The MZ Port (Patreon)

Greetings! This is the second part of the MZ post, and I ended the last one talking about a partial revamp. I want to make clear that I'm just looking to fix a few (big) things, and only some of the things that need fixing in this game will be fixed in the port/revamp. The rest will come later, and will likely be spread over several releases. The whole reason for writing this post was that I was convinced I needed to do the port/revamp in 0.10; for various reasons I'm now back to thinking it'll happen in 0.11, but it's still an opportunity to preview upcoming changes and get your feedback on several important things.

This is a rather long post, but the tl;dr is that I want to revamp the combat system, redo the UI, and maybe fix a lot of the maps at the same time that I port the game over to MZ. This will likely take place in 0.11. Reworking/replacing non-stylized art from the early game (and title screen) will still probably happen in 0.10.

Motivation

I've always wanted The Proteus Effect to be a real game. I'd like for somebody to be able to play it the whole way through, maybe never even see an H-scene, maybe not even know it's an H-game, and still say "You know, that was a pretty good game."

Most porn games are pretty bad if judged as games. People mostly play them because they're into the fetishes that game emphasizes, and they overlook its flaws because they didn't really expect much of a game in the first place. I think the storytelling in TPE sets it apart from many porn games, but the game still needs a lot of work before it could be considered something close to professional.

Game Deficiencies I Need to Eventually Fix

I've broken the shortcomings I see down into a few areas - please let me know if you have any others! In no particular order:

• The art: I'm getting better, and I like my newer stuff more than my old stuff, but my early stuff wasn't very good. One thing I've come to hate is the 'standard DAZ' stuff early in the game, and I want to replace it with stylized characters (like game-world Alex, Ana, etc.) soon.
• The combat: In a word: boring. Some boss battles are spiced up with minigame elements, but the combat itself isn't that interesting.
• The minigames: This is the most controversial part of the game, but I actually like many of them. They could definitely stand some polishing, though.
• The UI: It uses a bog-standard RPG Maker UI, right down to the boring monospaced font.
• Mapping: As I mentioned in my previous post, my mapping throughout the bulk of this game isn't very good. Many of the environments look plain and boring.
• The beginning: The beginning takes too long to get going, and the player isn't really doing much until they get to the game world. I want to be very careful here, but I feel like I need to do more to draw the player in. I've read that books have about two pages to hook the reader; I think TPE would fail the equivalent test for games.

What I Want to Fix in Port/Revamp

For the port/revamp, I want to fix things that are both extremely important to fix and that make sense to fix at the same time I port the game over to MZ.

Combat

I've mentioned before that I'd planned to revamp the combat system in 0.10 to make it more interesting. I realized that if I put a lot of effort into doing that, I might have to redo a lot of work when porting the game over to MZ. It would be far better to do this only once, so I think it makes sense to revamp combat in the same release I do the port. 

My basic thinking was that combat would be more interesting if each character had a clearly defined role and a different feel when playing. I also wanted to give each of them unique (and in some cases additional) resources to manage in order to add another layer of interest. It's still in flux, but I now have a rough plan:

Order Turn Battle: First, I'm thinking of switching combat from 'party turns' to 'individual turns.' When - and how frequently - a character acts will be determined by their agility, each character will have their own turn phase, and they'll act immediately after selecting the command. So, combat might look like this: 

Alex (choose action) -> Alex acts -> Enemy 1 attacks -> Ana (choose action) -> Ana acts -> Enemy 2 attacks -> Enemy 3 attacks -> Alex (choose action) -> etc.

A convenient HUD would show you the order of upcoming turns/actions. I believe this part is similar to Octopath Traveler, though I haven't yet played it.

WoW-Inspired Class Mechanics: This game is in many ways an homage to WoW, so it's only appropriate that I should r̶i̶p̶ ̶o̶f̶f̶  adapt some of their ideas for the gameplay as well.

Ana's mechanics won't see much change. She basically already has a Rage mechanic, I just need to change how she gains TP. What will change, though, is that I'll implement a threat system, so tanking will become much more meaningful. I found a couple of plugins for MV that do this, and I think I should be able to adapt them to MZ and make any required tweaks. I'll give Ana one or two abilities to help after her tank training - I'm thinking at least a high-threat AoE attack (like Thunderclap.)

You're getting a persistent Rogue party member in 0.9. In 0.9's combat tweaks, I'd tried to make her behave sort of like a WoW rogue using the TP system, but I've decided to go the whole way in the revamp and implement combo points. Combo points are a resource used by rogues to perform powerful attacks called 'finishing moves.' Certain attacks (and skills) generate these points, so rogue combat is all about building them up and spending them wisely. Finishing moves consume all your combo points, and increase in effectiveness in proportion to the number of points consumed. Rogues also have a resource called 'energy,' which rogues use to do normal attacks; in practice it's equivalent to TP that starts at 100 and regenerates with time rather than attacking/being attacked.

You'll be getting a persistent Mage party member in World 2. I'm thinking I'll make that one behave like an arcane mage, probably with Arcane Charges. Arcane mages are all about effective mana management. They can consume a ton of it very quickly - doing a lot of damage in the process - but they also have a mana regen ability on a long cooldown. You'll need to decide if you want to burst something down quickly, standing around with your thumb up your butt if the fight goes on longer than expected, or if you want to go for more steady, sustained, mana-efficient damage.

Alex is the last I've come to because s/he's the hardest. I don't have any interesting WoW healer mechanics to r̶i̶p̶ ̶o̶f̶f̶  take inspiration from, so I'm thinking I'll develop an idea that I'd sort of had in place since 0.6, Insight. Currently, Insight is a state you'll sometimes get from casting your upgraded heal, which allows you to cast an instant heal for free. I'm thinking of turning this into a sort of 'bonus point' system, where Insight can be used either to cast special Insight spells (like Flash Heal) or can be used to empower a normal spell. 

There's another thing I'd like to do, but whether I actually will depends on how difficult it is to modify the combat plugins. I'd like to make it so that instant spells and abilities aren't just 'freebies,' instead they can be used to interrupt the normal turn flow. For instance, suppose someone just took a big hit and is almost dead, and you know two more enemies get to take their turns before Alex does. Well, if I'm able to implement this, Alex could use an instant spell and cast it now, before those two enemies get to go. Other characters could also have instant abilities. This would not exactly make it a real-time battle - I don't want it to be - but it would add sort of a real-time dimension to it.

The other classes won't get as much love, but I'll probably do something interesting for Warlocks simply because I like Val :) This likely won't happen in the port/revamp, and neither will the Mage stuff. The Warrior, Rogue and Cleric stuff will be part of it, though.

As you may have noticed, many of these mechanics will really only shine in long fights. And that fits my plan for combat pretty well - I want it to be relatively infrequent, but challenging, interesting and memorable when it does occur. You won't be out there bashing random slimes to grind for the Ring of Suchandsuch, but you can expect some (hopefully) interesting boss battles. Some miniboss encounters will be pure combat (like the fish in 0.9,) while big boss battles will probably also have a minigame component (like the Stone King.)

The Art

I'm not going to change much about the art at this point, but I do want all the art in the game to be stylized. To that end, I will be replacing all the crappy-looking 'typical Daz' stuff from early in the game. And the title screen. I've shown some of what I'm talking about before, but it's been a while, so here's what male Alex will look like under the new art:

The other 'real world' characters with portraits will either get the same treatment (Ana's will be easy!) or have their portraits removed. I'll likely end up doing this in 0.10 instead of during the port.

The UI

This part is still very much in flux, but it's something I definitely want to get done in the revamp. The current UI is pure RPG Maker, which gives the game an amateurish look. This part is mostly held back by my (nonexistent) skills as a graphic designer, but I have made a few mockups to show you the direction I'm going in. And this is something I definitely want some feedback on.

Here's what I've come up with for the conversation screen:

Compared to how it currently is:

I feel fairly good about this one. I spent a good while looking for a typeface, and I think this one does the job pretty well. It's a serif, so it seems appropriate for a fantasy game, but it's also very readable (a big priority) and just a touch quirky. The general look of it seems - to me - more interesting and fun than the standard one. 

The next one is the main menu. I made an earlier version that I didn't like very much, and a newer one that I feel much better about. Here's the newer one, followed by the standard one:

I still need a better font, and I need to make the character portraits bigger in some way, but I think it has potential. I like the 3-tiered menu design; I want to lay out the menu buttons in such a way that it takes fewer presses to get the menu you want. For instance, in the old one, it would take 4 button presses to get to the quest menu, but here it would take only one. What do you think about the look? I wanted something fun and cute. Did I go overboard with it?

Here's my first attempt at the main menu (and I included one with an alternate background image), just in case you wanted to see it:

I reworked this one for a couple of reasons: First, the design was so inconsistent. It's a weird mishmash of clashing fonts, colors and shapes. The main font was meant to be fun, but I think it just comes across as goofy. Second, even with the menu-customizing plugin, the closer I stick to standard window layout the easier it'll be. That window with all the characters stacked on top of one another is one that shows up in a lot of contexts, and if I can standardize it across menus it'll be less confusing to the player and easier to code.  

Revamp/Port Summary

Anyway, that's what I plan to address in the port/revamp. Port the game over to MZ, redo the UI, revamp the combat system, and (maybe) fix the maps.  And I'll likely do this in 0.11 (replacing the crappy Daz stuff will probably happen in 0.10.) I think this will give the game a whole new (better!) feel, and will provide a strong base to build off of in the future.

Please let me know what you think about the combat system and the UI. I really, really want feedback on the UI stuff. I'd considered putting up a poll, but I'm after more nuanced responses than "Do you like it? Yes/No."

Thank you for your support!