Author Topic: 東方天法典 ~ Divine Chaos: A Touhou RPG  (Read 23777 times)

Solmyr2000

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東方天法典 ~ Divine Chaos: A Touhou RPG
« on: December 31, 2013, 06:19:07 PM »
Well, since I'm already registered here anyway, I decided to show my little probably overambitious game which I've been working on for around 2 years now.
It's a kind of a mix of JPRG and King's Bounty/HoMM series, written in C++ using SDL.
While the game is still an alpha, it has a lot of things done already (it's playable), but still much more to be done. I'd say purely code-wise it's mostly finished, but other things (content/story/mapping/art) are not even close, and sound/music, while supported, are non-existent :V
I'm doing this alone so the progress is not very fast, but I'm hoping to finish this someday.

There's no download yet, I'll release it once the game is good enough to be called a 'beta'.
Right now I just want to know if people are interested in seeing this finished. I'd also appreciate any help in the art/sound/music department.

Well, now for some screenshots, along with a description of some of the game's features:
Note: Alphes/alphes-style portraits are a placeholder and a lot of graphics/animations are still missing or not completely done (and thus look pretty bad), aaand since it's still an alpha, everything can change radically.

Screenshot link
This is an example of combat. It's turn-based, with turn order decided by the character's Initiative stat. Speed is a different stat which decides how much hexes the character can move per turn. While they usually correlate, they do not ALWAYS correlate. For example, Sakuya has exceptionally high initiative for her average speed, while Youmu has low initiative, but high speed.
The characters can both move and attack in the same turn, although most strong attacks will be unavailable if the character has moved.

Screenshot link
Outside of combat, there is a usual exploration map, with items lying around and enemy encounters. They are visible on the map and most of them can move, they will chase you if they notice you (if you are much stronger, they will run away from you instead). This is turn-based as well, they move when you move.
The world is relatively free to explore, although there will be some story/order-of-visit barriers.

Screenshot link
Also, time of a day changes, and your party's sight radius decreases as well. That is, unless you have Wriggle in your party with the "Guiding Light" skill which prevents this. Aside from that, just like you'd expect, youkai are more active at night, and thus enemies' spawn rate at night is doubled. Time moves at a rate of 20 seconds per step.

Screenshot link
Every character has her own skill tree with own unique skills, both passive and active. I tried to make every character feel unique, and hopefully I succeeded.
The game will have at least 65 playable characters (and around 40 are done already, although they are still missing some or all graphic/animations), but the long-term (e.g. I won't work on it unless I'm sure I'll be able to do it) plan is to have around 90, e.g. almost everyone.

Screenshot link
Some attacks are powerful enough to be classified as Spellcards. Spellcards need to be "prepared", e.g. you need to put it in one of your character's spellcard slots. You get your first spellcard slot at level 5, second at level 15, and finally, third at level 30 (Patchouli has a skill which allows her to prepare 4 spellcards, and Kaguya can even prepare 5). Once you prepared it, you can use it once per battle, and you can't prepare any spellcard more than once (At the same time. You can unprepare/prepare spellcards as you wish, but you can't have two uses of the same spellcard.).
That's not the only difference. To actually USE a spellcard, you need to charge it first, which looks like this:
Screenshot link
A spellcard takes several turns to be charged, with amount of turns equal to its level. Everyone has level 1-3 spellcards, some have level 4 (Reimu's Fantasy Nature, Yuyuko's Saigyouji Flawless Nirvana... aaand Yukari's train :V). Level 4 spellcards are pretty much insta-win spellcards, unless it's a boss fight, of course.
While it's charging, the character can't do anything, but the spellcard has its own HP value. You can't hurt a character unless you deplete the spellcard HP first, however, if it's depleted, the spellcard fails. Once enough turns pass and the spellcard is charged, you CAN but you don't HAVE TO use the spellcard (you can delay using the spellcard for any amount of turns), which means that you can use spellcards not only offensively, but defensively. Patchouli actually relies on this heavily as her spellcards are tougher than she is herself :V

Aside from the regular fights, there will be boss fights, which may (they usually do) have some unique quirks like this:
Screenshot link
Bosses usually have a LOT more HP than normal characters, and they have multiple HP bars. The boss battles are divided into non-spell and spellcard phases, and each has its own HP bar.
During non-spell phases, bosses just randomly (or almost randomly) use some regular attacks and are not very threatening. Now, during spellcard phases, they usually follow a specific pattern with their attacks, and they are very powerful: as powerful as regular spellcards, but unlike regular spellcards, bosses use them every turn. Some spellcards may be completely different and unique, for example Flandre's Four of a Kind, as you might expect, creates three clones, which proceed to behave just like in a nonspell phase.
What's "charge" for regular spellcards is "timeout" for boss spellcards. You can timeout a spellcard by waiting enough turns. Some (usually the final ones) spellcards have no timeout and some can ONLY be beaten by timeout, those are survival spellcards. Capturing a spellcard gives you additional exp, while timing it out does not.

Screenshot link
So, stats. Combat affects your "Force"-type attacks' damage (these are mostly melee attacks, but not always, shooting with a bow is also a force attack, for example), Danmaku affects your "Danmaku"-type attacks' damage (these are ranged attacks which (duh) involve danmaku), Accuracy increases your chance to hit, Evasion reduces your chance to be hit, Defence reduces damage taken, Resistance protects from status effects and debuffs, and Concentration is a "support" stat which does a lot of things - it powers up status effects, buffs/debuffs, healing and a few specific attacks depend on it for damage. Finally, it also affects your Spellcards' HP value.

The bars below the stats are affinities: Magic-Physical/Water-Fire/Earth-Air and Dark-Light. They are essentially resistances, and you can't have both - you are either resistant to light and weak to dark, or resistant to dark and weak to light. There are skills and items that increase your defence against the specific element, and there can be a "damage reduction" effect against specific elements, so you still CAN defend against the element without sacrificing protection from the opposite.
Also, affinities, except for the Physical-Magic one, are not static. Every character has a base affinity, like Reimu here has a base 50 affinity to light. That means her affinity can change from -50 to +150 by using attacks of the appropriate element. If she uses a light-element attack, the affinity will slightly (or greatly, if that's a spellcard) shift to light further, but if she uses a dark-elemental attack, it will shift to dark. Using elemental weapons also shifts the affinity.
There *might* be some secret dialogues or even bonuses/skills which require a certain character to have a certain affinity, usually something you wouldn't normally expect, like Fire Cirno :3

Below the HP and MP values there is a Power value. Some attacks require a certain power value to be used. Non-spellcard attacks require either none or 1, and spellcards require 1+levelofspellcard. Aside from requiring it, spellcards actually consume power, so it serves mainly as a cooldown between spellcards. By default, you can gain power by dealing or taking damage, but some characters have some skills which allow them to gain power for different things (Cirno can gain power for freezing, Eirin - for healing, Hina - for debuffing, etc.)
Power limit is 1 at first, but it's increased by 1 every 5 levels until it reaches 5. You can increase it further with some equipment.

To the right are status resistance modifiers (they modify the resistance stat when it's checked against that status effect).

Screenshot link
Nothing unusual here, just inventory.

Screenshot link
By default, characters start the fight in a vertical row formation, but you can customize your party's formation freely.

Screenshot link
Marisa's danmaku is flashy, yep.

And another little thing. The characters' sprites are made of "bodyparts", and hair/eyes are colored by the game itself, so the game actually supports different outfits for characters.
For example,
Screenshot link
:V
That's another very long-term goal, because it's pretty much only limited by art, not code.

The game also has support for multiple languages, and right now it has English/Russian/Japanese, and it even supports IME, although I'm unlikely to fully translate the game into Japanese just because I lack enough knowledge for that.

Well, that's enough I think. This post is already large enough. ;)
« Last Edit: January 15, 2014, 06:09:13 AM by Solmyr2000 »

Trickysticks

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Re: 東方天法典 ~ Divine Chaos: A Touhou RPG game
« Reply #1 on: December 31, 2013, 07:22:21 PM »
This looks very promising so far. I like the style of gameplay and can't wait to see more.
Interested in playing some boss fights I made? Have Danmakufu? Then check out my Danmakufu creations!

Lunarethic

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Re: 東方天法典 ~ Divine Chaos: A Touhou RPG game
« Reply #2 on: January 01, 2014, 04:17:54 AM »
I am liking the screenshots and this game is very promising I like the skill tree idea but the battle set up , uhmmmmmmm what's with the hexagons? o.O are you able to move during combat? But other than that, I'll be looking forward to this  :3
いつもニコニコあなたの隣に這いよる!生放送!は好き。月です~す。略してニコニャル
Learned how to use a custom shotsheet : 12/28/13 *clapclapclap*
東方謎佚光 ~ Dimensional Light Abscence Work In Progress Touhou Fangame

Kimidori

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Re: 東方天法典 ~ Divine Chaos: A Touhou RPG game
« Reply #3 on: January 01, 2014, 05:20:06 AM »
looks like this have a really good concept and design, hope to see a demo soon.


"No matter what, cute is justice. If you're watching shows without moe, you should really be questioning your life decisions. The creation of 2D anime girls is the pinnacle of human achievement." -Logan M

Re: 東方天法典 ~ Divine Chaos: A Touhou RPG game
« Reply #4 on: January 01, 2014, 06:14:50 AM »
This looks really promising, and it's way more fleshed out than the average game. You definitely have my attention.
Are there any resources you're in need of?

Solmyr2000

  • 不思議の国のアリス
Re: 東方天法典 ~ Divine Chaos: A Touhou RPG game
« Reply #5 on: January 01, 2014, 06:25:24 AM »
I am liking the screenshots and this game is very promising I like the skill tree idea but the battle set up , uhmmmmmmm what's with the hexagons? o.O are you able to move during combat? But other than that, I'll be looking forward to this  :3
Of course you are able to move during combat, that's the whole point  :)
Most attacks affect specific areas (there are a lot of different areas of effect, from basic circle or line area to something really weird like the "Ricochet", which bounces off the edges of battlefield), have a limited range, there are distance-based accuracy penalties (some attacks do not have distance penalties, but they are usually much weaker), and some attacks move the character while attacking. Reimu's Dimensional Rift teleports her, Marisa's Witch Leyline rams into the enemy, Youmu's Slash of Eternity teleports across the whole battlefield and hits everyone in a line, Chen has an attack in which she moves closer, attacks, and then retreats, and there are many more like these  :).
For boss fights, moving is important. A lot of bosses' patterns can and need to be avoided with moving in correct fashion, and, for example, Cirno in a boss fight casts a very powerful evasion-against-danmaku buff which makes her basically impossible to hit with ranged attacks, so you need to get close. And you can only get close through the appearing/disappearing ice pillar puzzle  :V

There are a lot of things to do with those hexes as well. Tewi can set up traps that do various things to enemies that enter them, Medicine can create a poison cloud, which poisons and slows down everyone who are standing in it, Remilia has a similar thing in mist which saps HP, Satori's Brain Fingerprint creates an invisible time bomb which explodes after a random amount of turns, Yuuka can create a poppy field which inflicts sleep, and can sometimes even trigger instant death :V There are, again, many more of these.

This looks really promising, and it's way more fleshed out than the average game. You definitely have my attention.
Are there any resources you're in need of?
The thing I need the most right now is monster sprites. Most monsters are an empty space, and I can't even draw a wolf.  :V

P.S. Here's the example of a ricochet attack. Also, the more transparent hexes highlight the distance penalty.
P.P.S. Oh, another thing I forgot to mention in the OP, the game will have two main characters (Reimu and Marisa, obviously  :V). You'll be able to start as one or as the other. They start in different places, have a different character with them at the start (Alice for Marisa, Keine for Reimu) and have different dialogues. You'll be able to recruit the other main character, but that won't happen until around halfway into the game.
Also, you get a bonus for your main character. Both have three "shottypes", which give you an additional skill (Homing Amulets/Persuasion Needles/Ascension Kick for Reimu and Magic Napalm/Illusion Laser/Witch Leyline for Marisa) and +1 to base value of one of their stats (that means this will affect their stat growth with levels as well).
« Last Edit: January 01, 2014, 07:30:08 AM by Solmyr2000 »

ShadowNCS

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Re: 東方天法典 ~ Divine Chaos: A Touhou RPG game
« Reply #6 on: January 03, 2014, 12:15:20 AM »
You're trying to get this game going by yourself?
Welcome in the "trying to get a game done with one person" club! xD

Oh, for the combat you used the hex grid from HoMM3, my favorite game from the HoMM series! Nice! That alone is one reason to look forward to the game (although there are many others as well)!
Adding actual skills for every character to use seems definitely interesting as well.

I'm really looking forward to your game. It looks really promising!

Quote
[The main characters] have a different character with them at the start (Alice for Marisa, Keine for Reimu)
Is that just coincidence, or were you inspired by Gensou Shoujo Taisen (Fantasy Maiden Wars E) there? xD

Solmyr2000

  • 不思議の国のアリス
Re: 東方天法典 ~ Divine Chaos: A Touhou RPG game
« Reply #7 on: January 03, 2014, 01:16:12 AM »
Oh, for the combat you used the hex grid from HoMM3, my favorite game from the HoMM series! Nice! That alone is one reason to look forward to the game (although there are many others as well)!
Adding actual skills for every character to use seems definitely interesting as well.
Yeah,
Spoiler:
and there is morale in this game which can give you a second turn or make you lose a turn, which is definitely not inspired by HoMM. Well, it's not -3..+3, it's percentage based, -100%..100%.
Luck is also in, but it works completely differently. It affects all random checks. A lot. Hina with luck debuffs + Tewi with luck buffs can make 1% a very high and reliable chance :3

Is that just coincidence, or were you inspired by Gensou Shoujo Taisen (Fantasy Maiden Wars E) there? xD
Yes.  :V There are also many things that are inspired by LoT and GoS/DoD.

Aaand some more info:
Since I've been working on finishing the prismrivers and the three fairies, I thought I might tell you about combination attacks.
Not all attacks are performed by a single character, some attacks require multiple characters, and the Prismrivers/Three Fairies are the most notable users of these.
There are three kinds of combination attacks:
1) "Common" - to use these, all the participating characters must learn the attack (and prepare it, if it's a spellcard). When the attack is used, all the participating characters use it.
2) "Unique" (only spellcards) - to use these, only one character must (and only one can) learn the spellcard, and when it's used, only this character will use it.
3) "Free" (only normal attacks) - these are similar to "common" type, but they do not REQUIRE anyone, they may be used alone. If other characters can join as well, they will.
Combination spellcards have a single HP value, and you can attack any (or all) participating character to damage it.
As an example of "unique"-type combination spellcard, Eirin and Kaguya have Hourai Elixir: only Eirin can learn it and only Eirin can use it, but she needs Kaguya to charge the spellcard.

Another thing I can tell about is difficulties. There are four usual difficulties, and aside from numerical differences (which are most notable between hard and lunatic), there is one major thing  and a few little ones:
The major thing is that a lot of boss spellcards have different versions for different difficulties. Most spellcards are divided in two versions: Easy/Normal and Hard/Lunatic, however, there may be a different version for easy or some really nasty ones which you'll only see on lunatic. And there are some spellcards that will not appear at all on lower difficulties.
As an example, Cirno's "Icicle Fall" hits a column, then skips a column, and so on, so you can avoid it completely if you are positioned correctly. That is on Normal. On Hard/Lunatic it changes into "Hailstorm", and it hits every column, so you can't avoid it just as easily. And on Easy, well, you know... :V
Other differences:
On Easy, all dead characters are always resurrected after battle. Normally, you'd need to go to "restoration point" to revive them (Mokou and Kaguya are a special case, they always revive even on higher difficulties). And on Hard and Lunatic, the HP/MP restoration per step on world map is halved.
Also, on easy all enemies start with 0 power, on normal they start with 1, on hard - 1 + half of maximum, and on lunatic - at the maximum, so they might throw their most powerful spellcards at you from the very beginning. Which is probably going to kill you since their stats are so much higher :V
« Last Edit: January 03, 2014, 01:51:11 AM by Solmyr2000 »

Kaze_Senshi

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Re: 東方天法典 ~ Divine Chaos: A Touhou RPG game
« Reply #8 on: January 05, 2014, 12:47:20 PM »
Videos plz, those screenshots look pretty good :)

Oh, for the combat you used the hex grid from HoMM3, my favorite game from the HoMM series! Nice! That alone is one reason to look forward to the game (although there are many others as well)!

Oh Yeah HoMM3 S2 :)
My youtube channel with my creations: https://www.youtube.com/user/KazeSenshi2929
( ゆっくりしていってね)>

Solmyr2000

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Re: 東方天法典 ~ Divine Chaos: A Touhou RPG game
« Reply #9 on: January 05, 2014, 04:59:38 PM »
Videos plz, those screenshots look pretty good :)
I don't think the game is ready for videos, I need to draw/fix some more sprites & animations first. And fix the goddamn freezing AI. ::)

Well, anyway, I'll show another screenshot.
There is a very curious instance of a combination spellcard which doesn't require multiple characters. It does need multiple units, however. Here it is:
Screenshot link
:V
Spoiler:
Yeah, she can clone herself. Aside from being required to Double Spark everything to hell, the clone can do whatever Yuuka can do and has the same stats and equipment, but it has much less HP, disappears after 8 turns and costs quite a bit of MP.
You also can't have more than one at once, of course.

Re: 東方天法典 ~ Divine Chaos: A Touhou RPG game
« Reply #10 on: January 05, 2014, 11:01:14 PM »
Since it's an RPG, don't you think it'd be better if you make no more than 2 difficulties?
Want the game to be easier?--> grind a few minutes  :V


ShadowNCS

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Re: 東方天法典 ~ Divine Chaos: A Touhou RPG game
« Reply #11 on: January 06, 2014, 02:59:48 AM »
There are also many things that are inspired by LoT and GoS/DoD.
As long as it isn't the grindiness from LoT and the constant accessory switch-around from GoS, I'll be looking forward to these inspirations. ^^

Difficulties, huh.
I have the bad feeling that I'll feel compelled to play on Hard and then losing to every single enemy. xD;
Ah well, I'll see.
First, you need to finish the game. I'll be cheering you on. ^^
I'd like to help you, but I don't really know if I have the time or the skill for that. My expertise lies in programming, but I can do a bit of spriting, too (all I've done are Sonic the Hedgehog characters, a bit humans and blobs, though), and I guess I'm decent at drawing.
I definitely can't help out with music, though. I wanted to try and make some own songs, but I never got around to actually doing it. (I really want to make a song using ZUNpets at some point in time. xD )
So, uh, yeah, I guess if you can't find anyone who will help you with your project, I might be able to help. But don't expect too much. Skill and time are slim. ^^;

Spoiler:
You also can't have more than one at once, of course.
Spoiler:
Dang it, and I was hoping to get an army of Yuukas.  :3

Since it's an RPG, don't you think it'd be better if you make no more than 2 difficulties?
Want the game to be easier?--> grind a few minutes  :V
I think more difficulties are a good idea, since it's more than just enemies with upped stats, but also requires different strategies with the bosses and more conservation of resources inside dungeons (item-wise).
Although, all of this is nothing a bit of level grinding could fix, huh. xD;

Solmyr2000

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Re: 東方天法典 ~ Divine Chaos: A Touhou RPG game
« Reply #12 on: January 06, 2014, 07:48:38 AM »
As long as it isn't the grindiness from LoT and the constant accessory switch-around from GoS, I'll be looking forward to these inspirations. ^^
Nah. There are only around 50 levels (although the level cap is 99, you are very very unlikely to reach it), and you can't grind too much because experience gain drops if your level is higher (-25% if you are 3 levels above, -50% if you are 6 levels above and always 1 experience if you are 10 levels above). It DOES also increase if enemy level is higher though.
You also won't need to change items often. Party members, however...  :V MP on higher levels is going to be really scarce and really slow to restore (on easy/normal - 2 per step, hard/lunatic - 1 per step. HP restoration is percentage-based, so it's much faster), so you'll probably have to use multiple parties.
But I have a system to save party presets and switch between them instead of individual characters (it's currently removed because of party change window rework, but it's still in the code and I'll re-implement it sometime later)

Speaking about experience, different characters have different level up rates like in LoT. For example, Rumia needs only 70% experience to level up, while Yukari needs 140%. Yukari's base stats are obviously much higher though.  :)
Oh, and the level difference experience penalty/bonus is adjusted for them too, so it's fair.

Difficulties, huh.
I have the bad feeling that I'll feel compelled to play on Hard and then losing to every single enemy. xD;
Hard isn't that hard, it mostly makes bosses harder and makes general party survival a bit harder, but regular enemies don't get much stronger.
Lunatic, however...
To be more specific:
Easy: enemies get no level up statpoints to distribute between stats
Normal: like the player characters
Hard: enemies get a +25% bonus to their base stats
Lunatic: enemies get a +50% bonus to their base stats and DOUBLE the amount of statpoints

Hard is "strategic" diffculty, while Lunatic is "brute force" difficulty.

Spoiler:
Dang it, and I was hoping to get an army of Yuukas.  :3
Spoiler:
Alice says you can have an army of dolls instead.  :V You can fill a whole battlefield with these if you have a lot of MP potions and patience.
Also, about dolls: there are not 1, but 7 kinds of dolls. Basic doll, kamikaze doll, fairy doll, archer doll, poison doll, knight doll and the vampire doll.
Each can do different things and belongs to a different element. Kamikaze doll is fire and it can, well, explode, which destroys the doll but deals a lot of damage (it's based on doll's current HP).
« Last Edit: January 06, 2014, 08:38:16 AM by Solmyr2000 »

ShadowNCS

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Re: 東方天法典 ~ Divine Chaos: A Touhou RPG game
« Reply #13 on: January 08, 2014, 12:18:32 AM »
You also won't need to change items often. Party members, however...  :V MP on higher levels is going to be really scarce and really slow to restore (on easy/normal - 2 per step, hard/lunatic - 1 per step.
That must really nerf magician characters. Although, in GoS they didn't restore MP at all (unless you had items or passive skills), so I guess I can be glad that it is restored a bit at least. xD


Spoiler:
Alice says you can have an army of dolls instead.  :V You can fill a whole battlefield with these if you have a lot of MP potions and patience.
Also, about dolls: there are not 1, but 7 kinds of dolls. Basic doll, kamikaze doll, fairy doll, archer doll, poison doll, knight doll and the vampire doll.
Each can do different things and belongs to a different element. Kamikaze doll is fire and it can, well, explode, which destroys the doll but deals a lot of damage (it's based on doll's current HP).
Spoiler:
I just love how in every game Alice is the most interesting character with the most interesting (and unique) fighting style. The best examples being the fighting games, GoS and LoT. And MegaMari ^^
Although I'm disappointed in the lack of Shanghai and Hourai Doll.

Solmyr2000

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Re: 東方天法典 ~ Divine Chaos: A Touhou RPG game
« Reply #14 on: January 08, 2014, 08:29:46 AM »
That must really nerf magician characters. Although, in GoS they didn't restore MP at all (unless you had items or passive skills), so I guess I can be glad that it is restored a bit at least. xD
There will likely be some MP regen accessories for them (they will be rare though), and Kaguya can regen MP natively with her skills.
Also, about "nerfs" - Remilia and Flandre are very powerful (Flandre has the highest combat stat AND the highest danmaku stat, while all of Remilia's stats are high except defence (which is only below average). Both have pretty bad HP and MP though), abnormally powerful even for their exp to levelup (125%), BUT. They can't fight in daylight.  :V
Spoiler:
Rumia has an ability to solve this - she can turn every battle "during the day" into battle "during the evening". So she's a nice accessory for Scarlet sisters.

Spoiler:
I just love how in every game Alice is the most interesting character with the most interesting (and unique) fighting style. The best examples being the fighting games, GoS and LoT. And MegaMari ^^
Although I'm disappointed in the lack of Shanghai and Hourai Doll.
Spoiler:
Shanghai Doll and Hourai Doll are attacks - normal and spellcard respectively.

So, another screenshot.
Since you haven't seen Marisa's start area yet, here it is (also, as you can see, I added shadows to trees, though they still need some fixing):
Screenshot link
I haven't talked a whole lot about outside-of-battle "adventure mode", so I guess I'll say something.
The world is a huge interconnected labyrinth which includes the entirety of Gensokyo, there are no location transitions. Well, almost. Scarlet Devil Mansion, Netherworld, Eientei, Underworld, 2nd and 3rd floors of the Palace of the Earth Spirits (and three more places that I won't talk about because that's too spoilerific) are separate "worlds", but the entry point is still in Gensokyo (well, aside from Palace of the Earth Spirits obviously).
Also, to enter some areas, you need to get past a metallic or colored door by using a key. Metallic (bronze/silver/gold) doors are common and they require non-unique bronze/silver/gold keys to open. They usually just guard some treasure or minor area branches. Colored doors, however, are a major area separator which require an UNIQUE key to open. That unique key may be very far away from the door, but I'll try not to hide them too much (unlike metallic keys). There will be some teleporters and a "Portable Gap" (:V) item so that you don't have to traverse all the way back when you find that key.

While most abilities are used in combat, some characters have non-combat abilities. You've already heard about Wriggle's ability, so here are some more:
Sunny's "Hidden Escape" - enemy parties are stunned for some time when you retreat.
Luna's "Silent Ambush" - enemies have a chance to not notice you when you enter their line of sight
Star's "Animate Detection" - enemies show up on the minimap
Nazrin's "Little Dowser" - items show up on the minimap
Momiji's "Reconaissance" - shows exact creatures in the enemy parties
Three fairies' abilites are really damn useful on Lunatic  :V
« Last Edit: January 08, 2014, 09:19:23 AM by Solmyr2000 »

ShadowNCS

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Re: 東方天法典 ~ Divine Chaos: A Touhou RPG game
« Reply #15 on: January 09, 2014, 09:30:58 AM »
Spoiler:
Rumia has an ability to solve this - she can turn every battle "during the day" into battle "during the evening". So she's a nice accessory for Scarlet sisters.
Spoiler:
I definitely don't have a problem with that. I like putting Rumia in the SDM team anyway (wouldn't that just be an EoSD team, then?). :D
Also, I assume that other characters (specifically humans) in turn are weaker at nighttime than during daytime? Aside from the outside battle changes you mentioned earlier.

Spoiler:
Shanghai Doll and Hourai Doll are attacks - normal and spellcard respectively.
Spoiler:
Forget what I said about me being disappointed. ^^

I really want to have Animate Detection and Little Dowser. They sound so useful. ^^
But that reminds me, are preemptive attacks possible? And if so, are they randomly happening, or every time you hit an enemy from behind on the maps?
Reconnaissance sounds useful as well, but I never use the HoMM3 equivalent of that ability either and just overpower my enemies with raw units/ Meteor Shower/ Chain Lightning/ Implosion. (I just love playing a magician hero.)

Solmyr2000

  • 不思議の国のアリス
Re: 東方天法典 ~ Divine Chaos: A Touhou RPG game
« Reply #16 on: January 09, 2014, 09:57:28 AM »
Spoiler:
I definitely don't have a problem with that. I like putting Rumia in the SDM team anyway (wouldn't that just be an EoSD team, then?). :D
Also, I assume that other characters (specifically humans) in turn are weaker at nighttime than during daytime? Aside from the outside battle changes you mentioned earlier.
Spoiler:
No, but Remilia/Flandre ("Creature of the Night") and Wriggle/Rumia/Mystia ("Night Hunter") have skills which give them improved stats at night.
This also means that even if you use Rumia to make everything evening, the Scarlet sisters are still better at night. :)
Also, Luna has a skill to make her spellcards more powerful during the night, and Sunny - during the day. Star's skill works always, but it's weaker (total +18% instead of +30%)

But that reminds me, are preemptive attacks possible? And if so, are they randomly happening, or every time you hit an enemy from behind on the maps?
Preemptive attacks are a skill of a certain character.
Spoiler:
It's called "Surprise Attack"
Spoiler:
Well, yep, that's Kogasa. She also has the highest (100) initiative in the game.

Meteor Shower/ Chain Lightning/ Implosion.
Just saying, all three of these are in the game  ;) Although Implosion is very very different (it's dark-elemental and short-range), it's still an incredibly powerful single-target attack :V It's an enemy-only level 3 spellcard.
Meteor Shower, too, is enemy/scroll-only attack, but one of the playable characters actually has Chain Lightning (and two of her spellcards are basically a powered-up Chain Lightning
Spoiler:
with paralysis
), guess who :3
« Last Edit: January 09, 2014, 10:27:04 AM by Solmyr2000 »

ShadowNCS

  • Prinny Overlord
  • Highly Responsive to Jinxes
Re: 東方天法典 ~ Divine Chaos: A Touhou RPG game
« Reply #17 on: January 09, 2014, 08:11:42 PM »
Just saying, all three of these are in the game  ;) Although Implosion is very very different (it's dark-elemental and short-range), it's still an incredibly powerful single-target attack :V It's an enemy-only level 3 spellcard.
I just wanted to leap in excitement, and then I came to the "enemy only" part. We are all doomed. Doomed! xD

but one of the playable characters actually has Chain Lightning, guess who :3
Hm, since I can only think of one character who can use lightning (since Tojiko's ability is causing thunder, which is only the sound of lightning, but who really cares about that), I'm going with my favorite messenger of the Dragon Palace, Iku Nagae. ^^

Also, this entire talk about HoMM3 spells has made me want to play HoMM3 again. If it only didn't crash regularly on my PC. ^^;

Solmyr2000

  • 不思議の国のアリス
Re: 東方天法典 ~ Divine Chaos: A Touhou RPG game
« Reply #18 on: January 09, 2014, 09:05:14 PM »
I just wanted to leap in excitement, and then I came to the "enemy only" part. We are all doomed. Doomed! xD
Well, I said "enemy-only", but it's not exactly enemy-only, there's Satori. And here's how she works:
She has NO normal attacks except "Mind Reading", which costs a lot of MP (all of her MP at level 1) and learns a random attack from the target (only enemies). If there are no attacks to be learned, it doesn't do anything. Not all attacks are learnable, only generic ones - unique character-specific attacks are impossible to learn. E.g. you can't learn Perfect Freeze from Cirno, but you can learn Ice Bolt. And not all generic attacks are learnable either.
She does have 3 spellcards though, level 1-2-3:
1) Terrible Souvenir - puts a powerful "bane" status effect on the target, which is pretty much a time bomb - if it is not dispelled, when the duration runs out, the target receives a lot of damage.
2) Brain Fingerprint - I already said about this one, it's also a time bomb, but it's multi-target and with a random duration
3) Terrifying Hypnotism - puts a long and powerful domination status effect on the enemy, which lets you control that enemy. That's actually the only player-usable attack which has a domination status effect.
Spoiler:
Well, if you only count minimum-plan characters. Extended character plan has another character who can do it.

Despite all that, she still has a sizable skill tree with plenty of passive skills. One of those passive skills is "Third Eye", which gives her a chance to learn attacks passively whenever anyone uses any without wasting MP. It doesn't matter who is targeting who.
Spoiler:
And yes, that skill is a reference to HoMM's Eagle Eye ;)

Hm, since I can only think of one character who can use lightning (since Tojiko's ability is causing thunder, which is only the sound of lightning, but who really cares about that), I'm going with my favorite messenger of the Dragon Palace, Iku Nagae. ^^
And that's correct of course :V

Raitaki

  • 雷滝
Re: 東方天法典 ~ Divine Chaos: A Touhou RPG game
« Reply #19 on: January 11, 2014, 05:36:29 AM »
Oooh, a HoMM-style Touhou fangame, interesting! :V How is the current progress in the game outside of the combat system, and though realm-building doesn't seem to be planned with the movement system you have, is there going to be recruiting followers like in HoMM games?
[08:23 pm]  Aristocrat -- Raitaki on a scale of 1 to 10 your current mafia game play is annoying as fuck
[08:25 pm]  Aristocrat -- Raitaki, if both of us ended up as mafia
[08:25 pm]  Aristocrat -- I would be so angry
[08:25 pm]  Aristocrat -- that I will snap and give into my rage

Solmyr2000

  • 不思議の国のアリス
Re: 東方天法典 ~ Divine Chaos: A Touhou RPG game
« Reply #20 on: January 11, 2014, 07:42:14 AM »
Oooh, a HoMM-style Touhou fangame, interesting! :V How is the current progress in the game outside of the combat system, and though realm-building doesn't seem to be planned with the movement system you have, is there going to be recruiting followers like in HoMM games?
It's partially inspired by HoMM, but it's hardly a HoMM-style game (to begin, it's more similar to King's Bounty). You recruit characters more like generally in a RPG, some will join if you just find them and talk to them, some need quests to be completed and some need to be defeated in a boss battle... And some just kinda randomly appear and join once you fulfilled certain conditions :V
Spoiler:
Although I have some ideas for a "mini-game" which works pretty much like HoMM. But it's not going to be done until after the main game.
As for the progress, technically, "everything works". And I think I'm finally done with the story too (dialogues still need to be done though).
What's not done is content, what I'm doing now is just adding more abilities, more characters, more enemies, more items, more maps and drawing more sprites.
The game right now has a total of 619 attacks, 461 passive abilities and 187 items. Around 40 characters are done out of minimum 65. As for maps, around 20 are done right now (each map is a 32x32 tiles chunk, Gensokyo alone needs 196 maps :V, and with other worlds, it totals 380 maps), but I'm playtesting and redoing them slightly to balance them out a bit. And only 11 enemies are done (and only 4 have sprites, heh) out of currently planned 210.

ShadowNCS

  • Prinny Overlord
  • Highly Responsive to Jinxes
Re: 東方天法典 ~ Divine Chaos: A Touhou RPG game
« Reply #21 on: January 12, 2014, 04:22:02 PM »
One of those passive skills is "Third Eye", which gives her a chance to learn attacks passively whenever anyone uses any without wasting MP. It doesn't matter who is targeting who.
Spoiler:
And yes, that skill is a reference to HoMM's Eagle Eye ;)
Spoiler:
I never really cared that much for Eagle Eye in HoMM3, but
I really love Blue Mage (= Enemy Skill learning) Satori. She's just so versatile. Although I mostly just use her as an additional Black Mage (like Patchouli) in GoS. xD

Minimum 65 [characters].
That's a lot! I already have difficulties in deciding who to take with me with the few characters you introduced already! xD
But at least that gives the players some variety. :3
That reminds me, do characters actually gain experience if they are not participating in a battle? Because with over 65 characters, it will be difficult keeping most of them on the same level.

it totals 380 maps
That's a lot of maps!
I hope making all of these dungeons won't bore you to death (which happened to me when I was making an RPG once). ^^;
But it's great to see that you've got a lot of content to explore planned. ^^

Solmyr2000

  • 不思議の国のアリス
Re: 東方天法典 ~ Divine Chaos: A Touhou RPG game
« Reply #22 on: January 12, 2014, 06:30:04 PM »
Spoiler:
I never really cared that much for Eagle Eye in HoMM3, but
I really love Blue Mage (= Enemy Skill learning) Satori. She's just so versatile. Although I mostly just use her as an additional Black Mage (like Patchouli) in GoS. xD
Spoiler:
Who even cared about it, but here it may be useful, who knows :V

That's a lot! I already have difficulties in deciding who to take with me with the few characters you introduced already! xD
But at least that gives the players some variety. :3
That reminds me, do characters actually gain experience if they are not participating in a battle? Because with over 65 characters, it will be difficult keeping most of them on the same level.
No, but they join at a decent level (the average of your highest-leveled characters, although there is a minimum and maximum cap of experience on join for every character, so overleveling before recruiting them won't help much) and since you'll be using multiple parties, it should be fine.
If they ever fall behind, the level difference gives more experience (and that's besides the fact that higher levels need more experience and higher level enemies give more experience), so they will rapidly level up if you bring them with you.
Also, experience is divided between all participating characters, so a few-character party will level up faster.
All of this is subject to change, if I find that it doesn't work well, I'll change it.

By the way, some characters are available way earlier than they are supposed to be recruited, so due to minimum exp on join you may break the game a bit if you somehow manage to get them very early. (there is one optional character that is recruitable in chapter 1, but it is expected to be recruited only in chapter 3, and the game only has 4, so that's about half of the game later)
It won't be easy to get these too early since they're boss battles, but if you do, well, you get your reward :V

Spoiler:
And some random info: I recently checked how many characters are mandatory (i.e. you can't progress in the main storyline without them), the end result is 23 characters. Out of both 65 and 90, since all of the extended plan characters are optional.
More detailed, including all characters:
In chapter 1, there are 33 recruitable characters (7 mandatory, 26 optional)
In chapter 2, there are 24 more recruitable characters (6 mandatory, 18 optional)
In chapter 3, there are 26 more recruitable characters (9 mandatory, 17 optional)
Aaand in chapter 4, there are 7 recruitable characters (1 mandatory, 6 optional) (all of the optional characters here are in the extended plan)

That's a lot of maps!
I hope making all of these dungeons won't bore you to death (which happened to me when I was making an RPG once). ^^;
But it's great to see that you've got a lot of content to explore planned. ^^
Initially, I planned much more, but then found it was an overkill and drastically cut down on the world size (old Gensokyo was LARGER than all worlds combined now), since it was really hard to fill all that space. I don't want pointless empty areas too, most maps will have at least something interesting.
Now it's much better, and since different places have different map structure and design, it isn't that boring making them. For example, the area I'm working on right now (
Spoiler:
Nameless Hill
) isn't even a labyrinth, it's a relatively open space with some passages here and there.
Spoiler:
That open space isn't very safe though, because of poison clouds that damage your party.
Spoiler:
...and Bamboo Forest is traditionally going to be fun. Lots of dead ends. Really long dead ends. You won't realize they're dead ends until you pass through multiple maps with multiple forks :V
Well, they aren't empty, but I expect getting to Eientei to be a challenge.

Kimidori

  • Undefined Fantastic Girl, Nue
Re: 東方天法典 ~ Divine Chaos: A Touhou RPG game
« Reply #23 on: January 13, 2014, 05:33:59 AM »
65 recruitable characters for only 4 chapter? how long is the estimated playtime for each chapter? and is there any plot justification for them to be included in the party or it just "f**ck logic this is Gensokyo" and defeat means playable?


"No matter what, cute is justice. If you're watching shows without moe, you should really be questioning your life decisions. The creation of 2D anime girls is the pinnacle of human achievement." -Logan M

Solmyr2000

  • 不思議の国のアリス
Re: 東方天法典 ~ Divine Chaos: A Touhou RPG game
« Reply #24 on: January 13, 2014, 06:42:28 AM »
65 recruitable characters for only 4 chapter? how long is the estimated playtime for each chapter?
I don't know the exact playtime (that's hard to estimate now), but every chapter will be pretty long. (except maybe Chapter 4, since it's just the final dungeon and final boss.
Spoiler:
Well, extra areas and extra boss as well
) Chapter 3 will most likely be the longest.
There aren't so many chapters because the game tries to be a somewhat free exploration game. The chapters only change when something major happens in the story, and colored doors/keys somewhat correspond with that, major area unlocks are placed in the middle of Chapter 1, start of Chapter 2, start of Chapter 3, middle of Chapter 3 and Chapter 4. In Chapter 1 you're able to access around half of Gensokyo and four other worlds.

and is there any plot justification for them to be included in the party or it just "f**ck logic this is Gensokyo" and defeat means playable?
Depends. For some there is, for some there is not. Well, there is a silly excuse at least in most cases. :V

Solmyr2000

  • 不思議の国のアリス
Re: 東方天法典 ~ Divine Chaos: A Touhou RPG game
« Reply #25 on: January 14, 2014, 09:15:40 PM »
I guess I'll mention some of the technical details.
First, 1024x768 is not the only resolution, here's a 1920x1080 screenshot:
Screenshot link
Battles don't scale though, they look like this:
Screenshot link
And second, the game is highly moddable, you can add your own (or edit existing) characters, abilities, items, edit the map and when the game is more or less done I'll revive my currently disabled scripting system, letting you add custom animations, events and dialogues, so you can pretty much redo the whole game :V
Here is one passive ability:
Code: [Select]
$Ice_Fairy
{
-1 -1 1
0 2
BONUS_STATUS_POWER 12 0 STATUS_FREEZE 0 0 None
Ice_Fairy_2
}
Or an item:
Code: [Select]
$Ring_of_Protection
{
3 11
BONUS_STAT 10 0 STAT_DEFENCE 0 0 None
500 0 0 0 0
ACCESSORYTYPE_NONE
}
Shouldn't be that hard to at least edit them. :V

Solmyr2000

  • 不思議の国のアリス
Re: 東方天法典 ~ Divine Chaos: A Touhou RPG
« Reply #26 on: January 28, 2014, 02:02:59 AM »
Well, it's been two weeks, so I'll say something. :derp:
Map progress is now at 47/377. While I was mapping, I did some structural changes, so now it's 2/3 of Gensokyo + 5 worlds in Chapter 1. And more characters available earlier as well. It's now as free as I could possibly get without breaking the story. SDM and Eientei got reduced (27->22, 16->9) and another world was expanded (16->25) so it's now 377 maps instead of 380 total.
Poor Eientei, it was 36, then 25, then 16, now 9. If this continues, Kaguya will have to live on the streets.
There's some progress in dialogues, AI and boss fights as well.

And some info about weapons:
Aside from giving bonuses like +stat and +% whatever, weapons give you additional attacks and determine the character's "basic attack", a free melee attack which is performed by simply clicking on an enemy without selecting anything (i.e. just like you would attack in HoMM). Without any weapon equipped, it does very low physical damage, but if you equip a weapon, its power more than doubles.
There are 8 weapon types: swords, knives, axes, spears, maces, staves, bows and guns. Different weapon types have different basic attacks:
Swords have a strong and decently accurate attack, and that's about it.
Knives are very accurate, deal low damage, but strike twice
Axes are as strong as swords, less accurate, but they modify critical hit chance by 50% (i.e. if it's 10% it becomes 15%)
Spears deal average damage, but are very accurate and can hit two targets - the target enemy and the enemy behind it (it only receives half damage, however). It's like dragon's breath in HoMM :3
Maces are fairly accurate, slightly weaker than swords and axes, but they pierce 10% defence
Bows do not change the basic attack; instead, they add a "basic ranged attack", which lets you shoot (as long as there are no enemies nearby) for no MP
Guns do not change the basic attack and add a basic ranged attack as well, but unlike bows, it's completely different for different guns.
Staves are weak and inaccurate, but they have more attacks and a simple elemental attack as their basic ranged attack. It still costs MP, however, so it's only for convenience.

Most characters can wield 2 weapon types, but some can only wield one (like Youmu, who is sword-only), some can wield 3, one character can wield 4 and one character can wield all of them. Guns are generally stronger than other weapon types, but rare and few characters can use them.
Clothes, if they will ever be included, will allow additional weapon types, like that Madoka costume allowing bows to be used.

Also, weapons determine the element of most melee attacks, including the basic attack.
« Last Edit: January 28, 2014, 02:07:51 AM by Solmyr2000 »

ShadowNCS

  • Prinny Overlord
  • Highly Responsive to Jinxes
Re: 東方天法典 ~ Divine Chaos: A Touhou RPG
« Reply #27 on: January 28, 2014, 06:00:35 PM »
There are 8 weapon types: swords, knives, axes, spears, maces, staves, bows and guns.
So no character specific weapons? Yet again, seeing how many characters there are, making character specific ones would be kind of ridiculous, wouldn't it?

Axes are as strong as swords, less accurate, but they modify critical hit chance by 50% (i.e. if it's 10% it becomes 15%)
Okay, I know that I will not use Axes. I hate missing, and I'd rather not crit at all rather than miss a lot. xD;

Bows [...] add a "basic ranged attack", which lets you shoot (as long as there are no enemies nearby) for no MP
So basically how ranged attacks worked in HoMM3. ^^
How glad I am that I usually play Tower, with 3/7 units being ranged. And then the enemies feel my Implosion. :D

Most characters can wield 2 weapon types, but some can only wield one (like Youmu, who is sword-only), some can wield 3, one character can wield 4 and one character can wield all of them.
Dang it, now I want to guess who the character with all weapons is! xD
My guess is Gilgamesh from Final Fantasy. :D
(I would do a serious guess, but I'm kind of clueless. ^^; )

Clothes, if they will ever be included, will allow additional weapon types, like that Madoka costume allowing bows to be used.
Now that sounds interesting! ^^

Also, weapons determine the element of most melee attacks, including the basic attack.
So I assume that enemies/ characters have/ can gain resistance to the weapon types.

Solmyr2000

  • 不思議の国のアリス
Re: 東方天法典 ~ Divine Chaos: A Touhou RPG
« Reply #28 on: January 28, 2014, 06:35:27 PM »
So no character specific weapons? Yet again, seeing how many characters there are, making character specific ones would be kind of ridiculous, wouldn't it?
There are some weapons that are restricted to a single character. Laevateinn (sword) and Gungnir (spear) for instance ;)
Characters which have an unique weapon usually start with them and you will probably be able to upgrade them somehow, but I'm not sure about this yet.

Dang it, now I want to guess who the character with all weapons is! xD
That's a
Spoiler:
surprise
.

Now that sounds interesting! ^^
Yeah, aside from that, clothes will redistribute stats instead of giving straight bonuses. So different clothes is like a different character :V

So I assume that enemies/ characters have/ can gain resistance to the weapon types.
No. Every weapon has an element - physical, magic, fire, water, air, earth, light or dark. With a regular weapon (or no weapon), all attacks with "weapon-based" element will be physical. But if you equip a "Flaming Sword" these attacks will become fire-elemental.
Also, about elements - some attacks are multi-elemental instead of a single element, say, Physical/Fire - half of effect is physical, another half is fire. Or Weapon-based/Water - in this case, it's always half water, but another half depends on weapon's element.

Solmyr2000

  • 不思議の国のアリス
Re: 東方天法典 ~ Divine Chaos: A Touhou RPG
« Reply #29 on: February 15, 2014, 12:45:07 PM »
There are 80 maps now, I decided to stop and balance things out. One important thing is enemy level scaling, fixed levels don't work so well in an open world. If your best characters' levels are high enough, enemies' levels will scale up, but they won't increase beyond the creature's maximum possible level. Well, that's how it works on Normal and Hard difficulties. On Easy, level scaling is disabled completely, all enemies will be at their minimum level.
On Lunatic... :3 Imagine if monsters could grind. Well, here, they kinda can. Their level grows with time - it won't go beyond your best characters' levels, but it's not limited by anything else - even level 1 slimes can become level 50 if you wait long enough. And yes, they will still give the same puny experience as they did at level 1.
Lunatic should be truly a survival game now - while you will outrun level scaling in the beginning, it WILL catch up eventually. No matter how much you might overlevel, it WILL catch up. :V
On the positive side, if you really like grinding, it should be possible to reach level 99 on Lunatic, since the level difference penalty won't stop you anymore.

Characters which have an unique weapon usually start with them and you will probably be able to upgrade them somehow, but I'm not sure about this yet.
And I implemented a simple crafting system for this.
Basically, you will find recipe items which you need to right-click in your inventory to craft something. All required ingredients are listed in the recipe's description.
Crafting might go a bit further than just upgrading weapons...