The Coop

You were never out of it, Dafydd. By my "Can I be in it too?" comment, I was referring to what happened with the UnMod Comic, the UnMod Card Deck, and the UnMod RPG. Where you there once those projects were revealed and got going? If not, here's what basically happened. Once it was shown that someone like Ace! had a card, or that Smasha had a character in Razorman's comic, and that Antonio Pizza has a cameo in the game, everyone wanted a card or character in those projects. It got to the point of people complaining like "Why don't I have a card?" and "Where's my character?" constantly, which basically ruined the fun of it all because everyone was bitching about not being in it. So, that's why I suggested the idea to avoid that, by simply not including individual posters from OCR in this, and keeping Tan4 as the only "real" individual character. You're always welcome to contribute ideas, sprites, backgrounds and so forth dude. If you misunderstood what I wrote, then my apologies for not making it clearer. The only thing I was suggesting was that your idea of having the judges in the game as bosses didn't fit with where this seemed to be headed. spuzz and Bean have yet to comment on your judge rescue idea (I like it, but the extra work scares me ).

Rescue the judges, eh? Not a bad idea, though it would require more sprite making, which might not be to everyone's liking considering how much more is yet to go. Let's see what spuzz and Bean think... Guys, after we get all the needed backgrounds, sprites and such done, would you be willing to split the task of making a couple judge-based MMX-style sprites (really only editing the heads of pre-existing MMX sprites, and doing some recoloring), with only one of them throwing an upgrade via some quick and simple two or three frame animation, for each area (free a couple judges at once, or three if there aren't many bosses)? Or, should we do it simpler... something like the MMX games, with a blank screen after the boss dies, containing a big Tan4 sprite that flashes or something, and says the name of the weapon you just got (thus, no judge sprites)? I personally could go either way on it at the moment. It could easily be incorporated into the story (so and so captures the judges, and Dr. Pretzel sends Tan4 to save them and bring peace to the forums), so that's not an issue. And Dadydd, it's not a matter of ideas not being useful at all. But rather, not turning this into a "Can I be in it too?" thing... which happens almost every time a project involving OCR members gets started. The moment one person is used, it then turns into a request-fest of everyone wanting to be featured. But, if we keep this about Tan4 and generalized aspects of OCR as a site (problems, forums, etc.), it eliminates that can of worms altogether. It's nothing against you, your ideas, or anyone for that matter. It's just simpler and less headache inducing... more KISS, that's all spuzz- I like the idea of keeping her guitar used for only a charged up shot (which I'm almost done animating... I'll post it after dinner). I definitely think we should stick with that.

Dafydd- Judging by how some of this is going, I'd wager the judges aren't going to be bosses or enemies. As stated by others, Tan4 fighting them (or things named after them) doesn't make sense since they're on her side. Bean- Once you get the design to where spuzz and Wingless are happy with it, you can send the bits and pieces to me if you like. I can try making some simple attack animations. Is that sprite all original, or did you use pieces of other MMX bosses, coupled with some original work, to build it? I ask because if you used parts of bosses, it might help with getting parts for the animations to know which ones. I have a quickie idea for the guitar thing if you don't mind me trying it.

What's so funny and wrong with it? Animated gifs and Flash share a very similar frames-per-second set up in a number of respects. I could make that same gif (timings and all) in Flash with a 20 fps setting for the end swf file, and it would look very much the same as that gif with its .05 second delay on each frame. The movement for the car and such can be done more easily in Flash than Image Ready, but I like making gifs It may seem odd or backwards to you to have a looping gif as a background, but what do you think the backgrounds in many older fighting games from Capcom, SNK, and them were at heart? They were just endlessly looping animation frames... like a gif. Some were longer, some were shorter, but they all looped. Edit: And just for the record Wingless, I do have some Flash knowledge. I know how to make a looping movie object in Flash myself using pieces of the backgrounds I'm doing, which I could then send to you (at the proper fps of course) so you didn't have to do it.

Well, here's what I have so far for the first background... It's probably the most complicated one, since they'll be fighting on the freeway out of the city/forum. I want to add a more steady stream of cars bouncing along in the near lane, and put a somewhat shrunken train of cars in the further lane. Hopefully iy won't take too long. The bottom of the overpass isn't done yet, and I'm debating about whether to add clouds or not. The colors aren't final either, and the hover sign will be replaced with an above-the-road sign that's attached to the highway on the other side that's showing the same type of messages. I figure if I can make it all a steady (and longer) loop, then Wingless won't have to animate it himself. He could just put it as a movie object behind everything, and then put the needed part of the highway in front of the characters' feet (like it is now). If you're on a browser other than FireFox, you likely won't see it running at full speed (a 0.05 delay). I thought Tan and the boss could fight in front of the guard rail with the traffic going by behind them. Oh, the cars are from one of the MMX games, with some animation touches by me. The rest is original. I'll post an updated version of it tomorrow. There have been a number of changes, but I thought I'd post an earlier WIP of it.

Even better

KISS, man. KISS I don't think we're aiming for a huge project. Unless Wingless gets that proverbial wild hair, this is supposed to be a simple game. TAN4 as the main character, some bosses and backgrounds, a bit of text, maybe an opening, some kind of ending, and simple "X" controls. It seems that the focus should be on Tan4, and her battle to make the world/site a better place for everyone. I know this isn't my project, as I'm just a spriter. But if I may be so bold, here are my current thoughts... - I like the idea of a sprite version of djp being used in a Dr. Light role for maybe the opening and/or ending stuff. - I love the idea of the Nice Shot (cue up that one rock song ). - I could see various programs being used as power up names after beating each boss, but not really as stage design ideas. - I also replug the simple story idea I wrote up here, sans the level ideas since this is single screen boss battle only now. I'd be more than happy to type it up as opening and ending text, and put possible conversation ideas between Tan4 and any bosses once they're agreed upon. The whole thing in my head right now would be pretty short, so it wouldn't be tl;dr stuff. Then it could be tweaked, adjusted, and edited to make it longer, shorter, and shifted as needed. - I really frown upon the idea of using the judges, or any individual posters in general, as characters or stage ideas. Only djp should be included, if the whole 'him as Dr. Light' thing goes over well with people. Beyond that, I think concepts and happenings given boss form would work better, and make more sense. I was the main writer and one of the spriters for the UnMod RPG, and I know first hand what happens when plans get too grandiose and diluted. More and more got added to that game, until it became such a daunting workload on all fronts, that people just dropped out from it left and right once they saw what was needed. I'd hate to see that happen here, especially since this was supposed to be a reasonably quick and simple idea. I hope I'm not coming off as pushy here, as that's not my intension. This isn't my idea, and I'm not the one that has to put all this stuff together via code. However, I'd like to hear what spuzz and Wingless have to say on everything that's been proposed. If they think the idea I wrote sounds like a good base to build on, then I'll do everything in my power to keep things quick and simple story-wise. If they don't like it and want to go with other ideas that have been put forth, then I'll simply keep my mouth shut and continue making the two backgrounds (which I'd hate to have to ditch) that I've got going unless I'm asked to help in the new short storyline at some point. What say you two? You were both in this project before I was, so it's your call I believe.

OOOOOOH! Missed the introduction thread by that much Welcome nonetheless.

OOO! OOO! I wanna animate it if it's used

There's plenty of room to fight. This isn't one of Capcom's "vs" games Anyway, seems to me the power bars will be on the right and left, like every SNES "X" game. And even if they're placed along the top, there probably aren't going to be Marvel vs Capcom 2-esque super jumps. As Wingless suggested, she basically jumps as high as MegaMan does in the games. And that, leaves the bars well out of the way... be they on the top, or the sides.

Widescreen or "TV" screen, the amount of horizontal movement coding will likely remain the same. The movement coding vertically however, would be lessened with a widescreen play field. Wingless wants this in a "Keep It Simple Stupid" format (thus the single screen play field call), and artistically, I think large amounts of unused space will just result in a less pleasant appearance. And well, more space means more shit to draw up for us pixel artists... which is pretty much spuzz and I .

Well, if I could chime in, I'd say #3. Here's why... - Less wasted visual space to worry about trying to fill or keep from being dead space. - The panoramic look is almost always more visually pleasing artistically (especially these days with HD and widescreen preferences) than a more squared screen. - It would result in less work for all parties involved. - Less space would make for possibly more intensity, since it would mean fewer places to constantly run, camp, and wait. With the characters being as small as they are, there's really no need for so much space above their heads. I'd imagine most of the action is going to be jumping, running, sliding, and maybe a platform or two to hop on and off of. So as I see it now, there's no reason to have all that area which the player will likely never use. Doubling the size in Flash would make for a 640x368 play area, which is a good size. No scrolling would be needed, as everything would still be in full view. Plus, if you did get a wild hair up your ass, you could still add the scrolling later by making an "action" box like this... ... and have the darker areas as the places it would scroll over to. Then I could go back in and divide up the BG for any needed/wanted parallax. In short, it's the best visual and space usage size in my opinion, and it would make for the least amount of work to actually make it scroll a little if that gets added later.

That's what I was thinking. If you make the Tan sprite 50% of it's current size, it fits right into the MMX SNES sprite sheets perfectly with no pixel loss. So to keep everything looking the same and blending together well, I'll make the BGs 320x244 and double the size afterwards. Edit: Had a thought. Which size do you guys think would look and work better... -or- -or- ... or even more "widescreen"?

Sounds like a plan, spuzz. I'm guessing we're doing this at 320x244 resolution (normal TV reso, which the MMX sprites are based around)? If that's that case, I can start tinkering with stuff this evening.

What is hairy Sonic, is the new Super Sonic? Faster, able to just plow through things, and only after he has all the Chaos Emeralds.

Okey dokey. Scratch the levels entirely, and just have a background that somehow fits the concept of a given forum that the characters could talk, then battle, in front of. Quick(ish) and simple(ish). It could also allow for a few more battles if everyone felt up to making what's needed for them. Sound like a KISS thing? Actually spuzz, I think you should handle the remaining Tan sprites (there shouldn't be too many more needed... jumping and shooting something for the most part). Having multiple people making the same character will likely lead to inconsistencies, and more work as they're fixed. The Tan sprite of all this is your baby, dude. It's not right for me to start getting involved with it

GOOFY IDEA FUN TIME! This more fleshed out idea popped into my head while taking a shit (isn't that where everyone gets their ideas?). Feel free to reject, use, or laugh at this as you see fit.... -=- A quick story opening (text only, or with a picture or two that Bean could draw, and someone could pixelate for the game) about how Tan was walking through OCR, when she heard a ruckus and some posters shouting. She runs off to investigate, leading to level 1. -=- 3 -> 5 levels. -=- Each level could be pretty short (maybe a couple minutes to play through). -=- Each level could represent one of the main forums of the site (Community, OffTop, PPR, Judge's Decisions, Announcements, etc.) -=- Before each boss fight, Tan and the boss in question could talk back and forth briefly. As I said, there are MegaManX bit fonts available, so these could be typed up pretty easily. -=- Each levels could have a boss that represents some aspect of what goes on in there to cause trouble. As an example... * Judge's Decisions could have JudgehateMan, who gripes about how unfair and uninformative the judges are with their comments. * OffTop could have UnModMan, who yells about UnMod being gotten rid of, and how OffTop sucks in comparison. * Community could have QueMan (see earlier post), who moans about how long it takes for mixes to be judged and posted. * PPR could have FlamebaitMan, who insults people and their views. Fire attacks would be used of course. * The final level could be something entirely new. Maybe Cyberspace. In this level, Tan could meet up with CostMan, who confronts her with how much money she needs for the site. His attacks could involve throwing bills or something around, and if one hits her, money flies off from her, which CostMan then absorbs to replenish some of his health. A few quick levels, and an ending that could have a speech about how CostMan will be back in the beginning of it, and a happy end to it about having made OCR a more fun place again... or something

Just an idea I had, but Tan could be going up against the things that cause this site problems (gripes and the slow que, posters ranting about mod abuse, posters yelling about bannings, bandwidth usage, cost of running the site... stuff like that). Don't know what's planned for bosses (or if bosses are even being considered), but why not have a "QueMan" for the lack of a better name? A character that throws clocks that cause Tan to be frozen in place, or slowed down a lot, when it hits. His other attack could be a spread of clock hands that he throws out. Basically, the "QueMan" thing could represent the slow que, which you guys have to fight with at times. I bring this up, only because it seems odd to have the site mascot fighting the people that run the site. Again, just a thought. Edit: Here's a quick idea too. Each boss could give a quick speech about what they represent. "QueMan" could complain about how slow the que is, and try to take it out on Tan. "BanMan" could complain about mods going nuts, and banning his friends just because they caused trouble... stuff like that. Maybe even have Tan talk back. There are bit fonts for the MegaMan X series out there, so typing it up wouldn't be hard at all. Hell, have a "SidebarMan" and "UnModMan" too

If you guys want any help with other sprite edits or backgrounds, let me know. I've got some spare time to kill

I'm pretty sure he mean the PC-Engine game. Castlevania: Dracula X, despite what so many claim, is not Akumajō Dracula X Chi no Rondo. The two games share a nearly identical soundtrack, and the whole "rescue girls to the change the ending" deal as well. However, the stages, bosses and such are all completely different. Basically, they built a new game, then took parts of Rondo to finish it... or, they were making Rondo, said "fuck it", and scrapped a lot of it for new stuff.

Boll wouldn't stop even if twenty million signed it. As goofy as it sounds, the guy loves his work, even if virtually no one else does. He enjoys the process, and has fun. Sure the end results suck harder than a super massive black hole, but hey... he's gotta get it kind of right once. Right? ... Maybe? ... Okay, a .001% chance of that happening, but still...

Cuz the Master System needs lovin' more

In no particular order... Lightening Force Phantasy Star (Master System) Tinhead Phantasy Star IV Thunder Force III