First of all this is SomEx 1.1.2.12. Only the SomEx.csv file in the TOOL folder has changed. Use it to update, or just download from
http://csv.swordofmoonlight.net/SomEx.dll/1.1.2.12.zip.
In this release changes have been made to extensions including: do_pedal no longer exists, do_som is now do_2000, and do_hit and do_hit2 have been added in order to replace the "knock back" or rebound functionality of do_pedal.
The old do_pedal is now standard, and is not configurable. To not use it you must use do_2000, which shouldn't be used really except for diagnostic purposes, but in theory could be used to make a game play like Sword of Moonlight 2000.
Use do_hit if you want the player to be invincible after they are hit, like the monsters are, and like in classic video games. Use do_hit2 if want a second hit to connect, and a third and so on too. Or don't use either if you don't want a hit response.
The way SOM works, using do_hit may make some damage never register. It depends on how the monster's attacks are setup I think. But I don't know much about the subject. I recommend do_hit2 for the time being. It will probably be added to the new project default configuration files, but is not added by this release.
Technically these are separate extensions, however if you turn on do_hit2, it automatically turns on do_hit... and if you turn off do_hit, it automatically turns off do_hit2, since in both of these cases doing the former without the latter is meaningless.
Unlike do_pedal, there are no Detail extensions for the new approach. It's a much cleaner tack IMO. The behavior is not defined. In this release if the player is hit resulting in HP loss they will play out their hit effect, just as a monster does...
The player is knocked away opposite the attacker at a rate and distance that depends upon the dashing speed... to be clear, the damage dealt by the attack is not a factor. At the same time the player will either duck as if tapping the Action button, or if already ducked/holding down Action they will rise back up, and their action will be interrupted. Jumping, climbing, and crouching are not possible while being hit. They will be interrupted, although you may still attack in this release.
If using do_hit the player is invincible while recovering from a hit. If hit again during this period when using do_hit2 the player is still knocked back, but the ducking pattern does not repeat itself, or more importantly it does not cut into the already playing ducking animation, as that would be obnoxious.
In addition the player's ability to move is hampered while being hit. This is no more than a speed bump, it does add some gravity to the experience, but the actual reason its there is because since you are moving at dashing speed, we don't want the player's movement speed to suddenly ramp up at the same time. This workaround could be easily avoided by changing the way these things are communicated to SOM, but I haven't felt like doing that just yet.
All and all I am much happier with this arrangement than how things were with do_pedal. In truth while this effect could be disabled, it was one of those things like jumping that needed more attention. Since the release last year that fixed the damage formula, it occurred to me that there was a proper means of doing the rebound effect right there, by using the data from the actual damage event (the old approach while better than nothing IMO was based on indiscriminately considering the sources of 3D sound effects relative to taking a hit in the HP dept.)
And finally. While unrelated the menus have been markedly improved. There are no more abbreviations, and the default menus have slightly improved arrangements. How this was achieved is you can now place < and > in front of the menu text to shift if one character to the left or right (<< for two) or use $ to center text in the middle of the screen, which you'll probably only want to do for the Yes and No menus.
Centering Yes and No helps a lot on with widescreen menus, since there is no way to line the text up after performing the bug fix that makes the fonts fit into the vertical space allotted for them.
The changes made to the layout lines wise are even more dubious. They work just by blanking out some text and replacing it with text tacked onto a line just above using the special (non-printing) \n newline character.
These menu fixes are so effective that I am not going to worry about the menus anymore for as long as possible. They won't likely be looked at until 2015 at the soonest at the rate things are going considering everything there is to do between then and now.
PS: I really wanted to get this stuff out of the way before moving on to more important things. I think I will probably work on the "look over your shoulder" function before the end of the year. I have a "use every part" of the controller philosophy, and right now there is a big gap where you can't use the attack buttons when the gauges are depleted. I want to fill that gap in. It feels unfinished to me without arranging for that.
