What's up, RMers?

[Ahzoh]

Working on new character, see avatar. Still rough draft, loosely based on the lovely lady referenced below.



Still pending refinement with shading, as well as color palette adjustments (too much yellow tone), but it's as good as it's going to get tonight. Rule of thumb for the project is all protagonists' portraits are supposed to be facing slightly front-left, looking towards the viewer, so much artistic liberties were taken to achieve the correct perspective. (My lovely ginger Lindsey breaks this rule because she's just boss like that ;D)

Open to suggestions on this woman's name. Avoid anything that ends with a Y/I sound as all the leading ladies in my project have unintentionally followed that trend (Krysti, Lindsey, Mysti, etc.) Also, no disrespect towards the presidential first lady, but the name Michelle is out of the question too. Other names are welcome and appreciated, you'll be credited in the special thanks section if you come up with the chosen name.

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In other news, will probably be dropping (or postponing) a future Belly of the Beast release, need to free up some commitments so more focus can be put towards ReGaL and Echoside. Nothing against the infamous volcano dungeon project, the next chapter is pretty close to done, but it remains a low priority for now.

II've got a few... unconventional names...

Nneka, apparently that's nigerian name for "mother is supreme"
Or what about Enzinma?

[Kain Nobel]

@Ahzoh : Thanks for the suggestions, not really sure those names really suit her well though. Then again, every name I try to come up with sounds like a "white girl" name, so perhaps I'm over-thinking this @_@

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Aside from some minor edits to the new girl, it's been an unproductive night, absolutely irritated, nine hours have got me NOWHERE. Insecurities are starting to set in as tutorials seems to explain a lot of the what and none of the why, so tomorrow is going to be a quest to make sense of this mess. No matter how informative the documentation may be, can't seem to find an author whom treats it with the same elegance and finesse as Why the Poignant Stiff did in his Ruby lessons.

Maybe I need to become Why the Poignant Stiff in the Java universe, the SephirothSpawn of Oracle. o.o

I've tried to give up, really, but I'm too damn stubborn to do so when it comes to decades old goals and desires. Even when receiving an oral exam from the woman I married, my mind is like "This is awesome, but hurry the hell up with it, you've got work to attend to."

[Ahzoh]

@Ahzoh : Thanks for the suggestions, not really sure those names really suit her well though. Then again, every name I try to come up with sounds like a "white girl" name, so perhaps I'm over-thinking this @_@

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Aside from some minor edits to the new girl, it's been an unproductive night, absolutely irritated, nine hours have got me NOWHERE. Insecurities are starting to set in as tutorials seems to explain a lot of the what and none of the why, so tomorrow is going to be a quest to make sense of this mess. No matter how informative the documentation may be, can't seem to find an author whom treats it with the same elegance and finesse as Why the Poignant Stiff did in his Ruby lessons.

Maybe I need to become Why the Poignant Stiff in the Java universe, the SephirothSpawn of Oracle. o.o

I've tried to give up, really, but I'm too damn stubborn to do so when it comes to decades old goals and desires. Even when receiving an oral exam from the woman I married, my mind is like "This is awesome, but hurry the hell up with it, you've got work to attend to."

I dunno when I see the character portrait, looks like an "Nneka" to me.

also.. you sound like a lost cause...

[Kain Nobel]

@Ahzoh : I'm not such a lost cause, already getting some Java-related programming down!

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EDIT : I've edited this entry after slightly figuring out a problem I was having.

Speaking of Java; I've now got very functional GameApp (window), Engine and Timing classes created! Here is what the Main does in the Ruby-half of the code...

Content Hidden

Code:

#===============================================================================
# ** Main Processing
#===============================================================================

# Begin loop
begin  
  # Start the game engine
  Engine.start
  # Update Engine while it is running
  Engine.update while Engine.running?
  # Stop engine
  Engine.stop
rescue Errno::ENOENT
  # Supplement Errno::ENOENT exception
  # If unable to open file, display message and end
  filename = $!.message.sub("No such file or directory - ", "")
  print("Unable to find file #{filename}.")
end

The GameApp window has many, many functions compared to RPG Maker's "Game.exe" application, allowing live changes during run time (such as resizing, full-screen settings, title changing, auto-centering etc.) The Engine module (with help from Timing) handles the updates of the very core systems (think Audio, Graphics, Input, Keyboard, Mouse, things of that nature.) Changing resolution on the fly shouldn't be that big of a deal, it appears there are great ways of auto-scaling and such (though I've yet to personally implement 'em.)

The only odd thing that I haven't figured out is how to properly set the Engine#frame_rate which, if left unregulated, runs at about 120,000 FPS. The way it is now, if one wants a target FPS of 60, they've gotta set Engine.target_FPS = 0.0005, which is a strange number. Eventually, they'll be able to do Engine.target_FPS = 60 and it'll convert that magic number (ie 0.0005) based on current system performance and some VSync magic.

[Taylor]

I've been... busy I guess. I don't remember what I last talked about here. I've been rambling a bit about my wonderful adventures with code on my website.

I hope I don't run into any more frustrations.

Hahah. Ahah. ... ah... though I think I have had less fur-pulling madness as of late. I mean, coding a save screen was surprisingly not that hard, and I got to learn a bit about how VXAce handles save information. I was expecting to have to tiptoe carefully or do heck-knows-what to refer to save data over the current instances of variables. Thank you headers.

EDIT: More script fun! I hate how VXAce handles parties - the battle party is your defined maximum subtracted from a larger party. I want to still give the option for a smaller party. At first I tried making battle_members a standalone array, but things began to get messy when it seems the system doesn't quite separate members/all_members/battle_members... I dunno what else. So I ended up making a reserve_members array instead ... now back to trying to make tidy looking party management events... or sleep. Sleep is good too.

[Kain Nobel]

Been busy as all get-out, studying Java and further drafting ReGaL concepts.

As of yesterday, a new Input system has been created in Java, soon to be wrapped in either Ruby or Groovy. Still, there are some minor quirks to work out, but it's almost perfect. Java-side handles all the core logic, but the Ruby/Groovy half will have extended functions for tasks such as registering common Input bindings and such, example...

Input.register(:C, ["RETURN", "SPACE", "C", "MOUSE1"])

^With that call, we assigned Input::C to respond to the RETURN, SPACE, C keys (and the left mouse button) respectively. Internally, the method converts the String settings to the proper Integer representation but nevertheless bindings can be set via script call now! If the developer wants to create a menu scene for Button Configuration, there ya go, the registration is exposed.

Also, disabling the F1 menu shouldn't require advanced programming knowledge, shitty Win32API calls or brain surgery, just a simple...

Game.disable_F1_menu

Keyboard, Mouse AND Controller will most likely be supported right away! There are already APIs documented and defined for control stick, rumble pad and all that good stuff. We've just gotta write our method calls, quality test it and package it up, then the Input families should be good to go!

"Great! So will all of this eventually work on my existing RPG Maker project," you ask? My only response is this.

[KasperKalamity]

i fixed a ton of little things that i found by watching my buddy play through my game. there was a lot of little stuff that needed tweaking.

[DerVVulfman]

If your buddy is anything like a certain member that tested my handicrafts demo, you won't have a single visual glitch left. She was responsible for the last minute ending.

[Steel Beast 6Beets]

Does anybody know a script that allows MP damage/drain for RMXP? I've searched for hours and I haven't found anything so far.

[MechanicalPen]

Google has been weird about giving VX and VXACE stuff over XP, even if you force it to include XP in the search. Search engines....

I know I've seen one around, but I can make one in the time it would take for me to find it. What all features were you hoping for?