*A new Key Item has been added and will be named the Warp Marker, provided I don't think of a better name. It was originally going to be called the Telemarker as a pun.
What this item does is allow the player to select one location, then instantly be teleported back to that location.
Obviously the most practical use for such an item is when you're traveling from point A to point B, but will have to then return to point A again. I realize this item could potentially be abused by the player (I.E. setting the marker somewhere and using it to escape a scripted event).
To stop that from happening, a Conditional Bran TBch was added that prevents the Marker from being used (either to set a marker or return to one) if inside a dungeon.
*The Lightspeed Stone given to Ami when she first meets the King of Cordova has been altered slightly so that players have the option for it to return them to Cordova Castle automatically whenever a piece of the Fate Glass Mirror is found.
*The Magical Bookmark item that is used to give Amis party a Save Point inside Deslin Castle has also been slightly altered so that the player receives an error message if they try to use it in any location OTHER than Deslin.
Thursday, December 29, 2016
Tuesday, December 27, 2016
What's New - 12/24/2016
*A "nomad merchant" has been added to Life Weaver. I think his name kinda makes his purpose in the game obvious but just in case, he is a merchant that travels Cascadia selling his wares.
He makes three appearances total: one in the forest, one in the tundra, and one in grassland. He sells items, shards, weapons, armor and accessories, all at a lower price than the shops.
Being somewhat of a gypsy, you can't just run down the street and buy from him whenever you want something. His appearance is triggered by specific events in the game. For example, speaking to a certain NPC in the castle town of Gardinia reveals that her sister noticed a tent being erected outside of Alistine right before leaving. Once you have this conversation, the nomad is switched on and will appear outside of Alistine.
*I've decided that characters will now regenerate some of their HP and MP but the rate is VERY SLOW. You will still need spells, items, or the Inn because the rate is far too slow to be completely relied on to replace standard replenishment of HP and MP.
Regardless of class, all characters will regenerate about 10 HP and 5 MP roughly every 100 steps. As I said, it's not going to be enough to rely on, but if nothing else it may give you just enough MP to use healing magic, or enough HP to get you out of whatever dungeon you're in.
He makes three appearances total: one in the forest, one in the tundra, and one in grassland. He sells items, shards, weapons, armor and accessories, all at a lower price than the shops.
Being somewhat of a gypsy, you can't just run down the street and buy from him whenever you want something. His appearance is triggered by specific events in the game. For example, speaking to a certain NPC in the castle town of Gardinia reveals that her sister noticed a tent being erected outside of Alistine right before leaving. Once you have this conversation, the nomad is switched on and will appear outside of Alistine.
*I've decided that characters will now regenerate some of their HP and MP but the rate is VERY SLOW. You will still need spells, items, or the Inn because the rate is far too slow to be completely relied on to replace standard replenishment of HP and MP.
Regardless of class, all characters will regenerate about 10 HP and 5 MP roughly every 100 steps. As I said, it's not going to be enough to rely on, but if nothing else it may give you just enough MP to use healing magic, or enough HP to get you out of whatever dungeon you're in.
Tuesday, December 20, 2016
Achievements
An achievement system has now been added to LifeWeaver. I'm sure the majority of people reading this know what achievements (in the context of video games) are but just in case, the short version is that achievements are specific actions the player performs in-game that may or may not give a reward of some kind once completed.
A good example of this is found in Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory, which has an achievement (sometimes called a trophy or milestone) called "I Love Gravity". To get it, the player simply has to jump 10 times. The reward for it is, if I'm not mistaken, a 2 point increase in their agility stat.
As of today (12/20/2016) there are only 5 achievements in LifeWeaveR:
"Journey of 1000 steps" is gained after (surprise!) walking 1000 steps on the Overworld map.
"Bookworm" is gained after reading 8 of the in-game 'red books'.
"Zin Master" is given once the player interacts with at least 5 of the in-game pianos. This is 5 SEPARATE pianos, you cannot just play the same one five times.
"Uninvited Houseguest" (Name may change at some point) is achieved by plundering items from at least 10 different homes. Note that treasure chests in homes do not count. Only items taken from dressers/bookshelves/closets/etc count toward the total.
"One Of The Flock" is obtained by speaking to at lease 7 different clergy members (either priests or nuns).
I don't know what the rewards will be yet, nor do I know how many other achievements will be added. There will definitely be more than 5, that's for sure.
A good example of this is found in Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory, which has an achievement (sometimes called a trophy or milestone) called "I Love Gravity". To get it, the player simply has to jump 10 times. The reward for it is, if I'm not mistaken, a 2 point increase in their agility stat.
As of today (12/20/2016) there are only 5 achievements in LifeWeaveR:
"Journey of 1000 steps" is gained after (surprise!) walking 1000 steps on the Overworld map.
"Bookworm" is gained after reading 8 of the in-game 'red books'.
"Zin Master" is given once the player interacts with at least 5 of the in-game pianos. This is 5 SEPARATE pianos, you cannot just play the same one five times.
"Uninvited Houseguest" (Name may change at some point) is achieved by plundering items from at least 10 different homes. Note that treasure chests in homes do not count. Only items taken from dressers/bookshelves/closets/etc count toward the total.
"One Of The Flock" is obtained by speaking to at lease 7 different clergy members (either priests or nuns).
I don't know what the rewards will be yet, nor do I know how many other achievements will be added. There will definitely be more than 5, that's for sure.
Saturday, December 17, 2016
What's New - 12/15/2016
*I decided to scrap the idea of having a day/night system due to complications. On the over-world map it works just fine, but the problem is that once you enter another location, leaving and going back to the overworld resets the cycle. In other words, walking into a town at night (and then leaving) instantly makes it revert to daylight.
*Originally I planned to have Ami change her outfit after a certain point in the game, but I decided against it because I discovered that it's a far bigger pain-in-the-ass than I expected because I'd have to insert If/Then events in literally every single map in the entire game for the sake of consistency.
*I'm very close to being finished with the script. I'll have to go back and proofread about a million text boxes but aside from that all I've got left to write is when Pria joins the party and the rest of the games ending.
Once the script is finished, my next objective is creating and assigning enemies to troops, then figuring out where I'm going to put them. I deleted all the troops when I installed Yanflys regional battle back script but I'm now in the process of re-organizing them.
*I've finally got around to finishing the Archive Scroll. This item is received at the beginning of the game and serves as reference material.
*Originally I planned to have Ami change her outfit after a certain point in the game, but I decided against it because I discovered that it's a far bigger pain-in-the-ass than I expected because I'd have to insert If/Then events in literally every single map in the entire game for the sake of consistency.
*I'm very close to being finished with the script. I'll have to go back and proofread about a million text boxes but aside from that all I've got left to write is when Pria joins the party and the rest of the games ending.
Once the script is finished, my next objective is creating and assigning enemies to troops, then figuring out where I'm going to put them. I deleted all the troops when I installed Yanflys regional battle back script but I'm now in the process of re-organizing them.
*I've finally got around to finishing the Archive Scroll. This item is received at the beginning of the game and serves as reference material.
Monday, December 12, 2016
Title Screen (work in progress)
LifeWeaveR finally has a semi-decent title screen instead of the stock ones RPG Maker VX Ace comes with. It's not official but it's a start.
Here's an alternative title I'm considering.
Here's an alternative title I'm considering.
Treasure Chests
I've decided to modify the contents of the treasure chests (but only the ones found in dungeons) into something a little more creative than the normal/usual way items are found.
Here's how it will work: The color of the chest itself will reflect what is inside it. Red will be for "basic" items such as potions, magical waters, or money. Blue will be for the more high end items like Speed Drops or Elixirs, and also for "Shards". Tan is for armor and accessories, green is for weapons, metallic chests are for rare items like CollectaBears or Crystallized Wisdom as well as Key Items. The "old style" chests will be used only for pieces of the Mirror. The small jewelry-box sized chests will now only be used for money.
Also, the contents of the red colored chests will be randomized. The game will select a variable between 1 and 10, and whatever number is selected will determine what's inside the chest (For example, 1 may be a potion, 2 may be 30 coins, 3 may be an antidote vial, etc...) Only red chests will be randomized, the contents of all the others are intentional.
Here's how it will work: The color of the chest itself will reflect what is inside it. Red will be for "basic" items such as potions, magical waters, or money. Blue will be for the more high end items like Speed Drops or Elixirs, and also for "Shards". Tan is for armor and accessories, green is for weapons, metallic chests are for rare items like CollectaBears or Crystallized Wisdom as well as Key Items. The "old style" chests will be used only for pieces of the Mirror. The small jewelry-box sized chests will now only be used for money.
Also, the contents of the red colored chests will be randomized. The game will select a variable between 1 and 10, and whatever number is selected will determine what's inside the chest (For example, 1 may be a potion, 2 may be 30 coins, 3 may be an antidote vial, etc...) Only red chests will be randomized, the contents of all the others are intentional.
Tuesday, December 6, 2016
What's New - 12/6/2016
*An optional boss has been created and can be found inside a church in the middle of a small cross-shaped island South of Astral Tower. If defeated, the player earns roughly 70,000 EXP, several rare items, and a large amount of coins. An item called the Church Tower Key is required for entry but I haven't decided where it can be found.
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*In addition, an optional side-quest has also been added than can be done by visiting the Kik La'Quay tribal camp. The nutshell version is that the Chief is depressed because a rival tribe has stolen the vitally-important Nivolea seeds (Nivolea being an important source of food as well as a profitable cash crop). The characters decide to help out and go get the seeds back (It's an RPG, what did you think they were going to do?)
But rather than typical dungeon crawling, this part of the game must be overcome with stealth.
I'm aware that stealth and RPGs might not exactly go hand-in-hand, but several well-known RPGs have included stealth elements (Dragon Warrior 4, Final Fantasy 7, Persona 4, etc...) In this part of the game there are no battles to fight or enemies to defeat. Your only objective is to find the stolen seeds and escape unseen (If you are spotted after you've gotten them, the game progresses the story to the next morning. This is to prevent having to start over even though you accomplished your task).
In the morning, the Chief gifts a powerful weapon to either William (spear) or Cecelia (bow and arrow) as thanks for recovering the Nivolea Seeds. If Cecelia has not joined the group yet, it will go to William. If she has, the game essentially flips a coin and gives it to one of them via random variable. You will also receive 5,000 EXP as a bonus.
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*In addition, an optional side-quest has also been added than can be done by visiting the Kik La'Quay tribal camp. The nutshell version is that the Chief is depressed because a rival tribe has stolen the vitally-important Nivolea seeds (Nivolea being an important source of food as well as a profitable cash crop). The characters decide to help out and go get the seeds back (It's an RPG, what did you think they were going to do?)
But rather than typical dungeon crawling, this part of the game must be overcome with stealth.
I'm aware that stealth and RPGs might not exactly go hand-in-hand, but several well-known RPGs have included stealth elements (Dragon Warrior 4, Final Fantasy 7, Persona 4, etc...) In this part of the game there are no battles to fight or enemies to defeat. Your only objective is to find the stolen seeds and escape unseen (If you are spotted after you've gotten them, the game progresses the story to the next morning. This is to prevent having to start over even though you accomplished your task).
In the morning, the Chief gifts a powerful weapon to either William (spear) or Cecelia (bow and arrow) as thanks for recovering the Nivolea Seeds. If Cecelia has not joined the group yet, it will go to William. If she has, the game essentially flips a coin and gives it to one of them via random variable. You will also receive 5,000 EXP as a bonus.
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| Enemy lines of sight. |
What's New - 12/1/2016
*I've decided to add what could be considered a "random outcome" spell or item, similar to the "Chance" spell from Dragon Warrior 3 or the Silver Tarot Cards from Dragon Warrior 4. Im not sure yet if it will be an item or a spell however.
Either way, it will work like this: when it is cast or used, the game will select a random number between 1 and 10, or possibly even as high as 15 or 20. The numbers will correspond to an action. For example, 1 may correspond to instantly killing the enemies, 2 may correspond to all allies being put to sleep, etc. When a random number is picked, the game will simply apply the action associated with the number.
I want to include the party being instantly teleported to a location, but am concerned this may interrupt the flow of the story (being teleported in the middle of a boss fight would clearly be a problem).
To resolve this, I basically did the same thing that I did with the evacuate spell. A switch called BossFight is turned on immediately before a boss battle, and is immediately turned off as soon as it's over. With the switch on, the variable linked to teleportation now performs an alternative action, but reverses itself once the switch is on.
*Added several new animations, including another attack graphic for Ami and an animation to replace the boring screen flash that occurs when the Astral Gate is activated.
Either way, it will work like this: when it is cast or used, the game will select a random number between 1 and 10, or possibly even as high as 15 or 20. The numbers will correspond to an action. For example, 1 may correspond to instantly killing the enemies, 2 may correspond to all allies being put to sleep, etc. When a random number is picked, the game will simply apply the action associated with the number.
I want to include the party being instantly teleported to a location, but am concerned this may interrupt the flow of the story (being teleported in the middle of a boss fight would clearly be a problem).
To resolve this, I basically did the same thing that I did with the evacuate spell. A switch called BossFight is turned on immediately before a boss battle, and is immediately turned off as soon as it's over. With the switch on, the variable linked to teleportation now performs an alternative action, but reverses itself once the switch is on.
*Added several new animations, including another attack graphic for Ami and an animation to replace the boring screen flash that occurs when the Astral Gate is activated.
Sunday, November 27, 2016
Infusion
"Infusion" is a spell that I've wanted to include in LifeWeaveR from almost the very beginning. Basically, it allows Cecelia to infuse (hence the name) arrows with either Fire, Ice, Wind, Lightning, or Holy magic. The purpose of this should be obvious, but here it is anyway:
In most RPG's (at least the ones I've played such as Persona 4, Final Fantasy 7, Dragon Warrior, Lunar, etc..) there are some enemies that are element-sensitive. They might take massive damage against some elements and no damage whatsoever against others.
In most RPG's (at least the ones I've played such as Persona 4, Final Fantasy 7, Dragon Warrior, Lunar, etc..) there are some enemies that are element-sensitive. They might take massive damage against some elements and no damage whatsoever against others.
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| This enemy takes no damage from ice, but double damage from fire. |
The three types of arrows from Ocarina of Time were the initial inspiration for the Infuse spell. I liked how Link could change arrows depending on whatever enemy he was fighting. Although it's common for certain weapons to have an element attached to them (such as a flame sword) I didn't want to go that route if I could avoid it, largely because I wanted something a little different than the usual/normal way.
To solve this, I created the "Infusion" spell and attached it to a new weapon called the Elemental Bow. When Cecelia is equipped with it, the Infusion skill appears in her list of available magic. Once cast, the player is given the choice of which element to fuse her arrows with.
When an element is selected, the screen will flash the appropriate color for that element (blue for ice, red for fire, green for wind, yellow for lightning, and white for holy). A small icon will appear on screen to show what element is currently infused (see picture on right). Infusing another element will remove the effects of the previous one, thus the player can infuse only one element at a time.
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
What's New - 11/22/2016
*After much debate. I've decided that I DO want LifeWeaveR to have enemies in it's oceans. However, there will only be 2 or 3 types of enemies and instead of covering the whole ocean in region tags, there will be "zones" instead. This is so players can still earn coins and EXP while sailing, but not have repeated random battles slowing them down.
*All weapons have been revamped. Some have had changes to ATK and price, some were renamed, and some changed function entirely. Now, each character has at least 7 equip-able weapons that can be found or bought, not including weapons in the Universal class.
*Cordova Castle now has a training area that players can participate in for extra EXP. To prevent this from being exploited, the following limit has been imposed: The player can select what character will participate in training. Whether that character wins or loses, the guard will tell the player "We'll fight again sometime" if he is talked to after training is over. The player must then wait for training to become available again before he can be challenged again. I'm still working on how long a time period there will be until it becomes available again.
*The pieces of the Fate Glass Mirror have been tweaked slightly and must now be collected in numerical order. Originally I was going to let them be collected in whatever order the player chose but this has proved to conflict with scripted events and has therefore been changed so that the chests containing the pieces won't even appear until the previous piece is collected. (I.E. The chest with piece #2 doesn't appear until piece #1 has been collected and given over to the vault).
*All weapons have been revamped. Some have had changes to ATK and price, some were renamed, and some changed function entirely. Now, each character has at least 7 equip-able weapons that can be found or bought, not including weapons in the Universal class.
*Cordova Castle now has a training area that players can participate in for extra EXP. To prevent this from being exploited, the following limit has been imposed: The player can select what character will participate in training. Whether that character wins or loses, the guard will tell the player "We'll fight again sometime" if he is talked to after training is over. The player must then wait for training to become available again before he can be challenged again. I'm still working on how long a time period there will be until it becomes available again.
*The pieces of the Fate Glass Mirror have been tweaked slightly and must now be collected in numerical order. Originally I was going to let them be collected in whatever order the player chose but this has proved to conflict with scripted events and has therefore been changed so that the chests containing the pieces won't even appear until the previous piece is collected. (I.E. The chest with piece #2 doesn't appear until piece #1 has been collected and given over to the vault).
Monday, November 7, 2016
What's New - 11/3/2016
*Added animation to the Repel spell, glowing blue orbs now encircle player for a few seconds as an indicator that Repel is in effect.
*Added custom bow and arrow attack animation for Cecelia, as well as a new sword animation for Ami.
*Aesthetic changes made to exterior of Life Weaver's temple.
*There is now a sliding scale of sorts for enemy HP and EXP that steadily increases as the game progresses. For example, if the enemies in dungeon A average about 100 HP, the enemies in dungeon B will have around 150-200. Following along, the enemies in dungeon C could possibly have HPs as low as 175 and as high as 300.
In addition, EXP will also increase in a similar manner so that each dungeons enemies give progressively more than the one before it. This kind of ties into a dilemma I was having where I was having a hard time finding an acceptable middle ground between how much HP and time it takes to kill enemies versus how much damage they inflict on you.
As an example, lets take the games first "Boss" Ageus. If you can kill him in 3-4 rounds it doesn't really feel like much of a boss, but if he can kill YOU in the same amount of time, it feels like he's overpowered. On the other hand, dragging it out to 10+ rounds feels like it's taking too long. So then you have the problem of tweaking his DEF so he takes less or more damage per round, but if you get carried away with this, a boss with only 250 HP becomes a chore to beat because you're only hitting 30-35 damage points at a time.
After a lot of trial and error, I concluded the best thing to do was increase their HP. To compensate for this, all party members HP has been boosted also. Now a boss that hits you for 60 or so damage per round isn't such a problem because your starting HP (Not actual stats, just an example) goes from 225 at level 1, to 415 at level 1. Again, this isn't finalized, it's just a trial solution to see how well it works out.
*Added "Evacuate" spell. Then, turned around and had to create custom "BossFight" switches that can be turned on and off because Evacuate was letting me skip boss battles. Now, if "BossFight" is switched on, Evacuate gives you an error and doesn't work until the boss fight is over.
*Added custom bow and arrow attack animation for Cecelia, as well as a new sword animation for Ami.
*Aesthetic changes made to exterior of Life Weaver's temple.
*There is now a sliding scale of sorts for enemy HP and EXP that steadily increases as the game progresses. For example, if the enemies in dungeon A average about 100 HP, the enemies in dungeon B will have around 150-200. Following along, the enemies in dungeon C could possibly have HPs as low as 175 and as high as 300.
In addition, EXP will also increase in a similar manner so that each dungeons enemies give progressively more than the one before it. This kind of ties into a dilemma I was having where I was having a hard time finding an acceptable middle ground between how much HP and time it takes to kill enemies versus how much damage they inflict on you.
As an example, lets take the games first "Boss" Ageus. If you can kill him in 3-4 rounds it doesn't really feel like much of a boss, but if he can kill YOU in the same amount of time, it feels like he's overpowered. On the other hand, dragging it out to 10+ rounds feels like it's taking too long. So then you have the problem of tweaking his DEF so he takes less or more damage per round, but if you get carried away with this, a boss with only 250 HP becomes a chore to beat because you're only hitting 30-35 damage points at a time.
After a lot of trial and error, I concluded the best thing to do was increase their HP. To compensate for this, all party members HP has been boosted also. Now a boss that hits you for 60 or so damage per round isn't such a problem because your starting HP (Not actual stats, just an example) goes from 225 at level 1, to 415 at level 1. Again, this isn't finalized, it's just a trial solution to see how well it works out.
*Added "Evacuate" spell. Then, turned around and had to create custom "BossFight" switches that can be turned on and off because Evacuate was letting me skip boss battles. Now, if "BossFight" is switched on, Evacuate gives you an error and doesn't work until the boss fight is over.
Thursday, October 27, 2016
What's New - 10/26/2016
It's been nearly two weeks without any sort of update but I'm happy that at least I have something to show for it.
One of my biggest goals with making this game has always been attention to detail. It's something I've tried to maintain a high level of, but there's always been one little problem that I've taken issue with: the battle background. For those that don't know, RPG Maker VX Ace has the option to set a custom background for random battles, but it's limited to only one per map. Since the World Map has many different regions, it forces you to use the same background for all of them.
Thankfully, this issue has been resolved with Yanfly's Region Battlebacks v1.00. This is a custom script that allows you to set region codes on a map so that the battleback will change depending on where you are when the battle begins. His official blog page for this script is here: https://yanflychannel.wordpress.com/rmvxa/field-scripts/region-battlebacks/
Forest:
Arctic:
Desert:
This is one of the updates that I am most proud of, mostly because I really didn't want every single battle on the World Map to look like this:
*Corrected a few typos I'd overlooked.. Also, I'm nearly finished correcting the alignment of text and margins in some text boxes.
*Corrected a few glitches in character movement in some of the cut-scenes.
*In honor of (or as a nod or reference, either works) Yandere Simulator and Yandere Dev, I've added these two NPCs to LifeWeaveR:
One of my biggest goals with making this game has always been attention to detail. It's something I've tried to maintain a high level of, but there's always been one little problem that I've taken issue with: the battle background. For those that don't know, RPG Maker VX Ace has the option to set a custom background for random battles, but it's limited to only one per map. Since the World Map has many different regions, it forces you to use the same background for all of them.
Thankfully, this issue has been resolved with Yanfly's Region Battlebacks v1.00. This is a custom script that allows you to set region codes on a map so that the battleback will change depending on where you are when the battle begins. His official blog page for this script is here: https://yanflychannel.wordpress.com/rmvxa/field-scripts/region-battlebacks/
Forest:
Arctic:
Desert:
This is one of the updates that I am most proud of, mostly because I really didn't want every single battle on the World Map to look like this:
*Corrected a few typos I'd overlooked.. Also, I'm nearly finished correcting the alignment of text and margins in some text boxes.
*Corrected a few glitches in character movement in some of the cut-scenes.
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| Ami meets her mother in the Afterlife |
*In honor of (or as a nod or reference, either works) Yandere Simulator and Yandere Dev, I've added these two NPCs to LifeWeaveR:
Tuesday, October 18, 2016
What's New - 10/13/2016.
*The sealed cave West of Megarah that was referred to as the "No magic" cave has officially been named the "Cave of Eternal Silence". Instead of prohibiting magic entirely, which was my initial intent, I have decided to only restrict the players magic and leave the monsters magical abilities intact.
Also, the COES will be completely devoid of all light whatsoever. This is a reference to the original Dragon Warrior NES game that came out in 1986. In that game, all dungeons were pitch black and it was mandatory for the player to provide his own source of light in order to explore them. Dragon Warrior used torches and the "Radiant" spell to provide light, while LifeWeaveR uses an item called an "Illuminator".
This item will cost 8 coins (which is the same price the torches were in DW). The player should be aware that the Illuminators will provide light for only five minutes. After that, it goes out and leaves the player in complete darkness. I originally planned to fill the COES with very difficult enemies, but then I realized I had no way of pausing the countdown during battles. To off-set this I've reduced the number of enemies by over 50% as well as set the encounter rate to roughly 1/2 of what it normally is. As an example, most dungeons in LifeWeaveR will trigger a random battle somewhere between 30-40 steps (on average). This dungeons encounter rate is nearly 75 steps.
*The story of how Pria's older sister was abducted has been re-worked and given its own cut-scene instead of just a bunch of dialogue and text.
(Note: The spoiler-free backstory on this is that Pria and her older sister Elyssius were raised in an orphanage together. Elyssius joined a group whos purpose was to capture or kill Vilogon, but on the groups first "long distance" quest, none of them were heard from again. A search party was dispatched who found the bodies of her group-mates but Elyssius's body was never recovered and she was believed to have been kidnapped)
In the original design, Pria would have been sitting at a table with Ami's party while she related what happened the day she went missing.
Now, a flashback cut-scene will be shown depicting the two sisters last words to each other before they become separated.
*Corrected numerous text box format issues so text sits uniformly within margins. Some of them may still be slightly off.
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| A countdown has been provided in the upper-right corner. |
Also, the COES will be completely devoid of all light whatsoever. This is a reference to the original Dragon Warrior NES game that came out in 1986. In that game, all dungeons were pitch black and it was mandatory for the player to provide his own source of light in order to explore them. Dragon Warrior used torches and the "Radiant" spell to provide light, while LifeWeaveR uses an item called an "Illuminator".
This item will cost 8 coins (which is the same price the torches were in DW). The player should be aware that the Illuminators will provide light for only five minutes. After that, it goes out and leaves the player in complete darkness. I originally planned to fill the COES with very difficult enemies, but then I realized I had no way of pausing the countdown during battles. To off-set this I've reduced the number of enemies by over 50% as well as set the encounter rate to roughly 1/2 of what it normally is. As an example, most dungeons in LifeWeaveR will trigger a random battle somewhere between 30-40 steps (on average). This dungeons encounter rate is nearly 75 steps.
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| A young Pria says goodbye to her older sister Elyssius. |
(Note: The spoiler-free backstory on this is that Pria and her older sister Elyssius were raised in an orphanage together. Elyssius joined a group whos purpose was to capture or kill Vilogon, but on the groups first "long distance" quest, none of them were heard from again. A search party was dispatched who found the bodies of her group-mates but Elyssius's body was never recovered and she was believed to have been kidnapped)
In the original design, Pria would have been sitting at a table with Ami's party while she related what happened the day she went missing.
Now, a flashback cut-scene will be shown depicting the two sisters last words to each other before they become separated.
*Corrected numerous text box format issues so text sits uniformly within margins. Some of them may still be slightly off.
Friday, October 7, 2016
What's New - 10/6/2016
*After giving it thought, I decided I wasn't really happy with the way a couple of the dungeons looked, especially the "Holy Tomb" one. It looked "Ok" originally but it wasn't really anything special. Seeing as how it's one of the more important locations, I felt it needed the extra effort put in.
Another dungeon near the end of the game was also redesigned, partially because of the lack of a proper battle background.
*"Boss" enemies are getting their stats re-checked. In my opinion, boss fights are about 80% of the fun of RPGs. At the moment, LifeWeaveR has 12 total: 8 "standard" bosses, 3 "super" bosses, and of course, the Final Boss. I decided not to assign a boss to every piece of the Fate Glass Mirror because it just seemed cliche to do so. Instead, only 3 out of the 6 pieces are tied to boss fights. The remaining will be encountered during the story itself.
Another dungeon near the end of the game was also redesigned, partially because of the lack of a proper battle background.
*"Boss" enemies are getting their stats re-checked. In my opinion, boss fights are about 80% of the fun of RPGs. At the moment, LifeWeaveR has 12 total: 8 "standard" bosses, 3 "super" bosses, and of course, the Final Boss. I decided not to assign a boss to every piece of the Fate Glass Mirror because it just seemed cliche to do so. Instead, only 3 out of the 6 pieces are tied to boss fights. The remaining will be encountered during the story itself.
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
What's New - 9/28/16
*"Neko the Catboy" added in select towns and villages. This NPC wanders around selling his tabloid-like (mostly gossip but now-and-then something interesting/worthwhile) newsletter for five coins.
*Holy Tombs B2 layout slightly altered
*Added "Repel" spell, prevents random encounters for 100 steps.
*New enemies: Looter, BumbleBee, Collector, Pixie, Inferno, and Mirage.
*Added "Entertainment Venue" business to Theos.
*Holy Tombs B2 layout slightly altered
*Added "Repel" spell, prevents random encounters for 100 steps.
*New enemies: Looter, BumbleBee, Collector, Pixie, Inferno, and Mirage.
*Added "Entertainment Venue" business to Theos.
Monday, September 26, 2016
Enemies and hazards.
Simply put, enemies are a large part of what makes RPGs (or really any game for that matter), fun to play. But, like with most things in life, balance is important. If you can kill every enemy in the game with one attack then the game will lack challenge. If every enemy in the game can kill YOU in one attack, it's the exact same problem, just at the other end of the spectrum.
When developing enemies in LifeWeaveR (especially the bosses) I used a three-tier approach to help me with any fine-tuning of enemy attributes:
1: Fight the enemy using the worst equipment possible.
2: Fight the enemy using at least some weapon/armor upgrades.
3: Fight the enemy with the best possible equipment.
Take Ageus here for example. As the very first boss enemy of the game, I wanted to keep the difficulty factor a little on the easy side. Thus, I tweaked the settings until he was possible to defeat at about level 5, even using the bare minimum equipment. Note that I didn't say EASILY defeat. It took a lot of adjusting and re-adjusting, but the end result is that it is possible to beat him using the basic sword and leather armor you are given before you even step outside of Ami's house.This helps me ensure that the difficulty level never soars into "Excessively unreasonable", because you shouldn't have to spend four hours gaining levels plus thousands of coins in weapons/armor/items just to defeat the very first boss of the game.. If you grind until you're level 15, buy the best gear possible, and STILL can't beat him, then I feel the problem is with the player, not the game.
Some enemies, though dangerous, are highly sought after because of the potential rewards.
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| For example, this one. |
This is called a "Melancholy", and gives a whopping 37,000 experience when defeated. The Melancholy is similar to the Metal Slimes and Metal Babbles that you're probably familiar with if you played the Dragon Warrior series of games. The Metals in those games offered huge experience points, but generally were extremely tough to kill due to a combination of ultra-high defense, and the fact that 99% of the time they'd run away in the first round. The fairy-like Melancholy also have high defense, but will not run until the fourth round, giving the player a much better chance at defeating them (which is still going to be hard since they tend to be fond of the instant death spells Flatline and Genocide).
Enemies, however, are not the only things that can kill you in LifeWeaveR. Most RPGs have some form of "damage zones" (places you cannot walk or enter without taking damage) but this isn't just a hazard for RPGS or even for older games (Alien: Isolation, for example, has areas you cannot survive in without proper equipment). Aside from the traditional "damage floor" that deals damage with every step, LifeWeaveR has places (such as the appropriately-named "Death Marsh") that are fatal if the player even comes into contact with them.
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| The Ice Cavern of Alistine. |
I realize that such a mechanic forces players to continuously expend either items or MP in order to survive, even though they're not in battle or being attacked. However, the damage suffered is very small (if I remember correctly it's set to -0.5%) and it's appropriate for the setting. In other words, one would expect that being in an environment with sub-freezing temperatures would have a negative impact on ones health. LifeWeaveR may be a fantasy game with fantasy elements, but in my own opinion, a game mechanic such as this adds a little bit of fun and creativity.
Enemies and the environment aside, players also must be weary of one of the most time-honored and desired features to ever appear in RPGS; the treasure chest. Enemies hiding in treasure chests are nothing new or original, but I'm not talking about that sort of treasure chest (though, again, LifeWeaveR does have them). I'm talking about the sort of treasure chest that might be a bomb in disguise, or might literally rob the player when it's opened.
There are some that will pilfer an item upon being disturbed, some that force the player into a battle, and some that inflict a status ailment such as paralysis or "Soul Bleed" which is similar to poisoning, only instead of health, it's MP that gradually decreases. Staying at an Inn or using items will replenish the MP of the affected character, but without the proper countermeasure their MP will just self-deplete down to zero again.
There are many more hazards and obstacles in LifeWeaveR that I haven't mentioned, but not everything should be publicly divulged ahead of time. Some of them the player will just have to discover for themselves once the game is finally complete.
Sunday, September 18, 2016
What's New - 9/18/16
*Added more "environmental tinting", which is basically just changing the tint color of the environment to match the surroundings (such as darkening the tint inside caves or brightening it near the top floor of towers).
*In addition to the above, added a glowing aura around the Magic Crystals found in most dungeons.
*Re-wrote numerous text blocks to better align the margins between the word and the text box itself.
*Cecelias age has been corrected. It's 31 according to canon, but in one spot was listed as 35 and 28 in another.
*Added new state: Intoxicated. When this is in effect, characters manual control is removed and the character is more or less on "auto-pilot". It's similar to the state "Confusion" except that it wears off quicker (5-7 turns instead of 8-10) and instead of only attacking allies, characters that are intoxicated attack anything (and with greatly reduced accuracy and defense).
*Redesigned Cordova Castle jail, removed inmate who was in for bad singing.
*In addition to the above, added a glowing aura around the Magic Crystals found in most dungeons.
*Re-wrote numerous text blocks to better align the margins between the word and the text box itself.
*Cecelias age has been corrected. It's 31 according to canon, but in one spot was listed as 35 and 28 in another.
*Added new state: Intoxicated. When this is in effect, characters manual control is removed and the character is more or less on "auto-pilot". It's similar to the state "Confusion" except that it wears off quicker (5-7 turns instead of 8-10) and instead of only attacking allies, characters that are intoxicated attack anything (and with greatly reduced accuracy and defense).
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
What's New - 9/13/16
*Slight change to World Map (altering forest near Lyzera and Siltory House)
*Enemies Sai Stalker, Ambusher, Enchanter, and Fae added.
*Enemy troops added to Forest of Shadows, Lyzera area, and Great Ocean Cave
*Fixed glitch where Forest robbers would still appear after defeat.
*Re-write of Sepious Shard Shop owners explanation.
*Enemies Sai Stalker, Ambusher, Enchanter, and Fae added.
*Enemy troops added to Forest of Shadows, Lyzera area, and Great Ocean Cave
*Fixed glitch where Forest robbers would still appear after defeat.
*Re-write of Sepious Shard Shop owners explanation.
Wednesday, September 7, 2016
What's New - 9/7/16
Note: 9/7 is the date of post, but may include updates or corrections made in last 7 days.
*Removed Lyzera Town center statue, replaced with dirt path intersection.
*Fate Glass Mirror Fragment #3 now in Great Ocean Cavern, #4 now in Life Weaver Temple (switched)
*Ami's party now meets Pria before obtaining the #3 fragment instead of before the #4 fragment as originally scripted.
*Began replacing the black square doorways with actual doors.
*KikLaQuay village added.
*Ocean Cavern battle background set, five troops of enemies assigned.
*Two new items: Clarity Vial (cures BLINDNESS), and Siren Vial (cures SILENCE).
*Removed Lyzera Town center statue, replaced with dirt path intersection.
*Fate Glass Mirror Fragment #3 now in Great Ocean Cavern, #4 now in Life Weaver Temple (switched)
*Ami's party now meets Pria before obtaining the #3 fragment instead of before the #4 fragment as originally scripted.
*Began replacing the black square doorways with actual doors.
*KikLaQuay village added.
*Ocean Cavern battle background set, five troops of enemies assigned.
*Two new items: Clarity Vial (cures BLINDNESS), and Siren Vial (cures SILENCE).
Tuesday, September 6, 2016
Features
Aside from Maps, all (or nearly all) RPG games share some basic features. Hit Points, Magic Points, enemies, and healing items are some of the almost universal features of Role-Playing Games, and are all found in LifeWeaveR. But there are many other features I wanted to include that I'd wished were in some of the games I had played previously, or that I'd found useful, or that I thought really enhanced the game as a whole. This includes, but is not limited to:
The "Shard" System
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| Ami learns about "Shards" |
In LifeWeaveR, Shards work the same way except they cannot be transferred between players. What this means is once a character uses it, the skill is instantly learned and permanently added to the characters list of available spells. You cannot remove it once it has been learned, and not every spell in the game can be learned through Shards. Some you're going to have to get the old-fashioned way.
Experience and Level Supplements
Everyone hates "grinding" in RPGs, myself included. The fact is though that unless you're playing Undertale, you're going to have to at least to some degree. LifeWeaveR is no different; If you don't gain levels and build your stats, you're not going to beat it. Just like with the Maps and Locations, I tried to find a middle ground between "Grinding is necessary" and "Grinding is tedious, boring, and frustrating".
And I did, through items called "Crystallized Wisdom", of which Cascadia has three kinds: Crystallized Wisdom adds 1000 experience to your party. Pure Crystallized Wisdom will add 6,000, and Divine Crystallized Wisdom awards 15,000 exp. In addition, there are other items known as "Enhancement Crystals". Using one of these boosts the entire parties level by 1, and there are 10 of them in the entire game.
Additional exp and stat bonuses can be found by reading the red books found throughout Cascadia. Some will give bonus Exp, some will raise a stat such as ATK or DEF. Some will even upgrade your enemy item drop rate or give you more money from defeating enemies.
In addition, there are many "side quests" and mini-games that you can accept or play that award you additional Exp. It may be small amounts such as 50-100, or it could be 500-1000 or even higher. Even small amounts are very useful because any Exp earned this way means less time spent having to grind.
Equipment Compatibility
I personally love the older RPGs more than the newer ones. Nearly every RPG gamer I've ever known started with an NES (Dragon Warrior/Quest series, Final Fantasy, etc...) or an SNES (Chrono Trigger, etc..). My first game was Dragon Warrior III for the NES, which I still play even to this day because it is my favorite title in the series. But it had an enormous flaw that seems to have become less of a flaw and more of a standard feature. To put it simply:
The Wizard/Mage's selection of equipable weapons and armor is unbelievably limited.
DWIII is probably the biggest culprit of this that I've ever seen. Wizards start with clothes and a wooden stick and it's nearly 8 towns/villages/cities into the game before you can buy them anything half-decent to use. I understand it's that whole "What they lack in equipment they make up for in magic attacks" deal but that shouldn't mean they can't wear a leather hat or carry a knife. LifeWeaveR reduces set-backs like this by using the [Universal] class of weapons and armor, and by widening the range of equipment they're able to use.
[Universal] weapons work fine in the beginning, but there are only a few that fit into that category and they're limited in effectiveness. Every character has their own signature type of weapon. Tysessor uses mostly axes, William mostly spears, Cecelia mostly bows and arrows, etc.. Also, every character has a special skill they can learn based on the weapon type they have. Ami, for example, receives the Razor Wind Sword technique after returning to Vhespia and finding it destroyed.
[Accessories] are worn in addition to the standard head/body/shield/helmet set-up. Their effects cover a wide range and include reduced damage from elements, increases in AGI, immunity to poison, boosted DEF, and many others. There is even a rare accessory called a 'Halo' that regenerates a characters MP and HP every turn in battle.
Party and Options Menu
LifeWeaveR features a non-standard Options menu that allows the player to change the music/sound volume, control the menu colors, enable/disable battle animations, change how text is displayed, and more. The Party menu is also non-standard and allows the player to have five members in the group instead of the standard four. Both of these scripts were created by the highly-talented Yanfly as part of the Yanfly Engine Ace library.
"User Friendly" NPCs
I know that sounds a little confusing so I'll explain it. LifeWeaveR tells you right from the start that talking to people is vital for advancing the story. I think it's safe to say that 99% of players would have talked to NPCs on their own even without prompting from the game. This is an RPG after all, you're supposed to talk to people. The problem is a lot of the time, they don't tell you anything of actual importance, and you're basically thrown to the wolves.
In LifeWeaveR, nearly all of the hints and help needed is obtained by talking to various people. Going back to DWIII again, I realized a long time ago that if it wasn't for online FAQs, I'd have never finished the game because you literally have almost zero idea of what to do or where to go. The NPCs you talk to usually don't say anything worthwhile and even when they do, it's vague. That said, LifeWeaveR isn't going to put up signs telling players exactly where to go and what to do. The information you need is there, but you're going to have to work in order to find it.
The "Destiny Bell"
Throughout the game, the player will at times encounter situations in which Ami is prompted to make a decision that will change the story. When you make such a choice it is final and there is no going back.Shortly into the game, Ami encounters this situation for the first time (Shown on left).
The first time is relatively minor. Whether she chooses to help the cat or not, the cat leaves after her decision is made and does not return. As the game progresses, the impact of her choices become more and more obvious. .
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| You should probably think about this one for a minute. |
Although none of the choices will actually change the games ending, a good deal of them change how much trouble you have GETTING to the ending. The situation on the right is a good example of a choice with far-reaching consequences. This situation is more-or-less "obviously important", but there are others just as important as this one that by all appearances seem insignificant and irrelevant. Try to keep in mind that the Destiny Bell tolls AFTER a choice has been made, not before. Therefore, you're advised to give any situation where choices must be made some thought.
Sunday, September 4, 2016
Locations
No matter what system it was for, or how old it is, or how it was created, all RPGs share a vital element: maps. Because of their importance, this is an element of the game that the developer usually spends a great deal of time working on. No matter how well-written it is or how good the graphics are, maps are going to have a big influence on players opinion of your game.
Let's take this for example:
On the left is a screenshot of how I originally designed an in-game forest. It is literally a tiled screen with a path through it. On the right is the final version of that same forest after it had been revised several times. It took a much bigger effort, but I'm much happier with the result that I'd have been if I just half-assed it and called it a day.
That isn't to say that maps have to be super complicated to have any degree of quality to them. On the left is a shot of Ami's hometown Vhespia. It's nothing fancy or complex, but it still serves its purpose just fine.
The fact that it doesn't have 50 stores or an extreme amount of detail doesn't make it poor quality or badly designed. Vhespia is a very poor village, so it makes sense that it would be small in size and not have much to offer.
In contrast to this, Megarah (shown here) has numerous points of interest and offers things small villages like Vhespia don't. Even though Megarah has a far bigger map than Vhespia, it too was designed simply and straightforward.
The reason for that is I didn't want players to have to run around and scour the entire city looking for something that I could have easily placed in a more obvious location. It frustrates everyone when this happens, so I wanted to try and prevent or reduce as much of it as possible.
This same reasoning applies to dungeons, but to a lesser degree. Some of LifeWeaveRs dungeons are simple to navigate whereas others can be an outright pain in the ass. The one thing they all have in common is I tried to find a balance between difficulty and frustration level. If the dungeon is too complex players may get frustrated and quit. If it is too easy, they may get bored and quit.
I decided not to post any screenshots of the dungeons, as I felt that the game would be more enjoyable if players explored it for themselves instead of just following a picture.
Well, I guess just one would be fine.
Let's take this for example:
On the left is a screenshot of how I originally designed an in-game forest. It is literally a tiled screen with a path through it. On the right is the final version of that same forest after it had been revised several times. It took a much bigger effort, but I'm much happier with the result that I'd have been if I just half-assed it and called it a day.
That isn't to say that maps have to be super complicated to have any degree of quality to them. On the left is a shot of Ami's hometown Vhespia. It's nothing fancy or complex, but it still serves its purpose just fine.The fact that it doesn't have 50 stores or an extreme amount of detail doesn't make it poor quality or badly designed. Vhespia is a very poor village, so it makes sense that it would be small in size and not have much to offer.
In contrast to this, Megarah (shown here) has numerous points of interest and offers things small villages like Vhespia don't. Even though Megarah has a far bigger map than Vhespia, it too was designed simply and straightforward.
The reason for that is I didn't want players to have to run around and scour the entire city looking for something that I could have easily placed in a more obvious location. It frustrates everyone when this happens, so I wanted to try and prevent or reduce as much of it as possible.
This same reasoning applies to dungeons, but to a lesser degree. Some of LifeWeaveRs dungeons are simple to navigate whereas others can be an outright pain in the ass. The one thing they all have in common is I tried to find a balance between difficulty and frustration level. If the dungeon is too complex players may get frustrated and quit. If it is too easy, they may get bored and quit.
I decided not to post any screenshots of the dungeons, as I felt that the game would be more enjoyable if players explored it for themselves instead of just following a picture.
Well, I guess just one would be fine.
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