After a lot of thought and some quick change to the programming code, I’ve decided that the original plan (for those who remember) that dealt with equipped items in Shadowdawn Genesis was not going to work well. The lantern and Arashi’s special shinkirouken combat techniques were the deciding factor, and at this stage of the game item design I’m sure the soon-to-be-added Runes aside from Life would be the same. Basically, I’ve changed to a new game design that if the player equips an item (in one of the 4 slots – that hasn’t changed from previous screenshots), its passive ability is always active, such as a lantern’s light or the Rune of Life’s regeneration effect. Before, the only way for the player to light a dark area was have the lantern the active item out of 5 slots, cutting off both special moves and any interaction items or technomancy spells. The player still has to decide, by pressing a D-pad direction, which item is the “active” item for self use or interacting with other items, however. The Y Button is the default “use item” button now, and will use the equipped item on whatever Arashi is facing or on herself if nothing. I have to add code for expendables to confirm usage, I was trying to avoid an “extra button press for confirmation” situation but I think it is the lesser of two evils. If a player is trying to use an expendable item on something interesting that may or may not have an effect… if the item didn’t have an interaction effect, then without that confirmation it would just be automatically eaten up leaving the player frustrated and empty-handed.
Likewise, I’ve made the B button exclusive to Arashi’s special combat techniques. This way, the entire focus of the player’s combat customization is on one button, rather than worrying about cycling through items until the special move slot is selected. This also allows more interesting combinations with technomancy from the runes alongside advanced fighting. It also frees up the L-trigger button, which I personally hate pressing in games since my hands don’t hold on to the left side of the controller firmly, but others may like it for who knows… defending or whatever… the joy of customizable controls!
At this point in animation, I’ve got a good idea how I want things to look but unfortunately my drawing skill needs a bit more refinement as my proportions tend to get a bit wild in the harder poses. But I’m going to move forward and fix things that need to be fixed in alpha, rather than constantly spin in circles trying to get that one frame to look right and never getting anywhere, I don’t have to have everything be perfect.
