The Weekly Gazette 01-07-2024

[DerVVulfman]

(January 1 to January 7, 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

General Chat

Now into the new, the end of 2023 was on the mind of people like Remi-chan who appeared to have a few predictions, some for the future while others already came to pass. And for KasperKalamity, he has some advice for those in need of refrigeration during the winter months.

This week, Iran is now making bold appearances within this week's News of the World as it sent a warship to support Houthis aggression on all commercial travel in the Red Sea. But as the week began, a bomb exploded in Iran killing hundreds at Terror Chief Qasem Soleimani’s Tomb. Contrary to what some believed at the start, it wasn't an attack by Israel or its supporters, but by ISIS itself! However, Israel did kill the Deputy Leader of Hamas, with the Chief of Hezbullah threatening a 'No-Limits' war. The illegal migrant crisis is not just a thing within the U.S., but worldwide as Germany says it has reached its highest level since 2015, and the U.N. contronts Cuba over charges that the nation is selling its own citizens to countries like Qatar into slavery. But in the U.S., Director Mayorkas of the DHS has hidden an influx of an additional three-million the 2.3 that crossed the southern U.S. border in 2023. Courtroom drama too hit this week's news as the Supreme Court is set to hear former President Trump's appeal after Colorado removed him from the presidential election ballot. Judicial Watch had just filed a $30 Million wrongful death lawsuit againt the U.S. government in the death of Ashli Babbit, an Air Force veteran shot while unarmed on January 6. American victims of the October 7 Hamas Attack plan to sue North Korea for supplying the arms used by the terrorists. And after all these years, the first of the Jeffrey Epstein documents have been unsealed, revealing names associated with the late convicted sex offender. An independent study debunking the notion of Extremists in the U.S. military, Black Lives Matter joining in with Pro-Palestinans to clash with Police in London, England, Harvard's President resigns after her plagiarism and anti-semetic scandals, the arrest of Syria and Lebanese nationals in Argentina in connection to anti-Israeli terror plot, farmers in Germany block the Vice-Chancellor from disembarking in Schluettsiel in protest to cut in agricultural subsidies, and much more hit this week's news.
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Tech Talk

For those interested in the News of the Cyber World, you may wish to reconsider Artificial Intelligence to serve your medical needs. Cohen's Children Medical Center recently put ChatGPT-4 to the test, and it scored a dismal 17% failing grade. If you were concerned about privacy, be forewarned that Facebook's new Link History feature tracks and stores your browser history while on its application. While claiming you will never lose a link again, the feature will also use your history to fine-tune ad targeting. Google claims it has worked out a 'Robot Constition' of sorts, based in spirit of Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics. And in the world of electric vehicles, Elon Musk's Tesla suffers from millions in vehicle recalls and reduced driving range. Of course, there is more to read if you are indeed interested in this week's CyberNews.

Games Development

Development Discussion

If you are the curious sort or the sort who wishes to share, then feel free to just say "What's up all you RMers!" Worried about game development on other PCs, Steel Beast 6Beets was curious if RPGMaker XP had issues with newer operating systems. Both DerVVulfman and kyonides quickly responded that none exist, and Remi-chan recommended using Windows 10 rather than the version 8.1 of which he was inquiring. Meanwhile, Remi-chan felt the need to show a pair of new youtube videos depicting upcoming conflicts within current and future games.

Complete Projects

Appearing this week is Just Another Crisis: The Shutdown, a game by kyonides, an entry into the One-Map Game Challenge at RPGMakerWeb. His game takes place on a small floating island as you explore the driving motivations of those who reside.

Upcoming Projects

Starmage's latest work is Heroes of the Seasons, an entry for a Christmas Jamboree. But while showing off his game, he also announced he was in need to raise money to pay an artist for a graphic makeover.

Material Development

Script Requests

A bug within kyonides' Battle Item Count VX was recently reported, but was quickly repaired.

Just this week, kyonides added two new options to RandomReward. The first option is to let events appear to win prizes. And the second is to actually rig the system to deliver a specified reward on command.

If you had issues with the actor being unable to fight unarmed, the Weaponless Aktor XP for RPGMaker XP by kyonides may be just what you want. The initial attack values which delivers combat damage may now be set or changed during gameplay.

If your RPGMaker VXAce game has need of something other than traditional skill points to deliver an attack, the Skill Item Kost ACE by kyonides can let you use items in their place.

Per a request, kyonides fashioned his Skip Title Once script. Designed for the Ruby-Script line of RPGMaker engines, you can bypass the title screen at game start. Of course, kyonides has no illusions that other scripts similar do exist.

Note tags tend to act as extra fields of data for custom script systems. But kyonides' Switch Tags allows you to use them to handle the built-in RPG Switches, turning them on and/or off. Originally designed for RPGMaker VXAce, a version for RPGMaker VX was quickly released.

Creativity Section

Music and Audio

If you have a game that heralds back to the 80ss, then be glad that Eric Matyas is Sharing His Original Music and Sounds. The latest two pieces, "Spiff Spacely" and "Pixel Cha-Cha" surely deliver the ambience of the 8-bit techno style, even if the latter work has a slightly latin edge. Meanwhile, Eric is contemplating the use of the .wav format instead of .mp3 for his released tracks, a tradeoff of larger-sized files for better quality audio.

Art and Design

A new year unfolded this week, and within Remi-chan's Neato Arty thread thing you can see the fruits of her labor. A calendar with one of her artworks per month.

Literature Section

A prelude of things to come within her game involving three sisters and the fate of all now appears within Remi-chan's Writing Snippets. As the creator of the simulation the sisters are a part begins to twinge in heartache, the three girls resolve to face an obstacle more powerful and dangerous.

Well, that's it for this week.

"I can give you a definite perhaps." - Samuel Goldwyn (1879-1974)

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.