ACT Abandoned Black Star [Version 0.29 is out]

[Stranger]

Re: Black Star

For struggle mechanics, I'll suggest what I do every time: Rip off Paperheads

Hmm, Paperheads was different, yes... But I always had trouble focusing on the H there with all the different things you had to do while struggling....
soooo..., can't say that Paperheads was the best implementation, but certainly different...
IMO, they could maybe have benefited from making the struggles harder to escape but have them do no damage...

 

[DarkMist67]

Re: Black Star

there are a lot of viable ways to implement struggle mechanics...but if they are implemented, then it needs to be meaningful or you may as well scrap it altogether. A Struggle system at its core needs to satisfy 2 main criteria:

1) Have Consequences
2) Modifyable or scaling difficulty



For the first criteria, if you get grabbed and the damage applied is static before the struggle system kicks in and nothing happens after that...then it was pointless to include. if there is no damage at all, even worse. if there is no consequences or affect on the state of the game and the players ability to win, then it would be better to exclude the mechanic and focus on other ones.

For the second, having difficulty settings change the difficulty of the struggle system is an easy way to appeal/appease a wide variety of audiences. Also, if the struggle mechanic scales in difficulty based on how much you are sucking, even better. Want a challenge? crank it up to hard. Want to not care much? put it on easy and bam, everyones happy.



thats always been my take on struggle mechanics in H games

 

[DarkExecutor]

Re: Black Star

For struggle mechanics, I'll suggest what I do every time: Rip off Paperheads

I played Paperheads a little bit, I like some things about their struggle mechanics (using QTE events for arrows, for example), but on other hand they have quite misguiding phase when you have to choose between X,C,V buttons and that makes struggling quite displeasing, long and complicated, IMHO.

Guys, thanks for the feedback, I looked through your comments and I came to several points of how struggle system can be improved.

Let's see how current struggle mechanics works (which I tried to make as simple as possible because struggling mechanics in original Dark Star was, well, definitely not one of the best):

• If the player is not in invincible or birth state, each enemy impact triggers sex scene, which starts immediately;
• The player can increase "struggle bar" in order to be freed from being harassed by the enemy (so it's counted as not "came inside" scene if it was interrupted);
• Struggle bar is decreasing slowly, allowing to overcome its depletion rate and being freed quickly;
• The player can use only left or right key depending on random factor in order to increase struggle bar and escape, there is no time or pressing speed limitations applied;
• The damage is applied to the player after being grabbed once before sex scene, without depending on was the scene interrupted successfully or not;

So how would I like to change it after reading your feedback? Let's see:

Struggle mode will have 3 levels of difficulty (let's name them Easy,Medium,Hard for now).
What are the differences between these 3 modes and current implementation?

Easy mode:

• Struggle bar doesn't decrease at all;
• The damage is not applied before or after sex at all;

Medium mode:

• Struggle bar is slowly decreasing;
• The damage is applied after sex scene if it was finished without interruption (nympho mode still excludes the damage as it is implemented in the current version);
• All four arrows are used for increasing struggle bar (so instead of randomly picking 1 of 2, there will be random pick 1 of 4 by the system);

Hard mode:

• Struggle bar is decreasing twice faster than in Medium mode, making overcoming it quite difficult if you are pressing keys not in time;
• The damage is applied before and after sex scene if it was finished without interruption (nympho mode excludes only 1/2 of after-sex damage);
• All four arrows are used for increasing struggle bar (so instead of randomly picking 1 of 2, there will be random pick 1 of 4 by the system), but they are chosen as temporary with varying short range of time (so, for example, system chose key Up to be valid for increasing struggle bar for 2 seconds, if they player hits proper key then struggle bar is increased and the next valid key is picked randomly along with its validation time (from 1 to 5 seconds, for example), if the player doesn't hit proper key then next one will be chosen as valid with that random period of validation time);
  Actually such logic is the same as for QTE events in any game and that was partially implemented in Paperheads;
• If thin pink bar (which I call "pleasure" bar because it is synchronized with the time when the girl cames) was filled with more than 75% then the player can't resist and has to watch sex scene until the end. This value is downgraded to 50% if the Girl is in nympho mode because the nymph likes sex, so why should she resist more than usual?

I spent lots of time thinking about what state could be put between the moment of grabbing by the monster and the start of the sex scene and I came to conclusion that in order to avoid making lots of complicated animations I can try to implement something that looks like simple "holding force field" animation (if anyone played Mass Effect then you probably remember as biotics held their force fields under enemy fire), so if the player fails to hold it with simplified version of struggling mechanics then sex scene is started with that complex 3-modes system. I hope that there will be enough time to implement this inter-stage after implementing main 3 modes modifications, but we'll see how it goes.

Please tell me your opinion about such 3-modes system, thanks.

 

[DarkMist67]

Re: Black Star

Sounds like a good core to me, and easily tweakable. My only recommendation is in hard mode, instead of damage right when you get grabbed, instead apply that damage over time during the grab, and then the rest at the end if you fail. This way if you play well you can mitigate damage, but if you make a lot of mistakes you will take more damage overall, because you will be stuck with the slow life drain during the whole animation + the finishing amount.

Lets say if currently you have it at 10 damage at start and 10 at the end, switch it to 15-20 damage spread during the struggle, and then 10 at the end.

this way you reward good execution and skills because you can really reduce how much damage you take, but you take more overall if you fail. And then you have all the middle ground inbetween.

Its a good way to motivate the struggle, rather than seeing a chunk of health go away at the start before anything even happens, you see it being drained away, and you know you are gonna lose even more if you fail, which as you said, becomes more likely once you hit those pleasure breakpoints.

So yeah, besides that one change for hard, i think thats more than good enough of a system to trial run and see how it goes from there.

 

[Ricoy2k]

Re: Black Star

Hey DARK. Great work, and do you have any updates of you project

 

[vietthai96]

Re: Black Star

I have seen your video(i can't play demo because i can't access to wordpress and i don't know why, it always tell me: the site can't be reach) so i have some thing in mind:
*The girl doesn't moan in the middle of sex, she only moan when cum
*While moving, the girl look like she slide on the floor rather than walking(one of dark star failure point). So i hope you change it to more realistic
*There is not much different between normal state and nympho state
*I don't like the way the girl's clothes disappear when getting rape and lost a lot of heart. And reappear when getting full heart back

 

[DarkExecutor]

Re: Black Star

Hey DARK. Great work, and do you have any updates of you project

I have a bad habit to update any thread or blog only when I have some content to be ready and delivered, it seems that such habit has to be broken xD

I found an artist for the project and we made some updates to it last 2-3 months, actually lots of stuff happened since the time of last post, I will post more information along with the demo when it will be ready, we are working on it a lot right now in order bring it to release in 1-2 weeks, that depends how much finishing of the final artwork for Stage 2 will take.

I have seen your video(i can't play demo because i can't access to wordpress and i don't know why, it always tell me: the site can't be reach) so i have some thing in mind:
*The girl doesn't moan in the middle of sex, she only moan when cum
*While moving, the girl look like she slide on the floor rather than walking(one of dark star failure point). So i hope you change it to more realistic
*There is not much different between normal state and nympho state
*I don't like the way the girl's clothes disappear when getting rape and lost a lot of heart. And reappear when getting full heart back

Blocked access to Wordpress... Hah, it's something new Did you try to use Tor browser in order to bypass that, btw?

1) There will be more sounds added, I'm working on that right now;
2) The problem of making realistic walking animation is that either we have to redraw whole 10-20+ frames of walking animation from scratch which is a lot even taking into consideration how many animation frames were redrawn or modified for sex scenes or we have to make system with inversion kinematics (so we have realistically standing bones and legs), but using such system means redrawing ALL main character animations in the project because it is fundamentally other way to building animations.

Speaking frankly, sometimes the artist and I feel like we are trying to build Iron Man suit from garbage parts, lol. We are limited because of some things from Dark Star content and it causes pain sometimes, but that's another story, which will be more
described in the update along with the demo.
3) There were some more differences added since the time of that video, which ones - you will see them by yourself when we release the demo
4) Clothes don't reappear when you pick health item, also clothes disappear after sex scene with the enemy and they appear again only when you pick clothes item. Also they are completely independent from health in Black Star (original Dark Star had health-dependent clothes). As far as I remember that was probably already implemented during that video, so maybe we misunderstood each other?

Anyway, guys, I am happy that there are still people interested in this project, please stay tuned for updates, something good is coming soon!

 

[Moondough]

Re: Black Star

Hey i was just wondering if you were on the verge of a newer demo than the one on your blog?

 

[Ecroose]

Re: Black Star

Hey i was just wondering if you were on the verge of a newer demo than the one on your blog?

Did...Did you not read the above post? He said 1-2 weeks possibly for next update.

 

[vietthai96]

Re: Black Star

Well, i know but i still have some idea:
Fighting Mechanic:
-Heroine lose heart point when take normal attack. Increase Lust when being rape(H-Attack)
-Lust split into stage(level). Level 0 is Normal(just normal), 1 is Warm/Hot(the heroine start feeling weird), 3 is Wet/Aroused(she start wanting sex), 3 is Nympho/Addicted(you already know). Each stage/level have different effect:
+Stage/Level 0: Struggle bar doesn't decrease, sex scene is short, only the creature cum, the heroine will scream instead of moan
+Stage/Level 1: Struggle bar decrease slowly, sex scene longer, the heroine will moan "faintly"
+Stage/Level 2: Struggle bar decrease rapidly, sex scene
longer with extra second animation(if the heroine solo sex with a monster, gang bang doesn't count), the heroine will moan more "visible" and the heroine will cum together with the creature
+Stage/Level 3: Struggle will blank(the heroine doesn't resit anymore), sex scene is longest(with extra second animation if its a solo sex), the heroine will moan crazily and she will cum with the creature
*The idea about struggle bar you plan to add in the difficult level of game but i think implant it to my idea above is more logical. While you can make three difficult level is: Easy you only need to imput a single key to struggle, Medium need twos while Hard need fours
-Split Lust meter and Cum meter(for super attack)
-The higher Lust stage/level is, the weaker the heroine become(Dmg and Def decrease)
-Lust meter at stage/level 0 and 1 will decrease when the heroine doesn't being rape anymore but if that meter reaching to stage/level 2 the heroine need matrubase to decrease the meter, stage/level 3 the meter can't decrease with anymean(unless there are some medicine/item/portion). Decrease rate depend on difficulty, at Hard it doesn't decrease
-Cum meter will fill faster at higher Lust stage/level
-There are some medicine/item/portion to decrease Lust meter
-Matrubase can increase dmg temporary and can stack

Costume/Outfit:
-More Outfit/Costume
-Outfit/Costume as a collective prize along the stage
-Clothing system: Underwear, Outerwear(Blouse + Tight Miniskirt, etc...), Legwear(Stocking, Pantyhouse, etc...), Footwear(High Heel, Thigh High Boot, etc....)
-Clothing customization/mix-up: combine/mix-up different piece of cloth
-Clothing destruction system:
+Get rape will lose all piece of cloth leaving only Footwear
+Take a consideration amount of dmg will blow a piece of cloth(outer 1st, under and leg 2nd, only foot is indestructible)
+A Armour bar show the amount of dmg need to blow the cloth
-Clothing destruction is turn on/off option

Other stuff:
-Pregnant, Breading, X-ray, etc.... is turn on/off option

 

[Moondough]

Re: Black Star

Did...Did you not read the above post? He said 1-2 weeks possibly for next update.

Dunno how i missed that. MuhBayed

 

[DarkExecutor]

Re: Black Star

Hey i was just wondering if you were on the verge of a newer demo than the one on your blog?

Yeah, exactly. Old demo is quite outdated, after all, it was made about 1 year ago.

...

Partial clothing destruction in this project is impossible because of the same reason - we are quite stuck with stock sprite set from Dark Star, so the character doesn't have separate drawn arms/legs/etc.

The settings were updated, too, by the way:

 

[vietthai96]

Re: Black Star

Well in the end it just an idea but there a two option in "clothing destruction", the first is imposible because the original Dark Star, but i think the option with outfit disappear when sex can be turn on/off, i mean you can still see the heroine in full cloth when sex. Did it possible?
Did the other idea are possible?

 

[super_slicer]

Re: Black Star

Why not just use an sprite editor to copy the sprite and separate it into parts if that's your problem?

 

[Deleted member 143735]

Re: Black Star

Interesting, I was the one who showed grimm how to make the uncensor patch that actually shipped on the blog originally and the email history that went with that. Maybe you guys learned something from it.

Your demo needs the physics setting to not have the capsule jitter. You also need smooth camera transitions for transitions from standing to other poses. Good luck.

 

[El Fuerte]

Re: Black Star

Is it finished yet? = o

 

[DarkExecutor]

Re: Black Star

Hey guys, long time no see

vimeo.com/222015969

So what happened since last blog post? Well, lots of stuff, good or bad - it’s difficult to say, so I will write it as point list.

• You must be registered to see the links
  is my partner-artist now. We both still learn lots of stuff and he made huge contribution to Black Star and if I’d found him earlier then maybe the project looked even better than it looks now. Almost all Stage 2 assets were made or remade from scratch by him as well as lots of bullets effects and other stuff;
• BlackStar v028 demo is here: mega.nz/#!i4kkmZCR!TPjXiFuxPmHMYWDSuN7qiy_d-mNC5Vq3Ljp6mCa5GUs
• It contains 2 stages and gallery/arena which is unlocked after you complete 2 stages. Arena is game mode that looks like Gears of War “Horde” mode with waves of enemies, also there are some monster types in Arena that were planned to appear in the next stages of the game, but they were placed to Arena, too. No hentai gameover CGs, sorry, spent lots of time on learning, but my level is still too low to put it into the actual game;
• Grimhelm is suddenly making new game (
  You must be registered to see the links
  ). I don’t know what was the reason for him to wake up after these years, maybe this remake project, who knows xD Anyway, this fact changes a lot and I will explain why a little bit later in this post;

My initial plan was to make 2 stages demo, wait for feedback and then finish other 2-3 stages or the remake. The fact that Grimhelm is back and makes new game (which is probably in sci-fi setting and may feature the girl with probably the same type) makes the purpose of my work quite questionable now. Rule63MePlz and I both had some serious concerns about technical limitations that were put on us when we started using sprites from Dark Star and other old ( mega.nz/#!S80EUASJ!t6CHYRcKJ67X3xykByNRTK7xJ2yDfCc1s6NNSAStquM ) patch for it, as well as other things were changed, too.

We decided that we have to make our own new project from scratch, I don’t want to reveal much information about it until we finish public demo of it and show it to everybody, but for now I can tell for sure the following:

• It features other type of graphics and animations, I want to experiment with bone-based 2D animations and make the project well-animated. I watched tons of sprite-based hentai games with poorly-done animation last 2 years and it’s a pity to make the same mistake if you feel that you can’t deliver good quality using such animation type;
• The universe of the project is different from Black Star and it is written with more details than BS;
• The only thing from BS that this project will inherit is some small sub-systems code that performed well in Black Star - blood/cum effects system, some new-created bullet types, maybe resistance mechanics. Player controls and land-based enemies system will be remade from scratch, because even after countless nights of debugging there are still some minor bugs there and also gameplay focus is different;
• The genre of the project is platformer, but it has different gameplay mechanics than Black Star, as well as we make different graphics/sounds in order to avoid any copyright drama and because the project is totally different, too, of course.

What will happen to Black Star? Well, it will remain updated on this thread and we’ll make some small periodical bugfixes or maybe enhancements to Arena mode if we have some spare time apart of the main project, but no new content for its story, sorry. I wish Grimhelm good luck with his new game and I think that it will be more awesome than his previous 2 games, as well as any feedback for Black Star may be possibly taken into consideration by him if he reads my blog or ULMF thread, I hope.

 

[Allsop2604]

Re: Black Star [Version 0.28 is out]

Well I enjoy the new version. Only complaint would be lack of direction. After first checkpoint I have no idea where I'm going and constantly get attacked by hordes of enemies makes it difficult to explore. Cannot find next level or checkpoint for the life of me.

 

[DarkExecutor]

Re: Black Star [Version 0.28 is out]

Okay, I had some fun ILspying this thing.

Forced open gallery and arena, changed zoom levels and added vertical camera adjustment for h-scenes.

Will post a cleaned up patch later, if makers do not object.

DarkExecutor, you do not object, right?

Haha, your impatience looks fun xD Actually after reading your concerns I planned to make a hotfix closer to the end of this week (some people may have other complains, so I want to gather them before making a patch) which will contain less enemies and some enemies spawning only on Hard difficulty, as well as more checkpoints at stage 1 (stage 2 is shorter than stage 1 in several times), and some other stuff fixing those problems that you mentioned, but looks like you want it earlier Can you send me zoom levels that you tweaked to me in private messages as well as how you adjusted vertical camera for h-scenes? It will be probably included into that patch and there will be no need to hack the scripts from your side.

I didn't hide that anyone can open gallery/arena using regedit app and Windows registry, but it spoils intrigue, right?

 

[Gandalf]

Re: Black Star [Version 0.28 is out]

On an unrelated note, the relevant registry path may or may not be HKEY_CURRENT_USER/SOFTWARE/DarkExecutor/Black Star/ and i cannot confirm or deny what may happen if you create a String key named "CompletedDemo" and set its value "true"