GREDGE109'S PROFILE

I want to change my online identity from Gredge to something completely different. This means my games, art, online presence, would all be changed to something different than Gredge.

For me, I feel I have too much linked to express myself properly, and some of my real life friends are now aware of this presence and I feel it’s too much, a bit of a mistake. I’d rather take on a whole separate identity all together and start from ground zero, with no links.

It’s a thought that has been on my mind the last couple months. I’d rather run off and change to someone completely different. Has anyone else done this? What has been your experience? Was it a mistake? Did you return to your previous alias?

I feel I’m not well known online so there’s not much to lose. Let me know what you think.

Please pardon any grammatical issues. I’m typing this from my phone on a quick break at work.

So I thought I'd start uploading some of the random pixel art I've been making just to keep track of my work as I (hopefully) improve over time. And experiment with different styles. Enjoy!

Current primary style (modern):






Current overhead sprite style (pseudo-retro):



Experiments with sprites and scenery with only 5 colors (modern):

Been banging my head into a wall trying to figure this out, and after working on this for over an hour and some change, I'm realizing that I'm no closer to a solution than where I began.

What I'm trying to do: Add some parameters or possibly my own variables to the main menu screen.

As a bonus: Trying to remove all of this dead space from this menu, considering the player's party will only consist of one actor. This isn't necessary, but would also be el

What I've done already: I've added Yanfly's menu script so I could get in a menu option leading to a common event (Quests, in the picture). I've also removed lines such as Equipment, skills and status. I've been googling for the last hour trying to find a solution, and keep coming upon unhelpful topics elsewhere ("hey guys I need help", followed by, "nvm ty", or a link to a site that's offline). Oh, and one of these old topics even linked me to a site that provided a helpful solution... in the form of malware. Wonderful.

Here's a picture of what I'm trying to do, so you can get an idea.

In this game I'm working on, all of the characters' skills are based off of their equipment. Each character is able to equip a main-hand weapon, an off-hand weapon or item, and a spell ring. Main-hand weapons consist of 3 skills each, off-hand weapons and items have 2 skills, and spell rings have 1 each, but up to four spell rings can be equipped at once. Players will be able to swap all of these things at will.

So what I'm trying to do, is to come up with a way to sort the skills that the player has. I want the Main-hand skills first, then Off-hand skills, then Spell ring skills. I'd like to try and find a solution that separates the order of these skills by tiers.

Take, for example, my heroine Elsa. She's been prancing about killing enemies with her trusty sword and shield. But... she soon is going to get her hands on a shiny new THUNDER SWORD which, when equipped, will allow her to harness the SWEET POWER OF THUNDER.

So this is how she looks like at the start.



Our hero Elsa has her trusty sword and shield equipped. The sword skills are first, followed by her shield skills. No spell rings equipped at the moment. But it looks great! Everything has been working well like this, so far.



Here's her equipment. Looking sharp! However... I just found this sweet new THUNDER SWORD, and I want her to put it on.



Okay that should be just fine. Ignore the fact that it doesn't properly give 4 attack, I'm still tweaking it...
So she equips the new weapon, AAAAND...



Look at that. Now the order of skills are all messed up.

I think this kinda' tells you what I'm getting at. Maybe there's a super-easy solution I'm missing, or a tiny script that makes this not-so-hard, but yeah. In the words of our hero Elsa, "please help."

The Topic

It is difficult to search google for a topic that goes into depth about random battle encounters. Most topics I have read tends to refer to them as "relics," or the fact that they are "antiquated." No further discussion about them takes place after that claim is made. I often feel that sometimes we as developers take drastic measures to avoid random battle encounters, when sometimes a random battle encounter system can be just fine. This topic is to discuss these issues.

Why I love them

As I have gotten older, I have found myself enjoying random battles more than when I was younger. There's a certain feeling of mystery lying behind every corner that only a random battle can capture. The surprise of an enemy you weren't expecting and, in some rare occasions, a mini-boss guarding a special treasure that you didn't see coming.

I enjoy random encounters because it means that I have to always be on my toes. If I go down six floors deep into a dungeon, I can't just rely on evasion tactics to avoid enemies. I don't always know when the monsters are going to attack. I have to manage my potions and my mana more carefully, and plan ahead for the event, such as buying antidotes in a dungeon with poison enemies, instead of just running away from all the enemies that I know are poisonous.

Sometimes, though not all the time, I enjoy grinding random battles as long as the random battles are in a fast-paced battle system; I have stopped playing some RPGs because every action in combat took a lengthy amount of time, though I suppose that is a discussion for another topic. In some games, random battle grinding can be a great resource for gathering items that are not easily obtainable otherwise. In games where enemies are on the screen at all times, I often find myself exiting and re-entering a room in order to force the enemies to re-spawn so I can battle them again for xp, gold and items.

One of my favorite moments in random battle encounters were these rooms - I believe they were in one of the early Final Fantasy games - that when you entered, you saw a tiny room with a treasure chest in the middle, and an extremely high encounter rate in that small room around the treasure chest. In the treasure chest was a valuable item.

The poll

Whether you enjoy prefer random battle encounters, or enemies appearing on screen at all times, the poll is a question of which method you prefer when it comes to random battle encounters. I understand that some people may not enjoy either of these: in that case, I encourage you either to select the option that closest reflects something you would enjoy, or alternatively, skip the poll and add a post below instead.

Finally, if there is an additional method of random encounters you enjoy that is not mentioned in the poll, please add it in a post below.

The Discussion

I would like to open discussion on this topic as to how you as a developer and as a player view random battle encounters. How do you feel about random battle encounters? Do you like them or dislike them? What is it you like, and what is it you dislike? I often feel that random battle encounters have been ruined for many players because of two things that I notice mentioned repeatedly: FFIV's insanely high encounter rate, and Zubats. But seeing that those two are extreme examples, I would regardless like to hear your thoughts on this matter, both as a game maker in your own games, and as a player of RPG's.