Return of the Lost

[Tsarmina 2,612]

That Kill-Fang guy is weird. O_o

 

Anyway, other than that...great game! The mapping is lovely, and the features are simple but make all the difference.

[+ Myst88 87]

That Kill-Fang guy is weird. O_o

 

Anyway, other than that...great game! The mapping is lovely, and the features are simple but make all the difference.

 

Orc's tend to be quite vicious and none too bright in this game.

[+ Myst88 87]

Been working on some of the characters unique skills, for example Mirage has a special skill called wild magic. It envokes a random element, so if fire is chosen the Mirage's basic attacks are fire based and she gains resistance to fire attacks. It's random so may not always work in you favour but at the same time it could be just what you need.

 

Haakon being a battle cleric has the move turn undead which does a lot of damage to any undead.

 

Still working on Taramis's and Arnuld's moves however.

 

Also has anyone had the pleasure of listening to Adrian Von Ziegler? He's a composer who allows his music to be used for free, and it is all amazing! I've decided to use a lot of his songs in the game, they have a Celtic feel to them which fits the game quite well.

[+ Myst88 87]

Progress.....kinda?

I've been redoing some maps, but also working on some skills. But I'm a bit torn on how I want to do the skill system. At the mo It's pretty much like D&D with the player having limits on what skills they can equip.

 

Buuuut.....I've been wondering lately if this would work for an RPG game, so I was thinking maybe changing it a bit. So for example equipment lets you learn temporary skills while the character has it equipped, and the chance to learn permenant skills by reading tomes, scrolls, etc.

 

I think I'll try both see how they feel.

[KayakoChan 318]

In all honestly I kinda like the idea of equipping skills, I don't know, final fantasy 7 did it, and it worked there!

 

Of course, nothing against a system allowing you to permanently learn a skill either, but since I've not seen a thing yet I can't comment on how it would feel!

[+ Myst88 87]

Been working on my parallaxing skills. Trying to make the maps look more natural. I've redone quite a few maps now so hopefully I can start concentrating more on the actual story! Been working on some of the skills as well. I've found quite a few decent animations so I've been able to do quite a few cool attacks. Only problem is I went a bit crazy and now have too many skills. Gonna have to get rid of a few I think.

 

[KayakoChan 318]

Why would you have to? Just make it that you can not get all skills in one run, make branching choices which allow you to specialize and learn some skills only. Adds a little bit of replayability too!

[+ Myst88 87]

Why would you have to? Just make it that you can not get all skills in one run, make branching choices which allow you to specialize and learn some skills only. Adds a little bit of replayability too!

 

 

At the moment I'm going with the idea of learning skills by reading skill/magic tomes. You'll pretty much find them while exploring dungeons. But I guess certain skills you could get by doing sidequests or by certain choices you make in game. Or if I have the specialized class feature depending on what path you go down depends on what tomes you find.

 

Hmmm I think you may have given me an idea.

 

 

[KayakoChan 318]

I just thought, why throw away ideas you made for awesome skills?~

[+ Myst88 87]

Gotta love variables. I've been messing around with random variables so that when you talk to NPCs they say a random sentance, rather then repeating the same line over and over. Also been randomising battles. So when you walk into an enemy on the map it won't necessarily be the same troop as you fought last time.

 

Also been working my battle system. I wasn't very happy with the sbs. I've seen some really good sbs systems, but they usually have the character battlers animated. I don't have that level of skill so mine just kinda stand there, or walk on the spot. So I'm going with the front view battle system but to keep things slightly more interesting I'm using Mog's battle huds. I'm deciding between these two. (Though I'm leaning more towards the second one.)

 

[blamethepoet 1]

good hope to hear some news about it!

[+ Myst88 87]

What do people think of advance classes? At some point in the game you can pick advanced classes for each of the characters. So for Mirage who is a mage she can either learn.

 

Demonology: Summon minions to attack, dark magic as well as debuffs.

 

Elementalist: Focus on pure damage using various elements.

 

Taramis being a druid/ranger can choose to focus more on her druid skills or ranger skills. Haakon is a battle cleric so he can choose to focus more on the healing side or the damage side.

 

Now it's just Arnuld I'm stuck on. He's a Barbarian, so I was thinking Berserker, but I'm unsure about the second class.

[amerk 1,122]

It really depends on how it's incorporated into the game. If things get complicated without reason, or the balance feels way off, advanced classes may not be viewed as a positive feature. But as long as everything is balanced, it fits the game well, and it's a smooth bug-free experience, it can really open the game up in a lot of way, allowing the player a reason to grind and build their new hybrid class, especially if new abilities become unlocked.

[corneredcosmos 21]

This game looks promising, I do like the tilesets your using for the maps.

Oh and I do prefer the first out of the two battle huds, the one on the bottom just feels to cluttered in my opinion.

[Spectre 829]

Ooh. By any chance are you using Atelier RGSS? Neato. I'm adapting one of them for Sugar Sweet, too. In any case, I concur with the sentiment that the first HUD is better.

 

As for advanced classes, you may want to run a few tests with offense and defense focused builds on all party characters, while observing for any gamebreaking strategies. As amerk said, as long as the experience is smooth, and the additional classes have a function that is neither too redundant nor complex, you're good to go.

 

Other than that, your project has potential, and I see you have an eye for graphics. :3 Hope to see more updates soon!

[+ Myst88 87]

 

It really depends on how it's incorporated into the game. If things get complicated without reason, or the balance feels way off, advanced classes may not be viewed as a positive feature. But as long as everything is balanced, it fits the game well, and it's a smooth bug-free experience, it can really open the game up in a lot of way, allowing the player a reason to grind and build their new hybrid class, especially if new abilities become unlocked.

 

Yeah.... I think advance classes can either be great or a really bad idea. Best thing is to put them in and test them out.

 

Ooh. By any chance are you using Atelier RGSS? Neato. I'm adapting one of them for Sugar Sweet, too. In any case, I concur with the sentiment that the first HUD is better.

 

Yep. I was playing around with various battle huds by Moghunter, trying to find one that fit into the game. (it was a really tough choice!) Since in the end I decided to go with a front view battle system I wanted something to make it..... a bit less plain I guess.

[Spectre 829]

If I recall some of the options use busts as character previews. Try Silver Hawk, Blue Witch or Hikari presets to better stylize the battle scene (you can even insert multiple busts for spell casts/damage etc), and make it less plain, as you said. ^^

 

Might also wanna tinker around with custom HUD holders.

Edited January 21, 2015 by Spectre

[+ Myst88 87]

Finished the first village. Starting on the first dungeon as well. (Swapped to Celianna's new tiles)

 

This is the village of Tinsdale. A small village that acts as a waypoint between the mountains and the Flatlands. Mirage is sent there to locate an agent of the Black Hand who has failed to report in for a couple of months. Since it's the starting village there isn't much to see. Theres a couple of homes you can explore, an inn/tavern where you can also buy items from the traveling merchant who has set up shop there. And also the magic shop which the missing agent owns. The surrounding forest is nothing special. The villagers make their main export from hunting. Dire wolves live there but they tend to leave the villagers alone if they travel in a group.

 

And this is from one of the first cutscenes.

[+ Myst88 87]

Progress has been slow this past month, (me and my family have had a cold that did not want to go!) But heres some screenies of what I have been working on.

 

 

 

Each character has roughly 12 skills each (not counting skills attached to weapons) Sinc I diddn't want players scrolling through all of them in battle I decided to make the player choose which skills they want to be active. (Plus it's a good way to get rid of low level spells when you don't need them anymore) Also characters will be able to equip two passive skills, these skills will range from offering a boost to Health or Mana to allowing the characters to equip armor types they normally wouldn't be able to. (For example Mirage can only equip cloth or magic armor, but with a passive skill can equip heavy armor.)

 

Most skills are learned while leveling. However some are attached to certain weapons and armor. Their only temporary skills but don't cost MP. (Thy cost TP instead which will replenish during battles)

 

It's always handy to know your foes.

 

And lastly the status screen. It shows the characters basic parameters, their elemental strengths and weaknesses and their status strengths and weaknesses.)

 

 

 

I've finished each of the characters main skills, just need to work on every other skill now -_-'

[+ Lyla 41]

D&D? You have my vote! Also, those last screenshots look awesome. I love your window skin. Not to mention I adore the idea of passive skills like you've added ... reminds me of a game called Final Fantasy Tactics where you could have your ninja with armor on, haha. It's one of my favorite games.

[+ Myst88 87]

Thought I'd do a before and after coparison, showing the difference shadows and lighting make. The updated screenshot is far from perfect but I think it looks tons better with shadows then without.

 

Before:

 

After:

 

Also been working on my night tints. I found using Victor Sants light effects better for making a night time tint. But I'm wondering if it looks realistic enough?

Edited May 1, 2015 by Mirage88

[+ Myst88 87]

Found this awesome map making site called Inkarnate. Soooo I've given it a go and made a rough copy of the world map (still incomplete). 

 

 

 

Edited September 3, 2015 by Mirage88

[+ Myst88 87]

Man I've really been neglecting my game lately. I blame all the new games I've been getting. Gotta play them all! Well since I own MV and I really love its character generator, I've decided to let all the (major) characters have facesets. Since I have next to no artistic talent and paying someone to make custom artwork for me will be a tad too pricey for me. (Being an adult sucks kids. It's just bills bills bills all the time) So far I've done the four main characters (which can be viewed in the updated characters section) and some of the more important npcs.

 

Other then that I've been tweaking some of the art in the game since I have decided to go with a higher resolution which meant that I had to resize some of the pictures. But hopefully that means people won't have to squint so much playing. (Didn't realize how small vx and vx ace's screens were till I played with MV.)