The Weekly Gazette 10-06-2024

[DerVVulfman]

(September 30 to October 6, 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

  Occasions

Working on a short game, mayari[Thread] rekindled some love for RPGMaker XP, though experienced with VX through to MV. Admitting to likely be more of a Lurker, mayari is an avid writer and loves playing Final Fantasy 14 with friends.  Besides writing, mayari enjoys eventing cutscenes, and was greeted by DerVVulfman and Remi-chan.

Experienced with RPGMaker XP for a decade comes [Thread=9870]AdPro whose hobby is translating games from Japanese into English and other languages.  From his perspective, Save-Point is the only place that still holds a large collection of XP scripts. Greeted he was by DerVVulfman whom also translated scripts from Japanese to English, kyonides who boasts that XP scripts are still being written, and Remi-chan whom threw out a jab at a forum wthat no longer caters to classic content.

Having just purchased RPGMaker XP from a humble bundle comes thorgibrewer. New to any game development, he is looking forward to reading tutorials and study as much as he can for his project. DerVVulfman heard the project title and inquired if it was based upon a classic computer RPG game, while kyonides noted that theres a cadre of scripters and coders for whatever engine he chose.

  General Chat

The expected debate between US Vice President nominees Waltz and Vance was thought to have become the News of the World this week, but was overshadowed by the war in the Middle East. Iran and its sympathisers in Syria mourned the death of the mass murderer Hassan Nessrallah, with Iran launching a ballistic assault of nearly two-hundred missiles targeting the whole of Israel, civilian populations and all. Israel began going after proxies, actively targeting Hezbollah positions and killing a Hamas Commander who was also a member of the UNRWA. During Israel's ground war, they uncovered that Hezbollah plan for an even larger October 7 murderous assault.  Meanwhile, Ukraine's war against Russian aggression heated up as Moscow launched a thermobaric, or air-fuel bomb, targeting a civilian city decimating it. But not only did Russia use one of the largest non-nuclear bombs ever, it was discovered that Chinese Mercs are now conscripted. However, Ukraine fought back, striking Russian airbases, tanks, oil fields, and successfully testing its newest ballistic missile. And despite threatening the US with a nuclear threat, Russia shot down one of its own military jets and fired upon the wrong targets in the Black Sea. In Mexico, turf wars have been waging between cartels, even alongside beach resorts. One vacationer lost his life at the Riu Hotel in Cancun to cartel gunmen on Jet Skis. Meanwhile, twelve bodies were discovered scattered throughout the city of Salamanca in Guanajuato, the murders also related to turf war violence. The bodies were only discovered after an unknown gunmen attacked a rehabilitation center, killing four and injuring five others. As towards the US Vice Presidential Debate, Kamala Harris's VP pick referred to the current administration as hers and not President Biden's and Walz attempted to correct his record over his false claim of being at the Tiananmen Square Massacre. CBS laid ground-rules that there would not be any fact checking. But when they decided to fact-check Vance, Vance responded back and corrected the CBS moderators whom chose to turn off the mics to silence him. And the CBS moderators attempted to claim Iran was weakened under the Harris administration, a claim false since Biden relaxed all sanctions and gave it access to the money which they've used to fund their proxies. After the debate, a video had resurfaced revealing Kamala Harris's claim that Trump would be the one provoking war with Iran. Hurricane Helene caused massive devastation killing roughly 200. Despite this, FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) announced they no longer have the funds. A division of Homeland Security, FEMA had been reportedly spent $1 Billion funds to house immigrants. Despite claims by the Harris Administration, Reports and news articles, even this past August, detail its $380 million sweetner to encourage towns to take them in; billions to migrants but only $750 per person in North Carolina. The deaths of movie stars John Ashton, Kris Kristofferson, TV personalities John Amos and Drake Hogestyn, and NBA's legendary Pete Rose, the endorsement of over two-hundred retired Generals and Admirals for former President Trump, practically all of Brazil covered in smoke from the most severe Amazon Rain-forest fire in over a decade, and more hit this week's news
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  Tech Talk

Censorship and free speech hit the News of the Cyber World this week as Brazil threatens Elon Musk $1.8 million over free speech while a Judge blocked California's Banning Deep Fake satires as protected speech. And while Mark Zuckerberg is being hit with a $102 Million fine over security failures, he's hoping Facebook will be not be remembered for its Surveillance and Censorship policies. Entertainment should stay out of politics, or at least finances have made that obvious, as cancellations with Netflix spiked when its CEO pleged millions to the Harris campaign. And Taylor Swift lost 2 million Spotify listeners after her Harris endorsement. Google itself is in hot water, New Zealand refusing to be bullied over its News Legislation bill that intends to promote fair commerce between media companies, and is under a lawsuit claiming Youtube is itself designed as an intentional addictive site targeting youths. After many years, WikiLeak's Julian Assange offered a guilty plea to stay out of prison, claiming he was incarcerated for journalism and not that he actually obtained and published U.S. military secrets. Bank Of America customers finding their bank accounts zero-ed out and empty, a new study showing AI-generated software has over 40% more errors than human-crafted code, and more hit this week's cybernews.

Games Development

  Development Discussion

If you like to share with others, feel free to say What's up with your RMing, as Steel Beast 6Beets continued the dialogue over one of kyonides's latest scripts. But the discussion went back and forth between editions of RPGMaker XP over the years with DerVVulfman surprising Steel Beast 6Beets that he may not have needed to repurchase the engine if he still had the license. However, Steel acquired it so long ago, he knows not where he bought it.  Later, DerVVulfman observed an odd difference in RPGMaker XP handling damage from items, a difference not replicated in any RPGMaker engine since.

  Complete Projects

Only released two weeks ago, and Starmage's Restoring Falmay already has a TV Tropes page by Bugfragged.

For a limited time, you can get Rave Heart for just half price. Steam chose to run a sale on Turn-Based RPG games, but the sale ends on Monday, the 7th of October.

  Upcoming Projects

This week, you can get two of Starmage's games on Steam for just 50% of the price.  Until this Monday, October the 7th, you can find both Heroes of the Seasons and Stellar Bewitching (Remastered) at half price during Steam's Turn-Based RPG Fest.

  Code Support

Last week, Bennerdeben asked for help crafting A Skill that throws enemies, or to apply additional damage to random enemies after a defined skill hits a target.  What DerVVulfman created pleased him, but found an issue with the code if the enemy troop only had one member. DerVVulfman was already on top of it, offering a replacement script. And before Bennerdeben even asked for more features, DerVVulfman replied he had those features in the works, and more.

Material Development

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  RPGMaker XP (RGSS) Engine

There are a few battle-systems that display the order in which the combatants fight. But this week, kyonides released his KTurnOrder XP script for RPGMaker XP which lets you see which battlers are engaged and when it becomes their time to attack. While only recently released, kyonides returned to update the hud system as well as the attacking battler icons.

In some games, the party heals immediately after combat. But it is usually an all-or-nothing situation. That did not sit right for kyonides, and he chose to put together KAftermathHealing XP to grant the game developer some options few considered. This new script for RPGMaker XP allows the party to heal, indeed. But now the degree of healing may depend upon how well they  performed in combat.

Additional work was performed upon KEnemySwitch XP, and now kyonides added a feature where the game developer sets how many actual troop combinations must be beaten before combat finally ends.

  RPGMaker VX/VXAce (RGSS2/3) Engines

There are a few battle-systems that display the order in which the combatants fight. But this week, kyonides released his KTurnOrder VX script for RPGMaker XP which lets you see which battlers are engaged and when it becomes their time to attack.

In some games, the party heals immediately after combat. But it is usually an all-or-nothing situation. That did not sit right for kyonides, and he chose to put together KAftermathHealing VX + Ace to grant the game developer some options few considered. This new script for RPGMaker VX and VXAce allows the party to heal, indeed. But now the degree of healing may depend upon how well they  performed in combat.

  Resources Database

If you are in the need of static battlers, rejoice!  The Art of Nemo is a collection of monsters which kyonides found at an Itch.io website. Quick to review, Mel took a look and was very much impressed. But do pay attention as there are both free collections as well as those needing payment.

Creativity Section

  Music and Audio

If you are working on a light-hearted but action-packed science fiction game, then today you will find new themes to revel with the Original Music supplied by Eric Matyas. For some levity, he created a pair of melodies entitled "Coin-Op Low Rider". And by pair, I mean that one version is an extended track release. He continued on with his synth scores with another composition for his "Light Puzzles" series, and then composed "Dreaming of Puzzles" for those who want something uplifting and energetic. And lastly, Eric released  "Cyber Cruising" which would befit any game scene where the hero travels along the streets and highways of a neon city, and "Spaceman Spiff" a tribute to the sci-fi alter-egoes to Calvin and Hobbes.

  Art and Design

For those who wish something other than sand to walk upon, the crunch of leaves, or the hardness of cobblestone, The Massive Library of Free Images which Eric Matyas is working upon may have something you need. This week, he released two new ground textures, dark, rough and green.

Well, that's it for this week.

"The second day of a diet is always easier than the first. By the second day you're off it." - Jackie Gleason (1916-1987)

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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[Remi-chan]

This might be the only gazette in this ENTIRE YEAR (so far) where I was so utterly unproductive I didn't post anything and therefore, didn't have my name appear at all.