SHADOWTEXT'S PROFILE

So who wants to open the books on how long it'll be before we get FFV DS then FFVI DS?

And whether the FFVII remake will be for PS3, PSP, DS, or all of the above?

Wow. I always assumed that agoraphobia was, like was said earlier, essentially the opposite of claustrophobia. So I'm a borderline agoraphobic, not a borderline hikkikomori! Hoorays.

The biggest problem for me is when I hit that point where I can't go any further without doing something that's going to be a major paradigm shift from the previous phase of development--if I'm doing heavy programming, moving into the resource/art making part, or if I'm doing the resource/art making part, moving into the writing part, or something like that. I'm pretty heavily ADD, so even when I'm working on one aspect I'm thinking about the others, but dedicating all your resources to one when they're already all in another...

...the obvious solution is to work in teams and delegating, but I've tried before, but my teams have a habit of falling apart.

author=myersguy link=topic=1132.msg16755#msg16755 date=1210895054
...What makes it fair? Is it because the school owns the program?

In a sane world it would be fair use because you're using it in the context of an educational program which has paid for the right for students in that program to use it in that context. However, this isn't a sane world, and yes, it's probably illegal because various lobbies have made sure that Fair Use doesn't really exist in the year 2008. But I doubt anyone's going to jail or getting sued over it.

author=kentona link=topic=438.msg16494#msg16494 date=1210776735
meh, a model is just an array of points.

I forgot about textures - yeah, they can take up a lot of space, too. Especially in the system's RAM. Most of the memory in your video card is filled with texture data.

And a movie is just, when you get down to it, an array of pixels. Just so happens there's a bunch of them. There can be quite a few points in a model, not to mention joints, bones, and dozens of maps telling it, for example, which joint to put stress when each joint moves (that's one map for each joint, by the way), as well as various influence objects (and each joint gets its own map for each influence object, as well) that change how the model moves even more. Throw in textures (and even low res textures tend to be fairly big for image files) and it can add up quick, especially given the sheer number of models needed for an RPG. You've got to figure there's one for each PC, NPC, and monster in the game. Maybe palette-swapped monsters can get away with just using a different texture and the same model, but you're still looking at well over a hundred individual models, I'd imagine. And on a tiny DS cart (What are they, 250 MB max?), that can be significant. Definitely a bigger hit than MIDI music would be, though a bunch of compressed WAVs like MP3 or OGG (I have no idea what codecs work on the DS, audio-wise) would probably be bigger.

In general, I feel like it's sort of not good to come up with more "interesting" names for the same old elements. I understand the reasoning: it makes the thing feel slightly more unique and makes it stand out a bit from the Final Fantasy clones...
...but the thing is, the mechanics are almost always identical to begin with, though the amount of bonus damage might change. As such, using different names than the player is used to only serves to confuse them, rather than actually making the elements feel any different. Most players are probably still just going to refer to "Firmament" as "Air" because they're used to it (even though Firmament is an awesome word). If you're going to copy a system wholecloth, I'd say it's better to rely on the audience's familiarity with it as a starting point, and branch out from there if at all possible.

With a system as familiar as elements, I say strive to make it simple (not necessarily easy, but simple) for the player. Use logical and time-honored interrelations, like Water > Fire > Plant (Pokemon starters!), because there aren't many benefits to making it Earth <-> Fire. It'd only frustrate players and make them feel like you were trying to irritate them. Keep the number of elements relatively small. Four and Five might be traditional in the real world, but three is probably the number to shoot for here (RPS, remember?). Three elements means A -> B -> C -> A, which is the smallest and most elegant way of allowing a player to trump attacks, doesn't require the weird option of having an element be both strong against and weak against another element (Fire <-> Water is annoying.) and offers plenty of depth to gameplay if done right.