September Goals & Progress Thread

[Kes]

I expect I shall miss something in trying to catch up, but I'll try my best.

@Chiara

Having someone else take over the skills of the other class is not an option because the main reason for doing this is to try and give the player better replay value. They can play again with the other class, skills and stats and therefore new strategies, with a bit of different dialogue.  Also, I don't think you'd want a party with both those classes as they are a bit tricky to play.  Absolutely great to hear that you are enjoying your design work so much.  That usually does wonders for the overall quality as well.  I do like the character.  She looks like a woman who knows her own mind.  I love the colour of her outfit.

@Schlangan

I'm trying to work out how escaping made your on-map enemies disappear.  If you check the 'can escape' box in battle processing, then you only have the A switch (or whatever your mechanism is) on the win branch, and the backing off etc. on the escape branch.  I set mine up in the last game so that if the player wanted to escape, it was 100% success rate.  Just a small tweak to a default script, and done.  A lot of players hate having the usual system of: you choose escape, it doesn't work, and you get hammered by the enemy having a turn before you do.  If you're trying to escape because of low HP, enemy too strong etc., being beaten up for the attempt is such a big turn off.

@luzi

I like your character sketch.

@Sharm

It would be so helpful if they released the resources specification page from the MV help file so that everyone can be sure they're doing things correctly.  

@BlackRoseMii

Perhaps soon you will have to choose which is the main project and which is the side?

@Marquise*

No, don't run yourself ragged.  And that bedbug infestation almost sounds like something out of a horror movie.  The whole town?  That's pretty bad.

@TherainED

Good luck with that lot.

My update

Still very tired, but I got somewhere on the skills problem.

I have, however, got myself into a bit of a mess.  I want to have some skills with limited use i.e. you can only use them x times before you rest again at an inn.  I want players to think strategically, not just spam their strongest skills.  The usual limitation is x times per battle, but now I've got it x times before resting, it is important that the player has an easy way to see how many uses are left.  I am in the middle of an ultra stressful attempt to get something sorted on this.  It's the usual scripting problem - I don't know enough to understand the answers I'm being given.  I am so confused, and cannot get this working.

 

[Schlangan]

@mlogan : Congrats on finishing your JS lessons. Now we'll see if they are useful for RMMV scripting


@Marquise* : I cannot be mad at someone for saying a robot is cute. It was just unexpected, but why not


As for the resemblance to Alien Xenomorphs, it is a sheer coincidence since I drew the robots from nothing ^^


@bgillisp : The style of your monster can also depends if the trees are alive, what season it is, and so on ^^


@ksjp17 : Oh the problem was just due to my laziness, I just changed the self-switch on contact with the event, or else it would have continued to chase the character. Now with the new latency system, the enemy stops for a while before chasing again.


As for the escape, I was thinking of setting a 100% too, and changing the latency of the monster as a function of the difference in speed. In other words, if the opponent team is faster than you, they'll catch you immediately again, thus making the escape fail. But in that case, should I save the HP of the enemy or not ? I'm still pondering about it.


My mini-update for today :


Since Marquise find my robots cute, here's the almost complete batch of robots of the training room that I drew today. I need to draw the remaining boss(es). I won't say the number, let's keep it a secret for now

 

[mlogan]

@ksjp17 -  "It's the usual scripting problem - I don't know enough to understand the answers I'm being given.  I am so confused, and cannot get this working."


@Schlangan - Thanks, hopefully it will at least be enough to understand the scripts/plug ins I want to use. And I really like the robots.

@Marquise - That dragon is a really cool lizard, I've not seen that particular kind before!

@bgillisp - I wouldn't get my hopes up, I mainly wanted to study it so that I can more easily implement others' scripts/plug ins and to modify what I would like to. If I can get good enough for some custom scripts then, yay! But that's not my primary goal.

I have no progress to report because I pretty much acted like a vegetable today, due to lack of sleep.

 

[VideoWizard]

@All I'm hoping for progress to continue, or if it hasn't yet, to start soon.

@Schlangan Max level 50? Or does the robot simply keep the same form from 50 to max level? A lot of games soft cap around level 50, anyway. Dragon Quest "softcaps" around there (stat increases go way down), Breath of Fire II does that around level 60, and Suikoden games do, as well. Final Fantasy IV does it around level 70, where you can randomly LOSE stats in the SNES and GBA versions.

@mlogan Sometimes those days happen. They're not entirely worthless, occasionally, because progress may be a lot higher on another day. Progress is not linear.

@ksjp17 Is everything OK? I've noticed a lot of posts where you seem to be tired/stressed/both. Of course, it's a lot harder to step aside for a bit when working commercial, I'd imagine.

@Marquise* Holy! The whole town is infested? Can't exactly move into another place in town if the entire town is infested. Maybe a good portion of the province might have bed bug problems. I remember hearing about them when I went to NYC back in 2011. Sounds like the problem in the Northeast US and Canada has gotten a lot worse in that time. However, they are all over North America to some extent. Hopefully your bed bug count stays at 0. 

Wed 9.9.15- Nothing.

Thu 9.10.15- Nothing again.

Fri 9.11.15- Tried making a level for my mini-game. Unfortunately, it seems the Arc Engine doesn't want to work with my project. Inspired by Mario Maker, I guess.

Sat 9.12.15- Made a similar level in Super Mario Maker. Cross promotion, say what?

 

[AceOfAces_Mod]

@bglisp: I will be splitting the game into two two parts (refered as discs). The first one will be released this fall (or winter if I encounter any issues that need more time).

@Schlagan: Intresting stuff.I wonder how it will play out...

@mlogan: Well, congrats for learning Javascript.

A mini progress report:

Just finished the mechanism of the save import/export tool (now renamed as Save Manager) and added a delete all saves option. But I need to work on the dialogs a little (MsgBox is currently hard coded) and I may have to design them in Windows Forms. I'm also thinking of adding an Auto-Backup tool, but I can't decide if I should do it. Should I make it like Steam Cloud or something like File History? Surely, this could be used as a makeshift Cloud Save system.

Game-side, I need to fix up the tilesets in some maps. And to design a map.

Also, just now, I announced that I'm dropping Windows Vista support, because it's used by very few people (can't say for sure, Google Analytics doesn't give OS version, but NetStats and W3School say that only 2% uses it) and it will allow me to utilise Windows Installer 5.0 (so I can speed up the installation progress).

 

[Schlangan]

No progress report here, just short replies :


@VideoWizard : The training robots are max level 50, because they were created like this. However, this is far from the max level in the game. It is only the best thing that the training room of the military base offers at the beginning. It was actually Schlangan that designed the robots, so they cannot exceed his power. At the beginning, he's level 30, but it's enough for him to wipe out the lvl. 50 robots. But of course, he couldn't create something that was stronger than him, so the training room has been made to train the soldiers and other people that are weaker than him.


@AceOfAces_Mod ! With the training room, the player will now have two choices. The grinding fans can train in the room and skip secondary missions (or make them easier), while the exploration fans will rather skip the training room and do the missions. I'll have to debug both versions of course now x)

 

[TheGreatEater]

@Chiara, it's all good, and thanks ^_^. 

 

[EliteZeon]

@ Everyone - Thanks for the compliments, and keep up the good work as well to the rest of yall!

@ Chiara - Zombies come in several varieties, undead, voodoo, videogamers and before exam students. I am two of those... BRAINS... I NEED BRAINS!!!

@ bgillisp - Yup, I have a couple of spreadsheets going.
@ Schlangan - Eh, its going to be a little extra work, but I'll look into it. The Defend Pose is intentionally less flashy with her blades
I was thinking along the lines that the character was focusing more energy into the clones rather than the sword.

Looks like my balance stat scores are working well so far... (but I have only tested level 50 so far). I fully worked out the first set of skills for the main party (level 1-20ish) setting about 9-12 skills per character. I'll need to run the math again but by the looks of things I will need to buff Agility and Luck a little and make them have more direct affects in the skill formulas.

I've gone and named about 40+ Sub Classes/Prestige Classes for my project and came up with rough concepts for each of them. Each main character has a main class and then 4 Subclasses, followed by 6 Prestige classes, which are all essentially combinations of each subclass. Here is what I am thinking of:

IE: Kyo the Mage has the subclasses:

Warlock (MAT+LUK skills), Magus (AoE Specialist), Cabalist (State Chain), Ritualist (Sacrificial Healer)

With the Prestige Classes:

Pale Master, Profanist, Thaumaturgist, Defiler, Exorciser, Eldritch

Thanks to custom damage formulas, each class will have a unique way to do things.... which I still got to figure out... but a lot of my skills give different States and builds off of them. IE: The base magic spell Flare has a chance to deal the Hexed State. Characters may then use another skill that deals extra effects if the target has the Hexed state on them. I've decided my combat will be based heavily on dealing States because of this, and thus calling my battle system the State Juggle. Eh... heads up, I was a heavy Guild Wars 1 player, so my combat is based off that idea.

Just some other examples:

Antidote Signet: Removes all "Physical" Conditions... if you are Poisoned, you heal Half Max HP.

"I Will Avenge You!" : If target ally is dead, give yourself HP Regen, MP Regen and TP Regen for 5 turns.

Flash Bomb: Blind every foe on screen. They don't get blinded if they are Guarding.

Blindfire: Ranged attack that will deal extra damage if the target foe is blind. (used by the Archer character that has Flash Bomb)

Confusing Strike: Attack foe with a chance to cause Confusion, deals double damage if foe is already confused.

Some things still need work for the first 20 level of skills for my characters. My Spell Fencer character has a unique state called "Distortion" which adds 50% Evasion to everything... worked perfectly, but the issue is that she started evading team buffs and team heals. XD So I gotta go and give a lot of skills Certain Hit.

Last of all, here are some icons I made for 4Runes. I have a lot more unique states compared to what the default package gives me, and I don't want to get into trouble by ripping from a source on accident, so I went with making my own... still a heavy work in progress, but its progress!

Spoiler

Top Row:

Death, Guarding, Physical States: Poisoned, Blind, Bleeding, Deep Wound, Crippled, Stunned, Silenced, Dazed, Weakness, Exhausted, Plagued

2nd Row:

Spiritual States: Hexed, Confused, Sleeping, Immobilized, Backlash, Backfire, Bloodbound, Soulbound, Berserk

3rd Row:

Enchantments:

HP Regen, MP Regen, TP Regen, Protection, Magic Dodge, Magic Reflect, Physical State Guard, Spiritual State Guard, Fire Weapon, Cold Weapon, Lightning Weapon, Earth Weapon, Holy Weapon, Darkness Weapon, Chaos Weapon, Shadow Weapon.

4th Row:

Unique Conditions: Stone Bones, Cover, Provoked, Stealthed, Distortion

5th & 6th Row:

Stat Buffs and Debuffs, MaxHP, MaxMP, Physical Attack, Physical Defense, Magic Attack, Magic Defence, Agility, Luck

7th Row:

Mage Skills: Flare Wisp, Energy Siphon, Chill, Doom Fire

Ugh... a lot can happen when you try so hard to procrastinate for an exam for a few hours.

 

[captainproton]

Nice icons!

I have:

-managed to outline the rest of my story.

-made a battler; Malpaca, the llama of doom

-played with The Baby

-worked out how much caffeine I need to counteract the side effects of my antihistamines.

 

[Kes]

@Schlangan

I, too, love those robots.  they're far too cute for their own good.

@mlogan

When it's a script problem I always think it's me being stupid.  However, you'll see from my update below that this time it wasn't me.  I was confused and couldn't get it to work because the the proposed solution was confused in its initial instructions and it didn't work.  That is such a relief.  I have spent quite some energy trying to get to grips with the basics.  I know the "I'm a vegetable because of lack of sleep" feeling.  Hope you get some proper rest soon.

@VideoWizard

Thank you for your concern.  The RL job has been manic, and I am trying to get myself organised to move back to the UK after nearly 9 months away.  Packing up and closing an apartment in a foreign country is always more stressful than in your own.

@AceofAces_Mod

I'm not quite clear what you mean by a delete all saves option.  if a game does that to me, I'm out of it.  Is there a story related reason for that?

@EliteZeon

Yeah, I know all about displacement activity.  I've done some of my finest stuff when I should have been doing something else.  Those classes sound an awesome system - my concern as a player is whether I could get my head round so many of them and keep track of everything, especially if I had to break off playing for a while.  those icons are looking good.  Reminds me, I've got to decide what I'm going to do about my icon set this time round.  I don't want to repeat the ones I used last time.

@CaptainProton

those sound excellent goals to have achieved.  I love the sound of Malpaca, llama of doom.  My imagination is now working overtime on picturing it.

My update

As I mentioned above, my inability to get the proposed solution to my problem to work was not (this time) caused by my lack of understanding.  There were a couple of bugs in it.  However, the person who was trying to sort this out is a bit of a star, and kept at it until it all came out smooth as butter.  Sorted out all the eventing needed for the player to choose between the two classes, and have devised what I think is a rather splendid animation to play when the choice is made.  Dramatic, but not over the top.

And now, it's into the mapping!

 

[mlogan]

@mlogan

When it's a script problem I always think it's me being stupid.  However, you'll see from my update below that this time it wasn't me.  I was confused and couldn't get it to work because the the proposed solution was confused in its initial instructions and it didn't work.  That is such a relief.  I have spent quite some energy trying to get to grips with the basics.  I know the "I'm a vegetable because of lack of sleep" feeling.  Hope you get some proper rest soon.

Okay, there's the lack of sleep showing up - I was typing my response in Notepad and put your quote there to go back and respond to it. And forgot to go back and respond. So I just ended up quoting you. lol I'm such a dork.

Anyway, I'm glad you figured it out and I completely understand the confused-by-programming confusion.

 

[hiddenone]

Congrats on all the progress so far, guys! 

I've gotten my alchemy system to function properly for a few potions, so next I need to write out all of the recipes to make sure that they're all different.  I also did some half-asleep spriting, which lead to some cyclops townsfolk (because there are not nearly enough cyclops in games).

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

Putting up the final part of my VERY short adventure game, will be a series of some simple puzzle solving or answering questions. Hopefully everything is up by tonight.

 

[Schlangan]

@EliteZeon : That's a lot of things, congrats !


@captainproton : You should show your battler ^^


@ksjp17 : Good that your problem was solved.


@hiddenone : You have a point, there is no cyclops in my story. Hmm... I should be able to do something with them as a secondary mission. *Runs away while singing to the stolen idea mwahahaha*


@Engr. Adiktuzmiko : Simple puzzles, for you or the player ? Because knowing the answer always make things simple


My update :


The new training room is now complete ! Hurray !


While the small robots have skill depending on the difficulty level (and keep the same skills even for the different styles), this is not the case for the bosses of each style ! And here comes their picture.





Question : Are those ones cute too or not ? Because I need to review my dfinition of cuteness, I must be wrong somewhere x)


Coming with the bosses, a more complex AI system for them, though the balanced one keeps the same behaviour as the small robots, as it should be the easiest one.


But now will you survive to the big cannon of the powerful one, will you escape the ghost formation of the fast one, and will you resist to the damage reflection of the tough one ? That's another story, that you'll have to tell once I'll release v1.09

 

[Marquise*]

@Schlangan


Now your robots are exciting to look at; I know they are made from scratch but some models remind me of some existing robot in toys fiction and movies! You might take a look at V.I.N.C.E.N.T! (WARNING CRYPTIC Disney REFERENCE ALERT! http://www.jeffbots.com/vincent.html So obscure the only image I found before falling on this site was the Twitter account using V.I.N.C.E.N.T as twitter account name and profile picture; https://twitter.com/hawaiianpunch XD) Also, there was some Nintendo robot that came in mind a bit too But let's not go there! (you ninjaed me with your latest! We typed together!)


@mlogan


I usually have troubles handling female lizards but the person behind me noticed that dragon was following and eying me all along... I guess it meant I was due to Handle a real dragon some day! XD And this one didn't like water and cool temperature but LOVED my heart and arms (warmth)! ^^ And... Please... SLEEP! It'll only regenerate yourself! (Unless you have severe sleep apnea!)


@EliteZeon


Thanks for showing us your icons... Oh my! You inspire me to also one day do PLENTYof other graphic works other than tiling and spriting around RPGMaker!


@ksjp17


Good luck with your new home. I know Internet gets folks closer; but I know that IRL it tends to get us nervouser when there aren't enough familiar folks to care about around! So we are here :3 But I wish you many good trusty neighbors and co-workers that might be like brothers for you!


@hiddenone


Those are cute but weird to look at! X)


All right, I'm about to warm up again photoshop and do that dune and other frames now maybe dress and flesh the character. But I've been out today under some rain and I didn't forgot my camera got hungry and shaky hand and some Spartan 300 new pictures job (just realizing the joke as I type) so...





I might remember no ONE look at ceilings in RPGMaker VX Ace!





Erm... We never see that high in RPGMaker maps but... from this angle, a rain of air conditioner is kinda something imaginable! XD (yeah I know not funny IRL!)





Yeah that's better! More floor tiles than ceiling tiles!





Please ignore the bovine behind the camera!


.......................


@everyone about bedbugs;


Nothing scientific or politic here, mere speculation and hearing overall medias since the last 5 years when I thought; "Bwahaha! It'll never get to me I quarantine about everything I find or buy in the freezer before using it!" The problem is that peoples obliviously are moving with them (as they try to flee them) and with winter; those surviving tends to get more aggressively into winter clothes in public transportation because they are imported from -infortunately- places we use and abuse to get cheap everything! I understood that they once ravaged houses of wallstreet of business travelers before spreading... I guess we just aren't EQUIPPED to face that! Plus, we had tourists from Quebec who died from pesticide in hotel rooms where I guess the problem was taken care of. (Meaning we can handle winter but we can't handle bed bugs or insecticides strong enough to kill them!) In a very stupid world dictated by me, I would get out skyclad wash and rinse, and put some clothes once out of my house to go wherever! Return home and get skyclad again and putting my clothes in an hermetic giant Ziploc ready to get to the Laundromat and disinfecting steps in case I caught some on the road and then get back home and slip into something sterile after a boiling bath and lavender oil overdose then disinfecting everything I touched since the entrance door! >.< Err... Yeah, ridiculous and pretty stunty at minus 40 degree celcius!


Good news my count is still at 0 seen and I might had been had by hungry mosquitoes such as one daughter cat stomped for me! And in two Mondays... I'll have an inspecting exterminator visit to be certain! It stole one year of my life and each toes outside might be like walking on bedbug invasion minefield!

 

[Another Ned]

Didn't feel very sociable yesterday, so I skipped posting. Then I thought I wouldn't have the energy to reply to/comment on everyone, but obviously, I had so much fun I did in the end. If I overlooked someone, I'm sorry. D:

@TherainED: Pretty clear deadlines you have there. Lots of energy to make them!
@Engr. Adiktuzmiko: Yay for the final part! So is it a dialogue puzzle, then?
@Schlangan: I still find the robots adorable. What you can do (and did do already) is to rely less on spherical forms which appear less threatening than e.g. triangular shapes.
But even your newest batch looks cute to me. But then again, I find the fighter aircraft F-22 cute as well. Maybe it's because of the "eyes"..? You could also try and look at existing robot designs to try and figure out how to make them less cute. I like to go and look through this blog every now and then (which has works from pretty high-level artists from around the entertainment industry) for inspiration in how others handle shapes and stuff, for example.
@mlogan: Yay for the completed JS thing! And hope you got plenty of sleep since then. Enough sleep after learning is important to permanently memorize learned things, or something like that. Though I probably didn't sleep properly after I learned that, otherwise I wouldn't have written it this weirdly.
@Marquise*: The reptiles! So adorable! Look at those tiny scaly spikey things! Awwww.
And you could always use the photograph of a ceiling as inspiration for drapery on walls, or for grounds, and carpets, etc.!  
@bgillisp: I somehow imagined a hidden, easteregg-type sidequest somewhere where the player actually has to go through blackness because the dev forgot to add a map.
@ksjp17: Ah, so it's like this with the classes. This sounds quite interesting.
Yay for the solution to the problem. And is it really only mapping? (sorry I couldn't stop myself).
And I hope things become less stressful for you soon.
@VideoWizard: Haha, that's a way to prototype a level, I guess.
@AceOfAces_Mod: Wow, you made progress in things I never even thought about (except for the map things, to those I can relate )! So yay for save tool thing (sorry, I'm super slow when it comes to such things so I didn't quite understand everything, but it's a heartfelt yay).
@EliteZeon: You forgot the non-morning-person before first tea/coffee/caffeine-containing beverage of choice zombie. Oh, and game dev after not taking any breaks for more than five hours zombie. And- I better stop here. In any case, yay for... so many classes? And the interaction with states sounds quite interesting. I love special effects because the user or target have a certain state inflicted! But I think it's quite hard to make it fun in practice, without taking up too much work with all those conditions and balancing and stuff. I like the style of those icons.
@captainproton: Antihistamines that cause sleepiness, then (stupid side effects of medication)? Hope you figured out a good amount. D: And yay for Malpaca. I really want to see it now.
@hiddenone: So it's also cyclops for the plural? English language, you are confusing me yet again. I mean, yay cyclops! And also yay for the alchemy system. I'm getting more and more curious about it. Is there a chance we'll get to see a screenshot or even a video in the near future?

Progress, 12th:

• lineart of the character, Sheireth, in preparation of the cleaner design sketches; added the beards and hairstyles I can't decide on yet (which took forever – wrapping my head around the squiggly lines I thought could work that is). Because I had to eat and take breaks, I didn't get as far as I expected (also because his stupid face went all Picasso while drawing. Was a moment of "how did that eye get there?!" – note: this may or may not be totally exaggerated since I was annoyed when typing this)
• some thinking about Sheireth's personality and background (while waiting for food to be ready)

Progress, 13th:

• tried to work with a more time-efficient method this time: going through the rough sketches one after another, and then make linearts of them (instead of going by "outfit"). By the end, I was super frustrated, and super bored. I may have saved a bunch of hours by doing it this way, but it was no fun at all. I'll save that workflow for when I get sudden tight deadlines or something
• had a mental conversation with Yael about Sheireth, and she proved to be the type of person who quickly gets used to people's quirks as their usual mode of communication and helped me with getting a better idea of the other character (outsourcing fleshing-out-the-characters to another character to flesh her out more!)

And, since it's Monday again, let's check with my weekly goals:

• get the main character's design done //done.
• more sketching //since I had to do this for design, also done.
• more fleshing out the characters //"more" I have achieved, since I spend a lot of time thinking of the respective character on whose design I'm currently working on.

Goals for this week:

• get Sheireth's design done
• either start with the next design afterward or throw some environment sketches in between
• more non-visual work on characters and story (note to self: write down all those things that are in your head)

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

Actually, it's a set of challenges. Questions about things in the game, a maze etc.

 

[AceOfAces_Mod]

@ksjp, unlike the game's delete function, the Delete All Saves option actually deletes  all of the save files inside the Save folder. It's more of convinience.

@Ciarra, thanks for the compliment. Good luck with your project.

Progress Report #3:

Launcher:

Almost finished with the Save Manager's UI. It only misses the confirmation text:



Yeah, the window behind it is too big. I need to reset the font settings here.

Game:

-Went back to the dialog and fixed some grammatical issues.

-Started working on a Licence Upgrade System. In order to take harder missions, you need to exchange Hunter or Mercenary Coins to get either Better Hunter Licences or better Mercenary Passports.

-Almost done with the Synthesis Shops. I only need to test the mechanics. Removal of this, as it doesn't work at all.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

Yay, it's here: https://laephantasma.wordpress.com/phantasma-occulus/the-egg/ (waiting for the page on this forums to be accepted)

 

[bgillisp]

@Acesofacesmod: License system? Is there a way for the player to grind coins in case they missed a few? Also the disc system now makes sense, I just thought if it as Part 1 and Part 2, not disc 1 and disc 2

@chiara: Ha! Maybe I should add that map though. Right now there is a zone where you can't see the map, and a really nice reward if you fumble through it. But not a whole map.

@Schlangan: True. Right now it is an overgrown forest, so its mostly forest monsters. Watch out for those dandelions, they hurt.

9.13 Update: Wrote two side quests now that the map is finished. They're pretty simple, one is to find a person who went missing (they took a wrong turn in the maze), and the other is to find a missing memento of their family that they dropped. Pretty simple quests. Then took the day off to play Pillars of Eternity.