Post by handoffire21 in Snakepipe Hollow comments

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No need to apologize for anything! It makes me happy that someone out there liked my idea enough to try and make it better and I'm thankful for you! Send it to me for testing, I'd be more than happy to playtest it again!

So, one idea for spirit combat could be an exorcism quest from a priest as a good tutorial for soul sight. Besides combat, maybe a few more instances where the spirits can give clues (or maybe even a quest)....Im just shooting from the hip, here..

Some other things i remembered that were broken were

1. The whale on the overworld is sometimes invisible.? (maybe an ingame bug)

2. I dont think the timer works correctly when trying to escape the whale.

3. something is wrong with the languages if you try the Troll path, they speak gibberish when you should understand them.

Lastly, I cannot deploy my file of this, so i think you should make sure you CAN so you aren't just wasting your time. I don't remember what i did, but that's basically why i gave up on it. I basically was learning how to use a computer as i was learning rpgmaker, so you gotta forgive the mess.

One last, last thing, what games would you recommend for me? I've been tinkering with systems for a new game, but really could use some inspiration and i need to look at other rpg maker games, so what's out there that you think is neat?

Tarwix5 days ago

I have to test the overworld whale (probably get a different sprite than a dead troll, but doing Direction Fix on it already could have fixed the invisibility because it has Random movement), but I think the internal escape timer works now too. It's not something I've ever used before, but there's resources out there to explain stuff that the built-in help doesn't.

About the Troll path, I'm not seeing any place in Uzholm where the Trolls even check for you having Comp Langs going or even the Uz book item, and they never speak gibberish. Maybe the code in the "hail attempt" & "Comprehend Languages attempt" battle events was reversed before, but I fixed those. Just not seeing gibberish from Trolls anywhere. Dragonewts & Mostali can do gibberish though.

The Deployment process shouldn't give any trouble, but I always playtest because I use "Exclude Unused Files", and that can make mistakes.

As for recommending RPGs made with RPG Maker, aside from NSFW stuff that I've been playing or patching lately: easiest is to do the itch search for games with the tag "RPG Maker", although I wish I knew how to filter OUT the ones I don't want like Horror. There's unfortunately a LOT of crap out there (Sturgeon's Law), and sometimes the way to be a better developer is to realize what you don't like seeing other people do.

handoffire214 days ago

OK, I may have misremembered about the trolls. It must be Mostali Im thinking of. They both should check for a book or COMP LANG. Some things Ive been thinking about aren't coding goofs but a few design issues left out what do you think about....

an overworld map- I had/have no clue how to do this. May not be needed anyway

- another recruitable thief somewhere in the game. (you'd have to add the character to the light script which you'll find on each map) because with only 1 recruitable thief, it makes the player HAVE to choose thief as class in order to have access to the skills early on and an easier thief to recruit then the guy in jail ( I don't even remember his name becasue i never recruited him) could help with that design problem.

-a Trolina kidnap cutscene. I just used text because i couldn't get a cutscene to happen.. thinking on it now, i know what i did wrong, but that moment COULD have some emotional/narrative impact in a cutscene rather than the normal descriptive text. there is so little narrative anyway i think it would help the game. {what i would do now is transfer to a small map and have the scene play out there. the party is ambushed( maybe some damage) and they count heads to find Trolina missing. And general directions as to which way the Broos went}

-maybe the location of the final dungeon? it should be revealed if you have the ranger in the party, there may be another way but i don't recall. But do you think that was a poor design making the cave hidden? i still don't know how i feel about it... maybe if you find it once it stays revealed?

- maybe an extra dungeon for the ivory Plinth? I didnt look to much into the Ivory Plinth but it IS a loctaion on the map and if you wanted to make something out of it, it would be the perfect spot for it.

Once again, I'm just thinking outloud, I can't wait to see what you've done! lets talk again soon

Tarwix4 days ago

Perhaps the Uz need to have their language difference played up more, too. There's some "Hulk speak", but they're not really stupid. The Aldryami have some lore (not of the vintage when I played) that they do have their own language, but use it just to mess with humans and actually rely more on a kind of group think for decision making, so I'm not going to push on it more for them.

A minimap is often a great QoL to have, especially with an overworld this big. I thought about finding a plugin for it as soon as I saw how big the "Tarsh" map was. Would want "fog of war" though...

There's already so many recruitable characters, but adding another Thief might help... While you can switch "Dave" to Thief in Dylos, I could make it easier to do that too. One thing I've worked on but need to make sure is implemented globally is having one or both Thief characters, and the relevant items, give a bonus to trap detects. And as it is, lockpicks are an automatic success if the party has the required picks; I've watched enough murder mysteries and real-life locksmiths to know it ain't easy for amateurs, although in RQ terms how tough can a lock be? (Current RQ doesn't even have a Pick Locks skill, just Devise under Manipulation, and no Detect Traps just Search under Perception. It's a system for doing hero quests once in a while, not dungeon runs every day.)

I saw there was a kidnap cutscene map, like some others it has problems with the Movement Routes but nothing insurmountable. The one in the opening with the caravan looks much better now... And I just added a quick cutscene with the whale using the graphics I got from Guardinthena, may even add the "inside the mouth" images too.

Having a goal to even FIND the SH dungeon is fine. It's not supposed to be easy, or the Lunars would have done it already, right?

The Ivory Plinth is indeed a possible location for another dungeon. The image that I found for it (Wyrm's Footnotes) actually made me think of what you did for the Cacodemon temple already! It's not just an obelisk...

handoffire214 days ago

I'm on board with everything you can and are willing to do! -

-maybe the player has an old dated map with only the city and fort locations to not reveal too much? otherwise, this would be in your hands... besides making something on MS paint and adding the picture, I don't have a clue as to how i would make this

-changing Dave to thief early would be a solution.. maybe the quest giver guy in the starting INN could do it? or maybe he has a new sidekick? I just didn't have the chops to make it a skill based game. so the locks are gatekept by money( which I'm not crazy about BUT does work for a newb.) if you can make it anyway based on skill or you will have blown my mind. same with traps, there should be more in the game and a thief in the party should note when they deactivate them ( otherwise you wouldn't know)

-i DID try one which wasn't my first but for whatever reason, didn't work. I'm excited about the whale scene ( the whale was from a module But i can't remember it's name... something about Prax).

-If you like it then i feel ok about it

- it's totally up to you, all I know is it's sacred to Tusk Riders, but it could be advanced tech, or just a giant's bone in the ground. Since its made in post, I'm thinking a brutal, screw you dungeon (with random teleports) only for the most experienced player with a unique skill or weapon at the end. BUT I'm just spitballin'

HOPEFULLY LAST THOUGHTS

-So, i never REALLY messed with TP. I would have just taken it away if i could have, but anything or any sensibilities you put into the skills and their TP relations wouldn't hurt

-Add any skills you think would make it more fun btw

-When deploying i wish i had made the japanese SH art the thumbnail. Its the one on itch.io. This is one of my biggest regrets as it foreshadows the encounter with Fillith AND Trolina vs the party(which i tried to make the standard but also avoidable).

Anyway, I can't wait to see what you can do! I think you should add yourself to the credit roll in the starting inn, it wouldn't be presumptuous!