Freedom Planet (v. 1.4)

[Strife]

Good catches! I'll get to work on them.

[FanGameRevolver]

Come at me bro.

Done with Lilac obviously. Carol sucks at speedrunning currently. Which is unfortunate, beccause she's a lot of fun.

[Goshi68]

Nah, come at ME, BRO! *shot*

Kinda surprised how quickly I was able to do that. Now to try and get as fast a time as I can with Carol!

[TailsSena]

I shall conquer you both! In the morning...

[FanGameRevolver]

I probably should give some critisizm rather then just pick a fight here. XP

There's lots of inspiration in everthing and the vibrant location, music, and characters are really gorgeous.

At first I felt the rocket dash was really poorly implemented. You often cant see where you will be shooting off because it shoots well past the edge of the screen, and once its used you gotta do a bit of work to ready another. This was disappointing and frustrated because I was hoping to use it a lot for exploration purposes, but firing off randomly would punish you. Generally it feels like the level was not designed around the ability or the ability just doesn't fit. I don't end up using it all that much because it shoots way too far and the level twists and turns that I'm almost certain to rebound and get shot backwards. I ended up using it to rebound upwards, when the distance really helped.

Maybe if it worked more like in rocket knight, where its more of a short acceleration burst/attack, and only gains distance off a rebound? I'm not really sure if this is a problem or just that I was just really looking forward to rocket knight game-play and was just upset it was different. As I explored the level I began to find areas where the rocket move can be used really effectively, and as I play more and more, that seems to be the most rewarding part, even though initially it frustrated me the most

Carol's jump pads are rather cool but the rocket attack always seems like it would be more effective, but I just feel that Carol as a whole is just less viable and feels much less empowering. The walljump is essentially useless when Lilac can just rocket over everything. That's not to say I don't have fun with her. Despite not having many differences she still feels like a fresh experience when you unlock her. I think she seems easier to explore with because you can bounce off the pads and wall jump and such rather then having to saving up your ability for certain moments. I can see myself poking around a level with her first, and then speedrunning them with Lilac once I have a feel for the level down.

I've played through the demo over a dozen times now, and I still enjoy playing it.

I'm Looking forward to more.

And it looks like I am going to have to actually pull off a sub5minute run. Heheheh

[Sparks]

Maybe the Boosts charge should be based on the gauge, so if you want to do a small boost, it takes up x amount of the gauge, rather than the whole gauge (and even have this possible mid-air to do a second one)?

[Strife]

Hmm... Given that I'm going to map her boost to the C button now, that's actually not a bad idea. I could make it so that the boost is usable any time you have energy, but is much shorter if it's not full (i.e. only has the half the power/duration of a boost executed when the meter is full).

As far as Carol goes, I'd like to try and give her another ability to vary things a bit more. How about a flashstep-type move where double tapping one of the direction keys makes her leap forward and start running as fast as Lilac?

Also, those times are nuts. xD My best time is 5:23:23. Good job!

[GSF]

The boost reminds me a lot of Pulseman's Volteccer move. Running a bit was enough to get it "ready", and it could be lost by touching water.

Making a partial boost usable with a non-full bar sounds good for me. You could also add hazards that drop the bar down, or make it temporarily useless (like the aforementioned Pulseman water).

[Strife]

After some experimentation, I don't think partial boosting is a good idea afterall. Even if I have a tiny sliver of boost energy, I can still use it to knock my running speed up to maximum. It also removes the strategy involved with figuring out where and when to boost because I'm able to take every single shortcut that's possible instead of saving my boost energy for the most beneficial shortcuts.

I could make it so that the boost meter slowly increases by itself, so that if the player is caught in a tight area and can't build up running speed, they can just sit still for 20-30 seconds and wait for their meter to recharge. This could also remove some of the frustration of having the meter 98% full but with no room to build up that last bit of energy.

[KiddoCabbusses]

I can't play it. On startup, screen starts flickering. All MMF2 games hate my machine ;__;.

I've had the same issue on both Freedom Planet and Sonic Fusion. I googled it and this turned up.

It appears MMF2 has a compatibility issue with current NVidia drivers. I'd try downgrading myself, but, well, that'd be quite the pain.

(EDIT: Also hi. Haven't been here in a while, huh?)

[TailsSena]

I shall conquer you both! In the morning...

I lied.

[Strife]

For those of you who are getting screen flicker problems, try one of the following command line functions and see if they fix it:

/DIB => forces standard graphic mode

/DIB3 => forces standard graphic mode, 256 colors

/DIB4 => forces standard graphic mode, 16 millions of colors, 24 bits

/DIB6 => forces standard graphic mode, 32768 colors

/DIB7 => forces standard graphic mode, 65536 colors

/DIB8 => forces standard graphic mode, 16 millions of colors, 32 bits

/DDRAW => forces DirectDraw + VRAM mode

/NOVR => no VRAM in DirectDraw mode

(To use these, create a shortcut for the game in Windows and go to Properties, then in the Target field, add them after the quotation marks.)

[Violet CLM]

I had a weird thing happen. Playing as Carol, I had the yellow crystal-attracting shield in reserve. I then got enough orby things to get the regular green/pink/leaf/whatever shield. When I did, my reserved yellow shield turned into what I'm guessing was a bubble shield.

[Strife]

Noted. ^^ I'm trying to figure out what's causing it, but having little luck. =/

Also, for those of you who are hunting bugs, this video should give you an indication of some of the stuff I'm trying to fix right now:

[KiddoCabbusses]

For those of you who are getting screen flicker problems, try one of the following command line functions and see if they fix it:

/DIB => forces standard graphic mode

/DIB3 => forces standard graphic mode, 256 colors

/DIB4 => forces standard graphic mode, 16 millions of colors, 24 bits

/DIB6 => forces standard graphic mode, 32768 colors

/DIB7 => forces standard graphic mode, 65536 colors

/DIB8 => forces standard graphic mode, 16 millions of colors, 32 bits

/DDRAW => forces DirectDraw + VRAM mode

/NOVR => no VRAM in DirectDraw mode

(To use these, create a shortcut for the game in Windows and go to Properties, then in the Target field, add them after the quotation marks.)

/DIB fixed my issues with Freedom Planet (although I think it breaks something in Sonic Fusion, because I got immediately disconnected from a match trying to play with it).

You wouldn't mind supplying a .bat for this sort of thing down the line, no?

[Strife]

Sounds like an idea. I'll also add it to the FAQ on the website.

[Strife]

Carol has a new pouncing move. Instead of crouching down, she'll get into a "ready to pounce" stance, and if you press Jump while crouching, she'll lunge forward at the same speed as Lilac's maximum running speed on a flat surface. This should hopefully make her more of an ideal choice for speedrunning in certain stages. Plus it fits her feline personality. :3

As for Lilac, I tweaked her energy meter so that it slowly regenerates over time, but I also slightly reduced the impact that your speed has on increasing it. The net result is that during a speedrun, you should get a full boost meter in roughly the same places in the stage as before, with the added bonus of it being slightly easier to refill if you mess up.

[FanGameRevolver]

hey bro. Found a bug related to the powerup one.

By restarting when you are swimming you will play-through the first segment as if you were underwater.

This of course...

...ALLOWS YOU TO FLY!

Unfortunately you move slower then molasses too so I couldn't use it to get a better time.

I should mention when I entered the 2nd area this effect stopped.

I am also uploading a speed-run, I'm keeping my time a secret until my shoddy internet uploads it. But I will say I've destroyed Goshi68's time.

[Strife]

Oh geez. xD; Should definitely fix that one. (This ironically wouldn't be the first platform game I've made where you're stuck swimming after restarting a stage while underwater).

[FanGameRevolver]

4:40:04

...and it's still not quite perfect ;_;

[Falk]

O lawdy, a sonic-styled game without spindash; competitive speedrunning is going to be fresh for a good while.

[Strife]

I just hope the update that's coming soon won't butcher peoples' scores too much. xD; If anything, it should improve them since it'll be slightly easier to build up Lilac's boost meter and Carol's pounce should also improve her times.

Speaking of which, I'd like to try and get it released today. Just gotta make sure I didn't produce any new bugs or make derpy mistakes like leaving debug keys activated.

[Strife]

Alright, dudes and dudettes, version 1.1 is up!

http://www.mediafire.com/?1jfqnswq7usdvwe

I haven't updated the links on my website or on IndieDB yet. I'll let you guys test it first to make sure things are in working order.

There's a changelog in the download that lists all of the modifcations, but I'll put them here too:

Verison 1.1

___________

- Lilac's boost has been mapped to the C button. Instead of pressing Jump twice, you must now press C in order to boost; Be sure to remember this! You can switch back to the old configuration in the Settings program if necessary.

- Because of the above, Lilac can no longer hold an extra shield in storage. Carol still retains this ability.

- The Wood shield now attracts life petals.

- Lilac can now boost while on the ground by pressing C.

- Carol now has a pouncing move. To use it, hold down to crouch and then press Jump.

- Added new difficulty settings: Easy, Normal, and Hard. Easy mode doubles the life energy received from life petals and increases hit invincibility, while Hard mode doubles the damage enemies inflict.

- Crystals in several areas have been replaced with life petals. Life petals in general are more abundant, especially in the second half of the stage. Several keystone boxes have also been added.

- Reduced the damage of some enemies.

- Dragonflies now have a slight delay before diving.

- During the end-of-stage boss fight, the falling boulders can now be destroyed with normal attacks.

- During the end-of-stage boulder chase, it is now easier to outrun the boulder while jumping.

- Rolling will always knock down the tree trunks in the second half of the stage no matter how fast you are travelling. This is to alleviate a glitch where players can climb up the side of the log if it wobbles in place, among other issues.

- Attempted to make several hidden areas more obvious.

- The required time to unlock Carol is now 7 minutes.

Bug fixes

- If the player quit while the Speed powerup was active and began the stage again, they would retain the effect.

- If the player pressed Esc to restart the game during the slow motion effect after defeating the end boss, the rest of the game would retain the slow motion effect until the boss was reached and destroyed again.

- The end-of-stage boss music played instead of the normal stage music if the player died during the boss.

- In the Settings program, joystick button names weren't loading properly.

- There were lag issues when pushing objects.

- If quitting the stage while underwater, starting the stage again as Lilac would allow her to swim in the air.

Current issues

- Swapping shields right when a new shield is obtained after collecting 5 keystones causes the keystone gauge to become stuck in its flashing animation.

- Various issues with Carol's stored shield after playing for long periods of time.

[FanGameRevolver]

awesome, I haven't quite gotten the hang of carol's pounce. It's a bit tricky cuz you have to stop to crouch.

I boost more frequently with Lilac, and that nasty ass log is no longer destroying my runs due to a bad/slow jump. After a bit of experimentation I'm certain I can break 4:30:00 with ease.

Edit - LOL NOPE!

I am upset that I can't fly anymore tho

...

Also I find it hilarious that I can unlock carol while playing as carol now.

Edit- here's a video showing the flying bug that was fixed: http://youtu.be/Ow-FE2em60g

[TailsSena]