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#16 Cukeman

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Posted 13 June 2017 - 07:10 PM

Radien! Missed you a lot. I've been in university four years (one year left) so my presence has been lessened a whole lot over that time. I pop in now and then to tell a joke or talk about game news. I got really far on my Minish Cap project, but haven't touched it in a long time with all that's been going on.


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#17 Anthus

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Posted 13 June 2017 - 09:18 PM

 

Thanks!! How've you been dude?? :)

 
Yes, getting married has been exciting you could say, though it certainly trades in old problems for new problems. Or to be more positive, challenges.

 

I've been just dandy :). I'm still hanging around here, more often than not. I know what you mean about the "last 7 years being a roller coaster". For different reason's, obviously, but change is the spice of life! But seriously, I'm glad to hear you are doing well. I know you had a lot of health trouble a few years back, and it's inspiring to see that you have prevailed over that, and not only found a dream job, but a dream girl too. Ahh, I feel all fuzzy.

 

 

Now.. just hurry up and finish that "Dream Quest" and you'll have a triple crown. ;)



#18 Neppy

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Posted 13 June 2017 - 10:05 PM

AHHHHHHHHH! It's Radien!!! Nice to see you again, good sir. It's me, Lana, as I was called a year ago. If anyone knows that things can take you away from places you like to be, it would be me, and my relationship with PureZC over the past few years, where I would show up very erratically. I was finally able to return to being a regular visitor again, and have been browsing through topics and all that since March. Don't feel too bad, life happens sometimes. PureZC just turned 15 last month, and I made a topic in the Announcements forum. It's really great seeing you, and I hope all is well. :D


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#19 NoeL

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Posted 13 June 2017 - 11:57 PM

Oh hi. I know you.



#20 Radien

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Posted 14 June 2017 - 01:08 AM

Oh right... multiquote! I remember how to use that. Handy.

ShadowTiger is still ShadowTiger. Saffith is a former developer of ZC. :)

Also, welcome back!


Oh right. As you may recall, memory problems still hound me. Honestly, I was going by Saffith's avatar, which looked familiar and also like something ShadowTiger might use.

Welcome back, it's good to see you again! A lot of amazing quests are in the works and some are even released. I released a quest earlier this year and I've been making plans for something else. And yeah, your tileset is still such a staple within the community and has been used by many talented people as of recent in places like Screenshot of the Week. You might also bump into a project or two using your tileset!

But yeah, good to see you again! :)


Sweet, thanks for the recap! :) I enjoy knowing that my creations have allowed others to have fun with their own creations.

I really need to see what has changed in ZC over the past few years. The switch to Windows 7 always hounded me, with all of its ZC compatibility issues.

You make a good point. Also, does that mean that you are still comitted to the DoR quest project? The way you talk about it sounds like you are planning to get back to work on it. It's a great project so more power to you!


I certainly do intend to finish that damn quest someday. In fact, I had a half-finished simpler quest in the works that was supposed to be a warm-up to returning to DoR (Awakening Courage, you may or may not recall), except my last replacement computer didn't fair so well, so I wasn't able to resume it.

The dungeon​s were actually 85% complete. Kinda frustrating.

Radien! Missed you a lot. I've been in university four years (one year left) so my presence has been lessened a whole lot over that time. I pop in now and then to tell a joke or talk about game news. I got really far on my Minish Cap project, but haven't touched it in a long time with all that's been going on.


Hey, I'm really glad to see you're still around here! :)

Yeah, changing plans like that can easily mean you have to totally adjust your hobbies. My wife still really wants me to finish my projects, which also include a couple of board games I want to design. But between that and ZC, I wouldn't necessarily be upset dropping the board games for DoR or Awakening Courage.

Your 16x16 pixel Zelda 2 enemies were extremely useful for Awakening Courage. I don't know if it's possible, but I'd love to pick up where we left off when I have a computer for it. :/

I've been just dandy :). I'm still hanging around here, more often than not. I know what you mean about the "last 7 years being a roller coaster". For different reason's, obviously, but change is the spice of life! But seriously, I'm glad to hear you are doing well. I know you had a lot of health trouble a few years back, and it's inspiring to see that you have prevailed over that, and not only found a dream job, but a dream girl too. Ahh, I feel all fuzzy.

Now.. just hurry up and finish that "Dream Quest" and you'll have a triple crown. ;)


Haha, yes, much as I love ZC, getting married and finding a satisfying job were higher on my checklist. Doesn't mean ZC isn't up there, though. :)

I'm not sure I'd call all of my problems the “spice of life,” unless some of that spice is cilantro. (I hate cilantro.) But oh well!!

Glad to hear things are going pretty well for you!

AHHHHHHHHH! It's Radien!!! Nice to see you again, good sir. It's me, Lana, as I was called a year ago. If anyone knows that things can take you away from places you like to be, it would be me, and my relationship with PureZC over the past few years, where I would show up very erratically. I was finally able to return to being a regular visitor again, and have been browsing through topics and all that since March. Don't feel too bad, life happens sometimes. PureZC just turned 15 last month, and I made a topic in the Announcements forum. It's really great seeing you, and I hope all is well. :D


Hmm, I think I know you as Rydia! Your quest, Flip First, makes me think I remember you properly. :) Thanks a lot for the enthusiastic welcome. It's great to see you too!! I like seeing there's still energy around here. ^_^

Oh hi. I know you.


Well, yeah! Yeah, you do. Hi. :)

Edited by Radien, 14 June 2017 - 02:22 AM.

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#21 Binx

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Posted 14 June 2017 - 01:33 AM

(I hate cilantro.) 

I feel your pain. On that note, you should also avoid coriander (You probably already know they're the same thing, but I just found out recently)



#22 Radien

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Posted 14 June 2017 - 01:57 AM

I feel your pain. On that note, you should also avoid coriander (You probably already know they're the same thing, but I just found out recently


Oh hey, I found that out too. Strangely enough, judging from the sniff I took, I'm not entirely sure I dislike it.

Coriander is from the same plant as cilantro, but cilantro is the leaves, while coriander is either the stem or the root (can't remember). It's not unheard of for one part of a plant to taste quite different from another, even excluding the fruit. :)

Edited by Radien, 14 June 2017 - 01:58 AM.

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#23 Binx

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Posted 14 June 2017 - 02:25 AM

Cilantro is actually just the Spanish name for coriander. Most other countries use the term "coriander" for the leaves as well (also Chinese parsley, for some reason); although, in the US and Canada, it's generally referred to as cilantro if it's the leaves, and coriander if it's the seeds or the root. The seeds are generally milder than the leaves, but the root actually has a much stronger taste.



#24 Eddy

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Posted 14 June 2017 - 06:08 AM

Eddy:

Thanks! Um... The thing is, I can't really “check out” quests in the sense of playing completed quests until I find a computer solution, so I was mostly just inviting people to talk about and maybe link to their own quest project threads if they so please.

Since, you know, for now my best use is to be a mentor and helper.

Ah right, fair enough. Well, I guess you can always take a look at them when the computer situation is fixed up :P



#25 Lüt

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Posted 14 June 2017 - 09:11 AM

Yay, another Steve :D

got married

Yep, that'll take far more time than a full-time job.

How've you all been? :)

Moderately tolerable.

I trust you're still as busy creating Zelda quests as ever.

As a matter of fact, I've strayed away from questing into making tilesets and loose tiles, some of which...

I see my tiles and at least the remnants of my tileset are still being used,

...are based on DoR.

See, I figured if I could manage to work with arguably the most complex tileset available, I should be able to handle any tileset, as well as learn how much can go into making one.

And I most definitely learned :P

Even doing a classic-based one, it's been going on well over a year now.

But back to DoR, I discovered how to work the relational and dungeon carving modes of ZQuest a few months ago, and have been building a number of packs based on the material in the set. The modes are basically click-and-drag setups that automatically populate the appropriate tiles around the areas that you drag the cursor, and will remove those tiles and downsize your structure if you hold shift. The complexity of DoR grounds and other structures means you can spend a lot of time fine-tuning things, so I've been working on these relational/carving packs to make the process incredibly fast.

It's required the creation of a load of extra tiles, and the packs have been running a bit slower than I'd anticipated, but I did at least finish a Minish Cap Water & Ice pack (colorized for both DoR overworlds and dungeons) a little while ago. Detailed instruction guide included if you're not familiar with relational mode.

...of course, that's using Demonlink's "Hybrid" version of DoR. I only showed up here a little less than 2 years ago, so I've never worked with 2.10 or earlier material.

To tell the truth, I've been a bit ashamed about coming back. I guess you could say I had (yet another) good reason for my absence, but I felt really bad for making promises I couldn't keep.

I get in the same position so many times. I don't routinely check my email for a few weeks, then I know I'm going to get backlash for lack of response, and nervous anticipation of that puts me off from checking it even more. Same goes for facebook and the rest of it. But, I always eventually come back for the people who care and understand, and filter out the people who always tell me off. Which is even more troublesome when it's family, but like you say, home life can pull you away from the rest of life quite easily.

How about any awesome projects I should hear about?

Most of the big ones have been listed, but here is perhaps something you might find intriguing, if maybe not awesome:

Gouanaco and Shane hosted a 24-hour quest contest, which turned out quite a variety of results. I found it very interesting to see what kind of goals people aimed for given the time limit. Some quests are quick gimmicks, some tell short stories, others are full-fledged miniquests. Most quests in the thread are "up to date" in the sense that people aren't releasing them to the database as completed quests. But some of the larger ones have been polished up and officially released - for example, I released a 36-hour update for my entry, and strike also released a refined version of his entry.

 

So if you finally get a functional computer and feel like running through the entries, be sure to check those versions instead.

This community is practically built upon unkept promises. :P

This, and every other gaming community I've been a part of.

In fact, I'm running a project in another one that's gone into its 17th year of delay. And believe it or not, I'm only in 2nd place as far as longest delays on still-active projects go.

 

I should probably rename the project from "Millennium," given how far we've missed that date.



#26 Saffith

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Posted 14 June 2017 - 10:27 AM

I really need to see what has changed in ZC over the past few years. The switch to Windows 7 always hounded me, with all of its ZC compatibility issues.

I think those have pretty much been addressed. Now it's Windows 10 everyone complains about. :P But mostly that's just one problem that's easily fixed.

#27 Daniel

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Posted 15 June 2017 - 09:33 PM

Long time no see Radien I certainly remember you and it's good to see you return. I'm the opposite of you, I have less than five hours experience with ZC and ZQuest to my name as I never been very talented in design. It's good to here your life is working out well for you and I hope it continues down the same path. 

 

I know there's much more I can say but I'm not used to online forums anymore so I'm not sure how to go about it. I hope you become more active once again as you are a big part of this forums, even in your absence. 


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#28 Radien

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Posted 17 June 2017 - 08:14 AM

INCOMING.

INCOMING.

MEGA-REPLY IMMINENT.

Cilantro is actually just the Spanish name for coriander. Most other countries use the term "coriander" for the leaves as well (also Chinese parsley, for some reason); although, in the US and Canada, it's generally referred to as cilantro if it's the leaves, and coriander if it's the seeds or the root. The seeds are generally milder than the leaves, but the root actually has a much stronger taste.

Well, semantics aside, even if the root had a stronger taste, it seems to be a DIFFERENT taste, unless my nose is lying about what my tongue will report.

I'm not bothered by the strength of cilantro so much as the nature of the flavor. Soap doesn't taste strongly, but I don't want any of it in my food, and not coincidentally, the same goes for cilantro. :P

Ah right, fair enough. Well, I guess you can always take a look at them when the computer situation is fixed up :P

Maybe some of them. As always, I'm more interested in creation than playing, but it's certainly good to see the end results sometimes. :)

Yay, another Steve :D

STEVES REPRESENT

Yep, that'll take far more time than a full-time job.

I guess you could say that. It's a lot more flexible than a job, especially since quite often we do stuff together, but ZC quest building is more of a solitary task as far as I've known. Hard to have two hands on one mouse, at least.

As a matter of fact, I've strayed away from questing into making tilesets and loose tiles, some of which...
...are based on DoR.

See, I figured if I could manage to work with arguably the most complex tileset available, I should be able to handle any tileset, as well as learn how much can go into making one.

Hmm, it might arguably be the most complicated one worth using, but it's definitely not the most complicated one out there. Have you ever looked at the original LttP tileset?...

The tileset may be a bit archaic now, but the original LttP game used 8x8 pixel tiles rather than 16x16 pixel, and converting that into ZC without much modification made the LttP tileset into quite a mess.

Like many tilesets, DoR has a lot of tiles taken from LttP, but I spent quite a lot of time converting them into a form usable within ZC's combo and palette structure (DoR started off as Pure but I re-ripped many LttP tiles from the original game since many had lost resolution after many recolorings).

Some of my biggest Loose Tile projects have been all about that kind of conversion... LttP Simple Mountains, Minish Cap Enemies, etc. I really hope they've been useful, since making ZC capable of LttP-style quests has essentially​ been everybody's goal since shortly after ZC's creation. :)

quote name="Lüt" post="1023259" timestamp="1497449500"]And I most definitely learned :P

Even doing a classic-based one, it's been going on well over a year now.

But back to DoR, I discovered how to work the relational and dungeon carving modes of ZQuest a few months ago, and have been building a number of packs based on the material in the set. The modes are basically click-and-drag setups that automatically populate the appropriate tiles around the areas that you drag the cursor, and will remove those tiles and downsize your structure if you hold shift. The complexity of DoR grounds and other structures means you can spend a lot of time fine-tuning things, so I've been working on these relational/carving packs to make the process incredibly fast.

It's required the creation of a load of extra tiles, and the packs have been running a bit slower than I'd anticipated, but I did at least finish a Minish Cap Water & Ice pack (colorized for both DoR overworlds and dungeons) a little while ago. Detailed instruction guide included if you're not familiar with relational mode.

...of course, that's using Demonlink's "Hybrid" version of DoR. I only showed up here a little less than 2 years ago, so I've never worked with 2.10 or earlier material.[/quote]
Those look fantastic. :thumbsup: To tell the truth, I created something similar but never released it. It was not ready for public consumption anyway.

I've tried dungeon carving and relational mode before, and while they are initially fantastic for mapping out dungeons, I found myself going over them all again and fine tuning everything anyway. Unfortunately, that meant the two modes got in the way, because
1. the use of duplicate combos messes up the Flood Fill and Replace Combo tools, and
2. once you start manually painting combos on a screen, it interferes with your ability to use the two modes on that screen again.

I've set up combos for compatibility with those modes in tilesets before, because I think the features should be supported, but I've never been apt to use them myself. :/

I get in the same position so many times. I don't routinely check my email for a few weeks, then I know I'm going to get backlash for lack of response, and nervous anticipation of that puts me off from checking it even more. Same goes for facebook and the rest of it. But, I always eventually come back for the people who care and understand, and filter out the people who always tell me off. Which is even more troublesome when it's family, but like you say, home life can pull you away from the rest of life quite easily.

The delay behind this post should show that I echo your thoughts... >_>


I think those have pretty much been addressed. Now it's Windows 10 everyone complains about. :P But mostly that's just one problem that's easily fixed.

When I get a new computer it'll probably be Windows 10, seeing how strongly Microsoft pushed the change to 10. :/ So I guess I'll be facing that challenge too.

ZC 1.92 wasn't nearly as cool as the newer versions, but — I can't believe I'm saying this — at least it was stabler...

Changing to a newer OS must be a huge pain for developers.

Long time no see Radien I certainly remember you and it's good to see you return. I'm the opposite of you, I have less than five hours experience with ZC and ZQuest to my name as I never been very talented in design. It's good to here your life is working out well for you and I hope it continues down the same path.

I know there's much more I can say but I'm not used to online forums anymore so I'm not sure how to go about it. I hope you become more active once again as you are a big part of this forums, even in your absence.

Aww, thanks a lot Daniel, I'm really glad my contributions have been helpful ones. :)

While I certainly came here thinking I just wanted to make quests, over time I discovered other things I really liked doing.

I know not everyone feels like they've succeeded when they try questmaking, but as long as people are having fun, flexing their creativity, and learning things, I call it an accomplishment.

Edited by Radien, 17 June 2017 - 08:29 AM.

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#29 Cukeman

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Posted 17 June 2017 - 11:23 AM

http://www.huffingto..._n_7653808.html

 

Apparently there is something in cilantro that some people can sense and react to that other's don't.

Sounds like I'm one of those who can't detect it because I love cilantro.

Just sharing in case you might find the article interesting.



#30 Lüt

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Posted 17 June 2017 - 01:38 PM

Hard to have two hands on one mouse, at least.

You could always help fund this.

Hmm, it might arguably be the most complicated one worth using, but it's definitely not the most complicated one out there.

Yes, good qualifier.

Have you ever looked at the original LttP tileset?...

The tileset may be a bit archaic now, but the original LttP game used 8x8 pixel tiles rather than 16x16 pixel, and converting that into ZC without much modification made the LttP tileset into quite a mess.

Like many tilesets, DoR has a lot of tiles taken from LttP, but I spent quite a lot of time converting them into a form usable within ZC's combo and palette structure (DoR started off as Pure but I re-ripped many LttP tiles from the original game since many had lost resolution after many recolorings).

Some of my biggest Loose Tile projects have been all about that kind of conversion... LttP Simple Mountains, Minish Cap Enemies, etc. I really hope they've been useful, since making ZC capable of LttP-style quests has essentially​ been everybody's goal since shortly after ZC's creation. :)

Oh FFSs, tell me about LttP.

 

As a matter of fact, not only have I looked at it, but in my quest for accurate source tiles for my dungeon carving project(s), I've actually cataloged nearly every single dungeon tile across its four dungeon types.

 

The 8x8 placements were the first thing I noticed, and are now the first thing I notice when playing the game. Especially with the straight walls clashing when they reach the corners, and how the lower-level bricks rarely align with the main level. In fact, there's only a few places in the entire game where they properly alternate horizontal positioning between lower and upper levels. For the most part, you get a double-stack of two same-width bricks on top of each other. Honestly, the dungeon walls just seem like one giant tile error to me now.

 

And of course, that leaves you to determine where on an 8x8 grid you're going to place your 16x16 selection box when deciding how to rip a floor tile. After a few bad starts with dungeon floor borders before realizing the grid issue, I believe I've developed an accurate, or at least internally consistent, method of determining proper grid placement for floor tiles. But then, since borders (and rails) can be placed on an 8x8 grid anyway, I decided each floor tile might as well have 4 variations: base, offset +8 vertically, offset +8 horizontally, and offset +8 vertically and horizontally. Fits right in with the 4-column combo index, so why not.

 

Also of great obnoxication are the palettes. I suppose you noticed that the full set of dungeon walls actually uses nine colors? It's just that they don't show up in all the palettes. Most dungeon palettes duplicate at least one, and more often two or three colors. Only the Dark World's 6th dungeon, Misery Mire, reveals the correct usage of all nine colors. Now, I don't think you really lose much when converting to five colors, though a 6th color for the ceiling detail seems necessary to me for dungeons like the Dark World's L5, L6 and L7. But the lower-level walls that use the 7th, 8th and 9th colors seem to work well enough when reduced to upper-level wall colors.

 

As you can probably tell, I've been thinking of how to set up a "true-color" import for all LttP dungeon tiles, and I'm not sure if there's any way to avoid making everything into 8-bit tiles. I mean, I can think of ways around it, but explaining to any old loose-tile-downloader how to apply a CSet 2 of 1 to the flame/metal halves of the wall torch tiles seems too much hassle.

 

If nothing else, I could probably input them myself for anybody wanting the "true" LttP dungeon experience in their tileset.

 

Heck, I've even got the 48x48 watersplash animations from when Link stands under the walk-through waterfalls in Dark World's L2 ready to go, in case anybody wants to script that feature.

Those look fantastic. :thumbsup: To tell the truth, I created something similar but never released it. It was not ready for public consumption anyway.

I've tried dungeon carving and relational mode before, and while they are initially fantastic for mapping out dungeons, I found myself going over them all again and fine tuning everything anyway. Unfortunately, that meant the two modes got in the way, because
1. the use of duplicate combos messes up the Flood Fill and Replace Combo tools, and
2. once you start manually painting combos on a screen, it interferes with your ability to use the two modes on that screen again.

I've set up combos for compatibility with those modes in tilesets before, because I think the features should be supported, but I've never been apt to use them myself. :/

Thanks!

 

The thing about those modes though, is that they actually work on an 8x8-grid basis. That is to say, the reason a lot of relational/carving sets have duplicate tiles is because many standard 16x16 tiles don't smoothly break down into 8x8 pieces, so a simplified adaptation of the mode for larger tiles results in many duplicates.

 

I mean, I'm sure you already know this, but still, case in point:

 

I made a post in the daily ZC accomplishments thread showing a screenshot of LttP dungeon carving in DoR palette, in which you can see three of the four complete modes in the combo columns. It just so happens that the LttP tiles break down perfectly into 8x8 pieces, so they can take full advantage of the fine detailing that the mode provides. But when you're simplifying the mode with 16x16 tiles, then yeah you'll have to flood fill and "replace all" more than a few times. (Though, technically, you won't have any flood fill issues if you actually draw across every single tile that's meant to be the floor.)

 

Also, if you're interested in what I meant about additional relational modes for grounds, I made this post in the same thread showing a very brief preview of a few relational packs that will be available for all different style backgrounds, and often layers as well. (Check the last spoiler tag to see.)

 

Honestly, at this point, I almost want to do my own revision of DoR:H. But as I'm sure you're well aware, that would be a full-time job even if I did take two or three months away from the world, so unless somebody wants to officially employ me for that time... not gonna happen  :P

Changing to a newer OS must be a huge pain for developers.

Yep, that's why I never change an OS until it's been out for over a year and has at least one service pack, if not two.




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