Messages

181

Forum Games Archive / god damn it

« on: July 22, 2015, 05:28:33 PM »

Sure why not

182

General Gaming Discussion /

« on: July 13, 2015, 02:12:40 AM »

I really don't have any words I'm sorry

I guess I can say he was my favorite out of everyone at Nintendo to begin with. He's leaving some massive shoes to fill.

183

MM8BDM Discussion / Re: MM8BDM v5 - What maps do you feel need work? Pt. II

« on: July 12, 2015, 03:52:37 AM »

List in the first, explanation in the second. Elaboration on request.

(click to show/hide)

I have beef with a good percentage of the MM7 maps but I'll be running my complaints through by modifying some stuff with the core itself (with the team's permission of course) so without further ado

Complete Revamp
---------------
MM2BUB
MM4DIV
MM5WAV
MM5GYR
MMBMUS
MMBMAG

Split
-----
MMWTDW1

Partial Revamping
-----------------
MM2CRA
MM6WIN
MM6MRX

Retooling
---------
MM1ELE (Textures)
MM1TIM (Clarity)
MM1OIL (Gimmick)
MM2HEA (Gimmick)
MM2QUI (Gimmick)
MM3SPA (Textures)
MM4COS (Items)
MM8SEA (Cover)
MM8FRO (Textures)
MM8GRE (Textures)
MM8AQU (Textures)
MM8DUO (Textures)
MM8DW1 (Textures, Weapons)
MMBCOL (Textures)
MMBPIR (Liveliness)
MMBBUR (Clarity)
MMWTHSH (Clarity)

(click to show/hide)

MM2BUB - This map is iconic for close-corridor engagements and I think that's something that should inevitably be maintained with a rework, but I'd rather that tension be incorporated into a brand new layout rather than having to stick with labyrinthine messes forever. MM2BUBX isn't a valuable substitution for this map for that reason alone, at least in my eyes.

MM4DIV - Everybody knows what's wrong with this map, there's no reason to further elaborate.

MM5WAV - This map should only remain the way it is if the wave bikes are slaughtered and the side factories are connected to the island in a way that both maintains the feel of the factories and allows Water Wave to actually succeed on its own map. If either of those two are dropped, the map should be scrapped.

MM5GYR - It's hard on the eyes, it's huge with an unusual amount of platforming required to travel from place to place, and it's both really open and filled to the brim with weapons that either overpower in open spaces, or fail to accomplish anything.

MMBMUS - Death pit abundance aside, it's big and boring. The nods on the side are nice and all, and they should be kept with a new version, but the map itself has very little height variance to help keep one's attention without putting a pit or a cliff with ladders.

MMBMAG - This map is oddly similar to Wave Man. Either gut the side castles and build the map to better support the main castle and the battleground, or scrap it.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

MMWTDW1 - Way too large without any large semblance of organization besides "water on the right, fire on the left". Should be split between the two to allow both to benefit more from their own company. The lava section is relatively fine and can become its own map with little changes (probably just a new section to replace the main corridor), but the water one is significantly weaker overall and should probably be reworked. What is currently MMWTDW2 should become MMWTDW3 to accommodate for the addition of the aquatic MMWTDW2, and MusashiAA's cover is already finished to fill the music void.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

MM2CRA - To be honest I'm perfectly fine with this map, but I do understand complaints behind the scarcity of ways to reach the higher part of the map without being locked out by an attentive opponent on the opposite cliff side.

MM6WIN - The lower part, mainly. It should honestly be revamped into something different in structure altogether, or should just be turned into an alcove where the cliff face ends and the gyro fans begin.

MM6MRX - The ceiling being cut off by huge ladders kinda sucks. Busts the flow of an otherwise perfectly fine map.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
(Some subjective and insignificant things follow - if you disagree with some of the things below, especially in the arts fields, I completely understand)

MM1ELE - This map is ugly beyond retribution, and would vastly benefit from some more presence of the color green.

MM1TIM - This map would benefit from textures to better indicate which direction the conveyor belts are flowing.

MM1OIL - There's no reason as to why the canisters do any more than 25 damage. It's annoying and it leads to an unnecessary amount of SD's on an otherwise fine map.

MM2HEA - Remove the small lava pit at the top of the stairs.

MM2QUI - Maybe it's just bad luck on my part but I've honestly found the lasers even more annoying since the most recent change to them. Something else has to be done here.

MM3SPA - This map is prettier than MM1ELE, but it could still benefit from green or blue all the same.

MM4COS - There's way too many large items on this map. Downsize a few.

MM8SEA - The intro to this cover could use some work. Doesn't sound too great on the ears, and barely resembles the original. The rest is fine, but that intro is just kinda painful.

MM8FRO - Would benefit heavily from a new texture set. The colors and general positioning of things look alright, but the shaping does not.

MM8GRE - Textures here also look slightly off, but I'd like to assume that it's because of the poor coordination between elevation and floor textures. That eye thing might also benefit from having rotations sometime in the near future.

MM8AQU - Underwater textures for consistency would help out, as well as a few minor changes as to where the red metal floors are placed (though mostly for underwater).

MM8DUO - The rocks are kinda bleck I guess. Could benefit from having some black incorporated into them, as the darkest shade is also completely absent from the remainder of the map.

MM8DW1 - This map looks pretty bad, all things considered. The textures have similar issues to MM8FRO in that the shaping of them are pretty terrible, and the palette chosen for this stage is just eye searing and inconsistent sometimes. On a more technical aspect of things, the weapon layout for this stage is terrible. Power weapons are encouraged to be acquired through Thunder Claw, but can be Tornado Holded up to with significantly less effort and wasted time. Power Stone is considered less desirable than Flame Sword, and is put in the middle of the floor where it can immediately wreak havoc. This map has 8 weapons recommended for close range, and 2 recommended for long range. (One of them is Ice Wave, the other is Fire Storm.)

MMBCOL - Underwater textures for consistency.

MMBPIR - This really just doesn't feel like Pirate Man in the slightest. The overabundance of rock and the scarcity of anything resembling a pirate's domain besides a couple of chests here and there just kinda makes it feel like a rocky water map. It may be worth looking into incorporating sunken ships, pirate masts, anything into the background to make it feel more on theme, but ultimately just remove a lot of the rock in favor of more mechanical stuff and immediately the map will feel more distinct. It's difficult to pinpoint any problems the map has layout-wise because the overall aesthetic of the map is relatively muggy and just hinders the map on a whole for me.
Also, underwater textures for consistency wouldn't hurt.

MMBBUR - Trim the hedges a bit in the pits where the tellies spawn. If they're intended to be regularly timed death pits, they should discourage stalling overall.
yes it's my map I get that

MMWTHSH - Same thing with Time Man.

184

Rejected / Re: [Suggestion] Charge weapons auto-release

« on: July 09, 2015, 10:19:12 PM »

Wrote these for the dev chat to try and explain my own personal reasoning as to why a change like this would be beneficial to the game as a whole. Haven't modified them at all, so some stuff might seem out of context, but my points stand either way.

In regards to why I feel it wouldn't damage Deathmatch balance, and would help a majority of the supported modes in the game:

(click to show/hide)

I'm personally going to be writing this out under the assumption that the subject here is not "auto-releasing" a given charge, but rather attaching a disadvantage to holding onto a charge.
While this disadvantage would likely have to vary from weapon to weapon, a simple one that could be applied as an example would be a .75x damage modifier or a larger ammo consumption upon releasing the charge beyond a given (telegraphed) time interval.
I'd like to provide reasoning as to why I think said change wouldn't damage Deathmatch balance or flow beyond punishing sitting around in an area and hitting people as they pass.
An active player may choose to use charged weapons as an initiator to any kind of conflict, be it close quarters or fishing for a lucky hit from far off. While the number of people in a given deathmatch can vary based on server popularity or time of day, I'd like to go on the general assumption that facing at least 4 other opponents is likely.
With this in regard, one may want to charge on hand because they know that by the time they encounter someone else, their charge will be ready to fire at an opponent. A fight breaks out between the player and an opponent, maybe two. The player releases his charged weapon. Regardless of whether he hits an opponent or not, the player is likely to either charge up again and try for more pure damage or AOE damage, or switch to another weapon to finish off his opponent.
The fight finishes, and regardless of the outcome, the player intends on using charger weapons because he enjoys that type of weapon.
A similar loop continues in which the player uses the weapon, and by the time he's able to charge it up, he's presented with another confrontation.
The cycle continues on and on until the game ends, and the player may either win or lose depending on his time-efficiency and ability to participate in firefights.
In deathmatch, better results tend to come out of continued engagement with other players. This continued engagement encourages a player using a charge weapon to find a victim before they waste time holding onto a charge that they could've been using to get kills with a different style of weapon.
Applying said disadvantage to an overcharge may teach a player to learn better deathmatch skills by either encouraging the continuous use of charge shots such that minimal time is wasted, or to encourage a more varied weapon selection to better capitalize on any given map's weapon selection.
Either way, my point is this. Adding a disadvantage to charge weapons may come off initially as an unnecessary nerf to something that isn't inherently flawed, but it will ultimately encourage more cutthroat, intense games of the game's title mode.
 
Base LMS tends to be similar in that one's continued interaction with other opponents can be encouraged by providing the disadvantage, and it would ultimately see a decline in foolish plans done in basic LMS.
As it's every man for themselves, games can either be really cutthroat or really campy and stally. A more interactive, offensive shift in gameplay would be seen by the implementation of said disadvantage, as matches wouldn't simply devolve to traversing around large battlefields trying to find some guy sitting in a single spot with a fully charged weapon at the go.
It rewards the player searching by removing pressure from the situation. The seeker is able to approach more freely knowing that even if he does take the hit, there's a good chance that the hider will already be under some punishment for having sat around in a room waiting for people to move through. The hider is given a slight disadvantage from normal situations, and is discouraged from his tactics in favor of a more active approach to the seeker.
One might think, "why wouldn't the hider just dump his charge each time it deteriorated, then?" in which I'd respond that more likely than not, there's a number of indirect disadvantages to doing so.
For starters, they'd lose out on a lot of ammo just by releasing fully charged shots every so often at nothing. These released shots may also incriminate them by providing some sort of noise upon fire or explosion.
Ammo is critical in LMS modes, and players would still want to take their shot even if it's at a disadvantage. So of course, they'll probably use it like they normally would and that's ok.
Where the disadvantage gives leeway to is the opposing player, who isn't as heavily suppressed by an individual's decision to plant their feet in an area and block them out of an area.
In fact, it may even promote careful usage of charge shots such that an attacker can approach a defender with a stronger shot that had better timing and purpose put into it than that of the defender.
 
Team DM and Team LMS add the same problems to their base game modes, and it's a simpler problem than you may think.
There's less people to shoot at.
Holding a charge is even more heavily promoted out of moments where there'll be nothing to shoot at. It's also promoted by sheer numbers of any given squad, in which any given group of individuals is unlikely to be able to stand a chance against powerful (often heavy AoE) tools of destruction.
Disadvantage provides similar effects as it had in past examples: Promotes better time-management, promotes more opportunistic play, reduces overwhelming pressure provided by purely defensive play.
Other weapons are provided a chance to shine out as initiators or power sources, and even smarter usage of charge weapons is promoted.
 
My problems with charge weapons in duel are the exact problems I find with them in LMS.
 
As an aside, I find it slightly weird that defensive play through charge weapons is so heavily punishable in Deathmatch while it's such an overbearing force in just about every other supported mode this game has.
I feel the overcharge disadvantage is a great start to bring weapon balance closer to each other between modes. Reread above for my reasoning as to why.

In response to being questioned as to what makes weapons like Atomic Fire worthy of change to begin with:

(click to show/hide)

I'd say there's a number of reasons why a weapon like atomic fire is a problem.
Let's just list off characteristics of the weapon type real quick.
High charge damage, average-to-high ammo consumption, medium-to-slow charge time (in relation to I guess Super Arm), AoE coverage, charge noise of some fashion.
Let's talk about each of these one by one.
 
High damage values allow for easier kills than tends to be required with a number of other weapons in the core. Lobbing a charge shot at an opponent will more likely than not either kill them outright or force them to retreat in fear of a follow-up attack from any weapon (because if they don't, chances are they're going to die from a health disadvantage). In the case of Atomic Fire, Homing Sniper, MM8 upgrades, etc., these weapons are extremely potent because they don't give the opponent a lot of room to escape after being hit on the sole factor that more often than not they OHKO the opponent or leave the opponent mostly dead with minimal effort needed to secure the remaining kill. A player with a charge provokes the opponent to either switch to a charge weapon to have a standing chance against the firepower of the player, or be forced to approach the player with weapons that may not inherently do enough damage from far enough of a range to secure their safety against high (sometimes AoE) burst damage. Their damaging potential is by far their biggest strength, both because they just do a lot of damage, and provide pressure on the opponent. It's extremely difficult to handle direct confrontation with a person using a charge weapon without a charge of your own. Note that while there are a few weapons that I would consider to be outliers to this dilemma (Hard Knuckle provides clean quick burst with little consequence, Magnet Missile allows for heavy spacing with notable projectile speed and punishes camping with a charge, etc). I would find that a vast majority of weapons in the core are ill-equipped to handle charge weapons in a given neutral game.
 
Ammo consumption is a drawback, sure. In LMS modes, you get a couple of good hits with the higher up charge weapons, and a few more with the weapons lower in the hierarchy. Fact of the matter is, every kill in LMS means that a player has been removed from play. As this number dwindles, the effectiveness and efficiency of charge weapons increase, and pressure is intensified on an attacker trying to approach an opponent with a charge. For the sake of not repeating myself, please go read my pastebin for an examination of a typical LMS endgame with charge weapons in play. In smaller deathmatches, however, ammo is abundant and designed around the distribution of typically 8-12 weapons and numerous other players. The lack of players needing to take in ammo allows for a person who wants to use say Atomic Fire to be able to just refill after having taken a shot. He only needs a third of the bar, and a small weapon energy refills about a fourth if memory serves me right. Add this in conjunction to how close smaller weapon capsules tend to be with each other, and there's rarely a case in which Atomic Fire should ever be empty in these situations.
 
A person charging a shot has weaknesses while he is charging. He cannot fire back at an opponent without risking losing his charge and having to start anew. However, this timeframe means nothing once the charge is complete, as the user reaps the full benefits of having the charge at minimal cost for having charged to begin with. In fact, if a player isn't discovered while they're charging, then there is no downside. They take no damage, and next time they're seen by an opponent, they have a weapon of destruction at the ready. Homing Sniper is a living sin in this regard. Regardless of whether a player using that weapon is discovered during their charge time, it's so inhumanely quick that no combination of weapons in the core is able to kill them in the time it takes to charge (sans one shots or ripper shenanigans). They may be down some life, sure, but they're also carrying a charge that will tear through nearly all of your health bar. It's not worth pursuing a player with a charge at that point because if you miss and they hit, you're as good as dead despite having found them charging. You'll be missing enough health that a basic attack is enough to finish you off. Then they just charge again. This problem persists throughout Atomic Fire, too. While the charge time is more easily punishable, they still have instant death at the go once that charge completes. If you fail to kill them, and they hit you, you die and they're able to charge up again such that it'll be done by the time you have the weapons to fight said individual again.
 
Charge weapons tend to have some kind of area of effect secondary effect that makes the weapons difficult to dodge. Atomic Fire, Duo Fist, Pharaoh Shot, Noise Crush, Super Arm all have relatively large projectiles that serve to fill up hallways easily. They all do lots of damage, and tend to have relatively quick projectile speed. Homing Sniper, Wild Coil, Arrow Buster all have spread built into their design such that it's not necessary to hit every projectile to reap the benefits of having charged to begin with. Landing every hit will all but guarantee that your next attack will kill the opponent, but the chip damage is good enough and forces the opponent to flee out of fear of being chipped down again, if not killed outright. At this point, the charger is given a free cooldown like mentioned previously. They're able to charge in the lack of opposition, and are often far enough from an opponent such that if the opponent decides to shrug off the chip damage and pursue, they will be able to either backpedal (backstrafe, whatever, just move away) from the opponent and continue to apply spread damage or move closer and finish the job. The Area of Effect design around a number of these weapons make them nearly impossible to approach without either being struck by some stupid huge projectile, or succumbing to constant harass or chip damage.
 
Charge noise is every bit a weakness as it is a strength. Above all else, it notifies opponents of your position. While this is a deadly weakness if you're low on health or if there's a lot of opposition ready to deal with you, it gains more and more of a psychological edge over opponents as their numbers dwindle. The noise may be related to the growling of an animal, longing to protect his property from a fellow predator. It signals the user's position, but also signals that they may have total dominion over a part of a map. Charge weapons are already inherently strong engagement weapons, as well as "stand-your-ground" weapons, and the sheer knowledge of an opponent in an area generates pressure. If you approach and try to take map control from him, you have to deal directly with that charged shot. Fail, and you give him a frag and you allow him to keep control over that part of the map, its resources, and any weapons contained there. You can stop it, but if you don't, then it snowballs out of physical control. You can potentially poke at him from far off in hopes of pushing him out, but ultimately the lack of long range weapons will mean that at most you're doing chip damage to a player who can run around an area for health and punish you heavily for attempting to pursue.

Feel free to respond or point out any corrections/opinions you may have to any of this, though I know some of you have already.

185

Anything Goes / Re: What is your avatar from/of?

« on: July 04, 2015, 02:55:48 PM »

Zero Escape 3 was confirmed yesterday, so I figured I'd change my avatar over to Dio from Virtue's Last Reward for a little while.

186

Anything Goes / HAPPY BIRTHDAY SMASH BIRTHDAY SMASH BIRTHDAY HAPPY BIRTHDAY

« on: July 04, 2015, 05:17:41 AM »

(click to show/hide)

happy birthday battle brother

187

Mega Man Discussion / Re: A "new" Megaman game is coming.....

« on: July 02, 2015, 06:12:35 PM »

I'd assume the 3DS version would have the 3D effect given to games on that platform, similarly to how it was used in the 3D Classics line, Mutant Mudds, and Shovel Knight. That alone seems like it would take a little while longer to fine-tune and ensure the quality of the visuals.

188

Anything Goes / Re: Post your desktop!

« on: June 22, 2015, 11:35:40 PM »

1920x1080

(click to show/hide)

189

Forum Games / Re: Rate the avatar of the user above you

« on: June 21, 2015, 02:04:42 AM »

The dog is about 73%
Combined I'd give it a 35%

190

Events / Re: Cutstuff Mapping Jam 3: Peanut Butter and Jam

« on: June 20, 2015, 04:06:34 PM »

Solid, guess I just missed that.
Either way, I'll be participating.

191

Events / Re: Cutstuff Mapping Jam 3: Peanut Butter and Jam

« on: June 20, 2015, 01:56:31 PM »

So do we sign up or what

192

Rejected / Re: [Suggestion] Charge weapons auto-release

« on: June 18, 2015, 09:11:21 PM »

By that extent a 1.5x to 2x multiplier on ammo consumption upon release might be a more reasonable punishment from an ammo standpoint.

193

Rejected / Re: [Suggestion] Charge weapons auto-release

« on: June 18, 2015, 08:07:36 PM »

I don't know if an "auto-release" is the best way to handle overcharge, but I'd say that the concept of weakening a weapon if held for extraneous periods of time might be something to look into.
That said, I can only really imagine this applying smoothly for Atomic Fire and Pharaoh Shot by reverting them to say a mid-charge or something if held for ten seconds or so. Homing Sniper could also be applied to this philosophy by making it fire like 3 snipers instead of 5 (which I think is still a buff from the mid-charge?? I think the mid-charge is 2, but correct me if that's not the case).
I feel something similar could be applied to the buster upgrades with charges, but a number of them may lose their identity in the process. (Laser Buster and Arrow Buster in particular, though Duo Fist might also end up suffering).
The grey area for here comes with weapons like Noise Crush, Magma Bazooka, and Wild Coil. All of them have weaknesses built into their projectiles beyond just the standard noise they give off when moving around (cough sans Pharaoh Shot cough), be it through awkward ways of acquiring said charge or by the lack of effective range given to their shots.

In short, I'm in favor of capping the potential of charge weapons over time, but I don't know if an auto-release is the best method of enforcing said handicap.

194

General Gaming Discussion / Re: Super Smash Bros. Series Discussion

« on: June 16, 2015, 11:20:57 PM »

I think he means the guy in the actual back of the photograph

195

Anything Goes / Re: New to Cutstuff? Post here.

« on: June 16, 2015, 10:15:41 PM »

Yeah hey man I noticed you were gone!
Welcome back.