THE SCREENSHOT TOPIC RETURNS

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author=Adon237
Yep, that was done on purpose.


OK. Well it looks bad. What reason do you have for this?
Max McGee
with sorrow down past the fence
9159
author=Link_2112
There is a crystal and a bush on the walls of the building.


yeah actually that does look pretty bad *feels dumb for missing it*
Been working on the games first major dungeon. As Ive continued to do, I'll show you the maps before effects and lighting are added. Lemme know what you all think.

It's pretty good!

I'd like to see some angles in the areas of black nothing-ness. And maybe some different colors on the floor tiles.

Where are the doors/ladders? How did the hero get there and how does he move to other land masses?

There doesn't appear to be much walkable space, and some of what's there seems cramped. It's ok to look at but if I have to press up,left,up,left,up,left to get through a bend it's a bit annoying. To me, anyways :P
InfectionFiles
the world ends in whatever my makerscore currently is
4622
@Ashley_Lacure- I really like to see RTP being used correctly, it's really nice actually, but yeah I'm with Link_2112 on this one, how does the hero get around to some of the areas?
Is there jumping? :o

edit: I'd like to see it with full lighting/effects aswell!
Adon237
if i had an allowance, i would give it to rmn
1743

I improved the building. Added some sparkles. The crystals are like a big indicator that you are near/ing an elemental stone. Plus they serve as an excellent light source to the inhabitants.
author=Allen Hunter

You should double the size of the screen, I can hardly see it.

But I can see that there is only 1 number. Is that current HP? What's my max HP? What's my MP? Bad design choice.
author=Link_2112
author=Allen Hunter
You should double the size of the screen, I can hardly see it.

But I can see that there is only 1 number. Is that current HP? What's my max HP? What's my MP? Bad design choice.


you see the MP when you select the skills. why do people cry out BAD GAME DESIGN when it's ill informed or an opinion, stop saying that
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
That looks cool, Ashley. Reminds me of the first dungeon in FFIV, the Mist Cave.

Link_2112
But I can see that there is only 1 number. Is that current HP? What's my max HP? What's my MP? Bad design choice.

Uh, plenty of games have reasons to only show max HP and no MP. For example, I need to color these numbers red/blue for Body/Mind, but OH HEY MULTIPLE HP POOLS:



...obviously some issues (portrait overlaps the command menu, for example), but I'd like some feedback on the overall feel. I fully plan to rearrange the turns/favor areas (the "+25% earth/dark ailment rate" box is your godly favor) and make them both have a background or not have a background. I just have no idea what I'm going to actually do to make this look nice. =x
chana
(Socrates would certainly not contadict me!)
1584
Nice! looking 10 times better then when I saw it the first time, the characters being "in" the field really does it.
author=Darken
you see the MP when you select the skills. why do people cry out BAD GAME DESIGN when it's ill informed or an opinion, stop saying that


Right, it's my opinion that it's a bad design choice. Thanks for clearing that up.

author=Craze
Uh, plenty of games have reasons to only show max HP and no MP. For example, I need to color these numbers red/blue for Body/Mind, but OH HEY MULTIPLE HP POOLS:


HP pool? Sounds like a bad idea, IMO. So if one person dies, they all die? How does that work exactly?

It looks interesting. The minimalistic approach on system windows is nice. Really opens up the space.
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
Link_2112
HP pool? Sounds like a bad idea, IMO. So if one person dies, they all die? How does that work exactly?


Bad wording on my part. Everybody has Body/Mind; at 0 Body ("Body Break") you can't act, and at 0 Mind ("Mind Break") you randomly attack allies. When everybody in the party is Broken in some way, you lose. You also have Soul, which I haven't displayed yet, which can't be broken and raises your damage/defense as you fill it; Soul can also be used to execute limit breaks and combo attacks. It's just a percentage, and different characters fill it differently.

chana
Nice! looking 10 times better then when I saw it the first time, the characters being "in" the field really does it.


That's part of the idea, yeah.
author=link
Right, it's my opinion that it's a bad design choice. Thanks for clearing that up.


by saying design without backing up anything it's almost as if you mean it in some objective way. oh that's bad because GAME DESIGN said so.
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
Darken
by saying design without backing up anything it's almost as if you mean it in some objective way. oh that's bad because GAME DESIGN said so.


Agreed. At least explain what you mean, and again, realize that not everything requires the same displays - Edifice has locked-in Max HP, thus it doesn't need to be displayed. Some games don't use MP, but rather cooldowns or something else.
@Craze: Damn you pulled out all the stops on this one, looks nice.

@Link: Thanks, the game uses 8 way walking so you can get by. In terms of the map there will be crystalized mana (colorful orbs) all around the area, the black abyss will glow blue and a purple toxin will cover parts of the map. Aside from directional movement you jump from area to area and once you reach a decisive point the party members will ask you if you want to jump into the black abyss which lead to lower areas. There are three ways to get out of this map, involves some wandering considering you will be in the darkness ingame. Muahahaha

@IF: I got a little lazy tonight so Ill add effects tomorrow. You were spot on you jump around the area and lose health in jumps longer than three tiles. Game prompts you on all the risk think of this map as an intro to the dangers of dungeon crawling in this game. Ill have to post the proper dungeon when im finished.
author=Craze
Bad wording on my part. Everybody has Body/Mind; at 0 Body ("Body Break") you can't act, and at 0 Mind ("Mind Break") you randomly attack allies. When everybody in the party is Broken in some way, you lose. You also have Soul, which I haven't displayed yet, which can't be broken and raises your damage/defense as you fill it; Soul can also be used to execute limit breaks and combo attacks. It's just a percentage, and different characters fill it differently.

Oh, ok. That makes much more sense.

author=Craze
At least explain what you mean, and again, realize that not everything requires the same displays - Edifice has locked-in Max HP, thus it doesn't need to be displayed. Some games don't use MP, but rather cooldowns or something else.

I suppose I didn't explain what I said in full. Honestly I didn't feel like it.

It's true that there are other ways of handling Max HP and MP but those are certainly not the norm or even a high percentage. Most games on this site have increasing Max HP and some form of MP(it's pretty safe to assume this, I would imagine). Sure you could start naming off games that don't but it could be dwarfed by a list of games that do.

Unless there is further information about the game, I'm going to assume it's a traditional RPG because it looks like one. If it happens to use those types of systems you mentioned, then I'm wrong because these problems don't exist. I'll go ahead and explain myself.

Strategizing requires you to know your stats. If I don't have easy access to figure out my HP %, I won't know if I need to heal or if I can wait a turn. If it's not at the bottom next to my name, then where is it? Do I have to go into some other sub menu just to see how close to death I am? If I have to spend time searching out this most basic piece of information, I see that as bad design. Especially a piece of information that is very important to staying alive.

As for MP, sure, I can go into the skills sub-menu to find out how much MP my currently selected character has(see above annoyance) but what about the others? What if this character is going to restore someone else's MP. I won't be able to make a calculated decision unless I'm diligently keeping a mental note of everyone's stats, which can be done but it's not fool-proof. I see that as bad design.

If this game was made in VX, then you could write a script or simply have commands that allow you to view the stats of the entire party. I've seen this ability before and it's useful. However this game is in 2k3, so I'm thinking in terms of those limitations. I don't recall any 2k3 games that had some kind of system to do any of that in a useful way that is better than having the numbers shown normally. Prove me wrong!


Now to relate it to the actual screenshot, what is the reason for removing this information?(if it exists) There doesn't appear to be an issue with needing to fit other useful/important information in that area. I see tons of open space where normally those numbers would be. If it's an attempt to make it look "simplified" or "less cluttered" then I would suggest that you took away a very important functionality and would consider it bad design. Feel free to disagree. That's cool.

author=Ashley_Lacure
@Link: Thanks, the game uses 8 way walking so you can get by. In terms of the map there will be crystalized mana (colorful orbs) all around the area, the black abyss will glow blue and a purple toxin will cover parts of the map. Aside from directional movement you jump from area to area and once you reach a decisive point the party members will ask you if you want to jump into the black abyss which lead to lower areas. There are three ways to get out of this map, involves some wandering considering you will be in the darkness ingame. Muahahaha

I see. That works! (man I hate wandering around maps in the dark :s)
@Adon: Tmmm the waterfall looks weird, like if it was copied and pasted on that map.

@Craze: That looks pretty good, i think the command windows would look better in the Left side rather than the right side, buts that your decision :P

After some hours fighting with photoshop i finished this:



Planet Zebes from SSB 64

The stretched textures on that bottom part look pretty bad :/ It hurts my eyes to try and make sense of it.