YERD – Some Updates

I finally got around to fixing up the picture I drew and coloured of Ralph. I’m generally not one for going back and fixing up “finished” artwork but I figured I’d do this one since it may become a title page for some future script demos. Demo for what script? I’ll explain it after I go through the updates.

Here’s a list of the updates I’ve done.

• Custom Element Affinity (2009.04.27) (txt)
• Custom Skill Effects (2009.04.30) (txt)
• Display Victory Aftermath (2009.05.01) (txt)
• Extra Equipment Options (2009.04.26) (txt)
• Display Skill Query (2009.04.30) (txt)

Most of them are bugfixes. Custom Skill Effects got one of its overwrites aliased. Extra Equipment Options has all of the requirement options removed due to the lag it causes under Scene Equip. Display Skill Query’s updated to provide further compatibility with one of the scripts I’m going to release sometime later next week. The biggest update of all, however, is Display Victory Aftermath.

Display Victory Aftermath initially had experience bars drawn without exp affecting it (as if the battlers didn’t earn anything). This was mostly because that part of the script was unfinished for a particular reason. I initially started doing it in a way where it would animate the experience bars filling up to 100%. However, the way I did it previously caused massive lag even for high end computers. This is mostly because I didn’t think outside the box enough. Today, an idea popped into my head and I got it done right. Instead of using one window, I actually use two. One of them draws all of the party’s sprites and faces. The next one draws only the experience bar and whatever experience is left to level up with. By making the one with the gauges with a completely transparent background, I managed to animate the bars going up without inducing massive lag.

It makes me realize how much programmers and scripters need to think outside of the box if things don’t turn out well for them if they did things the proper way. I do see them in a new light now, especially considering I used to think of them as extremely technical and very much by-the-book. This technicality requires a pretty high degree of innate creativity, most likely one that doesn’t surface under art, but instead, surfaces under efficiency and construction. So tonight, I’d like to raise a glass to you real programmers out there, not some nooby scripter like me.

For those interested in what I was going to release as a demo, well, read on:

Bought a Light Box!

I found a light box for sale in Hobby Lobby, only a $35 value, and it’s a pretty decent quality one, too, and I just couldn’t resist. While I’m usually not one for buying fancy art supplies, this one is definitely one that can aid me in some of the stuff I do. The light box will definitely allow me to ink more practically without ruining the original sketchwork, something I’m definitely looking forward to. That said, I realized the manga paper that I have doesn’t allow light to pass through it as well as regular photocopy paper. Maybe I might revert back to it for a bit when using the light box…

Made Youmu Cutin

And so, that’s four cutins made. Yeah… definitely not gonna stick four cutins all in at once. Things are already cramped enough with two and having double that is beyond troublesome. With this milestone reached though and tested, I think I can safely say I’ll stick with a max of two. Possibly one. Cluttering the screen isn’t something an RPG should do after all. Well, time to start scripting some of the more important stuff…

Maid Sakuya Cutin

Sakuya cutin is made and I’ve shrunk the other cutins by a good 10%. Looking at the size of the cutins still, I probably won’t be sticking more than 4 to a screen. It’s pretty clumped up already with three. I’m still unsure about what to do as a standard cutin size yet so I’ll probably keep experimenting a bit whenever I make more. I think the main issue I’m going to have is figuring out a way to show cutscenes with all these cutins shown. We’ll see what happens later on.

Made Reimu Cutin

I made Reimu’s cutins yesterday. I was about to begin making a massive amount of them, but when I plugged it into RPG Maker VX, I’ve came to the realization that the sizes I’ve been giving out might be a little too big. I’ll probably shrink it down another third or so of the size since you can barely see the playing field there. Makes it kinda hard to know what’s going on and I plan to put in more than just two cutins at one time (max of four cutins). Puh, I’ll resize it later and experiment around.