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Mega Man 8-bit Deathmatch => Projects & Creative => DECORATE and ACS Modifications => Topic started by: SickSadWorld on February 11, 2011, 08:37:14 PM

Title: [Special Item] Energy Balancer - v2c
Post by: SickSadWorld on February 11, 2011, 08:37:14 PM

ENERGY BALANCER

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This special item was created by Dr. Light and synthesized by Auto the helper robot. The Energy Balancer (??????????, Energy Balancer), also known as Energy Equalizer and E. Balance, is an item that recovers energy from the Special Weapons with less energy when the player takes a Weapon Energy item without the need to select a weapon before taking it. However, if the player wishes to refill a specific weapon, equipping that weapon will cause the obtained weapon energy to fill that weapon instead of other weapons. If the player has a specific weapon selected and that weapon's energy is full, weapon energy pickups function the same way as if no weapon was equipped; going to the other weapons with the least amount of energy. It appears in Mega Man 6 and 7 as a hidden item, and can be bought in shops. In the Mega Man X and Mega Man ZX series, the function of the Energy Balancer is part of the characters as default.

(click to show/hide)

(http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/6067/screenshotdoom201102111.png)

Get Version 2c

http://static.best-ever.org/wads/energybal-v2c.wad (http://static.best-ever.org/wads/energybal-v2c.wad)

Changes in v2c:

Fully compatible with MM8BDM-v2b release - Now works with MM7 weapons!
 Updated SBARINFO definitions
 Updated GLOBAL ACS
 Includes ACS source code

Special thanks

(click to show/hide)

Thanks to SaviorSword for pointing out the importance of scaling all ammos despite different ammo scales and max amounts.

Thanks to Yellow Devil for suggesting I improve on the original design.

Thanks to Cutman Mike for the inspiration and motivation to push the limits of what's possible.

Thanks to Myroc for specifically requesting the feature that weapon energy pickups fill the lowest weapon if some weapon other than a buster is equipped and full.

Note that this is the "mapper's version" where the item itself does not appear in game outside of a summon command but including this wad in your custom maps allows you access to this item. A test map is included. To see an example of this in a game mode check out the Game Modes (http://www.cutstuff.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=2521)!

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DEPRECATED RELEASE NOTES

(click to show/hide)

http://wadhost.fathax.com/files/energybal-v2a.zip

Changes in v2a:

Fully compatible with MM8BDM-v1d release
 Now gives weapon energy pickups to your lowest weapon if the current weapon is full and is thus no longer limited to having a buster equipped to trigger an effect.
 ACS source code is now included

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This is a public alpha/ beta/ development-whatever-it-can-be-changed release of the ENERGY BALANCER

http://wadhost.fathax.com/files/nrgbal.zip (http://wadhost.fathax.com/files/nrgbal.zip)

(http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/2960/nrgbalbig.png) (http://wadhost.fathax.com/files/nrgbal.zip)

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Just add this .wad file to your pk3
Place the EnergyBalancer item in your maps (thing number 19999)

HOW IT WORKS
The Energy Balancer (http://megaman.wikia.com/wiki/Energy_Balancer) (??????????, Energy Balancer), also known as Energy Equalizer and E. Balance, is an item that recovers energy from the Special Weapons with less energy when the player takes a Weapon Energy item without the need to select a weapon before taking it. However, if the player wishes to refill a specific weapon, equipping that weapon will cause the obtained weapon energy to fill that weapon instead of other weapons.

For MM8BDM in order to work properly you need to have acquired the Energy Balancer item and have your buster equipped (it can be Mega, Bass, or Proto). It lasts until you die and is intended for CTF and DM modes. This is useless in LMS or TLMS mode because there are not weapon pickups and possibly other obvious reasons.



Development notes
The amount of ammo you get may need to be adjusted somewhat. Playtesting from YOU and your suggestions are needed to improve this

Title: Re: [RELEASE] Energy Balancer
Post by: Lio on February 11, 2011, 09:15:02 PM

Oh my god, I love you Sick. I've been looking forward to something like this after playing MM10, it would be an awesome addition to the game. You just got another fan.  :ugeek:

Title: Re: [RELEASE] Energy Balancer
Post by: Max on February 11, 2011, 10:12:37 PM

Okay, so I told you I'd post here.

In game the E. Balancer fills up the weapon with the least energy, no matter what weapon you're using.

In your weapon, the E. Balancer fills up every weapon, although it only works with the buster.

That's what I meant.

Title: Re: [RELEASE] Energy Balancer
Post by: SickSadWorld on February 11, 2011, 11:08:09 PM

Yeah I went mostly on the description of what it says in the MMKB. Right now it gives you less ammo but spread out over all weapons. Of course this benefits those with more weapons but it is also more cumbersome to switch between them. With the way it is now you also get more benefit from switching weapons and filling them up individually.

I originally wanted to do it so it calculates the least weapon energy and adds the entire amount to that but I can't think of a good way to do this that's not unnecessarily CPU intensive. Any suggestions?

Title: Re: [RELEASE] Energy Balancer
Post by: TERRORsphere on February 16, 2011, 12:35:59 AM

Can only be done with a global ACS script. The item would look something like this:

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actor Xxxx : CustomInventory
{
inventory.amount 1
inventory.maxamount 1
Inventory.Icon "XXXX"
+INVBAR
+INVENTORY.UNDROPPABLE
States
{
Spawn:
XXXX A 0
stop
Use:
XXXX A 0 ACS_Execute(100,0)
stop
}
}
After that, you'll need a global ACS script that checks your ammo for all weapons like "BubbleAmmo" and "FlameBlastAmmo"... oh man, I can't actually help you further than this. I'm getting confused.

Title: Re: [RELEASE] Energy Balancer
Post by: SickSadWorld on February 16, 2011, 01:38:18 AM

Quote from: "DoomThroughDoom"

-snip-

Thanks, DTD. I know that. You're starting to get close to where I left off with thinking about this. If you had looked at it, you'd notice that it's already implemented using global ACS.

I realize the way to do this is to check if the player has the weapon AND how much corresponding ammo. But here's a question (and a challenge for you, since you know)

Which weapon should get the ammo if multiple weapons are depleted the same amount? A "random" solution is probably not appropriate.

Examples (separate scenarios):
Magnet Missile and Skull Barrier both have 0 ammo.
Star Crash and Mirror Buster both have 20 ammo.
Mirror Buster and Magnet Missile both have 50 ammo.

I will probably use the LMS string tables unless I see someone post some other suggestion.




In response to YD

Quote from: "Yellow Devil"

In game the E. Balancer fills up the weapon with the least energy, no matter what weapon you're using.

In your weapon, the E. Balancer fills up every weapon, although it only works with the buster.

In the version where the Energy Balancer properly adds the entire weapon energy amount to the lowest weapon I will not implement behavior like the bolded text unless I see a convincing argument otherwise.

The reason being is that if you have a weapon selected you should be allowed to fill that weapon, as it is active. I dislike a scenario where you have a weapon selected but the weapon energy you picked up is transferred to another weapon.

This text from the MMKB reinforces this (relevant text bolded)

Quote

The Energy Balancer (??????????, Energy Balancer), also known as Energy Equalizer and E. Balance, is an item that recovers energy from the Special Weapons with less energy when the player takes a Weapon Energy item without the need to select a weapon before taking it. However, if the player wishes to refill a specific weapon, equipping that weapon will cause the obtained weapon energy to fill that weapon instead of other weapons.

In the Megaman games, Megaman mostly uses his buster unless there is some special situation. I do not think it is unreasonable to do this also in MM8BDM. Because of this, it will probably also work only with the buster(s)/ slot 1 equipped unless someone suggests alternate behavior that makes sense.

Title: Re: [RELEASE] Energy Balancer
Post by: TheBladeRoden on February 16, 2011, 02:10:30 AM

Quote from: "DoomThroughDoom"

XXXX A 0 ACS_Execute(100,0)

ooh a new toy to play with

Title: Re: [RELEASE] Energy Balancer
Post by: Disco on February 16, 2011, 02:15:47 AM

Yesss

I always lamented the lack of this mechanic!

Title: Re: [RELEASE] Energy Balancer
Post by: CutmanMike on February 18, 2011, 09:25:54 AM

I wanted the energy balancer in but I couldn't figure out the math to work out which ammo type to give.

Title: Re: [RELEASE] Energy Balancer
Post by: SickSadWorld on February 18, 2011, 10:46:08 AM

Quote from: "CutmanMike"

I wanted the energy balancer in but I couldn't figure out the math to work out which ammo type to give.

You're absolutely right, conceptually it is quite difficult.

My current thinking is to just randomly/ sequentially index tables of strings that hold values similar to the Last Man Standing string tables if the lowest value of ammo is shared between multiple weapons.

Flaws?

It's turning into a lot of ACS, lol

Title: Re: [RELEASE] Energy Balancer
Post by: SickSadWorld on February 20, 2011, 06:00:46 PM

DEPRECATED RELEASE NOTES

(click to show/hide)

As promised, here is Version 2 of the ENERGY BALANCER.

http://wadhost.fathax.com/files/nrgbal-v2.zip (http://wadhost.fathax.com/files/nrgbal-v2.zip)

This version is more consistent with the behavior of the actual Megaman games than the previous version.

HOW IT WORKS
With the Energy Balancer equipped weapon energy pickups are automatically given to the weapon with the lowest weapon energy when any buster is equipped (Mega, Bass, Proto). The Energy Balancer is active from when you pick it up until you die.

HOW TO USE
Load the .wad file in the launcher or put it in your .pk3.

Presently the only way to use this Energy Balancer with the existing maps is to use

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]summon energybalancer
or

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]give energybalancer

Future maps can be made with this item inserted by simply adding item number 19999 to your maps in Doom Builder.

Dr. Light's Note

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The Energy Balancer is a high performance and high output device. If you try to use a W-tank on your buster with an Energy Balancer equipped it has a chance of using the W-tank to fill the internal power supply of the Energy Balancer itself instead of your most depleted weapon. Beware! Often times using 2 W-tanks in succession will allow you to quickly fill your most depleted weapon to its maximum value while simultaneously quenching the Energy Balancer's thirst. There is a chance of having them fill your two most depleted weapons though if the Energy Balancer's hunger has been satisfied recently. Good luck, Megaman!
Technical Notes
This version is released without source code. If you want the source for some reason let me know and we might be able to work something out.

This ended up being quite a difficult problem to solve despite its apparent simplicity.

This revision appropriately represents a version 2 because of the key innovation in scaling all the weapon energy. This means that if you have for example Magnet Missiles, Bubble Lead, Search Snakes, and Quick Boomerangs and you fire a single Quick Boomerang it will appropriately fill the Quick Boomerang ammo when you pick up a weapon energy with the Energy Balancer active despite the different ammo scales.

Thanks to SaviorSword for pointing out the importance of scaling all ammos despite different ammo scales and max amounts.

Thanks to Yellow Devil for suggesting I improve on the original design.

Thanks to Cutman Mike for the inspiration and motivation to push the limits of what's possible.

Title: Re: [RELEASE] Energy Balancer
Post by: CutmanMike on March 03, 2011, 01:33:55 PM

Oooh... Could I see the source script so I can see how it's done? I will most likely put it in the official version.

Title: Re: [RELEASE] Energy Balancer
Post by: SickSadWorld on April 10, 2011, 12:14:27 PM

Sure, man!

Check your PMs

Title: Re: [Special Item] Energy Balancer - v2a
Post by: SickSadWorld on June 11, 2011, 04:59:03 PM

Bumping for MM8BDM-v2b release, Energy Balancer v2c release

MM7 weapons!