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Game Design
Emmych sucks at eventing + stuff about states, elements, and Piper!
emmych
20 post(s) 
- 01/28/2013 02:27 AM
First of all, AHAHAHAHAH I HAVEN'T POSTED ANYTHING SINCE JULY OTL
I revel in my guilt and shame. Have a photo of a grumpy baby turtle to stare at while I compose myself.
ANYWAY. Today I'm here to talk about AWESOME THINGS AKA hey I am working on this and here is some stuff!
I just sank way too much time into eventing a title screen because Isuck at eventing wanted it to look perfect, but it looks pretty and it works! It's a small thing, but I'm very happy with it. It wasn't too difficult, and it just adds that little extra bit of oomph, y'know?
I've also been sticking in the awesome tutorial nonsense! It's all optional, of course, since WHO LIKES A FORCED TUTORIAL STAGE, AMIRIGHT OR AMIRIGHT? B)
Either way, writing up all my cute "how to play" nonsense has got me thinking that HEY, maybe I should actually talk about gameplay other than "you can avoid encounters" on this blog, since I've actually had it planned out and hanging in the database for eons now! Soooo, today, I'm gonna talk a wee bit about statuses, elements, and Piper's functions in battle.
The first thing to know about battles is that they're really straightforward. One of my goals for this game was to make something vanilla, but fun, simply so I could practice working with Ace, sticking to a work timeline (AHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAAHHAHAHA *dies*) and actually making something without having to worry about Custom Everything Systems! So yeah, no worrying about Junctioning the right Espers to your Sphere Grid and crafting a Broken Sword of Buttkicking here: just good ol' fashioned elemental Rock-Paper-Scissoring and slamming your enemies with states.
With that in mind, let's talk about those!
States
States in Riftwalker are pretty simple. Here's a list of what you'll be dealing with:
On top of those, there are also buffs and debuffs. These affect your basic stats: Attack, Defence, Magic, Resistance, Agility, and Luck. You can also buff or debuff elemental resistance, making enemies weaker to certain elements and allies stronger to others! Be careful, though, since enemies can do the opposite to you (the same to you? AUGH GRAMMAR).
Elements
There are only four of these, but they're important!
To have an elemental alignment means to have your attack change to a certain element, but also to have its weaknesses. I wanna go into more with this, but first I'm gonna talk about Piper's moveset, and how that interacts with elements.
Piper's Moves
Piper is a damage dealer, first and foremost, and has the ability to switch elemental alignments through the Aura command. Piper's Auras are:
So, you have three things to think about when switching auras. 1) What element do you want to resist? 2) What element do you want to attack with? 3) What state do you want to inflict?
Piper also is the only character to have TP, and has access to the Brawl command. Basically, you build up TP in battle, then select Brawl and pummel your enemies until they die or you run out of TP. Since Piper has access to all auras from the beginning of the game, you'll primarily focus on getting better Brawl skills as you level up. These are mostly physical skills with hilarious descriptions, and won't be the meat and potatoes of your every day battle strategy.
To Sum Up
So what does this all mean? Well, let's talk about this mofo, AKA the first guy you fight:
Meet the Pufftrio.
The Pufftrio is Gaia-aligned, meaning its normal attacks will be Gaia element, but it will be very weak against Sky and kind of weak against Solar. What Aura would you want to use against this bad boy? Would you switch to Sky and take it out before your Resist Gaia buff wears off and you become weak to its attacks, or would you play it safe and use Solar Aura to do less damage, but prevent any elemental weakness? You'll have to gauge the situation and see if it's worth the risk!
(SPOILERS: Use Sky Aura on this guy. Its a pushover.)
Anyway, I hope this makes some sense...? I feel like I rambled a little and was a little confusing (I'm bad at explaining things OTL), so if you have any questions, please ask away! I'll be glad explain things in more detail. :3
Oh, and as far as other characters go: I miiiiiight do a post on the other three party members, but Piper is the only one that has something resembling a non-traditional moveset! The other peeps have skills and spells and things like every other RPG character ever, and might not require a post of their own.
BUT HEY. MAYBE I WILL WANT TO WRITE IT.
Either way, here you go! PEACE. 8D
(Oh, also, in other news, if you follow Origin at all: if the game page mysteriously disappears in the next little while, DON'T BE FRIGHTENED. I'm gonna give it a serious overhaul at some point in the future, when I have more... stuff that can be shown. It's very WIP looking at the moment, but when it's more polished, I REALLY wanna show it off to you guys, and I want to unveil everything all at once! >w<d )
I revel in my guilt and shame. Have a photo of a grumpy baby turtle to stare at while I compose myself.
ANYWAY. Today I'm here to talk about AWESOME THINGS AKA hey I am working on this and here is some stuff!
I just sank way too much time into eventing a title screen because I
I've also been sticking in the awesome tutorial nonsense! It's all optional, of course, since WHO LIKES A FORCED TUTORIAL STAGE, AMIRIGHT OR AMIRIGHT? B)
Either way, writing up all my cute "how to play" nonsense has got me thinking that HEY, maybe I should actually talk about gameplay other than "you can avoid encounters" on this blog, since I've actually had it planned out and hanging in the database for eons now! Soooo, today, I'm gonna talk a wee bit about statuses, elements, and Piper's functions in battle.
The first thing to know about battles is that they're really straightforward. One of my goals for this game was to make something vanilla, but fun, simply so I could practice working with Ace, sticking to a work timeline (AHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAAHHAHAHA *dies*) and actually making something without having to worry about Custom Everything Systems! So yeah, no worrying about Junctioning the right Espers to your Sphere Grid and crafting a Broken Sword of Buttkicking here: just good ol' fashioned elemental Rock-Paper-Scissoring and slamming your enemies with states.
With that in mind, let's talk about those!
States
States in Riftwalker are pretty simple. Here's a list of what you'll be dealing with:
- Death-- You're dead. You can't move, you can't fight. You can do nothing but lie there and decompose, and maybe twitch a little. Should go without saying that this is a thing, BUT HEY MAYBE YOU'RE A NEWB TO RPGs I DON'T KNOW
- Bleed-- Patch that shit up; you're bleeding out! You take 10% damage for every turn you don't put a band-aid and some Polysporin on that.
- Dazzled-- Your accuracy goes down about 60%, making it a lot harder to hit things! Get your head in the game, girl, there are monsters to slay.
- Migraine-- You ever had one of these? They hurt like hell, and you can't concentrate for shit. No skill-usage for you!
- Confusion-- You forget who is your friend and who is your foe, and are overcome with the urge to punch anyone and everyone in the face.
- Sleep-- Dude how are you sleeping there are monsters trying to murder you right now. You can't move and you can't fight, until someone slaps you awake.
- Stun-- You can't fight and you can't avoid anything for a turn or so! What a pain in the ass.
On top of those, there are also buffs and debuffs. These affect your basic stats: Attack, Defence, Magic, Resistance, Agility, and Luck. You can also buff or debuff elemental resistance, making enemies weaker to certain elements and allies stronger to others! Be careful, though, since enemies can do the opposite to you (the same to you? AUGH GRAMMAR).
Elements
There are only four of these, but they're important!
- Solar-- The light, warmth and energy of the sun. Although firey moves fall into this category, it's important to remember that Solar =/= Fire! Solar opposes Lunar, meaning that it's strong against Lunar aligned creatures, but vulnerable to Lunar attacks. Too much sun scorches the earth, so it is also effective against Gaia. The Dazzled state is frequently associated with the Solar element.
- Lunar-- Dark, cold and harsh. Lunar attacks cover all things frigid and shadowy! Lunar opposes Solar. The harsh cold of the shadows blot out stars, making it effective against Sky. The Bleed state is frequently associated with the Lunar element.
- Sky-- Air, wind, gusting. Sky opposes Gaia. Clouds cover the sun and reflect it's light, so it is effective against Solar. The Migraine state is frequently associated with the Sky element.
- Gaia-- Earth, nature, life. Gaia opposes Sky. The warmth of nature and life overcomes the cold shadows of the moon, making it effective against Lunar. The Stun state is frequently associated with the Gaia element.
To have an elemental alignment means to have your attack change to a certain element, but also to have its weaknesses. I wanna go into more with this, but first I'm gonna talk about Piper's moveset, and how that interacts with elements.
Piper's Moves
Piper is a damage dealer, first and foremost, and has the ability to switch elemental alignments through the Aura command. Piper's Auras are:
- Solar Aura-- Changes elemental alignment to Solar and adds Resist Lunar for a short time. Has a 50% chance of inflicting Dazzled when a hit is successful.
- Lunar Aura-- Changes elemental alignment to Lunar and adds Resist Solar for a short time. Has a 50% chance of inflicting Bleed when a hit is successful.
- Sky Aura-- Changes elemental alignment to Sky and adds Resist Gaia for a short time. Has a 50% chance of inflicting Migraine when a hit is successful.
- Gaia Aura-- Changes elemental alignment to Gaia and adds Resist Sky for a short time. Has a 50% chance of inflicting Stun when a hit is successful.
So, you have three things to think about when switching auras. 1) What element do you want to resist? 2) What element do you want to attack with? 3) What state do you want to inflict?
Piper also is the only character to have TP, and has access to the Brawl command. Basically, you build up TP in battle, then select Brawl and pummel your enemies until they die or you run out of TP. Since Piper has access to all auras from the beginning of the game, you'll primarily focus on getting better Brawl skills as you level up. These are mostly physical skills with hilarious descriptions, and won't be the meat and potatoes of your every day battle strategy.
To Sum Up
So what does this all mean? Well, let's talk about this mofo, AKA the first guy you fight:
Meet the Pufftrio.
The Pufftrio is Gaia-aligned, meaning its normal attacks will be Gaia element, but it will be very weak against Sky and kind of weak against Solar. What Aura would you want to use against this bad boy? Would you switch to Sky and take it out before your Resist Gaia buff wears off and you become weak to its attacks, or would you play it safe and use Solar Aura to do less damage, but prevent any elemental weakness? You'll have to gauge the situation and see if it's worth the risk!
(SPOILERS: Use Sky Aura on this guy. Its a pushover.)
Anyway, I hope this makes some sense...? I feel like I rambled a little and was a little confusing (I'm bad at explaining things OTL), so if you have any questions, please ask away! I'll be glad explain things in more detail. :3
Oh, and as far as other characters go: I miiiiiight do a post on the other three party members, but Piper is the only one that has something resembling a non-traditional moveset! The other peeps have skills and spells and things like every other RPG character ever, and might not require a post of their own.
BUT HEY. MAYBE I WILL WANT TO WRITE IT.
Either way, here you go! PEACE. 8D
(Oh, also, in other news, if you follow Origin at all: if the game page mysteriously disappears in the next little while, DON'T BE FRIGHTENED. I'm gonna give it a serious overhaul at some point in the future, when I have more... stuff that can be shown. It's very WIP looking at the moment, but when it's more polished, I REALLY wanna show it off to you guys, and I want to unveil everything all at once! >w<d )
Progress Report
I return from spidery, internet-less pits to bring you MC portrait WIPs and a work timeline!
They make you disappear from the internet unexpectedly!
SO HELLO AGAIN; chances are you have not noticed my absence/assumed I was working on this quietly (WHICH IS DECIDEDLY UNTRUE, AHAHAHAHAHAH OTL), but yes! I was recently in quite a lacklustre living situation that lacked lustre and a steady internet connection, but certainly did not lack arachnids (There was a palm sized spider living under my fridge, I shit you not. I never got it. It's still probably there.) But now I have officially moved to a REAL GROWN UP REAL LIFE APARTMENT with my gorgeous girlfriend (I almost want to link you guys pictures of her being adorable and playing N64 in her PJs buuuut... nah.), and I once again have a stable internet connection! I was also taking a bit of time off to get settled in my new job/home so I could feel all rad and stable, AND THIS HAS NOW OCCURED. Some of you who frequent RMW may also have noticed I resigned as moderator there, and that also had to do with wishing to get all settled and focus in on gam mak!
And now that I am feeling all settled and awesome, I've started back in on work with renewed fervour! AND I EVEN HAVE A GAME PLAN ON WHAT I WANT/NEED TO GET DONE AND EVERYTHING. B)
First off, imma chuck this lil' image of Piper's WIP face at you:
Mainly blocking out clothes to get costume ideas. I've had a pretty rad idea in my noggin for a while now, but I need to see something before I start spriting it all willy-nilly. >_>
ALSO PIPER YOU ARE SO DYING YOUR HAIR~ SCANDALOUUUUS~
AND ALSO THIS GAME PLAN IDEA TIMES~
...which really I am putting up here more to motivate myself. I MEAN I THINK I AM PLENTY MOTIVATED NOW but hey, risking public embarrassment by failing to meet my meagre goals is as good a motivator as any!
First off, I wanted to finish compiling/making graphics I need. That is, I wanted to finish Piper's face and sprite so I can ditch the placeholders! I also wanted to cut off Rue's elf ears (done) and do a few quick edits to sprites and get some downed poses goin' on. Also gotta get me some battlers for some Tanis (SPOILERZ YOU FIGHT HER) and Auto (SPOILERZ YOU FIGHT IT 2). I have some for them, but they don't match the Thalzon battlers, so I'll either go
orpester Thalzon to make me some do it myself.
After that, I'm gonna go through and plug in the cutscenes for the first area and make sure the flow is alright! The battles are all balanced for the first few levels, but I don't have any idea how long that area takes, or what THINGS~ you are going to need as the player, or what else blah blah blah blah. Also I need to see if the area is actually fun to traverse or not! SO FAR IT SEEMS PRETTY ALL OVER THE PLACE TO ME; I may have to fix that. OTL I also wanna work in some way to teach the player about the game play things in a non-intrusive way, but I may be lazy and default to "HEY PIPER SO DID YOU KNOW YOU CAN DO THIS~". Tutorials will be optional, of course.
Finally, I'm gonna puzzle my way through the first actual dungeon (that is, map out some puzzles on grid paper; I already have the main puzzle idea thought out, I just gotta figure out how to implement it) and then map it out. Cutscenes in there should be cake, as it's mostly gameplay -- I will have quite a bit of balancing to do, however, and I'll need to plan out the first actual boss fight @___@
AND THEN AFTER THAT I WILL HAVE A DEMO (and a long-ish one, at that!). <3 I still have a lot to do, but luckily it is mostly in-editor building of maps and events AND THINGS so I'll be able to be all "HEY GUYS LOOK AT WHAT I DID TODAY LOOK AT THIS HERE~" in some sweet progress reports that may or may not come weekly! Depends on how fast I work -- I wanna have all the graphical stuff and the first area taken care of by the end of the week, at the very least, and preferably I'd like to get into getting my puzzle swag on by then as well. B)
And after the demo comes out, I'm probably gonna resume progress on Origin! I've made awesome progress out of editor with it, which I will update the lot of you who are subscribed to it soon. THAT MEANS I HAVE NO IDEA WHEN I WILL RETURN TO RIFTWALKER HERE but I'll probably finish it eventually -- it's a fun little project, and I'm quite fond of the little guy! ;w;
Anyway, that's it for now. Time to make some mad cool progress and catch you peeps later~
SO HELLO AGAIN; chances are you have not noticed my absence/assumed I was working on this quietly (WHICH IS DECIDEDLY UNTRUE, AHAHAHAHAHAH OTL), but yes! I was recently in quite a lacklustre living situation that lacked lustre and a steady internet connection, but certainly did not lack arachnids (There was a palm sized spider living under my fridge, I shit you not. I never got it. It's still probably there.) But now I have officially moved to a REAL GROWN UP REAL LIFE APARTMENT with my gorgeous girlfriend (I almost want to link you guys pictures of her being adorable and playing N64 in her PJs buuuut... nah.), and I once again have a stable internet connection! I was also taking a bit of time off to get settled in my new job/home so I could feel all rad and stable, AND THIS HAS NOW OCCURED. Some of you who frequent RMW may also have noticed I resigned as moderator there, and that also had to do with wishing to get all settled and focus in on gam mak!
And now that I am feeling all settled and awesome, I've started back in on work with renewed fervour! AND I EVEN HAVE A GAME PLAN ON WHAT I WANT/NEED TO GET DONE AND EVERYTHING. B)
First off, imma chuck this lil' image of Piper's WIP face at you:
Mainly blocking out clothes to get costume ideas. I've had a pretty rad idea in my noggin for a while now, but I need to see something before I start spriting it all willy-nilly. >_>
ALSO PIPER YOU ARE SO DYING YOUR HAIR~ SCANDALOUUUUS~
AND ALSO THIS GAME PLAN IDEA TIMES~
...which really I am putting up here more to motivate myself. I MEAN I THINK I AM PLENTY MOTIVATED NOW but hey, risking public embarrassment by failing to meet my meagre goals is as good a motivator as any!
First off, I wanted to finish compiling/making graphics I need. That is, I wanted to finish Piper's face and sprite so I can ditch the placeholders! I also wanted to cut off Rue's elf ears (done) and do a few quick edits to sprites and get some downed poses goin' on. Also gotta get me some battlers for some Tanis (SPOILERZ YOU FIGHT HER) and Auto (SPOILERZ YOU FIGHT IT 2). I have some for them, but they don't match the Thalzon battlers, so I'll either go
or
After that, I'm gonna go through and plug in the cutscenes for the first area and make sure the flow is alright! The battles are all balanced for the first few levels, but I don't have any idea how long that area takes, or what THINGS~ you are going to need as the player, or what else blah blah blah blah. Also I need to see if the area is actually fun to traverse or not! SO FAR IT SEEMS PRETTY ALL OVER THE PLACE TO ME; I may have to fix that. OTL I also wanna work in some way to teach the player about the game play things in a non-intrusive way, but I may be lazy and default to "HEY PIPER SO DID YOU KNOW YOU CAN DO THIS~". Tutorials will be optional, of course.
Finally, I'm gonna puzzle my way through the first actual dungeon (that is, map out some puzzles on grid paper; I already have the main puzzle idea thought out, I just gotta figure out how to implement it) and then map it out. Cutscenes in there should be cake, as it's mostly gameplay -- I will have quite a bit of balancing to do, however, and I'll need to plan out the first actual boss fight @___@
AND THEN AFTER THAT I WILL HAVE A DEMO (and a long-ish one, at that!). <3 I still have a lot to do, but luckily it is mostly in-editor building of maps and events AND THINGS so I'll be able to be all "HEY GUYS LOOK AT WHAT I DID TODAY LOOK AT THIS HERE~" in some sweet progress reports that may or may not come weekly! Depends on how fast I work -- I wanna have all the graphical stuff and the first area taken care of by the end of the week, at the very least, and preferably I'd like to get into getting my puzzle swag on by then as well. B)
And after the demo comes out, I'm probably gonna resume progress on Origin! I've made awesome progress out of editor with it, which I will update the lot of you who are subscribed to it soon. THAT MEANS I HAVE NO IDEA WHEN I WILL RETURN TO RIFTWALKER HERE but I'll probably finish it eventually -- it's a fun little project, and I'm quite fond of the little guy! ;w;
Anyway, that's it for now. Time to make some mad cool progress and catch you peeps later~
Announcement
Announcement
Announcement
God hates me and doesn't want me to mak gam: a tale of woe
- emmych
- 10 post(s)
- 05/03/2012 05:52 PM
I hit an UNEXPECTED SNAG IN PROGRESS today -- my laptop's power cord slot thing finally died on me, and my battery has also perished miserably.
Meaning... yeah I have no idea when I'm gonna be able to fix that, if I'll be able to repair it, if it'll cost me a million smackaroos... YEAH BASICALLY I AM MUCHOS PEEVED BECAUSE NOW I HAVE NO COMPUTER UNTIL I FIX THIS
gpoy
So stay tuned, folks! I'll let you know when I'm back in business. OTL
Meaning... yeah I have no idea when I'm gonna be able to fix that, if I'll be able to repair it, if it'll cost me a million smackaroos... YEAH BASICALLY I AM MUCHOS PEEVED BECAUSE NOW I HAVE NO COMPUTER UNTIL I FIX THIS
gpoy
So stay tuned, folks! I'll let you know when I'm back in business. OTL
Progress Report
An update that involves more actual updating and less penis-touching fluff!
- emmych
- 12 post(s)
- 05/31/2012 08:17 PM
...if there are any of you that aren't subbed/aware/following my other project, the constant penis-touching jokes are going to make no sense and I'm just going to look even sillier.
what am I doing with my life
Alrighty, so -- first thing's first: it ain't gonna be ready tonight in time for the contest. Is this a bad thing? NOT REALLY. I don't actually care if I make the deadline or not, as there's nothing they could offer me as a prize that I really want at the moment, and if I entered what I had tonight... well, I'd have an unpolished mess of a demo. The real prize woulda been having something done and playable, and I've accomplished that already, so I already won in my heart.
AND YOU KNOW, THAT'S JUST FINE BY ME.
So the demo-landing date is a little bit hazy, now, but I do expect it to pop up some time this week. I just moved home for the month, and now I am missing my sweetheart like crazy and I'll need something to distract me from my pining, ah-hahahahaha OTL
NOW LET'S TALK ABOUT WHAT I HAVE DONE AND WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE.
What I've done:
-- Basically every gameplay related thing is ready -- all player skills, items and equipment are in the database, although a lot of them are missing any balanced numbers. This is because I balance as I go, so it's not a bad thing! It looks all neat and tidy and lovely in there, WHICH IS GREAT. <3
-- Any scripts that are gonna be in there are in there, barring any aethestic scripts I may need later on. Because of this, save files will most likely be compatible now and forevers! If I do end up adding more scripts as I go, I'll be more than glad to provide SAVE FILES~ and what not.
-- The entire first area is mapped (and it's a pretty large first area! It's about 10 smaller maps stitched together), and it is looking FABULOUS~ I've gotten a start on the first real dungeon; the FOREST SHRINE~ where you meet Auto. There's a screenshot of meeting it in the images section, but, uh... thaaaat was a placeholder screenshot so I could get a game profile up. >__>;;
-- The entire first area is also balanced! IT IS NICE AND FEELS LIKE A REAL GAME, which I dig. ;w; I will probably end up doing lots of tweaking as I get tester feedback in (I already have two lined up; not sure if I'll need any more at the moment, but if I do, I'll call! >:3), but for the most part it's all good. >w<d
What I need to do before I can spit out a demo:
-- Get Piper's portrait and sprite lined up, and cut Rue's elf ears off. (Side note: THERE ARE NO BROWN OR BLACK RTPEOPLE ANYWHERE. OTL If this was set in yet another Whitesberg, I'd be good to go. But, no, I decided to be SPECIAL~ and set my game in Brownsville, so awkhgalwkhgklw guess I'll need to do a fair amount of spriting after all. IB)
-- Assign skills animations, and get some new SEs up in there. I really hate the RTP SEs, and I need to make some skill animations, but that shouldn't take too long! I have all the stuff I need chilling in some folders somewhere; this'll just be really tedious. OTL
-- Finish mapping and balancing the FOREST SHRINE~ and also line up some puzzle action in there. It won't be anything difficult, but it'll be a step above pushing switches and boulders! ...probably pushing boulders to make bridges or something pffft I don't know. OTL
-- EVENT EVENT EVENT EVENT~~~ And no, not cool events that I need to figure out and get stoked about, but TEDIOUS CUTSCENES~ Did you know I hate eventing cutscenes? Because I fucking hate eventing cutscenes. It is like shaving my legs with a dull, rusty razor blade. It is like dunking my face in hot tar. It is like listening to Sarah Brightman circa 1986 sing a high E in your ear. FFFFUUUUU--
Now let's talk about the CUSTOM ENCOUNTERS SYSTEM that took me 5 hours to event even though it ended up being stupidly simple.
So, I AM LAZY so I don't want to sprite little enemies for touch encounters, but I also really hate random battles and don't want to do those. SO, I decided toshamelessly rip off Necropolis do something extremely original that I didn't get from Wild Arms 3 came from my own brilliant mind.
Cute lil' Tanis is gonna help me demonstrate how this works! 8D
Basically, encounters work like this: you waltz around in a monster infested area (like a beginner's forest or a FOREST SHRINE~), when SUDDENLY~
A little exclamation mark is gonna appear over your head! When this happens, you have a few seconds (steps, rather, as that's how it's counted) to press Z (or whatever you have mapped as your confirm key). If you manage to press the button in time, you'll hear a little DING~ and you'll avoid the encounter. If you don't press the button, you'll engage the encounter as usual. (Sometimes it doesn't quite detect you hitting the button, so make sure you press it until you hear the little ding if you want to avoid it! I don't think I can make it any better than it is at the moment, so Y'ALL GOTTA DEAL, unfortunately!)
This method makes for easy exploration! There's no dodging between touch encounters, and no getting jumped by random encounters. For this reason, I'll be using save points -- it's super easy to avoid combat if you're suddenly dying, so I don't feel bad making you run back to a save point. >BD
Yanfly's Call Random Encounter script made this super easy to keep organized, too! I have my event, and I just gotta copypaste it to every new map I want encounters on. And, I can turn off encounters with the flick of a switch, so they won't be breaking my cutscenes. IT'S REALLY NICE, I TELL YA. <3
I thiiiiink that's about it! I'll probably talk more about combat next time, but that'll mostly be a "HERE ARE STATES" and "HERE ARE ELEMENTS" deal, because combat in this is super vanilla. Piper can shift attack elements around and also access a snazzy Brawl command, but other than that it's ATTACK/SKILL/DEFEND/ITEM. Very traditional, very easy to balance. OTL
Anyways, see ya next time! I'm getting back to mapping (WHICH IS WAY MORE FUN WHEN I'M DOING IT IN THE EDITOR, GAWD. OTL Auugghh parallax maps, you are gorgeous, but I won't miss you one bit. OTL)
what am I doing with my life
Alrighty, so -- first thing's first: it ain't gonna be ready tonight in time for the contest. Is this a bad thing? NOT REALLY. I don't actually care if I make the deadline or not, as there's nothing they could offer me as a prize that I really want at the moment, and if I entered what I had tonight... well, I'd have an unpolished mess of a demo. The real prize woulda been having something done and playable, and I've accomplished that already, so I already won in my heart.
AND YOU KNOW, THAT'S JUST FINE BY ME.
So the demo-landing date is a little bit hazy, now, but I do expect it to pop up some time this week. I just moved home for the month, and now I am missing my sweetheart like crazy and I'll need something to distract me from my pining, ah-hahahahaha OTL
NOW LET'S TALK ABOUT WHAT I HAVE DONE AND WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE.
What I've done:
-- Basically every gameplay related thing is ready -- all player skills, items and equipment are in the database, although a lot of them are missing any balanced numbers. This is because I balance as I go, so it's not a bad thing! It looks all neat and tidy and lovely in there, WHICH IS GREAT. <3
-- Any scripts that are gonna be in there are in there, barring any aethestic scripts I may need later on. Because of this, save files will most likely be compatible now and forevers! If I do end up adding more scripts as I go, I'll be more than glad to provide SAVE FILES~ and what not.
-- The entire first area is mapped (and it's a pretty large first area! It's about 10 smaller maps stitched together), and it is looking FABULOUS~ I've gotten a start on the first real dungeon; the FOREST SHRINE~ where you meet Auto. There's a screenshot of meeting it in the images section, but, uh... thaaaat was a placeholder screenshot so I could get a game profile up. >__>;;
-- The entire first area is also balanced! IT IS NICE AND FEELS LIKE A REAL GAME, which I dig. ;w; I will probably end up doing lots of tweaking as I get tester feedback in (I already have two lined up; not sure if I'll need any more at the moment, but if I do, I'll call! >:3), but for the most part it's all good. >w<d
What I need to do before I can spit out a demo:
-- Get Piper's portrait and sprite lined up, and cut Rue's elf ears off. (Side note: THERE ARE NO BROWN OR BLACK RTPEOPLE ANYWHERE. OTL If this was set in yet another Whitesberg, I'd be good to go. But, no, I decided to be SPECIAL~ and set my game in Brownsville, so awkhgalwkhgklw guess I'll need to do a fair amount of spriting after all. IB)
-- Assign skills animations, and get some new SEs up in there. I really hate the RTP SEs, and I need to make some skill animations, but that shouldn't take too long! I have all the stuff I need chilling in some folders somewhere; this'll just be really tedious. OTL
-- Finish mapping and balancing the FOREST SHRINE~ and also line up some puzzle action in there. It won't be anything difficult, but it'll be a step above pushing switches and boulders! ...probably pushing boulders to make bridges or something pffft I don't know. OTL
-- EVENT EVENT EVENT EVENT~~~ And no, not cool events that I need to figure out and get stoked about, but TEDIOUS CUTSCENES~ Did you know I hate eventing cutscenes? Because I fucking hate eventing cutscenes. It is like shaving my legs with a dull, rusty razor blade. It is like dunking my face in hot tar. It is like listening to Sarah Brightman circa 1986 sing a high E in your ear. FFFFUUUUU--
Now let's talk about the CUSTOM ENCOUNTERS SYSTEM that took me 5 hours to event even though it ended up being stupidly simple.
So, I AM LAZY so I don't want to sprite little enemies for touch encounters, but I also really hate random battles and don't want to do those. SO, I decided to
Cute lil' Tanis is gonna help me demonstrate how this works! 8D
Basically, encounters work like this: you waltz around in a monster infested area (like a beginner's forest or a FOREST SHRINE~), when SUDDENLY~
A little exclamation mark is gonna appear over your head! When this happens, you have a few seconds (steps, rather, as that's how it's counted) to press Z (or whatever you have mapped as your confirm key). If you manage to press the button in time, you'll hear a little DING~ and you'll avoid the encounter. If you don't press the button, you'll engage the encounter as usual. (Sometimes it doesn't quite detect you hitting the button, so make sure you press it until you hear the little ding if you want to avoid it! I don't think I can make it any better than it is at the moment, so Y'ALL GOTTA DEAL, unfortunately!)
This method makes for easy exploration! There's no dodging between touch encounters, and no getting jumped by random encounters. For this reason, I'll be using save points -- it's super easy to avoid combat if you're suddenly dying, so I don't feel bad making you run back to a save point. >BD
Yanfly's Call Random Encounter script made this super easy to keep organized, too! I have my event, and I just gotta copypaste it to every new map I want encounters on. And, I can turn off encounters with the flick of a switch, so they won't be breaking my cutscenes. IT'S REALLY NICE, I TELL YA. <3
I thiiiiink that's about it! I'll probably talk more about combat next time, but that'll mostly be a "HERE ARE STATES" and "HERE ARE ELEMENTS" deal, because combat in this is super vanilla. Piper can shift attack elements around and also access a snazzy Brawl command, but other than that it's ATTACK/SKILL/DEFEND/ITEM. Very traditional, very easy to balance. OTL
Anyways, see ya next time! I'm getting back to mapping (WHICH IS WAY MORE FUN WHEN I'M DOING IT IN THE EDITOR, GAWD. OTL Auugghh parallax maps, you are gorgeous, but I won't miss you one bit. OTL)
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