TURBO852'S PROFILE

Given the initial form of the game, this review is entirely fair.

Luckily, some of the errors have since been fixed and the game is now possible to complete. The initial scene has now been slowed down just a little. The battle backgrounds have been updated to match the setting. The option to change formation of the party has been removed.

While some of these can be fixed, the issue of the controls is limited by RPG Maker 2003 as an engine and perhaps my ability in efficient use of it. I'm not sure that it can process fast enough to keep up with input commands in the way that player 1's controls can. However, if there is a way, I will try to see if it can be improved. Generally, commands must be input at a slower rate for player 2 to be effective. There are several parallel process events running that check player 2's position and action and then relate them to position of another actor to see if something should happen.

The other aspect of the controls is the limited selection of keys available for input and their layout on the keyboard. Unfortunately, several of the keys have multiple functions. This is not by design of the game, but seems to be the way that the engine handles the keys. The number pad doubles up some numbers as arrow keys. This unfortunately leads to the number 2 doubling as a down arrow and as the number 2. Interestingly enough, pressing 2 on the number row does not suffer from this doubling of function. Only the numpad "2" doubles as down. Currently, the period key "." also functions as down for player 2 to give an alternative to pressing the "2" key on the numpad which will result in moving player 1 down as well. I experimented with numlock and scroll lock, but unfortunately these features of Windows do not seem to remove the doubling of the keys as both numbers and arrows simultaneously.

I am debating updating the controls to have a choice between a numpad recommended setup and a number row recommended setup. The numpad setup would not include the 2 key as a control and would only use the period key to move player 2 down. The number row setup would likely use keys 1-4 for direction and 5 or another number for pushing the block. Another issue that may potentially come up for players is the shift key pressed rapidly may trigger Windows to prompt for sticky keys. Currently, it is best to not spam the shift key to avoid this, but I may update the controls to use a number instead of the shift key to push the blocks.

Unfortunately, to address the issue of control responsiveness will prove difficult as the speed of the processing for key input may just not be fast enough. I will have to do some more testing and some research to see what is possible and if it can be made more efficient.