Big thumbs up.

[cerem]

I'd just like to thank you for making this game man. It is, without a doubt,t he best RM2K title out. The programming is amazing,t he music, visuals...everything is just...so very well done. And you even managed to include the FF-ish things without making it seem like a huge fan game. It would be a great addition to the FF series IMO.

Thank you very much mi amigo.

[DJC]

I'm glad you enjoyed Everlong; sharing the fun with others was my motivation behind releasing v1.0 to the public about a year ago. If there's anything you feel should be changed or if you have any suggestions I would be glad to read them. I'm always looking for ways to improve the game for players by adding content or tweaking existing stuff.

[cerem]

Well, my main thing was that I had to go back to the ship to change my party in most cases. Could you maybe make an item similar tot he one that takes you tot he skill shard menu? Something to take you to the party select screen?

I had to do the Phoenix Cave twice because the first time I forgot to bring Vixen,lol.

[DJC]

For the Phoenix Cave if you reach the end and enter the room with the Temple door then the next time you visit the dungeon there should be a red star blocking the entrance outside on the cliff map. You can talk to it to teleport directly back to the temple or dismiss it out of the way. You must make it all the way to just outside the temple, however, for the teleport star to appear. I inserted this for the very reason that Vixen may not be part of either team and thus you reach the temple but can't open it and must return with her.

If I made an item that initiates the party selector this could cause certain problems. For example, at the return to Vanguard if you don't take Justin his guidance dialogue won't be triggered. Then say you put him into the party after advancing a few rooms and turning on several switches. Justin will then display waypoints and such, but his advice on where to go may confuse the player if they backtrack to previous rooms where he suggests doing something the player already has. There are other scenarios like this where trobule could arise, but I might be able to work around them in time.

An alternative would be to strategically place events throughout dungeons or areas that allow you to change the party. This way I could choose what zones to put them in based on whether or not it would create a conflict. The problem is you still have to get to that room with the event; you can't just do it anywhere, which eliminates most of the convenience aspect.

I'll keep thinking about it and surveying what I would have to do to fix issues that would arise from allowing you to change party members at any point in time. Thanks for the suggestion.

[cerem]

Well..for the Vanguard thing, couldn't you set that map thing by a switch instead of Justin being in the party, then have him being in your party what affects the switch that controls it all?

[DJC]

It looks like I already did that awhile ago and Justin doesn't actually say anything anymore; you just get waypoints on the map and they are determined by what switches have been pressed.

I did have to go through most of the temples and do some coding to prevent people from entering without Vixen and then switching her in, thus potentially screwing up the cut scenes which would be triggered with the hero in the wrong xy coordinate location.

Other areas that needed to disallow the switching were Pullus Unda before you get 4+ pary members back, the Phoenix Cave (player must still have both leaders talk to trade members), and the events during the first stay at Triangle Island when only Glen is supposed to be in the party.

In the next patch the player will acquire a new item "Hero's Calling" when they obtain the Inceptum ship. It will activate the party formation system anywhere with the exceptions I listed above. I removed the Glass Sword from the game and moved up Keen's throwing weapons on the item list to make room for the Hero's Calling. It will be just above the Map and Skill Trainer items.

I'm not sure I thought of every scenario where using the party formation system could screw things up, so I'll need to do some testing before it's released and even then there will likely be some unhandled exceptions players will find. I think it's a good idea, however, since it encourages players to try characters they haven't been using whenever they feel like experimenting. It's much more convenient this way and cuts down on wasted time traveling back to the ship/airship, which otherwise discourages exploring the possible teams you can build and play with.

[cerem]

Wow, you filled the item list?! Jesus man, that's a lot of items.

Honestly, I'm in awe of your abilities. I have been since I saw the skill shard system. How long did Everlong take to make?

[DJC]

I didn't actually fill the item list; I wanted the Hero's Calling item to be near the top instead of the bottom so the player would not have to scroll down a lengthy list constantly just to use it. To put it in the same group as the Map and Skill Trainer items I deleted one item above (Glass Sword) and moved everything between where it had been and where I wanted to put Hero's Calling up one slot.

There are 770+ items in Everlong, but 50+ of them are part of a monster remains collecting system I haven't finished designing yet.

Technically I've been developing Everlong since 2000 when I first got my hands on rm2k. It was originally a Final Fantasy fangame that evolved as I played with the engine, but in the last couple of years I went back and reworked the game into something slightly more original.