So, I put together a new (prettier) area for technical testing of all the items and stuff (almost all programmed! only the optional items left now!).
THE DOWNSIDE:
I've noticed that the HUD is getting a bit lost in the clutter of the town:
Anyone have any ideas? I'm thinking maybe a thicker white line around the buttons, but I can't decide on a white line around the items...
ALSO, I programmed in an elegy of emptiness mechanic. It actually... was really easy. The hardest part was the fact that I only have 4 buttons, not counting the action or menu button, to work with, and making a select item screen was too much work considering its only real purpose would be to allow you to shuffle items around as Igos in order to use the elegy of emptiness at some point.
So right now, it works if you press D and Shift at the same time... unfortunately, this means the sword and magnet gloves also go off when you create the heartless Igos...
Does anyone know how to make further use of the keyboard in RPG Maker XP, beyond just the ASDZXspace keys? Like, if I could use F or Q, W, or E?Nevermind, I should go to sleep before I post things like this, I figured out that Q was totally an option to begin with, I just thought it was already taken for... some reason...
I guess the HUD will get an update... Q button!
Which means more item options for Kafei, since Igos' slots are all taken up by plot-required items, and only three of Kafei's are, leaving two extra. I've got one planned out already, so I guess he'll get two optional items. Perhaps I'll also put in W and give each character an empty bottle, that shouldn't be too hard.
EDIT:
Exciting! It's a cause to stay up too late! It's the quest status menu!
The way this works is like this, when you press Esc or x to go to the save, continue, etc menu it looks like this:
The Q and W are item slots that you can set, HOWEVER.... you have to set them at a specific place. you can't just change them wherever. That's okay, though, because these are only taken up by optional items. No item nessecary to the game/plot is assigned here, only optional ones, such as super bombs, empty bottles, etc.
Pieces of heart are obvious, 4 to a container in this game. They're a bit more common here, since there's only 4 (...6?) dungeons, and no half-hearts. If an enemy hits you, the least it can do is 1 whole heart. So this means there need to be more containers, but less dungeons means they need to be in pieces.
The 4 circles are where the plot-advance-er items go. The elements, medallions, crystals, pendants, whatever. In this game they're keys.
The last two boxes are the sidequest items for each character. Trading sequence, etc.
Any thoughts on the design?
...anyone?