Battle for Rio 2

Hello! The sequel for Battle for Rio is complete! To everyone who liked the first one, I hope you enjoy this one too

Battle for Rio 2



Storyline

After failing to capture Shiva in an operation that resulted in dozens
of injured people and a building destroyed in the downtown of Rio,
Blaze, Axel and team have to work with BOPE (Special Police Operations
Battalion, the special unit of the military police of Rio), which is
now tasked to respond to the recent Syndicate attacks. The conflict
escalates with BOPE and the Rio police turning Syndicate's own weapons
against them.

About Battle for Rio 2

The sequel and final chapter for Battle for Rio is here. It is the
continuation of the story of the bad ending path from the first one.
It contains several original stages, new breakable objects and sound
effects (again you will need SORR 5.1 to play it).

Developing this sequel was a great challenge for me - I wanted it to be at
the same level of the first one and explore new things. In Battle for Rio 1
there is the feeling that the Syndicate is always one step ahead,
with the bad ending route showing an even more powerful and prepared
team lead by Rudra. In Battle for Rio 2, with the help of BOPE, the
balance of power starts to shift and you have the feeling of
empowerment that comes with it.

Axel, Rudra, Blaze, Zan and Raul play major roles in Battle for Rio 2.
The story mixes fiction with reality, with excerpts from television news
about BOPE operations. There is still Brito (Rudra's security guard in
BFR1), the boxer Maguilo, Midori and Shinkiro and they all have an
individual scene. The singer Juliette Lewis also makes an appearance in
the story.

Inspiration



Stage 1 - BOPE response against the destruction caused by the Syndicate
in the downtown. Similar to the real BOPE, in Battle for Rio the BOPE
insignia is a skull. The vehicle entering the favela is known as Big
Skull (Caveirão). The audio from the scene is a real one from cops
entering the favela using one of those armored vehicles.
Stage 2 - Second mission for the BOPE in the Leblon neighborhood. This
stage uses an audio excerpt from a Juliette Lewis show that happened in
Rio de Janeiro in 2007.
Stage 3 - Arcade and subway stages with ambient sound of Rio's metro
and arcade from 1992. The first scenes are The Girl club and the
Copacabana Bar street.
Stage 4 - This level is inspired by Rio's Zona Sul streets like
Arpoador and Copacabana mixing oriental elements like a chinese-style
restaurant. The second part you enter a poor residential building.
Stage 5 - The green field where you enter an underground Syndicate
training facility. Some inspiration come from SOR2 and its underground
stage.
Stage 6 - The Copacabana beach at night and the hotel where Syndicate
members meet.
Stage 7 - Onyx Corp headquarters and the Onyxnet system mission.
In Battle for Rio 2, Onyx Corp is the company behind the drones seen in
BFR1.
Stage 8 - Brito's boat and the final battle in the mansion.

Most buildings in BFR2 have two scenes (floors). I started designing an
scene for each room, but later I created a map and scenario similar to
the one I made for Raul's room in BFR1, with a corridor in the back, but
allowing all the rooms to stay in the same scene.

Minimal Requirements

The data folder now contains several modified sound effects I strongly
recommend using. You can enable them by simply copying them to the
SORR data sub folder.

I strongly recommend disabling the lightsaber cheat if you have it
enabled or some things may not make sense during the story.
It must also be the first game played after launching SoRR or some
events will be out of sync and progress too quickly during the initial
story scenes.

Like BFR1, you will need SORR 5.1 to run this mod - If you use the old,
5.0 version things will be horribly broken (there will be no way to
finish the game, objects will be misplaced, portraits will be missing,
etc).

Custom palettes - I strongly recommend using the custom palettes
included with this mod. They are designed visually match the scenes and
contain custom enemy names.

Before playing, replace the "palettes\enemies" folder in the SORR folder
with the ones included with this mod. If you need you can restore the
original later by copying back the files from the "backup_enemies"
folder.

Note: the palettes created for BFR2 should be backward compatible, so
you can use BFR2's palettes with BFR1.

Download link:

Code:


Latest version (v3.01, aka Olympics Edition)
https://mega.nz/#!uMghCBLD!k5Plozgu_b_3-Ex614QUh6H7Qud2LVvVZ16TFi1q8lQ

Old version (v2.0)
https://mega.nz/#!3RBS3TbB!pywgYmQuUJxn75TvstMpS8LERRUUDQQoUyDzH8qFKDw
or
https://www.mediafire.com/?71b8ii45a70flsc


Video about the mod:


Recording (by Vecta):


~Onyx

woooo~! That was fast~!

I'm downloading this thing as we speak... before I catch my plane to Kuala Lumpur.

Great!

Downloading ...

And of course I'll have to wait until my new laptop screen comes in to get hands on this beauty. -_-"

I forgot to mention this: it must be the first game played after launching SoRR or some events will be out of sync and progress too quickly during the initial story scenes

Okay, I've uploaded two attempts on this mod using Zan.

Take one: FAIL! Bomb'd by fuckin' Rudra in MY underground boxing gym! Not happy about it!  (am I the only one not ashamed in uploading failed gameplay attempts?)


Take two: SUCCESS! Skipped the shitton of cutscenes until my first fail (watch the first video to see everything) and this time BARELY was able to put that bitch down (Onyx could lower down her health to make this battle not so hard). In the ascending elevator faced a bug where the trollface didn't want to show up so I had to kill myself for him to pop back again. My very first run (not recorded had a bug also where the bomb exploded even there weren't any enemies apparently).



I'm gonna do a full review a bit later with tons of details. Boy, I love the KL connection, finally I can upload videos quickly without worrying about fucking VPN issues from China.

BTW, the shitload of copyrighted songs used in the mod makes them impossible to be monetized as the fucking copyright vultures fly all over them. They can still be played, but I'm getting nothing from them. Oh well, no biggie.

Don Vecta wrote:Onyx could lower down her health to make this battle not so hard.

Definitely doing this

Don Vecta wrote:I'm gonna do a full review a bit later with tons of details.

Definitely would like to see your review! I see many things that need improvement and want to pay attention to every word said here.

I will remove the song with copyright restriction. And I forgot to add celestinx to the credits

Just updated the first post with a link to version 1.1 and a screenshot of the arcade club stage. The changes are:

v1.1:
- Added a new character (Sage) and removed Paula.
- Added some respectable security for Midori, changed the stage music
and freed the camera.
- Rewrite of story and several modifications to stage 3. New music and
improved ambush and arcade scenes.
- New music for stage 4 scenes. Also freed the camera in the building
and added more enemies to the alternate route.
- Improved underground elevator map (should fix issue of enemy not
showing up) and fixed some idle moments in elevators.
- Made it easier to defeat Rudra.
- Added 1up to Shiva in final battle.
- Added music to scene 4 of stage 7.
- Updated the credits and replaced first credit scene song.
- Fixed bad punk positioning in metro stage.
- Fixed the missing robot object and the start position of robots in
stage 5.
- Shortened many scripts, removed some intro and story scenes to speed
up the pace.

Whoa whoa there... that update was way too fast. I always think a month or two worth of feedback for bugs, balances, fixes and graphical issues is better, the more people play it, the easier to get a more comprehensive and complete update patch.

Anyways, I'm gonna download and play this updated version and might do another recording.

This time I think I'll wait to download the patch, probably shortly there will be a new XD

Vecta - Agree with everything you said.

Ducobson - Don't wait! This is the last update for now. A future update will happen but just a few months from now

Awesome work, I have not played it all yet, but, It really is special, I love the scenes.

I am currently on holiday and will be busy with other things, but, i will get back to this at a later date.

(PS: When i get back ill ad it to the complete mod list, as uploading takes a big drain on my internet so i haven't the time right now)

Bug: at the end of this scene, the player crashes against the punching bag and the game does not go ahead.

Spoiler:

Ducobson - Nice discovery! Break the bag before killing the enemies and this will not happen. I will have an official patch in the next days (or maybe a will wait a little bit more! LOL)

celestinx wrote:Awesome work, I have not played it all yet, but, It really is special, I love the scenes.

When you play it all let me know what you think of everything I think BFR2 has a lot of room for improvements and extensions. I want to add some new scenes, improve the ones that already exist, review some of the music playlist and I would love to hear what you, Don, CajNatalie and others have to say

oracle wrote:I would love to hear what you, Don, CajNatalie and others have to say

I've only watched others play it so far.
I'm currently on a bit of a break, coming back a bit every day... I have over 100 screenshots of the Press Conference scene to process, so yeah. =P

The most striking thing to me is that you are the technical virtuoso that I suspected you to be, but way too fast. Don't burn yourself out - take it from me and stop to give yourself time to breathe every so often.
From the way you're going, people will one day want you in a team, and if you're burned out you'll be unable to give it your all.

CajNatalie wrote:
From the way you're going, people will one day want you in a team, and if you're burned out you'll be unable to give it your all.

Thanks for the words Natalie I'm taking a small break before getting back to it. One thing that it is important to consider is that the first game was developed in the end of 2014 (it took 2 months. by december 2014 all 8 stages were complete), but it took a while for it to hit this forum. So, there has been plenty time for me to take a big breath between the games, which I think is important.

Here comes another update (likely the last one from this month) The link for download is in the first post.

Changelog for v1.2:
- Added more enemies and new breakables to outside the Ella club in
stage 2 (also fixed some black pixels). Improved outside ambience.
- Added more enemies to first scenes from stage 3.
- Added new sound effects, parked cars, streets lights, tree and bats,
more enemies in stage 4. Also made small changes to the building
entrance.
- Improved the map from the apartments in stage 4 to prevent the player
from hitting the enemies through the wall (thanks Don Vecta). Fixed some
black pixels in the corridor and the broken Sonic monitor.
- Added a new palette for Rudra.
- Reduced the amount of time when going down with the robot in stage 5
(enough to make the Go not appear) and fixed the shadow direction.
- Removed bag to fix scene progression issue (thanks Ducobson), added
more food and extended the Maguilo fight. Changed and normalized music
for some of the underground scenes.
- Added scene of Copacabana beach at night in stage 6. This makes sense
because of the so many hotels near the beach. Reintroduced Paula
as a funkeira with a slightly modified palette.
- Improved the map from the hotel rooms in stage 6 to make it impossible
for the enemies to appear behind the first wall, and weakened Midori's
security a bit. Also fixed some black pixels in the corridor.
- Improved lamp sprite in darker rooms.
- Better use of layers in rooftop from Onyx Corp (stage 7). Improved
scenes flow and changed the stage music. Added more enemies, a new boss
and removed excess of mines from VR scene.
- Boat scene moved to stage 8 with improved script and map. Replaced
rain effect and improved ambience sound.
- Improved boss and chair palette in stage 8. Added a new ending scene.
Extended the final round battle and the credits.

Just finished adding new links to the first post. Now it can be downloaded through mega, 4shared and mediafire

Played the updated version with Axel-3 and got bomb'd again by that fucking bitch Rudra and their evasive flunkies. Impossible to finish with so much health, why, didn't it get fixed? If something frustrates me most is being game over'd by a fucking bomb if I can't finish an evasive enemy THAT CAN BLOCK with x2 62 HP and with flunkies that keep evading!

Don Vecta wrote:Played the updated version with Axel-3 and got bomb'd again by that fucking bitch Rudra and their evasive flunkies. Impossible to finish with so much health, why, didn't it get fixed? If something frustrates me most is being game over'd by a fucking bomb if I can't finish an evasive enemy THAT CAN BLOCK with x2 62 HP and with flunkies that keep evading!

Yeah. I got the same with Axel-3. It's not happening with the Axel from SOR1 or 2 and other chars. I will really have to lower her HP just because of this

If I reduce 1 HP from her, I can defeat with 1 minute of time free for the detonation (with Blaze-2).

(I apologize for the outburst of my previous post, I was seriously angry since I was doing a nice run and got bomb'd by that bitch)

I think even CjaNatalie mentioned that those settings for her were too much for a timer in Mania. In Mania, enemies evade and block way too much and low damage input characters like the SOR3 ones will have a serious time playing this.

These are my recommended settings.

1) Remove evasive mooks, or change the Hakus in either aggressive or normal). Scale or enemy apparition as well, Easy mode shouldn't have mooks at all, add an enemy extra per difficulty setting.
2) Scale your enemies per difficulty: put Rudra with 128 HP x0 on Easy, 64 HP x1 on Normal or Above.

I took a look at the SORmaker screens and realized none of your bosses or extra enemies are scaled. I'm sure several people will find some areas too hard if they're playing in easier difficulties. For example, the Maguilo fight was fine in the old build since he was a mid-boss, now you added some difficult mooks to help (those fucking Ninjos) and now it's lot harder. The fight as you put it now is boss material and it's great with the mooks if it was a stage boss fight, but he's a sub-boss and the mooks won't die if you defeat him first. Plus, x3 in all difficulties is too much for a mid-boss. Tone it down.

Take a look in how CajNatalie, Zarzak or even me scale our scenes. Some enemies appear only in certain difficulties while some mosses and sub-bosses have different bars regarding their difficulty. A good mod usually have variety and difficulty set for different audiences. In areas without timer or with not-so dangerous mooks, crank the boss' lifebar high if you must, but see if there's other factors, like being accompanied by other boss-type characters, have Murphy available or not, food available and other features and then you can see how to tune your boss fight's lifebar.

Now, about graphics:
The room partition setup was definitely a great idea and I loved it, however, it was overused too much and basically have the same shading and color and you wouldn't see the difference between the brothel, Antonio's building and the high-class hotel besides the furniture. Add new colors, textures and lighting. While the brothel should keep that dark atmosphere due of its raunchy nature, Antonio's first floor could have another palette shading tone, the Batman floor keep it dark cuz... well, it's Batman-themed. 
The high class hotel need a new format definitely, rooms should be slightly more spacious, classy, with better decoration and with better lighting since the place looks at least like a 3 to 4 stars hotel. Why not trying setting up an even larger scene but with the corridor being in first row,  and the rooms behind the transparent walls? I'm sure space could be used more efficiently and the rooms will look better, not to mention the whole partition room set up will be different from the brothel, Antonio's building and the Onyx corp. offices.

BTW, get rid of those ugly scenes from old OpenBOR games, if you need help to give you better resources, ask them, I can provide stuff you need. Avoid badly recolored stuff, especially from those fugly mods like Shiva and Lisa and that crap. Don't lower your standards.

I definitely loved the office area where basically EVERYTHING is breakable (partitions, desks, computers, seats, etc.), that was definitely brilliant and I loved it! In that scene, though, set your city background layer at scroll 8, the citiy's further behind.

The mod is looking good, lot better, lot of creative usage of the breakables, nice story and a wonderful love letter to your city, but still need some work to do.

Thanks for the lengthy review and feedback!

I've updated the download link, now pointing to a version on which Rudra has less 1 HP and some other parts were made easier (like more weapons to the elevator and reduced the quantity of Gold in the VR stage). Defeated her with Axel-3 in normal mode. If needed I will lower her HP even more for the mania mode in a future update.

Spoiler:

Don Vecta wrote:Why not trying setting up an even larger scene but with the corridor being in first row,  and the rooms behind the transparent walls?

The first draft I made was exactly like this! Then I discarded it because with the corridor in the back it looked so much better.

The difficulty scaling is something I plan for BFR1 first in a more remote update and then later BFR2.