Amethyst

are those gonna increase the strain on my toaster laptop? Honestly, yeah, probably. However my thought... and desperate hope... is that when I get to doing that kind of mapping, lag won't be an issue anyway because 1) I have never had to deal with latent overworld lag in RPG Maker before, except with Essentials. I don't know if it's because of bad coding or just -more- coding (base Essentials has about 10x as much code as base RPG Maker scripts), and 2) Starlight will be made on a newer version of RPG Maker, which runs on a newer version of the RGSS scripting languge. The newer versions are reputably more stable and scalable. Yep! Though don't expect much from them. The grass and flowers are mostly decorative, and while I haven't worked out exactly what's gonna go in each ward, it will at the very least cover events that can no longer be gotten. For instance, we'll probably have wild Skitty in Coral since the Skitty event goes poof. But, we'll see. Most of the new Pokemon availability in this episode will be coming from sidequests rather than encounters. My present thought is no, because it will seem more out of place to have level 70 bidoof, firstly, existing, and secondly running around in this previously low level area, than it will to just have the levels stay the same as before. Besides, that would be a safety hazard to the people. Don't worry, you may not see him again, but he's in a better place now. ...As in he moved to a new house. The old one was structurally unsound. "STRUCTURALLY UNSOUND" So firstly I hope everyone is well aware that I am now dead inside. Anyway, official statements on Gen 7: Yes, it will be incorporated. However, I'm 100% not doing anything related to Gen 7 until those games are released. The good news is we're in a much better place to implement Gen 7 than we were for Gen 6 for a few reasons: Sprites are scary but I have high hopes that I won't have to handle them like I have before. Can't say why for now, but it's nothing dramatic. We have an actual scripting team unlike before, and I'm personally much more competent/comfortable with coding than I was back then. We are currently (mostly) up to date. Before, only content up to Gen 3 was updated, with Gens 4/5 scattered in. We now have everything through 6. The Essentials community itself is also up to date, as a fall-back. The most recent Essentials features Gen 6 code thanks to a user project. I suspect a similar project will pop up to get gen 7 in. This wasn't something that happened back in the day. We already have a framework here of how the community can help with gathering/formatting data to put into the project, and I think we've got some surviving veterans from the process too. However, there are a couple things this time that will be more inconvenient than last: Field Effects will need to be updated for new moves, abilities and mechanics. This is going to be a particular pain because of the Field App graphics I spent forever of this dev cycle making. Since we're managing animations now too, it's a whole new array of moves to animate. There's more content in the game that will need to be adjusted for availability. There are more gyms, trainers, areas, TMs, events/sidequests than there were when Gen 6 hit. So it's still a pain. Further, I might deliberately hold off on implementing it until the final episode anyway. I mentioned this before but development times have taken so long, not because the new content is difficult, (excepting E16 in which everything takes forever), but because I'm making so many changes to the existing content. Since realizing this I'm actively trying to refrain from being too perfectionistic with preexisting content. I think postponing Gen 7 changes until the end of development will help me not have to constantly go back and change old stuff-- I can do it all in one fell swoop later. The exception to that will be if there happens to be a new Pokemon or Mega that works out as an ace for an upcoming leader. For example with Ciel: Altaria was always her ace and I was going to have a hell of a time making it powerful, but then there was a Mega and all of my problems were solved. So like if there happens to be a Mega Dragonite then I'll have to add Gen 7 sometime before Saphira's battle. But maybe that won't be a good thing for you all. Oh well.

this is a joke, right? like this account was just made for the dank memes, right? Mde's response above is correct (my actual working number was 235 plus or minus some commons). The animation team will keep working even past this number to get a head start on E17's animations, but it's probable that only these completed 235 will be released with E16 (and as a separate pack for other creators to use). It's not so much a knack as it is experience. I've mentioned this before, but I've worked with RPG Maker for a lot of years and back when I was more active in the RM community I was both a frequent participant and judge of weekly mapping contests on a number of sites. This is old hat for me. As a tangent, I -do- really enjoy mapping, but with Reborn I'm actually working pretty far below my actual capability. Part of this is just because some areas are not particularly inspired (for instance most of the early game, and smaller/generic caves), but mostly because I'm keeping to the gen 3 style. One thing I'm looking forward to with Starlight is getting back into panoramic mapping and being able to use customized light effects/fogs, negative space, and the whole bit. Finished Coral tonight after tossing half of it into the chipper and starting from scratch, but I'm happy with the result. Three to go. Lapis is up next.

Minor errors like passability only take a second to fix (admittedly WTC is a little more finnicky, but in general) so that's not the kind of stuff Marcello does anyway. He takes on the more significant errors like, you know, sucker punch. again. so if it's broken this time, blame him!!! That said, Inuki has your snark on the minor errors covered: Release dates are just a social construct. Finished Onyx today, mostly. The last part I can't do until I do Coral. Started on Coral. Who'd have guessed. My time/updating is going to get a bit spotty again over the next couple weeks because I'm having to pick up shifts at my job.

I am going to pull back on the bass because I think it rendered a bit louder than I wanted it to. Probably because I had the fry effect in the original jammed so far up oops. Anyway tonight's animation is Moonlight, background by yours truly and put together by Koyo. That said, Koyo unfortunately won't be able to stick around to keep on with the animation team, so Mde and Smeargle are the stars of the show from here out.

There's not really reason for sakura trees to be in Reborn, especially in the city. As it is the trees are being transplanted from Jasper/Beryl, so they would have had to have been there. Yesterday I did some more on Onyx, mostly with recoloring stuff and remapping the ward. Onyx was already in pretty good shape tbh so there wasn't a whole lot to do there but I'm still playing with colors, and will have to rebuild the stairway/rooftop. also this

ended up not really feeling the stream tonight, but maybe tomorrow instead. who knows. i sure don't. in any case, finished out obsidia today (both north and central) as well as all alleys + sweet co interior, also resprited the trainers school for onyx. so that's next.

I thought I was being clever with a title like that but actually I'm pretty sure it's going to inspire some sort of pokebestiality slashfic so uhh whoops. Anyhow here's a quick note about two changes in forum moderation coming to a website near you. Dark Desire, already moderating the server and Gaming General section, will also be taking over the Victory Road section. Aaaaand everyone's favorite little furry electrodent is newly joining the staff in moderating the Bug Reporting forums! which means if you have problems, bug him, not me. just kidding, post a topic in the right place like a responsible citizen. uh well my text editor seems to have glitched and i can't actually get this strikethrough offa me now... so that's good.... but we're going to make this an abrupt end to the announcement but thank both of you for your supporting the community!

My twitch is here: http://www.twitch.tv/amethystblack Tonight is a classic Fire Blast, again from mde. ...and, I guess by association, Thunder Wave/paralysis too. -.- Paralysis mine, Thunder Wave Inuki's. I think it was Inuki anyway... can't remember...

I really sort of inherently don't favor legendaries, but it's cute. If it weren't legendary I'd be all about it. Fairy type is best type after all. That's not Reborn. We're not about that. And even if we were, it wouldn't have come so late in the game. She was a little off-kilter. She got busted for having hazardous materials in her home. Turns out she's the kind of lady you see on 'Hoarders'. Her living room was piled to the ceiling with junk, and just a very small path to walk through-- and that's just what we could see through the front door. Apparently deeper inside was much worse. See gen VII questions. Just Budew. The rest of the line is great, I'm totally a fan.

beryl was the one i didn't have to do, since it was done in advance a long time ago Poison Fang comes from mde, and despite not caring much for the move, it is one of my favorite animations overall.

Resprited all Obsidia buildings and cleaned the maps. Still have to figure out color balance though. Also added a unique graphic (to the pre-existing city that is) for Silph/the Department Store. Next I can start remapping them. animations tomorrow night or burn me at the stake

Most city-based events will no longer be a thing, but availability shouldn't change in the end one way or another. I'm pretty sure most of the event Pokemon in the city are available outside of it by now, so they can safely be erased. Anything else will either be preserved or get a new event. Entire city + apophyll + azurine and honestly that's not even counting stuff I want to do for sidequests, but I probably won't worry about -that- until I actually get to making them. I ain't addin' anything until we have a game to base it off of. *secretly cries about it* Finished Peridot today among a few other things, started copying new tiles over to Obsidia. Tomorrow will be respriting the buildings similar to last week. Wanted to start on that tonight but I ended up not getting as much done or streaming due to medical appointment + not feeling physically up to it. So hopefully dev stream next week instead. Lord knows there's plenty to work on for it.

it's okay i don't actually eat that much, i'll be fine! and the first batch of cookies tastes like monoammonium phosphate anyway. as for the second part, you can't stop me. nobody can stop me. not even i can stop me. As far as that group goes, you're not the only one who felt that way. I know I'm the community owner and blahblahblah but when I was originally added to it, I had no intention of participating and wasn't really even sure if I was going to stay. Don't take that the wrong way, because I thought well of everyone in there, yourself included. But it felt to me that it would be like, having a parent or something at a party. Too much authority. Lamesville. But I think feeling that way is normal for anyone. So naturally, I'm also very glad that you've stuck around and have been able to become more comfortable with us despite that insecurity. Hopefully I've proven that I don't bite. Unless cookies are involved, apparently. and don't worry. i haven't finished reborn either.

yeah i forgot to post animations this weekend... i'm bad. noted for a day on which i dont have anything else and, about that magical transformation before obviously that was just switching graphic sets but it does make some things look a lot better in itself and then there's the train station, arguably worse post-magical transformation. That's not any sort of a finished piece I just thought it was funny. ngl, as i'm mapping through peridot, i'm also thinking about the way this is done, including how adrienn thinks of it. i imagine xem looking at various parts of the ward to figure out what xe wants done with them, and xem getting so exasperated like, 'this house is literally the size of my bathroom, do people really live here?' seven of them 'who planned this city and forgot to leave room for people to breathe?' 'why is this satellite in the middle of the road. what is it even hooked up to?' nothing 'then why is it still here?!' 'why does this block have four dumpsters? what are you guys doing here that you need four dumpsters????' reparations trickled out into west and lodo, as you can see, meaning i'm almost done with peridot. the only parts left to do are the alleys + copying the fixed parts over to be visible from opal (but that's going to be sort of teidous) anyway here's something real

TIL that the obedience system changed in Gen V so that a truant Pokemon doesn't even ever have a chance to attack. If wanted to be evil, I would have put that in, but I am so not about that. Anyway I touched up the disobedience script to fix the error where it was like Pokemon ignored orders Just kidding!!! Incidentally, the existence of that intended effect also changed in Gen V, so I just deleted it. Which happens to be my preferred method of bugfixing anyhow. Added the connection from 7th St to the WTC. Worked more on Peridot, settled on a color scheme, and started cleaning up the map+remapping stuff. Currently done with most of north Peridot but had to stop to sprite this mess: Other screen: also this kind of magical transformation!! amuses me

uh, gens 1-5 are from the main series. the rips are included with Essentials by default. I just tested again to be sure and I don't see a size difference between saving as 32 or 8. That could be a difference in how GG handles saving files though, idk. Excepting massive tilesets, I do try to keep each file to 255 colors or less though for visual consistency, so I could easily switch them if I wanted. I don't want to, because 32 is easier to edit (especially when alphas get involved). Also, recent versions of GG have had an absolutely heartbreaking glitch where certain graphics bug out when saved in 8-bit and get reduced to black and white + visual noise. That was especially frustrating when I was working Mega sprites, saved, and then found it was ruined and had to redo it. Happened multiple times. Nonetheless I'm not really concerned about it because the entire Graphics folder for the game is only 25 MB. The game bulk comes from music, which I have taken to compressing (although most of the room gained from that was eaten up by animation sound effects, so total file size is at 450 MB right now) --- As an after thought, I wonder if the engine would load 8-bit graphics faster though. If the file size doesn't change, then probably not. But hmm... they did, and it wasn't the only time. the others were for different things but similarly stupid stuff like "fence too high" or something dumb, i can't remember the details.

instructions unclear; got head stuck in pikachu

because of . : x X ~ visual and thematic C O N T R A S T ~ X x : . wooooo!! Because the map of the region was originally drawn on four 8.5x11 sheets of paper taped together. I did that out of convenience since I had no intention of making a game based off of it. So it taller than it was wide, and then was forced into a screen wider than it is tall (DS screen size). The city already has a bunch of street lights and lamps... As mentioned, that's part of what contributes to the lag as is. You mean, like... sidewalks, or...? Recoloured most if not all of the peridot buildings today... and then spent way too much time trying different colour schemes for the ward and I don't like any of it. So maybe I'll warm up to one of them tomorrow or something, idk.