BULMABRIEFS144'S PROFILE

I've seen well rated games, plenty of them, that I don't like. I've see alot of featured games that look really really good, unless they are stuck in demo hell, or worse, never get a download.

I want a game with:

• Non-generic graphics (especially for VX games, I can't stand those square walls and 1x1 munchkins.
• Interesting features (alchemy, cool scripts, custom menus, or custom battle systems)
• At least semi-original plot, or if not a strong character-driven story

Numina, Love and War, Forever's End, Painted Heart, Touhou - Wandering Souls, Pocket Quest!, Phantom Legacy, those are the sorts of games I like. Stuff like this. I've tried all sorts of search filters, but I kinda want recommendations instead based on what I listed.

If you lead me to something boring though, I will punish you. In the name of the evil laughing moon from Soul Eater.

Could someone help with this? I am trying to use MessageExtender, and I think I have pretty much up to about p. It does pretty much what I want, but I first off no longer have MingW of any of the CodeBlocks, so can't make anymore (given how little I used it, I don't wanna download again). And secondly, the thing I wanna do, I don't really know/remember how.

https://rpgmaker.net/engines/rt2k3/utilities/95/

What do I want? Basically to take this code, and add one more, the \$ code. Currently, other than that, this code seems to work just fine for my purposes, but because that code is missing, it appears to crash. I want to be able to add this back to my games, but still check for gold during shop scenes.

Let's review. Where did the popularity of MMOs come from?

Animes about MMOs and the idea of traveling with a party based on earlier concept like Final Fantasy (but with real people). But let's look at this model versus the reality.

We have two concepts: Subscription and Free-To-Play.

Subscription overall seems to be based on providing a decent and balanced game. The game isn't cluttered up with ads, and the game is actually based on real challenge. From what I've heard. The problem being that I have never actually managed to get any of these, since they require a steady salary. Either these games eat into time needed to maintain said job, or the job means you have no time nor energy to play the game. Worse, you forget that you had the subscription to the game in the first place, and you rack up payments and debts. Pass.

Next, is the (allegedly) Free-To-Play game. Which winds up being at least as expensive when all is said and done, as most such games are pay-to-win, and virtually unwinnable without effectively buying all the perks you can. Or they have limited areas of exploration.

But you say, companies need to make money! Surely you don't think this stuff comes free! No, I don't. But I also think money should be earned, and the actual experience of gameplay shouldn't feel like horrible grind. Nor should they have potions at well above reasonable price, % drain of exp, and all the other irritating crap.

Let's look at the anime version of the MMO, versus what actually happens. Sword Art Online. An immersive VR game, where people form parties, and battle monsters. Hack Sign, same deal, only quirkier. Only Sense, a skill-based system where characters can craft basically anything. All of these seem like games I might like to play. But the actual game like this seems to be nowhere, instead having games loaded with ads, hackers, and empty of people.

Now, compare the average MMO. I'll pick a side-scroller like MapleStory or LaTale. You choose from a set of classes, each of which further advance to other classes. These classes are not self-sufficient, so as to encourage a team. And yet, finding a party is obnoxiously difficult. For that matter, healers are extremely rare in RPGs. Why? Let me explain the dynamics of the game.

In order to enforce a free to play that makes money, equips and potions are kept high in cost, crafting is difficult (or like Maple, actually costly), or nonexistent. This means one is wholly dependent on drops. Add to this the fact that some games eliminate drops for enemies lower in level, this keeps the player in constant debt to potions. Next, the cleric usually has difficulty finding a decent party, because of screwy party exp sharing, meaning that a cleric often sucks hard trying to beat enemies on their own but also cannot team up. These games then do not have a good party system. When you add that the rules of the game are set up to be harder for potential hackers, ironically, this makes the game hard enough that people are encouraged to hack. Honest gamers now not only have a poorly balanced game that has enforced solo working against them, but hackers making it worse for everyone. Some games (*cough* MapleStory) will even penalize players for kill-stealing (or even being in the same room as) hackers. Nevermind that these jerks came in the room and started raking in everything that I tried to kill, the GM blames me for "working with" the hacker.

Because of this faulty business model of no customer service, punitive (to users, not hackers, who find loopholes) rules, greed, and completely broken balance, the average free-to-play game can be said to have a life cycle.
1. Early Beta Period. Game is usually fun.
2. Admins decide we're not making enough money. Game balance changes to grind heavy with % exp loss. RM goods appear to "help" avoid these issues.
3. Hackers appear.
4. Various issues like anti-spam controls (some games actually create lag while attacking) make gameplay harder for legit users while making hackers unaffected. Game becomes annoying.
5. Game slowly drains of players, making parties difficult to form. Game becomes a ghost town.

There should be a better way to design an MMO. Anyone have a better model?

Some of this is submitted by bugmenot. Some of stuff I've found or used either here or in cherry share. Original list is here, but it has you look through the forum versus direct link.

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ORIGINAL LIST

32Bit(2k3) (Allows 32-bit color blending, see below)

AnimationBugFix(2k3) (I can't reduce german, but apparently this fixes some skill scroll/invoke skill animation bug issue)

AntiLag (General anti-lag, seems to use alot of ini stuff though)

AntiLagSwitch (reduces lag when using alot of switches and variables)

AssignTurnBattle(2k3)

BattleAnimationPointer

BattleEndFix(2k3) (All german, dunno. Possibly it fixes an error with the battle end)

BattleMessenger(2k3) (I dunno what this does, if there is an error, probably read the help files and make sure nothing's missing in the ini)

BGM&SE-PointerPatch (Kaine had a link, dunno what it does though.)

BreakLoopFix (I assume it fixes an issue with break loop, or reduces lag. German)

CharExpandPatch(2k3) (Duh. It's the one that allows you to have nonstandard charset sizes)

ClassChangeEquipFix(2k3)
(I remember when I change class, it automatically unequips stuff, so I assume some issue with this)

Crit% (It's in german. But I think it tweaks the 1 in % for crit, somehow)

CustomSaveLoad(2k) (I think I've used this. It allows you to create your own saveload thing using variables.)

DamageOverOwnTime(2k3) (I think I remember this one too. It means that status effects don't go off until after you act, reducing the whole constant drain while you are letting enemies do their turns)

DirectMenuPatch

EXPlus

GuardRevamp

InfoDisloc(2k3) (I can't read german but if you can, here)

LinkToEventFix(2k3) (I think this is to fix a bug that crashes for "missing" skills when you use Link to Event commands and follow it with skills)

MenuManipulator(2k3)

MessageSwitch (Damned if I know. More about it here)

MonSca (This alters monster parameters. It has alot of ini code, so link here)

MoveEventPointer

PDFix(2k3)

QuickRow(2k3)

ReflectBugFix(2k3) (I think this is a fix for a sharing violation that happens when some enemies have reflect and get hit by magic)

RowSwap(2k3)

RowVar(2k3) (This does variables for rows or something? Here)

RPS(2k3) (Not sure if this is the latest version... This is complicated so I'm providing a link. Basically, it does two things. It tweaks certain features of battle, such as making 0% attibute display Immune. And it allows attributes with %1 to %12 to be set to items and skills. For instance, you can make skills that ignore Reflect)

SelfVar (okay, fixed)

SetBattler(2k3) (Setting battler on variable, I assume. More about it here)

ShopEconomy

SkillScrollSwitch (Adds additional options to disable the use of SkillScroll Items on field / in battle.)

SROA Switches(2k3)

StatusAnimationFix(2k3) (If a Condition is applied to a Hero mid-movement ("step forward", "jump forward", "move to target"), he/she returns to the proper location without getting stuck.)

SwitchPointer

VarExtender(2k) (Urgh, too much stuff. More about it here)

VertiGauge (Allows guage to display vertically instead of horizontally)

VisuCommands(2k3) (Not sure about this one)

VisuGauge(2k3) (Overlap with VertiGuage above)

VisuMenu

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STUFF HERE OR ON CHERRYTREE

PicsInBattle (Most awesome patch ever. Allows you to battle put ANYTHING into your battle as a picture, and allows layer control too. At least the patch did, I'm not sure about the ips. There's a tutorial on cherrytree about his one)

Keyboard and Mouse Input (Allows keyboard and mouse commands. Very awesome. Mouse needs a range though, or you have trouble clicking on stuff)

UnlockPics (This is hard to describe, you can run pictures and text simultaneously. I've not gotten this to work right, but I think you can have something like animated facial expression pictures while running text)

BetterAEP (Allows start without title screen, allowing you to either make your own, or launch straight into the game)

PicPointerPatch (I've never really used this, but I think it's pretty straightforward. It lets you use more pictures)

MathPlugin (allows alot of sort of engineering math stuff)

DynTurnBattle (Allows for Turn Based Combat, an update of Cerberus's code here)

Blending Modes (Allows you to have blended colors for images)

Menu Clock (not only allows a menu clock, which is awesum enough, but allows foreground and background images for a semi-custom menu)

Line of Sight (This lets you do stuff like guards spotting you)

Particle Effects (Allows you to do sort of particle-animations like dozens of mini hearts or stars)

File Control (Allows you to save words and stuff into .txt files, so you can have stuff that is global but only activates after you do stuff. Think unlockable awards. It's really useful)

MessageExtender2c (Allows you to do a ton of message \commands, alot more than the original MessageExtender. Fixed alot of different stuff)

DynData Access
(This allows you to access alot of stuff during battle, including transforming enemies and the background, or find out hp/mp)

KazString (Despite the name, this is mostly my work now. It's called this because Kazesui helped me with the original version, which stored alot of stuff into names. Like I could store an item name as a name, which could then be displayed as such. I edited it since then, expanding it to monsters, skills, etc. Some of this stuff is redundant, since the MessageExtender2 can also do this. I added extra commands since then, and there are about 10 or 20 processes that are all OnComment. There's a tutorial, but the highlight of the plugin is that it allows you to store an array matrix of variables. I could for instance check a particular slot, reassigning the variable to a new number from storage (because this is stored offsite, this means you free up variables for other purposes). This is pretty useful, for anything from reusing a chest variable to making some sort of custom battle system. I personally set the limit to 20 x 1000 matrix I think, but I am pretty certain that one could expand this, since the code is open-source)

The Filtered List of 2k3 plugins (Pretty much everything else)

Text Plugin (Insert text ANYWHERE)

Minimaps (Makes little minimaps)

RagnaDyn (Alot of battle effects, includes a status where you die if no MP)

CMS Tools (including no-auto battle ips)

Date and Time (Very fun plugin, you can get real time)

Animated Monsters (Check File, allows you to auto load animated folders just by having the same name as the folder for the monster)

https://rpgmaker.net/users/bulmabriefs144/locker/AlwaysWindowed.zip (This is linked to my locker, because it is super-important for games, since past Windows 8.1 some computers literally give a Direct Draw error if they are tried in fullscreen)

https://rpgmaker.net/media/content/users/3388/locker/MapInMenuFixed.rar
(This is the fixed version by Bugmenot. Posted here for easier location)

Other Utilities (Basically, all utilities sorted by Rpg Tsukuru 2003)

Kaine's Collection 1 (Most of these are common plugins, but it looks like Kain is hosting some of Corti's plugins. And mine. And some I've never seen)

Kaine's Collection 2 (This includes many of bugmenots patches from the german site, and some obscure ones)

OpenGL Support
(In addition to expanding the screen, you can change the color set, and such. There are some small glitches and you have to fiddle around with it though)

DynParams
(This takes a bit of work to understand. Basically, you can add parameters to text, color, battle targeting, anything really, and then you use something called overwrite_next in the comments to override the next command. It's handy, but it takes alot to figure out)

(I'm gonna add in files that aren't in the utilities, but I need help because they are nested inside 60+ pages of DynRPG SDK)

(This won't tell you what these do, it's just a long list)

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NON-DYNRPG (Just as an extra because I'm tired of hunting it down):

Turn-Based Patch

http://share.cherrytree.at/showfile-2987/afm_game_starter.exe
(This loads the game outside RPG_RT, allowing you to bypass stuff like the dreaded DDERR error that you get if DirectDraw is sorely lacking)

David Patch
(This allows you to override arbitrary stat limitations; it's not a true patch, it just replaces the default 2k3)

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So, I'm pretty much done with two games, aside from testing in the second case, and a minor update in the first case.

I currently am looking to make a game with the New Rpgmaker 2003.

Since I completely loathe the conventional style rpg (well not completely, but I hate ATB with a passion, and I'm tired of planning around leveling, as much as I like to grind), I have come up with three half-baked ideas.

A straight up puzzle game based on a wizard's journey to be accepted into mage school (and beyond, there is probably a quest waiting midway through school). The wizard can use spells passively, that is, you have a bunch of spells, which rather than using directly, the event you touch will ask if you want to use X spell (if you have that spell and the mana to use). The "battles" in the game will either involve equipped spells (whenever you learn a new spell, you get an equip too, and I'll rig up a common event that checks the equips when dealing with monsters to use a weakness if you use the right "attack spell").

A platformer. I would need help with this one (at least, I'll have to figure out how to do it). I wanna make something sorta CaveStory-like with a plot heavy deal.

A visual novel horror dungeon crawler. You make choices, and depending on what you choose, and some luck, you either make it out alive or... well don't. I want monsters to be picture based, and the whole thing to be text heavy. If I elect for this one, I could really use someone who can draw people. I can draw people okay by hand, but I don't have a tablet, and it takes me a long long time. I can draw backgrounds or edit existing art.

Why not try all three, you ask? Well, I haven't the attention span. I would spread myself thin and not finish any, in all likelihood.