WIP: Unnamed 2D RPG

[Tsuyu]

The last guy didn't end up so well when it went all the way.. wonder what happened to him.

Y U NO RETURN MY CALLS, GIKI-CHAN?! :'(

 

[DieselFuelOnly]

Are all the the NPCs on-screen in the battlefield just complete copies or are they each individually different in design?

Yes and no. I made a neat little script that allows your player attributes/equipment/skills to dictate the attributes/skills of each soldier in your party differently. However, they are all based off the same copy-pasta'd NPC.

Any plans on giving those companions some depth, such as talking to them, learning things, giving commands, etc.. or will they just be protective shadows?

I made a neat little script that allows your player attributes/equipment/skills to dictate the attributes/skills of each soldier in your party differently.

Many other characters in the game will have depth and dialogue, such as the elderly military commander that you eventually befriend, who will then appoint you as the leader of his army that you will lead into battle at the end of the game. Unfortunately, although I'd like to, it's hard to give every soldier depth and dialogue due to the apparent limitations of the engine I've chose to work with. But the other game makers out there didn't offer the same low level freedom, such as custom scripts and direct engine controls. And I was NOT going to write another game engine from scratch. Once was enough. F*** that


Before I get into this lengthly post, if I haven't clarified this already: The development process is going to take quite a while, because I plan on doing it right and possibly getting slightly recognized in the indie developer community. However, I'll release several demos here exclusively during the development process. And of course, the final release will be free NOTE: to play it you'll need to install the .NET framework 3.5 from here. And DirectX 8.1, if you don't already have it, from here. (don't worry, it won't get rid of any newer directx versions)

Now...

It sounds like the software has trouble with simply moving all those pixels all at once on screen. I remember SNES & Genesis shoot 'em up games like Thunder Force had major lag when there were too many things on screen at once.

I found out why it lags so freaking much, and part of it is what you said. Seems every character you make has an entire processing tree attached to it within the engine that runs scripts, sounds, sprite movement, progressive lighting updates, and a small non-dynamic shadow (which are low cpu cost individually, but will turn into a real bitch when you've got . Which in any game makes for one hell of a CPU clogging mess :ermm:

So I tested it on three of my four computers and got some numbers. And before you ask why in the hell I own four different computers, think about it this way: When you buy a new Chevy or Subaru, do you get rid of the old one? No.. It's got some miles on it, but it's still a perfectly good machine

When viewing these numbers, keep in mind the 001 engine caps games at 30 fps, so even if you could run it at 60 fps with a billion things on screen, it'll only run at 30 fps.

The HP lappy top I've been developing on and initially tested the battle map on, it's specs, and fps on during that battle:
OS: Windows XP Professional
Processor: AMD Turion 64 x2 - 2 Ghz
Graphics: ATI Radeon Xpress 1150
RAM: 447mb
Frames per second during battle: 4-5 (no that's not a typo)

Keep in mind though, ^this laptop has a few battle scars itself, including heat damage from forcing Crysis to run so I could get somebody to STFU about how much the laptop sucks, as well as more heat damage from running BioShock wide open with a DirectX 9 patch. I noticed the damage when BioShock was running at a playable 25fps until the computer overheated and shut itself down. I restarted it a couple hours later and ever since, nothing has run at the speeds they used to.

My older Dell laptop a friend gave me as a gift:
OS: My own (which is a stripped down version of an open source windows clone)
Processor: Intel F15 M2 S9 - 2.4 Ghz
Graphics: ATI Mobility Radeon 7500C
RAM: 512mb
Cooling: Stock
Frames per second during battle: 8-10

My modest gaming pc:
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 x2 - 2.6 Ghz
Graphics: msi GeForce n220gt-md512 Overclocking Edition
RAM: 4GB
Cooling: 2 intake fans in the front of the tower, and 2 rear exhaust fans
Frames per second during battle: Solid as could be at 30 fps

So it seems the performance is hindered directly by your machine itself... Of course... So I need to start developing with everyone's pc specs in mind, and find a good medium. So if everybody interested in playing the game could share their processor, graphics card/chipset, and ram, I would highly appreciate it ^_^

Sorry for the long ass post, I get compulsive about whether or not I've said enough sometimes... And once agaain, I thank everybody so much for taking the time to read my long posts, share ideas, give crit, and assist in the development of this little project. Gikoku in particular has been incredibly helpful in getting my mind working in different areas and helping me to see the project from the player's view. You have no idea how much I appreciate it

 

[Azer249]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

First of all welcome to the forums, i seem to have missed your welcome thread, for that i apologise.
Second of all, this looks like a fun ass game.... I can't wait to see the finished product and i shall definitly be following this thread and offering assistance in any way i can.

How i will i offer this assistance? Well you wanted peoples PC Specs who wanted to play the game... so.

Motherboard: Asus m5a99x Evo
Ram: 12GB Kingston Hyper-X Genesis Ddr3 ram @1600mhz
GPU: 1GB MSI Gtx 560ti
Processor: AMD Phenom II 965 @3.6Ghz (overclocked it a bit)

So on that note, keep up the good work!

 

[DieselFuelOnly]

First of all welcome to the forums, i seem to have missed your welcome thread, for that i apologise.
Second of all, this looks like a fun ass game.... I can't wait to see the finished product and i shall definitly be following this thread and offering assistance in any way i can.

How i will i offer this assistance? Well you wanted peoples PC Specs who wanted to play the game... so.

Motherboard: Asus m5a99x Evo
Ram: 12GB Kingston Hyper-X Genesis Ddr3 ram @1600mhz
GPU: 1GB MSI Gtx 560ti
Processor: AMD Phenom II 965 @3.6Ghz (overclocked it a bit)

So on that note, keep up the good work!

Ah a fellow overclocker... we shall talk soon...

But seriously. Way to make my gaming pc look like a piece of s*** :'(
If I was to build the game to run on your specs, I wouldn't have any f***ing limits :|

 

[Azer249]

Ah a fellow overclocker... we shall talk soon...

Oh sorry i also forgot to mention, i have increased the clocks on my GPU also. From the stock 900Mhz core to 950Mhz core.

 

[DieselFuelOnly]

Oh sorry i also forgot to mention, i have increased the clocks on my GPU also. From the stock 900Mhz core to 950Mhz core.

I edited my post to reflect what I was thinking when I read your specs xD

But yea, I've got my CPU and GPU clocked up a bit. And thanks for offering your help and support, it's greatly appreciated .

 

[Azer249]

I edited my post to reflect what I was thinking when I read your specs xD

But yea, I've got my CPU and GPU clocked up a bit.

Overclocking friend :wub:

But seriously. Way to make my gaming pc look like a piece of s*** :'(
If I was to build the game to run on your specs, I wouldn't have any f***ing limits :|

Haha, i will be more than willing to post fps logs for you once it is in beta. Most of my parts i got on sale thought. For instance 12GB of ram for £40! i couldn't resist =D

 

[DieselFuelOnly]

By the way I loved how you just ~~~~~~~~'d for my quoted post xDD I was waiting for somebody to quote the damn thing and take up another page lol.

Anyway, fps logs are awesome, I didn't wanna go asking people to go out of their way for this project but if you're willing, they'd help TONS once I get a demo up

And I got my parts on sale too. I actually found my graphics card at a surplus store amongst old keyboards.. just one lonesome n220 GT... I think that was the fastest I ever forked out 30 bucks (£22). They had no idea what the hell they were selling.

 

[Gikoku]

Sorry for late response, kept getting side-tracked with a lot of things.

I made a neat little script that allows your player attributes/equipment/skills to dictate the attributes/skills of each soldier in your party differently.

Many other characters in the game will have depth and dialogue, such as the elderly military commander that you eventually befriend, who will then appoint you as the leader of his army that you will lead into battle at the end of the game. Unfortunately, although I'd like to, it's hard to give every soldier depth and dialogue due to the apparent limitations of the engine I've chose to work with. But the other game makers out there didn't offer the same low level freedom, such as custom scripts and direct engine controls. And I was NOT going to write another game engine from scratch. Once was enough. F*** that

Nice, I like the sound of that system.

Pity about every NPC not being deep. Will there be any chances for consequences in the game? Like say for example, I do something in the game to somebody else and it goes against what my companions stand for. Will they turn on me? Engage me in dialogue and scold me? Or anything of that nature?

Before I get into this lengthly post, if I haven't clarified this already: The development process is going to take quite a while, because I plan on doing it right and possibly getting slightly recognized in the indie developer community. However, I'll release several demos here exclusively during the development process. And of course, the final release will be free NOTE: to play it you'll need to install the .NET framework 3.5 from here. And DirectX 8.1, if you don't already have it, from here. (don't worry, it won't get rid of any newer directx versions)

Sweet, was hoping you'd release some demos. Got an ETA on when the first demo might drop?

So it seems the performance is hindered directly by your machine itself... Of course... So I need to start developing with everyone's pc specs in mind, and find a good medium. So if everybody interested in playing the game could share their processor, graphics card/chipset, and ram, I would highly appreciate it ^_^

Well I have 2 computers I use for right now.. My laptop and my gaming desktop (which is hooked up to my HDTV). My gaming rig can run everything at max, but my laptop while it does have some pretty nice specs.. isn't ideal for any real gaming.

Here's my laptop specs though:

CPU: i5 M 480 2.67GHz, Dual-Core.
RAM: 6GB
GPU: Intel(R) HD Graphics (1 GB)

Sorry for the long ass post, I get compulsive about whether or not I've said enough sometimes... And once agaain, I thank everybody so much for taking the time to read my long posts, share ideas, give crit, and assist in the development of this little project. Gikoku in particular has been incredibly helpful in getting my mind working in different areas and helping me to see the project from the player's view. You have no idea how much I appreciate it

You're welcome man. :thumbsup:

 

[DieselFuelOnly]

Sorry for late response, kept getting side-tracked with a lot of things.


Nice, I like the sound of that system.

Pity about every NPC not being deep. Will there be any chances for consequences in the game? Like say for example, I do something in the game to somebody else and it goes against what my companions stand for. Will they turn on me? Engage me in dialogue and scold me? Or anything of that nature?

Oh they'll turn on you... I accidentally smacked one of the soldiers during the battle and they all flocked towards me and.. it wasn't pretty.

Sweet, was hoping you'd release some demos. Got an ETA on when the first demo might drop?

Partial playable demo: a week or two

The rest is entirely up to you guys. I have a lot of things I should really have tested on other computers, and if you guys wanna test some stuff for me, I can upload single-map feature test demos to mediafire almost nightly... Let me know.

Here's my laptop specs though:

CPU: i5 M 480 2.67GHz, Dual-Core.
RAM: 6GB
GPU: Intel(R) HD Graphics (1 GB)

Interesting... Intel(R) HD Graphics chipsets have issues with certain directx 8 sprite formats(no offense obviously), you could be my test bed for some effects.

 

[Gikoku]

Oh they'll turn on you... I accidentally smacked one of the soldiers during the battle and they all flocked towards me and.. it wasn't pretty.

Excellent.

Partial playable demo: a week or two

The rest is entirely up to you guys. I have a lot of things I should really have tested on other computers, and if you guys wanna test some stuff for me, I can upload single-map feature test demos to mediafire almost nightly... Let me know.

Sounds fine to me, though I won't be able to test every single time right away, but I can lend my share of help.

Interesting... Intel(R) HD Graphics chipsets have issues with certain directx 8 sprite formats(no offense obviously), you could be my test bed for some effects.

Sounds exciting. :w00t:

 

[IMesh]

It looks great, reminds me of... something... not sure what, but something, so that's good, I think...
Anyway, If you do need any more beta-testers I'd be happy to sign up, in whatever way one does that on the computer.

Are there any random events in this game, like you're walking through an area for the fourth time and an Alien decides to try and kill you? I think that would be different...
You could add rocks to the game to fill in the blank spots, maybe a couple ore veins, whatever you want I guess seeing as your the one making it.
Crash Bandicoot style killer plants! A necessity for any good game.

Just a question you can completely ignore, but how big do you think this project is going to end up? As in, byte size, not necessarily in bytes but whatever you... Never mind...

Again, great work so far, can't wait to -possibly, pending on whether you release it- play this game.

 

[Azer249]

Oh they'll turn on you... I accidentally smacked one of the soldiers during the battle and they all flocked towards me and.. it wasn't pretty.

Ohhhh that sounds very cool.

The rest is entirely up to you guys. I have a lot of things I should really have tested on other computers, and if you guys wanna test some stuff for me, I can upload single-map feature test demos to mediafire almost nightly... Let me know.

That sounds good if you feel like doing that, i'de be more than willing to play throguth them every night and upload the FPS logs on a spreadsheet for you.

 

[DieselFuelOnly]

Ohhhh that sounds very cool.

That sounds good if you feel like doing that, i'de be more than willing to play throguth them every night and upload the FPS logs on a spreadsheet for you.

Greatly appreciated As I upload them I'll post a mediafire link and a description of what will be tested, any focal points, and whether or not I need an fps log or just confirmation that it works.

This is a brand new region: Island Town. Which is also my biggest one yet ^_^ In other words, based on the map size this game maker was intended for, it's big enough to make fat jokes about it... It's unpopulated in every respect, but should have foliage, paths, buildings, and lighting by this evening. Crit I need on this is the shorelines, do they look realistic? Should I remove the island at the bottom?

Also, I'm going to start letting you guys tell me what YOU think will look good in areas where I'm a bit unsure, this is one of those areas. So don't be shy. Copy pasta the picture into paint, and map out your ideas. Then I'll do it and post a picture until we get this level done.

So here it is:

Also, keep in mind my screenies are usually zoomed out to about 50%. The picture below is zoomed out to 25%.

 

[DieselFuelOnly]

Playing around with shadows:

 

[Azer249]

Playing around with shadows:

Is that with the light coming from the centre of the picture. If so good job
I say they need a bit more of a gradient though, lighter to darker.

 

[DieselFuelOnly]

Is that with the light coming from the centre of the picture. If so good job

Yes, there is a point light right in the center

I say they need a bit more of a gradient though, lighter to darker.

Here's a screenie that shows the entire area, although they still look pretty... I don't know... Is "sharp" the word?

 

[Azer249]

Yes, there is a point light right in the center



Here's a screenie that shows the entire area, although they still look pretty... I don't know... Is "sharp" the word?

I like it, if it had a gradient on it, it would look amazing. I would mess around with it a bit, and possibly add some Gaussian blur around the edges of the shadows. That usually gives a good effect.

 

[DieselFuelOnly]

Update: This project has been bought out and taken over by....

Diesel-Azer Games

Azer turned out to be a really good map designer.

May the world burst into flames by the heat of our awesome :devil:

 

[Angel]

It looks great, reminds me of... something... not sure what, but something, so that's good, I think...

Reminds me of Shining Force, which is a good thing. Unless you happen to hate the game and then it's a bad thing.

Either way, I couldn't make an RPG using a crayon and a piece of paper so hats off to you, sir. Or madam. Whichever happens to apply on a Wednesday.