The return of randomness

Cogwheel & Another0

So I haven't been working.

What have I been doing then?

I've been playing Nocturne Rebirth!

It's a japanese RMXP game by Cogwheel and a plethora of other skilled dudes. Seriously, it's one of the best RM games I've ever played. Sure, I don't understand a word of it, but the game is so well crafted and awesome that it doesn't matter to me. I'm about 5 hours into the game so far and it's epic stuff. The battle system is awesome, the field handling is awesome, the level up system is awesome. Everything is just so awesome! D:

And it's HARD.

Random enemy groups can kill you if you're not at the top of your game. And bosses will slaughter you time and time again until you finally figure them out. Hell, the second boss had me raging for about 7 tries till I finally figured out it's gimmick. Right now I'm on the 4th boss and I just narrowly lost to it. :|

But yes, this game is a shining example of what RMXP can do if you're not a 'copy/paste 500 random scripts, make my game for me!' moron that seems to plague the western RM communities! If you don't mind playing in jp, then I highly suggest giving it a try! Click on Cogwheel's name under the picture!

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In other news, our little circle 'Cloudreach' decided to start up a chain game. It's a sort of game creation event where one person works on a game and then passes it along to another person till everyone participating gets a turn. I thought it was an interesting idea, having everyone work on a chain story where the next person in line decides where to take the previous person's story. So I decided to have a go at it. I'm currently working on my part at the moment and I'm almost done. Once I am, then I'll pass it along to the next person and then I'll get back to work on SEM. In the meantime, have some screenshots.







Later~

Christmas Update

Christmas? Are you trying to make me laugh? Disappear from my sight...

I share Flann's sentiments by the way. But enough of that! Enjoy your materialism day, all of you people with normal, stable lives!

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Moving on, I have an update for today. It was an idea I've had brewing for a while now. What is it?

I call it the Battle Ranking System. How does it work? Well you see; during battle your progress is actually being monitored behind the scenes. Once the battle is finished and you're back on the map, a battle report will show up and display how well you did. Based on certain variables in battle, you will get a score. Based on this score, you get ranked from either Rank D to Rank S. Depending on the rank you get, your SP/RP gain is multiplied anywhere from 2-5.

So basically it's to your benefit to do well in battle and get a good grade in order to increase your SP/RP gain! The values that affect your score are as follows;

Remaining LF: Each party member's remaining LF to taken as a percentage and that percentage is added to the score.

Remaining EP: Remaining EP is added to the score.

Souls Remaining: You gain or lose points based on if you've had no deaths, if you died a little, or if you died a lot.

Turns Taken: The amount of turns each member went is combined and then you gain or lose score based on the resulting value.

Brave Clear Complete!: This is a boss battle only condition. If you follow the Brave Clear Criteria during a boss battle, then you gain a huge bonus onto your total score.

And now for the Ranks and their multipliers;

Rank D - No gain, just the base value provided by the enemies, which isn't much on it's own. Ranking up will be a far off dream if you keep getting Rank Ds.

Rank C - Gain is multiplied by 2. It's more than Rank D, but it may not be sufficient for Ranking Up in a timely manner.

Rank B - The middle ground. Gain is multiplied by 3. It should be enough to comfortably get you to the next rank at average time.

Rank A - Gain is multiplied by 4. It's not Rank S, but this is just fine as well. This is usually what you plan to shoot for, since Rank S may be hard to consistently get.

Rank S - The best battle rank. Gain is multiplied by 5. You will get a lot of SP and RP with this Rank. Do your best to get this when possible. Usually you'll need Brave Clear Completes to get Rank S

Good news is, it's all set up! It's not just another throwaway concept. I think this will add more meaning to battles and the gaining of SP and RP.

Have a screenshot rundown! I'd post a video but I really don't feel like recording tonight.



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In closing have some art. JIHAUS thinks that Luxuria doesn't have enough art. So he drew some.



And with that, away I go!

Menu Update

So I spent all of yesterday working on the main menu. I finished the front end of it already. All party member displays along with Next RP, ACT/WAIT, and Soul Alignment work, and SP digits are in. I ran into some annoying bugs here and there, but it's done and sorted out now! Here's a rundown.


Here we have what shows when you press Esc/X on the map. It easily displays the amount of RP needed to advance to the next rank, who's active or waiting, and which Soul Alignment each character is set to. No LF or EP is shown since those values are replenished after every battle.



If you press right once entering the menu, then your party windows will be highlighted. You can scroll through them from left to right as you please.



Once you get to the character you want you can press Shift to change their battle condition from ACT! or WAIT. You only need one character to be active at any time, so you can go forth and do your crazy self imposed solo missions or whatever else you may have in mind!



Now if you press Enter/Z on a character, then their Soul Alignment shifts to another stat. The stat displayed will be the one that the character gets more of upon Rank Up. This is your new avenue of customization!

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I guess that's all for now. I'll be working on the status menu next. I can only thank god this isn't as extensive as SEB2. I can't wait to go back and start tearing down some walls once this is done, heh.

And to address the current poll. the amount of votes in each section will determine the frequency of puzzles. Judging by the current results, moderation seems to be the general consensus. Perfect. >:3

And I leave with art.

I cannot remember who did this, so fail for me!

What's that I hear? "What is this madness!? Caith's not in SEBR!"

Yeah? Well too bad!

*runs

Trucking onwards

Art by Jimmyly

Okay so freely grow clearly won the vote. I'll take that in mind when designing the Soul Evolution System.

My current 2nd draft idea for it at the moment was a sort of traditional level up system. Each character has a 'Rank', and when you win battles, you gain RP, or Rank Points. Once you gain enough RP, your characters will 'Rank Up'. Ranking up will increase a characters Life, PWR, PRY, and KNW each by /20 of their their current value.

What's the twist here? Well there are a few. The first is you can set each character to focus on a certain stat so that upon Rank Up, they gain more in that area. For example, you can set Priel to focus on KNW and then upon Rank Up, Priel will gain KNW equal to /15 it's current value rather than /20.

The second? There is no 'Rank Limit'. You can go past Rank 99 and keep growing your characters as you feel. Though as a limit of the digits I plan on coding it'll technically be Rank 999. But I doubt anyone will get that high...maybe.

The third is that you gain special passive abilities from Ranking Up. for example, at Rank 5 let's say a character will gain an ability to nullify critical hits. At Rank 10, a character will be able to use their Exceed Limit. At Rank 20 Revive Time is cut in half. And then at Rank 30 a character's Finish Burst/Sacred Will is available to use. These aren't exact values, but an example.

That's my plan at least.

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In other news, I've been doing spriting STILL. The amount of spriting that needs to be done seems endless, but I'd rather not think about it and just do it. It feels less like a chore that way. Have some previews.



Updating Gunnar's field sprites. Once I finish that I'll have to make misc field action sprites. Fun.



This one here is special. This is Veili's Ice Demon form. No worries it's not a spoiler. The intro will blow it up quite quickly. It's going to be funny. 8D

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And speaking of Veili's Ice Demon form. Here's the concept art for it.

Art by JIHAUS

That's all from my end. Back to work!

Fun with sprites + Question # 12839712

So I've been working on sprites, I'll show some now.



Remake of Gunnar's last OB, 'Element Sword'. It's one of the only two OBs that he kept from SEB1! We'll see how it turns out in the new version!



This is an enemy sprite sheet. There isn't much because monsters don't need much. one or two sets of attack frames for enemy FBs should do.

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Well it looks like Exploration is winning the quest method poll. I think it's decided then, thanks guys.

Next, I have another question for you all.

I'm working on the character growth system at the moment. I was discussing with someone about stat caps, and he got disappointed that there were going to be caps on stats.

In SEB1, there was no limit to stats, you could get to 999 in everything for every character if you tried. While I don't know of anyone that actually did that, it was very possible.

My new idea was the enforce character stat caps on advancement. Here's a snippet from my design document on the matter

"
----- Character Stat Caps -----

I've decided to enforce GUST/Atelier style number scales with my battle system. I choose this to make larger numbers mean more down the road. It's not impressive to see your characters bust out 1000+ damage right at the start. But when they start out hitting for fives and tens, when you finally start doing 1000+ damage. It will be much more rewarding. Plus I think it ups the challenge and it feels more exciting.

That's the idea at least. It's already been implemented. Now to see how it turns out in the long run.

I've also had the tentative idea of enforcing stat caps that are different for each character. I figured this would be good to make characters good at something and bad at something else.

Here are the caps for everyone.

--- Gunnar ---

LF : 336
PWR: 345
PRY: 207
KNW: 385

--- Veili ---

LF : 445
PWR: 330
PRY: 245
KNW: 190

--- Priel ---

LF : 480
PWR: 465
PRY: 290
KNW: 120

--- Patchoulli ---

LF : 305
PWR: 185
PRY: 215
KNW: 430
"

So now I come to you, what do you prefer? Unique stat caps for each character in order to accentuate their strengths and weaknesses? Or cap free stat advancement with no negatives?

I'm putting up a poll on the matter so let me know! Thanks

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And finally, have some art.

Art by Rairy

Video MK III

Have a video. I made a ton of really subtle changes so it may not seem like much, but it operates fairly differently underneath.



The big new change would be the new number scale for the game. I lowered everything by one digit in order to be similar to Mana Khemia/Atelier series. I think it works well and makes things more exciting. Plus when you finally do manage to start throwing out 500+ damage, it'll be worth it.

And for those wondering why your characters are just randomly reviving. That's another underlying system that's in place. There are no revive spells and no items in the game. Instead. Each character comes into battle with three 'lives'. When a character falls, they come back after 10 turns with some LF and EP returned and they lose a 'life'. After that particular character runs out of 'lives', they're done for the battle.

And have a sprite!

Original Sprite by Jimmyly, Edits by Skie.

And away I go! *whoosh!*

Starting on the menu and other musings

I know we've all been calling this game SEB Remake and SEBR and so on. But this game actually does have a title. It's...

Logo by Hanzo Kimura

SEBR is it's 'Devname'. But when it comes time, this is what'll be plastered on the title screen and everywhere else.

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So I'm currently in the process of simplifying the game. I've now come to the menu. This is what I have so far.



All pointless menu options have been cut out. I've mashed all the character growth systems into one revised menu to make it simpler than hopping from menu to menu all the time*cough *SEB2*cough*

There are no HP numbers on the party because there are full recoveries after every battle. Is this okay? Or MUST there be character HP shown? :V

SP digits will be shown once I get to that. 'Act!' and 'Wait' are merely indicators to tell who's in the battle party and who's not. The player will be able to adjust who can fight from here. Finally, 'Objective' will tell you what your current quest is and where to go, so that you don't screw up and forget like an idiot! >:V

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In other news, you remember that quest menu I was working on? I'm thinking about scrapping it. I was working on the main menu last night and I got to thinking.

"Why should I constrain myself to handing out quests through a limited menu?"

So now I'm thinking about scrapping it. My alternate approach was to have NPCs in town that had an indicator over them that would show that they have a request to be done. You could just talk to these people, accept or deny, and then go off and do it!

No going to some arbitrary menu to do that stuff. What do you think?

Actually. I'll just make a poll. You can tell me that way. Or you can comment. Both work!

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On the graphical side of things. We have these!

Why am I showing Kell here? Well, let's say she's relevant to SEBR.

Art by Nessiah

And have some sprites!





I think that's everything for now. See ya~

Ugh, time to get back to....w-work.

So, uh...Projects are finally off the backburner. I'm getting back to work. I feel kinda sad though. I'm going to miss my spontaneous rage/boredom blog posts centered on games and randomness.

Ah well, I guess I can't take a break forever.

Here's what I'm working on now. I'm currently writing up all character skills, like so.

---- Gunnar Skills ----

--- OutBurst ---

1. Twilight Arrow - EP Cost: 10 - Hits: 3 - Light Arrow Erupts intop energy pillar on target.
2. Judgment Arrow - EP Cost: 20 - Hits: 5 - Light Energy forms into laser blast.
3. Iron Feather - EP Cost: 30 - Hits: 1 - Boost Party Stats with invigorating power. All Stats + 30
4. Energy Storm - EP Cost: 40 - Hits: 4 All - A volley of light arrows rain upon enemies.
5. Element Sword - EP Cost: 50 - Hits: 1 - Strike all foes with the element sword for major damage.

--- Ether ---

1. Dark Cry - EP Cost: 10 - Element: Shadow - A black sphere rages on the target.
2. Shadow Barrier - EP Cost: 15 - Element: Shadow - Protect an Ally against Shadow Element.
3. Devil Ray - EP Cost: 20 - Element: Shadow - A pillar of shadow energy erupts under target
4. Shadow Aura - EP Cost: 25 - Element: Shadow - Protect the party against Shadow Element.
5. Shadow Star - EP Cost: 30 - Element: Shadow - Dark Meteors rain down on the target.
6, Electroshock - EP Cost: 10 - Element: Bolt - A single lightning bolt strikes the target.
7. Bolt Barrier - EP Cost: 15 - Element: Bolt - Protect an Ally against Bolt Element.
8. Judgment Bolt - EP Cost: 20 - Element: Bolt - Several lightning bolts rain down on target.
9. Bolt Aura - EP Cost: 25 - Element: Bolt - Protect the party against Bolt Element
10.Sacred Lightning - EP Cost: 30 - Element: Bolt - Divine Lightning strikes the target.

It helps me remember what the heck I was going to give so and so character in regards to skills. With SEB2, I mostly just ad libbed character skills based on graphics on hand at the moment. This is a bit more organized.

I'm also working on the Community Requests Board. Here's what I have so far.



One major change I'm making to this board is that I'm cutting the number of requests per chapter from 10 to 5. Just to get on with development. I'm making cuts in other areas as well in order to allow me to actually get to making the game. It's not good to be stuck in pre-dev limbo forever!

I also made this to get back into the groove of spriting. Had to try and get used to Windows 7 Version of Paint.



Anyway, I'm getting back into things, yeah. It's a little hard though, since now I have to recall all sorts of things and rewrite all my old info. I'll get back on my process eventually though.

I guess this marks the end of random gamer rage blogging for now!

Later.

The Return of Stuff and Things

(This one's for you Neok! >:V)

...So yeah, obligatory boredom entry. What have I been up to these days? Wellllllll I scanned in a metric boatload of drawings that I almost immediately scrapped on my DA! Have one!



And then I made some throwaway sprites for other people like that one game Vylternia Chapters. Like so.



I was supposed to do more, but Despite hasn't contacted me, so I assume my job is done! Oh well! 8D

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What else...So I was haunting some game sites and I discovered that Super Robot Wars
Endless Frontier EXCEED is in the making. YES, another traditional rpg on the DS! It's incredibly fanservice-y though. Even more so than the first game if the heroine is any indication. Trailer for the record.



But still is looks like it's going to be even more fun than the first game. I look forward to it.

In regards to other commercial games coming out Lufia DS was announced! YES! It's a remake of Lufia II! HOLY SHIT YES! It's a 3D Action RPG and all the character designs of old have been thrown away! YESSSSSSSSS-wait, wait, wait! WHAT!? NOOOOOOOOOO!

Scans to demonstrate.







It actually looks like it could be fun in a way, but....I'm going to miss my good old classic 2D Lufia II. :<

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In the middle of my scouring of youtube, I also found this. It's an RM CBS.



Looks interesting. Hopefully Mastervlad can build on what Eternal Sonata started.

Anyway I'm off!

The battle for the Holy Gra-I mean, Tears Crown begins!

Hello losers, how's everything going? :3

Me? I've beaten Nostalgia. Easy game through and through...except for Airship battles. But anyway. Summon Night X came out in japan. So of course I have to try it out. It's good fun. Another NORMAL RPG to play on the DS! It's 2D too! I know, what is this madness!? I can only hope this gets localized, like how Tales of Hearts should have been localized. >:|

It starts out in typical Summon Night fashion. Choose either the male or female main character(I chose the male, He looks cooler. 8D). Then watch a long winded intro play out. Yeah, I know. PEOPLE TALKING IN AN RPG!? Well then you haven't played a Summon Night game. They have the most long winded intros ever. But once you get past that and start playing, it's good fun. Have a video.



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In other randomness...I got an external HD yesterday and got all my important stuff off my laptop. It's a much better backup method than a dinky flashdrive. So now my project's future is no longer in jeopardy. Hooray!

Anyway, I leave off with randomness.

Ah, how nostalgic

So in my neverending battle against the evil lord of boredom, I got my hands on the new DS RPG 'Nostalgia'. It's a typical by the books rpg, random turn based battles, characters and a story that trips nearly every cliche in the book, etc.

...This is exactly what I needed. A good old NORMAL RPG on my DS. There are way too many goddamn SRPGs on the DS, it pisses me off. Mostly because they're all on the PSP. But anyway, I want to lay waste to my enemies and freely explore maps and solve puzzles! Not to move my characters around a stupid grid and navigate a ton of command menus!

Needless to say, I'm enjoying the hell out of this game. Sure, the personalities of your party members are pretty much paper thin archtypes. But I like them anyway. There are random battles, but I'm okay with that. The battle system itself is nothing like anything I'd make. It's slow typical turn based fare, but I like it. You can predict every major plot point before it appears, but I don't mind too much.

The game pulls it all together and makes it fun.

That's really all that matters in my opinion. It would be nice if the story was more varied and the characters were deeper than their assigned archtypes. But that's just an add on to good gameplay.

I'm about 10 hours into the game and loving it. Though the game is a little easy, character battles in particular. Not even bosses are a real challenge.

On the flipside, airship battles are 'LOL EFF U' hard at times. They play like 'Wild ARMs 3's Sandcraft battles. Each of your party members mans a part of your airship for battle. However Nostalgia uses small number scaling for stats. So at Lv 20, my main character has about 143 HP. The Airship starts out with 100 HP, and airship enemies generally hit for about 30-60 damage. Now you can have anywhere from 1-6 enemies on your ONE airship so needless to say, you get gang raped. My Airship's HP now is 310, but I'm still getting my butt kicked if I run into a bad monster group.

tl;dr it's a huge contrast from the laughably easy character battles.

Anyway, that's enough from me about Nostalgia, go play it.

And to finish off, have a visual.



Annnnd awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay I gooooooooooooooooooo

The Wheel of Fate is NOT Turning

It's time for yet another boredom blog post. Yessssss!

So what have I done to stave off the looming dark cloud of evil(and boredom) this time?

I've been playing BlazBlue. Story mode specifically. I tried Arcade mode on Hard. I can't beat Hakumen. DAMN YOU HAKUMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!

I actually really like the presentation of story mode in BB though. It's like a perfected version of GGXX's story mode. To be simple though, I suppose you could say it's like a visual novel with fights here and there. It's really addicting. You have to play through each character's individual story to unlock two extra story paths and then after you beat those, you can play the true ending. The true ending is the most epic thing ever. Unlimited Ragna is also pretty damn cheap to play as!

I hope story mode in Continuum Shift takes place after Calamity Trigger's story mode, because I really want to know what happens next. That is, if there WILL be a story mode. *glares at Guilty Gear Accent Core*

'Teach me, Miss Litchi!' is also the most hilarious thing ever. Seriously, I laughed like crazy. I only wish there were more episodes. D:

Well, despite all the fun I've been having with BlazBlue. I doubt that it will last very long. That dark cloud of evil is only going to draw closer and closer until it finally consumes me. Maybe it's for the best, huh?

I need to plan...

Edit: onooooooooooooes, I forgot a visual! Here have this.



Later.

The Wheel of Fate is NOT Turning.

It's time for yet another boredom blog post. Yessssss!

So what have I done to stave off the looming dark cloud of evil(and boredom) this time?

I've been playing BlazBlue. Story mode specifically. I tried Arcade mode on Hard. I can't beat Hakumen. DAMN YOU HAKUMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!

I actually really like the presentation of story mode in BB though. It's like a perfected version of GGXX's story mode. To be simple though, I suppose you could say it's like a visual novel with fights here and there. It's really addicting. You have to play through each character's individual story to unlock two extra story paths and then after you beat those, you can play the true ending. The true ending is the most epic thing ever. Unlimited Ragna is also pretty damn cheap to play as!

I hope story mode in Continuum Shift takes place after Calamity Trigger's story mode, because I really want to know what happens next. That is, if there WILL be a story mode. *glares at Guilty Gear Accent Core*

'Teach me, Miss Litchi!' is also the most hilarious thing ever. Seriously, I laughed like crazy. D:

Well, despite all the fun I've been having with BlazBlue. I doubt that it will last very long. That dark cloud of evil is only going to draw closer and closer until it finally consumes mt's for the. Maybe i

My despair. Feel it.

Wow, I am so bored these days that I'm blogging about it. There's not much else to do. :<

FFTA2 is getting annoying. My handy sketchbook has been run out too. At least I went out with a nice group picture for the last page. Too bad I can't scan still.

So what have you losers been up to these days? Is Tales of The Great Old One finished yet? Did Anaryu fall off Mount Everest? Has Ocean given in to the Foodmonster? Is Sacred Eternal Seraphim Cirno done yet, Nessiah? Has Project DOAD gotten that one star review yet? Has Neok made AAG even more impossible while I wasn't looking? Will I ever stop asking inane questions? Find out next time onnnn, Cloudreach Ball Zeeeeeeee

*cough*

Moving along. I read that Ar Tonelico 3 was announced a bunch of days ago. I like the character designs so far. But...but...Why 3D!? D:

I guess it's sort of inevitable with the industry these days. 2D is very quickly becoming obsolete. Every game review I've seen for 2D games these days has been 'bawww the graphics suck!', which is kind of a downer. I like 2D :<

First it was Trinity Universe, then it was Atelier Rorona, and now it's Ar Tonelico 3!

To their credit though, they look great imo, but...but...3D! D:
Oh well.

What else...

Have some random videos!





*Skie runs*

So we meet again...and again...and again.

Beware, there is not a single mention of Sacred Earth in here. You have been warned.

I swear, if there is a god of luck in some far off mythology somewhere. I formally present to you this message:

SCREW YOU!

SCREW YOU WITH A RAKE!

*ahem*

So over the past few weeks I've somehow managed to catch a cold, get over it, catch another one, get over that, and then catch yet another one on top of that. Back to effing back! What the hell? >:V

Needless to say I am not happy sitting here running through paper like some kind of sniffling, sneezing automaton...

Heh, an automaton.

I AM A SNIFFLING AUTOMATON *BZZT*...*SNIFFLE*

ANYWAY, moving away from my health issues...

I've beaten 'Star Ocean: The Last Hope' some days ago. Thank the heavens. I have to say though. The last boss is so cheap and annoying. I mean, I beat him on my first try, but all of his attacks are all designed in such a way that they all piss you off. The ending was nice though. Too bad I didn't get the special endings. Ah well, I'm not playing that again. Moving right along.

I also picked up 'Final Fantasy Tactics A2' upon beating SO4. I was already playing this but I had put it down some time ago. Getting back on my current playthrough, I'm currently just messing around doing quests and training my party for the big story mission that I lost to the last time I was playing. I hope to finish that soon. As much as I hate to admit it though, this is the best DS SRPG I've played so far. Imagine if Paradise Blue was an SRPG and you have FFTA2, heh.

What else...Ah right, I'm almost out of sketchbook paper. I've been drawing a lot and I'm actually happy with a good amount of them. Too bad I'm definitely not going to feel like scanning all that crap in once I can. I guess that's not too bad. It's not like every piece has to to leave my sketchbook...right? D:

Anyway, I leave off with random visuals.

Art by KeyPassions

Still alive...barely

It's been many centuries since I made a blog entry. It's been really....er, busy for me as of late. So I haven't been working on my projects much...or at all. I've switched modes from RPG Maker to drawing and playing games.

I've been playing 'Star Ocean: The Last Hope' at the moment. In all honesty, it's a terrible game in many, many aspects, but it's one saving grace is the battle system. If only that battle system was attached to a getter game! Ah well, I'm almost finished with it. Just a little bit more and then I can free myself from it, ...'kay?

What else. Ah, right. Drawing. I've been doing a lot of drawing in my sketchbook recently. I think I've gotten a lot better in that aspect. But I bet my tablet-fu has regressed. It's been a long while! D:

It's a shame my scanner won't work on this computer. Otherwise I'd show some of my recent work.

ALSO!

It's a little late incoming from me, but Project DOAD was finished and released in full some time ago. I decided to forgo custom music and just release the game. It pains me to not have what would no doubt have been some excellent music from tyvb, but he had his own problems to deal with. Anyway, it's there on it's blog page.

I'm also helping out with a cross over game effort called Cross Retro. It's actually really amusing, but it's still in progress. Check out the test videos!

And finally, can't end a blog entry without some kind of visual. Let's see now.....

Aha, Videos!

"Caith is not pleased"

Alright enough dumbassery. Skie signing out! ( ' w ' )/

Video: Boss Test Final + Menu Musings

Annnd we have a video with all characters in and such.




Let's see now. All characters are playable, most of the spells have been given custom spell effects, barring Earth Rage, all systems are demonstrated.

I already explained Kell's strategy. Flann's Strategy is to attack with debilitating fire spells and then support Kell with a Fire Barrier spell to make up for her weakness. However, Kell does not do the same for Flann, so you can easily strike at her weakness and take her down first. Kell, however is more dangerous since she has an AOE ice spell on top of three other ice spells, giving her three chances to reduce your Ice resist to nothing and deal ridiculous damage, as you can see in the video.

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Anyway, in other news, I was brainstorming ideas for how to avoid having to make a custom menu. I do believe I've found it. Delegate all the character growth systems to town locations and savepoints or what have you. This would reduce the need for a tricked out base menu to about say....0%? I am however going avoid the default menu still. I'm probably just going to provide a simple objective/quest reminder menu to replace an involved main menu.

Also that poll totally is not going to decide who the main character is. That's already done. It's more of a 'who do you like more?' thing. I wouldn't delegate major story decisions to a poll.

Speaking of story, I've already outlined the the basic game flow for SEBR. I'll share it with you. It'll at least show that I'm doing something other than battle stuff.

--- Game Flow Design ---

Follows the pace of the old SEL. Take missions, explore and do other stuff. Once you finish the general missions, the story mission will open up. This constitutes a single chapter.

So, game flow is...

Chapter Begin Scene --> Free Missions and Exploration(5) --> Story Mission --> Chapter End Scene

--- Mission Board Design ---

The game takes up a mission based system. You go to the Mission Board, choose requests and fulfill them. Once you've done enough, then the story mission will open up. Finish this mission and the chapter will end. But you can still explore and finish the other missions before doing the story mission.

-- Mission Types and Difficulties --

Hunt: Take out a specific monster. Usually a strong monster. but can sometimes be a group hunt.
Gather: Gather items for the client. Amount and type vary
Volunteer: Minigame type missions where you must assist the client in whatever they do.

- Difficulties -

Easy: You will have little trouble completing this mission.
Normal: There may be some challenge involved in this mission.
Hard: There are many challenges involved with this mission.
Expert: The challenge level is through the roof. Fulfill at your own risk.

- Rewards -

There are no items in SEBR, so Rewards are going to have to be SP and Ether Shards. With this in mind. I should balance it so that Missions are the best source of SP and Ether Shards.

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That's all from me. Have some randomness to leave off.

I come bearing goods

So I've been doing some work. For today, we have some screenshots, a video, and some art.


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And here's your video.



This is a test boss battle with the new battle system for Sacred Earth: Bonds REMAKE. I'm also using this to create a first time basic non-random boss strategy.

This boss has a set routine to lower your ice resistance with two ice spells, and then strike with a big ice spell for maximum damage, and finally heal afterwards. So you have to counter her ice spells with ice protection in between taking your own actions while finally still dealing enough damage to counteract her healing. If you slip up even once, you probably WILL die. Luckily I didn't in this video, but I lost once.

The key is to either strike at her weakness, which is fire, or whittle away at her Barrier and deal maximum damage.

As you can see, this is much more strategic than SEB1, off the bat. I'm hoping to keep stuff like this going and expand on this as I go.

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And finally, some art.

Meet Fae Lin. She's a fairy of undetermined age. Isn't she cute? Well you'd better get used to her. Because she's your save point. Oh and I forgot to tell you, She's got the rudest mouth ever. Good luck~

Art by Nessiah

I guess this section is back in action again

Since I'm fixing and redoing many parts of this game. I guess I should keep my progress here rather than make yet another page.

Well after a long break due to lack of general will to work and a gaming binge, I finally came back to my work and found that I no longer felt incredible laziness while looking at my incomplete work. So it's back to the grind for me!

So what have I done so far?

I re-outlined the story. The overall story is mostly the same, but the execution in the beginning is far far different, and from there, many things will deviate from the original. What does this mean for you? You'll have to see, hoho~. A big factor that contributes to this is the inclusion of Patchoulli and Priel from the getgo. So the story is definitely going to be altered to accomodate for them. I'm actually looking forward to having them in from the start to interact will all the characters they missed out on. Basically, those two got screwed really bad in the first version. They were hastily shoehorned in. Now they're getting their chance. I'm also redoing other story details that I felt weren't all that great.

Graphics-wise, I created Veili and Gunnar's all new sprite sheets for battle, and I'm working on Priel now. For some reason, I've been dying to make Priel's new sprites. So this will be fun. I also made a new battle interface design. It's much better looking than both SEB and SEB2's I feel. This new look easily displays OB and FB without getting in the way of the art. So that's a win for me.



On the technical side of things, the battle system has been altered and more unified. So hopefully it will play out a lot better than previously. I've taken some inspiration from SEB2, but not so much to make them clones of each other. I'll post a battle system outline entry separately for what I have done and what's to come.

Anyway, have some art to leave off. It also shows Patch and Priel's new designs. No screenshots and such yet. I'm saving that for later.

P.S. We have a new poll up. As usual, the winner is what I'll go with.

Art by Nuechan