[Open Assets] 2011X (sonic.exe) v1.5

This one's been in the works for a bit! Many of these features were tested on Soashivito's co-op server before release, so many thanks to the folks there for helping with that.

• New feature: Ordinary Mode!
  • An alternate gameplay loop inspired by An Ordinary Sonic ROM Hack that places you on a perpetual countdown to being chased by a powered-up 2011X, which can be extended by breaking a monitor or hitting a checkpoint
  • 10 new exclusive music arrangements made by: meeeee :3
  • For maps that are lacking in monitors, the exe_ordinary_enemytime variable will grant time extensions for defeating enemies
• Added alternate rage mode themes for the Retro and Miku chase themes
• Each player can now set their own value for exe_escapestyle
• The prompt to escape from X's grab now appears in the center of the screen to avoid conflicting with modded HUD elements
• X now has a rare chance to cause FNAF-inspired hallucinations when chasing a player
• New options for exe_chasemusic
  • exeller: Boss from Sonic Axiom (used in Sonic.EXE: Spirits of Hell and Sonic.EXE: The Disaster)
  • tartarus; TARTARUS II from Outcome Memories (scrapped)
  • eclipse: Running from God from Outcome Memories (scrapped)
  • ordinary: Ordinary Mode music by PikaJade (changes per zone!)
• Changing exe_chasemusic will display the name and origin of the selected song
• Spectating improvements
  • Camera now moves more smoothly and clips less
  • If X has nobody to target, it will display a message stating as such when spectated
  • X is now part of the viewpoint rotation just before your own character, if it is on the map
• When using the exe_forcespawn command, X's spawn message will now display unless the command is run with an argument
• The 2011X settings menu now uses custom graphics for its headings
• The F0UND YOU chase theme now has its own last life theme, originating from Sonic.EXE: The Disaster
• Added "wiggle" and "qte" as valid arguments for exe_escapestyle
• Added an easter egg that allows players to spawn X on themselves if it's not set up to randomly spawn
• Players are now considered to be on their last life during special stages, since those do not allow respawning
• Removed some cheese
  • Death behavior has been changed again; now, it will teleport to you and instantly lock you in an inescapable grab
  • Added some special interactions
    • Grabbing X with TA Tails's Glove powerup now makes it rather annoyed
    • Trying to camp with Knuckles's Battlemod ability will cause you to be plucked from the ground
• New console variable: exe_hurryup
  • Various different methods by which X can speed up level progression
  • When set to On, X will force the last player left to complete the level to finish; when set to AutoSpawn, X will automatically spawn when one player is left to finish; when set to Always, X will always force killed players to finish, regardless of how many have finished so far
• Replaced some outdated Outcome Memories songs with their replacements
• Behavior adjustments
  • Rage mode now lasts for 1:45 excluding the startup time, rather than including it
  • Lag compensation for the grab escape sequence is now higher for the QTE escape style and lower for the wiggle escape style
  • X's teleport head start now ends prematurely if its target gets too far away or becomes invalid
  • X's rubber banding speed when far away from its target now scales with distance
  • Being broken out of X's grab will no longer activate Grab Escape Damage
• Bug fixes
  • Fixed a console warning related to Rage Mode and attempting to modify X after it respawns
  • Fixed a bug where a player being grabbed by X might inconsistently inherit X's momentum, rather than the other way around as intended
  • Fixed negative scale errors and conflicts with Chaos originating from the position radar

A slightly-chillier-fix in the same update because there was some slightly less pressing stuff I missed. This is all specifically related to netgames, so if you're not hosting one of those, you can pass on this one.

• Fixed a desync where spawning X as the server would cause it to only spawn on the server's end
• Dynamic chase music now only plays when the local player is being chased, not just anyone
• I think there was a fix somewhere that went undocumented? Not sure, probably not that important

I do have a playtesting Discord more or less ready to go, but I'm on the fence about making it public, considering Discord's new changes. I really doubt Discord will die any time soon, but it still feels irresponsible to put all my eggs in that particular basket. It would help to prevent glaring bugs in releases like v1.4 has, though.

A quick hotfix for a gamebreaking issue involving Cacee. Sorry about that!

Wow, this update kinda got away from me! I've been waiting on sprites from someone else, which I've realized are probably still going to be a while because spriting is a long process.
(Again, if you're reading this, no rush; I know I've said this to you several times, but take all the time you need. I massively appreciate you offering to do this at all.)
That said, I've just kept adding and changing things in the meantime, and I've been itching to get the new improvements out there. Technically, if you go by number of items in the internal changelog, this update is bigger than Pikachu v2, albeit offset by the fact that the sprites and general gameplay are mostly the same. It's been a couple days since I've actually found something to add, so I figured now is the perfect time.

• Behavior tweaks
  • When escaping from a grab, players will now take damage
    • I made this change because I felt there were no stakes to getting grabbed; once you got good at the QTE, you could just kind of escape for free when you get caught
    • I understand this change will probably be controversial, though, so it can be disabled with the console variable exe_grabdamage
  • Extended the longer stun time that X gets with low player counts (including singleplayer) from 5 seconds to 8
  • Decreased the invulnerability time X gets after being stunned from 3 seconds to 2
  • Adjusted targeting logic to make X not target the same players as much
    • I'm not quite sure if this was actually a problem before this update, but if it was, it shouldn't be now
  • In Rage Mode, players must now time a press of the Jump button to stun X instead of just being mid-jump
  • Reverted the change from v1.3 that forced Super characters to do more inputs to escape from X's grab, and made this reversion consistent with the mash escape style
  • Changed how Rage Mode's increased ring drain works to be more clear
  • X will no longer go in for melee hits against players who are too close during Rage Mode
• Aesthetic tweaks
  • Replaced X's voice lines from the rework 2011X is/was intended to receive in future versions of Outcome Memories
    • Not sure whether to say RIP here or not? Since apparently OM was cancelled and then un-cancelled? I think? But I don't know if any of the future plans changed??
    • An addon that replaces these with the old lines, along with reverting a few of the other sound changes, is now included; just make sure to load it after the 2011X mod itself
  • Added a custom graphic to the rage mode activation message to match with the new voice line
  • Added blood splatter effects when X hits or kills you
    • These can still be disabled with the exe_blood console variable
  • New chase music option: Dynamic
  • When X teleports, there is now a chance it will do its googly-eyes taunt from the You Can't Run fight sequence
  • Added new sound effects
    • When X enters the time threshold to spawn, a sting and a faint laugh will play
    • When X is stunned within its stun threshold to possibly enter rage mode, a sting will play
    • Mechanical characters will now play different sounds when hit by X's melee or killed by its grab
  • Replaced some sound effects with ones from SONIC 2011 or custom ones in that style
  • Chase music now defaults to Modern
    • The RetroX chase theme was probably the original default because 2011X originally had the same proportions as Exetior, the EXE featured in the mod this is based off of, thereby making 2011X look like RetroX; however, this has not been an issue since v1.1
  • If you lose your last life to X, a modified game over and continue sequence will play
  • Rage Mode music is now synced to the timer
  • When applicable, chase music will resume from the point it previously left off at when it starts again
  • The player character's scream upon being killed by X has been made slightly louder
• Miscellaneous tweaks
  • Added support for Vanilla Achievements
  • Generally made spectating X less janky
    • Namely: you can now use first person, you can now use it in spectator mode without spectating another player, and the stuttering that comes with high ping should ideally be solved (although I can't really test to make sure that's actually the case)
  • When captions are on, X's voice lines will now be captioned
• Bug fixes
  • Probably less resyncs
  • Fixed a bug in which the mod would erroniously attempt to read client settings as server settings when loading saved settings
  • Fixed a bug in which exe_motd commands sent by the server would only show up for them
  • Fixed a bug in which X would only need to be stunned once to change targets during Rage Mode under certain conditions
  • Fixed a bug in which certain maps would make X's spawn timer not reset on death in singleplayer
  • Fixed a bug in which level music would resume from the wrong point and across different tracks
  • Fixed a bug in which escaping from X's grab on the last possible tic would still kill you
  • Fixed a bug in which the [Something's coming] music caption would show for everyone, not just the person being pursued - thanks to DorrieSMO for pointing this issue out
• Internally re-structured the code, commenting and sorting everything to make it easier to read and edit
  • Ideally, this shouldn't affect anything on the user's end; everything should work the same, but be easier to work with, both for my future self and anyone wanting to edit this mod for themselves
  • This also involved renaming all of the global variables, though, so any mods that used those for compatibility will need to update to match the new version of X

...Yeah, this one's on me. I could have sworn X wouldn't start its kill timer until after you were knocked out of super, but apparently that got messed up at some point? Or it was just never like that? Apparently I don't know how my own mod works. I should probably rewrite this guy's code before worrying about adding new gamemodes and stuff like that, he's an absolute mess...

• Fixed a bug where X could still kill you while draining your Super, which made him practically impossible to escape from
• Fixed a bug where the menu couldn't be accessed if X was stunned, but still technically targeting you
• Adjusted menu controls to not be a complete nightmare to use with a joystick
• X's kill timer is no longer shortened in Super form, meaning you don't get screwed over if he catches you right before you run out
• X will now drain your rings a bit slower in Super form

So I may have forgotten that I already had a v1.2 because that one was still called v1.1.1 in the internal changelog... Sorry for the reupload! This is the exact same as the second, secret v1.2 that I posted a few minutes ago, just with the version number corrected. If you already downloaded that one and the number doesn't matter to you, you can just ignore this.

• Added the command exe_menu, which opens a menu to change 2011X's various console variables and use commands related to it
  • X won't go after you if you're using this menu, but if you try and use this to hide during intense parts, X will know and it won't be happy with you
• 2011X-related console variables will now automatically save and load, including both server- and client-side settings
  • You can use the console variable exe_dosaveload to disable this if desired
• Added a new option to exe_chasemusic: none, which stops chase music from playing at all
• Added last life themes, which play in place of the chase theme when you're on your last life
• Added captions to X's sounds
• Small behavior adjustments
  • X will now immediately teleport away if someone it's chasing becomes unavailable
  • X's invisibility cloak will now only drain if it's chasing someone
  • Turning off exe_randomspawn while X is waiting to spawn will now cancel its spawn
  • Adjusting exe_spawntime_min or _maxwhile X is waiting to spawn will clamp its spawn time to those values
    • The time is relative to when the console variables are updated, though, so it'll usually be a bit longer
  • X will now get I-frames after teleporting, forcing the player to run away instead of just immediately stunning
  • X will now move slower underwater
• Small aesthetic adjustments
  • Replaced X's aura sound with the sound that plays in SONIC 2011 during the scene where the player forces Alan to approach X
  • X's aura sound will now only play when X is actively chasing someone
  • X will now always laugh like 2011X, instead of having a random chance to use Crimson's Kefka laugh
  • Instead of talking over itself, X will now only play its spawning voiceline and a non-vocal sound effect when first spawning in, even if you're close enough to hear where it is on the map
  • Added a small visual shake to X after it kills a player
• Super form interaction adjustments
  • Escaping from a grab while Super (or in a supported equivalent form) now has an increased input requirement in the new grab style, matching the old style
  • Missing 3 inputs while grabbed will no longer kill you instantly if you're Super
  • Sorry for making Super forms less powerful against X immediately after being asked to make super forms more powerful against X... but have you considered not getting grabbed
• Bug fixes
  • (Hopefully) fixed resyncs with random chase music enabled
  • Fixed a bug where X would try to use a nonexistent sprite when waiting for a chance to teleport, thus becoming invisible
  • Fixed a bug where trying to use exe_despawn in singleplayer would tell you that it can only be used in singleplayer instead of only in multiplayer
  • Improved the detection for whether or not someone has lives, which should make the elimination scream more consistent
  • Fixed a bug where X would give its 5 second grace period after joining to players in singleplayer, making it arbitrarily take longer to spawn in the first level

Deck the halls with bowels of Flickies, falalalala~
I wasn't meaning to make this a Christmas update, but that's when I happened to have time, so there's no real reason not to. Not quite as big as v1.1, but it still has some much needed fixes and changes, if I may say so myself.

• Doubled the available options for exe_chasemusic with 3 new songs
  • F0UND YOU from SONIC 2011
  • Imminent Death from Deltarune (used in Sonic PC Port: Legacy Edition)
  • My Heaven from Silent Hill (used in Sonic.EXE - The Game by MY5TCrimson)
  • Additionally, added an option to choose a random chase theme every time one plays
• Escape tweaks (note: all of these only apply to the default escape style)
  • X's kill timer now scales with input delay
  • The prompt to escape now changes colors with the button that needs to be pressed for easier identification at a glance
  • X will now instantly kill a grabbed player if they miss 3 inputs to prevent random mashing
• Bug fixes
  • Changed how X handles getting killed to avoid freezing, which should make him no longer a hazard for Reveries players
  • Fixed a bug where X would forget that he was stunned once in rage mode after teleporting, making him impossible to fend off
• When X is in rage mode, he can now be stunned by simply jumping
• Added command exe_despawn to remove X from the map

This one's a doozy! I probably would have called this one v2 if it had been more than, like, a week since v1.

• All of X's sprite edits have been redone to better match 2011X's appearance and personality and make specific references to SONIC 2011
  • This includes a totally new grabbing animation that looks more convincing and gives more information to the player
• Reworked the grab struggle system
  • Instead of simply mashing left and right, the player now has to follow a series of button prompts
• Made X's melee more manageable
  • When X gets up, dust appears around him in a circle, indicating where the activation range is for it, and flashing the screen red if you're in it
  • The range to activate it is now smaller, and it requires line of sight
  • His melee moves slower, and stops tracking sooner
  • Altogether, these changes should make his melee lunge attack more predictable and easier to dodge
• Parrying is now harder, and accounts for input delay on netgames
• Successfully parrying a grab will now play a distinct sound
• When teleporting to a player, X will now attempt to move in front of them
• X's screen flash is now tied to him teleporting to you, rather than merely him spawning
• Made X's rubber banding more sensitive to distance, to make up for the difference in top speed between the original server version and the Message Board release
• X will now spin around during his pain animation
• If something would hurt you while X is grabbing you, X will be hurt instead
• Changed how X reacts to a player he's grabbing gets snatched away somehow
• X will now wait for Rage Mode to properly start before getting up from a stun
• New console variable
  • exe_minplayers: how many players must be online on a server for X to spawn
  • exe_blood: whether or not the blood in X's new sprites will be visible
  • exe_escapestyle: whether players should escape from X's grab by following a series of input prompts (default) or by mashing left and right
  • exe_flashing: whether or not X's various screen flashes will be visible
• Bug fixes
  • The print message on startup now reflects the default console variable values being set up for singleplayer
  • X should no longer forget how many players are available to target every time he teleports, meaning the long stun time intended for low player numbers should actually activate consistently
  • X will now attack both players in splitscreen; not doing so was a testing feature that I forgot about
  • The Rage Mode timer will no longer obstruct the button prompt to escape from X's grab

Posting another day 1 update, both to bump him to the front page and because I noticed a really silly typo I made. Also while I was watching Dylan approve it I realized I should probably make the recommended singleplayer spawn time values the default. Oops!