Demo available!
The demo for Zilif Web has been uploaded! Yaaaaaaaay!
If there is one thing to look out for, it’s Unites. There was one instance where Richard’s Unites were all grayed out, and either nobody else had acted, or I had pressed the cancel button to roll back to him after inputting commands. I was not able to duplicate the error, so I can’t say for sure if this still exists. If there is another situation where Unites don’t do what they should, or, really, any other weird things are going down, let me know.
I will note that there’s some things in this demo release that are absolutely 108% intended. Such as letting players have a full party after being introduced to Jodelle, stores selling every single item that are associated to them, as well as the F9 debug window being allowed to open in a non-test-play environment. There are certainly variables that are kept track by scripts that one cannot manipulate this way. However, when you consider that one could flag bounties as complete and being able to get rewards at Relto Outpost without actually doing them, that’s plenty enough “cheating” enough in my book.
Speaking of those bounties, though, those are the main activity in this release, as the story is as limited as it is. The game has at least three major factions, with one minor faction that’s attempting to branch off from one of the major factions. It’s certainly feasible to allow players to follow faction quest-lines until a certain point where they must make a choice from them. My main point of reference would be Might and Magic 7 - For Blood and Honor on this point. Though, thinking on it a bit, that game might not be a good example of a game with multiple endings where player choice matters in said ending. There are exactly two endings in that game. Even then, the ending is set the moment players make that “dark” versus “light” choice. There isn’t another choice to make for a completely different ending.
I only have vague memories, at best, when it comes to Fallout 3. As for Elder Scrolls games, I barely scraped the surface of Arena, and probably even less so in Oblivion. Forget Skyrim, I never played the thing. I don’t think those games are for me, frankly. Mass Effect, well, that might be a series to study more in depth in, and at least I’ve had the pleasure of playing through the first three titles all the way through twice. Why not a third time? Maybe I’ll not be as much of a Paragon? Naaaaaah.
Anyway, yeah, there’s a bunch of directions this game can feasibly go in! I just gotta figure out which one is best for this game to take, then, as it is said on Spaceballs, prepare to just go!
Get Zilif Web
Zilif Web
Might & Magic + Suikoden + Wild Arms = this?
| Status | In development |
| Author | MarrendReikan |
| Genre | Role Playing |
| Tags | Fantasy, Male protagonist |
More posts
- Cleaning up the code64 days ago
- From the depths of the abyss65 days ago
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Demo updated! Again!
Attempting to add a character into any empty slot will move the cursor to the last available position. This includes when the party size is less than the maximum that is possible.
I’ve also looked into the font size discrepancy when it comes to using skills, or items, outside of combat. The font size seems to vary somewhat from class to class, but, at least the relative size adjusts according to the maximum number of party members.
There is additional handling for hidden/inactive characters. What this ultimately means is that inactive characters can use skills, and be the target of items and/or skills outside of combat. They also would not be considered targets in combat.
Thanks again to Malandy for the bug reports, and spelling errors!
You're welcome! I'm not sure how ECN limit increases, and not sure there's anywhere left for me to poke around...
So focusing on typo reports:
Poison magic, should be well, that. Not Posion.
Vile / Geo / Holy / Life / Esuna line of spells: bouns > bonus
Elementalast Rune [Pun? Like Ultimate / Final / Last? heh.] Or just Elementalist?
Bought an Omniscience so I can see all spells
Life line: conciousness > consciousness
Final Fantasy ref: Esnua > Esuna [?]
That should be every spell? Hopefully. Haven't looked at the weapons?
I had to double-check this myself, and it should occur around level 11. Which would be able to cancel most, if not all, regular encounters in the context of the demo.
Nothing against the other spelling corrections (or any other corrections that might come down the pipe), but, I gave this idea/reference another think. I might replace it with either a different reference, or, a more generic name of “Remedy”, or something.
"level 11. Which would be able to cancel most, if not all, regular encounters in the context of the demo."
Yep! Except for the Wraiths of Terfa Pass, apparently!
Demo updated! Hopefully, the Unite issues are out of the way this time. I’ve also replaced the Celerity Rune (increases attack speed) with the Seeker Rune (doubles item drop rates from enemies), largely due to the Celerity Rune’s interaction with Unites. I don’t know if I’ll ever look into setting Unites to be executed at the agility/speed value of the slowest character involved, but, for now, they only have an action-speed penalty to the character that put it on the stack.
BUG: Still have that "Cannot read property of undefined" possibility when it's still just Richard, Lester and Janice.
Seeing if I can get two level ups from 1 fight... Yes. No problems there! Needed to Ultima a Lucky Carded Black Knight with Janice though. On that note, the "Ray" line of spells: bouns > bonus
What controls how much ECN it takes to cancel an encounter?
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Downloaded! ... Okay, the inability to Potion inactives makes how they take damage on levelling a bit more annoying, but again, probably just a demo thing.
Also not sure what's going on with the mega long line. Somehow typed a linespace?
Under what context are you getting this error? It would be supremely helpful to know!
Basically, it’s the incoming encounter’s average level minus the party’s average level. There is still a cost of 1 should these two values be the same, but, that’s the underlying gist. Should the party’s level be higher, the cost should be 0.
I’m not worried about “damage” on level-up, because of the (admittedly) corner case of a player swapping party members literally every fight. I am vaguely aware inactives can’t use their Active Rune skills, possibly due to what traits/variables have to be set to flag them as inactive. If they cannot be targeted outside of combat, my best guess is that the trait/variable that is set to make them inactive is also probably also making them unable to be targeted in the party screen(s). It might be possible to use an ability that targets all allies, and have the inactives be included in that array? I see I’ll see how true that is when I look at this again (again again again again again).
Okay, slightly different from before, actually, now that I checked. Have the available be just Richard, Lester and Janice:
Use all three, navigate to an empty space, then try to "add" someone, and you should see “Type Error: Cannot read property ‘isHidden’ of undefined”
ALSO, making a Formation with less than everyone and trying to add someone who's already added into an empty space will add the first inactive person into the space of the person who was selected?
A.k.a: Party of Lester and Janice, with Richard inactive and trying to add Lester or Janice into the empty space, will add Richard to replace who I was trying to add?
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Okay, I'm assuming ECN is working fine, and I just got really lucky in never seeing any LV 4 or 5 encounters when I was travelling for testing from Lorthil to the Quaysha Caves? What are the average levels of the overworld encounters?
And here I was thinking this was another Unite bug!
Well, this is still a bug to look into, as the cursor should have re-selected whoever was in position 3 in the instance of a party that consists of exactly three members.
To help me visualize things a bit, you’d have a party-list that could look like, using boldface for active characters…
…so? Something like this was certainly possible earlier in an earlier build of the system, though, I might not have accounted for adding a character already in the party to an empty active slot.
EDIT So, I looked into how inactive members are unable to be targeted, as well as their inability to use skills outside of combat. Apparently, being considered “hidden” (which is the flag I use to set members as inactive) is a condition that is checked for the “canMove” and “isAlive” functions of Game_BattlerBase. I’m not sure if removing the condition, or making it an optional condition, is the right move, as I’m not sure if those functions have some decision-making processes in regards to how enemies determine their targets.
Thanks for answering so soon! Sorry, that diagram's wrong:
If I have:
Then try to put Lester in the empty third spot, then Lester and Janice swap to become:
Which I don't think can be predicted from how the cursor works? That's my only issue, that the player couldn't know that'd happen. But once it does, it's easy to remember at least. EDIT: It's also a minor thing, that I only discovered due to messing around for the bug, just noting because I didn't expect it.
Good caution!
Demo updated! Here’s a brief list of changes.
Aside from the spelling corrections pointed out by Malandy, some additional corrections were found in some of the Rune descriptions. It was also discovered that some Runes didn’t have the right equipment slot associated to them.
It was discovered that backing out from targeting an enemy would flag an ally as “acting” in regards to Unites. This has been fixed. Annnnnnd now that I write this, I completely forgot to look into the situation of backing out from targeting an ally.
Scrolling through characters during the party-switch screen should update their stats, regardless if you hold down the up/down key or press it once. Page Up/Page down works similarly, but only in regards to character stats. If a character is not selected, and the Possible Unites screen is being displayed, holding down Page Up or Page down will not cycle through the Unites. Testing showed that allowing that would cycle through them too quickly to be of any use.
Selecting an empty space in the party-switch screen when you don’t have another/enough characters to put in that position will re-select to the last available position that can contain a character.
The “Optimize” option in the equip screen will remove both the character’s active and support runes. You’ll have to re-equip them manually. In the full game, or if (when?) there is another update to the demo, those slots will be left alone.
Thanks! Gonna download after breakfast!
EDIT: Downloaded. Swapping out my last 2 members to see if I can get all of my party to Unite. Seems good.
But it seems level ups don't regenerate HP? It probably should if they're not part of the fighting group and are already healed up, but eh.
I’m not sure I’m keen on any kind of automatic recovery of health and/or mana on level-up. Though, I am interested in reasons why I should limit such to just the inactive members when the party can be swapped at any point outside of combat?
The inactive and already fully-healed members, so they don't basically get hurt just because they level up.
But, the demo is a special case, normally the player wouldn't have the same set of inactives for... 5+ levels without ever going back to heal, I guess?
Demo updated with the spelling corrections, and Potion fix that Malandy mentioned. I’ve also altered Unites in regards to their base damage values.
It might be some time before I can more fully focus on this project, but, I can at least look into other issues that might pop up, or answer any questions about the game, if it’s not too much of a spoiler to do so.
Gonna check if I can run the updated version, after breakfast. Thanks for the update no matter how it goes!
BUG? Opening a chest as the Encounter Timer hits 0 stops encounter?
BUG: Was messing in the Party Formation menu with the first three characters: Use all three, navigate to an empty space, then try to back out and got "Type Error: Cannot read property 'isHidden' of undefined"
BUG: Holding down when scrolling through the characters list doesn't update the stats.
BUG: Unites should lock out overlaps, right? My part of: Lester, Massaki, Richard. Nari, Vince, and Sue can do all three of Dark Sun Bandits, Brothers of the Blade, and Returning a Favor / Rivalry?
And using Best Friends, Family Attack, and then selecting Golden Triangle and backing out stops Massaki from selecting any Unites anymore.
And everyone levelling up on its only text box is taking a while.
Question: Why is Optimize favoring Sue to have the Vile Rune over the more comprehensive Devil Rune?
Typos at bottom.
And it worked! 3616 more EXP if I wanna hit LV 5. So close to two-shotting Soldiers! I think I might stick it out, also test that Panacea and Potions are healing right. ... And LV 5 doesn't increase damage?? Aww. Only Lv 6 gets me 17 damage...
Actually, it's hard to tell on the screen how much HP is my max for optimal Panacea / Potion usage?
Can you make the game not pause when off-focus? Battle Animations are annoying long when grinding 30 enemies, lol. Probably a sign I shouldn't be doing that.
And I missed a chest in the first area? Huh. Woo! Another Lucky Card! Now I really wanna use it on the 2 "bosses"! ... Okay, so the chests actually refreshed with the update, for some reason?
Ooh, finally landed my first hit on a Dark Sun Bandit with a LV 6 Fire. If a Slash isn't supremely better, such a battle is basically unwinnable! HA! Nevermind, gonna give up. LV 6 is enough.
Lester's Geo and Janice's Recover should both bouns > bonus
All element Runes serieses except First Aid: Inbues > Imbues
Omnisicence Rune > Omniscience Rune
Omnipotence Rune: techquines > techniques
Some of the things you’re listing were issues before, and it seemed like they were gone. Guess I’ll have to check those again (for the billionth time ;_;), among the other things listed. That said, here is what I can manage to answer now.
Opening a chest should, in fact, perform an encounter cancel. The same is true for swapping maps, or triggering story events. Or, at least, this is the theory! I don’t know about performing an encounter cancel when the timer is at exactly 0, regardless of how the cancel is triggered. My gut tells me that it might be possible to still be able to cancel when it displays “0”, but, the window of opportunity to do so is slim?
You can fast-forwarding any in-game text message text by holding CTRL and/or ALT. This method is true across any MZ game I’ve made, more or less. Knowing this should alleviate this issue somewhat for future plays. An alternate solution would be to remove level-up messages entirely, but, I don’t exactly feel good about that alternative?
Basically, the “Optimize” function only compares statistical differences, and doesn’t look at other traits. With weapons, the stat is attack/strength. For any other equipment, it’s defense/endurance. It would not consider skills, skill categories, or other similar traits that a piece of equipment could have. For an in-game example, it would probably favor the Warrior Rune as a Passive Rune every single time, simply because it grants a bonus to defense. If there is no difference found, then the optimization method might choose the equipment with lesser ID, as that would technically have been the initial point of comparison? Something along those lines!
I think this was an issue I addressed in Nakaishi Wars in regards to the “Programs” equipment slot. I don’t quite recall exactly how I addressed this issue in Nakaishi Wars as of this writing, but, I seem to recall something about using the equipment’s ID in the database to be the most relevant factor in deciding what program to equip? This tactic might be something to look into for this game, as Runes that have upgraded versions increase with their ID as more/better skills are available. However, it might also behoove me to remove the Rune slots from the optimize method entirely. Either of these options would mean making exceptions in the code, and I’ve doubts one method would be strictly “easier” to do than the other.
BUG? "Getting the "beyond here lies" message doesn't encounter cancel, and it follows me into the battle menu, and then says "enemy emerged" as well.
Probably not relevant unless you're gonna use the feature outside of the demo.
...
Reentering Quasha Caves at least, regens chests? Not sure if intentional.
...
Trying to enter the caves to the right of Quasha (Cevik Heights?) doesn't give a prevention message?
...
Dimel Commander:
Black Knight: News of it's defeat > News of its defeat
plauged with witches > plagued with witches
...
"Opening a chest should, in fact, perform an encounter cancel."
Yeah, I didn't mean on the 0-frame, just that it encounter-canceled.
....
"You can fast-forwarding any in-game text message text by holding CTRL and/or ALT. This method is true across any MZ game I’ve made, more or less. Knowing this should alleviate this issue somewhat for future plays. An alternate solution would be to remove level-up messages entirely, but, I don’t exactly feel good about that alternative?"
I just mash Confirm (X), queuing all the level ups so they don't take up only one line of a box that can hold 4 would be what I expected? Especially since I do want to know who did(n't) level up.
....
However, it might also behoove me to remove the Rune slots from the optimize method entirely. Either of these options would mean making exceptions in the code, and I’ve doubts one method would be strictly “easier” to do than the other.
Oh, well, good luck. In-case removing runes from the optimization is easier, it'd be better to do that, because the optimization is less clear with all the spells / techs available?
Confirmed. That Common Event was proving a bit problematic to begin with, so, I’ll have to come up with a different solution that would do what I want that event do to.
Confirmed. This should mean including a handler for when the party size is less than the maximum number of slots.
Confirmed, but technically not a bug, per say? Still, I could see this as a quality-of-life feature. I’ll look into getting this in there.
Depends now what you mean by overlapping in this instance. That party SHOULD have those Unites as available options! For example, if you have Lester select Dark Sun Bandits, the game should go directly to Vince, skipping over Massaki, Richard, and Nari. If you choose Best Friends, it would go to Massaki instead. If you select Family Attack at that point, it should skip both Richard and Nari, and go to Vince.
This, however, certainly IS a bug! Selecting Family Attack during Massaki’s turn should involve Nari, and therefore, consider her as unavailable for Golden Triangle! Once that bug is squashed, I can look into the other matter. I’m mostly hoping that fixing the first matter will also fix the second, but, we’ll see!
That aside, I still haven’t looked into skipping the Rune slots for Optimize, so, I’ve got my work cut out for me for a while.
Thanks for the clear report! Good luck with coding!
Well, not sure what happened, but can't run Zilif anymore on my Windows 10, but can run https://doctorspacebar.itch.io/ruphand-an-apothecarys-adventure
And both are RPG Maker MV, IIRC, so not sure what's going on. Probably something about Windows updating.
Only got an Optional update waiting for me, gonna see if that fixes it.
2025-01 Cumulative Update Preview for Windows 10 Version 22H2 for x64-based Systems (KB5050081)
Don't seem to help. Gonna try Linux Steam Proton. Nope on that front too, even though it does also work for Ruphand...
Personally, I’ve got Windows 11, and this game is made with MZ. There’s a number of similarities that MZ shares with MV, but, I’ve got doubts that what differences they have would make a significant impact on how the game would run on Windows 10.
As for Linux, that’s outside my knowledge/expertise, so I fear I cannot make commentary on that matter at all.
Oh, on the MZ front, then I've got nothing then. https://waldorf.itch.io/respawn-banter works for me, but having an HTML version might be different.
Got any other MZ games you wanna recommend so I can test try to pin down my issue?
My exposure to other MZ games is limited to games made during the Trials of MZ event on RMN. That said, here’s what I can manage to find.
I’m not sure what options exist (if any) on this platform to update a pre-existing download on this platform. That aside, I’ll hold off maybe another week or so before attempting to push an update to the demo.
Sorry I'm not playing the demo!
https://itch.io/docs/itch/integrating/updates.html
For now, when uploading a new file on itch.io:
Needless to say, this process isn't ideal for often-updated games, and we recommand using butler instead.
Well, I didn't expect such... Techno music like Weird and Unfortunate battle music! LukHash sure feels familiar. Was it in one of the dungeons? Hmm.
Is Potions healing 50% instead of 25% as stated, supposed to happen? Actually, more than 50%? 332 to 709, is healing 377 where max is 711... Is this a "Heal a percentage and a fixed bit like EBF / Weird?" https://tvtropes.org/Main/PercentBasedValues
Panacea: resotres > restores
Also, it's "Soldier", not "Soilder". Took me a few battles to see it heh.
I wonder what happens if I win against the Dark Sun Bandits. With how strong enemies are and that I can fight one Soldier at a time, along with Blind, grinding is possible... LV 3 after less than 13 minutes of game time. Probably can take down 1 Bandit if one misses like my second or third try, at LV 4.
Looking at the database entry, Potions were healing 25% + 200 health. So, at level 1, it would restore 350 HP to Richard. When he’s level 2, it would be 377, 405 at level 3, and so on. The flat value was likely a left over from when I was considering such items originally. I just plum forgot to remove that portion of the effect when I switched to percentile-based restoration. These things happen! I’ll be double-checking the other consumables for this as well.
Players would only get one Lucky Card during the opening sequence, and the best encounter to use it during that sequence (outside of the Dark Sun Bandits, themselves), would be a two Soldier encounter. The frequency of that encounter should be about the same as the one Soldier encounter. The cancel cost of either encounter should be the same, as they would effectively have the same average level.
All those factors aside, grinding out enough levels to actually beat the Dark Sun bandits wasn’t a test of patience I was willing to attempt myself. Nothing special happens should a player win that encounter, but, it’s also largely considered a corner case at best that players could win it to begin with.
Edit: Thanks again for the spelling corrections! As an additional aside, WAUTAH introduced me to LukHash through “Another World”, which, I think played during the school section, or thereabouts? It has been some time. That said, “Hongdae” was a track I used in Bunker 9 at least. Maybe another game?
Thanks for responding! Yeah, levelling up enough to beat the Bandits would be at least LV 5, a.k.a 30+ minutes of grinding IIRC. Not gonna do it unless they give tons of EXP, like 10K+?
Gonna check out the Bunker! Demon portals! Woo! Lol https://lukhash.bandcamp.com/album/magic-gateway
Oh, can't run on Windows 10? Wow, lucky I have Windows XP... somewhere? EDIT 2: Actually gotta allow it past security checks first. Tons of references! Fun! Loud!
https://lukhash.bandcamp.com/album/hongdae-single
And Another World comes from here... https://lukhash.bandcamp.com/album/the-other-side
Maybe I was thinking of Arcade Journeys with its speaker... Eh. Weird uses 6 different LukHash songs and none are Hongdae so maybe it was something else else like Luxaren Allure. Whatever, good music! Thanks for motivating me to find links, and woo some LukHash stuff is free!
Gonna play this and actually continue the plot after lunch or something! Breakfast now lol
The tracks I recall from Luxaren Allure would be from Monster Cyborg. Most notably “Anti-Social” (title screen), “Assault Girl” (combat theme), and “Night Staker” (one of the dungeons).
I forgot to include the very rough map drawn in Paint. At least there’s signposts to help players navigate the world, and get to where they want to go!
Woo! Demo! Solving computer problems elsewhere, so probably gonna play this later...
How short's the demo?
It might depend on the player! If one’s goal is to see the Unite variations, that probably won’t take too-too long? If one’s goal concerns Runes, a few interesting/advanced ones are equipped on the later-game characters, for what that is worth to such players.