Hey guys,
Yeh, so, how about that lack of progress...  :x
Sorry, nothing's been done for ages - the usual things like uni, work, life etc. kinda got in the way, and I find that if I go away from something for a while, it's hard to get back into it. Also, i've been working on a resource for an educational NZ website - getting paid! Amazing!
Anyway, right now i feel really put off by where SV is at the moment. I've dug myself various holes (as usual) which I simply can't be arsed redoing. Now, there are a few options:
-Try and continue. Or not...
-Wait till I've learnt more about Jamagic, which can do stuff in 3D, then make a 3D SF
-Use the existing engine of SV and make little things, such as a 2-player battle engine, or a mini-adventure which would have a few battles

So, any ideas?

p.s Would anyone like me to post what I've done on SV so far? it really won't be much, but then people will at least get to see something...

Hmm, I've certainly been absent a long time. *Ahem* sorry...  
It is a real shame that so little progress gets made, but it seems inevitable: rpg's that take a full team of developers a good year to make are being made by (mostly) one-man teams.
Sorry, that sounds really pessimistic, and I dont have any good solution to that. This site has been awesome, and I'm really impressed with the dedication of you guys who have kept it running. Maybe you could broaden it out to include other tactical rpgs 'n stuff like that if it gets more people in. That way, you could then expose them to SF, and im sure they'll immediately transform the game they're making into an SF game!
Perhaps part of the problem is the complex nature of SF - i think the big turnoff to fangamers is reconstructing the engine, from battles to AI to items. I suspect that almost no one gets as far as implementing much of the stories that they've created, which seems like a real shame. Maybe one big project should be made - which has been discussed before, i know, and probably wouldn't work. Damn.
In any case, keep making posts like this, coz it tends to motivate me! I've thought up some things that actually have a good chance of getting finished - a 2-player battle engine, perhaps, and maybe mini-SF games, which have a few battles each.
Keep up the good work!

Lookin good Gustave. If you want to be part of a project, would you want to come on board with Shining Valour? It'd be nice to have all the gfx redone . Let me know either way!

Looking good - how are you at drawing character sprites, Gustave? Not that I ask for any specific reason, you understand

Work? Now why is that necessary?
Looking forward to the finished site, Ty - I'm very impressed with all of you guys running the show around here! Now where's my free prize for flattery

I dont have it either...strange. Oh well, I'll see what I can do about it all.

Wow, trippy! And what is the Heal icon doing there? What a naughty little cherub-type thing .
I think it used to do the quake thing for me, but it doesn't seem to now. I'll look into it tho - it does seem to be the turn selector thing that is the trouble.
The attack animations are deliberate, but temporary. Sorry, I made it repeat coz i was thinking of having many frames of animation, then realised how much work that would be! But again, it's all temporary.

Thanks Newts, those are some helpful comments.
Good point about those flashing squares. They could certainly be a slowing down factor . No idea why the camera goes mental bewteen people's turns tho, it doesn't do that for me. Strange...
Im making this game with a P1800, and for me it runs a bit slower than it should. Now, I can turn on option that will keep the speed as it should, while sacrificing smoothness. Things will skip frames in order to keep the speed up. I'll see how that looks, but first I'll try and make the movement squares faster...
Those battle animations are outa here when it comes time for the graphical overhaul, but im glad u like em - they're the best I can do...

You spotted no bugs??? Wow, that's certainly a first, and probably the last, time that that will happen .
The shadows dont move coz none of those gfx - except the Miles figure - will be in the final thing. I'm not worrying about gfx at this stage.
Items are there, but only in the walkabout bits for now - putting them into the battles will be the next thing to do.

Thanks for all the comments people. I'll keep the resolution as it is for now, and try to speed it up in other ways. Out of curiosity, what's everyones computer speeds, and how did the game run? Cheers.

Cool, cheers Dev .
Does anyone think I should change the resolution to 320x240? It'd run a lot faster then, but won't look as good. Let me know what u think.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I dont think I'll be learning a programming language anytime soon. For one thing, all the time that could be spent making the game will be spent learning stuff, when MMF serves my purposes quite nicely. As for speed...well, I could always lower the resolution to 320x240 or whatever, down from the current 520x340. That'd make it go oodles faster, but won't look as cool and will need extensive reworking.

Coz Im lazy, here's the message I posted at SFC forums:

Here's a little battle demo for people to try out:

http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~clark4/svb1.zip

Now, it's extremely buggy, unpolished, and incomplete. I just thought I should prove I'm still chipping away at this thing . If you could report on bugs, that'd be great. Just post em in this thread. Please don't mention the graphics or sound - practically none of the gfx are going to make it into the final version, and I have other things to worry about at this stage.

Cheers!

AN UPDATE

Ok, I haven't really been around for a while. This is partly due to the fact that myself and a few others went tramping in the Tararura mountain range in NZ, and managed to get lost. We ended up following the wrong ridge, and had to spend the night on the side of it. Awesome fun! Very lucky it wasn't windy and rainy...
After a few days of walking for about 14 hours each day, we got out...very sore!!!! But great fun! Next time I think I'll actually believe my compass...


(Creator of SV in a typical Tararua scene)

But anyway, onto Shining Valour...
Still working away at the battle engine. Counters, critical hits, and dodging are all implemented. I am not including double attacks - instead I am putting in a modified/simplified version of SF III's special moves. Characters can all die, and also level up. Stats and items are all in place.
Things left to do on the battle engine:
Fix AI. How I hate it, but it has to be done. Grrr...
Stick item/stats screens into the battle engine. At the mo they're only in the walkabout levels.
Try and make it run faster? It seems to chug a bit on my comp, and thats a P1800...  :shock:
Gfx, sound, music etc...will worry about this much later.

What would people prefer: do you want me to release a battle engine demo when im done with it, or would u rather i waited until I've finished Chapter One b4 I released anything? Cheers.

For SV, there are screenshots and the demo at the site - would u like me to send them to you?

This is a really weird movie...I felt really stuffed up after watching it - hadn't slept for ages, was possibly slightly drunk. But still, once I thought it over in my head, it did seem like a good movie.
The most screwed-up movie ever would have to be Eraserhead in my opinion...dear o dear, I hope none of u ever watch that one...