Final Fantasy VI SDK - Going Social!

[rey meustrus]

Hm, Dargor, I think if you created the project files in My Documents instead of a subdirectory of the program, there wouldn't be permissions issues with Windows Vista and 7.

EDIT: Also, I just tried out the editor on Windows XP. There were no resources at all in the test project. I tried importing from ROM { (U) (V1.1) [!] } and everything was messed up. Most names were just random characters, though items seemed to be offset ("som Hard" and "ened Stri", etc.) and they made log messages "09:37:39: Error: Can't load image from file '': file does not exist."

 

[Dargor]

@MagitekElite
If you don't have a project opened, or probably no map selected, it is possible that one of the toolbar or menu buttons will make the editor crash.

@rey meustrus
You're probably right. I will change the default location of the projects directory.
But the RTP should all be in the RTP Folder, and the editor behaves exactly like RPG Maker, searching first in the game folder and then in the RTP folders.
I don't understand why it still doesn't show up. I'm investigating that.

About the ROM feature, you have an interesting point. You probably have an headered ROM so all the data is offset. Try with V1.0.
I'll fix that eventually.

Thanks for the info!

 

[MagitekElite]

Hmm...okay, opening the project made it so it didn't crash. A few right clicking and left clicking, I got it to show resources, but it crashes when I try to build anything. Other than my stupid PC not having a graphics card, its perfect! I love how everything is set up! The menus, buttons, the theme selection! Its absolutely perfect!

I have a few questions.1: ...are there auto-tiles available? 2: The import tab...how will that work exactly?

 

[Dargor]

Thanks for the feedback!

1) I wasn't sure at first but yes, there will be auto-tiles. But there is no support for this yet. Also I sometime find it tedious to work with auto-tiles, so I'll add a second animated tiles feature. This feature will let you choose which tile is animated the animation sequence will be customizable. The idea is to select a tile in the Tileset Editor and add animation frames to it. Then, for each frame, you specify a new tile and the FPS for this animation.

2) It will work exactly the same as what you see when you select Import from ROM in the new project dialog.

 

[MagitekElite]

Ah! Okay! I tried the ROM import, its really nice! You did great on the Pre-Alpha demo, Dargor! Can't wait for more! :!:

Oh, by the way, I'm not sure how I did it, but I got it to work. Last thing I did was double check the permissions inside my anti-virus and my firewall and then added a path. Seemed to have worked. :>

 

[Imzogelmo]

I'm curious how the various special effects (for spells, commands, weapons, and items) will be applied to their respective formulas for hitting and damage. Will these be specific scripts that are assigned to the spells/commands/weapons/items? If so, I believe it will be necessary to have 2 script assignments available, as there are specials that modify targeting and specials that modify damage, if I understand correctly.

For flexibility purposes, it may be good to have multiple checkboxes to permit the skipping of each step in the damage calculation (something which the game does not natively support; "Ignore Defense" actually skips about 8 steps). I'm sure it could be accomplished via script, but I guess what I'm suggesting is to have some sort of user-definable checkboxes that can be assigned to some script variables.

 

[FenixFyreX]

About skills or spells. Have you thought about accuracy depending on level? I know its very simple, but just a reminder :3

For example, Lv. 5 Doom only hits level 5's or multiples of 5.

 

[Dargor]

@Imzogelmo
The main algorithm will be divided into small methods, similar to what you can see in Terii Senshi's Algorithm, so it will be easy to skip steps.
Every special effects will also be made into small methods. Your idea about having checkboxes to specify which steps to process is actually a very good idea and will be easy to implement. Every checkboxes will allow the specified step to be performed.

It will also be possible to use custom scripts. So if you have a uniq spell that changes the targeting in a very specific way, or anything you want, it will be possible to defined this in custom scripts and associate the script to this spell, items or whatever.

In fact, I'm currently thinking of a new event system for database objects. In the case of spells, we could have multiple events such as:
OnSelected (custom script will be launched when the spell is selected in the list)
OnConfirm (\\ will be launched when target has been confirmed)
OnWaiting (\\ will be launched when waiting before casting the spell)
OnCasting (\\ will be launched when the spell is cast)
etc...

I could add many event handlers like that and every spells (this could also apply to items, monsters, actors, etc) could have different behavior in these various cases.
Damn, I'm really excited about how powerful this could be, just by typing these ideas! :O Note that this feature will probably be less user friendly since it requires programming knowledge and would be mainly text based.

@FenixFireX
Spells and Items will have special properties where you can specify them to be effective only in specific cases like that. This could also easily be done using the method I mentioned above.

To continue on the event handlers, here's a couple of new handler ideas:

For Actors:
OnJoinParty
OnLeaveParty
OnWounded
etc.

For Items:
OnBuy
OnSell
OnUse
etc.

For Monsters:
OnDead
OnRevived
OnEscape
etc.

I could write a massive list :P

Take care!
- Dargor

 

[Imzogelmo]

@Dargor:

That customized event-handling sounds a LOT like how the monster AI is done, and I'm sure that's probably what you had in mind anyway. Monsters have several event-handlers (if you want to think of it that way).
The AI script has commands that could be roughly correspond to "OnHit", "OnHitByCommand(command)", "OnHitByElement(element)", "OnHitBySpell(spell)", "OnHitBy(actor)". I would like to see that expanded to include things like "OnTargeted", "OnTargetedBy(actor)", "OnDamaged" (distinct from hit, as a hit may do 0 damage). Of course, the game designers foresaw the need for specialized checks, too, as they implemented a system with custom variables that can be set, cleared, added, subtracted, etc. for individual monsters.

But yeah, I really like the idea of having each small portion of damage calculation (or hit determination) skippable with a checkbox. It certainly makes for a flexible system.

 

[rey meustrus]

Dargor, I would like to take what you have created and mold it into a more general purpose open-source RPG Maker. All I need is your permission and the source. You have no idea how big this could be. RM is a mature community now and I think that we deserve a program that meets everybody's needs.

Think about the conflict between RMXP and RMVX. What would we all do if there was an alternative? If someone wants a new killer feature, that person can code it themselves and everyone can benefit. We have tons of people in this community that do that sort of things with their games as it is.

If you don't want to release the source, at least explain to me what you are afraid of.

 

[Imzogelmo]

OK, it's too quiet for a few days... Anxiety level building!!!

Hahaha, just kidding. :P But seriously, I love to see any new ideas that you implement. :D

 

[Dargor]

@rey meustrus
Having an open source engine made by the members of the community is a great idea. But I don't want to simply give away the source code of the SDK for many reasons.
However, if you are comfortable with Ruby, I can tell you the tools I am using to create this editor and give you a couple of links, hints, etc.
Note that I had the idea to do a more general engine to share with other people such as SephitorhSpawn, Zeriab, etc. Something like an "HBGame Engine". :P
And once the SDK is finished, I might do it or be part of it if someone else starts this before me.

@Imzogelmo
Yes you're right. But enemy AI (in the SDK) will work more like the event editor. You add commands, conditions, etc. while the rest would be more text oriented where you write lines of code. Both methods could be combine to accomplish more complex effects.

 

[rey meustrus]

What reasons do you have for keeping it closed? If you don't want to discuss it openly I'd like a PM. And those links would be nice. I'd like to think I'm pretty accomplished with Ruby, having produced the proof-of-concept Mode 7 (not the improved version by MGCaladTogel, but mine proved it could be done) and the Map Image Maker, as well as many less immediately useful things like a layering Scene system. I take it you are using wxRuby?

 

[Dargor]

@Rey Meustrus
Check your PMs


Today is a special day. It's been exactly 4 years since I started this project! I did so much since 2006 I can't even believe it, and part of the success (or future success :P) of this project comes from all of you who have supported and encouraged me all these years. Thank you very much, all of you. I am truly grateful.

Time for another update!

I took almost all my weekend to work on the event editor and I did a lot.
I have implemented a couple of new event commands:
- Comments (yeah, the command that nobody seems to use!)
- Switch Operation (to turn game switches On/Off or Toggle them)
- Conditional Branch (to test various conditions, right now it can only test game switches state but I will add a lot more very soon)
- Change Map (transfer the current party to another map)

Combine these commands with the message and choice commands and you can already do some small gameplay!
But that's not all. Remember the start conditions from XP or VX? All you could specify was 2 switches, 1 self switch and 1 variable.
I never understood why events start conditions were so limited. So I made it better!

Instead of having specific conditions and check boxes, I have added a list (you can see it in the pre-alpha demo but you can't use it) and in this list you can add as many conditions as you want! But even better than that, the conditions you add in this list are the exact same conditions as in the Conditional Branch command! It works exactly the same as adding a condition as an event command.

There's more!
I bet some of you who worked a lot with events in the past can recall "that huge event" you did once, containing a lot of conditions, branching, choices, etc., a really complex event with a lot of commands. It's really easy to get lost in such a big and messy event, so I changed how the list works a bit.
As you can see in the demo, it's a simple list, all commands are placed in order one below another. Now, it's using a Tree Control.

What does that mean? Events that contain "sub-commands" are now expandable/collapsible!
Choices, Conditions, Messages, etc. can take a lot less space if desired and this helps reading your code a lot.

I'm not stopping there. I have also added 2 new features on event commands!

Each and every commands in the list can be commented, without having to add a Comment command. A text field containing your comments has been added at the bottom of the commands list. So there's now 2 ways of commenting your event, you choose the one which suits you best!

For the second feature, event commands can now be disabled. You can disable a command instead of deleting it and the game script will simply ignore that command.

I guess that's all for now.
Take care!
- Dargor

 

[rey meustrus]

Very nice!

 

[MagitekElite]

It looking (sounding xD) really great, Dargor!

The Tree Control thing sounds great, It always got a little messy with all of the commands in one tiny little window xD

 

[Dargor]

By the way, I'm still taking suggestions and request.
So if you think of anything that could be added to the event editor that you think could make it better, feel free to share your ideas!

 

[Dargor]

By the way, I'm still taking suggestions and request.
So if you think of anything that could be added to the event editor that you think could make it better, feel free to share your ideas!

 

[MagitekElite]

I have one, might not be good or anything.

I'm not sure if this is much of a suggestion and more of my own personal feeling, but I always felt like there should have been at least one-two more Self switches (A,B C, D thing)? I've found myself in a situation thrice recently where I could have really used one more....

 

[rey meustrus]

How about making self switches available to other events? I sometimes feel like I want something associated with an event (say, "this door is open") but that I also want the flexibility of having another event use that switch. It's all a matter of organization anyway.