[Open Assets] Ringslinger Revolution v2.1

Hello again! It’s been a while, huh? Especially for what’s more or less an update dedicated to polishing the last one...

Happy belated anniversary to the mod, even if we rather missed the mark on that release window! We’ve had one pretty important development between then and now: the Ringslinger Revolution repo is now public!

If there’s something you think should be added or changed, you can contribute!

GitHub - MIDIMan2/ringslinger-revolution-public: Public repository for Ringslinger Revolution, an SRB2 mod

Public repository for Ringslinger Revolution, an SRB2 mod - MIDIMan2/ringslinger-revolution-public

github.com

With that, v2.1 is a pretty general update dedicated to polishing every part of what we built up in v2.0 but with no particular focus; it’s just a lot of small changes that add up to make everything feel better across the board.

If we had to pick one, the biggest draw of v2.1 is probably the revamp to the hooks system, adding a lot of RSR-specific hooks, and also better cross-compatibility with other shooter characters. There’s also been some significant overhauls to LaserTag to make the mode play better.

Beyond that, we’ve a very in-depth round of balance changes, bugfixes, and some obvious in hindsight map changes to accompany that backend development alongside a couple of small but very important gameplay changes, so you players should also find something to enjoy. There’s more detailed changes below, as usual, but the gist is as follows:

• The hooks system has been completely revamped, and a few new options have been added in other places for modders to use.
• LaserTag has been improved:
  • Hiders take extra damage
  • The amount of seekers scales properly with the total player count
• Gameplay has been improved:
  • The Scatter Ring’s alternate firemode has been turned into a clusterbomb
  • Say goodbye to the Elemental Shield in PvP because it’s been replaced with the Flame and Bubble Shields
  • Health and armor pickups heal a bit more when you’re on critically low health
  • A text-based killfeed exists now
  • The game warns you when you take too much damage, have certain powerups, or approach running out of ammo
  • You lose your Emeralds when you exit Super forms in PvP
• Everything in the arsenal has seen significant rebalancing:
  • Toned down the damage output of Automatic, Spray&Pray, and Explosion
    • ...but increased the blast radius of Explosion to compensate
  • Completely reworked Grenade-class weapons to be more interesting
  • Reworked the Router RPB to accompany its new ability to detonate when in proximity of opponents, as was originally intended
  • Homing melee attacks are now easier to defeat either by dealing damage to the homing player or by outrunning them long enough, and the homing attacker can’t shoot weapons anymore
  • Power items remain strong but are slightly less oppressive in the hands of the best players
• All the pre-2.2.14 maps are in the Classic rotation now, plus a brand-new Standard map made by us.
• Projectiles shouldn’t get stuck in walls anymore, the Emeralds spawn properly across all gamemodes, Techno Madness’ elevators can’t softlock you anymore, and also there are a lot of minor bugfixes and special effects changes.

Click here for a more in-depth changelog.

Special thanks go out to the following for this update:

• @Jisk, for the hooks system rewrite.
• @TwoTailedHero, for suggesting some very useful hooks for RSR modding and a few implementations thereof.
• @Sylvegamer3, for assistance with various pieces of code as needed.
• @StellarStardust/StarrydustNova, for providing some very insightful feedback from a different perspective compared to the average RSR player, which led to most of the gameplay polish this update.
• @Sauceloss the sucky do, @ova pico, Glaber, and the rest of the "SRB2 The Past sdas edition" regulars, for providing feedback and suggestions for the Stickybomb.
• Everyone who’s been netgaming and giving feedback to this day!

Thank you for waiting, and as always, we hope you have fun!
-MIDIMan and orbitalviolet

I'm terribly late on this announcement, but Ringslinger Revolution now has a public GitHub repository! Please read the README in the link given if you are interested in contributing to the mod!

GitHub - MIDIMan2/ringslinger-revolution-public: Public repository for Ringslinger Revolution, an SRB2 mod

Public repository for Ringslinger Revolution, an SRB2 mod - MIDIMan2/ringslinger-revolution-public

github.com

There's already been a couple of changes to the mod since v2.0, so feel free to check them out through the repo.

You're probably thinking to yourself: "Where's v1.2?". Originally, this was going to be v1.2, but then scope creep got the best of us, and we ended up adding so many new things that we decided to make this update v2.0 instead. There's a lot to cover in the changelog, but the main five points are:

• Better modding support
• Special upgrades for the weapons when collecting the Chaos Emeralds
• A new "level type" for wave-based enemy encounters, with an example special stage added to Techno Madness's level pack
• The ability to go super in singleplayer and multiplayer with all the Chaos Emeralds
• A complete overhaul to the mod's VFX

Click here for a more in-depth changelog.

Special thanks go out to the following for this update:

• @orbitalviolet, for being a huge help with this update in terms of ideas, implementation, sound/special effects design, level layout, and this changelog.
• @Othius, for the polishing pass on Rumble Rift.
• @TehRealSalt, for some code translated from Snap the Sentinel v3.1 (see LICENSE.txt for more information) and the original Custom HUD library.
• @Sylvegamer3, for assistance with some Super form- and monitor-based coding.
• @Snu, for the "Hook Library" addon used for RSR's hook system.
• Mystic Realm Community Edition contributors (Lunewulff/@Varren, @TehRealSalt, @Skydusk), for the R_World2Screen3 function used for the "Waves" enemy radar and the Custom HUD library.
• @Julia, for suggesting the three new level header parameters.
• @Jisk, for suggesting the addition of a hook system and adding a gametype "flag" for RSR logic.
• @Lugent, for suggesting the toggling of RSR's damage, weapon, and HUD systems.
• ScarlyNight, for inspiring the rail ring’s scope altfire.
• Everyone who joined the test netgame (@orbitalviolet, @GomaTheMascar, @Othius, @speed2411, @BronsoKip, @Garrean).
• Aaron Cherof, for the music used in Rumble Rift (Self-Defense, from Cobalt Core).

It's been a while since launch, huh? Believe it or not, we're still working on the mod! This update makes some tweaks to the gameplay balance and overall presentation. Check out the changelog below for more details:

CHANGES:

• Gameplay
  • Players now get score for assisting someone else in killing an opponent.
    • ...only if the player dealt more damage than the killer.
  • Environmental kills now give score to the last player the victim was hit by.
  • Time and Emeralds are now shown on the HUD.
  • Players can now shoot weapon rings at each other in co-op with "friendlyfire" enabled.
  • Players now emit particles when damaged, scaling in severity with the damage inflicted.
  • The red screen tint when you get damaged is more severe.
  • Added killfeed icons for switching to spectator, drowning, being spiked, Fang's popgun, Amy's hearts, and Amy's hammer.
  • The killfeed now has a transparent black background that turns white when the player kills an opponent or assists in killing an opponent.
  • The killfeed now shows up on both screens in splitscreen.
  • Seekers now need to kill hiders to tag them in Tag gametypes.
  • Amy, Fang, and Metal Sonic are now automatically unlocked when loading the singleplayer pack.
• Audio
  • The homing ring now makes a sound when it finds a target.
    • It also now has a special sound if you are the target.
  • The sounds for hitting and killing an opponent have been updated.
  • Added a knockdown sound effect if two melee-attacking players collide.
  • Added Final Demo MIDI for Conveyor Conflict.
• Weapons
  • All projectiles now have a trail as they fly.
    • The homing ring's trail changes to smoke when it locks onto a target.
  • Projectiles have been made ~14% faster overall.
    • We're still experimenting with the effective range of players in Ringslinger Revolution, and while we got very close to the ideal value at launch, it's still just a bit shorter than we would have liked. Give us your thoughts!
  • Homing Ring
    • We launched Homing quite overtuned, so we've tried to reduce its power in direct combat while enhancing its strengths as a finisher and anti-air tool.
      • Signficantly increased pre-chase projectile speed (target-chasing speed is unchanged).
      • Increased search radius by 25%.
      • Decreased turning speed by 20% for players.
      • Decreased damage from 30 to 19.
      • Decreased knockback factor from 1x to 0.33x.
  • Scatter Ring
    • Gave the scatter ring its own unique sprite from the pickup (it actually faces the direction it's going in now).
    • Reduced angle spread from 4 degrees to 3.5 degrees.
      • We're aware that the scatter ring is a popularly requested weapon to change, so we're hoping this makes it a bit more useful. Again, give us your thoughts!
  • Rail Ring
    • The rail ring's trail is now red by default to match its slug.
    • The rail ring now ignores the infinity powerup.
      • This should hopefully make the rail ring slightly more balanced in multiplayer.
    • Using your last rail ring now automatically switches to the red ring.
• Characters
  • Amy's heart scatter now deals damage (and increased knockback).

BUGFIXES:

• Gameplay
  • Killfeed icons no longer default to Eggman if the victim had a Force Shield.
  • Fixed the Force Shield absorbing less damage than the other shields.
  • Fixed non-IT players in Tag being able to fire rings.
    • This behavior can be re-enabled with the "rsr_lasertag" console variable.
  • Added better support for the "touchtag" console variable.
• Weapons
  • Fixed the homing ring targetting spectators.
    • This behavior can be re-enabled with the "rsr_ghostbusters" console variable.
  • Fixed a bug where the homing ring could target blast executors (invisible objects inside the breakable walls in Jade Valley).
• Maps
  • Fixed Silver Cascade's turntable being actionable multiple times per cycle.
  • Fixed rogue vanilla RS objects in Granite Lake and Sapphire Rapids.
  • Fixed a bug where Frigid Mountain could spawn you over a death pit.
  • Fixed Sapphire Falls and Sapphire Rapids using the wrong skybox.
  • Fixed REDWALL textures on the lifts in Starlit Warehouse.
  • Updated maps that were still using their 2.2.14 versions to 2.2.15.
  • Fixed a bug where the music change trigger before the final elevator in Techno Madness could be thokked past.
  • Removed leftover "NextLevel" parameter in Techno Madness' level header.
• Characters
  • Fang remembered to bring ammo for his popgun and is able to fire it now.

Special thanks to everyone who gave feedback on the launch version, and also to Evertone who wrote a huge portion of this update's changelog. We are currently planning on making another update after this one to add some new modding features, so stay tuned for that!