Weekly update

Last week was a highly productive one with many code improvements being made. The skill usage plug-in now sorts actors from enemies and puts them in a separate database. This improves the organization and will help in readability. Also in theory it will now be capable of displaying the low and the high damage that the skill has done. The code already works on the server side. However I will have to rewrite my client side code quite a bit.

Lets look at some of the things I have been thinking of:

1. Damage from skills that hit multiple enemies; should they calculate the total damage from those skills, the damage from the first target hit or the highest damage dealt. Personally I am leaning towards the total damage.
2. This also means it might be a good idea to grab the amount of targets hit and send that to the server.

 That being said more testing is needed to figure out the best way of collecting this new data.

Update plus a discussion on random events

Progress on Skill_Usage has been slow this past week. Meaning I have very little to report on that. So instead I'm going to talk about random events.

Weekly update 2 for Skill_Usage plugin

Much progress has been made since my last update. My ultimate plan for it works so far flawlessly which includes using PHP and SQL for storing the data. There's still a few things that need to be worked out however.

1. Enemy data gets stored currently in the same database as Actors. Having them get stored in their own databases will look a bit cleaner.

2. Average damage for skills will probably require a third database for storing just the skill damage so I can use the average method and return that data back into the actor/enemy database tables.

3. A how to use manual will have to be written as setting this up requires a bit of advanced knowledge. I shall try and keep the manual as easy to understand as possible.

Here's some advantages to doing it this way:

1. The client will not suffer any major performance drop as calculations and data storing is handled server side.

2. You will not have to ask your testers/game players to send a text file to you.

3. It is much cleaner i.e you can view just one actor at a time vs every one at the same time.

4. It should in theory work for any number of testers/game players. Meaning you can collect a massive amount of data all added together for you to better understand whats being used and whats not.

Weekly update:

Well this week I have been researching  a lot on the next set of plugin's that I am working on. Depending on if I can get all the necessary information sorted out programming should start sometime next week. Following is a cryptic teaser on a special feature that I am researching.

Preliminary research for Skill_Usage looks very promising for a very special feature I want to include in it. I can't divulge any details at this time as I am still uncertain of if it will make it into the final version. If it does; however I am certain that it will make this plugin even more useful. More teasers to come in the future on this.

Let me know if there are any additional features you guys might want, as right now it will be easier for me to implement.

Up next:

For the next set of plugins I will be writing for RPGmaker MV will be my Skill_Usage and Time_Machine from RPGmaker VX Ace. I plan on adding a few extra features to Skill_Usage, Time_Machine seeing extra features depends on if I can find extra features to put in it.

SAR_MVAchievements

Description: This plugin allows you to have achievements inside an RPG maker MV game. It is highly flexible allowing you to program your own achievement scene or to use one of the achievement scene style plugins I have provided.

Features:
- Global achievements
- Non-global achievements
- Achievement auto checking
- Achievement sealing (disallows extra achievements from being added over what you want)
- Tie achievements to switches or variables

Script calls:
SAR.achievements.achievementSwitch(global, name, description, gameSwitchID, reward, icon, bool)
global = number 1 or 0
name = string
description = string
gameSwitchID = number
reward = number
icon = number
bool = optional true or false (false is default)

SAR.achievements.achievementVariable(global, name, description, gameVariableID, limit, reward, icon, bool)
global = number 1 or 0
name = string
description = string
gameVariableID = number
limit = number (this is what the gameVariable must equal to recieve the achievement)
reward = number
icon = number
bool = optional true or false (false is default)

Plugin commands:
SarleccAchievementsSwitch global name description gameVariableID limit reward

SarleccAchievementsVariable global name description gameVariableID limit reward

*Note that the description value uses periods "." to bind words to its self. i.e: this.is.a.description

Screen shots:

Non-Commercial links.

Github link: SAR_MVAchievements.js
Github link: Achievement_scene_style1.js

Credit Sarlecc

For commercial use license:
Shop $5.99

Comes with the following bonus':
Demo, pdf manual, SAR_POPUP, an additional achievement scene style, a plugin that displays particle explosions, and js-expression-eval (for convenience as SAR_POPUP uses it). It also includes some basic graphics (shown above in the screen shots) and a sound effect.

Credit Sarlecc, Matthew Crumley, Chad Engler

TERMS: link

Authors notes: If you have any questions/issues/suggestions please feel free to leave a comment or use the contact form located to the right.

What's happening:

   Here's a short summary:

• Due to lack of funds Hardly Working extended is being set aside yet again.

• I will be selling commercial usage of my JavaScript plugins to help cover those costs.
• Meaning I will be unable to provide them how I provided my Ruby scripts (i.e free to use in non-commercial and commercial).
• I am also going to try and do a weekly post on my blog to try and keep everyone more updated on what I am doing.