Sorry for the delay, I have been very busy at work the past few weeks!

@Celes
I'm still on track to release a "feature complete" beta version at the and of the year! :)
As I said before, this version should be entirely usable by scripters but it won't come with the editor yet. A couple of its features will still require RMXP.
However, the full release will have an editor and won't rely on anything that is dependent on RMXP.

@MagitekElite
Thank you very much, it's truly appreciated! :)

A little update!
I just noticed that after porting to RGSS3, I'm having a few more problems with fonts and menus. That should be very easy to fix but it gave me the idea of replacing the standard .ttf font format for an old school bitmap font format. I will try to make it as compatible as possible with RGSS font system but there's a comple of features that won't be included such as Font.Shadow or Font.outline.
I won't include them because since I'm opting for a bitmap font format, it means that you can achieve these effects directly in the bitmap image. However; Font.color, Font.name and Font.size will work.

So yeah, I'm cleaning up the menus and fonts. I'll get back to the battle system later.

Take care!
- Dargor

Hello!

I've been silent for about a month now so I guess it time I update this thread a little bit!

First of all, I can't believe this topic has finally reached more than 100,000 views! I'm so excited to see that people keep on coming here from time to time even after 6 years of development.
Thank you very much, all of you who help and supported me through these past 6 years, words can't describe how thankful I am. :)

Now, what can I say about the SDK and what I did last month? Well to be honest, things went slowly for a couple of weeks, but that doesn't mean I haven't worked on it!
I spent a good amount of time working on the Bitmap Font feature which now works like a charm. Fonts are now graphic files stored in the Fonts folder.
They will eventually be editable in the database and it will be possible to have as many fonts as you see fit.
Besides that I have also started working on all the cursors and scrollbars for the windows. It looks way better than a blue semi-transparent box. :)

I also took the time to go back into Visual C# 2010 and work a little bit on the skeleton of the editor. I don't want to spend to much time on it so I only did a couple of essential features such as creating a new project, saving/loading Ruby data, etc.

To make sure I'm still on track to release the SDK and the editor in time, I have a list of features I need to work on, with priorities and complexities, and I realized that many of the editor features I have on this list cost way too much time for a small gain. So I decided to cut on some features I had originally planned to make sure I can release the editor in time (somewhere in 2013). But these features have not been removed, just postponed. Once I have released the SDK and its editor, then I will take the time to make it look even better. :)

As I am writing this, I am also working on the SDK so you can expect more news to come soon.

Take care!
- Dargor

Seriously Dargor, I need to know one thing: How the fuck do you stay so devoted to a project for this long?! If I don't finish a project within 6-12 months I lose all hope and abandon it...

It's really amazing to see you're still working hard on this 6 years later, and will carry on working into the 7th year, provided we don't all die... but just for that I really need to say... Wow.

Can't wait to hear more news from you, even though I don't understand half of the stuff you talk about (No offence, some things just seem to go over my head), it's still nice to hear you're adding onto and updating it for the better... any chance of new screenshots anytime soon?

Again, great work, keep it up!

Haha, thank you very much :D

I'm sorry if sometimes I am way too technical when I talk, if there are things you don't understand, please feel free to ask, I will be happy to give a better and less technical explanation. :P

To answer your question, how can I stay devoted for this long, I would love to give a simple answer, but there is no such things.
I love FF6, it's the game I love the most. I also love programming and designing video games, that's what I do for a living!
But from time to time, I lose hope too. Life is going on and I do not have as much time as I had 6 years ago. When I feel like I can't go on with this, I simply move to something else for a couple of days or weeks. I go play Quake or Unreal, aaahhh these good old games. :) Sometimes I just go back to my parents house, they have an awesome and peaceful forest behind the house. So I take the time to relax, and when I feel like going back to this project, I'm telling myself that I must complete what I started 6 years ago, and when I'm done, I'll move on to something new.

And as for new screenshots, I'll release more in a couple of weeks, but I doubt they will look very different than the ones you have already seen. :P
Anyway, I'm still on track for a late December release!

Take care
- Dargor

Update!!

I have integrated the Sketch and Control commands. They were a bit more complicated to make than I imagined, but it's working very well now.
Sketch will simply select a random Sketch command from the target and execute it, as long as the actor has enough MPs.
Control will bring up the command window, populated with the target's control commands. This command will use the enemy's MPs.

Both can include Skills and Battle commands.

Take care!
- Dargor

More update!

I've implemented the Rage command. Enemies have a list of rage skills and when an actor selects a Rage, then he starts being controlled by AI for the rest of the battle. His skill list is memorized and replaced by the Rage skills, His AI forces him to always use a random skill. The Leap command is another story tho, it's such a specific command and I don't know how I will handle it yet.

I have also implemented Health and Shock. Both commands are basically the same (skill casting commands), the only difference is the skill they cast. Morph and Revert will also be "skill casting" commands. The Morph skill will add the Morph status to the target, and Revert will remove it. Also, Statuses will have the option to replace an actor's graphic (think of Imp), so the Morph status will replace the target graphic for an esper graphic. It can of course be customized! :) I guess the Possess command will also follow the same rules.

That's all for now!
- Dargor

Another tiny update!

I had to play with damage algorithm and states a bit lately and realized that there's a very important variable in the physical damage calculation that should not be hard-coded.
It's the "damage multiplier". It is not used very often, but when an actor is in the berserk state, 1 is added to this variable. 2 if this is a critical hit, same thing if Terra is in the Morph state.
Berserk and Morph are very specific and I don,t like it. So I decided to make it so any states can have a damage multiplier. By default it's 0, you can go higher but you can also go lower for bad statuses.

That's all!
- Dargor

If it's a multiplier, wouldn't it make more sense for the default to be 1, with 2 being double damage and 0.5 being half? I did a quick look at FF6 damage algorithms and I see that the FF6 damage multiplier basically pumps up the attack 0.5 at a time, so 1 would be 1.5 damage, 2 = 2 damage, 3 = 2.5 damage. But it doesn't have to be done this way unless you insist on using an integer for the multiplier (and even then the multiplier could be in 0.1 increments or lower and affect all damage instead of adding the multiplier on top).

You are right, I could definitely do that. This whole multiplier thing is misleading because as you said, it increments 0.5 at a time.
A total multiplier of 3 does not multiply the damage by 3, but by 2.5. Thanks a lot for the suggestion Rey! :D

EDIT:
The base damage multiplier is now 1.0. States damage multiplier can range from -10.0 to 10.0. Since you can stack this, I might cap the total damage multiplier even if the damage cap is 9999.
I will also probably add a new Relic Effect, "Break Damage Limit". I think it's a cool addition. :)

Another update.

About the colosseum! I've create a new FF6::Coloseum class that contains the settings for a colosseum battle. The System class has an instance of this class that is used as the default colosseum settings. There is no Colosseum editor in the database. Instead, you go straight into the item editor and edit the colosseum settings per items. By default, an item will be using the default colosseum settings. You can customize the following colosseum properties:
- item_id: The ID of the item to win
- enemy_id: The ID of the enemy to fight
- troop_id: the ID of the troop to be used as template for this colosseum battle. By default, all enemies from this troop will be removed but the first one will be replaced by the enemy specified above.
- keep_troop_members: If true, the troop specified above will be left as is and the enemy_id property will not be taken into consideration.
- hide_item_name: If true, the name of the item to win will be hidden

That's all!
- Dargor

Hey Dargor!

I am glad to see the project is still going strong. I got your message and you should check your mailbox. I'm glad to see you are getting to that point already (I won't spoil the surprise).
Just ask me if you need any other help with it, I am glad to help as always. As a matter of fact, there is a bug or two in that area that I should have mentioned, as it could make you think you're doing it wrong in testing when in fact the original game has a flaw. We'll keep in touch, just don't give up on it! :D

Good morning everybody!

You might wonder what Imzogelmo was talking about! Well, I'm here to explain that. :)

As you know I am actively working on the battle system. Most of the battle commands are done, all the battle timing is working great (by timing I mean the ATB and the Global, Battler and State timers), the "multi-layered" and dynamic battle backgrounds (which I call Terrains) was really fun to work on, every battle menus and windows are done and so on.

However, a big part of the battle system is still missing. And this is the Enemy AI system.
I have completely removed the RPG Maker systems for Enemy AI and I am currently replacing it for a much more complex system. To make this short and simple, it's going to be the event system, but for enemy AI. It will use the same features such as the Game_Interpreter, to interpret and execute the event commands. In this case, it will have a specific set of new event commands to control the behavior of an enemy. Commands such as "Cast Skill", "Escape", "Use Item", etc will obviously be included but other more general event commands will also be included. Things like "Conditional Branch", "Switch/Variable Operation" and other game flow commands will be included to allow you to script a much more complex enemy behavior.

Now to make things clear, this has not been included yet. I have a prototype of an hard-coded enemy AI using this feature, but it's not final yet.

I'll keep you updated!
- Dargor

I haven't posted in a while, but I have been keeping an eye on the thread.

I was going to ask about the Morph and Revert skills/whatnot, but that has already been posted about. The updates are great, by the way. Oh, I can't wait for the next update!

Good luck with the rest, Dargor!

I've been watching this thread for some time now and I'm really looking forward your SDK. I have a FFVI ROM hack project but I'm thinking seriously to move my project to RPGmakerXP and use your SDK, first to save time in the long run and second because I see more potential in your SDK about certain limitations of the FF3us ROM. I'm aiming to something close to Pandora's Box in term of development/modifications and I'm alone on it and I would like to finish my project within 5 years. However I have a few questions before doing the move.

First, I'm doing a lot of ASM modifications in my project. With programming knowledge, will I be able to change anything I want to the core of the battle system and menu, e.g. all the ASM aspect in the current ROM ?

Second, concerning event, will I be able to modify/create event via scripts ? I'm not asking about an event editor, but at least will the existing event commands will be part of your SDK ?

Third, will I be able to use the custom editor and RPGmaker XP for the scripts and programming on the same project ?

Sorry if my last question seems a bit weird, but I'm a rpgmaker noob and I'll get on it soon to be ready when your SDK comes out. Maybe I could find in the 47 previous pages my answer but I felt it would be faster asking you and tell you that some people like me are really excited about what you're doing. It's nice to see that you have help from folks like Imzogelmo, and it does add to the already existing professionalism of this project. Keep up the good work!

Hello TheMadsiur,

First of all, thank you for your kind words, it is truly appreciated. :)
To answer your questions:

1) This SDK is using Ruby as primary programming language. 99% of its code is written in Ruby. As long as you can script in Ruby, you will be able to change everything and anything you want.

2) Most of the event commands from RPG Maker XP, VX and ACE will be included along with all the event commands found in the FF6 ROM. Eventually, there will be an event editor.

3) My plan is to release an almost feature complete version of the editor on RPGXP by the end of the year, but in the end I will entirely dissociate the SDK from RPG Maker XP. I'm working on the SDK Editor in Visual C# which will include everything RPG Maker can offer you and more. That includes a map and event editor, a Ruby script editor and a very complete database editor to edit items, monsters, actors, monster formations, battle animations, etc.

Also, this is not in my priorities right now but I will include a ROM importer that will convert FF6 ROM info into FF6SDK data. I did once as a test and will do it again in an official version.

By the way, I see you are from Montréal, Québec? Me too!

Take care,
- Dargor

Thanks for those specifications! It's an even more complete project than what I was expecting. Anyway with this SDK and editor, FFVI Rom hacking will be pretty much obsolete or will not have a lot of advantages comparing to using the tools you're developing, which is a good thing if we weight the advantages of your project.



Oui je vis en banlieue de Montréal et je suis en 2e année de programmation. Je fais un stage en C# présentement et Final Fantasy VI est mon jeu préféré!

Alright, I'll keep a close eye on the development of the editor/SDK.

Bye

C'est vraiment très aggréable de rencontrer des Montréalais sur ce forum! :)

On topic:
I went back on the Map Exporter I did a couple of weeks ago in Omega45889 & giangurgolo's FF6Level Editor (it's all coded in C# so it's not to hard for me to figure how it works) and I was able to fix a big priority issues! Map exported from the ROM to the FF6SDK now look exactly like in the original game, only with a few minor priority bugs. The priority system doesn't work exactly like in RPG Maker but these are very minor issues that are easy to fix in RPG Maker. Next step is to be able to export passage flags properly and then I think I will be done with this exporter.

Now, about enemy behavior.
I've been able to make the Event System work entirely for enemies! I have setup a simple enemy AI with a switch condition in it and a standard Message command and it works great! :)

Besides that, I have also added a few small but useful features to Characters and Events. You can now assign an Actor or Party Member to an event. Doing this will replace the event's graphic by the specified actor/member graphic. Very useful for small scenes when you see your party members moving around, like the Inn scene when they are all going to bed.

That's all for now!
- Dargor

Thanks for posting the updates, Dargor! And they are great updates, too!

Thanks again for keeping us informed! I'll be keeping an eye out. ;)

Salut Dargor : ) . Content de voir que je peux retrouver ici un québécois . Moi je viens de québec , maintenant a val-bélair . Toi tu es de montreal ?
Changeons de sujet , ca fait un petit bout que je viens ici sur ton topic , et ca m'intrigue énormément car je suis un fan de ff6 , tout comme toi .
Et pouvoir faire un fan game , m'interesse bien gros . J'ai commencé a travailler avec rpg maker 95 , il y a 16 ans de ca ^^... maintenant j'en n'est 28.
J'ai travailler sur 95 , 2000, un peu ti peu 2003 , surtout XP maintenant , et VX je n'aime pas beaucoup.

J'aimerais savoir quelquechose, pour l'instant le projet est en développement ? il y a aucune version qu'on puisse utiliser a ce jour si je comprend bien ?
Sinon j'ai vraiment hate car jaimerais bien faire un fan game sur XP :) . Il manque des choses importantes ? pourtant quand je le mets sur XP, ca ma l'air
assez complet .

Bon bien j'attend de tes nouvelles : )

A+ et surtout bonne continuation !

Merci beaucoup WorldDoubleFace!

I will answer in English so everybody can understand.
Yes, the project is still in development and at the moment, there are no official builds that you can use to start creating your fan game. The first official build will be released by the end of 2012 or very early 2013. Eventually, an editor will be released too so you can use the SDK to is full potential.

The reason why I am creating a new editor is because XP is simply not enough anymore. A lot has changed between RPGXP and the FF6SDK and without an editor, users would have to go into the Ruby source code and edit the various new classes themselves in order to use all the features of the SDK. Programming is not for everybody so I am programming my own editor! :)

Take care,
- Dargor

Interesting concept. Have you thought about implementing the reverse, ie, converting the SDK into ROM format? It'd be tremendous fun to use the myriad of tools available via RPGMaker and your Event Editor to create an actual ROM file beyond what little is available with the few decent FFVI editors out there on the 'Net. I speak primarily of the lack of good map/event editors, of course.

In my opinion that seems like a waste. If it were a ROM designed to work with the original console, and it were reasonable to expect it to make its way onto actual cartridges, there'd be some nostalgia and technical prowess involved. But hacked ROMs tend to only work for certain emulators, and why bother porting the engine into an SNES ROM when it will only ever be played on an emulator anyway? The Ruby engine is definitely portable to all operating systems and even handhelds, with enough finagling (I've made a mostly functional GOSU-based RGSS player and there is at least one Ruby-based game framework for iOS/Android that could be used the same way). Anyway, porting to SNES, especially if one had to retain the actual code from the game (since afaik, even code changes in ROMs are still done with absolute hackery in the absence of documentation for the machine code or a good decompiler/compiler) would certainly limit the number of new features, including some that are already implemented or planned.

Have you never heard of reproductions? It's not hard at all to take a ROM file, be it legitimate or hacked, and burn it to an EPROM and then solder it onto a compatible SNES PCB. Sure, there may be a bit of technological trickery required for some of the games, but it's still doable.

I consider the in-game engine of FFVI to be one of the best when it comes to 16-bit RPGs, and though it's more out of my personal desire to play, on real hardware, a 'fixed' version of FFVI (ie, no Rage bugs, sketch bug, Evade Bug, proper graphics, etc, etc...), it might inspire others to overcome those very limitations you've mentioned.

You consider the engine to be the best? Despite it being riddled with bugs that you mentioned? If you want an FF6 engine then this SDK is best for you, but there is no point porting it back to the SNES as it will only be played on emulators on machines that can run this SDL already.

If it were easy to back port to the console there would be a load of projects where people have done this, however it is not easy at all, hence why no one does this or even tries to.

It would be a billion times easier for everyone involved if you simply used this software for development and deployment, technology wise it's near impossible to cramp all this into a SNES binary so it will never happen.

I'm back!

Sorry for the wait, I was away for a while with no internet access. :)

@danyetman
To be honest with you, I entirely agree Rey and Xilef. There is no point in porting this back again to a ROM. That's beside the point of the SDK.

I don't have much to share about the progress on the SDK right now, I haven't done much in the past months. But now that I have my computer again, you can expect more update soon. :)

Take care!
- Dargor

Hey guys!

Time for another update :)
I had 2 weeks of vacation and it was awesome. It gave me time to work on the SDK! I'm focusing on the battle system but more precisely on the Enemy Behavior system. As I have mentioned before, enemies are now using event commands instead if the usual RPG Maker behavior. It resembles a lot more the original game and you can have much more complex enemy behavior with that since you not only have access to the new enemy event commands but also any other event commands such as Conditional Branch, Variable Operation, etc.

This is a very complex system to code so I had to do more work on the editor to make it easier to work with. Now I have part of the event editor working well but I also took the time to work on the Map Editor which also works well! I intend to spend a little more time on it, if I find the time.
It is SO much easier to code the editor in C#! :)

That's it!
I'll been back for another update soon.

Take care,
- Dargor

So, it's been almost a month... I bet this thing is almost ready!! :)

Hey everybody!

So many things has happened in the last weeks and I had very little time to give to the SDK (and my hobbies in general) but I'm still on track to at least release the Ruby scripts, the database and a part of the resources. Most of the systems should be included with some exceptions, like the Mode7, that are not vital for now.
If I'm lucky, I will have time to work a bit on a demo of the editor!

So yeah, I'm still on track for a late December, early January release!
- Dargor

Whoo, come back after the forum comes back and I see lots of updates! :)

It is good to see updates, Dargor! I like the "event" the enemies yourself update, should make for some very interesting battles!

Well, good luck Dargor and can't wait to see more updates!

Anxiously awaiting an early New Years' gift! :)