42 replies to this topic

[Timelord]

To be honest, that wouldn't be something that I could accept. I offered this as a free, community srvice, for the purpose of questmaker collaboration, and a resource for questmakers that isn't reliant on corporate greed.

If you're at all interesteed in doing any cooperative work on TGC, that'd be brilliant, but I suspect that you have a full slate with DoY.

I will update the tutorial with more information, and images this week.

At present, the network is down at the ISP end, due to a drunken motorist ramming a major pole of some sort: The ISP rep couldn't provide more details. Happy bloody St. Patrick's Day, I suppose.

I logged in from my mobile to report the outage, which should be cleared within !!!six hours!!!. (Sigh.)

[Timelord]

The servers are back up and running.

[ShadowTiger]

If you're at all interesteed in doing any cooperative work on TGC, that'd be brilliant, but I suspect that you have a full slate with DoY.

My hands are not all that full with DoY at the moment. The filespace was the most important thing, and that's settled, I suppose. If you need help with The Golden Cenotaph, assuming that was the acronym you were going for, I'm glad to lend some graphical aid where necessary. My WoW serverwork isn't going anywhere strong for a while as it is anyway. So buggy.

[Timelord]

Pardon, but are you using WoW as a ZC acronym, or as in Warcraft, or something else entirely?

 

I noticed that you made a WoW directory, with some php scripts in it, from the server file transfer logs, but I didn't look at any of what you uploaded at all. The only thing I should mention, is that by the filenames, I see that you are probably going to want/need PHP-MySQL, so I will work towards configuring it on that server for you. Please let me know how urgent is your need for SQL support, and please also inform me if any of your PHP scripts are problematic. I'm not entirely certain what PHP version is running on the G4, and will likely need to update it in any event, as it is certainly an outdated release.

 

Updating PHP is not something I enjoy, so if your PHP files execute properly, please let me know, so that I know how urgent it is that I update that too.

 

As to my game, aye, it's The Golden Cenotaph (TGC) more properly 'Legends of Zoria: The Golden Cenotaph', the present working title; and alternatively 'Legends of Zoria: Relics of the King, Swords of Destiny'. (These are technically names of the chapters of the story.)

 

What I primarily need is assistance with level design, and things of that nature. Graphical things that I have yet to do, include importing and recolouring dungeon tiles, and some overworld tiles, from other sets; and some space-themed tile sheets. The main work there, again, is recolouring. I'm fairly decent at designing custom sprites. I've been trying to avoid using Pure-style tilesets, and using classic tiles, to provide a game more like those of the mid to late 1980s, in style. I know that people here are very touchy about how pretty a game is, but to be honest, the scale of the game makes using such tilesets absurd.

 

I would need four times the number of dmaps, and then three times that sum, again, for layers, to do it with very pretty tiles, and keep the scale right. This is based on my literary work, so there is an actual history, cartography, and binding cosmology in place, from which I do not wish to diverge, more than is mandatory. I have already caved to pressure to make the screens 'less plain', which skews the landscape from that in the fictional universe.

 

Aside from that, my secondary need is gameplay testing, and feedback. I expected you'd be too busy for anything intensive, and I know only too well how much taking on the responsibility of being a quest contributor is, with how terribly I failed at assisting Alucard. I shifted from having plenty of free time, to being piled to the neck with troubles, and kept putting off work that I promised to deliver.

[ShadowTiger]

Oh that sort of testing is easy enough. I do if surprisingly quickly, strangely enough, without omitting any actual detail or exhibiting a lack of effort on my part. It's immersion at some point, really.

Also, the sort of artistic style that you're currently employing is one of my favorites. It reminds me a bit of the NES game Faxanadu. In terms of the world detail, additional varieties of tiles that are already there are usually all that's needed. A screen can be fairly empty and simplistic as long as "doodads" of the same type of tile are deployed. A few random clicks, and you're there.
 
I don't have nearly enough opportunity to design a dungeon, but the few I have, were apparently above-par. If you'd like help with that, I'm happy to oblige. Somehow. The actual person-to-person logistics of that are interesting to contemplate.

Pardon, but are you using WoW as a ZC acronym, or as in Warcraft, or something else entirely?

I noticed that you made a WoW directory, with some php scripts in it, from the server file transfer logs, but I didn't look at any of what you uploaded at all. The only thing I should mention, is that by the filenames, I see that you are probably going to want/need PHP-MySQL, so I will work towards configuring it on that server for you. Please let me know how urgent is your need for SQL support, and please also inform me if any of your PHP scripts are problematic. I'm not entirely certain what PHP version is running on the G4, and will likely need to update it in any event, as it is certainly an outdated release.

Updating PHP is not something I enjoy, so if your PHP files execute properly, please let me know, so that I know how urgent it is that I update that too.

Oh I was just toying around with something. Those won't be there long at all; I just wanted to preview their current state. I'm not actually working with them or anything. I apologize for the ... whatever that was. O.o and yes, WoW is indeed World of Warcraft. I'm completely enamored with the Lore of the game, and to actually be inside of it is just amazing for me.

[Timelord]

It doesn't bother me in the least if you want to put Warcraft content on your account. It's your account, and as long as you aren't actually running active media (using it as a PTP game server), it's all fine. I wouldn't even care about that, if I had an OC3 line, but I don't at present. I am mostly worried that you may run into problems with the installed PHP version, and that I haven't yet set up PHP-MySQL on that server.

Edited by ZoriaRPG, 18 March 2014 - 11:59 PM.

[Timelord]

Sorry for the interruption. I had taken the servers down to do a backup, and forgot to re-mont the volume with the PZC user accounts. I need to set up a launch daemon to handle that, but I want to get it onto a different RAID array first. :/

 

Servers are up again, after the backup period. All of your datuj is archived as of today too, for I added new accounts, and backed up the sparse-image that holds the PZC accounts.

 

@ShadowTiger: I tend to think of my game more along the lines of Crystalis, and Secret of Mana, with respect to the RPG/Zelda fusion. Have you played the other games in the Xanadu series? Faxanadu (Famicom-Xanadu) was a touch cookie; and is a bit overshadowed by its computer counterparts, and other ports, but still a fun, if not horribly difficult game in many parts. There is an entire series of games that are part of the Xanadu series, and I think Faxanadu is based on Xanadu II/III, or something like that.

Edited by ZoriaRPG, 30 March 2014 - 02:24 PM.

[ShadowTiger]

WHAT There are more Faxanadu-related games?! O_O Oh god. Excuse me, I have something I need to do for a month.

[KingPridenia]

Pretty nice thing you're doing, but I personally will continue to use MediaFire for all of my file sharing needs.

 

@Zoria: Faxanadu? As in the platformer on the NES where you're supposed to be fighting against crazed Dwarves and save the World Tree?

Edited by RedmageAdam, 30 March 2014 - 04:01 PM.

[Timelord]

Aye, that Faxanadu.

For more on the series, this is a good place to start. As I remember, The series originated on the MSX and PC-88, and eventually evolved onto the PC-98, MSX2, and X68K. Xanadu Revival (PC-98, IIRC) has been translated, as have some of the others.

They do not all have the same gameplay, as you might think, so some of them may not be of interest. The Fami release was designed for console use, but the rest of the series was made for PC systems of some kind, up through the mid 1990s, when it began to morph into console adaptations again.

You would probably be most interested in Xanadu/Dragonslayer: Legend of the Heros II' , a.k.a. Kaze no Densetsu Xanadu (the SFC, PCE, or PC-9801 versions are usually the most beloved).

For a complet-ish list of Nihon Falcom titles, including the Xanadu series, and tie-in, or similar games, see this wiki entry.

There's almost no end to the stacks of Xanadu titles, and related NF RPGs.

Edited by ZoriaRPG, 30 March 2014 - 06:26 PM.

[Timelord]

Downtime Notice: I am taking the server down temporarily for maintenance and extensive backups. It should be back up and running by 09:00 GMT today.

 

Completed:

Main OS Drive Array Backup.

User Accounts Volume backup.

 

Server is now back on-line.

Edited by ZoriaRPG, 12 April 2014 - 03:54 AM.

[Master Maniac]

So wait, with an account, I could have a website dedicated to quest progress and details? A place to host anything at all that I build, to include images, scripts, and full .qst files?

 

I'm very tempted to take you up on your offer, except that I have absolutely no idea how to set up a website for anything. >.<

[Timelord]

So wait, with an account, I could have a website dedicated to quest progress and details? A place to host anything at all that I build, to include images, scripts, and full .qst files?
 
I'm very tempted to take you up on your offer, except that I have absolutely no idea how to set up a website for anything. >.<

Yes, you'd have all of that, plus shell access. No-one has asked for SQL access, or any PHP upgrades yet, but I can always configure PhpMySQL for users, and install later PHP versions (a real pain), if users request either.

Setting up a website is probably the simplest form of programming in existence. If you can't be bothered to lean HTML, or PHP, you can always use auto-generators, built into many Adobe tools, or similar products; or copy a template and use it.

A Website need not be fancy: See this. That's about as bare-bones as possible. A logo, and links, with images for list bullets.

HTML is the basis for BB Code, so you probably already know most of the basic commands. Only when you want to make a very complex design, do you need extreme precision.

Yes, you absolutely could create a full website dedicated to projects, or just use the space to share files via links on forums, or merely as an off-site backup. That's all entirely up to the user, and I can enable filesystem listing (per account), or other functions that people ask me to enable.

[ShadowTiger]

Does the server ever go down in early mornings for maintenance? I've been trying to connect at 6:50 AM for a while, and the same settings have worked before.

[Master Maniac]

Fantastic. Once I start my next big project, and once I get a decent ways into it, I'll be poking you about server space