(September 2 to September 8, 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
Feedback and Suggestions
Yin encountered All kinds of Problems with the Website at the end of the week, posting screen captures of her problems and hoping for it to be resolved. MetalRenard though that it was strange as he never had that problem using both Windows7 and 8. But MechanicalPen had encountered something similar, thinking it was his router. And DerVVulfman caught some of it, assuming it was the hosting service. Kore stepped in and replied that it was indeed the host who was overburdened by the site's current activity, so he asked everyone to remain patient. After that, DerVVulfman made mention that he just paid the Hosting service for another term. It made MetalRenard wonder if the others wanted to use another host.
Occasions
The butcher may be bankrupt, but the baker and candlestick maker went into overtime this week with all the birthdays that occurred. It took a few days before someone's special day appeared. But lo', emilywake's birthday had come and gone. After a short respite, more birthdays came such as those belonging to MGC, SDeluxe, s4v33 and brettra012. A couple more days had come and gone, but then Bluuuuue's, TehCupcakes's, ElliotWyvern's and larkuzo's birthday had arrived. And lastly, the birthdays of Stain, ZeromusZX, Crashman, Bravo2Kilo and Soodas had come and gone.
General Chat
One of the things about joining a forum is that you want to be a part of a community of friends with like interests. So one of the things you may want to know is What's on the mind of your fellow members. Since this is such an easy way to keep in touch, MetalRenard stickied our thread to make it easier to find. Meanwhile, He had begun work on a showcase topic about his trip to Norway. But while travelling, both Yin and Ahzoh found difficulties sending PMs as there isn't a Mobile version for the forum.
Also having difficulties was Rosyposy who recently lost too much work on her game, Persona: Fragile Dreamers, to start all over again. Triple backups was MechanicalPen, along with the use of DropBox. And speaking of backups, he was working on a batch file so the company he worked for would be able to back up their server.
Forum Games & Nonsense
The time to sumbit your entry into the Game Jam - 10 minute game! contest is over, and has now entered the voting stage. GLaDOS felt that if there were a large number of entries, that Judges would be the ones deciding. But as there weren't that many contestants that it would come down to a community poll. And before MetalRenard mentioned the 1-10 scoring system in use, yamina-chan suggested that it should be adopted. Meanwhile, MetalRenard is going to handle the contest at our French Affiliate, RMD (RPG Maker Detante), while GLaDOS will handle things on our end. He did send an inquiry to KasperKalamity whether his game had the bug worked out in his game, which was replied in the affirmative with a newly supplied link. So, the contest's deadline ended with four entries: "Touhou Danmaku Arena" by Ephy (RMD), "Blocked" by Léo (RMD), An Un-finished project by Xiaoxiao (RMD) and "Recurrence" by KasperKalamity (Save-Point). There were some discrepencies on who posted what as MetalRenard thought that Hiino posted the unfinished project, but matters like that were handled and correct links and titles were posted both here and in RMD's voting page. However, most of the games are in French, so he's unsure how members from Save-Point would wish to participate during the voting. On a comical Herpaderp moment, Rosyposy asked before looking where to find the links to the entries.
As a follow-up to the Game Jam contest, MetalRenard created the Mega Game Jam Votes and Results topic. Within, he reposted the links to the same four entries and issued instructions on the voting process that would end on the 15th of this month. It would be a simple score out of 10. And while yamina-chan wanted to clarify that it simplified from a previous set of rules, MetalRenard said it was for the best otherwise numerous votes could complicate things. Following that, KasperKalamity was surprised that XiaoXiao's game was in French, and Ahzoh replied that he never played a danmaku game...
Games Development
Development Discussion
If you wish to see how your fellow community members are doing in their endeavors, it is an easy thing within Save-Point to find out What's Up . Having worked hard on accumulating all the code he wants for the project that he and Kalier are working on, DerVVulfman had begun optimizing and cleanup duties in his game. He classified his first venture as level 1 optimization by slicing out individual classes in each script and merging them into the master/default class. This would be akin to taking a custom script that modifies data in the Game_System class and actively editing the original class to match. His only real issue was that he had over 100 scripts. After that, he apparently started working on what he considered to be level 2 optimization. DerVVulfman squeezed out a 35-37 refresh rate in his game, attributing much of his lag to various scripts that continue running behind the scenes. His games's menus still have the appearance of the default menus, but he hopes that he will soon be able to rework them. Apparently, he intents to change the menu's appearance for each character you can play. Yin too had a fair number of scripts and would like to see if anyone could help her in optimizing her code. MechanicalPen however felt that optimizing code shouldn't be necessary unless lag or the code became hard to read. He later found his work so slow that MechanicalPen considered things like making his own map editor for RPGMaker XP, building a better pathfinding script or a 2D skeletal animation system. And while Ahzoh's highschool curriculum may drastically impair his PC time, he plans to learn HTML5 and JavaScript. Later, DerVVulfman returned after cleaning more of his system. He found he needed to adapt a few things such as removing party members from his enus when they're left behind. Still, the cleaning process had produced a significant file size reduction of his scripts.rxdata file.
But sometimes words don't cut it as KasperKalamity knew as he posted a new pic within the Maps and screenshots thread after finishing his desert's tileset and panorama. The shot caught JayRay's eyes as he loved the sepia tones that were planned. After that, KasperKalamity showed that he was halfway done with walled-in town and cleaned up the thatched roof of a chicken coop . The one thing that caught buprettyinpink's eye was a giant of a man standing next to the coop compared to the diminutive sizes of everyone else. After that, you may wish to look at the singular worldmap screenshot that Charlie Fleed had paid for and posted for Hartacon, which garnered immediate reaction from both MetalRenard and Ace.
Code Support
Alistor needed some support as he didn't know how to Call Random Numbers for his upcoming D&D based battlesystem. He used an example using Dungeons and Dragons vernacular of d20 to express a 20-sided dice, but would like to know how to generate an equivalent range in RPGMaker. In answer, DerVVulfman supplied a dice rolling script with examples on its use. MechanicalPen too answered, pointing out that the rand function was the command in which he was searching. And he also supplied a shorter script, suggesting that DerVVulfman's code had too much overhead. But DerVVulfman responded that he intended that it was geared towards Dungeons and Dragons players, and his overhead was learned housekeeping methods and failsafe methods.
celleZ wanted someone to help him with the Neo Mode7 by MGC as he noticed that his raised events seem to shift side-to-side as his Mode7 maps scroll to give things a depth perception appearance. DerVVulfman saw his dilemma but replied that he too had encountered that problem and never figured it out. celleZ is hoping that the issue could be solved.
Similar in nature was another inquiry by celleZ who wanted Neo Mode7 Disabled on some maps. DerVVulfman wasn't entirely clear what celleZ requested, but assumed he wanted to be able to turn Mode7 maps on and off, which he said could not be done.
Material Development
Tools
Always on the hunt for new things, GLaDOS came across a new Nintendo DS Game Maker, a system so people can make homebrew Nintendo DS games. Ahzoh thought it strange to use a PC to make a DS game, let alone was curious how to transfer the game onto a DS cartridge. But both MetalRenard and GLaDOS pointed out that most games are PC designed, and GLaDOS mentioned the game file it generated which could be transferred to a flashcard or played on a DS emulator. And Kore mentioned that there's been a long line of cartridge readers and writers in the homebrewed game industry while explaining that the tools to make a console game generally aren't able to run on a console. yamina-chan thought it was a great find. However, she felt it wouldn't help those using RPGTsukuruDS (RPGMakerDS) to transfer thier completed games to a portable DS cartridge medium which she felt was a shame.
Script Requests
In answer to gerronix12's request for a Battle Mode system, Alistor discovered that he still had a battle arena script that SephirothSpawn gave him as a Christmas gift. Using that, he replied that he would try to whip something up. That overjoyed gerronix12 who has been looking all over the internet for such a thing.
After that, gerronix12 wondered if DerVVulfman could make a demo for the script he posted in the Stat Increase by Skill request topic. DerVVulfman said one wasn't necessary and explained how the script could work by merely plugging it into a fresh and new project. The talk he made appeared that nothing needed to be any different with the skills created in the default system that gave status ailments, and that he only needed to alter a section which listed the bonuses or penalties for each altered state. Immediately, gerronix12 understood how to use the system, which prompted DerVVulfman to ask if the request was solved.
Resources Database
Disaster hit RosyPosy as she lost nearly eight months of progress on her game, Persona: Fragile dreamers, as she accidentally erased much of her work during PC cleaning and maintenance. As disheartened as she is, Rosy posted a link to all her unfinished Persona stuff since she feels she won't be finishing her game, especially since she iimproved everything four times over.
Creativity Section
Art and Design
It has been many moons since Jacket has been around, but he's back and bumped the topic with the artwork by 60.25. Rather than posting the tons of sprites he made for another project of his, he decided to post other endeavors. His first two were holiday gifts, the first being for someone who likes World of Warcraft. A couple of ladies graced the page. The first was entitled LineGirl, an image using a gradiated dot/pixel shading style found in older comics and newspapers. The second, BadBunny, was a sketch of a woman in a playboy bunny outfit. Other images abound too, with the last two being test pics he drew with his new tablet.
Special Projects
ReGaL (RPG Game Lab)
The Talk Box
Back in July, ntzrmtthihu777 made a post to members of the ReGaL development team of the tools he recommended that they use for the creation of the Engine and Editor. But as of now, Kore had moved the list of Developement Environment Must Haves out into the open.
After hearing that some people wondered about the functions planned for ReGaL, Kain Nobel responded to talk about the proposed use of the Pathfinding / Node by Node system. There is an intent to include a form of A★-like pathfinding system and Set Move Route command, while he prefers to use a node-by-node event guided system. While he realizes that the A★ system is convenient, he likes the nodes system because it offers more control, and posted a pair of animated diagrams to show their use in practice. Along with that, he also mentioned that mouse-based functionality is also intended and awaited any further comments or suggestions. As a suggestion, MechanicalPen wondered if it would be possible to have a 'node generator' could be created that worked in tandem with an A★-like pathfinding system, and was curious if a fallback system would be available. He liked the suggestions that Kain Nobel mentioned, but felt that more thought and planning would be advisable.
It has been a couple months since its use, but criz entered the ReGaL Suggestions Booth to cast a vote for the request of a message system that allowed dialog to occur while the player was walking. Such a feature would make it appear that NPCs are having a conversation independent of the player. DerVVulfman replied back that he was late in his request as that feature and many more were already present. He even posted a link to another discussion by criz's request so he could play catch-up. After that, MechanicalPen wondered if the system's map editor could contain keyboard hotkeys for the tile palette itself. In this, he could switch from one autotile to another by merely pressing a key rather than having to return to the palette each time.
Screenies
Ahzoh just discovered the thread that showed off the ReGaL Application window, mentioning how it would revolutionize the game making community. But Kain Nobel mentioned that it would only revolutionize RPG game making, though the endeavor would be an RPG game maker's dream come true. He posted what he referred to as DataExtensions, apologizing for not having any screenshots. But that immediately turned out to be a fib as he displayed a new screenshot of the main map editor screen. He also pointed out that the system would include a feature called quick-events, which would allow you to quickly craft teleport events, respawn points or other commonly created events with even less fuss than normal. This new revelation certainly thrilled MechanicalPen who would love to see this feature appear in the ReGaL system. After that, Kain Nobel mentioned changes to the system such as changes to the conditionals branch system, the ability to dynamically name self-switches and self-variables, and that enhancements to the event's characterset sprite system will allow each event to have their own number of frames and opt between 4 or 8 directions each. On a visual aspect, Yin felt that the blank background area should be striped instead, so the text within could be read more easily.
Well, that's it for this week.
"I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific." - Lili Tomlin
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.