Prime

i think you should release it asap (but dont rush) the patching idea is pretty good

oh yea and prime, do you think that maybe a sequel or an add on to the game would be released sometime in the future? i like the mission generator for one reason, a lot of scrolling games typically have the levels become harder and if that is the matter, lets say you get stuck on a mission the generator could help you practice and come up with some moves to use in-game

I think the patching way is probably the easiest way to go. Plus it will allow people to be a bit more selective with what stuff they want.

As for a sequel. I never really planned on doing that. I don't really expect a lot of people to play this, or to have it generate enough of a response to warrant a sequel. But who knows. I've sort of taken the approach of making something that I like, and hopefully others might like it too So what I envision is releasing the game, and then just developing addons and upgrades. That process will be mainly driven by stuff that I think is cool (like lots of options and customability), and feedback if I get any.

Personally I like the idea of a mission generator, because it can increase the replayability. Also, in terms of future content it allows for lots of new environments, enemies, VFs, and so on without having to develop a whole new campaign.

How bout transformation sound ?

I'd love to get a good transformation sound. Or any other sounds for that matter...

Also we play space missions what about Fast Packs?

I do plan to do fastpacks as future content. I am also hoping to have the armoured VF-1 as a part of the initial release. At some point I'd also like to have the armoured VF-11 as well. As part of this aspect, I'd also have the ability to eject the armour once it is depleted.

I think a mission builder that allow users to create their own branch campiagns would be nice. Perhaps we can customise VF payload in an arming screen ?

I originally thought about doing a mission builder where you could make your own missions, but that is quite a bit of work. This is mainly do to having a file format that can be loaded to set up all the enemies and so on. The mission generator is a simpler form of that, but it would just create a more generic sort of quick missions. I might add a save feature so that you could sort of make your own campaign. And additional campaigns are not out of the question as future content

As for payload, I hope to have some options with regards to that in the initial release.

oh...what about Macross racing with FanRacers ?

Easy to add. But what kind of thing are you thinking about? A head to head racing sort of thing? They'd be pretty useless against battlepods...

1. Limit VF payload to realistic levels(can be edited)

I'm trying to have at least a semi-realistic payloads. I'm also trying to avoid the "powerup" kind of thing. For the most part, what you have when you start the mission is all you get. I find powerups to sort of ruin the realism of some games (if a sidescroller can even be considered realistic). I hated the fact that some Macross games required powerups to transform. So I'm trying to keep things on a semi-realistic level so you can't just go through the whole game with your finger on the firing trigger.

2. Allow for career option where more VFs become available as time progresses

This was a part of my original design. I'll probably still do it I think. The game will likely keep track of your overall number of kills and missions completed. As you reach certain levels, additional options will become available.

3. Allow command of VF squadron.

I'm not sure exacly how I'd do this. I don't want the screen to get too cluttered, and having a large number of friendly and enemy fighters might just make things too chaotic. However, I might add the option two have two wingmen (to form a fllight of three) to help you. As a bit of a related issue, I will be having an escort mission type where you have to protect either a Cat's Eye craft or a shuttle.

No reason not to release the code, and I'm trying to talk you into doing so. What more do you really need? ;-)

I'm sure I'll end up releasing it

Hmm... Do a YF-19. I don't particularly like the VF-19.

I am refering to the VF-19A, which I believe is very similar in appearance to the YF-19 prototype.

I think the weapons system needs an overhaul. I don't really like the way it's set up right now. A bit too simplistic...

Ah, ok. Could you be more specific? Why sort of things do you think need to be improved/added? I'd love to have feedback on this sort of thing, either about this aspect or anything else.

Of course cosmetics aside i would like to see the VF-19F/S in it.

Certainly a possiblity as part of the extra fighters added later on. Although I never liked the Macross 7 fighters...

great looking sidescroller!

Thanks Man! I hope people will like it!

Sorry for the slow response guys...

You know you could always make a fanstory mixing with the gameplay.  Like something similar to VFX.  Where after every mission there's like a storyboard with drawings and such to it with little word boxes.  After that's done, you start with the next mission where you can choose your next valkyrie based on the combat conditions.  Just a thougth if you wanna give it a story.

That's a good idea. I'll have to think about it a bit and see if I can come up with anything half decent. Also Hikuro, if you could get me some sounds that would really be helpful. Right now all I have are some generic ones like machine guns and missiles. Having some more Macross-specific sounds might help make the game more appealing. Let me know what sorts of things you might have...

I downloaded the demo and it looks great!!!! I hope that you will see it through as it really has allot of potential.

Keep up the great work.

Thanks, GianS The encouragement is appreciated. I'm glad it worked okay. So far I haven't had any compatibility issues when others try it out, which is a good sign.

Is this game open source? Hint, hint ;-)

I haven't really decided yet. Right now the game engine that the game is built on is open source and already up for download. I hadn't thought much about releasing the actual game source code, mainly because I didn't know if many people would be interested. But if people want to use it, I might be able to be talked into it. I have written the whole game and engine from scratch (on top of DirectX), so there isn't any legal reason why I can't release the source.

Just to keep people up to date, I have finished adding the VF-11 to the game, so now it and the VF-1 are in. It shouldn't be too long before I finish getting the VF-19 up and running. Luckily adding new VFs is really easy after the sprite art is done. I've also made some good progress on the opening "cutscene", which is all done using the game engine. You can keep up to date with the status by checking the status page on the game's site.

However, there are a few things where I am trying to decide which way to go. I'd love some feedback about how people feel. Here are some of my ideas:

I am trying to decide between having the game take you through a linear progression of levels or having sort of a "mission generator" kind of thing where you could specify the environment, opponants, and so on. The second option is a bit easier as far as the amount of work, but I am wondering what players would prefer. I may end up doing both...

Right now I plan on having the VF-1, VF-11, and VF-19 available as player craft. It is technically easy to add more types to the list, but creating the art can be time consuming due to having to create every frame for the movement and transformations. One possibliity is to release the game with those three and then release patches later on with new fighters. The other option is to delay the release and add other fighters for the initial game. What might people prefer?

As for other VFs, which ones are people keen on? So far I have had requests for the VF-22 and VF-17.

The game's art is stored in standard bitmaps. For "characters" like the VFs and pods, each image file contains all the frames for all the movement and so on. Using these people could develop their own paint schemes. I could put some of those files and maybe some templates up for download for people to modify. Adding these to the game would be as simple as just replacing the original files. Would there be any interest in this? Also, I could take it one step further and add support for the ability to add new VFs or other mecha. This would involve something like creating the frames in the image file and then specifying in another file the mecha's name and other details.

Just wondering if people had any sort of opinions on these things...

Thanks for the interest!

All in all it just means that you have to have good aim and be selective with what you shoot at

I would agree that it is above average in coolness

Unfortunately the atmospheric and space environments are so different, and to be successful in each requires different requirements. I would think that less fuel is used in space, since thrust would only be required for speed and direction changes. Also, manouvers are quite different in space as compared to the atmosphere. In space the craft is not restricted by airflow over the control surfaces, and so on. Certain fighters could be dominante in one arena and not in the other, and one that is good in both will likely have to make sacrifices.

Awesome.

Nanashi, your site is steadily growing as one of the best sources for fanwork reference material.

Thanks for all the hard work!!!

Just had to throw in my agreement with that statement...

Welcome to Macrossworld and enjoy your stay!

Well, the captain of one could've gone super-saiyan and jumped out the airlock and punched Bodolzaa in the face, but other than that...

Okay, ending the idiocy...

Sure the captain would have died, but what a way to go!

WOW, that looks really good! I can't wait to see how it turn out. I'll have a look around on my HD for some pics for you...

Although it's a nifty design, the simple fact that you have to manuever the WHOLE ship in order to fire it's guns at a target is kind of old-school. Like "Sails and Rigging" old-school.

Is this why, IIRC, none survived? It seems to me that that strategy would be at a great disadvantage, and unnecessarily. Not only that, but it doesn't seem to have any anti-aircraft/fighter weapons, which would leave it more or less a sitting duck against that sort of attack.

Overall, I like the look of it, but the description doesn't make it sound very functional or effective to me. Little more than a space anti-capital ship artillery piece.

Oh, how far they have come

I think its more that none or few survived because there were nearly 5 million Zjentohlauedy warships firing at the Earth and the destroyers were in front of the target. ^^;

Good point I'm sure there wasn't much they could do with the technology of that era (or any era, I suppose) to enable their small numbers to take on 5 million...

* No two ARMDs are alike.

How did they all differ?

Although it's a nifty design, the simple fact that you have to manuever the WHOLE ship in order to fire it's guns at a target is kind of old-school. Like "Sails and Rigging" old-school.

Is this why, IIRC, none survived? It seems to me that that strategy would be at a great disadvantage, and unnecessarily. Not only that, but it doesn't seem to have any anti-aircraft/fighter weapons, which would leave it more or less a sitting duck against that sort of attack.

Overall, I like the look of it, but the description doesn't make it sound very functional or effective to me. Little more than a space anti-capital ship artillery piece.

Oh, how far they have come

According to Egan Loo, the "Minmei" spelling is mainly seen on personal items, such as the door sign. Hence it should be taken that "Minmay" is her stage name. Think "Bruce Li" and "Bruce Lee".

That sounds quite reasonable. Ah, I feel better now

Macrossworld would not be Macrossworld if it was just forums.

It is great having so much information in one place. It is a lot easier finding things when you don't have to go searching through forums all the time...

And personally, I'm not into Macross because of toys

No. In DYRL(not VFX2), when you die, the continue screen automatically hit the button before hte countdown even appeared. I wanted to hear the music. This was fixed in the latest version, but I'd already run through the game at that point.

And the boss in the Kakizaki dies level just doesn't come out in ePSXe, and has to be coaxed out in PSXeven. As I said already.

VFX2 looks and sounds exactly the same on any emulator that uses plugins. Remember, the final rendering is based on the plugin, not the emulator. I saw no major glitches in PSXeven, though I quit playing after a while because I wans't having much fun.

Thanks for the heads up

These are really awesome guys...

Japan does not concern itself with Robotech.

Must be nice

Certainly, there is a lot of room in the 50+ years of the Macross timeline for lots of stories...

Just to give a hads up, I pretty much got the gameplay back to where it was (with some changes) before the file corruption. So things are moving along

Latest ePSXe fixed the continue screen, which didn't work in the previous version. Dunno about the boss thing, dun really care to play through to that point to test.

Are you refering to the black screen after you finish the game?

Also, how does VF-X2 play on PSXeven compared to ePSXe? Is there a noticable difference in anything (graphics, sound, etc.)?

Keep working on the game, I'm definately interested in seeing it completed.

Thanks for the encouragement, yellowlightman, it helps

Good news and bad news for those who care:

The bad news is that somehow one of the more important code files has been corrupted and I have lost it. Unfortunately my last backup was long time ago and pretty out of date. So quite a bit of work was lost.

The good news is that due to the way I designed the code, it should be pretty quick to get things back to a good state. The other good thing is that I was planning to change some things, and the corrupted file is where those changes would have been. So in some sense I now have a "clean slate" to do things the way I want them.

So all in all it isn't as bad as it otherwise might be.

Still slow going, but I'm still working on it...

Yep, the SD SDF link didn't work for me

Happy Holidays everybody!

They never really said how they are related. For him not to have mentioned her yet I'm thinking some type of cousin. If they had been any closer I'm pretty sure he would have heard of Roy or at least reacted to him differently. What I mean is if they were brother and sister and Claudia had been seeing Roy I'm sure he might have heard how Roy was with women unless she kept it a secret from the family who she was seeing or even interested in. Him being a cousin would make sense for her not to have mentioned him before in the original series. I have quite a few that I don't even know and the ones I do know I'm only close to a few of them, some more then others.

Has Roy met Claudia by this point (sorry if this is common knowledge, my memory is a little vague )? It certainly doesn't seem that Edgar has a close relationship with Claudia at any rate. If in fact Roy and Claudia have not met, Edgar may just be used as a vehicle to allow them to meet.

As for the mix of cel and CG, if only CG (in particular characters) was used we may have ended up with something that looked just a bit better than that new Voltron.

I like the current look of Zero a lot.

As has been said, if you are a Macross fan, this is a great book to have. I ordered mine from one of the online sites (Toycup or something like that). I can't remember how much it was though...