April Goals & Progress Thread

[Reapergurl]

@fhloup Good luck!

@Arithmetician Ah, the woes of being a gamer and a game dev, going solo...hang in there.

@Punamaagi Thanks for the support, same to you, @Chiara ...

@Kes Nightmare is my middle name! lol Kidding! It's Rachel.

@Amysaurus Map work is looking fabulous! Keep at it! ('Happy Cactus' lol)

Update v.1.1

Rift Chronicles has been shelved.
There's too much to work on, and not a viable host to get attention from (and I will pass on non-RM sites because of what had happened to me in the past with iffy places).
That being said, there will be progress made with it, but it may or may not ever be completed (or if it does come to completion the likelihood is high that it will be a private distribution).

Yes, I currently am working on Megaman XII to help keep my brain working in the creative area, but it's expected to be a short project.

Oh, by the way, Luna Script (.lua) is a fearsome mistress if one doesn't know what they're doing.

 

[EliteZeon]

Hey guys, remember me? No? Maybe...? Sure?

Eh, either way I am still alive. The past few months I've been balancing my Dad's dementia, work, and too many MMOs. My birthday passed on the 9th and I got an urge to get back and start doing more work for my 4Runes project.

The first thing to note is that I was thinking of rebuilding the entire first chapter and concept from the ground up. All my past updates were revisions, but because I already had so much set in stone, I became more reluctant to fix and redo things since so much work had already been put in. IE, changing a cinematic out with moving NPCs became a headache when I wanted to do x and y instead, and didn't have the gut to completely abolish a quest that I couldn't figure out how to plan. Then there were story inconsistencies I tried patching up after one revision and lead to more inconsistencies later, which lead to needing a new cinematic... etc... it was a mess, yay for first project ever problems!

One major thing though, is that with VX Ace, I keep trying to stick to what I have been given as the default sprites, but they really don't cut it for me, since my setting has multiple races with different heights and limbs, and the tiles, don't give the same technological, etc... so, I decided to try my hand at making my own overworld sprites. Though this will lead to possibly requiring myself to design my own tiles next... but I think I'll give it a shot.

On another note, I am debating whether or not to swap over to MV for ease of use. Been wanting to change out the combat system as well, since Time based battle has been causes all sorts of random game freezes. Unfortunately, haven't found a turn system I liked yet.

Anywho, here are some images and sketches I made in general response to overworld spriting and other ideas I had.

Spoiler

Used my battler sprites as reference for the new Overworld Sprites. The over world style was inspired by games like ib, Read Only Memories, Party Hard and many other pixel-styled games. The battlers as those that know me already know, are based on Holders' design.

This gives an example of the height differences I wanted with certain characters in the overworld.

Pen Sketches and other ideas. Someone showed me a facebook video involving a jumping spider with maracas, I needed it as a monster design.

Sketches for furniture and overworld sprite ideas for Chapter 1.

See you guys again in a few weeks... or a few months... maybe... depends.

 

[Jiffy]

Oh, I haven't posted on one of these in a while.
Oddly enough my only goal for April is work on a plugin that creates a Lang.json file that will auto convert text to different languages for my game, allowing it to be an open source language file for the community and future translators to work on.

 

[Schlangan]

Ouch, I forgot to post here... again. Well, as usual, congrats everyone for your progress ! I will only give a quick update.

My update :

- I started mission 23 and edited some tilesets for better efficiency. Only a few maps and enemies on the way, before the first cutscene.
- I fixed a few bugs, especially by disabling the aggro of the enemies when a cutscene or a dialog plays.
- I started implementing cutscene skipping. But to do this, I have to modify all 22 mission. For now, mission 1 allows cutscene skipping, 21 more to go !

The next few days should be busy with the modifications of the cutscenes to allow skipping (but no boss skipping of course), as well as the idea of an auto-save when you start/end a mission. I've seen too many players simply forgetting to save and sent back one mission back because of this. Sigh.

 

[XIIIthHarbinger]

Update:
1) Face & character graphics for NPCs Elfs, Caravaners, & Smiths completed; still working on Merchants, Butlers, Maids, & Guards.
2) Face & character creations/edits of graphics for various monsters completed; with various place holder graphics (Dragons, Wyvrens, Succubuses, Phoenixes, Vampires, Snakes, & Plants) that still need additional work. Along with needing to create character & face graphics to go along with the battlers for Lizard Men, Wolf Men, Goblins, Demons, & Cyclops.
3) Need to finish creating face & character graphics to go along with various human/elf battlers as well.

 

[Another Ned]

@Arithmetician : Have fun playing! : D
@ Reapergurl: Aren't all script languages fearsome to those who don't understand them, or is this just me and my code-averse brain? D:
@EliteZeon : Welcome back & happy belated b-day? : D I do remember you.
Given that I'm someone with no qualms about discarding tens of hours of work if I can't make it work/it causes more problems than it fixes, it may be questionable when I say this, but I think it's good, going for the "rebuilding from the ground up" approach. : D And yay for lots of sketches!
@WolfFS : Lots of motivation and stuff to reach your goal! : D
@Schlangan : 21 missions full of cutscene skipping sounds like a lot of work. D: Good luck not getting any bugs introduced in the process. : )
@XIIIthHarbinger : Yay for getting all those things done!

Today's progress:

• implemented the remaining batch of Barysh's skills. Goal completed!
• began with implementing some of the states I haven't yet

Updated goals:

• finish implementing states
• figure out the re-ordering (and then re-order) of the weapons and armour tabs in the database
• once this is done, finally redo and implement the loot drop system

 

[Arithmetician]

@Reapergurl If we weren't gamers, would we be as interested in RPG Maker in the first place?

@Chiara

And as you look to the horizon
Not a cloud
But then stormy weather's caught you cold
Seems like P5 crept up out of nowhere
All around
Develpment's not quite what you foretold

Okay, so I'm just parodying the lyrics of Persona 5's battle theme there. I'm about 13 hours into that game (so obviously that's 13 hours not spent in RPG Maker) and just cleared the first dungeon.

More seriously, on the actual progress front, I managed to brainstorm up what seems like a satisfactory list of alchemist skills and recipes.

Spoiler: Alchemist Recipes

Obviously, the details of each recipe will change as I work out the balancing. These are just preliminary ideas, after cutting it down to 20 skills and a reduced list of ingredients.

I still need to get around to implementing all the Hex and Ronin skills, though they are already conceptualized.

 

[Amysaurus]

@Chiara That’s for sure! I could either spend eternity redoing the same thing and never finishing, or make progress elsewhere and come back to it with fresh eyes later on.
@Reapergurl Thanks! And yessss, I love that little dude!

I’ve only gotten to work for about an hour today, but I’ve been trying to remake a sprite. Obviously there's still work to be done, lol. I went ahead and included the original one, for the sake of comparison.

Spoiler

 

[Another Ned]

@Arithmetician : Ooh, your ingredients already have names! Mine are still all going by "Herb 2" and "Liquid 3".
@Amysaurus : I take it the one whose proportions fit with the rest of the map is the remade sprite? : D I kind of like the legs, they somehow look dynamic.

Today's progress:

• finished with implementing all non-item-exclusive states. Goal completed!
• implemented all items and related states while I was at it. Future goal completed!

 

[Arithmetician]

@Chiara Organized the the alchemist skills by level and simplified/reduced some of the costs, though it's still tentative and highly subject to change. It also helps give a better idea of the rough hierarchy of ingredients. In all, there are 19 of them that can be used in Alchemy.

Spoiler: Revised Alchemy List, by Job Level

As for the names:
Salt, Brimstone (Sulfur), and Quicksilver all had important roles in the historical version of alchemy, as it was understood in Europe. Many thought Quicksilver would play a role in creating the Elixir of Life (in spite of being poisonous), which is why I'm using it as an ingredient in fairly high-ranked skills, including said Elixir of Life.

Bitumen is a oily natural asphalt, but it became confused with ground-up mummies due to bitumen's role in preserving mummies, and was marketed as curing a variety of ills (actual bitumen could help alleviate arthritis), so that's an easy item to include as a drop from undead enemies.

Of course, medieval apothecaries made use of all sorts of medicinal herbs, so that needs to be included. Magic Root could be a reference to the Mandrake Root, reputed to have healing properties, but made a bit more generic to justify drops from more plant-based enemies, or it could just suggest that certain plants are taking up and storing mana from the Earth, hence why they're an ingredient in an MP-restoring skill. It could even reference Yggdrasil itself. And of course, mushrooms, whether beneficial or toxic, are used in many brews, but we don't want them to be any old mushroom, so "Rare Mushroom".

Spider Webs are included as an ingredient for the HP-restoring potion, because spider silk was at times used historically to help bind wounds.

Then you have an assorted variety of monster bits useful for alchemy: ichor, fangs, scales, feathers, elemental cores, etc.

As for including Precious Gems on the list, that idea came from pursuing some alchemy lists from some old RPGs. The rest should be pretty self-explanatory.

 

[Amysaurus]

@Chiara You betcha! And, awesome! I'm trying to keep them from looking too stiff, lol.

I didn't get to do too much today (I had a big coding assignment to finish up ), but I did finish the waitress sprite and touch up the others:

Spoiler

 

[Marquise*]

@Chiara Nice work Chiara! Was it all of your month? Well I think you can use the eat ice cream with a proud smug as a reward goal now! (Although,we know something is wrong when the "Have fun!" is in our monthly goals list. )

@Everyone I kinda read the tread but I was kinda a wee bit kinda anemic or something last few days and just went on Like! Like! Like! all of you as I read your progress and I do admit there were amazing graphics and achievements.

Progress;
Finally got the time to pick up my busking second skin to fix the digits when I noticed not had finished the neck... I am closing the neck now. Which means I will do fingers soon while doing the laundry and fixing the heel on the right. (Can please each and every bits of my clothing CEASE at once to tear apart or bust?! I'm just doing the robot with this!) Gonna finish the bite on the pangofly soon -rear view-. On pyxelEdit it will be a pet.

And DC insist to get a elderly kitty hug with aclawpuncture transmitted to all of you. (Litterally; she feels when I am typing to worthy bipedal mammals of my specie as she sleeps near my mouse and often use my forearm as pillow. I think she loves you because you kinda give me some endorphin dose. Lol)

 

[Kes]

I see that my last post was on Sunday - I hadn't realized that 3 whole days had passed without posting here. Life has been ... hectic.
@fhloup I love the idea of you working with your son on something like this. I hope you both enjoy it.
@Chiara I keep the worst to last but one. That way my subconscious takes into account that there is something easy/easier coming up once I've finished this, so it helps keep me motivated to finish it. I think it's great that you are not only finishing current goals, but also future ones. This is Good (with a capital G.). As for the ordering of weapons and armor, I have kept my classifications ultra simple. I'll share it in case it sparks off ideas for your own reordering. Because none of my characters share a weapon type, I use one slot to indicate which character it is, then list everyone under that character that they can use. It helps me to be able to see visually that no one person is getting more stuff than another, and easy to track progression. For armor I have big chunks of slots under the headings of the various equipment types i.e. Body, Head etc. Not sophisticated, I admit, but easier than having lots of sub-headings e.g. Magic Armor, General Armor etc.
@Arithmetician While Persona 5 seems to have taken you hostage, I notice that you managed to still do some useful work during your captivity. I like the names of your alchemist skills - is 'Smelling Salts' a revival item? I particularly like the way you've researched and implemented the ingredients.
@EliteZeon Welcome back! I like your sprites, and that spider with maracas should be stunning! I understand your reluctance to ditch such a significant chunk of work, but if you're not happy with it and it's messing up current/future work, then yes, it has to go. Whether it would be wise to switch to MV at this stage only you can judge. I'm waiting until it is more mature and updating is over. Even as a player I find it a bit annoying - whoever thought it was a good idea to have a black screen with 'Loading' on it when you transition to a new map?
@WolfFS That will be a very useful resource for the community if you can pull it off. Good luck with it.
@Schlangan 21 missions' cut scenes - umm, that's a lot of work. I am ambivalent about doing this in my own games. If I ever do it, I think I will only do so if I have a New Game+ feature, as I use cut scenes to convey quickly important plot developments, and for those "meanwhile...elsewhere" elements which enable me to have more complex stories. If a player cuts those, the story would probably be unintelligible. If I could make a suggestion - have someone new to the game playtest it without the cut scenes and see if they feel that the story/character development still holds up. There might be one or two that have to be retained.
@XIIIthHarbinger Congrats on the steady, and significant, amounts of progress you've made.
@Amysaurus The new sprite looks so much better, and more in keeping with the mapping style - but you know that already! Well done.
@Marquise* I've noticed the same thing - that everything falls apart at about the same time. I'm looking forward to the next installment of the pangofly.

My update
Done 15 of the 17 interiors that I need for the main part of the town, and evented the simpler ones. I've only done one of the complex (because it depends on what order the player does things, or if they do them at all) sets of dialogue which also sets up one of the side quests.

 

[XIIIthHarbinger]

@XIIIthHarbinger Congrats on the steady, and significant, amounts of progress you've made.

Thank you,

Though mostly I am just using a combination of the RTP assets, DLC assets, generator parts, & gimp for editing. For example taking the basic guard from the RTP, editing out the fleshy bits from the face & character graphics & then changing the color schemes, then combining them with NPC face & character graphics created in the generator along with some touch ups with gimp to create about 96 basic guard/military NPCs. Then taking some of the pieces from the guard captain from the RTP, grafting them onto the guard from the RTP with gimp, altering the color schemes, then combining them character & face graphics from the generator to create another 48 officer guard/military NPCs.

So it's not like I am creating things from scratch, I am just using available assets to create greater variety than I had previously so that various NPCs feel distinct from other NPCs; rather than having all guards & guard captains in each town & fort have the same face & character graphic.

Creating the character graphics for the Lizard Men, Wolf Men, Cyclops, & Goblins, that will be another matter entirely, will take some time. For face graphics I can just use a 144 x 144 cut out of the battler easily enough though, it's what I've done with most of my other monsters already. & quite honestly I think they serve that purpose rather well.

 

[Schlangan]

Short reply here, because I don't have much time :

@Kes : In fact, cutscene skipping is added for people losing and losing over and over against a boss; the cutscene before the boss is skippable. Also, it is up to the player to skip or not. If they skip everything before seeing the scenes, it is their choice. Anyhow, the cutscene skipping button is reserved to this function, and cannot be pressed by mistake. You have to wish to skip a scene to really skip it.

 

[Arithmetician]

@Kes "Hostage" and "captivity" are quite fitting words to use, given Persona 5's motifs. But with any luck my "rehabilitation" will go well.

Anyways, I originally imagined Smelling Salts not as a revival item, but one for dealing with a variety of ailments such as Sleep, Nightmare, Confusion, Charm, and Rage. Basically, it was meant to wake the subject up from various forms of mental incapacitation. But you're right that it would also be very fitting as a low-level revival item, given that its original purpose was to wake people up from Fainting.

As for Sleep / Nightmare, the former temporarily prevents actions, but allows the user to recover some of their HP (and maybe MP). Nightmare is a more malevolent version of the effect, in which MP is slowly sapped while the target remains incapacitated.

 

[bgillisp]

Behind again, just a quick response to a poster:

@Chiara : Yep, same stadium!

Update for last few days:
-Finished the Silas Rest side quest....by cutting it from the game. As I started to make it, I realized it was a weak quest, so I axed it.
-Then been busy mapping Tall Oak's forest. I never want to see another tree again. Done with 1 of 2 of the forest maps.

 

[Another Ned]

@Arithmetician : Nice, so it's all based on research. : D Sadly I can't take that approach myself, my POV character has too strong an opinion on item name style. >,>
@Amysaurus : Yay for the touch-ups! : D
@Marquise* : Not my whole month, but I'm currently trying to go for sets of three small-sized goals, and whenever I finish one set, I start the next one. It's part Sisyphus' work, part morale booster. : D (D: I hate it when clothing does that, it should behave itself!) And yay for imminent pagonfly progress! : D
@Kes : Thanks for sharing your way of organizing, it gave me a starting point for my planning. Really helped me speed things up and get it done in one day.
Are there conditions for the player to encounter this particular side quest or does it pop up no matter if the player did or didn't do things?
@bgillisp : Good luck with the trees. D: This is the reason one of my early location notes said "no forest!!".

Today's progress:

• prepared a list for armour & weapon database re-arranging and set up some rules for upgrading while I was at it
• reorganized weapons (easy since only Salin is using weapons)
• rearranged armour with tons of room to spare (went with gear type > character > area it'll drop in). While doing so, I merged two armour types. Afterward, I fixed all the places where this confused things. Good thing I set up the pieces of gear after this

--> re-ordering of those parts of the database done. Goal completed!

• added the "upgrade" cost for those pieces of gear I'll need for area 1. Future goal completed!

I also finally sweeped (swept?) the leaves that were still around. If not for this, I might've gotten started with redoing my loot drop stuff, now at least those pesky leaves are gone.

 

[Arithmetician]

@Kes Some actual progress again, since I'm now on April Vacation and have a bit more time (though I'm still "sentenced" to playing Persona 5 at night for the time being).

I brainstormed a list of skills for the Astrologer class.

Spoiler: Astrology Skills

I scrapped what would have been their other, equippable skill set, Predict, and consolidated it with the former "Astromancy" into "Astrology". It's basically Time Magic but with a bit more variation in its effects.

"Predict" was replaced in the learnable equipped skills list by "Concentrate", which greatly boosts magic damage for a brief time, as a counterpoint to "Focus" on a late-game physical class, the Monk. Though I discovered in testing that the x2.5 damage boost only applies to one enemy when multi-targeted, so I might want to revise Yanfly's effect somewhat to see if it can be made more consistent with what I need.

The Astrologer is meant as a late-game magic class. Not only does it learn some potentially broken abilities like Half MP Cost, it offers healing, support, a few ailments, and damage. Its base Magic power, MP, and HP aren't as good as the Magus or Cleric though, so in this sense it's like the Sages from Final Fantasy. It does however have very high Luck (because its ability to manipulate fate), and can boost it even further with a passive and Fortuna.

Now, I've had the Ronin's skills planned out for a while, but I only recently got to entering them into the database, though they're not properly implemented yet.

Spoiler: Ronin Blade Arts

Drawing inspiration from Etrian Odyssey's Ronin and Bravely Second's Fencer, the Ronin will have a number of self-buff skills, though each stance will cancel the other two out. Ideally, I'd make it so that certain attacks require each stance too.

I also swapped around some of the equipped skills between Freelancer and Valkyrie, giving Freelancer Equip Spears from Valkyrie, and Valkyrie Exceed Limits from Freelancer. This seems fitting because my Valkyries are designed as a purposefully overpowered class, with no below average stats and in fact above average stats in everything, though not the best in anything (whereas Freelancers are just average in everything). It also lets Freelancers get access to their magic (which lets them function similarly to Final Fantasy's Red Mages) in a reasonable time, instead of gating it behind a skill like Exceed Limits that requires a ton of JP.

Why would I want Valkyries to be overpowered? Valkyries are supposed to be semi-divine, and it makes them a good candidate as a class to be earned from a bonus dungeon.

Edit: Filled in some skill descriptions and MP costs, and put together a new lightning animation, thanks to @Coopziana

Spoiler: Lightning Animation

My energy for RPG making is dropping off now, so time to "imprison" myself in Persona 5 for the night, but I'll be sure to do more work tomorrow.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

Working on a secret project... Right now I'm adjusting my custom battle system to fit the project.. Sooo busy so this is probably the most that I can do for this month.

My energy for RPG making is dropping off now, so time to "imprison" myself in Persona 5 for the night, but I'll be sure to do more work tomorrow.

I wish I have P5... XD