MerlinCross

I really don't know how to edit using something like Gimp(although I could try).

I'll try that. I'll poke you if it doesn't. And nooooope it doesn't. I think I kinda understand the problem. See I'm trying to use a square in Sheet B(The upper left most one) as the boat's 'ground' for lack of a better word I think. But when I try to put details(Mast, barrels, the sails, hell most anything) it overrides the planks to usuallyl what ever is below it(water in this case). It's really bugging me.

I thought I was doing something wrong that was very easy. But bit of a new problem. It's still overriding just with tile sets from set A. Ones that don't match the boat. The tiles I'm trying to use are in set B. Like the attached file. At this rate I might just restart the process at finding a good tileset. Oh and to make things easier, I'm trying to use the sheets here; https://vxresource.wordpress.com/2011/05/24/new-amazing-tilesets/

So I have this...., interesting idea that popped into my head. Its a game where you aren't the hero of the land, not the savior of the world, yadda yadda. No what you are is the manager of an Adventurer's Guild. So what's this have to do with the trouble in combat? Well lemme explain who the game would work. It would take a page from Recettear or other management games; End goal is build up enough gold or resources to clear the final check. Rather than going out and fighting yourself, the player would higher fighters, wizards, thieves and more to go questing for them and take a cut of the profits. When a quest is launched, the player sets up the team from their roster of adventurers and controls them in the quest. But then I got to battles and thought "how should I do this?". Recettear's combat in dungeons is more hacky slashy but I'd rather not do that(New to RPGmaker and would not like to make a game like that using this system). I came up with 2 ideas. Normal Combat and Tactical Combat. Normal Combat is basically what the game already has though maybe with more bells and whistles. Like Etrian or Wizardry. Tactical Combat would play out morel like Fire Emblem or the Arc the Lad series, with players having a squad of characters to clear out a floor or a section of the floor before moving to the next one. Honestly, I'm unsure how to do combat with the idea I have. I mean I could take it out completely and try to make the game give you a percentage success or failure based on class, gear, and level. But I'd rather not(AND not just because of all the work it would take to give a % value to everything). Thoughts?

Journal Script? I'll try looking that up. Thanks

This sort of reminds me of an idea I had. Big bad is dead, heroes go on for other stuff, credits roll. Wait....what about rebuilding the land? Well that's up for the D team heroes, that the player controls. It's nice to see another take on the 'standard' RPG story. Would be a kick to go back and see the affects your party had during the quest to 'save the world'. Like a Fire based area really mad that you killed their fire god/goddess to get an item of power. Along with all the pop up "This is how you do X" NPCs seeing you come back. This actually opens the game up to do a lot of fun stuff.

Currently I'm just going back in and replacing the white background with this weird pinkish white. It's not the background that's the problem, its the little see through sections of icons and hunting them down. Like a necklace or or a bracelet. Or very tiny part. I was just wondering if I'm missing a trick.

I guess those could work. Really I just remember how systems like this could be back in the day. Like Breath of Fire 2, which is a good example. PLayers could find some items one dressers and cupboards. But they never stood out, so without a guide players would check each of them in every town. I know since I was one of those kids that did so. I just wasn't sure of how to do it myself or how other designers would do it. I mean modern example, Skyrim lets you loot just about everything but really only the chest have good items, barrels have food, boxes useless, etc etc. Personally I'd rather not take such a path as that.

So chests. These denote that there is an item(s) for players to pick up. These are usually hidden away in secret areas, behind bosses, or in out of the way spots. But how does one handle giving the player items, outside of chests? See, sometimes the area would lose immersion if a chest was placed down. Like a ruined town. Or sometimes you'd prefer an item to be out on a table as opposed to a chest. Perhaps have it hidden in a tree, barrel or some other type of terrain/object. Kinda like how older RPGs did it. How to handle it through? One has to walk a fine line of showing what areas have items and what places don't. Otherwise you get players that bypass most of these items or spend all their team searching everything they can. That and event tiles might make it hard to manage whatever tale tell sign one decides to have for certain objects(events over events for example). What do you guys think? Is it worth trying to give items to the player in ways that feel more natural? Or just throw down chests for everything?

Probably the biggest thing I'd like people to remember actually. It's fantasy, make-believe, etc. Why does everything in games as of late have to 'make sense' or need detailed explanations? But this is more a complaint about some games as a whole rather than just -Z-'s ideas.

I don't mind the "wolf having money" method myself. Encounters are something we have to deal with anyway so why not pay the player? Sure you can have other ways of earning cash, but if it's not broke why throw it out completely? -Junk/Crafting items- Etrian Odyssey games do this, with kinda mixed success. Said items take up a slot in your 60 limit inventory, and said items had a tendency of being quite random. So the gold progression was slow and randomized. -Quests- Depends on how they function/set up. Giving players a quest or two could help out, but too many and they might just blow it off or worse(from a balance vein) complete them all. This makes them stay in an area longer and thus get stronger, leading them to completely wiping out the next few areas without meaning to. -Gather spots- SMT 4 tried something like this. But again it was kinda slow, randomized progression given that each spot gave up one of 3 items usually. That and the time it took for the gather spot to respawn(Not realistic you ransack a shop for stuff it should stay ransacked, what is this?!?), made from some boring hours of running around. I'm not opposed to making new ways of getting gold/mecca/zenny/cash/money/stopthismadness/etc. But I really don't see why just dropping old way is supposed to be an automatic improvement.

Thanks for the thoughts you two. Also, I forgot to mention something about Wolf. He might be the "Lightning Bruiser" but he also went to the "Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy" if we're using tropes. Wolf hits hard, fast, but suffers from aim more than the others. This is somewhat countered by the fact most his attacks are mutli hit skills. So while he can easily outdamage his fellow teammates, unless he has help from the player in item choices or the other characters, Wolf's damage should average out. That's why Grave is listed as the reliable damage dealer. And yes, I'm currently trying to keep a small team as my first project. If I add more it would be a max of 2 and allow the player to swap people around mid combat, like Breath of Fire 1 or Wild Arms Alter Code F.

Before I start getting too far into the making of this little idea I have, would like some import on the characters. More so the 'arctypes' and possible skill usage/learnage. I'm hoping to copy older RPGs such as FF6 or Wild Arms with each character getting their own unique skill set. 1)Grave -'Tanky solid damage dealer' The main character. An armored swordsman, Grave has the best defense of the team and while the other can do more damage, Grave's ATK and selection of special moves allow him to do damage to most targets. His special skill set is "Graveblade", elemental and status inflicting slashes. However, he won't learn most of them through level ups. By praying to dead warriors, their souls shall teach Graves a new skill. Most would be found on the game's main path or down another path in a dungeon. Trying to balance his skill gain with the other 3 on the team. 2)Lorelei - 'Black/Red Mage debuffer' Vampiress spellcaster. Her role is to provide debuffs and heavy magic damage. And until another party member takes over, provides light healing. She's also the second fastest on the team, and provides a lot of utility no matter the foe. Her special skill set is "Vampire", or at least until I get a better name. This is where most her utility and debuffs lie, such as a bat swarm for damage and lowered hit rate, along with of course Life Drain. Lorelei will also learn some pure magic damage in this skill. However, damage wise will be lower than her other spells unless attacking foes with high magical defense. Lorelei will learn skills much like Grave, but interacting with bats or hidden vampires. It should be noted that she still has Magic as a command and will learn spells through levels. 3)Wolf(actual name is pending.) - 'Physical powerhouse' Bandit Werewolf. Fastest on the team, he's the strongest physical damage dealer even outdoing Grave in damage. However, he cannot simply bring his full power to bare with just the Attack command. He'll have to morph into his werewolf form and while it provides serveral bonuses, the time he can stay in is limited. His skill set is 'Beast' allowing certain attacks to be used when not in werewolf and allowing him to change into said form. In werewolf, he gains new attacks and even passives to help out his defenses along with a stat buff. But the form cannot be sustained for long. To learn extra skills, Wolf will have to challenge other 'Weres' to battle, basically beating the skill out of them. 4)Adeline - 'White/Blue Mage" Ghost Cleric, she takes over the healing role from Lorelei and provides some much needed Holy/Light spells. Adeline will also provide some much needed defensive buffs in battle. And much like Lorelei, she still as Magic as a second command. Her skill set is 'Haunt'. Her basic power is to possess an enemy and then learn an attack from them. While possessing, she's removed from combat and only certain enemies can be possessed. I plan on including a way to find out about what can be possessed or not, without having to rely on just guess work. Well that's all 4 of them. So what do people think? Too much too weird?

Personally I like the built in battle system. This could be because I've been playing SMT and Etrain Odyssey as of late. That and a side battle system requires more work with the sprites, probably more so with Mechs since those don't even have bases or a lot of available sprites. As for the healing, could make pilot spells to heal the robot as well.

I've only just joined this community and don't know a lot. But if you would, let me throw another idea into this hat. There's something that the companies and the indies usually do(or at least should) before a demo comes out for their game. Playtesting. Companies higher people, indies get a group of people, both tend to have 'beta' access. But what does this community have? Well maybe for some of the larger better made games that are popular might have this but most of us will not. I think Rabie is kinda right, just in a different way in some places. Creators might not see Demos as well a "Demo" but rather than "Public Testing". I'm sure a number of us have tried a demo only to find it in basically a half finished state, and told not to give opinions or advice but to basically Troubleshoot and bug test it. Demos shouldn't exist to fool people into testing your own game for you. Get a group of friends, ask some people at your school, something but don't try to mask a bug hunt as a demo.