Stage Mode Setup

[Rhino.Freak]

So this topic is to discuss the difficulty and basic in-game planning of stage mode.
How many enemies should appear? In what quantity? enemies at a particular place shall come 1 by 1 or all together? How much HP should they have?.. questions like that will be discussed and answered here.

I'll be using THIS :
http://lf-empire.de/forum/showthread.php?tid=9419

First, let's talk about stage 1-1

the little fighters started a secret training camp after defeating Julian. 3 days ago, you started having bad dreams that made you think you must leave the training camp. You leave together with Nino, a new member of the little fighters. John contacts the other little fighters that they are in grave danger.

I am not quite sure how we'll be having this 'cut-scene-like part', we can have a video playing maybe? This needs to be discussed.
They should just leave the camp area and normal enemies start appearing I assume.


Also there's a thing called "phase" inside the stage mode.. in short, whenever you see "go ->" symbol, it means that 1 phase is over and next will begin.


Here's what it is in Original LF2, to give you the idea.
Note: All the values of HP and number of enemies are for Normal difficulty.

1-1 :
Enemies appearing: Bandit, Hunter
Total phases: 4
Total number of enemies: 15
Boss: -
Boss HP: -
Milk/Beer: 1 each in phase 4
Minion's HP: 50

Here's what I suggest for Extended LF2, to give you the idea.

1-1 :
Enemies appearing: Bandit, Hunter, Mark
Total phases: 4
Total number of enemies: 20
Boss: -
Boss HP: -
Milk/Beer: 1 each in phase 4
Minion's HP: 50

Do post your own version if feel to change something, and lets setup how we'll have the cut-scene part first. We'll get to more stages soon.

[Memento]

The story in post #1 of the story topic is the most up to date

I wouldn't make the stage mode more difficult than in the original game. Can you win stage 5 at difficult? I think most people cannot..

I think the challenge should become to partly have diffirent enemies appearing than in the original lf2, but maintaining the difficulty level.

About the stage 1-1 cutscene, what options do we have for making this?

[Marko]

what about another minion, "Soldier". He is the inferior to General and Main villian (from their clan?). He has the same armor as them so they will be noticable as their minions. He is not going to be strong at all, little bit stronger than bandit. We introuduce him in 3 or 4 stage ?

[Rhino.Freak]

I think we can :

1. Make a video, and simply export it as frames and display in the story mode with perhaps a narrative sound in the BG (if someone is willing to do it).

2. Or we can make some little speech bubbles, and start from the training camp, we'll fight with all the little fighters 1 by 1 as 'training', it'd be more fun imo since its interactive.

To my knowledge, there isn't really any other method to have that besides these 2.

Also a few things to note now that I see the story as DCing part:

...You leave together with Nino

what if we are playing as Nino? I think we should make him a hidden character, but that would then mean we have to replace one of the hidden chars.

...John stays in the camp to contact the other little fighters telepathically...

Again, what if we are playing as John?

Also, it states we are leaving together with other little fighters, so say I picked Deep, who else will be coming along with us again?

...You take Justin hostage...

So will he be fighting from our side or what? I don't know how this 'hostage' thing is supposed to work.
Plus it'd be a tad weird since there will be like multiple Justins in the battle..



EDIT: @Marko well yeah he'll come later on.

I wouldn't make the stage mode more difficult than in the original game. Can you win stage 5 at difficult? I think most people cannot..

Well we have team with us now, and not only that all characters are stronger than before except the bandit class, so it must be a bit more difficult to make it balanced.

[Memento]

what about another minion, "Soldier". He is the inferior to General and Main villian (from their clan?). He has the same armor as them so they will be noticable as their minions. He is not going to be strong at all, little bit stronger than bandit. We introuduce him in 3 or 4 stage ?

There is also going to be the teleportation minion. He doesn't have the same armor, perhaps we should consider putting some letter on the shirt (just f.e. if the clan is called 'Death Clan', putting DC on the shirt of this minion somewhere).

We should consider another minion once we have at least one minion for the wizard and one minion for the main villain & general done.

...You leave together with Nino

what if we are playing as Nino? I think we should make him a hidden character, but that would then mean we have to replace one of the hidden chars.

We should provide a solution that doesn't include deleting original characters, and all characters should be playable by human players.

If you choose Nino, there will be 2 Nino's.. I don't think there is much we can do about this. Its like with LouisEX, there's often a Louis that can be seen in the same battle.

...John stays in the camp to contact the other little fighters telepathically...

Again, what if we are playing as John?

Same, I don't think there's much we can do about this. It doesn't really disturb the gameplay, so I think we shouldn't pay too much attention to it. But of course if there were to be a reasonable solution, we should go for it.

Also, it states we are leaving together with other little fighters, so say I picked Deep, who else will be coming along with us again?

Where does it say this? I remember leaving with Nino only...

...You take Justin hostage...

So will he be fighting from our side or what? I don't know how this 'hostage' thing is supposed to work.
Plus it'd be a tad weird since there will be like multiple Justins in the battle..

Justin tells you the story. After this:

Justin: "I told you all that I know. Now let me go!!"

You: "Alright. Leave. Julian probably won't welcome you back though, you digged your own grave by telling us the story."

Justin: "Argh.. You've killed me!!"

You: "Join us in battle. It improves your chances of staying alive."

Justin joins you.

He will only be on your team for a little while, he'll be killed in stage 2 quickly enough

I wouldn't make the stage mode more difficult than in the original game. Can you win stage 5 at difficult? I think most people cannot..

Well we have team with us now, and not only that all characters are stronger than before except the bandit class, so it must be a bit more difficult to make it balanced.
[/quote]

True, our aim is to not make the original characters much stronger then before though. The new strenghts should be just the new AI and the 1 new move (which should be balanced of course). Therefor, we should only make the stage mode a little stronger... For example:

1-1 :
Enemies appearing: Bandit, Hunter, Mark
Total phases: 4
Total number of enemies: 14
Boss: -
Boss HP: -
Milk/Beer: 1 each in phase 4
Minion's HP: Bandit/Hunter (12x): 50, Mark (2x): 150

[Rhino.Freak]

Alright fair enough.
what do you feel about the cutscene part though?

Since we'll be having 2-3 more minions, how will we be putting them in the game as hidden ones?

1-1 plan by you seems tough enough with 2 Marks with 150 HP

so here's what I feel about next stages

1-2
Enemies appearing: Bandit, Hunter, Mark
Total phases: 4
Total number of enemies: 16
Boss: -
Boss HP: -
Milk/Beer: 1 each in phase 2 and phase 4
Minion's HP: Bandit (10x): 50, Hunter (3x): 75, Mark (3x): 150

1-3
Enemies appearing: Bandit, Hunter, Mark
Total phases: 4
Total number of enemies: 15 + 3 soldiers
Boss: Mark (2x)
Boss HP: 250
Soldier: Bandit (3x)
Milk/Beer: 2 each in phase 2 and phase 4
Minion's HP: Bandit (5x): 50, Hunter (5x): 75, Mark (3x): 150
Hostages: Hunter(3 lives)

NOTE: Boss is a special enemy, as long as he is alive soldiers will keep coming. In this case 3 bandits will always be present unless Boss Mark dies.


1-4
Enemies appearing: Bandit, Hunter, Mark, Jack
Total phases: 4
Total number of enemies: 15 + 5 soldiers
Boss: Jack
Boss HP: 250
Soldier: Bandit/Hunter (4x) + Mark (50 hp)
Milk/Beer: 2 each in phase 2 and phase 4
Minion's HP: Bandit/Hunter (10x): 50, Mark (4x): 150

will do more later. Once I get 1-2 approves on the upper setup I'll put it in first post and continue adding more.