ORANGE-'S PROFILE

author=Jpratt
This is an inquiry into RMN's boundaries on adult themes, such as drug and alcohol use and voilence.

The game I'm developing involves drug and alcohol use as central game mechanics, much like how healing/booster items work in many RPG's. The D&A use isn't depicted. The items are simply used from the menu or in battle, but they have names like methamphetamine and fentanyl. I also have a heavy use of sugar as a main diet, such as energy drinks, which is just as harmful and more addictive than many drugs, but would never be questioned.

I guess the question is, how does the community feel about it?

On a similar note, I see a lot of horror games on here so I assume there is a high tolerance for violence. Is there a point where the psychology can be too real? I'm not talking about on screen representations, but an attempt to make the player feel disgusted by something extreme like cannibalism or rape through suggestion. Example; sounds of screaming and torture while moving through a known cannibal base.

These are elements portrayed in popular games like Dragon Age and Fable, but where's the line drawn in RMN? Is it fair game if the proper warnings are applied up front, is the game auto-banned or are players excited for this type of content?

Also, before anyone thinks I'm a psycho. My game also explores the good nature of people, but to portray the world realistically things like cannibalism and rape would need to be at least mentionable. The entire civilization is formed of criminals.

My games got a lot of the things you mention here and I've been able to have the game up on all the RPG Maker sites I've wanted to, so I wouldn't say the subject matter is what gets you blacklisted, but I'm guessing the context matters. Like if you made a game with the sole purpose of being shocking and nasty, I'd imagine some sites not being that cool about it. As a warning I can say that going that route will still affect the visibility of your game for sure. For example Steam has done everything but delete my game from existence. Like if you search for the game, it doesn't even show up in the search, unless you click this one small notice. At one point I heard Twitch didn't allow any videos with the name of my game and so on... It's a cross you'll have to carry if you decide to go there.

The latest MZ previews introduce quite a few quality-of-life improvements that really makes the whole program sound very promising imo.

Some of the new additions include:
- Improved layering/mapping
There's 4 layers to begin with, but you can also manually choose which layer you are drawing tiles on
Tile size is confirmed to be locked at 48x48
I think..
- Basic Tweening/Easing Options are now added to Move Picture Command
This is something that sounds awesome. I've been waiting for such options since rpg maker 2003 really. The way pictures have been moved around so far has been very archaic. Easing will finally give us those smooth jRPG menus.
- Conditional branches got bunch of Button pressed options
This makes some things way simpler to make.
Preview Move Route
You can visually see how an event will move in the editor.
RTP now includes character busts and full character art


I think MZ is starting to sound like a must-have. The only things bothering me so far are the outsourced animation tools and mobile-style ugly ass menus.

Sounds like there are some interesting new features coming. Additional layers for mapping is really great. I also heard the animation tab will see bigger changes, which is something I've been hoping for. The animation tools in MV are a bit difficult to work with to say the least... RTP looks nice, but that'll only impact the games I may get to play as I don't see myself going back to pre-made graphics. All in all I'm sure I'll get this somewhere down the line, but currently I'll stick with MV and its huge library of plugins.

Personally I'd love to see pixel movement finally added native to the engine. It's not too difficult to get plugins do that for you, but I've always ran into some obscure collision problems when using them.

Back to drawing graphics... This time I'll try something different. I'll try to rush all the areas done in a rough style and then go back to fixing and polishing everything once I know the full scale of the game.

@kumada
- Actually in the first game too barrels equal food and crates items! :D But maybe barrels are too plentiful in the game currently.
- Your Needles ideas sound good. I'm currently doing some minor tweaks to adjust things (saving bigger changes for the full game) and Needles will get few changes.
- yeah the softlock wait is just very temporary fix meant just for this demo. I'm not not super happy with it either.
- There are actually 3 kinds of ritual circle bases carved in the game and you have to use sigils accordingly. Rher circle doesn't function with that particular base. The occultism system is not fully fleshed out yet, so it might feel a bit weird, but I'm hoping that once you got all the sigils to choose from, it'll make more sense.
- yeah Daan is just a temporary addition currently. You're right that him appearing day 2 doesn't make much sense.
- Bobbies can be downed for good, but it's not the head sawing that you need to do...
- the leg loss is randomized when falling down. It might be a bit too harsh yeah...
- true. stunlocks are an issue in the game. I've got decent amount of feedback from that. Change will be coming for sure. I like your idea (or darkest dungeon's idea?)
- betel's stone restores mind in battle.
- yeah the bunker door in Tunnel 7 is still yet to be implemented.
- anathomia used to give you cloth fragments, I think that needs to be added back!
- I agree with the icon and the medicinal skill. I heard there was some confusion with other people too.
- not being able to harvest woodsman is not intended, I'll fix it!

Thanks for all the feedback! I'll make more drastic changes to the difficulty curve for the final game for sure. Also I don't really like that it feels like attacking the torso is the only way to go. I'll need to think some ways to encourage attacking limbs more often.