[Buizel]

TSCA2 demo is now available for RPG Maker VX! If you liked the RPG Maker 2003 version or even the RPG Maker 2000 port you will love this one*!

The new demo which includes Chapter 2 is now out! Download (45.9 MB)

I still have the old demo from last year up as well, if anyone would like that as well. Download (37.6 MB)

These downloads contain everything needed to play the game, including the RPG Maker VX RTP. To run the game, simply open the Game.exe file, which has a unicorn icon.

Controls (note that this is meant to be played on a gamepad; the keys in parentheses are what the buttons are mapped to by default):
A (Shift) : Outside of battle, allows you to dash. Also used to speed up text during conversations.
B (X, Esc, Num 0) : Cancel. Also used to open the menu.
C (Z, Enter, Space) : Confirm.
X (A) : On the equip screen, removes the selected piece of equipment without having to select Unequip from the equipment list. On the field, it opens a special menu for using certain field items.
Y (S) : No effect.
Z (D) : No effect.
L (Q, Page Up) : In a long list (longer than a page), scrolls the list up one page.
R (W, Page Down) : In a long list, scrolls the list down one page.
Arrow keys - Moves the cursor in the direction specified. Also used to switch between characters in battle, and on status and equipment screens.
F1 - Opens the Game Properties window. Includes the options to play in full-screen, reduce screen flickering, turn music and sound on/off, and map buttons to your gamepad and keyboard.
F2 - Show FPS. Pretty self-explanatory. The magic number here is 60.
F12 - Resets the game. Brings you back to the title screen, as if you had pressed an invisible Reset button.

I call this a remake in that while most of the storyline and dungeon features are the same as the original version, I do change a few things around. I will also mention that, like the RM2000 port, there are secrets waiting to be found, but I doubt you'll find them...

Revision History:
0.04b - First public release.
0.04c - Fixed an issue regarding item interaction with Sondow.
0.04d - Added passive abilities, enabled magical critical hits, fixed a bug regarding surprise encounters.
0.04e - Changed functionality of Prevailing Wind, enabled auto-equipping of the Magatama.
0.04f - Bats now have a weaker version of Vampirism.
0.04g - Partial fix to certain events which crashed the game.
0.04h - Introduced the SP system.
0.05 - First public release of Chapter 2 demo.
0.05a - Decreased Triple Slash's damage and increased Sunburn's damage.

* not a guarantee

[Bilan]

It is indeed exceptionally pretty and you should totally play it!

[Selphos]

Yeah I get an error saying RTP not found.
Now it works.

[Aitamen]

Is there a reason Sondow's a chick?

[Selphos]

I'm not a chick! I'm just a mage with long hair and a tiara for... focusing my magical energies!

or something like that

[Thorn]

^ If memory serves, RPG was going to make me a bit dark-skinned, so I'm not surprised if Sondow's a girl. Then again, as soon as I heard my predicament, I grabbed a copy of said sprite and hit MSPaint hard.~

[Buizel]

Sondow's not a chick. I tried to find the closest match to the original for each character and the male paladin face/sprite happened to be best for Sondow. Yes, I realise it looks slightly feminine, especially with the circlet on his head, but it is a guy.

[Aitamen]

Slightly feminine?  well, it might not be quite as bad as, say, a certain caster of yore *coughRune/Lutz/Noahcough* but I digress...

wait... I had a topic?  Also, the circlet was about the only thing that made me think "maybe it's a scholar/caster thing"... otherwise, it's just long hair in platemail.

And since when do paladins cast magic anyway?

[Bilan]

http://www.wowwiki.com/Paladin LOL

[Stefan]

Oh I'm not in this game am I.

[Buizel]

Of course you're in this game. You're in mike's party, the one that gets more screen time in the demo.

* Buizel cough

Also...I've always associated paladins with (low-level) healing/support magic...

[Aitamen]

Paladins (and clerics) aren't innately magical themselves, beyond perhaps an aura of anti-evil.  They call upon gods for help (and are frequently denied, bwaha!)

They have no power themselves, unlike mages/magic users, illusionists, and druids, who are able to shape things within their realms of ability.

RPG is a cad.

Also, I'm somewhat surprised at the parties... but meh.  I wish one of these would finish so I cans enjoy it!

[Buizel]

You mean to say you didn't enjoy the Chapter 1 demo? I mean, yeah, it's basically the same as the original TSCA2 from last year (except with better graphics and battle system), but everyone who has tried the demo so far has enjoyed it (at least to my knowledge). Chapter 2 won't be added for at least another month (or longer...), so it's best to enjoy what's available now.

[Aitamen]

Oh no, it's good (though perhaps only for TSC members), I liked it, and do consider it a shinier (and better running) version of the prior run. 

I want it to be done already, though, is all...  I want to play through the whole thing so I can tell if I should rip into things or if they'll be fix'd later

[francisco]

does anyone have a list of who is in there?

[ieatatsonic]

The "Surprise" thing is broken. I encountered a bat, and it said the party was suprised. I waited about 5 minutes, but I never got to attack.

[Selphos]

So like is this going to be not dead again any time soon. It's closing on a year since the last release.

[Buizel]

I've been updating TSCA every so often. It's just that I want to go over things with RPG before releasing stuff and whenever I ask him he's always got something to do (like "exams", but we all know he really means WoW, amirite). Thorn has volunteered to test play for me but has admitted to not having much experience playing RPGs and thus I am left in the somewhat awkward position of not having anyone experienced in RPGs to help me.

In addition, I'm not very good at coming up with dialogue, and the script I was given is for the second half of Chapter 2, with only a summary of what happens during the first half, leaving me to come up with dialogue for it myself.

Also, I like adding secrets and sidequests so I have to come up with stuff for each chapter as well. Seeing as how I haven't seen any comments about it I'll assume no one has found the Chapter 1 secret yet.

Anyway, I will hopefully have at least the first half of Chapter 2 up this month, as the second half will be much more complicated to program.

You can view what I've been doing in the version history here.

And I really should've responded to these last year...

does anyone have a list of who is in there?

At present, we have...
Playable characters: RPG, me(Zephyr), Sondow, douglas, mike89, Thorn, MK, Stefan
NPCs: Rolken, flyby

Chapter 2 introduces a lot more characters, friendly and not.

The "Surprise" thing is broken. I encountered a bat, and it said the party was suprised. I waited about 5 minutes, but I never got to attack.

This has been fixed as of v0.04d, which I finished about a week and half after releasing v0.04c last year. I had meant to release it back then but never got around to it. :|

[Thorn]

^ So btw, just because I've done almost all turn-based RPGs and very few others doesn't mean I'm a complete dunce. I mean, overworld exploration and sidequests and the like don't scare the shit out of me. Also I do know a few aspects of game design from my random dicking around in Sonic 2 hacking, even if I don't know how to do something like give a battle proper difficulty.

Plus I totally have experience playing RPG! Only mike and I and RPG's past girlfriends know how to play him, actually. We're a very exclusive group of people.~

[Buizel]

I had this post all typed up at work yesterday and wanted to look it over at home before posting but left in such a hurry that I forgot to upload it. Whoops. :v

Anyway, the post:

So, it's now been a year since the first public release of TSCA2VX. I'm sure many of you have been wanting this to just be finished so you can play through it all, but keep in mind that that requires that everyone on the development team is actually present so we can discuss things (hi RPG!). Thorn isn't always around for me to converse with, either, and it really helps when I have someone else I can discuss various things with.

Anyway, I'd like to say that Chapter 2 will be out soon. I don't know how soon; it could be as early as tonight but count on it being out this week. I'm basically coding the whole thing over from scratch: when I first made this last year I mostly just copied all the code from the original 2003 version, but I was never happy with that because RPG did a pretty sloppy job, and I didn't exactly do a grand job on my own coding, either, especially when I added the secret area in Chapter 1.

Here's an example of what I mean:
I'd like to have a screenshot here but I'm at work, so...expect an edit in here sometime later today. In the original TSCA2, RPG assigned several switches to tell the game if a player has touched the stones on B2F of the Forum Archives. However, the switches he used are split into 2 sets, which wouldn't be so bad if the two sets were right next to each other. IIRC, one set uses switches 13-19 and the other uses switches 41-46. Why aren't they all together? And if you were to look at the event coding, one of the switch sets is completely unnecessary. So yeah, I'm fixing that.

With that out of the way, I feel like explaining what people need to expect in this new release:

• The first thing you'll notice when playing is that you can now select between 4 battle difficulties: Easy, Normal, Hard and Critical. Last year's version would be somewhere between Easy and Normal. I should also note that not only are enemies stronger on higher difficulties but they are also smarter, have better AI and may even have skills not present on lower difficulties. Those of you who have played a Final Mix version of one of the Kingdom Hearts games know what Critical is: not only are enemies tougher but your characters only gain half the HP/MP they normally do. On the bright side, you get way more EXP, Gold and AP, as well as much better item drop rates from enemies.
• There are now passive abilities. These abilities can be learned by earning and spending AP on them. At the beginning your characters have no passive abilities to learn. As the story progresses new passive abilities will become available for your characters to learn. Most passive abilities simply (and permanently) increase a stat by a small amount, but some have other effects, like Able I, which increases the rate at which you gain AP by 20%. Oh, and AP is earned in several ways. The main way is to defeat enemies, but you'll also get AP by simply performing actions (successfully) during battle. You'll also gain some AP each time you level up.
• Another thing you'll notice pretty quickly is a new gauge for each character called SP. This is what you'll need to use our character-specific skills in battle, like Triple Slash or Satellite Smackdown. MP will now be used exclusively for magic. Everyone starts with 0 SP and gains SP in battle by (successfully) using skills/attacks or by (successfully) being attacked. It is important to note that outside of battle characters will slowly lose SP as you walk around. I did this mostly to discourage hoarding SP and encourage skill use, but you'll find out exactly why I did this much later once I introduce a new game mechanic, which will probably be around...Chapter 6.
• Speaking of skills and spells, I've modified the learning progression; i.e., changed what levels we learn stuff. Also, since I'm expecting most of you to be playing on Critical (FKE >:O) and gain a lot of levels, I'm having us learn stuff up through level 10 in this demo. Well, actually, RPG and Sondow learn stuff up through level 14 but would you really want to play that long when enemies don't give a whole lot of EXP this early in the game, especially since enemies now have a level cap?
• I can't think of anything else so I'll list stuff from my developer's notes: Magic attacks can now cause critical hits (indicated by a rainbow-coloured border around the damage numbers), and all skills and spells have had their numbers tweaked so most of them are completely different from last year. Finally, the final boss in the secret area has way more HP but the battle now ends when only a portion of its HP is depleted. However, its HP gauge is hidden so you won't be able to see just how much of its HP you have to deplete. You also get an additional reward for completing the secret area.

And...I think that's it. I'll edit this post if I think of something else.

[Luxray]

Anyway, I'd like to say that Chapter 2 will be out soon. I don't know how soon.

It'll be out the Thursday after Half-Life 2: Episode 3 is released.

[Buizel]

It'll be out the Thursday after Half-Life 2: Episode 3 is released.

WRONG.

The new demo is...well, it's to the point where I feel it can be released. Not finished, per se, but the things I want to improve either can't or would take too long to bother fixing.

So, here you go: TSCA2 v0.05 is out! (45.9 MB)

Before you go playing, please keep these things in mind:

• There are still a few bugs present which I am unable to fix for various reasons. The worst one is one that causes battles to freeze for some reason. You can still select battle commands for everyone, but everyone's ATB gauges will not go up. I don't know what's causing it so I can't fix it. All I can do is suggest that you save whenever you get the chance. There are 3 Save Points, as well as one map that you can save on. I hope you'll be able to tell which one it is.
• Critical Mode is HARD. Not impossibly hard, but I highly recommend playing on Hard difficulty first. For those who finish Critical, however, there's a surprise waiting for you at the end.
• Don't try loading up an old save from v0.04b or v0.04c of TSCA2. You'll be very disappointed if you think you can just skip Act 1 this way.
• If you find something that seems to be a bug, let me know. I spent about 6 hours playtesting this but doesn't mean I fixed everything. Thorn was able to find something I missed, and he only played through once (Also thanks to Thorn for going through it once before I released this).

EDIT: Updated to v0.05a. Triple Slash was doing way too damage and Sunburn wasn't doing enough. Also I fixed Smash's animation so it works properly now.