RPG Maker MZ
- Thread starter coyotecraft
- Start date
coyotecraft
Sponsor
Not a big update this week. Mostly stuff we could infer from screenshots in earlier updates. New features to the character generator and plugin manager. If they really are planning to release it this summer I would think they would start taking preorders soon. But the price is still "Undecided".
I'm not in a hurry. I hope the testers are thorough this time. So that the graphics are in fine order, no alignment issues. Autotiles animation frames aren't off colored. And there aren't a dozen bugs to be patch a month out the gate.
I must have missed it last week. It was kinda hidden on the tkool.jp mz site. They ARE selling the Cover Characters as a separate package, like what they did with MV. There's 16 characters with names, sprites, and portraits. They're very ornate. Maybe too ornate. The big lion character is named Leon (how original). There's also 5 sample tracks. So who know what else with be released with it.
I didn't see RPGMakerweb talk about it. Perhaps it won't be sold outside japan or through Degica's store.
The tkool site also has some low-quality versions of the actor battlers which aren't actually used in the webpages. They had a chara11.jpg, so naturally I wondered if there were chara 01-10 jpgs, and sure enough, there are. But only a few of them are unique outside of previously seen screenshots.
I'm not in a hurry. I hope the testers are thorough this time. So that the graphics are in fine order, no alignment issues. Autotiles animation frames aren't off colored. And there aren't a dozen bugs to be patch a month out the gate.
I must have missed it last week. It was kinda hidden on the tkool.jp mz site. They ARE selling the Cover Characters as a separate package, like what they did with MV. There's 16 characters with names, sprites, and portraits. They're very ornate. Maybe too ornate. The big lion character is named Leon (how original). There's also 5 sample tracks. So who know what else with be released with it.
I didn't see RPGMakerweb talk about it. Perhaps it won't be sold outside japan or through Degica's store.
The tkool site also has some low-quality versions of the actor battlers which aren't actually used in the webpages. They had a chara11.jpg, so naturally I wondered if there were chara 01-10 jpgs, and sure enough, there are. But only a few of them are unique outside of previously seen screenshots.
coyotecraft
Sponsor
And we finally got a release date and price: August 20th, $79.99
I'm not in a hurry to pick it up anytime soon. In the past I was all about supporting the community. But in the last 5 years, "the community" has been kind of threadbare. I mean, there's not much to support. Or rather, people don't ask for help like they used to and want to do everything by themselves. So even though I can draw a portrait or something for them directly, they'd rather I make generator parts so they can piece it together themselves. An ikea effect.
And also, I was going back over stuff I made for MV, and a lot of it was unfinished because of system limitation or resource limitation. Like I have a merfolk battler, but it's an aquatic enemy so it would need a Beach or special battle background to accompany it. Nothing was ever good enough by itself.
I'll be interested in the file naming convention too. With generator parts, that was the other hassle. It wasn't a drag and drop type thing, You'd have to rename files a specific way that could be different for person to person depending on what resources they already have.
Anyways. Besides the date and price. This week's update demonstrates the Mouse interface, and the ability to toggle off menu items like "equipment" which is nice for people making Adventure Games who really only need an inventory and save option.
I think I mentioned it before but there is an auto-save function too
I'm not in a hurry to pick it up anytime soon. In the past I was all about supporting the community. But in the last 5 years, "the community" has been kind of threadbare. I mean, there's not much to support. Or rather, people don't ask for help like they used to and want to do everything by themselves. So even though I can draw a portrait or something for them directly, they'd rather I make generator parts so they can piece it together themselves. An ikea effect.
And also, I was going back over stuff I made for MV, and a lot of it was unfinished because of system limitation or resource limitation. Like I have a merfolk battler, but it's an aquatic enemy so it would need a Beach or special battle background to accompany it. Nothing was ever good enough by itself.
I'll be interested in the file naming convention too. With generator parts, that was the other hassle. It wasn't a drag and drop type thing, You'd have to rename files a specific way that could be different for person to person depending on what resources they already have.
Anyways. Besides the date and price. This week's update demonstrates the Mouse interface, and the ability to toggle off menu items like "equipment" which is nice for people making Adventure Games who really only need an inventory and save option.
I think I mentioned it before but there is an auto-save function too
coyotecraft
Sponsor
Preorded MZ. Just MZ
There are a couple different bundles but...I cussed up a storm when I saw Rpg Maker MV Trinity DLC *For MZ*
First of all - it's MV...so why...
Second of all - they gave a free gift copy of MV with it. So half of what's in this Trinity DLC is duplicate.
Third of all - they don't tell you what the actual value price of these DLC bundles are. But 10-15% off is not a good deal when you already have half.
Fourth of all - who the hell is in charge of marketing? And who are they trying to impress with ONE lackluster screenshot that doesn't even display a fraction of what's in it?
There are a couple different bundles but...I cussed up a storm when I saw Rpg Maker MV Trinity DLC *For MZ*
First of all - it's MV...so why...
Second of all - they gave a free gift copy of MV with it. So half of what's in this Trinity DLC is duplicate.
Third of all - they don't tell you what the actual value price of these DLC bundles are. But 10-15% off is not a good deal when you already have half.
Fourth of all - who the hell is in charge of marketing? And who are they trying to impress with ONE lackluster screenshot that doesn't even display a fraction of what's in it?
BizarreMonkey
Member
Yeah jesus im not paying 208 dollars for files I don't want. All I want is Essentials Z the rest can go bite it.coyotecraft":35nfmr7g said:
Just pre-ordered MZ alone and I'll grab the essentials packs separate.
Man remember when it was 90 aud or 75 USD for the program AND all the stuff was bundled in purely as a thanks for pre-ordering?
These fat-cats sure are getting fucking greedy.
coyotecraft
Sponsor
Dividing the price evenly, they've basically set all these DLC packs at $20.
No way. They barely tell you whats in it. And they're clearly not made equally. One has 16 characters. Another has only 4.
Normal DLC is like $1+ for a character model. So the Cover Art package with 16 characters 6 tracks and weapons.$20 is reasonable.
But then you look at the Essentials pack. And it's only 4 characters. 8 enemy graphics but you have no idea what it is or looks like. And some tile sets, again, you have no idea what those look like either. And if it's anything like the "MV essentials pack"...It was all bad reviews for a reason.
Looking closely at the screenshots I'm guessing the reason they only posted 1 thing is because it's all still being development.
The colors, the contrast, the lack of anti-aliasing and the way the characters looks like they're only half drawn then mirrored.
It looks bad, but I said the same thing about the earliest screenshots that were released and they have since polished it up.
No way. They barely tell you whats in it. And they're clearly not made equally. One has 16 characters. Another has only 4.
Normal DLC is like $1+ for a character model. So the Cover Art package with 16 characters 6 tracks and weapons.$20 is reasonable.
But then you look at the Essentials pack. And it's only 4 characters. 8 enemy graphics but you have no idea what it is or looks like. And some tile sets, again, you have no idea what those look like either. And if it's anything like the "MV essentials pack"...It was all bad reviews for a reason.
Looking closely at the screenshots I'm guessing the reason they only posted 1 thing is because it's all still being development.
The colors, the contrast, the lack of anti-aliasing and the way the characters looks like they're only half drawn then mirrored.
It looks bad, but I said the same thing about the earliest screenshots that were released and they have since polished it up.
coyotecraft
Sponsor
There are a number of Japanese MZ demos for download on https://tkool.jp/mz/
I've started checking a few out. Also I can get a better look at the resource graphics.
Edit:
Ok, I've combed through their combined files. Some of them were dated as early as April and May. I'm not sure how long the beta testers had their hand on this. But I'm hoping come next week they'll have polished everything up a lot more. From what I'm seeing, I'm not all that impressed with the tilesets and sprites. Everything's got this weird contrast. And some things have more details than others that contrasts badly. Kind of an eye sore that makes me want to say "That dress with that top? What are you thinking, Gurl?" :haha:
The tilesets are basically the same recreation of MV and VX Ace. Same Casino tables. Same statues. Everything is pretty much in the same order too. It's different but the same. I think there's more futuristic tiles this time though. I'm worried about the dungeon tile arrangement. MV and Ace had them all scrambled up. Like the walls would go: Dirt, Stone, Lave, Ice, Forest, Crystal, Flesh, Demonic. But then the floor tiles would be in a different order. Some were off-color even. Imo, they should be group together as orderly as possible.
This time around the demonic dungeon/castle is green instead of purple...Except for the world map tile is still just a recreation of MV's purple castle surrounded by the purple bog. I wonder if anyone is going to catch that.
The battle backgrounds haven't fixed their smurf problem. Obviously designed for front-view battlers. The side-view sprites look like dwarfs, you know.
Rather than elemental spirit girls/babies, this time they have creatures. Undine, Salamander, Stone Knight, didn't see a wind elemental. Traditionally earth and air would be Gnome and Sylph, but here Gnome is a mushroom and Slyph is a flower fairy thing, so idk. They got a giant whale and a sandworm that could work for flesh dungeons I think. The whale even has a sprite. The God of Light is pretty effeminate looking.
Overall, everything is much more practical than MV. The Red Dragon is even included with the vehicles. Nice. I can't think of anything that it is desperately needing. And I don't think I've seen everything yet.
I've started checking a few out. Also I can get a better look at the resource graphics.
Edit:
Ok, I've combed through their combined files. Some of them were dated as early as April and May. I'm not sure how long the beta testers had their hand on this. But I'm hoping come next week they'll have polished everything up a lot more. From what I'm seeing, I'm not all that impressed with the tilesets and sprites. Everything's got this weird contrast. And some things have more details than others that contrasts badly. Kind of an eye sore that makes me want to say "That dress with that top? What are you thinking, Gurl?" :haha:
The tilesets are basically the same recreation of MV and VX Ace. Same Casino tables. Same statues. Everything is pretty much in the same order too. It's different but the same. I think there's more futuristic tiles this time though. I'm worried about the dungeon tile arrangement. MV and Ace had them all scrambled up. Like the walls would go: Dirt, Stone, Lave, Ice, Forest, Crystal, Flesh, Demonic. But then the floor tiles would be in a different order. Some were off-color even. Imo, they should be group together as orderly as possible.
This time around the demonic dungeon/castle is green instead of purple...Except for the world map tile is still just a recreation of MV's purple castle surrounded by the purple bog. I wonder if anyone is going to catch that.
The battle backgrounds haven't fixed their smurf problem. Obviously designed for front-view battlers. The side-view sprites look like dwarfs, you know.
Rather than elemental spirit girls/babies, this time they have creatures. Undine, Salamander, Stone Knight, didn't see a wind elemental. Traditionally earth and air would be Gnome and Sylph, but here Gnome is a mushroom and Slyph is a flower fairy thing, so idk. They got a giant whale and a sandworm that could work for flesh dungeons I think. The whale even has a sprite. The God of Light is pretty effeminate looking.
Overall, everything is much more practical than MV. The Red Dragon is even included with the vehicles. Nice. I can't think of anything that it is desperately needing. And I don't think I've seen everything yet.
coyotecraft
Sponsor
The tkool site has added some guides. Courses on Javascript and plug-ins. Battle animates and character generator "enhancements". Basic How to's. How to start a game, How to publish a game ect...
Woohoo! Looks like they fixed the file naming with custom Character Gen assets. So you can name generator parts using any string.
Looks like thay added some new Variable operations, which store IDs: of the last item used, last skill used, the last target, the last actor an/or enemy who acted. That'll definitely come in handy. I remember jumping through hoops trying to make that work in Lucid Awaken 2. To do skill chains, combos, counter attacks ect...
The guide shows an example Battle Event, how to make an enemy say a custom line if you defeat them with a specific skill.
For a game Jam one year, using rmxp, I made a final boss with a gimmick where the ending depended on who struck the last blow. It would have been nice and simple if I had these event commands. Instead I had a convoluted mess of hidden status effect.
Move Picture command now has Easing option besides a constant speed. YESSSSS.
Skill and Item Scope has Enemy&Ally option, so you can play Russian roulette maybe? Or just use a potion on enemies as well as your party.
Woohoo! Looks like they fixed the file naming with custom Character Gen assets. So you can name generator parts using any string.
Looks like thay added some new Variable operations, which store IDs: of the last item used, last skill used, the last target, the last actor an/or enemy who acted. That'll definitely come in handy. I remember jumping through hoops trying to make that work in Lucid Awaken 2. To do skill chains, combos, counter attacks ect...
The guide shows an example Battle Event, how to make an enemy say a custom line if you defeat them with a specific skill.
For a game Jam one year, using rmxp, I made a final boss with a gimmick where the ending depended on who struck the last blow. It would have been nice and simple if I had these event commands. Instead I had a convoluted mess of hidden status effect.
Move Picture command now has Easing option besides a constant speed. YESSSSS.
Skill and Item Scope has Enemy&Ally option, so you can play Russian roulette maybe? Or just use a potion on enemies as well as your party.
coyotecraft
Sponsor
I played around in Effekseer to learn some of the ropes. My main concern was that I wouldn't be able to do traditional animations anymore. Because Effekseer is more of a particle engine. But it is possible to load a spritesheet as a graphic and cycle through frames. The scaling is questionable. I know there are people who want to do Pixel style animation. But the crispness of the graphics is what I wonder about.
Something I liked to do in the older makers is Hide the target, and have that event or battler graphic as a cell in the animation that I can move around. But I'm wondering how effective that'll look using effekseer. If it can render, say, a frame from a side-view battler on a 1:1 scale without fuzzy interpolation.
Something I liked to do in the older makers is Hide the target, and have that event or battler graphic as a cell in the animation that I can move around. But I'm wondering how effective that'll look using effekseer. If it can render, say, a frame from a side-view battler on a 1:1 scale without fuzzy interpolation.
BizarreMonkey
Member
Meanwhile I'm just having fun creating new franken-resources with the help of photoshop and MZ's fresh new assets. Backgrounds mostly.
Apex of Malice
Rise of Calamity
And this all conveniently came about when I needed a bunch of sprites for Planar.
Those backgrounds will be continuously useful.
Apex of Malice
Rise of Calamity
And this all conveniently came about when I needed a bunch of sprites for Planar.
Those backgrounds will be continuously useful.
