Cyrus releases tons of demos, so why can't I?
How many of you remember my last demo for Terminys? I got a lot of comments saying it was difficult. Difficulty sucks, especially so early in the game. The only games I like that can pull off a high difficulty so early are shoot-em-ups.Terminys, as you all may know, is an action RPG. And this demo will show that you don't always play as that little kid. Remember the sketch I posted here? Yeah, the chick in the robes with the decrepit hands. That's River, the elementalist, and she'll be the playable character for this demo.I'm taking quite a gamble for making a female playable character. I'm not a girl, and thus, can't do a whole lot inside her head. I'm not J.K. Rowling.Unlike last time, you have no cutscenes to watch, no tutorials, and no background. This is just a quick combat test with one kind of enemy (an annoying one at that), that actually attacks you, unlike the flies in the previous demo.Download:http://www.shaltix.com/Terminys_CombatDemo.zipThis is only hosted on my site because 64Ds file manager is broken.The file is a little large, as everyone knows. Plus, it does store an MP3 in there, which isn't used in the demo, but the game doesn't like being without it. Because of this, you may need to extract the ZIP. But this is just habit.Also, you can't leave the room in this demo. There are only two ways to go: a dead end where you start, and an unfinished boss. Yes, River gets to fight a boss. Two, in fact. Lovely.Controls:Arrow keys to move.Z to use your melee attack and confirm in the menu.Hold X to run and move back a page in the menu.Hold A to recharge your Ether Points. Taking damage will interrupt you.S is your ability key. If casting, taking damage will interrupt you.Q and E cycle through your spells in battle. You can select spells on the map through the pause menu.Enter brings up the inventory screen on the map, and pauses in battle.And escape, as always, quits the damn game.Moveset:River starts with four movesEther Spear is a powerful melee range attack, capable of one-shotting these annoying enemies.Ether Dart is a fast, ranged ability that deals minimal damage, and is spammable.Stoneraze is a powerful attack that summons rocks to impale the enemy. Long cast time, high power.Energy Strike generates beams from the sky to strike the enemy. Medium cast time, medium power.The HUD:…Needs work. The cast bar most of all looks god-awful. I understand this. But rest assured that it's all temporary, and I'll be doing an HUD overhaul soon.If someone has ideas for the HUD (layout, textures), please let me know. If you'd like to help, I might ask for a quick sketch-up. Send me a PM or just comment here if you're willing to set aside a couple minutes.Also, the battle theme, like the HUD, is temporary. It was much too quiet and lonely without it. It'll stay there until I have time to compose a real battle theme. I wonder what mood to go for as well.Try out the demo, let me know how clunky the combat system is. It's still a work in progress but I might as well get some feedback on it.
Those wispy things are really hard and annoying to fight :(
I found the movement a bit slow. Try increasing the speed by x1.7
@Ferret: Yeah, like I pointed out, the game has quite a bit of a difficulty curve. I'll probably fix them up a bit, but their health and damage are both ridiculously low to make up for the fact that you have to chase them. Seriously, River's got a lot of health to begin with, compared to the measly 50 the other kid had.
@Mazi: I've actually played with movement a lot lately. I guess in this type of a combat scenario, where movement is a large factor, being able to run faster can't hurt. I'll see about increasing it a bit. But some enemies are supposed to be fast.For these ones, you'll find it much easier if you stay in one place and cast your more powerful spells. Before, you couldn't cast Stoneraze without being interrupted at 99.9%, but now you can. Glee.Thanks for trying, and feel free to suggest more, both of you.Since it's an rpg with spells and such it would be nice to display an icon or something for the selected spell like you see in Elder Scrolls or LoL. (In a nice fashion too as to show or hint which keys to use)
Yeah, I was actually planning that, but I haven't gotten around to spriting a lot of icons yet. Maybe that's what I'll do today.
But I'll still need to come up with an HUD style at some point. I was going for something simple but apparently that's not good enough.The delay was there originally to show experience. But River doesn't gain experience right off. I actually did shorten the delay quite a bit, but it seems to differ between computers.
I've actually noticed a consistency issue between computers. It might be GM, it might be the computers, and it might even be my code. Here's what happens:- The fading in and out of the battle screen can be lengthy.- When drawing a rectangle for the dialog box, on some computers, it shows up the right width. On others, it's one pixel too thick.- Music fading fails on some computers.- Instance deactivation fails on some computers.I'm honestly not sure what causes it. But I'll take your advice and shorten the delay a little more. Thanks.would be nice to have something to show the keys while playing also.
but aside from that, i just dont see the point? like why would i want to fight off ferries? this might be an early demo or something, but I dont see a point in releasing something like this unless it has a point to it.yes, the HUD needs work, but id rather play something with a point but a crappy HUD, than something with no point…[does this comment bump it?… anyway]