a TinFoilMkIV original: Dragoon

[TinFoilMkIV]

Hello, I'm a bit new here, but I am not new to MUGEN. I'm gona give a bit of a backstory here since I would venture to say my character probably looks a bit unusual to most of you.

So anyways I'm something of an animator, and currently my main program is Pivot, originally created as a stick figure animating program, but many people have taken it much farther (of course the vast majority still use pretty conventional looking stick figures). Anyways, after discovering MUGEN a while back, I thought I'd try out making a pivot based character. So yes the colors may seem a bit flat and all, but thats just the style.

Anyways I have finally created something I could almost call complete, the [RTX-VIII] Dragoon (he's a robot typed thing in case you're wondering bout the wierd title/name.).

So yes, he's quite playable, mostly done, just really needs some fixed up/replaced sounds and maybe some custom blade hitsparks, and some tweaking here and there for his moves. Basically I came here to see what more experienced authors/players/whatever think of my creation, and perhaps get some advice to clean it up and balance it out and stuff.


Soooo... heres some screenshots I took of him, Jeryn is another character I'm working on at the moment, just put him in for the heck of it. I would have liked to have some video demos, but unfortunately my laptop utterly fails at video screen capture, the overall quality and frame loss make it completely unworthwhile.

EDIT: Despite the low quality I decided to upload a video for those of you who want something beyond screenshots
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrnSW4UU9kI
video with updated air kick bounceback, as well as redone barrage hyper with an unfinished lvl2 version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uesJScarUz8

 

 

 


I would be glad to allow people to try him out, so you can tell me what you think and such, however I'm a bit wary of just straight up posting a link for it here, as I don't exactly want him out all over the place before It's completed.


Recent Changes
-added 3 new palettes
-completed lvl 2 version of barrage hyper
-completed sprites for gunshot effects and explosions for lvl1 and lvl2 barrage
-added dust cloud effects on jumps and some attacks
-tweaked AI to make use of wing cancelling the new bounceback from the air jumpkick special
-modified some sounds, and added new ones, biggest change is new hyper attack sound

To Do
*redo palette effects and afterimages to match new palettes
*sound effect for running forwards
*Finish strong spear attack out of special jump (last actual attack to finish)
*redo AI
*fix any bugs/errors/modifications that come up

[Neokenjiro]

Heh! Char looks great man!  I'd also say very original looking.     I wouldn't mind beta testing him.  I especially like that he is an original character.  I can provide you some feedback fairly quickly.  Pro / Con List

[TinFoilMkIV]

Sure thing, thanks for being the first person to actually post.

I mean comeon, almost 60 views and no one even bothered to say "it looks alright" or "ur stage looks like u made it in paint in 5 min" (probably because I did, lol)

Even if you don't want to like go through my code or give me an in depth explanation of you views on it, I don't mind people just leaving simple comments.

And like I said, I don't mind letting people test it, I actually would like that very much, you just have to ask.

[Neokenjiro]

Ok here's my list

On the surface.

Pro

+  very smooth actions such as punches and kicks
* specials animation look great (my only suggestion would be some more bang with that gun, seems like such a cool gun for an appearance of a kick ass hit)
+  WOW strongest hyper is awesome!  I might reduce the strength of it but way awesome!
+  All animations are very smooth. 
+ Taunt is very cool.  Nice faking move against opponent.

Con

-  move forward is a little awkward.  You figure he propels fast backwars shouldn't he be close to as fast moving forward on a run.
-  somersault to kick might be good for him to bonce backwards.  The kick hits the character then his foot sorta goes through him
-  could use a throw
-  Could use some sounds like some sorta voicing

I'm not a person who knows a lot about code but I do know a lot of different creators work and I believe your work really shows!  I think a lot of people are too skeptical of screen shots because they don't know what their missing.  I'll see if I can go through some of the code tomorrow and do what little I do know in that area.  If there is anything you want me too look at specifically let me know and I'll give you my opinion from a outsider looking in. 

Thanksagain for letting me test him out.  Hes awesome!

[TinFoilMkIV]

Thanks for the review.

for the gun, yea I agree, do need to redo it and stuff, plus the coding is a bit off. You can add shots after the initial three by pressing any attack button and it takes like 300 power a shot I think? something like that. either way the issue is that if you're too low on power you can still try to fire but you get like an empty clip sound with no shots. The part I messed up is that the second and third part are built in to the initial attack that takes 1000 power, but due to the coding if you don't have enough power for any added shots, the second and third end up being blanks, which they should still fire. I had actually fixed it, but somehow I seem to have lost that edit somewhere along the line and haven't re-fixed it yet.

the final super (lvl 3) I can see being a bit overpowered, since I did do most of the testing against himself and the dragoon has somewhat higher than average defense, I probably overdid it.

the movement, yea, I can see that. Was kinda a novelty thing when I was makin it, that and I did not feel like tryin to animate a proper walk/run (see walking forwards animation, lol). So yes, I suppose I should probably tone down the back dash, as well as make a new animation for a slower run forwards, I don't think his current one will look to great moving at a mediocre speed.

o I see, that kick. I guess I should do that. I do like how you can use it to start out/continue some combos, but I suppose in the interest of balance it's probably best to give it sorta a bounce-back recovery thing if it hits.

The throw I actually left out intentionally, I felt having a grab might make him almost overpowered in some ways, since he already has good range as well as fairly easy to combo with.


Thanks, this is pretty much the exact sorta thing I was hoping to get by bringin this here.

[Randomish]

oh good a creator that listens to feedback we dont have enough of those people today

[TinFoilMkIV]

yes, I have noticed in my experiences with MUGEN that it can be difficult at times to find a decently made and balanced character, heh. I guess I'm one of the rare few that actually takes up MUGEN with the intent to make legitimately balanced characters, heh.

Btw, I'm uploading a video of it atm. I know I wasn't going to, but hypercam works slightly better than everything else I've used, and I can see how like Neo said people may be skeptical off just screenshots. Framerate is crap, but I suppose its better than nothing for the moment.


EDIT: low quality video recorded and uploaded - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrnSW4UU9kI

[Neokenjiro]

Yea I agree about the throw how that might mess up things a bit because he does have good range.  However you can always make it like a spear plundge to the gut and a throw of the character to the other side of the screen making it hard to combo off of.  A robotic voice or something would also make him feel more like he has a personality.  I feel hes lacking a personality in that manner.  Example is he serious, witty, or strongwilled.  Still love this character and your idea behind him is pretty cool! 

[Laxxe23]

I cant really give feedback, since im not that good with it, but there are people/is a person on this forum that gives great feedback. and if you listen to him your golden. 
He would probably give you abit more indepth feedback added onto what neokenjiro has already said. 

[Cybaster]

Hi, I can beta-test the character for you if you don't mind. I'm the guy Laxxe23 pointed too in the previous post.

[TinFoilMkIV]

thanks, always good to have some input.

As for the grab, the problem I was considering wasn't whether he could combo/guardlock someone right after the throw (that wouldn't really be that hard to fix/edit), but more that just being able to grab I was thinking might give him too much of an edge. Like how he could basically guardlock someone into a corner than just walk up and grab them with almost no time to counter against it. Like most characters have limited enough range + combo ability + pushback that essentially locking someone into an almost unavoidable grab is usually hard enough that even if its possible, is not overpowered.

yea someone could just guard him all day, but all of his attacks (I think at least) have some minor guard peircing, and his range makes it much harder to counter if used right, that pure guarding isn't really a winning strategy. At least thats my take on it. If you guys really think he should have a grab I could probably come up with something.

As for voicing, I would like to, but I'm not really capable of recording, much less editing, a good voiceover for him.

[Cybaster]

This is a fun character, with everything a character needs IMO (I also saw the talk about the throw). Very cool animations, and indeed strange but creative style. Here goes my feedback :

- Run could use some sound.
- There's some infinite priority on some of his basic attacks. I know he's using a weapon, but the red box could still cover part of his arm (standing X for example).
- Down+C seems to be an infinite when chaining into itself. Not easy to do, but I chained 5 of them in the corner of the stage.
- He could get some smoke FX or something when he lands from jump, especially from super jump.
- When he runs or walks back, he has this "light" (from the propulsion) in his back. Why not making it transparent ?
- Z doesn't do anything during flip jump.
- You seem to have inverted the commands for the follow-ups during flip jump.
- Power Knee gives back power to Dragoon.
- Type for Blaze Wing in the readme. It's done with Kick.
- Huge debug flood during Meteor Cross.

Overall, very nice first character.
Since it's a completely new character, you may want to give some examples of combos in the readme, to help people understand it better.

[TinFoilMkIV]

- There's some infinite priority on some of his basic attacks. I know he's using a weapon, but the red box could still cover part of his arm (standing X for example).

The red (attack) box or the blue (collision) box? I'm guessing you meant a collision box since I'm not quite sure how expanding his hitbox range helps the situation? Unless you mean to bring the hitbox more into the collision box range.

- Down+C seems to be an infinite when chaining into itself. Not easy to do, but I chained 5 of them in the corner of the stage

I'll have to fix that one

- He could get some smoke FX or something when he lands from jump, especially from super jump.

yea, good point. I actually found a nice landing dust/smoke effect the other day and tested it on my other char. I should throw it in there.

- When he runs or walks back, he has this "light" (from the propulsion) in his back. Why not making it transparent ?

Make which part transparent exactly? the thruster flame thingy, afterimages, or the flash?

- Z doesn't do anything during flip jump.

OOOOoooooo rite, I knew I had forgotten something, heh. still need to make an animation for that one.

- You seem to have inverted the commands for the follow-ups during flip jump.

did I really? heh, can't believe I never noticed that.

- Power Knee gives back power to Dragoon.

will fix

- Type for Blaze Wing in the readme. It's done with Kick.

typo you mean? and yea, I'll fix it.

- Huge debug flood during Meteor Cross.

yea thats from the resizing on the expanding afterimage typed thing, I'll have to look into that. Would sending a float value into an integer variable cause the same issue? if not I could possibly run the sizing through a variable first to make sure it's sending valid values.

Overall, very nice first character.
Since it's a completely new character, you may want to give some examples of combos in the readme, to help people understand it better.

Thanks, altho it isn't my very first, more like second not-complete-failure character. First being the ever creatively named "test char" who never even made it to getting his own air punches or get hit frames, heh. Second was my first attempt at Jeryn. Combination of poor animation + oversized sprites made what little work I put into him to be horribly broken, as his sword reached almost half the screen on some attacks, lol.

Anyways, yea, I'll try to add some stuff into the read me about some basic combos and such once I fix up some of this stuff.

[TinFoilMkIV]

sorry bout the double posting and all, but I've come across a somewhat interesting scenario. I modified the flip -> jump kick so that he kinda bounces back after hitting, however, if you use the blaze wing special immediately, during the hitpause, it keeps the momentum and ends up landing right there kinda like how the kicks used to land, it may or may not hit depending on how high up you started it, but the thing is it nullifies the bounceback/recover.

The question is, should I remove the ability to do this or keep it as a kinda combo/approach trick, since its not exactly easy to do.




Also a quick edit/fix list
*flip -> kick attacks now have a bounceback after hitting (medium version will not bounceback if hit is near to the ground)
*Can not cancel the dropkick into blaze wing anymore (I didn't even consider this till my AI did it, heh)
*Toned Down forwards run speed as well as the back dash (removed physics on it, so it now moves at a slower, constant speed)
*Power Knee hits do not add to the power meter
*removed coding in the commands for Super Cancelling from another Super, since there aren't really any situations where the cancel would be both possible(without infinite power) and useful. (E-Field could cancel into the hyper air kick, removed because actually landing a hit
with the kick was mostly luck due to the hit velocity of E-Field)
*Separated the CNS file into base states, regular attacks, special attacks, and super attack files for organization.

-Did not fix the semi-infinite combo with the Crouching Strong Kick (open to suggestions)
-Did not fix the debug overflow on Meteor Cross (lvl3 super), it's caused by having a float value being passed to the position of the
expanding afterimage type effect on the charge up. I think I have somewhat of an idea how to go about fixing it, but any advice/suggestions are welcome.


EDIT: almost forgot

*fixed typos/errors to the readme and added some notes on actual combos.

P.S. if you want to try something somewhat amusing but in no way claiming to be balanced.... try selecting Palette 7 when you play. Result of boredom about a week ago.

[Lord-Zelgoto]

Too dark!

[TinFoilMkIV]

Too dark!

elaborate please? I'm assuming you mean the character vs the background in the screenshots, which I suppose it wasn't the best stage for that palette, but I seem to be able to see him alright. If it is that much of a problem I can take some on a lighter backround.

[Dreams In Stardust]

...and as you can see, the professionals here are WAY better than feedback than I am.
I am getting better at it though. 

[TinFoilMkIV]

yes I suppose so, once you can get them to actually look at it, heh. I should probably fix the complete lack of gunshot effects on him a while.

[Hadoabuser]

About giving him a throw, since u said hes all about range how about something like 1:33. Not saying copy it but use the staff in that type of manner with a slow startup time.

[TinFoilMkIV]

I'm not sure what you mean, unless the 1:33 was a typo, didn't see anything around that time other than a combo. If you mean he should fight more like Killik, then no. for one, its a spear and not a staff, and two, he would have too much range if he used it like that heh. Also hes not really ALL about range, but it is kinda hard not to give a character wielding a spear some kinda range. Killik's style is cool, but that's not how my char is supposed to fight.

Anyways the issue with the grab wasn't really how to do it, more of whether or not he really needs a grab. I personally feel that he really doesn't need one, and having a grab might make him somewhat overpowered, but that's just my view on it, and why I'm asking.

Also I'd still like to hear what you guys think about the cancelling past the bounceback from the air kick special move. I suppose I should make a video of it for those who don't know specifically what I mean.

O yea, and I believe I could use some help with getting rid of the debug overflow in his special. The line of code in question thats causeing it looks like this


type=PosSet
pos = (time-36)*1.5,time-36

I know why its causing the problem (float values being passed into an integer argument), just having some trouble fixing it.

and now for the changes since last time

*fixed semi-infinite juggling with crouching strong kick, can't juggle with itself, had to redo the juggle counters for the air attacks
*added juggle requirement to blaze wing, realized it was set to zero while I was redoing others.
*Fixed error with barrage causing initial shots to be blank if power was too low after the drain caused by the move itself
*redid barrage Hyper, new shot patterns and bullet sprites
*added new animation type for the barrage Hyper.
*Almost completed lvl2 variation of barrage hyper