itch.io

Unfortunately I use a lighting plugin which does eat into resources quite a bit. RPGMaker MV isn't super efficient on its own (compared to older ones like Ace), and layering that plugin on means there's a lot to process. I have tried to improve this a BIT by cutting down the Center Path map to JUST the area you explore, but this only does so much. I hate this too: I'm not doing anything super fancy, so it SHOULD be smooth and quick even on old hardware. But the problem is MV isn't really a compiled program, it's just a bunch of javascript running in a browser. This makes it easy to shuffle from one platform to another, but wildly inefficient. Unfortunately, people prioritize the convenience because most modern systems can just chew through all the inefficient code like it's nothing. But a 20 year old laptop isn't going to go so well, no. I don't know if you're in the US, but you can get a basic Optiplex tower for like $80 on Ebay that'll blow that laptop away, and should have no problem running the game. If you don't have access to Ebay though, fair enough.

HOWEVER, there is a workaround I just tested. Go to www\js in the game folder. Make a backup copy of plugins.js, then open the original file. Search for the chunk starting with "{"name":"OcRam_Lights"". Delete that entire chunk, down to ""false"}},". Save, and start the game. This will kill ALL lighting effects, and it'll look pretty crap. But it should run much faster. Maybe use this version of the file while you're in this area, then switch back to the original for the rest of the game.

As for gameplay: Alley bars are just flavor, you never go into them. The dobermans accept or reject on a 50/50 coin flip. You just have to keep finding them and asking.