itch.io

BUG? “Getting the “beyond here lies” message doesn’t encounter cancel, and it follows me into the battle menu, and then says “enemy emerged” as well.

Probably not relevant unless you’re gonna use the feature outside of the demo.

Confirmed. That Common Event was proving a bit problematic to begin with, so, I’ll have to come up with a different solution that would do what I want that event do to.

BUG: Was messing in the Party Formation menu with the first three characters: Use all three, navigate to an empty space, then try to back out and got “Type Error: Cannot read property ‘isHidden’ of undefined”

Confirmed. This should mean including a handler for when the party size is less than the maximum number of slots.

BUG: Holding down when scrolling through the characters list doesn’t update the stats.

Confirmed, but technically not a bug, per say? Still, I could see this as a quality-of-life feature. I’ll look into getting this in there.

BUG: Unites should lock out overlaps, right? My party of: Lester, Massaki, Richard, Nari, Vince, and Sue can do all three of Dark Sun Bandits, Brothers of the Blade, and Returning a Favor / Rivalry?

Depends now what you mean by overlapping in this instance. That party SHOULD have those Unites as available options! For example, if you have Lester select Dark Sun Bandits, the game should go directly to Vince, skipping over Massaki, Richard, and Nari. If you choose Best Friends, it would go to Massaki instead. If you select Family Attack at that point, it should skip both Richard and Nari, and go to Vince.

And using Best Friends, Family Attack, and then selecting Golden Triangle and backing out stops Massaki from selecting any Unites anymore.

This, however, certainly IS a bug! Selecting Family Attack during Massaki’s turn should involve Nari, and therefore, consider her as unavailable for Golden Triangle! Once that bug is squashed, I can look into the other matter. I’m mostly hoping that fixing the first matter will also fix the second, but, we’ll see!

That aside, I still haven’t looked into skipping the Rune slots for Optimize, so, I’ve got my work cut out for me for a while.

Some of the things you’re listing were issues before, and it seemed like they were gone. Guess I’ll have to check those again (for the billionth time ;_;), among the other things listed. That said, here is what I can manage to answer now.

BUG? Opening a chest as the Encounter Timer hits 0 stops encounter?

Opening a chest should, in fact, perform an encounter cancel. The same is true for swapping maps, or triggering story events. Or, at least, this is the theory! I don’t know about performing an encounter cancel when the timer is at exactly 0, regardless of how the cancel is triggered. My gut tells me that it might be possible to still be able to cancel when it displays “0”, but, the window of opportunity to do so is slim?

And everyone leveling up on its only text box is taking a while.

You can fast-forwarding any in-game text message text by holding CTRL and/or ALT. This method is true across any MZ game I’ve made, more or less. Knowing this should alleviate this issue somewhat for future plays. An alternate solution would be to remove level-up messages entirely, but, I don’t exactly feel good about that alternative?

Question: Why is Optimize favoring Sue to have the Vile Rune over the more comprehensive Devil Rune?

Basically, the “Optimize” function only compares statistical differences, and doesn’t look at other traits. With weapons, the stat is attack/strength. For any other equipment, it’s defense/endurance. It would not consider skills, skill categories, or other similar traits that a piece of equipment could have. For an in-game example, it would probably favor the Warrior Rune as a Passive Rune every single time, simply because it grants a bonus to defense. If there is no difference found, then the optimization method might choose the equipment with lesser ID, as that would technically have been the initial point of comparison? Something along those lines!

I think this was an issue I addressed in Nakaishi Wars in regards to the “Programs” equipment slot. I don’t quite recall exactly how I addressed this issue in Nakaishi Wars as of this writing, but, I seem to recall something about using the equipment’s ID in the database to be the most relevant factor in deciding what program to equip? This tactic might be something to look into for this game, as Runes that have upgraded versions increase with their ID as more/better skills are available. However, it might also behoove me to remove the Rune slots from the optimize method entirely. Either of these options would mean making exceptions in the code, and I’ve doubts one method would be strictly “easier” to do than the other.

My exposure to other MZ games is limited to games made during the Trials of MZ event on RMN. That said, here’s what I can manage to find.

• Project4
• MZN’ BCN
• Heaven’s Gate MZ
• Luke Daimont: Absolute Mayham
• Fragment
• From the Light
• An Essay on Insipidty II
• The game with no name
• The MirBox 06 - Traditional Rear Plug

Demo updated with the spelling corrections, and Potion fix that Malandy mentioned. I’ve also altered Unites in regards to their base damage values.

It might be some time before I can more fully focus on this project, but, I can at least look into other issues that might pop up, or answer any questions about the game, if it’s not too much of a spoiler to do so.

Personally, I’ve got Windows 11, and this game is made with MZ. There’s a number of similarities that MZ shares with MV, but, I’ve got doubts that what differences they have would make a significant impact on how the game would run on Windows 10.

As for Linux, that’s outside my knowledge/expertise, so I fear I cannot make commentary on that matter at all.

Thanks for giving the demo a go!

Speaking of Fallout and Mad Max, I did consider a post-apocalyptic setting, but, wasn’t sure if I could pull it off.

I’m not sure what options exist (if any) on this platform to update a pre-existing download on this platform. That aside, I’ll hold off maybe another week or so before attempting to push an update to the demo.

The tracks I recall from Luxaren Allure would be from Monster Cyborg. Most notably “Anti-Social” (title screen), “Assault Girl” (combat theme), and “Night Staker” (one of the dungeons).

Looking at the database entry, Potions were healing 25% + 200 health. So, at level 1, it would restore 350 HP to Richard. When he’s level 2, it would be 377, 405 at level 3, and so on. The flat value was likely a left over from when I was considering such items originally. I just plum forgot to remove that portion of the effect when I switched to percentile-based restoration. These things happen! I’ll be double-checking the other consumables for this as well.

Players would only get one Lucky Card during the opening sequence, and the best encounter to use it during that sequence (outside of the Dark Sun Bandits, themselves), would be a two Soldier encounter. The frequency of that encounter should be about the same as the one Soldier encounter. The cancel cost of either encounter should be the same, as they would effectively have the same average level.

All those factors aside, grinding out enough levels to actually beat the Dark Sun bandits wasn’t a test of patience I was willing to attempt myself. Nothing special happens should a player win that encounter, but, it’s also largely considered a corner case at best that players could win it to begin with.

Edit: Thanks again for the spelling corrections! As an additional aside, WAUTAH introduced me to LukHash through “Another World”, which, I think played during the school section, or thereabouts? It has been some time. That said, “Hongdae” was a track I used in Bunker 9 at least. Maybe another game?

I’d personally strive for a demo release this year, if for no other reason than to have a build that people can test, and give feedback on. Which I would be more than happy to do, and undoubtedly others. That aside, I certainly wouldn’t turn down a full release, if that’s in the cards for this year!

I forgot to include the very rough map drawn in Paint. At least there’s signposts to help players navigate the world, and get to where they want to go!

It might depend on the player! If one’s goal is to see the Unite variations, that probably won’t take too-too long? If one’s goal concerns Runes, a few interesting/advanced ones are equipped on the later-game characters, for what that is worth to such players.

I’ve spend a number of hours playing with map(). I can’t see how I can avoid using an enemy variable simply because of how enemy levels are stored/obtained with the enemy level plugin I’ve made/got.

For a bit more in depth discussion, I was also looking into the forEach() function of arrays as well, and the combination of map and forEach seemed somewhat promising. Could I use them as a kind of loop function to get the summation of levels that way?

This was apparently not the case. The debug console reported the correct numbers being passed into the function, but the end result that the variable actually stored was undefined. The only sense I can make of that is that I was using an assignment function…

  // Stuff above this is whatever.
  let troop = $dataTroops[this.troopId];
  let total = 0;
  let levelArray = troop.members.map(id => this.levelArray(id));
  let temp = levelArray.forEach(val => levelSum(val));
  console.log(temp);
  // Skipping more code-block.

Game_Enemy.prototype.levelArray = function(id) {
  let enemy = new Game_Enemy(troop.members[id].enemyId, 0, 0);
  return enemy.level;
};

Game_Enemy.prototype.levelSum = function(val) {
  console.log(val);
  return val += val;
};

…and maybe that’s not the proper use of the forEach function. Maybe there is another way I could do this, but, I’m currently on the “if it isn’t bork, don’t fix” headspace at this moment!

Now that I think on it, the cancel cost in Trail of the Interloper and Heaven’s Gate was based on a note-tag on the map! I just happen to set that note-tag to be the approximate average level of the possible encounters of the map.

That aside, the map() function of arrays might not have been one I’m familiar with, but, it does seem worth looking into.

I was given the impression it was available for a brief flicker of time over the last few days. I will dare to call it a Christmas miracle.

Thanks again for the continued spelling corrections!

Another misspelling. The word I was looking for was “neophyte”, meaning beginner/novice. I largely presume the plural form would be “neophytes”? Maybe I just name that Unite “Neophyte”?

Regardless, putting that on the stack to change/update!

Kinda sounds like you might’ve figured it out, but…

WEIRD AND UNFORTUNATE THINGS ARE HAPPENING in the city of Daybreak.

Versus

A WEB of intrigue surrounds ZILIF prefecture.

That aside, ECN, and it’s related interface, is pretty much a direct influence from Wild Arms 3‘s encounter cancel system. I’ve this display/system in maybe two previous Ace games, but, this would make it the first occurrence in an MZ game for me.

*EDIT: Thanks for the spelling correction as well.

It wouldn’t be a proper “Marrend game” without systems!

Small update to the description that gives a bit more context to the game’s title. I may have been somewhat inspired by Weird and Unfortunate Things Are Happening in this regard.

You have no idea how happy it makes me to hear from you, or to know that Izrand is still alive!

I’d have to refresh my memory in regards to how long either Luzaren or WaUTaH were worked on to say if this game’s development is actually taking more time. Is it possible the (hopefully temporary!) loss of RMN has anything to do with the slowed development of this game? I can only really speak for myself on this point, but, loosing my “home” has put such a damper on any desire to develop games.

Okay, you weren’t on the mission I thought you were on, but, a completely different one! That’s my misunderstanding of your situation.

That aside, I’ll be perfectly frank with you. The mission you’re looking to get needs 20000 credits in your account. I, therefore, cannot recommend selling off your equipment just yet. How much of that you’ll actually need to clear the mission is up to you, as per the story mission on Nav 4. However, that’s the bare minimum balance.

As far as the Scouting missions ceasing to be generated are concerned, I ran the game on two separate occasions. The first time, they showed up often enough. The second time, they maybe started showing up again after choosing “Reject”? I’m inclined to believe it’s a weird case of RNG.

On the other note, you can review mission details with the “Recall Current Mission” command, accessible from the Explore->Mission Computer menu on planets.

There isn’t a good spoiler system on this platform, so I dare not speak too much more on this matter. However, if you’re on the mission I think you’re on, there should be a jump-gate in the vicinity of Remata in Nav 14 that you can access.

After I did like 2 Scouting Missions, it seems they dropped out of rotation until I did a combat mission?

That shouldn’t happen. Still, I’ll do some test-runs on my end to see if I can observe this oddity myself.

Also, how many credits do I need for Sector 14?

Unlocking sectors/planets is not a matter of the player’s credit balance. It’s a matter of clearing story missions. I believe the in-game map gives precedence to standard missions in regards to it’s display, though, it’s also true that players don’t “start” with a story mission either. It has to be found among the sectors/planets that are initially available.

This decision of having the player find the game’s story mission arc on their own might be clinging to it’s Wing Commander - Privateer inspiration too closely for it’s own good.

What do you mean by Scouting Missions running out? They should be among the randomly generated mission types?

rpgmaker.net’s server has been having issues of late. While it is my hope they will be resolved in due time, I thought it might not hurt to upload this game (and the others that I’ve posted here) to itch’s servers as a “just in case” scenario.

Yeah, I’m copy-pasting this message across all my games on here when the upload finishes. So sue me. However, this should be the last game to be updated this way.

rpgmaker.net’s server has been having issues of late. While it is my hope they will be resolved in due time, I thought it might not hurt to upload this game (and the others that I’ve posted here) to itch’s servers as a “just in case” scenario.

Yeah, I’m copy-pasting this message across all my games on here when the upload finishes. So sue me.

rpgmaker.net’s server has been having issues of late. While it is my hope they will be resolved in due time, I thought it might not hurt to upload this game (and the others that I’ve posted here) to itch’s servers as a “just in case” scenario.

Yeah, I’m copy-pasting this message across all my games on here when the upload finishes. So sue me.

rpgmaker.net’s server has been having issues of late. While it is my hope they will be resolved in due time, I thought it might not hurt to upload this game (and the others that I’ve posted here) to itch’s servers as a “just in case” scenario.

Yeah, I’m copy-pasting this message across all my games on here when the upload finishes. So sue me.

rpgmaker.net’s server has been having issues of late. While it is my hope they will be resolved in due time, I thought it might not hurt to upload this game (and the others that I’ve posted here) to itch’s servers as a “just in case” scenario.

Yeah, I’m copy-pasting this message across all my games on here when the upload finishes. So sue me.

rpgmaker.net’s server has been having issues of late. While it is my hope they will be resolved in due time, I thought it might not hurt to upload this game (and the others that I’ve posted here) to itch’s servers as a “just in case” scenario.

Yeah, I’m copy-pasting this message across all my games on here when the upload finishes. So sue me.

rpgmaker.net’s server has been having issues of late. While it is my hope they will be resolved in due time, I thought it might not hurt to upload this game (and the others that I’ve posted here) to itch’s servers as a “just in case” scenario.

Yeah, I’m copy-pasting this message across all my games on here when the upload finishes. So sue me.

rpgmaker.net’s server has been having issues of late. While it is my hope they will be resolved in due time, I thought it might not hurt to upload this game (and the others that I’ve posted here) to itch’s servers as a “just in case” scenario.

rpgmaker.net’s server has been having issues of late. While it is my hope they will be resolved in due time, I thought it might not hurt to upload this game (and the others that I’ve posted here) to itch’s servers as a “just in case” scenario.

Thanks for the heads up on JGBR Studios. Looks like they probably stole Adventure Ace and Adventure Academy as well?

Okay! So, the amount of "empty" days has been gutted down, and the result I've got going now is that the game lasts 28 days, rather than 58. There were definitely points in the dialogs I had to correct because of this, and there might still be a few lingering errors/fixes to make. I hope to have those issues fixed by the end of today.

If I want to be honest, I am somewhat worried this game no longer does what it set out to do. However, if everything does check out after another bout of playtesting, I can finally put this game to rest, rainbow-text and all!

Thanks again to Red_Nova, and their commentary about the game.
So, yeah, cutting the "empty" gaps in the game-calendar down to a single day every instance they occur feels about right. Like, I do want players to have breaks in the story. This will mean re-writing a bunch of things, including the re-writes of the re-writes, but, that might be a small sacrifice for the betterment of the game.

The lore-dumping at the fore of the game probably should also scale back. While I'm touched that people are mistaking it for actual history, it is not. Should I put in a disclaimer about that? Darigaaz, I never thought I would need to consider making a disclaimer! Though, one can rightfully argue that the game's lore is largely irrelevant to the player until the field trip. Even then, I probably should lore-dump only the pieces that are necessary to the game. Most of what Terada throws at the player is fluff that would go into a supplemental episode of a podcast about the legend of Uchioniko. If, you know, the legend actually existed.

Regardless of how many days there will be, or other reconfiguration of the game's story, condensing the game down will necessitate that I will have to drop the idea of the player gaining benefits for getting along with the game's cast. While it might be interesting to see where the variables could be, I just don't think that it's worth my time to investigate how to make the benefits happen. Considering how much grief I was having over deciding what, exactly, I should do on this point, finally putting my foot down, and saying "no" lifts such a huge burden from my shoulders. My apologies for being so indecisive for so long.

For what it's worth, I was able to go through Kozue's conversations, revise them, and playtest through them a little bit. So, the possibility that I'll eventually get to Benjiro, Katsumi, and Jin a just little bit higher. Still not sure about what I should do about Shoko.

If you've been holding out for this game, I won't dare to make any promises. However, I want to both thank you for your patience, and apologize for dragging my feet on this project.

*Edit:

I did run across a random error when playing the built-in Arcomage mini-game. The precise error message was something like "property of dungeon not defined", or something along those lines. I thought it had to do with the "Dragon" card, since that was the card I played when it threw the error. However, upon looking at the code when it's played, and forcing the card into my opening hand, and playing it again, the error didn't pop up. So, I dunno if it actually was "Dragon", or a different card that could have been on the stack.

Still, please, let me know if an error like that pops up, for both this game, and my Arcomage plug-in.

So, let me speak of what plan I have going forward. In respect to organization, I'm kinda thinking of setting aside a file for each of the main characters to keep track of what topics they talk about, on what days, when they are missing from class, and what-not. These files may contain cut-scenes specific to said characters later, but, the general goal here is to have their dialogs change every three or four in-game days.

Though, if there is one exception to the general plan so far, it's Shoko. The reason for that should be fairly apparent for those who have played any version of this game or the Heartache 101 - Sour Into Sweet custom content pack.

This post might technically want to be it's own blog/announcement, but, here it is anyway. The game's main-line content up to the game's conclusion is now available!

However, now comes the optional content. For now, I'm gonna take a break from gammak through the rest of the month. Maybe longer. Whenever I pick this up next, I will probably want to organize the calendar of events that I drew up, with the NPCs that I want to respond to it. Also, while I hope no glitches or bugs exist, I would be receptive to reports of such.