Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Sponge]

I think you should add an over all eraser. It's kind of annoying to have to select every tile then select the white box to erase it.
EDIT: Are you still working on animations? When I click on them nothing happens.
EDIT EDIT: How do I exit the gate menu? I cleared my destinations and when I opened the menu again I have nothing to click and I can't leave. Had to leave an lost my progress. That's an annoying problem unless I'm missing something.
EDIT EDIT EDIT: I won't lie, I'm very frustrated with this program. The UI's don't work half the time, and it's not easy to navigate. I'm sorry, but I think I'm going to have to leave this until you work on the UI's and fix their reliability or maybe add some sort of reference or tutorial. Sorry if I'm being a bit harsh, but I just spent an hour building a 16x16 room (It shouldn't take an hour, I'm really annoyed with how clunky your systems work) only to see tiles get deleted and lots of tiles just get messed up because either I get stuck in a menu and can't find out how to close it or I just press a button to see what it does and it does something bad. Again, I'm being a bit harsh here but I could make a game world faster and better then this in less the time using Unity and Tiled  (Note I'm not saying I could make a game like yours, I'm terrible with online stuff or having players make stuff, but I could make a game map and basic controls easier without using this. It's just not easy enough to use.) I know this is the open alpha, but I'm going to have to leave this game for a while.

[IndigoFenix]

Well, it is alpha.  So yes, there are bugs.  I do try to get rid of all the outright crashes before updating the public version, but there are some mistakes.  The crash on the empty gate menu being one of them.  My bad.  Edit: It's fixed now.

I'll add in an instant save button so crashes are less frustrating when they do happen.  Edit: Added.

I'm a little confused about your issue with the tiles though.  Are you selecting a tile from the menu between each click?  You don't have to do that... Just click the tile and then click on the map as many times as you want to place them.  Or you can right click the blank tile and then use the right mouse button to delete, which is what I usually do.

What part of the UI is hard to navigate specifically?  How might it be made better?  Suggestions for the menu is the main thing I'm looking for now.  You should be able to open menus by clicking on objects in lists and close the menus by clicking on the x in the corner.  Are there any other menus you got stuck on?

[Sponge]

Well, it is alpha.  So yes, there are bugs.  I do try to get rid of all the outright crashes before updating the public version, but there are some mistakes.  The crash on the empty gate menu being one of them.  My bad.  Edit: It's fixed now.

I'll add in an instant save button so crashes are less frustrating when they do happen.  Edit: Added.

I'm a little confused about your issue with the tiles though.  Are you selecting a tile from the menu between each click?  You don't have to do that... Just click the tile and then click on the map as many times as you want to place them.  Or you can right click the blank tile and then use the right mouse button to delete, which is what I usually do.

What part of the UI is hard to navigate specifically?  How might it be made better?  Suggestions for the menu is the main thing I'm looking for now.  You should be able to open menus by clicking on objects in lists and close the menus by clicking on the x in the corner.  Are there any other menus you got stuck on?

Ok, I was a bit frustrated last night. I didn't really explain my reasons for my reasons.

   One part of the tile problem was what we talked about earlier, how you have to select the square then then right(Or was it left?)-click twice (Sometimes once?) I think you would be better off having an actually erase button that works for every tile. Something else is gates. What happened to me (After the Menu Sticking incident) was that I put down a gate. I then picked the gate destination that was the name of my world, thinking that would make this an entrance gate. When I clicked test... black. The tiles went black, like the place your in before you select   which room you want. The problem was I couldn't get back to my room (Note: If I try refreshing the program whenever I double click my room the screen except the black tiles turns a brighter grey, if that makes sense). Even when I clicked it, it stayed in the black place. I effectively lost that room. Maybe I just did something wrong, but all I know is my room is basically void because I either made a mistake or it's a bug. If I did make a mistake, it still shouldn't be as easy to make as it was.
   Still on the subject of tiles, lets talk about the how clunky places tiles are. It's very slow. You should really add a way to drag your mouse and place tiles or such. Placing each tile one mouse click at a time was really tedious, and I can't imagine how slow it would be with a bigger room.
   The menus. There is nothing very wrong about the menus (Except when I got stuck in the gate one; thanks for fixing that btw), there just hard to navigate. I think you should instead make it so when I click on a tile set or an object a new window opens that you can drag around and such, so I can have multiple windows open at the same time. This way, I don't get stuck in a maze of menu.
   Objects. I made an object, but whenever I save my room they disappear (This was before my room got voided). I had to re-put them in every time I closed (Even when I saved). I also still don't get how animations work, when I clicked on them nothing happened. Other then that, I never got to see my object (A bunny) in action, because my world got voided by the gate.

   I hope that was clear enough for you. I don't know if I explained everything well, but I tried. And I was being a bit harsh in my earlier edit, I'll probably play this game again in a few day (If not for a little bit today). I was just really frustrated (and slightly tired). I do really hope this game improves, it's a really interesting idea, and the fact that I could be one of the first people (Besides you) to make worlds and rooms excites me too much for me to stay away. Thank you for asking me to expand on my ideas, I don't know if I would have otherwise. Thanks!   

[IndigoFenix]

Wait... I just ran a test in Firefox, and... wow.  Are you using Firefox by any chance?  Or any other non-Chrome browser?

I build in Chrome.  I'll try to make it work in as many browsers as possible, but there might be some...uh, differences for the time being.

That being said, I'll see what I can do about your suggestions, like click-and-drag for tile placing, although that's also how you move the screen around for larger rooms.  Maybe hold shift, then click and drag?  And draggable menus are a possibility, I wasn't really sure whether they would be more confusing or less.

Global sprite classes are kind of buggy at the moment; internally classes can be held at any level (layer, room, or world) but I'm still working on what interface would be the most intuitive, so only the ones added at the layer level will work as intended.

I'm working on the custom animation system right now, in the meantime you can use 2 types of sprite sheets for standing and moving around, either Charas Project standard or RPG Maker standard, which are selected in the sprite editor.

Thanks for playing!  I know it can be frustrating at this early alpha stage.  But on the plus side, the earlier suggestions are made, the easier it will be to implement them.

EDIT: I just looked at your world (not in-game, just copied the data) and I think I understand the issue you've been having with tiles... you're using a bunch of tilesets with a single tile each!  While it is...possible to make a room like this, that's not how it's supposed to work... normally you would have a single image with all or most of the tiles you need for the room, then select them from the image on the right.  Try looking up 32x32 tilemaps for examples.
I'll see if I can figure out the problem you had with gates.
EDIT2: Seems the game crashes when trying to load a sprite with a globally-defined class.  I'll have to fix that up... yeah there's no way you could have known that.  In the meantime, I put your room back into working order by moving the class into the layer through text editing.

Oh, speaking of text editing, I have copies of the data from most if not all of the worlds from the original version of the game on my computer (there weren't very many, I must have downloaded them for some reason and then forgotten).  A lot of the data structure is different now, but tilemaps are stored the same way, so if anyone spent a lot of time building and has a particular request, I can manually hack their maps back into the new edition.

[Sponge]

Wait... I just ran a test in Firefox, and... wow.  Are you using Firefox by any chance?  Or any other non-Chrome browser?

I build in Chrome.  I'll try to make it work in as many browsers as possible, but there might be some...uh, differences for the time being.

That being said, I'll see what I can do about your suggestions, like click-and-drag for tile placing, although that's also how you move the screen around for larger rooms.  Maybe hold shift, then click and drag?  And draggable menus are a possibility, I wasn't really sure whether they would be more confusing or less.

Global sprite classes are kind of buggy at the moment; internally classes can be held at any level (layer, room, or world) but I'm still working on what interface would be the most intuitive, so only the ones added at the layer level will work as intended.

I'm working on the custom animation system right now, in the meantime you can use 2 types of sprite sheets for standing and moving around, either Charas Project standard or RPG Maker standard, which are selected in the sprite editor.

Thanks for playing!  I know it can be frustrating at this early alpha stage.  But on the plus side, the earlier suggestions are made, the easier it will be to implement them.

EDIT: I just looked at your world (not in-game, just copied the data) and I think I understand the issue you've been having with tiles... you're using a bunch of tilesets with a single tile each!  While it is...possible to make a room like this, that's not how it's supposed to work... normally you would have a single image with all or most of the tiles you need for the room, then select them from the image on the right.  Try looking up 32x32 tilemaps for examples.
I'll see if I can figure out the problem you had with gates.
EDIT2: Seems the game crashes when trying to load a sprite with a globally-defined class.  I'll have to fix that up... yeah there's no way you could have known that.  In the meantime, I put your room back into working order by moving the class into the layer through text editing.

Oh, speaking of text editing, I have copies of the data from most if not all of the worlds from the original version of the game on my computer (there weren't very many, I must have downloaded them for some reason and then forgotten).  A lot of the data structure is different now, but tilemaps are stored the same way, so if anyone spent a lot of time building and has a particular request, I can manually hack their maps back into the new edition.

I haven't checked my world yet, but thanks! Let's hope I don't make the same mistake again. As for tiles maps, you said

You can't put more than one tile in a space in a single tilemap, but you can make multiple tilemaps in a single layer.

I thought that meant only one tile. Interesting to know it automatically splices them. Thanks for the help, I'll probably try again once I get home. Good to know your working on animations. Using shift or Middle-Mouse button plus holding left-click for scrolling would be best I think. Shift would be the best for non-mouse users though.

[Sponge]

I can't seem to get my objects to move (I did seccussfully get to test my world, thanks again). How exactly do the values work? A more step-by-step instruction for the animations would be helpful too, I know your still working on it but you mentioned the RPG maker style and the Charas style, and I still can't find out how to use them.

[IndigoFenix]

The only movement right now is combat related movement, so if you're trying to do something else it won't work.

Aggro radius is the distance at which the creature will start to pursue an enemy.
Aggro max is added to aggro radius to determine the distance at which they will give up pursuit.
Home radius is the distance from their origin point they will consider "home", they will return to this area when they have no target.
Pursuit distance is the distance beyond their home that they will go when chasing an enemy.
Stalking radius/stalking max is the distance they will circle an enemy when their attacks are on cooldown.
I made an AI visualiser button that lets you view all of these distances.
Fear and aggression are placeholders for more complex AI, right now anything with aggro range will mindlessly attack anything not on their team.

For using the default animations, you need a sprite sheet that uses either Charas-project or Rpg Maker conventions, then use that image as your object's graphic source and select the relevant choice from the "animation convention" dropdown.  These sprite sheets include animations for standing and walking in four directions.

[Sponge]

The only movement right now is combat related movement, so if you're trying to do something else it won't work.

Aggro radius is the distance at which the creature will start to pursue an enemy.
Aggro max is added to aggro radius to determine the distance at which they will give up pursuit.
Home radius is the distance from their origin point they will consider "home", they will return to this area when they have no target.
Pursuit distance is the distance beyond their home that they will go when chasing an enemy.
Stalking radius/stalking max is the distance they will circle an enemy when their attacks are on cooldown.
I made an AI visualiser button that lets you view all of these distances.
Fear and aggression are placeholders for more complex AI, right now anything with aggro range will mindlessly attack anything not on their team.

For using the default animations, you need a sprite sheet that uses either Charas-project or Rpg Maker conventions, then use that image as your object's graphic source and select the relevant choice from the "animation convention" dropdown.  These sprite sheets include animations for standing and walking in four directions.

Well, guess I'll look up "Rpg Maker" Conventions. Shame about the only attack AI. I was hoping they could just wander around. They are rabbits after all. I'll just have to have them stand still for now.

[IndigoFenix]

Don't worry, more motion options are coming soon enough.

Things expected soon:
Custom animations
More default motion options
Functioning exit gates, both with specific targets and tag-based randomization

Next on the list:
More function options
Custom attack builder
Dialogue tree builder
Animated tilesets probably go in about here too

After this:
Persistent player inventory (important for saving data between worlds)
Shops for buying items

After this I'll consider the game to be in beta proper and I'll start working on the story elements.

[IndigoFenix]

I've added some idle wandering behaviors.  The relevant values are Idle walk speed, Idle walk timer, Idle stop timer, Idle turn frequency (probability of changing direction, must be non-zero for now as continuous walking in a straight line doesn't work), and Idle randomness (placeholder for now).  These values relate to a sprite's behavior when not in combat.  You can make sprites that wander around randomly.

The custom animation editor doesn't actually work yet, but you can fiddle with it.  Default animation conventions still work.

You can also bounce on non-solid NPC's heads.  This doesn't do anything and is just a placeholder.

[Sponge]

I've added some idle wandering behaviors.  The relevant values are Idle walk speed, Idle walk timer, Idle stop timer, Idle turn frequency (probability of changing direction, must be non-zero for now as continuous walking in a straight line doesn't work), and Idle randomness (placeholder for now).  These values relate to a sprite's behavior when not in combat.  You can make sprites that wander around randomly.

The custom animation editor doesn't actually work yet, but you can fiddle with it.  Default animation conventions still work.

You can also bounce on non-solid NPC's heads.  This doesn't do anything and is just a placeholder.

For reference what does Idle walk timer and Idle stop timer do?

[Sponge]

So I'm having an object stand still (No Movement) and in the world editor my graphics work fine but in testing the graphics disappear. Any help?

[IndigoFenix]

For reference what does Idle walk timer and Idle stop timer do?

The logic is as follows:
At the start, the unit starts walking
After [Idle walk timer] frames, they stop
After [Idle stop timer] frames, they start again
There is a [turn frequency]% chance they will change direction each time they start walking
[Idle randomness] is not implemented yet, but it will cause the start/stop timers to vary by a certain amount.
However there is a small bug right now where if you don't give them any turn frequency they will not start walking in the first place.  This is because the initial direction is not set properly; I will soon change the way the initial direction works to be incorporated into the instance's position so you can have multiple instances of the same object facing different directions at the start.

I'm going to see what's up with the graphics.

EDIT: Okay, the graphics should work properly now.  For single-frame objects, you will need to make sure "None" is selected under "Animation convention".

Also, you can make gates that exit to other areas now by checking "exits" and specifying a destination.  Tag-based random destinations don't work yet.

[Sponge]

For reference what does Idle walk timer and Idle stop timer do?

The logic is as follows:
At the start, the unit starts walking
After [Idle walk timer] frames, they stop
After [Idle stop timer] frames, they start again
There is a [turn frequency]% chance they will change direction each time they start walking
[Idle randomness] is not implemented yet, but it will cause the start/stop timers to vary by a certain amount.
However there is a small bug right now where if you don't give them any turn frequency they will not start walking in the first place.  This is because the initial direction is not set properly; I will soon change the way the initial direction works to be incorporated into the instance's position so you can have multiple instances of the same object facing different directions at the start.

I'm going to see what's up with the graphics.

Thanks for the info! I appreciate that you're looking into the graphics.

[Reelya]

PTW, it's certainly a good idea. I've got an idea for something similar (player-created worlds with their own set of rules), but it's in a very different genre.