Meguido's Report #1 (Patreon)

Hello everyone!

You probably already know this if you read the long chit-chat we had in the previous post (if you're a Patron), but just in case, I'll introduce myself again:

Warning: But first off, let me tell that I sometimes may sound rude. It's just my way of writting so please bear with me. Don't get mad at me, as I love y'all :D

I'm Meguido, and I'm basically the main programmer in Versus X Studio. I'm the one that programmed the original systems of Punished Mai and also fixed the many compatibilities the used (existing) scripts had with the new ones made by me. Let's be honest, using pre-existing scripts is a huge time saver but when you implement something new that isn't part of rpg maker's default script base, everything starts to fail. Sometimes I even wonder if it's worth the time fixing incompatibilities instead of just making all the systems by myself...

During the development of Punished Mai I've seen many people become a supporter and after a month or so stop their support using as a reason that we wasn't giving the engaging they expected. Versus X also did a post about that asking what people wanted about that: give more engage (more posts, more screens and releasing a 0.0.0.x version with one new map or a new npc added every few months or so like other devs I've seen) or keep working hard to try and give you fully completed chapters as fast as possible (a little bit more than a month for a full complete chapter isn't bad, right?). Only one Patron answered saying he found better what we were doing. So that's basically why we've been just making posts every now and then (even tho I think there's been a post per week at least) while spending the majority of our time working on Punished Mai.

But now that it's finished, I decided to help Versus X with the Patreon stuff, giving my own info on development instead of giving it to him so he makes the post based on the bit of info I gave to him. This means you'll get more info, because, you'll get two posters: Versus X and me, Meguido. Versus X's posts will keep its structure: Info of interest to everyone with screenshots, videos, ... whatever. While mine will be wall of texts (like this one is already lol) explaining what I've been doing a bit detailed. Of course I'll be posting screenshots aswell but that will be when it's something that can be shown. I mean what's the use of posting a screenshot of code lines? xD

Of course I do really expect this won't delay more than what it's sctrictly necessary, but still you'll understand that this is time consuming aswell (even if I tend to writte fast :P). This means that this time I'm using to writte in here is time I'm not using to work in the next projects. But I still want to take this time to keep you informed about the concerning the development of a project. I'd also like to mention that would be cool some kind of interaction from you guys. I mean if we ask something would be cool to see more than zero or one answer. Even cooler (;P) would be if any of you is a dev aswell or a programmer and see me talking about it and saying nonsense, help me by telling in the comments what am I doing wrong and that kind of things.

Well, after all this, I think I said what I wanted to say as an introduction xD. So let's talk about the projects. For this first report, and because we have yet to (re)announce the majority of the projects, I'll talk about RTP Ero-Adventures.

So, up until now, all I did for this game was some basic scripting like adding an image filter, adding a way to keep images fixed in position with the map (I know there are scripts out there doing this same thing but I didn't like the way they were done so I decided to make mine even more simpler). Also have to deal with some incompatibilities with Mog's scripts (even between scripts made by himself LOL). Also added a way to show images as backgrounds in scenes such as main menu, shops, etc and so forth. Just basic stuff. In the meantime Versus X tried to make the H-Techs (you can guess what this is huh? xD) entirely in eventing (ie Zero scripting) but unfortunately it was becoming a pain in the ass to check every possibility. So I decided to take the lead on that and port the functionality to scripting. In my mind it was just a few lines of scripting and then it was all done... but as I'm getting used to by now, I failed and it ended up being a "bit" more complex than just a few lines.

So now basically every character has a defined gender (as a variable in script I mean xD) aswell as every enemy. Then based on this gender, when an enemy makes a H-Tech it chooses a target based on a check to see if there's any member in the party whose gender is the opposite to his. If the check returns true then it executes the H-Tech.

For the party characters it works a bit different, because you have to select the target after selecting the skill to use. So I made a filter where only the compatible gender is shown in the selection window in the case of any. Otherwise you just can't select the H-Tech at all.

What it's cool with this system I've made is that now We can retrieve who's the target of the skill (yeah even with the enemies) and program a specific behaviour for every possible target ;D (That's something Versus X will do hehe because I have some other tasks to carry on :P).

Even tho the system is functional by now there are still some minor things I'll have to be changing later on. But that's basically what I've been doing these days (along with working in the other projects to get them ready for the "re-introduction").

I think this is all for now. Sorry everyone for this first so-f**king-long post I've made. I hope you find it to your liking and useful. Also please note that this posts made by me won't be as frequents, as I said in the chit-chat, at first. This will be this way until the "re-introduction" of the projects. This is because right now I can't talk freely about everything I'd want to.

All this said, have a good time!

Regards,

Meguido.