You are very welcome!
thank you so much, i tried to look into the json files but my coding knowledge is 0
It's intimidating, but really, it's just a data interchange format for JavaScript. Basically in a (no offense intended!) ELI5 (explain it like I'm five) way, and in this context: RPG Maker stuff turned into instructions back and forth
The hardest part is due to the lack of formatting and comments (there's the open-source HJSON implementation for a more human-readable approach, but JSON is meant as raw data), and also remembering the instruction codes for each RPG Maker instruction, as those may change between engines (though it's only been a thing since RPG Maker MV as far as I know - MV and MZ are full JavaScript but VX for example used the 'native' format and Ruby for scripting.
To make it short, really, once any kind of code is properly 'beautified', it looks way less intimidating - but it will take up a lot more lines as a result.
One-liners are a recipe for disaster in any kind of programming (any language based on a compiler will have you quickly learn this, compiler is laughing at you trying to find errors in your fancy one-liner when you would have found them instantly with properly formatted code) but that isn't a problem for raw formats like JSON as this makes them easier to 'parse' without breaking things.
while i very much apprechiate the new content, i'm with Toilet Lord for the most part.
the whole 3 shards/graveyard mechanic feels rather pointless and makes no sense either. i mean, does the reaper just gift you 3 new ones? again and again? plus a stat boost on top? i'm curious if this gets counted by the game, so that you eventually end up dead for good. since you don't seem to be able to restore your shards on your own you also end up with way too many foreign shards unless you simply stock up on tons of potions.
the stress mechanic also feels like a joke. losing all shards shoud not reset it and losing shoud not lower it. if your soul shards aren't your potential way to game over, then stress shoud be at least somewhat of a problem. +100 stress for pretty much surrendering to madeline? no problem, just lose your last shard to her and you are back to 0. if this is how it's intended, then it seems very flawed imho.
also +1 for lesser demon girls instead of skeletons. while the bone guys make sense story-wise, they are definatly no fun. epecially since they seem designed to drag out the fights (guard mode and potion spam)
I really haven't tested the fights yet (hell, I barely played at all, I'm such a number, code and bugmaniac I end up pulling allnighters breaking and fixing things) but even as a non-grinder, I understood the issue from Toilet Lord's pretty constructive and detailed review. Additionally, that's something that's
extremely easy to do in RPG Maker so if Dekarous wants our help, as usual, I'm sure some of us will be ready to help depending on their own RL issues - yes, we also all deal with RL tough shit on chronic/permanent health issues and whatnot and even before that entire pandemic thing started...
As usual, the "not doing the dev's job" disclaimer applies. Just keep in mind we all have the code, you can see it as modding or just learning how it works (nothing wrong with that). If this really intimidates you, grab RPG Maker MZ (at this point I'm going with - I miss you friend - Crazy's suggestion of MZ over MV) as it will improve native compatibility for playtesting in a developer environment while remaining in the engine itself if you don't feel comfortable with coding outside of it.
Let's say we want to implement what Toilet Lord suggested, there are many ways to approach it and I'm no longer in a sound enough state of mind and health to properly think of a decent way, but bear with me, let's use this algorithm as an example.
Dekarous already has affection variables and whatnot ready. He also added the stress meter (which I haven't tested yet), as well as personality traits for the MC (those can be really complicated to manage later on if they are preset, so had I known more beforehand, I'd have told him to be really careful with this). Anyway, let's use what Domina uses.
Directly from
Toilet Lord's review (text explanation):
- Togglable dom or sub names: 'Togglable' implies user preference but I'm playing semantics here. If that's the intended meaning, then this also assumes you can 'define how you want the MC to refer to her' - easy to do with RPG Maker's built-in choice system, and can be easily extended beyond the limit of 4 (5?) choices, even without extra code (though it does get messy depending on your implementation technique). If 'togglable' here meant on/off as in "I don't want to see that", then a simple on/off switch (remember, don't use conflicting switches - having 7 switches for each day of the week for example is overkill, sloppy, but can also lead to massive breakage, being on multiple days on the week at the same time or none at all, which is why switches are meant for simple, non-conflicting boolean yes/no true/false situations)
- Current variables that can be used for a Domina's mood: Affection and relationship (the path progress).
- Synonyms for variety: RNG can be a bitch at times, so your mileage may vary. Players end up rerolling tons of times to get the scene they want when it could be guaranteed to happen (or not happen). This is particularly true for, say, people trying to trigger a specific moveset from a Domina, or getting a particular dialogue line. RPG Maker, by default, uses a 'priority system' for each attack (out of 10) that is weighed against other skills/attacks for battlers.
- Adjectives and names based on previous events: Again, we have this! It's literally the route progress variable for each Domina. It can be used to the developer's advantage - this variable keeps track of what was done and you do not need switches. Commenting the code is highly recommended when doing this, however, for the developer to remember why exactly this amount does this. Alternately, you can use variables all over the place, but it becomes quite messy. Or, if you're comfortable with JavaScript (remember, MV/MZ is JS) and already using plugins, why not use the scripting engine as well? While arrays/lists of values are much less convenient to handle in RPG Maker's built-in variable and switch checker, they are pretty straightforward with a {key:value} approach. Performance-wise, I'll leave this to RPG Maker experts (or anyone who dug this far into the engine for that matter - complexity is more of an advanced approach when you already have a working system but want to make it run faster, smoother and with less resouces.
Okay, that ended up being a bit long but I literally left this post on hold while typing another on another thread. Sorry about that. The aspirin cost's on me if I lost you there with that nonsensical wall of text, folks...
someone has put it up on
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No contentious tags, you can just use
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(this will just display the content warning if you haven't turned it off).
