Golden Axe the Hackjob by DC

[utunnels]

It has been years since I released the mod, now I'm thinking about improving it. But I still need to gather ideas.

1. The level setting will probably be left unchanged. I'd like to add a Death Bringer stage, but probably after all other changes are done. The biggest problem is a decent background, but I don't have to use the genesis background and Death Bringer doesn't have to be in his throne chamber , so it is not a critical problem.

Stage 2 and stage 3 don't have scrolling backgrounds. That is OK for stage 2 since the sky is barely visible, but maybe I can recreate a background for stage 3.

2. Enhance magic animations.

3. Gilius Thunderhead's magic pot enhance function needs to be removed. IMO it's making him overpowered.

4. Add knock down count to attacks and disable most counter attacks from enemies.

5. Probably, disable grab for dragons and make the dragon vulnerable while attacking. The grab feature doesn't look that bad, but that doesn't look quite like Golden Axe.

6. Change backward throw animations for Gilius and Tyris. Currently the victim just flies too faraway.

7. Try to refine enemy AI. Sadly enemies still don't know how to surround the players and they are easily blocked by walls.

8. Make thieves easier to hit. Fix their escape animation, which can easily be blocked by walls.

[Damon Caskey]

Hey UT, I have actually been working on an upgrade myself if you are interested in seeing it. Here is my main working log. My goal was bascially to build on Golden Axe and upgrade the gameplay to modern levels (i.e. complex moves and tech) while keeping the orginal feel.

Some of the things already in:

1. Transparent motion blurs.

2. Playable Alex with in game explanation (he still dies unless you pick him, in which case he is hurt bad but miraculously lives).

3. Location based stereo (i.e. hits, screams, and sounds fade left and right depending on the screen location).

4. Life meter looks exactly like arcade Golden Axe (blocks instead of a single bar). Unlike the original though, they also change color individually as depleted (think Altered Beast).

5. Lots of technique. I started by making all the move sets an amalgamation of all the various Golden Axe versions. For example, Ax Battler has four range levels to his main combo. The longest range ends with a punch like Sternblade from GA 2 Arcade, second farthermost uses thrust kick from GA2 Genesis, and the next two are traditional pound/kick or throw.  Then he has the jump spin strike from Sternblade, and his charge attack (to be clear, hold and release button move) is the unblockable twirl sword and down stroke from his counterpart GA3.

6. Voice effects. All characters now have an individual set of grunts, groans and the like. They also taunt, use battle cries, and all of it is randomized. For example, when you hit an opponent with a knockdown blow (and they actually fall), your character will sometimes yell out one of several phrases "Taste STEEL villain!". Characters will call for help when near death, scream differently when thrown into pits, and so on (I took most of the voice clips from Neverwinter Nights, for anyone familiar with that game).

7. Grappling. I have added my universal grappling system. All main character have a complete set of grapple moves. They also use alternate throws for walls.

8. Individualization. I am trying to individualize the characters without sacrificing their original feel. Ax Battler has no fancy projectiles or high flying tricks, but his close range sword moves have reach and he can chain together multiple grab moves for huge damage. Alex is slow and weak, but he can summon the ride creatures with his magic and shoot a bow. Tyris will have the GA2 Genesis ability to select the spell level (not done yet).

Team attacks are also in. I am working on team magic, but that isn't done yet.

9. AI. Enemies still have the surrounding issue you mentioned. However, they can now pursue you laterally across platforms and obstacles (no more trapping them below you in level 1), and have an array of new tricks. As an example, Amazon can throw her axes, catch your attacks and counter throw you, and also do a couple of grab moves. In addition, her Dark version can teleport behind you and do an instant grab.

Enemies are also much more dangerous on ride creatures; not only do they have access to all the ride creature's upgrades, they also don't get less aggressive when riding.

10. Optimizing. I've replaced all the sprites with .png, and gotten rid of all the duplication (ex: dragons now use one sprite set for red/blue).

11. Color correction. I switched the mod to 16bit and remastered the sprites to use original arcade colors.

12. Music. All the music is in true stereo. I haven't converted them to .ogg yet, but will soon.

13. Joe Musashi. He's in as a guest character, just to give me something to do with my old Joe sprites. He actually fits in very well and I worked hard to keep him from being a giant space flea from nowhere. He's ultra fast, very strong, and has the dog to assist, but is hard to use and has very poor melee reach. His magic is also quite powerful, but only has one level so he can't use it at all until collecting quite a bit.

Planned - This stuff I have in planning but haven't done yet:

1. Death Adder. My plan is to have the original Death Adder boss fight be a fake; another one of his "dark" soldier projections. The real Death Adder is inside the castle and requires a couple more stages. I'm thinking a lava level and stair level. But concept is basically same as the "bringer" stage on Genesis, I just always hated the idea of Bringer himself. Real Death Adder will have his shield, magic sucking ability, and can summon skeletons. he'll always try to keep two around. I liked the idea of him summoning more as opposed to just having two super skeletons hanging around.

2. Alternate route. I thought it would be cool to have an option to storm the main road you fly around in the original. The idea is you decide there is no time to go around, but as the original map scene said there are too many enemies to take on piecemeal. So instead it would be a chase level fighting on the run, depicting you trying to break through Death Adder's army with a high speed assault.

3. Other alternates. I'm debating adding Dora The Centaur and maybe some others. Sprites are not a problem, but because I want every pair of characters to have at least one team attack, the work could multiply quickly.

4. Improved magic effects. I hate Ax Battler's "Earth Bomb" magic. I'm making him actually use rocks, stone, and Earth Elementals. Ditto for the other warriors, but in their case I'm just improving the effects and not their themes.

A lot of other stuff, but most of it minor tweaks here and there.

The Bad News:

1. Static resolution. To get certain things to work before Doomsday, I removed the alternate resolution support. It's now forced 480*272 widescreen.

2. PC only. Even with all the optimization and duplicate removal, the module is huge. A LOT of animation has been added, certain features (like Alex being able to summon the ride creatures) mean every model has to be front loaded and there is a ton of script. It's far from finished and needs about 70MB to run right now. Maybe the Wii can do it, but anything else besides PC is right out. I couldn't care less, but it bears mentioning.

DC

[utunnels]

Wow, lots of changes. So I changed my mind since we don't need two branches.

It seems you have worked on expanding the features while I was thinking about simplifying the game play and enhancing the already done features.

Maybe I should edit the background of stage 3 first.

The Bad News:

1. Static resolution. To get certain things to work before Doomsday, I removed the alternate resolution support. It's now forced 480*272 widescreen.

Yeah, me too. At first I thought 320x240 was better since 3 players mode was rarely touched. Plus the 480x272 resolution looks a bit blank, maybe some decorations over the screen are necessary.

[volcanic]

Great news!
Actually I'm greatly interested in this series as well.
Hopefully we can see more moves of each hero.

[Damon Caskey]

Yeah, me too. At first I thought 320x240 was better since 3 players mode was rarely touched. Plus the 480x272 resolution looks a bit blank, maybe some decorations over the screen are necessary.

I thought the variable resolution support was some amazing script work on your part and I hated to take it out. But with all the math work going on to make the block based life meter work (and I forgot, all enemies on screen also have their life represented by a single block), I had to let it go.



*Edit:* Here is some of Alex in action:

Using bow:


Forward throw:


Forward throw near wall:


Funny thing, I haven't quite finished scripting what happens to the NPC version when you pick Alex. It's pretty funny to watch as he talks to himself and then broods over his own death. Alex: "Alex..."

 

DC

[utunnels]

LMAO, that Alex looks really outstanding and fun to play.

Funny thing, I haven't quite finished scripting what happens to the NPC version when you pick Alex. It's pretty funny to watch as he talks to himself and then broods over his own death. Alex: "Alex..."

That is pretty OK, he just has a twin brother or two -- the portrait is the only thing I want to complain, it looks exactly like Ax Battler in a helmet.

...new characters

Well maybe instead of spawning all the things on the player select screen, a new set is better. But that's just a small issue.  That'll solve the team magic problem, for example you won't have Ax and Dora in one team and thus no need to make extra magic for them.


My current work for stage 3 backgrounds layers.

Original background.

Here's the panel.


The background layer would look like this.

[Damon Caskey]

...

Looks fantastic!

I plan to break up layers in that stage too, but haven't done anything to it yet. Love the background you have going, that castle looks really cool.

DC

[utunnels]

Tried giving Alex a smaller portrait than Ax. 

Doesn't look too good so far, maybe it needs some more shading.

[negronomicon]

Alex playable 
It's a big idea! 

[Mrgrill247]

I think it?s a bloody marvelous idea of revisiting Golden Axe.
I would like to see more background separation, and I know it is very time consuming but it gives the game more depth as you journey, well more eye candy. The real kicker is playing as Joe Higashi with his canine companion because he would be a new player and very fun to play.

[Crimefighters2]

Cool awesome news! I wish more modders would update their work, I mean if the game is already complete why not come back to it in a year or two and add new charas, enemies stages etc nobody complained when Capcom made SF2 The new Challengers etc.

I would like, new charas, enemies, moves, specials, stages, fatalities (that banned guy had great fatalities in his GA obor mod, too bad the gameplay was a bit bland), more platforming etc etc

Will be watching this, remake was pretty good.

[Mad Daimond]

This version will be only for PC and some powerfull platforms? What about PSP, Dingoo and DC?

[Damon Caskey]

What about PSP, Dingoo. and DC?

Don't care.

I don't mean that to be a jerk, I just want to be very clear. When it comes to my own work, making the experience exactly as I want it will always trump platform support. My work is already as optimized as possible. The only way to get it smaller is to downgrade or cut content. That's not optimizing, it's compression, and a big no no in my book. If a platform can't run the mod 100% as intended; too bad.

DC

[Bloodbane]

 Wow, Alex looks cool!
 Mmm... I assume you have fixed Ax's slam? when I tried his slam, it doesn't feel like a slam. It's as if Ax can't carry the enemy much longer and fell instead.

9. AI...

Good. One thing I love about Golden Axe is AI. Just with 2 or 3 enemies, players have enough problems in their hands. Contrast to basic OpenBoR AI in which players could ignore some enemies even though there are lots of enemies on screen.

2. Alternate route.

Good. I agree with this. I think giant beasts (Turtle and Eagle) could take players to random places, so in 1st play, they take players to usual place (Town & Death's Adder's Castle) but in other play, they take to other place such as forest or mountain.

 Anyways, good luck with the project!

[Expio]

The mod need the arcade final scene into the arcade house.