November Goals & Progress Thread

[TheGreatEater]

@Chiara, Nice protagonist pic ^_^.

@Bgillisp, Nice chars. ^_^.

___________________

So getting started on getting the hair set up finally [i finally picked the 24 spots where I want hair to grow from on the head], and fixed up the fuzz layer so that the particle system isn't in the way.  Gave it a much nicer near bald look imo. 







.

[Fuzz layer for red head [mono-chrome].

 

[Vox Novus]

@Jeenus that's awesome a scythe lute, might be my new favorite weapon. Now you can make a wacky music based game where the weapons are dangerous instruments.

@Schlangan so many characters wow, looks like the game is filling out. That's also a good way to do exp, the player can easily keep track of how close they are to leveling but know right away when its time to move on from enemies and advance the game.

Maybe i'll show something off next time   

 

[Marquise*]

@Chiara


That Yael is... is... Well I think you found your style for the game box cover and poster!


@Jeneus Guruman


Middle instrument... I was thinking of suggesting some slight degrade transparency in the exterior of the shape that simulates movement.


And sorry everyone I was hugging too much my newly rediscovered freed animator light table I did some face studies on it for Dread and it is another NDA and my new chair just fits right with it (Still in research for that animator software that still support scan and do vectorization of hand drawn scanned image and do ink and paint on two layers)


Annnd... Still in Photoshop for a logo now!


And... yeah gradually I see more flat surfaces arising.... Altought I am baffled by not necessarily finding all things I need in their respective places. It triggers me lotsa panic attacks.


Edit; My C got stuck again at Cover

 

[Another Ned]

@Schlangan: One of the yellow-haired sprites closes their eyes when walking! But only in front view. Is this intended? I mean, since the other directions don't have their eyes closed. But it's not the character who falls asleep mid-battle, is it?
I like this type of experience system. The Geneforge series I recently played/am still in the progress of playing utilizes this and it actually feels a lot more consistent and rewarding, in my opinion. Plus, it's a lot easier to gauge when the next level up may occur. Though I personally dislike getting no experience for having had to kill some low-level enemies (especially if they do annoying stuff like poisoning actors). Is 1xp too much to ask for? *sulks*
@Vox Novus: Have a big Yay including confetti for noticing your own improvement! I think it's always important to look back to see how far one has come to stay motivated for (on? Prepositions will be the end of me) the long run.
@Jeneeus Guruman: The notes disappearing thing somehow sounds quite annoying. D: Ooh, just saw your post after that, with the music instrument weapon! You have a musician/bard-like class/character? : D
@slimmmeiske2: I'm also more toward the white-haired one. Yellow hair and blue skin reminds me a bit too much of Smurfette. But on the other hand, I think the yellow-haired sprite "reads" better, so maybe adjust the values on the white-haired one a bit?
And thanks!
@bgillisp: No project page as of yet. I'm kind of freaked out by the mere thought of creating one. At least until I have something playable to show that this time, I'm actually able to see things through.
You have items based on skills? Like, as cost for skills, or something else entirely?
@TheGreatEater: To be honest, I can't really discern much from those screenshots but it sounds like you're progressing nicely!
@Marquise*: Just too bad I won't have a box or poster, then. But it was a fun exercise (especially after I fixed some things with the lighting), which even gave me some ideas.
Yay for the light table and face studies! And I hope your stuff resurfaces soon. D: Things not being in their respective places isn't nice for productivity.

Progress, 9th:

• a little eventing, trying out some things which also involved creating a bunch of placeholders. Since my characters look a bit different at certain points in time, I wanted to test showing busts by showing several pictures at one time, forming one image (e.g. Show Picture ID 49 for things behind the body, ID 50 for the body plus emotions, ID 51 for the clothing, etc.). It worked, but looked kind of weird the first time the pictures loaded. May be because my laptop is almost six years old, so I won't worry too much (and since then, I've had a few other ideas that make showing layers of one image more or less obsolete)

Progress, 10th:

• a little bit of thinking while taking the bus to an appointment (and almost missed my stop), mostly in regards to how to show actor portraits and how to portray flashbacks – probably will need to build some kind of vertical slice of one or two scenes to find out how viable the ideas I had are

 

[Schlangan]

@Chiara : In fact the one with his eyes closed lies in a bed, and do not move. I was too lazy to close his eyes on the other sprites ^^ And you'll always get 1 xp point for low level enemies. That's why I set up the value at 1000. If you enjoy killing 1000 enemies...

 

[Jeneeus Guruman]

@Jeenus that's awesome a scythe lute, might be my new favorite weapon. Now you can make a wacky music based game where the weapons are dangerous instruments.

That's only lute. The middle part that looks like a scythe is the motion of swinging that lute. I'm making lute and scythe weapons separate. But it's a really good idea. It's very useful in modern and futuristic games.

@Jeneus Guruman

Middle instrument... I was thinking of suggesting some slight degrade transparency in the exterior of the shape that simulates movement.

Gonna try that suggestion and I'll also observe the defaults on how transparent I will make to that movement shaped part.

@Jeneeus Guruman: The notes disappearing thing somehow sounds quite annoying. D: Ooh, just saw your post after that, with the music instrument weapon! You have a musician/bard-like class/character? : D

I mentioned way back in August or July (forgot when : ) that I have a female bard in my party. She's the one who will use it.

 

[TheGreatEater]

@Chiara: The hair cap above the character. The scalp [from all directions] has a light layer of fuzz [the flecks of red throughout that body part]. Basically it's there to keep the head from looking completely bald.

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Looked at the human hair styles, and colors. I'll have a base of 144 per skin color type. Not counting hair styles. Wondering if I should limit it to fewer colors and styles?

 

[bgillisp]

@Schlangan: And with that, the evil Schlangan shall rule the world by scripts

@Jeneeus Guruman: Resting is still good though.

@Thegreateater: Chars?

@Chiara: More like, items to remove the status aliments the skills inflict, and so on. So I have to update those as well.

11.10 Update: Managed to finish the last elemental magic today, and fix the states for the currently redone skills. That's all I got done today though, as this is my long work day.

 

[TheGreatEater]

@Bgillisp. Yep over 144 characters for a light female base [one race of human]. Adult Age group alone. Only counting hair and eye mixes. Not counting any tats, scars, burns, or other markings I could add. 

What's really making me think though is, that While in the digital PnD Version can allow anyone to make any character they can dream of. I have a limit of 999 chars max ... technically I can save all of them as just images. And the pics being showed / saved in a character viewport / window. But I don't know if that'd put to much strain on the program, or be too much of a pain to program. Or if I should keep it under the 999 max, and have a limited [but still somewhat vast] choice selection. 

 

[TheGamedawg]

My game features around 20 characters which you can have join you in any order and mix and match in your team at will.  I have around 12 thought out, 6 with extensive backstories and recruitment methods planned, and 4 with implemented skillsets.  By the end of the month, I want to more or less finish up those steps for all the characters.

 

[Schlangan]

@Jeneeus Guruman : Strange thing to hit with a lute. I would have expected the bard to range attack with music.


@TheGreatEater : Have fun with hair growth


@Marquise* : A software that transforms a scan into vector ? Sounds interesting.


@bgillisp : Nah, the world is too small for me


@TheGamedawg : Good luck for your characters !


My update :


- Mapping, charseting, faceseting, as usual. I'm done with 85% of the military base. Here are new faces (charsets are done too, but no need to show them )

Spoiler

- The team now obtain flashlights at the beginning for dark places. Using Terrax light system and common events, you can now turn on the flashlight in dark rooms, while a message tells you it is pointless in bright areas. I'll add the F key as a short way to trigger the light too.


- I fixed a bug that was created by my item system. The target of an item is not the one robbed of his item anymore ^^


That's it for now. I'll try to finish the NPCs of the base tonight.

 

[Jeneeus Guruman]

@Schlangan: My bard uses music for buffing and debuffing battlers but can only be used while she's not yet started playing and while playing, she can't "smack that lute".

My progress is only about improving my lute weapon sprite and now made a scythe weapons sprite. It's just right here:

Spoiler

I actually plan on making the blade of the scythe longer but that's the only allocated space in the sprite sheet, so I got no choice but to have this size instead.

 

[AceOfAces_Mod]

Progress Report #6:

Launcher:

I have intergrated the Auto-Backup settings on the save manager along with a few tools on the Backup and Restore tab on the Save Manager to compact the program a bit. Still investigating the bootstrap's auto-backup routine.

Misc:

Some of you may have noticed it, but today I received the 8GB RAM kit for my laptop and installed it with no problems (good thing I re-installed the 64bit version of Windows 10). From what I've seen, it gave a bit of performance boost. I'm doing a few tests before I return to developing the game. I've also set up a linux virtual machine (because University, plus it's the main reason I bought the RAM) and I was playing around a bit with it.

(Tad off-topic, but for some wierd reason, when I executed WinSAT, the result for D3D rendering was 9,9 rating, even though the GPU is kinda weak. Glitch?)

 

[Marquise*]

@Marquise* : A software that transforms a scan into vector ? Sounds interesting.

It still existed in 2000 even 2 years ago but now animation softwares wants to ditch that for graphic tablets. :/


Will be outside a bit. Might sprite a bit tonight. :S I don't like theses days how it feels my artworks don't meet expectations.

 

[bgillisp]

@TheGreatEater: That's a lot of characters! Are all of them in the game?

@Thegamedawg: Good luck with that! How are you coming up with your skills?

@Schlangan: Oh, right. Your game is in space. Those facesets look like they are coming along nicely too. MV Generated?

@Jeneeus Gururman: I thought there was a lute icon in the ACE icon set? Or am I off on that?

@Aceofaces_mod: Enjoy the ram! I got 12 gb when I bought this comp, haven't regretted it yet.

@Marquise: Enjoy outside. We are getting major thunderstorms tonight (if the forecast is accurate.

11.11 Update: Changed 4 more skillsets, and all matching states. Down to 7 class skill sets to go. Also finally set up a decent JP learning system, as before it was me throwing numbers at the wall and hoping they stick. Now, you earn 100 * your new level in JP at level up, and monsters no longer give JP. This means all characters will learn all skills in the game by about level 46 or so, if you care to grind that long. Otherwise, you got some decision making to do.

 

[Jeneeus Guruman]

@bgillisp: That's actually where the lute came from. I pretty much copied and edited some pixelated parts when resizing and added a swing motion thingy in the middle part.

 

[TheGreatEater]

@ Bgillisp, Well the Interactive PnG version probably? I'll see what my limit is and any work arounds before a game would be to crashy. But I want to make it so that somewhat like Skyrim or Bloodborne, a person can have any character they can dream up and have a visual representation of it. If I do limit it, then that does cut down on creativity. Although Only a few races would have massive variations [Humans, and Ty'ren. Elves,  Inaurians, and Asurans have fewer color schemes to work with.]

And I can work on giving them character codes, so that in future incarnations there can be some carry over. Although my problem is that by opening massive amounts of different characters to make. I also increase the amount of artwork to cover them in numerous situations [and me being me. This includes many different hair cuts, outfits, and armors.]]. What exactly is the limit, if all you're using is png files with no actual sprites? 

 

[Schlangan]

@Jeneeus Guruman : By doing a bit scripting, you should be able to use bigger weapon sets probably. You might consider it if you want longer blades.


@AceOfAces_Mod : WinSAT is not necessarily accurate sometimes.


@Marquise* : As long as you get some progress, even if do not completely what you intended, it is fine.


@bgillisp : Yes, I've mainly used the MV generator. It is very practical ! I edited the gradients and the clothes to get what I needed. Concerning your characters, will they learn all skills of their respective class or every existing skill ? But at least it is nice to be able to learn all skills without having to make drastic choices.


My update :


I'm done with floors -1 to 2 in terms of mapping and eventing for the military base. Only the -2 floor remains, but it will only includes locked door and 2 NPCs, so it should be quick enough to do. And of course I have the elevator to event.


In total, I have now 44 different NPCs done for the base. Phew. Here comes their faces (you've already seen some of them of course).

Spoiler

Tonight I'll be doing the last floor, and I'll start scripting the new mission window. I've decided to do things slightly differently for the missions this time :


- Changing party members will be done by going to their rooms, instead of doing it at the mission screen. It will be more logical that way.


- It won't be possible anymore to go back and forth to the base during a primary mission. If you go back, you forfeit the mission and you'll have to do it from scratch.


- Concerning items, after the first mission, you can get some in the base with no problems, but in reasonable amounts; If you have less than 20 of Item X, the base will provde you some. But you can carry more if you find several Items X in missions. Only the refill is limited.

 

[Vox Novus]

@Schlangan you're a beast, so much done! Keep it up.

@bgillisp JP are a fun way to give the player some decision making, glad to hear you have it implemented.

 

[Jeneeus Guruman]

@Schlangan: I think I might use that size instead since the character that will use scythes is the youngest playable in the party. I think it's either weird to use big weapons with a very young person.

No much progress for today (since I play online game as a temporary past time) but:

• Just populate another field with monsters and added some troops to add the new enemies to be encountered.
• Before, they can only reach 3rd tier magic if that's their main element. But now, everyone can now learn 3rd tier magic of their assigned elements to be used aside from their main element, which can learned to make an ultimate magic to be available to learn.
• My 1 character that has only 2 elements now has 3 while all the others have 3 or more types of elemental magics to be learned.