Resident Evil: Behind the Mask [+Hazardous Battle]

[Gemini]

how about making unlockable 'remix/invasion' stages, where enemies from other RE games appear in locations from other titles ( f.e Lickers, Birkin, Ivys in Mansion etc ). That would make the whole experience longer, and it shouldn't be a lot of trouble to just change enemy setup, assuming those enemies would work in environments from other titles. I hope that You'll add as many enemies as possible from the RE games, including bosses.
Some other ideas I have are :
-Boss Rush mode ( obviously a mode where You have to survive waves of bosses from all RE games, maybe even in small groups or with additional normal enemies as an additional difficulty [ little note : auto-aim should target boss first, then the closest enemy ] ) You'd get some ammo/healing items after each succesfully defeated wave of enemies.
-Unlockable enemy setups from Dino Crisis / Silent Hill / other Survival Horror games from that period of time for RE locations.
-If possible , RE0 /REMake Files with downsampled backgrounds from those games. The enemy models would be bigger problem, I don't know if there's easy way to decrease polygon count of a model and make it look decent.

- Mix idea is what I had planned, but that requires all enemies to be already implemented. Given the amount of time it takes me to work on a full enemy (ranging from a week to a full month), it's best if this aspect is expanded later with a possible File #2 or when more code is developed for BTM (which has really most RE1-2 enemies, serving as a better test ground).
- Boss Rush Mode is nice, it wouldn't be bad to structure it similarly to have SS RE did.
- Enemies from non-CAPCOM series aren't exactly ideal.
- Sonic and I already considered the idea of RE0, but not from GC assets.

Something I had been curious about. How hard would it be to create a limb lock on system?

It wouldn't be hard, but ultimately useless. The engine keeps it simple to make bullet calculations not drain the CPU like a hooker, plus it's really a lot of work for the user to get to the desired part they'd want to aim. In this case simple is better, waaaay better.

- Dino Crisis 2 was an awesome arcade type of game. Have you actually considered making zombies spawn just like in DC2, with every camera shift?
- As your project gets bigger and bigger and more fine-tuned, has your desire to remake Survivor changed a bit, and perhaps you might want to just make an original Resident Evil game instead?

- That or 1.5 style, like what appears in BH Complete Disc videos. There you see a zombie scaling down in its blood pool, until it eventually disappears and a new one replaces it somewhere else in a room.
- I'm not a designer or writer, so GS serves better as a measure of development for me. REmakes are much more interesting because you already know all the flaws and can work easily on solutions to improve the original.

[RetroRain]

So much potential with this project. With the main game, obviously classic horror Resident Evil. But with the Arcade Battle game, you can make it as action as you want.

A couple of questions Gemini:

- Dino Crisis 2 was an awesome arcade type of game. Have you actually considered making zombies spawn just like in DC2, with every camera shift?

- As your project gets bigger and bigger and more fine-tuned, has your desire to remake Survivor changed a bit, and perhaps you might want to just make an original Resident Evil game instead?

Something I had been curious about. How hard would it be to create a limb lock on system? Currently when you hold R1 and aim at an enemy you can free aim the weapon either high, mid or low using up or down. Instead would it be possible to lock on to specific limbs depending on which direction you press? So for sample, holding R1 and pressing up would aim directly at the head, left and right would aim at the arms, down would aim at the legs and neutral would aim straight at the torso. This way you could implement new kinds of enemies that wield weapons and give the player a way to attack a wider variety of limbs for added strategy and challenge with combat and resource management.

Perhaps not something for this particular project, but it's something I'd been wondering for a while as a way to expand on this kind of gameplay without losing the original camera perspectives. The newer games such as RE4 started introducing enemies with weapons and it was strategically beneficial to aim at them and knock them out of enemies hands, I thought perhaps this might be a way to add little bits of that type of gameplay without losing too much of the original style.

[Saavas]

The interface looks very nice, and arcade-style I just want to drop a thought for the Hazardous Battle - how about making unlockable 'remix/invasion' stages, where enemies from other RE games appear in locations from other titles ( f.e Lickers, Birkin, Ivys in Mansion etc ). That would make the whole experience longer, and it shouldn't be a lot of trouble to just change enemy setup, assuming those enemies would work in environments from other titles. I hope that You'll add as many enemies as possible from the RE games, including bosses.
Some other ideas I have are :
-Boss Rush mode ( obviously a mode where You have to survive waves of bosses from all RE games, maybe even in small groups or with additional normal enemies as an additional difficulty [ little note : auto-aim should target boss first, then the closest enemy ] ) You'd get some ammo/healing items after each succesfully defeated wave of enemies.
-Unlockable enemy setups from Dino Crisis / Silent Hill / other Survival Horror games from that period of time for RE locations.
-If possible , RE0 /REMake Files with downsampled backgrounds from those games. The enemy models would be bigger problem, I don't know if there's easy way to decrease polygon count of a model and make it look decent.

I know I'm just throwing random ideas , and I'm aware that it's actually a lot of work to create such things , but the game has so much potential that I sincerely hope You'll push it to the limits and create a ultimate experience! Also, those features do not have to be present at launch, they could be released as updates to the game.
Kind Regards
Saavas

[Burt Mustin]

That is part of the strangeness that is RE2-- it's beginner/medium modes are the easiest of the series, and yet, it's hard (or nightmare) setting arguably then makes it the most difficult. And I think that statement is objective if you use Claire. An adrenaline ride for challenges (no damage 'S' rank? shudders).

Most people wouldn't know this, of course, because the majority of titles were sold on the PS1, which never had that extra mode. And only reading about the Japanese version, makes it sound shamelessly easy. Weird game.

[Gemini]

Smart hub only comes up when you've got a weapon equipped or when your unarmed and bitten, it doesn't just pop up automatically if it detects enemies within a room?, I still want to be suprised by hunters, lickers and chimera.

The HUD shall work exactly like in Dino Crisis 2. If that didn't warn you about any nearby enemies, so won't mine.

this looks absolutely amazing, really looking forward to playing it. i'm sorry if this has been asked before, but when do you expect to release it?

I'm trying to pull strings together to at least have the battle mode available as a demo with one stage available, a couple missions, and Jill+Chris playable. It wouldn't hurt to have a release by xmas, but I'm not sure yet because there are still many gameplay aspects to add or fix. I'm currently working on finalizing at least the interface, so that I can move fully into gameplay this week. This would be the latest progress I've done since I got up from a family business trip:

I'll probably skip shop and outfit selection for the moment, those won't be part of the demo. I was also planning to add Minimi and Ingram MAC10 to the weapon list, but I'll keep them locked up as well in the demo, I guess. Gotta preserve some exclusive contents for the real deal.

Gemini, the problem I have with RE2 is that it is just too damn easy. Go up to a zombie, 2 bullets makes him bounces back, and then the third shot makes him fall to the ground. Then you just aim down and finish him off. And it's easy to speed run the game and have a ton of herbs and ammo at the end of the game. I felt that RE1 was more challenging. The enemies were not such pushovers. Perhaps you could adjust the values depending on the difficulty setting.

Keep in mind RE2 zombies are perfectly suitable for arcade gaming, just like raptors in DC2. They die fast, come in great quantity, and they are enough of a threat with respawn. With BTM they are going to be a 'little' less simple to beat in order to counterbalance arcade vs survival horror mechanics.

[Jimmy_Jazz]

Although RE2 did make the shotgun more interesting by reducing the range on headshots and making headshots only viable if you aim upwards, stopping it from also pushing back other close - medium range zombies.

[Jimmy_Jazz]

Agreed. The 'B' game felt like more of a challenge thanks to more regular boss fights sapping your ammo but still not as much as the first RE.

I think part of the problem stems from the fact they they didn't know how to treat the zombies from a gameplay point of view when it comes to higher enemy numbers & larger locations. Since none of the games saved the health of zombies when you left rooms, featured rooms you would visit multiple times and provided a decent amount of ammo to the player on a regular basis it really never made sense to just injure them and move on to conserve ammo. Nor were you presented with such an overwhelming number of zombies that you had to just cut a hole in the pack and risk running through that.

And whilst the Lickers were introduced earlier than the Hunters in RE2, they were much slower and rarely . I think RE2 would have benefited from a new enemy or threat when you re-enter the upper floors of the RPD, once you've been to the basement for the first time.

[RetroRain]

Gemini, the problem I have with RE2 is that it is just too damn easy. Go up to a zombie, 2 bullets makes him bounces back, and then the third shot makes him fall to the ground. Then you just aim down and finish him off. And it's easy to speed run the game and have a ton of herbs and ammo at the end of the game. I felt that RE1 was more challenging. The enemies were not such pushovers. Perhaps you could adjust the values depending on the difficulty setting.

On Hard Mode, a zombie wouldn't get pushed back until 4 or 5 shots, making it so that you'd have to be more careful and conserve ammo when you can. Just a thought.

[Lebowski]

this looks absolutely amazing, really looking forward to playing it. i'm sorry if this has been asked before, but when do you expect to release it?

[Mikhail]

Smart hub only comes up when you've got a weapon equipped or when your unarmed and bitten, it doesn't just pop up automatically if it detects enemies within a room?, I still want to be suprised by hunters, lickers and chimera.

I wish capcom would add a ghost type enemy that electrocuted you making itself temporary solid / visable during it's attack then dissapeared only to return at random points within a room still stalking you, more or less like the unused bio4 hookman.

[Gemini]

I see. Have you reworked Arwen 37's explosion animation on enemies? I always delt that both the acid and the flame round should had a different visual effect on enemies. Is it possible that you could showcase it with some action any time soon?

You mean different from RE1 or RE2? The RE1 effects are kinda tragic on their own. My version of the Arwen 37 works very similarly to the M79 for what concerns explosions and effects.

Furthermore, are there any issues with the game's engine anymore? Have you been able to fully pass the past fuss with the coding or you have something currently troubling you?

My biggest issue at the moment is making sure the engine keeps being updated for BTM and HB at the same time. Some of the code needs to be written separately and excluded from link scripts.

On a related note, I've received several requests of people who'd like to see a File #1.5 of the battle mode, which would require an extra branch to my solution (which currently has 666 files). I'm open to ideas for this one, but I can already foretell the terrible amount of work to fill all those holes, especially for what concerns backgrounds of rooms that simply don't exist in the vanilla build.

Gemini, would you say that your engine is more powerful or to par with the RE2 engine? How does it compare to it?

Hard to tell if it's more powerful. It can definitively push more polygons on screen thanks to all the optimizations in my GTE code and some exploit to help the compiler get improved results. Usually my routines end up wasting a lot less time with RAM access (which is terribly slow on a PSX) as I abuse register caching to achieve best performance.

[Ultimacloud123]

Gemini, would you say that your engine is more powerful or to par with the RE2 engine? How does it compare to it?

[Getta robo]

My original plan was to have only one Arwen 37 item capable of switching round types in real time with a button combination (R1+R2). Turns out I'll have to ditch the idea because I can't fit sound data in the allocated SPU RAM, unless I ubercompress the samples (which I won't do). So right now you need to go to the weapon menu, select round type, go back and the game will load just the required sound samples.

I see. Have you reworked Arwen 37's explosion animation on enemies? I always delt that both the acid and the flame round should had a different visual effect on enemies. Is it possible that you could showcase it with some action any time soon?
Furthermore, are there any issues with the game's engine anymore? Have you been able to fully pass the past fuss with the coding or you have something currently troubling you?

[Gemini]

I wonder - do You use weapon damage data from original RE games or do You just make it up ? And the same question about enemy HP? Also, will there be only 3 standard types of grenadegun rounds, or will You maybe add some more, like Anti-BOW rounds from CV ?

I use RE2 values mostly, since they provide better balance than RE1's, but I've also added new ones because of the upgrade mechanics. As for the weapons, I'm more or less strictly following the original formula. I'm adding weapons that were already in RE1 (also the Ingram Mac 10 and the Minimi for completion's sake), and a few more from REmake (assault rifle).

I'll be going with "always disabled". Yeah, I'm old school!

Well, technically speaking the HUD is just for Hazarouds Battle, which isn't that much old school to begin with. Still, I'm trying to listen to feedback as much as possible and see if I can integrate other people's ideas into my vision of an arcade RE game. I mean, as long as good input is provided, which is why I keep on posting updates as frequently as I can do. Can't stand when feedback is just a bunch of "good jobs" that add nothing, though.

Have you decided how it is going to function? Meaning, will be feasible to load it with three different ammunition for example?

My original plan was to have only one Arwen 37 item capable of switching round types in real time with a button combination (R1+R2). Turns out I'll have to ditch the idea because I can't fit sound data in the allocated SPU RAM, unless I ubercompress the samples (which I won't do). So right now you need to go to the weapon menu, select round type, go back and the game will load just the required sound samples.