Hello all! Lots of good news, so let's get right to it!
The artwork for Raia Ashtear (Formerly named Lutania) has been finalized and completed!
Her info here on the forum has also been updated.
In addition to Raia's finalized artwork, a finalized design has been made by DodgingTires for Calypso. It will later be redrawn by Dice to match the Crisis style, but I'd really like to show off this amazing art of Calypso in her concert attire.
Check out her cute little sprite, too!
I signed a new Ruby coder onto the team and he's gotten right to work on the battle system! That said, I decided it was time to finalize its layout and structure. We decided to stick with the smaller sprite size, BUT battles will take place on the map just like in Chrono Trigger. Lena created a mock up which you can see below.
Keep in mind that it has NOT been skinned yet and this is just a basic layout. However, there will be several different themed skins that you can change at will for both the battle system and message window. Onto the mechanics!
"How will it work?" you might ask. Well, it's pretty simple. Battles are fought in ATB (hence the gauges). Once a character's turn comes up, a ring of commands (Attack, Item, Support Tech, and Tech List) will appear around them. You select your choice by pressing up, left, right, or down, whichever commands corresponds to that direction. If Attack is chosen, you will choose an enemy and that character will run up to them and you will then have to enter button commands consisting of A, B, and Y (Space, Shift, and Enter for you keyboard users). Each attack will reduce your Stamina, indicated by the number in the circle on each character's info box.
Simple enough, eh? Things get a little more fun with techs. In Crisis, techs work just like a combo attack (as they always have). Each one has a combination of keys you have to hit. Techs consume more stamina than a normal attack (each has a base cost on top of the cost of reaching the tech with your successive attacks). If you don't have enough stamina left to perform the tech after you've built it up, it won't happen.
The "tech list" button is a list of your available techs. Scroll down to the tech you want to view and press accept. This list also tells you the base cost of each tech. If you hit left or right on this screen, you will be taken to your learned double and triple techs. Clicking accept on these items will display who the techs are to be preformed with, what each combination is, and how much it will cost with each character.
How do dual and triple techs work, anyway? Just like in Trigger (and Cross), double and triple techs become available when two or three characters have all learned certain prerequisite techniques that they can combine into a coordinated strike. Also, in order to activate this move, both characters have to have turns available at the time. In Crisis, the idea is the same, but the payoff is a little higher. Of course, because of this, it's a little more difficult than just picking what you want to do out of a list.
Basically, your techs build on each other. Say you want to perform a double tech that requires Xavier and Matison. First, you'd take your lead character (we'll say it's Xavier. It could be either one, really), and begin your attack. Your first goal is to set off the single tech that builds into the dual tech. Once you do that successfully, Xavier will perform the single tech. This is your chance! During the single tech, if a dual is possible, you will see a "L" or "R" over your character's head. If you press L (or R), you'll get a notification that you've set a dual strike. The action will freeze, and you will have a set time limit to enter the command for the second character. If you can't remember your tech, you can call up the tech menu (probably with select, L or R) and view the list. There's a time limit though, so don't dawdle too long. Enter it correctly, and your dual tech will begin after the damage from the single is dealt.
Triples are the same as this, only you have two characters involved. You would see "L" over the head of one character, and "R" over the head of the other during your single. First you'd select a character just as though you were going to do a dual tech (and enter the commands). During the dual tech, you have to select your third character in the same way, enter their commands, and sit back and enjoy the chaos that ensues.
It's sort of complicated sounding when written out, but it'll make for battles that are a little more interesting than the everyday "point and click" variety. It should also make for some really cool combination attacks as you're literally attacking 3 times (single, dual, and finally triple).
Aside from Attack and Tech List, Item is of course selected in order to use whatever items you possess in your inventory, and Support Tech is for using healing Techs/Magic and stat raising Techs/Magic. These don't require button inputs like weapon based techs. And there you have it! There will be a more in depth explanation with pictures on the forum sometime soon, so if you're confused on something be sure to check for that in the near future.
In other news...
Roe has completed a nice heap of songs, and a new clip has been uploaded! It's a remake of a previous clip representing the "Boss 2" theme, The Enemy Intensifies. Feast your ears on "Good Will Triumph" below:
http://www.chrono-crisis.com/im/mp3/good_will_triumph.mp3Lena has made good progress on the battle sprites as well as other in-game sprites! (Also redoing the whole character section without breaking the site! Wooo! -Lena)
I've made significant progress on the game script as well as finalized the lyrics for the song to be performed by Calypso during the Millennial Celebration!
Xenith has made progress on designing and coloring more weapons!
That's all for now! Be sure to check out the forum for a lot of new information on the 1999 AD characters as well as profiles and sprites for newly revealed minor characters!
