Hey Omega! Theking35 here. Shout out to Youhadabadday for bringing this to my attention btw! No, I'm not dead. I've just been swamped with work. I really appreciate you going over my script and having some fun with it! In hindsight, I do acknowledge that it has its issues that I hope to rectify moving forward. So, I wanna say thanks for the advice & fair criticisms you've made. In regard to the difficulty of this script, I'll admit it was this weird mix of "made with bombing in mind" - cause Gaster had sooo many bomb options, and it being "no-hittable". Unfortunately, this script fell into this uncanny valley of situational difficulty. With the 'bombing' mentality, Eanaro becomes too easy (another thing to work on: the balancing on Gaster's bombs). With the 'no-hit' mentality, Eanaro becomes really hard. So this strange in-between contributed to the initial 'Normal' difficulty designation. I did playtest each attack individually, and at first, everything seemed 'fair and balanced'. But rookie-in-objective-testing as I was, I thought it was "too easy" - in the context of my Undertale animations. So I kept ramping up the difficulty - to look like my videos. And eventually it got to a point where a no-hit was achievable...! ...if I tried really REALLY hard. ...and RNGesus was on my side. Looking back, I should've just reserved it for a 'Hard' difficulty, and treated my animations as... animations. By the end of it, I think I was more excited about the fact that I had a script that I can play, showcase, and release, that further balancing became an afterthought. Definitely a beginner's shortcoming there. Nevertheless, I'm certainly looking to improve this aspect in the future. And moving forward, I'd ideally like the scripts to be traditionally no-hittable... with fun bombs as a bonus! The clashing whites of the sprites and backgrounds? That was something I noticed, but just got used to it back then. Watching it back now though, I can see it being distracting. I could make Gaster & his hitbox change color to reflect what shottype he's using? I could also make the non-spell backgrounds darker? This is something that'll need a lot of experimenting. Speaking of shottypes... Having 7 is a lot admittedly, but that's just gonna have to be a Gaster thing, for story-sake. The system of changing between each shottype however... is a nightmare to deal with. I tried keybinding each shottype to a number on the Numpad before (or just any key that isn't 'C'). But they don't register on Replays, which I REALLY want to avoid going forward. So I just compromised with the 'C' key for now - and just prayed that the rainbow configuration was enough for players to memorize, until I can think of a better system... if possible. Some shottypes definitely work better in a Stage scenario. It's a real shame that they're currently just used for a singular boss. This is a case where I made Gaster with the bigger picture in mind, rather than the picture I had in front of me (Eanaro). And so sadly, they're just for completion right now. I know that several players won't bother to utilize them all, but that's also a fine way to play as well. They can be mixed 'n mashed. Or they can be played monochromatically. They're there to accommodate for some particular scenario, preference, or to experiment with - much like Gaster himself. Though as the way things are, cycling through each shottype isn't the greatest, right now. Overall, I was happy with how this first attempt at something playable turned out. I had fun making it, and I'm glad you had fun playing through it! But like first drafts, they'll need revisions. And I'm glad it's out there, so that I can get other perspectives on things I (would've) overlooked. Again, I appreciate the fair criticisms made for this script. And hopefully I can really iron some of these issues out. Btw, thanks to everyone else who still follow (or at least remember) my work! I really wish I could churn these out faster... if at all. Undertale DDD is still being worked on! But work - too, is being worked on... And so, as I pray, Unlimited Work Works.
I mean, back then in 2017 your Undertale DDD videos are literally the only form of "battle" that has enough detail and looks intimidating enough to satisfy 5th grade me or something, which leads to me eventually getting into shumps and Touhou, which starts way more things, so, yeah, no way in hell I could ever forget about you or your work, lmao
"You should have to beat your own game bombless before you can upload it" As a developer with a lower skill level, this would preclude me from releasing nearly anything. Though I don't believe in a developer's ability to balance their own game; playtesters are very important for that reason
There's a bit of a gradient to this - you should be able to beat a difficulty designed around "your skill level". If you typically play on Hard mode as an example, you should be able to beat Hard mode with minimal issues as a developer, since you have a lot more time with your patterns before anyone else gets a chance at it. If you're bombing a bunch on the difficulty you designed around your own skill level, then that's probably not good enough. If you design a Lunatic mode or higher, then you should probably get someone who is good at those difficulties to make sure you aren't just making bullshit. There is a space for things actually being undodgeable to some extent, but then you need to factor resource management and set expectations for that ahead of time (i.e. not a normal Touhou difficulty, since all those difficulties are expected to be at least somewhat dodgeable) The hardest part imo is designing for Easy or lower - by the time you have a few 1ccs under your belt, you may forget what the mindset of being an Easy mode player was even like, and the idea of "is this *too easy*" will always be running around your mind. It's why Easy mode in fangames is very inconsistent. All this being said, if Normal mode is hard enough that someone who typically deals in it and is definitely capable of beating harder patterns can't wrap his mind around it, then this is too hard for Normal mode. Difficulty balancing is its own skill, and takes time to develop, so the scripter still has a lot of time to do that
Ah yes, this script. It's a script alright, I personally really dig Undertale DDD mostly because of it's obvious Touhou (and PC-98) inspiration. This game being made was huge because it showed that TheKing35 could actually make a script for his fights. The problem I'm seeing is that Gaster seems to be outfitted for stages and bosses, but here you're really only fighting a boss. This renders some more eccentric shot types like Integrity, Patience, and even Justice suboptimal considering Eanaro's lack of familiar summoning. Bravery is just the shotgun shot, similar to Hooaka in BPoHC, so it could have some use if the boss wasn't as mobile as Eanaro. This really only leaves Determination, which is your average forward facing shot, and Perseverance, which is your average homing shot. Kindness seems situational but quite powerful for repositioning, like a flashbomb from Len'en. There's also the problem of having to cycle between the shot you want. Normally cycling shots like MarisaB in SA is fine, but it's because it has half of the shots that Gaster has... There could be an option to limit the amount of options you bring into a fight, allowing you to quickly cycle to the shot you want. This gives Gaster LOADS of customization too if you're familiar with the fight. For example, you could head in with only Kindness and Perseverance, using Perseverance to attack safely, then if you're in a bad situation, quick switch to Kindness for some nice i-frames while you escape somewhere else. Of course, maybe the 7 shot types are intentionally made to be difficult to cycle through, and it'll act as a way to raise Gaster's skill ceiling... but if implied through the tutorial, then if this is someone's first go at a shmup, heading straight in with no experience using a character with SEVEN different shottypes is... a bit absurd. The boss itself was quite entertaining to watch, I personally liked the aesthetic in his penult spell. I really only had thoughts on Gaster as a shottype. Regardless, this is quite unique for an Undertale fight, but maybe that serves to its detriment, considering all the rough edges TheKing35 has to smoothen out. Still, loads of potential here considering it's only his first script!
Eyyyyyyyy It's my reccomendation! Glad to see it finally up! By the way, I told TheKing35 about it, and he's gonna be super psyched to see this finally up.
Despite its flaws, I still find it an amazing script in some aspects. I particularly liked the third and last spells, and also the fourth non-spell (the third spell reminds me of one of Nue's spells in UFO, but with a tad bit less stuff in it). Guess having some light in the dark really stands out for good this once, huh? But anyways... I also find it quite absurd that Gaster manages seven shot types. From my point of view, they may be too much information even for the more experienced players, hence why I guess some of them would probably stick to one or two shot types, such as Determination and Perseverance, for instance, for being more straightforward and efficient. But that's just some wild guess of mine. Despite that, I still find the concept of having multiple shot types in one character a great one, in my opinion. I've personally liked the way they did it with Hecatia in Sapphire Panlogism, for example. Or even with Imperishable Night (if you count the duos as one character, technically speaking).
It's funny, I think this might be one of the first times in a while I'm not just seeing an Omega video as it launches. I've straight up just not been used to regular uploads every Monday and Friday night haha Gonna have to give one more script recommendation to the list, because this one reminded me of it. ...Or at least I was going to, but ttbd wiped it from the Internet and I don't think I downloaded it back then haha I remember there were some old ph3 Gaster boss scripts back then and his was the first I remembered. As for the script itself, I really like the shot type. And the conversion from Wingdings to something readable is a clever way of making Gaster's dialogue work (not even Toby thought of the text replacement method... though admittedly, that's easier to do with DNH than GameMaker:Studio 2) The fight's background and first pattern reminds me of Tsurubami and the Len'en first instinct combined with the edgy OC and Gaster playable made me chuckle a little. It's ok, we all had our emo moments. I still have an Evanescence CD. Clever use of dial-up tones to replace dialtones for Deltarune purposes, though this script is old enough that this might just be a funny coincidence haha A better way of dealing with the visibility problem is the BACKGROUND you chose. I like it, but it's going to create "white on white" problems all the time. Btw Bee you're 100% right, especially if you are making a full game. A one-off script might not have that level of time, but a fangame pretty much has to be designed with that level of time commitment being a factor. And more people could do it with scripts too.
In fairness, Marisa/Patchouli in SA had five modes and the cycling was tied to a combination press of other already used keys; that's...about as bad, I reckon. (EDIT: Although the logical ordering of those according to what they did and the fact that they only changed direction does help; maybe something similar could be achieved here, although I couldn't imagine how)
on the creator of this game's channel, there's been(for quite a while now) a battle animation where you fight both Sans and Yukari(as part of a series, I believe it's 4.5, 5.5 or 6.5?) so for those who want to check it out, feel free that said, the animations are typically quite over the top... whether it's a good thing or bad thing depends on one's taste I guess this game is also somewhat old, actually. I remember playing it. as always, nice to see your commentary! part of why I watch your videos(the other part being being exposed to fangames I wouldn't otherwise know) -Gaster fits just as well as Yukari in the "forbidden template", though I wonder what the other options in the template would be-
"I can't decide what kind of shot types I want to have in my fangame." "Why limit yourself? Put them all in! Make it the player's problem to sort them out." Look, I get the idea of "make the player adaptable to any situation" in principle, but it's really better to make the game so that a more limited player can manage any situation. That makes it easier for the player to focus on doing their thing rather than trying to figure out what they're supposed to be doing while under curtain fire.
i really enjoyed the fact the boss music ended right as he was defeated, partially want it to stay quiet or change to a different track afterwards but ah well
I agree 7 is... too much. (Personally, i do like the idea of having the modes, but make it so you pick 3 of them to have available, that way you can actually use, say, kindness without having to mash [c] 5 times every time...)
