Messages

Thank you and you're welcome!

Short Story about Stories themselves being Alive!

I truly do hope it helps.  Funny thing about the interwebz is that others might come up with their own ideas of how to do their own stories better after reading our posts.  And as far as your story not being "complete", learn to expect it to never be complete, ever.  At the end of a story, things can wrap up, problems are resoved, but it is not the end of all things to come.  So unless you've somehow destroyed the universe, there is always room for a sequel.  All works of art from the crappiest stick figure to the Masterpieces also are never truly "finished", but merely abandoned.  And knowing that right balance of when to abandon a work of art is a mastered skill in and of itself.  You might only spend five minutes working on a story, and get it sold to the Sci Fi channel, or you might spend five years and write the next Classic of our time.

Stories seem to take on "a life of their own".  When you write the story, you start off creating a set of rules that the story itself will abide by.  The story is then given characters, and the characters follow a direction.  The characters are the ones that follow the "rules", and those rules define what they may or may not do in certain situations.  The story itself doesnt exist without characters, so it isnt the story that is given a direction, but the characters.  Characters merely obey the rules of the story, and if they are forced to do things they normally wouldnt do, they come across to the audience as empty shallow illogical soulless characters.  They are forced to break their own rules, and the life of the story dies. 

Sometimes the story itself goes in a direction that the author doesnt expect it to.  It starts to want things for itself, to satisfy its own needs in order to maintain its own existence.  The story itself wants to be personified as much as the characters in the story.  It takes on as much shape and form and blood as the author is willing to feed it.  And as it grows, its apetite continues to increase.  It will want more and more and more until the author has nothing else they can give, and ultimately, it must be abandoned, lest the author be completely consumed by their own creation.  If the story is not fed the life blood of the author, they will whither and die of neglect, but if they are fed too much, the author is so consumed by giving the story its sustinence of details, that the author is never able to finish and publish. 

How in the world could a bunch of words grouped together be "alive"?  It doesnt breathe, it doesnt eat, it doesnt think, right?  The story is just a bunch of rules for the characters, but it is that set of rules that define what the story can and can not do, and it will "want" to do everything that the rules allow it to do.  Every human being on earth is separated by a factor of six degrees.  That means you know someone that knows someone that knows someone else, through just six other people that connect every single human being on the third rock from the sun.  And the Interwebs have decreased that factor by at least one.  A story could demand that the details of seven billion people be detailed in full, just by simply defining the rules of the story as "it happened somewhere on earth".  And each one of those people have their own stories that they want to be told, as part of the bigger story.  People network with each other, the same way as the characters that are a part of a story also end up networking.  Right now, you, the person reading this,  now has one degree of separation (not six) between yourself and Dakota Fanning, Emile Hirsch (found his jacket earlier today, it appears I accidentaly ganked it from him when I was working with him on the set of "The Motel Life", totally accidental), and half of the celebrities that live in this town.  It is a very very small world, and continues to get ever smaller.  We network.  That is what we as human beings do.  Its very similar to the way the neurons in your brain work.  One neuron might not be hard wired to a neuron on the other side of your noggin, but they can communicate back and forth.  Those synaptic connections start to define their own existence, regardless of their own self awareness, or awareness of the entity as a whole.  The elements of your story exist by your imagination and your creative energies which define how they are connected, thus, they begin to exist, fueled by whatever your imagination can pump into it.

Stories are also like children.  As they grow, they usually follow the rules, but sometimes they want to test the limits of those rules, and "misbehave".  Stories start off by following a set of rules, but start to define their own rules of what they can and cant do, and in order to create those rules, begin to "demand" that certain events take place so that the logic of the story is consistent.  An author has to know when to allow their stories to breathe for themselves, and to give the story what "it wants" in order to breathe.  Listen to your own story.  Its talking to you.  It is telling you what it wants and what it needs.  It might not be able to flat out state what it needs in specifics, but it will let you know.  Give it what it needs and your story will bring your characters to life.

The quickest way to "murder" a story is to let someone else take a look at it as a whole before it is done.  There is something about doing that which destroys the magic of it.  Its your story, and for me to view it as a whole somehow poisons the effect.  Your story will talk to you, not me.  If it does start to talk to me, then it is no longer your story, which is why the magic is destroyed.  You know things about your story that I couldn't possibly know.  Most of the details of your story arent the words on paper, but are in your head.  The motivations for the characters, the characters nuances, what kinds of relationships they have with each other.  What goes on "paper" are just the major plot points worded out in a way which could be considered "stylized" like first person, third person, omnipotent, or expressed in rhyme, or metaphorically, and those are only considered to be artistic traits, but really have nothing to do with the real story itself.  The story is much like software.  It is a set of rules, and things happen according to those rules.  The software of the story needs hardware to run, and that hardware is your brain.  Your brain is a living breathing computer, so we could say that although the words of the story are expressed on paper or in a digital format, the story lives and breathes inside of you.  Which is why it can consume you as an author, or it can whither away and die a forgotten memory.  Your story lives and breathes and experiences its life through you and your application of your own life experiences.  So I can not and should not be allowed to ever view your story in its entirety lest the magic that brings the living breathing feeling self aware story to life be poisoned.  At least, not until that magic of the story is strong enough to make be believe that the events of the story are not only possible, but fascinating to me as well!  Stories can become that strong!  Hell, this entire moster wall of text post is nothing more than a story inside my head that wanted to be told.  But a story is nothing without specific details, and asking for advice on filling in those details accomplishes its own purpose.

Now, Im not saying that asking for advice on how to fill in a plot hole can kill it.  In fact, entirely the opposite.  The smaller details are fine to revise.  The author is the one that will have to decide if the way I suggest to fill in the plot hole abides by the rules of the story, so advice is just fine.  Revisions arent just about fixing plot holes or taking care of typos.  We all have imperfections which oddly enough make us more perfect as opposed to less perfect.  Plot itself is more important than the way the plot is expressed, and research on the details (that the story is now demanding be included) feed the life essence of the story.  Think "Cop Drama".  Boooooooring!  But the good ones that make you think were written by people that went out and did research on how to solve a murder, or thought extensively about a way to make the person that everyone thinks is a bad guy actually be a victim themselves.   The big plot twist.  The authors do research to better define the details of the story, which breathes even more life into it, rather than take away.  And once you plug in those details, the story will develop an appetite for more and more relevant details.  On paper, those details need to be expressed quickly as possible as to not bore the audience, but inside your head where the story is alive, all of the trivial things that someone might not know about some minor detail that aren't put down on paper in some creative format can live in their fullest complexity to their utmost potential.

Once you breathe life into your story, dont be afraid to let it take you where it wants you to follow.  Dont force the story as that is another way that you can destroy that magic.  Allow the story to live and go in the direction it wants to go.  If you need to fight the direction of the story, that is the job of your characters.  Your job as an author is just to record the story, according to its own rules, the rules that apply to the characters and say what they may or may not do, and just jot it down onto the proverbial paper as it happens.  Then you can apply your creative formatting.  Make it rhyme.  Make it a comedy.  Make it a tragedy.  Make it symbolic ly mirror real world events.  Make it a love story, or a cop drama.  Make it metaphorical.  The living breathing story is already all of these things, and as an author, you can pick and choose the words that describe the living breathing story to make it appear to me just one, or several of these styles of writing.  Your only job is to jot down the right words for the right events in the story that the story wants you to jot down.  Then your story will come to life, and will live on in the minds of your audience.

General Suggestion

How about something to allow large sprites to render as Flat?  You know this graphic?




...and it always seems to do this:




Make it render like this!




I managed to get a version of that to work great, but it is deeply embedded in another script and fully redefines screen_z instead of aliasing, which I think can cause what I did to be incompatible with other scripts.  Im also just curious to see how someone else might pull it off...

Great.  Now you got my brain in overdrive.  Down boy!  Down boy!

So I'll take it you'll follow the "naturally occuring" route?  Not sure I wanna dig too much into your story...  I think that in order to make the villain more interesting, he / she deserves as much of a backstory as any other character.  At some point, the villain did not know about the gates.  Unless they are some sort of supreme deity, there is absolutely no way around that.  It might be they made a discovery of coincidence, or someone else had shown them what gates were, or they are as ordinary to them as cars and internet are to us.  Probably just me, but that moment of discovery for the villain brings them more to life by allowing us to experience that discovery with the villain is more important than being told that Thump Rockgroin discovered a way to traverse between worlds.  If we experience with the villain the moment in their despicable lives that turned them completely evil, that is seriously worth while to experience with the villain so we can understand their point of view as well.

A lot of it depends on your style of storytelling.  First person, where we only experience everything only through the perspective of the player, or omnipotent, where the player is allowed knowledge that the main characters are not.  They can overlap quite a bit, especially by throwing in a time travel mechanic, or watch a video (evented cutscene) of something that happened to another story critical character.  Many of these, think Chrono Trigger.  Magus, teh bad guy, we never see everything through his eyes, but we see how those events affected him as a young child by being there when those events happened to an earlier version of himself.  We understand his motivations, and realize that maybe we have more in common with the bad guy than we think.  To me, that stirs so much more than to walk up to someone and say "Hello.  My name is Inigo Montoya.  You killed my father.  Prepare to Die!" being all shades of Princess Bride...

Villains make mistakes too.  Many times, the way the player is able to overcome the villain is that the villain has made some sort of Fatal Mistake.  In this case, since the big bad can manipulate the gates, but not control them, the gates open naturally, which wouldnt be a mistake Dr. McEvil made, but I think in order to make the player feel as if they do have an opportunity to take advantage of errors made on Murder McBadNasty, we could say that he just forgot to close the gate?  Either way, I think it can provide a logical continuation of the story either with or without comprimising the demeanor of the antagonist.

I'll go check it out.  Thanks!

Sorry for the Double Post, but if my text box extends to be more than one page, my focus jumps up to the top and I cant see what I am typing at the bottom.  External Javascript from some blocked site?

I see it is trying to do it in a refreshed method, and it doesnt look like an object is created to hold the hp bar, its just drawing it every time refresh comes up.

As far as the Interpreter involvement, it is also kind of strange to explain.  For example, I did a print "drew hp bar" when the hp bar is updated.  Updates 4 times.  It seems to call mostly correctly, when someone gets hit, it gets redrawn and updates, but if the Interpreter is running (I.E. battle event from Database -> Troops), it runs each and every frame while those page events are executing.  Not my script, Im trying to revise it to make it work...

I think I am back to having a more difficult time understanding how and what is happening, and I guess Im hoping for a bit of example script to work with so I can revise this accordingly...  Ton of work cuz it looks like I am going to have to do the same thing for the SP (Mana) Bars, the Progress bar, and all the "shadowed text" that the script already has in it...

I'll show you what I got...

Spoiler: ShowHide

  #--------------------------------------------------------------------------
  # œ ƒŠƒtƒŒƒbƒVƒ...
  #--------------------------------------------------------------------------
  alias xrxs_bp7_refresh refresh
  def refresh
    if @update_cp_only
      # run the original refresh
	    xrxs_bp7_refresh
	    return
    end
    # •`ŽÊ,ð‹ÖŽ~,µ,È,ª,ç-ß,·
    @draw_ban = true

    xrxs_bp7_refresh
    # •`ŽÊ,Ì‹ÖŽ~,ð‰ðœ
    @draw_ban = false
    # •`ŽÊ,ðŠJŽn
    @item_max = $game_party.actors.size
    
    for i in 0...$game_party.actors.size
	    actor = $game_party.actors[i]
	    actor_x = i * 160 + 21
	    # Draw the Actor Graphic
      if not defined? actor_graphic or not defined? actor_id_drawn or actor.id != actor_id_drawn
        actor_id_drawn = actor.id
	      actor_graphic = draw_actor_graphic(actor, actor_x - 9, 116) #if not interpreter_running
      end
     
	    # HP/SP Bars
      draw_actor_hp_meter_line(actor, actor_x,  72, 96, 12)
	    draw_actor_sp_meter_line(actor, actor_x, 104, 96, 12) 
	    # HP/SP Numbers
	    self.contents.font.size = 24
      # Set Current HP Text Color
      self.contents.font.color = actor.hp == 0 ? knockout_color :
        actor.hp <= actor.maxhp / 4 ? critical_color :
        actor.hp <= actor.maxhp / 2 ? crisis_color : normal_color
	    draw_shadow_text(actor_x-2, 58, 96, 24, actor.hp.to_s, 2) #if not interpreter_running
      # Set Current SP Text Color
      self.contents.font.color = actor.sp == 0 ? knockout_color :
        actor.sp <= actor.maxsp / 4 ? critical_color :
        actor.sp <= actor.maxsp / 2 ? crisis_color : normal_color
	    draw_shadow_text(actor_x-2, 90, 96, 24, actor.sp.to_s, 2) #if not interpreter_running
	    # --pŒêuHPv,Æ--pŒêuSPv,Ì•`ŽÊ
	    self.contents.font.size = 12		    # --pŒêuHP/SPv,Ì•¶Žš,Ì'å,«,³
	    self.contents.font.color = system_color # --pŒêuHP/SPv,Ì•¶Žš,̐F
	    draw_shadow_text(actor_x, 60, 96, 12, $data_system.words.hp) #if not interpreter_running
	    draw_shadow_text(actor_x, 92, 96, 12, $data_system.words.sp) #if not interpreter_running
     
	    draw_actor_state(actor, actor_x, 100) #if not interpreter_running
    end
  end

#============================================================================
# ¡ Window_Base
#============================================================================
class Window_Base < Window

  attr_accessor :draw_actor_hp_meter_line
  #--------------------------------------------------------------------------
  # Draws HP Meter Bar
  #--------------------------------------------------------------------------
  def draw_actor_hp_meter_line(actor, x, y, width = 156, height = 4)

    if not defined? @hp or actor.hp != @hp #or @actor_id != actor.id 
      @actor_id = actor.id
      @hp = actor.hp

      w = width * actor.hp / actor.maxhp
      hp_color_1 = Color.new(255,   0,   0, 192)
      hp_color_2 = Color.new(255, 255,   0, 192)
      self.contents.fill_rect(x+8, y+4, width, (height/4).floor, Color.new(0, 0, 0, 128))
      draw_line(x, y, x + w, y, hp_color_1, (height/4).floor, hp_color_2)
      x -= 1
      y += (height/4).floor
      self.contents.fill_rect(x+8, y+4, width, (height/4).ceil , Color.new(0, 0, 0, 128))
      draw_line(x, y, x + w, y, hp_color_1, (height/4).ceil , hp_color_2)
      x -= 1
      y += (height/4).ceil
      self.contents.fill_rect(x+8, y+4, width, (height/4).ceil , Color.new(0, 0, 0, 128))
      draw_line(x, y, x + w, y, hp_color_1, (height/4).ceil , hp_color_2)
      x -= 1
      y += (height/4).ceil
      self.contents.fill_rect(x+8, y+4, width, (height/4).floor, Color.new(0, 0, 0, 128))
      draw_line(x, y, x + w, y, hp_color_1, (height/4).floor, hp_color_2)
    end
  end

Thats exactly what is happening.

The way it appears to be set up however is a little tricky to explain.  It looks like each bar is being drawn as a separate window (I think), and not as an object.  So update and refresh methods are never created.  It just redraws the graphics over and over again, well, when the Interpreter is running at least. 

For efficiency sake, would it be better to assign all the bars to one window, and update each time that one of the HP's of any of the characters has changed, or, would it be better to create a new window object for each actor to have their own separate HP bar window?

Posted this same question on another forum, but hey, Im impatient.

The script I have draws some nice looking HP Bars, but they function like frozen dog snot at the north pole in the middle of winter.  Basically, when the Interpreter is running, performance goes way way way south.  Seems to only occur when the Interpreter is running however.  So during a battle, if one of the characters says something, or performs some sort of Event Action, I get lag out the wazoo.  Wazoo.debug failed to correct the issue, and Wazoo.dispose leaves me with no purdy HP Bars.

Script I am running is called ATB: http://www.775.net/~heretic/downloads/rmxp/cat.php around line 1420 or so.

What it looks like is happening is that a non object window is being displayed each and every frame.  I dont mind doing a total rewrite of this section as long as it doesnt cause lag.  And the lag is obviously coming from drawing the HP / SP / CP / Shadowed Text each and every time.  How can I best do this efficiently so it doesnt lag like a SOB?

Ok, how about this.  The homeworld of the Player isnt technologially or magically advanced enough to be able to open up the rifts themselves.  Thus, the Villain thinks that sending them to a world would prevent future interference from the player.  As every world is unique, the players homeworld may not be able to create new rifts, but maybe the villain is unaware that it is something new that the player is able to do.  Does that work?

If a tree falls in a forest, and no one is around to hear it, does anyone actually care that it fell down?

Horror is no different than a romance game in that the players arent interested in some previous event that actually happened, they are interested in the events that are going to unfold before them and involve them.  If the tree did fall in the forest, and it isnt relevant to the story at all, will the player give two squirts of piss about it?  THey will if the tree grows legs and is about to kill them or someone they care about!

Next point: Run down enviornments do not a scary game make!  Yeah, a little Yoda speak there, apparently I have a star wars bug in my brain today for some dumb reason.  What people fail to realize about the horror genre in general (including movies) is that it is not the degredation of the enviornment that instills fear, but what they are going to have to experience and endure in order to reach their goal.  I can come up to you and whack you in the head with a nerf bat, and it isnt scary.  I can also come up to you and go fishing with an actual fishing pole.  Again, not scary, unless that fishing hook gets caught on your eyelid, then it is panicksville!  No no no!  Dont pull that line!  Twice as scary as that is what if that same thing happened to your kid, or your girlfriend, or your parents? 

What is going on in the world is more important than the condition of the world.

Complex games would end up being a combination of each of these cliche's.  Pick and choose.  Star Wars for example incorporates Invisible Beauracracy, Technology and the Destined cliche's.  Maybe instead of thinking them as cliche's, try to imagine that each cliche is a Color as opposed to just something that has been done before.  Every painting on the planet will inevitably use colors that we have all seen before in a pattern that we have not seen yet.  Some may be very similar, some may appear completely different, although they may use the exact same percentages of red paint, green paint, and blue paint.  Mix and match.  Realize that the arrangement of each color is more important than the color itself, and you will see that it is not the world itself that bends to your logic, but you that is doing the bending to the story you create.  There is no spoon.  Bend yourself to allow the story to breathe and have a life of its own.

Every world is unique in some way.  Each one might have different materials that can be harvested, iron ore, one might be rich in Mythril, or something like that.  Maybe the villain is scouting these different worlds for something he needs, and isnt sure whether or not that world has what he needs.  As a means to kidnap a player, being that every world is unique, one might have a hostile enviornment (from the Native Population, well, hostile towards the villain, go figure), that it would be easier to just slap the players character onto that world as a means to get rid of them without actually having to confront them.  Well, youre a nuisance, off to Planet X you go, now get out of my hair!  Would something like that work?

@MarkHest

I hadn't really considered the dialogue during battle scenes.  Youre right, we cant exactly move the characters around, well, at least with RMXP's default setup.  A clever person could find a way to use Dialogue to bring those characters to life, even during a Boss Fight or Random Encounter.  Older Final Fantasy games seems to have set the standard for having Dialogue during Cutscenes, IMHO.  The dialogue could imply that the party has to work together as a Team, and use a certain degree of Strategy in order to beat a Boss.  Or maybe its an easy way to introduce a brand new character to the party.

It would be kind of a shame to have an incredible game that dries up during Fight Scenes.  If there is that much dialogue in a game, it is almost to be expected that there should be at least some conversation in Fights as well.  I even have fun going through tutorials in Fight Scenes!  Especially with non default RM Scripts that can do incredible things as they need to be understood by the player!  Its like the perfect opportunity for Special Stuff to have the Characters Banter, like a Reflect Spell, so players can learn as the characters learn, which to me, is allowing the Player to experience things as the Characters experience them!

Props to you on that statement, Sir!

I didnt really care for FFXIII all that much.  Sure it was absolutely gorgeous, but I never felt any sense of accomplishment when I think I should have.  On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd have to rate the game about a B minus.

Its one of those things that is really hard to put my finger on exactly why it didn't 100% click with me.  I had fun with a lot of stuff, but left me feeling like I ate chinese food, where 15 minutes later, I was hungry again.  It could have been the Encyclopedia Fal'Cie'atica that drove me nuts.  I think what I wanted was to be in control of the characters as those critical story elements unfolded for me.  It was too much like watching a movie.  Ok get to another spot in a forest, play random unrelated custscene where Spaz, er Saz's kid gets turned into a L'Cie, and I wasnt in control of him, then return to forest.  Like watching a movie by throwing a dvd in and hitting random on all the chapters...  I think what I wanted was the story to be a bit more linear (exploration to have been less linear), and when something happened to the characters, to have been in control of them just before that important story event happened.

Of course, who am I to speak?  I havent exactly released a game yet.  Still working on polishing scripts, developing my Art Style and Story Telling Style.  But I did put together a Demo a while ago based on exactly what I was saying earlier.  It grew into more than that, but Im not working on developing it any further right now, well, till I get some time to focus on it...

http://www.775.net/~heretic/downloads/rmvx/index.php (actually an XP game, I put in wrong folder...)

Do you think I hit the mark on my own advice (from above), or did I miss it completely?

Im wise enough to know that at times, even I may be a total Dumbass!   

My biggest gripe about hobbyist games is many seem to think that stories come from Walls of Text.  I dont mind long winded dialogue, but for christ sake, put some freakin animations in, or do something more than just have two characters face each other for twenty minutes plus straight!  Give the characters gestures.  Make those very simple movemets we are limited to reflect their body language.  Make them express their emotions through their movements.  Bring them to LIFE!

Gripe #2.  I dont want to read a book about a story where I am literally reading a book inside of the book about a story within another story, I want to experience a story with the characters.  When characters start telling useless stories, I start yawning.  When I live the experience with the characters and listen to them talk to each other as people would be expected to talk to each other, I can experience what they experience through their eyes, I see them react to an event, I can relate to their reaction, when they come up with a clever idea, I feel clever as well, when they are devestated by the loss of another character, then and only then am I just as devestated as the characters are, and when I accomplish something major enough that it is cause for celebration, then I celebrate that achievement as well.  Let the Characters Experience the Story so I can Experience it through their eyes.

Gripe #3.  I dont want to try half assed stuff.  If it is the very first map you've ever made, I dont really wanna play it.  I want to see your Masterpiece.  And those only come one or a few in a Lifetime.  Revise your stuff until it is PERFECT.  Movies go through a lot of revisions because they are very limited by the ammt of time they have to show the movie in.  Games are quite different in that we can play the same game for hours on end, and if we are satisfied with the Gameplay, but just because it isnt expected to be two hours in length does not give free license to ramble on forever about shit that would put a caffeine addict wired up on enegry drinks and four gallons of octane into a narcoleptic coma.

Dont be afraid to trim some of the fat.  If your dialogue is too long, find a way to revise it, get the important information across, and make it better, make it funnier, or make it more heart felt, or make it more goal oriented.  If it is too short, pad it out with meaningful content.

Gripe #4.  I need to know where I am supposed to go.  If I am expected to make my own discovery, then box me in to a smallish area and let me find what I am supposed to find quickly, without wasting multiple hours on trying to find out I need to press enter while standing in front of a tree with a hole in it.  Direction should be provided by character reinforcement and dialogue.  Getting off track or I forget what the hell I am supposed to be doing, then use the characters as tools to guide me to where I am supposed to go, but dont just expect that I am somehow psychic and know I should go back to the town where I started.  Im impatient, and many times I like to just skip through the story, so reinforce the idea that I need to go back to town when I start getting off track, and take advantage of multiple opportunities to reinforce that idea.  "Where are you going?  We need to get back to Bobville and talk to the Mayor!"

Just some of my own personal minor annoyances that even the "pros" still do.

Imo if you don't make cracks in cave walls your just lazy.

I made cracks in my maps too and they make the map look better.

IM glad Im not the only one that does this.  That screenie was just a small chunk of a much bigger map...



I did go back and tweak it to make the water edges have a rounded texture.  This one is square, but I fixed that already...

That was AWESOME! Very nice script, and well put together demo. I think it's a great improvement to the original. I would suggest adding "group caterpillar" where the party follows in a group behind the player rather than a straight line. (an optional feature that can be changed on and off)
Because some games use that final fantasy caterpillar type, and others use a group type.

But GREAT script

Can you give me a screenshot of a Group Caterpillar so I have something to visually reference?

I've apparently got a weakness for trying to put in natural looking "cracks" into cave systems.



Not going for this image specifically, but what do you guys think of using cracks in the cave walls as a Style in General?