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DFalcon
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Software engineer and amateur game developer with a focus on challenging non-twitch gameplay. I set the bar for "challenging" pretty high.
Other major chunks of interest go toward reading, math and tabletop games of many stripes.
Other major chunks of interest go toward reading, math and tabletop games of many stripes.
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Title music
For as long as I sat and listened to it, this might as well have been static:
Of course, Baba Yetu is an outlier... I don't think the title slot is a waste of a song, but it's usually a waste of a long song. I probably wouldn't choose to use one that's longer than a minute. (Not looping it for preference, in that case.)
Of course, Baba Yetu is an outlier... I don't think the title slot is a waste of a song, but it's usually a waste of a long song. I probably wouldn't choose to use one that's longer than a minute. (Not looping it for preference, in that case.)
What is your take on isometric pixel art
author=kentonaauthor=GreatRedSpiritI went from playing disgaea to playing FFT, and in FFT it was reversed! (and to me the way Disgaea did it seemed natural, but I can't remember which way they did it). I think there was a setting to flip it in FFT iirc.author=kentonaVery true. I think I go for up->up-right and down->down-left. I don't think I have any rational explanation for it except maybe trying to follow the way people read. Easy to pick up on unless you're playing two isometric games which switch the up direction (and if they have good interfaces you'd be able to set your own up direction anyways)
Does pressing down mean I go down-left or down-right?
(I usually found them more confusing to navigate)
On the other side, I remember catching flak from people who told me Aurora Wing had its diagonal movement the "wrong way" (at least, before I put it in the options), but it was hardly a universal complaint.
In an RPG where you actually move around and talk, I think I'd agree with geodude - eight directions would be a lot less distracting.
Review scoring: standardization, professionalism, etc.
I think the pro/con tags are a pretty neat idea. Especially if there were a broad set of common tags that could be searched on. Hasvers is right about the Misaos, but we could at least limit the number of pro tags and limit the number of con tags. It bears further exploration.
(I'm not sure I would require writing a full review to attach them to - I've contended before that one of the major problems with using any of the numbers from reviews around here is low sample size, so I'm always kind of on the lookout for more streamlined ways for people to leave information for players...)
(I'm not sure I would require writing a full review to attach them to - I've contended before that one of the major problems with using any of the numbers from reviews around here is low sample size, so I'm always kind of on the lookout for more streamlined ways for people to leave information for players...)
Trigonometry script for rpg maker 2003
If, say, you want circular motion but your intended number of frames doesn't divide nicely into the given lookup table's, there's an easy approximation trick to get circular motion or construct your own lookup table.
Because d/dx(cos x) = -sin x and d/dx(sin x) = cos x, each frame you can basically just have:
y += x/c
x -= y/c
for some constant c not too large relative to the range of x and y; in something like RM2K(3) this might require keeping, say, x*256 and y*256 and using those in the calculation then dividing down.
The above has a period of basically 2*pi*c iterations, though there can be a touch of rounding error.
Ellipses you can do with:
y += x/a
x -= y/b
(this gets you a period of 2*pi*sqrt(a*b) and a y-axis length of (x-axis length)*sqrt(b/a) IIRC.)
Not sure if the lookup table in the article was constructed like this or some other way, I don't have RM2K3 on this computer.
Because d/dx(cos x) = -sin x and d/dx(sin x) = cos x, each frame you can basically just have:
y += x/c
x -= y/c
for some constant c not too large relative to the range of x and y; in something like RM2K(3) this might require keeping, say, x*256 and y*256 and using those in the calculation then dividing down.
The above has a period of basically 2*pi*c iterations, though there can be a touch of rounding error.
Ellipses you can do with:
y += x/a
x -= y/b
(this gets you a period of 2*pi*sqrt(a*b) and a y-axis length of (x-axis length)*sqrt(b/a) IIRC.)
Not sure if the lookup table in the article was constructed like this or some other way, I don't have RM2K3 on this computer.
Button Mash - Forcing the player to use different skills
author=S. F. LaValle
I don't think the complexity of that is a problem. A player will get used to what they can accomplish with that character in the most efficient way.
^-- This is a powerful force. I would say not using the same skill over and over is a not a bad starting point, but insufficient; it's more important to have to think about what you should use at some point during the fight, not just be able to go "Oh, I can left-right-suplex this guy" from the start.
What are your best time savers and shortcuts?
I use a version control system, specifically Bazaar.
Version control is a pretty basic tenet of good software development practice, because it protects things from getting permanently screwed up, but a lot of RM people probably aren't aware of it. (Though it's slightly more useful when you're using text-like files and not unreadable junk like RM2K(3) maps.)
Version control is a pretty basic tenet of good software development practice, because it protects things from getting permanently screwed up, but a lot of RM people probably aren't aware of it. (Though it's slightly more useful when you're using text-like files and not unreadable junk like RM2K(3) maps.)
Non-combat skills & party members
The difference between #3 and #4 seems to be rooted in some assumption about how non-combat skills get better(?): there's no obvious reason to pick anybody but your best guy in #3, but then everybody else's levels of that skill are just as useless as in #4. (I can conceive of exceptions such as "who's expendable enough to set off the trap?", but that's probably accurate in the general case.)
If you're going to give individual characters redundant copies of those skills it does become an issue how experience works, at least, as well as how people join, leave and get KOed. If experience is gained from exercising the skill, is it possible to screw yourself over by opening a big enough fraction of a finite number of locks in the game without the best lockpick? If skill improvement comes from general leveling, will it ever really be worth it to take the time to have someone with a small inherent lockpicking bonus catch up to the main group? (One reason I do like the one party skill value where characters give bonuses is it eliminates a lot of these annoying cases.)
If you're going to give individual characters redundant copies of those skills it does become an issue how experience works, at least, as well as how people join, leave and get KOed. If experience is gained from exercising the skill, is it possible to screw yourself over by opening a big enough fraction of a finite number of locks in the game without the best lockpick? If skill improvement comes from general leveling, will it ever really be worth it to take the time to have someone with a small inherent lockpicking bonus catch up to the main group? (One reason I do like the one party skill value where characters give bonuses is it eliminates a lot of these annoying cases.)
rev77_terrain_damage.png
Yeah, though within limits for now. Right now, only the ground changes; non-unit obstructions like the tables don't turn into passable terrain. Once I (someday!) get a demo out and get some feedback, I'll evaluate whether I should take that any farther.
Open-ended dialog responses
I wouldn't mind this if it worked as well as you seem to think it will. But the immersion you're hoping to gain vanishes when you say something innocuous like "I'm busy Monday, but Tuesday is fine" and it answers "Awesome! Monday it is then!" And if either the maker or the player has to structure things to work around a braindead parser the effect on roleplaying is going to tell.
There's nothing necessarily wrong with using keywords in a text box to drive NPC dialogue. The Exile games did fine with that, to pick an example I can remember (though I think Exile 3, in which you also could click on keywords in dialogue, was an improvement). But you're not going to end up with something you don't mind conversing with.
There's nothing necessarily wrong with using keywords in a text box to drive NPC dialogue. The Exile games did fine with that, to pick an example I can remember (though I think Exile 3, in which you also could click on keywords in dialogue, was an improvement). But you're not going to end up with something you don't mind conversing with.
Games - Tester
Games - Other
