What's up, RMers?

[Kain Nobel]

Clover (New "Traditional" Revision / Alternate Version)


EDIT: Whole post has been revised.

While the concept started out OK, once the digital ink was initiated the whole thing began to go slightly off track. Consciously, my mind was like "no, what are you doing?!" but I figure both versions are indeed the same character; he has to adopt a fake persona and change his physical appearance in an attempt to avoid the press and investigators. Can't really say if he's up to no good or what's really going on.

I'm definitely going to build on this character and may even change his (both) appearance to be more interesting than it already is. Otherwise, I think he / they look pretty smooth and clean.

Current Progress:

[Remi-chan]

Look at y'all, being so productive! I feel like the tables have been utterly turned on me!

If you're wondering... the dry spell is a result of more or less waiting on my artists to get a connection where they can send their files.

Until such a time as that, all I really have to do is small fixes and produce content for Sanctuary and Apophis Labs.

Speaking of the latter, I got it almost complete. Here's but one scene among the multitude.

What Lazarus Truly Fights For

Many of these scenes with Lazarus are very hard-hitting. This one might be the most showing of his growth as a character who would simply kill or relocate intruders elsewhere. Who was solely obsessed with keeping the cosmos going only so he could do more science. But his heart has been reached, and he has learned to appreciate the scope of what he's fighting for. Tristy has been a very good influence on him. He's a good bio-dad!

In Intelligence, his way of handing Tristy was very abrupt and abrasive. Calling her 'Experiment #314" and "Labrat". Nowadays he calls her by the name she chose: Tristy, even when mildly irritated by her.

Lazarus is a complex character who started out more shallow. While science is still his hobby, his cause is more than that, now.

[DerVVulfman]

Still toiling away at Half Kaisers and more...



Here is a preview of things to come.  And yes, this feature does suggest the ability to alter the color balance of an image in a range for (-255 to 255), this for what graphics have an "RGB" designation in their filename. 



The original half-kaiser graphics in the above window was actually 100% grayscale.  But I upped the red a little while decreasing the green and blue.  Suddenly, it is no longer gray.



Based upon what I did with CharGen Ex, I am including presets for RGB-based graphics. And for body-types, you have the so-suggested skin tones.  I mean... if you applied a color-balance change to resource that HAS a color... it would get borked.   And yes, there are three sets presented above.  How to make split-layer graphics in the editor as I did with CharGen Ex will be a real pain.



Color Presets will have its own config file, just as CharGenEx.  And with that, the text describing the presets (aka the buttons) can be changed.  Upon thinking, it shouldn't be too hard to use a variation of CharGenEx's own existing Colors file.



When in this window, you only 'currently' have options just to alter the color balance of the layer defined.  If you were altering the body layer, you do not change the color balance of eyes.  If you were just changing the shirt or pants of a character, bringing up color balance will not change the hair.  So when this window is up, you either change the colors, or hit Exit to return to the rest of the editor.  I do plan to make a Zoom button (I like Zoom).  But I want every other option unavailable so nothing goes wrong.



There IS a major drawback to this feature.    The color balance feature is not an innate part of the RPGMaker executable, but is in-fact a script. And since scripted code takes longer than code built-into the editor itself, it takes longer to process the color change. And if the resources are the size of the Half Kaiser Battler Project, it can take 'seconds' to adjust a bitmap's color



Saving a WIP and reloading it to continue are already worked out.  And generating a final .png file works fine. But it has other things needing taken care of to keep the bitmap image color 'secure' when going from one graphic to another.

[Kain Nobel]

New Characters

Princess Jean Gayle Hera

Eldest Princess of the Kingdom of Hera. She supports "democracy" abroad but is not publicly perceived as a war hawk. When her middle sister, Catalina De Hera, goes missing and is accused of being a spy, she personally attends the arrest of the dissident and advocates for his execution for bringing such nasty and "unacceptably baseless" accusations against her sister and the kingdom.

Princess Annabella Sophia Til Hera

Youngest Princess of the Kingdom of Hera, academically gifted and meaner than a hungry bulldog. To be fair, her life experiences involve attempted harm and kidnapping to her person, so she fails to see that there is good in the common people. She went from being the closely protected baby of the family to becoming one of the harshest of royal personalities, often coming on talk shows and news segments to taunt and criticize the criminal elements which exist within her kingdom. When foreign policies are being inked, and world leaders aren't towing the line, she goes on a media blitz with nothing but scorn, shame and ridicule to those who don't share the kingdom's vision. When her middle sister (Princess Catalina De Hera) goes missing, she does and says nothing because she hates her sister with a passion for reasons unknown.

John Jackson

John Jackson is the personal bodyguard for the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Hera. He has a rather interesting pre-game history which will slowly be discovered and elaborated on as events unfold. As it currently stands, it is debatable if he'll become a main party member (or even a villain) but we'll see where this particular character belongs as the story develops.

Current Progress

Royal Family:


Royal Bodyguards:


Main Characters:


Character Notes

• Keen readers may note that there is a Jack Johnson (bodyguard of the King) and John Jackson (bodyguard of the Crown Prince.) These two men share similar names and roles in the story. However, they have contrasting histories, which eventually leads to resentment between the two of them. While they may appear to handle their duties with the upmost professionalism, this situation will eventually spill over to become a problem...
  
• The 2nd bodyguard, John Jackson, may potentially become a main character (or a villain). TBD.
  
• Previous statements of Princess Catalina De Hera becoming a main party member are purely speculative and unlikely. TBD.
  
• The main character Clover has two designs; one official, one a potential makeover to disguise identity.
  

I wasn't intending to get this far with the character designs, but that's just a testament to how well made a Staples stylus is. Had I done this with a regular dollar store stylus, I would've most likely ruined two styluses per person. 3 dollar store styluses were harmed in the making of these characters, and 1 Staples stylus has suffered a minor injury but is still usable.

[kyonides]

 I guess that the eldest daughter of the royal family is the one that looks the best of all the princesses.
Not my intention to insult your work in any form, but Clover truly looks like a moron to me.
It's like who on earth would ever think that he could ever "kidnap" the middle sister?

By the way, why haven't you created any exclusive thread for showcasing all of your characters?

[Kain Nobel]

I suppose I could, I'm just a numbskull. Wasn't really planning on drawing so many characters in a week, I thought maybe it'd just be like 4 or 5 tops. In hindsight, had I known I'd be getting north of 5, I would've just created a thread :3

Clover really is a moron. A lucky moron. His disguise is not very clever, especially with today's technology.

Shadow



Shadow is the 2nd official main party member. Note that Shadow is not Clover's dog, he actually belongs to different company, on a different continent, to a character that I've yet to draw. His battler is a page or two back. Already naturally intelligent and trained for military service.

[Remi-chan]

Clover is giving me the same vibes as this dude.


I think the eldest princess looks nice, but I prefer how the younger one looks. She looks a tad south-east asian due to her somewhat slanted eyes and the facial structure. Kinda looks a bit like Starmage, who lives in the Philippines if I'm recalling right. None of this is a bad thing, Starmage is a beautiful person.

Oh? What...? You want to know what I got done?

Hum... well then. I'm afraid I don't have much to show, but I do have some news.

Pjcr will be getting me all of his files on July 14-15th.

Xiie should have internet within the month.

I am basically done with my work --sans bug fixing-- until they get their asses in gear.

What's that? You want to know what I will do in the interim? Huh... I guess I haven't really thought about it too much? I do intend to work on another game or two during this moment of opportunity. Most likely, Intelligence Multi-verse. But Junked is a consideration, as well.

I would work on Flight but I'm gonna wait until I have the portraits for Mad E. Lin, who is a major character in the game, having the Spriteopian portraits would help, also.

I've gotta start compiling the work orders for Disk 3 and Disk Δ, I already know basically the volume... and it's amazing how little it is. or perhaps... it's more accurate to say how not monstrously overloaded it is. Disk 2, content wise, has been an absolute monster for everyone involved. myself with all the events I've had to make, my artists for all the assets they've had to make, and DerVVulfman for all the testing he'd had to go and do.

It's pretty incredible, really. That for the final two disks of the game. The amount of portraits is half what it was for just one of the work order documents of Disk 2, and on top of that, instead of two separate work orders, there's only one.

More or less: There's a quarter as much work involved.

Pjcr's conviction and commitment is scary sometimes. He recently finished the utterly absurd amount of work orders for Disk 2, and he's already asking me for more? What's with this excellent brat!?

Fortuneately, there's always more that can be done. For the observant among you, you may have noticed all but a few exceptions in the portraits who are front facing, where just about everything else is on a 3/4 view.

Esperia and the two antagonists meet that criteria. Originally, the design choice was intentional in the Twins' case, as the whole gimmick is that they were always watching. So it felt more personal when they looked right at the player.

But all this really does is create a noticeable dissonance, especially when Esperia shares in that behaviour for no real reason. There is one, but it's based in antiquity, not intentional design.

So until I can get the work orders ready, I put Pjcr to work on angling the Twins and Esperia. The main reason is more mechanical than for appearances.

All three of these behemothian characters have wings, and large ones. Esperia's cover three quarters of the screen, and when Yi outstretches hers, they are similarly dominating. The 3/4 angle hels subdue the otherwise larger-than-life wingspan by way of perspective, which is ideal since portraits already tend to take up anywhere from a fifth to a third of the screen.

This also provides a significant bonus because it gives me assets to work with in cinematics. A good example is the PH Esperia I am using for FS11 when Yi kicks her really hard. Just before the blow lands, a bizarre image shows of Esperia that twists the intention of the scene and shows a sudden and jarring consistency problem. There's a similar issue in FS06 when Yi goes to kick Esperia and misses due to a well-timed teleport, Yi's graphic for a moment changes to a very dated image of her being 3/4 which has a less jarring, but still noticeably inconsistent effect. In that same scene, Esperia is facing the camera, when she should be looking to her left, portraits of a 3/4 nature make this possible, but having the front facing ones help add intensity to moments like just after Esperia gets kicked in FS11 or the various moments Yi is talking not only to the people in her crosshairs, but the camera as well.

[Kain Nobel]

@Remi-Chan: Yes, I like the way the youngest princess turned out, even if the Asian look was accidental. Was hoping to make Clover look more Asian, and I may still go back to do just that because he is supposed to be the team's ninja archtype. He is a character of dumb luck and is supposed to be able to do some mean cartwheels and roundhouse kicks.

Just uploaded some classic O.G. Versions of the "Lightning Strikes!" tracks (see the Music thread) plus a simple bass guitar cover of a Knight Blade song.

The submarine torpedo launch mini-game / challenge has been built and tested, but it's very raw and basic for now. I'll be layering this mini-game with some CHAOS and DESTRUCTION, the player will be bamboozled and have to decide between continuing the assault or saving themselves from drowning. Bits and pieces of the massive engine room unit are getting detailed to look like an actual chunks of submarine equipment. The lower level, which was previously inaccessible, is temporarily opened but it's nothing but a bunch of empty chambers (for now). This will later serve as a mobile HQ, so I'll have to begin planning out what exactly is going on down there.

Might extend character design tasks past the scheduled Sunday cut-off. A proper thread has been drafted but I haven't posted it public yet. Other characters are on the list for a later date, but I might just start them as soon as tomorrow.

EDIT: Character thread posted.

[DerVVulfman]

Okay, so... the sprite is ... now Flag Striped?

Well... yes.  Or at least you can see that the body bitmap in the window has been separated into three sections, a top, a middle and a bottom.  And I had chosen to set different colors to each third using the color panel shown here.

The left portion of the color panel is set to an RGB (or Red/Green/Blue) setting of 255,0,0.  And as it controls the top portion of the bitmap, the stop portion is vibrantly red. 

The middle portion of the color panel has some red but more green set to it.  This generates a more yellowish green hue which affected the middle portion of the bitmap.

And the right portion of the color panel  increases the red, touches upon the green, and adds a good amount of blue. This color set affects the bottom portion of the bitmap giving off a nice purple look.

---

Now, it is NOT that the left panel affects the top of every bitmap, or that the right panel affects the bottom.  It is actually that the rendered body shown in the window is composed of ... three different layers.  Sort of like what I am presenting below:

Here, I am sort-of presenting a frame  from THREE different sprite-sheets.  When combined, the three spritesheets would appear as a single body. However, the color and hue of each component can be altered.  And for those that remember using CharGenEx, indeed, I am setting up the possibility for multi-layered graphics for any resource.  

Now what does that mean?  

Imagine that you have a 'shirt' resource with a nice collar.  The shirt itself may be red.  But the collar portion of the shirt may be yellow. And the buttons blue. If the shirt is a multi-layered resource, the shirt, the collar and the buttons would be individual sheets and each could have their colour and hue altered to suit your tastes.   And the same for any armor, weapon or accessory.

This too could be applied to the actual character body.  For normal human types, you would tend to just have a single layer. But for those with animal appearances, a secondary layer may depict fur covering  the bulk of the body, and even a lighter fur underbelly. And to not offend, this can be attributed to those of the amphibian or lizard varieties as well.

Understandably, there is much work to perform to have this completely functional. After having added the secondary and tertiary layer system, it has issues loading single-layer resources. But that is a minor technicality.  I have not tested the save/load feature so one can have a more detailed WIP, nor the final Create Image system that finally produces a .png file.  Those too should be elementary issues to tackle.

The issues I will need to deal with are those related to image selections, window locking and other content so the settings a user applies stays applied.  Meanwhile, I am considering the use of the RGB Color balance system for all resources, not just any with RGB in the title. Likewise, this would mean that hue and color balance could be applied in tandem.  Tricky, but possible.

... I just wish there was a faster means to adjust the color as the current process involves a script that cycles through every individual pixel in a bitmap.  Decently fast if the resources are small, but may be quite slow for large scale resource files.


EDIT:  Okay, I just ensured that the [Load File], [Save File] and [Create Image] features work.  I had to do a little 'extra' work on the load system if all the bitmaps are altering their color balance en-masse.  I found I needed to put in a slight delay mechanism into my color balance script so it would execute "Graphics.update" every so often, lest RPGMaker believes the script is hanging.  Nothing big... it runs Graphics Update after every 100,000 pixels changed.  Yeeeeeeaah, that's a lot of pixels.  If it was an existing feature, I would not have had this problem.

And I gotta remember to put a Zoom button in the Color Balance window.

[Remi-chan]

Small update. Gerald's portrait was wayyy too large for his stature. He's like 3 ft tall at most.


And so, I endeavored to fix it.

Garfiel- I mean Gerald, is now much more in line.