(July 1 to July 7, 2013)
Welcome dear readers to the latest issue of the Weekly Gazette! Here in the Gazette, we give you the news in brief of what occurred in the past week as well as provide any news happening in Save-Point itself
Official Area
Occasions
Does anyone like birthdays? Here at Save-Point, we had a few to celebrate starting with the twin birthdays of x10der and Peregrine which was followed by another set of forum twins we know as MarianFrae and B.loder. This past Thursday, there were plenty of cake and fireworks as firestalker5, Morrigan Aensland, frankeira and Pyramid_Head all had some cake together, which was soon followed by fireworks by Kore for America itself on the 4th of July. After that, the birthdays of icefire_lilax, RPGMakerXP and akoo came by followed by another set of triplets known in our community as Jerryqcz, Flare Knight and Seanski19 had passed. And lastly, the birthdays of MroseC14, Badlands, 4riss5, 009chouyang and Yochanan came and went.
GLaDOS hijacked someone from Skype and coerced newcomer Maxios into our community. He is writing and developing an RPG entitled 'Urban Mythos' which he wishes to be designed with C++ and is in need of both programmer and Pixel Artists. GLaDOS of course followed behind laying claim to the member she dragged in, while welcomed by Ace, MetalRenard, DerVVulfman, Kore and MechanicalPen. Though MechanicalPen expressed his distaste for the C++ language.
General Chat
Though MetalRenard posted a link to a video in the Funny Pictures thread, the video was originally an animated GIF, so it pretty much counts. Laugh as someone made pot shots at Microsoft and their monopolizing tactics with this comically edited take from 'Game of Thrones'.
Forum Games & Nonsense
Last week, Zackwell asked within the Make a 10 minute game about branched endings and if multiple branches were cumulatively counted or treated separately. This was followed by MetalRenard's explanation how they were treated separately, using an example of the game forking in twain after five minutes, each path giving you another 'five minutes' of play, thus a full 10 minutes of game play either direction he goes. The explanation made sense and gave Zackwell the idea to make even longer paths once the competition had finished. Meanwhile, more prizes have been added to the contest by Kouett and tfkmaster from RPG Maker Detente, our French RM Affiliate. These games are both the beta versions of Final Fantasy XIV for the PC and PS3 and Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition.
Games Development
Upcoming Projects
Charlie Fleed expects to release a new map editor for Hartacon Tactics with improved GUI and tileset soon. In the meantime, he posted a new isometric battle-map showing an axe weilding figher highighted standing near a fenced-in cottage and collection of various trees, action hud and the like in view.
Code Support
ZeroSum needed some Computer Controlled Characters and the AIBC (Advanced Individual Battle Commands) by Trickster. And while he was able to work with both Trickster's Ally AI and Claihm's Automatic Battle Actions system, he could not get them to work with Trickster's AIBC, receiving an error related to invalid skill values suddenly appearing. MechanicalPen suggested a fix, believing that the problem happens as a result of the AI seeing it generated from the advanced command list system and supplied a fix. Unfortunately, the fix didn't work for ZeroSum who began working with the demos still getting the same error. Since then, MechanicalPen suggested that he change the order of the scripts in his game, which DerVVulfman followed up as he mentioned that script placement may make a difference. That too didn't work for ZeroSum, but he did discover a related issue happening with items and appreciated the feedback. After some deliberation, MechanicalPen figured that it was how the system's 'skill_can_use' methods were working and suggested an edit. Since ZeroSum wasn't that experienced with performing edits, MechanicalPen described where to edit and what to replace. A minor glitch in bbcode was found by DerVVulfman who said he took out an annoying character that could have caused another bug.
Material Development
Tools
Getting annoyed with doing things manually, Skitzen made a pair of RPGMaker VX Ace to XP Autotile Conversion ActionScripts for Photoshop. You can see from his screenshots how a conventional VXAce autotile, even animated ones, may be converted for RPGMaker XP use, and included within each script download is a set of instructions which he hopes users will read so as to avoid common errors. Seeing it as a useful tool, DerVVulfman moved it into the tools board.
Script Requests
After looking through various sites, Pherione wondered if a Panorama scroll lock system exists for RPGMaker XP as he wishes to use parallax mapping but all the tutorials he has seen have been for RPGMaker VX. MechanicalPen found a pair of threads, one being the Panorama Mover 1.1 by The Sleeping Leonhart in HBGames while the other was Heretic's Cloud Altitude at Chaos Project. Unfortunately, neither worked for Pherione. He did manage to even out the scroll speed for his panorama, but now the drawn map offset is off. But as luck would have it, yamina-chan knew that such a script existed within the forum's script repository, though she mistakenly thought it was in the Phylodemo by RPGAdvocate. Instead, she returned with a link to a collection of scripts by ParaDog which included the system. Iqus took a look and thought it was a real jem, but inquired about layers within RPGMaker XP and whether a pixelmovement script would work with such a Panorama system. yamina-chan returned and replied to Iqus, and answered his queries. But while she was able to use a pixelmovement system with ParaDog's Panorama system, she needs to search to find it once again. Iqus appreciated her response, but his main thought was about how one uses a separate black and white 'passability map' with both the Panorama system and pixelmovement system rather than using RPGMaker XP Blocked tiles to block player movement.
Resources Database
GLaDOS made a trio of high quality Fogs for everyone to enjoy. One a soft textured classic grayscale, one a more energetic texture and the third giving a color filled effect.
Creativity Section
Music and Audio
While working on his entry for the 10 Minute Game contest, a new musical entry appeared for those who enjoy The Sound of Zackwell. His latest piece is entitled "The Library" which he released through SoundCloud this past Tuesday which he hopes you will enjoy and get people interested in his game.
Special Projects
ReGaL
The Talk Box
Kain Nobel brings the [Highlight]ReGaL Application into a new light, or new color as the case may be as he now shows it in a Red and Pink skin. The original color scheme was the the same as RPGMaker VXAce's color palette, so he hopes that some wil appreciate the bold choice of this new look. He does know the window looks fairly empty as he went bigger with the editor's window. Meanwhile, there's still more research being done before he goes into development and has thought about a separate application which can translate the system. Since then, Kore asked if a jar version was available for him to examine on a Linux system. Not yet, as Kain Nobel mentioned as he struggled with a faulty extension. However, he posted the system's 'About' page which included version numbers and credits. The logo within is a temp graphic he's using of his own personal design and will be changed, as did the red/pink color scheme which was an experiment. He is currently open to suggestions on the editor's color scheme and posted the RGB values of the current theme. However, you could see the color scheme he switched to as he posted a new hue bar, though it hadn't been set up to work with the sprites as yet.
Meanwhile, criz asked Regarding ReGaL if a recruitment system would be easy to have in the system. Such a system would allow the player to add more members on demand and remove member automatically on entering a base or headquarters. DerVVulfman didn't see it being part of the default code, but believed it to be easier to create with ReGaL's scripts than with other RGSS scripts and noted seeing such systems before done with events.
And seeing it as a limit to th previous incarnations of the RPGMaker series, Glados made a Suggestion for Unlimited Map Layers, offering a screenshot of the Stencyl System Editor as an example. She also displayed a shot of Stencyl's Tileset Importer/Editor and thought it would be interesting if ReGaL too had a system which could allow the game developer to edit their own tilesets. These ideas were appreciated by buprettyinpink, Kain Nobel and DerVVulfman who appeared to have similar thoughs or ideas.
Screenies
Last week, buprettyinpink announced that the Logo for the ReGaL Engine was in the works and showed off three designs. After reading the reactions from last week, ntzrmtthihu777 wanted to state in the forum that he was fond of the first one that she posted just as he said in the forum's chatroom. GLaDOS too liked the first, though she wasn't keen on the use of an emboss effect. After that, both she and Zackwell posted their own logo suggestions, Zackwell with pair of Fleur-de-lis with the second having a subtle astronomical backdrop and GLaDOS with a wide golden-edged plaque displaying what could be a dragon fire texture of darkened red and brilliant yellow. MetalRenard was thrilled that more choices began to appear, while DerVVulfman mentioned why buprettyinpink was going with a crown motif, mentioning how it could have been a feline mascot wearing the crown. Since then, GLaDOS made another plaque-based logo which Kore thought were really swank and followed it up with a series of crown-based designs, the final version being vectorized and scaleable.
As she stated last week, logos were not her fortay. But there are other Graphics that buprettyinpink had been working on for ReGaL such as character templates and tilesets. She posted a few animated gifs showing different ways her characters can walk, both male and female templates as well as some static shots. Slightly taller than the RPGMaker XP size, but more defined so the differences between male and female are apparent. She also showcased a screenshot of a map she had worked on using a forest/grassland tileset she had been designing with trees, grass and the usual for your consideration. She is also open to suggestions what could be included within the tilesets. MechanicalPen wasn't keen on the character designs, though he couldn't explain why. However, he was thrilled by the tileset. Kain Nobel too had good things to say about the tileset and enjoyed the characterset work. He also mentioned a site called 'way of the pixel' which greately helped him when he was working on a character template of his own which she may wish to visit. After mentioning a technique involving the lineart around charactersets, buprettyinpink replied back that she had a revised version of the female characterset with that technique employed though its easier to see how characters work with basic hard outlines. She also appreciated the link that Kain Nobel supplied.
Well, that's it for this week.
"There ought to be one day -- just one -- where there is open season on senators.: - Will Rogers (1879 - 1935)
PROSPECTIVE GAZETEERS!
If you are the creator of a thread in Save-Point, you have the option of sending/writing your own entry into the Gazette. The Gazette accepts write-in announcements (which will be doublechecked). Likewise, the Gazette would welcome other content such as a comic-strip series, ongoing story arc, or the like.
Just PM DerVVulfman with the submissions. Submissions must be in by 10pm EST.