yui

Everything was going more or less to whatever semblance of a plan Abby had. The lance armor had turned its attention to Abby, and was getting ready to thrust at her. To be honest, she hadn't figured out what to do once she was impaled, but she knew it was better her than Marshall. So, prepared to face the attack head-on, Abby braced herself for impact...

Only for Marshall to do something incredibly stupid!

"Are you stupid!?" Abby barked as her partner charged into the now-spearless armor, receiving a pugilistic pummeling for her efforts. Marshall was soon after rendered down for good. Either she was dead, or she probably wished she was. This sort of thing was something Abby had prepared to be met with even in her previous life - she did want to be a doctor, after all - but she wasn't expecting it to happen quite like this. Least of all by someone recklessly charging in time and again against a singular foe. But unless Abby wanted to join her in the afterlife (after-afterlife?), she didn't have time to freak out over that. It was now 1-on-1 against a foe meant for two, and the armor demanded Abby's full attention.

As did the spear. While she had to admit she hadn't expected it to be thrown at her in such a manner, the how and why of it didn't matter. The spear was there, and Abby needed it to not be inside her body. And so, as the spear approached, she brought from the side her hammer to meet it mid-flight, swinging at the projectile weapon. And the attempt to deflect it did work, somewhat. The force behind the spear was a bit more than Abby had suspected, and while she wasn't able to fully rid herself of it, she was able to send it off-course enough that the spear found itself lodged in her waist rather than piercing through her heart. That was definitely a preferable outcome, though the electricity surging through her body did briefly cause her muscles to seize up. Marshall's sacrifice was something of a blessing in this moment, since the armor being occupied killing her meant it didn't have time to move in on the briefly-stunned Abby. And she was certain this time that "killed" was the right word, for Marshall's spear even disappeared from the field of battle. This mortal distraction gave Abby a brief moment to cast a quick Cure on herself, but at what cost?

The other spear, meanwhile, turned back into water, rushing back to its owner's side. So that's your game.

If the armor was smart, it would turn this into a war of attrition. Keep throwing the spear until Abby is worn out, then finish her off from there. Abby couldn't have that. Even if "run at the opponent" wasn't the best strategy by any measure, it was what she'd have to do in this moment. She could play the rest by ear, with one particular endgoal in mind. As she began her approach, the armor threw its spear once more, though without the additional windup and crackling electricity this time. Perhaps this time a good swing would deflect the spear in its entirety? Much to her relief, it was! As the hammer and spear collided, the latter was sent off to the side, clattering uselessly against the floor.

Well now!

it's new guilty gear character day and you know what that means

Dev Update #5.5: Some Early Polish (and a new world map)

An update significant enough to warrant a post, but not enough so to count as a dev update #6. In the week or so since the last post, I've finished the intros for Carol, Aran, and Merudy, and am currently working on Sakura's. Additionally, while working on that and trying to figure out what the hell I'm doing with Xun's intro, I've taken care of a few loose ends that I wanted to get out of the way and addressed a few things that were starting to bug me.

Little things first, I've been adjusting some numbers like EXP gained in the intro dungeons, fixing enemy stats in said intro dungeons, tweaking MP costs (everything costs more MP now), buffing Avend's speed because he was too slow, and adding a cooldown system to some skills for the sole purpose of nerfing Aran because he was too powerful (his signature Low Sweep is currently the only skill with a cooldown). And then there's some bigger stuff that happened.

We've got lighting! (in this specific intro; i still need to implement it into the others)

This is not a yanfly plugin (for once) but rather the Community Lighting plugin made by a handful of people. This plugin also implements a day-night cycle in the overworld, which I do plan to do things with. Thing is... the world map I showed off a couple posts back uses a parallax background, which tl/dr means there's a nice jpeg filling up what would otherwise be a black void. Now, MV has no satisfying method - be it in-engine or through plugins - to smoothly transition between parallaxes, meaning I can't fade out the nice blue sky for a starry night sky during the night hours, meaning things just look weird. So, between that, some worldbuilding I didn't expect, and realizing the desert island really is kinda shit, I had to basically redo the entire world map.

I really wanted my floating islands world, but I was effectively forced to choose between that and the day/night cycle, and given how time is starting to become a recurring theme in this game, between the MacGuffin in the tower and the pseudo-realtime combat provided by the ATB system, I elected to keep the latter. Did I mention that the new world map means I need to re-check every character intro (so far) and fix not only where it spawns them into the overworld, but also how the screen scrolls to show the tower at the start? Because it does. I don't even know if some characters (Mavie and Merudy especially) will be able to be on-screen at the same time as the tower for these intros anymore. All this because I insisted on a proper day/night cycle instead of my original plan which was to have the day switch between day/sunset/night after certain actions like clearing a dungeon or turning in a significant quest.

Luckily, the checklist of things I want to do before considering this playable enough to share with people is getting more and more complete. Presently, the goals are...

1. Finish all character intros (6/8)
2. Implement the first 5 floors of the tower (0/5)
3. Add at least one playable town to each island (though realistically it'll have to be at least two each) (0/4)

The start of the fight had gone about as well as Abby could realistically hope for. In an unrealistic super-perfect scenario, Marshall would get a good stab in at the suit of armor without sustaining any injuries herself, but this was reality, even if Abby was still getting used to the fact. Marshall did indeed get a very good stab in, but in the process, the armor was able to retaliate with an attack of its own. At the very least, it seemed Marshall wasn't dead, so there was relief to be found there.

“...I’m going to try and keep it focused on me. Strike when you see an opening. Objections?”

"None. Don't be afraid to fall back for a bit if you need some quick healing, but keep in mind I'm not a miracle worker."

“...I know. Just stay behind me until we clash.”

What followed was a tension Abby would have likened to a standoff in a cowboy film, if she were more of a spectator and less an active participant in this fight. Once the construct started forward, so did Marshall, in another trade of stabs. This time, however, Marshall had physical backup, in the form of a small woman with a big hammer closing in on the lance-wielders as fast as her legs would carry her, hammer at the ready. Once Abby was in swinging range, she did exactly that, taking a big swing right at the big hunk of steel and water in front of her.

As she did so, however, Abby soon realized that this thing may have been a bit faster than she gave credit for. Fast enough to react to the follow-up, at least, removing its lance from Marshall and falling back in a bid to escape the tiny juggernaut. While it was able to avoid the brunt of the attack, thankfully it wasn't so fast as to escape the situation entirely, being met with a swing of the hammer into its side. And so, Abby turned her attention back to Marshall for a moment. Still standing, but stabbed twice. This was far from ideal.

"Maybe let me take one?" she suggested. "So you don't get yourself killed or something?"

I've been meaning to post this update for a few days. As you can see, I did not until just now.

Dev Update #5: Let's Start At The Beginning

Because this game features eight playable characters, each with their own motivations and backstories, it makes sense that each one should have a different intro in the game. Currently, the progress on these is as follows:

Carol: Near completion, but I'm not certain if I like the current angle I went with yet. Will probably use this intro for a "0.1" release and see what people think of it.
Sakura: Not started
Avend: Complete
Xun: Not started
Aran: The concept is set, but I haven't done any work on it
Merudy: Currently in ideation
Pupa: Tentatively complete, might make tweaks later on
Mavie: Complete

I'd say that puts me at about... 47% completion for the intros. With each character getting their own unique mini-dungeon for their intros, and a short blurb of story before that, I should have been at least halfway done by now, but getting these right will be one of the greatest hurdles in development. After that point, everybody's trying to climb up the same tower, so I can do one dungeon for eight characters instead of eight dungeons for one character each.

I've also done some system work, namely in the form of your main character of choice changing the color of the system windows. I've also traded out the general descriptions in character select as seen in the previous update for a more direct assessment of strengths & weaknesses, as seen with Carol in this one. Currently, the plan is to finish the intros then figure out how many floors of the tower I want players to tackle at a time. Once all the intros and the first set of floors is done, I'll consider that enough content to finally show off something that people can actually play.

The Threshold. Aptly named, for it was a sort of barrier separating formidable foes from the rest of the world. A threshold, even, that meant you'd have to fight a powerful enemy once you crossed it. As the group crossed this one in particular, they were met with two enemies, as promised. Two armored figures, identical save for the weapons in their hands. One wielded an axe, the other a spear. The plan more or less lined up with Abby's suggestion from earlier; the party splits up, with two fighting each enemy. It seemed the axe-wielder would be dealt with by Gene and Sabrina, which left the lance-user for Abby and Marshall.

As much as she wanted to keep an eye on the other pair as well, this was supposed to be a powerful enemy, which meant giving the lancer her undivided attention. Abby made her way over to Marshall's side, joining in the slow and deliberate approach toward their shared target. "You got a plan for this guy or are we playing it by ear?" she asked.

"Well," Marshall murmured, eyes briefly drifting towards Sabrina's antics, before returning to their own foe. "If you trust me to do so, I was going to try and keep him focused on me using my speed and relatively equivalent range; so that you could get in and..." she'd trail off, not feeling as if she needed to voice the idea of 'smash-a him with a hammer'.

"Sounds good to me. I'm right behind you." Abby reached her swinging arm out to the side, calling upon her trusty smashing hammer. Meanwhile, her other hand tensed up, preparing to do that overcharge thing she'd learned about in the previous trial. "Once you start running, I'm going to try pulling him toward us, so be ready for that."

"Roger," she'd reply briefly; moving from her leisurely pace, to a full sprint towards the enemy. She focused herself, for a moment, as she tightened her grip on her lance and felt the telltale feeling of energy falling under her command as she ran; lowering the spear in front of her as she overcharged 'Full-Steam-Ahead' with a heavy thrust of the lance; doing her best to try and get the maximum amount of power and value out of it and Abby's pull both; and to try and catch her opponent at least a little off guard, if she couldn't wait to see what they were capable of before engaging.

As soon as Marshall made her move, Abby took it as her cue to do the same. As Marshall charged forward, Abby pulled back, calling upon an inward blast of wind that pulled on the armored foe. Not enough to bring it all the way over, but certainly enough to get it off-balance and a bit closer to the girls, giving Marshall a perfect opening to land a direct hit on the enemy. With a solid opening hit, Abby took the moment to close some more distance on foot while the getting was good.

1. Takumi
2. Hector
3. Gatekeeper
4. Female Byleth
5. Robin
6. Roy
7. Tharja
8. Mustafa

With the two levers pulled, the Exalted had - by River's acocut - completed the test and proven themselves worthy of the combat trial.

"Do you think....coming here made us smarter too?"

"M-Maybe..."

"I think it's less that and more we have more heads on the puzzle," Abby suggested.

Whatever the reason for their success may have been, it was regardless time to go check out that combat trial. As the team went back the way they came, and through the door that was now open to them, there were more murals on the walls. More history, it seemed. It was never Abby's strongest subject, even with modern learning resources, let alone picture murals and oral tradition. She'd be lying if she said a lot of this wasn't just going over her head, but by the sound of it, the people of this world used to be regular humans too?

If the people back home heard of this, they'd surely feel ripped off. She could already hear some degenerate bemoaning the very mundane state of that world, saying something like "Why couldn't our world be blessed with catgirls?"

Abby, for one, didn't really care for that kind of sentiment. Cat-ear headbands existed, and she'd even worn one before; it was important to settle for what was possible with this sort of thing.

Speaking of what was possible, while she didn't doubt her chances in this combat trial to come, it would definitely be beneficial to know more about it.

"So, is it just one big enemy in there, or are we dealing with a bunch of smaller guys, or... what's the deal? If you're allowed to tell."

"Oh, why yes, I am able to speak about it. Though, the specifics of your opponents' capabilities are unknown to me, I am aware that there are two be two of them. As for their strength I believe them to be about the height of Gene, though they are certainly more fearsome then any of the Drengr you have fought thus far."

"Hear that, folks? Two on four. I say we try to keep them split up."

debated putting this here or in music thread and settled for putting it here cos of the 30-second pre-song intro and about a minute of video left after the song's over