FP!

Zip

[I promise I will edit this with useful feedback... time to play gamez over xmas]

I liked what I was was *able* to play. The graphics are very great, and it does indeed feel like Final Fantasy to an extent. However, most of animation or scrolling text code does not take the timer into account, so some parts were mighty slow. Particularly the battle and certain parts where the camera would scroll. The battle was, in fact, so slow (even on Fast mode) for me that it seemed to freeze almost. Other than that though, excellent job.

I can speed-optimize the demo for you, if you would like for people with old machines to be able to play this demo with better enjoyment. You'd have to help me have to tell me some names of certain incremented frame variables, though. I managed to frame throttle the text box and a few other things, but I'd like to be able to speed-optimize some other aspects, such as the battle.

Thanks for all the feedback.

I'm a bit disconcerted about reports of the battle-system running too slow on some computers. I thought I had that covered.

Overkill, the way the framerate in the battle-system works is as basically as follows (from battle.vc, in pseudocode):

while loop that keeps battle running


    gametimer=timer;


    do everything related to graphics, menus, input, etc.


    showpage();


    while(timer<gametimer+10)


    {


      showpage();


    }


end while loop

The first showpage is there specifically so that it doesn't skip frames on slow computers (because otherwise, if more than 10 clicks have gone by by the time it gets to the end of the loop, it won't show anything. So I'm not sure why it would appear to freeze up sometimes.

This is useful to know, though. Those of you who are having speed problems in the battle-system, can you tell me what speed computer you have? I'm running on 2.4 ghz and haven't had the option to test it on something slower.

Anyone who's having excessive difficulty as far as playing the battle-system, I also appreciate knowing this. It's hard to gauge the difficulty level when you know by memory all the monsters' HP and weaknesses, how much damage they can do, etc. I did aim to make it a little hard because people have always complained about the FF games being too easy. On my final run through of this demo, even I died three times. One time was because I never won a single Ether from the Wisps, and could no longer cast Cure spells. Other times I've had plenty. I aimed to make it so that you should, on average, end up with just slightly more than you use.

(and if you are running out of potions near the beginning of the game, search around town. There are things in some of the barrels and crates.)

I have uploaded the new beta version of this demo to the files section of verge-rpg.com.

If you already have the alpha demo, you can go to my own download page at http://technetium.freeyellow.com/download.html and download a patch file containing the 3 vc files that were actually changed.

Summary of changes (also found in walkthrough in new demo):

• Optimized graphics for entering battle, thanks to RageCage. Animation sequence is faster,
  and now will always take the same amount of time regardless of computer speed (faster computers
  will simply show more frames)


• Reduced poison damage while walking on maps to 1/10 the damage recieved in battle (minimum 1 damage).


• Moved the two goblins farther up the map, because it took too long for them to walk on screen.


• Removed a bug that would cause the game to get stuck if the lead character dies in battle first.

If you've already finished the demo or come reasonable close, it probably isn't worth getting the revision.

(psst. I wouldn't at all mind this getting some kind of brief mention in the next news update)

That patch made battle transitions take a lot less than 20ish seconds (p800) :)

Here's some comments, from your walkthrough:

'After searching all the crates and boxes in town,'

'Hope he doesn't get a critical hit, because that can probably kill you even with full health.'

'This area has some of the most annoying enemies you'll find.'

Those kind of things that early in the game probably aren't a good idea if you want people to play through it. Most people won't open anything other than the obvious chests unless told to, and dying in one hit from a boss after killing two other goblins isn't going to keep people interested

Forest area monsters are wayyyy too annoying, I had given up there earlier. Leaves have a too high evade rate IMO, Wisps take too long to kill & obliterate your group if you're unlucky, Asps can be pretty bad too if you don't have antidotes, and the battles are hard to run away from even when pre emp.

I'd fix some of those (I like that poison change, it gave me problems earlier), maybe give the group some more items from Ohar's vehicle and/or toss a couple easily visible chests with antidotes/ethers in the forest. And what kind of ranger cabin place doesn't have a tent? :)