mity
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art update: show me that smile
🕑 Added 2020-11-20 13:25:13 +0000 UTCMarty here! Have you already read Mr. Word's (cbob's) post? If not please do so first. I've been wanting to write an update myself earlier but was waiting on him to provide some more clarity on what was going on with him and give everyone a few days to read it.
First of all, I think most people who have been with us for a longer time, already had a sneaking suspicion about what was causing Mr words slow down. We actually received some pm's suggesting as much to me. Cbob hates showing any signs of "weakness" but I think it's good for everyone to have a better understanding of this so I'm happy he did include it in his update... even though it's more of a "blink and you've missed it" admission.
I've come to realize cbob has very little/weak self diagnosis skills. He just puts on a smile and keeps on going. I recently sent him the following pic to show him how convincing I thought that had become.
He also suggested "knocking the next build out in two weeks" in an email he sent to me because we have such great patrons and he felt bad for our tardiness ... I would've liked to see my own face when I read that." Call me crazy but looking at our recent track record that seems more like a fever dream than an actual possibility.
Despite all of the stuff I started doing besides drawing, officially/legally I'm just a hired hand/contractor responsible for the art. I used to always send all the art/scenes necessary for a new build to cbob at the start of a new month and for a long time that worked out fine.
I want to go full speed again more than anyone else out there, but I think an attempt at that now will only cause a repeat of these last couple of months (with horribly inaccurate estimations and postponements up the gazoo). That won't do anyone any good. Least of all Cbob.
I'd like a return to a dependable release schedule and that's not going to happen without cbob taking the time to take care of himself. For real. He has already started doing some smart things and we can return towards stability if he keeps at it.
He told me that working(despite his speed) on FET is very important to him so I don't want to cut him off entirely so I'm probably going to start dripfeeding him art at the start of the new cycle and see how that works out. Just please take whatever he says about time frames and estimations with a healthy helping of salt. It's what I do.
Anyway, he has started doing some smart things to get better and one of those things, exercising, is a good idea for anyone. I don't know about you guys, but I've been getting a covid belly. I hate it and I want it gone. My stomach is growling as I write this and I started running laps during the evening in an effort to smite it. But even without trying to get rid of excess body fat, exercising is good to do.
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So what have and am I doing besides starting to exercise myself?
last time I held a poll about maybe adding high res pics to the game. I was hoping for an overwhelming yay or nay, but the biggest group is fine with whatever. So while I still wasn't entirely certain I just started converting all the existing book4 love route sprites into their higher res version.
"When in doubt just start doing something and hope for the best" is the mantra I went by. I pretty much finished all of it. Not the backgrounds, only the sprites for book 4's love route. The screen's aspect ratio of 4:3 would also still be the way it currently is. So it's more of a Frankenstein solution really.
The file-size gain isn't as big as I expected and if I'd turn the png's into webp files the difference would be virtually almost erased. that'd be good, but I think I'll hold off on doing that just yet.
I tested the scenes with higher res sprites on a 14 year old pc. It didn't have onboard graphics acceleration, but since I'm the final resting place for my family's old hardware I had a super old graphics card lying around. No surprises there! My ability to throw out things which still work is pretty much non existent. I'm not a hoarder, but could be considered the missing link between that and normal folks.
Anyway, the old pc had no problems pushing the larger amount of pixels across the screen and the scenes didn't show any sluggishness. Oddly enough it was only the menu's with a lot of menu entries when it did become sluggish.
So in theory I could change everything once cbob sends me the build for an internal test. Most of the scenes were surprisingly easy to update on my testbed so it shouldn't take me too long since most of the legwork has already been done. That doesn't mean I will.
I'm currently thinking of maybe just doing one scene and see how it works out in the real world. If it causes problems I can easily undo it and if the results are good I can change it all later for the entirety of book 4's love route.
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As it often does, one thing leads to another and while I was working on increasing the resolution of the sprites I started noticing our pretty "classic" aspect ratio of 4:3 more and more.
When we started working on FET I still had one of those older 4:3 screens so it felt like a completely natural and fine aspect ratio at the time. 4:3 was fine and still is. But... as you might remember I also started refactoring FET a while ago. Let's call it my pet project. It's something which I do on the side whenever I feel I have time.
Refactoring is a fancy name for me rewriting scripts in a better way. I'm making them smaller and also easier to read/understand. I started doing that because I wanted FET to load faster, but the rewriting is wreaking havoc among savegames so I don't want to add the changes to our actual releases. No yet anyway. It's more something for the far future... like the extended version of FET or something.
And since I'm already doing all of that... why not update the aspect ratio as well? The answer.. ...because it's a lot of extra work. We hard coded several aspects of FET to only work in the current ratio, but I'm stubborn if nothing else and now that I've managed to put all(or most) of the files we're using into proper folders(which wasn't as easy as it might sound) I've been rewriting book 1 and am trying to see if changing the aspect ratio can be part of that. Not the dialogue, (although I might add a tidbit here and there), just the script structure.
So far I've managed to bring down book 1's script size from about 4 Mb to 3 Mb. Book 1 is by far the smallest among the books so that's not nearly as impactful as it might seem. Still, it's progress.
It's going very slowly. At the start of creating FET, Mr. words brute forced his way through problems in a way which is almost beautiful in it's disregard for efficiency. I'm perfectly serious about that. Trying to figure out what his older scripts are doing can be difficult by itself, but he actually had to write them from scratch and keep older save games into account. I can just fuck around in the scripts with zero regard for any of that and at my own leisure since it's just something on the side for the far future.
It's also going very slowly because it's the kind of stuff I only do when work on in my spare time or when normal builds have slowed down for whatever reason. Despite this hopscotch way of working , I derive a weird sort of satisfaction out of it. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. And FET has certainly become an elephant size-wise Ps. if I had suspected things would take this long with the normal build updates I would've chosen to spend my time differently.
Oh and finally because I am marty and not mr words (despite the deluge of words I just put you through...) here's a picture! A version with chibi Toph can be found in the attachments.
And that' s it. Just a bit of background information on what I've been doing and how I see the future. Once cbob sends me the new build I'll jump into action, testing and updating some of the images as quickly as I can, but just realize cbob's sense of time and what he can do within it is very skewed. I don't think we'll be needing our "hassle sticks" (see mr words earlier post) , but until I can get down and dirty with what he'll send me it's anyone's guess really.
Comments
Teague
She’s retaining water
Monty
There is a good balance between fat and muscles in this fine Water Tribe booty, but there is a difference between "phat" and "fat".
A.E. Pessimal
That round can't be fat. It's all muscles.
El-Karpo
While I wouldn’t deny such a thing, I can understand that it wouldn’t be fair for all the people paying for that tier. Let‘s not forget that they‘re paying even more and also not getting the main things included im their tier.
TheAdvancedSet
Maybe a bughunt fow all tiers would be nice? not only the 25+
Monty
Dayum that's a phat ass on Katara
PinnacleOfMediocrity
Let me second that. Mental health is not about "being weak", it's not about your character whatsoever. The feeling of being a burden to others is a SYMPTOM of an excessively nasty sickness. Realizing this helped me a ton back in the days. @cbob: There is a way out and you are not alone with your illness.
MITY
Thanks for sharing your expertise, I'm going to point cbob to what you said to make sure he'll get to read it.
MITY
I've told cbob several times he can just send things my way and I'll finish it up, but he's incredibly reticent in doing so. Which I guess is a good thing since he still has enough pride to want to do this himself. HOWEVER seeing as how I still not have received anything... the best you can hope for(if anything) is a super late bughunt this month.
A.E. Pessimal
This is going to be inrusive, be warned. As someone that his profession is tending the mentally-ill, I have total obligation to stay on board, so to speak. I wish cbob well. If only he was around here (Israel) I would try to tend for cbob myself. As is, I really recommend trying CBT. It helped many of the depressed I take care for. However the 1st step must be looking at your eyes in the mirror and say "I am ill. It's not weakness any more that diabetes is. I am sick and I must get professional help". As for medications, I have mixed feelings. Usually it helps very much in the beginning, but after seeing many that plunged down after a year or so and still were dependent on medication to avoid getting totally in the abyss, I am starting to suspect that for the worse cases it is a bad idea. Some of my colleges share this opinion.
A.E. Pessimal
Hear that
Moritz1948
Something to play over the weekend would be great 🤙 almost 3 month is to long without a new build😔😂
i'mnotashamed
I sure hope so
El-Karpo
Can we expect anything before december?
Sion of War
mental health problems are the worst. you feel like shit even though you are healthy and it makes it self worse the longer it goes. I really hope CBob is getting better
ob2586
It is almost 3 Months since last update on early september, but it is what it is. They are great dev, and they will deliver a good thing as always.
IdarksoulsI
I think that's very unlikely.
E.I.
That’s why I used question marks , I’m hoping that that’s the case
TheAdvancedSet
Where does it say that Arty has received anything? From what I understood Arty is still waiting for cbobs massage.
Don kibonk
Amen
E.I.
I think that Arty should be testing it by now right? So probably today/tomorrow? I just hope that we get a huge patch since we waited almost two months
Neb the Pleb
Ye have 120 hours left roughly to complete the update or we'll be in December with nothing. Don't do this to me MITY. I will pray to the waifus above that you deliver us unto perfection. Hopefully they hear me
MITY
@ Ness7281992 lol, I'm not smart enough to be called Moriarty! The fact I didn't think of that nickname myself earlier is enough proof of that :) @ IAtomicI If I knew how I'd do that! I try to stay clear from cbob's posts exactly because there's no way to easily differentiate between who writes what. @ Borderland95 as apt a description as any :) Me and cbob pretty much have a completely different opinion on almost everything, food/travel/politics you name it and that does bleed through in our messages. Cbob is the buccaneer and I'm the store clerk.
MITY
It kinda feels like groundhogs week/month? to me, I talk to cbob, cbob says soon, I wait and the cycle starts anew. I'm certain he does the best he can, but right now that's all I'm certain of. If that's driving you nuts that makes two of us.
It's not to hard to tell them apart when they post. Cbob is the meat and sarcasm guy while, Marty is the veggies and straight talk fellow lol.
Moritz1948
Hopefully we dont have to wait till the end of the month😔 another week of waiting...noo😂😂😂
IAtomicI .
I’m up for there names being highlighted different colours
Ness7281992
God, it's still hard for me keep track of which of you guys is which with these pseudonyms. I vote for Moriarty and Codie.
i'mnotashamed
I think it’s safe to say we’ll see the new build this month considering the high praise from Cbob himself on the last post.
TheAdvancedSet
If you would be so kind to give us an updated ETA, we would really appreciate it. November doable or rather not?
RetroRey
nah buy theta xrp is dead.
MITY
Quite honestly I(Marty) must admit I'm quite gullible, but even I wise up in the end and that's exactly why I won't be quick to return to the old ways of sending him him all the stuff in one go at the start.
Jimbo Johnson
kinda late advice no?
LongDongSilver
Haha! I love that "everything is okay" face xD
Buy xrp guys
MITY
The problem with cbob is he's not being realistic about his own limits. If he'd just said a couple of months ago "I need a good serious break", I think we'd be in a much better situation. I suggested for him to take one before but he's usually like "nope" and it's hard for me to gauge what's going on when we live so far apart. So him just coming out like this is a big step and I hope one which will lead to him becoming more realistic.
MITY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91Q6dNnPEP0 I don't think the music's name is mentioned, but it's a cut of primo victoria by Sabaton. I kinda like it myself to get pumped up.
MITY
I've been having those for a while now. It's almost like it's seasonal. But of course we have the extra covid flavor this time to go along.
MITY
Hahaha, in that case I hope you like chicken noodles!
MITY
I added a variation.
MITY
Nah.. it'll be fine! Check the attachments again.
MITY
Cbob more than I, but we both enjoy it. Wholesome and funny? Now that's special!
Sean
Damn. I like you guys, but word guy saying he's going to get the next build out in two weeks does not sound good. Sure, it'd be nice to have the build quick, but that doesn't seem healthy. As much as we appreciate the content, its equally important that both of you guys are taking care of yourselves. You guys are the best (in my opinion) "adult-game" creators . While a part of that is the content, I think theres more to you guys deliver than just that. And I think most of your supporters feel the same way. So just, make sure you guys are taking care of yourselves, that's all. I'd hate to see wordguy push himself to the limits. Or Mr. Words. Or Cbob. Whatever he goes by these days.
LuckyM
Thanks for the update. I've worked in the video game industry myself, and have seen first hand how easily someone can get burned out due to overwork. I'm sure there are some folks here who are getting impatient, but I would much rather see both of you remain healthy and provide an update when you can rather than have one (or both) of you push yourselves into exhaustion.
Neb the Pleb
I'm exercising too. I work myself hard because I know Toph wouldn't wanna be with some chubby weak loser. By the time I'm done, I'll look like Iroh when he broke out of prison.
xanth100
I'm getting 2019 flashbacks
IdarksoulsI
Get out of the way kid, that dinner is mine.
M2
Those pics, dayum. 😁 And I gotcha, no worries.
Kronos992
That looks a little big for toph in that picture
John Hall
Thanks for the update. I'm glad to see that you are a "Bob's Burgers" fan.
MITY
No prob and thanks. I hope I can soon share an update with actual content!
MITY
I think it could be a smart move for him to do, but he's more of an exploratif writer than a structured one so I wonder how effective it would turn out to be. I'll certainly suggest it again though.
MITY
It's funny how the belly just creeps up on you and all of a sudden you start to notice it!
MITY
Thanks and I expressly don't hydrate(or very little) before running because it'll just be extra weight I have to take along with me. Spit shall sustain me through it all ; )
MITY
I will promise you that if I receive it today, sleep will not be the cause for any slowdowns.
Peter Vanusanik
maybe cbob needs to hire another contractor?
MITY
It's the writing which causes the problems not so much the coding and yes I feel cbob should consider that, but he's more an exploratif than a structured writer so directing someone else to do what he'd like to do would probably cause the same amount of problems.
A Fellow Supporter
Thanks for the update and I hope you are doing well too! 🙏
RockandGuts
That's good news, hopefully we can all get rid of our covid belly's. Good to hear Cbob doing better at least also. Face sitting is also great hopefully we get more of that in the cumming updates
Avatargowoosh
Had me worried for a while there bud. Take care of yourselves and whenever the next build comes out, I'm sure it'll be epic! Stay safe, stay hydrated! Much love 😘
MITY
That'd be nice.
Koren weiss
With all the respect(and I have alot), finding another programmer to do all the shitty-hard-time-taking work and leave cbob to do the touch ups sound like a great idea to me and probably to other guys who subscribed to this patreon, finding it hard to understand why you havent found anyone else yet
Moritz1948
Lets hope we can play the new build over the weekend, that would be nice 👍 hyped 😎
Nörther
Well, guess we can only wait. Hopefully the new build comes before second civil war
