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Post by The Final Rune on Apr 12, 2005 13:35:04 GMT -5
How is the overall game progress coming DW?
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Post by Dungeon Warden on Apr 12, 2005 14:07:13 GMT -5
I'm taking a little break from my main game to make an entry for the second Pavilion contest. It will be an adventure game based on the song "We build This City" I'll talk more about it when it is nearer completion.
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Post by The Final Rune on Apr 12, 2005 14:10:56 GMT -5
Vin Diesel built this city, he built this city on rock and roll.
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Post by Dark Knight Of Lodis on Apr 20, 2005 8:43:54 GMT -5
Game looks great, DW. Just finished reading through it. Too bad my connection's too slow to download that video in a decent amount of time.
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Post by Rodak on Jun 4, 2005 17:36:17 GMT -5
I just played your demo.
Wow.
The first thing I noticed was the custom colored windows for messages. Nice.
Then I noticed the little custom name boxes above the message windows to save space in the message window! I always hated the "Name:" way of indicating the speaker. That is an idea I got around in a completely different way, but may still "steal" that technique for a future use.
Then I noticed that your choice of Opening music was the same as my choice of closing "Penultimate" music ("The Puzzle Room"). Fortunately I had already changed the pitch to -4 and the tempo to 125, so it sounds different. The Puzzle Room will be in my demo, so you'll see (hear?) it next week. I only mention it because I spent so long debugging the puzzle room that the music is very, very familiar. It was that room that made me invent my Conductor's Baton. But enough about me.
I often wondered what other people do with their [] button scripts (and have begun the process of finding out) and found it terribly amusing that you chose to zoom out with yours while I chose to zoom in with mine! See the Common Script Database for that idea. I basically dropped the angle to one degree and the distance to minimum after hiding the party. It did not work out due to height problems in different areas, but it is ironic nonetheless (I thought I said enough about me).
Never being one to do things in order I went exploring and ignored the guard whom I saw get hurt in favor of archery. It was strange seeing my party members as targets, but I killed 'em anyhow. Nicely done shooting gallery. I took a while to get used to aiming (I don't play shooter games) but it was a nice distraction.
Then I went and got killed by the Caveman in the dungeon because I spent too much money on archery and just stormed in without buying any useful items/armor.
So I started again. And I found a mite (a very, very teeny-weeny bug). I approached the guard to the cave from the left side and he tried to get out of the way, but could not. This would easily be fixed with a quick "face leader" and direction sort, then telling him to take the appropriate action. Being a guard, putting "Face Leader" in their Action Script is a favorite trick of mine to give guards a little more menace.
Which got me to looking for the first bug I found in the defaults which I tried to correct all by myself but failed and never got back to correcting. Namely, trying to put a dead character in the leader position using "reorder." The message was "Sarah can't use this here" which in my game would insult you for being so stupid as to try to put a dead person up front if I were patient enough to pick through the Error Messages script and modify it! I just thought you may not have seen that bug in the works yet and might like knowing.
Your battle system is very impressive. I can only hope to approach that level of customization on a later effort.
All in all a solid and professional looking job. I look forward to the whole game in the fullness of time.
Peace.
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Post by Dungeon Warden on Jun 5, 2005 14:26:32 GMT -5
Thank you for the review. I'm glad you enjoyed the game. The archery range is now quicker and bug free since I changed the cross-hair from 3-D to 2-D. The prizes for playing the mini-game will be better as well. I wondered about the guard moving into the party and I think I fixed it in the new version, but I might not of. Since the cut-scene ends with you standing in front of the guard, the normal thing would be to walk up and talk to him, not stand to the side to talk. I will fix that (and all future NPCs). I used the "face party in the action script" idea in another game I made and I'll put it in this game as well. I didn't know about that message error. I'll correct it in my game. Thanks for pointing it out. I don't normal try to do stupid things so I might have never know this otherwise. If you think the old battle system was impressive, you'll be blown away by the new version. Sometimes I wish the battle system was finished and I didn't have so much work to do to make it right. Many people in your other topic say the battle system is one of the most important things to work on, so I guess all this hard work is worth it. I'll put out a demo when I get it working. The amount of game-play will be the same (other then the waitressing mini-game being added) but the menu and battle system will be changed (along with other things, like what the [] button does), so the next demo will feel different.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 5, 2005 18:53:22 GMT -5
Good, I REALLY want to play your next demo.
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Post by doyleman on Jun 5, 2005 21:36:15 GMT -5
Same here, as playing *well, test playing, but still* my game is getting old lol
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Post by Dungeon Warden on Jun 13, 2005 13:11:34 GMT -5
UPDATE:
I finally got the battle system to work and it looks pretty cool. I can't wait for everyone to see it. I still need to work on a few more things, but a new demo should be up soon. I'll keep you posted as it gets closer to completion.
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Post by Bigfoot on Jun 14, 2005 17:30:06 GMT -5
I saw your little demo, that archery game looks amazing as does the rest of the game. With my next game im trying to do something like yours in that im trying to make a game thats not only good for a rpg maker game, but a good game period, and it seems your game will deliver that. As Im trying to do with my next game. Keep up the good work, The game is looking phenominal.
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Post by Dungeon Warden on Jun 15, 2005 16:56:23 GMT -5
Thank you. That archery game is very buggy, but people still like it. The new version works smoothly with no slow down thanks to changing the 3D cross-hair to a 2D one. I want to work on it sometime to make it more challenging (like I originally intended) but there are more important stuff I have to work on first.
Quick Quiz: Do you want me to work on the Archery game to make it even better before I release the next demo, or do you want the demo as soon as I work out all the bugs in the current system?
I don't know how long it will take me to fix all the stuff I want to fix, but I don't mind playing around with the archery game if people enjoy playing it.
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Post by Dungeon Warden on Jun 24, 2005 14:48:20 GMT -5
UPDATE:
New Battle System - Done New Playable characters - 4 of 8 Done New Weather system - Done Controllable camera - 90 % Done Custom Menu System - 20% Done.
I am creating a few new party members and creating a custom menu system for my new demo. Once these are done, I can actually concentrate on making the RPG itself. Imagine, it's taken me almost two years just to create the game engine that my RPG will run on. With RPG Maker 3, it proable won't take more then two months (depending on how much customization is allowed).
Expect my new demo before the end of the month.
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Post by Dungeon Warden on Jul 2, 2005 17:38:22 GMT -5
Update:
My new demo is done; however, I'm not happy with the results. Everything works okay, but I want it to look good and run smoothly as well. I'm tweaking a lot of things but the demo should be finished in the next day or two. Then I'll want to play test it to make sure it's bug free.
I increase the difficulty of battles a lot, but I also made using spells in battle a lot easier. I'll need to make sure the battle system isn't too deadly, but it was hard to die at all in the first demo (unless you foolishly attacked the giant when you were still first level).
Once you finish the demo, you will be given a code for unlocking the other party members. I hope you enjoy playing around with the extras I added to the game.
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Post by Dungeon Warden on Jul 5, 2005 13:22:16 GMT -5
It's Here! My new demo is finally finished. Click on this link and play my new battle demo. I'm sure you will all be amazed with what can be done with the RPG Maker 2 battle system.
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Post by The Final Rune on Jul 5, 2005 13:23:31 GMT -5
Fudge it I need to go get the converter.
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Post by The Final Rune on Jul 5, 2005 13:25:41 GMT -5
There, got it
ha ha double post
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Post by Dungeon Warden on Jul 5, 2005 14:23:17 GMT -5
I had to use the converter to download your tech demo so we're even.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 5, 2005 16:56:02 GMT -5
Oh boy!! I'll be testing this out in no time. ;D
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Post by thetruecoolness on Jul 5, 2005 19:47:47 GMT -5
Well it's looking good. Having already played the other demo not too much has changed outside of the battle except for the people focusing on your character, and of course the square menu, which is a nice addition. The battles do look a lot better, though they are a lot harder and still just as frequent. With just the starting items I was only able to get just past the door that opens with the emerald. I would have went further but an enemy got lucky with a critical hit and Sarah died and with no more revive items I was pretty screwed.
So bugs I found so far
-When doctor goes to sleep he still tries to look at your character which looks funny. -Critical hit numbers seem backwards for the character (I know the 2 was). -You can walk over the dead guy (though this could be planned), and this makes it hard to examine him if it is possible to especially when every 5-7 steps is a battle. -You can't cancel out of the draw menu (when it shows draw or cast)
Suggestions
-Less battles please. Maybe double the steps it takes to get in one so it is somewhere from 10-15. -Draw and cast magic should not use MP, unless that is what you wanted, it just seems if you draw it from them you shouldn't need anything else to use it. -Make beginning enemies criticals not do soo much damage, as it does about 3 to 4 times the normal. -The numbers in the battle don't seem to be in-line (damage shown), of course if you're going for that effect then keep them the way they are.
But other than that it looks good. A pretty big improvement over the last demo which was already impressive. Well keep up the good work.
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Post by Dungeon Warden on Jul 5, 2005 21:20:30 GMT -5
-When doctor goes to sleep he still tries to look at your character which looks funny. Shoot. I forgot about people going to sleep. I suppost that happens for the hero's mother as well. I'll fix that. -Critical hit numbers seem backwards for the character (I know the 2 was). Yes, there is nothing I can do about that except create a whole set of new VFX just for criticals. I have no idea why it does that, the scripts and VFXs are identical to the regular attack ones. Only the enemy action is changed. -You can walk over the dead guy (though this could be planned), and this makes it hard to examine him if it is possible to especially when every 5-7 steps is a battle. Yeah, you can walk over dead people. There is one spot you can't move across, but unless you know it's there you might have a hard time searching. -You can't cancel out of the draw menu (when it shows draw or cast) Shoot. I did fix that, but I lost some data when the game froze up and that must not have been redone. Less battles please. Maybe double the steps it takes to get in one so it is somewhere from 10-15. And here I was worried there weren't enough battles. Since there isn't much to explore, I don't know why your worried about the number of battles. 5-10 steps between battles is about the right amount to level up to the level you should be to fight the Statues. Remember to buy Bucklers right away and use magic often. -Draw and cast magic should not use MP, unless that is what you wanted, it just seems if you draw it from them you shouldn't need anything else to use it. Drawn spells are very powerful yet only cost 2 MP each, meaning any character can use them. The cost is to keep people from abusing the magic system. -Make beginning enemies criticals not do soo much damage, as it does about 3 to 4 times the normal. Criticals don't do extra damage, they just ignore armor. I had to raise the damage so that the party members would actually take damage in battle. I made sure no critical (except from bosses) could kill a fully healed character. -The numbers in the battle don't seem to be in-line (damage shown), of course if you're going for that effect then keep them the way they are. Yeah, they aren't in line for a reason. Screwing with the battle system causes weird effects (like criticals turning numbers around) so it was better not to try to line them up. P.S. I hope you'll contine playing so you can open up the bonus characters. Battles are much easier with a third party member.
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Post by thetruecoolness on Jul 5, 2005 21:55:16 GMT -5
I will continue play, probably tomorrow though.
The mother actually doesn't turn so I guess you had it fixed for her.
I also see that you updated the archery game so the targets move on their own and not when you do, though it seems you can rotate the camera all the way around in the archery game. That was pretty funny when I figured out they didn't move unless I did in the old demo.
For the battles I'm just weirded out on the whole random battle thing, but I know a lot of people still like it, just a personal opinion. This is mainly because I like to backtrack a lot and so end up getting in way too many battles, cause I like to try to find everything in a game. I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to games.
Of course I didn't bother buying armor before I went in so that might have helped make things a bit easier. I noticed that most magic did the same damage as a regular attack though (at least fire did against one of the statue birds as Sarah).
Well I didn't realize I was so close to the end so I finished it tonight. I found another bug, when you add new charcters to the party their special menu starts out with all their stats 0 and the screen stays black. Then when you exit it goes to the correct screen for them. This doesn't happen for Sarah or the Hero.
And the waitressing minigame is amazing as I never played the demo for it. Of course when there are more than 3 or 4 people in the inn it slows down, but it is good. The only thing is at the beginning you have no idea where anything is, and most importantly how to empty your hands, though I found these out fairly quickly thier not that obvious. But good job overall.
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Post by The Final Rune on Jul 6, 2005 8:56:57 GMT -5
Aw fooy
I was all the way to the gate at the end of the puzzle area and I wanted to go back to town to resupply and spend my hard earned cash before attempting to figure out how to open the door. So, I used my exit disk and got teleported right inside the guard standing in front of the entrance! I couldn't move! I had to start over.
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Post by Dungeon Warden on Jul 6, 2005 17:32:09 GMT -5
The Statue Birds are resistant to fire, that's why it doesn't do much damage.
Special Menu: Oops. I guess I didn't test it with the other characters. I'll fix that.
Waitressing Mini game: You'll find the tutorial under the topic of the same name here. I'm glad it wasn't too hard to figure out on your own. The final version of the game will have a tutorial build in.
Escape: Whoops. I knew there was some reason the character walked back-words before entering the dungeon in the last demo. I'll try to find a more elegant solution to that problem (i.e. remake the escape point.)
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Post by Deleted on Jul 6, 2005 21:55:09 GMT -5
I played and my goodness there's a ton of -really- advanced -really- custom stuff you've done. The Waitressing minigame, Archery minigame, and Battle System are absolutely amazing. The way the townspeople turned to face the character impressed me a lot too. Which command turns them a certain degree amount? The armor-equip guy moving was also impressive. The town looked fantastic and the dungeon looked pretty good (maybe more distortion could help). So far, this has to be the demo I've played with the most super-hard, super-custom stuff in it!
I know testing for difficulty is tough, but I think if you made these changes it would be a lot better:
Start the two of them with Bucklers equipped Start them at Level 2
Based on my experience this is my recommendation. You can drop the starting money because of the Bucklers of course.
I'm at the point in my game where I have to make my first dungeon and I've been thinking a lot about what I could do to make it easier/more fun for the player (based off of a lot of other RPGM2 games/demos where battling's been too hard):
Criticals (and other special things like Defensive Criticals, Auto-Revives upon death, and Counters) only happen for party members Make an event battle at the entrance of the dungeon with an easy set of monsters Have townspeople warn the player of what some certain enemies do (like, 'make sure to bring a good amount of extra antidotes because the snakes in the cave are venomous', or something) Use a level-up system like Chrono Cross's
I'd also say:
Since the criticals ignore defense the player can't do anything to lower the damage of them. Regardless of what the party member's defense is they'll always get damaged the same amount from the same enemy when getting hit by a critical. The formula seems to roughly be Normal Damage = Attack - Defense and Critical Damage = Attack. The problem with this is throughout the game the difference will get greater and greater (try plugging in some numbers and you'll see) and that the player can't do anything to raise resistance to it.
I'd just advise not letting enemies do criticals. What I did in my game is made an ability called 'Fatal Blow' that damages 175% STR instead of 100% (still factors in target's defense). This way I can control which enemies do/don't do this ability, and how frequently they do it without much work at all (of course I know it's a lot more work for you).
The bell thing was annoying because I didn't know what to do and kept getting into battles and couldn't run from them. It's near the entrance too, which means the player will likely examine it pretty quickly (first thing I examined). I ended up getting killed in the second battle from it (fortunately I'd saved right before it at least).
I'd also say lower the price of the items some. I know throughout games reviving items have been expensive and hard to come by but I think it's better to make them cheaper (and revive spells cheaper). I think about a 3/4 price drop on items (just items, not equipment) except for Herb and Antidote would be good.
I also like the item Smelling Salts as the reviving item.
Overall though, this demo was -incredibly- impressive and I can't wait for the next. I'll try fighting the statues later today.
I also noticed the money after the waitressing mini game messes up (doesn't reset to what it was before).
edit: a lower and farther angle for the town would help the player navigate better, as I was getting lost a lot and running random directions to get places. And, great job on putting people into beds, I just did that some with my game and it's a whole lot harder than one would first think.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 7, 2005 18:09:59 GMT -5
I finished it yesterday night. Excellent work on all the party members and their actions. Making them use weapons they're not supposed to (like Sarah or the archer) was impressive indeed. Overall, this demo was -incredible-, and so even though I'm not complimenting every little thing in it that was good, all the smaller details were good too. You didn't hold back in any aspect of game development at all.
Edit: I know which command rotates a certain amount of degrees. I used it in an event of mine, but when my character was laying in bed, so it rotated them a different way, but I realize that it's the same command now.
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