Buyog's Lair

You'll never see him coming.

Saturday, June 15, 2013

The eagle-eyed among my readers may have noticed that I created new projects this week on my Github page for Mandarin and Sinestro. The even more watchful may have noticed in a feed reader that I just created 19 issues on the Mandarin project.

Yes, that means I'm working on him.

I felt like it was his turn.

Labels: Mandarin

Getting tired of Parasite posts?

Friday, June 07, 2013

One more post on Parasite, then I think I can move on and start talking about something else again. Promise.

This week I've been looking around the community, downloading a ton of Marvel/DC characters, and trying to figure out which, if any, to support in Parasite's power system. I've got a long text file with all of my notes, but I haven't made any long-term plans yet, because really, there's plenty still do with with the half-finished power sets he's already got. <_<

I am starting to get comfortable with the idea of certain classes of power sets -- for example, right now he has separate power sets for Plastic Man and Mr. Fantastic, who basically have exactly the same powers, and there are places all over the code base that have to change if I ever add a third "stretchy character" power set, since it affects all of his basic attacks. Right now he only has one super-speedster power set, for Flash, and adding support for new speedsters like Quicksilver and Jay Garrick should be as simple as adding their names to the state controller that grants that one.

On the other hand... there may be times when otherwise-similar characters have a signature move (Hulk and Thing are very similar, for example, but Thing doesn't ever do the Thunder Clap that's such a common Hulk visual), or a particular passive (Ice can wall-jump, for example, but Iceman can't), and if we lump all "Hulking characters" and "Ice characters" into single power sets, we lose those distinctions. I don't know, maybe that's okay.

Needless to say, I'm still of two minds about the long-term plan. The short term plan is the same, though -- 30 power sets for DC, 30 for Marvel, all with finished, non-buggy moves. That'll keep me plenty busy for a while.

Of course, I also just added a Cable power set, because I thought it would be pretty easy to code (and it was):

On another topic...

I've been using Github for several years now to host my open-source code (mostly web stuff), and a few years ago, I stuffed a couple of my MUGEN projects in a single Github project (which, in retrospect, was a pretty dumb idea), but never really used it. These days, I'm on different machines all the time -- my Windows7 laptop at home, my MacBook at work, and my Windows PC when I need to use a mouse (it's slower than the laptop, but better for sprite editing and that kind of thing). I've been using Dropbox to keep my MUGEN projects in sync across all those devices, and it works well enough, but is kind of a pain for other reasons: most of the time when I'm working on a character on my laptop, it's code-only, and the code of a character takes up a LOT less space than the entirety of one of my WIP folders (which are full of sprite rips, half-finished edits, sound rips, reference videos, etc), so putting everything in Dropbox is a bit of a waste, and a drain on performance when all that stuff has to get synced across all my devices, even though I never actually need it on most. So, long story short, I've come back around to the idea of hosting my MUGEN work on Github. I put Parasite up there a few days ago, and plan to do the same with my other unfinished characters like Sinestro and Mandarin. So expect more on that soon.

Labels: Parasite

There are HOW many Capcom-original Marvel characters?!?

Friday, May 31, 2013

So last week, in talking about the long-term plan for Parasite's stolen-power moves, I said I was planning to support:

… a plurality of DC and Marvel heavy-hitters, hopefully all Capcom-produced Marvel characters and all the great MUGEN-only ones. Then I'll do like TwinImage suggested, and implement a handful of generic power sets for all other characters he might encounter, including things like strength, speed, super-armor, etc.

Seems reasonable, right?

Earlier this week I actually sat down and compiled the rosters of all the Capcom-produced fighting games with Marvel characters, and guess what I learned?

All Capcom Marvel characters (to eventually support...? Eeek!)

X-Men:Children of the Atom

Cyclops, Psylocke, Wolverine, Storm, Colossus, Iceman, Omega Red, Sentinel, Spiral, Silver Samurai, Juggernaut, Magneto

Marvel Super Heroes

Hulk, Wolverine, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain America, Psylocke, Magneto, Shuma-Gorath, Blackheart, Juggernaut, Dr. Doom, Thanos

X-Men vs Street Fighter

Cyclops, Wolverine, Rogue, Gambit, Storm, Sabretooth, Juggernaut, Magneto, Apocalypse

Marvel Superheroes vs Street Fighter

Cyclops, Spider-Man, Captain America, Wolverine, Hulk, Shuma-Gorath, Blackheart, Omega Red, Apocalypse

Marvel vs Capcom

Captain America, Gambit, Hulk, Spider-Man, Venom, War Machine, Wolverine, Onslaught

Marvel vs Capcom 2

Cyclops, Doctor Doom, Sentinel, Blackheart, Captain America, Gambit, Hulk, Iceman, Iron Man, Juggernaut, Magneto, Silver Samurai, Omega Red, War Machine, Rogue, Sabretooth, Colossus, Shuma-Gorath, Wolverine, Cable, Storm, Thanos, Psylocke, Spider-Man, Marrow, Wolverine (Bone Claws), Spiral, Venom

Marvel vs Capcom 3

Deadpool, Doctor Strange, Dormammu, Galactus, Ghost Rider, Hawkeye, Iron Fist, MODOK, Nova, Phoenix, Rocket Raccoon, She-Hulk, Super-Skrull, Taskmaster, Thor, X-23

WOW.

So then I filtered through all of that and got a single list of all Capcom-created Marvel characters:

1. !Apocalypse
2. *Blackheart
3. *Cable
4. #Captain America
5. *Colossus
6. #Cyclops
7. #Deadpool
8. Doctor Strange
9. Dormammu
10. #Dr. Doom
11. !Galactus
12. *Gambit
13. #Ghost Rider
14. Hawkeye
15. #Hulk
16. #Iceman
17. Iron Fist
18. #Iron Man
19. #Juggernaut
20. MODOK
21. *Magneto
22. #Marrow
23. Nova
24. #Omega Red
25. !Onslaught
26. *Phoenix
27. *Psylocke
28. Rocket Raccoon
29. @Rogue
30. Sabretooth
31. *Sentinel
32. *She-Hulk
33. *Shuma-Gorath
34. *Silver Samurai
35. #Spider-Man
36. #Spiral
37. #Storm
38. $Super-Skrull
39. Taskmaster
40. #Thanos
41. #Thor
42. #Venom
43. %War Machine
44. #Wolverine
45. ^X-23

That's a big list!

Looking over this list, I had several observations:

• # – These are the ones I support already; 18 out of 45... :-P
• * – I've had tentative plans to support these ones in the future, and in many cases have ripped sprites / drawn (or been given) power set icons, etc
• ! – These ones are huge boss characters; maybe I won't support them, since even though they may be playable, they're not going to be common
• $ – Super-Skrull I can kind of punt on, and just cough up a random FF-based power set ;)
• % – War Machine is more or less just a copy of Iron Man, so maybe I can cheat and use the same power set for both...?
• ^ – X-23, I might be able to get away with just treating like Wolverine... #maybenot
• @ – ... and then there's Rogue. I really have no idea how to deal with the Rogues out there, since, as a power-drainer herself, she doesn't have many original attacks. Ranked easiest to hardest, here are my options:
  1. ignore her / treat her like an unpowered opponent (i.e. just get a random health/power boost)
  2. treat her like my MarvelTemplate character, and get a random Marvel power set
  3. create a custom power set based on her few non-stolen moves
  4. try and figure out what power set she's got and copy it (ugh, HARD)

This week, I went ahead and added support for Super Skrull, giving up a random power set from one of the Fantastic Four:

Even with all of these caveats and special-cases, that leaves me with more power sets to add than I a) have room for in my power-stealing code, and b) have time to actually implement! Plus, it completely leaves out any of the other community-created Marvel characters that I'd like to support, like Luke Cage, Scarlet Witch, Wasp, Giant Man, etc.

So I guess I'm going to have to think long & hard about this.

Meanwhile, there's plenty to fix in the power sets he already has! Guess that means it's time to get back to work!

Labels: Parasite

Powerset Drain

Friday, May 24, 2013

Last week, I asked for ideas on new power sets to give to Parasite, and you guys came through, thanks!

Two commenters, one anonymous and one my friend TwinImage, pointed out that I can't keep adding power sets forever, or else Parasite will never be "done". They're both right, but I don't want to pull out all the power sets I've put in, because I've grown quite attached to some of them. I think what I'm going to end up doing is this: I'll provide complete support for a plurality of DC and Marvel heavy-hitters, hopefully all Capcom-produced Marvel characters and all the great MUGEN-only ones. Then I'll do like TwinImage suggested, and implement a handful of generic power sets for all other characters he might encounter, including things like strength, speed, super-armor, etc.

I'd hoped to have some screenshots of new stuff to show this week, but I've been working out of town, and MUGEN doesn't work on my Mac. So next week, we'll see what we see.

Labels: Parasite

Parasite says, "What's new on the menu?"

Friday, May 17, 2013

Someone mentioned last week in the comments to my previous post that they're excited to see if I add support for any new DC/Marvel characters to Parasite. At first, I kind of mentally resisted the idea, thinking that I had a huge list of buggy & incomplete moves to finish before I think about anything new.

And that's true. BUT...

This isn't a promise that I'm going to actually implement any new power sets, but I'm asking you all to comment below: what's new and cool in the past few years in the DC/Marvel MUGEN world? Also, what characters have you downloaded that you think Parasite should already support, and doesn't? (for example, I'm pretty sure if I tried to power drain Verz & Loganir's new Astonishing Cyclops that I wouldn't actually get a Cyclops power set in return)

As a reminder, here's his current 60 power sets (30 DC, 30 Marvel):

Parasite's power sets

I've got room for 20 more from each side (not that I'm going to tackle 40 more, sheesh), so let the suggestions fly!

Labels: Parasite

Refocus (Maybe?)

Friday, May 10, 2013

It's no secret to anyone that I'm fighting a bad case of MUGEN burnout. I thought when I quit my job back in February to follow my passion and join an exciting new startup in Silicon Valley, I'd have way more free time for MUGEN and freelance game development than I did before. Turns out I've been so excited about the stuff we're building (hopefully more on that soon), that I haven't done much else, code-wise.

Plus, getting a house ready to sell is a HUGE time-sink.

Anyway, I wanted to say that I'm going to try something that I haven't attempted for a few years: making myself a blogging schedule.

Like here, my writing over on my other blog has crawled to a standstill, but like here, I want to keep blogging, and keep doing interesting work worth blogging about. Here's what I've started trying to do this week, after my sweetheart & kids are in bed (so far so good):

• Monday & Wednesday: MUGEN character work
• Tuesday & Thursday: Web work (mostly JavaScript game development lately)
• Friday: new post here on my MUGEN blog
• Saturday: new post on my Palagpat Coding
• Sunday: rest

So, with that bit of site news out of the way, what did I work on this week? Two words: Parasite bugs. Namely, play testing the most current version of his code, identifying issues, and starting to fix them. He's slowly but surely getting better, which makes me happy.

I've also got an idea for a new Spoiler Alert (if you remember that old feature of the blog, you've been around here a while), inspired by my going to see the awesome Iron Man 3 with my comic-loving kids last weekend. I think it'll be fun. :)

Labels: Meta, news, Parasite

Doucheness

Friday, February 22, 2013

So I got a message from a friend the other day, talking about how mistreated he felt he'd been on a prominent MUGEN forum he helped to promote and popularize.

I can't say I was surprised, knowing what I do about the guys that call the shots over there, but it still gives me a headache.

I think part of the reason I haven't been active in the MUGEN community for a while now is because of exactly this sort of drama. Why is it that the Internet amplifies people's bad characteristics? I mean, have you ever met a person in real life that behaves half as badly as a YouTube comment troll?

Anyway, I won't name names, but the forum formerly linked in my sidebar, which was only there for the sake of my friend, has been removed. It's the least I could do.

On a happier note -- it looks like I'll be having more free time to work on Parasite and Mandarin soon. So there's that to look forward to. :)

Labels: Community, Meta