Chaos Project

I've taken on a commissioned scripting job and my client wants me to build the system upon several other already existing scripts. Sadly, that person didn't put the scripts in one project and made them all work. Nope. That person gave me only a bunch of demo projects. So I'm thinking "Alright, whatever. Not a big deal." I start opening up the projects and copying the scripts over. Suddenly I notice that one of the scripts uses the Script Destruction Kit. "Well, shit." is what goes through my mind. Then I find another and another. I figure, since there are several versions of these, the best thing would be to use the most up to date that I can find in those projects. It's SDK 2.3 with MACL 2.1. I notice some SDK 1.5 scripts and I already know that they will probably be problematic.

After copying them all over, I run the project. BAM! First crash. I check it out and it's the SDK. I fix it by removing the SDK check and restart. BAM! Another one. Again, an SDK check back from 1.5. That happens a few more times.
Finally I should be able to run the project. BAM! Another messy script that requires you to put the configuration into an external text file. I don't want to bother setting that one up so I comment it out. Running it again, BAM! Again the SDK. Once more. BAM again. SDK again. Finally I think that I got rid of the SDK problems and what happens? Materia script crashes (I could have sworn this one was SDK, too, but it wasn't). At that point I figured that I should give up rather than wasting hours of making all of this work. I'll talk to my client and see how we can change our agreement so that I make the requested scripts with loose hooks that can be filled in by somebody else later.

There you go. It's the proof that SDK is crap. It's incompatible with itself.

Man...how much money are you being paid to do this crap?

The SDK part wasn't initially going to be a problem. I didn't even know that I would have to work with SDK scripts that are not compatible between each other. ._.
I get paid $350 for making the scripts my client requested.

Glad to see you're not undercharging.

would this person be requesting an alchemy system?

$350 for rpg maker skripts? That's retarded. Somebody apparently doesn't have other things to do.
(Not saying your work isn't worth it, but the person who pays it is spending far too much for something like this)

I will not reveal any information about my client, but my personal impression is that (s)he isn't ever going to finish his/her game. I don't care about that, though. I'm paid to do my job. What happens to those scripts in the end isn't really of any concern to me (even though I would prefer that somebody used them actually).

Iwontmurderyourscripts

agreed. but then, who are we to judge? strange thing is most scripts  I've found that use SDK aren't really using SDK they just have a SDK declaration at the beginning, remove it and it works normally. on the rare occasion that I've found a script that actually used new methods implemented by the SDK It was a some what tedious but simple matter to remove and replace them with proper code.  at least he isn't asking you to work with the Pokemon Essentials Starter Kit.

Yeah, the Starter Kit was horror. ._.
True, most "SDK dependent" scripts don't actually depend on SDK. People just add the SDK log so they can feel cool because they are using the SDK. :facepalm:

Nah, they do it because they put the scripts up on sites where the SDK team are mods. In other words, it's not actually their fault.

Wow. That sounds like a huge pain to work with. At least it's good money though, eh?

@Sub, Paying for RMXP scripts isn't TOO uncommon. And for a large script, that's a pretty average fee. Whether it's in RMXP or not, it still takes forever to write such things.

Quote from: legacyblade on February 16, 2011, 05:42:25 pm
Wow. That sounds like a huge pain to work with. At least it's good money though, eh?

@Sub, Paying for RMXP scripts isn't TOO uncommon. And for a large script, that's a pretty average fee. Whether it's in RMXP or not, it still takes forever to write such things.

It was not about the script, but I think RMXP in general isn't worh that money.

Depends on what you do. If you are making a well-thought-through commercial project (or more for that matter), it is very well worth the money. If you have been chasing shadows for over 3 years, it's not.

and how do u know he will pay u when u're over with the scripts XD?

No payment, no scripts. I have no use from keeping the scripts after I get my payment so obviously I will not give them the scripts until I get my money.

Except, of course, my client suddenly doesn't want to pay. In that case their scripts get publicly released and they can kiss their game goodbye because there will be enough clones out there by the time they finish it. In the end their game will be regarded as the clone.

EDIT: That would be good for you, though. You could get my improved RMXP window system. D:

Quote from: Blizzard on February 16, 2011, 06:10:00 pm
Depends on what you do. If you are making a well-thought-through commercial project (or more for that matter), it is very well worth the money. If you have been chasing shadows for over 3 years, it's not.

Point out one actually successful commercial RPG Maker game and I'll shut up.

Aveyond.

EDIT: Oh, wait, I overdid it. That's 3 games (excluding the 4th free game obviously).

EDIT: The massive irony here is that Aveyond wasn't even that thought-through or anything special. It was a mediocre game.

Alright, I promised I would shut up so I do.
I would never have paid money for that game, though. I can get secret of mana for that money.

The reason why there aren't so many commercial RMXP games is that mostly children use RMXP. Everybody who is actually serious about game development, uses other engines or makes their own.

I wouldn't pay for Aveyond either.

Aveyond is proof that a 13 year old could become a tycoon with a one week project.
Oh shit, I was supposed to put that in size 1 pt

I never understood the point of even using SDK in the first place. I found RMXP like 3 years back and I remember seeing a lot of games brazenly advertising the SDK. I looked into it and after I realized it was a choice between BABS and SDK...well yeah haha tough choice ;)
I use RMXP purely because I find it so very entertaining to "develop" my own games. Not because I'm immature and child like. That has nothing to do with it. :P 

The point was to recreate the default scripts in a way which would be easier to extend at the same time reducing the surface area custom scripts touch in the hope that would reduce compatibility problems.
Whether the SDK succeeded in achieving that is a different matter.

Like this: http://forum.chaos-project.com/index.php/topic,8536.0