Need 5th attack button

[marco75]

I'm trying to make an existing game (Super Final Fight Gold) more approachable for joypad and keyboard users, whilst still maintaining complex move commands for those with an arcade stick.

Currently menu.txt looks like this:

renamekey moveup Up
renamekey movedown Down
renamekey moveright Right
renamekey moveleft Left
renamekey attack Attack
renamekey attack2 Special1
renamekey attack3 Special2
renamekey attack4 Special3
#renamekey attack5 Super
renamekey jump Jump
renamekey special Deathblow
renamekey start Start
renamekey screenshot Screenshot
fontmonospace 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Meanwhile in the player entity definition cody.txt

com  d f a  		freespecial2
com  d u a  		freespecial3
com  f f a  		freespecial4
com  d f d f a  	freespecial5
com a2 freespecial2
com a3 freespecial3
com a4 freespecial4
#com a5 freespecial5

Attack buttons 2 - 4 work fine in triggering the Specials with a single button, but I would like to have a fifth attack button (or second special button) so freespecial5 can be triggered easily.

When I remove the # in menu.txt above, the engine ignores it and does not display Super on the control config screen.

I DID find a compromise, by setting

com d f s freespecial5

This triggers the super pretty easily, and if the player messes up the input, at least the Deathblow comes out, which does not consume MP, only HP, and keeps the player safe so they can try again.

According to the Legacy manual, the only buttons permissible are:

U D F B 
A A2 A3 A4 J S

Do later builds support more buttons?

Thanks

 

[NickyP]

Unfortunately, Attack1-4 and Special are the only attacking buttons available.

I know this probably won't be ideal for you, but have you considered using the cancel command to enable the fifth freespecial? You could place it in anim walk and assign it to A2-4/S.

To give you an example, here's what the code would look like if your walk animation had five frames total (put this in anim walk):

cancel  0  4  0 a2 freespecial5

It's a hokey workaround, but it solves the problem no less. At least, it'll keep the integrity of your "one button specials" idea intact--the player need only hold a direction and press A2-4/S (whichever you set) to activate the fifth freespecial.

 

[DCurrent]

As NickyP said, your available action buttons are Special, Jump, and Attack 1-4. If you really want more action buttons that bad, you can capture Start, Screenshot, and ESC with script. Leaving out Start since you kind of need that, there's two more buttons.

DC

 

[marco75]

have you considered using the cancel command to enable the freespecial? You could place it in anim walk and assign it to A2-4.

To give you an example, here's what the code would look like if your walk animation had five frames total (put this in anim walk):

cancel  0  4  0 a2 freespecial5

It's a hokey workaround, but it solves the problem no less. At least, it'll keep the integrity of your "one button specials" idea intact--the player need only hold a direction and press A2-4 (whichever you set) to activate the fifth freespecial.

What a surprising solution... that means ... with models.txt -> maxfreespecials 50
you could easily assign 5 or even 9 freespecials per button! So even if 'com a' is reserved for the atchain, that still allows A2, A3, A4 & S -> 4 x 5 = 20 freespecials per player character, or 4 x 9 = 36 freespecials per player character if diagonals are used.

Mind = blown.

I also get the impression I could use cancel to support selectable finishers in my atchain, like holding down + A during Cody's mid punch animation to make him do the Shoulder throw instead of the default Uppercut.

Thanks NickyP for your reply. The more I learn about this engine, the more I realize how flexible it is. There is a usually a workaround for just about anything.

Damon Caskey, thanks to NickyP's reply, I now realize more buttons are unnecessary. Some of the best brawlers only had two buttons. I think one of the principles of game design is "the fewer buttons in your control layout, the better". That's why in my case they are completely optional hotkey buttons just to make life easier for people without arcade sticks. Only Attack Jump and Special are necessary in my case.

 

[NickyP]

Oh yeah, the cancel command was a godsend for me. ;D Using it, I've experimented in all sorts of different genres with engine... top down dungeon crawlers, JRPG turn based battles, platformers, you name it.

You know, if you want to simplify it even more, you could easy replicate Smash Bros style special inputs with just one other button. Suppose you wanted to leave A1 as Attack and S as "Deathblow," you can use A2 for all other moves and drop A3-4 altogether. Just put a cancel in anims Idle (in Smash terms, think "neutral B"), Walk ("forward B"), Up (special walking animation when walking up, "up B"), and Down (special walking animation when walking down, "down B").

Copy and paste anim walk two times, rename the copies anim up and anim down, add the respective cancels as needed, and voila.

So, for example, in anim idle...

cancel  0  4  0 a2 freespecial2

... and in anim walk...

cancel  0  4  0 a2 freespecial3

... and in anim up...

cancel  0  4  0 a2 freespecial4

...and finally in anim down...

cancel  0  4  0 a2 freespecial5

... and you're good to go!

 

[DCurrent]

..Damon Caskey, thanks to NickyP's reply, I now realize more buttons are unnecessary. Some of the best brawlers only had two buttons. I think one of the principles of game design is "the fewer buttons in your control layout, the better". That's why in my case they are completely optional hotkey buttons just to make life easier for people without arcade sticks. Only Attack Jump and Special are necessary in my case.

I coudn't agree more, and never really liked the idea of one button specials anyway. But hey, you wanted to know, so there ya go!

DC