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Coding a 2D JRPG?

#11
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(01-19-2019, 03:29 PM)Lefe Wrote: Anyway, if you ever want to exchange design ideas on how to mix up all FF games into one hit me up.

Record Keeper did it, Record Keeper did it! Kappa!


We are born, live, die and then do the same thing over again.
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#12
 
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(01-19-2019, 03:29 PM)Lefe Wrote: Thanks for the well crafted advice. I'm past that point in my life though. Currently holding a job and learning to code on my own as a past time. I had tried C# before and XNA but things took off when I started with GM. Seeing things done fast was very motivating. Once I'm done with this thing I'm thinking of doing something of my own. Small, simple, release it, see how it goes. Then maybe start branching out into C#+Unity or Python for non-game purposes.

Anyway, if you ever want to exchange design ideas on how to mix up all FF games into one hit me up. The other half of the fun in this project has been playing armchair designer.
Self-learning is very hard, for me at least, because I lacked context for anything and because of that confidence in which direction I should go. Once you get over the first hump, everything is easier. Subsequent humps (n) are tough but ones after them (n+1) are easier.

Python is a very easy language to learn, and it should be your first. It was mine. If you can grab some cheap used textbooks on informational non-programming stuff like OS design for toilet or meal reading.

Mixing up all FF games into one isn't interest to me. I want to write core modules that have everything you need for the stuff all 2D FF games share in common, then write sub-modules (aka plug-ins) to provide functionality for specific mechanics.

Program design gets my brain off the way game design used to.

I have very specific ideas about game design and I can post them in another thread - armchair game design - if you like.
 
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#13
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Record Keeper's was a thematic/aesthetic recreation. I'm going for recreating the actual systems. Like FF1's mana pool system, Cloud's materia system. Recreate the experience of playing those characters in their original games as closely as possible. When you start figuring out how to put them all together you realize some changes are necessary to avoid redundancy and unbalance.
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Oh god! Please don't recreate FF1's magic system. Kill it with fire.
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What is the limit on number of fields, field event scripts, world map size, and field entrances on the world map?
 
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(01-25-2019, 09:38 PM)MysticLord Wrote: What is the limit on number of fields, field event scripts, world map size, and field entrances on the world map?

For the world map, I think the only size is 128x128 (tiles). For the event script there is no real limit, the game just switch to overworld script from a regular event script, so the vanilla limit is limited by the script space in banks $CA-$CC but you can call event code anywhere in the ROM (above bank $CA). There is no proper event triggers on world maps, all world map event to my knowledge have a regular event prior to them. There are 2 kinds of entrance triggers, there is no real limit to their number beside the room for data you have in the ROM (relocating them is possible to have more space). I'm not 100% sure but I think only 1 kind is used on world maps, the single tile entrances. The kind that has a width and height is reserved for open spaces on regular maps, such as a town entrance.
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#17
 
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How does the game store field maps and event scripts? Separately, or mixed together?

In SaGa Frontier every field is it's own entity with access to event flags and links in event scripts to other fields being the only interaction with other fields. There is no central shop data, no central event data, no central field backgrounds, but there may be central npc storage.

Because of this and the game already having > 256 fields, SF is massively expandable as-is. Same is probably true with monsters, though that would require some hacking, and definitely true with npc sprites.

So should a clone follow FF6 exactly, or go with an easier to expand route that uses more space (which is cheap these days)?

I want my engine to allow much larger world maps (or none at all), so IMO the world map should simply be a very large field. Having no world map is also fun, if you want to expand the towns and wilderness areas outside them.

The SF method is easier to manage on a per field/script basis since you only need to consider one at a time, but the FF method is easier to keep track of shops/fields/scripts overall since they are all in one place.

One additional benefit to the SF method is it is easier to make a event previewer that allows uou yo step through events as you build them, and edit them on the fly.
 
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(01-26-2019, 01:21 PM)MysticLord Wrote: How does the game store field maps and event scripts? Separately, or mixed together?

They are mixed up in same banks but using different event commands (i.e. same opcode does 2 different things depending of the "event mode")

(01-26-2019, 01:21 PM)MysticLord Wrote: So should a clone follow FF6 exactly, or go with an easier to expand route that uses more space (which is cheap these days)?

There's a bunch of thing I would improve in a FF6 clone made for PC. One would be allowing event triggers and resizable entrances on world maps. Treating the world map like other maps could be an idea too, but FF6 does it partially for some things. I think the approach of making the world maps "as any other map" need more investigation to factor everything involved.
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#19
 
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I don't want a 1 for 1 duplication of data structures and event/battle script opcodes, but I do need to keep in mind the best way to do things, especially for tools that convert existing assets and events into the formats the clone eventually uses. In CS there is the fast way and the correct way. I prefer the latter.

I want to make it easy to convert any existing mod to the clone, to speed adoption. Being able to automatically convert the majority of data, event, sprite, and music changes from RotDS or CoV or your personal hardtype mod by editing a text file that contains info about data to rip and convert is ideal. No one wants to redo all his work.
 
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