Getting tired of Parasite posts?
Friday, June 07, 2013
One more post on Parasite, then I think I can move on and start talking about something else again. Promise.
This week I've been looking around the community, downloading a ton of Marvel/DC characters, and trying to figure out which, if any, to support in Parasite's power system. I've got a long text file with all of my notes, but I haven't made any long-term plans yet, because really, there's plenty still do with with the half-finished power sets he's already got. <_<
I am starting to get comfortable with the idea of certain classes of power sets -- for example, right now he has separate power sets for Plastic Man and Mr. Fantastic, who basically have exactly the same powers, and there are places all over the code base that have to change if I ever add a third "stretchy character" power set, since it affects all of his basic attacks. Right now he only has one super-speedster power set, for Flash, and adding support for new speedsters like Quicksilver and Jay Garrick should be as simple as adding their names to the state controller that grants that one.
On the other hand... there may be times when otherwise-similar characters have a signature move (Hulk and Thing are very similar, for example, but Thing doesn't ever do the Thunder Clap that's such a common Hulk visual), or a particular passive (Ice can wall-jump, for example, but Iceman can't), and if we lump all "Hulking characters" and "Ice characters" into single power sets, we lose those distinctions. I don't know, maybe that's okay.
Needless to say, I'm still of two minds about the long-term plan. The short term plan is the same, though -- 30 power sets for DC, 30 for Marvel, all with finished, non-buggy moves. That'll keep me plenty busy for a while.
Of course, I also just added a Cable power set, because I thought it would be pretty easy to code (and it was):
On another topic...
I've been using Github for several years now to host my open-source code (mostly web stuff), and a few years ago, I stuffed a couple of my MUGEN projects in a single Github project (which, in retrospect, was a pretty dumb idea), but never really used it. These days, I'm on different machines all the time -- my Windows7 laptop at home, my MacBook at work, and my Windows PC when I need to use a mouse (it's slower than the laptop, but better for sprite editing and that kind of thing). I've been using Dropbox to keep my MUGEN projects in sync across all those devices, and it works well enough, but is kind of a pain for other reasons: most of the time when I'm working on a character on my laptop, it's code-only, and the code of a character takes up a LOT less space than the entirety of one of my WIP folders (which are full of sprite rips, half-finished edits, sound rips, reference videos, etc), so putting everything in Dropbox is a bit of a waste, and a drain on performance when all that stuff has to get synced across all my devices, even though I never actually need it on most. So, long story short, I've come back around to the idea of hosting my MUGEN work on Github. I put Parasite up there a few days ago, and plan to do the same with my other unfinished characters like Sinestro and Mandarin. So expect more on that soon.
Labels: Parasite
In that time, and for almost 2 years of time after, i've seen alot of creators giving their characters a midnight bliss to be compatible with that demitri. Who knows, maybe 'this way you can ease your work load..
Btw, i think you can think to give Parasite new power sets when you'll find an interesting character for you to think "steal that power sets could be nice".. 'this way, you'll keep your personal choices on the power set moves you can "steal" and your work will be easier than doing all superhero\villain P.Sets around.
It's equally true that if you create some generalized power set classes as you wrote up, the uniqueness of a character will be lost. So, i think you can do 'this way (if possible and if the workload on you won't be heavy): create a generalized class, like the above mentioned "hulking characters" and you add an exception for particular character with particular signature moves\passive ability, different from the classic set in which this exception is inserted.. I don't know if easy in terms of coding, but i hope it helps..
For now, finish what you're doing on Parasite. After solving all problems on the current Parasite you'll can decice in all tranquillity what to do.. And don't worry, i think the community isn't tired to hear of Parasite for these few times (at least, isn't for me xD)
Sorry for the "romance". Hope your new job will go with a big up... Have a nice weekend.
From Italy... CIAO !!!
: 11:59 AM : 10:17 AM
Post a Comment