped with sniper rifles?

Also to repeat my earlier question, how hard is it to learn assembly?

 

Also to repeat my earlier question, how hard is it to learn assembly?

Depends. Have you ever touched a programming language before, or are you completely new to this?

If you've programmed before, particularly if you've programmed in a low-level language, it shouldn't take too long. Maybe a few weekends of occasional studying and experimenting would be enough to get started.

If you're totally new to any kind of programming, it might take a bit longer since you'll also have to learn the basics of how the program flows and how memory works.

It also depends on just how much of an effort you intend to put into learning, too. Just reading tutorials and not trying things out for yourself won't cut it. But if you're the type to try things out and see what happens, you'll pick up the basics in no time at all.

Try to keep unrelated questions in the appropriate thread/forum though. This thread deals with the new project I've begun work on; I don't want it to get derailed with general hacking-related questions. (It's all good, I'm just saying, though. >"< )

Edit: By the way, the toughest part isn't learning what the instructions (eg, MOV, SUB, JSR...) do. It's learning what happens with the processor during and after those instructions, and all of the binary arithmetics shortcuts necessary to writing good assembly.

 

Depends. Have you ever touched a programming language before, or are you completely new to this?

Javascript, Actionscript, HTML, SQL, CSS and some hex editing.

If you've programmed before, particularly if you've programmed in a low-level language, it shouldn't take too long. Maybe a few weekends of occasional studying and experimenting would be enough to get started.

Fair enough. I'll get to it then.