[ScytheCGC]

There is a lot of flexibility with the scripting system; and the potion problem was solved now.

Yeah I LOVE the RPGMakerXP tiles.

Here's this weeks Development Chronicle!

NARRATED VIDEO VERSION

Hello and welcome to the Development Chronicle XI for Legacy of the Zodiac II. Remember how I said I was having problems with the potions because they don't stack? Well DD whipped up a script so they will stack and there's a limit on how many you can have; so you can't run around with hundreds or even thousands of a potion (since it's a currency). I also made all of the main Iron Mercenary quests (meaning ones that are for equipment or spells etc). I also re-did the guild ranks since they didn't make much sense to me.

So the first thing that got done was the potions. They are now a currency type so they stack on top of each other; the healing effect is scripted in and there is a script so that when you use the potion if you have more than 30 of them it sets it down to 30 and removes one (since you used one). I might make it higher than 30; not sure; but that's how it is right now; and that's 30 per type of potion; like 30 Small Health Potions, 30 Full Large Health Potions etc. So that solves the potion problem since I can use one line to give the potions for quests since they are a currency now.

As I said earlier I did all of the Iron Mercenary quests that give equipment and spells and that type of such; there will be some that just give EXP or Gold.

I re-did the guild ranks and they now have a more army like feel to them; since the guilds are basically separate armies under their respective faction; here they are...

Note: All ranks can resign so I didn't bother putting that on each individual rank description.
Note: GMOTD = Guild Message of the Day
Note: When I used multiple shades of the same color the darker shade presides over the lighter one; which is shown since the color of the rank name is the color of the tag in-game.

Rank 9
General (1 only)
-Is the owner and leader of the guild and can do everything (Kick Members, Promote Members, Demote Members, Change GMOTD and Invite Players).

Rank 8
Lieutenant General (2 only)
-Basically the second in command and has access to all commands but is NOT the leader or owner of the guild (Kick Members, Promote Members, Demote Members, Change GMOTD and Invite Players).

Rank 7
Major General
-Step down from Lieutenant General and can do everything except change someone's rank (Promote/Demote) since that is reserved for Rank 9 and 8. (Kick Members, Change GMOTD and Invite Players).

Rank 6
Brigadier General
-Step down from Major General and can basically do what they can except they cannot kick members (Change GMOTD and Invite Players).

The top four ranks are all ranks with powers; while the lower 5 all have no powers and are more for promotions based on merit.

Rank 5
Captain
-Highest rank with No Powers; Merit Rank (No Powers).

Rank 4
Lieutenant
-Second Highest rank with No Powers; Merit Rank (No Powers).

Rank 3
Sergeant
-Third Highest rank with No Powers; Merit Rank (No Powers).

Rank 2
Corporal
-Fourth Highest rank with No Powers; Merit Rank; basic rank for most normal members. (No Powers).

Rank 1
Private
-Third Highest rank with No Powers; Merit Rank; basically the trainee rank. (No Powers).

Now that I have the Iron Mercenary quests finished I can make the quests for the Den of Thieves and than the Nyru Ruins.

On a side note; Bradyok added two orange shades to the Guild Ranks (which both are used on Major General and Brigadier General) and the Zone Editor; so now I made the EXP Area map name color orange.

That is all for this week, see everyone next week!

Thanks for listening,

-Scythe
_________________

[ScytheCGC]

NARRATED VIDEO VERSION

Hello and welcome to the Development Chronicle XII for Legacy of the Zodiac II. This week I first off made all of the quests for the Den of Thieves; but you'll have to wait for the release to hear anything more about them. Next I enlisted a few Alpha Testers so that they can test as I go along and find errors and problems quickly. I basically spent the rest of the week fixing problems and errors they found and balancing things.

So as I said the first thing I did was make all of the quests for the Den of Thieves; so now I just have to make the quests for the Nyru Ruins and that should do it for the Haven Area.

The next thing I did was enlist a few Alpha Testers so they can test as I go along and find errors and problems quickly so I can fix them quickly.

The rest of the week was spent fixing errors; Smoke and Kimi found a large one that was just because I had the wrong PlayerAttack Sub; but they also found a few other errors with the engine that I had Bradyok fix. Bradyok also released XW RC4.3 which was mainly bug fixes so now the Quests are linked together.

Some things I balanced was mages and melees; magic etc. I also increased the potency of some of the buffs as well as adjusted the cool down time on all skills; the cool downs were WAY too high; so I lowered them a lot. I also added the class requirements to the equipment basically so the testers can only use what they should be able to; only thing I can't add the requirement too is things like armors which can be used by three classes; since Bradyok didn't add in multiple class requirements yet.

I figured I would feature a question by one of the users on the official forums; it was a question by Smoke; here's the question...

[ScytheCGC]

NARRATED VIDEO VERSION

Hello and welcome to the Development Chronicle XIII for Legacy of the Zodiac II. This week I made all of the Nyru Ruins quests and of course you will have to wait to hear anything else about them besides "I made them". I than finished adding the +, ++ and +x drops to the NPCs for the weapons I had added in. I also made all of the enchant shops for enchanting and removing enchants from weapons; than I made the maps for this.

So the first thing I did was create all of the quests for the Nyru Ruins as I said above.

After that I added the rest of the +, ++ and +x drops the NPCs. On a side note, only the Haven Area NPC's will drop enchanted weapons, everything else must be enchanted by removing an enchant from a weapon and putting it on another.

Next I made all of the enchant shops for enchanting and removing enchants from weapons. Each class (with the exception of Varhans and Gardians) has one shop. Basically the first half of the shop is for removing enchants, and the last half is for adding them. Now the reason I say with the exception of bla bla bla, is because the Varhans and Gardians share three weapon types, so they have a shop for each (Lightweight Swords, Heavyweight Swords, Axes).

Lastly I made the maps where this will take place, it is called "The Enchanted Mallet"; fits doesn't it :3?

Here's a quote from one of the blacksmiths there, basically explaining the process etc...

[ScytheCGC]

NARRATED VIDEO VERSION

Hello and welcome to the Development Chronicle XIV for Legacy of the Zodiac II. This week I worked solely on planning the next areas to be mapped on the Continent of Inngard. So there really isn't much to say at all. Hopefully the planning will be done this weekend and than we can get mapping the areas.

On a side note I figured I would show a sample of the In-Game GUI DD made, so here's a sample...



There are some things on it that have to be fixed but overall that is the Main In-Game GUI created by DD to go along with the Login GUI I made; the GUI is called "Zodiac".

That is basically all I can tell you this week, just been planning so I don't have much to say; but hopefully you enjoyed the preview of the GUI.

That is all for this week, see everyone next week!

Thanks for listening,

-Scythe
_________________

[Verious]

I think the color of the skin is distracting and detracts from the game.

[DeveloperX]

pink? ...yeah that just does not work unless you are making a barbie game.

its very difficult to pay attention to the game with that very painful color surrounding it.
_________________
Principal Software Architect
Rambling Indie Games, LLC

See my professional portfolio

[Verious]

The same skin would probably be fine in gray or tan.

[Terry]

Maybe, but it would still need a bit of work. Right now it's too... what's the word - busy? And the black text on the dark pink background is definitely a mistake.
_________________
http://www.distractionware.com

[ScytheCGC]

Well the text will be able to be white in the next version of the engine; there are also several other GUIs you can use; this is only one of them. I will send your comments to the creator of the GUI.

Here's this week's Development Chronicle!

NARRATED VIDEO VERSION

Hello and welcome to the Development Chronicle XV for Legacy of the Zodiac II. This week I finished planning the Continent of Inngard and we began mapping again; you'll find more details about this below.

As I said, I finished planning the Continent of Inngard; so I would like to share a few things about that. As you know, the Haven Area is a part of the Continent of Inngard, now I planned out everything else on this continent, which is the largest continent. The other areas that will be on the Continent are as follows...

The Torrential Plains - Large plains where it is obviously always raining - Mapping by Yukimura

Northern Spine which also includes the Village of Karthay - The Northern Spine is a very large and dense forest which starts to rise in elevation as you near the Kothas Heights - Mapping by Scythe

The Capital City Taladas which also includes the outskirts of the city; which are huge - Mapping by Scythe

Kothas Heights, which are mountains that span across the top of Inngard - Mapping by Scythe

We also of course must map the Coastline that goes all around these new areas; which we are doing first of course.

Everything is planned out except the Kothas Heights, and this is for a reason. They are going to be very complex and crazy so it would be too hard to plan them out before hand, I know the area in which they will take up but I will be planning them and mapping them as I go; it will be the best for this particular area.

Note: The above list of areas does not includes caves or ruins since they are considered inside maps, not outside.

Here's some statistics for you to wrap your minds around, the entire Haven Area INCLUDING insides, caves, ruins etc takes up 380 maps total. The rest of the OUTSIDE of the Continent of Inngard uses up to map # 953, and starts at map # 381; so the rest of the OUTSIDE of the Continent of Inngard takes up 570 maps. But this is excluding the Kothas Heights since I don't know how many maps it will take up exactly, but a guess would be about 130-150; so the total outside maps for the entire Continent of Inngard will be about 1100 or so. Here's something interesting as well; the Capital City Taladas takes up 71 maps (outsides only) and is divided into five districts; the Plaza District, Senate District, Market District, Colosseum District and the Temple District. The last two districts I listed are half size though, they together make up the size of one of the other three districts.

So as you can tell we have a lot of work ahead of us, but we can do it; the Continent will also have a lot of things to do; and of course once the entire outside is mapped the insides and ruins etc must be mapped!

So once all that planning was finished; we started mapping again. We are still working on the Coast since the coast for all of this is giant, I am hoping it will be done this weekend though. There isn't much to show since everyone has already seen what the Coast of other areas looked like, but I will show you one map anyways; it has some new trees in it (the ones for the Northern Spine).

Here is one of the Coast near the Northern Spine; some of the trees shown will be used in the Northern Spine (the ones that weren't used anywhere else previously). Sorry about the pink line on the right side; it's one pixel row of the GUI and I couldn't get it off; weird. Here you also get to see the new style rain (if you haven't already); the new rain not only looks better and splashes when it hits the ground but there is also a wind system involved. Every once in a while the rain will blow to the left or right, in this one it is blowing to the left; default is just straight down (when there is no wind).



So basically, that is all for this week; now I must get back to mapping!

That is all for this week, see everyone next week!

Thanks for listening,

-Scythe
_________________

[ScytheCGC]

NARRATED VIDEO VERSION

Hello and welcome to the Development Chronicle XVI for Legacy of the Zodiac II. This week I continued to map the Continent of Inngard as well as decided something.

So I bet you want to know what I decided right? I'll tell you then. Basically originally I was going to have you stay on Inngard straight through the whole thing, and Inngard is very large; so you would be there for a while. So Euth and Yukimura were talking to me about this, so I decided that rather having all of the quests and monsters go in order straight through all of Inngard, I would have you go through up to the Torrential Plains, than go to another continent, most likely Southern Sub Zero, then go somewhere else, then back to Inngard etc. That way you aren't stuck on Inngard for a long time; it's mixed up a bit so you get to see different areas. So once I finish mapping the Continent of Inngard I will make the plan for the world map and make a general plan for the rest of the continents, what areas will be on them and the islands; so I know how far the quests and such have to stretch out.

But as I said, before I do that I am going to finish mapping the Continent of Inngard. This week I finished off mapping my part of the Coast (I did the rest of the right side and Yuki is working on the left side), I also started working on the Northern Spine and I got a lot of it done this week, I also finished the Village of Karthay since it is part of the Northern Spine.

It's time for some numbers again so you can get a picture of how much work both me and Yuki have done since we began mapping again, these numbers are after about a week of work so far.

Scythe

Coast of Inngard - 63 Maps out of 63 Maps (For my part of the Coast)

Northern Spine - 101 Maps out of 193 Maps

Total Maps: 164 Maps

Yukimura

Coast of Inngard - 14 Maps out of 46 Maps (For his part of the Coast)

Total Maps: 14 Maps

Here are a few screenshots of the Northern Spine which I have been mapping (as well as some of the Village of Karthay).

The below screenshots show some maps of the Northern Spine, the one with the ledge is where the Spine elevates, it elevates a total of two times, the lowest elevation of the Spine is the largest, and it gets smaller as it goes up; at the top the entrance to the Kothas Mountains will be present.





The below screenshots show some maps of the Village of Karthay, which is scattered around in a small area of the Northern Spine.





So basically I will continue mapping this week, I plan on finishing at least the rest of the Northern Spine this week.

That is all for this week, see everyone next week!

Thanks for listening,

-Scythe
_________________

[ScytheCGC]

NARRATED VIDEO VERSION

Hello and welcome to the Development Chronicle XVII for Legacy of the Zodiac II. This week I continued to map the Northern Spine and I decided yet another thing.

Basically what I decided was to change the development flow. How I was doing it was...

Plan an area

Map the area

Make NPC's, Quests etc for the area

Repeat for next area

Now I am changing it to...

Make a General Plan for every continent and area

Make a detailed plan for a certain continent

Map the continent

Make a detailed plan for the next continent

Make NPC's, Quests etc for the entire game

So basically I will be mapping the game first, than going back and spending time just working on the quests and NPC's and the balancing so that I can do the best job I can do on those things; I think it will work out better.

The mapping of the Northern Spine will definitely be finished this week, I have no screenshots to show you since you all saw what the Spine looks like last week.

That is all for this week, see everyone next week!

Thanks for listening,

-Scythe
_________________

[ScytheCGC]

NARRATED VIDEO VERSION

Hello and welcome to the Development Chronicle XVIII for Legacy of the Zodiac II. This week I have good news and bad news and some other news.

Bad news you ask? I still haven't finished mapping the Northern Spine like I had planned on. Good news? There's only about 50 maps left of the Northern Spine and I PLAN on finishing it this weekend.

I have decided against having the traditional ranks like on LoZ EX and SoM X where you get a new one as you level and such and it is displayed when you log in; instead I have decided to have your guild rank show; it will show up as shown below...

[12:00:00 PM]: Playername a Guildrank of the guild Guildname [Faction] has entered LoZ II!

The color of the message will change depending on your rank, I'll show it all below.

An example of how that would actually look with someone's name and such plugged in would be...

[12:00:00 PM]: Scythe a General of the guild Army of Nerevar [Valarian] has entered LoZ II!

The faction the guild belongs to will be stored in a file using PutVar/GetVar so it can display which faction the guild belongs to.

Here is the complete list of variations for each guild rank... (Rank 9 is the highest, Rank 1 is the lowest)

Rank 9
General (1 only)
[12:00:00 PM]: Scythe a General of the guild Army of Nerevar [Valarian] has entered LoZ II!

Rank 8
Lieutenant General (2 only)
[12:00:00 PM]: Scythe a Lieutenant General of the guild Army of Nerevar [Valarian] has entered LoZ II!

Rank 7
Major General
[12:00:00 PM]: Scythe a Major General of the guild Army of Nerevar [Valarian] has entered LoZ II!

Rank 6
Brigadier General
[12:00:00 PM]: Scythe a Brigadier General of the guild Army of Nerevar [Valarian] has entered LoZ II!

Rank 5
Captain
[12:00:00 PM]: Scythe a Captain of the guild Army of Nerevar [Valarian] has entered LoZ II!

Rank 4
Lieutenant
[12:00:00 PM]: Scythe a Lieutenant of the guild Army of Nerevar [Valarian] has entered LoZ II!

Rank 3
Sergeant
[12:00:00 PM]: Scythe a Sergeant of the guild Army of Nerevar [Valarian] has entered LoZ II!

Rank 2
Corporal
[12:00:00 PM]: Scythe a Corporal of the guild Army of Nerevar [Valarian] has entered LoZ II!

Rank 1
Private
[12:00:00 PM]: Scythe a Private of the guild Army of Nerevar [Valarian] has entered LoZ II!

If you are not in a guild it will say one of these (can't decide which)...

[12:00:00 PM]: Scythe a member of no guild [Valarian] has entered LoZ II!

[12:00:00 PM]: Scythe [Guildless/Valarian] has entered LoZ II!

I also decided on how the guilds related with each faction will work, originally I was just going to have the guild be aligned with a faction and anyone could join it regardless of their faction, but I wanted to make the faction you start off as have some importance in which class you pick; so it will not be so. Each guild will still be aligned with a faction, but only members of that faction can join it. However, you CAN change your faction (not your class, just your faction).

This will be done through a level 100 something quest. Basically when you first join it checks your class and saves which faction you are in in a .ini file; that is referenced when you go to change it through the quest and when you are invited to a guild. I will be emulating the default guild invite system with a scripted version of it so I can work in these modifications; basically it will compare the guild's faction with the player being invited's faction; and if they are different it won't work. This way you can still decided to abandon your default faction and become a traitor and join another faction, but you have to play for a while before you can do this; so this will influence your class choice at the beginning.

The reason for these things (both) are mainly to add more importance and emphasis on the factions and the guilds. This way you won't look for a rank gained by leveling to tell power of someone who logs in, but you will look for a high rank in a guild and you can assume they are powerful; and if you don't join a guild you won't have any rank at all.

That is all for this week, see everyone next week!

Thanks for listening,

-Scythe
_________________

[ScytheCGC]

NARRATED VIDEO VERSION

Hello and welcome to the Development Chronicle XIX for Legacy of the Zodiac II. This week I completed mapping the Northern Spine, as well as began working on the Taladas Outskirts.

As I said the first thing I did was complete mapping the Northern Spine, so the next thing to map would be the Taladas Outskirts, which I was originally going to name Capital City Outskirts; but that is two characters too long for the map name >.<! So I began mapping the Taladas Outskirts, so that is what I will be doing now; It is basically like the Haven Outskirts except there are a few different tiles being used. Because of the similarity I will just show you one screenshot of the Taladas Outskirts...



This is basically a screenshot of one of the maps that runs along the semi-large Lake to the right of the Capital City Taladas.

In other news I created a Blog for Legacy of the Zodiac II using Wordpress. You can get to the Blog by clicking the link below...

http://www.legacyofthezodiac.net/loziiblog

I will be putting up the Development Chronicles as they are released each week as well as random updates as to what I am doing during the week; so keep an eye out. You can also use RSS to subscribe to the blog, so you will know when updates have been made to it.

The current theme I am using is called "One Winged Angel" and is made by the One Winged Angel Studio. The download for the theme can be found on the site.

So basically now I am working on the Taladas outskirts, so off to do that.

That is all for this week, see everyone next week!

Thanks for listening,

-Scythe
_________________

[ScytheCGC]

NARRATED VIDEO VERSION

Hello and welcome to the Development Chronicle XX for Legacy of the Zodiac II. This week I completed mapping the Outskirts of Taladas, I also went along the top North edge of the continent and put the base of the Kothas Heights all the way across it. After that I decided that before continuing on with what I had assigned myself; I would do the areas that were assigned to Yukimura (he never did them). So far I completed the part of the Coast of Inngard that was assigned to him.

As I said, I first went about completing the Outskirts of Taladas, which included the exterior portion of the walls of the Capital City Taladas; below you will find two screenshots of the exterior portion of the walls.



The above screenshot is simply a screenshot of part of the southern exterior wall of the Capital City Taladas.



The above screenshot shows the exterior wall portion of the southern entrance to the Capital City Taladas.

Also, I went along the whole north part of the Outskirts of Taladas and the Northern Spine and put the Kothas Heights Base on those maps; here are two screenshots depicting this.





Now that the Outskirts of Taladas were completed, I basically had two choices laying in front of me. Choice A, continue with my assignments and map the Capital City Taladas, or B; map the areas that I had assigned to Yukimura but he didn't do. I decided to go with B, so the first thing I did with that was go through the 25 or so maps he did on his portion of the Coast of Inngard and fix them up (errors and lack of detail). Than I proceeded to finish mapping his portion of the Coast of Inngard. After that I made a few changes to the layout of his next assignment (The Torrential Plains). Now I am all set and ready to map The Torrential Plains.

But before I do that I would like to say a few words. I have allowed a few people to come on LoZ II and look around to see how they like it, they love the mapping but most of them say that there are too many maps. Now I thought about this and thought of why too many maps is bad. Basically, you run onto a map to loot someone; all they have to do is walk off the map and you basically lost them; because there are so many places that person could have ran too; which is why ambushing is important. Because of that I have already reduced the size of the Northern Spine, Outskirts of Taladas and The Torrential Plains, I did this through various means; but nothing that really changed the overall form and shape of the area. Now I am not saying that the above situation will never happen, it just won't happen as often. Also, all of the best training spots will be places where you are easily cornered and don't have much room to escape; ideally places with one exit. I will also say that the game will still be many times larger than LoZ EX and will still be complete. I will also say that the Continent of Inngard is the largest continent of them all (by far); and because of that you don't stay on it straight through, you will be leaving it to go other places and coming back to it after etc. Such as once you play through The Torrential Plains, you will go to Southern Sub Zero. Future Continents and Islands will be much smaller than Inngard, but still large enough that there are lots of places to explore. Also, even if an area is large and wide open, the good training spots either won't be right out in the open, or they won't be everywhere; so people will still flock to the best spots. Also remember that most of the game is Red Zones, so when you bump into another player a loot or fight most likely will occur. This is why being in a guild and traveling, training, and working together as a group with other guild members will be a vital part of the game.

Someone also told me that the people that came on the game said the beginning levels were way too hard. I did something wrong when I made those NPCs since after level 10 or so it gets a lot easier, still hard; but easier. Only Yuki got past that level area though and he said he noticed it got easier; but no one else wanted to level at the low levels so they never noticed it got easier. But the way those NPCs are and even the ones after it won't be staying, as I said I will be making all of the NPCs and Quests at once so I can balance them better; this includes redoing all of the NPCs I made so far (stats only) as well as checking the quests to make sure they are at the right difficulty level. I will say though, leveling on LoZ II will be harder than on LoZ EX.

Now I must go work on The Torrential Plains!

That is all for this week, see everyone next week!

Thanks for listening,

-Scythe
_________________

[Hajo]