Mysterious Song development log (aka sleepless ranting)

ParanoiaDragon · 06/21/2007, 04:16 AM

Quote from: Seldane on 06/20/2007, 12:40 PMWhat makes you believe that?

By the way, I gave the game (prototype 3) a real try for the first time yesterday. To be completely honest I haven't been all that interested in actually playing this game as it's not quite my genre (old school style turn-based RPG), but I gotta say - I was pleasantly surprised. It's a LOT of fun! The atmosphere is fantastic! It feels kinda like Dragon Slayer The Legend of Heroes, only better! I'm really looking forward to the final game, or even the beta. It'll be a blast! You guys definitely have something to look forward to.

Wow, & that's coming from Sel! If it was Keranu, we could all just brush it off the bottoms of our feet & move on

Keranu · 06/21/2007, 04:52 AM

Not that my opinion is much help to the majority, but I'd also like to say that I am enjoying this game so far and look very much forward to it's full release. I too, like Seldane, didn't think much of this game at all at first, but now my interest has sky rocketed since then. It actually has a fairly original storyline from the typical RPG.

CrackTiger · 06/21/2007, 08:39 AM

Quote from: Keranu on 06/21/2007, 04:52 AMNot that my opinion is much help to the majority, but I'd also like to say that I am enjoying this game so far and look very much forward to it's full release. I too, like Seldane, didn't think much of this game at all at first, but now my interest has sky rocketed since then. It actually has a fairly original storyline from the typical RPG.

I thought the graphics were kinda bland at first, but now its evolved to range from an average commercial release to some of the best PCE graphics around(I really like the town visuals).

And I was also impressed by the little insight I recently gained about the story and the meaning of the title.

Keranu · 06/21/2007, 03:48 PM

Yeah lord's new tiles look extremely sharp and nice, especially the town ones as you've mentioned.

ParanoiaDragon · 06/22/2007, 03:46 AM

Quote from: Keranu on 06/21/2007, 04:52 AMNot that my opinion is much help to the majority, but I'd also like to say that I am enjoying this game so far and look very much forward to it's full release. I too, like Seldane, didn't think much of this game at all at first, but now my interest has sky rocketed since then. It actually has a fairly original storyline from the typical RPG.

I'm just messing with you K! As it is, I'm very forgiving of games, & enjoy a plethora of games that others hate.

Keranu · 06/22/2007, 04:00 AM

Oh I know, but I was serious! I expect people to take my opinions lightly, unless they are hardcore cheeze lovers.

OldRover · 06/22/2007, 12:25 PM

An update on progress:

The bug list from prototype #3 is almost done with. It's taking longer than expected but most of the big problems have already been corrected.

In other news, tomatheous/Bonknuts/Rich/whateverhewantstocallhimselftoday suggested a method to pad the ISO, which will cut down on the chance of the glass mastering software messing up the pregaps, since that seems to be a major problem in getting SCD games pressed these days. I did a test burn using the modified ISO and modified cuefile and said test was successful. Screw you, Eclipse!

CrackTiger · 06/22/2007, 12:29 PM

Quote from: Nodtveidt on 06/22/2007, 12:25 PMAn update on progress:

The bug list from prototype #3 is almost done with. It's taking longer than expected but most of the big problems have already been corrected.

In other news, tomatheous/Bonknuts/Rich/whateverhewantstocallhimselftoday suggested a method to pad the ISO, which will cut down on the chance of the glass mastering software messing up the pregaps, since that seems to be a major problem in getting SCD games pressed these days. I did a test burn using the modified ISO and modified cuefile and said test was successful. Screw you, Eclipse!

Thats great news. Although I could handle cdr releases, it means so much more to get a 'factory pressed' disc.

OldRover · 06/22/2007, 01:33 PM

I believe the CDR issue with Duo units can be addressed with the laser intensity fix. I've seen quite a few posts talking about this. Replacing the laser assembly also seems to work. My machine also runs CDRs without difficulty, but this is simply not the way to go for a professional release.

termis · 06/22/2007, 01:45 PM

Quote from: Nodtveidt on 06/22/2007, 01:33 PMI believe the CDR issue with Duo units can be addressed with the laser intensity fix. I've seen quite a few posts talking about this.

I was just thinking that myself. My Duos never had problems reading CD-Rs, and if it did, the intensity adjuster would be the first thing I'd fiddle around with, as I doing that to one of my Saturns that had problems reading certain CD-Rs cured the problem.

OldRover · 06/23/2007, 04:52 PM

One week till deadline and all is still on schedule. The great bug list is almost empty now, only one major issue remains, the rest merely cosmetic or event-related. As a result of the recent controls recoding, the game now *feels* like any game you'd buy off the shelf...in fact, I'd say better...I had the misfortune of playing around with Hi-Leg Fantasy yesterday, and I've gotta say, that game controls horribly! So glad I took the time to implement Seldane's suggestion in regards to controls, the game plays very smoothly now control-wise. Anyways, as soon as I finish the event schedule for the final town (which is almost done now), there's two enemy-infested areas to fill with events, then that's pretty much the end of it...except that one last map that needs to be done. I might end up holding off on that until after beta testing starts, but we'll see.

nat · 06/23/2007, 05:00 PM

I'm excited.

Seldane · 06/23/2007, 05:50 PM

Me too!

Equuskia · 06/23/2007, 10:26 PM

me three!

OldRover · 06/24/2007, 12:18 AM

Me four!

Oh wait...I'm coding the damn thing...

I'm so sick of this game at this point, I'm gonna scream!

OldRover · 06/24/2007, 02:06 AM

Minor update:

With the completion of so many tasks on the list, Mysterious Song has now been promoted from prototype status to alpha status. One week from today, it will be promoted to beta status, and beta testing will begin, right on schedule. Even I'm getting psyched at this point, and I can't stand the game anymore.

Seldane · 06/24/2007, 07:33 AM

Quote from: Equuskia on 06/23/2007, 10:26 PMme three!

Damn, almost only Frozen Utopia members posting about their excitement here. Nobody cares.

nat · 06/24/2007, 12:26 PM

So i'm a nobody, huh?

I see how it is.

Keranu · 06/24/2007, 04:22 PM

nat you just one totally happening flyin' piece o' futuristic shroom

.

OldRover · 06/24/2007, 09:11 PM

Alpha #1 went with nary a hitch. Only two new issues were found, and they've already been fixed. The remaining issues from prototype #3 are being addressed now, then it's on to the battle system. The final week is here!

OldRover · 06/25/2007, 02:47 AM

Alpha #2 was built and burned early today. There were some major fixes done to the engine in regards to color handling. Almost every event in the game is now completely functional, I can count the missing ones on one hand and have spare change.

The battle system is now the focus...wish me luck.

guyjin · 06/25/2007, 09:22 AM

Quote from: Nödtveidt on 06/25/2007, 02:47 AMwish me luck.

Wish in one hand, crap in the other and see which fills first...

OldRover · 06/26/2007, 12:29 PM

One day delayed, but hopefully that won't be too much of a setback. The battle system is slowly coming together, all the data structures are in place now and testing the graphics loaders has begun. First run with the new code doesn't look so hot but it's a proof of concept:

/msr-newbattlestart.png

Screenshot taken in mednafen, the emulator of choice for serious PCE developers.

Anyways, this verifies correct BAT and palette inclusion for the background, plus correct tile graphics offset. It also shows that further optimization is required for the backgrounds to reduce palette usage, as this one appears to be using all 16, which is a no-no since the font requires its own palette.

More updates later, time to dive back into the code.

EDIT: The prior problem was an overlay offset problem, it was reading 4096 bytes too deep into the overlay. Here's the image fixed, with the font coexisting nicely with the background:

/msr-battlepalsfixed.png

In order to fit the font in, I moved the colors of the font to the top of the palette, then reorganized the background images to use as few colors as possible in palette 0xF, and finally, set the colors for the font manually using set_color() rather than load_palette(). My PCEpal app came in handy here.

EDIT2: Battle link is now complete, but the enemies don't show up just yet. Anyways, an early shot of the new battle system prototype working correctly:

/msr-battleprototype1.png

Time for a rest...this stuff's pretty mentally draining.

2X4 · 06/26/2007, 08:03 PM

I am totally pysched. It's just been crazy here lately so I haven't been posting much. Keep up the awesome work Nod! but don't forget to sleep and talk to your family and stuff.

grahf · 06/26/2007, 10:34 PM

Cant wait to play this.

GUTS · 06/27/2007, 02:16 AM

Is it too late to redraw those character portraits? They look awful compared to the game graphics, like you ripped them out of a Color Dreams NES game.

OldRover · 06/27/2007, 10:09 AM

The character portraits are the original artist's work and won't be replaced. Sorry.

OldRover · 06/27/2007, 07:19 PM

The battle system is about 60% completed now.

/msr-battlewithmegawyrm.png

Here's Spear and Tiger confronting the Mega Wyrm in Illus Pass.

I'm not so sure about some of the battle backgrounds. Some became very dithered in reduction and don't look so good through emulation. They seem to look okay on the real screen though, so they may stay for now.

Alpha #3 will likely be built tomorrow after completion of the major portions of the battle system. Only two more large parts to be coded in for it to be considered functional.

nat · 06/27/2007, 09:43 PM

That's definitely one MEGA Wyrm!

OldRover · 06/28/2007, 11:09 AM

Two major issues were looming over the battle system project this morning: the initiative array, and the action processor. With the use of a tagged array bubblesort (unstable parallel reference type, stability wasn't necessary since only one value was compared), the initiative array is now finished, and only the action processor remains. Fortunately, the action processor is MUCH easier to implement. Alpha 3 will be built today without question.

Some nerdly reference for the curious...

A tagged array is where you have two arrays with associated indexes, independent of the value of either. When one array is sorted, its associated array is sorted equally, except the associated array is sorted by index, regardless of its value. So, if your sort array contains values like [45, 32, 109] and your associated array contains values such as [1, 2, 3], sorting the first array will result in [109, 45, 32] and the associated array will result in [3, 1, 2]. The bubblesort is, of course, not the fastest sorting algorithm there is, and I sure wouldn't use it for an action game, but for a one-shot operation in an RPG battle system, it's small and efficient...sure beats the size of a qsort.

OldRover · 06/28/2007, 02:05 PM

Okay...the battle system is technically playable now, although it still has a lot of work to be done to it. Right now, all you can do is attack, and it doesn't let you choose a target yet.

Also, the enemies don't yet attack back. But all in due time. Now, the enemy lists have to be included into the mappers so the correct battles can be fought in the correct places. This should be tons of fun.

peperocket · 06/28/2007, 05:56 PM

Great work

sure this game will be wonderful !

Do you always preview to localize it with many languages ??

OldRover · 06/28/2007, 06:06 PM

Quote from: peperocket on 06/28/2007, 05:56 PMDo you always preview to localize it with many languages ??

Huh?

OldRover · 06/28/2007, 06:48 PM

Two new battle-related screenies to show off.

/msr-spearlevel2.png

Leveling now works...to a certain point. Right now, characters can't earn more than 9999 experience points, which is a limitation I'll remove later on (it's due to splitting up the experience chart into high and low values).

/msr-battleflaw.png

Beware the almighty SuperSlime^TM! Yeah, this is a flaw in the calculations, but it's still funny to see.

OldRover · 06/28/2007, 08:32 PM

A few more "fun shots" before I call it a day.

Here's an interesting bug that's showing up right now...seems to be palette-related.

/msr-battlewipebug1.png /msr-battlewipebug2.png

Two other interesting bugs...the first is due to some earlier broken code, the second is because I'm a dunce.

/msr-battlebug1.png /msr-battlebug2.png

But of course, with battles playable now...
/msr-victory.png

ParanoiaDragon · 06/29/2007, 12:17 AM

Quote from: Nödtveidt on 06/28/2007, 06:06 PM
Quote from: peperocket on 06/28/2007, 05:56 PMDo you always preview to localize it with many languages ??
Huh?

I think he means prefer. Like, as in, will all our games be multi-lingual.

OldRover · 06/29/2007, 01:06 AM

Oh, hehe.

If that's the case, then...erm...I have no idea. I think it'd be a tremendous amount of work to adapt each game to specific languages but if there was enough request for it, I don't see why we couldn't do it. This one's got English and Spanish on the disc...we were gonna do French and Japanese as well, but the two people commissioned to do the work have produced nothing (I did get a little bit of a Japanese script though) and now it's way too late to add any additional translations. I can't imagine doing Neutopia III in any other language...the localization itself would be a lot of work (my wife and bonq could handle a Spanish localization, but judging from how hard MSR was to localize...), let alone a literal translation.

The palette bug I posted earlier was fixed...I was loading palettes one index too high on the world map, so the colors were getting messed up when returning from battle (since the battle system uses all 16 BG palettes).

OldRover · 06/30/2007, 02:41 AM

We're now 22 hours away from the start of beta testing, and there's still a nice-sized list of issues to tackle. Fortunately, most are minor and/or cosmetic in nature. The battle system is now very functional, and finishing up the action handler won't take a lot more work to do. The only detailed part there is coding in the last two menus.

Okay...some sleep, and then the final stretch. Here goes nothing.

OldRover · 06/30/2007, 10:06 AM

Final update:

Beta 1 preparation going smoothly, it will most certainly be ready on time. Putting the finishing touches on between-map transitions to eliminate the small flicker problems we had prior. The battle system is getting the final treatments it needs as well, mainly in finishing up the two missing menus and fleshing out the action handler. The other major part required is the treasure handler, which only exists in two places (fortunately, because it's a bitflag operation and that's annoying to code).

Okay, back to work. Much to do, little time to do it in.

OldRover · 06/30/2007, 02:06 PM

New screenie:

/msr-dragon.png

Proof-of-concept mainly (to test pal blackouts), but this is one badass mofo. Dragons are nearly invincible, and there's no way this party ever stood a snowball's chance in hell.

roflmao · 08/20/2012, 11:26 PM

Just wanted to bump this thread for anyone else as amped as I am to play this, now that it looks like we'll be able get our grubby hands on it soon.

Now that I've bumped it, I'm not sure I want to read through it for fear of spoilers.

lord_cack · 08/21/2012, 09:58 PM

WOW talk about blasts from the past!!! There isn't a pic in this entire thread is current hehe

esteban · 08/22/2012, 06:55 AM

Quote from: grahf on 06/26/2007, 10:34 PMCant wait to play this.

Yup. Me too.

Not much longer now...

Arkhan Asylum · 08/22/2012, 01:53 PM

shit man, when this thread was made, I wasn't even here. I was still dicking off in my first year of college, and making games in RPG Maker

Nazi NecroPhile · 08/22/2012, 01:58 PM

Quote from: Psycho Arkhan on 08/22/2012, 01:53 PMshit man, when this thread was made, I wasn't even here. I was still dicking off in my first year of college, and making games in RPG Maker

A.K.A. the good old days.

OldRover · 08/22/2012, 02:35 PM

It's interesting, because some of the earliest screenies in this thread have been replaced by newer images, making the comparisons look backwards.

Arkhan Asylum · 08/22/2012, 03:15 PM

Quote from: NecroPhile on 08/22/2012, 01:58 PM
Quote from: Psycho Arkhan on 08/22/2012, 01:53 PMshit man, when this thread was made, I wasn't even here. I was still dicking off in my first year of college, and making games in RPG Maker
A.K.A. the good old days.

Well the only difference now is instead of dicking off at college, I dick off at work.

lol.

Nazi NecroPhile · 08/22/2012, 03:20 PM

Quote from: Psycho Arkhan on 08/22/2012, 03:15 PMWell the only difference now is instead of dicking off at college, I dick off at work.

I was talking about the "I wasn't even here" part.

Arkhan Asylum · 08/22/2012, 03:28 PM

Quote from: NecroPhile on 08/22/2012, 03:20 PM
Quote from: Psycho Arkhan on 08/22/2012, 03:15 PMWell the only difference now is instead of dicking off at college, I dick off at work.
I was talking about the "I wasn't even here" part.

ohhhh.

Well, I suppose I could leave, if it was better back then, lol.

*grabs all of his toys*

ILL FIND A BETTER SANDBOX.

Bernie · 08/22/2012, 07:27 PM

Dont you go anywhere!! You my bitch, bitch....

12/31/2025: Localization News - Year of the Dragon...Emerald Dragon!

Mysterious Song development log (aka sleepless ranting)