RPG Maker MZ, Preview #4: Event List, System Tab Options, New UI, Release Date & Price!

[DoubleX]

I just want to know... will be us able to EDIT the game WHILE TESTING IT?
This is what would save us A LOT OF TIME! And have multiple screens would actually have an use in MZ other than... moving windows to another screens for no reason because the main window is locked while another window is opened (except the playtest window)?

If not, then please... some scripter, try make such plugin/addon for achieve this for everyone!

I don't think editing the game while testing it, aka, hot reload, would be a built-in feature, because:
1. It's very complicated and convoluted in general, and it's very easy to have tons of serious(and sometimes irreversible) bugs in hot reload(invalid states, outright crash or even minor data corruptions in really extreme and rare cases), thus defeating the purpose of this very feature and creating more harms than goods.
2. Back when Android Studio(backed by Google) had added the hot restart feature, it's so unreliable that almost no one will really rely on it when developing serious commercial projects(including me as I've suffered from that multiple times already), and if I remembered correctly, it takes nearly 2 years for that feature to become very stable finally. Needless to say, hot reload's much, much harder than hot restart, and Google is at least one of the best at least technically, but when even such an experienced and proficient company can get hot restart(let alone hot reload) so wrong for such a long time, you can see just how complicated and convoluted to get hot reload right.
Similarly, I guess that, if there would be such a plugin/3rd party system, it'd be paid rather than free(probably expensive as well), as it likely takes at least a small team of seasoned professional software engineers to do that, and I won't be surprised for such a thing to take at least months to complete

 

[Nolonar]

I know I'm hopelessly late to the party, but on the subject of autosave:

I just looked, and it appears to be every map transfer and on battle end, if enabled....so yeah...a tad bit overzealous lol.

Sounds better than my own autosave plugin for MV. That one saves on map load, which also triggers when the player loads a save game or returns from the menu.

* Teehee *

 

[Skyroar]

What's the pricing for Europe?

 

[Parallax Panda]

Japanese site says something about upping the limit of common events to 2000... which is makes me wonder about switches and variables?
Even in the most extreme cases, I can’t see myself using 2000 common events. But, I did use close to the limit of available variables in MV that one time I tried to event a collectible card game (each card being assigned 4 variables).

Point being, while probably not needed for most, more variables would be infinitely more useful than more common events... so my question becomes; do we also get more variables/switches?

 

[Prescott]

Forgive me if this has already been answered, but how does the Autosave work? I'm guessing it's every time you beat a battle and every time you transfer to a new map?

I'm particularly excited about the Autosave as well as just a lot of general QOL improvements. $80 is a very good price point, imo.

 

[Hudell]

Point being, while probably not needed for most, more variables would be infinitely more useful than more common events...

My game already has over 1600 common events and will likely go over 2000 by the time I'm finished, but I only have like 200 switches and 50 variables. So it really depends on how you use the engine.

But I'm all in for removing any hard limit like that.

 

[SJWebster]

RE resolutions, I might be mistaken but can't you full screen an RPG Maker MV game? When you do, isn't it essentially scaled and slightly softened (possibly a bilinear filter)? If so, you could offer a mininum base resolution, say 1280x720 and then other resolutions are just scaled from that. It's not ideal, especially for pixel art where it won't be an integer increase, but it gives the player options while avoiding the issues and complications Touch Fuzzy mentioned.

 

[redbulaz]

no you still need to buy the engine to be able to make plugins.
ALL the corescript is already open to people who buy the engine there's no hidden script other than the engine code.

I mean, if the mz corescript will be uploaded on github, like mv corescript.

 

[GethN7]

@Touchfuzzy After looking things up, RPG Maker MV has the following database caps

Switches - 5000
Variables - 5000
Common Events - 1000 (MZ will up this limit to 2000 apparently)
Actors - 1000
Classes - 1000
Enemies - 2000
Troops - 2000
Skills - 2000
Items - 2000
Weapons - 2000
Armor - 2000
States - 1000
Animations - 1000
Tilesets - 1000
Types - 99 (for all categories)
Maps - 999


Can you confirm which is going up, down, or not changing from MV for MZ?

 

[Poryg]

Looks like this week will go without Poryg's signature rant. I've actually been pleasantly surprised.
Considering I consider MV to be an unfinished product, the price for MZ being the same as MV seems fair to me.

 

[Probotector 200X]

This is shaping up to be a really awesome entry into the RPG Maker series! I really should finish one of my current projects before it comes out...


The Autosave feature as it sounds reminds me of a few games. Most mobile games save that frequently, some even remember the current turn you are on! I wanna say Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines autosaves that often, but that's just for switching areas (some areas are quite large so when I forgot to do some manual saves I lost a bit of progress!) Coincidentally, my MZ project idea is very heavily influenced by Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines but at the same time is probably nothing alike...

 

[Holder]

I was always rubbish at naming events in older makers XD AND loosing the parallel process ones.
Been watching someone on twitch trying to get an auto-save system set up so I know how much that'll be appreciated being built in.
I tended to use a three image title screen instead of trying to move the command box, but just placing it in the corners or something similar always used to be a pain.

Price point is what I expected, all in all it's a great new engine that I'll certainly be using over XP and the others that I've got.

 

[DoubleX]

The Autosave feature as it sounds reminds me of a few games. Most mobile games save that frequently, some even remember the current turn you are on! I wanna say Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines autosaves that often, but that's just for switching areas (some areas are quite large so when I forgot to do some manual saves I lost a bit of progress!) Coincidentally, my MZ project idea is very heavily influenced by Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines but at the same time is probably nothing alike...

If I interpret it right, you're saying that some games autosave during battles as well, as you mentioned that they remember the current turn the players are on, and I guess that it refers to the battle turn.
This inspires me to think about the possibility to autosave during battles again.

In the VXA and MV era, I'm pretty sure that it's impossible without causing the lives of scripters/plugin developers writing battle systems(less so in Scene_Map based battles like an ABS/TBS but still) hellish nightmares and having tons of compatibility issues involving many battle-related scripts/plugins that are very hard to resolve well(I've no idea about autosave with platformer battle systems but I guess it'll also be complicated and convoluted).
But as MZ supports autosave natively outside battles, I can already expect some MZ users to ask for plugins enabling autosave during Scene_Battle based battles(default turn based battle system, TPBS/ATB, CTB, ITB, etc) as well sooner or later(after all, there are really users asking for MMO functionality in MV).

While I personally welcome autosave and I think it'll also be welcomed by most MZ plugin developers as well, I wonder whether there will be any MZ plugin developer being confident and proficient enough to write a plugin supporting autosave during battles(without breaking the hell loose of course), at least those involving the battle systems supported natively, or whether the community will just treat such requests like asking for MMO functionality.
In the default turn based battle system, I think it's possible(but still very hard not to break anything significant that are hard to fix) to add the autosave command to the party command window, meaning that autosave can be used upon each turn start, but I've no idea how autosave could be done in TPBS, even though I can't prove that it's impossible

 

[zeroace074]

I am really looking forward to this, all of these new features sound incredible!

although I am wondering how the hell I'm gonna afford that 80 dollar price tag

 

[Vanilla Cheesecake]

although I am wondering how the hell I'm gonna afford that 80 dollar price tag

 

[Knightmare]

I'm pretty sure that an RMW store purchase still can be used to activate on Steam as well, but I'll have to check on that, not 100%. We have another announce coming about details of release coming as well.

On the subject of leaks:

One the one hand it is like: Eh, leaks happen right. I do think that they tided over some people until we had more announces, like at first they kept some of the hate down, but overall I think they were more negative than positive.

Like every time we do a new preview, if most of the stuff in it was already leaked, people act like none of it is a big deal because "they already knew" even though the only reason they knew was because of the leaks.

Additionally, and this one was the big deal to me right when it happened: When a leak happens, there is the possibility of fingerpointing behind the scenes and loss of trust. Like, I specifically was safe from accusations because I had only accessed the Steam version, which had a small graphical glitch that wasn't visible in the screenshots (and would have been) (that has since been fixed). But anyone who had downloaded the standalone version could be suspected, and there were several beta testers that me or Archeia had personally vouched for.

And even if we were sure that they weren't the source of the leaks, there is still that feeling that that loss of trust could impact our jobs.

It's just not very fun.

That's all understandable. Maybe they also felt that the information was being introduced too slowly and wanted to be the "hero" or take matters into their own hands. Hopefully it doesn't cost anyone any issues later on and that they are still willing to trust you guys for the next maker.

-Yeah, take my app for free!-
-Really?-
-C'mon, you know I work for a charity institute. Take also all these resources and my car. Do you like my wife? Take her with you.-
-Thank you.-
-You're missing my kidney. Take it! (splortch). Maybe you'll need in the future.-

I laughed pretty hard at this but maybe they meant it in a different context like when we got the updates for free with MV.

@Touchfuzzy do you know if the tall characters [ dark fantasy patch ] are even considered for MZ?

I mean, so many people just love them, no one even think about a patch for tall characters?

Yes please give more options for tall characters. I love RPG Maker series but I dislike the dang chibi, and no I'm not an artist by a longshot or else I would make my own. I am more than happy to pay for tall characters!

I am kinda tempted to do a giveaway for a key haha

Good on ya! I was thinking about doing this too actually, once it's released I might make a thread where the first reply gets a Steam Key. I know what it's like to be broke but want an outlet for your creativity so this would be my way to pay it forward and make someone's day.

 

[mlogan]

That's all understandable. Maybe they also felt that the information was being introduced too slowly and wanted to be the "hero" or take matters into their own hands. Hopefully it doesn't cost anyone any issues later on and that they are still willing to trust you guys for the next maker.

Except that the leaks happened before any the official update announcements?

 

[Woland]

All of this is pretty irrelevant. Small improvements, but ultimately I don't really care if I change my resolution in a plugin or engine.

What about the most important question of all: will MZ deploy to Switch and PS4?

 

[nio kasgami]

All of this is pretty irrelevant. Small improvements, but ultimately I don't really care if I change my resolution in a plugin or engine.

What about the most important question of all: will MZ deploy to Switch and PS4?

Oh boi...

let me clear right away and forever

The answer : no rpg maker will never deploy to the switch nor the ps4.

Why?
It require to pay licenses to get access to the dev kit AND the api who allow you to deploy so no forget no engine except if they are working directly with nintendo or sony will get a direct deploy support

EVEN if rm would get support you would need to pay the toolset extension to kadokawa + showing your licenses.


So yeah no forget it.
Its like mmo support in rm it will never happen

 

[TWings]

What about the most important question of all: will MZ deploy to Switch and PS4?

As for MV, It will if you make the necessary adjustments, buy the relevant Switch / PS4 devkit (about 2500$ for PS4) and get your game approved by Nintendo / Sony.
So guess what, it's not up to RPG Maker, but to you, your skills and your money.