Legions of Wrath (progress topic)

[KingSpoom]

Maps ............................ 1/3
Dungeons ........................ 0/13
Towns ........................... 2/13
Party Members ................... 8/11
Enemies ......................... 0/60
Bosses .......................... 0/30
Skills .......................... 0/52
Spells .......................... 0/60
Items ........................... 285/350
Cutscenes ....................... 1/50
Custom Music .................... 0/?
Mini-Games ...................... 0/3
Features
CBS ............................. Not Yet (5%)
Party Change System ............. Not Started (0%)
Party Back-up System ............ Not Started (0%)
Level-up System ................. Not Yet (20%)


A few of the ending numbers are estimated, and could change at any time. With that said, the numbers will be fairly close to my end product. This topic is here to keep track of how fast I work, what order I've been going in, and to let people know how far I am.

Note: It's hard to tell how far I actually am, because those numbers just represent finished work, not mostly finished.

[KingSpoom]

I usually try to update every week, and since I started that trend on a Wednesday, I usually update on Wednesday. So I should be making my current event post tomorrow. As for what I've already *finished* but not finished... I have my skills and spells charted out, dungeons 1-9 designed, combat equation mostly done, experience chart plotted, probable title screen finished, and I'm sitting on a hoard of music. You can ask questions in here as well.

[Dungeon Warden]

You should use three numbers in your progression chart - Stuff that's finished, stuff that's in progress, and total things needed to do. That will give a better indication of your progress. Stuff in progress could also include a percentage to indicate how far along you are. A percentage would be helpful with all the features as well since it may take a while to finish any one of them.

Good to see you're well orginized in what needs to be done. I look forward to seeing your game in action.

[KingSpoom]

I thought about doing something like that, but decided against it. Eventually you will get the idea that I'm close to being done or something. I think the real number to watch will be cutscenes. Since I make my game in order (more or less), that's a pretty good indication of how far I am. Everything else I do is setup work to prepare me to finish it. It stops me from sitting down to do something and not knowing what to do. Although I may add a percentage to the features... yeah, thanks.

[KingSpoom]

I thought I'd have more done by now... Earlier in the week I tried to join with an online gaming group, but it didn't work out. I suppose I should have been curious when they said two people "ran away" after a short while. So, I'm down most of the week as far as work is concerned.

With dungeon 10, I tried to design it differently. Due to it's nature, it isn't anything close to a straight shot through. When I sat down to work on 11, I realized that it follows the same concept. It wasn't meant to be walked through by adventurers, so there will be extra doors, winding paths, the works...

So, I've got most of dungeon 11 done. I'd say at least 80% of it. I'm trying to stay on track here, so I'm gonna try to have 11 and 12 done by next week, and maybe have 13 started.

[KingSpoom]

Okay. I finished off map #11. There wasn't all that much left to finish off. Dungeon 12 is optional and one of the biggest in the game. I had thought about adding another dungeon inbetween 12 and 13, but decided it would just be pointless filler. I skipped dungeon 13 because it's supposed to be mazy and I haven't decided how I want to do that. I don't know if I want it to be an actual maze (ie: confusing to the player) or just a figurative maze (ie: confusing only to the characters). Either way it's going to take a little more thought than the other dungeons. So, I continued on to dungeon 14 which, due to numbering errors (I forgot to count the first and third dungeons into the numbers), is my last dungeon.

Dungeon 12 and 14 are about 80% done. Both of them should be finished by next week, and 13 should also be started. Still no conclusive idea of what I am going to do next, but my guess would be to finish up the towns.

[KingSpoom]

This week went by really fast for me, and I didn't get much done game-wise. I finished dungeon 12 and 14, but all I've done with dungeon 13 is decided I don't want it to be confusing to the player. I've got another idea that will work better for the story.

I might start trading stocks soon... wish me luck.

[KingSpoom]

An update just to make an update, which is to say, "I didn't get any work done this week, but I'm letting you know I'm still here". In reality it means 2 things, 1... I haven't been spending a lot of time on my game this week, and 2... I'm starting to narrow down the different types of work I CAN do (easily). As there starts to be less to work on, there will probably be times when I get less done as a result. To measure my ACTUAL progress, it may be better to notice how many cut-scenes I have completed. I work through the game sequentially. As the cutscenes get done, the game itself gets done. Until then, everything else is just preparation.

[KingSpoom]

It's Wednesday again. I'm going to start "paper trading" this week. Nice how they have a business sounding name for playing pretend. On to game related news:

I started working on the outside of town #4. I've yet to name it as well. All the buildings are in place, but I need to simulate the effect of it being surrounded by mountains... because it's surrounded by mountains. I'll figure something out. In the meantime I will start making the insides of said town. That shouldn't take long. So by next week I expect to have all the insides done and a generous start on the next map (town #5). Generous because it's almost a mirror town of 3 (and for good reason).

So then, off I go to continue my work.

[Neo Samurai]

Nice to hear you're doing well, KingSpoom.

I know this has nothing to do with your game, but I read your fourth articile for "Introduction of RPG Making" on the mag. Very good stuff.

[KingSpoom]

Thanks, it's good to hear.

[KingSpoom]

I solved my problem with town 4 about it being surrounded by mountains. It took a little bit of work and a little bit of refining. I didn't start on the inside of town 4 (I actually haven't done the insides of town 2 and 3 yet), but I did do the outsides to both towns 5 and 6. I think that if I do all the outsides first, I will have a better grasp of what other things I might need. Then I'll probably do all the insides together as well. I was also thinking of starting some detailed dialog writing soon, just because I can work on it elsewhere. I have a generalization of what people are supposed to say during certain points, but not a complete walk-through of the words.

[KingSpoom]

I started to do the outsides of the towns, and I noticed that I hadn't written down my building requirements for any town passed 6. After taking a walk-through of my story, I finished writing down my requirements. So I ended up getting the outsides of towns the rest of the towns (7-13) about 70% done. I still need to add all the crumby little things that make a house a home. I haven't worked on dialog yet, but I have been preparing for it. I was having some trouble earlier in the week making churches, but I think I have that handled now. Hopefully by next week I will have them done. The insides need to be a little more specific than the outsides, so that might end up taking a little longer (at least for certain ones). Well, I'll find out soon enough.

[KingSpoom]

All of the outsides are done, save for a few specifc buildings (like castles). The point is that they are good enough to continue on for now. The world map and the towns have been connected to each other, so I can now walk in and out of them like you should be able to. The next part to do are the insides of the buildings. There are... some where around 100 buildings to fill in (not counting the specific buildings). I will, however, be cookie cutting as many of them as possible. Not that they will be exactly the same, but the layout will be similar. Not that it matters, but it would make sense with my story anyway.

[KingSpoom]

Well, I've started on the insides, but I quickly ran into a problem. I started with the blacksmith shops first. The problem comes from me wanting to sell too many items at once. Each person has 8 peices of equipment they can purchase at any given shop, it's just how my equipment system works... there is always a choice of equipment. So, I'm going to have to work around the shop somehow. The whole thing sort of put me into a slump... and I also have been playing fallout 2. It reminds me a lot of wasteland... a LOT.

[KingSpoom]

Well, I came up with a solution for the blacksmith problem... but that was a couple days after me previous update (a long time ago). I've just temporarily lost interest in making my game. It's happened before, so I expect it to run its course and then I'll end up jumping right back in. Hopefully this happens soon.

[KingSpoom]

Yeah, so my interest hasn't come back yet. I do want to finish my game, I want to see it done. I just don't seem to want to work on it right now. Worse case scenario is I hold off until rpg maker 3 comes out and gain a good lead on that while my interests of a new rpg maker and my game are focused to completion. As for what I've been doing... I've played a couple games here and there, but mainly I've been working on a "homebrew" pnp rpg for me and my gaming group. That's what has my interest right now.

[KingSpoom]

Well, I just got my ps2 back, it's been gone for about a year. I got a couple free games with it as well. Anyhow, I've already ordered Rpg Maker 3 from Amazon. I don't know much about it yet, except it looks like maps are done on a 2d image first, and calculated from there. Also, it looks like there are 23 male models to use as PCs. Adventurer, Warrior, Archer, Thief, Knight, Sage, Child, Dwarf, Elf, and Samurai among them (just generalized names I'm sure).

All I believe I need are variables and ways to control party members, though. Everything else is a given.

[Deleted]

If you quit using RPGM2 and start using RPGM3 are you at least going to release a demo for RPGM2?

[KingSpoom]

I was saving the battle system for last, so any demo would seem pointless to me.

[KingSpoom]

Alright. Rpg maker 3 release date is closing in... although Amazon estimates it to ship on October 19, 2005, I know that is wrong. Been playing a lot of MTG lately. Apparently I'm still good. Haven't lost a 1-1 yet, although I have lost a couple of multiplayer games (out of 50-75 I've played in the last month). Perhaps one of the first things I'll do once I get rpg maker 3 is see what can and cannot be done how I want it to be done. A rundown of all the characters, how they look and what they use. Nothing was all too important, but I didn't want everyone to be running around with their typical things. The last thing I want to do, however, is change something just so it's changed. See you shortly.