RPG Unknown/Hiatus Malise and the Machine - Public Demo Available Now!

[Rule 34]

Re: Malise and the Machine (New RPG!)

When you release the next demo, will it be the same area all over again, or will you release another part of the game as the next demo?

 

[Eromancer]

Re: Malise and the Machine (New RPG!)

Hey guys, for those worried about the battle system being too hectic and what not, check out the latest post I made on Patreon (

You must be registered to see the links

). I'm working on a completely new battle menu system that will remove the need to navigate a cursor through menus, and will make it so any skill/command/item is accessible within at most 2 key presses. Guard will also be way more user friendly, among a bunch of other good stuff.

When you release the next demo, will it be the same area all over again, or will you release another part of the game as the next demo?

I plan on taking at most 3 months (hopefully less) for the next release, and aside from an overhaul of the battle command/skill/items interface, the next release will attempt to cover the following topics:

Fixing known issues, adapting select menu interface windows to reflect the mechanics changes to the battle menus, adding vocal effects and sounds for the battle H content / scripted H scenes (already have the actresses checking out this release), adding armor damage mechanics and related artwork, adding enemy hold breaker skills, adding more advanced shadows to the map scene to give the maps more depth (check out the below image for a quick test I painted up-- not yet in game), and in the background I hope to get work done on story details and character design.

Shadow test:

You must be registered to see the links

It will pretty much definitely be the same test area for the next release, since these things will likely take a lot of effort to get done in the shorter turnaround time. If all goes smoothly, this could maybe be a two month thing, but certainly no less.

 

[pino]

Re: Malise and the Machine (New RPG!)

Hey Eromancer, I've supported the game for $10. Love it. I still worry about the battle system, I'd like to ask you if it's possible to make it turn based. That would be sooooo much better. I remember you mentioning that it would be a future feature, so I really hope that still is the case. Even changing the menus to only requires 2 clicks, I'd still rather enjoy the beautiful pictures and scenery and decide what to do after looking at every option. Much more enjoyable .

Keep up the good work, the game looks beautiful.

 

[PM21]

Re: Malise and the Machine (New RPG!)

I think we should just wait to see how he changes it up for the next demo considering he's said a couple times that the current release didn't house the complete battle system.

 

[Eromancer]

Re: Malise and the Machine (New RPG!)

Hey guys!

I just added a detailed post on Blogspot that gives some insight into the new design for the battle menu interface as well as planned changes for V0.02.

You must be registered to see the links

Let me know what you think!

 

[Rule 34]

Re: Malise and the Machine (New RPG!)

So if I get that right, I could set, say, Distracting shot to be the button combination left - left - enter (because you have to confirm who you're going to attack)? Sweet, that'd save a ton of time and make the game a great deal more enjoyable. Regenerating SP is also a bonus. Looking forward to the next release.

 

[Eromancer]

Re: Malise and the Machine (New RPG!)

So if I get that right, I could set, say, Distracting shot to be the button combination left - left - enter (because you have to confirm who you're going to attack)? Sweet, that'd save a ton of time and make the game a great deal more enjoyable. Regenerating SP is also a bonus. Looking forward to the next release.

Correct! Yeah, if you had 4 skills with the old menu system then it would take anywhere from 3-5 key presses to get to targeting. Not to mention you have to pay attention to where your cursor is at. The benefit of not having to focus your attention on the menu UI should be pretty big on its own.

 

[PM21]

Re: Malise and the Machine (New RPG!)

Correct! Yeah, if you had 4 skills with the old menu system then it would take anywhere from 3-5 key presses to get to targeting. Not to mention you have to pay attention to where your cursor is at. The benefit of not having to focus your attention on the menu UI should be pretty big on its own.

So now we can focus our attention on the things on screen that really matter

 

[SoulBreaka]

Re: Malise and the Machine (New RPG!)

When does the demo actually end? Found the code and dude says to go to a panel. I assume the panel is in the starting zone in the north where there is this square that has a blue coloured sides. Also, one of the laser gates where the bunch of switches will lead to a crash with some file missing when u run into it. This is for the leftmost laser gate though. The right side doesnt seem to do this.

 

[Eromancer]

Re: Malise and the Machine (New RPG!)

When does the demo actually end? Found the code and dude says to go to a panel. I assume the panel is in the starting zone in the north where there is this square that has a blue coloured sides. Also, one of the laser gates where the bunch of switches will lead to a crash with some file missing when u run into it. This is for the leftmost laser gate though. The right side doesnt seem to do this.

It ends after a boss fight (you'll know, as there's a screen to let you know). Note that there are also a couple of different "endings". There's a post on the Patreon that details how to avoid that bug (

You must be registered to see the links

).

The code is actually used in a puzzle near the laser gates you mentioned.

 

[CrazyPerson]

Re: Malise and the Machine (New RPG!)

Hm, an action-button interface could work. Basically, it would be going towards the "minigame" direction, simplifying the inputs so they're more reaction-friendly.
Concerns I'd still have:

- I think v0.01 had targeting behavior where target defaulted to previous, unless one of your characters was grabbed, when it defaults to the grabbing NPC instead.
This got occasionally confusing, as you wanted to finish off an injured enemy, but because his pal had just gotten a grab in, your target would switch over.
Can't think of a good fix, other than simply taking out the "targeting prioritizes grabbers" rule entirely, to keep the system more predictable...

-The v0.01 struggle input was alternating L/R, which encouraged blind button mashing for speed. Since arrow keys now drive actions, that might cause issues.
Consider switching struggle to randomly-selected arrows, so that players need to pay attention to the screen and react, and they can't keep mashing.
You might also need to add a quarter-second "dead input" window at the end of a struggle session, so that any keypresses meant for the struggle don't accidentally drive actions instead.

- You're still going to have the issue that struggling blocks actions from the other character.
Can't see a good way out of that, though, short of implementing a full-blown gambit system to drive autonomous actions...

 

[Eromancer]

Re: Malise and the Machine (New RPG!)

Hm, an action-button interface could work. Basically, it would be going towards the "minigame" direction, simplifying the inputs so they're more reaction-friendly.
Concerns I'd still have:

- I think v0.01 had targeting behavior where target defaulted to previous, unless one of your characters was grabbed, when it defaults to the grabbing NPC instead.
This got occasionally confusing, as you wanted to finish off an injured enemy, but because his pal had just gotten a grab in, your target would switch over.
Can't think of a good fix, other than simply taking out the "targeting prioritizes grabbers" rule entirely, to keep the system more predictable...

-The v0.01 struggle input was alternating L/R, which encouraged blind button mashing for speed. Since arrow keys now drive actions, that might cause issues.
Consider switching struggle to randomly-selected arrows, so that players need to pay attention to the screen and react, and they can't keep mashing.
You might also need to add a quarter-second "dead input" window at the end of a struggle session, so that any keypresses meant for the struggle don't accidentally drive actions instead.

- You're still going to have the issue that struggling blocks actions from the other character.
Can't see a good way out of that, though, short of implementing a full-blown gambit system to drive autonomous actions...

The targeting thing is a known issue and is something I'm going to play with to see what works best. I think what is happening is that since the enemy battler's sprite disappears and becomes attached to the enemy stats window, it re-orders the enemy list and the grabber gets pushed to the front.

Adding key patterns that use all four arrow keys is actually something I've had planned for the Struggle skill, though is on hold for now since Struggle is going to be more like a fallback instead of the primary way to get out of a restraining attack.

The point about the possibility of accidentally inputting commands for the next character's turn is a good one, and my best thought for it would be to pause the struggle window before it slides out so that it actually has time to show the 'Success!' or 'Failed!' message. It actually gives the messages now but you can't usually see them since it slides out so fast. I may make it play a sound effect then as well. There's actually a bug in V0.01 that I've just recently confirmed exists that is related to this. If you press L/R fast enough after successfully breaking free you can trigger the cancel process twice, sometimes cancelling the next character's turn accidentally. A small pause would fix this as well.

I was considering whether pausing the battle during use of the Struggle skill would make sense. Originally I thought it could, but now that Struggle isn't the primary way to get out of restraining attacks I think that it isn't a good choice. Losing control is effectively the penalty for falling back on the Struggle skill, whereas using other hold breaking skills that cost SP (and will eventually have small cooldowns) are the easy way out. If time was stopped during Struggle then there'd be no functional reason not to use it all the time. Note by the way that you can cancel out of the Struggle window by pressing the cancel button if you need to control the other character (can do that in V0.01).

 

[LeTwainSpoon]

Re: Malise and the Machine (New RPG!)

Played it a bit and the game has potential to be really good but the Restrain/Knockdown loops and "live turn based" combat really kill it. Traditional turn based with set restrain durations would of been better imo.

 

[Eromancer]

Re: Malise and the Machine (New RPG!)

Played it a bit and the game has potential to be really good but the Restrain/Knockdown loops and "live turn based" combat really kill it. Traditional turn based with set restrain durations would of been better imo.

I'll recommend not being too preemptive in judging the battle system quite yet. There's a list about a page long of things left to be implemented, including cooldowns for enemy H skills and an actual AI targeting algorithm. It was discussed in this thread before V0.01 came out that getting pinned in an H attack cycle would be very possible in that release.

 

[PM21]

Re: Malise and the Machine (New RPG!)

Eromomancer, I just checked the Tumblr and saw the post about the PDF. Is that something you will be sending out soon? If I'm reading into it correctly, will there be a PDF for each release?

Or was that just simply an update about the PDF and the images that will be included in it for part one because you will be sending out the whole thing upon the game's release? However far down the road that is.

 

[Eromancer]

Re: Malise and the Machine (New RPG!)

Eromomancer, I just checked the Tumblr and saw the post about the PDF. Is that something you will be sending out soon? If I'm reading into it correctly, will there be a PDF for each release?

Or was that just simply an update about the PDF and the images that will be included in it for part one because you will be sending out the whole thing upon the game's release? However far down the road that is.

It was the additional reward for the $15 patrons. It's going to get updated with each release. If you're interested in the one from the last release let me know and I'll PM you the details.

 

[PM21]

Re: Malise and the Machine (New RPG!)

Oh I was at the $15 level because I was interested in the PDF so I was wondering if that was something you would be sending out soon.

 

[Eromancer]

Re: Malise and the Machine (New RPG!)

Oh I was at the $15 level because I was interested in the PDF so I was wondering if that was something you would be sending out soon.

Check in the uppermost folder of the RAR. There should be a PDF file called "Malise and the Machine - Illustrations and Designs V0_01".

 

[PM21]

Re: Malise and the Machine (New RPG!)

Holy shit I'm blind. God that is embarrassing.

 

[Eromancer]

Re: Malise and the Machine (New RPG!)

Holy shit I'm blind. God that is embarrassing.

I kind of have a feeling a bunch of people flew by it and missed it. I'll probably include something about it in my next post, hah. I also think next time I'll label it differently so people know it's in there.