Progress for the sake of progress? Nah, progress for the sake of fun!
Worked out the first few maps. I am sure I will tweak them a bit, but I like them so far, which means that was an easy goal that I knocked out. I am currently working on placeholder eventing so I can ensure the flow of the game is correct. Mapping out the next area is going to take a good bit of time, but that is where I will be introducing a lot of the core concepts, so I do see that taking me towards the end of the month. As a stretch goal I will set out to map out to the first town. Oh, and make up a map for the mapping challenge that I set out in another thread.
@Kes@Andronius After all, if sleeping for the night at the inn is capable of healing most wounds, shouldn't a nap heal enemies by a little bit? More seriously, sleep is important to the body's wellbeing, and the healing means that it's harder just to put the whole enemy party to sleep and then poison them into submission.
Still working on balancing some of my ailments.
Edit: Speaking of ailments, I came up with a few that I think I'm happy with,
The second and third spells for each of the Magus's core elements (Fire, Ice, Lightning), now carry themed status ailments with them, at 5% and 10% rates, respectively. Burning is identical to Poison, save that it only lasts 1-2 turns. Frozen is a single-turn stun. Shocked reduces critical evasion by 100% and reduces defense by 25% for 1-2 turns.
These ailments offset the fact that it takes longer to slay enemies when using multi-targeting (since the damage is divided between them), but occur at a low enough rate so that they aren't overpowering. Besides, the main purpose of the spells isn't the status ailments - it's damage. The ailments are just a little bonus.
Edit 2: Removed Yanfly's Turn Order Plugin, as it was cluttering my display when paired with other plugins.
Finished revamping the Equipped Skills of the Hex.
I think that this strikes a nice balance between power and drawbacks, without any of the hassle of making the character Undead/causing damage from healing. Granted, I did discover that HP drain attacks circumvented that, but a passive effectively making revival impossible in battle is a pretty hefty trade off, so I decided not to go that route.
That said, I don't think I'll have an issue with enemies being able to inflict Zombie status on the party later.
@Kes : Your game sounds a lot like the one I want to do next...heroes trying to prove they are innocent. Interested to see how you implement it.
@Marquise* : I do agree that the .gif is too fast to see detail. Wonder if we could see one in all one direction, animated?
@Arithmetician : I personally don't think there's anything wrong with breaking the game balance for a turn. After all, finding ways to be powerful for a while is part of the fun.
@Andronius : I second Kes here, the tile set looks like a store bought set, and not available for free. You'll have to buy it if you want it. It also looks edited, but edits of store bought tiles cannot be shared per the terms of use of the creators, so you'll have to get the store packs and try to edit it yourself.
3.18 Update: Finished off the Emberfield side quests, and can call that town done. Started work on Northpass next, started by tweaking the bypass if you wish to go around the town, as well as dealing with the optional boss battle that exists there. It's a tough one at Chapter 3, as it is meant to be done in Chapter 5 or later. But, it *can* be won in Chapter 3 with some luck, and using every little trick in the book.
From there, added a warning to the party about the battle so the player knows if they are underleveled, using my average Chapter 4 ending level as a base (24th level if curious). If you're below that, the game warns you that the monster will tear you from limb to limb, so best stay away.
Then, with the Northpass Bypass implemented, moved onto placing NPC's in the town. This one was tricky, as workers at a nearby Cheese Factory are on Strike, so I had to put some protesters in the area. Put them in town, as well as the rest of the citizens, then touched up the map for the Cheese Factory.
Next up is to give the party a way to investigate and put an end to the strike. I've already placed the monsters and such for the investigation sequence, I just need to put the events in the proper order. Once that is done, the party can end the strike and no longer have to go around this town while on the world map.
And for the curious person, here is where I am at with my towns. Any town listed as done is done through Chapter 8. And yes, I know that's a lot of towns (22 last time I counted).
Elmwood: Done.
Silas Rest: Mapped, no NPC's placed on town. Can't do the side quests yet.
Crossroads: Mapped, downstairs area is done. Side quests need tweaking.
Aurora: Mapped, needs NPC's and side quests.
Riverdale: Done.
Blackmire: Mapped, needs everything else (has the bare minimum for when the plot goes there, and nothing else).
Tall Oak: Mapped, needs everything else.
Thundermeadow: Done
Silverdale: Done, but has no side quests. Unsure if going to put any there, still pondering this.
Northpass: In progress.
Icetop Fortress: Done.
Dragonblast: Done.
Emberfield: Done.
Gnoa: Done except for side quests.
Tir Koraz: Mapped, needs everything else.
Darkspyre: Mapped, needs everything else.
Raindew: Mapped, needs everything else. Thankfully this one is easy as it is a ruin.
Pegasi: Same as Raindew.
Silvanos: Minimum required for plot mapped, rest of town needs to be mapped and implemented or a reason to not be able to go there needs to be devised.
Eastwood: Done except for side quests.
Winterglen: Done except for side quests.
Clearwind: Mapped, no NPC's except the bare minimum shopkeepers. No side quests planned for here, so that will be a non-issue.
@bgillisp True enough. While one could speed up getting 100 TP with another skill I implemented for the Bard, Inspiring Song, that method would probably take more MP than it would be worth. And I did give the skill a long cool down.
Then, with the Northpass Bypass implemented, moved onto placing NPC's in the town. This one was tricky, as workers at a nearby Cheese Factory are on Strike, so I had to put some protesters in the area. Put them in town, as well as the rest of the citizens, then touched up the map for the Cheese Factory.
OH MY GOD. No CHEESE?!?! Please tell me the player can fix this. I would drop saving the world to fix this.
Everyone has been so productive. I have been very not productive. Unless you count randomly playing with things in RM that have nothing to do with my project as productive. To use a reference to something that happened to me in Skyrim (...a lot...), I'm off chasing butterflies and picking flowers, and not really paying attention to what I'm supposed to be doing.
SO. I got back on track tonight. Part of the problem was I was having a heck of a time with this stupid marble texture I wanted to make. So I buckled down and did it anyway. I'm sort of okay with how it looks, though the floor still looks a little off to me. Here is a sneak peek of my new floor and walls for the "home base". Maybe you'll get a small idea of what sort of game I'm making.
@bgillisp *looks plaes in your game in your list* Yikes! Ever thought knocking at Bethesda's door? As for my .gif, will do. But in Photoshop since the cells are supposed to stay same size. (I still have to learn a few rule bending tricks. ) @Llareian NICE tileset and organ!
Sorry about my progress guys it was mostly appartment stuff and I was on my prototype again fixing it and modding it!
Rebalanced the "Vengeance" skill so that it deals damage based on the user's max HP upon death rather than 20 x their magic power. I figure that will scale better over a range of levels.
Played around with balancing status effects some more. Then went directly into the game's code and edited the effectiveness of Luck in affecting state rates to make it more powerful. More importantly, since I've now explicitly set the formula, I'll know that each 1 point of Luck over the opponent equals a + 0.5% chance to ailment success rates, which will make balancing easier.
In light of this, I've rebalanced the Hex's stats. They've got a normal luck stat now (rather than a low one conflicting with their core function), but slightly lower HP and magic defense to compensate.
@Shinma That's a significant number of maps you're planning, especially with your stretch goal. Good luck with it. @Arithmetician The skill Glacier - I find the description a bit confusing as it says Single/All. Does that mean that it randomly hits one enemy or all enemies, or does it mean something else? On some of my elemental skills I have it so that enemies who are weak to that element get a status infliction as well as damage. It makes it more worthwhile seeking out who is weak to what. I like what you've done to make the Luck stat more relevant to status effects. At the moment it's pretty trivial. I need to find out how to do that in Ace. @bgillisp The need to prove their innocence at one particular point is only a small element in the plot. It's not the whole plot device, which your description of your next project sounds like it might be. I like the idea of the strike at the factory, it shows the world going about its business quite separate from your concerns. This makes it feel more real. But no cheese? That's a blow to morale! @Marquise* How are you modding your prototype?
My update:
Had to take a break from my current project as I'm finally putting A Timely Intervention on Steam. It should be there on Friday. Indinera does all the necessary, including putting in the Achievements, but I then have to play test it to make sure that the Achievements are implementing correctly. It's been nearly 18 months since I last played it and I've forgotten where all the items are to be found and what my battle strategies were, so it's more like what an ordinary player would experience. I'm enjoying myself. I'd also forgotten how much I like the music, and how funny the dialogue is in places.
@Kes Single/All means that the player can choose to cast the spell either as a single-target spell for full damage against an enemy, or as a multi-target spell, for a fraction of its total power against each enemy. For example, if you are facing 4 enemies, and you choose to multi-target it, each enemy will take 1/4 of the damage that it would have taken had you selected it as a single-target instead, whereas if you choose to multi-target against three enemies, each will take 1/3 of the base damage. It's something that can be done with Yanfly's plugins.
I went into rpg_objects.js or something like that in MV to change how luck affects status ailments. It looked like it was previously +0.2% per point of luck. Of course, Ace is written in a different language, so it might not be quite like that with your program.
@Arithmetician I think being able to choose single or all is pretty cool.
Sadly, the script structure in Ace means that not even the script names are the same as the plugin names. I had thought this was in Game_Battler script, but it only talks about chance and random, not specific rates, so I can't work out where the chance bit is calculated.
@Kes Yeah, I can't help you there. I've never used Ace. I only knew where to look in MV because of some forum post I came across on this site some time ago. Good luck, though.
@Llareian : Yep, the player can fix this, if they wish. In fact, it pays off for them in the end.
@Marquise* : Ha! It wasn't supposed to be that many originally, as Darkspyre, Pegasi, Silvanos, Eastwood, Winterglen and Clearwind were not supposed to be in the game, but I needed a zone for Chapters 8 and (early) Chapter 9, and they got added. I've joked that my original design doc was only written so I could laugh at it!
@Kes : We'll see. It was the idea to get the ball rolling, but my last attempt to implement it in a story (2003, though it never got further than a word document. Of course, I also would have had to code it in C back then, which is another reason it never got further) it stunk badly. Still would like to run with it somewhere sometime though. Also have about 6 - 8 other ideas for possible project 2 though, so will have to decide on one once this is done.
As for luck editing, here is where you touch it. Notes in spoiler:
First the code. Put this in a script snippet somewhere.
class Game_Battler < Game_BattlerBase
def luk_effect_rate(user)
[(1.014**(user.luk - luk)), 0.05].max
end
end
That's the entire code.
Edit the line in luk_effect_rate to whatever you want, I use 1.014 to the power of the difference between the user's and targets (** is exponent in Ruby), which works out to if the user's LUK is ~50 points over the target, 200% chance of the status aliment sticking. The last part keeps it at a minimum of 5% so that you can't get 0% without equipment or states.
Edit: Also note that whatever number you put here it will be returned and multiplied to the default chance of the status aliment sticking. Something to keep in mind.
May still tweak it some in my game, as getting a LUK over 80 in my game is really hard, so may need to increase the 1.014 number to something else. But if you like these numbers, use them.
@Arithmetician : Just note that balancing will probably be an ongoing thing. I've had skills I thought were well balanced until playtesting. Speaking of which, how is the plot going?
3.19 Update: Taking the day off to play a game for a change (and to let ideas stew in my head some). Might dabble in the game some after dinner if I get bored of playing a game, but we will see.
@bgillisp Yeah, any balancing I do right now is preliminary, but the true test will be when it's in the context of actual dungeon crawls and against varied enemy troops.
The plot and the world map has been pretty much ignored for the past few weeks as I try to fully implement the 9 classes available in the first chapter of the game (Freelancer + 4 additional jobs available to all characters, + 4 jobs that are initially available to one character each).
And enjoy playing a game. I'm probably going to do so myself later today, whether it's Virtue's Last Reward for some contemplative problem solving, or Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization for some fast-paced action.
Edit: Realized that the ailment formula was multiplicative rather than additive. I decided that this made more sense after all, but tweaked the formula to make luck still more significant.
I liked this 'cause there's a lesson (depth/immersion-wise): one does find RPGs in which, while mechanics are great and all, many things are there just for no reason whatsoever. I like when there's a reason for everything, and I've tried to do that a little whitin my project: like if there's a little random drake somewhere I must think "WHY is it there? What does he eat? Whose pet is it? Does it have magic? Is it lost? Can I adopt it? Can my Druid speak with him? What happens if I interact with it... O__o..." (takes time though, thinking of all these details). I was reading precisely today a conversation regarding immersion and logical continuity whithin the story.
I suppose you could say it's a "turn poison into medicine" kind of scenario.
I tend to be a very analytical & skeptical person by nature, which works against me to a great degree when I am being creative/imaginative. I find it very difficult to "suspend disbelief" when dealing with other people's stories, & find it even harder when those stories are my own. The kind of "McGuffin" plot devices favored by so many, are something I simply can't use, because it absolutely drives me mad to do so. I can't simply state a character accomplished some feat, unless I can plot out their exact chain of actions. I can't simply ascribe an action to a character, without understanding what their motives are, & why they think their current course of action will yield the desired result.
So my detail obsessive nature, serves me rather well, when it comes to world/lore creation. On the other hand, it often leads me to fixate on minor details, that others would happily gloss over.
Update: Map development terrain groupings on all Mountain Fields, Highland Fields, completed. As well transfer points between Mountain/Highland Field Maps & their respective towns completed. Lowland Fields terrain groupings & lowland town transfer points still in progress, desired time of completion March 31.
Well, time to do some stuff, even though this month's goal is complete.
Progress Report #8
Immortal Sins
-Adding something like an escape rope (for now, the name for the item is Escape Scroll, although I might make it as a skill).
-Adding a teleport scroll. I need to think what to do with the ship though...
-Fixing up both bullet and arrow mods (which, for now, add elemental attacks and most of them can cause states (for example, an Ice Arrow can freeze an enemy)).
-Planning for the second part...
It's been awhile since I posted here, and my progress goals have nothing to do with game making. However, once finished, I'll have a little more time to work on a game.
Goal for the next 4 weeks: Finish my Masters degree.
@bgillisp I see! Hope for your time things dind't got off hands. @Kes well...it did broke two thingies. %^$%$%^ back shielding and left heel. Might cost a wee bit but P2 brought me something for cat food after busking in 3 locations. Look the current mod here;
Yeah after St Patrick's parade... But I was surprised by who encouraged and who heckled it this time!
Progress;
Busking out today, got enough to feed a bit the felines in an emergency. But busted a boot heel and my morphsuit's back fly so I couldn't get the green hairs for the theme because of how I had to close the back had some nice and some scary encounters. Did I ever typed that Prototype32 is supposed to be a quarter of ton of recycled material? At least one of those filming crews putted money in my pale. Well would be the half if I count the weird guy wanting to do a selfie!
Tomorrow, 1/3 PyxelEdit, 1/3 cleaning up the apartment,1/3 left paperwork. Yeah the dragon have competition! Maybe I should listen to crying DC and get to my pillow! Or play with my felines.
@Arithmetician : The way I handled it being * instead of + was I asked myself how many points of LUK do I want to have before the chance is doubled? Then I solved the equation and went from there. Right now I use 50 points of LUK = the chance of the aliment sticking is doubled.
@AceOfAces_Mod : Maybe you can move the ship when they teleport?
@DragonVine : Hope the degree finishing goes well!
@Marquise* : Wait...the dragon is done? Did I read that right?
3.20 Update: Spent today placing NPC's in the town of Aurora. Managed to place them on the beach and inside most stores. Still need to place them in the pub, the inn, and the novelty store which sells really rare items (some useful, some useless. Who wants a ketchup and mustard set with the words Aurora on it?), as well as the two restaurants in the town, and also in the town itself. So still a ways to go, but I work late tomorrow so maybe I can finish it up then?
And yes, I know I was working on Northpass, but since the quest requires you to come to Aurora I figured it was a good time to fix up their NPC's as well.
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