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New world map & some shake-ups -- download still on my radar

Alright, so I did a scary thing over the weekend that I've thought a lot about since implementing Mode-7, but think it's for the best... I updated the world map. It was kind of cool going back to it after all these years with the hindsight of knowing what works, what doesn't, and how certain things need to be laid out because I could make all kinds of improvements.

So far, I have 95% of the thing mapped, reduced the amount of tiles needed on the chipset (there were a lot of weird mountain tile variations before), and streamlined some of the mode-7 stuff. As for the story, I'm still figuring some stuff out, but here are my justifications/how I can still sleep at night:

  • It's now 256x256 tiles, changed from the previous 100x100. For reference, it's the same size that FF6 used. In vehicles, it just feels right.


  • Large mountains are a little more strategic in placement so that they don't require so many weird tiles.


  • All ice continents are now at the top/bottom of the map and wrap around like you would expect from a SNES-era RPG (doughnut style).


  • All other continents are basically scaled up to reflect the new size, but are shaped a little more naturally, so you can almost imagine them having separated at a time in the world's existence.


  • The Southern Winds as a whole are probably getting cut, or reduced to a specific area, but the plot will need some reworking to reflect that (some details below).


  • I want more emphasis on the ship you get from Duke, so I might make that the main mode of travel at the end of part 1, and make the airship the only way to get into the Sriole area, but have it basically driven for you until you pay off its cost (still figuring that out).


  • Ghandek (continent for part 2) will still be a largely unexplored place by the world, due to harsh waters one would have to sail through. This is to make the stuff with Jerry work without the southern winds.


  • Updated the mode-7 plugin some more so that it now renders vehicles. Heroes/vehicles can now be hidden as you'd expect. This is great because it eliminates some processing overhead, and the need for my wonky workaround for getting vehicles to draw. Still trying to fix an evil invalid floating point operation error that has something to do with map events though. It's been the bane of my existence ever since adding Mode-7. It's something related to pointers/dividing by zero/fuck knows.(fixed!)


  • I'll actually probably rename the Isis continent due to the negative connotation it might have thanks to those ISIS twats...




As for the demo I promised... I kind of got side-tracked with a new project of updating DynRPG with a ton of new classes (which is almost done), so between that, the world map stuff above, and probably some plugin optimization, it'll probably be another month or two. I've basically been working on that stuff every chance I can get, so have faith!

Posts

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bulmabriefs144
Sexy Alphys!
2758
02/11/2015 09:18 PM
I have an Isis temple. I kept it. ISIS doesn't own that name, Isis is the goddess of health, marriage, and wisdom. Something these turkeys know nothing about, so I'm ignoring them in protest (also because it came before, so I'm not changing it).

Also, how are you getting the Mode 7 to work properly? I had a few problems with it (I had a second world map, and it crapped out, and I was trying to get it to work with a number of vehicle common events).
PepsiOtaku
https://tapas.io/episode/2560252
2697
02/12/2015 06:38 PM
Yeah that's true. I might leave Isis alone. It'll be a couple years before the game is done anyway. Maybe they'll be gone by then. :P

It's a very finicky plugin. Make sure you are using @load_map_to_texture on any new map, and reinitialize everything via the other commands, ending with your @init_mode7 command. You could also try @unload_mode_seven before the new @load_map_to_texture to ensure the other map's stuff is getting cleared first. Your event issues may be parallel process related. Those tend to cause unexpected issues in general. Not sure what you're trying to do with vehicles though. Out of the box, it's a BITCH to get to work with vehicles. I ended up writing a second plugin that takes the vehicle's direction commands, and works around a few things. Getting it and mode7 to play nice with my custom menus was another story. One day I hope to make this easier, so that people can just throw in another plugin, get in their vehicle and call it a day. I'll probably look into this more after the DynRPG update and my gamejolt plugin.

I would say just don't give up easily and experiment like hell to see what works and what doesn't.
hedge1
862
02/17/2015 03:35 AM
Consider faith to be had. Though try not to get side tracked this time. :)
BurningTyger
Hm i Wonder if i can pul somethi goff here/
1289
03/20/2015 03:33 AM
Which reminds me i have my re remix of the battle theme if u want it.
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