Heretic86

self.back_opacity = value That should leave the text as non transparent, but make the skin transparet. As polraudio said, that is per scene. When you dig around in your Menus, each one of screens like Items or Spells is each its own scene. self.back_opacity = 0 Sets the "Skin" so only the text appears self.back_opacity = 160 Default - Slighly transparent self.back_opacity = 255 Fully Opaque - Cant see through it at all

I think 1.04 also had some other changes as I had some difficulty with fonts and spaces coming up as squares instead of empty. Not sure what else changed however. There may be other ways to pull this off. In my "collection" (sig), and this sounds unrelated, but it is related, there are two scripts for Animated Title Scene (you dont need) and Timed Inputs and Windows (which may be of use). The Timed Inputs are displayed when you start the Demo for the Collection, and used to get change the name Aluxes to Heretic. Now that does NOT sound useful, but other parts of that same script ARE useful. You can display a Timed Message Window ANYWHERE, including inside Menus and other stuff. It uses the Default Message Window, but can be customized if you wish to alter its appearance. The purpose of that window is to communicate to a Player while being allowed to move around what they are expected to do. You can set up those Message Windows to "act like normal Message Windows", or to stick around until a Player accomplishes what is expected. Like pressing the "Up" key, or ANY other Condition, such as the Player pressing the "Space" key (as mentioned, also checked with Input.press?(INPUT::Space) or related Key Binding) or the Player equips a certain Item on a certain Character. There is a Message System in my Collection Demo, but you DO NOT NEED my normal Message System. The Timed Input and Windows (Message) Script acts like an entirely separate Message System that should be perfectly compatible with your current game. The Timed Input and Windows Script should be 100% compatible with your current Message System. The only trouble that may occur is the Timed Windows uses the Default Message Window, so it isnt tied to any specific Message System. This could be good or bad depending on your perspective. If it is different than your normal Message Window from your Message System, the Player could recognize it as being different, and more like a Tutorial Window so they understand that they are being Trained. If you want the Timed Windows to look exactly like the Windows in your existing Message System, that could be a bit of trouble for you. Slightly off topic, but you mentioned having Guards react to Sound. Another script that is part of that "Collection" is called Super Event Sensor. That script has some very enhanced abilities that allow Events like NPC's to "see" or "hear" a Player. The script also allows you to set up Events so they are not Psychic, and only see what is in front of them. For Sensor Events to hear something, that is based on Move Speed, but can also be affected by certain types of gear with additional scripts that are also included in that Collection. In the Demo, there is a "Ring of Silence" so a Guard that reacts to Sound (Move Speed) wont hear you if you are moving behind them, but without that Ring equipped, the Guard will "Hear" the Player and react to their presence. You could easily swap out "Ring of Silence" with "Feather Soled Shoes", or if you've set anything up to alter the Players Move Speed so they "sneak" by moving "more slowly". Lots of scripts have so much stuff that it is difficult to communicate everything. This script does this AND that, and often people only see the "this" and miss the "that". I know it sounds like I am trying to pimp my own scripts over someone elses, but that Collection Im suggesting you take a look at contains scripts from MANY people, not just my own stuff. I included so much stuff in that Collection that others have written because of how useful it can be to everyone. There is such a wide degree of features, literally thousands of things, that many specifics of what it contains will most likely be overlooked. The scripts that are in that Collection are intended for you to be able to use just the scripts you want. You wont be required to use every script in that Collection, just the ones that you find useful. Trust me, it IS worth your time to take a look through the entire Collection as there will most likely be something that you find very very useful. I do understand if you prefer other scripts as there may be times they fill a need better than the scripts that are included in the Collection. It is your decision. Black Mage's script might very well suit your needs better, and Im perfectly fine with that. There are two things I want to give you credit for thinking about. #1 a Stealth System. Very few games consider using stealth at all. #2 Training your Players in your unique type of gameplay. A lot of ambitions game creators use very complex and confusing systems that require training to use and understand. They give their players the complex features, but rarely teach the Player how to use those complex features, which leads to player frustration and dissatisfaction. Crafting Systems for example are complex and neat, but they dont always make sense to Players until they are taught what does what. So I have to give you a big thumbs up (excellent ideas) for using both of these ideas. I know english isnt your native language, and the Collection is in english. If you have any trouble with parts of the Collection, I will do what I can to help you.

There are other message systems that allow the player to move around while messages are displayed...

GSUB and Regular Expressions with Ruby The part of the script you are looking for specifically is a Ruby Text Replacement for "Group Substitution". Thats basically how \n[id] works, but you can add to that using something like \e[enemy_id] to replace the Message Text with the name of an Enemy. @text.gsub!(/\\[Ee]\[([0-9]+)\]/) do $game_actors[$1.to_i] != nil ? $game_troop.enemies[$1.to_i].name : "" end Untested, but that should replace a \e[enemy_id] with "Ghost" or "Basilisk". (Note: the Exclamation Point! after gsub! is used to "destroy" the original variable, thus altering it how you want. Otherwise a string is captured but the original variable is not altered. Leaving a string the same is useful for Special Event Names: EV001\cat_actor[actor_id], or for Special Comments. More enhanced message systems like MMW or Multiple Message Windows (available in my collection) do accomplish exactly what you ask. You can display the name of Items, Weapons, Armors, Maps, and Icons for each of those things as well. Even if you dont want to use MMW, the code that pulls off displaying the value of Variables may still be very useful to you. Its all based around GSUB, GSUB!, and Regular Expressions.

In my experience with scripting so far, what causes the most drain on resources is the Redraw. Once a graphic is made, it can be left alone and not redrawn unless altered in some way. Redrawing each and every frame 20, 40, or 60 times a second, that will murder performance. It can be checked with Update, then if it is different, then do a Redraw.

Expect a ton of revisions. Especially if your working on a Story Arc or Pacing. Always keep in mind that as a creator with zero limits, you can shuffle and reshuffle certain dialogue to other places in the game. Maybe have the funnies at a campfire later in the game, even if it was intended as being introduced in the first five minutes of play. I think writing the story and script (dialogue) is the best thing you can do. Everything else grows around that.

To do this with Dialogue Only, characters may need to literally express a Reaction when something is expected to be funny. I'd literally add in a "Ha ha ha ha" from another character that heard the joke. It helps to fill in the blank. Since the Player is expected to interpret a statement as a joke, sometimes that expected reaction from the player needs to be explicit for the Player to witness from another character in the Dialogue itself. Personally, I prefer Body Language for conveying emotion. Not always possible however. What kind of Message System are you using? Does it support Letter by Letter or subtle Pauses in displaying that text?

Is a long-ass post any different than a game with too much dialogue? Depends on who you ask. If someone finds something interesting, they'll keep reading the post or playing the game. If they're not interested, one sentence is too much. Learning how to make games not suck unfortuantely practically requires that you make some games that DO suck. Its mostly for experience. I tried this, but it didnt pan out so well, and that way was much simpler and far more effective. This is why being able to learn from failure is important. Failure doesnt mean "give up", it means it is an opportunity to learn. Edison would have told you so many years ago, "No I dont know how to make a lightbulb yet, but I sure as hell can tell you a thousand ways to not make a lightbulb". Words of wisdom to remember. And I am glad you appreciated my effort. Its a bit easier when you type a hundred words a minute tho...

I wrote a script that allows for Unlimited Battle Page Conditions for XP, specifically for problems like this. The script requires you to put in a Comment. Then in the Comment, put the word "Condition:" You can literally script straight into the Comment Box now, but what ever you write needs to be able to evaluate to TRUE or FALSE. So you'd start off with something like "Condition: $foo == $bar" because that can evaluate properly. You can also add in as much stuff into the calls as you wish. "Condition: ($foo == $bar AND $bal == $fal) OR $lorem == $ipsum" For your particular case, you'd probably need to put in something like this: "Condition: $game_party.actors[2].state?(state_id) == true" That will allow a specific page to run but only if that actor has that State. Hence, Unlimited Conditions. Now, as far as adding the skill itself, there should be an Event Command for that. Dont give the skill as you normally would in the Actor Tab of the Database, use the Event Command for that. Thus, you should also be able to make that actor "forget" that skill as well, if you so desire. The script is available in my "Collection" in my sig below. You might find a few other useful scripts to help you out as well. --- Note: Unlimited Battle Page Conditions works fine as a Standalone Script. Just copy out that one, you dont need my battle system or any other scripts.

Then learn from their mistakes. Why was the story uninteresting? But more importantly, if it was so uninteresting to begin with, why did you play the game? Long cutscenes can be fine as long as they are rewarding for the player. Ive played enough bad RM games to know that too much of the dialogue is done for exposition purposes only. You are so and so and need to go from here to there, then they blather on giving way more information than I want. Youre given the history of everything all at once, starting with the dinosaurs and a big rock and pretty much everything in between. Cutscenes are Plot Devices Just about every scene in a movie advances the plot in some way shape or form. For RPG purposes, usually the only interaction the player gets is going here to there, then pausing for a while to give a logical or emotional reason to progress to the next part of the story. Movies are typically broken up into three acts. A first act provides for character introduction and a bit of back history on who the people are and where they are coming from. Second act occurs once most main characters have been identified, and is where the major portion of the Conflict takes place. Third act is Resolution to the Conflict. There arent exactly clearly defined "lines" between the first, second, and third acts. But in general, these same Acts apply also to most story telling video games, but Act 2 is generally quite a long one as thats the meat of most gameplay. A lot of the RM games that I've played that I think suck have a repeated habit of trying to cram Act 1 entirely into the dialogue of ONE NPC. This is a massive mistake. What happens is it treats the Character Introduction Act down a players throats as if it is something very important, but does not allow the player to discover who the characters are at their own pace. And Pace is really what it boils down to. Every moving has a certain pacing. Some movies are slow. Others are very fast paced. You can usually determine the average pace of a movie by the number of Cuts there are. In slow expositional scenes (exposition = lots of talking), the Pace matches the Cuts. Long cuts, then camera changes, another long cut, more dialogue, etc. Fast paced movies have very short cuts, where each Cut lasts maybe a single second. So for a high action three minute scene thats 1 second for each cut, or 60 x 3 for a total of 180 cuts for a single scene. Note: scene, not Act. If you want a fast paced game, expect to have a lot of content. Fortunately, RPGs are a bit slower pace, but still require a lot of content. So heres the thing. Games boil down to roughly 3 Acts (storytelling games anyway), and each Act needs for the player to feel as if they are a part of the enviornment you put them in at their own pace. If you want something to be high paced, then push the player forward, but dont take that control from the player. Give them a reason to move forward and prevent them from being able to go back through a "Logical Plot Device". Destroy the bridge, its too dangerous to go back, tell them there is nothing for them back that way, push them forward. Most RPG games start off at a low speed Pace, then ramp things up as their goals become more clearly identified. And thats another thing, players need to discover what their goals are at their own pace. Let them discover it for themselves by being the ones that at least trigger cutscenes, or expositional dialogue when appropriate. Oddly enough, a small sense of Mystery is a very compelling reason for a player to both progress the story forward at their own Pace, but dont over-do the Mystery. Make sure I know where I am supposed to go or what I am supposed to do, but dont tell me everything all at once. The Pace of the Game is what determines how long you can make a Cutscene. It is possible to make really really long but interesting Cutscenes, or very short and powerful Cutscenes! Holy shit! Those bastards just took my girlfriend! Im comin to save you! For something like a Character Betrayal, a bit more expositional dialogue is needed. Why did such and such character betray either side and join your party / betray your party. And Im sorry, but two minutes is not enough time for Major Scenes. Other times, its just too much. I'd suggest trying to reserve anything longer than a minute or two (without good reason) for later in the game. Players want to get playing as quickly as possible, and if youre able to hold their interest until the point where a longer Cutscene plays out, that is when the Cutscene is rewarding for the player to watch. Use Plot Tools Not everything needs to be told in a Linear fashion. Get the player interacting with the game as quickly as possible. If this means you cut out a ton of material that the player needs to know in order to advance the plot, give that same information in a different way. Use a "Flashback" or a "Memory" later when the history becomes more relevant. Use other NPCs with creative writing to provide that information. Instead of giving a Narrative Exposition of "your father died now you want revenge", thats absolutely dry. Dont tell me what I should feel, give me a reason to feel it. Replace the "your father died" crap with a way the player can discover something the character already knows. Have another NPC say "I know your fathers funeral was only last week, are you sure youre ready to go back to work?" or something to that effect. Have the player discover that the characters father was murdered in a way that is interesting for the player. Another NPC "we're still looking for your fathers murderer". The character already knows this, but the expositional dialogue gives reason and purpose for such an NPC to make such a statement, as well as informing the player that their father was murdered. This is the "Discovery" aspect that makes so many RM games just suck. Act 1 is for filling in the player on what is currently relevant Act 2 is the player actively pursuing the main goal of the game Act 3 provides the player with resolution Since not everything is Linear, in either games or movies, you actually have opportunity to switch back and forth between every Act as needed. Most RPG games have multiple towns, and each town provides a new goal for the player to strive for while progressing the story forward. This means you'll actually go back to Act 1 as soon as a player enters a new town. There are new characters to introduce, new things the character should learn about at that time, and sets the current Goal the player will try to achieve in Act 2. Act 2 is typically where most battle stuff will occur. Act 3 is resolution to battle, either by progressing the story forward and putting the player in a new town, or returning to the previous town with a "mission accomplished" type of reward. TV series will always use Act 1 for the very first episode of the show. Once the audience (player) is familiar with who is who, then it moves on to Act 2. Act 2 may actually take up an entire season. It depends on the style of the show. Some shows that dont require you to have seen what happened last episode will plug all 3 Acts into one show. Something like NYPD Blue. Most people are already familiar with the main characters. Act 1 introduces the new character, Act 2 main characters go after the newly introduced bad guy, Act 3 provides resolution. Other styles of shows like "Lost" or "Once Upon a Time" are extremely complex. Characters are not Black and White, and change "sides" constantly. New characters are also introduced. "Once Upon a Time" is suggested because we all know the Wicked Witch, and the character is much deeper than "Im evil, dont throw water on me". But not everything about said character is given to the audience all at once. Relevant backstory is provided as an enhancement of Act 1, Act 2 is the current conflict, and Act 3 again is resolution to conflict. If one were to try to write out an episode of Once where there is 35 minutes of backhistory on the Wicked Witch and why she became evil, then Act 2 is to walk across the street to Act 3 where so and so throws some water on her, it would be garbage. Why? The Acts are not properly paced or balanced because they are disproportionate. Pacing. Balance. Player Reward. Incentive. Plot Device. Plot Tools. Mystery. Challenge. Exposition. These are all tools that Game Creators forget about, and tend to focus very strictly on the technical aspects. My script can do this neat graphical thing. Yeah, thats really nice and I've already written a crapton of badass scripts. Players arent as interested in scripts or cool eventing as you are. What they are interested is in Rewarding Gameplay. Some people also just flat out dont like RPG games. Say hello to your Call of Duty crowd that will probably think anything longer than 2 minutes is too long. Then the hardcore RPG gamers will ask you "what the hell was that all about?" because they were given absolutely zero backstory in order to satisfy the Call of Duty crowd. It really depends on who you want as your audience. And if youre looking to make something thats more action than story, youre really playing with the wrong set of technical tools, however the storytelling tools remain the same, but are used in different proportions. One of the hardest things to figure out is Player Reward. And I can tell you that if you are listening to someone that likes RPG games but does not play for the story, then you need to stop listening to them and listen to your own gut. Look past how cool your scripts are. Look past how intriguing you think some crafting system is. Look at it from the players point of view. Could they be easily confused by something? Do they have sufficient motivation? Was the motivation given to the player in a way that is really an incentive and isnt just there for you to play "fill in the blanks"? Does the player think that trying to achieve the goal you set out for them as incentive enough to keep playing? If you play too long, does the player suffer from Battle Fatigue? Is it an appropriate time for you to tell the player a little bit more about what you want them to discover? Are they interested in discovering it to begin with? There are so many things to consider, and so many things people dont consider at all that it absolutely ruins games. Did you read this entire longwinded post? Did I do my job of holding your attention to remind you of the tools you have at your disposal? But most importantly, if you look at your entire package from the perspective of the Player, would you find your own game rewarding to play? I made a Demo a long time ago, something short and sweet and based entirely around how to do a Cutscene. http://downloads.chaos-project.com/heretic86/Once/Once%28Demo%29.exe Theres two parts to this Demo. Northern Forest and Lightgeist Mountain. Northern Forest has the Cutscene you should check out. The Mountain was a big mapping experiment to see how complex of a maze I could put together but contains no Cutscenes. Some have described the Cutscene I did in the Demo as too long. Others want more story and to find out what happens next. This thing is quite old, and has a couple reported bugs that I could not reproduce, so expect minor glitchyness. The Cutscene was something I literally just slapped together, then everything else grew around it, I polished it, and well, you'll see once you try it out. Scripts in the Demo were marked as off limits, but they are all out of date anyway, and in the Collection in my sig if youre interested. I've worked on the technical sides of Film and Broadcast most of my adult life, so this isnt stuff that Im just coming up with, this is stuff that comes from the Professionals. It is beyond my ability to tell you how long a Cutscene should be. But what I can teach you is how to make your game not suck. If any game is poo, then 10 second Cutscenes are too long. If your game is really good, people will want cutscenes, and tolerate really long Cutscenes. And these are all things that depend on you.

Sounds like it is time to seriously study how to script... For this, I'd recommend going of of the Game_Player class. class Game_Player alias player_stamina_initialize initialize def initialize # Call Original Method or any other Aliases of Initialize player_stamina_initialize # New Property for Stamina @stamina = 1000 end alias player_stamina_update update def update # Call Original Method or any other Aliases of Update player_stamina_update # Check for Scene Map (so it doesnt update while in Menus or Battle) return unless $scene.is_a?(Scene_Map) # Check for Interpreter (Events executing) return if $game_system.map_interpreter.running? # Check for the Player pressing buttons if Input.press?(Input::X) # Check for Stamina if @stamina > 1 # Set Speed to Sprint Speed @move_speed = 5 # Subtract from Stamina @stamina -= 1 # Stamina Too Low else # Deafult Move Speed @move_speed = 4 end # If not pressing button else # Default Move Speed @move_speed = 4 # Increment Stamina to Max @stamina +=1 if @stamina < 1000 end end end Untested like a boss...

Server died. Script is still available in my "Collection". Sorry about the size but the Collection got bundled with a ton of other stuff.

Confuscious once said "Man who live in glass houses should change clothes in basement". For those that feel the "have nothing to hide", then go right ahead and feel that way, but while youre at it, give me all your passwords, credit card numbers, pin numbers, bank acct numbers, leave your house and car unlocked and your curtains open at all times. You do have "nothing to hide" right? Unfortunately, that seems to be the ONLY time that people start to think that only "Bad Guys" should not have access to all that sensitive info. County Issues Women $50 Citation For FB Post http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/suburbs/bolingbrook/chi-woman-issued-citation-by-authorities-for-facebook-comment-20140528,0,5499277.story Because you "have nothing to hide"...

Bump. Minor Update. Fixed a couple of bugs in Unlimited Fogs where going into either your menu or battle would remove any Unlimited Fogs. Patch for this I put into Cloud Altitude since I intend on making those two scripts work together without directly editing Game Guys script. Fixed a bug in the Battle System that would cause a crash. Having less than 4 characters in your party would cause a crash when battle started. Thats been fixed. Not sure how I missed it. Added a new "Zombie" Status as a way to allow Healing Items to harm Undead. Basically, if an enemy or a party member is Undead or Zombie, healing items have the opposite effect. The script itself is called "Target Anyone Undead". Basically, you can target either Enemies or Party Members with any kind of Spell or Item. Since you can target enemies with Healing Items and Spells, I thought it would be useful to expand the range of usefulness of items. So things like Resurrection Items can cause Instant Death on the Undead. It is an incentive to use said items instead of just stocking up on them. This feature has appeared in other games, namely the Final Fantasy Series. Last but not least, a simple Animated Battlers! I called it a minor update because the Animated Battlers is intended for a Front View Battle System, and is still in very early stages. Basically, it just gives your Battlers a Stepping Animation. Most useful on Flying Enemies so they dont just sit there. Feedback is needed on this script so this non finished version is published. Scripts available in the download link above.

Grr, sites back to being broken for me again.

@Marked I have a couple of different sources for Ad Blocking, so recreating my enviornment on another system is quite difficult. There are custom HOSTS files (blocks a lot of malware sites), Ad Blocking DNS, Firewall IP Pool blocks, and some other stuff. Many probably wont believe me but I do not like AdBlock Plus plugin for Firefox because it takes control of too many tracking methods and authorizes far more than should be allowed. Best bet would be to get RequestPolicy plugin for Firefox. I use RequestPolicy because I create and modify both Ad Blocking DNS records and HOSTS files for trackers and advertisers. As a standalone plugin, it should enable all the "weird stuff" I get (brought on by my own doing) to be recreated on your system and check. I set my RequestPolicy plugin to allow all requests fom GD to the CDN. Only other thing I can think of would be NoScript. Ive blocked a lot of Google scripts in an effort to keep extra unwanted crap out, but at the expense of some functionality across the net. Could be a possible source of issues for the Big advertisers being blocked, like both Amazon and Google. No arguments about Amazon being cheap tho. I do appreciate the effort to help me get the site working as it is intended to be displayed, but I dont want you to feel burdened with my requests. The complexity of websites is increasing, as is dependancy on ways that allow everything that ruins the web: namely excessive advertisements and tracking. Basically, in order to get Google functionality, it also opens the door for both Google ads and tracking. Most adblocking only goes after "the little guy", but makes special permissions for ONLY Google and other web giant Ads? Google can piss up a rope for all I care. Site feedback: I cant give a true opinion on style, layout and functionality due to tech issues. --- Closing threads: Thank you for the reply. I know Omar is trying to be a good mod, but I just think that the ways that things are applied end up having the opposite effect of what is intended. As a community, we can be helpful to newcomers and vets alike. "That question was already answered in this thread" and link, or "this is off topic enough that it might get better responses as a new thread" but try to offer help anyway. Catch more flies with honey than vinegar. Nuff said on the subject tho. --- Update: Site now appears to work properly again. I'll test it out and see how I like the style. Thanks

I wouldnt have any complaints about any form of style as long as the functionality is there. To be honest, I have a lot of technical problems with this site. Nothing goes where it is supposed to go. The top level stuff (Home, Forums, Games) comes up on mine as unformatted. I know this is due to adblocking stuff that I've done. However, its an ugly trend where so many external site dependancies are creating unnecessary problems. JQuery, Ajax, Google plugins. These things all need to be mirrored on the native domain or CDN. If I were forced to choose between blocking Google ads or having a fully function GD site, I'll continue with blocking Google ads on EVERY site as GD is so inactive. Off Topic: Thread Closing I think there is an excessive level of thread closures that are driving people away that are genuinely looking for support. Many people have the same questions, and leave once told to "go start a new thread" once they've posted. I know omar is trying to be a good moderator, but the results of his actions are having the opposite effect of being good. I dont come here very much because of low levels of inactivity, but if someone requests support, it may take me a couple of days to read the material then respond. If we were a much more active community, I'd have less of an issue with locking old threads, but with this level of inactivity, everything to bring in more members needs to be done. A simple post "next time, please start a new thread" or do something that shows respect for the new members instead of making them feel unwelcome by extremely strict enforcing of site rules. If a person went to a "suit and tie event" and was kicked out for wearing an "inappopriate tie" and saw that they were the only person there, would that person return?

You can leave it as is, and convert it back into a string with .to_s I believe More info here. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3500814/ruby-array-to-string-conversion

battler.movable? #-------------------------------------------------------------------------- # * Decide if Action is Possible #-------------------------------------------------------------------------- def movable? return (not @hidden and restriction < 4) end Its best to check for both battler.dead? and other conditions. if not battler.dead? and battler.movable? Quick recap. Shouldnt be too difficult to merge these scripts. And I'll explain briefly in scripting terms. Both actors and enemies have a parent Battler class. This is where their HP and other common traits are defined. Game_Actor and Game_Enemy both inherit HP and more from their parent class, but these two classes being different, allows for other checks to be done. if @battler.is_a?(Game_Enemy) # Do this elsif @battler.is_a?(Game_Actor) # Do that end Now both Enemies and Actors are Battlers. So if you put in: if @battler.is_a?(Game_Battler) # Do something end Both being Battlers will cause @battler.is_a?(Game_Battler) to always eval to true because it is the Parent class. You can update ONLY if one of your battlers is an Actor but not an Enemy, however, it will prevent Enemies from disappearing. The method youre looking for to "kill" Battlers is called "collapse". Its a method inherited from RPG::Sprite so you dont see the definition for it in the scripts, although it can be redefined. Look in the help file for "collapse" and you'll see the parent code to change its behavior.

Asking the right questions is one of the keys to finding the answer. Try hitting Youtube for "Battle Music Loop" and see what kinds of results you get. Lot of artists out there create Music Loops, but we havent heard their stuff, even if it is exactly what youre looking for. Just my two cents...

Reasonable application of forum rules and guidelines should be considered, even with necroposting. The intent is to make the forums as friendly as we can reasonably make them, not drive people away for bumping or necroposting on a mostly inactive forum when people are genuinely asking for assistance. Reasonable would be a bump in a 24 hour period. --- It may be possible to achieve this without scripts, just looking in the wrong place. Take a look under States at "Sharp". I havent played too much with it myself so not sure if either Atk % or Hit Rate % could be used to alter the property.

Shaders, no, but Bitmap methods built into Ruby, yes. A lot of the Bitmap features require direct access to the Bitmap object stored in Cache. They arent extremely efficient however, but in the RM series, they are very very limited. Typically, the two most commonly used Bitmap funtions are Hue and Clip, which is how Sprites are set up. But there are a ton of other features that can be performed. Scale, stretch, color add and subtract, color inversions, and other things like applying Sepia tones. They can be extended to also create Warping and Distortion types of effects. There are a lot of things that can be accomplished once access to the Bitmap is gained, even adding other features to the Bitmap class. It comes at a price as directly modifying the Cache is quite inefficient and results in very poor framerates. There are a few solutions to this however, such as using an external dll to efficiently handle Bitmap manipulations instead of Scripts. The "Collection" in my sig has a few examples of relevance, but as far as I know, they are only available for XP. One is a Warping Fog and Background layer feature done entirely through Scripts, and another has the ability to distort Event Graphics through use of a dll. It might be better to try looking for Filters instead of Shaders, and I have seen scripts that can do it, at least for XP. Try looking specifically for a Sepia Tone Script for XP because it is so uncommon. If the script can pull off Sepia Tones, it most likely can also allow for a Darkening feature as well. There are some talented scripters out there that can most likely do the same thing for VXA, but point being, it is possible.

An easy fix might be to set $game_system.timer_working to false. If you cant change it, change attr_reader :timer_working to attr_accessor :timer_working. This may take a bit more work...

Im just happy to see that someone tries to review RM games objectively instead of picking on the lower quality ones as many youtube videos do. Lookin forward to more videos...

First things first. Get a different tileset. Theres nothing wrong with the one you have going there as part of a larger package, but by itself, its just too simple. A larger tileset can make or break a game. Lots of tilesets that are released are just image files requiring you to import the picture, then set up all the passability settings, bush flags, and what not. I have a couple massive tilesets that are preconfigured. Import the picture, then open both projects, and copy the tileset from the example database to your game in a new tileset. For those massive tilesets, just check my sig, it should have almost everything you need. If all goes well, you can get up and running in less than five minutes. Importing tilesets by hand (manual database configuration) can take hours or even days depending on the size. It wont end there. Next, above all else, you need to become a Master of Layers. You dont have to keep trees and other decorations limited to just one layer. This allows you to "stack" your trees. Bottom half of a tree goes on Layer 2, top half goes on Layer 3. this looks especially nice when your Tileset allows you a choice of many different trees. Music: Interesting concept. I feel Music needs to be appropriate for the area, but at the same time, other types of music that dont seem to fit an area could be more useful as a Cutscene, or as a Character Theme song. Important Characters benefit from getting their own theme music. Your idea is intriguing and Im looking forward to seeing how you pull it off.