Zodiac, the Side-Quest

[C-Dawg]

Update. More fun with draw functions this time around.

1. Finished the Capricorn Wave weapon. Fires in more than eight directions, wide hit radius. One of, if not the, highest level weapon that will be in the game.
2. Finished ship cannons 4 and 5. Cheat to check out the progressively more devestating ship weapons.
3. Finished ship Jets. Cheat to check out speed boosts with higher level jets. (Item class 254).
4. Finished ship bombs. Push "L" in ship mode to fire massive blasts to clear out enemies. Uses energy quickly. There are four levels of blasts: 1. twin cannons; 2. one large cannon; 3. a larger blast that protects your ship on all sides; and 4. needle lazers that hit everything on the screen.

The file starts you in a Pieces corridor. Uses beta 699

http://users.sephiroth.ws/C-Dawg/zodiac%2012-16-07.zip

[Gleeok]

Aha! I'm finally able to actually play all of this now. -On a 3.2 ghz, 1 gig ram comp. :)

So I was going through the corridors now that i'm able to check these out, but I'm assuming that the current level of weaponry is unbalanced in the players favor as I'm tapping into an entire keg of whoop-ass over here. Instead of just "downgrade cheating" all items to lv.1, is there an order to which the player should have stronger weapons for the gunship in mind on the corridor levels?


Also what's that one enemy that reverts ffc data to 1 when you shoot at it? That'd be a neat boss having a bunch of those guys protecting it's vulnerable point. And you've got the piranas from Guardian Legend down.

[C-Dawg]

Balance issues remain. My plan is to finish up the coding by next summer, then take the next six months adding plot (most of the time will be artwork) and finally be asking people to help beta test about this time next year, while I create a walk-through. I'm meeting some friends about replacing all of the game's music with custom arranged midis this week, too.

The balance issues you're seeing will be worked out somewhere along the way. Right now, I anticipate that Level 1 Ship Gun will be used in all or part of Aries, Cancer, and Scorpio; Level 2 will be used in Cancer, Scorpio, and Gemini; Level 3 probably won't be around until late Gemini and Pieces.

Ideally, I want to balance the game so that the player has a sense of "I'm kicking serious ass" during the flying levels. That might make it a little on the easy side, but I think it'll make the product more fun.

Aha! I'm finally able to actually play all of this now. -On a 3.2 ghz, 1 gig ram comp. :)
Also what's that one enemy that reverts ffc data to 1 when you shoot at it? That'd be a neat boss having a bunch of those guys protecting it's vulnerable point. And you've got the piranas from Guardian Legend down.

Yea, he absorbs (mostly) your standard weapon so you need to use special weapons on him. I do have bosses protected by similar enemies in the planning stage. It'll be like the level 2 darkworld boss in LttP, sort of.

[C-Dawg]

Long time, no update. Most of what I've been doing is code optimization for the corridors. Now, your ship cannon fires much more reliably, and slowdown is non-existent on my machine (2.6ghz, 1 gig ram). I've also added new bosses and SHMUP enemies using the draw functions, and started work on the Libra corridors.

This file starts you in Libra. Go west to encounter the first of many cameos in this game. Kudos to the first person to identify the (respectfully hard) miniboss.

Use beta 718.

http://users.sephiroth.ws/C-Dawg/zodiac02-03-08.zip

Once again, thanks to Sepiroth for the hosting space.

[swordskid]

The mini boss is Kain from final fantasy 2 (or 5 in America i believe) right?

[C-Dawg]

Kain, but yes, that's him. I was wondering how his attack would translate to a sidescrolling action game, and I think it translates rather well.

[C-Dawg]

Update with four or five new bosses. I'm upgrading some early bosses and adding new ones. Libra's boss is another familiar face from the Final Fantasy series.



I'm also experimenting with bullet hell. Gleeok complained that the bosses were too easy, so...



Good luck getting past this one without a few energy tanks. And it'll get better from here on out.

Download: (Uses beta 718)
http://users.sephiroth.ws/C-Dawg/zodiac02-09-08.zip

Some folks were wondering how to access the scripts in the quest buffer. Zodiac is always unpassworded. Just open it in ZQuest 718. Then go to Compile script, and click on Export. Save it as a text file ("ZodiacScript.txt" maybe) and open it in word. You can copy the scripts and do whatever else you need.

[Joe123]

I thought you said you weren't using any ripped graphics?

[Russ]

If I am correct, there is a script that lets you jump only in side view areas in this quest, right? If I put this into a top down quest, would it make it where Link could jump only when he is in a side view area, and not in a top down area?

[Din]

Didn't check this thread for a while. Anyway, cool! Also, that health meter...wow.