(August 3 to August 9, 2015)
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
Do you know what days past by this week? If you thought it was someone's birthday, you were right. We started this week celebrating the birthday of Rukiri, wiwisamy, arbalest, dragon93210, hero9797 and jays37, which was followed by the birthdays of dagarath and Zachfive. Then Rylius, coffeechaser311, plushmonkee, hodu, Ciciohyeah, dustyb13, antime, lolilolilol, Kavendre, kenichiiginsei, theuns, JHAustin, Djigit, Jetboy and guarionex all had a group birthday cake to enjoy. And the end of the week, Charlie Fleed, sammy79, leobreakerx, jesteban00, oddai1, johnf9896, Nekhs and oddRABBIT had a birthday cake to share.
General Chat
Everyone here has things they do, things they feel, and things they think about. If you want, you can let us know What's on your Mind like Python Blue who on got the whole house to himself while his folks were away. And while he began work on an original track, MetalRenard suggested that he take time out to just sing. But once he posted a sample tune, Ahzoh teased him with a comparison to that of Fall-Out Boy. And while ding that, Ahzoh likewise posted a link of his own, the sounds that NASA discovered floating through space.
With it now released, MetalRenard brought up a discussion for Windows 10, and wonders if anyone has any thoughts. With two PCs, he tried the new operating system on one of them. And while it was visually more appealing and intuitive, it seems to be making his PC run slower. Of this, Bounty Hunter Lani confirmed, having seen her games run with a slower FPS rate. But she has seen them run a bit faster after some of the updates had been completed. Some things she appreciated such as the new Windows Edge browser software which she liked, though slower than Google Chrome. And some things she didn't, such as a few applications like RPGMaker XP's playtest encontering popup notifications that annoy her, as well as some of her fonts having visually changed. However, she discovered that the new drivers for Windows 10 are in their infancy and they will be improved upon for both PC speed and program compatability. MetalRenard returned with his opinions after much research, finding it to be an improvement to Windows 8 thanks to its newer tools and intuitive GUI. But at the same time, he also finds it less than preferable to Windows 7 which appears to be more stable. The one big issue he found with Windows 10 involves privacy, using your own PC to update any random PC with updates as it uses your system as a go-between without your knowledge.
Sometimes, you need to kick your feet back and put something on to watch. And when you do, just ask a fellow member "What Are YouTubing?" This week, it was all game related as yamina-chan shared another video from Angry Video Game Nerds as you get to revisit Contra for the Game Boy in a way you never expected. Bounty Hunter Lani returned with a pair of videos from Cynical from The Gamer's Joint as he tries to feed some ill behaved virtual pets and attempts something without a single clue. But if you want to take a break from game critics, then join Kain_Nobel as he returns with a classic piece from PaRappa the Rappa himself.
Games Development
Development Discussion
PK8 started the thread that RPG Maker MV was Announced, and posted the link to RPGMakerWeb's main page. Taylor has some reservations about the new system using Javascript. And while he appreciated that there would be three mapping layers, he was worried that the lower level mapping may be similar to RPGMaker VXAce's mapping system. He's also shown skepticism to its claim of no hidden classes, very leery of it having the RTP built into the engine itself, and was non-plussed about the new 48x48 tile size which foregoes any backwards compatability, though he appreciates its use of plugin scripting.
If you wanted to find out What's up with your fellow RMers, you'll see that JayRay doesn't understand Taylors distain for the autotile system in RPGMaker VXAce, defending his position about the usage of parallax mapping and the increased number of autotiles it has in comparison to RPGMaker XP's. In opposition, Taylor noted that Ace still had a limited layer option in the editor, and that the differences between 16px and 32px sized tiles makes his mapping more difficult. He managed to get something to work however, and later posted a news blurb from Silicon Era about the release of RPGMaker MV, a new engine by enterbrain that works with both PC and Mac. He's not all that interested, having been disappointed from previous hopes about Maker developments. And Kain Nobel was aghast about its use of JavaScript, being a self-described cynical bastard. Meanwhile kyonides labored hard and finished working upon his KyoPrizeShop for both RPGMaker XP and VXAce, though no version is available in English.
JayRay had some Game Battle Questions, as he wondered about using all his originally conceived 80 characters for his animated battler sideview system, using RTP styled characters for the field map, working with some frankenspriting, or just use his characters for face graphics. It came to him a couple days later that some games offered character variants such as the multiple versions of Sub-Zero in the Mortal Kombat series, or the numerous ways within Soul Calibur you see Ivy. With that, he considered a new variations engine to give him the diversity he desires.
After perusing the help file in the newly released English copy of the RPGMaker 2003, Taylor wondered Credit goes to ... who exactly? as he noticed it appeared to be a spruced up version of the one in its RTP. His inquiry was fostered as enterbrain was in error for months about the source of the ships tileset, and thought another mistake had occurred.
And Taylor visited the Maps and Screenshots thread to let everyone know that daytime TV sucks wherever you go, even if an alien planet.
Complete Projects
A new RPGMaker VX game has entered the complete projects board as ixfuru has gifted us with World Circuit Boxing from his company, J3I Games. Here, you play as a boxing commissioner or owner of your gym as you control fight schedules or recruit boxers from around the world. Follow boxing careers, earn money to spuce up your gym, and follow the careers of your boxers in this detailed simulator.
Upcoming Projects
If an open-world RPG game with a tactical turn-based system is for you, then you may find yourself interested in NetherQuest by ixfuru. Began back in 2001 as a table-top, pen-and-paper game, this RPGMaker VX project follows the saga of strangers put together after a civil war as they heed the voice of their god to perform their quests. Unlike other games with a party system, each playable character has his own equipment and money bag, separate from the others, and a flexible character development system. Feel free to check out the demo he provided in the main post.
Meanwhile, some changes have occured to Heroes of Roguehaven, the First Book in the Paragon series by JayRay. While he is decreaing his allotment of playable characters to a startup of eight heroes to select from, and the removal of snakes for personal reasons, JayRay is expanding the systems's database and notes that there are over 300 areas to discover. But be aware, not every location is readily accessible as one may need to search through the game's actual libraries and scrolls to find maps, or by finding experts about a given field about a hidden location. Nearly 200 quest arcs, an extensive crafting system, a sideview battlesystem, enhanced message system, guilds and factions, and even cheat codes are being featured in Heroes of Roguehaven. And newly added is the music score from Arteria3d Collections, as well as a more difficult leveling system and a unique dialog system based on character disposition and reputation. He later returned after removing any RTP dependency, fixed up his system with a character variations system to give him more character choices, an expanded enemy base thanks to a discussion he had with DerVVulfman, and a world map that is completely mouse driven. Kain_Nobel appreciated the work applied, enough to make JayRay's worldmap a desktop background, and kyonides was thankful he wasn't living in a realm as geologically active as JayRay's world.
After thanking MetalRenard for his comments, chrisDeneos wished to present us with the new title screen for Tasukete Tako-San : Save me Mr Tako. Along with that, his sound designer is remixing all the OST with a real Game Boy tracker to give it better effect.
And the first official trailer to Celestial Tear's Demon's Revenge has appeared, featuring professional voice actors. Trexrell states that it will be coming to Steam on August 20th.
Code Support
After DerVVulfman posted the code for Djigit on how to Move the Cursor of the Item_Scene to the right for Moghunter's Scene Item Laura, Djigit ran into some more difficulty. He discovered that Atoa's Multiple Slot script did not function either Moghunter's Scene_Equip Asuka or or Scene_Status Eva, which DerVVulfman replied was expected. After stating that Moghunter's scripts were written in a manner that prevented other scripts from working, he stressed that Djigit try his rewrites which should be considerably more compatible. Djigit tried using it, but ran afoul of an error. The error confused DerVVulfman as he said it made no sense, describing the line of code within the script and citing it should be error free unless the script was altered. At the same time, he noted that he immediately found visible bugs in Atoa's multple slot system, and that it would overwrite the Mog script the way it was written. In that, he wondered what exactly he wanted from Atoa's system. It turns out, only the basics of a Multiple Slots script, but it had to be compatible with other code by Atoa. And with that, DerVVulfman replied it would need to be repaired for the actual errors present and rewritten to allow it to work without rewriting any other menu script. Simultaneously, he requested to see what line was giving Djigit trouble.
Material Development
Scripts Database
Not one, but three new systems came by way of our new member, ixfuru. His first is a Portrait Messaging system for RPGMaker VX, so you can have large portraits in you messages. His second one, also an RPGMaker VX script, is a Time system, also allowing you to track days, months and years. And his third RPGMaker VX script adds new Event Comment Conditionals for event pages, now including gold quanity, weapons equipped and actor params.
The KSkill Shop XP was updated, not once but twice. The first time kyonides upgraded his system, he added the feature to show specific information about a selected skill. And the second upgrade added some improvements to the code and quickened the scene changes between the shop and the bag scenes.
DoubleX returned with a pair of new scripts this week, his first for RPGMaker VXAce is his Linked Battlers script which creates states which allows some actors to share the same parameter stats. And DoubleX's second script, the RMVXA Basic ATB Delay script, is a new add-on which can let other scripters to learn how a basic ATBb system add-on man be written.
But with that, DoubleX also returned to further improve both his RMVXA Basic ABS and RMVXA Dynamic Data scripts with bug fixes and efficiency.
Resources Database
If you need a large collection of RTP characters to gather for a single shot, ixfuru created a Crowd Parallax he felt like sharing with everyone. Following a debate between ixfuru and kyonides, a correction to the initial post regarding credits was made regarding credits required, being both ixfuru for the work and enterbrain for the RTP character supply. Meanwhile, MetalRenard noted that derivitive works based on enterbrain's art is fine if made and used by licensed users. And JayRay found himself inspired by the meticulously crafted backdrop to create an arena scene with such crowds of his own.
Meanwhile, JayRay found a site called SoundSnap that has over 200,000 sound effects for modestly low prices. As he's familiar with audio source legalities, MetalRenard went to check on the terms of use and their licenses, and felt the site was legitimate. But he did add that one should support their fellow indie community members who work on making audio resources. JayRay replied that Arteria3d was a member in the UK, and more affordable than finding someone new who is willing to go out and create those needed sounds.
Creativity Section
Music and Audio
It has been six months since he released anything, but with some time on his hands we can now enjoy some more of MetalRenard's Music. This time, theme is about aliens and may now become one of yamina-chan's new top three of his hits.
Art and Design
This week, Dr. Ermine returned with Some Concept Art after suffering a recent hard drive failure. Thanks to doing some backups, he was able to return with some colored renders of two of his sketches from his initial post. After remarking that the issue he had sounded familiar, DerVVulfman commented that he couldn't quite see the outline of the second character.
Special Projects
ReGaL (RPG Game Lab)
The Talk Box
Narzew popped into the ReGaL Application topic to ask if the ReGaL project was still in the works. DerVVulfman replied that it was, but was delayed due to delays by both a HDD crash and the need to update the forum itself.
Well, that's it for this week.
"Sorry, I don't eat buffalo." (about buffalo wings) - Jessica Simpson
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.