Charas Chain Game 4 Official Thread (Complete)

[Fisherson]

XD Alright I suppose we can keep using the current battle theme. I do rather like it anyway. =P Time for another progress report:

Chapter 7-
Rooms in dungeon done: 11/12
Bosses finished  0/1    <-<; Yeah I know, I know. It's complicated though. Had to test a system before I could try it.
Chests left to make: 1.
Totall progress: 91% I'd estimate. Hopping to be done by tomorrow cause I'll be able to be online and uninterrupted for hours and I'm not going to be freting as much over my final boss prep as I think I got it once I get some sprites and can test it. I also coded most of the final weapons and armor you can get. Not going for one unique set per character as I kinda tried to do in the past ^^; But none are likely gonna be buyable and will require a bit of research to find. Just the way I roll nowadays. Also debating making the ending of the finall boss be puzzle based since most of the game, as Purps pointed out to me on Skype the other day, is. Thoughts?

[Dr. Ace]

Or you contact Moose to get the song he made.

[Moosetroop11]

Gave it to Prpl again, though now I know it's meant to be the main battle theme I'm not so keen on it... I guess I thought it was going to be for a more infrequent thing like a spaceship battle. See how you like it anyway, I'll make another if you think it should be different.


I tried to work the spaceship's theme into the beginning but it doesn't really show all that much.

[Fisherson]

Gave it to Prpl again, though now I know it's meant to be the main battle theme I'm not so keen on it... I guess I thought it was going to be for a more infrequent thing like a spaceship battle. See how you like it anyway, I'll make another if you think it should be different.


I tried to work the spaceship's theme into the beginning but it doesn't really show all that much.

Oohh it was for the ship? Didn't know that! XD Ah well I kinda like the ship's idle theme myself personally. Still music can't hurt. Need something for the credits anyway since i used an awesome Midi from F-Zero I was saving for it. >-<; I just couldn't help it though! It suited the title screen better than any theme I'd heard. Quick progress report: One room to end Chapter 7 and one cut scene. I may re-play it fairly though and make sure it's balanced since I have hard time with balancing stats and not making my boss battles insanely hard. Though for the next to last chapter...shouldn't it be? o.o Hmm have to think on that. Still I think I want it so you can't beat it till you at least in the 30's or higher since it's so close to the end and this one hasn't been battle heavy much.

[Fisherson]

Chapter 7 done and now on to eight which ties the story together and opens the path to the last boss and all then I get to make a unique credits screen! Whoo hoo....*Falls over from stress* Ugh...If i can last that long! XD Estimated release date: End of this month if all goes according to plan and I don't find anymore bugs. Like the one on Kratas where if you land after you've beated it the game goes into endless cut scene loop..... - -;; Also thinking of cutting the the last unlockable character. Not sure the story can support it and ,as much as I love FF6, I don't want this to have characters you can unlock just for kicks with no backstory. We'll see but I'm leaning towards it heavily. Balanced skills sets for all characters so far but the next to last. Will do that after lunch and some Flash maybe. Now I might call on your guys for some resources. I mean I'm using a TERRIBLE FF1 Edit for the Final Boss's first form XD I'd do it myself but I want to get started on Chapter 8 today and that means writing, codding, checking, bugs appearing for no reason, more writing, scribbling out writing cause it just hit I could do that cut scene better....ect.

[Zoltar]

The tension is killing me, bra!  Quit being so melodramatic and ride that glassy curl till the end!

[Moosetroop11]

Why exactly are you making two chapters Fish? Did no-one else want to come along and finish it? It seems odd to randomly do two.

Not that I should start judging when you're so far through, and when I really don't have time to do it myself...

[Fisherson]

Why exactly are you making two chapters Fish? Did no-one else want to come along and finish it? It seems odd to randomly do two.

Not that I should start judging when you're so far through, and when I really don't have time to do it myself...

Well tradition is usually the guy who starts it finishes it. Sides why not? There weren't that many interested in finishing the game anyway right? All those loose plot threads. @_@ Still gotta love that it HAS A PLOT. Seriously one big weakness of many Chain Games int he past has been loose to no plot till the end where it feels sort mashed up and half baked. Fun but still sorta unprofessional. ^^; Hm I suppose since I'm here I may as well update:

Chapter 7: Nearly bug free. A few cut scenes that could be stronger but eh I like it as is. I gotta add the little chapter barrier though that won't allow you to start Chapter 7 all over again by going in he dungeon there but honestly it's probably the most bug free zone in the game. Gonna do a check of the dialogue though. I always miss ONE typo no matter how hard I try. ToT

Chapter 8: 20%. This one's trickier as it finishes out the first part of the story then leads up to that moment where you're all like "Oh drat. I know I shouldn't have saved at that final castle save point AFTER the door to the outside closed forever." As for the final dungeon? I got the map sprite done but the interior isn't going to be too fancy. At most I may put a teleport maze as the final obstacle or something simple enough. Did test the final boss though. Killed me the first time when I had minimum weapons and armor.  < <;; Did a little re-tweaking and toned his AI to be smarter and just now he almost got me but I was able to make it with ALLOT of healing items and some clever strategy. Should note I was using a less than balanced party. Mostly a ATK heavy and AGL heavy team so I'm gonna try that with Neza and some more supportive characters too. I also got the mid-battle boss morph thing to work pretty well! It sorta triggers randomly though so I might play with that a bit and see if we can't get it to trigger in a more normal pattern....though honestly might add an edge to the boss' strategy.

Side Quests: 1% XD Yeah don't let that number fool you. There's one for every character but the ones unlockable after Chapter 7 planned so that's like six stories or so. Should note: They don't work like Wrath of Gaia's where you go along and beat to get exrtra powers. Some reward you with new powers some master level weapons and some nothing if you don't do it right. Little more challenging than the previous game.

Release Date: Still sometime this month I'm confident. My new house sittign gig gives me plenty of time to enjoy my hobbies and do this and there's no good movies around much so really it's just my day to day stuff that's dragging me away from the game. Okay till next check in then or next time Charas has a interesting topic I just can't resist blabbing in. ^_- *Dons armored space suit and ignites saber running madly at the Chain Game chopping and hacking creatively*

[Fisherson]

There's a hiccup. The navigation has a big bug that fatally kills the game. Gonna have to strip it and rebuild it Moose. ^^; Ofcourse I may have had to to include more crew slots anyway but honestly this isn't a small thing and worst yet I don't know why it's doing it. =/ Other than that everything's going along swimmingly. Got the Final Boss programed. Finito. Seriously fun to program to be a smarter kind of final boss and not spam you to death....though it does seem to do that now and again particularly after healing itself. o.o; I may have made it a little too smart. We'll see. Got the last coupel of battle BGs done except for the final background cause I can't decide on a dungeon for the final area. >-<;; So many of the good ones have been taken. Gonna try really old stuff I have lying around. Side Quests are not ready yet. I'm saving them till the last three maps are finished which shouldn't take lone. The one i'm working on is three rooms of eight done and the next one uses a dungeon already made so really it's just the last area that needs to be fully mapped and I'll do it when I find the right tileset.

[Prpl_Mage]

Sounds like you have a few plans too many going on. Focus on the important stuff for now.

[Fisherson]

Sounds like you have a few plans too many going on. Focus on the important stuff for now.

Alright I'll try. Though I think I figured out how to fix the nav system. I'll try it after I'm done with this level. Speaking of Rooms 4 of eight down. Boss for this level totally programmed. ^_^ Slowly but steadily getting it. still keeping my estimate of pushing the game back to early next month for a release date cause of that fatal error though.

[Prpl_Mage]

So three weeks later and we are in the early new month. How is the progress?

[Moosetroop11]

Also checking in to say I'm still alive and interested in how this is going.

[Fisherson]

So three weeks later and we are in the early new month. How is the progress?

Believe it or not? Fairly dang good. I mean I almost rang you up on Skype and said "Take this hideous thing from my sight!!" but that night before bed I had a thought: if plot threads and thus potential cutscenes were the problem why not use a game plan by drawing it out on my notebook using humorous characters? Welp I did and guess what? It worked! I suddenly knew exactly how the last pieces fit into place and felt a surge of energy. The Bright Side flowing through my veins, as well as caffine, I went to setting it up into three sections:

1st: Deal with Perses +Open Side Quests
2nd Introduce the final boss to the heroine, that's sort of important after all.
3rd Show the true menace and prepare for the FINAL BATTLE!
End Cutscenes of humorous and deep nature
Shocking twist?
Credits.
BOOM done.

Here's a progress report on that by the way:

1st Part 99%
(Wanna check my cutscene one more time and make sure I didn't miss a line. I sorta blazed through it)
2nd Part 70%
(Just paused on that to bug check the playing bit of that. Gonna finish it tomorrow.)
3rd Part: 10%
(Got my chipset, gonna map it tomorrow and make sure it works 100%. Got the Boss's forms programmed just gotta plug them into the cutscenes, which won't be as long as these last two since there's less story to tie and more DIE MONSTER! )
Side Quests: 15%
(Before you get worried about that these side quests are short. Only two require actually leaving the world in question to complete. Three are for extra skills which make certain low hit power characters, like Ixion, more balaced and on a few part of it is to get you Master Level Weapon...if you can find it. X3 He he he! So don't sweat it. They are quick and mostly just fun areas that give you a little more time with your party and reward your efforts. I will tell you this however: completing them may change the order of events at the end of the game. <.< Not saying any more than that.)

-Misc Stuff to fix that's not mine-
Moose's Nav Com glitches and Krathas.
(Actually I made progress on this. Moose, this is important...*Grabs your horns and shakes you about* When you make a teleport link that is to stay on a word map, or galaxy map in this case, you MUST CODE A UPDATE to keep it from replaying the event! That's what's been killing me with Krathas. Even after you do it? It thinks it's day one all over again! Now the Nav Comp is tied into this believe it or not! Your Panorama refresh was causing redundant cut scenes. Don't ask me how! I just fixed it...I think. Gotta do a test which I'm likely gonna have to put a back door in to bypass Purps' chapter to do in a timely manner. ^_^; I love it but it takes a while to do even with cheating items.

-Character Balancing-
Though I had this whooped but then I went to start a new test play to make sure I'd fixed some bugs and guess what? Juno learned a 500 hit damage move at only level 11-15 - -;; Just re-tooled her to be more balanced. Speaking of her I got a cool thing for her helmeted version so it can appear in battle now. I also tonned down Ixion's speed to develop a bit more normally...he was getting to like four turns to every one boss turn at like level 60-70. ^^;; Made it hard to tell if the boss was being balanced fairly. I don't think anyone else needs any balacing. Veneza needs one skill taken away cause it doesn't work for both her and a monster I made so I'll just delete that but honestly I like everyone's stats and skills where they are. ^_^ It's a good party with lots of variety just like in WOG but with more playables.

Also Rool's forms in battle seemed to be  puzzle. Hadn't played with actual shape shifters before, but who hasn't thought of it? So I tried using multiple extra Rools with like high Atk stats or high MP but that complicated leveling them and Rool's actual form up. XD So I just tied each of his forms into a specific support or battle skill. I was gonna make a sidequest for you to get them but decided against it and just made it mostly in the higher levels that he'll learn them. His weapon is 100% sorted too. Took a bit on what to do since whoever created him left no instructions or hints on that. <.< But I got one. It's less attack power though even at it's highest level to make up for his Form Changes. Last character note: There won't be a ninth character. I wanted to use the awesome little character I made as I got the game but honestly it'd take too much time to work out a proper story. Maybe one day I'll make a "Platinum" version like I plan to do with Wrath of Gaia latter this month if I get this done. Though honestly I'd love to do a Juno's Odyssey Part 2: The Dim Side Awakens XD Or something. *Shrugs*

Anything else...? Hmm....Trying to think....Oh crap one thing that crippled me and i have no control over! My battle test on my Steam Maker is dead. It says "File could not be created" or some such non sense. Wait I'll show it ya hold on. Bah I hate dial up! I would use my phone to use my photobucket but I'm low on data...Sigh. Guess we'll try DA:
http://sta.sh/0unf6mu8upa

Can soembody please help? It makes it so I can't test play anything on the map and it's not just this file it's in the maker. -  -; I tried it on CGA.

[Zoltar]

Sounds like you're doing a mondo awesome job, brohiem! Just don't get too over ambitious and wipeout, kay? We all wanna ride this gnarly breaker.  Oh and that error looks mondo nasty!!  But the Big Z doesn't know how to fix it. Sorry.