Freedom Reborn

Freedom Force Forums => Mods => Topic started by: JKCarrier on October 03, 2010, 12:36:41 AM

Title: Batman Family mod
Post by: JKCarrier on October 03, 2010, 12:36:41 AM
Part One of my "Batman Family" mod is now available.

(http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u313/JKCarrier/Freedom%20Force/bf_promo.jpg)

Batman has disappeared! Gotham City is in chaos! Can Robin and Batgirl (and a few surprise guest-stars) save the day?

THRILL to 4 missions (so far) of pulse-pounding* action!
GASP at the Pre-Crisis continuity and vintage villains!
CRINGE at Robin's big 70s hair!
BREAK my heart when you find the inevitable bugs and errors!

Download it here:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/cju8faz0du743r3/btmnfmly01.zip

* - actual pulse rate may vary. consult a physician if your pulse pounds for more than 4 hours.
Title: Re: Batman Family mod
Post by: Previsionary on October 03, 2010, 12:47:30 AM
Awesome JKC! I think I'll give you a little more promotion by making a blog post about it, if ya don't mind. Actually, if you want a more permanent hosting solution, I wouldn't mind putting the mod on FRP space. Tis up to you. Either way, can't wait to give this a play.
Title: Re: Batman Family mod
Post by: JKCarrier on October 03, 2010, 02:47:35 AM
Thanks, Prev, a plug on your blog would be most appreciated. Hosting the mod on FRP would be great too. There will (knock wood) be 3 more parts, so maybe you want to wait until the whole thing's done? Whatever would be most convenient for you.
Title: Re: Batman Family mod
Post by: Kenn on October 03, 2010, 04:01:26 AM
I like Robin's big 70s hair.

One more reason to try and find a copy of FFvt3R.
Title: Re: Batman Family mod
Post by: catwhowalksbyhimself on October 03, 2010, 04:10:38 AM
I suggest gog (http://gog.com).  $5.99, no drm of any kind, and identical to the easily moddable Amercian version.  You may have to alter the mod's shortcut to account for a slightly different install path, but other than that, that should do perfectly for you.
Title: Re: Batman Family mod
Post by: Kenn on October 03, 2010, 04:20:56 AM
Cool.  I'll have to check that out.
Title: Re: Batman Family mod
Post by: Outcast on October 03, 2010, 01:57:18 PM
This looks very interesting. Cool background for this mod. Does it scroll like the background scrolls in  :ffvstr:? :) I also like the work you did on Robin. With the hair, mask and everything, i think you really nailed that look he had in the old Super Friends cartoon show.  :D
Title: Re: Batman Family mod
Post by: JKCarrier on October 03, 2010, 02:44:17 PM
Quote from: Outcast on October 03, 2010, 01:57:18 PM
Cool background for this mod. Does it scroll like the background scrolls in  :ffvstr:? :)

Yup!

QuoteI also like the work you did on Robin. With the hair, mask and everything, i think you really nailed that look he had in the old Super Friends cartoon show.  :D

Ha, thanks! There are a lot of great Robin skins out there I could've used, but I really wanted that specific late-'70s "I'm getting too old for these shorts" look.  ;)
Title: Re: Batman Family mod
Post by: Previsionary on October 03, 2010, 06:12:24 PM
Quote from: JKCarrier on October 03, 2010, 02:47:35 AM
Thanks, Prev, a plug on your blog would be most appreciated. Hosting the mod on FRP would be great too. There will (knock wood) be 3 more parts, so maybe you want to wait until the whole thing's done? Whatever would be most convenient for you.

I'm fine with hosting it either way, but having all the parts in one download would be very convenient, so I'll wait until you finish it all up. Hopefully, I'll get to play it today after I finish writing some stuff. ^_^
Title: Re: Batman Family mod
Post by: John Jr. on October 03, 2010, 07:13:26 PM
Hey, great news! I really liked the Batman Family (or at least the brazilian versions) in the 70's, I'll be sure to get it.
Cool looking Robin and Batgirl, BTW.
Title: Re: Batman Family mod
Post by: USAgent on October 03, 2010, 07:27:17 PM
Played the first level, and can't wait to see how the story playes out!
Title: Re: Batman Family mod
Post by: Alaric on October 03, 2010, 08:16:48 PM
Wow! The Dynamite Duo! I was just thinking about the old "Batgirl/Robin" team the other day... it always bothers me when people assume that Dick went from Batman's sidekick directly to his Nightwing identity- he had over a decade as a more-or-less independent Robin (well, okay... Between the Titans and teaming with Batgirl, he wasn't completely independent, but he wasn't a sidekick, and he went into action on his own a fair amount of the time), and no one remembers that anymore...

Is Man-Bat involved, as well?
Title: Re: Batman Family mod
Post by: USAgent on October 03, 2010, 09:15:38 PM
Mission 2 stuckage:

Spoiler
Nothing happens after I beat Catman-bot, I beat him twice just incase something didn't take.  Need to see a log file?
Title: Re: Batman Family mod
Post by: spydermann93 on October 03, 2010, 09:17:34 PM
very nice! I'm going to have to try this out. :)
Title: Re: Batman Family mod
Post by: JKCarrier on October 03, 2010, 10:09:53 PM
USAgent: There should be a cutscene playing after that fight. Go ahead and post the log, and maybe someone smarter than me can figure out what it means.  :unsure:

Did you happen to reload a save game in the middle of the mission? I noticed when I was playing Benton's DCUG mod that sometimes would cause the mission to get hung up.
Title: Re: Batman Family mod
Post by: USAgent on October 04, 2010, 02:57:57 AM
Quote from: JKCarrier on October 03, 2010, 10:09:53 PM
Did you happen to reload a save game in the middle of the mission? I noticed when I was playing Benton's DCUG mod that sometimes would cause the mission to get hung up.

Yep that is what I was doing, I played that mission from the start again and it finished this time.

Spoiler
I love the choice of villains so far, in no way would I have ever thought I'd see the Eraser in a mod!  There was a very good level of play too, not too hard and yet you couldn't just go bashing away either.  Wayne manor looked great too.  Looking forward to the next levels!
Title: Re: Batman Family mod
Post by: AfghanAnt on October 04, 2010, 11:41:28 AM
Holy crap! I need to download this now. :)
Title: Re: Batman Family mod
Post by: Xenolith on October 04, 2010, 03:08:46 PM
I'm super-exicted to play this.  I love your skopes and skins.  I love pre-Crisis Batman.  Yay!
Title: Re: Batman Family mod
Post by: abenavides on October 05, 2010, 01:21:07 AM
This look awesome!
Nice work! (hope to get time to try it out)
Title: Re: Batman Family mod
Post by: oldmanwinters on November 14, 2010, 04:56:18 AM
I've played through the existing missions and I really like the Silver Age vibe!  The Man-Bat is lots of fun to control!
Title: Re: Batman Family mod
Post by: JKCarrier on November 14, 2010, 08:59:13 PM
Thanks! Progress on the next part has been slow, but I'm hoping to get some work done on it this week.  :)
Title: Re: Batman Family mod
Post by: detourne_me on November 21, 2010, 11:01:31 AM
 :thumbup: excellent work so far JKC!!
Thoroughly enjoyed the mod, and looking forward to see what's next.
Title: Re: Batman Family mod
Post by: oldmanwinters on December 01, 2010, 01:19:31 AM
Any progress?  I'm looking forward to the next installment of missions and trying to unravel the mystery of Batman's disappearance!
Title: Re: Batman Family mod
Post by: USAgent on December 01, 2010, 03:32:00 AM
Ditto what the oldman said.
Title: Re: Batman Family mod
Post by: JKCarrier on December 01, 2010, 04:55:14 AM
It's slow going, but I am working on it. The nice comments help keep me motivated, so thanks for that.  :D
Title: Re: Batman Family mod
Post by: Previsionary on December 04, 2010, 02:04:28 AM
I feel bad. I wrote a post for the mod a while ago, but I never got around to revising it with actual thoughts/pics and putting it on the main site. I'm going to do that eventually for sure! I'm glad you're still working on the second part. More mods = more playability = ? = More potential players and notability!
Title: Re: Batman Family mod
Post by: John Jr. on December 26, 2010, 09:18:09 PM
I finally got time to play this mod and I really liked it. JK really captured the silly fun form the Silver Age, from Robin's infamous "Holy..." exclamations to over the top villains like Killer Moth and The Eraser.
The art was the best part of the mod. JK is one of our "unsung heroes", his skins have a classic and at the same time realistic feel (check his faces, everything form the eyes to the skins color is perfect) and he offered some of his best creations in this mod, Robin and Batgirl are great, but Alfred and Ruby are equally impressive. Maps, the new main menu, with classic Batman covers, everything is  perfect.

Spoiler
The game balance is a little irregular in the first missions, specially the Robin vs Cat-Man mission, it was too quick and easy, IMHO, but the last mission is great. We have a lot of action, different villains and the player needs a little strategy to win. A great mission that let the player wanting for more.
The story is intriguing, the subtle clues  about who is our mastermind are interesting and the characterization is good, I'm looking forward to see more inter-action between Babs and Dick, they made a great team back in the 70's, since they could be portrayed as equals (unlike the "Batman and..." versions).
Good and interesting builds, my only quibble would be Bab's strength. I don't think Batgirl should be strong enough to use a lamp post as weapon, but it was fun to do it in the Rumble Run against Cat-Man.

A great mod, JK, thanks for releasing it and I'm very curious to see what will happen in the second part.
Title: Re: Batman Family mod
Post by: JKCarrier on December 26, 2010, 10:18:40 PM
Thanks very much, John!  ^_^

Balance is probably the hardest part of making a mod. I originally had more opponents in that mission, but with the timer, it seemed a little too much. I may have overcompensated, though. I'll keep it in mind for the next set of missions.

You have a point about Babs' strength. It's hard to make all these "street level" characters distinct from each other, within the parameters of the FF system. The idea was that Babs would be more of a brawler, while Dick was more an acrobat. Maybe I shouid give Babs the "clumsy" attribute, so she still hits hard, but isn't swinging lamp posts around.

I should point out that great Alfred skin you mentioned was the work of Atomic Robot. There's quite a bit of his work in the mod, he's one of the greats when it comes to "classic" style skins. If I had to skin every character myself, the mod would be taking even longer than it already is...  :unsure:

Thanks for the great feedback, much appreciated!
Title: Re: Batman Family mod
Post by: John Jr. on December 27, 2010, 03:10:31 AM
Maybe you could just give "Normal" strength to both, but give Bab's higher damage powers.
Whops! I should have checked the Read Me. Anyway you made a great choice with AR's Alfred. And I agree with you, AR is one of the best with classic characters.