This is just some background information regarding the current state of Sacred Talion. Last month, I decided to finally finish this project, called Zelda Cross during initial development. I’ve had the story down for quite some time. It’s really a standard Zelda fare, and pretty tame as far as new ideas go. It is also a non-standard sequel to The Legend of Zelda and the Adventure of Link, though it takes place approx. 1500 years after those events.
I spent a great deal of time working on the palette, moving tiles around, and finding tiles, but only this week have I felt that all the pieces are in place for the development of my final tileset. There are only a handful of objects to be converted to the new palette (the version 3 palette, as I call it.) The quest has just left “Summer Project” build and is now in “Tileset” build (Version 3.3).
I’ve just converted DOR Link to the ST Palette, and am adapting a variety of Gameboy NPCs to be compatible. I’ve also advanced the dialog quite a bit, and I’ve spent some time looking up enemy data and trying to find a way of scaling the game’s combat difficulty.
• Completed Zelda sprite.
• Completed Ganondorf and Ambria sprites.
}
::June 9, 2012::{
I’ve been having some trouble with my level palettes and I think they are due to a bug in 2.5 RC3. As it stands, level palettes 1, 5, 7, 9, B, E, F, and 12 seem glitched. There doesn’t seem to be any trouble with any other palette however, so the current solution is to start all the gameplay palettes at 13.
• Reworked some NPC sprites to match the DOR Link animation more closely. Half of them are done, but I’m still undecided as to whether or not I should make the upward facing animations match.
}
::June 10, 2012::{
• Finished reworking NPC Sprites, so about halfway done with them.
• Moved enemies to new tileset, reorganizing them. Started editing enemy data.
• Added Popo, Popo 2, and Flying Scythe enemies.
}
::June 11, 2012::{
• Finished standard enemy graphics and item drop sets.
• Imported and organized items. Also set graphics for them in the editor. Still need to do special effects…
}
::June 15, 2012::{
• Created Impa's Sprite. It looks pretty much like a warrior impa.
}
::June 16, 2012::{
I’ve downloaded Parallel Worlds and taken a few screenshots. I plan on integrating PW graphics into the Sacred Talion tileset, as well as the SD3 Grass and dirt. It looks like PW does cliff edges differently, so I’m thinking of doing it the same way in Sacred Talion. I just like the way it looks better. If it’s too much work, then I won’t bother. It depends on how things line up, really.
I’ve started work on the overworld tiles; mostly some of the base stuff. Adding the SD3 grasses and a PW dirt tile base.
}
::June 17, 2012::{
I’ve finished most of the overworld base except for the mountain, water, and some bushes and fences. More importantly, I’ve looked at the Parallel Worlds mountains up close and decided that they’re not worth the effort. At least, at this stage they don’t fit well on the tile sheet, so I’m scratching the “add them to the tileset” plan. They’re not necessary for Sacred Talion anyway.
• Finished importing and converting mountain tiles.
}
::May 15, 2013::{
This is my second run on the summer tileset. I've been working on a few NPC Sprites. Namely, guards, gerudo, and bearded peoples. The dark skin of the gerudo uniform doesn't look great with the pink color of their uniforms, so I'm thinking of changing the uniform color. Got some new sprites from FF6, and from various ideas I sketched on graph paper. It should be possible to make a decent looking windmill by pre-rotating the tiles in an external program, or by rotating them with a script. A script would be nice, because it could respond to the weather.
I've also started rearranging the script layout in preperation for the development of scripts for the quest. I'm using Notepad++, which is about 145,007 times better than Notepad, which I will call Notepad-- from here on out.
I need to lay out the items in the game, before major plot-work can be finished. Scripts and triggers may need dedicated slots here and there, so this should be worked out in as realistic a way as possible.
}
::May 16, 2013 ::{
Touched up on some more dialog.
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::May 17, 2013 ::{
Added a ton of Dialog, fleshing out the story a little better.
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::May 18, 2013 ::{
Extensive work on the STFairy Script. Basically rebuilt it from scratch because it was confusin and didn't work before. It really helps to have std_functions.zh available for searching, becase there are many useful functions for simplifying tasks. Most of the stuff I was doing on my own was unneccesary. Although, I still couldn't get the FAIRY_IDLE relational positioning to simplify easily...
Also, wrote some of the important parts of the STLamp script. I can't get the screen to paint while scrolling, though, so it may not work as an FFC script...
}
::May 19, 2013 ::{
Rotations using DrawTile() are complicated. I managed to get the STLamp script to work ok, but the triggers and operational details aren't up and running yet. I've implemented a new STWaitframe function for doing watframe handling for global scripts. Unfortunately, I can't get the fairy to respond to it. The fairy keeps the same coordinates during screen transitions... Also, I can't get the windmill idea to work right now. DrawTile() seems to only like 45 degree retoations, and worse then that, I can't even get it to animate at all! It paints the first frame, then does nothing.
Ah! AVG was preventing the scripts from saving! I added an exception for the ZC folder, and both the fairy screen-transition and windmill problems are resolved. I wonder why these scripts were working yesterday?
I've renamed this development phase as "Summer Project 2" and moved to version 3.4. Mostly for backup purposes.
}
::May 20, 2013 ::{
FFC Scripts don't draw during screen scrolling... This means the Lamp script will only work if it has a global component. Maybe it should be a global script for drawing, and an FFC script for state changes?
Made graphics for the Great Fairies and Toranartu's spirit.
Also, made an awesome looking Windmill graphic. I accidentally made it 7x7 instead of 5x5, but I like it better this way.
Still no fix for the June 9, 2012 palette problem, but I've decided to just label these palettes as [broken] and skip them. Who knows where more broken palettes will turn up...
}
::May 21, 2013 ::{
Made graphics for old bearded guys, sages, Vasha, and Sage Culali.
I'm a little disappointed in the look of the 2x2 trees that I made a while back. They look flat and stupid, actually. I've decided to move to a slightly more complex, 2x3 model. I've already drawn up the basic template, I just need to apply good looking trees to it! I'm also going to try and incorporate Geoffrey's "sexified LttP trees" since they have a little more depth than the default LttP trees. I'm also nervous about custom-making large and small leafless trees, as well as palms. I feel they add a lot to the game, so I don't want to mess them up.
Additionally, I want to expand to 10 default terrain types by adding snow-grass tiles. Should be easy to do: just recolor the green grass tiles.
Need to remember to add shallow water tree bases with the forest-brush tree bases...
}
::May 22, 2013::{
Did a first pass on the small trees. They look excellent! Now for the hard ones...
Well, I kind of "sprayed" together a leafless tree, and it looks pretty good. It may need adjustment later, but what I have is passable.
Ok, I've finished the Palms, merged together the trees in various positions, and colored them all. So the small trees are finished, and they look great! I'm actually excited to use them...
Remodeled the underbrush by texturing it with Mr. Z's "fantastic foliage." It worked better than expected.
Tried my hand at the 4x4 size leafless tree... it looked like a nightmare -- only remotely tree-like. I've just deleted all the working tiles. I'm going to start from scratch, and rather than trying to scale up the small tree, I'll try to scale down a big one.
Added more dialog for the Shipwreck & Tantamaw Island.
}
::May 24, 2013::{
Spent probably 8 hours on this leafless tree, but it looks ok now.
Completed all 40 large tree stumps.
There's not a ton of nature-based overworld left to do. Large tree tops, fallen logs, log tunnels, SD3 snow grass, overlays... The rest is man-made stuff.
}
::May 25, 2013::{
I've finished the large tree tops, log tunnels, bone tunnels, tree-entrances, and the large trunks in shallow water.
Fixed an error in the LA-style mountain cliffs.
}
::May 26, 2013::{
Added snow-grass mountains.
Finished the small water trunks, and the small palm trunks.
Added over-trees & their shadows.
Started working on overworld objects and bridges. Got most of it done...
Went back and reorganized/rebuilt all of the basic overworld stuff. Bushes, flowers, etc. I put all three grass colors on even footing, so plalettes should be really flexible now.
Found some more reasonable enemy ideas.
Finally learned some great keyboard commands: Shift+Ctrl+[+/-] = Shift color, and Shift+Ctrl+O = Mass underlay.
More progress on bulk overworld stuff. New cacti and folded fences.
Found a wooden bridge and some flowers from SD3 that look decent.
}
::May 27, 2013::{
The SD3 stuff clashes pretty seriously, so I won't use it. It's basically feature creep at this point, anyway.
Rebuilt tall bushes and recolored many of the gray objects to stone.
Imported more overworld rocks and fences.
Imported water plants and large graves.
Thought about the climbing animation script. Instead of worrying about tile modifiers, I can just make it modify Link->Dir and disable buttons when walking over certain combos. I'm not sure how to do sideview ladders, though. Probably set links Z coord and acceleration to 0 each frame? Maybe check inputs and keep my own coordinate set to load? Also, bottomless pits & lava: maybe I can get link's coordinates on screen init and extrapolate his entry position.
Imported and edited the parallel worlds ship. Built an awesome looking mast, and started on the sails. Needs some rope to tie it all together.
}
::May 28, 2013::{
Drew some ropes for the ship and made the sails look a little better. Need to wrap the sails and add side netting -- shrouds and ratlines, apparently. But it would also be nice to add fishing nets and cages.
}
::May 31, 2013::{
Partially roped up the sails, added the shrouds and ratlines, and started on the ship-water border.
}
::June 1, 2013::{
Finished the ship-water border. It doesn't look great, but it is functional for now.
Went over some of the details for the freeform doors script, and invented some new door types. I'm thinking of making the script capable of handling ourdoor stuff like bombeable caves and houses.
Finished Freeform buildings. I have four kinds of walls: Outer-wall, Fortress, Mudstone, and Inner-wall. The roofs of these buildings are wood or stone.
As a note, the pre-fab building will consist of the base six house types, dark-world modifiers, various roofs, tree houses, and the broken houses. After that, there's the pre-fab dungeon stuff like the Tower of Hera, Ganon's tower, Sanctuary, Hyrule Castle, etc. Lastly we have the city-scape objects like paths and fountains, which will probably be moved back with the earlier overworld stuff.
Also, I might need to build door animations for Hyrule Castle, Church & barn doors, and houses & dark-world houses.
Fixed Inner-Wall right side, recolored and finished ship masts.
Started recoloring house roofs.
}
::June 2, 2013::{
Animated house doors, rearranged house tiles. Recolored most house stuff.
Spent a long time resequencing the quest -- essentially building a walkthrough that describes where and how to get every item. I added all the HCP and Moon Pearls to the quest planner.
Got up to sequence 7 on the walkthrough.
}
::June 3, 2013::{
More work on sequencing and redrawing maps. This is taking much longer than anticipated! I am done up to sequence 15.
}
::June 5, 2013::{
I've worked up to sequence 19.
}
::June 6, 2013::{
More Sequencing -- up to Sequence 23.
}
::June 7, 2013::{
Sequenced up to 29. Almost done...
}
::June 8, 2013::{
Finished sequencing to 31, the last step. Bottle & Potion functionality is still undetermined, but everything else is established semi-coherently. In particular, the swords and armor powers are scaled to normal ZC numbers, so enemy data should convert right over with minimal adjustments. The extraneous weapons and armors will add special abilities instead.
Isolated many of the overworld door parts and rebuilt many of the bombed doors.
Finished most of the housing section, with only a few anciliary details to do.
Made a thatch roof for huts. (Looks best with bombed walls.)
Rebuilt bush-fences to use relational tiles.
Finished grass-house roofs.
Recolored and imported Sanctuary, Palace of Darkness, and Hyrule Castle tiles.
}
::June 9, 2013::{
Finished importing Pyramid of Power, Eastern Palace, and Ganon's Tower.
}
::June 10, 2013::{
Finished importing Tower of Hera. The shadows are a little tough because I didn't want to overdo it. There may be a simpler way of making the shadows work by using shaded floor pieces.
Finished Desert Palace, Ice Palace, Dark world overbrush, and Master Sword podium. So that's all of the ALttP overworld stuff, save turtle rock, which I don't even want to include.
Imported and recolored the seven dungeon varieties: Light, Dark, Ice, Tower, Cave, House, and Fort. There are a total of five palette configuations for dungeons: Normal, Ice, Cave, House, Fort. With two for the overworld and one for miscellaneous, this gives the following palette identifiers: EL, ED, IN, II, IC, IH, IF, O.
Imported and recolored dungeon doors.
Fixed some dungeon wall errors.
Imported and recolored entrance decorations and imported wall decor.
}
::June 11, 2013::{
Found a sweet Palette chooser: http://colorschemedesigner.com/
Made a new pastel-modern template palette. It looks neat, but way too "candy-land", and some colors don't have the right contrast or brightness. It all fits together well, though.
Built another full palette, this time choosing colors from the middle of ramps. There should be more overall saturation this time...
After applying the new palette, the main colors look great, but the level colors need a lot of work. Still not enough contrast.
Made a new level palette and corrected the brass and oranges. Also picked colors for Link's tunics. The new palette has a problem with it's water, grass and special grass. Not enough contrast in either...
}
::June 12, 2013::{
Trying to fix palette issues. Built a first attempt at a dungeon palette.
The dungeon palette is way too saturated.
Recolored and detailed dungeon wall decor.
}
::June 14, 2013::{
Recolored some dungeon objects.
Made a relational table and some new bed covers.
Imported more dungeon objects.
Recolored counters and imported/recolored many different ground types.
}
::June 18, 2013::{
Added damaged ground and plants for dungeons.
Started recoloring dungeon objects. Worked on Lava a little. I have a great palette for it, and I've made some nice "hot surface" tiles, but the flowing lava is going to be difficult to make look good.
Made a little progress on the lava tiles. Basically, I know what I want it to look like, but there is no quick way of making it happen.
Imported warps, floor torches, switch blocks, and made lava embers and lighted entrance floors. Arranged a bunch of stuff.
}
::June 21, 2013::{
Added whirlwind warps, MC ice and recolored interior curtains.
Recolored Pillars and tall lamps.
Made some paper and wood room dividers.
A second attempt at a decent lava tile... I think I will need a larger tesselation and a slower animation. Need to remember bubbles, smoke, lavafalls, outdoor lava, and glowing stone walls.
}
::June 22, 2013::{
Made a third attempt at the lava tiles, this time using 4 10-frame tiles. They look very mediocre.
Added buckets, a basic wooden chair, and a desert skyline.
Fourth attempt at lava looks much better. I recolored some Lost Isle water tiles and made a relational setup for them.
}
::June 23, 2013::{
Made treasure chests.
Added kitcken-ware, potted plants, sliding blocks, and rebuilt relational tables. The simple table is a suitable scaffolding and flooring substitute.
Lots of miscellaneous interior tiles.
Removed dark floors because they are taking up too much space. For dark floors, I can just use a shadow layer overlay.
Added water warps, camp fire, and steet lamps.
Rearranged some stuff.
}
::June 24, 2013::{
Made inner corners for MC ice.
Made some scenic wall pictures.
Made Sword/Boomerang triggers.
Made Arrow eye triggers.
Made a first attempt at triangular magic mirrors. They look ok, but don't animate well. Too much pillow shading and proportion inconsistencies. Basically, it is like a simple proof-of-concept for what I really want.
Made Pinwheel gust jar triggers.
Made some smoke tiles.
Made an animated lava bubble.
}
::June 25, 2013::{
Rearranged more stuff and prioritized unmade tiles. At this point, it almost feels like I'm ready to start building combo pages. I just need to put in some final details plus weather and skylines. It's hard to find good skyline sets.
Tried a new relational bush tile, but it is over-detailed and doesn't play well with the palette.
Found some awesome water, sky, mountain, and plateau cliff Backgrounds.
Made a Gust Jar whirlwind.
}
::July 1, 2013::{
Made text for passive sub-screen command display.
Rearranged subscreen.
Worked on code for Signpost and sub-screen command display.
}
::July 2, 2013::{
Worked on code for Signpost and sub-screen command display. Surprisingly, it worked perfectly on the first try! Just need to reposition the command display and double-check all the positional stuff (which is a little off, as expected.)
}
::July 4, 2013::{
Found some good FSA tiles.
}
::July 16, 2013::{
Made dungeon vines.
Finished boomerang and sword switches.
Added two new torches and a tall, wooden torch.
Rebuilt all the pots.
}
::July 18, 2013::{
Made Hay Bales.
Made rock wall-fences.
Made fires for fireplaces.
Made eyeball triggers.
Made small crate and table.
Made dungeon wall signs.
Made Downward floor stairs and ladder.
Added new carpets and stone flooring.
Made small rock wall-fences.
Added new seashells and new dungeon wall decor.
I'm thinking of adding stone-eye versions of all the eyed wall decor, just to bring the count up to 4 on each.
Made floating crystal triggers.
Reworked the normal dungeon blocks.
}
::Jul 19, 2013::{
Started compacting and rearranging dungeon walls.
}
