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[Kamani]

Cool! I’ll try it out once I am done with my world (which might be a while, but I should spend more time on it).

I’d say item partitions.

My world is going to have at least two not-obvious secret areas. But I need a nice looking ? sprite...

[Kamani]

I was working on the fliptile puzzle, and I can't seem to get it working. I figured out some of my issues, like it turning the player into a tile (I forgot the "s around the names), but I still can't get it to switch the tiles from active to inactive (I haven't started setting up inactive tiles to work as well, so everything is in the active section). I checked, and the one last in the list is present in the sprites section of my tile variable, so I don't know what isn't working here. Any ideas?

[IndigoFenix]

You're close, {#.name} has to be {#._name}.

Also, the _checked function triggers several tiles near the player at once.  To make sure only one tile is hit, you can make a check to see if the player's _tx and _ty are the same as the tile's.

There seems to be another issue that prevents it from triggering a second time.  This may be a bug, so I'm trying to find it.

[Kamani]

Oh. Oops. Thanks.

Oh, good to know.

To note one thing, inactive tiles don’t work at all. This may contribute to that issue.

[IndigoFenix]

It's okay, I fixed it.  There was an internal bug preventing sub-functions from being removed when they were finished, causing the Run Function event to not trigger properly a second time.

This may actually cause some minor behavior changes in other objects that weren't running properly before.  I don't think it will make anything more buggy, but you might want to replay the miniboss just to make sure.

Item partitions aren't quite finished yet, but they're getting close.  Actually, you should already be able to store arbitrary variables in items, they just won't save.

[Kamani]

Edit: Oops, wrong phrase. Edited to: Good.

Okay. I'll make sure.

Good! Although, what exactly do item partitions mean? Or do, if more appropriate.

A multi copy button would be extremely useful for when you make a set of something for one room, and then decide to use it elsewhere. Copying over about 9 things between rooms because you realized this is more useful than you thought is a pain. And has happened to me like 5 times, because of my poor planning. I really need to stop doing that. Also, this probably has other uses I haven't thought of.

Edit: How can I check sprites for an entire room? I want to make it easy to check if there are any active tiles, so I can release it as a package.

[IndigoFenix]

I'd like to encourage making objects global rather than copying them if they're going to be used in more than one room (it saves memory and makes loading faster).  If you want to make an object global, you can copy it, exit the room, and then paste it into the global objects list.

You can use Each _layer._sprites to check all the sprites in a layer.

Item partitions are basically a more effective way of storing complex data without cluttering up the player's inventory or having to worry about the player throwing away mementos.  Instead of giving the player an item for every single variable that needs to be remembered, you give them one item and then store a bunch of hidden variables inside that item.  They can still throw the item away (if they are in a different world), but they can't throw part of it away, so you can use it for storing plot details or player choices.

Partitioned items will require some planning due to the way the data is stored; each variable must have its number of bits defined and you can't change a variable after it's created without messing up player's "saves", since this will cause "saved" data to be interpreted wrong.  You can add new variables to an existing item though.  These restrictions only apply to persistent items.

[Kamani]

I get that, but if you want to move like 9 things between a room and global, it is still a pain. Just a minor thing l, but it would be nice.

Okay. Thanks! I figured _room would have to be part of it, but that got me a three word chain, which seemed wrong.

Okay. That makes sense. Thanks.

[IndigoFenix]

Okay, item partitions are up.

I'm not quite done foolproofing them, though.  Just remember that you can't change existing partitions in persistent items without messing up player saves.

A partition can only hold a positive integer value, and this value is capped by the number of bits in the partition.  For example, a 1 bit partition can be 0 or 1, a 2 bit partition can be 0-3, and so on.  You will be able to see the maximum value when creating the partition.

After creating a partition, you can set it by targeting a variable inside the item, for example {@.$itemname.partname = 1}.

The player must also be holding at least one of the item in their inventory for the data to be saved.  Partitioned items can still be set the same way as nonpartitioned ones.  {@.$itemname = 1}.  Discarding the item will delete the data, so you'll probably want to check Key Item for partitioned items, although I do plan on making a few more options.

Each item can hold a total of 2040 bits of data.  This should be plenty.

---

So next on the list, I suppose, is status effects.  The current method of changing a unit's stats is fairly inflexible, with no good way of handling unexpected combinations of effects such as what might result from the player carrying around a large number of offensive or defensive items and spells.

This will probably work by creating status-effect sprites and "applying" them to a target, similar to how poison works now but with more options concerning exactly how it will affect its "host".  Also making it update its position automatically.

Hmm, this could be linked with the planned mount system.  If a unit is assigned as a "status effect" to another unit, it "rides" that unit.

---

Alternately I can try and learn how to sprite art and redraw the player sprite so it doesn't look all pixellated.  Then I can maybe make a video and post it on YouTube so more people might learn BoundWorlds exists.

[Kamani]

Cool! That will help with my bigger project. However long it takes... I always forget how long level design takes.

Side note: the gates going to a point in time thing has made me think of doing a dungeon with a time travel gimmick.

[IndigoFenix]

I've updated the player sprite.  I'm going to make a gameplay video.

Now to decide, should I make a proper "trailer" video, or a more modest "tech demo"...

[Kamani]

Ooh, new player sprite! Now if only I wasn’t so busy. Ugh.

I think a trailer would be neater, but there isn’t a very large amount of stuff yet, so...

[IndigoFenix]

Protea has enough material for a trailer on its own.  Maybe a bit from other players as well.  What I'm mainly worried about is making a bad or misleading trailer.

Well, I'll make a few clips and see what I can do with them, I guess.

[Kamani]

Fair enough.

[IndigoFenix]

So it turns out that my tablet isn't able to handle video editing software, so I'm going to need to get a new computer.  Until then, I'll work on the status effect system.

Kamani, have you read Mistborn ?  I'm reading it now, and some of the names seem familiar...