Welcome back to Project Phases. This is Update 5 which is part 2 of multiple player combat covering the enemy side of things. Not much of an introduction need since this is continuation of the last update. We got a lot to cover so let’s start!
Main Menu
If you make your way to the Player Select menu, you will see 3 new characters on the bottom. These are the enemies which you can select and unselect just like the players. The enemies are Clockman, Crocman and Lockman. I got the ideas for the characters from a drawing my friend made, so I technically didn’t make them. Converting the drawings into 16×16 sprites was fun and I think they all turned out pretty well (especially considering my terrible art skills). My favorite is Lockman just because how well his suit complements the rest of his design.
Battle Changes
Just like last time, the battle system is where the bulk of the update is. Now when you go into a battle, you will see all three enemies on the right. I think it looks great with all six characters on each side. It makes everything look more complete.
The first big change is the new selection system which allows you select targets for attacks. I created the system during the last update for Clint’s Choice Heal attack, but now it’s been expanded to all moves. Once you select an attack you can select a target for that attack. The future arrow will move accordingly depending on when it will land in an enemy’s timeline. The future arrow is still really buggy and doesn’t work all the time, so I hope to get that fixed soon. Also, Oliver’s Wide Slash attack now works since we have all the enemies and you don’t have to select anyone to use Wide Slash.
Of course, all the new enemies have attack animations as well and here they are…
Additionally, Enemy AI as received a huge overall. The system I implemented in Update 3 worked, but the cracks started to show when I added more enemies. Before, it was based on one player’s state in the timeline but now it is based on a priority system. Every enemy goes through a list of priorities. This is a better approach since every enemy will have more predictable behavior, which is an element I would like to flesh out more in the future. Some current priorities includes lowest health, maximum health, attack characters in a particular phase, max point and just a random player.
Each enemy has a different array of priorities. For example, one enemy might check who has the lowest health. If that person is in the defend phase, they will try checking who has the most points, then attack. If that person is also in the defend phase, they might just go ahead and attack or randomly pick someone. He may also heal or wait depending on what his health is. If everyone is in the defend phase, given the enemy has enough points, it may just skip. There are many options, but there is still a lot of work to be done. In the future, I hope to add some way where you can figure out what each enemy’s priorities are so you can build strategies around it.
If you want to see a full battle, at 11:36 in the update video I demonstrate a battle and all of the thought that can go behind it. The video should be embedded above, so go check it out. Just ignore the fact that it crashed in the end, there are still a lot of bugs to figure out.
Overall, Update 4 and 5 combined has been the biggest update yet. It’s really helped the game come together. These updates have taken longer and longer, so it may be awhile before the next update. I’m really happy with how things are going so far, so hopefully we can keep the progress going. Next update will be additions to the overworld since we have been working in the battle system for a long time.
Thanks for reading,
Andy
Note: Project Phases Update 1-7 all had their posts written after their release. I did not launch the website until January 25th, 2019, so any post dated before then were created after the fact for the site and the date listed for these posts is when I released the video. I wrote these posts using the showcase videos and my notes from each update as reference and I tried to make sure I didn’t include any future information (i.e. I only wrote what I would have written at the time). However, they are also less in depth since I didn’t write notes as I do know for the purpose of the site. Just want to be clear about the timeline since it may be a bit confusing. Thanks!