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First of all, The Hidden City of Arcatis is finished if you didn't know. Here's the topic http://www.gdunlimited.net/forums/topic/6758-rmxp-the-hidden-city-of-arcatis/ If you find ANY bugs, please read this list And if your bug isn't mentioned, let me know via PM, a comment here, or a comment on the topic. If you're willing to review the game for me, please do, I would love to know what people think of it. As for Arcatis II, I have many great ideas for the story, but the things holding me back are my inability to do more than simple sprite edits. If someone could make a sprite of someone that looks like they could e the father of the RTP Gunner01 I would be very grateful As for my ideas for the story, I'm adding a race of Elves with a history based on the story for Final Fantasy Ace, a minor character from the first game will return and become a major character, Harry's past, the identities of Jon, Adrian, Brandon, and the people having a mysterious conversation when you enter Caeli Temple, will be revealed, and much more. I suggest watching the two bonus scenes in the first game too. Adrian has more reasons for his actions at the end of the game than he says. The legend that Harry tells you about isn't the whole story, and isn't 100% true. The reason the prison bars exploded is also explained. Also, there will be a Tower of Ordeals bonus dungeon in the sequel. After defeating a few bonus bosses, and beating the game, you will have access to a tower which will contain more bonus bosses and stronger enemies for grinding. Beating the first game and using the mini project I made will give you a password to unlock things in the sequel. These include, but are not limited to... Items like: -Hero's Sword (Desc: Once wielded by a forgotten hero. Said to be the sword of evil's bane) -Hero's Tunic (Desc: A green Elven tunic once worn by a forgotten hero.) -Fairy Bow (Desc: A magic bow once wielded by a forgotten hero.) -Empty Bottle (Desc: A very old, empty glass bottle with a label written in an ancient language) -Cracked Ring (Desc: A magic gold ring set with a large, cracked, black stone.) -Weighted Clothes (Desc: TBD) Yes, they all have a use and the only item not a reference to something else, is the weighted clothes. If you cant figure out what the Cracked Ring is from, here's a hint: I plan to make it give the wearer the "Resurrect" skill which will revive an ally with 50% HP and uses no MP. The ring also poisons the wearer and lowers all stats a little.

My first map for VXace: Featuring a part of "Hervinge Forest" during day-sunset and night. ps night is supposed to be creepy like

I spend my whole life devoted to the art of video games. When I grow up I become a video game maker. Eventually I am successful, and my games are worldwide popular. My company expands with the growth of profits. One day I am informed that a group from a foreign country has pirated (copied and redistributing) my most recent and popular game and is giving it away for FREE and selling advertisement space on the website they have it available at. I contact my lawyers in an effort to have the pirates served with a cease and desist letter. My lawyers unfortunately inform me that the pirates are geographically located where my countries laws do not apply to them and there are no international laws that govern their current actions. I spend a ton of money upgrading my security and release a sequel to the game, it also becomes worldwide popular. And again the pirates crack my security, copy the game, and redistribute it, again selling advertising space. Except this time my advertisers are wise to it and pull their ad space on my sites in order to advertise on my ‘competition’ (the pirates), and they do so legally. I must close close my business, no one will advertise or invest for a game that won't see it's return in profits, and there for I can't afford to pay my staff and I can't do it alone. Boy I wish there were some kind of law, or governing body that were here to protect me in the event of a scenario like this… That fictional situation is a very basic and small scale example of one of the effects of piracy. The current laws being proposed for policing the internet are being created in an effort to help prevent the type of situation described above. I do not agree with the proposals in their current form; however I fully recognize their need to exist. My understanding is that the generally agreed upon main ‘hiccup’ if you will, with the current proposed laws to govern the content on the internet is that people will lose their rights(in the form of censorship). Last I checked in the average ‘free country’ you do not have the right to public nudity, and with good cause. One could argue that clothing is the first form of censorship yet most wear it happily. People fear that if the law(s) pass the governing body (who will enforce the laws) MAY use it for outside interests. The majority of this fear lies in the fact that the proposed laws are vague in terms of what they can specifically remove/ban from the internet. So if it is possible to exploit the system, let’s not implement it at all? Have we forgotten about my game company? The next argument point the average person will bring up is the corporate owners who benefit most from this law change, and who will potentially exploit it. Corrupt business owners and law officials, really? That is the best counter argument available? As I said, the laws in their current form are too vague and allow too much room for interpretation and there for should not be passed. However piracy IS still a problem. Most people want to make money, a lot want to own their own business, and everyone wants to get paid to do what they love for the rest of their life, piracy puts that at risk. Change is almost always a good thing, but it does need to be done right. The corporate ‘big wigs’ will always be looking for ways to exploit the system, they will always be greedy and they will almost always end up on top. That is a problem with the way we run things as a society, and should not be a direct consideration when out right refusing the idea of a law. If half as many people concerned about internet policing showed concern with corruption it wouldn’t be an issue. Mass fear of a loss of rights is blinding people into thinking that any law that wants to govern internet content is automatically bad. I create a product; I patent it, and begin sales. Anyone who copies (pirates) my product is infringing upon my rights as the owner of that product, capitalism. By being completely against any law that looks at governing pirated content on the internet, you are valuing the illegal consumer’s rights over my own (as the product creator and owner). People are receiving little to no compensation for their work because of piracy, companies are passing up ideas based on piracy, and consumers are shopping based on piracy. Piracy (specifically in digital sense) does exist, today, right now. These maybes, ifs and possibilities, they speak of if these laws are passed, are just that, potential and not definite. I personally think the internet should be a free tool for the sharing of all information worldwide. But alas that is not the reality of the situation. However censorship IS needed; child pornography, snuff films, rape, and murder dictate it. But where does it end, female circumcision is illegal in America, but not everywhere. Does that mean photos of it would also be illegal? What about text, describing it's existance? What about drug use like marijuana? Will licensed smokers be allowed to have their photos (of them smoking) online, but not the unlicensed people? Obviously a law(s) that govern the internet as a whole needs a lot of discussion before implementation, but in my opinion, the idea by no means needs to be abolished completely. I for one can see the big picture and do not want to see the death of good art thanks to piracy. -Your right is only free to have, if it does not infringe on anyone else’s.

Lesson 7: Flow Control - Looping Ah, looping. Loops, in my opinion, are what separate a "script" from a "program." So, here comes the obligatory... What is a loop? Think of the word loop, in the terms of a song loop -- we say a song is looping when it repeats, once it reaches the end. A loop in programming, is generally a block of code that is repeated any arbitrary number of times. For example, at its very essence, all a video game is, is a huge loop continuously taking input and reacting based on the input and the game's current state, until the player quits the game. So how does it work? Well, in ruby, there are actually many ways to "loop" or iterate -- as it's commonly referred to as -- let's start with the while loop. while condition do # Loop block end The `do` portion of the while - loop syntax is optional -- while condition # Loop block end works as well. So, "while" the "condition" evaluates to true (anything except false or nil), execute block. The while loop will continuously repeat until condition is false or nil. Be Careful -- Endless loops. Endless loops refer to a loop that never ends. This happens because the condition never becomes false. If you get stuck in an endless loop, usually CTRL + C will break the loop. As a programmer, we need to have some kind of control over how long a program repeats its statements. One common method of loop control, is through use of a counter: i = 0 while i < 5 puts "Hello!" i += 1 end the output would be: Hello! Hello! Hello! Hello! Hello! How did this happen? The interpreter sets a variable, `i`, to 0. It then enters the loop: Is i less than 5? yes, display "Hello". i is now 1 Is i less than 5? yes, display "Hello". i is now 2 Is i less than 5? yes, display "Hello". i is now 3 Is i less than 5? yes, display "Hello". i is now 4 Is i less than 5? yes, display "Hello". i is now 5 Is i less than 5? no, i is equal to 5, stop looping. We can use a variable as a counter, and use an arbitrary maximum number of iterations and then by counting the number of iterations we can determine when to stop executing the block. Here's a better example: "In mathematics, the factorial of a non-negative integer n, denoted by n!, is the product of all positive integers less than or equal to n. For example, 5! = 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = 120 " (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factorial) (Yea, I was lazy and they had a better explanation......) Er, let's translate this to our code! Let's say we want a program that takes a number from the user, and calculates that number's factorial. # Calculate the factorial print("Enter a number: ") number = gets.to_i # Get first number factorial = number print("#{number}!\n#{number}") while number > 1 # move to next number number -= 1 # get product of n..n-1 factorial *= number print(" * #{number} ") end puts("= #{factorial}") Test: Enter a number: 5 5! 5 * 4 * 3 * 2 * 1 = 120 Looks good! As you can see, counters can decrement as well. How you do it, will mostly depend on the situation (remember, you don't always have to increment/decrement by 1, either.) Of course, condition can be ANY expression, and is also used to loop based on a program's "current state." Let's go back to the guessing game we created. Wouldn't it be much better if we let the user keep guessing until they quit or guess the number? # Set a number to guess number = 10 # define the current "state" game_over = false while !game_over # Prompt the user to guess what number it is: print("I am thinking of a number. What is it? (Type q to quit) ") # Get the guess guess = gets.strip if guess.upcase == "Q" puts("Goodbye!") # Change current "state" game_over = true elsif guess.to_i < number puts("Too low!") elsif guess.to_i > number puts("Too high!") elsif guess.to_i == number puts("Wow! You got it!") # Won the game, change state game_over = true end end Now, our simple guessing game is actually a game! Well, mostly. We'd want to randomize the number to make it more of a game, but I will go over random number generation another time. For now, it does what we need. The game will now continuously prompt the user until the variable game_over is true. Notice that, we could have instead made a variable, say, game_playing, and set it to true. Then, while game_playing is true, prompt the user -- either way would work. Before we finish, I'd like to introduce to another form of looping, and some more loop control methods. The next loop you will learn about, is called the "for" loop. The for loop can be considered a special type of iterator, but for now, just think of it as a loop with very specific bounds. (I will go over more about for and iterators, in a later lesson) Let's go back to the factorial program we made. If you notice, a factorial always loops a very specific number of times. The number of times it loops may be dependant on the input, but it will always be a set value. This is where for loops come in. for i in 0..5 puts i end produces: 0 1 2 3 4 5 So how does this work? Well, the syntax is: for variable in set # Block end For loops, will iterate through each item in a "set" (for now, we will only discuss ranges), and store the current object in the set, in the variable 'i'. So what happened in the above loop? Well, in Ruby, a Range object (denoted by min..max or min...max), is actually a representation of a set of numbers from min to max. Be careful with ranges, 0..5 means 0 to 5 inclusive, while 0...5 means 0 to 5 exclusive:0..5 => 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 0...5 => 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 Then, based on this analysis, i is first set to 0 (first item in the set), then we print i in the block. When we move to the next item/iteration, i is then set to 1, and we print it. The loop continues this pattern, until we reach the last item, then when there are no items left to be stored in i, we break out of the loop.Why is this useful? Well, let's put this to more practical use. Let's go back to the factorial program -- like I promised. # Calculate the factorial print("Enter a number: ") number = gets.to_i factorial = number for i in 1...number # factorial *= i end puts("#{number}! = #{factorial}")[/code]Note, that unfortunately, ranges don't work in reverse. For example, 5...1 is not 5,4,3,2. It will not work. There are ways to reverse ranges, but that would be treading into an area I want to save for another lesson. Ahem, any who, carrying on... (I apologize for a larger amount of "later..."s, I would like, for this lesson, to focus on the concept of loops, without worrying too much about extra technical details, at least not yet) Another good use of for loops, is for generating rows and columns of display. Say, we want to generate a pattern like this: *************** *************** We could simply hard code a couple puts, and it would work...but what if we want to be able to draw any size? # Get rows and columns print("Enter number of rows: ") rows = gets.to_i print("Enter number of columns: ") cols = gets.to_i # Display pattern for i in 0...rows for j in 0...cols print("*") end print("\n") end could produce: Enter number of rows: 2 Enter number of columns: 15 *************** *************** It may seem silly, but if you can grasp this concept of nested for loops, you will find it VERY useful later on. But what exactly happens? So, rows == 2 and cols == 15. We enter the first loop at i = 0, and the second loop at j = 0. Then j will become 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14 (remember, 0...cols is 0 to cols exclusive) and on each iteration, the interpreter will print a `*` on a single line. When we break out of the nested loop, ruby prints a \n (newline character), then i becomes 1. We then reach the nested loop again, and it does the exact same thing, printing 15 `*`s on the next line (notice, 0-14 inclusive or 0-15 exclusive, is 15 different numbers). We break, print a new line, i runs out of numbers (0...rows exclusive => 0, 1) and therefore break from the outerloop, and stop looping altogether. This concept will become very useful, when looping through grid-based data structures. (A single for loop, if you noticed, is meant/really good at looping through list-based data structures). Finally, before I finish loops, I would like to teach you a couple useful control statements for loops -- break, and next. loop do # Prompt the user to guess what number it is: print("I am thinking of a number. What is it? (Type q to quit) ") # Get the guess guess = gets.strip if guess.upcase == "Q" puts("Goodbye!") break end guess = guess.to_i if guess < number puts("Too low!") next end if guess > number puts("Too high!") next end if guess == number puts("Wow! You got it!") break end end So, this is a slightly modified version of our guessing game. If you try it out, you might notice it works exactly the same! Let's analyze what I changed. Firstly, the loop is no longer a while loop... loop do # Code end This is just another form of loop that ruby has, that represents an infinite loop -- when the interpreter finds this, it will continuously loop the block of code. (This is useful for if you need to loop, but not based on a certain state/condition). Now, when a guess is made, if the guess is 'Q' or the right number, the loop will "break." break is a keyword in ruby, and is also a special function. It will "break out" of the current, immediate loop, and stop looping (Note, if you use break in a nested loop, it will only break out of the loop it is called from, not all loops). We also, use `next` if the number is incorrect. next is like break (a special function for controlling loops), but what it does, is tell the ruby interpreter to skip to the "next" iteration, meaning next will skip the rest of the block of code, and restart the loop. If used in a for loop, this also means i becomes the next item in the list. Well, that's all for today's lesson! I apologize for taking so long this time. Things are getting busy for me again, and I may take a little bit longer to finish each lesson. I will try my best, however, to keep the lessons coming once a week! Now, I will leave you with a few more challenges: 1. Make a simple "menu" script, that will continuously prompt the user to enter a numeric selection, and display a different message based on the input. If the user types "q" or "Q" the menu should stop. 2. Write a script that will generate this output: * ** *** **** ***** ****** ******* ******** ********* ********** or, if you're feeling really creative, try making it look like this: * *** ***** ******* ********* *********** (Kinda late for Christmas isn't it????) 3. The formula for converting degrees celsius to degrees fahrenheit is: F = C * 9 / 5 + 32 Write a script that will display a Celsius -> Fahrenheit conversion table from -10 celsius to 40 celsius. i.e -10C = 14F -9C = 15.8F -8C = 17.6F -7C = 19.4F ...etc.