3 replies to this topic

[Ica]

Hello, people!

Gee, time sure does go by pretty fast. Progress has been steady on the Crystal Heart, I'd say I'm about 70% done with it.

I've been busy with life and stuff, but I try to do a little work on the project everyday. It's rather relaxing, and I'm still very excited about it. I'll do a trailer for it soon.

But what I wanted to talk about in this update is a pretty big change to the game: the great NPC shift!
And by that, I mean that I am adhering to Moosh's NPC script.

A big thing that I want to do with this project is to create a living and breathing world, and for that, I need real people inhabiting it.

All the villages and such areas used to have a bunch of NPCs who could not be interacted with, and then some houses where you could talk to some people (using that old direct warp to a screen with a guy technique).

NOW, every single person you see will have something to say! I'm trying to make a very comprehensive world as well, and that means that people will talk a lot about their lives, hopefully in a natural way. NPCs may give helpful hints, talk about mainquest or sidequest objectives, tell you something about the lore of the world, or just say something random that they're feeling or thinking. I'm trying to avoid unnecessarily long dialogues (I haven't checked the "skip dialogue with B" rule yet, but I'm willing to consider it).

Here are some examples:


This is the first NPC in the game and I talk to her every time I walk by.


Some NPCs are helpful.


Others not so much.


Some will just talk about what's going on with them.


-> QUESTION: What do you guys think about the little "a" button? I was thinking of changing it, but I'm not sure yet. Be sure to post your opinion!


I DO NEED HELP WITH A PROBLEM, THOUGH.

For some reason, the script doesn't always work(?). Sometimes solidity will not work correctly (I pay attention to the grid placement as much as I can), and spawning and despawning NPCs has just been a mess. It worked fine for a moment, but it just doesn't work sometimes. Sometimes it will work with some items and not others. I'm not very accustomed with scripts, I just can't figure it out alone. Please help me :>

As I tried to make clear with this post, NPCs are now a major part of my quest, so I really need them to work correctly!

Hopefully you all will have as much fun exploring my world and talking to the people in it as I have making it!

See you in the next one!
Tchauzinho!

-Ica

[Mani Kanina]

For some reason, the script doesn't always work(?). Sometimes solidity will not work correctly (I pay attention to the grid placement as much as I can), and spawning and despawning NPCs has just been a mess. It worked fine for a moment, but it just doesn't work sometimes. Sometimes it will work with some items and not others. I'm not very accustomed with scripts, I just can't figure it out alone. Please help me :>

Have you assigned a layer to those screens in which it does not work? Moosh NPCs function by adding solidity to, I believe, Layer 1 (otherwise 2), but you need a layer assigned there otherwise buggy behaviour can be observed.

[Ica]

Thank you for your help, Mani! There's indeed something very strange going on with layers; I've discovered that having an NPC next to something on layer 2 (in my case) makes them walk-through, while the solidity works fine if they're not adjacent to anything in that layer. Very strange, but helps me a lot!! Now I just need to figure out why they're not appearing or disappearing when the player has certain items. Hopefully it's something simple, too...

 

BTW do you mind if I use your Lenna tiles as NPCs in my quest?? (I'd just use her as a normal person, but she could say something special if you'd like).

[Mani Kanina]

BTW do you mind if I use your Lenna tiles as NPCs in my quest?? (I'd just use her as a normal person, but she could say something special if you'd like).

The tiles are released in the database to be used in quests, so go ahead.