Final Fantasy Flashtics [*** 0.6 Available ***]

[Cheetah]

I don't know if this helps with effeciency for you DBP, but every "piece" in FFT only uses 16 colors. For sprites there are 16 for the actual sprite and then 16 for the portrait. Raven's description of how FRAME.bin works and the other smaller bits and pieces is quite accurate. There are about a total of 20, 16 color, palettes that are used for different pieces.

[dbp]

I don't know if this helps with effeciency for you DBP

As i said before, every help is greatly appreciated ! Thanks again for the great contribution.

The way the program Run in FFTactics and the way my Engine and Flash run is very different.
Different technologies, different support, different language. So i need to adapt everything for Flash Action Script language (Flash main language).

Anyway, i just need to find the appropriate colors for the part i want and that should be fine !

[Cheetah]

Well if there are different pieces from FRAME.bin you need just let me know. It will be a lot easier for me to just grab them using the correct palette than you trying to make up the colors from scratch. I tried labeling the pics I posted in indicated what stuff was useful.

[dbp]

@Cheetah, Anyway, if next time you can provide me the sprites with original colors, that would be the best for me.

Also, i would like to talk to you guys about what i would like to do about this project.
I have think a lot about it and i think that my ideas are clear now.

Before, i told you that i was planning to do an FF7 Tactics version but my plans have changed for the better.
After receiving the sprite sheet from Xifanie i realized that adding new characters would be really easy and give to the Engine endless possibilities.

So i was thinking, why not making this project a dynamic and customizable project ?
With xml file, it is very easy to make this Engine dynamic and customizable.
so here is the list of what i am thinking right now :

Add your own Character and Enemies

• Give a name to your character


• Give the path to the sprite sheet url


• Set as Team, Enemy, Guest


• Set its coordinate on the Map

Create your Map

• Set Map Width and Height


• Add trees, slopes, tiles...


• import textures

Create your own Scenario

• Using the features available in the Event Manager to write your own script


• Make units talk, turn, change animations, play sounds, play musics and so on...

Of course, at first possibility would be limited but, with time, possibility can improve a lot.
So, Everyone will be able to create its own scenario and battle challenge !
Then, other players would be able to play those scenarios and making comments and review about it. ("Its was fun but not very challenging" etc...).

This can give almost unlimited replay value to the engine, develop creativity and interactivity with users !

What do you think about that ? I need your feedback !!

[Cheetah]

I like the basic idea to allow for more freedom and as a tool for creation. Your starting areas are also well thought out.

I'm not sure if this is possible, but my main thought is that you should use this to do stuff that we can't do in FFT PSX. Primarily I'm thinking multiplayer. If you created an engine that would allow us to play against each other online you would revolutionize our site. You would have unlimited cooperation and resources on our end .

In those last shots I was just trying to give you some usable pieces that you asked for with the correct palette.  Doing each individual piece and matching it with it's palette will take me more time than I have. Put I can just export this image with all the available palettes and you can take the ones that look correct for what you are looking for.

[Eternal]

Doesn't Battle of Wesnoth kind of do something similar, allowing people to build their own maps/characters and submit/battle them? I think it's a great idea to let things be more customizeable for everyone.

[Twinees]

Making your own map sounds awesome, especially textures.
This is great stuff.

[dbp]

Thank you for your feedback guys.
@Cheetah
I know that Multiplayer would be extremely awesome, in fact Eternal also talk to me about this feature. The problem is it take quite some times to implement and require good testing conditions.
By good testing condition i mean, i have only 1 laptop in my apartment and it make things difficult to test before release anything.

Also, the game have to be very glitchless and stable in order to implement Multiplayer mode. (To resume, its pain in the ...).
But i feel like its not impossible, because fortunately FFT is a turn based game, so you don't need to get constant (Send-and-Back) info from server.

Anyway, very very later
That is why i was giving ideas about customizing battle right now. Because that is not very hard to implement.

Guys, i am still working on the next demo, its going to be very sexy !
May i ask for 2 more Type1 sprite sheet ?
I need A Monk, and a Thief ! (Its not urgent)
Thank you !

[Cheetah]

Well I very much look forward to this sexy demo. I'm glad to hear that multiplayer is at least possible if difficult.

[Lijj]

I think making new graphics for some effects would be great! For example bombs or grenades would be neat with new weapon sprites and explosion sprites. Since you can pretty much do anything here.

[Eternal]

I'll make the Monk and Thief a little later tonight.

[Kill_Bones]

The customization may just be the best idea ever. Seriously, the limited customization in FFTPSX was one of my biggest complaints.

Multiplayer is doable, but as you put it, it's definately something to save for later.

dbp, the sheer speed you do all this is amazing. I just can't believe how awsome this entire project is. Looking forward to seeing more

[Eternal]

Completed male/female Monk and Thief spritesets can be downloaded here: http://www.sendspace.com/file/lz4de7

[RavenOfRazgriz]

You should include a lot of base resources in your final download even if you add customization options.  An end user can add resources, but just remember to make sure that those who just want to be able to quickly make something without highly customizing their tools still have a large palette of things to choose from.

It's good to see this project coming along nicely though.

[dbp]

Thanks guys for the great feedback.

@Lijj Yeah, i am counting on the creative side (You and the other spriters) to add some new crazy sprites  

@Kill_Bones I can't give you the next release date but maybe 1 or 2 more weeks are needed to finish it.

@Eternal Your the best thanks for giving the sprites that fast !!!!

@RavenOfRazgriz You are right, of course, the base resource package will come with the Map Editor.

Maybe after the release of the next demo, my focus point will be Enemies AI and Map Customization.
The Most difficult point of the Map Customization tool will be optimization

Let me give you an example :
Actually, its quite rare to find some 3D Flash websites for a very good reason. The polygon count is extremely limited ! And all the developer who think that they can easily make 3D content are doing a big mistake.
Before i tried to create a Car Game like Gran Turismo 1 & 2 and sadly i discovered that the polygon limitation was too strict.

In the engine i am building right now the game run at 60fps. So if i make a Map Editor for everyone, user also have to think about those limitations.
Like if you add a tons of tiles, trees and things like that, the polygon count will explode 

So, the difficult part for me is to make the program a little bit "intelligent" by not drawing useless polygons, hidden polygons and stuff like that.

I don't know if my explanations make sense to you because, explaining the technical stuff in the Shakespeare language is not my strong point.

[Lijj]

I can't wait to play with your map editor, hopefully with creative usage of textures we can make nice low polygon buildings.
Hit me up if you need any graphics.

[GeneralStrife]

Thanks guys for the great feedback.

@Lijj Yeah, i am counting on the creative side (You and the other spriters) to add some new crazy sprites  

@Kill_Bones I can't give you the next release date but maybe 1 or 2 more weeks are needed to finish it.

@Eternal Your the best thanks for giving the sprites that fast !!!!

@RavenOfRazgriz You are right, of course, the base resource package will come with the Map Editor.

Maybe after the release of the next demo, my focus point will be Enemies AI and Map Customization.
The Most difficult point of the Map Customization tool will be optimization

Let me give you an example :
Actually, its quite rare to find some 3D Flash websites for a very good reason. The polygon count is extremely limited ! And all the developer who think that they can easily make 3D content are doing a big mistake.
Before i tried to create a Car Game like Gran Turismo 1 & 2 and sadly i discovered that the polygon limitation was too strict.

In the engine i am building right now the game run at 60fps. So if i make a Map Editor for everyone, user also have to think about those limitations.
Like if you add a tons of tiles, trees and things like that, the polygon count will explode 

So, the difficult part for me is to make the program a little bit "intelligent" by not drawing useless polygons, hidden polygons and stuff like that.

I don't know if my explanations make sense to you because, explaining the technical stuff in the Shakespeare language is not my strong point.

Don't worry you made sense, basically the flash engine will lag with too many polygons and pixels. You will need to make an efficient editor, so that the lag isn't too bad.

[dbp]

Recently, i made some good progress and i should be able to release the next demo 26 or 27 of this month. (This week end).
I don't want to post any screenshots or comments about the features because i want to keep the "surprise" (But please do not expect too much out of it ).

Anyway, it is still very far to be perfect but, if you compare with the 0.5, the 0.6 has a lot of improvements.
See you at the end of the week for the 0.6 !

[Eternal]

I'm very excited for it! Keep up the great work!

[Cheetah]

I'm counting down the days to the epic awesome demo 0.6.