Well, it seems the Muse of coding has blessed the Verge boards... I started adding to PHAGE with a vengeance, after another couple of weeks of lacksidaisicalness... Then I check out Verge-rpg, and what do I see, but TQFA has a new demo! I'll be sure to download it soon...

Finally bought a scanner. Turns out my computer refuses to communicate with it, so I'm stuck, graphicswise, with what I can do on a touchpad. No new bromides will be in PHAGE except those submitted for the Bromide contest. (So far, I have received 1 1/2...) Once again, if anybody wants to enter, just send me something a V1 game can look at, (320X200 pixels is the best size...) and as long as it is appropriate and somewhat PHAGE-related, I'll put it in, with credit to you...

Not much else. Just lettin' y'all know I'm alive... Yontoo? A'aight.

-GMW-

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V1 is easy. A lot easier than V2. It might be buggy but that's because the dev team is not going to fix that and vecna even admitted that some of the features implemented by the dev team sucked. But does that really matter? No. It's a liveable buggy. Most V1 game creators live with it. Simply because it is offset by the sheer easiness (and customizability) of V1.

Which leaves V2 game developers in a lot entirely different catergory. Everything we learn about V2C
is through experimentation or tearing apart the code of others (which there is not really a whole helpful lot of). We are not being catered to. There is no one fiddling with Verge 2 anymore. Everything that could be done is done (although if v2.6's hicolor mode is really buggy, that should be fixed. I mean, that's just forcing people to use v2.7 if they want to use hicolor in windows, NOT right at all). Although it might have been done to the poorest of ability, it's there and you gotta channel the power yourself. Basically it takes a crapload more time and energy than developing with V1.

Then there are those who fail at using V2 and won't use they want V1. They say that they want something customizable but something eaiser. v2.7 promised that and whole lot of people came out of the backwoods of the RM2K community and gleefully started to praise v2.7. But in the end, they'll probably will still whine and complain. Why? Python might be easier and more well documented and supported than VC, but in the end, it's still meant for people who can stop sitting on thier scalps, think, and work.

Which means, even if v2.7 is all that it's crack up to be, you won't see any creditable jumps in activity. Because v2.7 is still meant for people who can make the staggering effort. And even if tSB includes a lot bunch of Python scripts to make the process easier, think anyone's going to use them? Nada. They are going to be toss aside like a lot of useful VC scripts and then people will complain and whine, finally topping it off with "V2.7 isn't as good as it was supposed to be." It's sad because v2.7 looks incredible (but still ain't Verge, only thing that keeps me from using it is everyone's inability to use/get a new name).

But if you really want to know, V1 games are only really REALLY active because people behind them are actually interested in making the game rather than in wowing people with special effects,3D, and other unnecessary nonsense. Not everyone is willing to actually do that, to put aside friviolous and nigh-impossible ideas, and get things done.

As for me, I do work on my game although not as ardently as I should. I do allow frivilous things to effect my judgement and if I were serious to getting my game out, I wouldn't even be writing up this message. Come to think of it, it'd best to decrease my attention on this board and use that time to work.

As for a simple straight-forward conclusion, do the damn work, forget the impossible thigns, and if you can't do it in one engine, use another AND ever complain that's something too hard, you're just not trying.

A greedy side-note: I'm currently wishing that someone gadds floats to previous versions of V2, fixes up Verge2k+j and/or V2.6's hicolor mode (if it's really buggy). Then again, perhaps I should just do it myself. Eventually, eventually, the process of learning C ain't hard, just terribly long...

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(nt)

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Also, most of the people in the V1 community were really driven to make games, and now a lot of them are gone. And we're still recovering from the "version-madness" of V2, and our newbies are struggling to catch up.

The people that are left from V1 are still working on the games they started way back when, and since they're among the only ones truly driven, that's why we're seeing more V1 games than anything.

Plus, I think a lot of people from both communities started out with Verge when they still had lots of spare time, and now they're all getting into college and jobs and whatnot. Doesn't help game development any :)

On v2.6: I use it for both my projects, one hicolor and one not. Hicolor doesn't seem to have any serious "bugs" per se, though I can't get a decent fade effect to work in the damn thing...

Finally, many people have made little bits and pieces of code and such for various versions of V2. If all these bits and pieces were found, converted to a single [popular] version, pieced together as an easily integrated package, and well-documented, maybe they'd be more visible to the community and people would start using this stuff. Then V2 wouldn't seem so monumentally difficult.

That is all.

--Invicticide

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We don't need better engines, we need better creation tools!

although if v2.6's hicolor mode is really buggy, that should be fixed. I mean, that's just forcing people to use v2.7 if they want to use hicolor in windows, NOT right at all

Why do you not understand that I stopped coding v2 because it was structured all wrong? Changing one thing required changing five thousand others. Fixing one bug made four more show up. I did not leave v2.6 the way it was to "force" people to use a different version. I left it because I knew I could do it so much better without all the old mistakes left in the code.

Hopefully, people will see the 'packin' code as a part of the engine, and not something to be rewritten over and over again. :P

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"Ignorance is its own reward" -- Proverb

My Verge2 project, Dragon Warrior Legend, is VERY active. The second, and final demo(before the full game) will be released soon, and I made a vow long ago to finish this game(seriously). I've been working on this game every day(or every other day), and I've gotten really far on it(farther than I ever imagined). Check out my page for more info.

http://www.mastercain.com/rpgking


-rpgking

P.S. PHAGE kicks ass! ...And so does TQFA ...and I guess they ARE V1 games!

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Out of clutter, find simplicity. -Einstein