I was thinking about the .lsd files and how I will manage them. You know, I don't have to really work with them since my engine is the only program that would need to. I could invent my own format. Why would I do this? Well, I wonder if I can implement an up/down gradeable save system.

One of the most annoying things about RPG Maker 2003 was that when you wanted to make a treasure chest, you had to add another switch. I'm thinking of implementing a mode that treats the first four variables and switches per-event. If you ever write to these variables or switches in your event code, the event's name, map, and data gets added on to the end of the save file.

I'll hash the events by their name and location on the map so two events with the same editor name cannot possibly have the same identity and can withstand being saved in different orders in the .lmu file.

You make ONE treasure chest for example, and copypasting it 8 times wields 8 different chests that all open independently. This oughtta cut the tedium down.

Hey hey this is actually coming along quite nicely. I'm doing the map loading and drawing part first because I needed three screenshots. You're free to bother me with feature requests and awesome things, as well as submit your game for compatibility testing. I would like some people with patched games to submit and to tell me what patches were used. Finally, these must also be completed games- I'm only going to test against things that can be played all the way through.

Anyways, you can see exactly what my engine supports so far from the debugger log (taken from Tiamat Sacrament):

WolfCoder's RPG2KX Engine V1.0 (2010)
Starting systems...
FMOD version 274949 activated.
Working directory set to: C:/Users/Sayuri/tiamat sacrament/
Loaded .ini file.
C:/Users/Sayuri/tiamat sacrament/RPG_RT.ini : 3 entries.
Game identified as The Tiamat Sacrament
Indexing resources...
Backdrop : 14 files.
Battle : 52 files.
Nothing found for: C:/Users/Sayuri/tiamat sacrament/Battle2/*
Battle2 : 0 files.
BattleCharSet : 11 files.
BattleWeapon : 2 files.
CharSet : 58 files.
ChipSet : 40 files.
FaceSet : 4 files.
Frame : 9 files.
GameOver : 7 files.
Monster : 185 files.
Nothing found for: C:/Users/Sayuri/tiamat sacrament/Movie/*
Movie : 0 files.
Music : 47 files.
Panorama : 8 files.
Picture : 84 files.
Sound : 5 files.
System : 4 files.
Nothing found for: C:/Users/Sayuri/tiamat sacrament/System2/*
System2 : 0 files.
Title : 5 files.
Heros (18400 bytes)
Skills (50089 bytes)
Items (20837 bytes)
Monsters (19097 bytes)
Groups (1447485 bytes)
Terrain (840 bytes)
Attribute (384 bytes)
Conditions (2315 bytes)
Animations (874565 bytes)
Tilesets (14540 bytes)
Vocabulary (1884 bytes)
Settings (514 bytes)
Switches (9718 bytes)
Variables (4819 bytes)
Common Events (65312 bytes)
Loading database... (LcfDataBase)
Loading 29 tilesets...
#1 World Map : <- sweetnewoverworld
#2 Fire Cave : <- minelavaboard
#3 Inside : <- building
#4 Dungeon : <- waterfallcave
#5 Akheli : <- newgates
#6 Black Base : <- blackbase
#7 Forest : <- forest2
#8 Draslin : <- draslin
#9 Shop : <- bar1
#10 Library : <- library5
#11 Cave : <- dragonmine
#12 Inside House : <- inside2
#13 Trader : <- bar2
#14 Ice Dungeon : <- icedungeon
#15 Outside Palace : <- 1TERRAGEARoutside
#16 Bridge : <- sweetcastlething
#17 Dark Forest : <- darkforest
#18 Grotto : <- watercave
#19 Nether Garrison : <- garrisonassembly
#20 Barracks : <- shop1
#21 Alden : <- banditminelava
#22 Bandit House : <- bandithouse
#23 Bridge : <- bridge
#24 Fyradin : <- newtemplemod
#25 Inside Sanc : <- newtemple
#26 Ry'jin Palace : <- nuclear 0012F8C0ower 0012FADClant
#27 Draslin Destroyed : <- draslindead
#28 Castle Inner : <- castlemaybe2
#29 Arms : <- armscross
Finished reading database.
Loading map C:/Users/Sayuri/tiamat sacrament/Map0061.lmu...
Type: LcfMapUnit
Chipset: 7
Width: 50
Height: 50
Scroll Mode: 0
Lower Map: 5000 bytes
Upper Map: 5000 bytes
Map is using #7 Forest : <- forest2
Loading image: C:/Users/Sayuri/tiamat sacrament/ChipSet/forest2.png...
480x256 bpp: 8
Shutting down...