Ok, the response to my question on the Help board kind of has me realizing that I haven't bothered to stay on top of the updates to what's actually out right now for versions, and what each is capable of/restricted to. So if anyone out there knows, I'm kind of looking for the answers to these questions, and which engine is capable/equipped/codeable to accomplish them, plus any other features I may have left out that made a version such as V2k+j versus V2k+i different from the other.

1) Can Play ITs
2) Can have customizable speech portrait sizes
3) Can have anysized CHR (width/height, not frames of animation)
4) Can have user-defined dat files
5) Customizable menu system
6) Can use more than 256 colors (that is, I know one of the versions uses 256 colors of a user-defined palette, but I meant more along the lines of 16-bit, an engine that could use SNES tile rips, for instance, without cutting away at the color)
7) Is user-friendly. IE, has understandable tutorials. I read through the Verge 2 documentation about a month ago, but I couldn't really find anything that explained what had to be done to make your engine work beyond a basic text box. I don't mind reading, though, just as long as the tutorials and things are easy to get to.
8) Can overlap characters on multiple layers. Not that this is a necessity, but anyone who's played Warsong for the Genesis, or any of the Langrisser series beyond the first will know the type of game I'm shooting for. PrincePaul I think was the name of a guy who had designed an FF-tactics-ish movement system for V2 I think that was virtually the movement system for Warsong, if anyone still has that demo, I think I lost it with my hard drive eons ago. Anyway, I was thinking of simply having multiple PCX files be the troops in V1, but I ran into a problem this morning when I can't seem to erase blitted pcx files. VCClear() and LayerVC=0 and LayerVC2=0 didn't get rid of them, so my maps have disappeared while trying this theory out.

I don't mean to ask so much, but the answers to which engines do what would make things really helpful. I guess the only other thing to mention is maybe which engines are Windows 98 friendly also, or Windows XP, and so forth. Like will the Windows V2 play games programmed with the V2k+j, or so forth. Music for me seems to disappear in the DOS version of V1, yet works fine for the Windows version and my older demos, so these are just thoughts. Anyway, thanks if anyone can add their input and wisdom.

~Blade Dragon

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Thanks, that was very helpful. I take it that the * means all V2 versions, but I was also wondering, would V2.6 then, in theory, allow for everything?

~Blade Dragon

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Could that be someone's ongoing project? I have a lot of high hopes for your IKA, since it's the engine of choice I've been using for my true RPG, Lucid Soul. ;p But I know that when I started downloading it, back when it was called V2.7, it actually wasn't usable, something you were still coding, as I recall, like the render variable, or something of that nature, maybe it was Palettemorph or something, I know I made a post eons ago to you about it. How is IKA coming along then? I know I tried to mimick my V1 introduction/advertisement/title screen intro that I've done so far for Rune's Edge in V2.6, and I couldn't figure out even where to begin, plus, V2.6 doesn't stretch to fill the screen? I could only get it to remain a windowed version, god knows why. Does IKA have a full screen mode, I'd hope? And how far along is your MapEd version? Does it support all the hicolor maps? I'm not a hicolor editor by any means, my sprites range from kick ass to repetitive, but that's the extent of my artistic talent, so to save time, EVERYTHING is ripped from existing SNES games, converted to the Verge palette, then edited to fit the motif of a given genre. Hi color would only be used to preserve the colors of the original game, some Seiken Densetsu 3 rips come to mind for a good forest setting that lost most all of its colors to a virtual grescale in the Verge palette.

Also, one final question now that I think about it. Where do I find the documents that list all the functions/commands/code for V2.6, IKA, and all other V2's? I took your recommendation a while ago, around last Christmas I think to try to work out a demo with V2k+j, but I had the same problem, there wasn't a single document that had any commands to figure out, the only one remotely found within the VERGE community being the actual V2 commands. This would be a big help, cuz I hate to ask repetitive questions if there's a document that could explain most everything instead. ;p You laugh at my "User Friendly" requirement, but I'll admit, I loved the community and the VERGE 1 engine back in the day when I first found the site because you were explained absolutely everything, and with the few requirements you had to conform to, you could virtually remake FF 3 or 2 with little complication.

Just a few thoughts, thanks for your time again, TSB.

~Blade Dragon

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I'm pretty sure (though not absolutely certain, but around 99.9% sure) that you can find the V2.7 reference doc on TSB's homepage, which you can link to from one of his posts up there. As for V2*, there should be a text document with all of the commands included named VERGEC.TXT. Hope that helps.

CypherAlmasy

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"If any of you step out of line, I'll promise to kill you in the name of T.G. Cid too. I'm watching you. Especially you over there, elfy." -Orlandu