March Goals & Progress Thread

[Lantiz]

Oh my you are a bunch of hard workers!

I'm working on the "the sims inspired interaction system" with NPCs, it's working actually.
Done with casual and friendly interactions.
Lacking intimate and romantic.
Still thinking about adding some cutscenes, not sure yet.

I also need to find another artist to make some pixelized balooms and skill effect animations :[

 

[Llareian]

@Kyuukon , that sounds like an awesome chase system! I know it would surprise the heck out of me. I don't know why, but I thought immediately of that scene in Resident Evil (or was it 2?) where the thing breaks through the two-way mirror...I think it reminded me of that because of how unexpected it would be, and how unprepared for it I would be!

March Goals Progress:
1. Finish roughing in the items. COMPLETE
2. Make a sprite.
3. Make the floor/wall tiles for the home base.
4. Work on roughing in the skills.

#4 has necessitated (in my mind, anyway) creating a workbook for analyzing damage formulas. When I started doing that, I found I needed to have the ability to total up the actors' parameters depending on what level they are and what equipment they have, so that I can be sure it's scaling properly and they aren't unbalanced.

So I've been re-learning my excel formulas. (Hooray for that random half-finished project where I made an interactive D&D 5e character sheet in Excel! I learned so much that's applicable here!) I think this spreadabase will be HUGELY helpful when it comes time to move to the dream project (or on any project, really!) because it will be MUCH easier to track large numbers of items and quickly alphatest the numbers without needing to run battle tests. When I'm done, I may share my monstrosity creation with the community, if others think it would be a useful tool. I never know if anyone else will be able to understand my train of thought.

I've got all my equips and actor leveling formulas entered in and a table that totals up the actor's stats based on input level and equipment. Just need to start adding skills and damage formulas and linking them to the actor stat tables to get workable numbers, and we'll be off to the races!

 

[Marquise*]

Gah pretty filled week-end and more paperwork tomorrow...

Grrrr Pangofly dragon on the backburner (

 

[Andronius]

Man, how do you guys manage to progress so quickly?

 

[XIIIthHarbinger]

Man, how do you guys manage to progress so quickly?

Become a misanthrope & forgo human social interactions, learn to function on four hours of sleep or less, but best of all imbibe copious quantities of everyone's friend.

Meth mmm Meth.

 

[Andronius]

Become a misanthrope & forgo human social interactions, learn to function on four hours of sleep or less, but best of all imbibe copious quantities of everyone's friend. Meth mmm Meth.

 

[Marquise*]

@MIIIthHarbringer I kinda understand except I am not in for the meth part!

 

[Shinma]

After a rather long hiatus, then being back on the forums and not really posting anything or working on anything, I have a rather easy goal for this month:

1. Map out the section of the game up until the players move to a new campsite.
2. Get the core concepts of the game for this section up and running.

 

[Lantiz]

Yup!
Just finished my "the sims interaction system"
I'll try to post a video later, it's 4:40am '-'

So as this was my goal, I'll add one more:
Configure the interaction system for each NPC event

 

[XIIIthHarbinger]

@MIIIthHarbringer I kinda understand except I am not in for the meth part!

Well, there's always cocaine.

 

[Kes]

@XIIIthHarbinger From the forum rules:

2. Do NOT discuss ... or any illegal activities you have committed. This includes but is not limited to the use of illegal drugs ....

Even as a joke. Remember the rating for this site is 13+. Also, as a company site, Degica is bound by all sorts of legal rules and requirements that don't apply to e.g. a fan site.

 

[Schlangan]

Again, a few days have passed, and too many pages in this topic. Well... nice progress everyone !

My update :

I'm now done with the edition of all monsters on all maps. I added a function in the Death Realm where you can get items like in the base, because the player will need some for the bonus content I've planned. If for some reason the player was out of items at that point, it would be troublesome for them. I've also prepared the first sprite of another character who will appear in a dream-like state.

 

[AceOfAces_Mod]

Progress Report #7:
Immortal Sins:
-Finished the last (for now) city.
-Shipping the latest update. Will be available either today or tomorrow. I've already sent the update for certification on the Windows Store.

Since the update is shipping to all mirrors, the month's goals are complete. Huzzah!

 

[Marquise*]

@AceOfAces_Mod Congrats! Ouh... seems complicated to publish a game!

 

[Arithmetician]

Worked on some balance adjustments for skills that exclusively target all enemies, slightly nerfing them.

 

[bgillisp]

@XIIIthHarbinger : Don't recall, sorry. It was 2 years ago. But I have found that even 90 x 90 maps even when well planned out take 2 days on average to make them good maps (and I am including the time to find and edit the needed tiles and music into that figure). So take that for what it's worth time wise.

@mogwai : I still want to see that project finished someday!

@Celianna : Nice! While I know the game is marketed as for girls, I may still check it out *if* I get any free time soon. Seems the closer I get to the date I want to release my game (which is late August 2017, I hope. At least that's the target I set for myself to try to hit.) the busier I'm getting.

@Arithmetician : I wonder if Yanfly used the same code as they did in ACE, as in ACE if you have an element rate of 200% then add the absorb tag, it turns into 0%, as Yanfly did the absorption there by just subtracting 200% from your current rate. Maybe that's the issue?

@Arcmagik : Ha! I've had months like that!

@Kyuukon : That sounds like a good AI!

@Adronius: The secret is caffeine. Lots of caffeine. So much caffeine that everyone thinks you're a hyper squirrel.

@Schlangan : Wow, those 400 maps didn't take that long to edit!

@Lantiz : Can't wait to see the video of this one. Does it also talk in simmish, or in your variation of it?

3.14 Update: Went through the town of Emberfield and corrected the NPC's (some were on placeholder sprites still. Figured the red blob I was using for a placeholder might need to be changed). Also implemented the first 3 of the 4 side quests in that town. Next is the last side quest, but that requires a dungeon which isn't mapped yet, so that's next up.

 

[Kes]

I see everyone racing ahead on progress. It's only 3 days since I posted, and already I'm a couple of pages behind, so only sketchy responses to a few things.

@bgillisp So far I only have one 'area' where the player can enter greatly underleveled and that's the 'Death or Glory' option that I spoke about a while back. Of course, as things progress the player will be weaker if they don't do the side quests. On your 'Danger Warnings' do you run a check to see what the average level the party has reached before the Mage says their little piece? I was thinking that maybe I ought to do something like that in one or two places, and I was wondering how others did this.
@XIIIthHarbinger The more details you give of your mapping plans, the more I wilt inside. Kudos if you manage to pull it off.
@GoodSelf Congrats on getting that crafting system done, and all through eventing. As for resisting Zelda, keep thinking of that video someone posted of the problems with Switch and tell yourself you don't need that kind of stress.
@Llareian I'm glad you got something done for the animation contest. I enjoy making animations, but I just couldn't find the time to do anything for it.
@Celianna In terms of game play time, roughly how long will it all be, based on these first 12 chapters?
@Arcmagik I dithered around with this project at the beginning, deciding whether to go for MV or Ace, so I know how time consuming and frustrating that process can be. Hope you resolve it soon.
@Marquise* Listen to DC's advice. That's all I'm saying.
@Kyuukon I want to see those enemies jump over tables to get you, sounds great.
@Lantiz Good to hear that it's coming together.
@Shinma Welcome to the fold! Good to see you on this thread. (In case people don't know, Shinma is my awesome tester.)
@Schlangan Another great example of understatement - being out of items would be "troublesome". I'm sure it would!
@AceOfAces_Mod Well done on getting the update out.
@Arithmetician I love reading your consistent progress, and the obvious amount of work you are putting in to get your skills just right.

My update
Took a couple of days off and played a very nice demo 'Lotia'. It should be good when the final version comes out. That seems to have done the trick, as I was able to get back in and finish doing the map that brought me to a standstill. An ambush happens here, and that's now all evented. They will be taken to an orc village, and I realised that no one seems to have thought of orcs other than as enemies in a battle scene, so no women and children sprites anywhere that I could find. I've had to do them. I've also made some larger furniture, as ordinary beds and chairs, for example, will not work. So next will be mapping the village.

 

[XIIIthHarbinger]

@XIIIthHarbinger : Don't recall, sorry. It was 2 years ago. But I have found that even 90 x 90 maps even when well planned out take 2 days on average to make them good maps (and I am including the time to find and edit the needed tiles and music into that figure). So take that for what it's worth time wise.

You see I think that is one of the primary ways our creation methods differ. As you seem to see the maps as individual stand alone pieces, where as I see them as artificial separations of the whole. I created procedural methods of map creation for me to use, much like I would have programmed into a map generator if I was making one, usually derived from randomly generated non-repeating number sequences. I undertook these methods, specifically because I know that if I create each map as a stand alone, I'll spend a week more being a perfectionist on each one. tweaking every shrub & bush.

Additionally I create tilesets by groupings based on terrain type regions assigned by the blueprints I create. For example, I have ten different field tile sets, sorted according to terrain region, & habitation. So for example for Mountain terrain regions, I have one set for wholly uninhabited wilderness, one set for mountain regions that will have village exteriors, & one set for mountain regions that include military fortifications. With the same selection criteria for the highlands (forests, hills, etcetera) & lowlands (swamps, floodplains, etcetera).

So out of the four hundred field maps, the tilesets for all four hundred have already been created & assigned when I was still on tier 1. It's why I've already completed tier 4 for the Northern & Southern Mountain Regions, will finish up tier 4 for the Northern Highlands by today, & the Southern Highlands by the end of the week. Then once I complete tier 4 of the lowlands, I can start on tier 5; which will be relatively easy, because I already have all of the breaks in terrain features plotted courtesy of preplanning, will have all of the basic dimensions of each terrain feature layed out courtesy of tier 4, will have all of the towns already connected again courtesy of tier 4.

All of which reduces my potential transition points to the fields North, South, East, & West, of each respective field map, needing to programed from 996 to a couple dozen. Hence its position in the order. After the transition points have been assigned, a few more number sequences to break up the regimented feel of the maps, so they are more reflective of the chaos inherent to natural system, & the rest is rather akin to pouring sprinkles on a sunday, i.e. random rocks, trees, bushes, flowers, etcetera. Which when combined with every field map having one of ten potential tilesets, & a random selection of terrain features manifested in their respective 25 different sectors, & it's nearly impossible to have the same two maps within the set number of iterations.

Season with monsters to taste, based on preferred regions for type, & enjoy.

Depending upon the end result I might try 50 sectors per map each being 25 X 25 in a 250 X 250 map on the next project, based on a more complex terrain model. Honestly as much as I am putting into my first project, it's still just a training exercise to prepare for the next project after that; with everything I learn from this iteration allowing me to make a better game next time.

 

[XIIIthHarbinger]

@XIIIthHarbinger The more details you give of your mapping plans, the more I wilt inside. Kudos if you manage to pull it off.

It's not as complicated as you might think, it's simply A LOT of preplanning. Honestly in some respects it's rather helpful. For example after I used the various formulas to create the coastlines & basic terrain features of my "satellite blueprints", I would look at the island that I created & ask myself things like "Okay where would the people living on this island have settled?", "What route would they have traveled over time to reach their nearest neighbors?", "What would their economy of been focused on?".

For instance, it just so happened that one of my larger collections of mountains ended up being bordered by a collection of open clearings. End result, a town at the base of the mountains to harvest the mineral wealth there, using existing terrain features as a trade route to the nearest settlement, which happens to be bordering on the largest inland body of water. Oh I know, these two towns have a trade relationship, town in the mountains supplies them with metalworking, town on the lake supplied them with fish.

Okay now I've established a trade route between two settlements, in game lore for two settlements, potential game conflicts for two settlements, all based on nothing more than using a collection of pixels as a brainstorming tool.

 

[bgillisp]

XIIIHarbinger, please avoid double posting, as it is against the forum rules. You can use the "Edit" function on your posts to add additional information you've forgotten or respond to multiple people. You can review our forum rules here. Thank you.

Also, we may want to debate this on another thread at this point too. I still say it's nuts as so far 0.000001% of people (I'm sure there's someone somewhere who has done it that I don't know of) who have tried such a game with that many maps have finished it when working solo.