Charas-Project
Game Creation => RPG Maker => Topic started by: SaiKar on October 27, 2010, 12:12:46 AM
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Okay, I had some great successes fixing some issues last night so I'm greenlighting this project.
Charas Heroes
Plot
(note: this plot isn't a political commentary on my opinion of the current state of Charas or anything. It's just a game)
Charas was once a mighty nation, but constant besiege from its neighbors caused it to slowly fall into ruin. The biggest blow came when the old capital fell to the barbarian hoards. The survivors fled to a relatively isolated area of the land and established a new town of Arcast, but it too has been in decline. Many of Arcast's former citizens have abandoned the colony, drifting their own ways, and lawlessness has expanded even to remote Arcast, covering the city in an aura of gloom and hopelessness. Everyone fears that the last attack that will destroy Charas for good is only days away.
You are the last remaining member of Charas with vision and strength. Do you have what it takes to save Charas from its enemies and rebuild this shattered empire to bring Charas back to glory?
Characters
People from Charas. Yep, I'm making as many of you shlubs into characters as I can. I'm leaving room for 50.
When you start a new game, you can choose to be any of the standard characters that are currently in the game, even if you normally would be unable to meet that character until late in the game. You start out alone, but by completing recruitment quests you can gain more and more Charas members. I'm still working on how I'm going to properly manage the large number of characters, but that's an issue for later in the game.
Certain characters are plot-related and cannot be chosen as a starting character. But, none of the active users. We're talking people like Alex and Sarah C. here.
I'll add characters to the game based on the following highly mathematical calculation: registration date + general level of activity + general level of awesomeness + how much I like you + how many pictures of Sai'Kar (or Holly!) you've drawn + (how much I want to make an RMXP sprite of your character x 10). That's mostly a joke. Don't fret it too much.
In many ways, the town of Arcast is like a character in the game. Much as how characters level up and get new equipment, playing the game and completing quests will add new buildings and NPCs to Arcast, which increases the player's options. You get to see Arcast develop from the brink of ruin into a thriving city.
Because it may be hard to play the game starting as certain characters (such as Sai, who is basically just a healer) I'm also adding a mercenary system. Mercenaries are generated at your party's average level and of jobs the player requests. You pay a flat fee, in advance, per quest. So your initial fee gets you their services until you complete a quest, and then you must pay it again for them to stick around until you complete the next one. It will be a bit pricey to use them but not totally unfair.
Quests
Charas heroes is a quest-driven game. This doesn't mean that you'll be shuttled from one point to another or anything, far from it actually - you could ignore all of the quests and just bum around doing nothing. But completing quests is the only way to advance the plot and get the really good stuff.
Quests in this game are divided into four categories:
Missions are sequential, plot driven quests that advance the storyline. Generally speaking, you're always on a mission at any given time since completing one starts another. Missions generally don't give rewards directly, but unlock new areas, quests, and possibilities in town. Many missions require you to complete quests, such as mission 2 there in the screenshow below. You don't have to always be knocking out missions as fast as you can, but it's a good idea to try to keep working toward the goals at your own pace in some form or another.
Recruitments are specialized quests that always get you a new Charas member. You pretty much always know who you're going to get at the end of the quest. Complete the quest and they join you permanently.
Constructions are also specialized quests that add a new building to Arcast or improve an existing one. Again, it's pretty obvious what you're trying to build by the quest description. Complete the quest and the building will start being built, being completed after a certain amount of time.
General Quests are for anything other than the above. These might give exp, money, items, equipment, access to new areas, or whatever.
Quests have prerequisites and sometimes you have to have completed a quest to progress further in another. For example, in order to complete the Sai'Kar Recruitment, you need to have build a church in Arcast, which is the reward for a Construction quest.
I'm... not all that good at designing fun quests, apparently. So this will be a learning experience for us all.
Time
Time was kind heavy-handed in Outpost. It took a full 30 days to complete buildings and it was painful to kill enough time to see them be built. You were also forced into resting in a tent to make days pass, and that was kind of a pain in the butt and kept breaking the feel of exploration. I liked the system conceptually since it added to the feel of building your own colony, but the implementation was ultimately very poor.
In Charas Heroes, time is more abstract. Basically, time is measured in quest completions. For example, building a bazaar in Arcast takes 1 quest to build. So complete any quest and the building will be complete.
In order to stop players from working themselves into a corner by not having enough easy quests to complete to make time progress, certain quests will be repeatable. I'm also thinking of having a certain number of battles count as a time progression. We'll see.
General Development Theory
I believe that a lot of games don't get completed because they get too big and topheavy to ever be finished. To this end, I'm developing Charas Heroes a bit at a time. A new quest here, a new character there. The idea is 1) for me to not add anything so big that it would take more than a day or two to add and 2) for me to keep the game "functional" (IE mostly playable) at any given times and have any new, unfinished systems be able to be commented out if I want to release a version. What this basically boils down to is that the game should be released fairly often. So even if I don't deliver on most (all?!) of my promises, at least there will be SOME CHARAS GAME SOMEWHERE that we'll have forevah. It'll be kinda sucky at the beginning as the default RMXP systems aren't so great, but over time as I add more content and mod more scripts, should shape up nicely.
There's a pretty big hurtle at the beginning while I add the capacity to do all this stuff so it'll take me a while to get the first release ready, but other than that, should be pretty often.
This type of design also makes it easy for other people (IE you guys) to make suggestions and even add things directly to the game. I'm more than open to someone drawing some graphics or offering me some music or even modding the game directly and sending it back to me. It's not a team game per se, but I'd value and love any help and feedback I can get.
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Currently playable:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CharasHeroes/MyrinXP.png)
Midnight - thief
Mid's attack isn't as hot as some of the tougher fighters, so relies a lot on her poisoned dagger attack to take down tougher enemies. Since even some bosses can be poisoned and it does like 10% of their health every round, Mid's a pretty good character to bring to tougher fights.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CharasHeroes/SaiXP.png)
Sai'Kar - healer
It's actually not as hard to play solo as Sai'Kar as I was fearing. She has a halfway respectable physical attack and her healing abilities can keep her health up without major issue. It's a slower way to fight, but relatively safe. Invest more in magic recovery items than health if you play as Sai and you'll go far.
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o ok
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Yeah I don't know wtf. I think I'm getting a bit high-strung. But there may actually be something here at some point.
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You're scaring me
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You're scaring me
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Good to know nothing's happening in this thread. Wouldn't want one o' them 'something' threads full of something. Excites folks. Makes 'em jumpy.
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Yeah. There is nothing in excess.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CharasHeroes/CharasHeroesOverworld1.png)
I mean, what the hell is this? Who even knows.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CharasHeroes/QuestList.png)
And I don't know what this is about, but it's probably some totally unimportant BS.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/Outpost/NewArcast.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CharasHeroes/Arcast2.jpg)
And this town that bears a passing resemblance to Arcast from my old weird game Outpost? Pure meaningless coincidence. I mean, there's only a couple of looks a small town can have anyway. I wouldn't worry too much about it.
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CHARAS + OUTPOST
THE LINE HAS BEEN CROSSED
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I watch this with baited something.
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On second thoughts, maybe folks should be getting excited and jumpy.
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Description'd in first post
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(note: this plot isn't a political commentary on my opinion of the current state of Charas or anything. It's just a game)
XD Somehow writing that had an opposite effect on the post to what you wanted :p
This does look awesome. If quests are your problem then that's an easy thing to help with. We could even hold a quest writing contest. That'd be amazing.
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This looks interesting. Do want
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Seriously, it bothers me how awesome you can be sometimes, Harvey.
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General Development Theory
I believe that a lot of games don't get completed because they get too big and topheavy to ever be finished. To this end, I'm developing Charas Heroes a bit at a time. A new quest here, a new character there. The idea is 1) for me to not add anything so big that it would take more than a day or two to add and 2) for me to keep the game "functional" (IE mostly playable) at any given times and have any new, unfinished systems be able to be commented out if I want to release a version. What this basically boils down to is that the game should be released fairly often. So even if I don't deliver on most (all?!) of my promises, at least there will be SOME CHARAS GAME SOMEWHERE that we'll have forevah. It'll be kinda sucky at the beginning as the default RMXP systems aren't so great, but over time as I add more content and mod more scripts, should shape up nicely.
There's a pretty big hurtle at the beginning while I add the capacity to do all this stuff so it'll take me a while to get the first release ready, but other than that, should be pretty often.
This type of design also makes it easy for other people (IE you guys) to make suggestions and even add things directly to the game. I'm more than open to someone drawing some graphics or offering me some music or even modding the game directly and sending it back to me. It's not a team game per se, but I'd value and love any help and feedback I can get.
We call this mindset agile development in software development. The average model is setting up a 3 week period in which you spend about 2 weeks making new stuff and 1 week polishing / fixing that stuff, and then releasing, then rinse and repeat.
Not saying this is what you should do, but I find the parallel amusing. :P
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http://www.gamasutra.com/
I learned about that here. Neato.
(lots of good infos for you Sai)
and of course, Godspeed
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Very nice. Wish I could find that txt. Heck, I might just go and rewrite it, I feel bad because I said I'd send it but its gone.
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Oooo...
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This makes me want to get my game back up and just cut out mad **** so it's playable and fun and finishable. Then again, a lot of things do this to me.
ETHER WEIGH, I think this is mighty cool of you Harvey. I'll be watching this. :eyes:
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We call this mindset agile development in software development. The average model is setting up a 3 week period in which you spend about 2 weeks making new stuff and 1 week polishing / fixing that stuff, and then releasing, then rinse and repeat.
Interesting. Wiki'd this a bit ago. From how I understand it, it's designed to make programming more adaptable in situations where end results might need to be changed to avoid major rework later. Something like that? In any event, avoiding bog is kind of my goal. In most other projects I get sidetracked by plot twists and subquests and a water dungeon and ultimate weapons and AGGG this game is goint to take forever to finish why am I even bothering?!?!
This does look awesome. If quests are your problem then that's an easy thing to help with. We could even hold a quest writing contest. That'd be amazing.
That could work. Right now the "dungeon areas" are a forest, a swamp, and possibly a lakefront. There's also going to be a (eventually burned) bandit camp and a sealed up magic tower as places you can visit. First six buildings in Arcast are a bazaar, item shop, weapon/armors shop, church, guild house, and a defensive wall. Get thinking about these types of things for quests!
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I like this.
I liked outpost and thought it was a great idea. And I like this 'cuz it sounds pretty darn amazing.
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Cool idea. Reminds me of projects I've been neglecting.
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Three words: Awesome
And yes it's three. I mean, "three" and "words" are words, after all.
Sarah C. will finally live!
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This looks promising can't wait to see more of it.
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I really need to get myself out of the RP limelight so I have more time to work on this rad game. Well, weekend soon at least.
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2 things:
-Awesome thar ppl are makin projects again
-Will make chrs as soon as I get pc back
/postingfromwii
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If I send you a few graphics, can you make me into a PC? I'm not as active as I used to be, but I've been around a few years now and never been much of a doucher, so... ???
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Duude, you live. All these old members checking on Charas again lately (like, 3. Counting you. but still).
Awesome. Will you be staying?
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2 things:
-Awesome thar ppl are makin projects again
-Will make chrs as soon as I get pc back
/postingfromwii
If I send you a few graphics, can you make me into a PC? I'm not as active as I used to be, but I've been around a few years now and never been much of a doucher, so... ???
Yes! Awesome! This 50 character roster ain't gunna fill itself and the major thing slowing me down right now is how long it takes to draw RMXP sprites of people's characters.
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Would be cool being in this game.
Curiousity
But why are you using XP and even if you do - why are you using XP charasets`?
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I was thinking of using 2k3, but XP is easier to mod by far. There were a lot of systems that I knew I wanted, like that quest system, that would have been a bear to program in 2k3 but are pretty easy to find a script for and mod to my liking in XP.
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Plus, like....drawing 50 battle charsets sounds like a pain in the ***.
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I'm just gonna camp out here and make cheer-like sounds for new projects on charas.
*sets up tent*
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Plus, like....drawing 50 battle charsets sounds like a pain in the ***.
Might have to do it anyway if I impliment a better battle system into XP. I don't mind spriting the graphics - actually I like it quite a bit, though it is a slow process.
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I could whip up a Fortet sprite in XP format if you would like :)
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Giving me graphics is a totally great way to get your character in the game far before I would eventually meader around to adding it myself. Just sayin'.
For people that are creating graphics, XP RTP style works even though I'll have to edit the face and shoulders a bit. No weapons or anything. No mouths either. _sweat_
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Is there some sort of template/s to work from
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I suppose I could try something for Cerebus. I suck at spriting... buuuut I'll never get better if I don't try. And well, if I can't come with anything, I'm still happy Madame C. is there. She still hasn't appeared anywhere beside your sig, so far. Oh, and the will-never-be-complete SteamPunk game, yeah.
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Is there a base? If so I'll come up with something. I don't even have to be a playable character haha.
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Cerb is getting in, and soon, even if I have to draw the bastage himself.
The RMXP RTP is the base. If you don't have that, I guess I can post some samples.
Also, I'll just leave this here:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CharasHeroes/MidtermGhost.png)
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post them. For reference.
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Oh, pretty nice. Well, I'll leave it to you. Not by laziness, but only because I know the results will be 100 times better than if I do it. Nice, nice!
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Win!
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(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CharasHeroes/EmptyGuy.png)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CharasHeroes/010-Lancer02.png)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CharasHeroes/016-Thief01.png)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CharasHeroes/020-Hunter01.png)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CharasHeroes/034-Mage02.png)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CharasHeroes/035-Mage03.png)
This is probably enough to get you going. If you need girl sprites, 1) ... is there something you've been hiding from me for a while now?, but 2) you can probably edit the Mid one on the first page since she's almost naked anyway >_>
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. If you need girl sprites, 1) ... is there something you've been hiding from me for a while now?,
WHATEVER SAI KAR, YOU DONT EVEN GET TO SAY THIS, EVER
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Hey look it's Grandy
Man though you ARE aware that by getting people to help there will be so much inconsistencies
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I can edit them out.
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I'll have a go at XP Moosetroop. Shouldn't be too hard...
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I may as welll give this is a shot.
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I DONT EVEN HAVE AN AVATAR (and geminiman wont fit the theme)
Can I just make a Ben sprite of a hairy tattooed homosexual administrator that breaks things with the best of intentions?
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hairy tattooed homosexual administrator that breaks things with the best of intentions?
Yes.
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If at all possible, I'd like to get away from staff positions being the central point of the character. I mean, your sayings and typing quirks and stuff on forums, that's fine, but you can't be a forum administrator in the game because there is no real forum - it's a living, fantasyesque world.
Tattooed homosexual that breaks stuff is fine though, albeit disturbing.
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Awesome. Im totally going to exaggerate everything possible. Will make you an XP sprite when ive got time
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Well, while you guys toss around empty promises of graphics, I'm mucking around with ruby script. Adapting stolen scripts to my needs is coming along pretty okay, but I'm having various issues getting the ruby to play nice with the regular maker interface. Like, I have a section of ruby script that tells me if a quest objective is complete, but I can't figure out how to make that influence something like if an event is visible or not. Does anyone have any experience with this? Right now I'm sort of double-coding it - the ruby script for script-related stuff like the quest menu system and regular switches for handling event tracking, but I feel like there should be a more elegant way of doing it.
In any event, I should have new screenshots up in the next day or so.
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(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CharasHeroes/Mission1.png)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CharasHeroes/Grandy.png)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CharasHeroes/Archem.png)
Coming along all right. I'm thinking the first release will have the first two missions. But you need to complete at least seven quests (3 recruitment, 4 construction) to finish mission 2, and there's going to be a total of like 6 recruitment, 6 construction, and 2 or 3 general quests to do, so there's a fair amount to keep you busy.
Even though Grandy and Archem there is are boss enemies, that does not exclude them from being playable characters. And if you start as Grandy or Archem, then these bosses will be replaced by more generic characters with identical stats, and there may be a funny alternate dialog scene.
The second screenshot has a couple of mercs in it. You're given mercs for the first mission based on what "character archetype" you are. So a fighter like Mid gets a wizard and a healer. Sai would get a fighter and a wizard. Keepin' it balanced.
Also, NO random battles. All enemies are visible on the maps. Many will rush to attack you if you get close, but you can sneak around some if you have enough space. I'll probably add an ability that reduces the sense range of enemies at some point.
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(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CharasHeroes/Newcomer2.gif)
As a fencer that can both attack and heal, as well as cast a bit of magic, Val's one of the easiest characters to start the game as. She's balanced by not learning moves as fast as a dedicated attacker or healer and having overall poorer stats, but even with these downsides, she fits well into a party and can cover whatever roll is needed pretty well, allowing the player more options for the remaining party members.
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I have some pretty big boobs too, if I do say so myself.
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That's the curse of charsets. Either you have what the guys have or they're enormous.
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The second screenshot has a couple of mercs in it. You're given mercs for the first mission based on what "character archetype" you are. So a fighter like Mid gets a wizard and a healer. Sai would get a fighter and a wizard. Keepin' it balanced.
I have a feeling they're recruiting mercs from very odd places. :P
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I have some pretty big boobs too, if I do say so myself.
Same size as Mid and Sai actually. I think maybe the shading on the side sprite is a bit off though, as that black line is supposed to be the waistline too. I'll work on it. But yeah, like Prpl said, if you don't emphasize the boobs and the thinner waist on a pixelated character set, then it's a guy.
I have a feeling they're recruiting mercs from very odd places. :P
Turns out adding "saved the world" to your resume doesn't add as much in the way of job opportunies as one would think. :-[
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(http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n219/knivesarequiet/1234.png)
Are you okay with where Im going with this?
Also... do you want a full sheet from me, because If Im not a playable character, Ill just make an NPC strip
But if you want a playable, I can do an XP RTP battler as well I guess.
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I'm totally okay with where you're going with this. This character has a lot of, well, character. Go as far as you want. I will certainly make you playable.
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Jesus, I havent worked on XP stuff in so long. I forgot that It is actually kind of awesome.
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It's not bad. I'm starting to like the character style, and of course the script editing makes a lot of really mundane things in 2k3 either simplistic or possible.
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I'll try working with some XP.
Is is DBS or you working something out.
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(http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n219/knivesarequiet/1234.png)
Are you okay with where Im going with this?
Also... do you want a full sheet from me, because If Im not a playable character, Ill just make an NPC strip
But if you want a playable, I can do an XP RTP battler as well I guess.
Are you gonna be the mailman?
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lol
I usually carry around a bag with me. I wont lie, Ive just sprited a cubbier version of myself here. Except that Im wearing a black oxford and sweatervest....but black wasnt working well with the sprite.
I pretty much look like a big gay mailman though.
Your just jealous because my sprite has more manageable boobs
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Is is DBS or you working something out.
DBS for now, until I decide I want to upgrade, which is not a high priority at the moment.
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Sai, I always secretly wanted to see you use the XP TBS scripts. Theyre a bit complicated, but I was messing with them a while back, when you were trying to do a tbs on 2k3. Not necessarily for this project, but I remember thinking "Sai should use this"
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TBS... timed battle system?
I really shouldn't be talking too much about this sort of thing because the fastest way to get discouraged on a project is to work too far ahead of myself. But, if I really want to, I have had this system sitting around for a while:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/SaiKar/CharasHeroes/CoD4TBS.png)
The icons at the top scroll left, and when they hit the left wall, it's that player's turn.
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Tactical. TBS. Like FFtactics and whatnot.
By no mean should you change anything about what you're doing now. Ill see if I cant dig up the bookmark to the scripts...
and if I catch you on messenger Ill send you linkage
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Oh. Yeah. I've thought about that too. Osmose, uh, knows what I'm talking about. But my problem with TBS systems is that they turn every battle into a huge freaking ordeal. A random encounter on the overworld map is like 10 minutes minimum in FFTA2, and that's a game where it's real easy to get ultra higher level than you "should" be for the challenges.
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I like the Side View Battle System. My friend used that exact one. Except I changed the icons to the characters faces for the Time bar.
If we make a character do you want us to make battlers too?
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The icons are changed for most of the characters in this version. That blue haired icon at the left is the game's main character. It's the battle sprite that's wrong.
What I want and what I am going to get are going to be two very different things. Yes, I would want people to help make battlers. Do I expect to get many? Nope.
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AS long as the battlers don't have to be animated I can make. XP isn't usually my forte. But I guess it's the same as 2k3 just with more detail and I don't have to worry about color256 bulls***. I'm working on a character set. I'll make a battler afterward. Hooray for being the best at my Vocational that I get all the free time in the world. 1st one to fix a computer too.
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I would say stick to the system with the simpler battlers. Dont make more work for yourself. Less is more....and more manageable.
Masses of battlers and animations are half the reason RPG maker people never finish projects. That, and because its a game maker that revolves around the most difficult to make genre of game, that everyone happens to think is the easiest to make. A well thought out world and battle system do equal a good game
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Yeah, this wouldn't be anything I would implement any time soon. I'd just collect resources and, if I found that I had enough to make it work, try to do the switchover as painlessly as possible.
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My schoolwork ends in a couple of weeks, so you can harass me then for sprites
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omg!! I didnt see this! Im definately gonna get a sprite sheet together. Although it will be interesting trying to make it look like thoes XP sprites.
Im totally down for battlers but i do agree it adds a ton more too it.
Just for reference what are the pixel sizes of the Battlers? Same as 2k, 48x48?
and for battle animations? 2k was 96x96. I would like to make my characters moves, but ill have to PM my ideas so we can see what works and doesnt.
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Hey, if I can find time within the next few weeks I'll try my hand at an XP sprite for you. The latest you'll get this is some time towards the end of december when winter break hits. I have like a month during that period. I assume this will still be going strong then so it shouldn't be a problem.
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Thanksgiving break or winter break I'll try one.
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Oh. Yeah. I've thought about that too. Osmose, uh, knows what I'm talking about.
I'm really sorry for that, by the way.
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Damn your vague noodle incidents. Damn them I say!
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I'm really sorry for that, by the way.
Nah, it's cool. People like what they like. I couldn't program the important parts anyway.