General Discussion

[Xela]

So basically when I need a sad portrait during scene, I write $ char.override_portrait("portrait", "sad")?

What about stuff like $ h = chars["Hinata"].say, when we tie char to letter and then write h "Now I can talk too!"?

Same thing, portrait is shown by the Girl.say attribute. Normal assignment (g = Character(char.name)) will not show the portrait.

[Xela]

Well... F#ck...

I've added more comments to MC Setup code and updated it quite a bit in general. It can now also call labels for extra stories and to apply possible effects. If the labels do not exist, they will not be called.

One of the problems is that this system was designed from a perspective of Gismo (Graphics) with complete disregard to mechanics or content. That resulted in a very complicated code setup for something that looks innocent enough.

There are four "variables" that we work with:

1) Main General # Fathers Main Story.
2) Main Sub # Fathers Sub Story
3) MC General # MCs Main Story
4) MC Sub # MCs Sub Story

called in this order. Obviously Main General/Sub does not have to be a fathers story. Given a different Header and Texts, it can be anything at all. Same for MC... It can be anything at all as well.

There is currently no way of adding base classes because I am not even sure how to handle that, best way is prolly to bind one class to Main General and another to MC General. If both end up being the same, game will simply double up on the effects of the base class following the normal logic, but I wanted to ask if that is a sound idea before coding that in.

So, decisions to be made:

1) How do we handle main classes?
2) How do we handle potential level-ups?
- These two can be done only once by my code and cannot be processed in labels for a simple reason that we require base-class and a properly leveled character in order to apply other bonuses to it (stats, skills, items). Possible solution is to allow each of the four options to carry an optional "level" and "baseskills" fields or expect specific options to have such fields and throw errors if they do not.
3) What are base stats for the character? (like push normal stats to 50% of the maximum allowed automatically and apply bonuses in labels)
4) How do we handle possible collisions of contents set in different labels?
- It can be done by careful design of each tree maintaining complete freedom of content at cost of consistent design or by setting up guidelines of what each label is supposed to do doing the opposite.
5) Do we allow other (none based) traits (sensible traits) to be applied to the MC?
- This can be done in labels since normal trait effects are applied on per level basis retroactively.
6) Do we agree on any specific guidelines for maximum amount of bonuses allowed and some way to calculate that?
- This would be very difficult to do for everything... still this needs to be addressed.
7) ...anything else?

[DarkTl]

1) We can allow MC to freely (but for a fee/via quest or something) change main classes, unlike girls. Well, in the future, when there actually will be more classes than setup screen can handle.
Many games allow at some point to change your character's stats and skills in case if you messed up. Also in many games you cannot select any class in the beginning because some of them are much more powerful than others, and you need to unlock them during the game.

The gui is not perfect for existing classes, yeah. The worst thing is that branches are unbalanced. We have plenty battle classes, but two non battle. It will not look good at all.

2) If you mean level-ups during mc setup, there shouldn't be any. MC has lvl 1, that's all.

3) That's too simple. I'd say it should be from 25 to 50 % of the maximum allowed before bonuses in labels.

4)  We don't actually have that much space if you want to be able to select any class at all from the beginning. All the left part is for classes then, and it might be not enough eventually. So there will be very few bonuses that is simple to design without collisions.

5) I don't see space for it in gui, like at all... There should be 1-2 optional traits, yeah, but if at the left we select classes, all we have is 6 options at the right. That's not enough.
And actually I want to use the right part for quick selecting of initial equipment, so if you want traits for the next release, we'll need another screen or additional gui elements. Or we need a separate screen to select items.

[DarkTl]

That's why I proposed battle+non battle mandatory classes btw. In this case gui will work great.

[Xela]

*Any of the choices can carry a lot with it! Not just one basetrait or one item. That's the point of this design and why I've added labels.

I thought about it for a while and it's prolly the best bet to allow any choice do anything and simply leave it up to the content creators to create sensible trees preserving as much creative freedom as possible. If for some reason there is more than two baseclasses, I can have the gae picking two at random from the choices submitted.

[DarkTl]

Then it doesn't solve the logic of selecting one or two main classes, but not more.

[Xela]

Then it doesn't solve the logic of selecting one or two main classes, but not more.

Huh?

[DarkTl]

If any label can do anything, then it might as well try to give a main class. While other labels don't.

[Xela]

If any label can do anything, then it might as well try to give a main class. While other labels don't.

No it can't. It will either not work at worst and make a mess of thing at best. Main classes would have to be added as special clauses and applied before these labels are ran. I've pointed that out in my op.

[DarkTl]

Then I don't how to do it based on the current gui. It has nothing to do with this concept.

One of the options is to allow player to go though the mc setup screen twice, with the second selection to be optional. Thus, at first he selects one class, and then another one.
But in this case colllisions are unavoidable.

[Xela]

Yeah... maybe this could be a solution:

1)

and

3)

can both add one class each, labels are ignored unless we add more logic. 2) and 4) add special bonuses in labels. Whatever is chosen in one and three we display on the screen somewhere (name of the actual class may not correspond to the name of the choice or not be apparent from icons/images). If both choices are he same, we make it known that all of class bonuses could be doubled.

I think you initially suggested something along these lines but I understood what you meant just a few minutes ago (bit tired today).

[DarkTl]

I downloaded Machina of the Planet Tree game today, made based on the newest rpg maker. It has high quality resources, and I mean everything, from animation and bgs to sounds and music.

I pushed very tiny first step of the story. So far I only wasn't able to figure out how to play two sounds at the same time. Jump to story label is in the second starting menu, where you select how to set up MC. One sound stops other instantly, so I had to put pauses between them. But it's not a perfect solution, ideally both should play.

[Xela]

I downloaded Machina of the Planet Tree game today, made based on the newest rpg maker. It has high quality resources, and I mean everything, from animation and bgs to sounds and music.

"Newest" is not the right word here, it's quite old But the game is nice, judging from youtube videos. High Quality resources if managed properly are not a big issue for engines like RPG Maker or Ren'Py if managed properly.

I pushed very tiny first step of the story. So far I only wasn't able to figure out how to play two sounds at the same time. Jump to story label is in the second starting menu, where you select how to set up MC. One sound stops other instantly, so I had to put pauses between them. But it's not a perfect solution, ideally both should play.

We need more channels I guess, we already have a couple for events but those are bound to events folder in sfx (I think). I'll start a new issue and take a look at that later, it's very easy to do.

[Xela]

Pushed a tiny fix to tag lookups, left some stupid code there.

Also we do in fact already have extra channels for sound. Please take a look at how they are used in the SM event (they already have a path defined all the way to the sfx forlder I think). If they are acceptable, close the ticket. If not I'll add new once tonight (will be traveling for better part of the day so I'll be on android).

[DarkTl]

I thought about game plot for a some time. We will release game story bit by bit, with every new release. I also want to tie every part of story to a pack or a few small packs. Characters from those tied packs will play an important role in the main story.

So, the first part of story:

- is based on naruto characters. All our naruto packs are needed. All naruto characters (and some ninja-type characters from another, minor sources) will be in a separate location, Hidden Village (duh). Somewhere in the forest on the city map. It should be hidden from the beginning until you unlock it via quests. It will be just another usual location, like city streets, but with naruto chars, another bg and ninja tools in shop. I have no idea how to create locations, not to mention hiding and unlocking them. Also it means that those characters can be found only there until you hire them.

- MC will find Sakura (because she has the best picture for this type of event) and maybe someone else in the beginning. She won't be able to join or become a lover until later events, but he will know where to find her. That means system when you know where friends live.

- You need to do many things inside SE (that means fully working SE ) to finish quests. Like send a specific character to a specific location.

- There should be characters that will not join or become lovers before you finish some quest, no matter disposition and stuff.

- Your idea about new, custom buttons to initiate quest-related dialogues with girls is welcomed too.

- In BE there should be scripted battles when we give a custom party (consisting of one or more npcs) under player's control instead of MC and girls. This is for non-battle classes, when you looking for someone via optional quests to deal with danger instead of you.

It's not what I need now, I need time to build scenes based on already available tools anyway. But that's what I need to finish the story how I want to.