tAPI Bluemagic's Mod - Elemental Unleash (Endgame Extension)

How difficult is the Phantom (compared to Duke Fishron)?

  • Way too easy

    Votes: 6 23.1%
  • Easy

    Votes: 3 11.5%
  • Fair

    Votes: 10 38.5%
  • Hard

    Votes: 6 23.1%
  • Way too hard

    Votes: 1 3.8%
  • This poll has been closed since it is pre-v0.2.3.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    26
  • Poll closed .
bluemagic can i help at spriting? im kinda "good" and i can be online 1:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Sure, feel free to do whatever you want with sprites. If you want, you can redo some of my sprites and show them to me; if you're scared I'll reject some stuff (since I try to go for a certain feel) then you could point out some possible improvements. Any way, I'd just be glad for the help.
 
Sure, feel free to do whatever you want with sprites. If you want, you can redo some of my sprites and show them to me; if you're scared I'll reject some stuff (since I try to go for a certain feel) then you could point out some possible improvements. Any way, I'd just be glad for the help.
thanks can we make a conversation for that?
 
Very nice >: D!

For sprite work, I have 3 links in my sig that really, really helped me. The problems I'm seeing with your sprite work: there isn't enough contrast between the shades. They're pretty washed. I'll redo a few when I can to give examples :)

here's an example of the phantom Sword (I used the ectoplasm and hallowed bar colors~) I need to fix the banding on it, which I'll explain in a bit, you can see the shading a lot more easily now.

New Phantom Sword.png

Edit: So banding is when you have 2 colors start and finish in the same pattern. What this does is really pronounce the square-shape of the pixels -- you don't want this. You want to distract the viewer from seeing that the image is made of squares.

New Phantom Sword2.png

Best example I can give of banding, and how to fix it:

banding.png
 
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Very nice >: D!

For sprite work, I have 3 links in my sig that really, really helped me. The problems I'm seeing with your sprite work: there isn't enough contrast between the shades. They're pretty washed. I'll redo a few when I can to give examples :)

here's an example of the phantom Sword (I used the ectoplasm and hallowed bar colors~) I need to fix the banding on it, which I'll explain in a bit, you can see the shading a lot more easily now.

View attachment 39642

Edit: So banding is when you have 2 colors start and finish in the same pattern. What this does is really pronounce the square-shape of the pixels -- you don't want this. You want to distract the viewer from seeing that the image is made of squares.

View attachment 39643

Best example I can give of banding, and how to fix it:

banding.png
Thanks! I'll try to keep this in mind for the next sprites I make (which happens to be the armor set).
The main problem with the phantom sword is that I wanted it to look somewhat transparent without actually being transparent, but I wasn't really sure which colors to use to accomplish that.
But yeah, a lot of times even for other stuff I find that I have trouble choosing the values to produce colors that will have enough contrast. I should probably try to put more effort into that; I'll be sure to look at those tutorials, and thanks for that advice on banding! :)
 
Thanks! I'll try to keep this in mind for the next sprites I make (which happens to be the armor set).
The main problem with the phantom sword is that I wanted it to look somewhat transparent without actually being transparent, but I wasn't really sure which colors to use to accomplish that.
But yeah, a lot of times even for other stuff I find that I have trouble choosing the values to produce colors that will have enough contrast. I should probably try to put more effort into that; I'll be sure to look at those tutorials, and thanks for that advice on banding! :)
That makes sense. Hmm. There was a way to make the blade transparent-ish without code. I can't remember what it was.

And do note that I give the advice, not out of any desire to be "elite" or with any ill intent, but because I really wish someone would have told me these tricks when I began working on sprites : (


Great work -- can't wait to see what else you'll do >: D
 
I'd like to suggest that the Phantom isn't constantly locked onto your posistion. You should lower his speed severely, so he's actually fun to fight, along with giving him charge attacks.
 
I'd like to suggest that the Phantom isn't constantly locked onto your posistion. You should lower his speed severely, so he's actually fun to fight, along with giving him charge attacks.
I was originally planning that, but then I ended up setting its speed so high that it appeared to be always locked onto you. Then I got too lazy to fix it :/
So yeah, I'll try to find a better speed for it for the next update. Charge attacks sound like a good idea, since one problem I've seen with it is that it seems to attack too slow, no matter how much I speed up its attacks each update. Hopefully that would give a more constant momentum to the fight. Thanks for the feedback! :)
 
Also, biome bosses on the elemental unleash.
Those are planned for the v0.4 series of updates ;)
At the moment I have the bosses for 5 "biomes" planned out and will eventually think of bosses for 6 other biomes.
...Man, there's so much stuff I need to do.

Update 3/30/15: I will have to put development on hold until my ridiculous amount of schoolwork passes; see the news at the top of the OP for more info.
 
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Now that the worst of my school's workload has passed, I'll be resuming development of the mod. I would show a spoiler, but... I've been busy with schoolwork so there isn't really anything to spoil yet :indifferent:
To be honest, I should still be taking a break to focus on school, but... this is for my sanity's sake! :confused:

Since there isn't concrete to spoil, I decided I should give everyone an idea of what will come in the future updates instead.
The next update will be heavily item-based, which means I'll have to make a lot of artwork, which will probably take a long time. This update will include finally being able to make armor, weapons, and tools out of all those Purium Bars. In addition, all of the monsters I've added will drop items. The Sentinel in particular will drop a very special item... but I don't want to spoil that yet. I will also add certain items that can be crafted or used to help in crafting.
The next update will also introduce a change to the Phantom's movement patterns. At the moment the Phantom kind of just sits above you... I've decided that, even if I'm satisfied with its difficulty, I need to change how it behaves in order to make the fight more dynamic.
Finally, the next update will introduce a change to the mushroom biome... you'll find out more about that later.

The next update will be the last major update to the v0.2 series. After that, I'll start on the v0.3 series of updates, which will focus on adding new post-unleash monsters to 12 lucky biomes. (Of course, with my current plan of one biome per update, that will mean lots of updates.) After that, it will focus on adding item drops for those monsters, all of which will combine to form an entirely new tier of equipment, weapons, etc. Until that happens, you'll just have to live with getting attacked by nightmarish monsters. At the moment I hope to add at least 3 new monsters per biome.

After that, the v0.4 series of updates will pretty much go back through all the biomes, except it will add a boss for each biome. Afterwards, just like with the normal monsters, I will add drops for the bosses which will combine to make yet another tier of equipment. The v0.5 series of updates will also add more bosses, although I don't want to give much details about that yet. v0.6 will add the final boss and ultimate equipment.

Sorry for the hiatus and the wall of text; hopefully I'll have more time to work on the mod now!
 
Sometimes creating a new weapon can have unexpected consequences.
TqFsNQ3.jpg

Anyways, due to the sheer size of what I had planned for v0.2.3, and because r15 for tAPI has been released now, I have decided to split the next update into two separate updates.
The main features of v0.2.3 will be drops for the new monsters, the Purium armor set, Purium weapons, and an improved (I hope) Phantom boss.
v0.2.4 will include a bunch of miscellaneous new items, along with more drops and various other tweaks, including diagonal hitboxes and a changed mushroom biome. At the moment with what I have planned, there will be over 60 items after v0.2.4.
Now that I've decided to split up the update, expect v0.2.3 to come in a couple of weeks!
 
i see you made a drill, whats the usestyle? if you can help me, thanks! :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :D
or how a crafting area?
You can use a program like 7-zip to see all the files inside a .tapi file, effectively allowing you to see the source code and resources for any mod. For the drill's item file, first you have to set "useStyle" to 5, "channel" to true, "noMelee" to true, "noUseGraphic" to true, and "shoot" to your drill projectile. Then for the projectile, the image file needs to have the drill pointing upwards (basically rotate the item image), and here's the .json for the projectile (you can set "scale" to whatever you want):
Code:
{
    "displayName": "Purium Drill",
    "width": 22,
    "height": 22,
    "aiStyle": 20,
    "friendly": true,
    "penetrate": -1,
    "tileCollide": false,
    "hide": true,
    "ownerHitCheck": true,
    "melee": true,
    "scale": 1.1
}

Just in case I missed anything, I'd recommend looking at the mod's files as an example.
 
You've waited for months; now I finally deliver!

v0.2.3: Elemental Unleash, Part 3
- Added drops for the post-Unleash monsters
- Added the Purium Armor set
- Added the Purium Weapon set (7 weapons and 2 ammo)
- Added another rare drop
- Improved some sprites
- Changed the Phantom's behavior
-- Will now move around the player at times (!)
-- Players other than the target will no longer deal reduced damage
-- Slightly nerfed the health
-- Lower stage 2 attacking speed
- The Captive Jungle Element moves around more
- Added support for trail-like hitboxes
- Minor tweaks, improvements, and fixes

The first thing I want to say is: Holy, this single updated more than doubled the file size of my mod. :eek:
Anyways, as you can tell from the size of the version notes, a lot of stuff changed in this update. The mains things are, you now get Purium armor and weapons, the Phantom got a lot harder, the Abomination got a little slightly harder, and I added support for trail-like hitboxes!
So, I really have no clue how to balance stuff, and this is where you guys really need to help me. Let me know how you feel about the armor and weapons (especially the weapons); whether they feel underwhelming, OP, or neither.
Also, when I first created the Phantom, I was kind of worried that it was too easy. Now that I've changed it, I'm worried that it's too hard... (just see the video I added to the original post)
Speaking of videos, I recorded videos of myself fighting the bosses and added them to the original post; check them out if you want.
Next thing I want to say, can you guess which weapon was the hardest for me to make in this update?
The Purium Arrows. I had to implement trail-like hitboxes specifically for those things.
With that being said, you can bet that I will have a lot of fun with trail-like hitboxes in the future. :naughty:
Also, I updated the credits with people I should have included since the beginning of this mod.
Fun fact: v0.2.2 alone got over 150 downloads! This calls for celebration! although honestly it was only because it took so long for me to update

Now that all that is over with, I'm just going to go and study for my finals, which I've been procrastinating all week on...
If you really want spoilers, I have some to-do lists somewhere in the mod files.

Edit: Also, some of the features require r15 of tAPI now.
 
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