The Weekly Gazette 10-20-2024

[DerVVulfman]

(October 14 to October 20, 2024)

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

Announcements and Updates

It was early this week that DerVVulfman continued relaying about the Forum Updates Happening, how the archive board for the now-extinct RPG Maker Central website has grown, now factoring in over 1200 threads, and roughly 150 RPGMaker MV plugins though his work not complete. He also relayed how many were by a handful of scripters, though some by veteran coders within both Save-Point and RPGMakerWeb as well. But along with that, he also added that the scripts native to Save-Point still being worked upon by its authors, only a scant fifty needing to be split in two for their respective game development engines.

Occasions

A new member named FriKitty appeared, mostly as there's need for some coding assistance with RPGMaker MV and FriKitty's talents lend towards the graphically artistic and not towards the underlying javascript. Like FriKitty, DerVVulfman admits he has no talent towards java, more skill in graphics other than his ruby scripting. And kyonides relayed how others react to RTP graphic use. After that, Remi-chan appeared and revealed she was the inspiration for this Feline and Red-Panda fan's appearance while reminding FriKitty that a discord for the forum too exists.

General Chat

This week's News of the World was the stunning death of Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas and chief orchestrator of last year's October 7th massacre. Confirmed to have two bodyguards from the U.N with him, and confirmed to have a UNRWA teacher's passport to evade capture, he was the last of the three top commanders involved in the massacr. With his death, Israel issued demands to the now decimated Hamas to release the last 100 hostages, though the terror group remains defiant. As expected, Hezbollah and Iran threatened retaliation, but Israel's planned responce to the nearly-two-hundred missile barrage had not yet been delivered. For the U.S.'s top law enforcement, things appear bleak, admitting that child sex trafficking has tripled under the Biden administration, that the FBI re-released the 2022 crime stats showing violent crime had actually risen as former President Trump accurately stated, and that a Bi-Partisan report stated the Secret Service itself needs to be fundamental changes otherwise another 'Butler' (Pennsylvania) incident would occur, this after an incident at another Trump rally. But despite the man having loaded guns, fake passports and fake license plates, law enforcemetn claim it was not another assassination attempt. Between Ukraine and Russia, it was revealed that North Koreans are now supplying troops to bolster Putin's army. But for Ukraine, troops are not an issue, weapons and equipment are. Vice President Harris's interview on Fox News was considered the most watched with over seven million viewers, yet refused to answer anything about military aid to Israel,kept pivoting away when asked how she felt about Biden's fitness, and sidestepped questions about the money that went to Iran. This while reports show she intends to have former President Trump prosecuted as her administration would be on track for over 10 million more migrants. And if anyone forgot how Ms Harris had been copying all the campaign promises of Donald Trump, plagiariazed Martin Luther King's 1965 "Fweedom" account, a bombshell report showed that Harris's book "Smart on Crime" contained plagiarized material, some articles copied virtually verbatim from the Wikipedia. Iranian operatives identified in Nicaragua as the communist nation cuts ties with Israel, cartel gunmen attack a newspaper office in Sinaloa, Mexico, Bolivian socialist former president Evo Morales threatens to starve the nation over human trafficking and rape charges, the death of ‘South Pacific’ Star Mitzi Gaynor at 93, the Trump vs Harris McDonald's Fries discussion and more hit this week's news.
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Tech Talk

The threat of AI and the threat to free speech hit this week's News of the Cyber World. First, an AI Girlfriend site was breached, with reports of the users now being extorted. Parents of a Massachussets student are suing the school district for punishing the student whom used AI, this despite the school policy and handbook stating AI use was explicitly prohibited. And an expert witness in New York gets blasted by the judge for his reliance on Microsoft's Chatbot for his testimony and could not recount how his calculations were arrived. Meanwhile, the E.U.s' outgoing Vice President calls on a 'whole-society' approach to squash perceived disinformation, even after findings show no disinformation played a role in the recent Parliament elections, and labeled Elon Musk a promotor of evil for his stance on freedom of speech and against censorship. Its been bad luck for Tech Giants, as both Google and Amazon have been found cozying up to the Office of U.S. Trade Representative to undermine overseas regulations. And Microsoft's hypocrisy becomes apparent as they both warn against chinese cybersecurity hacks whilst maintianing ties to a CCP run science academy. Tesla under investigation after car crash fatalities, Meta firing staff across board, Amazon and Google going nuclear, and more hit this week's cybernews.

A new Digital Defense Report issued by Microsoft announced that both Russia and Iran are indeed collaborating with Chinese Hackers against all their adversaries, Russia outsourcing to China to inviltrate Ukrainian systems whilst a Chinese Hacker promoted anti Israeli influence on Iran's behalf.

Games Development

Development Discussion

For those active in game design, the idea of making manditory boss/target kills a requirement for attaining levels was What's up with kyonides. And Remi-chan revealed that she's been productive, releasing a video revealing the updated battlesystem and the new vocal artist for Sacreblu during battle whilst our own Siletrea still voices the teenage Solar Powerhouse facing her in combat.

Solitare was curious this week, if Anyone Ever Tried to Create A Game+ System?. DerVVulfman didn't have such a system, but relayed how he reworked the entire menu system not to pause game during a Zelda-like battlesystem, getting a chuckle out of Solitaire and Remi-chan. However, Zeriab did make such a feature, noting how his version stored the data in a separate file, bot unlike how he made game import systems for others. And while Remi was surprised by Zeriab's sudden and rare appearance, Solitaire was indeed impressed, and surprised by what could actually be done with what's been read.

Complete Projects

This week, Starmage was in the mood to release new trailers from her previous game jam entries. Restoring Falmay is a classic RPG of the SNES fantasy era, classic RTP graphics overshadowed by its symphonic score. And her Summer game jam entry of A Sun-Kissed Fantasy takes one to a modern era island resort with surfing, swimming and hip-hop beats.

Upcoming Projects

The next demo for BlueSkies 3 was up during Steam's Next Fest. You can head to Steam to the Arcane Mastery Tournament with Candace. But it ended before the gazette post. Fortunately, Starmage posted a couple of Lets Play videos some time after.

Code Support

Solitaire was determined to acquire the GW Animated Battle backs script so he can use it with Victor Sant's Atoa ACBS, and eventually got something barely legible from the now-contitionally active Internet Archive. DerVVulfman discovered there were plenty of illegal and hidden characters, and both he and kyonides went back and forth posting script content while Solitaire tested the work. Eventually, Solitaire posted a demo which DerVVulfman examined, returning a revised demo of his own. And while the script isn't generating an overlapping second battleback, Solitaire said it appeared to be functional.

Material Development

Scripts Database

RPGMaker XP (RGSS) Engine

Formerly known as KAftermathSpoils, kyonides redubbed his script KAftermathSpoils as it now offers new ways to increase and decrease gold earned after battle.

RPGMaker VX/VXAce (RGSS2/3) Engines

Just as he did with the RPGMaker XP counterpart, kyonides redubbed the RPGMaker VX and Ace battle-treasure scripts KAftermathSpoils as they too now offer new ways to increase and decrease gold earned after battle.

For those who are interested in the Tankentai Battlesystem for RPGMaker VX, kyonides adapted Battle Item Count VX + ACE to work with Crimsonseas' "Targetting Extended for Takentai Non-ATB".

The Trader's Workshoppe

Now available for users of RPG Developer Bakin is the Pixelscapes DLC. Textures for buildings interior and exterior there are both Town Packs not unlike towns in Zelda or the RPGMaker Town -based RTP tiles, and the Forest Pack for dirt paths amidst verdant trees, and rustic buildings both inside and out.

The Halloween Sale with 50% off at Haxo Game Studios is about to begin. Starting this up-coming Friday, everthing will be half price.. But if half price isn't enough of a bargain, HGS announced an even sweeter deal. Buy all the items available for only 39.99€ instead of 128.00€, less than 1/3rd the original price. But remember that this is a limited time offer, ending on the 4th of November.

Creativity Section

Music and Audio

Two more compositions have arrived within DoubleX's Music Room, one being his first. "False Hope" was not a favored composition, though some DoubleX did find some parts workwhile. And "Cry Until I'm Blind" is a piece that he suggests to highlight a distressing scenario.

Continuing with his late 80s collection of pieces is Eric Matyas, whom continues tol Share His Original Music. Recently added to his Puzzle Music room is "Candy Smash", a composition with techno highlights amidst a more contemporary drum and bass guitar rhythm.

Art and Design

For those with the need to render brickwork or slabs of sone with coarse, dark grains showing, then you may wish to peruse the Massive Library of Free Images created by Eric Matyas. This week, he added three new 2048x2048 stonework textures, two of which not dissimilar to granite with its visible grains. The third texture, dark as it is, may be some form of igneous rock like granite, but far more shale in appearance.

Well, that's it for this week.

“Things are more like they are now than they ever were before.” - Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)

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.

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