AI Overhaul - Progress

[Salanewt]

Hey everyone! Just giving a quick status update about the state of the AI Overhaul. Most people who follow it in the Discord will know already, so I'm doing this for the two or three of you who aren't active in there.


The goal is as follows: I am finishing these recoil effects I want to add (mostly functional now, just need to finish coding the actual ability effects + PP recoil). When that is done, I'll be working really hard on a v0.5 gameplay demo and partially releasing the overhaul itself for testing. However, I don't plan to put the base overhaul on the forum because I want to minimize any confusion in the future about people installing the wrong thing. The demo will likely be put up on here for ease of access.

Some of the big ticket inclusions we have so far are Reflect, a reformed Reflux/counterattack, Psy-Poison, reworked enemy behaviours (a little so far, including smarter item use), move priority brackets, and an expanded "ability properties" table that controls for things like effect success rates, summon damage modifiers, and assigned text strings for select moves. There are a number of other things too, but these are some of the things that come up the most in discussions.

Plans for the future include charm and confuse, a reworked djinni manipulation system, enemy summon and djinni use, an enemy behaviour table, and new attack patterns that check for things like current level, level differences, and hard mode. A lot of that is up in the air still.


The demo is a gameplay demo with other, non-overhaul inclusions and changes. The main goal is to test some of the big ticket and other inclusions in a way that is guided so that players aren't exposed to everything all at once. The plan is to have it end with Aqua Hydra, while featuring Valukar as a bonus boss. Should be fun!

I'll likely update this topic when both things are ready.



Edit:

[Salanewt]

Oh, right this topic exists.

Hey everyone, v1.4.1 of the AI Demo is in the Downloads section. This demo only covers the official release of v0.5.2 of the AI Overhaul... which I haven't put on the forum because the project itself is still in active development, and I don't want to make things confusing if we have multiple versions of the AI Overhaul floating around down the road (as is the case with the three or so Editor v0.5 versions floating around). I shared it in the Discord server a while back, and can share it again if someone wants to take a look at that. It will likely stay out of the Downloads section until it is completed and has been thoroughly tested for bugs.

There have also been a couple small developments since I made the demo. Some are pictured below, others are not:




Edit: Oh, right I forgot to finish this post. My next goals are as follows:
- Finish reforming how status battle sprites are assigned, allowing for more status sprites for fewer slots. We could technically combine them all into one or two IDs at this point, but I don't feel like it.
- Finish implementing/designing some of the new effects that I have been adding; Reflect needs some new visuals, for example, and I want to add default sprites for Charm & Confuse. Among others.
- Begin researching Djinni reforms. I have big plans here but it could take a while.
- And more.


So uh, yeah. I hope people enjoy the demo!

[Salanewt]

The forum's been dead for a month, so I figure I can make a quick post for those of us who don't frequent the server.



DJINN REFORM PROGRESS!

At this stage I just need to finish implementing the following for this phase of the AI Overhaul:
- A "bound" state for djinn that works like Ghoul Ball's mechanic in DD
- Expanded djinn manipulation options
- Cleanup, including RAM relocation as necessary

Also:




Another teaser, plus a quick review of a handful of status effect things.




ALSO: I am planning to release a micro demo once this djinn reform is done, and then I can continue working on other things. I'll post it when/if I get it done!

[MaxiPower]

nice work sala.

[Foreclosure]

I am looking forward for the patch. Really, this is the most charming thing i've seen here.