Hello dear people!it has been a while since the last update has been posted in the forums!
We are proud today to announce to everyone that we have done a nice amount of work lately on Project Zelda Engine and we we fixed over 45+ bugs in the engine, and we added over 10+ new features to it!. I won't list all the bugs here as there are too many. I want to focus on the most exciting part of our work on the PZE: the new features!
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Feature 1: The Bottle SystemDear people, the Bottle System has been finished! Now all the 6 bottles work perfectly and can carry content for you, such as liquids, potions, poisons, water, juices, fishes, fairies, mushrooms, and many other things!
Link drinking a Green Potion which refills his Magic Meter.
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Feature 2: Multilingual SupportThe PZE became a multilingual engine where people of different languages can play their most favorite games in their language! The Language option is designed to help the people, regardless of language!
The Language Menu can be found in the File Selection Menu of the Main Title Screen:
We added over 4 languages already which really work!
The Multi-language support has been expanded to Hermes Message Script, to allow people use advanced text formatting features in their translations.
Also the names of the maps in the game will appear in that language set by the player (for example the English name 'Kakariko Village' will update to the German 'Dorf Kakariko', and so on)
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Feature 3: Ammo Cap Variables for all Weapons!The Ammunition Cap Variables for all the weapons and items have been added! Now, with those simple but extremely useful caps, you can define how much the ammo holding capacity increases when you receive Bomb Bags, Rupee Wallets and Arrow Quivers, etc.
The Ammo Variable caps can be found in the GAME SETUP common event.
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Feature 4: Hotkey Markers & Equipment Markers!The Hotkey Markers: When assigning an weapon or item from the Inventory, (such as the Bow or the Bomb or other items), to the A, S or D hotkeys (which are widely known as the C-Buttons in most Zelda games), a circular mark will tag it. This Hotkey Marker acts merely as a reminder so and lets the people see easier which items are hotkeyed and in which hotkey, each of them (A, S or D). The Hotkey Markers system applies to Inventory Screen and Masks Screen.
Here is a nice example of the yellow Hotkey Markers which appear under the assigned (to A, S and D hotkeys), items, masks or weapons:
The Hotkey Markers work on all items in the inventory, regardless of if they are multi-hotkeyed or not. Certain items such as the Harp of Ages, which allow to be multi-hotkeyed to more than one hotkey, will be marked accordingly, with the respective Hotkey Markers:
The Equipment Markers: The Equipment Markers only appear on the items that CANNOT be hotkeyed to A, S, D buttons, such as the Sword (which goes straight to Sword Button), the shields (Shield Button) and all other passive items such as tunics and boots, etc..
The Equipment Markers only applies to the Equipment Screen:
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Feature 5: Swap Link's Sprites!I guess many people loved the Minish Cap's Link for his smooth animations and the well-detailed spritesets we saw in The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap. And so, with the team we decided to add a special script - or you can call it a Switch - which allows the gamers to switching to the Link of their liking. For now, we will offer you just the option to switch between PZE Link and Minish Cap Link. But you can use this system for your own ambitions/plans, and change the spritesets to suit your game's needs (e.g make it swap between a Link wearing adventure clothes, and a Link wearing village clothes, or between an Adult Link and a young Link!)
Swapping Link's charsets with a simple click...
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Feature 6: Chapter Pages!Everyone could know by now, that the PZE features that memorable black screen with the white message about First, Second, and Final Days that was in display every 24 hours and so, in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask game. However, in PZE, we went a step ahead and decided to expand its features.
A new script extension now allows the people to print a blank screen with a chapter name and a message. This is a very useful feature for those who could like to emphasize on a role playing story in their Zelda games where the story is divided into "chapters" (e.g. Chapter 1: The Adventure Begins").
Here is a screenshot of the Chapter System:
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Feature 7: Dynamic Map Slide!This is a brand new feature we added to the PZE, in addition to the ones we already have in the engine. Unlike the old ones, this new feature allows you to connect 2 or more maps, without having to put any effort to update your maps, at all. And there is no longer a need for any events or teleport events to be added in the maps, at all.
All the map connections are handed through an external script file within PZE, known as DynamicMap.txt.
So, if in the past you tried to import maps from one game to another (PZE version update for example), you'd have noticed that all your events with map ID were wrong or broken. And to fix this, you was obliged to change all <mapslide> events, all teleport events, and so on... That is very annoying! So here we come with this very useful Dynamic Map Slide feature, which allows you to handle all map connections in your game via this simple .txt file.
The Dynamic Map Slide dynamically links a map's edge with the edges of the other maps:
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Hope you liked the new features! More features to come soon! Stay tuned!