FutureFragments
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(Future Fragments) Lots of stuff in this post, be sure to read it!
🕑 Added 2018-04-20 04:43:20 +0000 UTC Alright, lots of stuff to cover this time, so this is going to be a pretty huge post, but it's all important!-------------------------------
ELECTRIC LEVEL UTILITY ABILITY
So above you can see the WIP for the Electric Level utility ability; once you beat the Electric Boss, you'll get this ability, which is basically a super jump!
You'll only be able to use it on the ground, and for the duration that Talia is charging up an electrical/magnetic field around herself to free her from gravity temporarily, she'll be vulnerable; however, after that, she'll be invincible, just like the Fire Dash.
Not only that, she'll cause damage to enemies on the way up, as she's surrounded with the electrical aura, and at the top of the jump, she sheds the aura in a burst, damaging nearby enemies.
You'll also be able to move left and right during the jump slightly, too.
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CUTSCENE MECHANICS CHANGES
While a lot of you have expressed that you enjoyed the cutscenes (and we're really happy about that!), there's a good degree of people who just want to run through and enjoy the game and not have to go through many cutscenes.
As we want to have a game that caters to both the "give me lots of plot" and "I'm not too into the plot" camps, we'll soon be making an adjustment to how cutscenes work.
Important, core storyline cutscenes involving Faye, Vie, or Seeber will still be automatically-starting cutscenes, and for the most part, unavoidable.
However, all other cutscenes will now be triggered by the player pressing Up on an NPC when standing near them; this will allow people who want to still engage with the full story to do so (or to get extra "value" points, more on that next update), but those who don't want to engage with the story beyond the core cutscenes won't be forced to either.
On average, a level would have around 5-ish "core" cutscenes and 25-ish "non-core" cutscenes, so we're aiming for about a 1:5 ratio for core:non-core cutscenes.
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BATTLE SYSTEM CHANGES
While the Electric Level was mainly updates to the visual and audio quality of the game, the Earth Level will be updates to the battle system and general gameplay mechanics.
Here's some of the updates you can expect during the duration of the Earth Level demos;
- Elemental Charge Shots will be getting changed drastically, so that each elemental charge shot is completely unique in function and design (instead of being just a re-textured graphic with an extra function).
- Powerups will be integrated in full during the Earth Level, with the remaining 30 added, as well as a general rework of a lot of them for balance issues and the new "destructibles" system involving them (more on that next post, too).
- Aggro will now be something that's on all enemies in different ways, but in general, when you attack an enemy, it will turn to face you and attack if in range, or walk/run towards you if not; enemies will no longer ignore you while you're shooting them.
- Health Bars will be added above the heads of enemies you're attacking, to let you know how much more you've got on them before they're defeated.
- The stun mechanic will be getting reworked too, to be both more engaging and not so much of a mash-fest as it is now.
There's other smaller changes too, but hopefully these main fixes will make battles a lot more engaging and interesting!
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REMOVAL OF FIRE LEVEL FLYING ENEMY ANIMATION #1
This is something I've talked about on the Discord a good amount (and if you haven't joined already, you should join at https://discord.gg/eADgu38 ), but for a few reasons, we've removed the Fire Level Flying Enemy sex animation #1 from the game. (To be clear, we're not removing the enemy, or his attacks, or his second sex animation.)
Part of it was that Triangulate just wasn't satisfied with the animation; it was just her getting off, no actual direct interactivity with the enemy, and he highly prefers actual direct interactivity between the enemy and Talia with animations.
I was unsatisfied because it seemed to be out of nowhere lore/design-wise; you have this half-human, half-demon character that for some reason has a seduction power... despite being in a facility solely with men, so his power would never actually get used most of the time.
To make matters worse, with the established story that sex is outlawed unless it's with gratters (vibrators/sex machines), and that the Rebels wouldn't be really bothered or annoyed by getting turned on... it just makes no sense for the WORM to create this perfect weapon of sorts and then have its abilities be useless most of the time and focused on something that they considered illegal.
I know this will disappoint some of you, but we hope that it's not a huge letdown for those of you who've been supporting the game. We don't have any plans to remove or alter any of the other existing sex animations though, if you were worried about any others.
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RECLAIM REALITY CHANGES
In the interest of full transparency about the game production process, we wanted to tell you all about a change regarding another game that I'm working on and that some of you know about called Reclaim Reality.
As with the above, those of you on the Discord already know about this (seriously, you should definitely join; https://discord.gg/eADgu38 ), but our programmer for Reclaim Reality recently decided that the game was too much for him to work on while trying to balance other life responsibilities, and decided to drop from the game.
As a result, I'd talked to Frouge at length about it and for now, he's offered to take on the role himself while still doing Future Fragments as his first priority.
Now, normally having a programmer on two projects would be something difficult to deal with for the programmer, but there's some clarification you need to know about;
- Frouge isn't going to start until May 1st, and we'll be looking for replacement programmers for a while if this ever does cause any delays, but we don't expect it to cause any delays for Future Fragments or for Reclaim Reality.
- This is because the programming for Reclaim Reality is already about 90% done, and because the programming density for Reclaim Reality in general is a lot less complex than what Future Fragments has (since it's mostly a VN).
- To add onto that, most of the complex stuff in Future Fragments is already done; the only remaining complex systems we have yet to put in are the cutscene/databank gallery and the full version of the megamap, everything else is just enemy AI and injecting art/sound/writing assets for the rest of the game.
- Given that Reclaim Reality and Future Fragments are linked, and that Frouge meshes so well with what we're going for with the game, it should help speed things along even faster for RR.
We're only making this choice with full knowledge that Frouge is skilled enough, fast enough, and that the progress of RR and FF is at a point where it's not a huge time sink for either one programming-wise; he's all up for this, and offered himself, and we've got faith that he wouldn't do so if he wasn't up to the task.
As said above too, we're confident this won't really delay either game much at all, and the final result will be a lot better for RR without impacting the quality of FF, and if it does somehow cause any delays, we'll look for a replacement programmer ASAP for RR.
(Since some people were afraid of this too on the Discord, the quality of both games will be retained to the degree we intended; we're not going to rush either game out and kill the quality as a result, but we're not going to sit on our laurels and take our time on them, either.)
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Thanks so much for your support; we're aiming to give you nothing less than the best game we can do!
If you'd like to join in on our Discord, feel free to at https://discord.gg/eADgu38
The next demo, v029, will be out April 30th, and will have a number of improvements and additions :)
(As an extra note too, if you wanted to check out the other two games of mine, they're at http://www.patreon.com/reclaimreality and http://www.patreon.com/hentaiwriter.)
Comments
The Future Fragments Team
Oh, I mean the current version of the engine is completely different from the .exe version; the HTML version of the game is on the new engine, but most of the content on it is outdated (probably 90% of it is no longer used at all or has been revised/updated).
The Future Fragments Team
Well dang, thanks a lot :D we just want to make sure that people weren't pledging due to expectations that we wouldn't be fulfilling in regards to game content, that's the last thing we'd ever want! Glad to hear you're happy with the game besides that stuff though :)
Oh no, this game has become good enough that those specific interests not being included is just a little bit of icing being taken off the cake. It's improved a lot since I suspended my original pledge (probably over a year ago), and I was pleasantly surprised with the latest demo. A lot of my issues with the older versions seemed to be entirely gone, even down to very little things like a couple not-so-great voice lines during the h-animations. And thank christ for good controller support, I felt like I was playing a whole new game just from that. You guys just keep up the good work.
The Future Fragments Team
As we don't want to mislead you, unfortunately the game won't have any of those fetishes or mechanics with it; if you were pledging just for those, let me know and I'll be happy to refund you! If you still want to stay on though otherwise, we'd still of course be happy to have you on :D
I am a little disappointed about the removal of that animation, but it makes sense. Considering that hypno, mind control, aphrodisiac, "seduction powers" (etc) kind of content is one of my absolute favorites, I really hope that similar gimmicks are still included in some way. Anything from full on game mechanics to a single H-animation would make this game one of my easiest favorites.
The Future Fragments Team
Yeah, that's right!
So i read somewhere if I pledge for $10 one time i will still get the game upon release.
not happening
Game quality hasn't changed a whole lot, but I did manage to get a copy down from ng. Frustratingly it has to be accessed via network due to browser security constraints, but it is functional. As long as I have my archive I'm happy.
The Future Fragments Team
While that is definitely a good idea, and would be more interactive and make more sense lore-wise, I'd like to avoid overlapping abilities (the Celodst have mild telekinesis and mind abilities, with the Celodst Emperor having extreme ones, his whole boss battle based around them). We're definitely going to rework it into something that will still have its own identity and be different though, for sure.
Ben Miller
Gotta say, I really disagree with the removal of that animation. I liked it specifically because it was different. If you guys are unsatisfied with it then why not modify it a little? Instead of “seduction” powers give the enemy telekinetic powers to move her hands to achieve the same result. It’s a more useful power lore-wise and kind of helps explain how they fly so well with those small wings :P
The Future Fragments Team
So the original fire level unfortunately we don't have in .exe format anymore, as it was on the old programmer's engine and we've since changed it significantly (we only have the HTML5 version that was on Newgrounds); additionally, most of the content on it is very outdated, which is why we don't really spread it around much so people don't get the idea that that's representative of the final game quality. That said, you can definitely still get it on HTML5 propagation sites, and we'll be posting a new Fire Level demo come full game completion!
not happening
Would it be possible to get a copy of the original Fire level? I wasn't able to archive it from Newgrounds - maybe someone else knows how.
bigtotoro
Yes, you have to take into consideration what you think is best. (although I still think there are other aspects to it than "making them feel good" (like, imagine a couple of rebels infiltrates the place and suddenly they get picked off one by one as their female team members gave away their positions without resistance to get the demon D that "the rebel scum love so much") and that an explanation "they're just misusing their general mind control ability for something they're not supposed to do" doesn't break from the things established all that much)
The Future Fragments Team
The sexual perversion stuff can affect them, it's just that it doesn't really do much to ruin Rebel morale, because it would be like going up to a big group of an opposing army IRL and saying "hey, i'm going to make you all feel great!" and then expecting that to ruin morale somehow; if anything, it would ruin WORM morale because they would then be disgusted that they, the WORM, were involving themselves in such acts. It's of course not unsolvable, but it wouldn't work with the current structure of how the plot and world is laid out, and restructuring large parts of the entire society setup within the game just for a single animation isn't something we'd want to do, given that that would mean we'd need to alter or remove many other animations as a result :P
bigtotoro
Ok if you want them to be sentient and not biological weapons / biotech (or at least victims of marginalization by true humans who consider them subhuman even if they're not), then it can't work in the world. Regarding the rebels liking sex ergo no sexual perversion can affect them seems twisted to me, a charm power by something inhuman that can make anyone suddenly love it unconditionally over anything else, no matter what their mission was or what their original personality was, and suddenly all they want to do is shake their hips for it and bring more of its spawn into the world, that seems pretty scary a weapon, no matter what how much of sex maniac you are :P Regarding the "beating up to prove beating up is bad", yeah, that's hypocrisy in simple terms, and it does happen. Maybe some powerful group could get their rocks off in that frigid society by having "subhumans" fuck enemies/spies/prisoners and justify it in some way (and take care of anyone who disagrees and can't be bribed or intimidated). Or whatever, even the winged ones could still be imperfect and develop unexpected features despite all the efforts in engineering. Or it could be just a perfectly intended mind control power that it uses in unexpected ways (same as the grunt not always obeying orders). I don't mean it should be like that in your world, but it's not an unsolvable problem by writing, if you really wanted to have enemies with charm powers. (I was really looking forward to a voiced mind control scene, especially if there were a chance of sudden switching between controlled and free will modes for funsies :D)
The Future Fragments Team
Just to really drive home the thing here with the WORM and sex, two humans having sex in the WORM culture is literally one of the worst acts you could do; it's not something they'd have in one of their soldiers for the act of showing them how it's bad, because that would be like us having say, someone run around beating up other people to show that beating up people is bad. It can't really incapacitate the Rebels, as they've got technology that can just bypass that (per the databanks regarding Kelvrin Darkmoon) and the enemies enjoy sexual activity, so there's no reason they'd lose morale from it. The reason it's different from the MainFrame computer is because the WORM doesn't even know it has that capability; as the MainFrame himself states, he installed that entire machine within himself without WORM's knowledge, specifically for himself/for fun. Additionally, the device, if the WORM did know about it, would be seen as a gratter, which is okay by the WORM; they have pretty specific rules on what is and isn't okay (just like today's culture on a great many things!) None of the enemies are mindless, either; they all have sentience, and can speak "English" (or whatever the language of the future is). The half-demon (and they're not even really demons, it's just the slang name for them) process is something that took thousands of people combining their efforts at the WORM Facility you're in; it wasn't just something done by one person, had to get lots of checks up the ladder, and many failures happened, so it wouldn't be something that could slip by someone, especially when they're mass produced and the whole point of the half-demon project is to make those flying ones (the other two part-demon, part human enemies are failures). Just wanted to clarify the lore there some so it makes more sense why that particular attack doesn't fit with it :P
The Future Fragments Team
There are definitely plans to replace it, for sure :)
Jon P
I think pulling that animation for continuity purposes is fine, are there plans to replace it? (Probably a silly question since once you go back to update everything the Fire level will change the most out of all of them.)
bigtotoro
Does it matter to WORM if a weapon is in violation of their principles if it's a weapon? Like, we do have guns despite it being illegal to shoot people under normal cicumstances. It can still be used for incapacitation, affect the enemy morale, show the worm mooks a sex in bad light so it stigmatizes it for them, etc. I don't see it as different from what the master computer uses as Talia's punishment. Or does it really matter that much if the artificial construct doing the H is metal/silicon vs carbon/biological based if it's still a mindless weapon-beast? Alternately, they could have been created by somebody with ulterior motives, like some higherups who don't really actually care about the rules that much, someone who wants to create biological gratters, or a crazy scientist who uses them for experiments, etc, maybe all in one. I do agree with the "more interaction" part but I do have some disagreement with the seduction part, I don't find it that out of place.
Oh i was juast want to play with that shape XD
The Future Fragments Team
Yep, that's still in the game! We'll be modifying it a bit to fit more of what we're capable of doing with the game now, but that's still in :)
do you remember kinda demon version of talia when you die at the boss room in very old version? like really old
