Character Mod - Ann the Slicer

[The Sin Heartless]

Here comes a Slicer!

So I've been working on this character mod for like a year or so now, it's close to release. Yet there are a few abilities I haven't been able to code through LUA, and the sprites could use some work, so I've chosen to post a log about the progress so far here. This whole project started from a joke about making the Metropolis Trio of badniks playable and kinda just went its own direction from there.

One of the main abilities I've wanted to implement is Slide Dash, the main reason why I wanted to possibly code a custom dash ability instead of using Metal Sonic's is because I feel it doesn't fit what I'm looking for, and apparently the community has called it OP in the past. It's current implementation is very much barebones.

Two other abilities that I've tried to code but haven't been able to finish yet are a custom melee for both for ground/air as well as controllable Spin that would be accessible both from the Slide Dash by pressing SPIN during it as well as in the air by inputting the Special 1 key.

Currently the character uses Amy's Melee Attack, which is very unreliable with its momentum & just doesn't fit the character in general.

I honestly don't know whether to just release the current working version as is or just wait however long it takes to get the rest of the coding & sprite touch-ups done. I'm not too confident about my current skill level in LUA, as I couldn't get actions for character states to work correctly and thus had to work around the problem to get the Slide Dash to function somewhat.

 

[Nightmare]

Cool...

 

[Xenon The Hedgehog]

It feels pillowshaded

 

[The Sin Heartless]

It feels pillowshaded

Yeah, going to have to touch up the outlines and facial features to alleviate that.

 

[The Sin Heartless]

Alrighty, I think it's time for an update on the progress made so far.

- Added a proper cooldown to Slide Dash & adjusted the jump height of the character.

- The melee attack has now been fixed, it no longer flings the character through the air like previously.

- Added a mid-air spin, available while falling through Special Action 1-key. Outside the sprite/code error, it seems to work as intended.

- Overhauled shading on most of the sprites. Errors with the sprite palettes have been somewhat fixed as well, though MP skin colors still don't work properly.


And with that, this character WAD is starting to reach a state where it could be released, though I still would call its state rather barebones. That being said, I will probably work on improvements when I don't have my hands full with other things.

 

[The Sin Heartless]

The v0.85 of the character has been released successfully, while the work on improvements have started. This thread can now be considered obsolete outside documenting work done towards next versions of the character.

Spoiler

While the v0.85 and the few next releases will be non-reusable, I've considered making this character alongside two possible other characters I might work on reusable alongside a possible map pack later. It might end up being a controversial decision if I choose to take it but screw it.

Next features to be implemented (might need advice when it comes to LUA/SOC scripting):
- Custom melee to replace the Amy placeholder one.
- The iconic rage-inducing boomerang projectiles. While I didn't promise these, I'd like to at least try implementing them.

Spoiler

- Powered-up state to serve as the equivalent to super forms, this only becomes relevant when/if I decide to make a certain
idea to a map pack in the future.

I know you want to see some proof of the progress, so I'll put a link to some YT footage here.

 

[The Sin Heartless]

Once again going to drop another status update. v0.90 might be coming soon, I'll list here the progress I've made so far.

- Updated the sprites & a few animations yet again, as well as fixed some offset problems involving them. I personally think these eyes suit the character better overall.
- Reduced the cooldown of Slide Dash, and added an extra quirk to it.
- Fixed an error where objects that would force a Roll state would leave the character into a bugged standing animation while moving.

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Things to be fixed:

- The MP colors still don't work as intended. I've tracked down the cause to one color in the palette, shouldn't be that much of a problem to fix. However, the MP colors for sprite sets outside SPR_PLAY not working properly is apparently a quirk with the game's code that I need to work around either through A_ChangeColorAbsolute in SOC or by modifying player.mo.color in some way using LUA, something I've had a headache with. If I can get this sorted out, I'll include it in v0.90 for sure.

- The boomerang projectiles are very much WIP, would appreciate some advice as how to set them up properly. It is likely to be the last thing included in the mod, though, the current offset/animation fixes, sprite uplifts & possibly fixed MP colors are more realistic to appear in v0.9.

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Lastly, I'd like to express my apologies for taking a little bit longer than usual to make a status update. I've been busy dealing with education-related shenanigans as well as sprite work I've been doing in the background for both this mod and the next one I will be working on.

For now, though, I'd like to keep that next chapter under wraps.

NOOT NOOT.​

 

[The Sin Heartless]

v0.90 update has been successfully released to the public, bringing with it the sprite & offset updates I hinted at in my previous post.

Unfortunately, I could not get the MP colors to work properly, it seems the quirks in game's code are making this very difficult, in particular, the color range I chose for the character seems to be very buggy and unreliable as you could see from the picture in the last post alone. I may need some sort of LUA or SOC workaround for that. That's in addition to the other problem I had regarding MP colors.

So the MP colors & the boomerang projectiles are going to be scheduled for the v0.95 update later down the line once I get them done.

I know I didn't really post all that much footage in the last update, so I decided to make up for it with recorded gameplay this time.​