Archtross: (subtitle still undecided)

[Skurge]

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Synopsis
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The story so far is being developed and refined, but the basic scenario is this game is based on a massive multicultural city in space that is infested with crime and corruption.
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Alien gangs control the city and a mysterious new narcotic hits the streets- who will be king of Archtross?
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This game will feature a gang/faction system where a large portion of your profits will be generated by territories held and businesses while simultaneously trying to progress the story.
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Although this demo does not currently have a quest to play- this is aimed at giving you a "wow" feeling on how nice it looks.
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Demo contents

• Unique world travel system- vehicles are dependent to travel the city.
  
• Random pedestrian and traffic system
  
• Beautiful visuals and lighting
  
• Amazing ambience and audio
  
• Enemies are shown and can be randomly spawned in city areas
  

Screenshots:

Spoiler

DUE TO SIZE RESTRICTIONS, THE DEMO HAS BEEN REMOVED UNTIL THE NEXT UPDATE, PLEASE FOLLOW THIS PAGE TO BE KEPT UP TO DATE!.
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[Skurge]

I also forgot to mention when making the deployed version of the project- i was having trouble with audio being emitted from Club D1, certain cars, The night club and the alley behind it- not to mention the Italian Restaurant. If you are not receiving audio from these please let me know.

 

[Skurge]

Is anyone even wanting to try this?

 

[Leon Kennedy]

i will give it a play and update this with thoughts.

 

[Leon Kennedy]

heres positives and negatives imo.


Positives


- Backgrounds and game atmosphere are amazing, the city does keep you under the impression that you are in a big city even while traveling map to map.


- Music is pretty nice, the bartender in the club made me laugh with what they said.


- I really don't know if these tilesets are custom or bought or free or whatever but they all look great and all work together. 


Negatives


- Some stock stuff is still around like the title, menu and battle system that one would only hope will be edited later on.


- It's a tad wonky to enter battle from car to be honest, I haven't played many rpg maker car games so maybe this is standard but it was so weird entering battles while in a car you would think you could just lock the doors or drive away I suppose the enemies do have guns but also so do you lol.


- Indicators on city limits would also be nice it was wonky to just be driving down the city street and enter that fast travel with no indication that I was about to. Probably was just me not knowing the map but I entered that thing 4 times in like a minute it was starting to get annoying.


Just one suggestion also I'd pack ur stuff with enigma, it will cut down on size and somewhat encrypt your files 640 mb is kinda a big download lol and all your source files are right there for someone to steal or use for their own so it's not good but maybe you just didn't wanna bug with this for just this demo.


All in all 9/10 I see your description you wanted to show how great it looks and it does look beautiful good luck.

 

[Skurge]

Thanks for your feedback- you have brought alot of helpful pointers. I'll gladly share what I intend to do to fix them.

Positives


- Backgrounds and game atmosphere are amazing, the city does keep you under the impression that you are in a big city even while traveling map to map.


- Music is pretty nice, the bartender in the club made me laugh with what they said.


- I really don't know if these tilesets are custom or bought or free or whatever but they all look great and all work together. 

Other than stating your general positive feedback- the graphics you are not familiar with are entirely custom merged with the default RTP files with some even modified to fit with the custom graphics. The bartender was a little tongue in cheek joke I felt would of been funny to come across.

Negatives


- Some stock stuff is still around like the title, menu and battle system that one would only hope will be edited later on.


- It's a tad wonky to enter battle from car to be honest, I haven't played many rpg maker car games so maybe this is standard but it was so weird entering battles while in a car you would think you could just lock the doors or drive away I suppose the enemies do have guns but also so do you lol.


- Indicators on city limits would also be nice it was wonky to just be driving down the city street and enter that fast travel with no indication that I was about to. Probably was just me not knowing the map but I entered that thing 4 times in like a minute it was starting to get annoying.

• The title is definitely going to go through a renovation, while the title screen is just a stock image with a drawing of a character I did months ago- I'm hoping to get around to making a somewhat animated title screen and pre-title. I'm also looking into getting a pre-loader script to help load files with a graphic to show for load time.
  
• The Car combat is indeed wonky at the moment, I am looking to alter combat specifically for cars by perhaps having side view- changed or somehow combining the characters on screen to share a vehicle graphic- I'll be working to create a drive-by system suitable for it, enemy cars will also play a part where you may have to fight the passengers who are shooting outside of them- but killing the driver or the vehicle itself ( which will be the toughest target to hit ) will result in the battle being concluded- this entirely will be different in due time.
  
• As for indication on world travel parts- I felt the best way to do so would be to have a highway sign like you see in your local city indicating the turnoff will be on the highway, when the game's system is figured out- there will be in game early tutorials which will demonstrate the mechanics of the fast travel system. Why the sign hasn't been made yet is mostly because I have been busy fixing other things than getting down to drawing more graphics.
  

 

[GoodSelf]

I briefly played your demo, and was very impressed with the time and effort you put into your maps. 


I also like how the thugs chase after you ? The game feels like it belongs in some retro space arcade.


I'll be following your topic and I look forward to a more updated demo.


I think it goes without saying that the battle system is currently dull, and your battler sprites are very tiny. But I'm sure most of these things in the demo are things you plan to fix later on, as this is just a showcase of the map, as you said in the post.


 Can't wait to see more from you! 

 

[Skurge]

Thank you! Everybit of critique helps make this project more worth working on


I had the animated battle plugin before but for some reason with it's latest update it seemed incompatiable with my project at the time, sprites ill definately be worked on for that.

 

[HidanMac]

Hi) I played still in a beta version in rpg maker 2003. Your project very much was pleasant to me.But it isn't clear to me,why you have changed engine?)


Having played a demo on MV,those soundtracks from 2003 aren't enough.

 

[Leon Kennedy]

Is there going to be another version of the demo or is that going to be the only one until game is finished?

 

[Skurge]

There will be another demo presenting a refined traffic system, highway signs for world travel and much much more. But at the moment my goal is to set up a functioning system before establishing the game story.

 

[Skurge]

Hi) I played still in a beta version in rpg maker 2003. Your project very much was pleasant to me.But it isn't clear to me,why you have changed engine?)


Having played a demo on MV,those soundtracks from 2003 aren't enough.

Odd- I didn't get a notification of this until only now.


Ah i remember uploading my very old 2003 rpgmaker demo a few years ago.


My reasons for abandoning that project was because I felt the story wasn't going anywhere, also RPG Maker 2003 was very limited in what I could do with it- being image size restriction, scripts and many more. I do miss using tracks from my favorite games but I'm fully devoted to making this my final shot at the Archtross project with an RPG Maker program and hoping to make this a commercial product. Although I still have my old 2003 project and that it's abandoned, it has teached me alot about how to use newer incarnations of the RPG Maker programs.

 

[Skurge]

Bit of an update:


Have not been able to work extensively on this project lately because of a bit of government employment I've been assigned to- but on my time off I have been fixing bugs here and there and adding new visuals and plugins. Not to mention I have been working on custom made battler graphics as I intend to have every enemy and character fully animated. I have also been working on mugshots which I am soon to hand over for a colouring commission. In the meantime I have made a facebook page of this project that occasionally pops up with project progress. The next demo which I am guessing may be ready late october or november should have some quests and actual gameplay.


https://www.facebook.com/Archtross/

 

[Skurge]

Due to Dropbox constantly emailing me about my Demo reaching my size limit and somehow ignoring my > junkmail command


I have taken down the download for the demo at this point in time. However a new version will be available fairly soon with massive improvements.


Feel free to also check my FB page for updates.

 

[The Stranger]

How did I miss this? This looks, and sounds, pretty good. awwwh. The link to the demo doesn't seem to be working.

 

[Skurge]

That's because i said in my post before yours saying I removed the link temporarily.


Sorry

 

[The Stranger]

Ha-ha! So you did. I only read the OP. xD


Well, I really hope you upload a new demo soon.

 

[Tsarmina]

Hey, this looks really cool  I really love the graphics and mapping that you have. (Does the rain change colours??? Because that is neaaaat.) And I totally get what you mean about just walking around the maps, because tbh that's what my game is doing right now too lol. I can tell from the screenshots that it looks beautiful though!

 

[Skurge]

Hoping to fix a few more slight issues with lighting and the traffic system, the demo might not actually have the story implemented but maybe a few simple quests in the meantime for the demo to be atleast entertaining for a bit.


As for the rain- yep the colours change and I'm hoping to fix the weather to work with a time system aswell.

 

[Skurge]

New screen shots have been added via my facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Archtross/

Spoiler