What's Your Weakpoint?

[��� 53]

To the left of each post, under each of our icons, there's a lil' spot below where we call home that says exactly what we do well. Writer, Coder, Pixel Artist, Designer; we're all one of these or more (Jack of All Trades). In The Showroom, we're invited to flex our pixels under Skill Display and show everyone just what makes us so valuable to the team. But let's think Batman for a minute, because I'm curious:

 

What's your kryptonite? 

 

Just what is the RM communities most common weak point? What's that one thing you feel keeps holding you back? 

 

 

Express below what 'weakness' you think is interfering in your (or the communities) game development.

 

I have my own thoughts, but I'd like to hear yours first. So, what's holding you back? 

Edited April 7, 2013 by TRICKSTERLv3

[+ Dark Influence 251]

The inability to understand extremely simple things until someone explains them to me in a very simple way. - Self-contradicting weaknesses are annoying.

[BOSSBERRY 28]

Just grasping all that overlay parallax light shadow craziness. And then I just play a game like pirate rush and my self esteem is virtually gone

[Cecillia 652]

Totally agree with above post ^

Parallaxing is my definite weakpoint along with scripting those scripts for the game.

I think emotes, spriting, and story are my best

[Tigerbite 36]

It's more like what isn't my weak point? T_T

[+ Dark Influence 251]

That's a good one Tigerbite! You're made of weak-points!

[Radiant Arin 412]

Mapping large cities.

 

For some reason, they always appear so blank and lifeless, or are filled with too many details.

 

But for some reason, I can do field/exterior maps just fine.

[+ Dark Influence 251]

I always create my cities/towns with small buildings instead these days, less space = easier to navigate and less useless details everywhere = much nicer to look at in general - That's just me with my terrible mapping though.

Edited April 7, 2013 by Wraith the Elusive

[Ocedic 249]

Finishing what I start. In terms of actual skills, I have zero audio ability. I can do the most basic of pixel art, script at a good level and writing is my strongest quality, but it'll be a long time before I attempt to dabble into music making (though I would like to at some point.)

[Tharis 212]

Maping and editing portraits are my weakpoints... I don't know how many hours of development I have spent trying my damnedest to edit an emotion set for some characters only to give up because of utter failure. And then post a request on the boards... If I could just edit the pictures with mind powers so that they look the way I see them in my head I would be half way through my development cycle right now!

[+ Dark Influence 251]

If I could just edit the pictures with mind powers so that they look the way I see them in my head

 

Wish I had that power, life would be so much easier art-wise.

[Bunni89 85]

Battles- specifically battle balancing, stats, math and all dat jazz. I am completely goddamn lost, and it sucks! I always overshoot and end up having everything clash and be unplayable, and I can't even write a decent formula so I just keep copying the basic sample skills, monsters and classes and vaguely altering tiny little bits til I eventually reach the point where something goes wrong and suddenly they deal 9999 damage or whatever.

It SUCKS because I have a lot of IDEAS for moves and AI and stuff, I just can't do the math and I have zero patience for playtesting the same damn battle over and over with no clue what I did wrong. (Especially annoying because I wanna do complex multi-stage fights a la Shin Megami Tensei eventually, and that'd mean playing five minutes of monotony every time I wanna test a certain point in the sequence..)

It's really annoying that the battle system is such a big part of the genre and considered a requirement, I wanna just try making fightless story things where the main goal is something else like exploration/collection/some sort of minigame but I doubt I'd get very much interest.

[+ Dark Influence 251]

Everyone has different interests, you never know until you try Bunni89.

[+ MurgianSwordsman 36]

My biggest weakness is making battles that are of either:

 

Soulcaliber proportions, or higher:

 

Dragon Ball Z proportions, or higher:

 

Asura's Wrath's proportions, That's as high as I can think of comparing it to.

[Bunni89 85]

Yeah, I just mean it's probably wise to make games that are mainstream likeable instead of just what I personally like XD At least if I'm aiming to get feedback, I need to somehow learn this tough stuff or find an assistant. I guess.

 

@Murgian: What exactly do you mean by'[whatever game] proportions'? Proportions could mean anything.. do you mean as tough as them, or as long as them, or in fighting game style..? I could imagine that anyone would have trouble replicating fighting games in RPGmaker!

[+ MurgianSwordsman 36]

What I mean is my weakness is that I make OP characters, such as two non-playable immortals, Kah'zaad and Grim, have enough hit points that they can take a few million damage, and their hit point bar won't budge. Meanwhile, using Yanfly's Lunatic Damage system, they can easily dish out enough damage that the game has to stack the numbers on top of each other, resulting in a mass of mumble-jumble that means that they've dealt beyond millions, perhaps billions of damage. And they are both optional superbosses after what I'm thinking of Game 3 in my game.

[Bunni89 85]

Ah, marathon boss syndrome! Well, those sorts of fights can be fun as long as they're not monotonous. Maybe think about having enemy AI that goes in several clear stages that you have to fight through? Like after the first tenth of the hp bar, they switch to using status attacks or something. I'd reccommend playing Shin Megami Tensei, the series is good for puzzley battles that stay fun the whole way through. Often you get in a situation where you have to outsmart something- like the foe goes into an AI mode where he tanks every hit for 4 rounds and then gets up and counterattacks with a powerful weakening status, but the disadvantage is that if you hit him with Earth damage it's a critical and knocks him out of his defense stance. A couple of rounds of that game and he switches up his tactics entirely and you need to figure out what his weakness is now... etc etc.

It can get pretty ridiculous though, there's crazy shit like a sequence where a boss has six elemental crystals that block all damage and regenerate every turn, and ATTACK every turn for a giant mass of hits that'll slaughter you. Oh and sometimes he finishes up the slaughter sequence with an additional special move that hits the entire field for unblockable critical damage on top of all that. So you have to set up a random elemental blocking shield and hope against hope that the correct elemental crystal attacks first- because if it does, the boss loses a turn without hitting you. And then you've gotta take down one shield at a time and quickly toss an attack under it before it can regenerate. Repeat that for an hour, geez! Dear god, I wish that boss had more phases instead of just repeating that bloody sequence, but it was an accomplishment when I finally finished XD (And a bummer to find out that you could merely brute force it if your level was high enough..)

[Jonnie91 1,149]

My weakness is TOO MANY IDEAS! I get idea's every second, then I start making the project, then I make another one, then I have a different idea. Too many idea's and not enough time/energy patience to do them. 

 

Also, Databasing I fecking HATE databasing

[Bunni89 85]

Oh yeah, gotta agree with you Jonnie XD On the ideas bit- I haven't started a proper project yet cos I've got like four stories and no clue which one is best XDD

But I do like databasing. I get a weird sort of joy from writing silly item descriptions XD

[Tigerbite 36]

Ah, marathon boss syndrome! Well, those sorts of fights can be fun as long as they're not monotonous. Maybe think about having enemy AI that goes in several clear stages that you have to fight through? Like after the first tenth of the hp bar, they switch to using status attacks or something. I'd reccommend playing Shin Megami Tensei, the series is good for puzzley battles that stay fun the whole way through. Often you get in a situation where you have to outsmart something- like the foe goes into an AI mode where he tanks every hit for 4 rounds and then gets up and counterattacks with a powerful weakening status, but the disadvantage is that if you hit him with Earth damage it's a critical and knocks him out of his defense stance. A couple of rounds of that game and he switches up his tactics entirely and you need to figure out what his weakness is now... etc etc.

It can get pretty ridiculous though, there's crazy shit like a sequence where a boss has six elemental crystals that block all damage and regenerate every turn, and ATTACK every turn for a giant mass of hits that'll slaughter you. Oh and sometimes he finishes up the slaughter sequence with an additional special move that hits the entire field for unblockable critical damage on top of all that. So you have to set up a random elemental blocking shield and hope against hope that the correct elemental crystal attacks first- because if it does, the boss loses a turn without hitting you. And then you've gotta take down one shield at a time and quickly toss an attack under it before it can regenerate. Repeat that for an hour, geez! Dear god, I wish that boss had more phases instead of just repeating that bloody sequence, but it was an accomplishment when I finally finished XD (And a bummer to find out that you could merely brute force it if your level was high enough..)

 

Ever played Recettear?  It's a game based on buying/selling items.  The "fighting/combat" is only a secondary/side part of the game where you can find more items to sell.  Maybe you can base something off of that?  Or kind of like "wild" pokemon.  Not the gyms/elite 4, etc.  Wild pokemon are easily killed and used for leveling up purposes (unless you're way out of your level area.)

[Bunni89 85]

Umm.. not sure if you quoted the wrong post of mine, cos what does that have to do with SMT battles? XD But yes I have played Reccetear and I loves eet! It's just a shame it's so ungodly hard with so little variation, so unless you pick up the spangly new gameplay style quite quickly you may as well resign yourself to going through new game+ over and over and OVER again. I eventually got sick of it before I ever managed to finish- it was annoying how the fighting was the only thing that had some sort of variation, especially because it was utterly awful fighting that shouldn't have even been there, yet it gives off good profit that makes logistical sense. *sigh* (Technically you're getting items for free, and you're required to clear dungeons to meet half the characters anyway..)

I think it was a very good game but had a lot of problems since it was essentially a genre starter. I hope they make a sequel someday that's got a bit more meat to it.

Unfortunately being able to make a complex marketplace game requires math skills, which I lack. So it ain't gonna be me that does it XD

[Darkanine 116]

Balancing and pixel art are my weak points,most of my "sprites" and recolors look really rough and unsmooth,my coding skill is half decent,I can't write anything but I can work out errors,and generally understand it.Despite the fact that writing is my main skill,I have a hard time spotting plot-holes, as well as writing realistic emotions and writing for my large cast of characters(11 required characters)I almost always make at least a few characters almost silent,though I'm getting better with that.

[Tigerbite 36]

Umm.. not sure if you quoted the wrong post of mine, cos what does that have to do with SMT battles? XD But yes I have played Reccetear and I loves eet! It's just a shame it's so ungodly hard with so little variation, so unless you pick up the spangly new gameplay style quite quickly you may as well resign yourself to going through new game+ over and over and OVER again. I eventually got sick of it before I ever managed to finish- it was annoying how the fighting was the only thing that had some sort of variation, especially because it was utterly awful fighting that shouldn't have even been there, yet it gives off good profit that makes logistical sense. *sigh* (Technically you're getting items for free, and you're required to clear dungeons to meet half the characters anyway..)

I think it was a very good game but had a lot of problems since it was essentially a genre starter. I hope they make a sequel someday that's got a bit more meat to it.

Unfortunately being able to make a complex marketplace game requires math skills, which I lack. So it ain't gonna be me that does it XD

 

I was basically saying make your game around your exploration and what not and only have fighting as a secondary attraction.  That way you don't have to focus AS much on the battle aspects of the game and you can still have a great game.

[Dark Horseman 93]

Staying motivated knowing hundreds of other rpgmaker developers will outshine you - there are some ridiculously talented people out there. That's why I feel for RPGMaker games you have to stress your talent at writing a good story or become great at art - it's the best way to stand out because mechanics are easily forgotten in even professional games.

 

I'd say a weak point of mine is not getting bored doing filler tasks - setting up treasure, animations, enemy AI, and populating non-vital parts of the map.

[Radiant Arin 412]

Staying motivated knowing hundreds of other rpgmaker developers will outshine you - there are some ridiculously talented people out there. That's why I feel for RPGMaker games you have to stress your talent at writing a good story or become great at art - it's the best way to stand out because mechanics are easily forgotten in even professional games.

That's kind of pessimistic.