DJC'S PROFILE

author=SiegfriedCalibur

author=DJC
Hey Siegfried,

I'm looking at the loot database right now, and the default drop for the Harpy enemy in Golem's Pass is a Feather Wing 15%. There are certain accessories if worn that can cause rare drops, or randomize loot. That's only for specific enemies, and I definitely don't see or think the Harpy would be on that list being an early game foe. If you received a rare item drop, that would probably be a bug. The change in the loot table is a hack patch that may not work consistently.

Thanks for clarifying, DJC!
The hilarious thing, last time I did three walkthroughs through the area and got Red Berets consistenly from Harpies. Quite and interesting bug indeed! Could it be that each time the game installation happens, it just shuffles through random loot and gives it to them, considering this time it's a Rapier?
Btw, there is a specific method I found, that can be used to get this loot from them. You need a special encounter with exactly three Harpies. Most of the time they indeed drop Feather Wings, as they should, but sometimes, this bug occurs, and they drop Red Berets or Rapiers (this time).
Anyway, back to polishing the walkthrough...

If the loot drops are bugged, it's not based on the game installation. The DynRPG plugin I used to change loot from the database values in special circumstances does so by hacking memory values, but it seems to be unreliable and sometimes the values get changed when they should not.

author=Salrith
I feel like this is a little bit of a long shot, but you seem to still be active after these years, so--
Firstly, thank you for making this! I had heaps of fun with it years ago and the whole game was one of the highlights of my RPGMaker days!
Second, I've been wondering this for years and never thought to just come and ask-- where is the music that plays in Senium Forest from?? It's possibly my favourite track in the game. Was it custom made, or did it get borrowed from another place?
Keep safe out there, and thanks!
Salrith

Hello Salrith!

I do still check my account on rpgmaker.net occasionally to see if there are any player questions, or game breaking bugs that have somehow escaped me all these years. I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the game, dated as it is!

I'm trying really hard to wrack my brain and recall where the Senium Forest music is from. The midi file has been stripped of its meta data, probably from when I processed it. It's not custom made specifically for Everlong, but I don't believe it's a cover from a different game. I want to say it was part of a pack created by RPG Maker community musicians, along with dozens of other tracks, made available for public use. This is generally the case for the entire soundtrack. Sometimes there were Japanese authors, and the composer name data was horribly mangled into meaningless symbols when translated to a system using western characters. There are a few commercial game covers or rips.

I experimented with releasing an HD soundtrack version, but it was rather difficult to convert all the midi files. Some tracks only sounded reasonable with specific sound fonts. Also, most of the game music is at 2x speed, originally to save disk space, but this reduces the sample rate by half, and sounds awful. It would have been a monumental task to change every music call in the game back to normal playback.

The twelve Aeons you must have defeated before Beomaust are: Aestus, Arctica, Gygax, Vaethros, Coriolis, Diablos, Lixandra, Tyr, Meridion, Aurora, and Phoenix. If you haven't completed the Phoenix Cave yet, then that is the summon you are likely missing.

You shouldn't have any "Reborn" characters yet if you were unable to recruit Miyagi. Only he can rebirth a current level 99 hero. All heroes, regardless of whether they are in your current four person party, must reach level 99 for the first time to recruit Miyagi and have him available as an NPC aboard your ship or airship. This includes Azrael and Cirus if they are selectable characters for you. If you haven't taken some heroes in your party recently, you may want to double check their levels.

When your characters are reborn, their stats do not reset to level 1 amounts. They keep their current HP, strength, magic, etc. but are now able to gain even more through additional levels. You do not have to grind them back up to power. There are several accessories you can use to boost experience gains. Atlantis, the Rift Core, and the bonus dungeon Tomb of Khaer Magnus are some of the best places to gain EXP for more levels.

The earliest you can possibly get the legendary hero equipment is just prior to the final battle. The Rift Core is the final mini-dungeon just after Atlantis. Once you get there, check back on the charging equipment. If it's not ready, you'll have to finish the game and start a New Game+ or Continue+ to get them.

I'm not currently working on any other games. I don't have the time. I did some preliminary work for a remastered version of Everlong in RPG Maker MZ, and a 3D proof of concept, but these were just experiments. I'm glad players can still enjoy the rm2k3 version of Everlong, even if I never finished all the cut content and features I would have liked to.

Apologies for the late reply. I've been on vacation.

author=Nighthearted
@DJC

1) In the last battle against Altair, his sprite won't spawn. This causes the battle to be immediately won. His second form spawns correctly and the battle is normal, it just happens with his human form. Earlier in the game, during the first time we face him aboard the ship, it spawns correctly.
Screenshot: https://ibb.co/F89N76K

This bug was previously reported and fixed. I never entered any information for this boss in the auto balance code, causing an adjustment to zero HP and immediate victory. I should have made the code default to 100% HP if no data was found. In any future remaster, I would not implement an auto balance for monsters. The feature was an experiment to improve challenge for high level parties, but I'm not convinced it succeeded.

2) When the party is after one of the aspects of power on the snowy mountain to the Dwarves' dwelling, a snake-woman monster may appear if we use the item Siren. Whenever it does, an "event script" error message appears and the game is immediately sent back to the title screen. She also appears in normal random battles and in the Battle Arena, but then she's always with other monsters around and this script error does not occur. Only when she spawns alone by using the Siren item this happens. Note: using Siren inside the room where we get the aspect of power in the dwarves' castle will also spawn her in a grassy battle screen. I imagine that wasn't intended. The same error occurs this way.
Screenshot: https://ibb.co/YN3cNdk

This crash is a result of copy and pasting without checking on my part. The battle event scripts were references to monsters from another troop that don't exist when fighting the single Naga Archer. I'm not sure about the grassy field background when using a Siren in the Ignis Castrum treasure hold. That battle should be against a Damphir, the code is clearly using the Calbrenda battle background, and I wasn't able to recreate any fault in this scenario.

3) One of Keen's scroll skills is called "Blink", but when checking the skill, the description points to the skill "Dispel Slash" instead.
Screenshot: https://ibb.co/sJZxgxs

This is another oversight ony my part, where Keen use to have Dispel Slash, but this was changed to Blink. I corrected the rest of the display information, but not the skill reference.

4) In the bonus dungeon, the pillars used in some puzzles sometimes would change locations after I left them in the right spot and came back to cross the way. Sometimes they would even get stuck in unreachable places, like walls. I screenshotted 2 of these occurrences. I imagine it might be on my end because my controller has a Turbo Mode I usually leave on to avoid fatigue. Maybe the engine is interpreting each trigger as a push and sending the pillars way ahead, even though it only shows visually after I leave the screen. But the only objects in which that has happened to in the entire game were these pillars.
Screenshot¹: https://ibb.co/4SYd3JW
Screenshot²: https://ibb.co/6gg3LDT

I'm in agreement with your suspicion that the turbo controller mode is the culprit here. I've otherwise never seen this behavior before, nor am able to replicate it. The engine may also be to blame for poor input detection and processing.

5) After getting some Crimson Beherits with Battle Arena points, I bought 2 packs of the Ultimate Equipments from the Knight of Skulls. I can see the set of equips called Virtuoso in my inventory just fine, but I cannot equip any of the characters with them. They simply won't show up in the equipping screen. No one mentioned any other steps to be able to equip them besides buying, so I don't know what's happening. I went to the Forge Master after acquiring them, nothing. I thought I might need a higher title to wear them and took Azrael to Mythic, but they still won't show up in the equipping screen. Do I need an even higher title or is it a bug? I want to equip them for a New Game+ to save more Valiantide troops and see what the other rewards for that are.

Another player previously found this bug, and I just haven't patched it yet. I've seen strange behavior where sometimes database values get corrupted and just don't work correctly in game. Adjusting the values and overwriting the database fixes the issue, so the game reads the items as equipment again.

Thanks to your help and that of other players, I think I'll release an updated patch with these fixes.

That's it. About the story...

I have thought about allowing the player to acquire Azrael earlier, upon first reaching the White Shrine. He is meant to be a fake-out protagonist that becomes an antagonist. Unfortunately, if a player likes this character, they'll naturally be disappointed he leaves the party for the majority of the game.

Azrael's ending would have been different if the main plot points behind Expirius' motivations weren't totally changed, but he still would not have returned with the party to the normal world, not after what he's seen and done. I actually very much dislike the current ending for all the characters. The meeting and aftermath of the battle with Entropy would have been entirely different.

Significant story changes in a new game+ aren't feasible. It becomes like making a second game, and then why not do that instead? I've also lost enthusiasm in player choices directing certain story beats. In a remaster I would remove the affection system, for example, and make writing much simplified. Players lose some replay value, but they also don't have to feel like they are missing story points, character development, or dialog because of their choices. I also find it hard to make player choices actually impactful. It's too much of a gimmick in modern games, even failing to create the illusion that player choice matters.

None of the characters have much of a development arc, because most of that content was cut, especially for Julia. It's entirely understandable that those characters are unlikeable without their backstory and actual personal growth. I intended for Dianyn to have a slightly larger role in the quest to regain Cirus, and you'd be able to fight her at the Battle Arena, but all that was cut.

The Entropy plotline and Expirius motivations are definitely incoherent at best, again due to cut content, so I tied it up together haphazardly with vague plot magic, and the result is obviously not good. Too many fantasy tropes and hand waving explanations. The story and character developments are two aspects of the game I'd really like to improve in a remaster, along with the skills themselves and world interaction and town/NPC development.

Thank you for the kind words and all the feedback. I'm glad you got so much enjoyment out of the game. I've done some preliminary work looking at RPG Maker MZ recently, and the resources/plugins necessary to attempt a remaster in that engine. It would be a massive amount of work that I might not ever have time for, but it's on my mind.

author=Nighthearted
@DJC

It's a shame about the volume controls and other limitations to the sound mechanics. But I get used to it after playing for a while. I mispoke about the sound of opening chests, by the way. They're very pleasent. It's navigating through the menus and especially giving items to the party members (like Herb) that produces an irritating high-pitched sound. If they could be changed to something more soft/grave similar to the sound of opening chests it would be nice, but sound effects like these are fairly common in JRPGs anyway. It's really a minor issue.

I would've liked to enable multiple system sound sets, unlocked by the same NPC that changes menu graphics. If it's truly bothersome, you can replace the sound files in you Everlong/Sound folder with other .wav files you would prefer. The two main system menu sounds to replace are ff7move.wav and ff7cancel.wav, and you want to delete them, then replace them with different sound files of the exact same name.

If I could give one criticism it would be the victory screen because of the different background colors for the party members. I don't know if it's just me, but it gets a little confusing with all those colors thrown around, like the screen is too cluttered. It's especially aggravating with characters that have bright color backgrounds like Sammy or Keen, because it's not as easy to make out the number on increased stats on level up. I feel like all those old people NPCs complaining about their sight in-game lol

It would be nice to have the option to just stick with black backgrounds during the victory screen. I would rather have black backgrounds even for common dialogues, it's easier on the eyes, but that's just preference. A good middle-term solution would be to have their colors as a thin or thick line around their frame in the victory screen, while having black backgrounds. It would differentiate them fairly well without compromising information visibility. Also, HP and AP stats have a "m" in front of them in victory screen for every character. I don't know if it serves a purpose, but no other stat have that.

You can disable the color backgrounds on the victory screen if you go into your main Everlong folder, and edit the DynRPG.ini file. There's many options in this file, most you don't want to change, but if you scroll down to the DynTag section, the sixth line controls the victory background color. By default:
victoryInfoBackgroundColor = 1
but if you change this value to 0
victoryInfoBackgroundColor = 0
and then save the file, the victory backgrounds will be black with some transparency. This was originally going to be in an expanded options menu.

Later in the game, once you obtain the sailing ship, you can recruit the NPC that changes system backgrounds, and choose a more suitable option for your preferences. It would be a good idea to have a high contrast mode available as a toggle, though.

About the remaster, you know more than anyone that would take a lot of effort and time, but I did love what I saw with your demo video! As it is the game's already classic material though. I think it would be worth it to go through all the trouble if you intended to add more things like places, equips, maybe more story and romance archs, and then sell the remaster version on Steam/GOG, though I think some things might have to be changed for that, like Vetu's appearence because of copyright stuff; there's a lot of easter eggs and throwbacks to classics which's great for classic lovers, but the corporations who hold their IP are always looking for an easy profit unfortunately.

Yes, there would have to be significant changes in a remaster to all art assets for copyright purposes. I've already decided on a direction I'd take with Vetu's redesign. The cut plot points and character development would be part of the selling point. I'm not convinced the 3D route is the way to go, it's far too time consuming to map and frustratingly limited. While it does provide a unique look, atmosphere, and exploration, I'm concerned it actually makes the game less playable, and certainly it defeats the purpose of using RPG Maker to quickly generate content. The traditional sprite approach is what I'm now leaning toward, though I'm still disappointed in the character generator options in RMMV.

While I do appreciate all the time you took documenting the spelling and grammatical errors, I would encourage you to just enjoy the game and do your best to ignore them. Most of that dialog was meant to be rewritten, which is why so much wasn't proofread or fixed. The chances I'll get around to editing it now is close to zero. I'm really trying to only spend time patching bugs and critical issues.