ZEELLO'S PROFILE

Aladdin
Defeat the vermin of the underworld with the help of a fire djinn.

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"On Let's Plays" - Dev expresses plight over how LP's have impacted his game's sales

imo a true gamer wouldn't watch a let's play for any game.

Importing maps made by other people?

Talking about VX Ace. A while back I was thinking about the sample maps, because they seemed so handy. But I failed to see any way of getting more of them. There is no import option.

I was wondering if the only way to import maps is a) to look at a screenshot or image and copy the map by hand, or b) to copy and paste the map from a sample game. What struck me as odd is that a few of the DLC on Steam mention that they come with sample maps, although the vast majority of DLC doesn't. I'm guessing the DLCs include sample games that have the maps.

Does this mean there is not much demand for using other people's maps like there is for scripts and music? you can find scripts for almost anything but I guess people are content with making their own maps. Seems I am alone on this. Has anyone ever made maps for someone else's game? (as a request or commission, for example)

Do you include character customizations?

I think customization is overrated, the point of a game designer is to decide these things on behalf of the player. And if customization is included I think there's nothing wrong with keeping it as minimalistic as possible (e.g. option for male and female, and possibly a choice of a few skin tones)

What Do You Think About Text Pauses in Game Dialog?

Whenever I added text pauses in my RPG I noticed they are really disruptive. Like I'd hit the space bar but I realized it wasn't done yet and had to hit space again afterwards. It was my own game yet even I found it obxnoxious so I worried that other people would too. At first I concluded that I should use text pauses much less often, but lately I wondered that it might be ideal simply to never use them at all and simply use multiple text boxes instead. (After all you'd be doing so anyway, so it would be more consistent)

How do you go about creating a game?

Here's how I make rpgs, I design a battle system first, shop for scripts that help me do what I want, edit them if possible, and add character portraits and tweak UI dimensions like size of health bars, etc, design a few spells, items, weapon and maybe add a combat animation or two

Then when it comes time to do anything else (especially mapping) I get stonewalled and quit

*especially* mapping

[Poll] A poll and discussion about random battle encounters: how they may be implemented.

The best way to implement random encounters is not to implement them, ever. The solutions offered in the poll are not good excuses for two reasons:

Reason #1: The proposed solutions can apply equally well in a game without random encounters. Let's review the three solutions in the poll:
Encounter ring - just use a switch that checks if the item is equipped on all events that start battles.
Boss-kill disable - again, switch
Level cap - just fix the number of encounters. If there are any that are repeatable, just limit the number of times the player can initiate them using a global switch.

Reason #2 although this reason may not be immediately intuitive to some.. But to have random encounters in a game at all, even if it's to "do random encounters right" is to validate the games that do random encounters wrong. Many games have random encounters and don't offer any built in solutions such as the poll choices. The reason for that being those games evidently believe there is nothing to be fixed. In that sense, their "fix" is to do nothing, so to introduces your own "fixes" would be enter the same subjective sphere in which the design decision to have random encounters old school style becomes valid.

I believe NO GAME should use random encounters. Sure, I can probably come up with a myriad of "creative" solutions to make random encounters more reasonable, such as the solutions described in the poll, but any solution I go with betrays my belief that random encounters offer absolutely nothing and should in fact not exist.

What are you thinking about? (game development edition)

well LockeZ, to your credit, you provoked me into actually testing the script. I made an NPC with these script calls:
DataManager.auto_save(0)
DataManager.auto_save(1)
DataManager.auto_save(2)
DataManager.auto_save(15)

It worked. I saved simultaneously to four different save files and am able to see them when I restart the game.

EasyRPG Player 0.4.0 RELEASED!

Wait, so 2000/2003 is the real MV then? Maybe I should use 2003 instead of vx ace so that my game can be played on Android? (which is the whole reason I considered switching to MV)

I will have to test this out though.

edit: oh nevermind, by the looks of it you still need to transfer the game from your PC to the android device before you can play it.

What are you thinking about? (game development edition)

author=LockeZ
I 100% guarantee you will have to figure out how save file reading/writing works in RGSS code, and write the script yourself.
What if I use this script?
http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/33902-autosystem-save-files-updated-v110/

# Directions - Place this script under Materials (and under Yanfly's save system
# if you are using) and above Main.
#
# Script calls:
# i is the index number you want it to use
# DataManager.save_settings(i)
# DataManager.auto_save(i)
# DataManager.load_settings(i) By default load_settings gets called when you
# start a new game. But only if USE_SYSTEM_FILE is set to true.

Is index number the save slot number? If so then this sounds promising.

EDIT: Oh hey I just realized something. If the player loads a previous save, if they keep playing they will overwrite all of the later saves, whether or not they intended it.
So maybe I'll go back to my old method. Originally I imagined it would work so the save files are in chronological order, aside from the first save file which would always be the most recent. Example:
- most recent
- chapter 1 save file
- chapter 2 save file
This is actually more elegant come to think of it. I guess I thought the reverse-chronological system would be extra cool or hip or something, but I guess I did not think it through. Regardless of which method I'd take though, I'd still need the script actually that lets me do either.

What are you thinking about? (game development edition)

I had an idea for a save system. Game autosave to every save slot, but the further you're in the game the fewer slots it saves to. The top save file will always be the most recent. (So you can resume playing quickly and without hassle) By the time you finish the game you will have a slot for every point in the game, in order from most recent to oldest.

It's just a matter of deciding how to split the game into x sections. (x being however many save files are alloted in vx ace)

I just hope its possible to do this. Iirc there is an event to bring up the save screen, but not a way to save automatically to a specific slot. I'm sure it's possible, though I might need to find a script that lets me do it. Iirc, there is a game I played where the save crystal just immediately saved, without asking you to specify a slot. So its definitely possible, its just a matter of copying that event and repeating it for every slot.