Fatal Waters [V_1.0]

[Lt. Fox]

Hello RMVXP. This is a simple 30 minute game I made for a school project. As some of you may know by now, I'm planning to extend this game from 30 minutes to somewhere around 2 hours. People seem to be impressed by the game which drove me to extend it. If you would like to help on the game in any way, please contact me. Thanks!

WE NEED A SCRIPTER!
I've been looking for someone to take a look and edit some bugs in the scripting portion of the game. There are only 5 and 2 scripts to be made. Please contact me if you want to help. Thanks!

Also, Fatal Waters was nominated for a .ORGY award! The category was Favorite Completed Game of 08-09. Thanks to EVERYONE who voted for FW and a very special thanks goes out to who nominated us! From what I remember, we didn’t place, but we came in 4th. Not bad at all…

The Game V_1.0
http://www.box.net/shared/2h8ebo0gn0

Long ago, the great Arbinan Sea once ruled half the planet of Sandora. Traders and merchant ships had to travel great distances to sell their goods they obtained from their journeys. Legend tell of an ancient pirate ship that is said to hold an untold amount of treasure. This ship became caught in a fierce storm centuries ago and was swallowed by the unforgivable sea...

Life on this planet was limited to the westernmost side and overpopulation was a major concern for the peoples that lived there. Crops and livestock we're scarce and the freshwater supply was anything but clean. Disease spread like rapid fire.

The citizens prayed to their gods for more land and soon their prayers were answered. The sea floor split open in an awesome display of seismic activity and volcanic eruptions. People flocked to the newly opened land in which they called Tulloch and once again lived very successful lives, up until the pandemic broke loose.

The crops and livestock grown and raised on the new land became toxic. People soon found out that the soil used to grow their crops had become extremely deadly due to the drainage of the sea water into the land. An antidote was made for the disease which cured the people and once again, people went on living great lives.

Our story takes place in a small village nested on the northernmost part of Sharnall. In this village lives our hero, Scott Lawson and his widowed mother. The two lived very successful lives up until Scott's mother became extremely ill. Doctors rushed to her side and concluded that the cure that once protected her, had mutated. The disease slowly became immune to the cure by altering her DNA.

Scott became worried and sought after an alternate cure for his mother. This is his story...


Name: Scott Lawson
Age: 21
Bio: A brave and courageous young man who cares for his mother on a daily basis. After her infection, he stands by her day by day making sure she is safe. Scott becomes fed up with watching his mother die and decides to find an alternate cure.


Name: Adam Patterson
Age: 19
Bio: Adam is Scott's best friend and side-kick although he is a coward. He has become extremely intelligent which makes up for his lack of strength. Adam aids Scott in his quest to find a cure for Scott's mother.

Mothers Room

This is the first scene in the game. Scott's mother lies sick on her death bed.

Dellina Forest

This is the connecting forest leading to the cavern you find in the game.

Dellina Forest w/ HUD showoff

Yet another pic of Dellina Forest. This is the new HUD system (prototype) I plan to add in FW.
Features include…
*HP, SP, and DASH bars
*Allies w/ bars.
*Players HUD tracks Time and Money along with current level
*Quick inventory. Allows up to 5 items in one slot. 8 slots total.
*I MIGHT add a EXP bar to track players and allies EXP…
*Minimap
*Quick Quest Log

Lost Cavern

This is a pic of the lost cavern Scott and Adam find. This picture shows the circle of light effect used in the game.

*Lockpicking (In new update only)
*Traps to navigate around (In new update only)
*Improved Graphics (In new update only)
*Quests (In new update only)
*UMS
*Circle of Light (In new update only)
*Chrono Trigger CMS (edited)
*Advanced weather
*Pause script
*Dash system (In new update only)
*Party Item Limit - Let’s you carry a certain amount of items. (In new update only)
*Skill shop
*Checkpoint system (In new update only)

Credit

Credit:
:SCRIPTS:
Ccoa, Zeriab, Eilei, SephirothSpawn, SDK Team, Sobeman459, Paradox
:GRAPHICS:
Scott Lawson, Dominic, Axerax, fox5, Erk, greenraven, Hypershadow180, Cos, CanadaATW, Pickle/IceAxe, PINDEAXP, Enterbrain, Coyotecraft, Arctrooper48, jbrist
:OTHER:
Advocate Bishop.
:SPECIAL THANKS:
CanadaATW, FOX5, Paradox, Kain_Nobel

*If you see anything I did not give credit for, please tell me and I'll be sure to add it

[Zeriab]

Since it appears my beta testing report didn't make through to your email, let me post it here instead.

---

When I test I focus very much on the functional aspects of the game.
Here are my findings:

Opening
The intro text is too fast.
A good trick to determine the right amount of time is to read it aloud.
I think a doubling of the waits would be suitable.
Having the option to skip or fast-forward is a good idea as well.

Overpopulation is in one word. It's not over population.

Why can you save games?
It's such a bother to go through the intro before going into the menu and going back to the title screen before you can continue your save.
I suggest changing the Main section so that if you have a save then you have the choice to continue it, otherwise you start directly.
See link: http://www.sendspace.com/file/3snx79

Sharnall - North
Why do you get an Auto Message when interacting with the barrels while it's Scott when interacting with the logs?
It's weird that the sign tells you that you can go south to the Port, but you cannot interact with the boat. I would suggest make an event which tells that it's not the time or something other than just having nothing.
The three houses are very buggy. Let me show you a map:

The red rings indicate passable areas which should not be passable.
The blue rings indicate inpassable areas which should be passable.
The yellow rings indicate areas which looks significantly differently in game.

Dellina Woods 1
One of the events in the bottom does nothing.
There is a passability error with the big tree that has a hole in it. You can walk on top of the hole.

Dellina Woods 2
You have 4 events for going back. The rightmost two shifts the player one to the left. The leftmost two events are fine.
Picking up the Persona Mushroom and going into the Item scene causes an error message telling that the 'Orange Mushrooms' icon is missing.

Dellina Woods 3
It's strange that you can use the Crystal Gem in combat. It's also strange that you can use them in the menu.
I would suggest put the Bandit events on Event Touch rather than Player Touch because then they can also attack by moving into the player instead of having the player move into them.
There is a little passability error if you go below the bird's nest where it comes on top of the player.
There are some problems with some of the trees cutting of other trees. You probably have to use events to solve the problem.

Dellina Woods 4
The event on (5,17) should transfer the player to (9,0) and not (8,0) as it currently does.
Self-switches are specific to the event, not the map. You could perfectly fine let them all use self-switch A.

Dellina Woods 6
Why does one of the bandits give a beef? It's a normal bandit, but a beef is given in the event without any notification.
It's weird that there is a road going right, but nothing happens if you try to go that way. I would suggest making the tiles near the edge impassable.

Dellina Woods 2 (again)
The icons for two items in the shop are missing: (Game crashing bug)
Sashweed
Persona Mushroom

Dellina Woods - Cave
There is no need to show the Cutscene Bars since they are already there. (You never remove them)
You can walk all over the cliffs. (I.e. they are all passable)
The log you cannot examine (brown) is partly passable and its priority is wrong. It should not go on top of the player.

Lost Cavern L1
The book is on top of the hero. It shouldn't be.

Lost Cavern L2
Put the Chest on Direction Fix to avoid it facing the hero.

Lost Cavern L4
Put the Chest on Direction Fix to avoid it facing the hero.

Hidden Cavern - Hole
If you go up to Lost Cavern L4 and climb back down you can go upwards on the ladder. Basically you can climb up, but nothing happens if you do. When you walk back down again you are asked if you want to climb up.
You can solve it by moving the player down after transferring him in the whole event in Lost Cavern L4.

Lost Cavern - First Cavern
There are passability problems on this map. I saw the mouse go into the wall and then crawl around in the dark area.
The Witch should be on Autorun trigger to prevent player movement rather than parallel processing.
Why can you battle with one of the bats? I was able to attack and kill it even though I was invisible.
This would not have been a problem had you used the Autorun trigger.
If you need processing before showing the map that a parallel process does then just make a separate event which you erase.
Additionally I was able to move upwards and thus make the map scroll.

Lost Cavern B1
I really don't like you having a parallel event which constantly uses a 'Set Move Route' on the player.

Lost Cavern B2
The right-most event going back to B1 should transfer the player to (10,19) instead of (9,19)
Why does the entire party recover from fighting Captin Longbeard John?

Hidden Cave
Direction Fix should be put on the Corpse to prevent it from changing.

Lost Cavern B3
The spikes right below where the mouse starts should make the hero jump up, not down. (-1 instead of +1 y)
Currently the player becomes trapped.

Lost Cavern - Ship Wreck
It's weird that you don't have any events for going back or telling the player that you cannot go back.
When Jason punches Adam, Adam changes to a different character for a short moment. In that place in the event you turn Direction Fix ON twice, why?

Mother Better Room
Is it their any reason you use Captin rather than Captain? Or is it just a spelling error?

Other
Carrot has None as scope and thus have no effect when used. (Well, other than the possibility of losing a turn in battle)
SDK => changes to Scene_Title and Scene_Menu are ignored.

As for the bgm fading it can be fixed by a small edit to the Lockpicking script.
Find line 286 and delete the contents there.
The part before:

Code:

#--------------------------------------------------------------------------
  # * Main Processing : Ending
  #--------------------------------------------------------------------------
  def main_end
    Audio.bgm_fade( 2000 )
  end

The part afterwards:

Code:

#--------------------------------------------------------------------------
  # * Main Processing : Ending
  #--------------------------------------------------------------------------
  def main_end
#    Audio.bgm_fade( 2000 )
  end

*hugs*
- Zeriab

[Lt. Fox]

Damn, that's a lot of stuff to edit... lol

Thanks for testing Zeriab! Thanks especially for the lockpicking fix!
I've fixed most of the problems. Before you posted here, I fixed the Save and Load problem. i knew it was a problem so I just called script.

As soon as I get the 2 script edits finished and a few errors fixed, the new update will be avaliable to the public. Check back in guys!

[Zeriab]

I was rather methodological in my testing and throughout in my testing.
I did not play it as I would have were I not testing it. This means I don't have a very good feel on the flow of the game. (I assumed other beta testers would cover that aspect)
Most of my comments are bugs which should just be fixed, no discussion or anything. I have made a few game design comments which unlike the technical bugs leaves room for a discussion. Even if I state it in a matter-of-fact way I suggest that you carefully consider what you want to, if you want to change anything at all. (You probably don't need telling, but just i case ;))

*hugs*

[Alpha-Mad]

Just started playing this. Will add more as I play through it.
First: During the intro, you are able to walk around between speech bubbles. I usually correct this by making the hero's transparency 0 then using all sprites for cutscenes. That way, walking around doesn't matter because the player can't see them.

[computerwizoo7]

Hey Zeriab shouldn't the bottom of the ladder be passable to allow climbing?

[Zeriab]

Oh, you are right. That issue is not a passability issue, but a priority issue. The problem was that you went under the stairs.
Whether you are allowed to climb the stairs is another matter. It's a decision to take. Do you or don't you allow the player to climb the stairs?

[computerwizoo7]

It would make sense to do so, if you want to make the game more interactive.
you don't want the player seeing a stairs that they can walk up to but can't climb?

[Lt. Fox]

Thanks guys, I've fixed most all the issues you've talked about. Including passability.

Well, I updated the main post. Added a new screenshot showing off my new HUD system. New features added. And over at RMXP.org, FW was nominated for a .ORGY! In which we did not place at, but came in 4th. I'm VERY proud of the game and plan to carry on till it's done.

Right now, I'm having trouble keeping my word. I said there would be a new demo released soon and well... I lied. Our scripter went to college and doesn't have time for RMXP anymore so... the positions open! Please, if you'd like to help as a scripter, please contact me. Currently, all I need is 2 scripts and a very few bug fixes. Thanks, have fun!

[Guest]

Played the new demo after a few setbacks. Game is pretty interesting. Jewels quest was ok but the jewels were kind of frustrating to find. Especially the last one. Couldn't really see it. Definitely could use a cbs but he is working on that. The intro is solid and the game is well mapped. Probably would want to go with some kind of system to have the enemies come to you if they see you instead of having them do random movements. Also, when people are standing still, they still show moving animation. Looks a little funky. Got to the cave and was completely blind because the screen was too dark. Either have it where you get the torch earlier on or at least let the player see where they are going a tad so they can get to the torch. Couldn't play any further due to the fact that once i saved when i had the torches the game was looking for a file that wasnt present. And the error continued even if i tried to load. Silne30 signing out.