The Survey Thread!

[Super Speler]

My favorite color (can't really see it...) is fuzzy wuzzy. I love Crayola...

[IAmACalculator]

[bananaman]

I'd vote for large too.

Now I choose orange b/c it is one of the colors of fire, and fire is cool to play with.

Is there any progress on transferring the original game to the 83+ series or has it been forgotten?

[DigiTan]

So far, there are no offers to do a 83+ port, so I'll probably be porting it myself as soon as I take up 83+ ASM. I'm keeping the sequel mostly under wraps for now to keep the original (and Sonic) on track. It will probably be summer before I get enough time to make any meaningful progress on either program.

Okay, looks like we're going for large stat effects. I guess that might also effect the availability of attacks but it's too early for me to speculate on that. I'm certain "teleport" will be making another appearance, so that might coorelate with whatever color reflects speed. I was interested in some others like "invisibility" and "intagability," but like I said, it's real early.

[DigiTan]

Okay, I came up with some more ideas for this over the weekend.

In addition to having mood effect stat growth, I want to have each associated color come with a special ability. Here are couple I that can be done efficiently:

Global damage
All enemies on the playfield sustain minor damage and temporary immobilization.
Rage
ATK skyrockets while DFN falls.
Hyper-speed
Makes you faster than any enemy or projectile.
Intangibility
Pass through most stationary objects.
Cloak
Become totally invisible to yourself and AI.
HP<->EP
Transferred energy into heath or vice versa, depending on which is the lowest. A ripoff of "HP<->MP" in Dying Eyes.
Hyper-strenght
Strength and mass are maxed out to make you unstoppable.
Instant Cure
Reverses the burn, freeze ailments.
Heyday
Improves the odds of x2 hits and free money from battles. A ripoff of "payday" in Pokemon.
Firewall
Get a shield that blocks projectiles and damages enemies closeby.
Gateway
Everything "freezes" while you target a destination tile. The energy cost matches distance traveled. Let's you go anywhere!

[MODE] activates your ability after you've learned it. They all have a per-use or per-second energy cost (except HP<->EP of course). A few, like rage, hyperspeed, and cloak would be continious and run until you're out of energy or you press [MODE] again. Others like global damage and instant cure would be one-shot attacks that happen only once for each [MODE] press.

So far I've got 10 colors and 11 abilties. Some associations like Rage = Red, Heyday = green seem logical to me. The rest are a little tough. Any ideas?

[axcho]

You could try looking at color associations in Feng Shui, for example, if you want ideas.

Since I picked blue (would have been cyan or turquoise if that was available), I'll say that it goes best with... HP<->EP. I can imagine the background graphic for such an ability could be a vibrant blue color. Not dark blue though!

Dark blue might be Intangibility. Or not.

Black or gray could be Cloaking.

White could be the Instant Cure, or maybe Gateway. Actually, I think brown might go better with Instant Cure, since it is an earthy, subdued color.

Yellow seems to go well with Hyper Speed.

Orange could go with Firewall, stereotypically, but since it isn't my color I can't really say what it actually associates with.

For purple, maybe Hyper Strength. But I'm not sure.

[DigiTan]

Those seem about right to me. White seems to have that association with medicine (lab coats, pillboxes, etc). And black often goes with stealth...like with ninjas and such. All this really makes me want a color screen.

[axcho]

I think I'd rather avoid the stereotypical connection between white and healing. White is too sterile. If I actually chose white, I wouldn't be looking for a healing ability. I think someone who chooses brown would appreciate healing more. Make white give you Gateway.

Are you going to think of cooler names for those abilities? At least Instant Cure and HP<->EP should get better names. If I think of something I'll post it here.

[DigiTan]

Yeah, usually all spend a few days on those online thesaurses before I get names I like. I'd rather use very short ones too if they'll be named in-game. Like 6 letters and under when possible.

[alexrudd]

Ah, since nobody has picked brown I should change my vote to brown and then convince you to have brown get ALL the special abilities. :)

Global damage
All enemies on the playfield sustain minor damage and temporary immobilization.
Rage
ATK skyrockets while DFN falls.
Hyper-speed
Makes you faster than any enemy or projectile.
Intangibility
Pass through most stationary objects.
Cloak
Become totally invisible to yourself and AI.
HP<->EP
Transferred energy into heath or vice versa, depending on which is the lowest. A ripoff of "HP<->MP" in Dying Eyes.
Hyper-strenght
Strength and mass are maxed out to make you unstoppable.
[s]Instant Cure
Reverses the burn, freeze ailments.[/s]
Heyday
Improves the odds of x2 hits and free money from battles. A ripoff of "payday" in Pokemon.
Firewall
Get a shield that blocks projectiles and damages enemies closeby.
Gateway
Everything "freezes" while you target a destination tile. The energy cost matches distance traveled. Let's you go anywhere!

If you want, I can add the basic assosciations I made to link up the colors to the abilities. I got rid of instant cure because it appears to be the only ability that is useless against some opponents (unless everyone can burn/freeze)

[DigiTan]

Oh yeah, I guess I forgot to list my choices:

Rage
Hyper-speed
Cloak
Hyper-strenght
Instant Cure
Heyday
Firewall

...the rest I'm undecided on.

[axcho]

Hmmm, it seems like DigiTan and I agree on most abilities:

Global Damage
Rage
Hyper Speed
Intangibility
Cloak
HP<->EP
Hyper Strength
Instant Cure
Heyday
Firewall
Gateway

And in rainbow colors:

Cloak
Intangibility
Gateway
Global Damage
Rage
Firewall
Hyper Speed
Heyday
HP<->EP
Instant Cure
Hyper Strength

I'm not sure about my choices for blue and brown. Brown might also go well with Hyper Strength or something.

But you have to add cyan! That way all the colors would match up to abilities. Plus it's my favorite color!

[Arcane Wizard]

Global Damage
Rage
Hyper Speed
Intangibility
Cloak
HP<->EP
Hyper Strength
Instant Cure
Heyday
Firewall
Gateway

Yes I know I chose yellow twice. You decide.

[DigiTan]

Okay, here are some possible name changes.

Instant Cure will likely be changed to "purify" "restore" or simiply "cure."

Global Damage will become "Flux" to consistancy with RW1.

HyperSpeed will become "HyperSPE" or "HyperSPD" depending on which abbreviation is more popular.

I can't find a consise word that describes "HP<->EP" and "Intangibility."

[Super Speler]

[Arcane Wizard]

[DigiTan]

Here's one more idea:

Tremors
Continious damage to all moving enemies. Stationary enemies are unaffected.


It might go well with brown a little better being an earth-based attack. Having the screen shake would be a nice visual effect too.

[edit]
One more...

Firestorm
Shoot flame projectiles in all directions. Fire damage to surrounding cells

[DigiTan]

Okay, I did some work on the battle engine and graphics today and made a lot of headway. Here's how the specials are looking so far. For generality, moves ending with "mode" are toggled on/off each time the [mode] key is pressed. All others are momentary.

Also, all of these attacks can be done in real-time.

Rage Mode
Attacks gain power and explode on contact. MASS and STRENGTH are maxed out, making you immovable.
Blaze
Flame attacks are sent in all directions for massive and widespread damage.
Hyper SPD Mode
Your character is able to move faster than any enemy, the attack rate limit is removed.
Heyday Mode
Increases the occourance of extra gold and free exp after an enemy is defeated.
Shield
You are shielded by a fast moving barrier that damages any enemies or projectiles nearby.
???
You can siphon away enemy EP each time they are damaged.
Gateway
Instantaneous travel to any point. EP cost increases with distance traveled.
Magnet
All enemies are repelled violently and may experience damage.
Ghosting Mode
Although you can't attack, you are total invisible and attacks will not harm you.
Flash
The flash registers as a hit on all enemies and powerups (gold, free exp). Mild damage. Good if you're outnumbered.

...that's the story so far. I apologise for the gay rainbow pattern and the lack of a name for the 6th attack. Still on the hunt for a cool name.

[Liazon]

I think Rage, Blaze, shield, Gatway, Ghost, magnet, and flash are pretty good color choices. The hyper speed mode in yellow doesn't appear too clear on my browser. Eh, even the ??? is a good color choice, though maybe switch it to balck w/ Gateway

[IAmACalculator]

Hmm. Maybe something like Osmosis for the 6^th power?