ID:97674
 
Man it's been ages since I've posted here.

Anyway, I'd like to announce the open beta testing of my newest game, Tales of Tournaments. It's a classic arcade style fighter using characters from Namco Bandai's Tales of series. Come and try it out! (link and more info below)

http://www.byond.com/games/Pyro_dragons/TalesofTournaments

Yay for info:

Players begin, after creating their character by being placed in a lobby. The lobby will function as a simple chat game, where players can mingle and relax between battles. The lobbies will be modeled after various areas in the Tales of series. Players may challenge each other, or enter a random queue, to battle, or simply practice on a dummy. Play modes will include Practice, 1v1, Random1v1, and in later versions 2v2 teams, and 1vAll.

The Battle System:

The battle system will be a combination of the system used by both Team Destiny and Team Symphonia. That is, there will be an HP of course. There will NOT be a mana(TP) bar. Instead, the game will use the Chain Capacity(CC) System for combos, and the Overlimit system found in Tales of the Abyss.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gZvg9txbrk

Regular attacks will not consume any CC, on hinder it from regenerating. Using artes will consume a set amount of CC, depending on the arte. Lacking enough CC will prevent you from executing the arte. CC returns as long as you are not running or attacking, maxing at 10 points. Each attack generates overlimit points on both you and your opponent. When the overlimit gauge is filled (the green one), players may enter Overlimt mode. While in overlimit, attacks do not stagger you and your CC guage is increased to 14. It also enables you to use a Mystic Arte, which is an execeedingly powerful attack is successful. A mystic arte consumes your Overlimit, so missing it will result in wasted OVL.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WihNKGmwEAU

Each character will player differently from one another (for the most part) and each has their own set of artes. Before battles, players may select 3 artes to macro to the A S and D buttons. Pressing a combination of vvD (Down, Down, then D) will execute the arte attached to that button. Each character also has 2 mystic artes mapped to C and F, that can be executed the same way. When your health drops below 25%, those mystic artes are replaced by your desperation arte, which is a 3rd mystic arte that is significantly more powerful than the other 2. It is often the signiture attack of the character (EX Lloyd's Falcons Crest or Luke's Lost Fon Drive.

I'm aware of some of the errors that are present in the example videos. These are alpha tests after all, so they are being worked out. Be on the look out for this game in the near future! I'll continue posting here if enough interest accumulates.

This looks pretty cool
Doesn't seem too bad. But there is a lot of problems.

Most noticeable problem is you used BYOND.
Feels like playing a fighting game at 10 FPS, because that is exactly what is happening. Nothing is smooth at all. Gameplay, animations, controls all do not feel smooth.

The controls could use some tweaking.
A, S and D feel fine, so does C. But F and T feel awkward to use.

Animations in the game are also poorly done. Not due to the FPS limit, but you just put the frames together wrong, so the animations jump about a lot.

Finally, the game feels too simplistic. Everyone has exactly 1 normal attack, 2 special attacks, and 2 super attacks. All of which are entered in the exact same way and function almost exactly the same.
If you want to make a fighting game, you should go and study fighting games some more. You're missing a lot of things from them, not only obvious stuff, but also more subtle things.


If you can make the game feel smoother somehow, fix the animations, and give the gameplay more depth, it could be a great game however.


EDIT: You also need to add some better characters to play as. All of the characters you have added are the generic sword using heroes, who all use similar move pools.

You added Leon to play as TWICE, and two characters from Tales of Abyss... Yet you totally excluded some of the best Tales of characters?
Where is the Mighty Kong Man? Farah? Rass? Phillia?
Where are the mages, archers, martial artists and whatever else Tales of has?
The Magic Man wrote:
Most noticeable problem is you used BYOND.

Excuse me?
Fugsnarf wrote:
The Magic Man wrote:
Most noticeable problem is you used BYOND.

Excuse me?

I believe he means the 32x32 tile-based movement in combination with a little sliding makes the movement seem sort of clunky. I experienced this for myself when I played, but I didn't think it was a game-breaker. The game was still fun to play, and I thought the animations were great.

Thanks to the recent repeat fix, it's actually bearable now. Honestly, BYOND isn't the problem though. That's why I have a problem with that statement.
The Magic Man wrote:
Doesn't seem too bad. But there is a lot of problems.

As with most games in the earliest form of beta.

Most noticeable problem is you used BYOND.
Feels like playing a fighting game at 10 FPS, because that is exactly what is happening. Nothing is smooth at all. Gameplay, animations, controls all do not feel smooth.

Which could be solved by decreasing the tick lag. Which would cause server lag with a lot of players.

The controls could use some tweaking.
A, S and D feel fine, so does C. But F and T feel awkward to use.

Not sure why F feels awkward to you. C feels more awkward than F does. T was chosen since taunting is meant to be an extra little thing if you have time.

Animations in the game are also poorly done. Not due to the FPS limit, but you just put the frames together wrong, so the animations jump about a lot.

The size of the RSC due to graphics is already quite large (10.3MB) with just 5 characters. I cut down some of the frames to reduce that in many places, thus the jumpy animations. If i used every frame for each attack for each character, the RSC would be quite large with a larger repertoire of characters

Finally, the game feels too simplistic. Everyone has exactly 1 normal attack, 2 special attacks, and 2 super attacks. All of which are entered in the exact same way and function almost exactly the same.

Each character does indeed have the same regular combo. They infact have 6 different special attacks, 3 of which can be executed during a battle (at this time) and 3 super attacks, one only being available near-death as a last ditch effort.

If you want to make a fighting game, you should go and study fighting games some more. You're missing a lot of things from them, not only obvious stuff, but also more subtle things.

Early beta is early.

If you can make the game feel smoother somehow, fix the animations, and give the gameplay more depth, it could be a great game however.

See previous message.

EDIT: You also need to add some better characters to play as. All of the characters you have added are the generic sword using heroes, who all use similar move pools.

I plan to. And I'm aware they're all sword users. It makes it easier to fine tune and polish the systems, as well as develop the mechanics.

You added Leon to play as TWICE, and two characters from Tales of Abyss...

Way to spoil that one. Also, they play completely differently, so no.

Yet you totally excluded some of the best Tales of characters?
Where is the Mighty Kong Man? Farah? Rass? Phillia?

A matter of opinion. And no spritesheet yet.

Where are the mages, archers, martial artists and whatever else Tales of has?

To be included later. Mages are particularly a handful because magical effects use up A LOT of resources. The idea is to start simple, and work the way up.

Fugsnarf wrote:
Thanks to the recent repeat fix, it's actually bearable now. Honestly, BYOND isn't the problem though. That's why I have a problem with that statement.

No, the problem is BYOND.

BYOND is not suited to fast paced action games at the moment. It has an inherent 10 FPS limit, which ruins any potential it may have had for action games.
That and you have to go to great deals of effort to remove the tile based movement and add decent collision detection.

The game feels like a clunky fighting game, running at 10 FPS. Which is exactly what it is.


This is an example of what he could have done if he had used something else, like Game Maker.

http://www.byond.com/members/TheMagicMan/files/gamegm.rar (Press F1 for list of controls, shift to change characters and space to spawn an enemy)

Notice how much smoother it is and how better it plays? You're honestly saying BYOND is capable of making a game as smooth as this? (If so, lets see some proof)
You're very wrong. BYOND is capable now of just about anything Game Maker is, besides 3D (unless you count ray-casting with how much work it takes to actually make competently). In fact, games can even run with lowered tick_lag using pixel movement very well over servers. I will be proving this with both my Megaman game and X-Fire, the former is coming up very soon. If you think there's still a 10FPS limit, I don't know where you've been for the past few years.
Fugsnarf wrote:
You're very wrong. BYOND is capable now of just about anything Game Maker is, besides 3D (unless you count ray-casting with how much work it takes to actually make competently). In fact, games can even run with lowered tick_lag using pixel movement very well over servers. I will be proving this with both my Megaman game and X-Fire, the former is coming up very soon. If you think there's still a 10FPS limit, I don't know where you've been for the past few years.

It is not a hard limit. You can alter tick_lag.
But if you do this in a multiplayer game, it causes lag, lots of it. Among other issues.

I have still yet to see a game made with BYOND that runs as smooth as something made with a similar program, and unless something about BYOND changes, I doubt I ever will.
Since pixel movement now runs well over servers, you can look at how lowered tick_lag does. Take a look at Final Fantasy Legacy. They run the game at 1/2 the normal tick_lag, and it's virtually lagless. It was completely lagless with ATP hosting awhile back too, which is what I intend to use.
It's not about lag. It is about FPS.
As far as I know, in BYOND tick lag is basically FPS. 10 tick lag = 10 FPS.

There is a reason modern games run at 30-60 FPS and not 5-10 FPS. That is because this higher FPS makes the games seem smoother and more fluid. Something that is very important for a fast paces action game.
Magic Man, Silk, and everyone who thinks the tool sucks and cannot fathom what a tool can do due to the user...

We'll see....oh wait, you WILL see.
TMM should get around more.

Don't insult the tool, learn to use it.

---- On Topic ----

I didn't play for long but I liked the idea, though there are things I would have done differently I hope to see the incorporation of pixel movement!
If BYOND is capable of making a fast paced, action game with fluid gameplay. Then show me.

You keep saying it is possible, but show no proof at all. So start showing some.
It doesn't need to be a game you made, or even a full game. Just a playable example.

I know to some degree that it is possible to make a smooth single player game. But for multiplayer games, I doubt it is possible.

I am not insulting BYOND. I am saying BYOND is not made to do this. Just like cars are not made to fly, and saying they cannot fly is not an insult.