The Realms Shattered

I use overlays pretty sparingly, I think - only when needed, really. In RealmS I've thus far used two - one at the festival and one during a scene which is inaccessible to the player as yet. Yeah, not a big user of fogs. More into tints, really. However!

There comes a time in every RM users life when they need to ask the question - should I use a fog here?

So, this is something I want to address and I'd like opinions. Being that I'm using the RTP and don't want to get too bogged down in making things too spiffy-looking when it's a relatively simple chipset, I have to ask myself if I really need to go that extra step into the world of overlays. Do I really need to worry about overlays in places like forests where a tint may do just as well?

For example, I'm currently mapping a sort-of dead forest that will lead to a haunted mansion. Okay, so I've already decided on using a fog at the actual mansion site and a light effect when inside (with tints, of course) but I also find myself wanting to add a bit more atmosphere by using a fog for the forest itself. And this is where I ask myself why I feel that the forest lacks atmosphere enough to warrant using a fog.

The RTP is a fairly bright and cheery set - you'll get no arguements from me about that. I'll try my best to make the darker areas of the game darker, but even in real life there's a splash of colour in the bleakest of places. It should be possible, though to make something bleak and dreary with the combination of music and base graphics without relying too much on overlays. But then again, are overlays now considered part of the graphical equation? That is, are they now an integral part of creating atmosphere in a game - especially one made on a SNES-era game creation program?

X_X Sometimes I argue myself in circles.

Okay, here's the lay-down. Should I use overlays in general areas in RealmS or keep them for special scenes/areas instead. IE: do I make them a common thing or rare?


With fog.


And without.

So I'm restarting work on the sprites for the EDS. Yeah, the Enhanced Duel System. Now, I suppose I could just say it's a duel system, but nah, it's enhanced, you see. Basically it's like the Suikoden rock-paper-scissors style - except for a few differences. Namely more choices and visual clues instead of dialogue clues.


Above: Defence position sprites for Clarissa. Top one is medium defence, middle is high defence and lowest is light defence. So what differences does each have? Well, the light defence is best against heavy attack, as you can dodge said attack about 70% of the time, the mid defence is best against most attacks but you'll always get some damage at least, and the heavy defence is great against mid to high attacks, but quick attacks can sometimes slip past your guard and have a small chance at critical hits.


A sort of mockup of the EDS. The top left corner shows the enemy health, blitz bar and the ellipses show that he's choosing his attack. His sprite will then change to show what type of attack he'll make (if he makes one).
The lower right shows your choices - Attack, Defence, Item or Blitz. Blitz skills can only be used if your blitz bar is full (which gains from taking/dealing damage) and allows two skills - one for damage and one for healing. Items allow you to use, well, items and attack/defence is pretty self explanatory.

To the lower left is the turn bar (yeah, real technical name, I know), showing whose turn is next - each choice moves you back a certain amount on the turn bar. So item usage will take you back the least, whilst blitzing and heavy attack/defence take you back a lot.

Yes, so I'm working on getting the EDS fully integrated at the moment. May take a while.

Okay, so it took a while, but I've finally updated the old RS!D demo with a new, fixed version. The fixes include:
- some spelling and grammar mistakes
- revised events and dialogue
- door sounds and graphic changes
- allowing you to leave the graveyard
- FIXED the Inn Killer bug
- FIXED the Dying during Monster Battle of DOOM bug
- balanced the battles a bit better
- added a minigame to the festival
- a few other minor cosmetic changes

Hopefully now it'll play a lot better than it did. As for making it longer? Not yet, but it is in the works. The demo officially ends at the end of the festival, just before things really start to pick up a bit. This demo is basically the introduction of RealmS, or prologue, if you prefer.

So, go forth and enjoy. ^.^

EDIT: 7th August
Okay, so now the proper fixed version is up. Sorry to those who downloaded yesterday and today, but it seems I missed a line that causes the infamous Inn Crash of Doom. It has now been rectified and if there is anything wrong with the current download please let me know. I can't fix it if I don't know about it. Thank you and goodnight!

My old computer died about a week ago and the fix-it guy said that most of my files had been corrupted. There was a real worry that all my progress in RealmS had been undone and that I'd lost a lot of other files - mostly written thoughts, ideas, scenes and graphics.

Thankfully, that guy is a whiz at salvage and managed to save quite a bit of stuff from the old hard drive. Last night I received my new computer (with what he could save on it).

He had managed to save almost everything - including RealmS and all the work that I have done. Thank you computer dude!

So, where does that leave me progress-wise? I may have a newer version out in about a month or two. My work hours have increased a bit, and I've been babysitting for my brother a lot so my RMing time is a bit limited. Still, my main focus is RealmS and there is progress being made.

Worry not. ^.^

So for the next RS!D I'm going to put out a longer, better demo than the last one (which frankly, was a bit rough around the edges). SO, I've already fixed a lot of the 'bugs' that the last version had and am currently tinkering with some of the battles and item gains.

Also almost finished the doors and messages (though I found an area where I hadn't done any events!). So yeah, demo release - RS!D V-II.

Look out for it. ^.^