ACT Mod [Mc Swagger] Mission Mermaiden – The Downfall of Hasumi

[Supreme Squidward]

Thats sums it up quite well! Thanks @ilmncsm
The reasoning behind the closed alpha only release is that i think premature releases of games spoil the fun. Allready since the start of the alpha, I change a lot of core gameplay mechanics or withdraw concepts. Had I realeased the mod right away, it would have been a bad experience for most of you (or at least the game is not as good as it could have been). On the other hand I need good feedback from players in order to ensure the quality of the mod (and indeed I got really good feedback/ideas from the alpha test group!). Hence the closed alpha concept.
I think a release of 1. world is possible if the answer to the question "is the part of the game in a good spot on its own?" is yes. I will debate this question with the testers when the 1. world is done.
I hope that clears some of your questions?

TL;DR: Stay tuned

Sorry to bother, but does the progress still on going?

 

[Mc Swagger]

Two weeks ago I finished world 1 and the work on basic game mechanics/equipment system. I just started with modding of world 2, which is a welcome change for me, since I couldnt take play testing world 1 anymore The roadmap is very simple from now on: World 2 (Enemies+Bosses+States), World 3 (Enemies+Bosses+States), tutorial/story/difficulty tuning, Final polishing/balancing
To give you an estimate: I think most of the work on the mod is done! I refined my workflow, have a good understanding of the code and not many uncertainties for the desing. So I think the mod 60% finished. The august is quite busy irl, but I think a release in november is possible. Fingers crossed

 

[Devotedlynx1]

Two weeks ago I finished world 1 and the work on basic game mechanics/equipment system. I just started with modding of world 2, which is a welcome change for me, since I couldnt take play testing world 1 anymore The roadmap is very simple from now on: World 2 (Enemies+Bosses+States), World 3 (Enemies+Bosses+States), tutorial/story/difficulty tuning, Final polishing/balancing
To give you an estimate: I think most of the work on the mod is done! I refined my workflow, have a good understanding of the code and not many uncertainties for the desing. So I think the mod 60% finished. The august is quite busy irl, but I think a release in november is possible. Fingers crossed

Did you need anymore play testers? I dont know japanese but I have a background in IT and code, whats the game written in?

 

[Mc Swagger]

Thanks for the offer. I also have a It background so I am doing fine. The game is made with Unity so it is witten in C#. I am pretty familiar with C++ so I can handle C# pretty well, even though some thing like "lists" seem strange I think I am doing fine with the play testers so far, but I will contact you if I need some coding advice.
But now that you mentioned it: Maybe I will do a closed beta once I finished the mod, in order to get a fresh view on the complete mod... We will see

 

[BlackElite]

I stumbled upon your mod, and I'm fairly interested in it, goodluck with your endeavours! I'll keep checking on this!

 

[Allsop2604]

I would love to offer my help as a bug tester but doubt I would be able to provide whatever detailed feedback you would be after. So I'll just patiently await a public release when it's ready.

 

[Mc Swagger]

I found a bug in the vanilla version of the game that I am not able to fix and I need your help:
The problem is that the "N" symbol does not appear on hasumi out of h scenes in the boss fight in level 2-2. I checked an old vanilla version (from the beta) of the game where it is present after entering the boss room an triggering the boss. The script does not seem to be the problem since the code is basically the same for both versions in regard to the N-symbol. Since I have not much experience with unity troubleshooting this bug is pretty hard if I dont know what to look for.
So if you have hints for me how to track down this bug post them here or pm me. E.g. I need to know:

• What was the last version of the game without this bug?
• What could be the origin of these kinds of bug (e.g. asset/sprite missing)?
• What is usually the "stucture" of sprites like these and how can I check it with the script?

You see that I am not familiar with the terminology of unity or sprite based game development in general, so searching for the problem is quite hard... Pointing me in any direction I would help. I would rather not ignore this bug because i really like the design of this boss fight, so I might also contact the developer
Thanks in advance!

 

[Fenril]

I'm pretty sure that status is scripted and only for that fight. I don't even know if it has any real effects since that boss fight is the only place in the game where it's used, and you're affected by it the moment the fight starts. It's not even an effect you can be afflicted with using the machine back at base so it's unlikely to have any REAL effects outside of just being a graphic. Most likely, the bosses attacks don't even check for it since all its moves are unique to it so it probably can use its attacks regardless of whether you're afflicted by it or not.

That said, I don't know what purpose you're trying to achieve in bringing it outside of that fight since it's unlikely to do anything, outside of it just being an extra layer on her character sprite.

Either way, their Twitter often features fan art so a fan mod might be welcomed by them. They seem to be fairly open-minded about fan works in general so it might not hurt to ask them a few details about it.

 

[Mc Swagger]

I'm pretty sure that status is scripted and only for that fight. I don't even know if it has any real effects since that boss fight is the only place in the game where it's used, and you're affected by it the moment the fight starts. It's not even an effect you can be afflicted with using the machine back at base so it's unlikely to have any REAL effects outside of just being a graphic. Most likely, the bosses attacks don't even check for it since all its moves are unique to it so it probably can use its attacks regardless of whether you're afflicted by it or not.

You are right! I can confirm that from the code I am modding

That said, I don't know what purpose you're trying to achieve in bringing it outside of that fight since it's unlikely to do anything, outside of it just being an extra layer on her character sprite.

That is the sole purpose of fixing the bug: I wanna display that sprite in order the communicate the theme of this fight. The boss is desinged around the concept of magnetic forces and I want to high light this with my mod. But for the player it not understandable why suddenly magnetic forces act on the mc if the N symbol is missing. It does show up as a state in the state list but the visual clue is preferable.

Either way, their Twitter often features fan art so a fan mod might be welcomed by them. They seem to be fairly open-minded about fan works in general so it might not hurt to ask them a few details about it.

I think so too. But I want to get a grasp of this bug before I hit them up in order to explain the issue more clearly than I am able to right now (as you can see from my ramblings )

 

[Zelnik]

Hey, dumb question

Has the impregnation content improved?

 

[Mc Swagger]

Hey, dumb question

Has the impregnation content improved?

I am not able to introduce new visual content (eg sprites or new h scenes) into the game, since my tools are limited and I am not 2D artist
But imho I clarified and fleshed out the game mechanics leading to the impregnation content in order to give it a more prominent place. In the vanilla version of the game it could be tricky to find, judging by the amount of questions regarding this topic
I hope my answer is not too vague but i won’t spoil too much

 

[Mc Swagger]

Since I am currently on vacation and have some spare time I am in the mood for a short update:
I am basically finished with the rework of the enemies in world 2 and boss 2-2. The boss 2-2 received lots of attention because i really liked the theme and h scenes of this fight. I think it came out pretty nicely
Next up is boss 2-4 but i think that it is already in a very good place and I will not change much there
After that I will work on the states and bad end of world 2
So all in all its going well stay tuned

 

[Mc Swagger]

This week I finished the modifications on world 2 and while my alpha testing guineapigs are playtesting it is time for a little update and poll.

I said that I might release the mod in November and I think I can hold that deadline. What is left to do? For world 3 there are 4 enemies and 2 states to alter. For the enemy changes half of them are already designed and implemented the other half is not going to be changed much. For the states I got a good ideas in my head. The bosses of World 3 are going to be more complicated especially the final boss! In the vanilla version the final boss fight was quite chaotic and not very engaging but I am not sure how to fix that. That might take a while to figure out! All in all I World 3 might be finished this month (fingers crossed).
After that I will take care of the base (I am not yet sure what to do with the plant). Another important focus will be on the tutorial and hints in order to make the mod more newcomer friendly. Other topics are: Statistics, Achievements (might discard them), Conversations with Minegishi and Story progression (no changes, mostly checking if everything is still intact). Finally, some polishing of rough edges and we call it a mod!

Now to the poll I mentioned. I consider the features in the roadmap above as the bare minimum. I have some other things in mind that would be “nice to have”:

1. Gallery. There is a gallery in the vanilla version and I can’t add anything substantial to that! That being said I broke the gallery quite early in development of the mod and repairing it would require some effort (~2 weeks). This would be just a convenient feature for the mod since you always can start the vanilla version and fap to the gallery there
2. Stand alone Translation. Since I have access to the code I am able to exchange the Japanese texts with the translated version. Additionally, I could exchange sprites with Japanese signs with English ones. This would have the advantage that a) you don’t have to use the translator tool (especially useful for newcomers) and b) have a fully translated polished version (with the currently available translations… I can’t translate from Japanese myself). Especially the sprite exchange would take some time (~3 weeks)
3. Additional Randomizer Mode. As I got more experienced with unity I am now confident to exchange positions enemies of and spawn new ones. Spawning enemies from different worlds in a level is (I think) possible but needs some technical research on my side. A randomizer is imo the final form to enjoy a game: It does create interesting encounters for multiple playthroughs but also breaks the game mechanics so the player will likely not play the “normal” version anymore. I estimate this to be over a month of work.

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of what additional feature you are excited the most. Please also send me your feedback in this thread. According to your feedback and your posts I will decide if I extend the work on the mod, but keep in mind that this is still a side project for me: If a feature wins the poll it does not mean that it will be implemented definitely!

 

[Jesus]

I really like the idea of a randomizer. One of the things that often bothers me about H-games is having content locked to each level - which makes sense for progression, and continuity in some cases, but being that this is a mod and not the vanilla game, messing with that isn't a huge deal.

 

[cell943]

I really like the idea of a randomizer. One of the things that often bothers me about H-games is having content locked to each level - which makes sense for progression, and continuity in some cases, but being that this is a mod and not the vanilla game, messing with that isn't a huge deal.

Same. I think replacing the animation text that floats around her head would be the quickest change to deploy, but, personally, my vote is to release the mod and add these extra features post hoc.

 

[Devotedlynx1]

I second this sentiment can always release new versions of the mod

 

[pandoramail]

Can't wait, I've been refreshing this page for days now, ever since I've completed the original MM. I applaud the effort! Found the base game too easy, even tried equipping all the "bad" stuff and playing without using the purifiers. I'll keep on refreshing!

 

[Mc Swagger]

Can't wait, I've been refreshing this page for days now, ever since I've completed the original MM. I applaud the effort! Found the base game too easy, even tried equipping all the "bad" stuff and playing without using the purifiers. I'll keep on refreshing!

I just finished the work on the last level and shared the new version with the alpha testers! We are getting there, but I want to release a polished game so stay tuned. I will need some weeks for this. I still hope that I can hold the (selfimposed) november deadline

 

[ilmncsm]

I had no work today, and already gave him a large wall of text full of feedback. Not too many new bugs, and the new stuff added in world 3 is very nice. I've adjusted to the new mechanics at this point, but I think everyone else will have some initial troubles that will lead to sexy things later on when they give it a try. Feel the hype and look forwards to it's release!

 

[pandoramail]

I just finished the work on the last level and shared the new version with the alpha testers! We are getting there, but I want to release a polished game so stay tuned. I will need some weeks for this. I still hope that I can hold the (selfimposed) november deadline

Oh, trust me, I know the feeling! I've been working on a certain mod for the original Doom for about 3 years before letting anybody from the public get a hold of it, wanting to bring the best experience I can. I'm on year 4 and the final version is still nowhere in sights, so I understand how much work, dedication and passion it takes for such a project to materialize out of thin air. Thank you and anybody who helped you along the way for doing your best!