Episode 2 Discussion Thread

[Hoeloe]

All I'm waiting on is for a Super Leek Jingle, which is apparently coming.

Speak of the devil.

Also I need to finalise the raocoin stuff for episode 2. I have an idea about how to do that, but I need to find time to do it...

[SAJewers]

Sweet, I'll get on that today maybe, and we can start Episode 2 development.

[SAJewers]

OK, everything is pretty much ready, all that's really left is re-implement the demo counter, implement a start+select level exit in LUA, if possible, implement the silent P-switch from ASMT/A2MT (Both of these will be back-ported to Episode 1), and, If possible, implement a raocoin counter .

I'll leave that to Hoeloe, who claimed responsibility for creating a lunaworld.lua file. Once I get that, I can throw out an Episode 1 update, a Base Game update, and a dev folder for Episode 2, and open up Episode 2 submissions.

EDIT: Also, what's up with the new launcher thingy? I haven't kept up with that at all. Are we using that? Do I need to worry about the title screen music?

[docopoper]

Could you give a quick check to make sure my levels are working correctly in the update? Since they are hardcoded into the DLL. Just a quick check, you should probably be able to tell pretty quickly. Also if you're updating Episode 1, you should include a textbox in the tutorial that tells you how to switch characters on the overworld since it is a thing I saw many players not know, and the game works a lot better when you do know.

The rest of the game is probably fine to leave as is. Though you might want to make the Qualestria Caverns leek easier to find.

[Willhart]

EDIT: Also, what's up with the new launcher thingy? I haven't kept up with that at all. Are we using that? Do I need to worry about the title screen music?

The launcher makes it easier for people to use lua, since it does not trigger warnings. It comes with the newer version of lua automatically.

You might need to ask Horikawa about the extra launcher thing we use for MaGL X2 though.

[Rixithechao]

Erm, I should've mentioned this sooner, but which version of cinematX will you be adding to the devkit?

The Pandamona battle I've been working on uses the latest on Github, 0.0.8a, which hasn't been thoroughly tested or optimized, and my plan was to take a break from working on it to focus on school and other projects for the next two months...

Blargh, Ep. 2's been held back by cinematX for long enough already. I can't promise anything, but I'll try and see if I can at least put out a stable version by/during Labor Day weekend.

[SAJewers]

It'll be whatever the latest version is. I'll try to keep it up to date as best as I can.

[snoruntpyro]

I'd like to contribute to this project, but I'm not sure if you guys will take a level since there are already a ton of them. Is there a specific cutoff point for levels involved here?

[docopoper]

Technically the submission period hasn't even started yet. The selection method is basically that the best levels get taken from the pool of levels and the ones that don't get taken carry over and have the same chance next episode. This means that if a level doesn't get accepted the author gets plenty of time to improve it. For Episode 1 at least the minimum standard was quite low (a lot worse than it ended up after we spent months fixing all the bad levels). If you want to get a level into the Episode you just need to make one and put it up for review. People will look at it in the review thread and it will only be accepted / rejected at the end of the acceptance period.

[SAJewers]

I'll probably open submissions tomorrow if I don't get a message from Hoeloe today about lunaworld.lua (or someone else offers to take care of it).

[Hoeloe]

I'll probably open submissions tomorrow if I don't get a message from Hoeloe today about lunaworld.lua (or someone else offers to take care of it).

Sorry, I'm in a super busy place at the moment. The only time I'm going to get to work on stuff will be at the weekend.

[SAJewers]

Do you need me to wait on this then?

[Hoeloe]

Do you need me to wait on this then?

Basically I want to finish up the raocoinv2 library, and then integrate the basic stuff into the lunaworld.dll. It shouldn't be a huge problem if the first version of the devkit is released without that, but if you'd rather not update the devkit later then waiting might be best.

[SAJewers]

Well, the Episode 2 "Devkit" is the same as the Base Game for Episode 1, so anything here would be a separate download. It's not a matter of releasing the updated Base Game, it's mainly a matter of wether or not I should wait for that before opening submissions. The only issue would be an Update to Episode 1. but I don't mind releasing 2 updates (1 to coincide with removing Shemp's tracks, another to backport some of the new features)

[raocow]

hey y'all sorry to butt in but I'm taking a super hands off approach on episode 2 and stuff and yeah

basically I just wish to ask if it's okay for me to use the demo player graphics if I where to go with 'what the hell x' or not? although she is my character those are not my graphic and so it's only proper that I ask permission first.
Thank you very much in advance!

[Ivy]

if someone denies raocow use of the sprites i will assemble a team of friends who will make new ones for his use, mark my words

[Willhart]

I've finally taken some time to play my previous levels, and improve them significantly based on the previous feedback and testing. I did not have BGE editor back when I made them, and that alone has made the changes a lot easier to implement. I'll submit the levels, once the submission time starts.

This would also be good time to start reviewing the levels again, especially if there will be a new thread where we collect them.

[sedron]

What's the status on story stuff? As far as I know the story people aren't really around right now (Demolition hasn't posted since like October and Darkychao is somewhere.) The full details haven't, to my knowledge, been put down anywhere in the forums or wiki.

I know I had a few gripes with what we knew back when we last discussed it in October, and I'd like to probably discuss it a bit more. Namely, that a lot of the plot is overcomplicated and we're planning way too far in advance (I still don't think we need to plan all the way to Ep 4 for this.)

I'd write more but I need to sleep now so I'll check back in here later.

[Wohlstand]

Well, the Episode 2 "Devkit" is the same as the Base Game for Episode 1, so anything here would be a separate download. It's not a matter of releasing the updated Base Game, it's mainly a matter of wether or not I should wait for that before opening submissions. The only issue would be an Update to Episode 1. but I don't mind releasing 2 updates (1 to coincide with removing Shemp's tracks, another to backport some of the new features)

Be sure than:
Episode 1 uses LunaDLL 6
Episode 2 has a lot of levels with using of lua code, I.e. it uses LunaDLL 8 with Lua (LunaLUA).

LunaDLL-6 made scripts are will work with LunaLUA (Luna-Autocode support kept but that part no more has updates) BUT, LunaLUA (lunadll.lua) scripts are will NOT work on LunaDLL 6.

Updated "already packed" basegame you can get via "download standalone game" on the LunaLUA page: http://engine.wohlnet.ru/LunaLua/
It was been used as devkit together with PGE Editor (Willhart, "BGE" is a typo)

[Rixithechao]

What's the status on story stuff? As far as I know the story people aren't really around right now (Demolition hasn't posted since like October and Darkychao is somewhere.) The full details haven't, to my knowledge, been put down anywhere in the forums or wiki.

I know I had a few gripes with what we knew back when we last discussed it in October, and I'd like to probably discuss it a bit more. Namely, that a lot of the plot is overcomplicated and we're planning way too far in advance (I still don't think we need to plan all the way to Ep 4 for this.)

I'd write more but I need to sleep now so I'll check back in here later.

Back in October Demolition and Darkychao were talking about passing the writing duties on to a new team. They started working on a story bible to use as a reference for the characters, lore, plot outline, etc. and set up a group skype chat between them, me, Hoeloe, Septentrion and I don't remember who else (can't access it right now because the chat history is on a different computer). That thing was only really active for a day or two, iirc, but we discussed a lot of what they had planned for the rest of the series.

In July I got in touch with Darkychao on Skype to ask him and Demolition about all of that stuff, and...

Sorry about taking so long to reply to this, I'm really bad at seeing the orange bubble on the Skype icon...
Just go ahead and do whatever you want with the story, if you want to use the stuff in the story bible thing go ahead, but honestly, it's up to you.
Also, if you want I can go ahead and try to get in contact with Demolition on steam the next time he's playing something.

I just messaged him back today, he still hasn't heard from Demolition and he confirmed the copy of the story bible I've got is the most up-to-date version. He said it'd be okay if I linked to it over in the story thread so I'll go do that in just a moment.

EDIT: Done.
viewtopic.php?f=36&t=13768&p=318922#p318922

[Holy]

Namely, that a lot of the plot is overcomplicated and we're planning way too far in advance (I still don't think we need to plan all the way to Ep 4 for this.)

Yeah I really don't think we should even be planning out this episode yet, since we have no idea what the worlds/themes/everything is gonna be.

What should get some focus is bosses, I know rocky's got some cool bosses in the mix but we def need more. I think if anyone wants to make a boss out of a sibling/uncle do it and then we'll figure out who the "bad guys" are gonna be this time around from there.

And the story doesn't need to be super in-depth. The story bible plot throws in waaay too many plot twists/plot-serious elements.

[SAJewers]

Well, the Episode 2 "Devkit" is the same as the Base Game for Episode 1, so anything here would be a separate download. It's not a matter of releasing the updated Base Game, it's mainly a matter of wether or not I should wait for that before opening submissions. The only issue would be an Update to Episode 1. but I don't mind releasing 2 updates (1 to coincide with removing Shemp's tracks, another to backport some of the new features)

Be sure than:
Episode 1 uses LunaDLL 6
Episode 2 has a lot of levels with using of lua code, I.e. it uses LunaDLL 8 with Lua (LunaLUA).

LunaDLL-6 made scripts are will work with LunaLUA (Luna-Autocode support kept but that part no more has updates) BUT, LunaLUA (lunadll.lua) scripts are will NOT work on LunaDLL 6.

Updated "already packed" basegame you can get via "download standalone game" on the LunaLUA page: http://engine.wohlnet.ru/LunaLua/
It was been used as devkit together with PGE Editor (Willhart, "BGE" is a typo)

It'll be the latest version of LunaLua in both, since There won't be a seperate base game for Episodes 1 and 2; all A2XT Episodes will be using the same Base Game. If something in Episode 1 is broken because of an update to LunaLUA, then I'll have to wait until that's fixed.

[shaman]

Where did all the time I had to help with this project go in the last year :(

[docopoper]

Where did all the time I had to help with this project go in the last year :(

I know that feeling.

[Sturg]

Before we start accepting levels and such, I think we gotta find a way to try and balance out the difficulty and themes in this if we are still going with an OW. One of the biggest issues I found from the previous game was that the difficulty was very sporadic between several worlds. If we're just doing a HUB-like area where theme doesn't really matter than we can easily just order the levels by difficulty, but if we want to organize them by both theme and difficulty, we'll probably at least need some minor method or guidelines for people before levels start coming in. I know there's sort of a want to build the game around the levels that are submitted, but that's where the issue of inconsistent difficulty comes in.