Published on Saturday, June 28, 2008 .
Just a short note, but due to all the excessive problems GTGE has given us, I’ve decided that the engine really isn’t worth the troubles and might as well drop out early to avoid even more problems later on ( particularly during the SRPG coding ). Any engine developed using Java but must use it’s own GUI-tools rather than the well developed Javax.swing well… has problems. There’s absolutely no reason why they made the GameLoader unable to accept JButtons but only the customized TButtons ( which I wonder if it even works ).
Therefore, we’re switching from the GTGE engine to the Allegro Library ( see Wiki, Library Wiki, and Main Site ). It also means that we’ll be using C++ instead of Java as the main language, and I intend to use Python bindings for additional support.
After the discussion with Citrus about Lothair’s role in TIP, I realized something that I should have recognized a long time ago : that each of the heir’s role in probably isn’t all that clear to everyone and what efforts I have made towards explaining isn’t enough. Well, this is indeed a mistake too easily made given that the one who designed a setting knows almost everything about it and thus thinks so and so should be obvious with just a few pointers - the sign of an amateur writer, in assuming the audience can understand some easily when… they don’t.
Just to prove I’m every bit as inexperienced as every fanfic writer out there… except I don’t write fanfics, self-insertion is definitely not allowed ( and in case you’re wondering, I started using the name Zanaikin after I created Aoric, because it was the first original character I made and the first original name I created ).
Continue reading ‘Mirror of Truth & Wisdom’
Published on Thursday, June 26, 2008 .
Discussions with Citrus last night, which yielded in a second and more focused draft-basis for Canan path, also reminded me that all my writings have left out a critical element - the relationship and structural balance between the three primary members of the TIP Heirs: Exelar, Aoric, and Lothair.
[TIP Spoilers Alert]
Continue reading ‘Call to Power’
I’m feeling far too lazy right now to write out anything more complicated for a blog post than to raise awareness from my project members…
The news is simple: the setting technology descriptions for Federation ( which reflects Earth tech level in general ) and the Arcanum has been updated on the wiki, accessible through the List of Technologies page. I’m not sure if I’d actually classify the Fateseeker’s reverse-causality weapons as ‘magitech’, so I left it out for now.
On another matter, after Sylon informing me that the format I came up with seems too complicated for those without programming experience to easily grasp and use ( even if it is simple to those who have experience coding, particularly if you did low-level language coding like x86 ), I’m once again picking up the thought of using XML data scanned in via Python/Jython. More on this later once I do a bit of research.
A concept I’ve been trying to grasp in my head, which must be settled early in order for proper design of both game balance and code/class architecture, is how to handle the scope of the battles in TIP. For early game this is hardly a problem since most battles are small scale, along of lines of skirmishes between small units or characters. As a matter of fact, the Archiry breakout battle might be the largest engagement of all early game combat. The effects of the Leadership aura system will be grossly undervalued in these circumstances, and the Tactics score of characters would almost seem useless. However, this is sharply contrasted by the massive field battles that will be the focus of late game ( and Astraea Arc if the player screws up with Tolkin ). The question is simply a matter of how to handle these epic battles, for it’s certainly unrealistic to fit tens of thousands of troops onto the game screen ( actually that’s very doable, but would create quite the mess ), and even more so to expect the player to control all that in a turn-based game while maintaining a sense of the situation. A game scenario like that isn’t “tactics”, it’s just pure “chaos”, not to mention insanity on the matter of time consumption for a single battle …
Continue reading ‘SRPG Field Scope’
I never thought I’d see the day that I would write something like this. Darn you Honya for getting me interested in the topic and hobby in general, and such an expensive hobby too @_@.
But after switching virtually everything I have to using Kud from Little Busters as my personal symbol, including all my avatars, signatures (that’s not used for work), background, cushion cover, etc (I refuse the pillows =P). I’ll get to work on a Kud header once they finish repairs on my computer. But either way, I figure might as well get a Kud figure. Thus I preordered the Kotobukiya Kud figure due to release later this summer:
Continue reading ‘Figure Decisions…’
Published on Wednesday, June 11, 2008 .
After all the time I’ve spent recently on writing up serious stuff, I decided to allow my mind to wander about some and take some time to worry about … not so necessary design and planning. At least, not needed at this stage of the development process. Of course, due to the fact one of my prime hobbies and things I love to do is design mechanics, my mental process was automatically redirected into the game SRPG mechanics design directory.
Continue reading ‘Mechanical Thoughts’
Published on Tuesday, June 10, 2008 .
Well, been busy writing about everything else that I haven’t had time to note on a few changes. However, how that I’ve finally finished the mainpoints of the Penthiae Arc (minus a bit of detail that still needs patching up) and Aorin’s Path, I can get on to making … well we’ll start with general details.
I’m also currently working on writing up a Caerleon/Penthiae History and a Penthiae Campaign Setting summary so my co-devs will understand the world involved better.
Continue reading ‘TIP Random Thoughts’
Published on Saturday, June 7, 2008 .
The title makes it pretty simple and straightforward. This will be a draft for key decision and branching points within the Aorin heroine path within The Imperium Project storyline.
For more details on path progression, visit the old Aorin Path Draft.
[TIP Spoiler Alert]
Continue reading ‘Decisions Draft (Aorin Path)’
Published on Wednesday, June 4, 2008 .
Well due to having to finish the ridiculously long Penthiae Arc draft and having to deal with my D&D game, this didn’t come out anywhere as fast as I scheduled. But, it’s done, it’s here, and sadly it’s still a rough draft.
[TIP Spoiler Alert]
Continue reading ‘TIP Main Story Decisions’
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