The Magi Chronicles [Back to ACE!]

[Dalph]

It's ok drass (I was joking), take your time...don't rush, we will be always here.

 

[JacobM]

Friends! 

It's been a long time, and speaking of time, I never have enough of it!

There's a new Alpha demo! I know I've been saying I would have this out and here it is!

Updates include:

Custom facesets! - Oi, this is time consuming and I'm still not done... But, please let me know what you think of the ones I did include on this update.

New Areas and Revisited Areas - well you should just play, okay?

Various dialogue updates - Can't list them all... I don't even remember, but let me know of any typos or anything odd, please!

More Custom Music! - Still not entirely custom but we are getting there. Enjoy!

Ok, so I have to be honest.... this doesn't include much more to the followers of the game... I wish I could include more dungeons and more quests but there's still so much more work to be done! I hope this will keep you entertained until the next release, which should be more substantial! 

That being said, I am aware that there are some issues, such as: Not enough NPCs, unfinished areas, placeholder graphics, placeholder dialogue, and more... Please don't hate me... -_-;

All who play and add some good feedback will be added to the Testers section on the credits! Any and all constructive criticism is welcome as always.

Here is the new link! https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/93180199/TheMagiChronicles%28Alpha%29.zip

It's a NO RTP version so you will need the VX ACE RTP... It's around 200MB, the more I try to cut back and remove things the more it gets replaced with others. It never ends!

Thank you all new players and those of prolonged support! Love you all! More will come!

 

[Bonkers]

Okay, here are some impressions as they happened since last play through.  Enjoying myself so far training up the boys.

Spoiler

Drasius looks a million times better as a rugged old blonde man than a stringy half elf portrait.

I like the indicators, they are a nice touch.

 

There is a lot of lag in the first house.  I did laps around to see I would speed up and slow down at times during movement.  I entered the counselor's office and it happened again.  It's like that sparkle

script is running in the background taking away from the other events and player movement, even dialogue speed.

 

I'll do a short video to show what I mean.

 

Principal has a VERY nice portrait!  I love how the principal gets involved because some kid got lost looking for mushrooms he could have bought at the local store.  They are mages, not the

town's police force.

 

Yeah the sparkles stuff is inside the class room too.  Odd, not just on the black boarders.

 

Go see the school counselor before you go, "Good luck finding Charles Daryl!"  Thank you, that was helpful counselor.

 

I'm in the center of town now and all lag has ceased.  Everything is clear and working perfectly with walk and run speed.

 

Daryl's portrait reverts to his old one when you do the tutorial fight with the first monsters.

I would customize the victory aftermath dialogue.  Daryl has a good enough personality he'd say some fun stuff.

 

Charles for a mage has no mage robes.  He has standard jeans and shirt, which means he is a total badass.  Like some sort of 80s mage.

 

Corran takes me back to my house, and the particle effects start up inside and start lagging things again.

 

I really like the window skin.

 

Outside again, no lag whatsoever.

 

Charles house there is a small pass-ability bug.  

I cannot get past the door.  Same lag and particle effects in Charles's house.

Blueberries are more magical than grapes.  It must be the tartness that determines mp gain.

 

Okay it looks like your characters join on level rather than earned exp.  That's fine, but if you want you can change that for them to gain Daryl's 

EXP and match him exactly in his status rather than level so you don't start with someone 300+ exp behind him.  Very minor thing.  I can show you how if you like.

OMG Corran.  Shield.  We talked about this Corran.  This is why you have a scar.

 

Oh!  Corran has had his damage output increased dramatically!  He's a match for Daryl's magic now.

Daryl must always be in the lead >>  Corran is officially leading this mission Daryl.  Obey the chain of command.  Let the meaty guy get in front.

 

 

Stronger attack hits dramatically harder.  Nice.  

 

Yeah set Corran's victory aftermaths to custom qoutes as well.  He's must too jubilant and excited for a battle hardened scared man.  

World map encounter rate is rather high.

 

Arrow pointer persists after battle when enemy is defeated by a status effect like ignite.  

I can go to the forest for endless free heals.  No Inn for me =3 Economy is in destress, but I am all good to go.

 

Stronger attack appear regardless of insufficent TP, could you set a condition on that not to trigger the skill addition if Corran's TP is too low to use it?  

World map enemies have 10x the exp of forest monsters.  It makes leveling a breeze with Corran and his free heal.

 

I'll get back to it tomorrow with more, I'd have done more but we're back and forth to the hospital again for my father.

 

EDIT: Video of speed loss

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByuTxMPbRZgjNzB3WGl5ZVNWbkk/edit?usp=sharing

 

[JacobM]

   That lag.... Glad you liked the portraits!

Spoiler

The only solution would be to turn off the effect all together.... man. It works fine for the most part on my computers but I do notice a slight slow down on my laptop... it's probably a combination of how rpg maker renders things and pc specs. I only added those effects on a whim so I really don't have a problem removing them if I can't find a way to optimize it.
I tell myself every time to customize the battle aftermath dialogue but I end up working on something else before getting around to it. lol

If you can PM me about the Characters joining on EXP rather than LVL I'd appreciate it. I think I'd prefer that.

Charles does probably need some robes... or a new sprite all together.

I forgot I was messing with that doorway and must have forgot to put it back the way it was lol thanks.

I'll look into tho whole stronger attack/TP thing.

The reason Daryl must always be in front is because it made eventing certain things a lot easier =P

Not sure how I can fix the pointer issue.

Thanks for the great feedback, I'll make sure to add you to my credits for sure (like I should have anyways lol). Huge help!

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

well if the effects are done every frame, you can adjust it to do it just around every 3 frames instead... it does help a lot on reducing lag, though of course, it won't look as smooth

 

[Bonkers]

I'd be happy to lend a hand and give you some suggestions for victory aftermath dialogue if you like?  I know the characters well enough now to get a feel for their reactions.  No obligation to use em, just thought it would be fun to brain storm =3

 

[JacobM]

I'm game! That would actually help out a lot since I rarely get the time to do that myself, I'd like to hear what you can come up with!

 

[Dalph]

Played it again:

Spoiler

Changes so far are very nice, as palladinthug says the new facesets look really awesome ingame but as he already pointed out I noticed a lot of lag too in a few places, you should fix that drass.

You also forgot to change the old facesets of the characters in some parts of the game (in the messages of 1st battle tutorial Daryl still shows his old faceset for example, also in the Synthesis Tutorial and in the short-dream\nightmare scene after he reads the message of his father).

There's also a small faceset mistake during that scene with the Dark Lord (in his lair).

And I noticed something...Corran has the scar on his left eye (on the sprite) right?

Nothing weird until now but the problem here is..that on his faceset he has it on his...right side! XDDDDDD

Despite these minor problems, I played it till the end again and it was as great as always.

I think I've missed the Mountain Ogre's Quest but I'll look into it in the next playthrough...ahah

 

[Bonkers]

Played it again:

Spoiler

Changes so far are very nice, as palladinthug says the new facesets look really awesome ingame but as he already pointed out I noticed a lot of lag too in a few places, you should fix that drass.

You also forgot to change the old facesets of the characters in some parts of the game (in the messages of 1st battle tutorial Daryl still shows his old faceset for example, also in the Synthesis Tutorial and in the short-dream\nightmare scene after he reads the message of his father).

There's also a small faceset mistake during that scene with the Dark Lord (in his lair).

And I noticed something...Corran has the scar on his left eye (on the sprite) right?

Nothing weird until now but the problem here is..that on his faceset he has it on his...right side! XDDDDDD

Despite these minor problems, I played it till the end again and it was as great as always.

I think I've missed the Mountain Ogre's Quest but I'll look into it in the next playthrough...ahah

He's Nick Furry!  He can change what side the scar is on at will.

EDIT:

Continuing my play through I found an odd bug:

Spoiler

Ok Corran, is the best damage dealer now.  1600 on a crit with stronger attack.  Awesome.

 

With the event talking the fallen old man which shakes the screen to the bottom of the ruined town the portraits

revert to the older versions.  

 

When talking to the nun Corran impolitely stands ontop of Daryl instead of disappearing only after the nun has left.  

You can set his event to transparent when he moves up, before it's taken to the blank event to hide it completely.

 

For the staircase leading down from the altar level, you may wish to flip the graphic.

 

I couldn't enter the second floor of the catacombs with the key, so I exited the dungeon and re- entered and was able to get in.

 

Strong attack prompts an axe graphic in combat, but in the menu it is a sword skill.

 

When approaching the switch near the crystal in the B2 catacombs it moves into position only when you are on top of it

from below the area of activation.

 

The shadow along the southern wall opposite of where the nun is being held on B2 is too solid, you can fade it to make

it less harsh of a transition with the light.

 

Naomi is 2 levels behind me at 8 when we are 10.  Was she set to be 8 at joining?  Furries ruin everything!

 

Head priest Brand still says "Get Prepared to die!"  ><  Corran also reverts to his old face for the dialogue.  Daryl too

I assume it's because this is a troop event.

2400 crit stronger attack on brand =3  Now he is is far more powerful than anyone even the boss!

 

Boss does 500+ per hit.  Yikes.

 

Reading the note I get Daryl's old portrait.

 

I would refrain from using autotiles like the vines on the side in the tower of venus map.  I have some 

edited vines as well I can share with you I did for my game to make things look less stacked.

 

The jump works with the action button, might not wanna refer the player to an extra button that does the same thing.

 

One of the snakes on F3 is a tiny snake sprite =3

 

Nature spirit Venus sounds a lot like people who want criticism.  I didn't talk down to you, I arrived here five seconds

ago!

 

The exclimation mark of the guard in the castle went behind the shadow effect of the archway.

Okay, 2. >< Okay too.

The carpet by the pillars indicatind the passage can be fixed with shift right click mapping.

 

The weapon shop is empty.  That is not nice =(

 

Hopefully we is cut off on the airship captain dialogue.

 

I stopped for the day when Ash joined the party.

 

EDIT: 


Okay just finished the demo.  On the first floor of the dungeon, if you enter from the second floor and walk down you will trigger a SE stepping immediately south or any of the southern tiles below the stair case tile.  I am not sure why.

 

The puzzle switch was nice, and it took a second to click when I saw the color of the switches. 

 

When Naomi died, she falls flat as a board to the right.  Will you be doing behaviors for the sprites as well for downed and damaged states?



 

I finished!  Much better than stopping at the tower of Venus like last time.  Very good job on those portraits.  The Archer and the principal were among my favorites.

 

Well from here on I'd say definitely look at replacing Corran's icon for strong attack to the axe skill instead of the blank skill back star, the state in battle has it right, but the strong attack etc do not on his skill list.

 

Charged arrow was wonderful.  Silence is VERY devastating.  How about some items to cure it or a piece of equipment to nullify it?  

 

I really wanted to beef up my equipment, but all the shops were empty.  So I sat on 9k gold.  Daryl needs nice things.

 

I'd take a look into the B1 wooden door behind the skeleton in the catacombs.  I defeated him first, then got the key only to have the door not function properly until I had exited and re-entered.

 

Looking forward to your continued work!

 

2600 on stronger attack with Corran.  Yikes.

 

[JacobM]

Good lord... lol Extensive! Love it. 

I'll touch on a few things:

Spoiler

Again, glad you liked the new portraits, hopefully more so when I fully remove the old ones
I'd like to see your vine tiles! and of course I'll give you credit if I use them.

Corran was beefed up because we got many complaints of him being not as effective. That being said some of his moves will hit A LOT higher but that's on purpose

As far as sprite effects during battles... The script I'm using (Yanfly) does not have a code to implement that?

Items haven't been our top priority at this point in development so it shows... sorry we don't have cool things.... yet.

Corran and his scar, It'll probably be easiest to fix his sprite =P thanks for noticing Dalph!

Again, I appreciate the time you've taken to play through my game! It's so very helpful!

 

[Bonkers]

Good lord... lol Extensive! Love it. 

I'll touch on a few things:

Spoiler

Again, glad you liked the new portraits, hopefully more so when I fully remove the old ones

I'd like to see your vine tiles! and of course I'll give you credit if I use them.

Corran was beefed up because we got many complaints of him being not as effective. That being said some of his moves will hit A LOT higher but that's on purpose

As far as sprite effects during battles... The script I'm using (Yanfly) does not have a code to implement that?

Items haven't been our top priority at this point in development so it shows... sorry we don't have cool things.... yet.

Spoiler

Corran and his scar, It'll probably be easiest to fix his sprite =P thanks for noticing Dalph!

Again, I appreciate the time you've taken to play through my game! It's so very helpful!

The restaff release for May will contain them along with the waterwheel and some other things you might find useful.  I recommend you take a look =3

That's okay, items can come when they come.  No rush there.  My pleasure to help you out.

 

[JacobM]

Hello friends!  Quick update... nothing major! Just letting you know we are still alive and kicking.

We've been working on different things like dialogue, side quests, balancing and what not. Palladinthug would be glad to know that I've put in some custom after battle dialogue and he was kind enough to send me some really good suggestions that I took advantage of. As a way of saying thanks again I'll make sure he makes it to our credits under Testers and Special Thanks (Along with some other names that have been very helpful to our development process).

We are still looking for any feedback from anyone playing the game for the first time OR replaying and would like to add to their current feedback. We love to hear from you guys so keep it coming, good or bad!

I'd also like to see if anyone has any good ideas for NPCs. Most games have a plethora of them and have them say interesting things or things that make the world more lively. I'm terrible at coming up with that kinda stuff, so if you are good at that, LET ME KNOW. Send me a PM with your ideas and locations of said NPCs and we will decide if we want it in our game, if added we will have your name added to a NPC Dialogue specific section of our credits.

And per usual here's a snippet of something I've been working on:

 

 

[Bonkers]

Hello friends!  Quick update... nothing major! Just letting you know we are still alive and kicking.

We've been working on different things like dialogue, side quests, balancing and what not. Palladinthug would be glad to know that I've put in some custom after battle dialogue and he was kind enough to send me some really good suggestions that I took advantage of. As a way of saying thanks again I'll make sure he makes it to our credits under Testers and Special Thanks (Along with some other names that have been very helpful to our development process).

We are still looking for any feedback from anyone playing the game for the first time OR replaying and would like to add to their current feedback. We love to hear from you guys so keep it coming, good or bad!

I'd also like to see if anyone has any good ideas for NPCs. Most games have a plethora of them and have them say interesting things or things that make the world more lively. I'm terrible at coming up with that kinda stuff, so if you are good at that, LET ME KNOW. Send me a PM with your ideas and locations of said NPCs and we will decide if we want it in our game, if added we will have your name added to a NPC Dialogue specific section of our credits.

Oh wow, thanks guy!  I am glad I was able to help out a bit with the work\fun.  That's very kind of you considering it wasn't anything major.  Much appreciated =3 

I'll be sure to revisit the game and make some notes for NPCs when I have the time.  I went  so far so to visit Indrah's Let's Play of the older version to see how far things have come.  You guys have been hitting some very steady progress.

 

[shayoko]

just commenting to let you know i still follow this too : D

i dont make games atm but interested in learning some more stuff that i dont know.

in post 194 i think the screen shot

what program was that?

//

the areas look beautiful :3

its got  to be uber tough to work on something this extensive having a baby ;(

 

[JacobM]

That's Photoshop Creative Cloud. I love it. It's a lot more feasible for me rather than buying it. 
I do have a lot less time but the blessing our little man puts in my life is worth it.

Now I work on the game if I have down time at work or if mom and baby are asleep. =P

Thanks a ton Shayoko for your continued support of the project!

Palladinthug,  it's the least we can do! Can't wait to hear from you, and I can't wait to see more progress on Silver Town!

 

[Bonkers]

I've been going over the demo with a fine tooth comb, and I think we are at a good point to start revisting a few of the lesser maps now that your on an editing spree.

Spoiler

Sorry about the arrow size.  I went bonkers.

I pointed out the light errors here, and most of all the paintings.  They'll need to be shifted down about 5 pixels or so to avoid that wooden ream that is in the wall fixture.

Spoiler

Here you will need to use shift click mapping to fix up the rugs.  When you make a passage into a room, having the boarders of both sides in one path seems a bit too tight fitting.  You can right click and then use a plain piece of the rug there.  I've marked a few other sections that you may wish to dissolve the boarder from.  In the end it's your decision.

Also if you wish to have plants on the floor, I can recommend a few other choices from deviant art etc resources that look like larger potted plants, these look like table ones for the marigolds, or like the tulips outside ones.

The book shelves should be right or left side oriented.  There are a few resource artists here like liberty and Indrah who have done these, and I recommend changing the front view ones as they block access to the visual books when you walk up against them.  If you can interact with them in another version a small book indicator or what not will do and I can fashion that for you.  

If you have a shelf above a book case, it looks like it's intersecting the ceiling.  My recommendation is to do a quick edit and have the bottles sit on top of the bookcase itself or move the shelf.  

I've sent you a few pages of examples of good and bad NPC dialogue I've found and some suggestions.  I'm in a bit of a drull right now, so I apologize for not having more done at the moment.  I'm looking over more of the maps, and trying to pick out areas to refine to make things look smoother in optional houses, and areas.  They tend to get overlooked in most projects.

EDIT: http://ayene-chan.deviantart.com/  Here we go.  Cabinets with bottles on top, potted plants, and a host of other things you may or may not need.  Along with some custom paintings.  

 

[shayoko]

i woulnt of even noticed such things if those werent pointed out XD

 

[JacobM]

Oh man, yeah! Those are pretty much things I've overlooked now because I've made those maps so long ago lol but I will definitely go back and touch them up once I get a chance. Thanks for pointing them out for me! Once again you've been super helpful

 

[JacobM]

I have just one thing to say about our views for this forum page...

YAY! Thanks everyone. I had to.

Been working on a fun side dungeon as well! Completionists out there will really appreciate it.

 

[shayoko]

off hand wondering how long do you think the final version will be

im in tendency to avoid absurdly long ones like heros relm which literally can have 20-40 hours of play time.