I would love to see a monster hunter mod for starbound. and i don't mean equipment only. i want it to have the skinning of monsters to use their parts, to make equipment,tools and more for hunting even MORE monsters. it should be designed for both multi and single player experiences. the main multiplayer difference is that the monsters are stronger. much stronger. and offer greater rewards. but i need more ideas for it to be fun and how they should work. i can do some decent artwork and minimal scripting...but that's the extent of my skill. i am hoping to see this kinda mod work. while i still need to get more ideas done...i welcome others to tell me theirs. i really hope i can get someone to make this mod. thank you.
Hmm... This would imply multiple parts to monsters (and all parts sharing a health pool) and I'm not really sure it can be done.
Right. The problem is porting a similar style of combat which is very 3D and reflex based into a system that is solely 2D. Off the top of my head that means doing the following: -Converting a very 3D fighting style to 2D, which means treating the monsters more like characters in Street Fighter (i.e. Nargacuga's tail whip only affects a certain position on the screen). --This means the monster as a whole won't do damage on touch, but you'll be generating, moving, and shaping areas of collision for each attack. ---This is collision the character has to be able to dodge (as that is core to the Monster Hunter fighting style), so the character's collision probs has to have an exception state (or an invuln buff) during a roll or dive maneuver. ----Rolling or diving is not in game at the moment. In addition to adding that functionality (a tech is probably the easiest way, but likely limits you to one movement method), you have to then animate each and every race, armor, and clothing set making that roll. That also means having some placeholder for modded clothing, since you'll have to approach each of those individually. Do note that the basic weapons and abilities in Starbound aren't made for this kind of combat, so you have to figure out how to deal with monsters being pelted with poison pinwheels that go through their entire body (how often does it hit? Is there a reason not to use that style of weapon over direct attacks?), being submerged in lava, and trapped in dirt cages. Since each monster has several pieces, and each piece has potentially several states (damaged/severed, or some of the three-state changes damaged/cracked/broken) you'll probably be animating each piece separately so that any given monster animation is composed of several distinct pieces. This also means each piece needs to be damageable aside from the creature itself, which really means that you have to have them be entirely separate from the main model. An example using our Nargacuga above. Let's say we're dealing with a Nargacuga tail whip. The problem is that the Narga has four breakable locations (we're assuming the wings are a unified whole here). So, first you animate the body without those breakable sections (head, wings, tail, and tail tip). Then you animate each section for each damaged state. This means having one animation file for the body, one for the head, one for the wings, and two for the tail (scar and sever). And this doesn't include rage or infected modes. I am not saying it's impossible. I am assuming that the code would be relatively straightforward for most of these things (assuming you can store and grab the damaged state of a piece and generate loot drops based on an aggregate of those parts). I am saying that it's a ton of work.
You don't necessary have to try to imitate Monster Hunter's combat in a 2D environment, but rather you just need to give the same feel of difficulty and the same feel of reward when you finally slay the monster. So rather than try to emulate Monster Hunter's combat, it may be more viable to focus on how Starbound combat works and take advantage of its strengths. Honestly, you can probably make a large number of comparisons to Mega Man (for example, the dash tech used to be very similar to the X, Zero, and ZX series' dash). So looking at how Mega Man did its large, multipart bosses may be more useful. You wouldn't really need rolling or diving techs either, rather just play on what the current options give you like using the morph ball to duck under attacks, carefully timed dashes to quickly avoid attacks and to use to quickly engage and disengage, the various jump techs to maneuver over attacks; just some basic ideas that can be expanded on greatly. Yes the MH series has amazing combat, but it is just a factor used to enhance the experience so it isn't necessary a key factor but rather just an important one. You could replace it with an equally good combat system and it would still work. However, give it a lesser system, and the overall experience will suffer and I don't think trying to emulate a 3D style into 2D as a focus for combat would work very well. So focusing on Starbound's own strengths rather than trying emulate the strengths of another system would lead to a better combat system and enhance the overall experience much better. The key and core concept if Monster Hunter is take down monsters for drops, use drops to make better gear, use better gear to take down stronger monsters, use bigger monster to make even better gear, use better gear to take down even stronger monsters, and repeat. It is a simple concept that simply requires difficult fights that are ultimately rewarding in both material drops and for that feeling of ecstasy when you finally beat that big monster. That is the core that the mod would have to be built around. Still would be a lot of work though since, I you would still probably need to do the "generating, moving, and shaping areas of collision for each attack" par.
