December Goals & Progress Thread

[Kes]

Whahhh! Go missing in action for a couple of days and there are hundreds of posts to respond to!  I'll do my best, though.


@Azurecyan What sort of element is 'Energy'?  Is it a variation on electricity, or something more esoteric?  I like how the map is shaping up.


@Cinnamon Dev Bug fixing, the nearest thing to a perpetual motion machine that the human mind has been able to devise.


@Aweed I think it's fine to let a world map evolve over the course of the development process so that it reflects what you actually want/need.


@Arithmetician As always good solid progress (envy, envy).  I'm curious about what sort of skill your 'Geomancy' is.  I have come across it mainly as a range of skills, rather than a self-contained single skill.  How are you capturing all the varied terrains so that they are utilized without the need for multiple skills?  Oh, and I thought of something else.  Your highlighted Bard skill says that it grants the "chance" to act twice, which I read as not certain.  I think it's helpful to the player to have at least a rough idea of how big a chance.  If you don't want to give actual percentages, it could be a small/medium/good/high chance.  That way it can become a strategic choice about using it, rather than just guesswork.


@bgillisp Rather than say it was a funny thing that your stats are close to those of the spreadsheet, you could blush modestly and put it down to innate genius.  Given your naturally fast normal reading speed, I assume a fast run for you equals 25% of the time the player will take.


@Marquise* That cat is clearly an arch-manipulator of human emotions.  Just look at those eyes.


@AceOfAces_Mod Congrats on getting your script finished.


@Dreadshadow Making progress by holding oneself accountable to others is one of the aims of this thread, so you're being totally mainstream with that.  But secrets!! It looks as if @Marquise* is going to have some competition on that aspect after all.  Though with her, it's because of NDAs.


@VideoWizard Even the sides of buses in London are carrying ads for FFXV, so there's no getting away from it here.  Temptation abounds on all sides.  But perhaps it's not so publicly advertised in Florida.


@Schlangan Hell, 2 out of 3 completed and we're not even halfway through the month.  That's some workflow you've got going there.  I'm with @Chiara on this, I think it was a deliberate choice on the part of the city's inhabitants to 'repair' the damage that way to get the bigger park they've been demanding for 23 years.


@Doktor_Q Will you be using that battle system in your current game?  It sounds interesting.  But I echo the comment about not letting a side project distract you too much from your main project, because then it can be a bit difficult to get back into the flow.


@Chiara All the jokes that I might have made about your boxes have already been made by other people.  What Vendor people?  And I thought you had your culture already worked out, or am I thinking of someone else?


@Lantiz Are you falling to the siren call of FFXV as well?


My update


Yes, more mapping. (sigh).  However, to give myself a break I've been spending a bit of time getting the tiles ready for the next area.  I've realized that, apart from the grass, every single tile that I'm going to be using will have to be edited heavily to make it fit my theme and to cohere one with another.  I shall also have to make quite a few as well, because key ones aren't there.  Having typed that I think that maybe "to give myself a break" isn't really an apt description.  Perhaps I should say, "to vary what I'm doing".  However, I must finish off the current area soon because there is still quite a bit of eventing to do there.

 

[bgillisp]

@Arithmetician: I'd try writing out the plot in word. That way you can easily edit it, or even just put the document to the side and start over if needed.


@Schlangan: 5k? I hadn't even noticed.


@Chiara: Ha, if only. Though, the problem is, if they disappeared, they'd take your stuff too more than likely. Now maybe that's a theme for a game...put them in a row to make stuff disappear, or don't so you can keep it all.


@Lantiz: I still need to check out the demo (adds to ever growing to do list).


@Azurecyan: Seems like a decent list. Though I've never liked % decreases as they feel too powerful or cheap late game, any thought to using lunatic scripts to allow it to be linked to a stat instead?


@ksjp17: True, but it was pretty far off midgame. It was early and late game where they lined up well. At least I now know where the weak spot is. How much farther do you have to go on your game?


12.13 Update: Went ahead and added cutscenes to areas that didn't have them in Chapter 2, and moved around a few cutscenes. You can now take the game up to the point where the major edit is about to occur, and the plot is better set up for it too.


Also started working on another town to make it final (when I got tired of editing scenes), this one is easy as it is closed...due to a plague. Will our heroes find a cure for the plague? Or do they have other things to worry about?

 

[Arithmetician]

@ksjp17 As for Geomancy, when the "skill" is learned and equipped, it gives the character access to the "Geomancy skill type" and teaches them any relevant Geomancy skills.  So it really is multiple skills, with Geomancy being the command option encompassing them.  However, players will only be able to use a subset of these skills depending on the terrain that they are on.  I found a plugin that lets me restrict the usage of certain skills by terrain type or region ID.  


And yes, I really should specify what the percentage is for the Bard (it's 25%).  


@bgillisp  Yeah, I typed out some draft plots before in Word.  It's more of an issue of generating new / fresh ideas.

 

[Azurecyan]

@ksjp17 it's a bit somewhat esoteric. It has to deal with the pure form of life of the world, Myrrh, in my story. The ability to use energy magic will require a quest to complete.


@bgillisp I was thinking of how to work around the % decreases since I'm not too fond of it either, though I haven't found a good solution to it yet. I plan on using lunatic scripts, though I'll have to do some small script learning beforehand. 

 

[bgillisp]

@Arithmetician: What I do when that happens to me is I start with the old idea, and see if new twists come to me as I write. Sure, sometimes I get junk that way, and sometimes I get a plot that mangles 4 different storylines into one, but in the end I usually get something that is useable to a degree.


@Azurecyan: If you're using MV (which it says in your profile you are), see Yanfly's tips and tricks for more on how to implement that. I know they posted one on this a *long* time ago, as I found one to let me implement this when MV was still in version 1.1.

 

[Doktor_Q]

@ksjp17 I doubt the system'll fit in what I'm working on right now, sadly(?). It seems like a fun idea, so I'll pick it back up at some time, maybe if I want to do a side project at some point? It'd lend itself to something simplistic. Then again, 'sidetracked' might as well be my middle name.


As for progress, I starting working a very intimidating tiered list of things I'll need to do, which includes reminding myself sound effects exist. I also got a proof-of-concept for portrait selection done using Galv's choice pictures, saving about 45 common event entries that would have been made in common event menus, and got the actual code for skill levels started. Unfortunately, RPGMaker MV decided to just stop loading my plugin file, which is very confusing but seems to happen occasionally. Literally, the only non-commented code is a window.alert that isn't firing.


How mysterious(ly vexing).


Had an orphaned parenthesis in a long method. After two hours of debugging, it seems to work as expected. Next, to improve on code quality and remove some potential crashes for misusing it...

 

[Marquise*]

Hello everyone... sorry computer frights plus....  Well when I ink I am not on internet and I also tried to clean/clear up the lab some more (I have years to play inverted Tetris of where did my stuff go and where was it most optimized?)


Current progress;


Lab repurposing of some places/docs.  Footage gained none... (No worries; just a block at the right spot! from another one)


On the other hand; it freed a bit more my feet to ink my zombie commission!  So the lining is done and I will tone it tomorrow so I will let my metacarpal relax.


(I way feel guilty as Daughter Cat can't climb over there -sadly too old for the slope of an artist light table- or preview what I do and I kindly explained her I could HEAR her but couldn't comply because I was just doing all contours and then I didn't heard her for the rest of the night or ever been bothered again.  :X  I will feel better if tomorrow she purrs or play.  She kinda had hints of something weird going in her kitty life earlier.  And yeah 13 year old is kinda 85 relative to human kinda and she isn't supposed to be there at all I know... Still...we gotta love her!)


@bgillispAouch...  Hope you don't have the human version of the same of what DC have now, being on energy preservation mode.  Maybe it is just winter; I myself had a phase of willing to hibernate a week ago.  I shook it up a bit with my nerve condition...  Although I hope it not being everyone's solution.  But I am glad to see you still had updates


@Chiara*crosses fingers for your lab*  Hope you get that little material place for inspiration and creativity to nest it all!


@AzurecyanEach times I look at your map I think TSR modules and feels those D&D basic campaigns books.  I really need to play D&D pen and paper version now!


@ksjp17 and @Schlangan Yeah, she is really too err...  wise and good kid sometimes.  But she also is the proud descendant of her very social and nursing parents (if you flush me out of the equation) and would be their pride too!  She can be quite manipulative as any cat, but she is not AT ALL, too selfish!  So, she can act like a nurse.  Worries about me if I've been $priting 8 hours without eating or peeing.  And also, when she feels I am too nervous with my computer or on the internet she tries to get me away from it.  Then when I type to you guys, and unlike tonight when she feels well (hope she does back soon fast) she does the same hugging my arm and head butting it to transmit her hellos to whomever makes me happy to read or type too.  (I basically explained her as to a child how the internet/computer works as well as money were hunting food permits to hunt meals in grocery stores.)  So she knows what I do and what she does and, yeah she was looking between the camera and my face 'cuz she understand it all...  and...  Now she is back here wheezing and says hi to you folks as she realized I was typing about her but she felinely says that her lungs are... quite full and she is sorry not to let the motor out LOUD and PROUD and clear for you. But she loves you all...  She just have a personal little internal fight, no worries.  Gah...My personal zootherapist and adult cat teacher needing humanotherapy.


@Schlangan Your maps reminds me of having re-urbanization around a natural disaster that made fade away a civilization.


Ah... I knew I forgot someone;


@Dreadshadow Don't let Schlangan intimidate you!  I just wish I had less nervousness and way more time.


All right little prayer for Daughter cat now; the fluids around and in her lungs gives her troubles and cybermental hugs for you all.  (Luckily I can do the grey scaling of my zombie anywhere since the lines are already done.)

 

[_Shadow_]

@Dreadshadow Don't let Schlangan intimidate you!  I just wish I had less nervousness and way more time.

@Dreadshadow Making progress by holding oneself accountable to others is one of the aims of this thread, so you're being totally mainstream with that.  But secrets!! It looks as if @Marquise* is going to have some competition on that aspect after all.  Though with her, it's because of NDAs.

I think people have a point here. I mean it is unfair to set goals under a cloak of mystery.


On the other hand...

@Dreadshadow: Haha, you're making it already interesting by speaking in vague terms about it. : D Looking forward to the big reveal.

So I am 50% keep it a secret, 50% reveal what you are  I AM doing at this moment!


Yesterday night I had a lot of progress and now a full map with appropriate events is made. Some events are to be written to reach the secret sub-goal.


If people demand to reveal the secret, I will do. Just state you wanna know and if you all insist, then I reveal the surprise from now!

 

[Lantiz]

@Lantiz Are you falling to the siren call of FFXV as well?

Busted...


Wish I had more time to play tho :[

@Lantiz: I still need to check out the demo (adds to ever growing to do list).

Awesome! Tell me when you do.


Don't need to hurry, the demo will always be there for you, it's a lover. xD

 

[Arithmetician]

• Planned a general sequence of job acquisition.
  
• Had some new ideas for dungeons
  
• Reconceptualized some aspects of the world map to facilitate gameplay
  

Edit:

• Implemented SimpleLandVehicle.js
  
• Implemented and tested Astromancer's Predict for a variety of skills
  
• Completed Astromancer equipped skills
  
• Matched Astromancer sprites to actors
  
• Designed "Quick Attack" to replace one of the Ranger's skills
  
• Fixed some textual inconsistencies in skill descriptions
  
• Redesigned and implemented Monk Skills to be suitable for an endgame job
  
• Redesigned and matched Monk sprites
  
• Solved a weird glitch where the Attack Command was disabled across all classes (not really sure what caused it though)
  
• 16/16 Jobs Done!   
  

Predict / Astromancers

Spoiler

Monks

Spoiler

So, let's review the December goals progress:

• Finish filling in the world map - Not Started
  
• Refine our story concepts and finalize the sequence of job acquisition - Job sequence planned
  
• Connect sprites to classes  - 100%  (DONE!)
  
• Do as much as we can implementing the skills for each of the jobs available in the prologue of the game.  - 200%.  Goal exceeded.  All jobs designed.  (DONE!).
  

 

[Kes]

@bgillisp Sadly I'm not very far at all.  Having 7 months out of action with that injury this year, plus the time taken to get back into the swing of things mean that I only have about 3 hours of game play - that's 3 hours for me doing everything, but as I know exactly what to do, I must be faster than an ordinary player (not you with your reading speed) so maybe somewhere between 3.5 and 4 hours?  Also this time I have even more to do on tile editing/creating, so that slowed me down a lot as well.  Do all the chapters have several cut scenes, or is chapter 2 exceptional?


@Arithmetician Thanks for the explanation about geomancy, I can get my head around it now.  Before I was a bit confused when it looked like it was just one single skill.  And huge congrats on getting 16/16.  That is some achievement!


@Doktor_Q Glad you found your orphan.  Pesky things.


@Marquise* I keep forgetting how old daughter cat is - she's quite an age for a cat.  Will we get to see the Zombie or is that another NDA?


@Dreadshadow You stick to your guns and keep it a secret until the great unveiling.  That will be much more fun!  Resist the cultural push to instant gratification.


My update


A mixture of yet more mapping, eventing and tile editing.  The mapping is nearly finished for this area, and a fair bit of the eventing.  Just a cut scene, then working out the various ambushes as well as the normal encounters. 


As for the tile editing for the next area, it looks like the only tile that won't be edited to within a inch of its life will be the grass.  And I'm having to create or frankensprite quite a number as well.  I've given myself a ridiculous amount of work to do.  Once again the cry goes up: "Why do I do this to myself?!"

 

[AceOfAces_Mod]

Progress Report #4


Immortal Sins:


-Polishing the code.


-Adding lore.


-Improved the error handling of the launcher (along with temporarily disabling backup to prevent crashing).


Batrider:


-Added the first batch of weapons. These are the stock weapons of the characters.


-Setting up the PCB Customization. This essentially grants boosts and new abilities by swapping chips on the actor's printed circuit board (PC.

 

[bgillisp]

@Doktor_Q: Those to-do lists feel overwhelming at times don't they? I think mine is at 54 pages in word, though a high amount of that is done now. Still, the first look at it when I started it almost made me want to cry.


@Marquise*: Maybe? Hard to say. Everyone at work is sick too, and we keep sharing these bugs with each other. Hopefully winter break will allow us all to get healthy again.


@Lantiz: Ha! That's a funny way to put it.


@ksjp17: It was more like, edit all lines of dialogue leading up to the end of Chapter 2 so it doesn't reference a non-extant event anymore. Since I was at 4 hours playtime at that point, it took a while.


12.15 Update: Wrote the new cutscene that starts the different chain of events at the end of Chapter 2, which sets up the heroes in the dungeon they have to clear to end this Chapter. Thankfully I had already mapped this dungeon about 2 weeks ago or so, so all I had to do was place the monsters and drops, as well as decide on and place the boss fight for the end of the Chapter. Everything's working well up to the boss fight, and I feel like the fight is balanced, so now all that remains is to merge this change into the current plot. Unfortunately, that will require a rewrite of the Chapter 2 end scene, and maybe some tweaks to the chapter 3 start scene, but it shouldn't take too long...I hope.


Also revisited my secret rooms today, placed up to #13 in the correct locations (some of them moved with the Chapter 2 edit), and figured out where Secret Rooms #14 - 18 will go, as well as what they will reward the player with.

 

[Doktor_Q]

Managed to make a quickdraw 'pre-counter' attack that hits before the enemy's move, and it can also kill them. Unfortunately, I need a good way to cancel their attack in the event they die, and I really don't want to put "on death break" in the first line of every skill action. Aside from that it's just re-adding layers like attack bonuses, damage reduction, resistances, and the like, since I'm emulating an attack with 'gainHp' and 'startAnimation' calls.


Tried to make a town in "background-and-menus" format, while it works as the user sees it, there's really no good way to flip between pages of a single event to make organizing the code not terrible.

 

[Marquise*]

This is a public message; SAVE YOUR WORK NOW and drink orange wash your hands, mouse and keyboard and sneeze in your armpits.  Over!


@bgillispYou inspired me a public message.


@ksjp17I still need to be reminded how it is a miracle many times that she is still there as she could had stayed dead since birth and her accident should had finished her something like 11 or 12 years ago.  Yeah I know... I still panic for her anyway, it seems the longer she lives the more I care!   The zombie is the third of those images I previously made...  So I guess I can spare it in the same format I shown you the others ever since it was said that it would work for a front cover.


Soooo...  Got to the Laundromat today, brought the zombie and for 1hour and an half pointy dotted bricks and mortar.... for 1hour and a half!!!  It isn't even the 6th of the image.  And in the end discovered in horror that my eyes had trouble focusing and... I think the muscles controlling my iris(?) or retina are weak because I really saw and felt it loose and gain focus.  I do hope it is just the cold because if it is becoming presbyte (which is normal at my age)...  It risks being a very bad case of loosen one!  Just not to help I also logged somewhere and read 150+ messages before landing here (hurray for vanquishing some anxiety... Boo at bashing my eyes in the process and my computer too got weird!)

 

[Lantiz]

@Lantiz: Ha! That's a funny way to put it.

Hahaha isn't it?

 

[bgillisp]

@Doktor_Q: That will probably take some scripting to pull off, as I believe once the attack action is in the queue it executes, no matter what.


@Marquise*: It's probably not the cold. Eye doctors usually recommend focusing on something not close to your eyes at least once an hour, maybe even more often than that. Your eyes probably just got tired.


12.16 Update: Did the rewrite of the Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 start cutscenes. Now our party has decided to rest up for the night, but the villains are still hard at work, as will be shown in a meanwhile scene. Got to still write the meanwhile scene, and the scene when the party wakes up and gets ready to head out and start the Chapter and we will be back to work on balancing Chapter 3 (or making sidequests, whichever I feel like tackling in the 2 or so days I have left before I won't be able to work on the game again for a week or so).

 

[Doktor_Q]

@bgillisp I'm already knee deep in scripting to make the effect in the first place. I just don't think I can do the usual user.clearActions(); trick when the action is already processing enough to have selected targets, which makes it a bit of a trick. I'll probably just look at the code behind the death break effect, see if I can trigger that from the script.

 

[Punamaagi]

It feels like an eternity has passed since I last posted. >>' I ended up getting swamped with work, and that lead to loads of stress, lack of sleep and a couple of 'what am I doing with my life' moments'. I haven't managed to progress with my game a lot, in other words.

• The healer's skills have been rearranged a bit. He now starts with a heal and a damage-dealing spell, but that lead to a situation where he had no skills that cost TP until level 10 or so, which isn't ideal in my opinion. To fix that, I made him learn his barrier spell at level 3 instead of the dispel spell: it probably makes more sense, too, since I changed the dispel from removing one specific debuff to removing any single debuff, meaning that it's a lot stronger. I'm still debating whether I should make the damaging spell cost a bit of TP (which would mean that the player can't use the spell during the first round). Like @ksjp17 & @Schlangan, I don't like healers who can't do anything else but heal: mine is a mixture of a healer and a support character with some heals, a couple of damage-dealing spells, one barrier skill and a few buffs.
  
• I've now written down the general / most important states, their effects and so forth.
  
• The prologue music is now finished, and though it's relatively simple, I'm quite happy with it. I also scribbled down bits of a story loosely related to the game plot, and though it didn't directly contribute to my progress, it caused me to (re)consider some bits of the game lore and character background stuff.
  
• Plot writing hasn't progressed as fast as I would've hoped, but I've gotten to the point where the party meets the first mini boss. Writing has made start questioning whether all characters need an equal amount of choices in all situations, though. Example below:
  
  Spoiler

  The party meets a merchant who wants them to accompany him into Town 2 as bodyguards of sorts. He offers them 50 Copper.
  
  
  -Character A is a 'my life for honour' kind of guy, so he can offer his help for free, which character B appreciates.
  
  
  -Character B serves the goddess of life and joy and wants to spread happiness by doing good deeds, so he too can offer his help for free. A likes this.
  
  
  -Character C is used to living comfortably and can perhaps be considered a bit snobbish, so can comment that the payment is rather low and ask for more. It works, but character B and/or A won't appreciate his greediness.
  
  
  -Character D wants to be seen as competent but not necessary benevolent, as he is a bit cynical (and at least a smart aleck). He doesn't really have any reasons for either offering his help for free nor asking for more money... probably?
  
  

Christmas is looming ahead, but hopefully I'll have time to continue writing the plot and maybe start working on the skill formulas and perhaps their animations.

 

[Marquise*]

I need help with my non-virus infected quirky computer that gets me more paranoid than the usual internet services providers now.  (I dunno who I can trust to help now but I am at the very bottom of the list!)


So as fun part, I will do some progress on that Zombie... (But slowly... It seems that I managed to scrap my fingers a bit again and I have to cool my eyes down often)  Dots dots dots!


@bgillispI do hope you won't rewrite all your game.  As in again?  Hope you realized a perfect work is never done!