One Little Rat (working title)

[Joat]

I hesitate to do this, in a way. This is a rather ambitious undertaking, after all. However, even if it fizzles out, the Lua I create for the project should be useful for other modders (once I release my first prototype), so onward I go!

Note, of course, that very little of this mod is set in stone at this time.


Story

Dr. Robotnik has once again set plans for world domination in motion. Sonic and his friends set out to stop his schemes. After several days, though, terrible news spread across the world: Sonic and his friends have been defeated, though there are conflicting stories about their exact fate.

The world has fallen into despair. There are no heroes left to stop Dr. Robotnik. There is nobody even close to powerful enough to try. Nonetheless, one little rat steps up in an act of desperation, determined not to be conquered without a fight.


Mechanics

No normal attacking

As is to be expected, the rat is not capable of attacking, at least not without help from... something. I have yet to decide how it will eventually be able to attack, but I do plan for the beginning of the game to involve the rat being completely unable to attack, outside of possibly some clever use of the environment.

Even when the rat does gain one or more attacks, they'll probably be means of attack that are risky and/or costly, still making fleeing the more viable option most of the time.

On a related note, the No Spin Jump script made by BlueBlurForever is a key part of making this part possible. So, my thanks for that!


Inventory

Using the Spin, Custom 1, and Custom 2 buttons (Custom 3 is used to open and close the inventory screen), the rat will be able to use a wide variety of items. For example, the Thermos can be filled with a warm drink to help survive in cold environments longer.

Many technological items, such as the Egg Rebreather, cost energy to use. Most technological items also become more powerful when more emeralds are collected (though said rebreather is not one of those items).


Health system

The rat is not able to protect itself using rings. Instead, it has a health bar. At the start, the health bar will be very small and surviving even a single hit is unlikely (though possible, since damage is randomized). However, collecting 100 rings will result in a permanent health increase, to give the rat more of a fighting chance.

Most sources of damage will deal a combination of true and bleed damage. True damage can only be healed by finishing the level (and possibly some other means down the road), but bleed damage, while usually more severe, can be healed with bandages. Over time, untreated bleed damage is converted to true damage.


Status effects

There are a variety of status effects that the rat can be affected by. For example, the Wet status effect can chill the rat, which can be beneficial in hot environments, but being wet in a cold environment will result in the rat getting cold far more quickly (and if the Cold status reaches 10, the rat starts taking true damage fairly quickly). For this reason, falling into water in a bitterly cold environment is... unwise.


Dialogue

Though I have only just barely begun coding this part, I plan for the rat to be able to chat with other animals to gain information and sometimes supplies from them. The chat system will allow for branching dialogue, though I have no delusions about using it to create a Bioware-esque roleplaying experience.


Misc. Notes

I do not intend to name the rat protagonist or establish a gender. Similarly, with the possible exception of adding a backpack to explain how it can carry all that stuff (well, okay, more like "explain", since a backpack can't carry THAT much stuff), I do not intend to modify the rat's sprites to make it look more unique. The rat is intended to be an ordinary rat, after all.

As you probably already guessed, the map in the screenshots is a debug room, hence its rather disjointed appearance.

The blue meter in the screenshots is energy, while the pink meter is health.

Yes, I know, the pictured rebreather looks nothing like an actual real-life rebreather. However, it was made by Dr. Robotnik. If there's anyone who can create a functioning mini-rebreather device shaped like their logo, it's him. Or Tails.

 

[MK.exe]

Seems like a cool idea. I find the custom HUD to be simple and very clean. This does seem to be an interesting Mod. Nice work

 

[Sketch]

Soooo... Is this rat like an animal Sonic and friends saved from a robot? If so, then the hero for this is a rather interesting idea for a character!

 

[Joat]

My thanks for the compliments thus far!

Indeed, the rat protagonist is of the same type Sonic would rescue from a badnik.

On another note, I am working on the dialogue system separately before merging it in with the project itself. I am doing this because I wish to release a stand-alone version of the dialogue system in the LUA section, so others may use it without having to untangle it from the rest of the code for this mod.

Below is a sample of my progress thus far, on the dialogue system:

//Each dialogue consists of an array.
local dialogueTree1 = {"This is a simple dialogue test. Note that the text wraps automatically.", //The first member of this array is ALWAYS a string. Namely, what the person being spoken to is saying.
	{"Okay!"}, //Every member of the array after that is, itself, another array. The first value of this nested array is ALWAYS a string. That is, what the option will be labelled as. In the case of this option, that is the only value in the array. When this happens, selecting this option will simply end the conversation.
	{"Lovely weather, isn't it?", function() //If the second member of the array is a function, then selecting that option will execute that function.
		P_SetupLevelSky(11)
		P_SwitchWeather(1)
		Print("Nope!")
	end},
	{"Why?", {"Because it just does, alright!?", //If the second member of the array is another array, the array will be assumed to be another dialogue and selecting this option will initiate that dialogue.
		{"Alright, sheesh!"}
	}}
}

UPDATE: The stand-alone code for conversations has been completed and submitted.

 

[Joat]

I have a new gif showing off a few things! In order:

- The rat has a character select entry and portrait. While the rat had an entry when I posted my first post, the portrait is a more recent addition (before then, he simply had Sonic's portrait, and it made me internally chuckle every time the game called Sonic an ordinary rat on the character select screen). As you may have noticed, the description is... succinct, to say the least. I shall likely expand that at some point. For one thing, I should probably point out in the description that jumping on enemies as the rat could result in becoming very much the dead.

- Work on the first level of the game has begun! Emphasis on begun, however.

- You may have noticed that the item descriptions on the main HUD are missing. That's because this is a video of the game running at minimal resolution, and the small font does not properly display at such low resolution. Similarly, if the inventory script notices the game running at low resolution, it'll display a one-line thin-font description of each item, rather than a two-line small-font description.

- I have created a question mark bubble that tells you some information on how to play when you examine it.

- Probably the most important thing, though, is the dialogue script on display. I admit, though, that this is perhaps not the best demonstration, simply because there is only one response option to choose from, whereas the script can handle up to four.

 

[Joat]

Some more updates:

- As you can see in the screenshot, the level is starting to take shape. Or at least, the first area of the map is.

- I have decided to implement some element of randomness to the map spawns. That is, in one playthrough, you might find X item in a certain area. In the same location, in a different playthrough, you might find a bunch of rings. Hopefully, this will help to add some replay value to the mod. Of course, I need to be careful not to let there be too much of a difference between the values of each thing that could randomly spawn.

- As you might imagine, the rat's inability to break stuff by jumping will make getting items from monitors rather difficult. However, I do have special plans for how the rat can get to the goodies within. That is all I shall say on that matter for now, however.

 

[Lat']

Wow, I have to say, I'm quite impressed by what has been done thus far! It all looks simple and very clean.

I know it wouldn't be easy to do it but, do you plan on having randomized levels for replay value or something? I'm pretty sure that would work great with such a mod.

A tad bit off topic, but I always like it when people do something completely different from the original game using Lua, it's always fun to see how far away from the actual game you can bring SRB2 to.
Either way, keep up the good work, I'm looking forward to see this in a more advanced state!

 

[Joat]

My thanks to thee!

As far as randomized levels, that is feasible to a limited degree, in the form of having certain pathways be sealed during certain playthroughs. That said, the idea had crossed my mind as well, but I am still not certain whether to do it or not, hence my not having brought it up in that post. It does increase the amount of work to be done on mapping and this is a completely solo project, so quantity of work is definitely a factor. I would certainly not object if anyone wants to help with level design, but I do not realistically expect to receive such an offer.

 

[Joat]

Due to a combination of high school workload, an easily-distracted mind, and other projects, it's been a while. However, I have some updates:

- I have created separate Inferno and Liquid Shields and plan to implement them into this mod, though they are not yet implemented.

- Speaking of shields, for obvious reasons, the traditional jump-and-spin thing won't work for the Armageddon Shield. Instead, using Misc. Action in midair will manually trigger the Armageddon Shield (the icon and label for Misc. Action will change accordingly while in midair with the shield active, so the player is more likely to be able to figure this out on their own).

- A starting weapon, the sling, has been added to the mod. This weapon is weak and slow, dealing minimal damage (it destroys a blue crawla in an average of two hits and deals zero damage to a facestabber, for example). I may later decide to have the player acquire the sling later in the game, though. Not sure.

- A few other misc. things have been implemented, but I want there to be SOME surprises.

Addendum: Yes, I know that slings are actually rather deadly weapons in the right hands. However, the hands of a weak little rat who isn't very well-trained in the use of a sling do not exactly qualify as "the right hands," hence it being so slow and weak here.

 

[Joat]

I have decided to go ahead and, instead of using rings as permanent life increases, use rings as currency for shops. As such, I've begun work on shop NPCs! Here is the first sprite for a burrowing owl I have yet to name. It has not yet been adjusted for the SRB2 palette, but that detail aside, how does it look?

Addendum: Upon looking again at images of burrowing owls, I have noticed that I should probably change the coloration or the eyes, changing the white to a light yellow.

 

[SANICBOOM644]

It looks nice. I would suggest you adding a hat or an apron similar to Tom Nook from animal Crossing

 

[Joat]

My thanks to thee! Funnily enough, I actually did consider a hat at first. I suppose I should consider that option again, really. I need to think of what would be fitting for the owl, though.

 

[Boo]

Very Good, The gameplay sounds very nice, and takes place when sonic and his friends lost in a Battle with Eggman.

The HUD is nice and clean.

Right now things are impressive, I wish you Best Luck Joat.

 

[Joat]

My thanks for the compliments from all of thee!

In any case, this mod now has a shop system! It even has a buy-back feature, in case you sell something by mistake.

There is no functionality for selling ammunition at this time, though, and I plan to have ammunition available in shops only in bulk. This is in the interest of keeping things simpler to code. Too many projects have failed due to over-ambition and I am doing what I can to make this project reasonable to create while still making it a fun mod. Also, the same sort of ammunition system is implemented in Zelda games and it works fine there, so I feel it should work here as well.

On another note, you may notice the health bar in the image attached looks different. In addition to being able to gain segments of health by means I still have yet to decide on, the length of the segments can be increased by collecting Chaos Emeralds.

 

[DirkTheHusky]

I wonder if there are going to be any objectives to completing certain levels, if there are any.

 

[Mystic]

I'll warn you that lower resolutions won't be able to read the item description in that shot. Otherwise, this is still looking interesting if nothing else.

 

[Joat]

As far as alternate objectives, I am not 100% certain yet, but I do not think there will be multiple objectives, though there may be branching paths. For the most part, I plan for it to be based around getting to the end of levels (along with a few bosses, though I've yet to decide how frequent), though as with SRB2 itself, I shall be trying to make it rewarding to explore the levels. I shall keep the option of alternative objectives in mind, though.

As for the note about the text, I have the mod set up to instead display a single-line description in the thin font if the window is small enough to require it.

 

[Joat]

And so, here we have Marshall Armond, the arms dealer! And yes, Copper Wyre the owl also has been given animation in the mod.

As with aforementioned owl, though, this image is from before being converted to the SRB2 palette.

 

[DrStephen]

And so, here we have Marshall Armond, the arms dealer! And yes, Copper Wyre the owl also has been given animation in the mod.
[image]
As with aforementioned owl, though, this image is from before being converted to the SRB2 palette.

Is that a snake.
Spinning a revolver.
With it's tail?

Best mod. This is the best mod I've ever seen.

Now seriously, I am loving this mod, I'm very interested to see how it turns out.

 

[Joat]

A few updates:

- Guns are now in the game! Not many thus far, but there are guns.

- This mod is planned to have branching paths, and it will take at least three full playthroughs to get through the whole game. There are a total of 46 planned stages for the mod, which naturally means that each individual stage will be rather small, to make it feasible for one person to produce. Naturally, if someone volunteers to help on this front, larger stages may be considered. I have no realistic expectation of anyone doing so, though.

- There are multiple different types of levels planned: traditional, boss, enemy wave, escape, and raft. Naturally, the boss and enemy wave style of levels will take a while to kick in (since, at the beginning of the game, the rat will have few offensive options).

- Speaking of bosses, very few of them are planned to be Robotnik, instead most of them shall be elite badniks who happen to be patrolling the area. This, however, creates a problem: I'm having trouble finding any resources on this board for freely-usable custom badniks. I'm alright at making small sprites, but such bosses would require something much larger. This may unfortunately mean that I'll be forced to simply have black versions of normal badniks serving as bosses. Tacky, yes, but it seems it'll have to do.

- Speaking of said bosses, they'll be how the player is intended to gain technological weapons. Well, and from Copper Wyre the owl, to a lesser extent. No such weapons have been designed yet, since the bosses themselves have not been fully decided upon at this time.