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Mega Man 8-bit Deathmatch => Projects & Creative => W.I.P Forum => Topic started by: Athel on April 29, 2019, 10:34:49 PM

Title: Megaman Unlimited: 8-Bit Deathmatch! (Fanmade MMU Expansion WIP)
Post by: Athel on April 29, 2019, 10:34:49 PM
Mega Man Unlimited: 8 Bit Deathmatch!
 
 

 
 Hello there, everybody! My name is Athel, and I'd like to introduce you all to a rather ambitious project of mine - an expansion pack based on the fangame Mega Man Unlimited!
 
 This started out originally as a question - what if CutmanMike and Co. decided to make an expansion based on the well-known fangame? It was a funny thought, but as time went on, I started actually wondering if such a thing was feasible. Earlier in 2019, I finally broke my silence on the forums and brought forth a "proof-of-concept," using assets from Jax's MMU weapons, various MMU class mods, and the tiles I ripped from MegaPhilX's stage maps (which you can see above). After seeing that there was interest, as well as receiving many warnings that expansions in development usually don't last long, I decided to formally start the project to see how far a fanmade expansion pack would go.
 
 At the moment, I am a one-man team here, and the assets I'm currently using are being used without permission from the respective authors, but fear not! I will be working on getting permissions from the respective artists to use their stuff in a project like this.
 
 The story of the expansion would take place after V5, but before V5's secret cutscene leading into V6. This is similar to how MMU takes place after MM9, as I believe that MMU would be sandwiched right in between 9 and 10 if it ever were to be considered part of the story line. I am also aiming for the expansion to have the same quality as the core game, so that players will have a seamless experience. The expansion itself would be selected upon starting a new game, where "UNLIMITED" would be it's own episode. Last but not least, the expansion would even come with it's own intro cutscene, establishing the story behind the expansion.
 
 As I've said before, however, this is a very ambitious project, probably one of my most ambitious to date. However, as a returning mapper with no good maps to his name, I figure I can use this as a learning experience, whilst making my dreams become reality. Volunteers are, of course, always welcome. In the worst case scenario, I can at least release the maps that I manage to create.
 
 
(click to show/hide)

 Going on a leap of faith here, I have set up a Discord server to keep track of all the crazy things that need to be done if this were to succeed. All are welcome, of course!
 
 https://discord.gg/6YW8pfJ (https://discord.gg/6YW8pfJ)
 
 And now, the old post, for archival reasons. I hope you guys will like what I have in store!
 
 
(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Mega Man Unlimited - Fanmade Campaign (Idea?)
Post by: Rozark on April 30, 2019, 02:35:23 AM
Sure, let's discuss.

As far as I'm aware, there hasn't been any restrictions on fangame expansions.
A Rockforce expansion exists along with DOSreborn.
However, outside of those expansions (huge exceptions), unofficial fan expansions are never really completed.
It takes a large amount of time to develop these sorts of things and the quality resources (Spriters, Mappers, Programmers, etc) required are often working on either the core game or other projects. High demand, low supply.

Unlimited's overall reception, while you hit the nail on the head with overrated, is a general "mixed" for assorted reasons.
Not exceptionally good or bad, just mediocre with relatively good PR to make it one of the more known fangames.
I personally don't mind the game outside of a few quirks, but I know a lot of people who hate it for some arbitrary reason or another.
Long story short, you're likely going to have a hard time finding enough willing people to work on a fan expansion, let alone an Unlimited campaign. They either wouldn't want to or are already too busy with something else to add yet another thing to their plate.

Here's the rundown on what would even get used from an Unlimited expansion. The only things that end up generally being used from fan expansions are either skins or maps. Weapons don't ever get noticed. Skins are more of a client thing and only show up to someone if they also have that skin. Maps however, if good enough, will probably be put into mappack server rotations.

That being said, I applaud you for making at least making a demo before presenting the idea.
Part of fan expansion failure comes from the general lack of the "suggester" doing any sort of pre-work to try and convince people to do something. Best of luck on your search.
Title: Re: Mega Man Unlimited - Fanmade Campaign (Idea?)
Post by: Athel on April 30, 2019, 10:31:51 PM
I expected as much, what with the forums seemingly hardly getting any activity. Thank you for your response!


I'm not too worried on what will be used on online play. If I really DID go all out and did all the necessary homework on how to properly make a working campaign, I'd want it to be something as an add-on for those who simply prefer bot play for whatever reason. The weapons would be part of the maps, of course, and I'd imagine there'd have to be some rebalancing for online play. It's an interesting idea and I want to see if I can't find some way to make it a reality.
Title: Re: Mega Man Unlimited - Fanmade Campaign (Idea?)
Post by: LlamaHombre on May 02, 2019, 12:01:59 AM
I personally have kinda middling opinions of MMU but would love to give mapping for one of the stages a shot someday. MMU has style in abundance, and none of my complaints about the source game would have to apply for a couple of deathmatch maps.

Getting a full expansion complete is extremely difficult, but still doable! Rozark mentioned RF and Dos Reborn, but even before that came Rockman no Constancy and Mega Man Powered Up. The precedent exists, it's just no one's really gotten it down to a science how to keep the ball rolling from project start to project end for the other projects.
Title: Re: Mega Man Unlimited - Fanmade Campaign (Idea?)
Post by: Ruzma on May 06, 2019, 03:04:12 PM
Indeed, not only do you have to find peeps who are competent, they also have to be motivated, and they have to still be interested, from beginning to end, which is usually what is the campaign-killer around here.
Title: Re: Mega Man Unlimited - Fanmade Campaign (Idea?)
Post by: Lighter Dude on May 06, 2019, 08:59:45 PM
I love this idea! I would work on it but schoolwork is a bit more important. I wish you luck.
Title: Re: Mega Man Unlimited - Fanmade Campaign (Idea?)
Post by: Athel on May 10, 2019, 01:10:41 PM
Thank you! I am aware how many difficulties that'll come with this sort of project. So, let me just clarify a bit - maps, sprites, weapons, and textures are the main things that are needed for such an expansion? I'd really like to see how far I could take this sort of thing-
Title: Re: Mega Man Unlimited - Fanmade Campaign (Idea?)
Post by: TheDoc on May 11, 2019, 01:55:07 AM
Yes, that's typically what MM8BDM expansions have: maps (with textures), skins, and weapons representative of each RM from the game and the Wily Stages. Usually, there's also some form of campaign similar to the core campaign, where you do DMs through each of the stages with a non-player boss capping it all off, but that's more icing on the cake than anything; the DM content is the main focus.
Title: Re: Mega Man Unlimited - Fanmade Campaign (Idea?)
Post by: LlamaHombre on May 11, 2019, 04:39:16 PM
If you're motivated, I'll bite and see what I can chip in with.

To try and make a megapost with all the resources I'm aware of that that might be useful:
(click to show/hide)

I could swear there were tilesets uploaded somewhere too (Jack Corvus?) but I couldn't find them at a quick glance.
I also haven't tested these links at all so I hope they work but if they don't, oops lol

I started a Tank Man map about a year ago but didn't make much of any progress at all with it - this summer I'll pick it back up and see what I can do with it.
Title: Re: Mega Man Unlimited - Fanmade Campaign (Idea?)
Post by: Athel on May 11, 2019, 05:40:11 PM
Wow, all that might be pretty useful. Not sure if Whirlpool Man would indeed be in the roster, maybe as a secret map or something. I have the skins from the Mega Man Unlimited classes mod (which I was using for the proof-of-concept). I can extract the tiles and turn them into textures (the animated ones are the only ones that may be a bit different than just loading the PNG up into gimp). Also not sure if ZPrototype would be put into the "campaign" either. If this really 100% were to happen, I'd like to make it as close to the base campaigns as possible. Maybe this could actually happen if there's enough interest? It'd be pretty cool.

Also yes, those weapons you linked are indeed the ones I'm using for the test.

If there IS interest, I could format the OP to actually reflect a project in progress. However, I'm holding off on that until I'm certain that this may become an actual thing, instead of just being abandoned and joining the list of dead projects.
Title: Re: Mega Man Unlimited - Fanmade Campaign (Idea?)
Post by: LlamaHombre on May 11, 2019, 05:58:22 PM
Understandable, really.

Well, you've got my interest at least.
Title: Re: Mega Man Unlimited - Fanmade Campaign (Idea?)
Post by: Ruzma on May 20, 2019, 11:19:08 AM
If you have motivation, you can totally do it! The least you need to do are maps really.
If you can, you should go on the community Discord server, the most talented  people of this community are there, rounded up, and while they may not be able (nor willing, for some) to aid you, they can still gift thou with precious advice and knowledge, such as how to make a map and such. Might help.

In any cases, good luck! It can't be that hard  :)
Title: Re: Mega Man Unlimited - Fanmade Campaign (Idea?)
Post by: Athel on May 25, 2019, 06:49:17 PM
Thank you! I've been in the server for a little bit, though I haven't really said much since, again, I'm not sure how far I'm going to be taking this, if I really am going to be working on this. I may be able to share at least one map at the very least, but even then I can't promise much. At this point it's really just more of a "personal satisfaction" kind of thing.
Title: Re: Megaman Unlimited: 8-Bit Deathmatch! (Fanmade MMU Expansion WIP)
Post by: Athel on June 17, 2019, 02:02:10 AM
After much contemplating, I have decided that I actually am motivated to actually see this through as much as possible! I'm excited to see how far this can go, despite the obstacles that lay ahead! It may take some time thanks to life, but I fully believe this will prove to be quite the educational experience!


The first post has been updated to reflect a project in progress.
Title: Re: Megaman Unlimited: 8-Bit Deathmatch! (Fanmade MMU Expansion WIP)
Post by: Ruzma on June 22, 2019, 08:00:56 PM
Like you said, ambitious, but feasible!
Fair warning: maps are usually, prioritized, but you do whatever you want. Don't forget the music!
What's cool here is that it's mostly a compilation of already-made stuff, so that's cool, on top of home brew mapping, which with the right knowledge, isn't that hard, there's a reason there are so many mappacks.

Now, personally, I would advise that you step away from the idea of making actual in-game cutscenes, if it ever crossed your mind. You will not be able to make those. Core expansions take most of their development time from these.

As long as you put all it is that someone would expect from a MMU add-on, you're doing great!

Oh, and as a wise man once said: no weak shit  ;)

Good luck!
Title: Re: Megaman Unlimited: 8-Bit Deathmatch! (Fanmade MMU Expansion WIP)
Post by: Athel on June 23, 2019, 02:12:15 AM
Challenge accepted. Thank you! I have a NailMan layout in the works, I think we'll be fine
Title: Re: Megaman Unlimited: 8-Bit Deathmatch! (Fanmade MMU Expansion WIP)
Post by: AMinorFlood on June 23, 2019, 06:53:16 AM
Looks very cool, I think that Whirlpool and Yoku should be stages for special conditions like the MMK battles, I look forward to further development! :mrgreen:
Title: Re: Megaman Unlimited: 8-Bit Deathmatch! (Fanmade MMU Expansion WIP)
Post by: Athel on August 16, 2019, 07:27:21 PM
I'm going to freshen this up with a tad bit of news.


We have permissions to use Jax's weapon set, which is great! Permissions are going to be gathered for skins, etc. Tiles from the stagemaps are going to be completely and properly ripped as well, including the animated ones. No real word that I can give in terms of maps, aside from the fact that I have a couple of layouts in progress. I haven't really been able to do much due to my laptop charger bailing out ob me. Once I get that all settled, we should be back in business and I should be able to give a proper update! In my spare time, I've also been looking here and there at some deathmatch maps in general to get a feel for what works and what doesn't, hopefully I can apply a few tricks to the maps here. That is all for now! Stay tuned!
Title: Re: Megaman Unlimited: 8-Bit Deathmatch! (Fanmade MMU Expansion WIP)
Post by: LlamaHombre on August 17, 2019, 04:00:58 PM
Good to know - I have a fair bit on my plate atm but hopefully by next update I should be ready to help contribute if the project's in a good position.
Title: Re: Megaman Unlimited: 8-Bit Deathmatch! (Fanmade MMU Expansion WIP)
Post by: Dr. Freeman on August 17, 2019, 04:45:13 PM
Since it’s on your to do list still, I’d be happy to quickly loop some songs for you a little later.
Maybe make a map too but I make no promises there
Title: Re: Megaman Unlimited: 8-Bit Deathmatch! (Fanmade MMU Expansion WIP)
Post by: Athel on August 17, 2019, 06:55:26 PM
Much appreciated, LlamaHombre!


Dr. Freeman, I have a music pack with OGGs (it was linked earlier in the thread), having that be properly looped would be great if it isn't already. I remember looking at a couple and seeing there were no loop points set.
Title: Re: Megaman Unlimited: 8-Bit Deathmatch! (Fanmade MMU Expansion WIP)
Post by: Athel on December 07, 2019, 09:55:41 PM
Welp, I may as well blow off the cobwebs and make this update post.


So it's been... four? Five months? Aaaaaand I have nothing to show for it. Seriously. Not a good sign for a project but I promise there's good reason! Though there isn't anything I can really *show*, there have been some advancements made towards the eventual completion of the project!


Starting off, over at Discord, we actually managed to hit upon some good ideas for how the story of this expansion will go. We've even figured out what bosses will be part of the campaign and how they'll appear. Overall small stuff for the grand scheme of things, but at least we're focused on these sorts of details. In addition, we managed to get permission to use Jax's weapons, as well as skins for us to use as well! Bot chat messages still need to be made and the bots themselves need to be made as well, but again, this is small stuff we could easily take care of.


I've made a couple of map layouts to play around with, as well as an idea for a map which, again, shouldn't take too long to make, barring the time to texture and detail.


So... why so little progress? Because ya boi has to tackle high school, that's why. I've had to focus on school, and with that plus a whole ton of other things I've got going on, I've sort of pushed this to the back-burner a little bit. It's still been on the back of my mind, make no mistakes about that, but I haven't been able to really do anything.


I have updated the opening post a bit to more accurately reflect the state of the project. Since all we need are maps, I am asking for maybe any potential mappers to come on board? I know these calls usually get tossed aside to the wind, yet I don't see any harm in asking. Thanks for checking this out, and hopefully by the time the new year comes, I'll finally have something fun to share with you all!
Title: Re: Megaman Unlimited: 8-Bit Deathmatch! (Fanmade MMU Expansion WIP)
Post by: Ruzma on December 08, 2019, 05:37:24 PM
Yeah, maps are the main issue. I've seen some peeps on the Discords makin'em some maps lately. Wonder if they'd be interested on doing some maps for us...

...why am I saying this on the forums?
Title: Re: Megaman Unlimited: 8-Bit Deathmatch! (Fanmade MMU Expansion WIP)
Post by: Athel on June 17, 2020, 08:39:04 PM

Uh, hi! It's been a looooong time since I've touched anything Mega Man related, aha. I want to give some updates after so long, and explain my inactivity on the project and in general.


For those who don't have time, the tldr is that the world sucks and I needed time before I started working on anything major again.


For those who DO have time, this is for you! I had a whole thing typed up already but turns out clicking and dragging attachments DOESN'T actually attach them to the image and it just erases all your words, so that's nice! Anyway, to rephrase what I said, basically the coronavirus had taken a pretty big toll on me and my academics when the schools had to shut down indefinitely. Things were starting to look up for me in the beginning months of 2020 and when the pandemic hit, I wasn't really prepared and couldn't handle the sudden change well. Then again, I don't think anybody could.


Around March 17, I had announced that I was going to put the project on an indefinite hiatus until I got other things crossed off my list. That was three months ago. Working on other projects and tying some loose ends up have made me feel a bit better about the situation as a whole, to the point where I feel like I can get a stable workflow on this project finally. This project has definitely been through a rough patch, as has everything else I've been working on, but now would be the best time to get some decent progress made!


In terms of progress, I actually have been working on Tank Man's map, an old military base that has been retrofitted and repurposed for Tank Man's operations. You can see a picture of that at the bottom of this post. We've also have a bit of spritework done behind the scenes for plot-related things, but nothing I feel I can show off just yet. Maps are still an issue, but we'll slowly be working our way towards solving that issue. If anything that may just mean I make most of the maps.


So yeah, project's not dead, I'm still alive and well, everyone's good. Just slowly bringing myself back to work on this kind of stuff. Stay tuned guys! Hopefully we can get an update in a shorter timespan than the last couple of ones!

Link to help those with bandwith issues and totally because I don't know how to attach images to posts: https://imgur.com/05SEClK (https://imgur.com/05SEClK)
Title: Re: Megaman Unlimited: 8-Bit Deathmatch! (Fanmade MMU Expansion WIP)
Post by: Hunters120 on December 25, 2020, 09:01:17 PM
Well at least I only got the weapons from a similar expansion for Mega Man 8-bit Deathmatch.

I meant Mega Man Unlimited here.