The A-Engine: A new Beat 'em Up game engine

[A-Man]

Oh damn, I didn't see this post 0_o.

Damn, I was waiting for something like this. Great work. But I've got some questions, because I want to create a mod (or a game, since it's an engine), but my ambitions are higher than just throwing some energy balls at someone. Just tell me if it is possible somehow to do in your engine and if not, it's a suggestion.
1. Customizable AI.

Yes, but I am not done with this part yet. I am still thinking about whether I well be doing what Someone Else did with his scripts (except that there won't be any dlls since the source code is available) or stick to a more user-friendly syntax with built in functions for simple stuff like walking, running etc.

2. Forcing someone to go into X frame.

100%. You can make a bdy take the rect (itr equivalent) owner that interacts with it to frame X and you can make a bdy take you to frame X when hit. You can make the rect take you to frame X if it hits successfully, and you can make the rect force a target to a frame if hits. All these kind of object controlling is possible to the highest extent.

3. Friendly fire.

Huh? You mean team attack? Yes. There will even a team attack option in different modes. I have even be planning to do something which might let you prepare your own fighting modes setting rules and everything.

4. Ability to hit your objects (balls for example).

Yes. (using the "|UNIVERSAL|" switch on your object).

5. Affecting only certain characters, which are affected by something. For example, I hit the whole map with rect and only characters who were hit by something else before are affected.

Yes. This can easily be done by the help of the "registers". You basically "set_reg=" the targets of the first rect, and on the next rect, you set a condition to see if the target's register you set is what you set in the previous rect. If true, then you hit it. It can also be easily done with using "Curse Rects", but I am still to explain that when I come to to document the "rect[]" component.

6. Chasing balls that don't move in Y axis.

Well, unlike LF2, you will be doing chasing manually (that might sound bad, but its actually waaay better). Since you're now able to fetch your target's data, you will be able to have a "x/y/z_vel=" tags that will set your velocities according to the position of the target. Not using the "y_vel=" for that will simply mean that your ball won't be moving in the y axis at all.

7. Normal transformation (Louis).

OOPSI! Now I forgot to mention that transformation can be done as a second parameter for the "goto=" tag. For instance, if you would like to transform to id 10 frame 200, you would simply do: "goto=200, 10".

8. Transformation into someone (Rudolf).

Fetch your target's id via a rect, store the id in a rect, and transform to it later :P. As simple as that XD.

9. Timers, for example for transformation (after X time it affects you and transforms you into someone) which works even if you go into next stage (in tournament mode I think that you should start every fight from normal form).

Timers are possible. I explained how to do that in reply to BatTamer's post.

10. Teleport (Woody) only to certain characters (let's say that there are many characters on map, but you will always teleport to certain one/affected by something).

Yes. HARNESS THE POWER OF THE REGISTERS.

11. "Thornmail" (when someone hits you with anything, he takes % damage dealt).

Yes. You set a rect in your counter frame which damages the opponent by "@latestdmg@*(x/100)"; x being the %.

12. Inability to heal above max hp/mp/whatever.

Lol yes. Indeed.

13. Jan's Devils (with customizable fall time).

??

14. Rect that won't cause frame change.

Lol yes. Using the "|GHOSTRECT|" switch on your rect.

15. Frame change resist (like above, but from character's perspective).

Simply give your character a "|DEFEND|" switch in your move to make him defend (something like HF; when you try to hit Drew when he is using a D>A). Put in mind that you can also set how much % of the damage your character is going to resist. You can also give declare a certain DP count where your character will start to budge, break defend..etc.

16. Ability to turn on/off score table with other button (maybe Fx, where xc~(1,2,...12)) and exit fight/stage only with F4 (or as you wish).

Didn't get into that part yet.

17. Inability to pick character when someone else has already picked him (I'm talking about character select screen).

Yes. The character selection screen can be optimized to do almost everything. Now you won't have to stick with LF2's selection design XD. We've been working on a One Piece game using the A-Engine, and here is a selection menu I was able to do (it was quite hard to be honest):

18. Inability to pick certain characters (like you couldn't pick Mark withut the lf2.net code).

I didn't do the cheat code part thing yet, but you can now control what characters are going to appear in the selection screen and what won't.

19. Customizable velocity of chasing balls (because in LF2 they fly with fixed speed).

Yes, as I mentioned above.

20. Chasing balls that focus only certain characters (affected by something).

Yes.

21. Ability to slow someone down (movement or generally delay between frames) for X amount of time.

If you mean something like a time slow down, then I haven't worked on that yet. Slow frames individually is possible using a register which is added to that frame delay value, and a rect which increases it when it hits.

22. Objects attached to you (itr: kind 8).

Yes. Using the "|STICKYRECT|" switch with rects.

23. Taking reduced damage even when hit by attacks which don't change your frame.

Yes, as I mentioned above. Further more, you will even be able to reduce the impact you take from the rect.

24. Inability to be focused by chasing balls (they just don't "see" you).

Yes. Just do stuff with regs (I would explain, but I got tired of typing :P) .

25. Customizable chasing balls (focusing yourself, closest enemy/friend, can switch targets).

Yes.

And finally, you're welcome XD. Hope that answered all your questions.