The whole game is awesome. The whole except final spell. I mean seriously WTF? I've enjoyed playing through it on normal (wich is really easy compared to most touhou normals), the patterns are fun, the characters are cute. I came to that survival(!) card with 2 lives and 4 bombs and it took me 2 continues to pass it! I didnt get how that "shield" works. Sudden change in game mechanics - never a good thing. If it was some kind of trolling - it was successfull :(
P.S.: You forgot player scripts as separate downloads.
Yeah, I've spent a long time struggling with how to effectively execute that card. I really want to keep it in the game, both because I like it and for the homage value, but it's an endless challenge to figure out how to do it in a way that doesn't invariably slaughter people on their first run through...Replace it with something more reasonable and then call it as optional last spell like "impossible request" or something :)
-Yes, the game is in dire need of stage backgrounds, but I have no artistic ability. Anyone interested in helping me out on that one?
I'd like to help in that one. I do have time actually. So, what you have in mind for stage 1?I'll throw you a PM with my thoughts when I can gather them. Thanks!
Are the bullets the default Danmakufu? If so, I can give you a ZUN shot replace sheet for you to update on the bullets.
The only real change I particularly want to make for the bullet textures is for the lightning on two of Kyokukou's spellcards. I'll fiddle with expanded bullet sheets on my next project.Okay then, best of luck!
I think off the top of my head only a few stage 3 boss spells and like 1 or 2 stage 5 spells really made me go "lolwhat (die)" and that the final spell itself doesn't balance to one difficulty as it switches from hard to harder etc.Could you name which spell cards? I know a lot of Akeno's stuff I've had trouble with having unclear mechanics, most notably the ones with the red detection circles. And also, if you can think of it, ways to make the cards more fair?
Say, are you going to say in like the music room, where from and who made each piece of music of your game?I don't have any plans at present to add a music room, but I link back to the source in the readme.
I plan to be doing that in my own project, so yeah.
-I'm not sure how to really deal with Marisa being underbalanced in a solid way without just getting rid of certain interesting spellcards. Royal Rainbow is especially problematic... any thoughts?These cards are split into 2 catergories: boss movements and player movements.
These cards are split into 2 catergories: boss movements and player movements.The familiar thing is a good thought! I'll at least do that for Royal Rainbow, maybe a couple others. Akeno could stand to move towards the player, too... it's not like she's doing anything up there most of the time.
For the ones where the player has to move, you could have the boss move towards the player, like a lot of ZUNs spells.
For the boss moving ones, replacing the boss with a familiar and leaving the boss above the player fixes it, unless that's too much work.
OK, after this thread so far, and watching both replays, I'm thinking these are the changes to make:
-Nerf Rocket Punch on Normal.
-Make Akeno move on some spellcards to follow the player.
-Make Royal Rainbow fire out of a familiar while Houko floats around the upper screen.
-Stretch out the pacing on the last half of Stage 4 a bit.
-Change Akeno's detection nets - when you step in, an alarm will sound, and it'll start spinning faster and faster. After a second or two, game time.
-Make Houko's final attack a Last Word.
Any other suggestions before I get cracking on this set?
So please, download, play, enjoy, give feedback!Played hard and extra(fail @ final spell for both).
You only get one extend from Extra stage. Shouldn't you follow Touhou 8 and go from 0 > 250 > 666 > 9999 points like that? Or do it like Touhou 7, where you just get lives normally (50 > 100 > 150 > 200 > 250 > .....)PCB extra has extends at 200, 500, 800 and (unreachable) 1400 (I think this is the value)
Midboss 1 Non 1: Almost timed it out, even though I'm constantly hitting her. WTF? (Power at 1.54)Hm. Decrease life, or increase time? Also, Reimu or Marisa?
Midboss 1 Spell 1: Reminds me too much of Shikigami Shot "Unilateral Contact".Looking it up on youtube, these seem different enough to me that I'm not too concerned. It's the slightly askew bursts of lines of shots, isn't it?
Boss 1 Spell 1: Hmm, perhaps a bit too sudden with the big bullets. Probably have them start slow and move faster.Not a bad idea. It's supposed to give the feeling of a surprise attack, but there's such a thing as too much.
Boss 1 Spell 2: Good, but there should be something out of which the blue bullets come from. Possibly place a familiar between the horizontal lasers?Sure.
The background stops weirdly during the boss's explosion.A consequence of how it was coded. I could probably figure out a way to get around this, but I'd have to redo all my background code.
Boss 2 Spell 3: Not a good card. Too random. Perhaps put lasers where rocks will bounce on.Hmmm, tricky... the rocks bounce at set times, not at set locations. Then again, since they fall at a fixed rate, maybe some kind of horizontal line type indicator would do the trick......
Stage 3 premid: Uh... enemies from behind. Not good.Enemies from behind, but from far off to both sides, and then move to the top center to be destroyed. Is this really a problem?
Stage 3 boss final spell: Not good, really. I think I got walled on the very first wave of red bullets.Are you on v0.60 or v0.61? In 0.61, the only red bullets that appear should be if you spend too much time inside one of the detection circles.
Hm. Decrease life, or increase time? Also, Reimu or Marisa?Decrease life, of course. Just increase time by like, 5 seconds.
Looking it up on youtube, these seem different enough to me that I'm not too concerned. It's the slightly askew bursts of lines of shots, isn't it?Basically, yeah. Double Black Death Butterfly is that, too.
Not a bad idea. It's supposed to give the feeling of a surprise attack, but there's such a thing as too much.Actually, yeah. Do what you think is good enough.
A consequence of how it was coded. I could probably figure out a way to get around this, but I'd have to redo all my background code.One function.... SetEffectForZeroLife.
Enemies from behind, but from far off to both sides, and then move to the top center to be destroyed. Is this really a problem?Not really. But the most I'm comfortable with is enemies coming from the center sides.
Are you on v0.60 or v0.61? In 0.61, the only red bullets that appear should be if you spend too much time inside one of the detection circles.I should really go ahead and update now, heh.
NS01: Ok. Maybe you should make the bullets waver in a sine wave instead of switching from one side to another. Just a "looks more beautiful" thing.I would, but it'd be too similar to NS2. Maybe I'll just keep it to one direction.
NS02: Hey there, Chen. Too glaringly obvious a reference.Crap, I wasn't even thinking of Chen. Hmm.
NS01: http://i.imgur.com/soSXm.pngWHUPS
SP01: The mirrors are lasers. Didn't catch that, so I ran into one.Is it more intuitive to assume the mirrors are damaging or non-damaging? I might just make them non-damaging.
SP03: Reminds me of Pokemon. Really cool.I'm curious - what's the pokemon connection?
SP01: I'm curious as to why you removed bomb resistance from the lasers...Did I? Odd, they're supposed to have bomb resistance. I'll fix that.
NS02: Very very bad! I can't keep up with the bullets going slow and fast and slow and fast. It's always random where they stop as well. It's literally too dense to move between the bullets when they're slow, too.Bluh! I'll touch this up. Maybe on other difficulties, too, I have some ideas.
NS03: Mima used Tackle! It's a critical hit. Marisa fainted.This has always been my least favorite of her nonspells. I might just scrap it and replace it with something else entirely.
Attached is a way to cheese the first part of the last spell card of the main game, ending with a purposeful (?) ram into a familiar (which strangely has a hitbox). Perhaps you should do something to prevent people from doing that?I'll check this out when I get home from work.
I would, but it'd be too similar to NS2. Maybe I'll just keep it to one direction.Eh... Maybe fire some kind of half-wall of bullets between the phases, when the direction changes?
Is it more intuitive to assume the mirrors are damaging or non-damaging? I might just make them non-damaging.I dunno, I was thinking they were just some wall that you can't move through.
I'm curious - what's the pokemon connection?this (http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Ranger_Sign)
Did I? Odd, they're supposed to have bomb resistance. I'll fix that.You specifically put it in the code (setbombresist, false)...
I've never specifically asked permission to use a sheet, but then again I've also never finished anything as big as Luminous Dream. I don't think it will hurt to ask, but anyone who has posted their shotsheet on this forum probably won't take offense to someone using it without explicit permission.All right, I'll just be sure to credit them and call it good.
Could you upload this to another website because Megaupload has been taken down :(Gonna do that when I get home from work tonight, with a new version! Should be about 8 hours from now.
It's about time for me to put up a new set of videos. For the next set, I want a Lunatic run, but I'm not good enough to pull that off myself! Thusly do I appeal to you, fellow forumgoers, to play through the game and leave me the replay files. Individual stages preferred, but a full game run is also OK. Marisa run preferred. Let dialogue run slow enough for someone watching as a video on youtube later to read it. Doesn't have to be a perfect run or anything like that, although a capture of Silhouette Fantasy would be aces.Is a TAS run acceptable? If so, I'm up for doing this. If not, well, I've been meaning to give the higher difficulties a go, might have to get Silhouette Fantasy in 'spell practice' though.
Well, I just tried this out. You said that Lunatic was supposed to be between the Hard and Lunatic of Touhou, right? My impression was that it is almost humanly impossible. I don't think anyone's going to 1cc this. If you want replays, I could get through the individual stages, but it aint gonna be pretty. Anything past stage 3 would be a bomb-fest.
I don't want to come up with a list of problems, but there are two things you should probably be aware of.
- Many parts of the game can be "cheesed" with weird tricks. The most common is the classic "stand at the top of the screen and nothing can hit you" deal.
- Even more of the game, in particular the bosses, seems outrageously difficult, if not impossible.
Then these two things go together to make some fairly ridiculous situations. For example the stage 4 midboss's laser attack with the bullets floating up the screen. There is no way to stay under the midboss for long enough to damage her. You can, however, stand on top of her head and micrododge the crystals, damaging her the whole time. I'm pretty sure that's not how you're supposed to do the spell, but as far as I can tell, it is the only way to capture it.
Second opinion on that one card: way too hard to inflict damage.Well if the people are in agreement, I do have some ideas for how I can retain the core concept (bullet spread being thicker farther away from the boss + challenge to avoid getting pushed too far out of the "safe" zone) while making it easier to follow her, so I'll fiddle with it.
You either have to do what Zil said, or stay unfocused for most of the card.
In addition, even some hard mode cards are FAR beyond Touhou lunatic difficulty-Royal Rainbow among them.What would make this card better? Slower sweep? Lower density? Different difficulty gimmick than incerasing the number of lasers? Better AI for Houko moving to in front of the player?
The game is still unbalanced between Reimu and Marisa. since in many cases being under the boss while not getting hit is next to impossible.Examples? I've been trying to work on this, which is why a number of bosses were changed to periodically move horizontally towards the player (notably Akeno and Houko) in some cards.
What would make this card better? Slower sweep? Lower density? Different difficulty gimmick than incerasing the number of lasers? Better AI for Houko moving to in front of the player?Much lower density, a slower sweep and better AI, although density+sweep could be fiddled with.
Examples? I've been trying to work on this, which is why a number of bosses were changed to periodically move horizontally towards the player (notably Akeno and Houko) in some cards.I can't think of any specific examples (rush from 90 FPS SA), but I do remember that the small range while focused made hitting bosses difficult in a lot of cases, even when they move towards you, you just have to move out of the way again.
I found some more cheese strategies. I'm not sure if some of these are how you're meant to do it or not, but I think they're all cheesy. For the most part it's just standing over the boss and that kind of thing. I wasn't sure how replays are supposed to work in Danmakufu, so I made them all numbered differently. I guess that was unnecessary though.That's odd... the phase end problem you describe was a known issue from 0.61, but I thought I had fixed it. I'll look into it.
Silhouette Fantasy seems to be glitched. As the second phase ends the bullets will hit you regardless of what color your shield is. As you can see, the first two phases can be abused, and there may be more further in. I didn't get that far because the glitch I just mentioned kept killing me.
Here's a little something I ran into. I don't know if this is intentional, but apparently the player loses 0.5 power if he/she dies or deathbombs.Yeah, this is a known bug. I'm gonna fix it in 0.63 if I can.
Alright, I played the last version of this (Aka before the update) and all I have to say about Lunatic Stage 6 is this1. Go play the most recent version. Edit: Maybe you could explain what you find so ridiculous?
WHAT KIND OF ASS BACKWARDS GAME ARE YOU TRYING TO MAKE
These nonspells are ludicrous and the Last Spell is unfuckingdoable.
If these problems haven't been fixed, please work on them.
Alright, I played the last version of this (Aka before the update) and all I have to say about Lunatic Stage 6 is thisThe game I am trying to make is one that I'm specifically taking here to be tested because I don't have a good sense of what's reasonable for Lunatic difficulty. Balancing the difficulty in any one-man game project is extremely difficult - the more you play it, the easier everything seems, because you're used to understanding how it operates in your own head, since you're the one who made it. Difficulty balance is only possible with the help of players like you, especially since I don't play other Touhou games on Lunatic very often.
WHAT KIND OF ASS BACKWARDS GAME ARE YOU TRYING TO MAKE
These nonspells are ludicrous and the Last Spell is unfuckingdoable.
If these problems haven't been fixed, please work on them.
Late response here...Aha! I'll put that on the path to fix for 0.64.
The path I had for Mirrored Fury looks a little complicated but works every time. The main thing about it though is that the orange bullets don't reach the right side of the screen, so with Reimu's homing it's much easier over there.
I guess I need to get v0.63 and see what's new. I'll go for a 1cc now that I have some time.
Midboss's last spell is brutalLast one, really? I always had more trouble with the second one, interesting.
The whole post-midboss stage part is what is this I don't even bombspamThis whole segment was sort of an experimental gimmick sequence. If you stand still during the entire red/blue spam sequence, you won't take any damage... maybe it was a bad idea, I dunno.
Some of the nonspells end before the threatening part at full power, none of them are difficultWhich ones in particular end prematurely?
First survival seems a bit unfair?Will look into it.
Polarizing gates (whatever the one with the laserbox is called), a way of telling the player to go INTO the bullet pile before they're trapped outside would be nice.Will look into it.
Storm Gates is fun but I don't like having to dodge bullets that only just spawned a half second ago.Maybe if I cram the gates a bit closer together to leave more room in the outer gaps?
The last spell...I remember you saying it could be cheesed. How. It's brutal, I couldn't figure out how to dodge it. Thankfully I had 2 lives going into it, so I still 1cced (mostly) blind.I was talking about the last card in the midboss battle. And yeah, Aurora Blaze is too hard and too random. I need to fiddle with it a fair bit.
Searchlight Paranoia can still be done from the top of the screen.It barely seems worth the effort now that the spotlight goes up there with you, but I can make the spotlight presence a bit more oppressive at the top.
Darkness Vortex may need more health or something. If you follow her the whole time it ends very soon.I'll fiddle with this. I wasn't counting on the player hugging that close to the boss.
Atomic Puch still has a fairly trivial approach. Lanes open for you and you just go left and right. It would take forever as Marisa. That was a clever idea to prevent the player from hugging the boss though.Hrm.
Royal Rainbow has a weird trick. As you can see, I suck at it, though I got it going for a bit. With practice a skilled player might be able to abuse that. Making the bullets last just a bit longer before vanishing should eliminate the problem.Haha, kinda weird. I'll fix it and also decrease the density a bit, since a lot of people seem to have trouble with this one.
If you die or bomb in Typhoon you can pretty much cheese the rest of the spell by going under the "floor" of bullets.Easy enough to fix.
I guess the idea in Crystal Shower is now to avoid the attack completely? It works, but Marisa is gonna have trouble with it.Blargh, still not happy with this thing. To the heavy retooling bench!
Refraction Laser also seems good now. My only complaint now would be the ghostly lasers are hard to see.Rendering them twice on top of each other seems to clear this up.
I'm not sure what's supposed to be so tough about the second half of the Extra. Those bullets won't shoot from the fairies if you stop shooting and for the end part you just stand still.The sequence isn't hard at all if you figure that trick out, but there's no real clue to that, so it can be unintuitive if you don't pick up on it. I've got a new schema cooked up for it, though, so that should be fun.
It barely seems worth the effort now that the spotlight goes up there with you, but I can make the spotlight presence a bit more oppressive at the top.It doesn't seem to go up there when you do. Near the edges it does but it sinks down across the middle, so you can ignore it from there. You could use ZUN's trick for dealing with things like that, which is to just have the boss shoot thousands of bullets if you get too close to her. Or you could have a second spotlight on/around the boss.
I still think it'd be cooler (and maybe would make the spell a bit harder) if Akeno shot the bullets herself, instead of them coming outta nowhere... It's still funny to me how she's blind, but she always rushes to stay in front of the player XDI know that's so playing Marisa isn't too harder than using Reimu, but yeah...I can see where you're coming from, but making the bullets originate from Akeno would 1) make the actual bullet waves awkwardly uneven, and 2) make it insanely hard to program the Lunatic version, because the bullets would need to know wher Akeno WILL be about 5 seconds in advance. As it is, I'm going to prioritize making life tolerable for Marisa over that bit of consistency.
I noticed that in easy, Mahiru's last spell can be captured by just staying under her, nothing hits you XD Her other spells are pretty great, Waterfall is better now that the extra bullets are a bit random~Are you using 0.63? If so, the actual bullet distribution is, in fact, random, so that has a chance of working but is far from guaranteed to be safe.
I have a thing for mirrors, so Emi is a special someone to me~ Her nonspells are a bit overwhelming... but the rest is great, I like how her spell in stage 6 changed.I nerfed her nonspells in 0.63 a bit, but it might not have done the trick.
I can see where you're coming from, but making the bullets originate from Akeno would 1) make the actual bullet waves awkwardly uneven, and 2) make it insanely hard to program the Lunatic version, because the bullets would need to know wher Akeno WILL be about 5 seconds in advance. As it is, I'm going to prioritize making life tolerable for Marisa over that bit of consistency.
Are you using 0.63? If so, the actual bullet distribution is, in fact, random, so that has a chance of working but is far from guaranteed to be safe.
I nerfed her nonspells in 0.63 a bit, but it might not have done the trick.
ObjEffect_SetLayer(Yourobjecthere, 8 ) should make any Effect Object appear above everything, even the frame.Thanks! Got an ending image rendering above the frame but below the event text frame, so I don't need to store every line of ending dialogue as an image. Now I just need the actual art...
Luminous DreamI have been enlightened by danmaku. So, maybe I could send you a few extra effects and what not?
Oh wow looking awesome so far *-*More to the point than extra charm, I had put videos of the game up on NND, and one of them actually got taken down for content violation.
Aw I like the music you've used X3 But I understand that original music just gives an extra charm to the game~ Can't waiiit!
So I tried this out and it was very well made! Would I be allowed to possibly make playthrough videos of this on my Youtube channel?Go ahead.
Version 1.0 teaser. (http://youtu.be/NE6eVJi8KTY)
Any chances we can get like, a preview, more videos or a sample download? I'm always really curious and looking forward to this project~
Any news on the project?
Ignore everything I just said, Artist #4 just suddenly delivered. I have all art assets. Expect a final release before the week is over.
What inspires you in your character development?The characters, for the most part, are inspired by mythology (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amano-Iwato). In the original story, Susano'o plays a prank on the sun goddess Amaterasu, and in her anger, she hides herself in a cave, covering the world in darkness, until she can be convinced to return.
What inspires you in spellcard making?Touched on that a lot in the spiel up there.
Also, do you have any soundtracks/music you listen to while making the game?These days I mostly listen to the music Joel wrote for the game.
I look forward to your next project.
And, congrats on finishing this project. My projects end with my laziness.
Also, since I'm trying to finish my project, I want to know what music program you use to compose music, unless someone else does that for you.
But anyways: I look up to you. :3
Also, is Reimu breaking the fourth wall during the third boss talk?
Also, is Reimu breaking the fourth wall during the third boss talk?Absolutely.
Uploaded a video of a lunatic 1cc for those interested. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L_KDx_PTds)
Uploaded a video of a lunatic 1cc for those interested. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L_KDx_PTds)
Started to record the OST... It can be found here (http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5XvBqNAvJbr4ImKUxlcFQoSBuY87872N&feature=mh_lolz)professor_scissors already gave out a download link to the soundtrack. Check the 1st post.
professor_scissors already gave out a download link to the soundtrack. Check the 1st post.I know that, but so you don't have to download it, or if you're causally strolling through Youtube and you happen to come across it you can find the game~ And even download the OST! I thought about this XD
Really good script and I enjoyed it a lot, congratulations Professor_Scissors, I think this is the best full danmakufu game done by a western Touhou fan that I have played so far.
However... I saw a couple of flaws with the game (not sure if it'd really be considered "flaws" to the others, but for me it kind of is)
1)
The background of both stage 4 and 5 are the same. Or is it just my impression? Well, anyway... I think the game would be improved a lot if you change that. Stage 6 uses the same background as well, but at least it changes to a garden during the final battle, to compensate it.
2)
The final and ex boss' designs are too similar. I know they're sisters, but I think you could change their designs a bit to make them look more distinct from each other.
Apart from those, the rest is pretty good.
-One of Houko's nonspells and all of Kyokukou's nonspells now give more time for the player to collect point items.This wasn't in response to my Let's Play, was it? I appreciate the changes regardless, especially since I know you must be wanting to put this project behind you now.
This wasn't in response to my Let's Play, was it? I appreciate the changes regardless, especially since I know you must be wanting to put this project behind you now.