Name one thing that you added to your MV Project today

[Dad3353]

I've started on the Hot Plains, which are indicated on the World map as a volcanic region about five tiles square, which is insufficient for my needs. I've triggered at the entry point a re-direct to a Burnt Outpost Map, from whence one plunges into the inferno of a Lava Cave. This leads to a second; there'll be a third, maybe fourth cave to get through. Using the 'stock' Lava Cave as a jumping-off point, I'm creating walls or lava streams that have to be crossed. To this end, I've invented 'Rope', which can be used to either scale walls, or stretched across lava. This Rope does not grow on trees; there is some to be found in crates, or it may be purchased, although if there's not enough, it'll mean a long trek back to the Fort for new supplies..! I may find other uses, or alternative tricks and traps; we'll see.
A Lava Cave is all very well, but would be incomplete without some sort of nuisance. A search for inspiration brought up Spiders, and I've discovered a suitable set of sprites that fit the bill just right (credits to 'LandOfShadows aka Steve Giles' for those...). I've 'borrowed' the Mouse Event from my Maze and turned it into a Spider, with the additional penalty of, not only a painful bite, but a three-to-one chance of being poisoned. There are multiple paths through the cave, some of which are relatively clear of these pests; others have a whole swarm, that will fearlessly approach any passing stranger. Choose the way wisely..! Mwahahaha.....

 

[Amysaurus]

I've pretty much been going to town with these faces - today I finished Aluxes (from XP) and Ylva's (from VX) facesets:

Spoiler

 

[Dad3353]

A small victory this evening; small but significant. I was looking to see how to have a kind of boost during the Battle scenes, and wanted to invoke the Skills 'Strong Attack' and 'Cleave'. It took me a while to work out that the Actors had to have the Trait 'Special' added to them for this to work at all; it was then that the fun started. I could get the Battle Event to trigger the Skills On at every third Turn, and eventually got the Skills to Turn Off, too, once used, to come back at the next third Turn. I associated Sound Effects to indicate when they were available. My problem was how to get these Special Skills removed at combat end. Some research on t'web threw up the answer, that there was no 'End of Battle' Event (Sob..!), but I also came across a 'work-around' that actually worked, by having a Turn 0 Switch On, and a Common Event, Autorun to 'forget' the Skills and turn the Switch Off. I've tested it through a number of times and it works well, even in the case of Escape. [Yoda] Pleased, I am. [/Yoda]

 

[LordBones]

Okay big gif (around 60mb)
http://i.imgur.com/UzluOdC.gifv
I implemented the Battle UI into the game. I'm randomly generating the health, use and weapon bars for the current party member and the qty of the equipped items 1, 2 and 3.

All elements are coded in a JSON so it's fully moddable.
All elements can see to fade out if certain triggers are not met (with an option for and/or e.g. all triggers have happened in the last 5 seconds or any one of them have)
Triggers being:
Has a button to do with Battles been pressed
Has the health changed
Has the use value changed
Has the weapon value changed
Has the number of item 1 changed (and 2 and 3)

Yet to implement:
Is health below X
Is health above X
(and the same for the use bar, and add an option for %)
Have we been attacked
Is an enemy within X tiles (Always true in a boss battle)

Any element of the UI can be set to any number of triggers, so I could in theory turn the health red if the health is too low.

I just need to implement the limit bar in the middle of the health and use bar and I'm totally done. The hard part was done... coding it. Additionally you can decide if you want the numbers to move slowly towards the target or just snap to it (and the same for the bars) and the speed they move at.

Fairly happy with how it turned out. Still need to work on the small numbers.

 

[Jodis]

Because it's the weekend don't really have much time to work on my project heh, but I did put this together to show off my cannon firing animation I've come up with. While it's still a bit rough, it does appear pretty accurate for a cannon that recoils and shoots the cannon ball forward heh. Lemme know what you guys think I can do to improve this animation design! (I'll have this same thing for all directions as well, but currently only have this one done).

(My little sister designed the title screen for my Tutorials project lol...it's very girly because of that but meh it's neat xP)

Gess what happend latter.

 

[Sinnistar]

OH NO! Looks like we know where Ria went off to after the events of that day >.> lol

So today I've fixed up a bunch of things in TOTL. I also added in custom sprites for all on map encounters to give an idea of what you'd be fighting if you trigger those encounters. Next, I added a hidden map to the Deda Forest Guild Task Zone, which will make use of the new shovel item (since there will be a treasure in there). I added in gathering tools that are required to gather materials now (for realism sake), and added in my map overlays to show light rays for the various exterior maps that will change depending on the time of day. Then I went on to add in some of the custom "Thanks!" characters that some have come up with for letting me make use of their works in my project. Among these is Drifty, a samurai who owns a dojo in the cliffs north of the Wisparya forest (he has one awesome view of that magical forest heh, he's lucky!). Then there is Quan Tum, a time travelling NPC that will allow you to skip ahead through time to trigger the next story event's time (for speed runs and such since some of the events will be quite spaced out). Next we have Rid Dal, an NPC who gives the player a riddle each day (where they type in the answer heheheh not giving a "one or the other" option on these) and if they get it correct he'll reward them with something. Finally, we have Mani, a crazy man who speaks gibberish and tries to con the player into doing things they normally wouldn't for his own pleasure of watching them do it. This is just the beginning heh, there's a lot of others that are being thought up to thank those who have helped in one way or another.

I'm also working on a tutorial to show how I created my time travel system xP (for those who want to make a Doctor Who style game heh). In addition to that, I have an epic idea for a new tileset I want to feature in this month's pack if I can manage to finish it in time. (There prolly won't be much in this month's pack, but I do plan on that tileset and some "Shade" sprites for use in horror games as well as 2 new window themes that are meant to be used with SumRndmDde's window "stretch-proof" plugin). I've also got that other tutorial set up and ready to upload, just haven't had time to do it yet heh.[/spoiler]

 

[Dad3353]

Had some fun this evening (after a harrowing days with medical stuff, but I'll pass on that...). I wanted some livestock to animate my Lava Caves, and went through my little stock of creatures, mostly gleaned from either here or other web sites. I found what I needed, but not to the scale wanted, so decided to embark on a re-sizing apprenticeship. Hmm... It's not as easy as all that, now is it..? I pulled up the Template for Characters, but had to add a centre line, and invent a way to 'measure' with Photoshop just how far from the 'floor' my creatures bottoms were. I managed it, with moult trials and tribulations, but now have a small menagerie of Spiders, Anacondas and Lizards roaming around, some nimble, some less so, some venomous, others inoffensive, just as a lure, and to have a bit of movement in there. I have, of course, added the relevant named sources in the Graphics section of the game's Credits; apparently that's a hot point around here. Credit where it's due; that's fine by me. A bit of tidying up yet to finish off the first Lava Cave, then I'll get stuck into the following ones. It's going forward nicely, now...

 

[LTN Games]

So, I went into uncharted territory for the last few days and decided to go ahead and try and make tiles for my Platform Test Game, which still needs a name btw lol. Anyway, I like my results quite a bit and I'm very happy with them. I don't have them in the game yet but I do have a screenshot of them in TileD. There is something about the platformer side-view perspective that is easier to do, compared to RPG Makers perspective, they are all vector art so I can scale them however I please and not lose the quality of the tile, right now these are 128 by 128 but I may reduce size to 64x64. All the tiles are a W.I.P but like I said I'm rather happy with them, just need a few more to make it a full set and I'll be happy to proceed with completing my test game.

Spoiler: Summer Fresh Tiles

Spoiler: Brrr Winter Tiles

A single 128x128 tile.

 

[LordBones]

I made some changes to 'spot the player' function. The path way = Doesn't spot, cobble = does spot. It can be expanded by saying how far in front can they see and how far the box expands on their left and right. It'll then implement the squares to look for the player on the fly, regardless of direction. Need to implement looking behind the event and left and right so I could in theory make one of these:

I'm fairly happy with this so far.

Ohh additionally it uses Terrian tags, so I could impliment glass too.

 

[Sinnistar]

Today I added some more enemy encounters on the map, altered the SV battlers for the second tier of enemies found in Chapter 2-3. After that, I added in two more "Special thanks" characters, Miranda and Raivey, with their home on an island in a lake xP. (They're brother/sister though).

Aside from that, I've got the "Ebony" ship scheme set up and it looks pretty smooth now. To go in this month's pack, I also have two window schemes (Team Sen and Team Rufu) which follow the classic Red vs. Blue reference (cause that series was pretty funny heh, but yeah it's an important part of the game too). Sen and Rufu are two Lumminai "overlords" who have feuded ever since the opening of the first rift. As such, they've gained their own following and have "fans" of them in all corners of Oricai. But beside that, I'll have another 2 window schemes of a different setting (am thinking High Seas setup since that's this month's theme) so I'll have to figure out what would go good with a "High Seas" game window heh. The cannon is flawless now though, and I have finished all 4 directions for it as well! Other than that bit of stuff, I may have time to toss in another unique BGM also suited for the "Pirate/High Seas" setting. xD with all this you'll almost have everything needed to make that awesome pirate, ship stealing, swash buckling, adventure game you always dreamed of! (With Jodis' entire collection of the ship stuff of course xD. We've added so much to it already heh.)

 

[Cosmette]

Haven't had much time to do a whole lot recently.
So far I've started work on a tileset for sweet-themed dungeon, finished some running animations for the player characters, and FINALLY got the SFont plugin working.

I need to see if I can move the cursor to the corner or something because it gets in the way when doing dialogue that takes up two lines.

 

[Sinnistar]

Well, with the Erskine Wildfire going on so close to home I've been unable to do much at all really...but I do have some sneak previews of this month's resource pack for you guys! I've actually decided not to feature any BGM or audio this time, but instead feature several artistic side things. One of these will be a dragon ship themed set (this is what's taking the longest so it may cause this pack to be a bit late). I also have this nifty dragon shield with 12 variations for use as icons, tiles, or event overlays, or whatever else! I also have like 8 new window schemed (I think it's eight heh idk for sure but it's more than 5). Several of these will only work well with SRD's nostretch window plugin, but I have others that are stretch compatible as well. Anyway, here's some of the previews on these awesome parts!

Spoiler

These shields have both gold and emerald outlines around them with 6 featured interior color variations. These will match with the ships' Emerald/Ebony/Gold color scheme quite well.


Some of the window schemes fitted to the "High Seas" theme with Ebony and Gold being a common occurance. I may add an Emerald variation of my Sen and Rufu themed ones. There are several others with this too and they all have been tested and worked pretty well. The Red is Rufu themed for those participating in the "Team Sen vs Team Rufu" event xP and the blue is Sen. (It's something that's going on in other areas and twitter lol I actually didn't start it but my image I made for my new logo did).

I would reveal the ship, but I want that to be the biggest feature in this month's pack, so I'm going to keep it hidden until I release the pack, but don't worry guys it is looking pretty awesome thanks to Jodis' help with it xD. The two of us have come up with some awesome ideas on this ship set! We're almost done but have several tweaks to make yet with it before it's ready. As soon as that's all done and working properly, I'll zip up the pack for yas and all is good!

 

[Dad3353]

I've two Lava Caves; there's a passage between them. I wanted to have a Battle between the two, so created a Dragon to guard this Portal. Not quite a Mini-boss (but still quite tough enough...), the innovation came in the form of 'Summoning' by the Dragon as his power was reduced. It took a while to work out exactly how it was to work (thanks to tutorials and other info gleaned from this forum and other sites...). Slightly more complicated was getting an animation triggered to coincide with these apparitions, and finally came across the correct System call, in the correct format, adjusted for the Troop number starting from 0, and not from 1. A bit of Sherlock Holmes, a bit of guesswork and a fair dose of luck; it's now working as I wanted it. (Click on 'Spoiler' to see a screen shot...)

Spoiler

Success..! Of course, the Dragon disappears once slain, leaving the passage free for coming and going.
Now to populate the second Lava Cave, with a different pathway through...

 

[Sinnistar]

So today I managed to complete the resource pack for this month. Aside from that I got a little bit of work done on TOTL, adding in new enemies and the rest of the dialogue name tags for Chapter 3. I also brainstormed a fun little 4th wall breaking conversation between Lumi and Lucia when they are on the ship for Chapter 4. The ship in chapter 4 is going to use that new dragon scheme since the owner of said ship only wants the best of the best. Inside will be water pump controls that the player will have to work out the puzzle for in order to get their way through it (because the stupid moron pirates who stole the ship forgot to turn on the pumps resulting in a half sunken ship xP). In that bottom deck of the ship will be the first encounter with "Slymes" the once weakest creature of RPG's everywhere....well, Lucia has heard this anyway heh. Also if Fardin is with you, he'll be like a laughing Hyena since it's well....slime....and who would ever fear that!?

Other than that I have actually started a bit on the concept designing for Chapter 4's map additions and the story to go with them. Chapter 4 is mostly centered around the ship and crafting up Fardin's new blade. So expect to see a lot of dialogue between Fardin and the Herald of the Venfey Port, Valerya. Both of these Heralds are of the Pyro element so they have a lot in common to be sure. And with that, my additions for today are done, but will continue adding stuff until I have the next month's resource pack idea set which I have a poll going for atm. But yeah, TOTL is coming along pretty smoothly and it's looking a lot better than before.

 

[Dad3353]

Now that the passage is open between the Lava Caves, I decided to innovate with a Dragon Cave to walk through, instead of just popping up in another Map. To make it a bit more spectacular, I wanted a background image, instead of just tiles. To this end I had to create a picture with the pixel dimensions of the Dragon Cave Map (I used a fine graphic showing Buddha faces peering placidly down from molten cliffs; very striking...). Ha..! I have now learned what is meant by Parallax..! A revelation, and very interesting. Fitting the tiles below the image was a fun moment, as the editor and the game show differing results, but a bit of trial and a lot of error finally produced a credible result. It looks grandiose..! (Click on 'Spoiler' to see screen shot...)

Spoiler

Another innovation, whilst I'm at it. The stroll through the Dragon Cave is without incident, as the Dragon is already slain. How about introducing sliding obstacles, then..? Hmm, good idea; how does that work..? A couple of experiments and it's done; a sliding case of gold dust which the Hero has to push in order to proceed. Hey, that's handy..! This means that, in future Maps, the notion has now been introduced and successfully mastered..! Mwahahaha..! Another idea germs and takes root...
I've populated the second Lava Cave with a fine menagerie of snakes, spiders and spirits, all with an 'Approach' policy, and even a fair number of skittish geckos that do no harm, but often get in the way. Whenever bitten by one of these creatures, it is sent back to whence it came (otherwise one could get trapped in a corridor, unable to move...). Now then, with a bit of careful rearrangement, I can make it such that a deft sliding of a crate could block the animal in its lair so that, once bitten, it won't be able to come back..!

Spoiler

I can also use these 'sliders' to access treasure trove, and gain extra ropes, needed to cross chasms and walls. Yet another dimension added to the game..! Yes, I know; it's been done before, but I'm not looking to create any ground-breaking originality, simply learn how this game creator can be made to work, straight out of the box with no programming nor plug-ins. There are far more elegant, worthy games out there, but this one is mine...

 

[SkywardRiver]

Well after an extended absence I took off to work on my 3D Open World RPG project, I'm coming back for a few days to work on the ol' RM project. Today I've just been tweaking story elements, as well as plotting out more chapters.

I've also (having recently been going through a play of FFIX, refined Yanfly's ATB system a bit more to my liking. While I despise Javascript for being overly complicated in comparison to C#, I've added a new function where, at the start of each battle, each actor (so excluding enemies) starts with a random bit of their ATB gauge filled as in my all time fave RPG, FFIX. Anywho, that's all for today. I'm constantly shifting focus between this RPG and my 3D Open World RPG, so hopefully I can be posting here a bit more about my progress. Ta-ta

 

[Dad3353]

I finished off (but are these things ever really finished..?) the second Lava Cave,, and added another Spell to Lava Cave 1. I'd made the Dragon very weak to Water, but had nothing for the Party to use that had Water..! Soon fixed, with a parchment pinned to the wall of the Cave; any one of the Party may now learn the Water Spell. One would still have to think to use it on the Dragon, of course..! Whilst perusing the informations on these subjects, I also came to realise why the Dragon was learning so much about Thunder; I had a Rune Mace set up to inflict such a Skill on the victim..! I adjusted this so that the Rune Mace now, at 50%, causes a State of Paralysis instead. Much more useful as a weapon now...
OK, now we're through the Hot Plains, we emerge to confront the Desert..! I had originally thought to simply cross the Overworld Map here (or, to be more precise, had not thought of the matter at all..!). No, that's far too short a journey for my Party; something a bit tougher is needed. OK then, an Outside Desert Map should fit the bill. As usual, this has sparked off further innovation...
I created a tall Map, so as to have a decent enough desert crossing (40 x 120...), then decided that, for a change, I'd try to make a looping Map, both horizontally and vertically. No problem for MV, of course, with careful choice of tiles around the 'seams', but then the grey cells whirled again. If the Hero can loop, can he be made to loop three times, and only then have the desert exit appear, thus making the journey three times longer..? Indeed he can, but then all sorts of snags crop up, such as going further than three, or going North instead of South. Several attempts, several trials, several failures, several corrections, re-trials, re-fail... You get the picture, but eventually I got it to work to my satisfaction, in both directions (entering from the Hot Plains or from the Southern Exit...). I even included a special bonus of a very powerful sword, only visible to be found if in the second loop South. Not indispensable for the story line, but some lucky player may stumble across it one day.
The decor is sparse (it's a desert...), but there are a few Geckos randomly dotted around; they do no harm, but are a nuisance in more confined spaces. Here, they're more animation than menace. I'll have to compose some very suitable music, too, as this Map will be on screen for quite some time. Maybe get it to subtly change when a loop 'seam' is crossed..? Hmm...

Screen shots (Click on 'Spoiler' to see them...)

Spoiler

Our Hero in the Desert, in the company of Geckos...

This is the full extent of the Map, seen from a great height, to be crossed three times to the South..!

The Overworld Map which represents this perigrination...

Enough for today; I'll be busy with other activities in the next few days, and so will report when I've mulled over the next major step (how to introduce the third Mini-Boss..?).
To be continued...

 

[Companion Wulf]

While I'm counting down until my two-week vacation (2 weeks left!!), I've been brimming with ideas. Many of these haven't been done. I've been completely distracted by Ys: Origin. Ahem!

Inspired by something that @Sinnistar and I touched upon awhile ago, Otherworld is officially having its own Character Selection screen. This has not been without its challenges, but that's my fault for plunging headlong into it without proper planning. This also means that much of the game's structure has been reevaluated.

Instead of focusing just on Anna (as was originally planned), there are now three characters and three storylines, all converging into a single end point. Right now, everything is in my head. Nothing is written down or properly mapped out. On my next days off, I'll start putting them all on paper, including a few map sketches and other ideas. The plots for each character are mostly done already (from previous games and novels).

So the concept for the Character Selection screen - not yet fully implemented - is this:

Spoiler: Character Selection Concept

It's a basic concept rendered in GIMP, but may be tweaked or radically changed later. Of course, I've already implemented the shell design in RMMV, just not the actual details yet. Instead of the Weapons and Armours, I think a mini-bio would be more appropriate for each character.

Let me know, if you're of a mind to, what you think, what changes (if any) may be needed, or what details should be added.

 

[Sinnistar]

While I'm counting down until my two-week vacation (2 weeks left!!), I've been brimming with ideas. Many of these haven't been done. I've been completely distracted by Ys: Origin. Ahem!

Inspired by something that @Sinnistar and I touched upon awhile ago, Otherworld is officially having its own Character Selection screen. This has not been without its challenges, but that's my fault for plunging headlong into it without proper planning. This also means that much of the game's structure has been reevaluated.

Instead of focusing just on Anna (as was originally planned), there are now three characters and three storylines, all converging into a single end point. Right now, everything is in my head. Nothing is written down or properly mapped out. On my next days off, I'll start putting them all on paper, including a few map sketches and other ideas. The plots for each character are mostly done already (from previous games and novels).

So the concept for the Character Selection screen - not yet fully implemented - is this:

Spoiler: Character Selection Concept

It's a basic concept rendered in GIMP, but may be tweaked or radically changed later. Of course, I've already implemented the shell design in RMMV, just not the actual details yet. Instead of the Weapons and Armours, I think a mini-bio would be more appropriate for each character.

Let me know, if you're of a mind to, what you think, what changes (if any) may be needed, or what details should be added.

Looks like a great start on that idea for sure though! Having multiple storylines (even if they all converge into one) is a good idea since it's more replayability. That awesome new character choice plugin makes it possible to allow the player to choose who responds and such too xP so it also makes some things more interesting with something as simple as it is heh.


As for TOTL, made some good progress today xP. I've added in 3 new side quests, 5 new NPC's into the empty world that needed some more life, continued working on the next set of Chapter 4 maps, added in another hidden dungeon xP, changed all the mining nodes to require tools now as they should, and finally managed to create a unique system where the player can choose which character will respond in certain major events as well as who will react to it. This will determine the future of the game's plot xP so it's pretty important to pay attention who will be acting in these major events (you can tell they're major by the special icon displayed before the choices). For example, the first one will show up when first trying to talk with Valerya, the Herald of Venfey Port. If Lucia tries it, she will be told she's not important enough, if Lumi tries it, she'll be immediately refused and told she needs to find a special mineral before she can get an audience, and if Fardin tries it, you'll get in but Valerya's not there. xP This will then play out into 3 different variations of the same quest, based on who you chose to try getting an audience with.

With that system set up, I can do things very similar to Infinite Undiscovery's party dungeons (there were multiple parties and if you forgot a key character you'd have to find another way around the obstacle which usually involved one of the other parties doing it for you). xD I really enjoyed that game's style so I want some fun parts like that. This setup allows me to do something quite similar (if you choose to have a mage lead the party instead of the tank, and then bump into a fierce boss it's a recipe for chaos xP and that party will likely have to be rescued by another and so on)
[doublepost=1467747929,1467633781][/doublepost]So for today I've actually managed to finish ALL of the last bits of editing in TOTL! Yay! lol What's left before I redeploy the chapter 1-3 segment, is a bunch of side content and hidden stuff like characters, secret rooms, secret caverns, hidden items, a couple more Lumminai xP, some choices involving Lumi and Lucia which will effect the relationship, and finally the relationship conversations for hitting the first rank with the current playable characters.

There was a lot I did today in order to wrap up the edits for good now xP. I'm still "beautifying" the world some and adding more life into it to make it look less barren, but it's a WIP still so it'll fill up as I go on with the game's story. We've added in 2 more characters, 1 Lumminai named Pal-Ace and a companion character named Asunalie. Pal-Ace is a special Lumminai that you'll only have one chance at getting and it's not an obvious one either xP. You'll have to pay attention to counters that are visual during one of the story events that has you extinguishing some fires. If you get them all, then you'll recover a scorched gem, that will later be appraised to be a Lumminai Crystal from the first generation (literally the first batch of them to cross into the world of Oricai). xP That Lumminai is Pal-Ace, who served one of the Lords who resisted the initial Darkrai conquering of the southern lands. Asunalie on the other hand, is a female character who will request you to help her rescue her younger sister by kidnapping a princess and ransoming her to her father in exchange for the captive sister. xP definitely something to think about during this one since your choice will harshly reflect what happens next. If you side with Asunalie and sneak in to kidnap the princess, during the exchange you'll be branded a "False Herald" and targetted as an enemy of that particular region (restricting any access to it "through legal entry anyway" and making them hostile toward you during a special part of the story later on (where allies are very important lol)). If you refuse her offer, Asunalie will attempt to do it herself and likely be captured in the process, which later comes into play as your character's mindset is guilted by this outcome. As such, you'll have to find a way to ransom both sisters, either through paying a large amount of currency, or going with the initial plan of breaking into the castle and breaking them out of prison.

These ST characters all have some pretty awesome backstories and requirements on how to get them as allies or rivals. Definitely being fun so far heh. Anyhow, that's it for today xP I may be able to get on with another big chunk tomorrow depending on how I feel lol.

 

[Wootius]

I've started with the initial abilities for my jobs. Four done so far.