sierralee
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September 24 Update
🕑 Added 2023-09-24 17:01:00 +0000 UTCThis week started average and then took a sharp turn. I guess I'll take things in chronological order.
When I took on various additional tasks, I hoped that they would push me into gear and feared they would distract me. Instead... they just didn't take that much time. For example, I've been pushing DStP along, but it simply isn't consuming meaningful amounts of time/energy.
It isn't that I've done nothing with TLS (I've been finishing some Sarai dialogues I'm very pleased with), but I'm just not making the kind of progress I need in order to hit the regular updates that people expect. So I decided to add some TLS-related tasks in the hopes that I'd get my subconscious primed on the right track, one of which you see above.
Do you guys recognize the map by formation alone? Stineford was the first city made in TLS, and it's the only one that uses entirely RTP tiles. Now, I'm not naive: most players see RPG Maker and think that everything is standard, no matter how much work you put in. But for the fans of the game, and for those few who will appreciate the differences, I'm trying to remake Stineford to a higher visual standard.
The structure of the city will remain the same, but now it uses some different tiles. We have a unique statue in the pool and the Blue Rose has a more memorable appearance. I don't intend to do much of this for other maps, but I've always intended to fancy up Stineford at some point, and I guess that point is now instead of later.
This post was just going to be reporting about my mixed work... until Friday. I unexpectedly got contacted by some publishing industry folks right at the end of the week. This probably won't take a huge amount of time, but it's really mentally distracting. If you are a fan of my books and have been waiting on leaving reviews on Amazon or Goodreads (or following and doing other algorithmic things), now would be a helpful time!
In the medium term, this will likely not have much effect - TLS 0.70.0 is still my top priority. Maybe in five years, though, I'll be glad about these steps. Or it could come to absolutely nothing! Either way, my goal is to keep moving forward in the most effective way I can.
Comments
Sierra Lee
Missed this before now. Seems reasonable, changed.
DukeLeto7
The Bugs Reports forum thread just keeps coming. Saphartlantis suggests something is off with the positioning of Simon in the cut scene for establishing the Nostalgic Home. (Tak'Kan/Tak'Kan Regional Map/Nostalgic Home (000,000)). They propose that Simon should turn up to face the same direction as Wendis in the movement sequence before "It really is nice to see this old house again.". That's all for now.
DankPotatoes
And maybe Withered Mountain from the prologue. The first hour of gameplay is by far the most important in a game, to draw in and keep players.
Runcible Technician
I think that any asset early game has to have a standard matching the end. Feroholm and Stineford being good targets to update the chipset.
Sierra Lee
Feroholm is also on the list of locations to change, but the difficulty there is that it isn't a single map, it's actually duplicated at various points. Theltiar uses tons of non-RTP tiles. T-T The buildings are standard, but I wanted those to be "human-looking" to contrast with all the other scenery.
Barissia
IMHO Feroholm is the place most at risk of looking 'cookie cut' from rpgmaker, possibly also the elven town of Theltiar, though I know that's only meant to represent the foreigners district and it's much deeper into the game. It's hard to make an impoverished settlement look unique, but maybe Ferroholm could do with a small update too Stineford never really gave me that impression, guess it's just because it's a multi-zone city but it's still really nice to see it get a visual update in line with the more adventurous town models like Yhilin and Ardford!
