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):

Parasite and Cable fighting in the dark
Psimitar!

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.

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Cool good ideas!!! :)

Keep it up Buyog!!! :)
 
Hi Ryan. Glad to see you working again after the burnout time.. After reading all your latest news and other comments, i can say this: it's surely true you cannot add alway more and more power sets on Parasite, unless your dream is having a Parasite with 500 power sets (O_o).. thinking of a possible solution, maybe the same character creator can think and edit some parasite frames to match his\her own character power set, as happened in a similar way a bit of years ago, when BadDarkness released his svc Demitri..
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 !!!
 
Consolidating DC/Marvel counterparts with the same types of powers would be the best choice, a lot less to take care of. That would sort of take you back to the generic power sets again. Depends on how customized you want each character power set to be, i.e. Hulk/Thing. I'm not too familiar with Parasite, but he steals their powers, not their personalities, right? So, whether it's the Hulk or Thing, all he takes is just their super strength. So maybe you should think of how Parasite would attack having those powers then... That's something to think about.
 
The idea that Heka mentioned on his post is a good idea, in stealing the entire power set of the opponent that Parasite is facing. Actually I thought of that idea long ago but I did not mention it because I thought it wasn't possible to even do such a thing and if it is possible imagine all of the man hours or coding hours Buyog has to put in to even accomplish something like that. But I guess I was wrong to think that and maybe it is possible to even do such a thing. Anyways I think stealing the entire power set of the opponent you're facing is a brilliant idea and much easier than just taking bits here and there from every char possible. Maybe you can make Parasite do that plus has his regular move set that he already has coded on him and of course the ones you already made him steal as well and do also the generalize power setting that Twinimage mentioned as well. I know it sound like a lot of work but I'm sure if you do it like that your Parasite will be more complete and you'll be more statisfied with him and you can move on to other chars that you want and need updating/finishing like Sinestro and Mandirine ;)(I personally am looking foward to both of those guys to be finished). Again it's up to you Buyog and I know it's a lot of work to be done and you're a busy person with lots and lots of responsibilities but if you pull this off then hats off to you and you deserve a bit party afterwards. LOL Thanks for you time. Peace!!!!
 

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