February Goals & Progress Thread

[TheoAllen]

Added preview for focus color

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[Sharm]

I did something today! Yay! It's been a bit since I got any work done. I fixed the heads on my bases so they weren't so bulbous.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

Some progress!


Finished with the status display bar. I removed the death icon from it btw after I made these screenshots since I'm using an overlay for dead battlers anyway. It's displayed vertically. Going down to up for enemies and up to down for actors.

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Also added a win/lose message

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Gold drop window

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Actor current level and exp % window

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And learned something...


Visible sprites even if you don't do anything to them causes FPS drop while invisible sprites even if you do a lot of draws and blts into them every frame doesn't cause FPS drop...

 

[mlogan]

@Sharm - Yay! Glad to hear you were able to get a bit done!

@Engr - Does the lose message say "LOSER!!!"? lol Just kidding, I do like the red/blue/yellow colors you use, they stand out really well. I think on the You Win message it would look better if the purple were less transparent, especially since the left section looks completely different being over a solid background. Otherwise, the screenshots, look good!

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

Now that's another idea... I just placed You Lose! for now... XD

 

[TheoAllen]

Some progress!

Finished with the status display bar. I removed the death icon from it btw after I made these screenshots since I'm using an overlay for dead battlers anyway. It's displayed vertically. Going down to up for enemies and up to down for actors.

Spoiler

Spoiler

Also added a win/lose message

Gold drop window

Spoiler

Actor current level and exp % window

Spoiler

And learned something...

Visible sprites even if you don't do anything to them causes FPS drop while invisible sprites even if you do a lot of draws and blts into them every frame doesn't cause FPS drop...

I seriously like how to you choose those colors. It somehow nice to look

And as for something new for them, that's why my antilag disposes character sprites that goes out of the screen. And it was a huge performance. Also, you can try this snippet. Window is also same. I learned it by doing my in game editor

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DataManager.initdef updates  Graphics.update  Input.update  @windows.each {|w| w.update}end@windows = Array.new(100) {   w = Window_Base.new(rand(544), rand(416), 100 + rand(444), 100 + rand(316))#~   w.visible = false#~   w.openness = 0#~   w.opacity = 0#~   w.back_opacity = 0#~   w.contents_opacity = 0  w}updates while true 

 

[Marsigne]

(Was going to post yesterday but forum got into maintenance mode, and got to school today)

Hey!... but wait, before you cut my head off, I want to tell you that I am picking this up now xD I had a long brake but wanted to come, so yeah xD aside from the community, people in school and friends likes the cinematic scenes I make, so yeah xD

 

Also, I was going to post before 12 PM but forum went into maintenance mode and couldn't post in that time, lol.

 

February 2, 2015: What I'll be doing is creating some cinematic scenes consecutively of about a minute to stay active in game development, and eventually recover and probably make things faster xD yesterday I made a lot of progress and today, while not as much progress, made more progress and the first cinematic scenes will be made soon, and although the maps & some things could be made from before, the point is to become more active, and then resume what I was in before, and one good thing I did yesterday is that I spent some hours on it, so I can become more active again xD but now, without further ado, I'm going to show a screenshot of the progress xD what is left would be some facial expressions, music, translation, and the final cinematic scenes, then I put the two different language videos in two different youtube channels, but the channel that is going to be used is undecided, as I think it would be better to not mix it with the more "professional" or so to say (I mean prepared and such) planned videos.

 

@Ms Littlefish - Hey, here's a screenshotie XD

 

 

[Tarsus]

I got one more map done today. Over half way done for my opening act and demo now. Just need 1 more big map and 4-5 single screen ones then it's time to start making events.

Well on track for this months goals, plus as a bonus I have a week of work soon.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

@Theo - ooh nice.. I kind "fixed" the FPS drop though by simply reducing the amount of sprites I used, I just unnecessarily made lots of them when I only need 1... XD

My progress so far was fixing some bugs with some parts of the battle system, some minor errors that I didn't notice before. It also now runs at 60 FPS on my tests instead of the previous 35-45 FPS. Also made the HP bars for dead enemies to not be drawn anymore.

Here's how the scripts section looks like right now

Battler, Actor and Enemy are custom classes I made that are used solely by this system, this way I don't modify the Game_Battler, Game_Actor and Game_Enemy classes to add things that my battle system would need. This way any other script that edits those default classes would still work correctly. 

The core is complete I say. My next goal would be porting my Drive system for this battle system. I say port though I'd probably remake it from scratch instead. Then also make a threat system that I could use for the action and target selection. XD

PS: Drive system =  think of Command Styles from Kingdom Hearts BBS.

 

[Sharm]

Made angled roofs all day. There has to be an easier way to skew pixel art than the way I'm doing it, but I don't know what it is.

 

[Kes]

@Sharm

If you ever find out, let me know.  I find doing angled roofs takes me forever!

@Engr Adiktuzmiko

Just wondering - if all those scripts are necessary, are in fact 'core', and simply must be there, why not put them all into one script?  That way you would know that users were not leaving essential bits out - though of course, that comment assumes that these will be public, and I have no way of knowing if that is true or not.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

Because it's easier to edit them when they're separated... You wouldn't want to look into thousands of lines of code which includes several classes just to look for 1 line to edit...

 

[Ms Littlefish]

I just got done with 2 BGMs and 5 MEs for Restaff. Which is pretty good considering I started yesterday. (Psst, don't let anyone know I'm a slacker).

 

[bgillisp]

@Ms Littlefish: You can always join the procrastinators club. I think the 2013 elections are going to be held soon...

2.3 Update: Nothing too exciting here, I redid the skills for two more classes, and rebalanced a couple buffs to make sure the player would want to use them. Also went back over my first 70 or so enemies and made sure their skills were set correctly again. Couple more classes to go then its back to Chapter 0 (the intro) and Chapter 1 for polish for the demo.

 

[Tarsus]

@Engr Adiktuzmiko I had to completely rewrite game_battlers and scene from scratch for my system so I know how it is with giant scripts. Mines not quite at 20+ like your is, so I'm thankful for that.

It is much better to keep them seperate, having one giant script might be easier to import into projects but it's a nightmare to navigate through.

 

[Marsigne]

February 3, 2015: Finished cinematic scenes, translation and most of the facial expressions, just one character is left. What would be left is music, and maybe some little fixes if I find one, and then record it in both languages and release them in a youtube channel, which I believe is going to be on the old channel that have the other cinematic scenes. Posted one minute less to 12 AM, just on time haha.

 

[Another Ned]

Watching everyone progressing is really motivating, so I thought I'd join.

My main goal for February is getting a working prototype of the first sixth of the game, upon which I can expand. For that, I need to do the following:

• scribble placeholder graphics
• scan placeholder graphics in (not being able to draw digitally is driving me nuts, I miss my desk)
• setup placeholder items, as well as other stuff in database (almost done at this point)
• get my evented random encounter system to work properly (especially in regards to random events that could happen)
• figure out how I implement NPC conversations and then test it out (speaking from experience, this involves a lot of gnarling at my events until I notice I used the wrong variable)
• map the first sixth of the game (5 levels – doesn't need to be final, as I'm focus(s?)ing on functionality for now)
• get my characters names, or at least personalities, a plot outline that is less rough than the current one, and maybe at least a working title
• double check if everything works for the in-town menu

Nice to Haves:

• scribbles for actual character, etc. designs
• decide on which style to use for the maps (staying with unedited ACE RTP for the prototype, as nothing needs to be final for now)
• test out a few styles for the illustrations (super-low priority)

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@TheoAllen: This looks very complex, but seems like if one's familiar with the battle system, everything becomes clear. An in-game editor for a complex battle system also looks like a good way for people wanting to use the system but unfamiliar with it, to try out some things without the risk of errors and game crashes.

@Engr. Adiktuzmiko: I second what people said about your colour choice. First glance tells me everything about the order of turns I need to know for some decisions. Saw other systems, where I had to spend more time figuring out "Waiiiit, is this one of mine?" – only seconds, but seconds I could've spent better.

@Sharm: I like this "get something done a day" approach, sounds very healthy.

@Marsigne: Tons of respect for working with so many Move Routes. They are my nemesis and the reason I decided to stick with pictures for cutscenes.

@Ms Littlefish: You produced more music? *shiny eyes*

 

[Kes]

A frustrating time, some productive moments and some displacement activity.

The displacement activity first - I had an idea for a couple of new auto tile walls for what will be my capital city, and spent time doing those instead of working on the section that I'm supposed to be doing.  I think that with this project and my last one, I'm building up a seriously good collection of walls and roofs.

The productive moments - discovered a couple of significant omissions i.e. a skill that wasn't showing up in the character's skill list for rather obscure reasons, and another skill that wasn't working as intended, and sorted them out.  Did some polishing on the activities of a couple of NPCs, tiny things, but they all add up, and then a couple of minor bugs squashed.

Frustrating time because I'm still not quite sure how to plot out the next section.  I've got the main lines, I know where I want to arrive at the end of it, but it's the little steps in between, the ones that make all the difference, that are giving me grief.

 

[EternalShadow]

An update: Finally fixed that bug that'd been plaguing me for like three days


I've only got about four maps to redo, then I'm back to where I was with BR HD!

 

[Tarsus]

No new updates for me for the next few days, I'm pretty sick right now and have decided to build a cocoon in front of the tv. My pc is upstairs in the cold, but I am doing a bit of story writing with a good old pen and paper.