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[IndigoFenix]

I'm changing a few sprites.  This will generally not happen, but there were a few sprites that I had early on that I couldn't find the original source for, and I found them.  Early on I made a lot of sprites grayscale, but now that colorizing is one of the basic options I'm moving away from that when possible, allowing more customization (you can make a colored sprite a different color by changing its hue, but gray remains gray).  You can make them grayscale again by adding opacity to the color mask option under the Graphics tab.

The beetle sprite is now green by default, and the bat has been altered to include a "dead" animation, so you'll probably want to fix this for any bat sprites you have.

I need to find out where the spider sprite comes from.  I know I didn't make it, but it's been on my computer for a long time and I need to check that it doesn't come from any licensed source.  If I can't find it, I may just replace it with another spider sprite.

[Kamani]

Makes sense (also, rather glad only my first project used a majority of the basic sprites).

Makes sense.

Could you image search (or was it called reverse image search? I forget) it?

[IndigoFenix]

Could you image search (or was it called reverse image search? I forget) it?

That's a good idea, I've never actually used it before.

Well, there it is.  The site was in Russian, no wonder I couldn't find it.  And, of course, it's an RPG Maker page.  I'm not sure if the sprites themselves are licensed, sometimes they are and sometimes they aren't.  RPG Maker has this really...unique...license where any image in their default packs, and any edits based on said images, can only be used in games made by RPG Maker.  Which wouldn't bother me so much, if there were not so many of them, and they would be perfect for BW...well, what are you going to do.

Well, I guess I'll just replace it with Redshrike's spider.  Oh wow, it's got multicolors and attacking and death animations?  Forget that old sprite.

I've got to send Redshrike a message, they are the source for like half of the good graphics in this game.

[Kamani]

Glad it helped.

So that is how the licensing on that works. Never knew. I better check out Game Character Hub’s liscensing again and make sure it isn’t the same kind of thing.

Guess Spids boss mode no longer has unique art. Fits better anyways, I guess.

Ye.

[IndigoFenix]

I've updated the bat and spider sprites.  They are much nicer now, and spiders come in a number of patterns as well, accessed using the frame offset option.  Might even give them different properties too...also they can be individually colorized.

Someone named Kiovenn is making some pretty cool stuff, but is not making any public gates.  I have no idea who they are.  It is a mystery

EDIT: I've checked out Game Character Hub.  It looks like the base package uses RPG Maker's license, but assets used in the "Second Story" DLC do not have these restrictions.

[Kamani]

Okay. Cool.

I believe I saw a sprite set they uploaded earlier? Well, if they are making cool stuff, I look forward to seeing it.

Edit: Ugh, thought I checked it and I was good (In the past. I was going to recheck it, since I know it has parts from RPG Maker, but I was hoping this would not be the case. Not entirely surprised, but still annoying). I had better remove the sprites in question, then. Bleh. Thanks.

[Kamani]

I can't seem to delete the file in the My Resources folder labeled attempt.png (side note: Bright side of not being able to use Game Character Hub: It has a terrible selection when it comes to skin colors. It was really annoying. Trying to do anything but the default meant a bunch of playing around with the hue, which didn't look quite right (hence the file's name being attempt). Well, at least I won't have to deal with that pain anymore). Since the file was made using Game Character Hub parts, it is probably dubiously legal for me to have it there (I already removed it from the character who I was considering using it for, but I would prefer it fully gone), so would you be able to remove it? When I try, nothing happens, and it stays there. Very annoying. Also, this may be a larger glitch, since I can't delete something in a folder that is mine, so that might also be an issue. The other art (I think it was Elen) in the Packages folder I made inside deleted fine, so I guess it is something to do with the folder.

Edit: Side Question: I recolored golem stones (which, for some reason, there are two copies of? Wonder how I messed that up), but even though I used the same color set up, only one of the two sets (two sets of two) recolored the way I wanted. I don't know why they did it differently, and I would appreciate knowing why, since I can't figure it out.

[IndigoFenix]

It looks like top-level files have issues with adding and deleting.  That's a bug, so I'll have to fix it.  In the meantime, you can cut and paste them into a different folder (using the "C" button - should probably make proper icons for that) to delete them.

Not sure what's up with the golem stones - though it looks like recolorings don't show up properly on the sprite preview, it always uses the composite operation of source-atop, but they should still look fine in game.  It looks like you have both a packaged copy and a non-packaged copy of most items; this is probably unnecessary unless you want the versions in the world to be different from the public ones.

If you're looking for a quick character creator, you can use the LPC character creator tool.  It doesn't really match up with the player sprite's size and proportions though.  Maybe I should make a base character model and let other artists modify it as they will.

[Kamani]

Okay. Thanks.

Huh, okay. I was talking about how there seem to be two in the package, as I do have a separate copy in the world because I want them to have some additional enemy death count stuff for my world, so I know what those are about.

[IndigoFenix]

I added a new public package - Jump Shoes.  They make the regular jump as high as the spring jump, without sacrificing speed.  That'll be nice for platforming sections, I think.

There's an issue I've been thinking about for a while - how to balance items in such a way to discourage hoarding.  The problem is that hoarding a ton of potions or spells will make certain worlds too easy, and when anybody can make their own custom items (which will only work in certain worlds) inventories will likely fill up quick.

I've thought of an interesting potential solution: Making a half-life parameter for items.  As in, like radioactive decay.  While it is possible to store up as many items as you want, they will gradually decrease over time (as in, over the course of several days) if you keep them in your inventory - even while you are not playing.  And the more you store at once, the faster they will tend to disappear.

[Kamani]

Neat!

I’d prefer that items don’t decay, since losing certain plot items would be... problematic? With like healing items, it would work, but if you set stuff up right, you could probably get a ton of sparks and then just buy them all at once. Transferable items just might cause those kind of problems.

[IndigoFenix]

Oh, don't worry about plot items - the decay rate will be an optional property of the items themselves.

I don't mind too much if a player wants to spend all of their sparks on a bunch of items for one battle - that's their choice, and if you want to prevent trivializing your challenge this way, you can just not include those items in your world.  The main issue is a standard issue for RPGs - powerful items never wind up getting used, "because what if I'll need it later?" - only even more so, since 1. not all worlds use the same items, so it's possibly to wind up with an inventory full of stuff that you'll probably never use, and 2. there's no real "final boss" to save all your cool stuff for.  But if items decay over time, it encourages players to use them as often as they buy them, not just hoard them for later.

[Kamani]

Ah, okay. Good.

Makes sense.

[IndigoFenix]

Made a few updates to make world editing a bit easier.  You can now click and drag sprites in the world editor.  Holding shift automatically centers sprites on a tile when positioning them, and when choosing their direction makes them snap to the closest 45 degree angle.  When a layer is selected, unselected layers appear in black and white so you don't accidentally keep trying to click sprites in the wrong layer.

Also, if you select the sprite info tool during gameplay you can click and drag sprites around in-game, including yourself.  (Obviously this only works in your own worlds).  I might add other "god mode" options later to make debugging easier.

Also, sprite rotation (setting turn speed to a value other than 0 or -1) works now.  Might add some other features to support Asteroids-type shmups.

[Kamani]

Several really useful changes there. Plus, turn speed might help make a boss more interesting, so double happy. That all should make world editing a fair bit easier.

Edit: So is there a reason that gates aren't always the same and change whenever the player heads out? My project is focusing primarily around travelers, so these kind of questions are relevant.