Sunrider [Out of date]

[LVUER]

Interesting... I choose Prince Point for both Q2 and Q3, but Moralist for Q1... Guess I'm a neutral?

[netravelr]

This looks like it'll be right up my alley! I'm excited to learn more, and I'll definitely be keeping my eye on it.

[ShippoK]

With the Moral System, can you still go through a character's route even if they're not what you choose?

Ex. Can you still be a 'PRINCE' to get Asaga's route?
I don't want to force myself to become a 'MORALIST' to make her happy with me.

[Omnificent]

Hmm.

On the one hand, I am psyched to see more sci-fi OELVNs. The graphics look good thus far, and I'm looking forward to hearing more infodump about mech specs.

On the other hand, I hope that there's a bit more to these characters than "the [insert Love Hina archetype here]". It feels as though I already know what to expect from these girls going in, so to speak.

[Samu-kun]

With the Moral System, can you still go through a character's route even if they're not what you choose?

Ex. Can you still be a 'PRINCE' to get Asaga's route?
I don't want to force myself to become a 'MORALIST' to make her happy with me.

It depends on the character. Certain characters are more flexible with your ethical alignment, and just because a certain character aligns as either a moralist or a prince does not mean they will constantly approve of those actions, because other factors control as well. (Realistically, even people with really strong political beliefs frequently take positions which contradict their beliefs.) People obviously make decisions based on a lot of things, only one of which is their ethical preference.

Some girls also get influenced by your own ethical alignment, so they might swap camps. So it's possible to date one girl as a prince, and have a difference experience than if you were dating her as a moralist. Some girls cannot be influenced though, and they get angry with you if you don't pick what they want. Some characters are pretty inflexible, so you need to lean heavily as either a prince or a moralist to pursue them. So if you want to get all the endings, you'll have to force yourself to play as either a moralist or a prince just to get all the girls.

It's a pretty fluid system and it's not really mechanical. Overall, I like visual novels to have easy and for everyone to get the ending they want though. So hopefully you'll be able to figure out what each girl expects from you and there won't be any surprise rejections. =w=

On the other hand, I hope that there's a bit more to these characters than "the [insert Love Hina archetype here]". It feels as though I already know what to expect from these girls going in, so to speak.

The characters, as usual, are pretty archetypal. But the characters certainly seem more shallow than they actually are in the story because I doubt people will read more than 10 words in a WIP topic, so I tried to describe each characters' personality in one word.

[Graph]

Those designs look pretty amazing! Both the mecha and the girls. Are there any particular influences you'd like to mention?

It looks like you're pretty much covered art-wise, but let me know if there's something I can help with.

[Samu-kun]

The mechas are heavily influenced by the Armored Core series. As for the star ships, I guess they're really influenced by the science fiction I saw while growing up - Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, and Mass Effect.

It looks like you're pretty much covered art-wise, but let me know if there's something I can help with.

I freaking love your ATL coding.

[Graph]

I freaking love your ATL coding.

Are you thinking of having those sorts of scenes in this VN, or just saying? (Thanks, btw)

I'm currently reworking the Touhou Mecha ATL to include LiveComposite sprites and the new additive blending. When that's ready, maybe in a couple of months, I'll share the code with everyone. In the meantime though, you can ask me whatever you'd like on the subject.

[Samu-kun]

Yeah, the plan is to have Muv-Luv and Super Robot Wars type mecha battle scenes.

My problem is that I've never actually made one of those scenes, so I don't really know what they'll look like yet. And well, my programming isn't really the best. =w=

[Graph]

I think the current ATL is pretty easy to work with; unlike GUI, I'm unlikely to run into a problem there that can't be fixed with a quick trip to the Q&A board. But it does take a lot of time to position and size things just right, and visualizing the scene itself is always an interesting challenge, as I guess you've noticed.

Maybe sometime down the line I can hop onboard to help code the thing if you want. Are you thinking of having 3d renders for the animation, or hand-drawn sprites?

[Samu-kun]

Pretty much everything but the characters and the UI are going to be 3D. So all that's required is to just render the mechas in the pose and POV you want. I can handle pretty much the graphics side of things, so long as you give me something like napkin sketches of what POV and pose you want. It's really the programming and the cinematography that I'm concerned about, and not really the graphic assets.

I would be glad to have you on board once the mechas are all ready to go. Be warned though, the script is currently over 100k words long and there's A LOT of battle scenes (approximately 13 battles, I believe, some of them of on an enormous scale involving thousands of ships and mechas), so this won't be something that can be finished in a year or two...

[Graph]

That's pretty ambitious, indeed. Since there's still designs and stuff to work out, for now I'll just say I'll see how much free time I've got when the time comes. I'll definitely keep an eye out for updates though!

[Samu-kun]

Okay. I'm hoping to start programming the battles in about a month.

You know, if you don't have much free time, it'd be a big help if you could provide just rough storyboards for the battles. If you just gave me a rough idea of the POV, how things will be positioned, and where things will move, I can render the graphics and figure out the ATL myself. Because you obviously know more about cinematography than I do.

[Graph]

Okay. I'm hoping to start programming the battles in about a month.

You know, if you don't have much free time, it'd be a big help if you could provide just rough storyboards for the battles. If you just gave me a rough idea of the POV, how things will be positioned, and where things will move, I can render the graphics and figure out the ATL myself. Because you obviously know more about cinematography than I do.

That might be a good way to proceed, yeah. I can directly help with the programming for at least one full scene; we'll see how it goes after that. It should be easier to handle the programming once there's a framework in place.

[Samu-kun]

A Tour of the Sunrider: Part 1