/rpgmg/ - Rpg Maker General #212

Word filter desu senpai

Is it just me or have there been a lot of newfriends here lately?

Well, that is just a concept, not a story. A story has a conflict and a resolution.

I would suggest writing character arcs for the following characters:
Main character: wants to experience the things he read in books... he becomes?
Church leader: wants to gain power from the kingdom? ... he becomes?
King: wants to stay in power... he becomes?
Vampire: wants to be free to do ...? he becomes?

A bump every 30 minutes keeps death away

Do any of you guys have an author avatar? Not necessarily a self-insert (although it can be), but a character that represents you, the director.

Here's mine. He's called Almindus. He has no bearing to the story whatsoever and isn't ever mentioned my any of the characters, but if the player gets to level 100 and a random battle occurs, Almindus will show up and be like "Oh hey, congratulations! You really do care."

He'll challenge you to a boss battle, and if you accept, you fight Almindus. Defeating him will grant access to his sword, which is of course a metaphor for admin access. It lets you OHKO anything.

Is this too retarded of an idea?

I think it's fine.
How long would it take to reach level 100?

Probably not that long. It's not too long of a game.

I think I'd castrate myself if it meant I never had to do graphics work again. Like if instead I could just think of what I want and it magically appear in my project folder. That would be worth it I think.

I feel you, I really do.

What is a 'seikakan'?

MAN I LOVE THOSE
do you have a devblog or a tumblr or something
I really wanna fanart them

Hello Operator

OH SHIT SENPAI. That's fucking great.

I have a devblog: mirroredsoulgame.tumblr.com/
I also have a deviantart where I post my monster designs: pl4ntm4n.deviantart.com/

Is it cool if I hire you to do official art of my monsters, actually?

sure, mate
ima hit you up on tumblr, i'm loving your designs

bump

Should Fire/Ice/Lightning remain the basic elements in a non fantasy setting?
What type of elements do you use in modern or futuristic settings?

Heat, cold and electricity

10

...

The abbreviation of 'to be honest' gets wordfiltered to desu. Similar thing with with the shortened 'family' get filtered to senpai. Now you know, so you can either stop doing it go overboard.

Anyway, how do you guys feel about mind control as a plot point or mechanic? How long is it acceptable to take control of a character away for, assuming that that the player has other characters to control and things they can do? For something like a "charmed" status effect, specifically?

...

We really are stumped with this. No matter the game you'll always see that elemental magic. Maybe some add wind or water but in the end creativity ends there.

It depends a bit on how the spell works. For example, in my current game Charm is permanent until the character gets physically attacked, but there are only three spells that cause it and they are all difficult to succeed consecutively if the player understands how they work:
Charm if the target has full HP.
User and target become Charmed.
Revive a character and inflict Charm (enemy only).

Oh. And if you mean storywise, just don't make me lose my equipment/items for too long.

Holi shit it really does. I thought this was some /a/ or /jp/thing that went out of control.

To your question, isn't the usual to keep the character charmed until he's hit by a physical attack? Though one may argue that the randomness of the state makes for an artificial difficulty spike, especially if they keep all their skills while brainwashed. Memories of party members healing the boss to full in P3 come to mind. Other similar effects like Pokemon's attract and confuse are annoying as hell and in a rpg setting would force the player to employ a dispeller full time or rely on items. Imo more than two turns would be more than annoying.

As a plot point, mind control is kinda hard to pull off appropiately. You can have emotional moments like Claus in Mother 3, then you have the shit from FF IV. Pairing it with corruption is better because it increases the tension. Then again, that's my degeneracy speaking.

As long as you don't go MINDHACC it could be okay.

Bump

Oh look. Another OP that doesn't know what's going on with the collab project.
Didn't bother to change the Random Game of the Week for the 3rd thread in a row.

I'd say I can be done with this town, layout wise, right?

>instant game-over if party is paralyzed
... Damn. Old RPG games don't fuck around.

>just got done scripting a huge series of events for the introduction of the big bad and the first boss
>start test play
>black screen with the words 'Event executed' on the log
... Everything's gonna be fine, comrades.

Just 5 houses for a town? I mean, I guess it would work but I'd think you'd want to spruce up the town with npcs, especially traders to liven up the dead space in the bottom right area of the screen.

It's just a small stop on the way to the next main story town. Somewhere to heal and stock up and get a sidequest or two.
I'll for sure be adding a bunch of NPCs. This is just the layout.

Add a bar with cute belly dancers.

WoW really skimps on the house count for towns and villages too. People ran with it sadly. But looking back to FFs and Dragon Warriors they all had unbelievable populations in relation to housing

Already changed the house in the top right to that.
Gave it a dance floor and everything. I explained what I wanted to do with the town in /agdg/ here

yes

This is for that guy who wanted to fix his windows on. fucking webm's are hard to make small. Maybe I just suck at it tho

Xenosaga had Beam, (Pierce)Bullets, and Slash attack attributes.
They also had ice, lightning, fire, and spirit. Energy Manipulation.

No Air or Earth because that's Matter manipulation, also they're in space and "Earth" is implied lost forgotten history.

Modern settings might have Psychic and Sonic Attacks. "Virus" either biological or digital, since it's common to have so sort of overlapping/parallel virtual reality in these settings.

Bump

Doing enemies sprite

Posted my current world map yesterday, I got a save spot thing in the form of an image (because this game has text adventure elements) that is meant to serve several functions, in the form of a mirror, but I dont know what I want the background to be since it will be in several dungeons and areas and whatnot. I can't decide between having several different bgs for each area or one universal bg that fits all.
So which should I do?

it roughly means worldview, or player's perception into your game world. But I recommend reading this
gamasutra.com/blogs/ZackWood/20170516/298096/Characters_and_Worldbuilding_Analyzing_the_Strength_of_Japanese_Games.php
I feel enlightened after reading it.

>spend two days on faces
>realise MV takes 144x144 not 96x96
p-progress is progress I suppose

At least you are learning something and have a little fun, right?

>rpg maker windows
the only thing i post nowadays is pretty boring. i'll get to roll for boss bgm or victory bgm afterwards, tho

rekt nerd

No worries user
waifu2x.udp.jp

Have cycling traders that are only there at certain times or something. Have them sell skooma.

not bad

It's milieu.
Which isn't in most people's vocabulary anyways.
I think more people would use "atmosphere"
It's not just the environments, but also the people's attitudes.

The difference between living in the slums and living in a post apocalyptic waste. Visually they are similar.
But one is a world of neglect & poverty while the other is a world of scarcity.

isn't that the desert camp form Final Fantasy Dimensions?

Hows that going btw? The hardest part is the writing.

Never played it

Question:
How do you feel about random encounters? Like/tolerate/hate?

Question:
I'm often worried that people only make a low-effort, disingenuous attempts at playing RPG Maker games out of politeness to the community, but have no actual intention of engaging with the plot or putting a good-faith effort into their playtime with it. To that end, I feel that putting any kind of "roadblock" in the player's way, from puzzles, to challenging boss fights, to cutscenes longer than ten seconds, could make you lose your audience; that what people will generally tolerate in video games as a whole, they will NOT tolerate in an RPG Maker game, thereby requiring an RPG Maker developer to water down and trivialize their game in an effort to not upset the delicate contract you've developed with the player, which in effect states "you stick with my game and I'll give you a no-hassle, low complexity game that can be beaten in about 3 hours." However, I DON'T want to make a low complexity, no-hassle, trivialized game that can be beaten in 3 hours, making me increasingly concerned that all my efforts will be in vain since it's a very real possibility that no one will even see anything beyond the 2 or 3 hour mark. Why suffer through the Hell that is creating a deep, engaging 30-40 hour epic at all if no one will ever even play it to it's end? Anyone else feel the same?

tl;dr: Why suffer through making a large, complex game if there's a very real chance no one will ever finish it?

I actually dont mind random encounters as long as the encounter rate isnt ridiculous and theres a way to manipulate it. I think the hate is overblown, though it can get pretty stupid like in FF2 or Earthbound Beginnings.

>Why suffer through making a large, complex game if there's a very real chance no one will ever finish it?
Make the game you want to see made. Theres gonna be at least one person who will play it to completion. It can get disappointing seeing people overlook it but its satisfying making something you can be proud of.

The best way to get people to not drop your 30 hour epic? Make the first few hours prove to them that your game is fire, and worth sticking to. Showing a creative story hook, pretty portraits, appealing aesthetics, whatever.

I drop quite a few RM games, but I've also stuck to playing a few, too.

I think 'atmosphere' is too shallow word for it. I prefer to use 'world sense'. Well, the main point is how to make the player feel he is looking at a real existing world, not simply nicely placed tiles and graphics.

>How do you feel about random encounters? Like/tolerate/hate?
I want to be able to stroll through a map once I've thoroughly proven I can handle it. To that end, having a secondary condition that I can fulfill to be able to turn off encounters in a particular area is REALLY helpful. Wild Arms 4 had this, with save points also containing mini-bosses you can beat to turn off encounters in an area. Bravely Default flat out lets control it at any time, with an explicit warning that the bosses will kick your shit in if you go too long without random battles.

>tl;dr: Why suffer through making a large, complex game if there's a very real chance no one will ever finish it?
Make the first arc not the best, but rather a condensed version of everything you have to offer. Writing with subtlety or at least good grammar. NPCs that serve a purpose. Good mechanics that allow you to do tricksy stuff NOW instead of taking it away. Flashy animations: either make boring animations happen quickly, or don't make the skills used in nearly every battle look bland.

>Theres gonna be at least one person who will play it to completion.

This. Only the whole game should be compelling. That's your job.

Of course there are people with A.D.D. who will play anything to completion. But that's attributed to hyperfocus; not a sign that you're doing something right.

>How do you feel about random encounters? Like/tolerate/hate?
Pros of random encounters:
It can add variety to a game or explored area that is meant to be replayed, since players won't be sure about what to expect.
They are a bit quicker to do than symbol encounters because you don't need enemy AI.
It is often easier to grind with them than with symbol encounters
Cons of random encounters:
Unless monsters offer fantastic rewards, it effectively discourages exploration in any area where they can trigger.
They make it a bit harder to balance a game because a player could encounter 4 monsters in a straight line on his way to a boss while another could find 12 and end up with a higher level but no mana.

If you are going to add them into your game, make sure that you maximize the pros and diminish the cons.

>Why suffer through making a large, complex game if there's a very real chance no one will ever finish it?
Because it is a learning experience.
Because you don't actually need a 30-hour experience to make a good game. Even games like Final Fantasy VI are actually full of padding because they come from an age where people could afford fewer games and thus needed them to last a long time. You could probably compress those 50-hour JRPGs in tighter, more fun experiences that last only 15 hours or so nowadays with something as simple as a reduced encounter rate and higher experience yields.
Because unless you are really weird/dumb/brave, you will probably only be pouring that much effort into a game you REALLY want to play. And if you REALLY want to play a game, then there must be an audience for it somewhere. You'll have to find it and communicate it to them, though.
Because I've made free games that got 23 000+ downloads, so there are people out there willing to play my shit games

>Even games like Final Fantasy VI are actually full of padding because they come from an age where people could afford fewer games and thus needed them to last a long time.

I really like how '40-hour RPG' went from a selling point to a meme in the course of about two years (right around the early PS2 era)

>Because you don't actually need a 30-hour experience to make a good game.

I understand that, and I don't intend to add filler for the sake of filler. It's just that the game as planned with its current storyline will more than likely push the game into the 30+ hour mark. Of what people have played so far, the feedback is all quite positive and generally agree that it's well written and well paced with engaging cutscenes; no complaints of tedium and no complaints of feeling like any part of the game is a "chore", which is typically how complaints about substanceless filler manifests itself. It's just that it's taken me about 2 months to develop 30 minutes of gameplay, so I'm just growing increasingly concerned about the wisdom of proceeding with development further.

Need a symbol that most magic users in my game's setting are marked with. I combined a bunch of real life occult and alchemic symbols for my first couple concepts. Any of these three stand out as the best?

I would go with the first because it could probably be reduced in size without looking like a black spot.

Ayyyy.
But yeah what said.

>marked with

If it's some kind of tattoo I would probably go with the simple one. If it's going to be EVERYWHERE, something simple would be more recognizable and likely easier for you to put in different places at different sizes. Reserve the more complex symbols for more dangerous/high ranking magic users and the big rituals and stuff. Otherwise symbols should be fast, easily recognized, and able to be put in any situation.

Notice how simple the real symbols you used are? A few lines and done, easy to understand. Something as complex as #3 should show up shimmering in the air when I'm casting the biggest "fuck you and the continent you're on" spell I have, and nowhere else.

>I feel enlightened after reading it
>gamasutra

Ive felt similarly with some of their Dwarf Fortress interviews. On the other hand, theyve been Leigh Alexanders personal soapbox for SJW horseshit during gamergate. Hate the site, be choosy with your authors

Can we talk about Androids/Cyborgs?
If they were included with other Actors, how would you expect to use them?

Looks like the simple design is the winner. It's not really a Tattoo, it's a symbol that can spontaneously appear anywhere on the body and bestows magical knowledge. Most people that have it would hide it. Either the exact symbol or a slightly modified version is going to also be the emblem of a rebel faction. Losing the circle probably will help it read better in different sizes + differentiate it from a generic magic circle type symbol.

define Actors, since you capitalized the A and aren't replying to anyone else for context

The Database Actors. Premade RTP characters.
Lemme rephrase this.

Kadakawa hires an artist to create DLC that includes Androids.

However, it's 2017 and everyone's idea of "Android" is wildly different. From Megaman Bots to Mecha Maidens.
Someone might be picturing a metallic C3PO from Starwars.
While someone else might be thinking of something that's more convincing human, such as a Persocom from Chobits.
Or even still, expect something that's more clockwork than circuitry.

If you could communicate with that artist, what do you tell them your exceptions are?

It's going slower than I like due to other obligations, but I'm getting the basics down with the maps.

If you're going to be using Yanfly's plugins, you'll be able to modify the face dimensions if you want. And you pretty much should always use Yanfly's stuff, regardless of what your project is.

thrusters initiated

robots with sentient ai, or whatever. ones that you want to protect from people that break iphones for youtube vids.

I imagine, the most practical thing to do is imitate recent pop culture.

Aigis(Persona) and Kos-Mos(Xenosaga) come to mind.
Maybe something armor plated like Raiden(MGS) or Genji(Overwatch), although those are a different genre of game and a different audience.
Genos from One Punch Man - seemed popular but idk if had an impression on anyone. Anime is so short lived these days.

In modern western media, androids are more convincing human. Very discreet things like a barcode, seams, and blank stares.
But I want something obvious. Visors. Ear Antennas. Glowing patterns. Cooling vents.

I'd expect the DLC to maintain a consistent style.
It would be functionally useless if it was all random assortment styles. Like if one was all gritty Borg technology, while another was some kind of steampunk thing, and another was some kind of light projected hologram. You know?

If I bought a pack I want to use all of it in the same game. Not just 1 thing out of it.

Megaman style. Built to be objectively superior physically.

They don't have to look exactly human, and most don't take the pains to do so. They have emotions, fears, passions, etc. The main measure of an adult android is meshing the purpose of their construction with who they are as a person, rather than how well they can convey emotions or follow social cues.

To that end, the examples in are good, with directly attached modules or odd proportions.

Big shoes are nice, opens the way for stylish stuff without worrying about fiddly foot muscles and toes.

It'd be interesting if androids were the only ones with unusual hair colors.

Back when Famitsu covered RpgMaker MV before it was released, everyone was like "MV is going to have robots!"
Everyone assumed there would be more, because there was one in the promotional material. It would be dumb if there was just one.

Of course that turned out not to be part of the RTP at all.
And unsurprisingly, no one is using the cover art characters anywhere.
Duh. What are you going to do with one robot and portrait art that doesn't match anything else?

So long as they don't have a metal diaper. That's what I hated about Zero. And in one version they have this yellow square in front that looks like a pee stain - ugh, what were they thinking?

bump

Most of their designs these days go with skirts or nothing at all, yes.

bump

this is a pretty good website for generating a variety of details for character building. Was using it last night so thought I'd share.
springhole.net/writing_roleplaying_randomators/characterdetailgens.htm

LOVE those graphics. Did you make them yourself or are they from somewhere???

Thanks. It's all done by me

Love them, reminds of comfy childhood afternoons playing GBC Dragon Warrior games.

Fuck this heat
Seriously
Fuck it

What's the minimum level of detail a single-tile animated starship would need to not be an absolute eyesore?
Is self-made crap like this good enough or should I look for some stock sprites by professionals?
Granted, the couple of you who got the demo I've posted last thread could attest that the ships play almost no role in the game (there was just one used in a cutscene) but I consider expanding their role a bit and if I'll do so - wonder if this look is good enough.

Maybe they could be a little larger but you shouldn't hire an artist for that.

BUMP

I'm starting to get worked up over photobucket's change of services.
Years of tutorials, screenshots, and resources are gone. Well, obscured really.

I can change hosts and update image links for my stuff. But what's the point? There are people who have been inactive, they are probably never going to come back.
Dead tree; new leaf.

I've been through stuff like this before where a site crashes and loses data. Rebuild? Sure, but it's like if the Pyramids and the Sphinx were destroyed. Someone else will have to do it, because the original creators aren't around anymore. And there might not be anyone with the skills to do it.