Hold on, you're using rollback for online play? If so, then I'm playing this. I'm also curious about the frame data. Can you release any of that? :O
100% rollback my friend. (And that's why it's taking a bit longer, Rollback is the hardest network model I've ever seen to implement) I could totally release frame data, if you're into number crunching ^^ I'll do that after the vid. That's a very interesting desire I'm preparing you a gameplay vid right now to show how offensive you can be with TKD ^^ edit : meanwhile, you can already have a glimpse in the first seconds of the trailer. Guy on the right is TKD (and it is CPU AI). The AI very first decision is to chain a combo (FK+FK+LP+LP) + start the Special Move "Machine Gun" (details in the vid I'm preparing right now) + retreat instantly. This is a 5-hit combo that deals quite some damage, but has to be stopped because of energy depletion (which is why the AI retreats, to refill). Relinking it for convenience : Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel I forgot to mention : all the fights showcased in the trailer are pure AI vs AI. No human involved.
Even while KD will have Muay Thai, I'm sure that we won't get tiger shots I think that part of the fun in fighting games is finding out how frame advantage works and such, so I hope you could avoid spoiling us lot of info about frame data Thanks, very appreciated! Looking forward to that vid!
Uh oh, I still haven't beaten grueling AI in Volt, and this seems even more grueling. I think I will need to use those boosts for career mode
XD Awww, no tiger shots, and probably no half-screen length kicks, that hit crouching and standing and jumping people. Grueling is a pain the butt. They just read your inputs. That's why you can never land Fei Long's command grab if they're defending, because they read inputs. Same with Abel's TT. @KineticDamage Are there gonna be any hardcore grappling characters? And will there be a mode, with AI vs AI?
Looks great! Any issues adjusting to year-to-year improved iPhone models or is that irrelevant to coding and programming?
That's right, I took a "no projectile" philosophy when designing the game, because I found it was killing the action too much (fleeing + spamming) Muay Thai does have a long range special kick, though, but as it's a special, it costs quite a lot of energy, so it's not spammable. I had to design such a special mechanic in order to balance the builtin low speed of the art (Muay Thai is the slowest in Kinetic Damage, but has the second highest range, and most of all is the most powerful & resistant). There is a grappling based Art : Krav Maga. Every combo is a grapple chain (6 combos total), + the base grab. Grabs are also a mechanic that I really wanted to redesign in Kinetic Damage, as I really didn't like the way they were automatically making a fighter invincible and safe in other games. Now (except for Krav Maga chains), you have to "fight for your grab", meaning that not only does it cost you half your energy bar to grab your opponent, but before performing the actual grab strikes, you engage in a close quarter fight, both fighters having to repeatedly push your grab button to determine who will have the advantage. Each push costs some additional energy, so you have to be careful before hitting that grab button If you win the grab fight, opponent takes several powerful hits. If not, he pushes you back, leaving you stunned for a brief moment. About AI vs AI : yes, totally, it's even a core mechanic of the career mode Basically you'll be able to hire a partner, controlled by the AI, who would fight for you. In order to spice things up, and to make a good use of all the work put into AI, I gave the player 3 buttons during partner fights, each one being a "coaching order" : "Be more aggressive" (boosting aggressivity stat), "Pay attention" (boosting reactivity), and "Think !" (boosting analysis). Like in this pic : Each time you give an order, the AI "mind" will rebalance his personality to fit your order. That means if he/she is an analysis type, and you ask for reactivity, the analysis stat will be lowered to get higher reactivity. So it's a tradeof, bringing another layer of strategy during AI vs AI fights. On top of that, your partner will also make his/her own decisions. So you might want to watch his strategy before jumping into coaching the hell out of him, because maybe he will take the right decisions himself ;-) (All of this is implemented, tested, and working) Yes, I'm totally planning to enhance the game graphics over time ;-) Ok, here is the Taekwondo gameplay test vid I promised, VaroFN I wrote subtitled commentaries, to express how you can feel during a fight. These 2 matches are against the AI, so you an expect even more depth in Player vs Player. I also didn't cover deeper strategies like stance switching, Perfect strikes, debuffs, and focusing on localized damage. Hope you'll like it ! Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel
Yay! That's good! I sounds like you've been turtled by Akuma many times before. XD Dem fireballs. Definitely looking forward to Krav Maga. P.S. Sorta reminds me of Nina's chain grapple in SFxT.
Can't believe the dev had trouble with 3rd difficulty level I saw that you used a special stance, which decreases stamina over time, right?, and you also blocked an air attack. I think that if you can block while jumping, the reward for hitting an airborne opponent should be higher than just that hit. For example, in SFxTK, if you hit someone while jumping and you get a counterhit, you can build a new combo from that air attack. I also saw that you've been hit twice while jumping, but just because he was next to you. About the special attacks, it would be cool if spinning carnage could hit while spinning. This way the attack would be more useful, and also the enemy could choose between blocking the spinning part of the combo to empty his meter and then avoid the last hit, which could be unblockable, to punish the player who used the special attack. Anyway, great vid! Thanks for making it! Some questions: does the game have taunts? What about configurable HUD/buttons? In iOS fighting games I always hide controls.
Haha yeah I admit, that's a shame, I was in a huge need of sleep though Actually life would have been easier if I had used the 4th TKD special : Tactics. During a short amount of time, where your fighter is entering a focus pose (typical TKD Kibon Joumbi pose), you can plan up to 3 strikes that would turn to counters, if they are triggered precisely during the launchtime of any target's strike. That's an example of how I wanted to respect each martial art spirit, and convert the real life arts principles into game mechanics. Here, high level Taekwondo being a highly tactical sport (stance switch, distance, timing, counter games, etc), I wanted to make any player feel like this during a fight with TKD art. The special "Tactics" is a way to retranscribe those moments where 2 TKD fighters are staring at each others, waiting for his opponent to start a kick so he can counterkick it. You can also recognize the well known Bandal Chagui series to the ribs during "Machine Gun", followed in the end by the devastating Axe Kick. Or in the KD video at 5:43, delivering via the Special "Pulse", the famous Mule Kick (Dwi Chagui). During 4 years, I watched more than 1000 videos about all 8 martial Arts, to make sure I'd understand them all properly and transcribe to meaningful game mechanics Sharp eye ! Absolutely. This is Shaolin Kung Fu Special "Second God". Your fighter enters a special stance, giving a whole new set of normal strikes, +20% endurance, +10% speed, range & strength. And cherry on the cake, allowing to chain any strike with each other while in that stance. It does have an exponential energy cost over time, though, as you saw. I couldn't go extensively into explaining why I designed the frame data like this for now (to avoid wall of text), but roughly, I've calculated the frame tables as follow : - any hitstun is calculated to prevent the attacker from linking another hit before stun has ended. - but the attack inertia time (post strike) is short enough to give the time for a (blocked) light strike without being countered, so you can still pressure your opponent (and poke for combos) -any blocked attack does a hitstun for 30% of original hitstun. One of the mechanical consequence is that you can land either an air light kick or punch after blocking a LK, FP, or FK (stand / crouch) while in air. As air strikes do recover as soon as you land, if timed well, their hitstuns are opening to either a LP, LK, or FP (stand or crouch) chain. (and then target combos, if proper launcher). Every fighter data table is a declination of a universal, normalized one, with numbers multiplied accordingly to Art's speed stat. And every hitstun is proportional to the strike speed. Which means those 3 rules above are always true, whatever the Art Sharpest of the Sharp eyes This is the Interrupt mechanic. I created it so you can interrupt any strike in a new way : - when you dash forward, if you hit your target, it bumps both fighters away, and interrupts target's strike (dash costs 20 energy though) - If you're hit during the dash, you are not stunned, but you're taking full damage - If target was striking, his bump hitstun is as long as your Art's stand LK launchtime. I'll let you imagine the possibilities & strategy intrications Actually Spinning Carnage is far more powerful than what it seems : - the more you charge, the harder it hits (but higher energy cost). Highest charge gives 450 damage non crit (150% of one normalized HP Node, as reference. One Ninjutsu HP Node is 240. Muay Thai 390.) - if charged for 0.7 sec, becomes armor breaking - once propelled into air, target can be striked again for 3 additional normal hits (I tried a s_FK but didn't time it well enough) - still during that air stun, any normal strike hits 30% harder (which is why I added the spark VFX on target) So it's a high risk / high reward Special. Costs a full energy bar for full charge. Launch time is longer than normal FK though, so turns your frame data management into risky business. In fact I wanted Kinetic Damage mechanics to revolve around Risk / Reward philosophy. Just like in the thrill of a real life competition fight I made a lot of efforts to avoid creating cheap tactics, boring mechanics and repeatitive gameplay. I wanted the player, may he be a beginner or hardcore, to feel the adrenaline of having to take a choice in under a split second, without having any safety net in case of failure. Safety is what kills the thrill of the fight, imho. In Kinetic Damage, if you decide to strike, even a quick one, you'll have to deal with the consequence in case of failure. And as you can see in latest video above, I had to deal with it severely whenever I would miss one But about that Spinning Carnage hitting while spinning, you nailed precisely what type of Art customization I want to bring in further developments Game has automatic taunts (idle anim after a certain time). But Taunting is the core of one Break's Special, in the jerkiest possible way I'll let you discover it at launch HUD is resizeable, so iPads don't get huge buttons. Enabling lower alpha is a good idea, I'll look into that. ________ Ok, that was a great exchange guys during those last pages, a warm thank you all. Now I think I'll put my cloak device on and stay a bit silent until release, so I can focus 200% on those last finishing workloads before sending to Apple. I really want to finish the job properly, so you can play the game and share your impressions as soon as possible. Best regards to you all, See you next time Ben
Thank you for answering all our questions over those pages! I especially like how the special stance mechanic sounds and the pressure x risk/reward system, and of course the "further developments" Wish you the best!
