I am. It's giving me *something*, but it looks rather "wrong", like tiles were interchanged and transposed or something. On the overworld map, for example, I could identify that a castle was *supposed* to have been there, but it looks like a carefully coded jumble, symptomatic of a damaged tileset. Is there more than one tileset in the package?

On another note, those notes found in the design documentation had best be finalized. I'm creating the data structures that all the weapons and armors are going to be kept in. Lemmie tell ya. It's a LOT of work entering in all that data.

Well, it's not exactly "unchangeable", but the entire layout will be dependent on the stats that are given. It would be okay to alter the already existing stats, but it would be a major pain to, say, add in or take away certain things and objects. Adding in more items shouldn't be much of a problem, since I'll be reserving space for more things like weapons/armors and some of the other material that are to be kept in the inventory.

Hell, I'll be adding a few things in myself, partly for those "hidden goodies" effect, and partly for items to be used in beta testing. You know. uber weapons and armors to get through the game quickly so that the events can be tested without much of a hassle.

I'd plan that after the initial "so it works" testing phase is done, then the difficulty tweaking can be made.

Well, it's not exactly "unchangeable", but the entire layout will be dependent on the stats that are given. It would be okay to alter the already existing stats ...

That's all I needed to know. As long as we can edit statistics to re-balance things, everything else should be in order.

Hell, I'll be adding a few things in myself, partly for those "hidden goodies" effect, and partly for items to be used in beta testing. You know. uber weapons and armors to get through the game quickly so that the events can be tested without much of a hassle.

I would prefer not to have a bunch of dummied-out stuff in the game. If you just start your party out with max stats and suit them with the game's best items, you should be able to breeze through any of the events without any hassle. If you think it's still necessary, then I hope you understand the rules behind items very well, because they are very specifically designed to prevent imbalances like these. If you put literally every ability on an item, it will become useless versus some (or most) enemies due to damage reduction and defensive properties. The best way to go about it is to leave any sort of elemental attack modifiers out, and exempt your items from belonging to any of the conventional proficiencies. It wouldn't be funny if your uber-sword had its attack power reduced by 80% because that puny goblin was resistant to cold damage!

Just in case the documentation wasn't very clear on item abilities, let me run this by real quick so I can be sure there's no misunderstanding about it. I feel I organized that section badly, due to limitations with the document's formatting. It was becoming difficult to fit notes about so many abilities on each line of the item descriptions.

There are several different types of abilities associated with each item: base and derived statistical bonuses and penalties, elemental and status modifiers, passive abilities, and character growth gains. So generally, these are four different categories. When you say that you capped the item ability limit to four, I hope that only applies to the passive abilities and not elemental and status modifiers. These should more or less be regarded as special properties, and not abilities within the allocated ability slots. If any of this makes any sense...

The passive abilities are:

{damage reduction versus dragon's breath: 20% - see "Mirror Mail"}
{damage reduction / general: 4-16% - this effect is noted}
attack modifier +1
counterattack
critical-up
regeneration
elemental shell
energy-drain
undead curse
unleashed spell

{bracketed abilities aren't listed on the equip check sub-screen}

Normal damage reduction is listed on the sub-screen as its own stat, and should probably be regarded as such in the data. So, that leaves us with about 9 abilities that should be fit into the "passive abilities" category. (8 that are displayed on the check screen, and 1 hidden)

that would be cool if you picked up the project again Galandros

EDIT: Btw http://www.revsoft.org appears to be back up

Go for it. Let me know your e-mail so I can add you as an administrator to the project page. (then you'll be able to commit updates to the SVN) You can PM me your e-mail if you don't want it to be posted here.

If you have any questions, I can answer them. As for the maps, they are divided into blocks -- or screens -- that are explored block by block. The screen scrolls to the next block when you leave the current one, similar to the same style used in Zelda. It's important that the mapper use this method, because all the maps are designed to function this way. (I believe Liazon already finished that code)

Maps aren't directly connected to one another, because you use warp tiles to move from map to map instead. If you step onto a staircase, for instance, you're taken to a different room. (and possibly a different map) If you step onto a village or temple on the world map, you're taken off the world map and transported to that area. It's pretty straightforward.

If you want to start a thread for the project, then you're welcome to do so. You're essentially taking it over altogether, so it's yours to do whatever you want with.

I made some time a mail for development. Since it is Omnimaga and I will be using it for software releases, there is no problem. [email protected]

Yeah, I understood already that method of passing. (from code) Still need to understand more deeply the code.
From what it seems Liazon completed the code handling that.  It stills needs to insert data to connect all screens and put the flag to not walkable tiles. (he does nicely with use of compiler operators and defines) I will use this technique. I didn't do any RPG so far and because of that I had different ideas in my mind... But I would use something similar in certain occasions.
If I have any doubts about how to implement events, etc.. I will contact you.

Now it is going to be funny to play RPG games, sometimes I will be thinking how it works in. If weren't enough all other thoughts I have about the world.


EDIT:
@DJ I now know the why of that btw.
http://www.revsoft.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=776
I also dug up some notes about the current state. And confirmed what parts need to be coded.

I'm not entirely sure I understood why there needed to be more than four. I guess I would best explain what I have so far with respect to the data structure:

13 bytes is being allocated toward status storage, as indicated in the documentation. In their order:

1 . Who can equip the item and its item type.
2 . Weapon/armor's damage modifier. Signed number from -128 to 127
3 . Listed "defense" stats. Same as above.
4 . "WIS". ""
5 . "HIT" . ""
6 . "EVA". ""
7 . "Modifier" #1
8 . "Modifier" #2
9 . "Modifier" #3
10 . "Modifier" #4
11 . Character gain slot 1
12 . Character gain slot 2
13 . Character gain slot 3

I was under the impression that none of these stats change once the game assembled. But to clarify... The most I've seen under the modifiers section is four entries and those that appeared to have a special listed "effect" has those slots filled up. Some of these slots are unused. To keep the simplicity of these data structures, I decided to lump elemental/status attack , racial attack, elemental/status defense, passive skills, and passive spellcasting into a single category, "modifier". To maintain other specials, I had to add in other modifiers as I saw needed. For example, damage reduction of 2, 4, 8, 10, 12, and 16 percent each have their own modifier code. Any "special" attributes of any item or weapon can obtain its own modifier code. If there aren't enough slots, a *new* modifier code can be created to lump two (or more) modifier codes into it.

When it comes time to actually checking what each one does, some are ignored at certain stages of the battle, since they don't apply. For example, if you're attacking and the engine runs across a modifier used to reduce elemental damage when being attacked, the subroutine knows that it needs not apply and exits promptly back to the main routine for further calculations.

Please don't tell me you can *ADD* any of these modifiers midway through the game. That would complicate matters...

Iambian, updated font.

I dummied out those god-awful icons I made a while back for the dynamite and ore, so in the design document's notes, just ignore where those are mentioned and use the key icon in their place.