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Research - LazyShell V1.1 Features

Me and Giangurgolo have begun working on the next release of LazyShell, and I'm looking to get a some feedback.

1) Releasing small patches to LS isn't feasible. As it stands right now, we have avoided network connectivity in everything but Cirrus, but what about a simple version check on start-up that can be enabled/disabled via the settings menu? Or maybe just a button in the main window to check if your using the latest version.

A notification system would make releasing smaller updates possible. We cant exactly release a new build to fix one bug. There would be no "Download and patch" option, but it would let you know that your out of date and provide you with a link. Some people are afraid of network connectivity though, which is why we avoided it in the first place.

2) Level Editor Template System

To simplify and increase productivity, were working on a template system for the level editor where you can select from a set of pre-defined templates (including houses, trees, islands, etc) and just drag&drop them into levels.

My question is, would you guys make use of a template server where people can build and submit templates for drag&drop level creation?

I envision it as another tab under Cirrus where you can go and view the different submissions and download them individually or all at once. There would also be a "Template Auto-Sync" setting that would automatically download any new templates at start-up, which would be off by default.

I also want to make the template system more than simple static objects. It would of course use static objects for houses, but it will be also be able to generate templates using a pre-defined pattern. An example would be islands, forests, maze's, anything that is tedious to build but still contains patterns. The template system will also encapsulate the physical map, so you wont have to build it for everything.

But, I don't want to put all that extra work in if all you guys want is a simple static drag&drop template system.

3) Is there anything else that you would like to see?

* I have already contacted Fusoya about getting the SMRPG compression routines use in LunarCompress in order to integrate them as managed code in V1.1, so there wont be any more 64-bit OS problems.

* I might also try and get this sucker working on Mono

* Many if not all of the reported bugs have already been fixed.

* V1.1 will greatly improve the graphics editing potential
Hmm, though I am not a LS user. I'd say a more user friendly.
I would absolutley LOVE a template system like you described here. It would make a lot of stuff easier, as oppose to spending a long time on one single room. Also, is it possible to extract the graphics so we could edit them in yy-chr? Im so used to yy, i think i could do a lot in the field of smrpg graphics using it.
Somehow in V1.0 the graphics exporting got removed, but in V1.1 the graphics editing will be awesome.

The way it works is you export the tile sets from in the Level Editor (You can select one specifically, or you can export them all. Lazy Shell then saves to disk the uncompressed binary data which you can view and easily edit with any tile editor. I'm also going to look into allowing people to export level palettes that you can use with yy-chr.

Then once your done editing, you just load up the rom and import the tileset back, and you can view the changes right away. If you like what you see, save the rom and your good to go.

I am also going to see about building an Ex-Gfx type system into V1.1. Perhaps even integrate it into the new patch server thats going up here, where you can upload a Gfx package and others can view and download it creating a sort of Ex-Gfx database accessible to everyone who hacks SMRPG.

Its all very dependent on my spare time and the motivation, so if you do indeed want any of these features, make it known or I wont bother.

- Omega
Oh yeah, this sounds awesome! ;D
meh
Originally posted by Omega45889
To simplify and increase productivity, were working on a template system for the level editor where you can select from a set of pre-defined templates (including houses, trees, islands, etc) and just drag&drop them into levels.

Hell yes. I only used LS for about an hour before giving up due to it being nearly impossible to make good-looking bushes and such.
Sounds like a lot of stuff, but pretty cool indeed.

The ExGFX type thing you mentioned, would it be level specific like Mario World? That'd be pretty kickass.


EDIT: Okay, I have a legitimate suggestion now.

I was checking on Valentina's battle, because I was curious about how the whole "Dodo takes your middle party member away for a one-on-one fight" thing worked, but upon testing the fight, the game froze when Dodo showed up. Not because he wasn't there, but because there was no second party member to be taken away, it was just Mario.

What I'm getting at is, it'd be good if, when we test fights, we were able to choose the characters we use, and possibly their level and equipment. Unless this is already in and I somehow didn't notice...
Your layout has been removed.
I'm very excited about this project!

A template system would make things much simpler. Also, I would definitely like to see that more complex template system that you mentioned. It would be useful. In a 2.5D game like this, building big things is tedious. Having them prebuilt would be great.
I think that a more customizable stat bar for the characters should be good. When I saw that function demo on youtube, I was hoping to make your health, attack, defense, and others higher than in the game, but I haven't been able to do that, but maybe it's there already and I haven't found it.
Yes you can get pass the 255 HP mark by just simpling leveling up if you have characters whose HP starts at 255 when first met. Hopefully we can level up our characters to level 99. And change the recovery amount for health and magic up to 999 at least.

Hopefully instead of Peach recovering HP by using magic, let her heal FP. As such I'm going to let Daisy(instead of Peach) heal FP and no HP thus making my hack harder.

And lastly, a better scripting editor and tutorial so I can understand what the hell I'm doing when editing Event and Action scripts.
Current Hacks in progress

Super Mario World - Island Quest(7 levels completed)
Super Mario RPG - A Legend's Resurrection (Completed up to Mack)
Oh yeah, and a Drop-down bar to the regular text of the game. I mean, it is exhausting to try to find the messed up parts of SMRPG. I have made a forum (link in header) to list all of SMRPG's text. It is a pain in the butt.
Can you make us able use ZNES 1.41 for the battle script preview?
I think that this version of ZNES can run super mario rpg better than the newest one.