( Archived from the Natomic forums )

THE SPIRIT ENGINE
BOSS GUIDE

version 0.9
Oct 3rd, 2004

Game created by Natomic Studios (http://www.natomic.com/).
FAQ Written by Alan Gordon.

This guide assumes a party of one Hunter, one Wizard, and one Priest.

Not all strategies are guaranteed to work for you. If the walkthrough says to
use Silver Bullet and you have 20 points in Holy Bolt, apply some common sense.

Also note that some bosses have variable health and attack power, dependent on your level. Any values given correspond to the suggested party level.

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WORLD 1
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GRUNDLEKRUNK
HP: 705 L
Suggested Level: 6
Difficulty: Easy
Not a great deal of strategy is required to fell this monster. Just keep
rotating your party to place the character with the most HP in front. Between
Chain Magic and Speed Fire/Sharpshoot, it should go down pretty fast. If
your HP starts to get low, have your Priest cast Party Heal. If someone gets
really low, keep them in the back position if you can - his bubble breath can
hit the first or second character.

HERMIT MAGE
HP: 1090 MX
Suggested Level: 10
Difficulty: Easy
Don't worry about that shield of his... it goes down in a couple hits from
pretty much anything. Dynamite helps alot here, but unfortunately the same is
not true for Hand of the Gods... remember that Magic Immunity. Same essential
strategy as Grundlekrunk, except that he's capable of hitting characters in
the back rows.

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WORLD 2
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ADRIAN'S GHOST
HP: 575 NX UD
Suggested Level: 12
Difficulty: Easy
Not even really a proper boss, Adrian is just a Ghost with extra HP and
damage. Treat it like any normal enemy. Hand of the Gods works particularly
well.

PULSING GELATINOUS BLOB
HP: --
Suggested Level: --
Difficulty: Impossible
This is actually an interesting fight. The game barely seems to acknowledge the blob as an enemy. If it interrupts another combat, then raised shields will appear *behind* the characters. Rainbow and similar spells won't even land.
But, the point of the matter is, the blob is indestructible. It will glue you to the ground, and creep forwards, deaing your characters 200 damage at a time. You will lose if you fight the blob.

THE ABOMINATION
HP: 1390 L UD
Suggested Level: 15
Difficulty: Easy
[Only appears if Clementas is in your party.]
Despite its size and menace, the Abomination really is a pushover. Hunter
sharpshoots to take advantage of its huge size, Wizard uses either Rainbow
or Kinetic Smash for fast damage, and Priest uses Hand of the Gods or
appropriate offensive magic, healing only if your average HP gets below
about 20, which it shouldn't.

SNACK
HP: 735 UD
Suggested Level: 17
Difficulty: Moderate
Snack wouldn't be any trouble if he was alone. Your first priority in this
fight is to dispatch his minions. Hunter should dynamite for the whole
battle, Your Wizard should keep up a Kinetic Shield as often as possible,
alternately using Rainbow to damage the Ghouls. Priest uses Hand of the Gods,
or healing if it's needed.

NERU THE ELDER DEMON
HP: 1630 L UD
FATHER BELFIDIUS
HP: 365
Suggested Level: 19
Difficulty: Hard
Start the battle off with indirect fire skills like Dynamite, Hand of the Gods
and Rainbow, so that you can dispatch Father Belfidius; otherwise he has a
tendency to heal Neru. After he's gone, reverse the process - use direct fire
attacks exclusively, expecially Speed Fire. It takes 4 hits to detonate a
Suicide Imp, so you'll need all the hits you can get. If you're having
trouble, have your wizard use Chain Magic as well - that's 6 hits per round
of attack between your Wizard and Hunter. With the collateral damage hitting
Neru, he should go down eventually.

DUNDEE
HP: 580 N-30 E-30
ALAIYENA
HP: 552 M-25
SAMPSON
HP: 655 N-10 E-10
Suggested Level: 19
Difficulty: Moderate
These bounty hunters are capable of putting up quite a fight. As best you
can, try to concentrate your attacks on Alaiyena first - her thunderstorm
attack has the dangerous ability to hit your entire party - and with a
balanced team, there's little or no healing for your priest. After she goes
down, your chances of victory increase greatly. Unfortunately, the enemy can
rotate their party as well, which limits your ability to focus on one target.
Hunter should either be using Sharpshoot if your target is in the front row,
or Dynamite otherwise. Your wizard couldn't hurt to put up a Kinetic Shield
to block Dundee's Speed Fire. Otherwise, stick to whatever offense you have
the most skill in - but stick to direct fire while Alaiyena's in front.

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WORLD 3
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CROSSBONE
HP: 1830
Suggested Level: 21
Difficulty: Hard
Crossbone only gets a "Hard" rating because you can't level up before you
fight him. His attacks are pretty damaging, so your best bet is to hit hard,
and hit fast. Have your wizard put up kinetic shields, and have your priest
use healing. Unforutnately, healing your party will probably make your
priest wind up with the lowest HP total, which will make Crossbone's diving
attack target him. At first, this would seem fatal for the priest, but
there's a relatively simple trick to overcoming that obstacle - as soon as
Crossbone begins is descent over the priest, cycle your party, and he'll hit
the next character instead. Keep high-damage skills coming from your Hunter,
and that 1830 HP should run out before you know it.

GILGIANA
HP: 6905 L (Armor Varies)
Suggested Level: 27
Difficulty: Moderate
Shields won't help you much during the first part of this fight - the
attacks that really count are coming from too high of an angle. But notice
how it lowers into the ground as you keep hurting it... this affects the
trajectory of its thorn barrage. For general strategy, keep the Priest on
healing (maybe throwing in some offense at the beginning), Wizard using
high-attack spells like Rainbow and Kinetic Smash, and Hunter on Sharpshoot
or Dynamite.
Once Gilgiana only has one unit of trunk left, KEEP THE PRIEST IN THE BACK
RANKS. Once that last section falls, it traps your party in vines, preventing
you from rotating your characters. Then, it moves pretty much exclusively to
its helicopter seed attack, which can be blocked with Kinetic Shields. Keep
the healing and damage coming, and it will fall eventually.

CROSSBONE (2)
HP: 1990
Suggested Level: 29
Difficulty: Easy
Crossbone doesn't seem to have gotten much stronger since your last visit...
unfortunately for him, you have.
Your Hunter should be using Dynamite almost exclusively in this battle,
because Crossbone's pet ooze it immune to Physical damage (or at least, it
claims to be... I found Silver Bullet to be able to hurt it well enough).
After the ooze goes down, just unload as much damage as you can on him...
your poisoned character will almost certainly be the target of his dive
attack, so I hope for your sake that it isn't your Priest. In the unlucky
event that it is, get all your healing off NOW, and maybe equip someone
else with a healing talisman. All things considered, it just comes down to
the fact that 1990 just isn't enough HP.

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WORLD 4
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TZA TZE
Suggested Level: 34
HP: 3817 (Armour increases in response to attack types, including a
resistance to Life Drain)
Difficulty: Hard
Tza Tze is a beast, pure and simple. His attacks do good damage, and he's
tough to bring down. Have your Mage put up Kinetic Shields to fend off his
pounce, and keep the healing coming, with all the firepower from your
Hunter and, when your shield isn't down, your Mage. For attack, it really
depends on which shield he has up. Here's a quick guideline:
Physical Shield (NX): Hunter uses Dynamite, Mage uses Rainbow
Energy Shield (EX): Hunter uses Sharpshoot/Speedfire, Mage uses Rainbow
Magic Shield (MX): Hunter uses Sharpshoot/Speedfire, Mage uses Kinetic Smash

GRANDAEL
Suggested Level: 37
HP: 7950 M+20 (increases during battles)
Difficulty: Moderate
Your first priority in this fight is do exterminate Grandael's minions.
Good spells to accomplish this include Rainbow and Hand of the Gods. As
soon as they're down, have your Mage keep up a steady supply of Magic
Shields. Use Sharpshoot and whatever does the most damage with your
priest.
Towards the latter half of this battle, your primary goal is to kill
Grandael as quickly as possible. His magic attack starts to fire more
and more rapidly as his HP decreases.

THE GRANDFATHER
Suggested Level: 39
HP: 5965 N+12 E+12 M-90
Difficulty: Very Hard
You are about to fight the hardest boss in the game.
First of, kill the familiar NOW. If you let it last too long, its MP
draining attack will cripple your party beyond repair.
Shields are a must, but even that will only block one of his attacks. The
stream of runes that come from the sky cuts one character's HP in half.
Also, an additional gradual rain of runes will rain down on your party,
causing minor damage.Just keep healing, with a Mana Regeneration item of
some sort on whoever had their MP cut in half in the cutscene, and
a Healing item on the priest. I hope for your sake that they aren't the
same person. Something else to watch out for: when you think he's almost
dead... you're wrong. The first time you bring him down to about 1000 HP,
he'll raise an impenetrable shield around himself and restore his HP back
to full. Use this time to raise shields, recover MP, and heal with your
Priest, because God knows you'll need it.

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WORLD 5
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FRONTIER GUNSHIP ZERO
Suggested Level: 48
HP: 11000 (armor varies)
Difficulty: Hard
Ah, yes... time for the infamous Elevator Battle. Your goal is NOT to
kill the airship, just to survive until you complete the long, arduous
ride from floor 1 to floor 90.
This boss has 3 attacks: At the beginning of each phase, it'll open fire
with a barrage of 5 shots from its chaingun - this is definitely the most
problematic attack, simply because of the sheer damage. After that's gone,
it will start firing homing missiles, and a series of drones will appear
around it firing magic shots at your party.
To start the battle off, cough up a Kinetic Shield and unload Hand of the
Gods and Dynamite until the chaingun falls off. Now, the pace of battle is
slightly reduced, so your Priest can switch to healing if it's necessary.
Once the missile launcher is destroyed, the Interceptor will retreat,
granting you a few seconds of reprieve. During this time, prepare. Heal
with the Priest, recover or recharge with the Hunter, and raise more
Kinetic Shields. Eventually, he'll come back, with about 40 more armor
against each element. This pattern will repeat, as many times as you let
it, until you reach floor 90. On the later fights, use single-hit attacks
rather than multi-hit attacks, because the armor really gets thick.
Near the end of the fight, things will definitely be getting hairy.
However, keep in mind that you don't actually have to kill it! Once you
reach about floor 85, play a fully defensive game: Heal, shield, recover.
Assuming you aren't too out-gunned, you should survive the trip to the
top.

*REGARDING PROTOTYPE DEVELOPMENT WING OMICRON*
The Claw, although not as useful as Dr. Orwell would have you believe,
but thorough knowledge of how it works can turn a deadly hindrance into
a tolerable one.
During battle, the claw will periodically hover over a position in your
party, then lower itself and fire a ray at them. When struck by this
ray, every 10 points of health a character has will be converted into
one mana, and vice versa. The character will then be healed by 3 HP.
If someone is at low health, it is possible to move them under the claw and select Recharge, giving them an easy 10 HP.
There is another, far more useful application of the claw: Ressurection. If someone is dead, place them in front of the claw, and their mana and HP will switch, bringing them above zero HP! Unfortunately, their mana will now be negative, forcing them to recharge for several turns.

MYSTIC DEFENSE MECHANISM ZETA
Suggested Level: 52
First Form:
Mystic Defense Mechanism Zeta CPU
HP: 17995 N+30 E+30 M-10 L UD
Mystic Defense Mechanism Zeta Front Unit
HP: 10000 NX EX MX L*
Difficulty: Hard
*Although UD isn't listed, the Front Unit is still immune to Life
Drain... in a sense. LD will pass through it and attack the CPU.

While the Front Unit is down, play a completely defensive game - Kinetic
Shields, Party Heals, Recovers, and Recharges. Keep your Hunter's Mana
up, though. As soon as the Front Unit lifts to reload, fall on the CPU
like a ton of bricks. Dynamite or Sharpshoot and Kinetic Smash work well
here. Priest should keep healing during this period. Repeat this process
until the CPU is down to around 11000 HP, and it will switch to...


Second Form:
Mystic Defense Mechanism Zeta CPU
HP: ~11000 N-125 E-125 M-100 L
Difficulty: Very Hard
Take a long, hard look at those armor ratings: not much is going to get
through that. You're in for a long fight. A level 30 dynamite does less
than 100 damage between all 4 hits. In general, stick to skills that do
all their damage in one shot: Sharpshoot and Kinetic Smash work well.
Keep your HP up. Also, in this fight, you want the character with the
most HP in the *back* position, because that's where the missiles land.
Your hunter has a second job for this fight: Detonating C-Bombs. They
take 4 hits, so a Speed Fire their way will do the trick for the most
part. Rick Brutal is a huge help in this matter, which is good, because
none of his attacks can scratch the CPU itself. Kinetic Smash and
Sharpshoot seem to count as 2 hits each for this purpose.
Also, your Wizard should spend at least a little time here putting up
Magic Shields. They will be needed. Because, when it reaches around 5000
HP, it sheds its armor and switches to...

Third Form:
Mystic Defense Mechanism Zeta CPU
HP: ~5000 N+30 E+30 M-10 L UD
Difficulty: Very Hard OR Very Easy
Keep those Shields coming as quickly as you can, because the amount of
firepower that comes out of this thing is pretty extreme. The armor is
gone, so you might want to have your hunter switch back to Dynamite,
depending on his skill levels. Throw a Party Recharge into your
priest's Skill Chain to increase the rate of dynamite-throwing, and it
should go down before you do. On the other hand, if you want to do this
the cheesing way, just equip someone with a Talisman of Deflection.
Since the first two forms don't have any magical attacks, your shield
will have hundreds of hit points by now, and you might be able to take
it out without taking a single hit.

At some point during this fight, Tza Tze appears, and joins your party! He
has 400 HP, and his charge attack is quite powerful, but his main use is
as a meat shield.

And that's all for now.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
-Davzz, for contributing the Crossbone Switch Trick.
-Mark Pay, for making an outstanding game.

Things to Do:
-Confirm level suggestions.
-Make sure that I haven't missed any bosses.
-Pinpoint exact HP ratings for the form-switches of Mystic Defense Mechanism Zeta.
-Get the armor ratings for each encounter with Frontier Gunship Zero.

Version History:
v0.7: Initial public release.

v0.8:
-Added Tza Tze.
-Added Grandael.
-Added The Grandfather.
-Added Frontier Gunship Zero.
-Filled in some blanks regarding armor values.
-Added the Crossbone Switch Trick.

v0.9:
-Added observations about the Pulsing Gelatinous Blob, and fixed its name.
-Modified the strategy for Mystic Defense Mechanism Zeta (third form).
-Added a note regarding the last dungeon area in World 5.
-Slight modifications abound.


All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by
their respective trademark and copyright holders.

For any questions, contact kobuscrispi[AT]gmail.com

( Archived from the Natomic forums )

chaos

Since I didn’t find any walkthrough / strategy guide on the Web, I thought I would write my own (using game version 1.03). It’s quite easy to finish the game in a little under 2.5 hours without dying even once. Here’s how:

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The Spirit Engine Speed Walkthrough



Choice of Characters

Peter
Key skills to develop: Sharpshoot, Mana (wait until World 3), Health (wait until World 5). Comments: Sharpshoot is very powerful (the bonus against large creatures is helpful throughout the game).

Zepher
Key skills to develop: Party Heal, Mana (wait until world 3), Health (wait until World 5). Comments: In the game, you need one character that defends. You can do this with a mage (shields) or with a priest (healing). The problem with mages is that the shields get broken down too easily and you end up taking damage anyway. That’s why it’s much better to have a priest.

Matthieu
Key skills to develop: Hand of the Gods (HotG), Mana (wait until world 3), Health (wait until World 5). Comments: HotG rules.

Combat Tips
The character with the most health should always be in front so rotate continuously (use spacebar). Pay close attention to Zepher’s health; he’s the most vulnerable character and also the most important to keep alive. If Zepher ever gets knocked out, switch Matthieu to Party Heal and revive Zepher ASAP. To coordinate your attacks, don’t even try clicking the buttons on the bottom of the screen (it’s almost impossible to get it right). Instead, use 1, 2 and 3 on the keyboard during combat to configure the sequences you want. This allows for perfect control even on the high combat speed setting.

Dangerous Areas
There are only 3 areas (all in World 4) where there’s a (very small) chance of getting killed:
1. The Shifting Sands. You don’t quite have adequate armor yet and some battles can get close.
2. Elan’s Tomb. Same comment as for Shifting Sands.
3. The Sanctum of Dust. A tough battle and I assume it’s possible to die here if you are unlucky.

You will most likely finish the game without dying a single time.

1. Giant’s Cradle

The Prairie Trail
Set Peter’s combat sequence to 3 x Speed Fire (no need to change Zepher’s or Matthieu’s yet). Don’t assign any of Peter’s or Matthieu’s skill points until you reach party level 5.

Homestead
Buy a Blunderbuss, Robes and the excellent Crystal Talisman (+2 mana) for Peter. Talk to Mr. Grimes who tells you about his suitcase.

The Dusty Valley
After the first battle, you’ll find Mr. Grimes’ suitcase (you must have talked to him first). Immediately go return it.

Homestead (again)
Talk to Mr. Grimes who gives you some cash for the suitcase. Use it to buy 2 more robes, as well as a blunderbuss and Crystal Talisman for Matthieu. Assign all of Zepher’s free skill points to Party Heal from now on and use Party Heal as Zepher’s default combat action for the rest of the game (i.e. 3 x Party Heal).

The Dusty Valley (again)
As you win battles and go up in levels, remember to increase Party Heal with Zepher while not assigning any of Peter’s nor Matthieu’s skill points yet.

Hailey’s Glen
After the first combat here, you reach level 5. Assign all of Peter’s free skill points to Sharpshoot from now on and use Sharpshoot as Peter’s default attack for the rest of the game (i.e. 3 x Sharpshoot). Change Matthieu’s attack sequence to 3 x Silver Bullet. Do not assign any of his skill points. The idea is to wait for HotG which is 2 to 3 times more powerful than either Holy Bolt or Silver Bullet. Waiting for HotG is a slight inconvenience in world 1 that pays huge dividends in World 2.

Grundelkrunk’s Lair:
With Zepher Party Healing, Peter Sharpshooting and Matthieu firing Silver Bullets, this battle is won quickly and easily.

Giant’s Toe
(Skip through Hailey’s Glen to get here). Listen to the argument in town. Matthieu can resolve the dispute to receive 2 HotG skill points as a reward (very nice but you’ll have to wait before you can make use of them). Buy the Gnarled Talisman of Party Healing for Zepher (+1 mana as a bonus). Also buy a Leather Jersey for one of your characters. Note: you cannot sell your old armor/weapons. Just trash them.

Icy Ridge
Assign two of Matthieu’s skill points to Party Heal so that he can heal at the rate of 3 (gives you an extra margin of safety). Use Sharpshoot and Silver Bullet if you are fighting against 2 enemies. As soon as you encounter a group of 3 enemies, change your strategy to Party Heal with Matthieu and Sharpshoot with Peter (Zepher keeps on healing). With your two priests healing and Peter sniping, you’ll clear the battles comfortably.

Giant’s Top
Use the same strategy as in Icy Ridge; two healers and Peter Sharpshooting; it’s a long but easy battle.

Total time to finish World 1: 25-30 minutes.

2. Pansylvania

Serinet Bastion
Buy one or two Iron Breast Plates here (depending on how much money you have).

Town GraveYard
Clearing the graveyard isn’t strictly necessary to finishing the game but you get some helpful experience and money by doing so. You should attain level 10 (new skill options) before reaching the Ghost. This is what you have been waiting for. Assign all of Matthieu’s free skill points to HotG from now on and use HotG as Matthieu’s default attack for the rest of the game (i.e. 3 x HotG). Matthieu is now so powerful that rest of the World is a cakewalk. Use Magic Bullet (or Dynamite) with Peter to help in the fight against the ghost.

Serinet Bastion (again)
Buy one more Iron Breast Plate if you couldn’t afford to buy 2 earlier.

Torchlit Catacombs
With Peter, always Sharpshoot until all the “solid” monsters are dead, then switch to Dynamite (many opponents) or Magic Bullet (one opponent) to help finish off what remains.

The Misty Marshes
Buy an Emerald Talisman of Blood from the witch. Go out of the area and back in again to buy a second one. Do NOT wear the new talismans yet! The last thing you need for the next area is less mana and more health.

Arachnid’s Grove
As you enter, run to the right and never look back. That “thing” will kill you if it catches up. You need to win the combats quickly so make sure that Matthieu is still wearing that Crystal Talisman. If your health is looking good and you know you can win the fight without further healing, switch Zepher to an attack (HotG) to help speed things up. It’s not really necessary though; Peter’s and Matthieu’s attacks are so powerful that you’ll win these battles in about 10 seconds anyway.

Hamlet
Buy a Boa Hide Coat and an Arquebus for Peter, if you can afford it. Note: the amount of money you get from combat seems to be somewhat random. It’s now time to equip Zepher and Peter with the Talismans of Blood. Give the Gnarled Talisman of Party Healing to Matthieu (he needs +1 mana the most).

Broken Bridge
Ignore the ghosts and focus on Snack (Sharpshoot). When Snack fades into the background, recharge with Peter. If the ghosts are dead and Snack fades into the background, recharge with both Peter and Matthieu and launch your attacks on Snack when he reappears. Overall, it’s a fairly easy battle. Take the key by walking over it.

Hamlet
Go back here to buy an Arquebus for Peter if you couldn’t afford it earlier.

Haunted Church
You need the key from the broken bridge to get in. Put Peter and Matthieu on a Recharge sequence when the blue Bogeymen disappear in the background and blast the beasts when they reappear.

The Defiled Altar
Take a couple Sharpshots with Peter until the kamikaze imps appear. As soon as that happens switch Peter and Zepher to Rifle Attack. They’ll take care of the imps while Matthieu finishes the daemon off. You can try and sneak in a couple Sharpshots between the kamikaze imps but it’s not really necessary. It’s usually over in less than 20 seconds with all your characters at full health.

Eastern Way
No special strategies required here. The bounty hunters won’t even know what hit them.

Total time to finish World 2: 30-35 minutes.

3. Mango Republic

Downtown Heavena
Buy two Copper Plated Jackets. Talk to Djan to reassign your skills. Make sure you assign all your free skills points before doing that otherwise you will lose them (bug in the game).
Peter: +6 Mana, the rest in Sharpshoot
Zepher: +8 Mana, the rest in Party Heal
Matthieu: +8 Mana, the rest in HotG

Note: Mana gives you the initiative at the beginning of combat, enabling you to rapidly knock out at least one enemy. It also allows you to heal your party quickly at the beginning of combat when you get hit the hardest. Overall, this makes you much stronger than using the skill points to further increase Sharpshoot/Party Heal/HotG. You can leave mana at the above mentioned levels until the end of the game.

Republican Government Building
Use Dynamite if the way is blocked by one of those black blobs. Make sure all of it dies (including the small blobs on the floor) before switching back to Sharpshoot. The assassin tends to go for the weakest character with his diving sword attack; just keep rotating your characters. Focus on keeping Zepher alive, and you’ll win easily.

Blue Sapphire Bay
The sea horses have a powerful attack and they are immune to magic (no HotG). Switch Matthieu to Party Heal while Peter takes them out.

Jungle Tracks
Starting from now until the end of the World, Zepher will have lower health (because of the assassin dart). You’ll need to be extra careful that he doesn’t get knocked out in combat. There’s nothing special in this area.

The Hepplekeck Village
Talk to the general to get mission orders.

The Leafy Underbrush
Go to the end and escort the soldier back. The cloud shaped things are immune to Sharpshoot. Use Dynamite to help out or just wait for Matthieu to roast them.

Kaikin Gorge
Kill as many of the tribesmen as you can. The ones that keep regenerating are weak. Hold out until the counter reaches 0 and the bridge is blown up.

The Hepplekeck Village
Talk to the general to let him know that the missions are accomplished. You get a good Carved Oaken Armor.

Gigliana’s Border
You can go have a coffee during this battle. When you come back the plant will be dead and your characters will have higher health than when they started. Ok, perhaps you do have to rotate your characters once in a while but this is one of the easiest battles in the game.

Robert Hat’s Happy Hideout
Buy the Pearl Talisman of Heart (fast healing) and give it to Matthieu (replacing the gnarled one). Increase mana skill by 2 to compensate for the lost mana point as soon as you can. Talk to father Oharne to receive some welcome additional skill points for Zepher.

The Inky Pit
Start Peter with Dynamite. Once the black blob is dead switch Peter to Sharpshoot. Meanwhile rotate Zepher away from the falling knife attacks. It doesn’t matter if the others die in the attack, Zepher will regenerate them. Similarly to the previous battle against the assassin: focus on keeping Zepher alive and you’ll win easily.

Total time to finish World 3: 25-30 minutes.

4. The Mystic Dunes

Saline
Buy a hunting rifle and SpiderSilk Overcoat for Peter. Talk to Kai Kalenzo at the station, then head out of the area and come back in to buy another SpiderSilk Overcoat for Matthieu. You’re now ready to face the desert (leave town by going left).

The Shifting Sands
The battles here are randomly generated and can be fairly tough. The EX NX stone golems are particularly annoying because they have high hit points and can provide cover for beasts behind them. Use magic bullet with Peter to help take them down as soon as possible. The shifters are not too hard. With HotG and Sharpshoot something will always be hitting them hard. If you’re fighting against more than one Dune Wraith, it makes sense to recharge when they fade into the background.

The Magi Retreat
Skip the Aegin Warstick quest, it’s a waste of time. Don’t even come here unless you want to save the game.

Elan’s Tomb
The undead creatures are tough so stay alert during battle. HotG and Sharpshoot complement each other well here (mixture of MX and NX creatures). Get the stone at the end of the passage.
Now walk through Shifting Sands (skip it) and Saline to The Mana Tidebreak.

The Mana Tidebreak
This area has the same creatures as the Shifting Sands (see above)

The Veroonai Enclave
Talk to Tza Tze and fight him. Recharge with Peter when he’s NX and recharge with Matthieu when he’s MX. Or don’t even bother; HotG and Sharpshoot until he cries uncle.

Granael’s Pedestal
Not since Gigliana’s Border in World 3 has any battle been easier. At the end of the fight, the poor beast finally intensifies its feeble attacks but at that point, it’s already all over. Take the stone.
Note: after you kill Granael, beetles will annoy you in all desert battles. They’re not particularly tough but they make Sharpshoot completely ineffective. That’s why you killed Granael last. Head back to Saline through Shifting Sands (skip the battles).

Saline (again)
Buy two Crusader Full Metal Jackets and give one to Peter. Also equip him with the Pearl Talisman of Heart. Walk to the station and take the train.

Stone Circle
After the cutscene you have to fight with Peter alone against two guards. They’re quite tough but with the armor and talisman you should have no difficulties.

Arcane Library
Give the Pearl Talisman back to Matthieu. Use Silver Bullet on the magic-immune Familiars. You can gain 1 extra skill point by reading a book in the library. You can also buy Mist-Wisened Gray Coats here (a good armor that doesn’t slow you down).

The Sanctum of Dust
This is the hardest boss battle in the game but it’s manageable. By now, you should be at just about skill level 30 in Sharpshoot, Party Heal and HotG. Start by taking out the Familiar in front of the mage with Sharpshoot and Silver Bullet. Then switch to HotG and keep firing until the mage’s health goes down to 1000. While he recovers back to health 4000+, you can recover fully too (recharge with Peter and Matthieu; keep healing with Zepher). Round 2 is just the same as round 1. Keep rotating your characters as they fire at the mage and finally kill him.

Total time to finish World 4: 35-40 minutes.

5. Clarke’s Tower

Clarke’s Tower Lobby
When you arrive here you get approx. 5 skill points for each character. Use them to reach 30 in Sharpshoot/Party Heal/HotG if you aren’t at that level already. Any additional points from now on should go to Health (you need good health to survive the laser attacks comfortably.) Talk to Jeeves in the lobby to get the Crafted Golden Rifle for Peter. The laser guys seem tough but as long as your health is 120+, they’re not a problem, even if you’re fighting two of them at the same time. Use Magic Bullet against the Riot Troopers and Sharpshoot for the rest. HotG is good for everything.

Elevator 16
When the gunship moves away, recharge with Peter and Matthieu. With Zepher, use your judgment whether to recharge or keep healing (if your health is low, keep healing). You don’t need to destroy the gunship; you just need to survive for 90 seconds and that’s extremely easy because the gunship can’t keep up with your heal rate.

Prototype Development Wing
Use the same fighting tactics as in the lobby. The beam that comes down from the top is more of an inconvenience than a difficulty. It exchanges health for mana and vice versa. Always rotate Zepher into the beam. Like that he’ll keep shifting between high health / low mana and low health / high mana. Should Zepher get knocked out, you can use the beam to revive him.

Assembly Room
The final battle, and it’s one of the easiest (you are virtually invincible now).
Stage 1: A metal case goes up and down. When it’s up, use Sharpshoot and HotG. When it’s down, recharge with Peter but keep firing with Matthieu.
Stage2: You’re getting fired at with missiles. Make sure that the vertical missiles aren’t hitting Zepher. When horizontal missiles fly at you, temporarily switch Peter to Rifle Attack to blow them up. Then take a few Sharpshots until the next missile comes. Use HotG all the way through.
Stage 3: You can fire at will but you’re also getting hit by some pretty powerful energy bolts. Those will eventually take down your health but you’ll win long before reaching any kind of real danger level.

Note: if you reach a low level of health at any time during the battle (I’m not exactly sure what the trigger level is), Tza Tze comes and puts himself in front of you as a shield. Use that time to heal / recharge or just keep on firing. You’ll most likely win before Tza Tze even needs to intervene.

Total time to finish World 5: 20-25 minutes.

Total time to finish the game: approx. 2.5 hours (combat speed set to high and all cutscenes / dialogues skipped).

( Archived from the Natomic forums )

Mr Nobody

Here is a skills guide for everyone. please read it

Character Skills:
Damage Per 100sec is Calculated with level 31, 30 skill points and with no mana recharge stops.

Rifleman skills *all skills calculated with 15 damage base damage rifle.

Rifle Attack | Direct Normal Attack
It Fires as Single Bullet at the nearest Enemy. This attack is also speed fire's damage per bullet.
Damage Per 100sec: 2625
Pros: Doesn't require mana. Fast cooldown time. Cons: Weak.
Verdict: NEVER use this attack

Recover | Self Healing
Heals the user.
Healing Per 100sec (Calculated with Max cooldown time. Sorry!): Peter:389 Edward:490 Samuel:545
Pros: Heals a lot. A skill that's worth to develop on. Cons: None?
Verdict: You should invest some skills points in this in late stages

Speed Fire | Direct Normal Attack
It Fires three bullets at the nearest enemy.
Damage Per 100sec (30 skills points on Rifle Attack): Peter: 4531 Edward:4315 Samuel:4531
Pros: Fast cooldown time. Cons: looks weak but isn't
Verdict: Good Attack.

Sharpshoot | Direct Normal Attack
Fires a single powerful buller
Damage Per 100sec: Peter: 3629 Edward: 3212 Samuel: 2796
Pros: Good against Large monsters. Strong Bullet. Powerful with decreased cooldown time. Cons: SLOW!!! Cooldown time. Very bad Overall Damage! Sorry Sharpshoot lovers!
Verdict: why do people like this?

Magic Bullet | Direct Magic Attack
Fires a magical bullet
Damage Per 100sec: Peter: 4696 Edward: 3607 Samuel: 4142
Pros: Fairly good in attack. Cons: Can't think of any.
Verdict: If you have peter, Use it.

Power Shot | Area Normal Attack
Fires a shot that goes through all enemies
Damage Per 100sec (attack on three enemies): Peter: 9122 Edward: 9979 Samuel: 9122
Pros: EXTREMELY POWERFUL! When against three enemies. Has competition with sharpshoot against one enemy. Puts Sharpshoot to shame. Cons: Weaker against one enemy. Does 66% damage to large monsters.
Verdict: USE USE USE!

Dynamite | Indirect Energy Attack
Explodes and showers your enemies with fire.
Damage Per 100sec: Peter: 6857 Edward: 7682 Samuel: 6158
Pros: Does lots of Damage. Puts Sharpshoot to even more shame. Cons: Uses up 2 mana.
Verdict: Use it if you have Edward.

Lasoo | Direct Normal Stun
Traps the nearest enemy preventing them from taking action
Secs of trapping Per 100sec: Peter: 595 Edward: 685 Samuel: 782
Pros: Very useful. Cons: do you expect a battle to last 10 minutes?
Verdict: Good to use some skill points on it. But not all

Mage skills

Chain magic | Direct Magic attack
Fires three magical blast at the nearest enemy.
Damage Per 100sec: Clara: 4166. With incandescent talisman of magic mystery:5555
Pippa: 4245 With talisman: 6976 Eisfford: 4245 With talisman: 6976
Pros: Fairly good. Very good with the talisman. Cons: Do you know any?
Verdict: Pow! Pow! Pow!

Kinetic Shield | Normal Defense
Raises a shield that protects the party form normal attacks
Absorbency Per 100sec: 1153
Pros: absorbs a LOT of damage Cons:What else do you expect from a perfectly sturdy shield?
Verdict: you can use it as a main skill if you want

Magic Shield | Magic Defense
Raise a shield that protects the party from magic attacks
Absorbency Per 100sec: Clara: 1153 Pippa: 1288 Eisfford: 1000
Pros: absorbs a LOT of damage Cons: YOU THINK OF SOMETHING!
Verdict: Same as Kinetic shield

Rock Rain | Area Normal Attack
Throw three rocks a enemies
Damage Per 100sec (all rocks hitting): Clara: 8980 Pippa: 7884 Eisfford: 7134
Pros: Powerful! If all rocks hit Cons: Misses (still powerful with at least 2 rocks hitting). Does 66% damage to larger monsters.
Verdict: Good but not so good. Good, but not good. What is it?

Celestial Lighting | direct normal attack
Strikes the nearest enemy with a zap of lighting
Damage per 100sec: Clara: 3333 Pippa: 3894 Eisfford: 4456
Pros: None Cons: Average Damage
Verdict: NEVER USE IT!

Rainbow | Indirect Magic Attack
Sends down a ray of rainbow light at a random enemy
Damage per 100sec (with no splash damage): Clara: 3528 With blurred talisman of the spectrum: 5292 Pippa: 4735 With talisman:7103 Eisfford: 4132 With talisman: 6198
Pros: Does splash Damage, Fairly good attack. Cons: Any at all?
Verdict: WOW! Too GOOD to waste.

Kinetic Smash | Direct Normal Attack
Sends a whirlwind of rocks at the nearest enemy
Damage per 100sec: Clara: 5371 Pippa: 4928 Eissford: 6285
Pros: Outstanding!!! Damage (compared to the others...) Cons: uses two mana.
Verdict: An OK Attack

Life Drain | Direct Ethereal Attack
Raises ward to protect party before raising the spirit of death to drain life from the nearest enemy.
Damage per 100sec: Clara: 6781 Pippa: 4484 Eissford: 5687
Pros: Outstanding as well. When finished with enemy and hasn't used up all the damage, moves on to the next enemy Cons: None at all.
Verdict: On Par with Kinetic Smash

Priest Skills
Rifle Attack
*look at Rifleman Skills

Party Heal | Other Healing
Heals all except caster
Healing per 100sec: Clementas: 516 Zepher: 612 Matthieu: 596
Pros: Heals a lot. Cons: None
Verdict: A good skill if you want to win the game fast

Party Recharge | Other Man Recharging
Recharges 1 mana to all except caster
Pros: Recharges mana! Cons: Wastes time Recharging mana!
Verdict: why waste skill points improving the cooldown time of party recharge?

Party Bless | Party Strength Improver
Raise the level of the party
Level raised with time of lasting per 100sec of casting: Clementas: +37lvl 308sec Zepher:+49lvl 308 sec Matthieu:+43lvl 308sec
Pros: Improves damage by a lot Cons: None
Verdict: A skill worth spending on

Holy Bolt | Direct Energy Attack
Launches to projectiles at the nearest enemy
Damage Per 100sec: Clementas: 4800 Zepher: 3600 Matthieu: 4133
Pros: Fast Reload time. Does extra damage to Undead creatures. Cons: Average attack
Verdict: This is quite a good attack

Silver Bullet | Direct Normal Attack
Shoots a bullet that strike the nearest enemy
Damage Per 100sec: Clementas: 4413 Zepher: 3896 Matthieu: 3637
Pros: Does extra damage to UD creatures Cons: Average Attack
Verdict: Not any better than holy bolt

Spook Summon | indirect Energy Attack/ Healing
Heals a low health party member or attacks
Damage Per 100sec: 1837
Pros: Does good damage over some time. Can Heal Cons:None at all.
Verdict: it is used best when summoned then use a different attack twice then go back to summoning

Hand of the Gods (or HotG and some people like) | Indirect Magic attack
Strikes an enemy with a powerful ray of light
Damage per 100sec: Clementas: 6646 Zepher: 5142 Matthieu: 7630
Pros: Very Strong. Very rarely strikes a magical immune enemy Cons: uses two mana
Verdict: Strong. A must have

Best Rifleman Attack:
*Power Shot or
*Dynamite

Best Mage Attack
*Rock Rain or
*Chain Magic

Best Priest Attack
*Obviously HotG

Best Attacks For:
Clara: Life Drain
Pippa: Rainbow
Eisfford: Kinetic Smash
Peter: Power shot
Edward: Power shot
Samuel: Power shot
Clementas: HotG
Zepher: HotG
Matthieu: HotG

If something is wrong please tell me.

please put in the stats for RECHARGE

:roll: im too lazy to do that myself :roll:

I think, even with TSE being "archaic", it really ought to be said somewhere in this topic that the guide is wrong because it overlooks a huge factor: Not every enemy takes the printed damage from every attack. In fact, most don't. Enemies throughout most of the game hack modifiers on the damage they take from every hit, which are sometimes positive but more often negative (and moreover, the negative ones make a bigger difference). If a monster has, say, physical -30 energy -30 magic -30, every hit it takes is reduced by 30. That means sharpshoot loses 30 damage every three rounds, magic bullet loses 30 damage every two rounds, speedfire loses 90 damage every two rounds (45 per round) and dynamite loses 120 damage every three rounds (40 per round). 30's pretty tame compared to some of the armor you'll be seeing in this game though--some of the later normal enemies have stuff like energy -45 and magic -90, and that's not even counting the bosses. The final boss's second form has physical -125, energy -125 and magic -90, meaning if you chose all your skills on the basis of flat DPS and thus had a party running, say, speed fire, chain magic/rock rain and holy bolt, you'd be almost incapable of scratching its paint. One multi-hit skill in your party will make some areas easier, like Elan's Tomb (if memory serves, it had a lot of people weak to normal and energy damage), but you need at least one if not two skills that hit very hard with one blow, like sharpshoot or kinetic smash, or at the very least one-hit-per-two-rounds skills like magic bullet, silver bullet or celestial lightning.

Also important to remember some monsters (and bosses) are immune to some damage types. Beating the game REQUIRES at least one physical and either one magical attack or one energy attack plus drain life, and there'll be at least one entire late-game area and many bosses (including the final) where you can't use drain life at all.

Finally, it's important to note that Mr Nobody's statistics are COMPLETELY meaningless, because he does not include recharging in his analysis. This is simply not meaningful late in the game. Many battles against regular enemies will be over before you need to recharge (at least if you're not using the 2-mana skills), but all boss battles and most other difficult battles in the second half of the game will require recharging, at which point the two-mana skills (and recover/speedfire to a lesser degree) will be significantly hampered, sharpshoot will be significantly boosted, and most skills will simply have their efficiency cut more or less in half.

What the max lvl?

When do you plan to release a demo? As much as I enjoyed the original, it isn't easy to have a meaningful discussion about the sequel with nothing more than screenshots to go on...

Hi there!

I don't plan on releasing a demo in the immediate future. With the completion of the game probably at least a year away I don't want to release too much material too soon and then struggle to follow up on it. A playable demo tends to be the final peak of the standard pre-release information tease for any game and I would also want it to be fully representative of the product, which it will not be at this stage. There will definately be a demo out some time shortly before the game is released though.

I plan to update the site itself with more material as time goes by. If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask. I may assemble an FAQ at some point or add answers to the Info section.

Have you made the jump to MMF2 yet? I expect you had quite a lot done already when it came out so it's probably not worth converting it all. Have you had a go? What do you think?

The screenshots are looking great by the way, the graphics are so much more crisp without the outlines, and the environments so much more detailed. Do you not find you're getting better as you get further on in the game so is it hard to keep the style constant?

It's funny really, as one of the features on the blog I was going to do amusing DS mockups for games that lend itself to the system (although obviously just a complete pipe dream), and I was gonna start with The Spirit Engine because it's almost perfect for it.

Good luck anyway.

(BTW, the old games archive page doesn't work :S)

Hi Jimbob! Thanks for the link on Klik-Me.

My current expectations are that I will not migrate TSE-2 to MMF2. I figure that at this point I am better off sticking with the devil I know. :twisted: I have gotten used to all of MMF 1.5's annoying little quirks, and I don't really want to go through the trouble of finding a whole load of new ones for MMF2 the hard way.
I haven't been able to try migrating the game yet, even using the MMF2 demo, as a number of the extensions that I used ( most notably Control X and Modfusion ) have not been converted last time I checked. So long as MMF 1.5 executables continue to work properly in Vista, I will stick with it. I would love to have alpha-blending on active objects, but I can live without it.

I'm glad that you're liking the new graphics! They're turning out to be the most time-consuming aspect of development. I have had some trouble with improving skill over time, but it's not been as bad as the first game, where I had to work to cover up the stylistic and skill differences between the graphics in the first and 4th/5th chapters.

This time around I spent a great deal of time getting the male and female human templates for characters as close to what I felt was perfect for the size whilst I was in the planning stages, and that has really paid off. I have found myself going back and spending some time correcting art which I had basically gotten lazy with and abandoned too early - a lot of the chapter 1 graphics and main character animations. I'm sure I'll have a lot more to retouch before I'm done. The character conversation portraits are an ongoing nightmare of revision. I should have made them smaller and lit them from the near side to save effort, but I've got to finish what I started now. ;_;

I'm sad to admit that I've never touched a DS. :( Are those the ones with the touch-pen and screen? I keep hearing a lot about indy development for them. Somehow I doubt they run Windows. It is a certainly a lovely pipe-dream though, and seeing some fantasy mockups would be cool. What other games did you have in mind? Was it mainly klik & indy stuff?

Is it http://thespiritengine.com/bunker.html that you were unable to get working? It's ok for me here but I'm not sure just how reliable my host is. Shockingly, all of the file links seem to work right now too. ^_^

Thanks again.

Aha, it's just the front page news link that's wrong... (it links to a non-existant /MMFBunker folder) just checked out the links page for the proper link.

As for the DS games, yes, I was just going to mock-up Klik/related games that would lend themselves to the dual-screen touchscreen format. It's a shame you haven't picked one up yet, it's quite a surprise. After TSE, something like DeliDash (click and drag the plates to spin them around) would probably be next...

Hopefully you'll enjoy the new direction of the Klik-Me page, I'm quite enjoying just writing now, and developing games from a completely different context other than 'let's make something like (blah)!'.

Again good luck with it, I think my art skills are improving a lot, I'm just waiting for the time to actually plan out my magnum opus... :P

I like that both of the games you mentioned feature my music. Just kidding ^_^

Anyway, you have some interesting ideas jimbob. :D

Fixed the frontpage link, thanks.

I'm looking forward to the new Klik-Me and I'm curious to see what direction you'll take it in. ( articles? news? reviews? a bit of everything? ) I miss serious discussion of the Klik scene. I really freaking miss #k&p not being a wasteland. I even remember when we used to regularly have 4+ members of Natomic on our own IRC channel at a time. If people are have interesting conversations anywhere, it's no place that I know about. :(
It all seems so dead right now, with only Acoders and a couple of Natomic and ex FAIND members working ( quietly ) on anything interesting or ambitious. There's no convention either this year. Hopefully things will pick up in the future.

I'd love a DS to play with but, cash problems right now. :( I gotta warn you against magnum opii ( what is the plural of opus anyway? ) They're only for crazy people with way too much spare time. ^_^

Opus * 2 = Opi. (:

that seems to sound almost exactly like the Japanese word for breasts, "oppai" pronounced "oh-pie".

yeah, anyway, hi there.

I'm back! Just had an insane six day camping trip basically in the middle of nowhere, which was both mind-blowing and completely inspiring...

The blog will be hopefully a bit of everything, the news mainly a quick stream of bulletins as an aside to proper discussion of a particular topic or articles that will make up most of the site. Initially I want to start out on my own because I don't know anybody who kinda thinks like me and I don't know if it'll work at all. But it's no skin off my back if it doesn't, I'm spending any more money than I am at the moment on webspace.

I don't want to make a completely review/news site because there are places like TIGSource and GameHippo and even the remade TK for that...plus I never liked writing normal reviews anyway. I'd prefer to actually point out in a discussion the choices that people make during development that basically effect the outcome of the final game, be it specific to a particular game, or to everything in general. Hopefully it will become apparent when things start being posted (which will be soon, I hope :P).

As for my magnum opus, I am probably going to wait a long while. Jon may be coding an engine right now which will make things more a case of creating content than trying to make features work (i.e. make my job easier) but I'm holding my breath till next July when I will be at the end of my third year, back in the UK (I'm in NZ at the mo) and have the summer free (i.e. I will have no money).

Man, sometimes I have so many things buzzing in my head it feels good to burp it all out somewhere... this Klik-Me blog thinger is a result of that I guess :D

Welcome Zomby138 :D

It's good to hear that your camping trip went well Jimbob. It's nice to get away! I consider myself fortunate to live in a quiet place by the sea - we basically have nowhere in 3 out of 4 directions, so a fellow doesn't have to walk far to find it. It's not exactly the *middle* of nowhere per se, but you can pretend that there isn't somewhere behind you, I guess. :)

I haven't gone camping in ages. I kinda miss it. Campfires are great! Campfire cooking is not-so-great. Did you have any fun with creepy crawlies visiting you in the night?

I like the sounds of your plans for the blog ( I read someplace you were thinking of keeping Klik-Me as the name. Seems sensible to me. ) I usually lurk on most of the sites that I visit, but I'll try and contribute to the comments when it gets going.

Heh, it's just the start of spring here so the sandflies weren't out in force (only baby ones), but I still managed to get a few mosquito bites. The food wasn't too bad, but there's only so much you can do with pasta and tins of tuna :P.

You can check out how the blog is looking here ( http://klik.jrnetwork.co.uk ) although the MySQL server is under maintenance at the time of writing so it might not work for a little while. Hopefully the new clean look will inspire a few more visitors... still looking for a header graphic as well as some more little graphical flourishes :) but the rest is looking pretty sweet so far.

Darn, I should have replied to this earlier sorry. The site was down when I tried last week. Looks good! Is it running off the Klik-Me database? ( posts seem identical, which is a good thing ) The far background is a bit weak - looks like it has been hit with a blur filter ( I've still not found a use for blur filters except for making things look ugly ^_^ )

It looks a lot nicer and cleaner than Klik-Me. I hope you make the switch soon, if for no other reason than that the klik-me url is easier to remember. ;)

Haha cheers, the background was a placeholder, because I don't want a plain background but I've no idea what to put there. I am basically copying what I've got over at Klik-Me and just pasting it directly into Wordpress which works fine (I've got much more control over image placement as well now).

After I finalise the frontpage design and have some sort of graphic for both title and background that I'm happy with, I'll get to try and change the url (although that would mean either finding Jannis or Rapidflash, both of whom seem to be AWOL). Plus I've got a couple of articles to finish off to post when I do make the big change.

Cheers for the comment.

I was going to TIGSource this, but with the release of the game so far off; I've decided to wait until I hear from you, I don't want to prematurely peak your popularity (Advent Rising anyone?).

So yes, you've got a plug on TIGSource waiting for you; just let me know when you want it.

Hi Shabadage. Thanks a lot for dropping me a message before posting on TIGSource. With the release date so distant and uncertain I want to try and avoid widespread publicising and hyping until I am close to delivering on any promises. I certainly don't want an angry and impatient mob baying for blood in 3 months time when the game still isn't released. ^_^ My current priority for the moment is just letting people interested in the first game know that TSE-2 still exists, development is going well, if a little slow, and that it will be finished.

So I think my feeling right now is that I would prefer not to actively promote in the general indy scene yet. I will certainly take you up on your offer some time in the future though, thanks!

Sorry for the vague title.

Anyway, I played and beat TSE1 a long time ago -probably a few months after it was first released - and I just came across it again and started playing.

I'm hooked once more. D:

So yeah, of course I'm going to consider buying TSE2... provided it's not $50+ or something.

Okay... moving on... I've got a few questions, or something, about this upcoming game:

1) Do you have a price range in mind for the game? As in, what's the highest or lowest you'll go?

2) Will any TSE1 characters make cameos or be playable?

Thanks in advance.

Hi Rallard. :D Glad you're still enjoying TSE-1.

On the subject of price for TSE-2, my initial thought was around the $15 mark - a similar price to the budget PC games I often buy on impulse in stores here in the UK. I don't have any set range in mind right now. I haven't made an investigation of the prices charged by other independent developers online, particularly in the ( IMO all too sparse ) RPG genre. I will give the matter more serious attention once I have a basically finished product to assess, and fewer immediate concerns.

None of the characters from the first game will be playable in the second. One NPC will make a fun cameo about half way through. Aside from that, the two games share no others parts of their world or cast.

Thanks for your questions, I hope that helped.

are you gunna like, send it to people on CD ? or have it so you pay then download it or something?

Most distribution services that I have seen allow both as an option to customers.

forgive reviving the thread, but what can we expect as to whats new? No spoilers, but things like skills, classes, drastic changes to the way the game is played, things that could be revealed without taking the excitement and anticipation of the game away, other than the screenshots?

And please...dont take away Life Drain...that was IMO the coolest skill ever (not the best, thats reserved for party heal)

"And please...dont take away Life Drain...that was IMO the coolest skill ever "

Yeah, my words!

As long as it was internet Pay, i would happily pay between $8 - $15 AU for something like TSE2, i dont know what that translates to.

I have attempted to play TSE multiple times, as it is rather good in plot and graphics, but there always seems to be an error that crashes the program about an hour after execution. I've found the most common point where this error occurs is after a battle, at the victory screen. When you click to continue, the program will sometimes crash (And I've found it crashes more often if you click before 4+ seconds after the victory music has ended). Other places I have experienced the bug is after 4+ seconds on the victory screen, before cutscenes start (activation of cutscenes?), and just walking around maps with enemies. I have tried this game on multiple computers (all running WinXP and rather high-end), and the same error occurs.
The actual error reads something like: program referenced address XXXXXXX:XXXXXXXX, memory could not be read. I'll play for an hour and find the actual error so I can post it.
Hopefully this isn't a native MMF1.5 error that causes the same problem in TSE2.
It's a good game, but if this problem isn't fixed I can't see myself being able to play through it, or purchasing the sequel.

Other concerns:
The scrolling seems to force the window to center based on the upper-left pixel of the [what I assume is] 640*480 screen. This means that if the window is resized, at any scrolling cutscene the window returns to this location (the initial location of the UL pixel). I have had this force the window into the bottom-right of the desktop - and off screen. It sounds like the error would lie in MMF1.5, though. Perhaps you can disable the resize controls on the edge of the window, or maximize the screen initially?

---I'll work on getting the exact output of the error.---

- blindvisionary

My new laptop displays this different message:

Multimedia Fusion Stand Alone Application has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

The error report is as follows:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-16"?>
<DATABASE>
<EXE NAME="The Spirit Engine.exe" FILTER="GRABMI_FILTER_PRIVACY">
<MATCHING_FILE NAME="cncs232.dll" SIZE="285696" CHECKSUM="0xF22528C9" BIN_FILE_VERSION="2.5.109.0" BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="2.5.109.0" PRODUCT_VERSION="2;5;109;0" FILE_DESCRIPTION="Multimedia Fusion Runtime Library" COMPANY_NAME="Clickteam" FILE_VERSION="2.5.109.0" INTERNAL_NAME="CNCS232" LEGAL_COPYRIGHT="Copyright ? 1996-2002 Clickteam" VERFILEDATEHI="0x0" VERFILEDATELO="0x0" VERFILEOS="0x4" VERFILETYPE="0x2" MODULE_TYPE="WIN32" PE_CHECKSUM="0x0" LINKER_VERSION="0x0" UPTO_BIN_FILE_VERSION="2.5.109.0" UPTO_BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="2.5.109.0" LINK_DATE="07/11/2002 11:57:08" UPTO_LINK_DATE="07/11/2002 11:57:08" VER_LANGUAGE="English (United States) [0x409]" />
<MATCHING_FILE NAME="The Spirit Engine.exe" SIZE="27310685" CHECKSUM="0x36AD2C42" BIN_FILE_VERSION="2.5.111.0" BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="2.5.111.0" FILE_DESCRIPTION="Multimedia Fusion Stand Alone Application" COMPANY_NAME="Clickteam" FILE_VERSION="2.5.111.0" ORIGINAL_FILENAME="cncrt32.exe" INTERNAL_NAME="CNCRT32.EXE" LEGAL_COPYRIGHT="Copyright ? 1996-2002 Clickteam" VERFILEDATEHI="0x0" VERFILEDATELO="0x0" VERFILEOS="0x10001" VERFILETYPE="0x1" MODULE_TYPE="WIN32" PE_CHECKSUM="0x0" LINKER_VERSION="0x0" UPTO_BIN_FILE_VERSION="2.5.111.0" UPTO_BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="2.5.111.0" LINK_DATE="10/31/2002 07:40:46" UPTO_LINK_DATE="10/31/2002 07:40:46" VER_LANGUAGE="English (United States) [0x409]" />
<MATCHING_FILE NAME="The Spiritual Compendium.exe" SIZE="1051734" CHECKSUM="0x36AD2C42" BIN_FILE_VERSION="2.5.111.0" BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="2.5.111.0" FILE_DESCRIPTION="Multimedia Fusion Stand Alone Application" COMPANY_NAME="Clickteam" FILE_VERSION="2.5.111.0" ORIGINAL_FILENAME="cncrt32.exe" INTERNAL_NAME="CNCRT32.EXE" LEGAL_COPYRIGHT="Copyright ? 1996-2002 Clickteam" VERFILEDATEHI="0x0" VERFILEDATELO="0x0" VERFILEOS="0x10001" VERFILETYPE="0x1" MODULE_TYPE="WIN32" PE_CHECKSUM="0x0" LINKER_VERSION="0x0" UPTO_BIN_FILE_VERSION="2.5.111.0" UPTO_BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="2.5.111.0" LINK_DATE="10/31/2002 07:40:46" UPTO_LINK_DATE="10/31/2002 07:40:46" VER_LANGUAGE="English (United States) [0x409]" />
<MATCHING_FILE NAME="TSE103exe.exe" SIZE="40509462" CHECKSUM="0x30E82351" BIN_FILE_VERSION="2.0.0.19" BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="2.0.0.19" PRODUCT_VERSION="2, 0, 0, 19" FILE_DESCRIPTION="" COMPANY_NAME="" PRODUCT_NAME="The Spirit Engine Install Program" FILE_VERSION="2, 0, 0, 19" ORIGINAL_FILENAME="" INTERNAL_NAME="" LEGAL_COPYRIGHT="" VERFILEDATEHI="0x0" VERFILEDATELO="0x0" VERFILEOS="0x40004" VERFILETYPE="0x1" MODULE_TYPE="WIN32" PE_CHECKSUM="0x0" LINKER_VERSION="0x0" UPTO_BIN_FILE_VERSION="2.0.0.19" UPTO_BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="2.0.0.19" LINK_DATE="10/14/2003 07:48:43" UPTO_LINK_DATE="10/14/2003 07:48:43" VER_LANGUAGE="English (United States) [0x409]" />
<MATCHING_FILE NAME="Uninstal.exe" SIZE="74781" CHECKSUM="0x79A2195D" MODULE_TYPE="WIN32" PE_CHECKSUM="0x0" LINKER_VERSION="0x0" LINK_DATE="10/14/2003 07:45:14" UPTO_LINK_DATE="10/14/2003 07:45:14" />
</EXE>
<EXE NAME="ModFusion.COX" FILTER="GRABMI_FILTER_THISFILEONLY">
<MATCHING_FILE NAME="ModFusion.cox" SIZE="149506" CHECKSUM="0xFA10048D" BIN_FILE_VERSION="1.0.0.0" BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="1.0.0.0" PRODUCT_VERSION="1, 0, 0, 0" FILE_DESCRIPTION="ModFusion" COMPANY_NAME="Syntesis Entertainment" PRODUCT_NAME="" FILE_VERSION="2.00" ORIGINAL_FILENAME="ModFusion.cox" INTERNAL_NAME="MODFUSION" LEGAL_COPYRIGHT="Copyright ? 2003 Josh Whelchel" VERFILEDATEHI="0x0" VERFILEDATELO="0x0" VERFILEOS="0x10001" VERFILETYPE="0x1" MODULE_TYPE="WIN32" PE_CHECKSUM="0x29ACC" LINKER_VERSION="0x0" UPTO_BIN_FILE_VERSION="1.0.0.0" UPTO_BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="1.0.0.0" LINK_DATE="11/22/2003 23:33:04" UPTO_LINK_DATE="11/22/2003 23:33:04" VER_LANGUAGE="English (United States) [0x409]" />
</EXE>
<EXE NAME="kernel32.dll" FILTER="GRABMI_FILTER_THISFILEONLY">
<MATCHING_FILE NAME="kernel32.dll" SIZE="984064" CHECKSUM="0xF12E1D4A" BIN_FILE_VERSION="5.1.2600.2945" BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="5.1.2600.2945" PRODUCT_VERSION="5.1.2600.2945" FILE_DESCRIPTION="Windows NT BASE API Client DLL" COMPANY_NAME="Microsoft Corporation" PRODUCT_NAME="Microsoft? Windows? Operating System" FILE_VERSION="5.1.2600.2945 (xpsp_sp2_gdr.060704-2349)" ORIGINAL_FILENAME="kernel32" INTERNAL_NAME="kernel32" LEGAL_COPYRIGHT="? Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved." VERFILEDATEHI="0x0" VERFILEDATELO="0x0" VERFILEOS="0x40004" VERFILETYPE="0x2" MODULE_TYPE="WIN32" PE_CHECKSUM="0xF724D" LINKER_VERSION="0x50001" UPTO_BIN_FILE_VERSION="5.1.2600.2945" UPTO_BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="5.1.2600.2945" LINK_DATE="07/05/2006 10:55:00" UPTO_LINK_DATE="07/05/2006 10:55:00" VER_LANGUAGE="English (United States) [0x409]" />
</EXE>
</DATABASE>


---You might want to copy that into Notepad so it's easier to read---
Unfortunately, the rest of the report is modules/hex values that have disabled copy/paste, and as it would take me years to type it out manually, I am not going to. If you need certain information from the report, I could type that up for you.

-blindvisionary

Do you have the latest patch for the game?
I do recall there being some crashing issues with the first version of the game, but I thought they were all rectified with the patch.

The patch is an upgrade from older versions, correct? I just downloaded the game a couple of days ago. It's the latest version, 1.03.

The latest version is actually 104, if you look at the downloads section there is a patch download. Because the main game download is so large, I think Mark has to rely on whatever version people have hosted and then patch it up. It's only a small download though, hopefully it'll help.

Thanks for reporting the problems. 104 patched only the Magenik fault, so although I would recommend downloading it anyway, it won't help with crashes. Jimbob is right that I have to rely on externally hosted versions for the large main file ( 103 ), but can supply the much smaller 103->104 patch myself.

I believe it was 103 that contained the update to Modfusion ( the music extension ), which solved some previous crash issues. It is possible that it is continuing to cause some, or it could be something else within MMF. I believe that Josh has discontinued that version, and TSE-2 is currently using Modfusion Ex, which in turn is likely to be phased out as Josh wants to switch the soundtrack away from mod based.
One of the downsides to using so many code libraries like MMF and its extensions is that, unfortunately, when a problem arises in one of them there is little that you can do to resolve the matter. I'm not sure how useful that error message is as it seems to basically be a list of programs referenced by the TSE main executable.
Basic MMF 1.5 executables tend to run without problem on a wide range of PCs, although once you've been using it for long enough, you tend to pick up some fun ways of making it crash as programmer. ;) Thankfully reports of crashes with TSE seem to have been in a small minority, but they are still there. It is unusual for it to fail on several computers, unless they have some common configuration. Corrupted files and/or interferring malware are a possibility.

The scrolling issue is an odd one. I have dug up the source file from my old computer ( yuck, it's so painful to look at the terrible old graphics and code. :( )and there is nothing in there that explicitly sets the position of the window. The unusual window size ( 490x400 ) may have some effect, but I expect it to be the work of gremlins in the underlying code / extensions. Without conducting some trial and error exercises on an affected machine I am not sure how else to narrow down the cause. If you're interested, I can try recompiling a version of build 104 without music ( painful, but perhaps worth a try ) for you to test and see intially whether the old music extension is still causing any crashes.

Unfortunately, all of the real information is in the section that is disabled from copy/paste. There's nothing I can really do to send you that.

I think that the crashing problem is definitely one involving the music, as the program will only crash where music changes, but only when other scripts are running at the same time (eg. at the end of the Blob level, a script must remove the blob at the same time music changes, and the game crashes almost every time at this point.). Malware is not the reason, as the current computer I ran it on was brand new only days ago, and I have not done anything that would expose it to malware. The two computers that TSE was run on are not similar in any way (different brands and hardware), other than that they are both running WinXP. If you could compile 104 without music, I would be willing to test it. I have a feeling that Modfusion is at the heart of the problem.

Thanks for agreeing to help hunt down to source of the crash. Much as it hurts ( :( ), I have stripped the music out of 104 and uploaded the executable to [url]http://www.thespiritengine.com/Files/TSEBuild0615musicstrip.exe.

I know what you mean. Music is an important part of any game.
I have the file now, so you can remove the link. I'm going to play for a while and see if I encounter the same error.

Unfortunately, it seems to be the fault of the music extension. I played through some of the places where the game had the most difficulty, and tried everything I could to crash TSE, but it didn't.
And by the way, the scrolling problem occurred on both machines, as well. I don't know if I made that apparent.
---After mentioning the scrolling error, I decided to test it on the new patch. Interestingly enough, the problem did not occur, no matter how much I provoked it (resizing the window, changing screen resolution). It appears Modfusion is responsible for this issue as well, though I don't understand how that could be possible.---

That is good news. Thanks for testing it. The change in the scrolling issue may be the result of compiling the game in a more recent version of MMF 1.5. When I first compiled TSE, Windows XP was relatively new.

What I can do now is set aside some time at the weekend and try to replace Modfusion with Modfusion Ex, which will be a very time consuming and dull task, but hopefully worth it. :D

It makes more sense that MMF would be the cause of the scrolling error. Fortunately, it seems they fixed it.
Hopefully Modfusion eX will be more stable on my computer.

Just an update to let you know that I'm still working on this, but it's taking longer than I had hoped, and I was a bit busy this weekend. The commands don't translate one-to-one from modfusion to modfusion ex, plus without any global code I have to make the fix 90 times. On top of this, MMF actually crashed while I was editing, something I haven't had it do for 2 years whilst working on TSE-2. Argh. :)

The automatic centering of the window is still hapeneing. Even though it's not that annoying it's a bit painful

I downloaded the patch from 1.03 to 1.04, but I didn't know that there was no music.

Is there any other way to more practically get the music for TSE(I have dial-up :( ; Est. finish time 4:10:17)?

I would appreciate any help,

Thanks

:D

Hi DarkEmperor.
Do you mean that the music has stopped working for you once you installed the 103->104 patch onto the 103 version of the game?

Unfortunately there is no practical way to speed up the download on dialup, unless you are looking for individual files from the installation.

I am likely to be away for a week after posting, so I won't be available to respond to you immediately. Sorry about this.

I am still working on the updated version of the game, but I'm very busy at the moment moving abroad to take up a new job and it will be longer still before I can find time to get back to it. Sorry folks. :(

That's fine.

The music wasn't what got me hooked on The Spirit Engine anyway. :D
Good luck with your new job, I hope it all works out fine for you.

:)

I recently remembered that TSE2 should be coming out soon, and to my surprise is appears the release is four days from now! To top it off, the music issue will be taken care of in the new game, as it's been switched to streaming. Everything I had reservations about has been fixed. I will certainly be one of the first buyers!

Thanks for your support! Plus, the MMF1.5 problems you were experiencing are gone too, we switched to MMF2. There is a one level engine test under the "Setting the Release Date" thread that you might want to have a look at. Let us know if you can break it. (Make sure you get the bottommost link, but I think they're the same?).

Welp it still keeps crashing on me, combined with the dumb saves system (I mean, checkpoints are so 1999) it's getting extremely annoying.

"My new laptop displays this different message:

Multimedia Fusion Stand Alone Application has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience."

I have this same problem now, and it does seem to occur when the music changes. I don't think it is my laptop though, because I seem to remember after a certain point in time my old computer had done this too, even though for a long time at first there had been no such bugs at all. I wonder, though, if iy was maybe caused by MMF upgrading or something and rendering the game unstable (actually, I don't even know if MMF is something used to make the program or something to run it, or how if ever it updates. But I know there didn't used to be a problem, and then there spontaneously was one on the same computer). It's a really frustrating bug, since it strikes at random, usually right after combat and this game encourages only saving occasionally; it renders it more or less unplayable.

Unfortunately, with the state that TSE1 is in, I don't see myself being able to fix this problem. There is perhaps 2 weeks of very tedious work involved with trying to fix and test it and I just don't have that sort of time or patience available for the forseeable future.

I really wish I did, but the code for TSE1 is a horrible mess, and trying to make even the simplest changes is enough to drive you crazy.

Well, I seem to be having the exact same problem.

The error reads...Macromedia fusion standalone application has stopped working.

The message always pops out after battle.I remember when I played the game on my older computer there were no bugs, but now as im playing on the new machine with vista ultimate this problem occurs all the time.

So i tried to download the exe without music but i think the link is broken because that file isnt working for me, it says when run "unable to locate component...CNCS232.dll file is missing"

...so could you re-up the file without music that would work with a vista x64....thanks

Hi psychokiller,

The music-less .exe needs to be placed into the same directory as the main game has already been installed to. This directory should include, among other files, cncs232.dll

Give that a try, and let me know if it still doesn't work.

"Hi psychokiller,

The music-less .exe needs to be placed into the same directory as the main game has already been installed to. This directory should include, among other files, cncs232.dll

Give that a try, and let me know if it still doesn't work."

Yea,I oversaw that,its working just fine now,although to me the music,especially the effects are real irritating,maybe you should have included the mute option,for us that listen to...

Oh,and a question,how in the hell did you end up having the sharpshoot skilled 30 by the time youre in the arcane library,that had to have included some tanking...

"

So i tried to download the exe without music but i think the link is broken because that file isnt working for me, it says when run "unable to locate component...CNCS232.dll file is missing"
"
hi,
You can get cncs232.dll file from the link. This will help you in case of missing or downloading dll.
and will repair it if it's corrupted.

http://www.fix-all-dll-errors.com/cncs232.dll/

Regards.

I wanted to upgrade my TSE (currently 1.01), but it seems like the download links for ALL patches and versions of TSE are down, both on thespiritengine.com and on natomic.com, so what's up with that? Can you please upload to some reliable host, it'd be a nice thing to do :(

I have now mirrored TSEp103to104.exe on my site (I had one of the older patches linked, but I removed it a while ago because I thought it was redundant with the v1.03 download). Can't find the old patch either now, sorry.

Download TSE v1.03 to v1.04 Patch

Hi Axel. Thanks for informing me about this. It's a pain to lose the Hosttycoon link, it's been very helpful up until now. I'll have to go hunting for an alternative free file host. Does anyone have any recommendations?

I have updated the links page with patches from 101to104 and 102to203. The 103to104 patch was a typo on my part on one of the three links in the table that I missed, sorry.
For the moment, I have uploaded TSE installer version 104 to [url]http://www.thespiritengine.com/Files/TSE104.exe. I have to be very careful with the upload because even a handful of downloads via a hotlink from a 'free gamez!' site would be enough to sink this budget hosting plan, cost me a bunch and take this site offline. :(
I'm also working on a version 105 to fix some crash issues with the old version of modfusion, but it's taking me a while. ( better 3 years late than never! )

PS - Thanks for the mirror Jimbob.

Maybe you could share the file via bit torrent. It's fast (if you have a lot of seeds), simple and free.

BT would be nice. Finding reliable seeds might be hard.

There seem to be a lot more free download sites available for this kind of use than there were 3 years ago though. I'm always slightly suspicious of them - they can't be fully paid for by adverts, surely? I'm still waiting for the catch...

Actually there are free web servers like megaupload.com but they have to be downloaded ever so many days or the file is canned i'm currently upload TSE 1.04 there now i will post the link latter again totally free also none of the download links i mean none of them work

Thanks for reminding me about the old Natomic site. I have gotten onto the FTP and changed the relevant links there to point to this site where the download links are working.

Hi here

If you think that this post is offtopic here feel free to remove it
Time to think about halloween :) So I have found some useful links and would like to share it with the community. Just bookmark them

halloween baby
halloween mask
And link about sexy halloween
sexy-halloween-costume

amazing, the pressece of this post truely bewilders me.

Is this the forum's first adbot? What a happy occasion! ( /break out the champagne )

I'll delete it later. ;)

"Is this the forum's first adbot? What a happy occasion! ( /break out the champagne )

I'll delete it later. ;)"

*tense cough*

Because now there are two excellent pixel artists here. :P

http://images.jrnetwork.co.uk/art/pixel/sketch2.gif

Not for any game in particular, but more a character design.
Whaddya think?

Looks great Jimbob. :D Reminds me of Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds, which I seem to remember being good. I'm not sure how well the show would actually stand up to viewing now without the nostalgia goggles on. ( wasn't there a more recent version of the series? )

Anyway, talking animals in period dress = the win. What's the project?

It's a game I've been wanting to make for ages (I think I posted a really bad demo of the first incarnation back on the Natomic forums ages ago - what the hell happened to Andi posting an update? :P) but I'm going to wait until some of my other projects are done and just do little planning bits.

Tis basically a musketeering platformer. I've been reading the original The Three Musketeers recently which it will probably be loosely based around because it's such an awesome book. It's also going to be very ambitious. Which is why Jon and Ste from AC are going to help me out a lot by coding a super fancy (physics included) engine. I can't really say anything more other than it will be the most spectacular platform game you have ever laid eyes on. HAHA.

Hohoho! We have that in writing now Jimbob, you'd better deliver. ;) I've never read the Three Musketeers, but I do think that the 1600s-1800s are a wonderful source of inspiration often left untapped by computer games. Many designers seem to go straight for the pseudo-medieval, ancient or 20th century stuff. I certainly can't think of any platformers set in the period, but I've never been much of a platformer buff. I look forward to seeing what you come up with for it! Will there be simulated swordfighting?

As for Natomic, I have no idea what's going on with it. The only other member that I've been in much contact with is Blake, who is making good progress on Rhapsody. From where I stand, the current site looks like little more than a musty corpse. :(

Yeh, Blake has shown me a little of what he's been up to. It's an incredibly fancy engine, it's a shame it needs so much graphical content to keep it moving along.

I'm basically using my next two games as a springboard to this. The first is my Knights game from the TK forums which will help me to hopefully perfect the basic platform engine to build upon. The second will be a simple puzzle game I started ages ago, Counterbalance, within which I'm hoping to test out a overblown ridiculous storyline with dialogue and simple cutscenes (I think it'd look rather like TSE actually :P but with puzzle levels instead).

After that I guess I'd be a bit more comfortable with the amount of animation and graphics I can forsee being needed (goodness knows how much TSE and TSE2 combined have needed) and start this game proper.

But before even that, I've got 4 university assignments to complete... gah!

Yeah, Rhapsody is soooo slick. The presentation is gorgeous and very professional.

It sounds like you have a very sensible approach to building up your skills and experience before taking on this game. I'm also envious that you have so many projects lined up to work on. A lot of klikkers would kill for just one decent idea that they can stick with. ;)

Good luck with your uni assignments!

hey, sorry it's taken me so long to reply, I?ve had no real internet access for a while. That is one damn nice sprite up there though! really quite high res I must say, bigger than I would personally consider working, the only other sprites I really know of that have been that big are the guilty gear X sprites. The main drawback I've seen of using big sprites seems to be that the animations tend to end up quite stiff, with much copying and pasting from frame to frame, and not so much re-drawing of the guy from frame to frame. because of the high res; the sections of him that stay the same become more obvious than they would have been at a low res *shrugs* I've noticed it among the guilty gear sprites, you might want to bear it in mind or something when trying to animated them.

"
Anyway, talking animals in period dress = the win.

I certainly can't think of any platformers set in the period, but I've never been much of a platformer buff."

what about:

http://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/original/979624231-00.gif

[url]http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/claw/index.html?q=claw

[url]http://www.worldvillage.com/wv/gamezone/html/reviews/claw.htm

[url]http://www.geocities.com/clawjunior/index3.html

[url]http://claw.ben-ts.net/downloads.html

I remember playing a demo of that.
Although whether I liked it or not was a different matter. Downloading it now (through The Home of the Underdogs).

The trouble I have with most games like this (and it'll be interesting to see how this deals with it) is that killing enemies is either repetitive or just plain boring. If you've got a sword you should be able to cut your enemies apart in many ways, you should be able to just lunge into them, pushing them back into their friends lining up behind. You should be able to bounce on or drop items on to their heads, disabling them for a moment so you're free to dispense of them how you choose. Take running leaps at people or swing from chandeliers into enemies, I want to play out those sword fights you always see in movies but I've never seen in a game (done well anyway - I suppose that Assassin's Creed game looks like it'll do it but that's in - BAH! - 3D). That's pretty much my aim for my musketeer game. It's gonna be a hard task to achieve and still be simple to play (I'm gunning for two action buttons - jump and attack, three at a push - like those arcade beat em ups) but I don't see why it can't happen.

And yeh, that sprite isn't the actual size in-game, I'd be insane to think I could animate the amount of stuff I require at that size.

And Mark, recently started playing TSE again :P I remember stopping at world 3 or 4 (the Tiki people one I think) because I didn't really take advantage of the redistributing of skill points. Maybe I'll figure it out this time...

Yeh that Claw game hasn't impress me in the gameplay department so far. The graphics and animations are beautiful though.

The level design seems overly messy. There's a good mixup of obstacles and things but considering how good the graphics are in parts, it seems to be laid out horribly. Fighting the enemies is just a case of walking up to them and pressing fire, I don't think one sword enemy actually took a swipe at me throughout the first two levels. And then the boss at the end of the second level seems to be just a case of tapping the attack button like a maniac. I'll play it more, but hmm, possibly only to see the rest of the art. Interesting to note that it has a multiplayer mode though :o

well unfortunately multiplaying in that game is just a score ladder.

Just to let you know, someone is still shining a light for the Aliens : Infestation style game.

http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/~gbhull/marines.jpg

He's an honorary member of AC at the moment as he works with Danjo on this game. But it harked back to that time when I remember everyone was barking at old Mischief Misheff and his AI3... :P

Looking at some other screenshots he's shown us, this will be one hell of a game...

Id like to here more of this game, looks good

Awww, did you really have to remind me that Marco Misheff is still out there somewhere? Watching. Waiting. Probably breathing heavily. I was having such a nice day too. :(

I remember Marines, and I'm really glad to see that the author is still working in that area ( looking up at the Acoders site it's Ben Hull, right? )

I would love to see what he and Danjo have planned for this ( maybe you can squeeze something more out of them for Klik-Me and the AC frontpage too? :D )

It's been 1 year. Mark I can't believe you still have my guide! Never knew it was so good. I got banned from Natomic (I think I was over-advertising). What do you mean by 'Adbots'. I never actually bothered updating that guide. Though everyone hated it. I'll see if I have the time.

Hi there Mr Nobody. :D Good to see you again!
I can't remember if or why you got banned from Natomic - you could have been caught in one of the IP range bans or just annoyed one of the other admins ( One of the problems of having numerous admins on a set of forums - everyone has a slightly different idea of acceptable behaviour. )

An adbot is an automated piece of software that trawls through the internet, finding html submission forms and feeding adverts into them. That's why you'll probably have seen so many adverts for medical drugs spammed in people's blogs and forums. I turned on user authentication for the forum a couple of days ago. Hopefully their inability to read will keep the mechanical annoyances out.

Your skill analysis is a good article! I have to admit I don't always break out the calculator when I do balancing, so I always find it interesting to see numbers. If you would ever like to update it, just give me a shout.

I know what i got banned for. I was spamming the forum with all the firefox stuff.

Mark, the patch downloads have 2 101 to 104s. The top one's 103 to 104.

It was the description that I forgot to update. Fixed, thanks!

Moving country aye?
That sounds exciting.
Is it?

No, it's bloody terrifying. :P
I don't have much time to get a new home sorted out in either. ( 2 weeks )
Fortunately it's perhaps the easiest international move that one can make from the UK, since I'm off to Ireland. So much is shared, from the main language to the mains voltage, that it makes things a little bit easier.

It's a pixel art job, but I don't really want to say much about it for fear of jinxing it / breaching confidentiality. It'll be hard work, but at the same time I hope a great chance for me to prove myself and kick my art skills up another gear.

"'Cause I'm leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again." :cry:

sheesh-kababs, that sounds crazy. I've been to Ireland befor, very nearly got draged into playing music in a folk bar, which I would jump at the oppertunity to do now funnily enough, but back then I was not as confident as I am now.

The job sounds really exciting, I'd love to hear more about it when you get over your superstitions. you gunna have interent access ?

I should be able to get a broadband connection, but it may take me a while to get it set up at home. I'm going to be living in Galway and I've spent the last 6 days looking for a place to rent over there. I'll be off there in another couple with my faithful old Ford Fiesta loaded down with my personal junk.

I am quite excited about the job. The people there are nice and they are working on some interesting projects. I'm also nervous though, since art is subjective and IMO you're not much of a commercial artist if you're not frequently thinking about how much your work pleases the people paying for your services. :D I will know more once I get down to work next week.

got excited for a few moments. Australia is a good place. I live there!

Not to discredit your game Mr. Creator but a 14 year old who downloaded a 5 MB program, found the "address'" of these 3 chracters and created unlimited health and mana XD. But i think this game is still excellent for everybody because it has a great storyline! And i couldn't change the amount of skill points i could add in one go so thumbs up for that aswell :wink: .

Cheat Engine if you've ever heard of it :D

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r22/go1orange/thespsiritengine.jpg

I'm sure they felt really fulfilled at having beaten the game like that. What an achievement!!

yes.

link please

"yes.

link please"

link to what?
And yeah i did feel pretty fulfilled

I don't mind cheating in single player games. But as a designer, I do think that you've failed if people basically dislike sections of your game so much, perhaps because they are too boring or too difficult, that they want to skip them. I should have put difficulty settings into TSE-1, and they are there in the sequel.


A quick note - any user should be careful when downloading and running executable programs from unknown sources on the internet. It's a quick way to get viruses, trojans and other assorted malware onto your machines if you're unlucky.

link to program/cheats/how to do/something.

I just lost my old gamesave plus havent the time to make proper exp points to proceed further.

The save files are savename.ini, savegame.ini and w9xabc.ini. They are in the C:\Windows directory. ( I can't apologise enough for this. It's the default and I was young and foolish five years ago. Sorry! :( )

It should be fairly obvious which values are which. The game checks for some outrageous entries.

" should have put difficulty settings into TSE-1"

You don't know how many times you have said that. I think the games great if you chose the right characters and skills.

About four times I think, including this one. I just want people to know that I am aware of ( hopefully most ) of the things that sucked in TSE-1 and am addressing them in the sequel.

Not having dificulty levels, or having ones that can't be changed later in the game when you realise that you've made a mistake with your original choice annoys me personally when I am playing games.
Yes, the TSE-1 is easy if you choose the right characters and skills and know what challenges are coming up. But a new player shouldn't have to read a players guide ( or be have some crazy degree of precognition ) in order to finish a game that they pick up.
I have a load of games on my shelf that I have never finished because they got so hard towards the end that they stopped being fun to play. It's better, IMO to give the option for the player to knock down the difficulty level and stop the game frustrating them, than simply make them stop playing it.

"The save files are savename.ini, savegame.ini and w9xabc.ini. They are in the C:\Windows directory. ( I can't apologise enough for this. It's the default and I was young and foolish five years ago. Sorry! :( )

It should be fairly obvious which values are which. The game checks for some outrageous entries."

i made al 53's 9999999999 (number 53 is the [size=7:9276cd3533]experience)

i got to lvl 100, then i went to next world, and the game collapsed lol

yeah it happened to me too.

yeh it happened to me too is there a way to alter the values with out the game crashing cuz everytime i alter them i go into a town and it exits the game

"The game checks for some outrageous entries."

I think your answer is there. Don't go crazy with the ol' cheating...

your right mate ile leave it be

guys im not a cheater at games, dont think it has a point, but is there a way to alter the coding in the save file for the number 53 without it crashing, mainly cuz i like experimenting with things lol, if there is no way thats ok

"Not to discredit your game Mr. Creator but a 14 year old who downloaded a 5 MB program, found the "address'" of these 3 chracters and created unlimited health and mana XD. But i think this game is still excellent for everybody because it has a great storyline! And i couldn't change the amount of skill points i could add in one go so thumbs up for that aswell :wink: .

Cheat Engine if you've ever heard of it :D"

Why cheat? You've taken all the fun and point out of TSE by cheating.

And please, for goodness sake, don't think your peculiar for googling game-related hacking engines, because that's something any average joe can do.

by remembering old updates on now dead natomic newspage I remember you were a veteran of first chapter.

wonder if you were still on the game(wich one)

personally, the new afrikan theme is what I dislike in the latest chapter, reason why Im gonna to get factions instead of that.

I'm still playing Guild Wars and enjoying it a lot. The lack of monthly fees and low required time commitment makes it the only MMORPG that I am interested in playing, so it's fortunate that it's also good. ;)
The IGN for my main PvE character ( mesmer ) is Alberto Triskellion and I am a member of Guardians of the Light.

I bought both Prophecies and Factions when they came out. I liked both, although Prophecies PvE seems really dull and repetitive looking back at it. I'm really looking forward to Nightfall. The medieval and feudal Japanese themes of Prophecies and Factions have been overused in so many other games that I found the African stuff in Nightfall really fresh and compelling. I won't be able to buy it when it comes out in a few days, but I'll be picking it up in a few months time. I love the new hero system they demoed in the preview weekend. With them, the game is virtually single player with very easily accessable multiplayer, rather than multiplayer with awful singleplayer options.

I used to GvG with my guild a fair bit, but I'm not able to commit enough time to compete at the level that the other members want, so I've had to give that up.
I enjoyed Factions and I think you'll like it if Nightfall's theme really puts you off. I expect that the PvE outposts will be a little quiet though. And as with Prophecies, the cutscenes are godawful. I mean really, really embaressing. XD

"The medieval and feudal Japanese themes of Prophecies and Factions have been overused in so many other games "
I'd say, yeah on medieval but cant anyway see as fresh the pseudo-egyptian related themes, expecially after big franchises such UnrealT


"I enjoyed Factions and I think you'll like it if Nightfall's theme really puts you off. I expect that the PvE outposts will be a little quiet though.
+
And as with Prophecies, the cutscenes are godawful. I mean really, really embaressing. XD"
hah yeah same idea

Hey Mark, is there any way you could set up a demo of TSE2 for people like me who are urging to play it.

I am really torn on the issue. On the one hand I am very happy that people want to play the game and I am eager to let people try out what I believe is a good improvement on the original system.
On the other, I really don't like putting out stuff that does not have the final level of polish that will undoubtedly be put on once I have finished creating and inserting all of the content. A single level or two would also not work as well without the proper context of the rest of the game. And I don't want to get people excited now when the finished game is still probably over a year away.

At the moment, the latter concerns are winning out, especially since the game is on something of a slow burn right now. ( but I am still working on it )
My current plans are to hold off on the demo for a while longer, sorry. :(

I simply love the soundtrack for this game. It's got a very distinctive style. And I love it.

I was wondering if there was any way of me possibly aquiring the soundtrack of this game. I would even be willing to pay, given a reasonable price (and I guess me finding enough money to scrap up (I'm a poor college student :( )).

Any help is greatly (!) appreciated.

It must be your lucky day:
http://tse.syntesis.org/cd.php

Yay, bought ^_^

Yes, the soundtrack is awesome. ^_^ I am very thankful to Josh for it. Thanks for buying a copy!

"It must be your lucky day:
http://tse.syntesis.org/cd.php"

:shock: *goes to shops* *looks* :cry: :cry: :cry: not there *cries more*

ioh well....... time to find a recording program that DOESNT stuff up the games -.-

You'll have more luck looking here:
http://josh.syntesis.org/albums/3

I wish the music could be in MID Format. : :|

O Nice talkins I love here in "General Chat" of www.thespiritengine.com
MY prroblrm is how to make alot of money in that strange live :)


-------------------------------------
| credit card consolidation | eliminate credit card debt |
| apply for a credit card | credit card fraud |

lol, wishful spambot galore.

Ewww, how are they still getting in here? They're like ants. I'm wondering whether these are actually people being paid to spam. Surely a bot would have its message properly spelt? :?

thats 2 add some hunman touch adn realism.

I can definitely say that you just don't stop amazing me with your graphical talent. Although I've also been witness of your extremely organized code (and innovative--for me at least X)), I'm very impressed after seeing the screenshots. The beta I played a while back ran extremely slow on my laptop (since it's compaq, I'm rather surprised it actually ran), but even back then, when the enemies were angry boxes, it looked good!
My sincere congratulations!

Hey Alonso.
Have you got any more projects (be it music/film/game) to update your site with? I keep seeing that Ochre Hotel game and thinking you've restarted it or something, then getting really disappointed when I realise it was there before :P

Hey Al! It's great to see you. Argh, this remind me why it sucks so much that we don't have forums at natomic.com any more. :( :( I'm not even on MSN or anything at the moment, no net at home. ( This is actually a good thing, productivity ++ )

Thanks for your kind words. I'm hoping the demo that I gave out was the one where I had DirectX turned on for Vsync ( DirectX mode in MMF 1.5 is awful and is now turned off in TSE-2, restoring a good frame rate. )
How are you doing? I have to echo Jimbob's interest in your current projects. What are you working on at the moment? How is life treating you? Is Continent One still in the works? Tell us all. :D

Heh! Thanks for your interest, guys =).

Continent One was given to Gamesare to finish, mostly. I'll be helping with small things, but believe me when I say it was too big a project for myself. I seriously had over 3 pages, word pages, of FEATURES that I had already planned on adding eventually. I never realized the list got that long until like 3 months ago. By the way, when I mean features, I mean 1/2 line(s) per feature... Plus there were the elements of Mel?e, Magic, items, et c?tera that I just couldn't see myself coding in less than 6 years X).

The Ocher Coast Hotel was a nice little game I wanted to do, but for your surprise, it got huge... so I'm not working on it anymore. Mark, you ought to give me some classes! Haha.

Concerning your friend's life, I'm developing several film projects--I'm working on my sixth and fifth films, and I'm directing and writing TV series at the moment. They all have very interesting concepts, which makes it a pleasure for me to write, direct and edit. I'm also working as a model and as an actor (which is basically like prostitution, without the sex part--I mean, it's easy money).

How are you guys? I've seen you've made a vast improvement on Klik-me, Jimbob =) I like it! ^_^

Ahhh. Sad to hear about Continent One ( hope it still gets finished ) and Ocher Coast Hotel, but very happy to hear that everything else is going well. Sounds like you're having a pretty good time! :D Is the film work commercial or hobby? Either way - wow! - you'll have to show us what you're working on. Modelling and acting sounds interesting too - I'm guessing that it's not as glamorous as it's made out to be on the TV - how are you finding it? Does it pay well?

I'm doing fairly well here. I like my new job, the people here are nice and I'm getting to do some interesting work. I'm also finding the time to keep working on TSE-2 in the evening and at the weekends, so all in all I am pretty content at the moment. ^_^

Hello all :)

I work with Specialmove a specialist recruitment consultant for the games industry. I found Mark Pay's work on the web and helped him secure his new role in Sunny Ireland. Hopefully he can vouch for me and won't mind me posting :shock:

If there are any Java Programmers we would be delighted to talk with you about some opportunities which would pay you for not only programming but creating your own games ! The role is based in the UK....

The client is looking for people like yourselves who love games and love creating games. We also have plenty of other vacancies for artists and programmers covering all specialities.

If interested (or you can recommend anyone suitable) please PM me for more details

Matthew Hill
Specialmove

matthew@specialmove.com

Hi Matthew! Nice to see you in here. :D

From my experience with them, I would recommend Specialmove if you're interested in the games industry ( How wide a geographical area do you guys cover? )
Matthew was really supportive throughout the application process and I owe him a great deal for digging up my CV and dealing with my application for my current job. A lot of recruiting agencies will fling anyone at positions in the hope that someone sticks, offering little to no assistance so this was a really pleasant surprise, with a happy ending too. ^_^

Thanks Matthew, all the best.

Hi Mark :)

Thanks for the kind words - delighted everything is going well for you in Ireland. No doubt you are a fully fledged Guinness convert now ??

We have positions predominantly in the UK, but also have positions in USA, Australia and of course Ireland ;)

The Minigames positions would be great for people in your network....

Matt

I have started creating a game that is called "Elraven". I was inspired by Amanda Fae's, "Ahriman's Prophecy" and "Aveyond" and decided to start making a game myself. I am making it on RPG Maker XP since it is easy to use. I will probably finish it next year. I hav the whole school holidays! :D

Nice! Good luck with the project. Try and keep things small to start off with, else you'll end up with something like TSE-2 that looks like it'll take 4 years part-time to finish. ;)

Do you have any other information about your plans for it? What sort of stuff did you like in the two games that you mentioned which you hope to recreate? What didn't you like it them that you hope to fix?

Let us know how you get on!

Overall, there was nothing wrong with them. I liked the hours of game play. I highly recommend anyone who likes RPGs to give it a go. Just go to [url]http://www.amaranthia.com/ and get them. There was nothing really wrong with them. I loved the story line. I hope my storyline will be as great.

I know you all have criticisms about my guide so tell them to me. I am updating the skills guide heavily. It is like starting from scratch. It will probably be finished early next year.

Hi, MrNobody.

Could you put in recharging into your guide?
That would be a big help for people who are just starting.

Recharging is definitely being done.

I just started a game testing your favourite Power Shot.
Let?s see if it really works better than sharpshoot!! :wink:

If the power shot hits at least two people, it is far better than sharpshoot. But when battling one enemy, and especially when it is a Large one eg. the Final Boss, sharpshoot is much more effective.
I would use powershot in the first half of the game and after djan (the person who removes skill points), i would change to something more effective like magic bullet, dynamite or sharpshoot.

It does not make sense to calculate theoretical damage without factoring critical aspects such as damage bonuses/penalties (e.g. for large enemies), shields, and mana. Powershot, for example, while being a decent alternative for the beginning of the game, is almost useless in the later worlds due to shielded enemies (true also for dynamite, speedfire etc. for the same reason). Also, any ?fast? attack uses up mana more quickly and is therefore a lot less potent in medium/long battles than what you have calculated.

Moreover, you cannot only consider the skills in isolation since choosing one skill with a certain character often prevents you from choosing another skill with the character that is best suited for it.

The ultimate test of what skills work best is how fast they allow you to finish the game. With some optimizations of the strategy in my walkthrough (Peter - Sharpshoot, Zepher - Party Heal, Matthieu - HotG), I?ve managed to finish the game in 1 hour and 47 minutes:

World 1: 21 min

World 2: 22 min

World 3: 21 min

World 4: 27 min

World 5: 16 min

If you find a more efficient combination of skills, let me know.

I agree that would be the best combination. My first guide was horrible! I'll finish the new one soon. Sorry, I have school work!

You should do a speedrun of the game!
You know, where they record a game in the fastest time possible. Then post it on youtube or something, that'd be cool. :>

I did just that recently. The run turned out quite nicely. Hoping to have it hosted on freewareruns.com. Here's a link to the thread (and the movie files).

http://freewareruns.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=37

Can we all stay on topic? Anyway, version 2 of my skills guide is going to be available tomorrow. It is based on a program I've written. It is more accurate than the first one. I hope you will enjoy it. I'll be adding attack bonuses in a later version. I'll be updating the program along with the guide.

Where is it? is it done? or is it hard to find?

hello.

firstly, this is one awesome game! thanks for making such a great game, mark!

i'm rather stuck at the moment. i can't beat tza tze. the best i'm doing is getting his health down to around 2500hp. :oops: my characters are already level 42, and it seems i don't get anymore experience so can't level up anymore. and i'm not fairing any better in the pocket dimension.
i'm playing with peter, samual and pippa. so, 2 hunters and a mage. peter specializes in speedfire and magic bullet, samuel in sharpshoot and pippa in chain magic, kinetic smash and a bit of both shields.
is there anyway to beat him? any advice? please help. :o

wow, thats really strange, I had the exact same setup as you when I beat Tza except I had Pippa using raindbow thingo and chainmagic.

Hi there! Glad to hear that you're enjoying the game.

The two early C4 tasks cause trouble for a lot of people I think. Because they can be done in different orders, I decided to make some of the enemy stats dependant on party level. I may have overweighted this factor, to the point where the tasks may be easier at a lower level than a higher level.

Tza Tze changes his immunity and inreases his armour in response to the damage types that you hit him with. It's best to use single hit attacks and change the type.

I've not played my own game for about 3 years now. :( Hopefully someone else can give you better advice.

thanks, mark. :D i've tried all sorts of different things, and the best so far has been to keep shield up with the mage, and attacking with the 2 hunters, either magic bullet or speedfire/sharpshoot depending on what shield he has up. but eventually i can't hold out, those bubbles from above are too much. :lol:

oh, yeah, the saving is expensive! :lol: and now that i can't get any money (and experience) anymore in the world, i won't be able to save! haha.

what is the strongest possible party to play with? i guess 1 of each, a hunter, priest and mage.
and what skills should i specialize in to be the strongest? i want to give the game another go. because it is so much fun! :D

When you choose the characters at the beginning there?s a "toggle details"-button where you get information which skills work best for each character.
I believe that every combination is possible (my favourite was 3 mages), to me it seems that having a powerful healer (priest) helps a lot, also trying to get a lot of healing items.

thanks, i restarted with a different party, and am now past Tza Tze. :D

That was quick! Already finished? Which party did you choose?

nope, not finished yet. im now in the world 5, at clarke tower lobby. i can't beat those guys with the shields and guns. it's so hard! :cry: :lol:
any tips? i'm level 48, but leveling up any more will mean i will lose too much money since its 220gold to save each time, and i can only beat the first enemy group. (so i have to fight 1st fight, save, quit, load, fight again, etc. if i want to level up.)

i chose eisfford (cant remember spelling), zepher and peter. :D :x

(so i have to fight 1st fight, save, quit, load, fight again, etc. if i want to level up.)

I had to do that too on my first try...Those Big Guns are most dangerous but don?t have a lot of health.
The Shield guys are immune to sharpshoot. So maybe:

Peter: Magic bullet
Eissford: lightning or chain magic
Zepher: healing

and as soon as a big gun guy is in front interrupt immediately and switch to sharpshoot/kinetic smash for Peter/Eissford

I remember that I interrupted very often during these fights and did sweat a lot.
Oh, and if you succeed...maybe its a good idea to sneak back to save the game before leaving the area... :wink:

thanks, rod, i'll try your advice. :D

I found that Clemetas, Edward and Eissford was the best party. When I finished (Lvl 50) I had most upgrades on Hand of the Gods, Dynamite and Kinetic Shield, respectively.
I found that I had to save, quit and load as well.

yes. i made it past the chopper and am now on floor 90. :D
i made it on the 3rd try, i am now level 51.

at the moment my highest upgrades are hand of the gods, kinetic smash/chain magic (22) and sharpshoot. with quite a few points in health, party heal, kinetic/magic shield and rifle attack.

Great!
How did you do the Lobby? Didn?t you spend any points in Mana?

nope, i haven't placed a single point in mana. 8)
the lobby took quite a while. just kept on switching between magic bullet (level 0) and sharpshoot (lev 22+ cant remember), party heal and for mage kinetic smash and chain magic (both around lev 22).
it took a quite a few tries. i died many times.

now im completely stuck on floor 90. i keep on being killed by the 1st group of monsters, made it past them twice, only to be destroyed by the second group of monsters. i don't think i can make it further. i really want to finish it, but it seems almost impossible. :cry and the money i get for winning a fight is around 100gold, and saving is 340gold, meaning i can't save after i beat the 1st group of monsters/guards, meaning i can't level up. :cry: what to do?
is there a way to stop the monsters from swiching places? that will make the difference.

the boss guide says the grandfather is the toughest fight. i disagree. the groups of monsters/guards are much tougher.

Hang on! That is one of the hardest fights for sure because they have so powerful weapons and armour (the machine is hardly vulnerable and the shield guy only with magical weapons)! But there are several stradegies you can try. And on floor 90 you can be especially lucky with this strange machine from above (well, it can also destroy you if you?re not aware). If somebody is down, bring him/her under the descending machine! or imagine that big gun guy is almost finished in he front line and nobody has mana left to kill him before he hides again-the machine will turn your health to mana if you?re low with that which might save you some important seconds.

My first try would be:
Zepher healing all the time
Peter sharpshooting Big Machine and Big Gun Guy, Recharge or recover when shield guy is in front
Eissford chain magic against shield guy maybe against the other guy but not against the big machine (has also a magic shield)
You don?t have a lot of mana so maybe not wasting any of it is the key!
Are the game options set to "slower battles"?
What Items do you have?

When I played TSE the first time I got stuck somewhere in every world so I got used to that. I didn?t mind anyway since I had more time to enjoy the music and the artwork details


:D

thanks, rod, i'll defintely give it another go. i don't like quitting. though, this is one of the hardest games i've played. (suikoden 1+2 and diablo 2 are my favourite 3 games, and this game has a lot of the same elements) :lol: i'll try different strategies, especially the ones you mention.

my equipment: i think i have 2 healing amulets and a mana regeneration one (on mage). i have mist-wisened greatcoat on zepher and peter, and arcane granite robes on eissford. peter has orwell's rigsnapper (21 base)
and zepher has crafted golden rifle (17). i also have that leave talisman that puts roots on enemy in my inventory. :D
i play with the slower battles. :D

Investing skillpoints in Mana has two advantages:
Your Mana pool ist your "armour" against magical attacks and, sometimes more important, of course you?re fighting faster if you don?t have to recharge Mana after every strike.
In the 2nd fight on Floor 90 you don?t need magic protection, but you definitely need to bring one of the enemies down asap which is hard if you?re rather low on mana already in the beginning.
If everything fails, you might restart from an earlier savegame and use all the skillpoints you get from Fentan in the lobby on your mana pools (I would advise at least 6 for each)

Maybe I try the games you mentioned, I never played them yet...I don?t have much time for playing :(
I liked Baldurs Gate, but my favourite game is Gothic 1+2

hehe, yeah, i love baldur's gate.

i didn't know about mana reducing magical damage.

could somebody please tell me the best possible party, with the best possible skillpoints selection to finish the game? :shock:
i really want to finish the game, but don't want to reach the final stage again and find out i can't beat the normal enemies! :lol: i wanna give it one more go.

Check out the walkthrough posted here!
It suggests Peter/Zepher/Matthieu. Should work well!

Since theres so many different enemies its hard to sa which is strongest party!! (thats what I like about the game)

I found also a strong pary:

Clemetas (Silver Bullet/HotG)
Edward (Dynamite/Sharpshoot)
Samuel (Recover!! becomes a living shield)
Mana for everyone from time to time by world4 at least 6 each

thanks, ROD. i'm going to try the peter/zepher/matthieu route! the guy says it's possible to finish the game without dying once with them! i'll probably die quite a few times, but hopefully i'll be able to make it!

It?s less fun if you never die! :D

I finished the game! hooray!
i died only twice (or three times) with the party.
it's so much fun when your characters are overpowering everyone!

awesome game. my 2nd favourite freeware game thus far.
(cave story is my favourite)

So, Mark doesn't really have me under an NDA, so because you're not getting a demo anytime soon, you can have music to listen to.

If you like music, anyway.

[url]http://josh.syntesis.org/files/33

Enjoy.

Each of you seem to be very good at what you?re doing anyway(I?m no expert at all), but the combination seems to add some higher magic that turned me into a TSE-addict.
I just listened to it while watching the TSE2 Screenshots-and the magic was back again...YES!! I?m looking veryveryvery forward (but take your time, I can wait)
Thank you for the `bonbon`

Rawr! Send in the lawyers! :o



No, not really. :) Thanks for posting this Josh - is it a medley? I'll check it out once I get home.
Glad you like it ROD.

It's just a collage, of sorts.

That's really sweet! I love the way it gives some kind of feeling from the old game. Lovely.
When ever you can, make another one. ^^

Btw, hi mark. Lelle from natomic if you remember :wink:

Since my site's been down, here is some more music. This is actually a full length track. It's much different then most of the soundtrack, however, so don't make expectations.

http://www.traxinspace.com/song/36390

Squeeee. ^_^
Cool beans Josh! I was working on this level today as well. This is a pretty serious and shockingly comprehensive upgrade of the original mod track. :o It's interesting to play them back to back and hear the differences in the richness and variety of sound. I love it! :D


Edit - PS how are things going with the site and the new hosting?

"... It's much different then most of the soundtrack, however, so don't make expectations.

http://www.traxinspace.com/song/36390"

Great! Funny, how it still sounds like TSE to me...

Hey!
The website is going fine. Aka, I haven't touched it (;
But I do get my email back there, which is nice. I'm thinking about redesigning my entire site, but I'd rather not do that until I really get a chance.

I'm thinking, especially since I'm more busy than ever, that I'd make some sort of site with a collection of music that can be bought/licensed, and then I would add songs at my own pace. And then, if people wanted custom music, they could do that too.

That's what casual game developers need, I think. And since I've been busier than ever, it makes more sense.

As for the music, yes, I guess TSE will always be TSE (; If you keep your ears open you'll hear some old favorites in the new stuff. I hesitate to say, but release is drawing nearer and nearer each day. (Come on, I started the soundtrack in, what, 2003? hah)

So, first of all, Hi!

I played TSE about three times, and I love that game, I always have to say that it is the best Freeware game I've ever played...

But I always wonder, how do you make this beautiful graphics and animations, do you paint it first by hand and put in the colors on your PC or how do you make it?
My fav anim is, when the Grundlekrunk rises, it's awesome!

sry when my english is bad, I'm from Switzerland

Hi there Sir Palamides. :D

That's very kind of you to say so ( you're making me blush ;) ) The graphics for TSE-1 were done almost entirely in the sprite editor for The Games Factory ( [url]http://www.clickteam.com ). I think that they look pretty crappy now, but I'm always very flattered when people say that they still like them.

The graphics for TSE-2 are being done in Graphics Gale ( [url]http://www.humanbalance.net/gale/us/ ), sometimes using scanned line art and sometimes with added effects from Photoshop and Painter.

thanx for your reply Mark,
the sprites are one of the best things in the game, and they don't look crappy I really like that style, so keep going on like this! the graphics of TSE2 look even better, so I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE RELEASE OF TSE2!!!
good work

The Window is too small and I can't read the text. When I go to options and click "window maximized" the game screen remains the same size, so how can I maximize the game screen?

press alt+enter and the game should go fullscreen.

I'm replaying this game after a long long hiatus.

Anyway, I'm trying to get a listing of sidequests and character-specific events (well, only those with rewards).

World 1
Mr Grimes Briefcase: This one is pretty obvious. You probably don't even have to try to complete this one.

Matthieu (Skill): By talking to some quarreling villagers to get some HoTG points.

World 2:
Favored Drapes: From where you start, head right and pay the man 90 gold. When the reach the next town, one of the villagers will give you this item.

Clementas (Fight): He gets to fight a boss that gives him Holy Bolt and Silver Bullet skill points as a reward.

World 3:
Zepher: In the last "town area", talk to the doctor/priest to get some skill points in Party Heal for Zepher

Amulet/Armor: At one point you have to do an errand for the miltary to progress.

I believe you get the Translucent Amulet of the Heavens if you do the bridge quest first, then the rescue quest, and you get the Carven Oaken Armor if you do it the other way round from the leader.

World 4:
Samuel (Fight): You get to fight a one on one fight with some guy, it's really slow and painful and once you're done, you get some skill points IIRC.

Paladin Golden Fleece (and possibly something else): Okay, this is the one I need help with, I recall you being able to get the Paladin Golden Fleece, which is a very very good armor from Tza Tze, but I can't figure out the conditions to do it, I think it has something to do with doing the quests in a certain order... and there's probably an item from Aegin as well.

World 5:
Peter's Crafted Golden Rifle: Just go left a bit from the start and talk to the Butler.

Probably missing some, so give me some help if you have gotten any of the quests recently.

"
Paladin Golden Fleece (and possibly something else): Okay, this is the one I need help with, I recall you being able to get the Paladin Golden Fleece, which is a very very good armor from Tza Tze, but I can't figure out the conditions to do it, I think it has something to do with doing the quests in a certain order... and there's probably an item from Aegin as well. "

You need Tza Tze OR Aegin Quest to rise the bridge to Granael.
If you begin with Aegin: Tza Tze gives you the Fleece as reward, the other way you get a Speed Tunic (Armor) from Aegin (the fleece seems to be more useful, being a strong Armor AND giving back health in battle)

Clara gets a Skeleton Talisman of Life Drain in 2nd Town of World 2 (from a blonde Guy)
Pippa gets a Rainbow Talisman in World 4 (Magi Retreat)

But I think you get those automatically

If I remember right: Eissford gets some extra skillpoints in the library (End of World 4)that are easy to miss (she can read more books there than Samuel and Matthieu)

Edward can improve his Dynamite skills a lot by talking to the Pyromaniac in the Hepplepeck(?) Village in World 3. But I think he wants money, maybe 200 gold?

Wow, I'd forgotten that I had put half of these in. Thanks for reminding me about them. There's more character specific content in TSE-2, but few stat or item bonuses from them at the moment - I ought to add some.

I may sticky this post for reference too, if it's ok.

Sure, go ahead and do that.

so... pippa, peter and clara dont get skill points boost at any moment?

clemetas also get 1 health point from fihting "the abomination" which is pretty easy boss

""
Paladin Golden Fleece (and possibly something else): Okay, this is the one I need help with, I recall you being able to get the Paladin Golden Fleece, which is a very very good armor from Tza Tze, but I can't figure out the conditions to do it, I think it has something to do with doing the quests in a certain order... and there's probably an item from Aegin as well. "

You need Tza Tze OR Aegin Quest to rise the bridge to Granael.
If you begin with Aegin: Tza Tze gives you the Fleece as reward, the other way you get a Speed Tunic (Armor) from Aegin (the fleece seems to be more useful, being a strong Armor AND giving back health in battle)"

Hi guys... this is my first message.
I have to thank you Mark for doing this game, I really love it, and I'm supporting your work on facebook.

So... this is my problem.
I finished TSE several times with a lot of character combinations... the only thing i'm never been able to achieve is the The Paladin's Golden Flece Jacket... I really can't realise where I'm wrong...

I've tried to first get the gem in Elan's Tomb, challenging Tza Tze, beating Granael end than return to the Veroonai Enclave (all to avoid the annoying beetles that appear when you kill the worm rising only one of the two bridges), but i simply couldn't talk to Tza Tze again to get the armour... so i retried doing this path Saline=>Mana Tidebreak=>Veroonai Enclave=>Granael=>Shifting Sands (with the hated beetles) and than back to Tza Tze... but, once again, i did not have my reward...

I can't understand... perhaps he will give me the armor later in the game or i'm doing something wrong?

Thank you and sorry for my bad english...

"""
Paladin Golden Fleece (and possibly something else): Okay, this is the one I need help with, I recall you being able to get the Paladin Golden Fleece, which is a very very good armor from Tza Tze, but I can't figure out the conditions to do it, I think it has something to do with doing the quests in a certain order... and there's probably an item from Aegin as well. "

You need Tza Tze OR Aegin Quest to rise the bridge to Granael.
If you begin with Aegin: Tza Tze gives you the Fleece as reward, the other way you get a Speed Tunic (Armor) from Aegin (the fleece seems to be more useful, being a strong Armor AND giving back health in battle)"

Hi guys... this is my first message.
I have to thank you Mark for doing this game, I really love it, and I'm supporting your work on facebook.

So... this is my problem.
I finished TSE several times with a lot of character combinations... the only thing i'm never been able to achieve is the The Paladin's Golden Flece Jacket... I really can't realise where I'm wrong...

I've tried to first get the gem in Elan's Tomb, challenging Tza Tze, beating Granael end than return to the Veroonai Enclave (all to avoid the annoying beetles that appear when you kill the worm rising only one of the two bridges), but i simply couldn't talk to Tza Tze again to get the armour... so i retried doing this path Saline=>Mana Tidebreak=>Veroonai Enclave=>Granael=>Shifting Sands (with the hated beetles) and than back to Tza Tze... but, once again, i did not have my reward...

I can't understand... perhaps he will give me the armor later in the game or i'm doing something wrong?

Thank you and sorry for my bad english..."

Welcome! :-)

If you go to Tza Tze before the Granael bridge is raised, he´ll raise the bridge for you (after fighting him) - then there´s NO WAY to get the Fleece

First visit Aegin Warstick (Magi Retreat): he raises the bridge to granael as a reward for a quest

After that you can still challenge Tza Tze and he´ll raise not the bridge (since it´s already done but give you the Fleece). To avoid Beetles: go through all desert areas before fighting Granael so you can sneak through them after beating Granael.

Hi Berneye! Thanks for posting.
ROD is correct, you can only have one of the two items, depending on which quest you complete first.

Clara: Acquires Skeletal Talisman of Life Drain in Hamlet, World 2.
Peter: Acquires Crafted Golden Rifle in Clarke's Tower Lobby, World 5.
Clementas: Extra (optional) boss fight against The Abombination in The Abombination's Lair, World 2. Grants +1 to Health, Holy Bolt & Silver Bullet.
Pippa: Acquires Blurred Talisman of the Spectrum in The Magi Retreat, World 4.
Edward: Gains +3 to Dynamite (costs 200 gold and requires at least 2 skill points in Dynamite) in The Hepplekeck Village, World 3.
Zepher: Acquires +2 to Party Heal AND +1 to Mana in Robert's Happy Hideout, World 3.
Eisfford: Gains an extra skill point in The Arcane History Branch, World 4.
Samuel: Extra (very tricky to skip) 1-on-1 fight against Mad Dog Davis in Saline, World 4. Grants +3 to Health.
Matthieu: Grants +3 to Mana (if you say NO) OR +2 to HotG (if you say YES) in Giant's Toe, World 1.

Favoured Drapes: Bring the Spider Silk that costs 90g from Serinet Bastion to Hamlet in World 2.
Carved Oaken Armour: Complete The Leafy Underbrush first then Kaikin Gorge second, World 3.
Translucent Amulet of the Heavens: Complete Kaikin Gorge first then The Leafy Underbrush second, World 3
Paladin's Golden Fleece Jacket: Defeat Pocket Dimension first, then Granael, then Tza Tze in that specific order in World 4.
Silvered Robes of Speed: Defeat Tza Tze first, then Granael, then the Pocket Dimension in that specific order in World 4.

having three magi is probably the hardest to finish the game. Has anyone else done it. Can you guess how i did it. And if you have done it can you tell me how you did it?

Single-class challenges have all been done on the old forums, and yes, 3 mages would be the hardest.

As for how it's done, I remember that Healing equipment and good usage of shields is the key. Eissford has Kinetic Smash, so she can cover Physical Damage so the only thing you're missing is a good Energy attack, which thankfully isn't really needed. (there isn't many good Energy attacks anyway)

I was trying to write a walkthrough for that. I wanted to find an easy stradegy that works without having to switch the attack chains too much.

My idea for that was:
The first "half" (until you reach heavena):
Clara: kinetic shield, Pippa: Rainbow, Eissford: Celestial Light. No points for mana/health.
Problem: The Mage on Giants Top (immune to magic),
where I let Clara do Rock Rain and Pippa Magic Shield. Only worked well with 1 skill point on Clara?s Rock Rain (and she has to stand in the middle most of the time, so that all 3 Rocks hit his shield).
Arachnid?s Grove was ok with the Speed Amulet on Pippa,
and Eissford changing to Chain Magic when a Gargoyle is in front (Energy immune).

The second half: After reset in heavena:
6 Mana for each (that?s from the speed walkthrough guide, I approve), no points for health
Clara: Kinetic Shield everything
Eissford 4 Points to Lightning, All the Rest from now on to Smash.
Pippa: Rainbow

It worked suprisingly well, especially the last World (I finished the final battle without Tza Tze), but you need the right items (especially healing) and some fights need different stradegies.

Perhaps you can let Eissford do the Kinetic Shield and let Clara do Life Drain and Smash. Life Drain is my favourite, but there?s so many undead creatures in this game.

How did you do it, Mr Nobody?

In the first bit of the game before Djan:
Clara: Rock rain
Pippa: Magic Shield
Eisfford: Kinetic Shield

Next bit of the game:
Clara: Life Drain
Pippa: Magic Shield
Eisfford: Kinetic Shield

With the extra skill points:
Clara: Health
Pippa: Kinetic Smash
Eisfford: Mana

With the final boss, Pippa built up on magic shield in the first stage while clara helped eisfford with kinetic shield. When the CPU was free to attack, Pippa does kinetic smash.

In the second stage, clara dies from those missiles. And the missiles continue to hit her corpse. that way, the missiles will not damage the party. to destroy the c-bomb i used chain magic. And to attack the CPU, i used pippa's kinetic smash.

In the last stage, it was just easy. The magic shield will just block those blasts while pippa used kinetic smash and eisfford used celestial lightning. When the shield broke, Tza Tze will help and he will act as some sort of shield that does damage and can heal itself. That's how i won!

Sounds Great, but how am I going to beat Gigliana :?:

gigliana was easy. just shield the attacks with kinetic shield.

The ghosts can destroy the kinetic shield easliny in Elan's Tomb.

Anyway to win it?
:( :o :o :( :( :shock: :? :( :cry: :evil: :( :( :cry: :cry: :cry:

Yeah that one was hard. I had one using kinetic all the time. And one that alternated between magic and kinetic and one that kept on attacking and kinetic when needed.

Hey Mark. I was wondering how the animations in tse2 will be...
Amount of frames and such.

You couldn't by any chance upload some of the character and enemy animations here to show us? :)

Hey Lelle, good to see you here. :D
I'd like to put some animation art up, but feeling tired atm. Yeah, too tired to even sort out and upload some files. x_x Sorry, I'll try and respond properly over Christmas, if not before.

If I remember right, 6 frames for a walking cycle (years ago X)). This is one hard-working man!

It's actually 4. Not such a hard working man. ;)

Animation is my least favourite part of sprite work, so it's been the first place that I've cut corners when tackling the colossal mass of art that TSE-2 has needed. I also can't afford to be sloppy with individual frames, since the pause function now freezes the game on-screen. It's the area which I am most concious is lacking in the game.

How odd X)
Animating a sprite is the part I enjoy most, especially when I get to see the final results. What I very much hate to sprite are backgrounds, which is apparently what you'd opt to do first.
Post more screenshots!

Idea for a good party: Zepher, Mattheiu, then any character 1. Set up Z and M to have a party heal and 2 party recharges. Than set up the attacker to do any attack you need as long as the whole sequence doesnt use 4 mana total(R Ex.-Dynamite,Magic Bullet, Speed Fire|M Ex.-Kinetic Shield,Life Drain,Rock Rain|P Ex.-HotG,Silver Bullet,Holy Bolt)Put the healers points into heal only, and
Rifleman-Rifle Attack until lvl 5, Magic bullet until lvl 10, than alternate between Dynamite and recover until dynamite is at 4, than dynamite and magic bullet till their both at 5, then put a few points into health and mana, and resume upgrading attacks
Mage-Chain Magic till lvl 5-Rock rain till 10, Life drain to 5, points into mana and health
Priest-Rifle attack till 5, Alt between SB and HB till 10, HotG to 5, Health and mana.

Some1 tell me how to improve this, I want to see other ppls ideas

The skills you are choosing are horrible! Zepher healing alone is already enough and I believe that Matthieu is best using HotG. If you are going to use Clara as your only attacker, please do not choose Life Drain as the final skill! it has no effect on the final boss. If you are going to use Peter, please use Sharpshoot. it's his best skill. If you are going to use clementas, use Silver bullet. I strong suggest you use Peter using Sharpshoot coupled with Matthieu using HotG. And spend all skill points on their main skills. with the extra points improve Peter's health, Matthieu's Mana and Zepher's Party Bless or Mana.

Mana is recharged automatically, but it takes some time. Imagine a battle is very hard, everyone of your party is low on Mana and almost dead and the Boss enemy also deadly injured but about to finish you. Then maybe it would be wise to spend Matthieus last Mana on Party recharge so that Peter/Clara could be quicker than the enemy,(rather than waiting for Matthieu recharging a second Mana for HotG). But apart from such a situation I never used Party recharge and did never think of investing skillpoints there.

Did anyone ever use skillpoints for Party recharge?

Party Recharge always confused me. It's longer than the normal recharge and yet... you end up with the same net gain of mana. And to rub salt in the wounds, adding extra points doesn't make a significant difference. Imagine if it could be reduced to around half it's cooldown time through spending points, that would make it an awesome ability!

So far, the only use I have seen for Party Recharge is...

1) If all of your priest' attacks are useless because of immunities.

2) To fuel 2 mana spells before you get the creepy mystic mantle.

Still, I rather have my priest healing than use Party Recharge, wish it had been more useful but oh well.

I vote for Clemetas because silver bullet looks much cooler than sharpshoot (and of course there are a lot of undead creatures, I swear I heard him laughing like mad during the final fight)

Mana is very useful for resisting magic attacks. so there are two uses for it. And why waste skillpoints on party recharge? And sharpshoot looks way cooler than silver bullet. and there are also many (L) Large monsters.

Party Recharge was one of those skills that seemed like a much better idea before it was implemented. At the moment yeah, as Davzz said it's only really useful if your priest can't be used for anything else and you want a lot of 2-mana firepower to get a quick KO with your other 2 characters.

It's really cool to see such detailed analysis of the combat system. :D I've tried hard to make the system in the sequel more well rounded and robust.

Silver Bullet was one of my favourite skill effects. Darn, I should probably replay my own game ( it's 3 years now o_O ), at least to see if there's any good stuff in there that I have forgotten to bring through to TSE-2. But it's painful and embaressing for me to look at now. :cry:

"But it's painful and embaressing for me to look at now. :cry:"
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: EMBARRASSING?

whoa im embarrassed now ...... :oops:

i love tse1!

I want to share a game with all of you....
This game is played by all the family member in parties. When all the family members and even different families gather in one place to celebrate the event. It is home made game which you can play with your kids and children within your home...You can search for that type of games and make fun with family.. I like that treasure hunt game very much. Which is easy to make at home and played by all the members...

1.Is Angelina from another universe?


2.How exactly would Angelina return to her home if her plan succeeded?


Responses will be greatly appreciated.

1) Yes... another universe, planet, whatever. Doesn't she pretty much explain it just before the last boss fight?

2) I assume she'll rework the planet to progress very fast technogically and have access to space/dimension travel to get back to her home.

1 - It's an alternate universe.

2 - I can't actually remember whether she was going to use the spirits as a power source to replicate the original experiment or actually wish herself back home.
I kinda wrote the story on the fly and it shows, I know. ^_^ Looking back on the game a few months after I released it, I really wished that I had planned it more in advance, and really played up the 'evil Dorothy in Oz' angle a bit more with the whole story and especially Angelina.

But then I probably wouldn't have gotten the game finished if I had sat around thinking about it too much at the start, so this was probably for the best. ;)

Hello,

I have written a patch for wine,
which enables running The Spirit Engine under
GNU/Linux (tested), and possibly FreeBSD and Solaris
on X86.

I wrote the instructions here

On a side note, anyone knows whether TSE runs
correctly on plain old Windows 95?

Hi Claudio. Sorry I haven't responded to you sooner. Thanks for doing this, much appreciated. :D It's a shame that there are still some issues, like the crash bug, but it's still neat to have the game running on Linux.
I'm afraid I haven't heard whether or not the game runs on win95. It should, but I couldn't confirm it.

"
I'm afraid I haven't heard whether or not
the game runs on win95. It should, but I couldn't confirm it.
"

It would help a lot getting the patch into regular wine. In case someone out there has a chance to test this on such an old system, the issue is whether it is possible to save/load preferences and saved games in The Spirit Engine on Windows 95.

Cheers :)

Claudio

TSE works in win95. i don't have problems saving/loading preferences and games.
but the game runs without music and with lots of modfusion crashes.

the machine is a 120 Mhz Pentium with 32 Megs of RAM. lots of part are out of sync because the game is too slow. the grundelkrunk is invincible (taking shots but won't lose points)

Thanks Batchy :D
120Mhz? Wow. :O I tried the game out on my old 200Mhz Pentium and it was pretty slow there.

You can find a version of the game with the old version of the Modfusion plugin removed here:

[url]http://www.thespiritengine.com/Files/TSEBuild0615musicstrip.exe

I'm afriad that I can't do much about the other bugs. Because of the mix of timed and loop based events, some of the stuff in the game gets very wierd if it is run on relatively old PCs. :(

that's the version i used. i first tried the normal version but it was slower, and it was impossible to get to homestead; modfusion would crash after the first or the second fight.

Are you sure it was Modfusion causing the crashes in the music stripped version Batchy? It shouldn't even be in there, and there's certainly no code running it on any frames.

sorry if it was misunderstood. the stripped version did not crash, but it was buggy.

Whoops, sorry. Thanks for the clarification.

The good news is that the music engine for TSE2 is being completely redesigned and I'm going to more thoroughly bug-test it, so we should be crash-free in round 2 (;

"
Batchy-tse:

TSE works in win95. i don't have problems saving/loading preferences and games.
"

This information solves my problem, since I do not have access to a W95 or any other Windows box.
I have sent the patch to wine for inclusion, we'll see.

Thanks! :)

Claudio

I'll have a try at TSE using linux. Last time I tried without this patch, the game worked fine but there was no music or saving/loading. I'll see if this patch works on openSUSE 10.2

"I'll have a try at TSE using linux. Last time I tried without this patch, the game worked fine but there was no music or saving/loading. I'll see if this patch works on openSUSE 10.2"

Saving/loading is fixed by this patch, however music should
work with vanilla wine (works for me). I use the OSS wine driver, not the ALSA one (wineconf).

There is now a bug report open in the wine bug database:
[url]http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=8036.

You can report your results there.

The patch works. But it took almost 30 minutes to "make install" it. The first time a tried it, i didn't have all the necessary packages. So i did what this:
[url]http://en.opensuse.org/Wine#Repositories
told me to do. I tried again with all of the necessary packages required. And it worked! I installed TSE and the sound, loading/saving worked. Apart from one thing. the cursor image was broken. It's probably just my graphics driver's fault. Or the lack of it! (There's no 3d driver from VIA that is actually easy to install on opensuse 10.2).

I didn't like the process because I don't like installing all these packages that I don't need to use in the future. I like a "clean" system. And I don't like installing source packages. I like binary ones. RPMs. This procedure is way beyond the average user. Although what average user would use linux? I wish the binary version was patched! Now I'm going to reinstall opensuse to get it "clean" again.

Although it worked very well, it was a messy process. :D

Uhm, that freaking monster keeps catching up with me. Should I continue building up my levels so I can end the battles faster? Or if not, any tips?

Edit: That's it. I give up. I've gone through this area more than 10 times and each time, I keep getting killed. And my party level is like Level 19 already. Oh, sod this.

Ah well, I realised that I must've messed up party's spell lists pretty badly so I restarted the game. Now, I'm back in Serephit Bastion. This time, I'm gonna outrun you, you slimy monster!!! :twisted:

Who is in your Party and what skills did you develop?

Edit: Just gained a few levels again.

Peter, Zepher and the Casa something gal.

Peter: Magic Bullet lvl 3, Sharpshoot lvl 4, Rifle Attack lvl 5, Speed Fire lvl 2, Dynamite Lvl 3, Lasso lvl 1.

Zepher: Party Bless lvl 2, Spook Summon lvl 4, Holy Bolt lvl 1, Party Recharge lvl 4, Hand of God lvl 2, Party Heal lvl 5, Rifle Attack lvl 1(Can't remember if this skill was already learnt when I chose this character)

Casa something: Celestial Lightning Lvl 5, Rainbow lvl 2, Life Drain lvl 1, Chain Magic lvl 4, Kinetic Shield Lvl 4, Magic Shield lvl 3

*sighs* I hope the characters are okay. If not, I'm not sure if I want to restart the game a fourth time.

It's not advisable to assign your skill points to many different skills with the same character. You'll be much weaker that way. Follow the strategy in the walkthrough posted here and you will have no difficulties with this part of the game, or any other.

"It's not advisable to assign your skill points to many different skills with the same character. You'll be much weaker that way. Follow the strategy in the walkthrough posted here and you will have no difficulties with this part of the game, or any other."Edit: In the end, I couldn't get away from this game. :p I'm addicted... ><;;

Yeah, I took a look at the skill guides and the walkthrough. I guess I'll concentrate most of my skillpoints on 1 skill and a few other points on another side skill instead of choosing 3 to 4. Like about 10 points on healing and the rest on HOTG or Spook Summon.

Damnit, I guess it's going to be a bit difficult to play with a mage, a priest and a gunman, eh? >>;;

btw, does anyone know what's the maximum level you can gain?

Highest skill level is 30.
You don?t have to start all over again- if you manage to finish World 2 - at beginning of world 3 you are able to reset your skillpoints (but only one time).

I would advise to develop only one defensive skill (Zephers Healing or Eissfords Shield).
Healing is more effective but the Shield looks better (I tink)....

Well, it's too bad. I don't have any save games from the reset point. Anyways, I'm in the desert right now, trying to beat Grendael. I'm just hoping I can beat it before I tear apart the computer with a hammer. =P

Anyways, unable to inflict or absorb enough damage is one thing. The other thing is that it's getting frustratingly slow in accumulating credits: over 3 hours of battles and only 350 credits when I badly needed to upgrade my armour! Not even enough to save more than 1 to 2 save slots! The game must really hate me. :(

I really hope that in TSE2, you can reset your skill points at any place but for a price. At least, anyone who screws up in any point of the game can fix it.

Edit: This is it. I'm tired of trying to fix screwed up stats. Good riddance, TSE!

OH MAN, THAT?S SAD!!

Are you sure you tried all possible strategies for Granael?
In my first TSE-Experience I also chose the "wrong" skills and needed so many tries not only for the big enemies but it worked in the end, and that wouldn?t have been that great if it hadn?t been so damn hard :wink:

Did you notice Granael has only magical attacks, so any armour is of no use! The mana pool protects against magic, thats why that mana pool amulet is great for that fight and also any items that make damage.

Well, I've tried the below tactics so far and no, I didn't realise that the armor doesn't protect my characters from magic attacks(damnit... lol):

a) Started destroying the gruntlings by using HOTG, Power shot and Rainbow. Then, I set Zephyr to keep healing mainly(while pummeling every now and then with HOTG). Meanwhile my mage keeps up a magic shield and takes a shot now and then with Rainbow(Man, I had to put points in life drain which takes too darn long to cast!). Well, my party died out before Granael's health dwindled below 700 to 1000.

b) Also tried this: use HOTG, powershot and rainbow for the minions. Then, started using priest to heal while rifleman keeps shooting and mage keeps blasting. Nope, didn't work either.

c) I managed to look up the old forum from archive.org ,so using some tips, I experimented equipping one of the characters with the mana pool talismen. I tried swapping the talisman around. And also killing the minions and then recharging for a while. It worked but I can never kill the beast even though it usually has like 50 to 100 health left!

There's probably at least 3 to 5 more strategies I've tried. I just don't remember.

I guess my greatest problems are the freaking magical attacks and limited mana. Also, I can't gain anymore xp from the monsters in the tomb and the desert, so levelling is out! I'm like level 42 anyways.

Hey, if you get it down to 100 HP you should be able to make it!
So you have the mana pool talisman - great! Do you also have the creepy mystic mantle, protection against normal/energy attacks is only 4 (that doesn?t count against granael anyway), but it turns damage into mana!
It would help a lot!

Keep Zephyr healing right from the beginning, HotG is expensive- better no pummeling!
The rest attacks!
edit: what are your skill scores and wahat items do you still have (favoured drapes are good here) e.g.)?

Hah!!!! I haven't bought the creepy mantle but I should get it then! :lol: Thanks, dude. Just going to keep trying!! :p

Edit: I don't have the favoured drapes anymore. I'm starting to wish I knew how to edit the .ini files to do some "quick cheating". :p I kinda regret deleting it from the inventory.

Skills

Edward: Powershot(25)/Dynamite(3)/Magic Bullet(5)/Mana(8)/Rifle Attack(1)/Recover(1)/SpeedFire(1)
Zepher: HOTG(25)/Spook Summon(4)/Party Heal(8)/Mana(8)/Party Recharge(1)/Rifle Attack(1)
Eissford: Rainbow(27)Kinetic Smash(1)/Life Drain(4)/Mana(9)/Kinetic Shield(1)/Magic Shield(1)

Oh yeah, in another save slot, I had 1 free point from levelling. I wonder if I should've put that free point into Party Bless instead of Mana or Heal.

Items

Peter: Fullmetal jacket/Hunting Rifle/Emerald Talisman of blood
Zepher: Shotgun/fullmetal jacket/Pearl Talisman of heart
Eissford: Arcane granite robes/Opal Talisman of surging mana pool
Inventory items: Spider silk overcoat x 2/crystal talisman of trickling mana pool/emerald talisman of blood/Oaken armor

Bah, I got killed again. 3 times so far. This game is not fun anymore.

Sorry the game ended up like that for you Raito. It annoys me too when games just get so hard towards the end that they stop being fun to play.

( It's of no use to you now but there are difficulty settings in TSE-2. )

Those battles in W4 turned out to be the worst bottleneck in the game. Basing monster stats on party level was not a good idea.

I?d say it should be easy beating Granael with Powershot/Healing/Rainbow but then...I guess I never had to fight Granael being on such a high Level...I wasn?t aware that some enemies obviously get a lot stronger :?

Granael, Tza Tze and the Pocket Dimension creatures all have part of their health, armour and damage stats derived from the party level.
The idea ( with good intentions!) was that since the order you could do the three quests in was variable, they would adjust to try and provide a constant difficulty, rather than the first one you attempt being too hard / normal and the following ones being too easy because you've levelled up.

In reality, I think the party level contribution was too high, and I should have just used a 2/3 step arrangement for the stats, to allow for some amount of power levelling as a means to make them easier, rather than harder.
Also, difficulty levels and easier skill refunds. :roll:

"he idea ( with good intentions!) was that since the order you could do the three quests in was variable, they would adjust to try and provide a constant difficulty, rather than the first one you attempt being too hard / normal and the following ones being too easy because you've levelled up."

That idea is not wrong.

"to allow for some amount of power levelling as a means to make them easier, rather than harder. "

Would be a good solution.
So you have the challenge: can I win the next fight without levelling up? But you can be sure to be able to make it if you level up.
I remember when I first played I chose Clara, Pippa, Samuel (no Healer!) and chose "wrong" skills to develop (like Sam with sharpshoot) and it was hard but it worked in the end. So maybe you weren?t so far away from a perfect balance.

Hah well... I'll try again but for now, I'm taking a break from the game.

Well, Granael had like 7k health when I took him on... (or was that 6k? I don't recall). I'll try and see if I have any save games from much earlier.

And actually, I wasn't trying to power level but rather, in many other games I've played, it's recommended to keep raising your levels by partaking in many battles. Otherwise, you wouldn't be able to land even a scratch on the boss.

The teasers look interesting and cool, too!

Btw, I hope for all that is holy, that there will be more save spots. :p And a better balance of gameplay and story.

I?m looking forward to see those party melee-attacks in motion!
Will there also be the possibility to perform diving attacks like good old Crossbone?

Hi guys. :D
I think that the save spots are probably slightly more numerous than in TSE-1. There's rarely less than one per level, they're free to use now and you can have as many save slots as you can make sub-directories for. The story is a massive improvement. In regards to its balance with gameplay, it may be quite similar to the first game, but there is a super fast-forward built into the cutscene system so that you can skip through the story stuff.

Having proper melee attacks in the game is really fun. ^_^ There are 4 in the game, two for the knight and two for the priest. Rotating party members also causes them to move properly and the exact positions of both party members and monsters is now used when attacks are resolved.
No diving sadly, only monsters get to have that much fun. ;)

I would like to get some video of the game in motion, especially now that places like Youtube provide such easy hosting. However, I am paranoid about installing any free software onto my PC. :(

Hell, yeah... free software can be nasty! :( All that spyware! Maybe ya could borrow a digicam and record a movie. It'd be shaky but it's better than dealing with trojans and rootkits! ;___;

Oh yeah, also, one more suggestion:

I really hope that in TSE2, you can reset your skill points at any place but for a price. At least, anyone who screws up in any point of the game can fix it. Or well, maybe not at any place but at least a few spots per world.

(I'm saying this 'cos I tend to mess up my characters' stats a damn lot of times. I actually restarted TSE1 about 5 to 6 times 'cos of messed up stats. And right now, I think I might have to restart the game once more 'cos I kinda over-levelled, screwed up my skills and have plenty of problems against Grandael. Don't get me started on Tza Tze. Took me at least 10 to 15 tries to defeat him... ugh.)

And it's awesome to know that the save spots will be free to use. Currently, in TSE1, it's a bit unbalanced 'cos credits are not always dropped frequently, so you often end up having barely enough to save. :p And not enough to buy equipment.

Using a camcorder is an interesting idea, but the image quality would be too painful to look at I think. What I probably need to do is just find another PC to do the recording on. Camtasia Studio was very good when I tried it a few years ago, but the trial long since expired on my home pc.

Resetting skills will be easy in TSE-2. Refund points are earnt for every battle, and you can spend them at any time on the standard skills menu. There will also be no creatures like Granael, Tza Tze or the Pocket Dimension monsters whose stats are based on party level.

TSE-1 has been a great teacher in many respects. I have learnt a lot about what I should and shouldn't do for the sequel from the feedback people have given.

About those refund points: Ohhhh that's great news!!! Fantastic, indeed! :p

Haha yeah... most people's early tries can be good but kinda flawed too, just like a rough diamond. I guess it takes time to polish everything up.

Well, one thing for sure... I'm going to apply for a debit card and hope it works when I buy TSE2! :D You will be accepting other methods of payments, besides Paypal, right? :p

Can i just ask, how will the story be done this time?
No offense, but i didnt find the cut scenes too interesting in the first game, and well they were slow.

But i cant be one to diss, because you made and awesome game and have enough on your plate as it is.'

Also i liked the Enemies that were Stat Smart, Sure it was hard as hell, but it was Challenging and added something, but hey its your game.

Raito - I expect to be using a well-respected third-party distributor for the game when the time comes and I would expect any of them to cover plenty of the most popular payment options.

Lachlan - feel free to diss. :D The story is mixed in throughout the game in a similar way to the first. I have made serious ( successful I believe ) efforts to improve it this time around and it should be reasonably quick to skip for the uninterested.

Okay, so I finally got around to installing and using some new video capture software. The capture is sluggish on this PC, but I thought I would put up a short clip of the game's combat engine. It's been so long now since I released TSE and started work on the sequel that I've forgotten how many improvements were made.

Link courtesy of Youtube:

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84fZ7pLrXwk

I also see it as a useful way of spotting bugs and glitches. There were two serious health related ones that I spotted in there - one of which I hope is just the result the of my leaving some debug code active and the other of which shouldn't be too hard to fix.

I don't plan on doing any more of these for a while, what with the games release still likely to be a year away. Let me know what you think.

This is really nice Mark!
I love all the new things like the flow-of-time-thingy.
The only thing that bugs me is the healing-sound. Are you gonna use the same one or are you going to change it? I think it's kind of "worn out" and some of the other sound effects are to.
Well, that's about all of my ranting. :D
But yes, most things look incredably wonderful.

Thanks Lelle!
I can't say that the heal sound has bugged me before. Is it one of the MMF library sound effects? BONUS2.wav?

:) Good ( free to use ) magic sound effects are too valuable to pass up. www.sounddogs.com is my favourite site when all else fails, it's just that I've been very cheap the past 3 years.

Looks great to me! :D

I remember that I liked the healing sound...., but it is "worn out" after having played TSE very often..

I think I will like the "new" combat system, and, wow, winged Gunmaidens!? (Gun-fairies?) - I love your creatures!

This video was fairly interesting to watch. Not because I haven't seen it before, because I playtest a lot, but rather because the music sounds a bit dodgy in mono.

At any rate, looks good Mark, I'm excited, as always.

Thanks guys. :D
Because I'm using the demo version of SnagIt, the sound is actually recorded by putting a mic in front of my speakers. :? Quality is poor and I couldn't find a good way to boost the volume using Microsoft Movie Maker.

Development on a shoestring! ^_^ No expense spent!

Looking very smooth indeed.
If people thought the presentation in TSE1 was smooth this looks a hundred times improved. It seems very cool how all the little things that made the original sometimes tedious (the waiting for people to recover, the switching of skills, the WALKING! :P) are just simple clicks away. The sound was very very faint though... :S

Very funkadelic indeed.

ah this is awesome

everything is way more professional and improved, also the atmosphere looks cool

cant wait to play it!


"Good ( free to use ) magic sound effects are too valuable to pass up. www.sounddogs.com is my favourite site when all else fails, it's just that I've been very cheap the past 3 years."

looks a pretty complete site, are all sounds in them really free to use, even for commercial purposes?
(I wonder because packs have cost, instead of simple sounds)

Sorry Mark, if you didn't want this posted elsewhere, (I saw you signed up to the TIGForums) but it's just too good for people to just ignore...

No worries Jimbob, I appreciate it. :D I signed up to TIGsource in my lunchhour but then got distracted before I could post. x_x I'm liking the look of the TIGsource forums though, even though I just watch indy games from afar rather than play them myself.

Integral, I'm afraid Sounddogs isn't free. :( They are very cheap though, for royalty free effects. Their magical library is fantastic, including effects from old Interplay games. I'm looking to go shopping there again this week.

whops, thanks.

hah I wish I had a Investment Committee like you! http://www.act.is/about/mark_pay.asp

"hah I wish I had a Investment Committee like you! http://www.act.is/about/mark_pay.asp" :shock: wow :shock:

*shocked*
thats a good committee mr. pay!

(haha mark PAY, wory about the pun coming up)

i need to pay my peeps right or ill get 3 black marks.

(no offence? please? :wink: )

EDIT: omg THERES NO MENTION OF NATOMIC STUDIOS OR YOUR part-career AS GAME-MAKER!

uh, I dont think hes the same guy, that was meant to be just a joke ^_.

"uh, I dont think hes the same guy, that was meant to be just a joke ^_."

oh. -.-

There are a handful of other Mark Pay's around, surprisingly. I don't know how the fellow's Bio page got a higher Google rank than the Natomic frontpage. Perhaps the showboating bastard is a spambotter? ;)

the one behind the infestation in this forum

"the one behind the infestation in this forum" :shock: i hope not! :evil:

getting back to topic, seems there are lots on interesting innovations in the combat system

besides chains, that seems they are now many and way longer,
I dont fully understand why under the pause button of characters there is more than 1 chain in the same time being activated (or whatever they are)
+ what is the use of the pause/play buttons (personal and global)and the loading bars.

The three buttons with text under the pause buttons work like the star buttons in the original game ( left click to switch to skill chain) Except that now you can also right click to bring up a menu of all your stored skill chains ( 14 per character atm ) and assign it to one of the three buttons.

The play/pause buttons tell characters whether they should perform a skill once they are ready. The 4th play/pause button affects all 3 characters.

The loading bars indicate current energy. They start to change colour when they reach the maximum and start to overcharge the next skill.

i dont feel like typing so :shock: :? :) :D :lol: NICE :wink:

can i please have permission to try to make my own copy (with other features) on a diferent game maker (funnily enough its called "Game Maker")?

i wont sell it :roll: im too bad at them :cry: :oops: :cry:

lol.

Hi, Mark Pay, new member, you know the one that emailed you about the login problems. Anyway, i'm here saying that this game's going pretty darn smooth, even from that video you made. I apologize that it won't be free, but i pretty much already understand why it's not. If this thing develops nicely, it's pretty worth the price.

"i dont feel like typing so :shock: :? :) :D :lol: NICE :wink:

can i please have permission to try to make my own copy (with other features) on a diferent game maker (funnily enough its called "Game Maker")?

i wont sell it :roll: im too bad at them :cry: :oops: :cry:"

nvm im too busy making an extension to TRIUMPH war 2099

Hi DBAce9Aura. :D Welcome, and no worries about the sign-up problems. The current sign-up process I'm currently having to use because I can't install a decent phpBB mod without breaking the forums is less than ideal.

I wish I could stay freeware too, but I can't really afford to be idealistic with a project taking up so much time. The dream is to support oneself as an independant developer, but I realise this is highly unlikely. Any revenue that relieves a little financial pressure will help though, since I don't see myself earning a good wage any time soon.

Selling a product is going to be an exciting challenge and a big responsibility. I am both eager and terrified to give it a go.

you'll need a good and proper publisher, already found/got your eye caught by a fitting one?

I'm actually in the same situation and having no experience or references is such a problem

"you'll need a good and proper publisher, already found/got your eye caught by a fitting one?

I'm actually in the same situation and having no experience or references is such a problem"

try DarksunGames

they are good -.- i think :?

but the owner hasnt updated the site in 3 years lol

maybe make it on a site, and have it have to pay with PAYPAL then download?

I'm not sure whether 'publisher' in the traditional sense is the best term to use for these sort of independant projects, given that financing, marketing, testing and creative direction are largely, if not entirely, handled by the developer themselves.

That just leaves distribution/sales, again technically something that the developer can handle themselves with a web server and a payment system, but something that I would personally want to use another company for. They take a cut obviously, but also take a lot of hassle off your hands, and I really wouldn't want to be messing around with payment software or mail orders when there's money involved. I have looked at a couple of commonly used companies for this, but haven't made any decisions. Got much more to worry about between then and now. ;)

There's other methods of selling I know, more like traditional publishing, the big games portals and the like, but I hear they rip you off and it's not necessarily worth the increased exposure. There's a few horror stories I've read on indy forums of sharks claiming to fill the 'publisher' role taking advantage of independant developers too.
I'm getting to hear more about the business side of getting mobile phone games published at work - that's fascinating stuff, but another world entirely and quite scary stuff ( and seemingly very indy-hostile )

PS - Oh forgot to ask, what's the project that you're working on integral?

you got the point of my same fears and Im also not surprised to hear stuff like that,

my project is another RPG but isometric, sci-fi settings and more baldurs-gate-like oriented

(I've PMed you a screenie)

I dont have a much stuff material to show (I spent over 3 months in system organization and Im still making the engine) but once I'll have begun designing areas and more sprites I'll make a preview page or mini-site for that

Have you guys read this? (from Fost at Moonpod)

http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=116.0

It's a very interesting read for people who want to get their games sold. Check it out.

Thanks for the link Jimbob, I don't check the business subforum often.

I found their perspective on advertising extremely valulable. It is a shame that advertising is not available at a lower cost. I'm not surprised to hear that it's effectiveness is dubious at those sort of rates. I have to admit myself that I never click on a game advert unless a particular piece of artwork intrigues me - and then that's almost always just to go check out more of their art, not make a purchase.

I found out this http://www.packominteractive.com/services.htm

which seems to make exception as providing single publishing services at low costs, I could be wrong however

Well one of their clients (but only for distributing press releases) is 'The Blackwell Legacy' (from the maker of The Shivah). It's the only one out of the bunch they list that I've heard of, but it's a pretty big anticipated indie game as far as I know...

Their first published game came out in December 06, so they are also quite new, and maybe more attuned to your needs as the guy running it seems to be an independent developer as well. The other games don't look too good tbh... it's hard to say really.

Are you intended to make more videos from the game soon? Would be nice to see some more of the material, as long as it doesn't spoil the story and such. :)

And did you hear that Hamish abandoned War Angels? Don't you dare doing the same with TSE2! :twisted:

lol yeah I read that yesterday

http://faindfiles.com/ProjectExplosion/viewtopic.php?t=3

it's already indie-fauna cliche;
I think we all developers (me included) couldnt write sincere lifestories much different than that, however.

"Hamish abandoned War Angels"

Awwww damn. :(

TSE-2 will be finished, barring Acts of God ( /looks nervously over shoulder, He's a vicious bastard. )
I'm not sure about new videos right now. My trial on snagit has run out and although it's cheap, money is causing me problems at the moment ( is it ever any other way? ;) ) I have other material that I can use for the next couple of updates.

I'm looking forward to the Easter holiday coming up. Woo - two whole free days worth of quality time, just me n' ma game. ^_^ Hopefully I can restrain myself from making some awfully lame April Fools news post between then and now.

nice very nice

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=Y79SWI5M World 1
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=UB778LZW World 2
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=XU5K3Q7V World 3
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=C6QAN4RZ World 4
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=B5R45EJ3 World 5

aww cant display them with gnu VLC (no codec)

could you-tube them?

You need the TSCC Codec that you can download here:

http://www.techsmith.com/download/codecs.asp

I might put the videos up on youtube or google video at some point but not in the next week or two.

This is awesome chaos! Congrats on finishing the game in such a short time ( and more than once too )
The filesizes seem a little large. It'd be nice to see them in a more compressed format or, of course, good old Youtube. ;)

"The filesizes seem a little large. It'd be nice to see them in a more compressed format or, of course, good old Youtube. ;)"

:shock: way..... too..... [size=24:140afafd8a]BIG! :shock:

i hope the size thingie worked -.-

:oops: im not allowed to download anything over 50 megabytes sorry PLZ PUT IT ON YOUTUBE

[size=7:140afafd8a]because i want to see the best way to kill grandfather lol :oops:

Yes, the recording is high quality and the whole run is almost 1 GB. I don't have time to upload the files to youtube or google video until next week so I guess you'll have to wait until then (if someone wants to upload them before then, be my guest).

kk




tell us when u do lol

I like speed runs. But couldn't you have compressed it? Compress it on your computer first. You wouldn't loose that much quality

OUCH!!!! it takes about 3 days to download it. but when I do, My Administratior's laptop will overheat.

Any way to download faster?

Cant dwonload it because it takes like 8 hrs to download it.

Megaupload Downloads are way too boring to wait (because you have to be like over 18 to sign up). If I do it, I'll get locked up (SERIOUSLY).

:( :cry: :cry: :cry: :( :( :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :( :(

Ok, so I finally figured out how to upload videos to google (due to the size and length of the videos, I can't upload them to youtube). This should make viewing them a lot easier, albeit in much lower quality. Here are the links:

World 1 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5660930063395148701
World 2 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3097463313682254856
World 3 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3549501508384349354
World 4 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6711533789610266331
World 5 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4445492571411134368

Thanks for posting these chaos. I've not looked back at the game in over 3 years now so it's personally interesting, and quite painful, to watch them.

:shock: in all teh forums ive been on it got stuck at 56 :shock:

help me change that ;-P

1!!!!!!

":shock: in all teh forums ive been on it got stuck at 56 :shock:

help me change that ;-P

1!!!!!!"

COME ON GUYS! POST!

2

1

Whoops, gotta start again

"1

Whoops, gotta start again"

oh well :P

2!

""1

Whoops, gotta start again"

oh well :P

2!"

3

Dude, don't be an idiot.

"Dude, don't be an idiot."

im not -l.-

i was feeling stupid that day :roll:

Hi all. I broke the forum today. I've made a messy reinstall and rebuilt the database, but there may still be some busted stuff in here. Please let me know if you find anything wrong with it.

PHP mods are an ugly business. I was trying to install something to keep the spambots from registering at all, but I failed and I've wasted half a day I could have better spent working on TSE-2 raging at the machine instead. C'est la vie.
For the time-being I will stick to manual authentication. Better than no board at all. ;)

:shock: heh at least you didnt accidentally delete the forum :lol:

asta la vista, forum mods

:D

Hi, everybody, I'm just working on a pencil and paper RPG of my own, it will NOT be published...ever, because i hate it when publishers cut out all the good elements of your game and turn it into garbage. Anyway, i'll start off the description with the player stats:

HP: Your health (obviously)
MP: Your spell energy
SP: Your will, consumed from physical attacks
ATK: Physical offense
DEF: Physical endurance
MGC: Magical offense
WIS: Stamina recovery rate, success rate of physical attacks, resistance against non-elemental attacks

One more part of the description, and i'll save it until another post. The enemy races:

Stereotype: Consists of knights, warriors, mages, clerics, etc.
Nature: Consists of insects, plants, animals, etc.
Humanoid: Consists of anything that stands on two legs
Omenair: Consists of creatures from another dimension
Object: Consists of objects animated by magic
Spirit: Consists of elementals, phantoms, etc.
Mythical: Consists of creatures ripped from mythology
Mechanical: Consists of machine-like enemies
Crossbreed: Consists of creatures formed from merging other creatures into one
Guardian: Mini-boss enemies
Legend: Boss enemies

Any comments?

:shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:

*claps slowly*

:shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:

*claps faster than ever before*

Sounds like a good start. Designing mechanics at this stage is a lot of fun.

I'm a fan of tabletop gaming myself. It's so low tech, but I enjoy it considerably more than online gaming.

It gets better, i planned for the item mods for the weapons, armor, and accesories. Here are a few examples of the items with such mods:

Shadowwielding Warlock Tome of Racism
Titanium Plate Armor of Offense
Jeweled Runestone of Life

I have seperate NotePad documents to cover all the other bits of info, provided anyone wants to see them via email.

Interesting update folks: There'll be two versions of this game, one of them has pretty much what i described in the previous posts and more, another one will have entirely different features, system, but have similar enemies, dungeons, and areas to explore. Here are the names of the two versions:

*Alliance version: Contains all i just described
*Dynasty version: Contains features that're far from finalized

"Interesting update folks: There'll be two versions of this game, one of them has pretty much what i described in the previous posts and more, another one will have entirely different features, system, but have similar enemies, dungeons, and areas to explore. Here are the names of the two versions:

*Alliance version: Contains all i just described
*Dynasty version: Contains features that're far from finalized"
nice

a few pictures/screenshots please? lol

Your post, unfortunately, is a tad overdue, since these two things merged into one somehow and is now one project (it's a very LONG story, one i don't wanna burden anybody with). As for screenshots, the graphics need finalizing before they can be reveiled, and since i have no website, i wouldn't be able to post'em up. As for what it now is, well, i'll just start off with the stats (along with what they determine)

HP: Your life force (reduced when damage is received)
MP: Your mystic energy (reduced when using spells or techs)
ATK: Your physical strength (affects damage dealt from techs or regular attacks)
DEF: Your physical endurance (affects damage received from regular attacks)
MGC: Your mystic power (affects damage dealt from spells or techs)

"Your post, unfortunately, is a tad overdue, since these two things merged into one somehow and is now one project (it's a very LONG story, one i don't wanna burden anybody with). As for screenshots, the graphics need finalizing before they can be reveiled, and since i have no website, i wouldn't be able to post'em up. As for what it now is, well, i'll just start off with the stats (along with what they determine)

HP: Your life force (reduced when damage is received)
MP: Your mystic energy (reduced when using spells or techs)
ATK: Your physical strength (affects damage dealt from techs or regular attacks)
DEF: Your physical endurance (affects damage received from regular attacks)
MGC: Your mystic power (affects damage dealt from spells or techs)"

ohh ok

good luck anyway

Still no screenshots, yet. Still polishing the visuals (aka, making them better). I kinda had to repolish the game mechanics though and decided to take some few pointers from such games as Dark Cloud (weapon development), as well as Lufia 2 (battle interface), and especially the Zelda series (open-ended exploration). This isn't exactly an accurate description of what my game project will be, but it's close

"Still no screenshots, yet. Still polishing the visuals (aka, making them better). I kinda had to repolish the game mechanics though and decided to take some few pointers from such games as Dark Cloud (weapon development), as well as Lufia 2 (battle interface), and especially the Zelda series (open-ended exploration). This isn't exactly an accurate description of what my game project will be, but it's close"

:O

grrr.....

YOU MAKE ME JEALOUS!

lol.....

*wishes you good luck again*

WOW!!

It's been ages since i lasted posted something here. Anyway, my project's received major changes since last time.

*Planned an icon-based menu system (NOT like the Mana series)
*Spirit-tapping (still polishing this)
*Simplified equipment system (rings, bracelets, shields and amulets are the basis of equipment) in a lousy attempt to one day attract casual gamers into it
*Reworked battle system(icon based)/character growth system(partially in the vein of TSE-1 and TSE-2)/actual setting (setting's a mixture of Celtic and Babylonian mythology)
*All previously mentioned systems have been cropped out all together (Sorry)

One more thing: www.stencyl.com , this will be the game making program that i'll use once it's released

We all know the obvious improvement of this game's visuals from the original TSE, but the BIG improvement comes fromt the gameplay. The playable characters this time consist of gunmaidens (female counterparts of the riflemen from the first game), shamans, knights, and the priests (as seen in TSE-1). Also, i have to ask Mr. Pay about those "skill chains" and how they help improve the game's combat system to be superior to the one in TSE-1.

Better 2 weeks late than never? Sorry. :(

There's actually still 3 classes in TSE-2: Knights, Priests and Gunmaidens ( please please, if you can come up with a better name for a female rifleman than that, let me know. I've been drawing a blank on this for 3 years now ;) )

The skill chains have the same basic principle as those in the first game, with a load of functional improvements.
You can now put up to 10 skills in them instead of 3 ( never done it myself, but the option's there ) You now have 14 individual chains per character, up from 3. You can skip back and forth between skills in a chain with a button press. Some skills now have targets assigned.
There's party chains too, where all 3 characters follow a set sequence together.

Most importantly of all, you can pause and resume chains when you like, which gives you fine control over the timing of skill use. It's turned out to work rather different to the old system, in a very good way, very hands on. Combined with the in-game pause I think it makes for much more involving combat.

Only three character types?! Then whats with that shaman character i say in that combat demo video? Was he "standard place holder" material? On the subject of the female counterparts to the rifleman from TSE-1, Gunmaiden is actually a creative name.

P.S. I liked the original "The Spirit Engine" game

Ah, he's actually a priest. All of the nine characters have unique graphics this time, unlike the first game which had 3 base sprites.

Thanks for the vote of support on 'Gunmaiden'. I'm kinda liking 'Musketeer' right now - I think it's technically gender neutral. ;) Any ideas welcome.

Markswoman?

Although I am completely sold on the word 'Musketeer' in any game...

Ok, we got the low down on the skill and combat system, the playable characters, but what about the foes. I wonder what type of skills the foes will have that seperate themselves from the playable characters.

Gunmaiden still sounds the coolest
I hope the charachter combinations will be in favour of diversity, i remember in the first game 3 preists kicked ass over anything else.

The classes ought to combine better this time around, with their unique skills and attributes aimed to encourage interdependancy.

For example;

Knights absorb and deal a lot of damage, but they mostly have to do it in close combat.

Gunmaidens get to do their damage from range with some great attack skills and have great area of effect abilities but no healing.

Priests have great support and decent nearest-target damage skills, but no area of effect or artillery skills. I think you'd really struggle with 3 priests in TSE-2, especially since enemy party rotation is active from the start and the recover mechanic allows any character to return to the game after being KOed for a certain period.
Knights are probably the best all-rounders at the moment, but you'll miss a lot of the utility skills from the other two classes if you don't have them.

All 3 classes resist and counter damage in different ways as well.

That said, I don't want to discourage 3-of-the-same partys. Hopefully they will still be viable.

Okay, there's one more question that needs to asked in terms of gameplay:

What does the equipment with various abilities bring to the table?

To save me some typing, here's a shot from the item editor instead:

http://www.thespiritengine.com/Images/editorshot01.png

Lots more stats basically. :)

"To save me some typing, here's a shot from the item editor instead:

http://www.thespiritengine.com/Images/editorshot01.png

Lots more stats basically. :)"
oh..... my..... god.....

*wishes i decided to pay for MMF*

oh well :S looks nice!

I love those item names :D

very interesting indeed

you made also a gatekeeper-like editor for savegames?

Thanks guys!

There's an editor for all the external files. This is what it handles:

http://www.thespiritengine.com/Images/editorshot02.png

definitely professional

awesome, i cant wait to buy this game. There should be some sort of online highscore thing, but for game completion time or something.

Thanks. :D
That's a nice idea Lachlan. I'd like to add such a feature, but the challenges in getting it to work, work well and not be abusable are probably too time consuming right now. Those sort of nice, but very much optional, additions I would like to look at after the game's release, if there is enough interest in the features, and obviously the game itself!

well there SHOULD be enough interest in a game of this quality.

I guesse it all comes down to advertising. Have you got a website backing the release? Or are you too busy to think about that? ;)

Im sure all 5 forum posters would be willing to stick thinks on our other forum sigs... :)

Im sure some indie game website would be happy to promote something of this callibre. Id like to animate something for newgrounds, could do spirit enginy stuff in the days leading up to help promotion.

Hey, there were 6 last time I counted. Did we lose one? ;)

Advertising is very important I know. I have been holding back on any promotional activity until I get well into the test and polish phase and have a firm release date in mind. The release schedule is very much affected by my current uncertain employment, so I won't be able to get a clear picture of when I can do what for some time to come.

Thank-you very much for the offer of support. It means a lot to me and I'm sure I'll need it when the time comes! Thanks. :D

Well ive been waiting to get back into animating for some time, so if i have your permission to use the spirit engine name and charachters, i might as well start sooner than later ;)

I enjoy those editor shots :3

"Hey, there were 6 last time I counted. Did we lose one? ;)

Advertising is very important I know. I have been holding back on any promotional activity until I get well into the test and polish phase and have a firm release date in mind. The release schedule is very much affected by my current uncertain employment, so I won't be able to get a clear picture of when I can do what for some time to come.

Thank-you very much for the offer of support. It means a lot to me and I'm sure I'll need it when the time comes! Thanks. :D"

Mark, once TSE-2 is up and running, I will happily make many forum banners and sigs

Will you be making it this year?
I'm thinking of making a first and grand appearance, just to see my fellow gamemakers. I heard you went last time so it'd be cool to meet up...

Of course I will be back from New Zealand by then, and hopefully have finished my game, but we'll see....

Hey Jimbob :D

I would like to make it this year, but the work situation is awkward and I won't know until much nearer the time. If I'm back in the UK by then and they still have places spare I'll try and get in.
They're pretty good fun, I've been to two now. Nice bunch of people and it's interesting to see what some people get up to with MMF - it's not all what appears on the Daily Click.

I demoed TSE-2 2 years ago and did a pretty poor job of it. It's kind of hard to get people interested in basic technical improvements on a game they've never even heard of before, let alone played. ^_^

Look forward to seeing you there if I can go. What are you doing over in NZ btw? :D

Just been doing my third year as a exchange here at Auckland. Coming back at the end of June to miss the southern winter just in time for the northern summer :P

Now I just have to get some money from somewhere. If I could get paid developing unfinished games I could make a fortune! :)

"Just been doing my third year as a exchange here at Auckland. Coming back at the end of June to miss the southern winter just in time for the northern summer :P

Now I just have to get some money from somewhere. If I could get paid developing unfinished games I could make a fortune! :)"

Nice one jimbob!

If Mark makes it out, he will be my spokesperson. ^___^

"If Mark makes it out, he will be my spokesperson. ^___^"

Bad idea alert! XD

In all seriousness, I'd love to if I'm back in the UK and able to make the convention. Actually it's pretty close now isn't it - 3 months off?

Sometime in September. Possibly even the 1st...

Haha, I was mostly kidding, but if you want me to feed you some index card material or a short video to play, I can do (;

"Haha, I was mostly kidding, but if you want me to feed you some index card material or a short video to play, I can do (;"

oh

good luck jimbob :mrgreen:

Update - Thanks to Peter for such a fast response. :D We should be okay now.

[color=olive:a614ad2a6b]
Hi there,

I need a set of TSE-1 save files to help Claudio with testing the game for wine. I don't actually have a set on my PC here - can anyone help us out?

The files are:

C:\Windows\savegame.ini
C:\Windows\savename.ini
C:\Windows\w9xabc.ini

Any mails to mark.pay|AT|thespiritengine.com


Thanks! :D

"Update - Thanks to Peter for such a fast response. :D We should be okay now.

[color=olive:9c6b183bd4]
Hi there,

I need a set of TSE-1 save files to help Claudio with testing the game for wine. I don't actually have a set on my PC here - can anyone help us out?

The files are:

C:\Windows\savegame.ini
C:\Windows\savename.ini
C:\Windows\w9xabc.ini

Any mails to mark.pay|AT|thespiritengine.com


Thanks! :D"

THANKS MARK!

O_o

uhh..... appoximately how hard is it to program things like bullets in that creator you used (i think multimedia fusion i forget hte name)

thx mark, that helped a lot. :D

I took some time and pieced together a program to do skill analysis with some more factors included, in particular the effect of blessing and running out of mana. Not all skills are included but they could be added quite easily in most cases. Note that there are bound to be some errors in here because the game doesn't always seem to use the values listed in The Spiritual Compendium. In particular the cooldown time of chain magic in the game seems to be different even for Eisfford and Pippa and the blessing formula seems off by one (I included that in this program)

Here's the source code for those interested, it should compile on every C++ compiler under any OS. All output is in damage/second, the levels and rifle strengths can be changed by changing the constants at the beginning of the program, as well as the filename of the text output.

"#include <cstdlib>
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <sstream>
#include <limits>

const char g_outputfilename[] = "stats.txt";

const int g_riflestr1 = 6;
const int g_riflestr2 = 15;

const int g_level1 = 20;
const int g_level2 = 50;

enum char1enum
{
c1clara,
c1peter,
c1clemetas,
} g_char1;

enum char2enum
{
c2pippa,
c2edward,
c2zepher,
} g_char2;

enum char3enum
{
c3eisfford,
c3samuel,
c3matthieu,
} g_char3;

enum priestenum
{
pclemetas,
pzepher,
pmatthieu,
pnone,
} g_priest;

int g_lvl1bless = 0;
int g_lvl1bless_noskill = 0;
int g_lvl2bless = 0;
int g_lvl2bless_noskill = 0;

bool g_padding = true;

const float blessskillfactor[3] = {0.8f, 1.2f, 1.0f};

int posinstring( char c, const std::string &s )
{
for (int i = 0; i < s.length(); i++)
if (s[i] == c)
return i;
return -1;
}

int switchinput( const std::string &options )
{
char value;
while (!(std::cin >> value) || posinstring(value, options) == -1)
{
std::cin.clear();
std::cin.ignore(std::numeric_limits<std::streamsize>::max(), '\n');
std::cout << "Not a possible value." << std::endl;
}
return posinstring(value, options);
}

void printfloat( std::ofstream &ofsm, float f, bool padding )
{
std::ostringstream out;
std::string outstr;
int outint;
outint = (int)(f*1000.0f);
out << outint/1000 << ".";
if ((outint % 1000) / 10 + (outint % 10 >= 5) < 10)
out << '0';
out << (outint % 1000) / 10 + (outint % 10 >= 5);
if (padding)
for (int i = 0; i < 7 - out.str().length(); i++)
outstr += " ";
outstr += out.str();
ofsm << outstr;
}

void printskill( std::ofstream &ofsm, int constpart, float sdep, float pdep, float gdep, float recharge, int manause, int multiplier, bool selfbless = false )
{
float f;
int skp1 = std::min(30, g_level1 - 1);
int skp2 = std::min(30, g_level2 - 1);

ofsm << "\t";

// low level, all skill points spent on this move
f = (float)((constpart + skp1*sdep + g_level1*pdep + g_riflestr1*gdep)*multiplier)/recharge;
printfloat( ofsm, f, g_padding );
ofsm << "\t";
if (g_priest != pnone)
{
// low level, all skill points spent on this move, blessed by a priest who invested no skill in blessing
f = (float)((constpart + skp1*sdep + (g_level1+g_lvl1bless_noskill)*pdep + g_riflestr1*gdep)*multiplier)/recharge;
printfloat( ofsm, f, g_padding );
ofsm << "\t";
if (!selfbless)
{
// low level, all skill points spent on this move, blessed by a priest who invested all skill in blessing
f = (float)((constpart + skp1*sdep + (g_level1+g_lvl1bless)*pdep + g_riflestr1*gdep)*multiplier)/recharge;
printfloat( ofsm, f, g_padding );
}
ofsm << "\t";
}
// low level, no skill points spent on this move
f = (float)((constpart + g_level1*pdep + g_riflestr1*gdep)*multiplier)/recharge;
printfloat( ofsm, f, g_padding );
ofsm << "\t";
if (g_priest != pnone)
{
// low level, no skill points spent on this move, blessed by a priest who invested no skill in blessing
f = (float)((constpart + (g_level1+g_lvl1bless_noskill)*pdep + g_riflestr1*gdep)*multiplier)/recharge;
printfloat( ofsm, f, g_padding );
ofsm << "\t";
// low level, no skill points spent on this move, blessed by a priest who invested all skill in blessing
f = (float)((constpart + (g_level1+g_lvl1bless)*pdep + g_riflestr1*gdep)*multiplier)/recharge;
printfloat( ofsm, f, g_padding );
ofsm << "\t";
}

// high level, all skill points spent on this move
f = (float)((constpart + skp2*sdep + g_level2*pdep + g_riflestr2*gdep)*multiplier)/recharge;
printfloat( ofsm, f, g_padding );
ofsm << "\t";
if (g_priest != pnone)
{
// high level, all skill points spent on this move, blessed by a priest who invested no skill in blessing
f = (float)((constpart + skp2*sdep + (g_level2+g_lvl2bless_noskill)*pdep + g_riflestr2*gdep)*multiplier)/recharge;
printfloat( ofsm, f, g_padding );
ofsm << "\t";
if (!selfbless)
{
// high level, all skill points spent on this move, blessed by a priest who invested all skill in blessing
f = (float)((constpart + skp2*sdep + (g_level2+g_lvl2bless)*pdep + g_riflestr2*gdep)*multiplier)/recharge;
printfloat( ofsm, f, g_padding );
}
ofsm << "\t";
}
// high level, no skill points spent on this move
f = (float)((constpart + g_level2*pdep + g_riflestr2*gdep)*multiplier)/recharge;
printfloat( ofsm, f, g_padding );
ofsm << "\t";
if (g_priest != pnone)
{
// high level, no skill points spent on this move, blessed by a priest who invested no skill in blessing
f = (float)((constpart + (g_level2+g_lvl2bless_noskill)*pdep + g_riflestr2*gdep)*multiplier)/recharge;
printfloat( ofsm, f, g_padding );
ofsm << "\t";
// high level, no skill points spent on this move, blessed by a priest who invested all skill in blessing
f = (float)((constpart + (g_level2+g_lvl2bless)*pdep + g_riflestr2*gdep)*multiplier)/recharge;
printfloat( ofsm, f, g_padding );
}


ofsm << std::endl << "No mana\t";
// the following assumes the character is out of mana and needs to recharge for every move
// low level, all skill points spent on this move
f = (float)((constpart + skp1*sdep + g_level1*pdep + g_riflestr1*gdep)*multiplier)/(recharge + 5.5*manause);
printfloat( ofsm, f, g_padding );
ofsm << "\t";
if (g_priest != pnone)
{
// low level, all skill points spent on this move, blessed by a priest who invested no skill in blessing
f = (float)((constpart + skp1*sdep + (g_level1+g_lvl1bless_noskill)*pdep + g_riflestr1*gdep)*multiplier)/(recharge + 5.5*manause);
printfloat( ofsm, f, g_padding );
ofsm << "\t";
if (!selfbless)
{
// low level, all skill points spent on this move, blessed by a priest who invested all skill in blessing
f = (float)((constpart + skp1*sdep + (g_level1+g_lvl1bless)*pdep + g_riflestr1*gdep)*multiplier)/(recharge + 5.5*manause);
printfloat( ofsm, f, g_padding );
}
ofsm << "\t";
}
// low level, no skill points spent on this move
f = (float)((constpart + g_level1*pdep + g_riflestr1*gdep)*multiplier)/(recharge + 5.5*manause);
printfloat( ofsm, f, g_padding );
ofsm << "\t";
if (g_priest != pnone)
{
// low level, no skill points spent on this move, blessed by a priest who invested no skill in blessing
f = (float)((constpart + (g_level1+g_lvl1bless_noskill)*pdep + g_riflestr1*gdep)*multiplier)/(recharge + 5.5*manause);
printfloat( ofsm, f, g_padding );
ofsm << "\t";
// low level, no skill points spent on this move, blessed by a priest who invested all skill in blessing
f = (float)((constpart + (g_level1+g_lvl1bless)*pdep + g_riflestr1*gdep)*multiplier)/(recharge + 5.5*manause);
printfloat( ofsm, f, g_padding );
ofsm << "\t";
}
// high level, all skill points spent on this move
f = (float)((constpart + skp2*sdep + g_level2*pdep + g_riflestr2*gdep)*multiplier)/(recharge + 5.5*manause);
printfloat( ofsm, f, g_padding );
ofsm << "\t";
if (g_priest != pnone)
{
// high level, all skill points spent on this move, blessed by a priest who invested no skill in blessing
f = (float)((constpart + skp2*sdep + (g_level2+g_lvl2bless_noskill)*pdep + g_riflestr2*gdep)*multiplier)/(recharge + 5.5*manause);
printfloat( ofsm, f, g_padding );
ofsm << "\t";
if (!selfbless)
{
// high level, all skill points spent on this move, blessed by a priest who invested all skill in blessing
f = (float)((constpart + skp2*sdep + (g_level2+g_lvl2bless)*pdep + g_riflestr2*gdep)*multiplier)/(recharge + 5.5*manause);
printfloat( ofsm, f, g_padding );
}
ofsm << "\t";
}
// high level, no skill points spent on this move
f = (float)((constpart + g_level2*pdep + g_riflestr2*gdep)*multiplier)/(recharge + 5.5*manause);
printfloat( ofsm, f, g_padding );
ofsm << "\t";
if (g_priest != pnone)
{
// high level, no skill points spent on this move, blessed by a priest who invested no skill in blessing
f = (float)((constpart + (g_level2+g_lvl2bless_noskill)*pdep + g_riflestr2*gdep)*multiplier)/(recharge + 5.5*manause);
printfloat( ofsm, f, g_padding );
ofsm << "\t";
// high level, no skill points spent on this move, blessed by a priest who invested all skill in blessing
f = (float)((constpart + (g_level2+g_lvl2bless)*pdep + g_riflestr2*gdep)*multiplier)/(recharge + 5.5*manause);
printfloat( ofsm, f, g_padding );
ofsm << std::endl;
}
}

void printriflemanskill( std::ofstream &ofsm, int character )
{
ofsm << "Rif att";
printskill( ofsm, 0, 2.0f, 0.5f, 2.0f, 4.0f, 0, 1 );
switch(character)
{
case 0:
ofsm << std::endl << "Spdfire";
printskill( ofsm, 0, 2.0f, 0.5f, 2.0f, 5.8f, 1, 3 );
ofsm << std::endl << "Sharpsh";
printskill( ofsm, 0, 7.0f, 2.0f, 8.0f,10.8f, 1, 1 );
ofsm << std::endl << "Magbllt";
printskill( ofsm, 7, 6.0f, 1.0f, 3.0f, 5.6f, 1, 1 );
ofsm << std::endl << "Pshot1x";
printskill( ofsm,-2, 2.5f, 1.0f, 3.0f, 4.9f, 1, 1 );
ofsm << std::endl << "Pshot3x";
printskill( ofsm,-2, 2.5f, 1.0f, 3.0f, 4.9f, 1, 3 );
ofsm << std::endl << "Dmite1x";
printskill( ofsm, 2, 2.5f, 1.0f, .0f, 6.3f, 2, 1 );
ofsm << std::endl << "Dmite4x";
printskill( ofsm, 2, 2.5f, 1.0f, .0f, 6.3f, 2, 4 );
break;
case 1:
ofsm << std::endl << "Spdfire";
printskill( ofsm, 0, 2.0f, 0.5f, 2.0f, 7.3f, 1, 3 );
ofsm << std::endl << "Sharpsh";
printskill( ofsm, 0, 6.0f, 2.0f, 7.0f,10.8f, 1, 1 );
ofsm << std::endl << "Magbllt";
printskill( ofsm, 6, 4.0f, 1.0f, 3.0f, 5.6f, 1, 1 );
ofsm << std::endl << "Pshotx1";
printskill( ofsm, 0, 2.9f, 1.0f, 3.0f, 4.9f, 1, 1 );
ofsm << std::endl << "Pshotx3";
printskill( ofsm, 0, 2.9f, 1.0f, 3.0f, 4.9f, 1, 3 );
ofsm << std::endl << "Dmite1x";
printskill( ofsm, 3, 2.9f, 1.0f, .0f, 6.3f, 2, 1 );
ofsm << std::endl << "Dmite4x";
printskill( ofsm, 3, 2.9f, 1.0f, .0f, 6.3f, 2, 4 );
break;
case 2:
ofsm << std::endl << "Spdfire";
printskill( ofsm, 0, 2.0f, 0.5f, 2.0f, 5.8f, 1, 3 );
ofsm << std::endl << "Sharpsh";
printskill( ofsm, 0, 5.0f, 2.0f, 6.0f,10.8f, 1, 1 );
ofsm << std::endl << "Magbllt";
printskill( ofsm, 6, 5.0f, 1.0f, 3.0f, 5.6f, 1, 1 );
ofsm << std::endl << "Pshotx1";
printskill( ofsm,-2, 2.5f, 1.0f, 3.0f, 4.9f, 1, 1 );
ofsm << std::endl << "Pshotx3";
printskill( ofsm,-2, 2.5f, 1.0f, 3.0f, 4.9f, 1, 3 );
ofsm << std::endl << "Dmite1x";
printskill( ofsm, 3, 2.1f, 1.0f, .0f, 6.3f, 2, 1 );
ofsm << std::endl << "Dmite4x";
printskill( ofsm, 3, 2.1f, 1.0f, .0f, 6.3f, 2, 4 );
break;
}
}

void printmageskill( std::ofstream &ofsm, int character )
{
switch(character)
{
case 0:
ofsm << "Chain M";
printskill( ofsm,-1, 1.5f, 1.0f, .0f, 5.4f, 1, 3 );
ofsm << std::endl << "RockR1x";
printskill( ofsm, 3, 3.8f, 1.25f, .0f, 5.2f, 1, 1 );
ofsm << std::endl << "RockR3x";
printskill( ofsm, 3, 3.8f, 1.25f, .0f, 5.2f, 1, 3 );
ofsm << std::endl << "CelestL";
printskill( ofsm, 8, 4.0f, 2.0f, .0f, 5.7f, 1, 1 );
ofsm << std::endl << "Rainbow";
printskill( ofsm, 6, 5.0f, 1.0f, .0f, 5.3f, 1, 1 );
ofsm << std::endl << "Rainb3x";
printskill( ofsm, 6, 5.0f, 4.33f, .0f, 5.3f, 1, 1 );
ofsm << std::endl << "K Smash";
printskill( ofsm,13, 9.0f, 3.0f, .0f, 7.0f, 2, 1 );
ofsm << std::endl << "L Drain";
printskill( ofsm, 2, 1.5f, 0.5f, .0f, 6.4f, 2, 7 );
break;
case 1:
ofsm << "Chain M";
printskill( ofsm,-1, 1.5f, 1.0f, .0f, 5.3f, 1, 3 );
ofsm << std::endl << "RockR1x";
printskill( ofsm, 2, 3.2f, 1.25f, .0f, 5.2f, 1, 1 );
ofsm << std::endl << "RockR3x";
printskill( ofsm, 2, 3.2f, 1.25f, .0f, 5.2f, 1, 3 );
ofsm << std::endl << "CelestL";
printskill( ofsm,10, 5.0f, 2.0f, .0f, 5.7f, 1, 1 );
ofsm << std::endl << "Rainbow";
printskill( ofsm,10, 7.0f, 1.0f, .0f, 5.3f, 1, 1 );
ofsm << std::endl << "Rainb3x";
printskill( ofsm,10, 7.0f, 4.33f, .0f, 5.3f, 1, 1 );
ofsm << std::endl << "K Smash";
printskill( ofsm,13, 9.0f, 2.0f, .0f, 7.0f, 2, 1 );
ofsm << std::endl << "L Drain";
printskill( ofsm, 1, 1.0f, 0.33f, .0f, 6.4f, 2, 7 );
break;
case 2:
ofsm << "Chain M";
printskill( ofsm,-1, 1.5f, 1.0f, .0f, 5.3f, 1, 3 );
ofsm << std::endl << "RockR1x";
printskill( ofsm, 1, 2.8f, 1.25f, .0f, 5.2f, 1, 1 );
ofsm << std::endl << "RockR3x";
printskill( ofsm, 1, 2.8f, 1.25f, .0f, 5.2f, 1, 3 );
ofsm << std::endl << "CelestL";
printskill( ofsm,12, 6.0f, 2.0f, .0f, 5.7f, 1, 1 );
ofsm << std::endl << "Rainbow";
printskill( ofsm, 8, 6.0f, 1.0f, .0f, 5.3f, 1, 1 );
ofsm << std::endl << "Rainb3x";
printskill( ofsm, 8, 6.0f, 4.33f, .0f, 5.3f, 1, 1 );
ofsm << std::endl << "K Smash";
printskill( ofsm,17,11.0f, 3.0f, .0f, 7.0f, 2, 1 );
ofsm << std::endl << "L Drain";
printskill( ofsm, 1, 1.2f, 0.5f, .0f, 6.4f, 2, 7 );
break;
}
}

void printpriestskill( std::ofstream &ofsm, int character )
{
switch(character)
{
case 0:
ofsm << "P Heal";
printskill( ofsm, 1, .38f, .125f, .0f, 6.2f, 1, 1, character == g_priest );
ofsm << std::endl << "Holy Bt";
printskill( ofsm, 2, 2.5f, 1.0f, .0f, 4.5f, 1, 2, character == g_priest );
ofsm << std::endl << "Silv Bt";
printskill( ofsm, 0, 5.0f, 1.5f, 4.0f, 5.8f, 1, 1, character == g_priest );
ofsm << std::endl << "HotG";
printskill( ofsm, 8,10.0f, 4.0f, .0f, 6.5f, 2, 1, character == g_priest );
break;
case 1:
ofsm << "P Heal";
printskill( ofsm, 1, .44f, 0.17f, .0f, 6.2f, 1, 1, character == g_priest );
ofsm << std::endl << "Holy Bt";
printskill( ofsm, 2, 1.6f, 1.0f, .0f, 4.5f, 1, 2, character == g_priest );
ofsm << std::endl << "Silv Bt";
printskill( ofsm, 0, 4.0f, 1.5f, 4.0f, 5.8f, 1, 1, character == g_priest );
ofsm << std::endl << "HotG";
printskill( ofsm, 8,10.0f, 4.0f, .0f, 8.4f, 2, 1, character == g_priest );
break;
case 2:
ofsm << "P Heal";
printskill( ofsm, 1, .42f, .143f, .0f, 6.2f, 1, 1, character == g_priest );
ofsm << std::endl << "Holy Bt";
printskill( ofsm, 2, 2.0f, 1.0f, .0f, 4.5f, 1, 2, character == g_priest );
ofsm << std::endl << "Silv Bt";
printskill( ofsm, 0, 3.5f, 1.5f, 4.0f, 5.8f, 1, 1, character == g_priest );
ofsm << std::endl << "HotG";
printskill( ofsm,12,12.0f, 4.0f, .0f, 6.5f, 2, 1, character == g_priest );
break;
}
}

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
int input;
std::cout << "Character 1: C(l)ara, (P)eter, (C)lemetas, (Q)uit" << std::endl;
input = switchinput("lpcqLPCQ1234") % 4;
if (input == 3)
return 0;
g_char1 = char1enum(input);
std::cout << "Character 2: (P)ippa, (E)dward, (Z)epher, (Q)uit" << std::endl;
input = switchinput("pezqPEZQ1234") % 4;
if (input == 3)
return 0;
g_char2 = char2enum(input);
std::cout << "Character 3: (E)isfford, (S)amuel, (M)atthieu, (Q)uit" << std::endl;
input = switchinput("esmqESMQ1234") % 4;
if (input == 3)
return 0;
g_char3 = char3enum(input);

std::string priestselect;
std::string priestselectmessage = "Blessing priest: ";
if (g_char1 == c1clemetas)
{
priestselect += "cC";
priestselectmessage += "(C)lemetas, ";
}
if (g_char2 == c2zepher)
{
priestselect += "zZ";
priestselectmessage += "(Z)epher, ";
}
if (g_char3 == c3matthieu)
{
priestselect += "mM";
priestselectmessage += "(M)atthieu, ";
}
int selection = 0;
if (priestselect.length() != 0)
{
priestselect += "nN";
priestselectmessage += "(N)obody, ";
priestselect += "qQ";
priestselectmessage += "(Q)uit";
std::cout << priestselectmessage << std::endl;
selection = switchinput( priestselect );

switch (priestselect[selection])
{
case 'c':
case 'C':
g_priest = pclemetas;
break;
case 'z':
case 'Z':
g_priest = pzepher;
break;
case 'm':
case 'M':
g_priest = pmatthieu;
break;
case 'n':
case 'N':
g_priest = pnone;
break;
case 'q':
case 'Q':
return 0;
}
}
else
g_priest = pnone;

std::cout << "Calculating and writing file... " << std::endl;
std::ofstream statfile ( g_outputfilename );
statfile << "Stats for party of ";
switch (g_char1)
{
case c1clara: statfile << "Clara,"; break;
case c1peter: statfile << "Peter,"; break;
case c1clemetas: statfile << "Clemetas,"; break;
}
switch (g_char2)
{
case c2pippa: statfile << " Pippa "; break;
case c2edward: statfile << " Edward "; break;
case c2zepher: statfile << " Zepher "; break;
}
statfile << "and ";
switch (g_char3)
{
case c3eisfford: statfile << "Eisfford"; break;
case c3samuel: statfile << "Samuel"; break;
case c3matthieu: statfile << "Matthieu"; break;
}
if (g_priest != pnone)
{
statfile << std::endl << "Blessing done by ";

switch (g_priest)
{
case pclemetas: statfile << "Clemetas"; break;
case pzepher: statfile << "Zepher"; break;
case pmatthieu: statfile << "Matthieu"; break;
}

g_lvl1bless = (int)(0.4f*20) + (int)(blessskillfactor[g_priest]*19);
g_lvl1bless_noskill = (int)(0.4f*20);
g_lvl2bless = (int)(0.4f*50) + (int)(blessskillfactor[g_priest]*30);
g_lvl2bless_noskill = (int)(0.4f*50);
}

statfile << std::endl << std::endl;
if (g_priest != pnone)
{
statfile << "\t Lvl" << g_level1 << "\tnsbless\t bless\tLvl" << g_level1 << "ns\tnsbless\t bless\t Lvl" << g_level2 << "\tnsbless\t bless\tLvl" << g_level2 << "ns\tnsbless\t bless";
}
else
{
statfile << "\t Lvl" << g_level1 << "\tNoSkill\t Lvl" << g_level2 << "\tNoSkill";
}
statfile << std::endl << std::endl;

switch(g_char1)
{
case c1peter:
statfile << "Peter:" << std::endl;
printriflemanskill( statfile, 0 );
break;
case c1clara:
statfile << "Clara:" << std::endl;
printmageskill( statfile, 0 );
break;
case c1clemetas:
statfile << "Clemetas:" << std::endl;
printpriestskill( statfile, 0 );
break;
}
statfile << std::endl << std::endl;
switch(g_char2)
{
case c2edward:
statfile << "Edward:" << std::endl;
printriflemanskill( statfile, 1 );
break;
case c2pippa:
statfile << "Pippa:" << std::endl;
printmageskill( statfile, 1 );
break;
case c2zepher:
statfile << "Zepher:" << std::endl;
printpriestskill( statfile, 1 );
break;
}
statfile << std::endl << std::endl;
switch(g_char3)
{
case c3samuel:
statfile << "Samuel:" << std::endl;
printriflemanskill( statfile, 2 );
break;
case c3eisfford:
statfile << "Eisfford:" << std::endl;
printmageskill( statfile, 2 );
break;
case c3matthieu:
statfile << "Matthieu:" << std::endl;
printpriestskill( statfile, 2 );
break;
}


statfile.close();
return 0;
}"

Hi Boksha!
Thanks for posting this, it's very interesting. You must have put a lot of work into it. What does 'ns' stand for in the column headings?

I find game mechanic analysis fascinating stuff. I've been doing some for TSE-2, mainly with spreadsheets, to try and balance skills and skill progression. Often this doesn't work out quite how you hope when you play with the final result in game.

nsbless means blessed by a priest who invested no skill points in blessing (ns stands for No Skill). Something like Lvl20ns means having a party level of 20 but having no skill points invested in that skill. I wanted to know how useful moves would be when you don't invest skill points in it; you can see for example that Rainbow is much weaker when you don't invest skill points in it than Chain Magic, so when you're fighting NX enemies with a mage that has all skill points on Kinetic Smash, Chain Magic is the better backup spell. When choosing between skills that deal a different type of damage it might also be a good idea to choose the skill that relies most on investing skill points so your backup move suffers less.
I included the nsbless column to see if it's worth using bless anyway even if you didn't invest skill points in it. (for example when your only priest isn't really good at blessing, like Clemetas)

Question time!

1: how did you do this?

2: why did you do this?

3: how long did it take?

A few years back I stumbled upon TSE, played until I got to the Mango Republic and quit because I got slaughtered on the beach. (how I managed to get past the government building alive I honestly can't remember)
A week or so back I decided to give the game another chance and I'm really glad I did. I finished the game first in about 4 days with a party of Peter, Zepher and Eisfford, concentrating on Sharpshoot, Party Bless and Kinetic Smash, dying 4 times on the road. Not yet satisfied, I decided to try and finish the game with parties of a single class without overleveling (finishing the game on level 47, is that the lowest possible?), trying 3 priests first (Clemetas on Silver Bullet, Zepher on blessing again and Matthieu on HotG) which turned out to be very easy. Next up I tried the game with 3 mages, putting Clara's skill points on Kinetic Shield, Pippa's on Rainbow and Eisfford's on Kinetic Smash again. The final battle was frustratingly hard mostly because Rainbow is completely useless there and tends to only hit the invincible front of the boss even in the second phase (where it's supposed to be gone, or was it aiming for those missiles? It didn't seem to hurt those at any rate) leaving Kinetic Smash the only attack that can even damage the thing in the second phase, so I needed Tza Tze's help to beat it the first time. In the fight with the Grandfather all of my characters ended with less than 5 health left!
Finally I tried it with 3 riflemen (Sharpshoot on Peter, Dynamite on Edward and Recover on Samuel), which got difficult in the weirdest places, in particular I died once fighting Gigliana because it kept bypassing meatshield Samuel. I was surprised how little trouble the Shifting Sands gave me because I didn't have any skill points on Magic Bullet, but Samuel recovered faster than the enemies could damage him, making for really long but easy fights. The final fight was definitely the easiest with 3 riflemen, with none of my characters ever dropping below 150 health and having a reserve of around 3 or 4 mana pretty much all the time.
All in all I had a lot of fun playing the game and figuring out the best tactics for each situation, so I'd like to thank Mark Pay for the hard work making it!

Thanks Boksha :D It's always very heart-warming to hear people enjoying the game so much that they take the time to make a post like this. Especially now that it's been so many years since I released it that it comes as a nice surprise to hear that people are still playing!

It's good to hear your anecdotes too. 47 does sound like the level you ought to finish at if you don't stop to level up.
Other people have reported that 3 priests is quite easy and 3 mages is harder. I haven't heard much about 3 riflemen though. It's amusing to hear that you can actually Recover faster than the enemies can damage you at some points.

Thanks again. ^_^

"Thanks Boksha :D It's always very heart-warming to hear people enjoying the game so much that they take the time to make a post like this. Especially now that it's been so many years since I released it that it comes as a nice surprise to hear that people are still playing!

It's good to hear your anecdotes too. 47 does sound like the level you ought to finish at if you don't stop to level up.
Other people have reported that 3 priests is quite easy and 3 mages is harder. I haven't heard much about 3 riflemen though. It's amusing to hear that you can actually Recover faster than the enemies can damage you at some points.

Thanks again. ^_^"

MMMMM..... I tried with three riflemen and died after I got to the ghosts/ghasts/ghouls whatever they are

(Wow its been a long time since ive played!)

3 Priest: Easy
3 Rifleman: Moderate
3 Mage: ????

:?

http://herbdx.spatang.com/scirra/construct.php

this will explain for itself

It sounds interesting. I'll believe it when I see it working ( and working well. ) The best thing about its existance is that hopefully it will be spurring Clickteam to improve MMF2, the product it's so 'inspired' by. ( Hardware graphics acceleration is coming *finally* )

clickteam hardware acceleration for MMF2 is already on plans and it will be released within this year (or next) as they're working on vitalize4 first

inspired or not, when both will be out I'll make proper comparisons

there are serious playability issues in MMF2 applications when many objects and text strings are displayed in the same time I'm not sure I can leave with them until they fix those, we'll see

I really dont expect natomic to come back? Does anyone know anything? It seems like one of those sites that started to get bigger but then just dies before its self perpetuating.

Will we ever see a new Natomic?

Nope, dead. :(
I tried to drum up some interest in doing something positive with the site, but all that really happened was that we got Wordpress. Alonso and Blake are both busy and doing cool stuff ( see links section ), but that really only leaves 3 of us and I think that at this point we're better off running our own sites.

" Alonso and Blake are both busy and doing cool stuff ( see links section )"

http://www.alonso-martin.com/Images/2TROIS.jpg

"" Alonso and Blake are both busy and doing cool stuff ( see links section )"

http://www.alonso-martin.com/Images/2TROIS.jpg"

Nope, wrong alonso martin

lol
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/OzHomeARt/NEW%20STUFF/zoolander.jpg

:P That's just mean. Making fun of Alonso earns you negative cookies.

lol couldnt resist

That reminds me of the time i got banned from there forums. MASSIVE SPAMMING FLAMING WAR! between me and wik123 about if firefox or opera was better. LOL

What are negative cookies? :|

http://media.gamestats.com/gg/image/object/896/896712/05-11_Civilization_IV_Beyond_The_Sword_Packshot_Finalboxart_160w.jpg

I got it this weekend. Good grief it's good! :D Best expansion pack ever to the best strategy game ever, and that spells trouble for my spare time.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to poison some water supplies... :twisted:

*remembers the days of playing Civ II*

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=HUMSVRI0

just remember to dl it once every so often so it isn't canned I'd suggest once every to weeks :D

[url]http://www.sendspace.com/file/2v4ie5

sorry to double post but i wanted to make sure it made the topic icon light up.

Thanks very much for uploading these Cdoublejj.

However, I can't recommend that users download from these links. I cannot guarentee that files uploaded by third-persons onto unknown websites are free of viruses and spyware. It's nothing personal. This is a general policy that I want to follow to keep users safe. I checked the main link for 104 on this site and it seems to be working ok.

Thanks again. :)

yeah i understand i can say i have an active virus scanner and i uploaded the game right after I downloaded it.

"yeah i understand i can say i have an active virus scanner and i uploaded the game right after I downloaded it."

ahhhhhh ok

just saying they are clean

Having beaten the TSE countless times with I believe all character combinations and read the guide by Mr.Nobody, I was trying to find some harder challenges to beat the game again. Here I present the "Basic Skills Challenge".

Challenge rules (for the veterans only):
1) Any character combinations are allowed
2) Any skills can be used.
3) Any items and talismans can be used.
4) The player cannot, at anytime during the game except when the story forces it, to invest skill points into skills that unlocks at level 5 or level 10. To be more precise, whenever a player has a choice of where to invest skill points, one may not invest into anything into right column (ie. no investing in sharpshoot, magic bullet, power shot, dynamite, lasoo, rock rain, rainbow, celestial lightning, kinetic smash, life drain, party bless, silver bullet, holy bolt, spook summon, or hand of the god. However, it's OK, say, when Matthieu advances 2 levels of HotG in world 1 forced by the story.)

Maybe the exception can be taken away, I don't think it matters too much. I've just beaten this with Clemeta, Zepher, and Eiffsford at level 48. I can assure you this is very fun, and very challenging at times. In particular, even the Anadroid thing that chases you in world 2 becomes a challenge, as this challenge forces you into a slow battle. Also, Tza Tse becomes hard when his shields build up, and needless to say, the 2nd stage of the last boss was crazy.

Enjoy~ and please let me know if you have more challenging ways to play TSE.

ok, maybe this rule:
only unfamiliar skills allowed

e.g., try a party like that:
Clemetas party heal
Pipi Life drain
Samuel Sharpshoot

Its also interesting how, knowing the game already,those skills don´t "fit" with the character, it´s funny (well kind of :? )

Congratulations! That is a fairly tough challenge to set - as you said some battles are considerably harder without the high damage-per-second of the 2 mana skills.
I like that suggestion too ROD. :)

With mark pays permission and help (thanks mark) Im goign to start A TSE animation project. Anyone can post any ideas, but appart from screen shots of it, and maybe a small preveiw close to its finish date (4 - 6 months) i dont have much to put up at this stage.

In the next month ill post some projects im nearly finished, umm, lets see now, Goku VS Superman, and A TSE charachter test thing, of 30 seconds, and an Advert for a Local LAN party my church runs that im doing.

What exactly is this?

"What exactly is this?"

...

"With mark pays permission and help (thanks mark) Im goign to start A TSE animation project. Anyone can post any ideas, but appart from screen shots of it, and maybe a small preveiw close to its finish date (4 - 6 months) i dont have much to put up at this stage.

In the next month ill post some projects im nearly finished, umm, lets see now, Goku VS Superman, and A TSE charachter test thing, of 30 seconds, and an Advert for a Local LAN party my church runs that im doing."

Lachlan, I like the idea

But what is an "Animation Project?" (;
A movie? No idea :p

you ever watch flash movies?
ummm *thinks*

Homestarrunner? happy Tree friends and friends?
About 6 years ago the program then called Macromedia Flash (now under adobe and 5 times the price)which is used to create interactive web content for websites and advertising, anyways about 6 years ago a craze started with people buying the software and making short animated movies, Which wasn a bad idea, The beauty about flash is you can draw directly on to the stage and its the fastest animting medium and it "was" fairly cheap. (I got my copy in 2005 for 150, its now like 600)

Heres a screenshot from a charachter test, I dont know if im happy how he looks.

http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/2347/tseqh9.jpg

In this style lines are only kept on detailed parts of the body. And the way hes done, when hes animated his movements are very smooth, but never very realistic.

But now my Stylus and graphics tablet are working again, ive considered redoing him, in a more rough style but when animating it will be a more... "disney?" But it will also take longer.

Grrr, Ive decided as awesome as tablets are its too much trouble, The tablet driver has screwed up flash so it crashed, the only solution is to reinstall flash but my disk is in 5 peices after dad ran over it in a wheely chair.

So i think ill have to screw the tablet.

Hey Lachlan. Sorry I'm late posting here, been off on holiday. :D

I'm really interested to see where you can go with this project. Sorry to hear about the CD - they are the natural prey of chair legs.

Keep us updated!

Here, inspire thyself
http://www.traxinspace.com/search?search=tse2

(;

Well, My IT Teacher in a tafe course May be able to give me the installer for my copy of Flash so that will be good.

Plus I got this awesomely helpful book on animating, and it has some really insightful stuff, i hope to get a small clip of something up in the next month.

"Well, My IT Teacher in a tafe course May be able to give me the installer for my copy of Flash so that will be good.

Plus I got this awesomely helpful book on animating, and it has some really insightful stuff, i hope to get a small clip of something up in the next month."

ahhh i have one too... umm...

Animation - The whole story

author: Howard Beckerman

that it?

no, i got "cracking animation", its more to do with models, its the guys who did Wallace and Grommit, one of the team did the book.

But yeh its got some really helpful practical stuff.

Yeh next week i can DEFINATLY show you guys my Animation/Machinima promo for a LAN night.

ok i would have something up on youtube but i am having trouble finding good video software... thats free

Does anyone know any good, free, video (specificaly .avi) compression software, I need to be able to compress a 200mb file to 99mb, and Windows MM is teh crap, (even though i used it to put it together), ive also tried wax and Vdub and a few others to little or no success.

As far as animation for this goes, I am currently looking at upgrading to the latest version of Adobe Flash if I can get it as a student

"ok i would have something up on youtube but i am having trouble finding good video software... thats free

Does anyone know any good, free, video (specificaly .avi) compression software, I need to be able to compress a 200mb file to 99mb, and Windows MM is teh crap, (even though i used it to put it together), ive also tried wax and Vdub and a few others to little or no success.

As far as animation for this goes, I am currently looking at upgrading to the latest version of Adobe Flash if I can get it as a student"

I have no idea

Split it in half with WMM?

I had the same problem with one of my movies >,< 1 mb over the limit...

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/421649

Before i do the TSE project i needed something to get my chops us, check it out and vote 5

Hey Lachlan.
That was pretty darn good! Voted 5. :D You can really see that a lot of time and hard work was spent on it. Will this be an ongoing series, and will the cow ever make it home?

I tried out Flash last year and found the whole timeline system conceptually quite slow and unwieldy to work with. Creating any serious animation in it is an impressive feat in my opinion.

Well see, i have 1 - 2 more small projects to tackle (about a month of work for the both) then i want to really get into the TSE animation. I still hope to beat you to the completion of the game.

It probably wont be an ongoing series, ive tossed around the idea of "The 2nd day in the life of a jersey cow" but well see, if i do, he will have many an adventure before making it home. Many other things to worry about atm, plus this is the year i sit my Final highchool exams, so thats sorta a big deal.

I personaly like flash because you cran draw directly onto the stage and then change it Frame by frame, but yeh thats very time consuming. Most of the time i use a light box to animate difficult or longer sequences on paper then i scan them into the computer and trace.

However some users like Adam Philips creator of Bitey Of Brackenwood or Tim Buckly from Ctrl Alt Del user Graphics tablets which apparantly once your over the learning curve, really speed things up.

Ive considered getting one, but i havnt been able to find a cheap one, i dont want to put much money into it until im sure it will increase my productivity

"I still hope to beat you to the completion of the game."

You're on! ;)

I've had a tablet for about 2 years myself and haven't used it much. It takes a while to get used to and I can use it for colouring in Photoshop, but I still prefer a mouse for pixel art and pen and paper for lineart.

I've just recently borrowed a tablet and have been having some great fun with it. I doubt I'm an expert yet nor do I think it will ever replace the trusty mouse for my pixel art, but I've produced some pretty fine drawings in the short time I've had it... so who knows?

[url]http://www.2draw.net/users/Jimbob/board

Now that im a little more practiced, i had a look at some of the stuff i had origionaly for TSE, and i looked at it in shame. I know what ill do now, once ive finished my current project ill draw up story board and post them here and get it right

Edit: DITLOAJC (day in the...) is in the running to win $250 dollars... woo! The top 2000 voters on newgrounds will vote on a panel of movies, one of which being mine, ill let yall know how that goes

Jimbob.... seriously, i took a look at those drawings.... are you serious, thats awesome.
Feel free to do backgrounds for my movies if you have the time...

UPDATE (6/2/08):
Shot Guide - 90% done
Storyboards - 90% done

all i need to do is tie up the story and fix some little discrepencies in the dialogue then Voice Acting... ill probably get other people to do the voice acting. If anyones interested and has a good microphone that doesnt hiss just say Aye.

Then i guesse, i can start animating.
I just finished watching chapter 10 of Minushi
www.minushi.com

Its awesome, this guy created a feature length film in Adobe Flash! Its pretty sweet.

_____To Do List____

Charachter Design sheets
Animation
Voices
Backgrounds (considering collaborating so i can get someone else to do them so that i can focus my efforts on the tricky stuff)

Release - End of the year :P (ive got my HSC to do after all)

Anyone here interested in Voice acting
I need

3 Male voices, 1 deep
1 woman voice
1 12y/o girl voice

Meh, can't guarantee much, but my voice is on offer if you want it... depends on what exactly you want the voice to do! ^^;

omg, i'm so so so getting my mic back to work :P (from TSE1, my voice would best match Edward - bit naive, bit irritiaing male voice; or, angry Peter)

ill try get some concept sketches done in the fortnight and then ill put up some test lines for you to say and you can email me your voices after that.

Edit: On a good note, while if still been putting off charachter sheets, i did start doing some of the backgrounds tonight. Maybe screen shots soon

Screened!

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/4195/tseshot1nc1.jpg

http://img184.imageshack.us/img184/5039/tseshot2zp2.jpg

Just a couple of backdrops, they need a bit more detail before im happy.
Im starte charachter sheets, and a bit of animation. But its still a looong way off.

anyways, Voice actors:
Send a sample of all the voices you can possibly do to Lachlan_is_psycho@hotmail.com :)

I played La Pucelle tactics, funny funny game. Also kinda fun. I enjoyed it. (:

Cool, that one is definitely on my 'to get' list. :D

I've been impressed by just how well Disgaea's light-hearted and humorous plotting works out. I've just played Chapter Six and it puts a lot of other games, RPGs and otherwise, to shame by remembering that there's more than one way to entertain and taking a break to throw in some levels that are easy, but so silly and fun that you enjoy them even more than the regular ones.

Any game that randomly decides to let you beat up a Power Ranger gets my two thumbs up. :twisted:

Humor? Light-hearted-ness? Sometimes needing to feel like your quest really matters? Then you'll love LPT. (;

Not to mention, your choices make things happen a LOT of different ways.

"Humor? Light-hearted-ness? Sometimes needing to feel like your quest really matters? Then you'll love LPT. (;

Not to mention, your choices make things happen a LOT of different ways."

*buys a gun and shoots the hero*

and now?

*shoots someone you are supposed to get*

haha now?

___

jk i wish i had a... whatever its called

In preparing for the release of The Spirit Engine 2 I've been uploading some free music to Trax in Space (www.traxinspace.com).

I uploaded the last of the preview tracks today, entitled "Demonic Rage." I thought this was a good choice as it is based off of a track in the first game that I thought many players would find familiar.

http://www.traxinspace.com/search?search=tse2
Enjoy (:

For those curious, the TSE2 soundtrack currently features over 1 HOUR and 10 minutes of music in this fashion, and over 2 hours in draft melodies and motifs ready for further development. I've been thinking of releasing a special deal where if you buy the TSE1 soundtrack before TSE2 is released, you can receive a 1/2 off coupon for the new CD. This discount would apply to both the jewel CD and digital copies of the soundtrack.

I'd like to extend a hand of thanks to everyone who has supported the soundtrack in the first game and those who have encouraged me to continue, especially to Mark who's supported me from the day I met him. I can also gladly tell everyone who's been waiting that the screenshots that Mark has been posting don't do justice to the game itself.

Thanks (:

Dude! That's rawsome :o
One of the most important aspects to a game, and it's great!
I love how this is coming together, since I've been watching all along. :P

It stronger than the other soundtrack, but it still has some of that TSE-feel to it. :D

Great work!

This is only the tip of a very large and awesome musical iceberg. The work that Josh is doing on the soundtrack for TSE-2 is simply amazing and every time he sends over a new track for me to listen to I am left almost speechless with joy. I'm not exaggerating here, they're so rich, so beautiful and tender or so bombastic and dramatic and always full of character and bursting with life. I am blessed to have him working alongside me on the game.

Thanks Josh! :D

"This is only the tip of a very large and awesome musical iceberg. The work that Josh is doing on the soundtrack for TSE-2 is simply amazing and every time he sends over a new track for me to listen to I am left almost speechless with joy. I'm not exaggerating here, they're so rich, so beautiful and tender or so bombastic and dramatic and always full of character and bursting with life. I am blessed to have him working alongside me on the game.

Thanks Josh! :D"

Lol, i found him and added him :twisted:

I must concur, his... erm... whatisitcallednowadays... masterpieces :roll: are of very high quality

I just can't wait to listen to ALL of it

I'm glad you guys enjoy it. I got the Artist Spotlight at TIS for a while, which is nice. Also feeds some attention to the game.

The main theme is by far my favorite theme that I've written, and I can't wait for you guys to hear it!

I added one more song, which is by far my favorite. This is NOT A COMPLETE version, however.

http://www.traxinspace.com/song/37574

If you'd like to download the song, don't hesitate to sign up for a free membership at TiS, no strings attached!

"I added one more song, which is by far my favorite. This is NOT A COMPLETE version, however.

http://www.traxinspace.com/song/37574

If you'd like to download the song, don't hesitate to sign up for a free membership at TiS, no strings attached!"

:) As soon as the christmas holidays roll up, I AM DOWNLOADING ALL OF YOUR MUSIC!

And Dj Nutsack's...

and CruzBishop's... oh wait thats mine

I haven't been on this site for ages... can anyone tell me what happened in the past 6 months? Anything to do with the spirit engine. I want to get updated with everything.

I can't remember, sorry :(

Hey Mr Nobody! Good to see you again. :D

I have put up an update today with some mixed news and an explanation of why there has been so little info recently in the TSE-2 forum at http://www.thespiritengine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=410#410

Thanks

"Thanks"

Welcome back, i remember seeing you...

somewhere...

The old TSE website is still there! Doesn't it bring back old memories?
http://tse.natomic.com/

Ewwwwww ;_;

I still get a fair amount of traffic coming here from there too.

LOL! Funny. When you type in 'the spirit engine' into google, tse.natomic.com is the first thing that comes up.

the TSE download link has been deleted! EVERYONE PANIC!!!!

Is the download still available at the megaupload downloads? :? :? :? :? :?

You can get the buggy old version scattered around the internet.

i thought i left like 2 dl links just a little further down in the forums. you could always have people seed a torrent of it.

If The Spirit Engine Is no longer avaliable, I won't be able to install it again if my Computer Administratior DELETES it. :?

That's odd. I wonder why it was taken down. I'll reupload it when I get back tonight. Thanks for letting me know.

i think it might get deleted if no one downloads it for 30 days

The link is still deleted! what do we do? no TSE for anyone!

Oh great, if it gets deleted, I'm DOOMED :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

If it goes down I can gladly host it. (:

Thanks Josh. :D
The download link ought to be fixed as of last Thursday evening. Let me know if there are any further problems with it. I know that there are some people out there still downloading the game - my bandwidth got hammered by a free games site direct linking to a version of 104 I left in public_html last month. ;_;

here are some links:
Your current host seems to be busy all the time...
# TSE104.exe of size 38.723 MB
http://www.filefactory.com/file/c6e948/
# TSEp101to104.exe of size 4.831 MB
http://www.filefactory.com/file/93a62d/
# TSEp102to103.exe of size 4.179 MB
http://www.filefactory.com/file/f565b8/
# TSEp103to104.exe of size 289.262 KB
http://www.filefactory.com/file/da58e1/

:) Thanks josh.

Josh, i listened to the song you wanted me to hear, loved it :wink:

:D THANKS MARK! good to know i can put it back in ... over christmas holidays, eh? lol

The original soundtrack is available for previewing at Last.fm now.

http://www.last.fm/music/Josh+Whelchel/The+Spirit+Engine+OST

The entire soundtrack can be downloaded at:
http://tse.syntesis.org

Enjoy (:

"The original soundtrack is available for previewing at Last.fm now.

http://www.last.fm/music/Josh+Whelchel/The+Spirit+Engine+OST

Enjoy (:"

;) Thanks josh, appreciate that :P

*wondering if you will host on TiS... lol*

This is great Josh. :D Thanks, it'll cheer me up at work.

Booyah, Mark's 100th post. And my 25th is this. That means I'm only 1/4th the worth of Mark! :O oh my.

"Booyah, Mark's 100th post. And my 25th is this. That means I'm only 1/4th the worth of Mark! :O oh my."

uhh

WOW

...

Congratulations to you both :P

You may now download the soundtrack for free
http://tse.syntesis.org/

or at the last.fm site. (:

"You may now download the soundtrack for free
http://tse.syntesis.org/

or at the last.fm site. (:"

:D

*downloads while i am on the phone*

ill comment later

edit: omg... never mind... ill just use the last.fm online player...

Big O_O

"Bigbigbig but funfun!"

Thanks. This soundtrack is genius.

Fantastic Josh, thanks! I'm downloading myself, just so I can put them in winamp and have it shuffle in the background.

170mb? wow. :o

Haha, didn't you already have the soundtrack? :o

Well, I had the player app, but it doesn't shuffle and tends to stop playing when it loses window focus. It's a lot more convenient to have them in .mp3 format., thanks! :D

There is a podcast called the "Klikcast" that featured me in a phone interview which also features music that hasn't been heard before from TSE2.

http://www.create-games.com/download.asp?id=6903
(The formal link)

iTunes users can subscribe automatically by using this link:
http://pods.syntesis.org/rss.php?id=1

Or if you don't want to sign up for an account
http://pods.syntesis.org/kc/klikcast-episode-3.mp3

I'm first up. :P

"There is a podcast called the "Klikcast" that featured me in a phone interview which also features music that hasn't been heard before from TSE2.

http://www.create-games.com/download.asp?id=6903
(The formal link)

iTunes users can subscribe automatically by using this link:
http://pods.syntesis.org/rss.php?id=1

Or if you don't want to sign up for an account
http://pods.syntesis.org/kc/klikcast-episode-3.mp3

I'm first up. :P"

CONGRATS!!!

...

Ill listen when I figure out how my cousin stuffed up my sound

This was a good interview Josh. I wish Rikus had spent more time with all of his guests, especially yourself.

I'm a little embaressed that I'm currently unable to promote the game myself. :( I'm sorry about this and I look forward to the time where I'm able to do something.

I was really just promoting myself, if you think about it. The time will come when we can both go on a "The Spirit Engine II" spree, and what a day that will be ! :D

This should be on the frontpage soon (?)
Full news post at www.syntesis.org
--

The Spirit Engine was the first freeware video game to sell both physical and digital copies of its soundtrack. Currently in development, "The Spirit Engine 2" features a soundtrack that lives up to this reputation. To celebrate, Mark Pay (developer of The Spirit Engine) and I decided to release music that was created during the development of the sequel but has since been replaced due to new resources.

The Spirit Engine 2 - Premonitions is a four volume collection of music inspired by The Spirit Engine, and contains nearly two full hours of free music across 92 tracks. The first volume of music (19 tracks, ~28min) will be released, for free, on December 7th, 2007 at www.syntesis.org/tse2/premonitions

Tentative Release Schedule:
December 7th, 2007 - Volume 1: Selections
February 2nd, 2008 - Volume 2: Calling of Fate
April 3rd, 2008 - Volume 3: The Few Who Cross a World
June 4th, 2008 - Volume 4: A Lost Dream

Happy February 2nd everyone!
http://www.syntesis.org/tse2/premonitions/vol2

April 3rd is fun for everyone!
http://www.syntesis.org/tse2/premonitions/vol3

I'm sorry to everyone who has tried to sign up to the forums in the last few months.

Since I have some spare time at the moment, I finally sat down and tried to fix the registration system to keep out spambots while allowing normal users to sign up with ease. I didn't bother trying to install any 3rd party captcha and instead tried writing one in myself.

It's not a pretty solution. I think it works. Let me know at http://www.thespiritengine.com/Images/mailaddress.png if you have any further problems signing up.

Hi!
I'm a newcomer here, though I've played TSE since it's release. I've tried different strategies (actually this forum gave me many ideas), and one day I wanted to test what is the lowest level you can complete the game on?
After a few tries I found the way to not get too much exp, and finally won Mystical defense mechanism ZETA on level 41.

Here's a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQrw0eCahR8

I used the group that was used in the walkthrough, so there were Peter, Zepher and Matthieu.

Say what you think!

Hi Hempuli! I'm sorry you had to wait so long to get your account activated.

Thanks for making this post. It was great to see the video of the end boss fight, I've not played that part of the game for close to four years now. The art hasn't aged as badly as I had feared. ;)

Winning at level 41 is really impressive. I didn't realise it was possible to get to the end of the game at such a low level, let alone win. Good job! I'd be interested to hear how you managed to avoid collecting exp.

" Good job! I'd be interested to hear how you managed to avoid collecting exp."

Yeah, me too!
I love those almost lost battles *sweat* :D

I don't remember all the things I didn't do, but Mostly not doing some quests, and, in the desert part, I skipped shifting sands (or was it shifting sands?) by visiting Tsa Tse, killing Granael and then going through his lair directly to Elans tomb. Also, the pocket dimension was totally forgotten and so on.
There was also a bug in the Mango republic, where I fought Gigliana without completing the two sidequests (can't remember how it happened, probably something about saving).

Oh, and np Mark, it's cool to be here at last ;)

EDIT: Oh, when I said the bug was probably about saves, I didn't mean I changed them, there was just some load-save-die-combo that caused me to jump over those 2 sidequests. Actually I didn't mean to do that, it just happened :)

In about 30 minutes, Premonitions Volume 1 will be released!

This link will work at 12am EST on December 7th, 2007!

Volume 1 – Selections

1. Groovy Roll
2. Transcending People ~~
3. Children at Play
4. Roses of Red
5. Confrontation
6. Dark Artifact
7. Clay 13 Saves the Day
8. Let's Go! Our Victory Song
9. Misty Clouds
10. Falls of Funk
11. Feng Shung Dojo
12. Omen
13. Twisted Knife
14. Adjanti Heart ~~
15. The Great War
16. Ascension of Batiste ~~
17. Miniboss Battle ! ~~
18. Devil's Weapon
19. Infinite Prayer

27 minutes, 59 seconds

WOWEE! that's great!

Oh, this is just lovely :D
I'm really longing for the other parts. :)
You are a great musician. ^^

I have been experiencing trouble to download the game, could anyone send me the file, or even a link that doesn't display an message like "all the avayable slots in your region are taken " or "the sistem is at full capacity, try later"

I had no trouble here:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/l1lqxb

Near the bottom it says "Download TSE104.exe"

(:

I had already tried that one, but thanks anyway.

it shows either one of the messages:

The download link has been updated (error: #10).
You may now download the file.
Download Link: TSE104.exe
Your browser does not support JavaScript or JavaScript is disabled. You must enable JavaScript or use a JavaScript supported browser for this site to function correctly.


Sorry, the free service is at full capacity.
Please try later or upgrade to sendspace Max™ to enable guaranteed slots and instant, fast downloads.

Can retry in 54 seconds

I'm uploading it to megaupload now, I'll post a link when it's completed.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=XCL7OXIW

It's another one of those sites, but you should have better luck.

[size=24:7d51e9dab1][color=indigo:7d51e9dab1]Thank you so much!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D :D :D :) :) :D :D :)

Oh wow, thanks for sorting this out Josh. :D

I posted a link in the major problem thread.
http://www.filefactory.com/file/c6e948/

Seems like it's nearly impossible to download the game from www.sendspace.com as it just says that the servers are busy and makes you wait another 60 seconds.

I've waited about 10 times that amount and the servers are still busy (one time it said that the link was changed but still didn't let me download it).

One free download mirror site that could be used as an alternative mirror is http://wikisend.com

Also it would be nice if these download links in the forum would be mentioned in the web pages also...

If this game wasn't so interesting I would had never searched for a working download URL here in the forums, registered here and posted this message.

I could upload my version on rapidshare and post the link (used to work well)

here it is:

http://rapidshare.com/files/104387720/TSE104.zip.html

the more mirrors we have the better :P

Hi, i've been trying for days to download TSE. The link on the download page doesn't work for me, neither does megaupload nor rapidshare... They always say my country's download limit has been reached. Can someone please upload it to a friendlier sharing site? :(

Good luck with this:


http://wikisend.com/download/241992/TSE104.exe

I will be able to get back to work on TSE-2 soon and start updating again properly. In the meantime I was digging around for interesting material to share and decided it would be worth putting up the reference manual for the combat system which I was writing some time ago.

It might help to illustrate in more detail to anyone curious where the combat has been improved from the first game. I have uploaded it here:
[url]http://www.thespiritengine.com/Files/Manual/combat.html

It's unfinished. I'm not happy with the vertical size of it. I'd like to do it mouseover tooltip style, but IE throws an ugly warning for offline Javascript for some reason and that irks me. :)

It's certainly a more complex interface and takes up more of the screen, but it's worth it. The combat plays so much better than the first game and is a lot more responsive and fun.
Here's a comparison of old vs new:

Old
http://www.thespiritengine.com/Images/tse1shot01.png

New
http://www.thespiritengine.com/Images/tse2shot01.png

Looks great, although remarkably complicated from that manual. Maybe you should not try to tag all the things on one image, or as well provide a little image displaying the relevant item when you discuss it. I imagine for the status effects etc. these will be added anyway.

Anyway, from all the little additions, I can't wait to see how this plays out!

*drools in anticipation*

Yeh i agree with jim about the not having everything tagged on the one image to make it less cluttered but other than its all lookin awesome

Thanks for the feedback guys. I'll see what I can do to make it read better when I get round to finishing it off.

I found this game a while ago, some of you may seen in, if your a fan of guitar hero its worth checking this out. Rock out with your keyboard.
Unfortunatly there are only 3 set songs, you have to make/download the rest

http://www.fretsonfire.net
And i reccomend checking out the Recomended song links here
http://www.lazyknapman.com/fof/

This game is actually awesome! Been playing this as a substitute for the Guitar Hero games for ages!

FoF Fan Forum is a brilliant site for downloading new tracks for it, simply sign up to view all the songs people have uploaded for it!

I would like to know what are the best skills for me to invest on while using Clemetas

"I would like to know what are the best skills for me to invest on while using Clemetas"

When forming a Party and chosing a Character you can click on a button named "toggle details" to get the information which skills are best or worst for each

Clemetas is best in Silver Bullet and Holy Bolt afair
and he is bad in Party Heal.
He is not espeacially good in HotG, but, that being a very powerful skill anyway, it´s also possible.
(Maybe Silver Bullet as main skill and spend some points from tme to time on HotG to use on the Monsters immune to normal damage)

Hey,

I've recently encountered a glitch whilst playing by Chaos' speed walk through in world 3.

After going through the Government building and passing half-way through Blue Sapphire Bay, I encountered a projectile glitch with Peter. Instead of his normal, straight sharpshoot attack, he began to shoot about 30 degrees lower than the target, making the shot head to the lower-right hand corner of the screen, resulting in a pointless, vital attack.

I've attempted to fix this glitch by switching to different skills, such as recharge, then switching back to sharpshoot, but this problem still occurs, usually causing my party to die, due to the fact that normally there are enemy sea mares in the opposing party, immune to Mat's HotG.

Is there any way to fix this problem, apart from changing Peter's main skill to something else and/or continuously reloading back to the same area hoping for opposing parties to randomize to something else?

Thanks,
Hermit

PS. First post! Not exactly the most positive one though, sorry 'bout that :?

Hi Hermit. Sorry this bug has been causing you trouble. I've taken a look over the old code and decided to blame MMF ;) I remember encountering this before and I think it is an odd glitch in the way MMF calculates a direction, although I could be wrong.
Did you try firing with Peter at the back of the party? If this bug occurs at both the front and the back, I can try and build a quick patch, although I am hesitant to do this because the version of MMF I am using now is different and I can't guarentee that some unknown changes might not be introduced. ( They shouldn't, but you never know )

Thanks,

Yes, placing him in the front of the party when he shoots fixes the problem, but if he's in any other position, the glitch occurs. I can play the game through like this, though, so it isn't a HUGE problem, but it may cause an inconvenience later on in the game where I need Peter at the back of the party to be healed, so putting him in the front to fire could get him killed.

Perhaps you could attempt to fix this glitch in the newest TSE patch you're working on, It'd be much appreciated!

I'll give it a go. :) It's been 4 years since the last patch, but this is a simple fix so hopefully it won't take too long. My main concern as I said is whether anything else changes when I rebuild with the newer version of MMF. I'll try and get it done by the weekend.

Thanks, you shouldn't be under any obligation to have it finished by a fixed date, just take your time. :D

You've got enough on your hands with TSE2 anyways, you're kind enough to be fixing minor glitches like this for us.

:( i have a slight problem, when i play spirit engine, after a certain amount of fighting and battling * same thing really lol* i encounter an error saying it needs to close i have downloaded the upto date version 1.04 but to no avail if anybody can help as it is ruining a really alround good game thanks. aj

Hi AJ,

I'm having a similar problem with TSE. After about 20 minutes of straight battles, the game crashes suddenly, though, there is no notification to upgrade the game to 1.04 for me. Are you completely up-to-date with TSE? If not, here's a few links directly from the TSE1 site for you to download to patch your game to the newest version:

V.103 - 104:
http://www.thespiritengine.com/Files/TSEp103to104.exe

V.102 - 103:
http://www.thespiritengine.com/Files/TSEp102to103.exe

V.101 - 104:
http://www.thespiritengine.com/Files/TSEp101to104.exe

Copy and paste the links into your browser address bar. If you do have the latest version of the game, you'll probably be getting a crash glitch anyways. The best way to avoid this is to save every few battles (I suggest every 2 battle maps) and to quit the game and relaunch it again. It can be a hassle, but at least it fixes the problem.

I recall a post in which a user asked for a copy of TSE1 without any music implemented, this seemed to fix the crash problem. Perhaps you could ask Mark to give you a link to that copy, if he still has the file, I'd like to have a copy myself as well.

Hope this helps,
Hermit

thanks for that yes im currently upto date with tse thank mate, ile ask mark for a copy of the link ile see if i can get one aswell for you

Glad I helped :D

You'll probably want to make a different thread specifically asking for that version of TSE. You'll likely not get a reply until tomorrow, since Mark usually only comes on in the morning.

Hi there. The version with the music removed can be found here:
www.thespiritengine.com/Files/TSEBuild0615musicstrip.exe

It sucks to lose the music. :( The next best thing would be to download the OST from Josh's site at http://tse.syntesis.org/ and play it in the background.

thanks mark i really owe you one my friend i can now get back to your excellent game.. thanks again and happy new year to you :D

Hey guys.

I am entirely responsible for this bug, and I express my sincere apologies to you as you continue through this amazing game. Fortunately, TSE2 has a completely new audio engine that has been beta tested for over 10 months, so all of the troubles will be absent (until you guys find some new ones :P).

~ Josh

AHHHH! Another Glitch in the Music Strip oh no!, i play through the game, and as i play with no music, the sound glitches and you have to move the mouse in order to continue the game i dont know why this game has so many problems, has anybody else encountered this problem??

Thanks for providing the music strip, Mark :D

I've played most the game through without any crashes, wonderful :D.

I have no idea why the sound would stutter or cause problems, I was not involved in the design of the sound engine. That is all MMF stuff.

Are you using Windows Vista ajk123? Also, did the sound stutter with the previous version of the game which had music?

no mate im using the windows xp proffesional on my laptop, the problem is as follows:

everythings fine i kill the first wave after you start at the giants cradle, (fine)

i kill the next wave then it repeats the sounds of the dieing and gun firing constantly, then it stops, i move the mouse in the game and everything speeds up im like WOW! hang on! lol,

i have played upto 3o mins trying to solve the problem, seing if its my pc spec or sound card nothing everythings working fine, i just dont understand it, i hope there is a way to solve this because im anxious to complete it having downloaded this game 2 years ago lol, and am waiting in anticipation of your next venture, seen the clip on youtube of the fight sequence excellent graphics, excellent usage, excellent everything :D, i just wish this game would work lol i solve one problem and another one crops up typical... AJ

You could try reinstalling TSE, that may work :D

Hmmm. Well I'm glad it's not Vista, that would complicate things. As Josh said, the sound engine in MMF is unfortunately beyond our control.
I am currently looking at replacing the music plugin with a more up to date version and releasing a patch since I have some time free at the moment, but there is a lot to do for this. If it works I will rebuild the game in the current version of MMF 1.5 and this might help your sound stutter as well as the music related issues. I am sad to say that beyond that, I am not able to do much more about sound effect issues. I intend to buy a copy of MMF 2 this month, but I do not expect to be able to build either TSE 1 or 2 in it without creating a lot of new issues.

Could I confirm that you did not have this sound stutter in version 1.04 when you played it on the same computer?

hey ive had no problems so far ive been on it today everything seems to be working fine for the moment mark, ive played it on my pc and it doesnt work, the sound issues continue, but so far on my laptop its oky.. strange lol, i hope it continues to work fine... fingers crossed :?

and it is version 1.04 which has the problem mark,

Well hey Mark. I'm glad to hear you're intending to go to MMF2, I think you'll be pleased with the conversion process. What extensions are you using that you expect trouble with?

I was expecting most problems to come with the MMF engine itself, or internal objects that don't get much attention ( I am overly fond of Active and background system boxes ).

There's some little workarounds for MMF 1.5 quirks in the code. And even if those also convert perfectly, something is bound to go wrong somewhere. Converting TGF/Cnc to MMF 1.0+ was ugly, as even things like the built-in movements were different.
I'm not just worried about the obvious stuff, but new bugs that I might not notice for weeks or months.

I don't really want to make the conversion unless I need to ( Vista compatability concerns mainly. Unfortunately Clickteam dropped MMF 1.5 just before Vista was released. ) and even if I do, I'll try and keep the development copy in MMF 1.5.

Have you considered that it might be the version of cncs232.dll being the problem? I know there have been a lot of updates and changes to the overall framework of MMF so this could be it. Just recently I tried playing an old Derek Yu game (Snowbrawl) that looked horrible with the dll in the zip file, but I grabbed one from a newer MMF1.5 game and it worked fine on my new computer (still WinXP tho'). Something to try perhaps?

I just started up TSE1 again and it did crash for me when entering Giant's Toe (after a battle) after beating the Grundlekrunk. Luckily I saved after beating the Grundlekrunk so after a reload, it hasn't crashed again yet...

EDIT: Spoke too soon, crashed about halfway through the Torchlit Catacombs after a battle. I've pasted a newer DLL in (the old one was 2002, this one is 2003) so we'll see what happens.

EDIT2: No such luck, although this time it crashed when exiting the Arachnid's Grove :S, not after a battle.

EDIT3: I'm timing how long I get to play now, and it took 35mins to crash after the first battle in the Government building. I'll try finish it off later...

I've put together a potential update. Sharpshoot direction is fixed and the mod plugin is updated. The code is an awful mess and I broke and fixed some stuff, so I'm not sure how well the result works.

I'd appreciate it if anyone could try the following build out and look for crashes and any new bugs. ( I find playtesting it painful, it's so old and bad :) ) Unzip into your TSE folder and run the new .exe

http://www.thespiritengine.com/Files/tse105beta.zip

ahhh, even worse, the combat system is completely mucked up, started from the beginning and you just keep walking through the enemies it says victory all the time lol

That's not a problem, I can fix that. Did it crash or stutter?

it didnt crash, you still played the game, but the enemies didnt die, you shot at them as soon as the shot was fired it said victory even tho none of the enemies had died lol strange

Was anybody else able to test out the test build at http://www.thespiritengine.com/Files/tse105beta.zip which I posted last week and see whether it solves crash issues? I have fixed the issue with combat on the first two levels.

Seems fine so far, I haven't played the whole game through, yet, though. If I find a glitch, I'll take a pic of it and add it to this post.

Edit: Completed the game through worlds 4 and 5 without any problems, then made a new party to start on world 1, and, well... doesn't look like you fixed the combat glitches on world 1 yet, Mark:

http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/9295/tse1xn4.th.png
The very first battle glitches as soon as you win it (that's right, both enemies die before any error occurs this time). Every time you click to continue, the party goes back into battle animation for a second, then switches back to victory animation right after.

Another edit: But wait, hold the phone! I loaded my pure magi party that's on giant's toe, and I've gone through every battle on the mountain with no problems, very strange! Hold on before you make anymore edits Mark, I'm going to go through every battle on world 1 and see if the first battle is the only one that crashes.

Yet another edit: The Prairie Trail and Dusty Valley are full of glitched battles. The rest of world 1 is fine (I was able to check Homestead's NPCs for glitches as well, everything's fine there, thank god for area skipping>> :D), I'll let you know if I find anything in world 2 or 3.

Final edit (I mean it :D ): All battles are fine in world 2 up to Arachid's Grove, where the game either crashes on the beginning dialog or after the first battle is won.

I'm starting to think to myself: "why are all these problems happening just because the music has been taken out of the game?", doesn't make any sense to me.

PS. I miss the music! :( However, I like the beginning music you added, he he :D

Thanks very much for testing this Hermit, it's a great help. I'll see if I can look at the areas which still have problems. The old code is a real mess, and MMF's lack of decent global code management is making this a lot harder than it needs to be. :(

I recently started playing the game afresh, having downloaded the latest version of the game onto my brand new, flashy PC... It was okay for a while, but then I got to the Grundlekrunk, died, started doing some major levelling-up to get to a point where I could defeat it, but discovered that after going through Haily's Glen a couple of times (raising my level 1 or 2 times) the game crashed and I lost all progress I'd made since I last saved.

Are either of the updates/fixes available through this thread advanced enough to allow me to play through from this stage without these glitches (and preferably no new glitches ;p)?

Does the game exit straight to desktop with no error message? It could be the anti-cheat code, which hasn't really been anything other than a nuisance to players and I ought not to have included. It is still in the updated versions.
It checks for unusually high levels and in this case it may be set too low and triggered by a level which is actually achievable without cheating.

No, I get a message that the engine has crashed and is forced to close. I'm only getting up to level 8 ish anyway!

"Multimedia Fusion Stand Alone Application has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

Error Signature -
AppName: the spirit engine.exe AppVer: 2.5.111.0 ModName: modfusion.cox
ModVer: 1.0.0.0 Offset: 0001ede1 "

This file data was included with the error report...
"<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-16"?>
<DATABASE>
<EXE NAME="The Spirit Engine.exe" FILTER="GRABMI_FILTER_PRIVACY">
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</EXE>
<EXE NAME="ModFusion.COX" FILTER="GRABMI_FILTER_THISFILEONLY">
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<EXE NAME="kernel32.dll" FILTER="GRABMI_FILTER_THISFILEONLY">
<MATCHING_FILE NAME="kernel32.dll" SIZE="984576" CHECKSUM="0xF0B331F6" BIN_FILE_VERSION="5.1.2600.3119" BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="5.1.2600.3119" PRODUCT_VERSION="5.1.2600.3119" FILE_DESCRIPTION="Windows NT BASE API Client DLL" COMPANY_NAME="Microsoft Corporation" PRODUCT_NAME="Microsoft® Windows® Operating System" FILE_VERSION="5.1.2600.3119 (xpsp_sp2_gdr.070416-1301)" ORIGINAL_FILENAME="kernel32" INTERNAL_NAME="kernel32" LEGAL_COPYRIGHT="© Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved." VERFILEDATEHI="0x0" VERFILEDATELO="0x0" VERFILEOS="0x40004" VERFILETYPE="0x2" MODULE_TYPE="WIN32" PE_CHECKSUM="0xF9293" LINKER_VERSION="0x50001" UPTO_BIN_FILE_VERSION="5.1.2600.3119" UPTO_BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="5.1.2600.3119" LINK_DATE="04/16/2007 15:52:53" UPTO_LINK_DATE="04/16/2007 15:52:53" VER_LANGUAGE="English (United States) [0x409]" />
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whether any of that will be of any use to you, I don't know ^^; just thought i might be useful to include it though...[/quote]

Haha, the problem is due to a very weird bug in ModFusion that I could never reproduce, and thus not fix. The good news is that the new sound engine has been tested on over 100+ computers with no problems to date. (:

Just brought a new dell pc, and yes it works not had a problem in ages, just fully downloaded tse 1.04 again with music and works fine, fingers crossed it continues to work :? :lol:

Myrph, unfortunately the only way to get around that problem at the moment is to use the music-less version ( www.thespiritengine.com/Files/TSEBuild0615musicstrip.exe ) or try running it on another PC.

I have tried setting TSE-1 up to run with an updated version of the mod plugin but the bad state of the old game code means that I have created as many problems as I have solved so far.

Darn, that sucks...

Oh well, at least I've downloaded the soundtrack, so I can listen to that at the same time ;p

i have an issue with the no soundtrack tse version when i fight something, the opponents attack sound would repeat over and over even when i escape the game to the main menu and the game freezes unless i keep switching can characters around can anybody help :( :( :(

Bug in version 619 - some weird error in world two after freeing Adrian's soul. Windows blames it on modfusion.cox
The bug repeats; in fact, each time I win two battles or exit area after winning first, the bug occurs, game crashes and some debug-related data is shown. I didn't messed up with savegame and I didn't over-trained my party so that's not the reason. It just happens when I play.

monsoonasiian - I am afraid there is nothing that I can do about such a problem with sound effects, as it is an issue between the underlying MMF 1.5 runtime and your PC. I can only advise trying to find another PC to play on.

YanPL-tse - Was 619 the beta version I put up with the updated version of Modfusion? It is really hard for me to assess how effective these fixes are because I can't recreate the crashes myself on any of my PCs.

The modfusion.cox crashes are rather perplexing. I am wondering whether it is an issue with modern PCs/versions of Windows, because I don't recall the issue ever coming up during testing before the release ( because we sure as hell would have noticed it ) and don't remember many if any reports of this in the year after release. The newest PC I have at home here to test on is almost 4.5 years old itself.

well i've been using my new laptop latley since my old computer chrashed anyway my new laptop has got the latest windows xp home edition anyway i never had that problem on my old computer it's a pretty werid bug. my old computer is fixed and i've justed installed Vista home premium it looks ok i just really wanna get the most up to date version of TSE :D :D please i just don't want to install the old dodgey version on my old PC User CD well yeah thats about it :D :D

The most up to date version should still be 104, available at http://www.sendspace.com/file/l1lqxb. The other versions in this thread are beta versions where I have been trying to ( remotely ) debug the music issues.
I'm sorry that you've been having trouble with the game. It is hard for me to fix these issues with the limited resources I have at home. :(

Is it your Vista PC on which you are experiencing the sound effect problems? I have read occasionally of similar Vista sound issues with Eternal Daughter, a popular freeware platformer also written in MMF 1.5

well, my bug is rather kinda not related to OS, since I'm still using w98se. New games are also playable, but i'm not sure about if I've started over again and got to same location i'd got the same bug.

YanPL - I expect that restarting the game would make no difference. You might have to use beta 615 ( www.thespiritengine.com/Files/TSEBuild0615musicstrip.exe ) to get through such sections.
I need to take a look and see whether these crashes happen on all machines and whether they can be avoided by rewriting the code calling the music. It's painful, I cannot bear to look at TSE-1 any more. ;) A lot of playtesting would be required and I don't want to release it as an offical patch until I know that it works properly.

Fun stats: Windows visiters to tse.com ( % of total Windows users ):

XP - 76.7 %
Vista - 10.4 %
2000 - 2.1 %
98 - 1.8 %

There were even 19 hits from Windows CE, which I thought was cool. :D

Hooray for windows CE! I still have a palmtop floating around here that uses that OS... I really ought to dig it out again! It was fun! ;p

hooray for w98! it's still most bugless of all releases of windows. Other computers in my home which use XP got some "hacked by godzilla" and spam/trojan/steal/adware viruses, when my old system is not clever enough to run them.

I was wondering if the sound bug is fixed or if it's in the way of getting fixed. This game is nice and I wish to play it with music...

I tried to fix this last year and failed. So much difficult work would be required to try again with no guarentee of success. I would like to try but the time and the willpower are not available to me now. :( I'm sorry about this.

That is too bad. I really wanted to enjoy this game to its full potential. Afterall, it's rare to see a free independent game with such quality. =(
Guess I'll have to go with the "music-less" version.

Tasty looking screenshot there on the frontpage :)
Now you're all freelance, maybe you should poke up a little donation button. You never know, now you can start to push it a little more, you could get a few 'preorders' that way :P

I'm a big advocate for the pre-order idea. I'd help push it by giving a discount to those who pre-ordered for the soundtrack, as well. But I think even that's far from now (;

Thanks for the support guys. I'm not comfortable with a donation button since TSE-2 won't be freeware. I'm not keen on pre-ordering, at least at this stage, because I don't have a demo available and can't guarentee a release date. I do like the idea of a soundtrack bundle discount though, we should do that. :D

When you're at a later stage of development pre-order might be a good option, if there is a discount of some sort i guess.
But for the now being no-demo game, I'd keep with you and say it's a good thing to wait. :P
But i must say, i would probably pre-order already since it looks so darn awsome, using the true meaning of awsome. *gasping for air*
Hope the progress will be swift but good. Don't try to rush it, that'd probably give a less good result.
And yeah, add more videos/screenshots/everything! I love watching all this stuff.
Keep it up!

well... i was wondering if somebody cud help me out, im starting to design my own games (i.e, rpg mainly) and would like to use the multimedia fusion to create them, if anybody would be willing to help me out, i will eventually be making the games and selling them..just a little wild venture, please any ideas would be great thanks aj,

Making games is no easy task. It takes time, effort, skill, and particularly patience to make a good game that people will enjoy.

Multimedia Fusion costs cash, a lot of cash, so I personally wouldn't go buying it even if I had the money without any pre-programming knowledge. I suggest you start out with something easy, like RPG Maker XP, or purchase one of Ensemble Studios' games (If your into the RTS genre - Age of Empires III, Age of Mythology, etc.) and get used to their editor, this will prepare you for the real thing later on.

You're likely not going to make a selling game unless you get a team of programmers together, as well as to have a little bit of programming knowledge yourself. I'm sure at one point in every concurrent generation person's life, every computer-interested kid out there's wanted to make games. Well, there's a lot of competition out there, so it's not easy to get a hit going, unless your game is truly unique (Spirit Engine :wink: ).

Mind you, everyone starts somewhere, and if you're interested in game-creation, good for you! Remember, games aren't the only thing that makes people financially successful in life via computers, there are many other programs that you could create, that have nothing to do with games, that people need.

I hope this helps, and be prepared to spend a tad bit of cash :D

Hermit

thanks for that mate i think ile hang fire for just a wee while lol, i thought it would be easy but i was gravely mistaken lol cheers all the same

Hermit is spot on. If you're short on cash, the Games Factory 2 ( cut down version of MMF 2 ) can be had for £35, which isn't too bad.
Just start ( very ) small, don't try anything ambitious and don't expect to achieve anything significant without putting a lot of work in. You need time, motivation and an idea that is important to you to achieve much.
RPGs especially are extremely content-heavy so I would avoid them. Simple platformers are a good starting point and you'll find that they're popular projects on sites that cater to beginners such as www.create-games.com

Making games seriously is nowhere near as fun as playing them. It's frequently tedious and frustrating. It is very rewarding though. :D

There was a "hint" in 1st world about it, but i've never spent even one point for mana to check it. Is this true?
Also, why game does not check if mage uses a weapon? I've got -10% cooldown for nickel plated rifle or something by save editing with 3xMage party to beat the last boss.

"The value of a character's BASE mana pool is used to resist magical attacks "

from the Spritual Compendium in the Help Section of the game

You can recharge Mana higher than that during battle, so your headline is not exactly right (but there are Items that increase the base mana).

For the gameplay it certainly makes a different to have some points spend on Mana Skill.

I didn´t understand your second question, sorry

As for your second question, mages are not supposed to have weapons, therefor, they cannot wield any.

How is it working? Is magic damage decreased by my "BASE mana pool", or rather if I gor 30 mana I am completly immune to magic?

as for second question, my point is that game should check savegame when loading wether mages have weapons or not, and remove those weapons from mages weapon slot.

I think the reduction is related to base mana pool, though I can't remember 100%.

Woah Mark, you're not in Ireland anymore!

Yeah, I moved back when my job finished, swapping wet and windy Ireland for wet and windy England. :) I was living in Galway which is a lovely city and recommended if you're ever visiting the west of Ireland.

Long ago, during a visit to the Natomic Studios website(back in like what 2004 or 2005), I saw an RPG project called Chosen Slayer being worked on. I wonder what happened to the project or better yet, where the creator's been.

I believe that could have been Mårten. I can't quite remember what name he was using at the time, it was something different I think. He joined just before the site went down and was very quiet, so I didn't get to know him.

Anyway, if it was Mårten, he was involved in Fret Nice ( http://www.fretnice.com/ ) It's supposed to be really good, but I don't have the guitar to play it with.

I assume Chosen Slayer was abandoned, which is a shame because it looked lovely. :(

http://web.archive.org/web/20050528074619/www.natomic.com/game.asp?id=22

This one. I can't remember Meric that well. :S

Also: http://www.natomic.com

Who's behind this aye?

NB: There's nothing in the source... honest :P

Well that's the first I've seen of that. :?

"<!-- The games have just begun! Stay tuned for a sekrit URL here soon! -->"

Did not know which part to stick this in so i thought here would be ok anyway quick question i was having a think i have played a couple of games simmaler to this and people that have played the games have also contributed ideas and design e.g extra bits like extra storys and stuff i was just wondering if this is posible with ever spirit engine 1 and or 2 or not.

Hi James,

Unfortunately, TSE-2 is a fairly closed system. The overhead required to make the game moddable enough to let players insert new content would be huge, and certainly too high for me. MMF 1.5 as a development platform also imposes some significant restrictions on moddability ( for example, importing and using external graphics in 1.5 is quite unwieldy )

There will be the opportunity to mod the dialogue, items and skill stats in TSE-2 as I will release the editor I have written for them.
There were several threads where I took suggestions for features and improvements in TSE-2 on the old Natomic forums (gone now, but saved on my HD). But that was 4 years ago and with the game almost finished now, it would be unwise of me to make any significant changes.

TSE-1 is entirely hard coded in MMF. It wouldn't be moddable without the source code and even then I wouldn't recommend it. You'd be better off writing your own game. :)

oh ok i was just enquiring thats all lol

"There will be the opportunity to mod the dialogue, items and skill stats in TSE-2 as I will release the editor I have written for them."
Does it mean that it'll be easy to translate TSE2 to other languages? It would be perfect 8)

ugraugra: good point! I could perhaps do Polish version.

As for modding support - it's so much effort! Overhead is huge, as far as I can tell that's lots of work to do, especially if you don't begin making a game with creating modding structure. Later it's so much to replace that nobody will go for it.

You are from Poland? Heh, greetings from Prague, i could do Czech version.

And i could do an Australian version! :wink:

Spotted a glitch today, take a look at it:

http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/2271/tse3cm7.th.png

The sheriff is facing the opposite direction of which he's shooting! :D

This doesn't effect game play, but I thought I'd show you it anyways.

Hermit

ah, so this is what happens when Hermit is fighting himself :P

Lmao, never thought of that :D

I´d like to know: in which direction did he shoot, did you see his bullets?
...maybe Frost Wolves sneaking up from behind, sure you killed everything 8)

From time to time I´ve experienced bullets flying in weird directions.

Oh dear :(

That wasn't the case, the bullets the sheriff was shooting were shot directly at the hermit.

you just must have been sitting by left side of your pc screen :P

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/421649

Before i do the TSE animation ive done this to build my chops, check it out and vote 5, oh and tell your friends, i need all the help i can get to keep this thing a float

has and body had a bug where u use hand of the gods and then if u press right or left depending on which direction your fighting the opponent hand of goods just moves that direction if u haven't sene it try it, and what do u think about PGFJ is it worth getting ???

That's a really odd glitch. I don't think anyone's noticed it because the arrow keys aren't used in combat :P

http://img102.imageshack.us/img102/7315/tse4pq7.th.png

As for the jacket, it's got good stats, if you can get it, get it.

yeah i already got the pgfj it's pretty great but heal is a bit slow and the greanls kids :shock: :shock: ahhhhh stops my sharpshoot damn but still got out without getting killed hahaha

This is the result of some awful coding. Some of the effects used the default MMF platform movement for positioning, and I forgot to disable the user input for them. :(

how do you get pgfj?? i could never find it!

[size=24:9328294404]NATOMIC NEEDS TO BE REVIVED!


Anyway,why it's dead?

Natomic is dead because everyone left, will it be revived, probably not, but Hopefuly Mark Pay will be able to build his own community off the success of TSE - 2

The website broke and was never fixed. With no unified web presence for the better part of a year, everyone just wandered off to set up their own sites. It's been a long time now - three years? Those of us who were really serious about making games - Alonso, Blake and myself, are doing well enough on our own now, so I don't see it reforming with the original crew anymore.

i really wanted to get the natomic games...But now Natomic is dead....There is other way to get the games?

Natomic is not really dead.
(Mouse over the question mark and check the end of the source)

but there is other way to get the Natomic games?

yep, and revive pope JPII too. He also was important to many people, and it might be a good influence on all of the world, but there is just a bit of impossibility in doing it.

Don't consider it a joke on JPII, it's not meant to be; but before one does some request, one shall check if it's possible to get something achieved.

Anyway, I suppose getting back natomic community would be cool, and could even "change the world" or "make difference". Community is a good thing to participate in, I think. Have you got e-mail adresses of Natomic Studios related folks? Perhaps some forum-contribution from them could revive the community; if not for creation of plenty of games, for example for nice smalltalk.

Frankly, I don't think natomic is ever coming back. I'm still publishing HFA under the company name and under Agnes (which is my own company), but it's really just for fun.

Hey Alonso! Did you ever get my email? :P

I guesse im showcasing again....
I have some songs on the internet under the creative commons license, most of them are rubbish that i made years ago but i made a new one thanks i thinks all right.

http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/122365

Take a look and tell me what joo think :)

gee, better than I estimated, listenable even for those who don't like rock. I'll try rest of your NG submissions.

I must say that was pretty awesome, especially for homebaked stuff! Probably wouldn't download it, but didn't mind listening to it in the background!

Keep up the good work mate! ;p

Hey mate! I'm glad to hear some more composers traveling around these parts of the interweb!

This really isn't bad, although some of the production work on the guitar is a little weird (sounds very thin in the mix initially).

My production skills aren't exactly top-notch (really been working on that for TSE2 and in the past year they've become much better than what TSE1 showcased (by a lot, I'd sa)), but I think if that main riff had a little more bass it'd be more sound.

The crash cymbals also seem a tad on the loud side, but that's just nitpicky. Overall, I really enjoy this. If you're looking for some good feedback I'd encourage you to submit your stuff to www.traxinspace.com. It has a really friendly atmosphere (as long as you don't take the current rating system too seriously. If you're looking for serious comments, you simply need to request them from the right people. I can get you pointed in the right direction, if you like...).

Anyway, keep it up. This is a lot better than your description led me to think it would be. Never sell yourself short! (:

Hye thanks for your feedback. Yeh i had quite a battle with the bass, see i dont own a bass yet and borrowing one seemed like to much effort for what it was. So i just used the FL studio plug in. I had a long battle with the EQ and the volume. I EQed the bass so that it sounded good and gave room for the kick but then it would clip the whole song :) So ill take a look at it again and see what i can do.

And ill see what i can do about the crash symbals (its another plug in) ;)

Cheers guys

I need to know how i can remove the anti-cheat thing!!! :(

Really,i have completed it on the normal way,now i want to try with cheats!There is a way to remove it?Or the max number i can enter,so the game won't crash?

PS:I want,really want a LOT more how to remove the Anti-cheat thing.... :( :? :?:

Surely you can't be serious?
A) Why would you want to remove the cheat thing? Its there for a reason!
and B) Honestly, who are you expecting to give you this information? Somehow I don't think anyone is foolish enough, or naive enough to divulge such information! If you want to do it, find it out for yourself the old-fashioned way! Chances are you'll gain more entertainment from that than from actually playing it with excessive values...

I am talking serious.If you don't mind,play in your way.I play in the way i want,and you play in the way you want.This goes to everyone,too.

If someone know how to remove it and don't want to say here,PM me the way. :)

Sorry,but i sometimes dislike people that don't like cheaters.I just want to play in a different way!Isn't that bad!Even if it's boring! :(

I'd help, but I don't know that there is exactly a solid way of doing it. Mark did a good job of making that a challenge (;

Mark is the creator of the game,so i think he is the only person that know how...

well, you can easily try what are the max experience levels on each world, what items can you use at which world and so on. I could get all of talismans and all of armors/guns in world 1, but game crashed after i loaded savegame with some of them. Try finding best what you can have/be without going over limits. I don't think anti-cheat is going to be lifted some way, but you can bend some of the rules up to cartain values.

PS. your requestive words with exlaimation marks all over them are a bit irritating. Slow down, fellow, or be ashamed. or, whatever, do what you want, but don't behave like dumb.

But i hope Mark tell me the way...

PS:Remember that if you don't want to say here,PM me!

The anti-cheat checks are hard-coded into the game. They check for numbers which should not be be achievable until after the current level.

I do intend to remove them in a future patch. Unfortunately, more work on The Spirit Engine is taking a back seat at the moment because I am still trying to get TSE-2 finished and TSE-1 is a very old, ugly and messy game.

Mark, don't be so hard on TSE-1, it's still a great game and a masterpiece by my standards :)

yup, not all games offer saving the universe in 12 hours :P plus, storyline is nice, graphics blast off other freeware titles

Hey, if you listen to great old music recordings it´s still entertaining and delightful despite the "poor recording quality" or whatever....
There´s content to be obtained that has nothing to do with scratches on vinyl or software bugs...
if you understand what I mean (ok. just wanted to say TSE is still a great game, I liked the TSE2 Combat video by the way...)

Thanks for the kinds words guys. :D I think it's natural for anybody to be dismissive of their past projects. If I hadn't improved enough in the last 4 and a half years to find my old work embaressing, I ought to be worried!

it's plain and natural for evolving "artist" to be ashamed/embarassed a bit about his old projects.
If it wouldn't so, we should be afraid that his skill didn't grow at all!
So, it's good to know that TSE was "worse" than TSE2 will be; it exactly means that TSE2 will be even better.

"The anti-cheat checks are hard-coded into the game. They check for numbers which should not be be achievable until after the current level.

I do intend to remove them in a future patch. Unfortunately, more work on The Spirit Engine is taking a back seat at the moment because I am still trying to get TSE-2 finished and TSE-1 is a very old, ugly and messy game."

You will do this now?(yes,i'm a impatient person.)

I still don't know. TSE1 has some other genuine issues that would take priority.

maybe you could remove skill limit, or add an item editor. A thing adding some new game experience - something considered an absurd before.

I'm going to give it some serious thought. The code is such a mess that just thinking of my last attempt to fix the music crashes makes me shudder. :(

Do you have a decision?

It might be better for me to release the source code instead. I don't think I'm ever going to be at a point where I have nothing better to do than edit TSE1. :(

That'd be awesome. I know for a fact it'd make at least one easily excitable fanboy giddy with joy... and if you're not working on it anymore anyway... :wink:

I put together the required files for somebody a few months back, but unfortunately that never went anywhere and I deleted them off the FTP. It's only possible to open the source in MMF 1.5, which is a discontinued product. There's demos of 1.5 out there that ought to let you open it, but not build the .exe.
If you're still interested I can go and hunt out the required missing extensions on my old PC and re-upload it all.

Yeah, that would be great. As for compiling the exe, I think I know somebody who owns that version of Multimedia Fusion. As I said, you'd make at least one fanboy (and paying customer :P) quite happy. :)

I've had trouble trying to upload the larger files over the weekend. The FTP connection keeps dropping. :( I'm not sure if it's my ISP or the host. It's done this before, but not for a long time now. I need to see if I can find a way around.

I'm sorry that it's taken me a while but I've gotten the files uploaded at last:

http://www.thespiritengine.com/Files/TSE1/

There may be some extensions missing, let me know if you have problems loading it.

As a disclaimer - the game and its contents remain the property of myself and Josh. The source is being provided for personal use only.
You may not re-release or distribute the game or any of its assets, altered or not, to the public without our permission.
I need to say that just in case somebody tries to do something silly with the source. I warn you that the code is very bad, so I hope you weren't looking to learn anything from it! :)

Yaaaaay! :D

Thanks for uploading. I'm not sure what I wanted to do with this either (apart from prodding around in it), but don't worry... I'm highly resistant against new knowledge anyway. :wink:

Well, good luck! :D I have enough trouble figuring out my own code that I wrote 6 months ago. TSE-1 has long since been an incomprehensible mess to me. ;)

Just an idea i had. But maybe have a high score list based on game time completion.

I had been thinking of adding such a feature.
My timetabling is not going to plan at the moment. I had been intending to patch it in after release if there was sufficient interest, but I may get time to look at it beforehand now.

Any ideas for other stats to collect? :D ( some may be much easier to track than others at this stage ) I'd like to keep a separate timer for time spent in battle too. Since there's 3 speeds there, I'm not sure if I should calculate these in actual time, or game clock time.

Not sure how easily you could implement this, but perhaps a counter that clocks how many times each character uses a specific ability? That would be pretty awesome! ;p

i dont know what part money plays in the game but you could score that, or important items.

I think with the battle clock, calculate it in game speed time, so that the players who are experienced enough to play it at a fast pace get rewarded.

I like that idea Myrph. Collecting those stats should be easy enough, displaying them all at the end would take a bit more work.

Lachlan - Money and items probably wouldn't be too exciting a statistic, since money is found at regular intervals rather than collected from defeated monsters. I should probably record both real and game-clock time for battles.


Making a note for myself:
- Damage dealt.
- Damage received.
- Numer of times characters are KOed.

ability-usage count. it's a brilliant Idea for various things, shouldn't be very hard to code, and it would give many oportunities. perhaps every hundred'th use of ability could be powered up a bit. It also would be brilliant for unlockables (and AFAIK, people love unlockables).

i have finished the game many times, the only character i havent played has been clara in fact

so..i was never able to find paladins golden flece jacket or golden crafted rifle... and i dont remember how i did find the silvered robes of speed

if anyone can help me with info i would be glad!
ty

Shifting sands: You have to rise the bridge to Granael, either by helping Aegin Warstick or fighting with this Veroonai Warrior (what was his name again....?)
For the Bridge you do one of those and if you want you do the other one after that and get the Golden Fleece or the Speed Tunic (Aegin has that one afair)

The Crafted Rifle can only be found by Peter in the Last World at Ground Level by carefully observing the raging crowd....

Hello =) Just wanted to say that TSE - is a great game!
Oh! And what's max level?

"Hello =) Just wanted to say that TSE - is a great game!
Oh! And what's max level?"

I guess you could level up eternally since enemies keep respawning.
It´s more interesting to find the lowest possible level. Hempuli did the last fight with lvl 41 which is awesome (he used some bugs to avoid certain quests)

Hi ZeppMan217! I'm glad you're enjoying the game. I don't know the exact max level (55 ish ?). It will be determined by the level of the creatures in Chapter 5, since they give less and less xp as you level up above them.

Hempuli beating the last fight at lvl 41 was really impressive!

ok. thx :)

Hey everyone! I've been hard at work over the past few months on the soundtrack for a game called Bonesaw (see my website for more) and I've finally gotten that all finished up. In these exciting times I definitely don't want to leave you loyal TSE2 fans in the dark.

http://www.syntesis.org/node/29

Here you will find a 3 minute long sampler of music from TSE2. Read the whole post for more info!

Hey Josh! Thanks for this.
I've been listening to the Bonesaw soundtrack the past few days and and loving it. ^_^ I haven't tried the game itself yet but I will when I get on the net with my other PC.

Oooh, it sounds SO improved since TSE-1 :) , excellent work, Josh! Keep it up!

I went ahead and put the fourth song in this preview on trax in space. I won't keep them up for much longer.

http://www.traxinspace.com/song/39398

I love the music its awesome some of the songs sound like TSE but mith a mix it's awesome again :D :D :D keep up the good work

:( I was playing TSE again lol anyway i was in the Arcane Libaray and noticed when i fought the first enemy team peter had lower mana then i last looked it was coloured in a kinda pink color and only changed when i reached world 5 i'm not sure if it's a bug or it's apart of the game if it is a part of the game can someone tell me how it triggers TSE is going well no realy problems :D :D

":( I was playing TSE again lol anyway i was in the Arcane Libaray and noticed when i fought the first enemy team peter had lower mana then i last looked it was coloured in a kinda pink color and only changed when i reached world 5 i'm not sure if it's a bug or it's apart of the game if it is a part of the game can someone tell me how it triggers TSE is going well no realy problems :D :D"

That´s not a bug (his mana is cut in half,the colour of the numbers is also a bit paler afair). You can also notice that he´s not happy after a victorious fight, he doesn´t react at all!
Remember what he did and what he learned just before entering the library :wink:
(it´s similar what happesn to the health of the poisoned party member in World 3)

:shock: :shock: ohhhh ok, lol gets kinda annoying with only half hp

Yeh but it forces you to rethink your strategies :)

I hope Mark remembers that using RPGmaker 2000 sound effects and other library sounds isn't legal if he makes the game shareware.

Which sound effects have you heard which you thought were from RPGmaker? There were some in TSE-1 I believe, but I haven't touched that set since I started on TSE-2.

The sound effects in TSE-2 are from the MMF1.5 CD ( free for use ), sounddogs.com ( paid for, excellent site ) and explicitly stated public domain sources.

remember the good ol' days when people made their own sound effects?

... and everything sounded suspiciously like a muffled household appliance? :)

Most public domain sound effects are still amateur stuff, and most of them are bad. If you want quality, especially looping samples and interesting magical effects ( which you can't make a fantasy game without ) I find it hard to avoid buying them in. The most audio work I've done is to tweak, crop and resample stuff in Goldwave.

I know, , i usualy have to search 20 - 30 websites to find even a hint of what im looking for. I should just buy the ones i need.

Thank god, SE2 is close to release. Mark I have to be honest though, I never beat the first one completely because it was to hard but from what I played I loved it. SE2 looks 10 times better. Keep up the good work. (:

Not only that, but it has difficulty settings. How's that for awesome? (:

*drools in anticipation*

So how is the difficulty determined are the monsters going to have more hp or more attack it's so close yet so far lol can't wait

I'd rather expect some handy global multipication of skill cooldown times.

I can't stop thinking of differences between original TSE and upcoming sequel. Will they make game better? Propably, we all hope so.

Thanks guys! I really appreciate the fact that some of you have hung around here for so long showing your support in spite of the frequent lack of information.

I'm back home briefly for the Easter holidays and back at my computer. Getting the release done in the coming months with my work contract is going to be tricky but I am determined to make it happen.

Difficulty is done with global multipliers on monster stats. I have been focusing on the normal difficulty setting until now, but I've tried out the others a little and they seem to work well.

I still have to wait a little longer to see how my job will turn out before I can decide exaclty how to handle the release. I'm dead excited about the day when you can all play the game, because it completely destroys the original. :D

GWAAAAAAAH!
why did I come to this site to check again.. its so close, yet so far....

"Thanks guys! I really appreciate the fact that some of you have hung around here for so long showing your support in spite of the frequent lack of information.
"

And thank You Mark, for sticking with the game. Its very rare for indie developers to stick with something that takes so long (3, 4 years?)
Most games ive been looking forward have been cancelled :(

darn right.
It is hard to find games that have as much effort put into as you have. I hope its well worth it for you.

I was 10 years old when i first saw TSE and i loved it. over these years, you have put so much effort and time into TSE2. I hope it pays off. Haven't been on this forum for ages. TSE will always stick with me. :P

I have the phoneline at my new apartment finally working, so I can access the site again ( courtesy of my antique 33.6kbps modem :) )

I still don't know how my new job is going to turn out, and unfortunately my PC seems to be unwell since I moved it. It keeps crashing applications with memory access violations and I'm worried that my ram or motherboard is damaged. I think it's time to buy a new PC, but until I can afford that I don't want to edit the TSE-2 source on this machine for fear of corrupting it. So unfortunately I think it will take at least 3 months before a release could happen still. :(

I'm sorry about these continuing delays, life is not being very helpful at the moment. It will be worth the wait, I promise.

take all the time you need (as we have said for the past few years). We don't want a rushed final product. Add all the polish you need. Make sure everything works.

Apologies again for the silence. It's taken me this long to get my PC working properly again ( I hope ) In the end I'm not sure whether it was the ram, my motherboard or both that are failing, but by removing some memory and swapping round the rest I seem to have found a stable combination again.

(sigh) This is taking freaking ages. :(

Computers can suck sometimes. I finally realised i knew i needed a new one when it started smoking :)

Oh, yeah, smoke is bad news. :) What caught fire - was it the PSU or something else?

I'm very suspicious of the electrical wiring in my crappy new apartment. Half the plugs only work if you bang them with your fist, and I can faintly hear other people dialling sometimes on the telephone line. In a typical overraction, I've bought an Uninterruptable Power Supply which now sits besides my desk glaring at me like a miniature version of HAL 9000. :)

what caught fire was a tiny rubber square, im not sure what it was called, but it was about a quater of the size of a 5 cent peice (i dont know what the equivilent is overseas)
So yeh, thats the way it goes, one tiny little thing = dead motherboard

Granted, at the time it wasnt a great machine, it was running windows 98 and it had been for over 4 years.

I just want to no if any1 payed wow here aka world of warcraft if u do tell me your server you play on and what u r :D :D

I'll tell you if you promise you'll transfer me all your WOW gold. (Lots of theese are advertised on google adsense, that's why i so so so dislike WOW; in fact I think that playing roulette at casino is better/more creative way to spend your time/money/whatever. So, I actually play none of the above, and I am kinda proud of it.)

Ah yes... the plague, and a deadly one she is

Hey everyone.

This is about my fourth time writing this general message, so bear with me!

From now until April 25th, if you donate $5 or more to the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life cause, you will receive a free digital copy of the COMPLETE original soundtrack (opposed to the "Best of" album). This has an approximate worth of (and will go on sale for) $20.

$5 is NOT a huge amount, and even if you don't want the money the donation goes a VERY long way. Besides, you can't complain with free music!

For demos and drafts of the music on the album you can check the following link (although this music is as of yet completed or mastered like it will be for the final album that you will receive!): http://www.ctgmusic.com/album.php?album=2204

To read more, head here:
http://www.syntesis.org/tse2cancer

To go straight to the donation page:
http://main.acsevents.org/goto/whelchjd

I NEED THIS GAME. You might want to update the ETA section. While the information's technically not incorrect, it's past 2007.

But back to my initial point... man, this game looks beautiful, and awesome, and unique, and compelling. With Josh Whelchel doing the sound track again, it's also going to have beautiful music just to boost the arse-kicking factor. I'm not trying to over-hype this game, but there is just not a single chance it will disappoint me. Don't rush it, but at the same time, please hurry up and finish it! I need this... I really do.

Ahem. I'm done with the praise now. By the way it's probably already been discussed somewhere, but any idea what you're going to sell it for?

Every time someone asks who much it will be, Mark kills a kitten.

oh man, you made me imagine a pile of dead kitties.

EDIT TO REMOVE IMAGE - Sorry Yan, but as a vegetable-chomping lover of animals, pictures like this are about as welcome here as tubgirl or goatse.
~Mark

I should have put a link to whole site instead, since that site i hotlinked the image from fights against any animal abusal.

Okay, no harm done. :)
~Mark

Thanks PsychoticSquid! I really need to take a look at the rest of the site. I don't like to spend time on updates and publicity and it really shows. :/

I'm very anxious to get the game released myself. It has been almost finished for many months and I really want to get it out so that people can play it and enjoy it. There have been many delays, but in the end I think these will have helped, since I have been able to use the time to test and polish the game.
Now Josh is finishing the audio coding and I am finding fewer and fewer issues to correct with every test run. On my last play through I was able to time myself with the added stat collection functionality and the game took me 10 hours from start to finish. I would expect it to take a new player quite a bit longer. I have deliberately tried to avoid padding the game with too many unnecessary and repeated fights.

Price has become a difficult area. There are many issues currently complicating my thoughts about the final release. The most critical one is my new job. My contract prevents me from engaging in the 'business' of computer games, and I don't believe that trying to negotiate with my employers would have a positive outcome. At the same time I am concerned about the long-term prosects of this job.
In about 6 weeks time I will have a difficult decision to make as to whether I commit fully to my new employment. If I do keep my job, then I have been considering making TSE-2 a freeware release and trying to make back a little money with donations and advertising on the site. If I don't keep my job I will certainly be in need of income, so it will be back to the original plan. In this event I would not intend to charge over $20 for the game.

Thank-you again for your support. I appreciate it and I believe that you will not be disappointed with the final release. :D

will there be a free demo (in case game don't go freeware)??

Definately. It annoys me when games don't provide demos.
( Worringly, I recently heard of a study which suggests that games do sell better when they don't have demos for people to try first. :/ )

"Definitely. It annoys me when games don't provide demos.
( Worryingly, I recently heard of a study which suggests that games do sell better when they don't have demos for people to try first. :/ )"

That would kinda make sense, because you're more likely to buy a game if it looks good and doesn't have a demo, than one that does have a demo, but turns out not to be as good as you expected so you don't buy it.

Without a demo, you're more likely to risk your money on a potentially good game, than one with a demo where you can appraise whether or not its worth the money. Its possible that the games that release demos don't sell themselves as well through the demo and other media than games that don't.

I guess there are many factors that could affect it... Doesn't mean its not a good thing to release a demo! I'm sure most of us would probably pay for the full version regardless of whether you release a demo or not! I guess its just everyone else you've got to convince!

You never know, its possible people might make their decision about TSE2 from playing TSE1... whether that's a good thing or not, I'm not sure... perhaps on that note releasing a demo might be a good idea after all!

Thanks for the reply, Mark!

I was hoping you'd aim for the $20 mark, I paid that much for Noitu Love 2 and I'm almost certain that this will last much longer. I would have happily paid for TSE-1 even. It's good to hear it's been almost finished for a while now, and I'm glad you're taking your time to polish it and test it thoroughly.

Does your job contract prevent you from selling things that you produce in your own free time? That's pretty harsh. Best of luck with that, hope it works out in whatever way suits you best. I'm more than happy to support your work if you need it, I'm probably not the biggest fan in the world (I've seen some crazies) but I'm definately a fan. Heck, if you do have to release it as freeware, I'll donate some money for the effort (assuming that having a donation link somewhere doesn't also violate your contract).

I look forward to your masterpiece!

I think that if you intend to sell your game, you should definiately not charge anything less than $20. There are always those folks who think "This thing can't possibly be worth crap if it doesn't have a hefty price tag." I believe that in the end, you will gain more sales than you lose.

Just one request:
No Paypal!

Thanks :)

I hate to bring this up as it seems offtopic, but I think PayPal should be kept as an option. Honestly, if you're smart with your money (aka keep no money directly in your paypal account when at all possible) then it's a great time saver, and the fees aren't unbearable. It's much easier for the buyer, too, then most alternatives. Plus, you can withdraw your money a lot faster than you can with most sites, I get my bank withdrawls very quickly.

Well, I'll release a demo whether it's a good idea or not. :) It is a challenge to put together a demo which efficiently introduces a player to the game but also shows them it's full potential with the late-game content.

Contractually, my experience seems to be that most games companies require you to at least:

a) Assign to them all intellectual property ( usually but not always ) games-related ( vague ) developed by you during your period of employment, in or out of works hours. This does not concern me, given that I finished all the content for the game before starting my new job.

b) Not engage in the same business as the company ( roughly )
As you mentioned, I would believe, and hope, that asking for general donations would not constitute engaging in business.

There seems to be no getting out of these clauses in the industry unless you have significant bargaining power or you work freelance.


I have not had any problems Paypal with personally, but I would expect any decent online retail service to provide a direct card payment option too. It's been a while since I checked either Plimus or BMT Micro. I tried making accounts for both companies and both had some annoying deficiencies in their service or interfaces.

As far as a donation scheme for Plan B, I've not looked at any alternatives to Paypal for handling donations. I wouldn't trust my own card details directly to any but a handful of companies on the net. :/
For me, Paypal's sole reason for existance is that it allows you to transfer money without transferring your account details. I don't know of any serious alternatives, though I sure would like to hear about them if they exist.

When you're going to release the demo?

Probably at the same time as the game is released.
I still don't know when that is yet. :)

The revamped streaming soundtrack is in the game now, thanks to Josh's awesome audio-coding skills. It's amazing, and you folks are going to love it. :D

I should know in about a fortnight exactly which direction the release is going to go in. Heck, I might even update the frontpage...

Best of all, I'm *still* not bored of playtesting!


Although, the start of Venture Bros. Season 3 and the LOST finale might just distract me for a few hours this coming weekend. ¬_¬

"Best of all, I'm *still* not bored of playtesting!"

Surely we, your wonderful audience whose computers are wildly different from yours, ought to playtest TSE2 to find all the bugs you haven't found yet!! ;pp

" the LOST finale might just distract me for a few hours this coming weekend. ¬_¬"

I got to about season 3 then gave up. I didnt want to throw in the towel... but it just go too weird!

Myrph - That is a good idea. I will think seriously about releasing a single level demo to find any general compatability issues before the release ( and a proper demo at the same time as release )

I did ask the folks at Natomic to try the engine, but that was years ago when Vista was still in beta ( and Natomic still existed!)

Just what I could do about compatability issues I don't know, given that the game is still built upon the ( now very old ) Multimedia Fusion 1.5. But I think it needs to be done.

I've still got to wait a few more weeks to see if my job is going anywhere. :(


Lachlan - I love the wierd. :D The scripting on LOST is an impressive feat of engineering, and I'm there until the end. Given that LOST and the Venture Bros is pretty much the only television I've watched for the past few years, it's not that much of a commitment. ^_^

Why does Mark Pay doesnt use Game Maker for game making softwae?I've tried and the both programs and I think GM is the better.It has over 1000 built-in functions and possibility to use DLL's and other extension packages.
I personaly use GM and for about two monts I almost made demo of one awesome game.There is even forum specially for GM: www.gmc.yoyogames.com

I have never used Game Maker before, but I am quite happy using Multimedia Fusion for 2D games and I don't think that the effort required for me to make a sideways move to another gamesmaking program would be worth it. Thanks for your suggestion though!

i must be the first member to join tse2 but i dont even recall doing so. this is also my first post. woah talk about weird, first member but the last person in the world to post

really i have to admit, the most legendary game of all time was The way by lun calsari. once you get past the gameplay and see the plot, its like enlightment "why didnt i play this sooner?!" and it took me 2 years to finish the damn thing perfectly without cheating, much to my discontent as he released a walkthrough as i finished the final episode. it took a nube 1 hour to finish what took me ages without help. Darn.

btw im helping a guy with making a game, hes stuck on scenarios, and though i try to help him, my field of work is in drawing, anybody with free time on their hands? (and the same amount of expertise of Tsukihime,btw yes we are making a visual novel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsukihime
http://www.shii.org/translate/)

well yeah a bit off topic, sorry mark =.=

btw wouldnt it be funny if this forum hosted a 10000 post hit? hmm just a thought, the bandwidth wasteage would make my father cry

memberlist.php lists you as #22. But welcome to the forum anyway. :D

oh really oh well #22 cant be that bad

Oh oh oh... what number am i?

You do realise you can check it yourself by hitting the Memberlist button at the top of the page, or going here!

just thought I'd point that out ;pp

btw, I'm no. 82! whether that has any magical significance, I'm not sure, but I'm proud of it ;pp

woo 14!

What's that? #2? Hmm.

I don't guess I count though (;

Yeah, somehow I reckon you've an unfair advantage over the rest of us ;p

Curses! Only hit the #4 spot!

Hey, you can select the sort method...I´m in the top ten posters
(+1)

"Curses! Only hit the #4 spot!"

You know what ive realised, Jimbob is a VERY common forum name. Theres like one in every forum i visit.

Oh darnit.
#32
23 reversed...
I hope you've seen "The Number 23"
Paranoia :D

"Oh darnit.
#32
23 reversed...
I hope you've seen "The Number 23"
Paranoia :D"

It has been recomended to me, apparantly Jim Carey performs well.

Maybe I'm the same person!
(or very likely, I'm not :P)

I dunno, do you post on the Good Game and Kongregate forums?

Number 100 for the win!

True Story

www.natomic.com

Woo!

That's odd. I wonder who's doing it. I would guess Andi or Brad, but they haven't given their name and this is the first that I've heard about this.

Edit - Space Rancher was 6 years ago?! ( /feelold )

Is it just me or has Natomic turned into a Facebook page? :?

It has turned into a facebook page, but there is an explanation on there somewhere...

It basically says that, for the moment, the facebook page is the most active page related to Natomic, and whilst the actual site is in the process of renovation, the site will be forwarding to that page when stuff is actually happening, instead of to a half dead website!

"For the moment we've redirected Natomic.com to Facebook, as this is currently the most active page. We're looking into re-introducing Natomic.com in the near future."

"Facebook is just a start, just until we get something a little more... permanent!"

damnit :x :x i hate face book i'm unhappy that it's on face book but glad natomic is coming back bit by bit

Now it's gone again? :?

I'm trying to determine, through trial and error, what the experience caps are for each island. So far, I think I've figured out that world 1 caps out around 15 or so. World 2, I 'think' caps out around 33. I had copied the savegame.ini, savegame.ini, and w9x files prior to that, leveled to 34 and it crashed when I went into another area. However, anyone with definitive knowledge would be appreciated. Thank you.

Also, how do you solve the Brother Zane sidequest? I'm about to leave w2, and I haven't found him.

"
Also, how do you solve the Brother Zane sidequest? I'm about to leave w2, and I haven't found him."

Isn´t that the one for Clemetas?
The area should appear on the map after the 2nd town in w2

That's correct - I apparently didn't do it soon enough, and now I can't go back. Ah well. Next time through perhaps. I'm still looking for XP info though. Is Mark about?

Hi Alastor. It's hard to read my old code but I think the limits are:

W2 - 33
W3 - 41
W4 - 50
W5 - 60

It shouldn't be possible to reach these without cheating, but I may well have miscalculated.

Hey guys!

The final volume of the Premonitions album was released tonight, meaning that TSE2's release draws so very near.

Listen up:
[url]http://www.syntesis.org/tse2/premonitions/vol4

Composing for the game is going very well, for anyone who is interested. I just did some work on some battle tracks tonight, and I only have a few tunes to start from scratch. Then I'll start tweaking the preexisting tracks to perfection and then we'll call it finished! (:

Have a good one :D

Hmm... I must've missed vol 3...

Anywho, Congrats on the music! Its all awesome! ;p

Agree.Nothing more to say but AWESOME MUSIC :!:

I must apologise for forgetting to make news posts on the main page regarding the release of volumes 2 & 3. I've been distracted the past few months. x_x

There are a lot of wonderful tracks in the old mod soundtrack that haven't made the cut in the streaming soundtrack. It is great to hear them released in this form and I think it is important for Josh to have done this. Thanks Josh.

Mark said the game will be ready to mid late 2008.So itll be soon.Very soon.I hope to be finished before 30th July.Is it known the not so exact date of releasing?

Hi GiB. I'm sorry that I haven't replied sooner. I'm trying to make a difficult decision at the moment regarding work which will affect the release of the game.
So I still don't know the exact date, though I hope it will be sooner, rather than later, on that range.

There is a famous saying that art is never finished, only ever abandoned. Choosing when to 'abandon' a game is even harder for an independant developer who doesn't have set dates to work to. I had been hoping to 'abandon' the game back in the Spring after my last job finished at Christmas. Im retrospect this detour and delay has certainly been for the better.

I rejoined the ranks of the unemployed last week, which was inconvenient. But with TSE-2 finally in a pretty solid state, now must be the time to get it released.

I'm setting a release date and sticking to it. It'll be the 30th of July.

It will be a commercial release ( with a modest price, whose value I am still not 100% sure on )

I am nervous, verging on terrified about doing this. It's a lot of responsibility to sell a software product. Will people even like it? I hope so.
I'm no salesman either, and I'm not very vocal, so I'm relying on the game itself to do a lot of the talking for me when it is released.

Certainly I am keeping my expectations low, trying to stay calm and get the job finished.

This is going to be a bit of an adventure! I would like to thank all of you for your support in these forums ( and Natomic's, way back ) I'm trying hard not to let you down.

I'll turn this into a news page post in a while. I never like updating that thing. :)

There ought to be more interesting stuff to come over the next month and a half.

Woo! Can't wait! This'll be awesome!

That should give me 10 days to play it before I fly out to Tanzania!! wooooo!

:D
I´m terrified, too (*already worrying about insomnia to come*)

Only one month!I just cant wait for it :!:

Aw dang.... right before my HSC

... Study or Play

... Play or Study


Yeh im going to have to go with play....

Thanks guys. It's going to be a busy month. :D

I can't WAIT! It's been so long since I've played a
good rpg. they're so hard to find :( (the last one was probably matt's 'An untitled story')
and the tse2 screenshots do nothing to calm me down :shock:
and thankyou soo much Mr.Pay! i'll learn how to buy over the internet somehow! ^^
...
actually i still haven't finished the last dungeon in cave story.... :oops:

Lets start a countdown, 27 days...

26 :)

One of the things I've been working on over the past few days has been an updated credits, which are turning out to be rather epic, with a specially written track from Josh. Everyone who donated to the cancer drive gets a mention there. We said we would!

http://www.thespiritengine.com/Images/Additional/credits2.png

I love the background art. It reminds me of studio ghibli films.

25 days until blowing up my machine from playing :)

I have a question, how big will the download be? It shouldnt matter much for me because the release comes at the end of the month so it doesnt matter if it pushes me over.

Looking at the current build, I would expect 250-300 MB

24 - that´s the first time ever that I´m waiting for a new game release.
All the games I played have been already old - by the way: what are minimum system requirements? *holding my breath*

I was originally aiming to have the game playable on a 900mhz machine. During the long development my current machine ( Athlon 3000XP ) has slowly slipped into obsolescene and so I relaxed my minimum requirements a little.

I haven't tried the latest build on my old computers now that I've migrated to MMF2. I seem to be getting higher frame rates on this machine. There is also the possibly of hardware acceleration for the graphics some time after release ( if Clickteam ever get it out of beta ¬_¬ ) which would help greatly on older PCs.

Basically, if you bought your computer (new) in the last 6 years, I think it'll run fine. I'm looking to release a 1 level demo next week ( I meant to this week, but it slipped ) so that people can test for compatability issues.


PS - Is anybody else getting DEBUG errors when they post in this thread? It seems there is a problem with email notifications.

"
PS - Is anybody else getting DEBUG errors when they post in this thread? It seems there is a problem with email notifications."

yes, in other threads as well - strange

[quote="Mark Pay"]Basically, if you bought your computer (new) in the last 6 years, I think it'll run fine. I'm looking to release a 1 level demo next week ( I meant to this week, but it slipped ) so that people can test for compatability issues.
[quote]
23 This week - a demo?YEAH!

The one level demo would be more of an engine compatibility test just to make sure things work, not a demo in the sense that you'll get much (or any) of the story and true excitement. A more formal demo will be released alongside the game (I believe, but don't quote me on that).

"The one level demo would be more of an engine compatibility test just to make sure things work, not a demo in the sense that you'll get much (or any) of the story and true excitement. A more formal demo will be released alongside the game (I believe, but don't quote me on that)."
The only important thing for me is the demo - is it compability test or not, there is absolutely no importance.

22 Nooo!! I'm gonna miss the release!! Darn the fact I'm in Africa for the next month or so!

I'm definitely buying this as soon as I get back! (assuming I have sufficient funds in the bank account to do so...)

System Requirement update:

I've been able to play the game on my dad's ANCIENT desktop PC that barely has 512mb of RAM in WinXP. (Now granted its WinXP, but if you remember 512 was considered low for XP back then... so in Win98 it'd probably run smoother on that low of RAM).

When the compability test is going to be released?Is it known any date :?: :/

I put it together yesterday. I've been checking some new code before I release it. It should be later today or tomorrow morning.

The compatability test is now available at [url]http://www.thespiritengine.com/Files/TSE2-DemoA.zip


Please bear in mind that this is a test. It is a level recently added to the early game to improve pacing between two dialogue-heavy areas. I ripped out everything else and included an average party.

Combat controls:
------------------------------------
- Left click a character to send them to the front, middle click to send them to the back.
- Hold RMB over a character to bring up a quick-skill select menu.
- Left click on a skill button at the bottom to activate it. Right click to bring up a menu to assign a skill chain to this button.
- Left click the pause/play buttons to stop or start a character acting.

Hopefully you can figure out the rest. :D


Let me know your thoughts, and of course any bugs and how well it runs on your machine.

Some bug appears

AppName: stdrt.exe AppVer: 3.0.247.0 ModName: ntdll.dll
ModVer: 5.1.2600.2180 Offset: 0001142e

/edit
What the hell is that resurrection thing? I don't like it :lol:

Hey Mark. I'm not sure if you remember me. I was an old Natomic Forums member. I interviewed you on Klik-Me way back when. I just saw the release announcement and felt compelled to type this.

I loved TSE1 and I've been waiting for the sequel like an impatient puppy ever since. :P Its amazing to see how you've stuck with it for the last five years - an inspiration not just to indie developers but people in general. If The Spirit Engine II is anywhere as enjoyable as its predecessor, the game will sell itself, and there's no reason why you shouldn't make a ton of money. :wink:
I wish you all the best and hope everything goes smoothly leading up to the release.

Drooling fan
Chace

WoW!Its awesome!Thanks, Mark!Now I have a game to play til 30th July :)
It work fine for me, with one exeption, when once Ive started a battle the battle music dont start, but old one continued and windows told me there is an error, but the game worked normally.However the windows automaticly shut it down after a while.
I cant see any spirit.Is it invisible this time? :P

"WoW!Its awesome!Thanks, Mark!Now I have a game to play til 30th July :)
It work fine for me, with one exeption, when once Ive started a battle the battle music dont start, but old one continued and windows told me there is an error, but the game worked normally.However the windows automaticly shut it down after a while.
I cant see any spirit.Is it invisible this time? :P"

GiB, this could be a music related issue or a battle issue. Does the music work normally throughout the rest of the demo. The menu should play a sort of ambient nature-type music, and there should be fades between most tracks.

Could you please let us know what Operating System you're running on?

Thanks
Josh

""WoW!Its awesome!Thanks, Mark!Now I have a game to play til 30th July :)
It work fine for me, with one exeption, when once Ive started a battle the battle music dont start, but old one continued and windows told me there is an error, but the game worked normally.However the windows automaticly shut it down after a while.
I cant see any spirit.Is it invisible this time? :P"

GiB, this could be a music related issue or a battle issue. Does the music work normally throughout the rest of the demo. The menu should play a sort of ambient nature-type music, and there should be fades between most tracks.

Could you please let us know what Operating System you're running on?

Thanks
Josh"
This was a once from many battles.I believe if it wasnt windows itll continue to work normally exept the music which didnt start.
OS:Windows XP professional version 2002 service pack 2
Computer: Intel(R) Celeron(R) M CPU
430 @ 1,73ghz 0,99GB RAM

Thanks for the feedback folks. It would help if you could give us as much information as possible about any crashes, especially your OS, the error displayed and the exact moment that it occurs. We haven't had any crash issues on our test machines, so you are our only source of information.

Hey Chace! :D Good to see you again! Thanks for the kind words. I hope you enjoy the finished game.

I'm pretty sure that the bug that some people are running into is music related. It's happened to me right when finishing a battle, when exiting to the title screen, when dying, a few seconds after starting a new game, and when changing the music volume in the options screen. Every time a new song was supposed to kick in.

It seems kind of random, and it only seems to occur after I've gone back to the title screen from the game. I can also keep playing after the message appears, but it freezes up when I get to another point where the song changes. I can reproduce it pretty consistently, so if you could make a version without the music, I could test it.

Otherwise it runs perfectly.

I'm actually running it on a Mac using Parallels Desktop. So I'm running Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Version 2002 Service Pack 2 on a virtual computer with an Intel(R) Core (TM)2 Duo CPU T7700 @ 2.40GHz, and 512 MB of RAM on a real computer with 2 GB of RAM running Mac OS X Leopard. I also have this weird problem with the original Spirit Engine that I think has something to do with Parallels Desktop, where the frame rate and music is inconsistent in speed. I found a workaround where If I load it up multiple times and have them running simultaneously I runs fine.

As for the game itself...

It's pretty fun! I think that my favorite thing compared to the original is the refund points! I also like how in this one the different classes seem to compliment each other better. Being able to select individual attacks instead of just chains is cool too. I also noticed that you seem to have put some effort into making the players and the enemies on the same scale health and mana wise, which is something I like. Makes the game just a little more immersive. The increased complexity is good, but juggling all this stuff at once might put off some beginners. It's somewhat balanced out by the ability to adjust the speed and pause mid combat.

I'm kind of mixed on the new art style myself. It looks fantastic and is more artistically impressive, but I kind of liked the brighter, more energetic look of the first one. I also liked how you could see the bullets flying towards you're enemies. Just seemed more satisfying.

I'm looking forward to the full version regardless.

Having a busy weekend I didn´t have too much time, but anyway... I did it.

General: it already seemd to me (from reading the "manuals") that combat is more difficult and complicated than I am used from TSE. Well, to me it is, but not complicated enough to keep me away from staying with it and trying.
I lost the second battle several times but did not get frustrated with a lot of things to try. Now I got through but still don´t feel familiar with the combat system (Don´t know yet what made the difference, maybe just luck?.) It was kinda challenging - I feel good!
:D
Looking forward

Technical:
Game crashes every time after a lost battle:
there´s the defeat-sign (with smirking monsters) then the screen with the graves and then a windows failure message: "a problem occured and the program has to be closed", then it doesn´t close but the Menu appears but no programm feedback and I have to close via task manager and start the game again to replay (which I did everytime - that´s something!)
Music seems to work fine (ambient Menu music, Battle music, fading etc.)

edit: oh, after finishing I visited "change options" and changed some of the visual settings (don´t remember just fumbled), restarted and then it crashed right away (never did that before, only after defat as mentioned). that was just before I posted - and now my bed is calling deafening...

edit2: my system: WinXp professional (sp2)

Many thanks Rogue and ROD, that's some great feedback. I appreciate all of your help with this, it sounds like it is a widespread issue. Aren't PC's fun? :D

Following on from Rogue's suggestion, here is a version of the demo .exe without music. It should be placed in the same directory that you unzipped the original demo to.

[url]http://www.thespiritengine.com/Files/TSE2-DemoANoMusic.exe

Let's see if we can figure out what's going on with some good old fashioned trial and error.


The combat probably does end up rather more complex than the original game. I hope that the speed controls and difficulty levels help to compensate for this.
This level is some way into the game, after the tutorials and the easy introductory levels, so it is throwing you into the deep end a little!
I can totally appreciate how folks might prefer the brighter graphical style of the original game. The new style fits the overall tone of the second game better, and I feel it is for the best.

I don't know about anyone else, but I haven't been able to crash it with the version without music. Like I said, it never seems to crash unless I've exited to the title screen from the game at least once, so it might have something to do with that. It also might have something to do with data that's not initialized before being used, or data being disposed of more than once. Some computers handle memory differently, causing problems on some computers that don't occur on others. This is just a guess though. This seems similar to a bug that was in the original Spirit Engine that had to do with the music. Are you using the same or similar music implementation? There could be something wrong with it.

Oh, and I'm not complaining about the new look at all. It's looks fantastic and I'm sure it'll fit the game more. I just think it loses something in the process. Like I said, I'm mixed about it. :)

Thanks Rogue, that's great.

I just got it to crash myself, which is good news! ( It crashed when leaving the defeat screen, and this seems fairly reproducable )
I suspect it may be something to do with the music archive code which has been added quite recently. The technical details here are Josh's department, but if we're narrowed it down that'll be a great help.

OOOOOkay guys! It looks like my fault! (;

Here's the full news about the music engine:

It is COMPLETE rewritten from TSE1. Hundreds of people are using the same engine in MMF2 (and Clickteam contracted me to write it), and it was beta tested for several months.

This means that the bug is coming from the music packaging. Before the build was made, I had to make a quick change, so it should be pretty easy to narrow down and fine.

We'll have an update ASAP. Thanks again guys!

EDIT:

I've been able to reproduce the bug. I think it's got a bit to do with how this demo is setup specifically, in that there is no music playing on the information screen in the beginning. In the builds that I have, music plays there, and therefore the master music file is loaded once. The bug (regarding the one that happens if you go to the title screen then play) is definitely from a last minute change I made and I know why it's happening. (The master music file contains encryption and such, and when you go to the title screen it looks like it's throwing it out while it's still playing... no matter). Anyway, because the version I had always did the loading once and never repeat (unless you restarted the game, which there is a failsafe for) I didn't even think to protect from calling the load t2m file twice. :P

Anyway, this music system is entirely different than the one in TSE1, so those problems should be unrelated.

The music bug for me was single and I dont expect to occur again.I can still play original demo.But I think I find an another one.There should be 10 skills in a chain, but I can put only up to 9.Can someone other to try can he put 10 skills in a chain?

Thanks for getting on top of this so quickly Josh! I've updated the build at:

[url]http://www.thespiritengine.com/Files/TSE2-DemoA.zip

If you redownload it, please let us know if this fixes the crashes, or if they continue.

It looks like the problem was a mix of a slightly outdated version of the music plugin and some compensatory code that wouldn't have been in the final game anyway.
The lesson is - that one small addition that you make just before release and don't fully test will break the minute it goes live. :)


GiB - The last entry in a skill chain is always 'Restart' ( the icon with 2 arrows pointing to the top-left corner )
Hopefully nobody will need more than 9 skills in a chain. The most I have ever used is 5 I think. Any more than that would probably be unnecessary in battle. Thanks for reporting it though, let me know if you find any other issues.

Win XP
2ghz Intel Single Core
512 Ram
NVIDIA G Force 4 MX

Issues:
1) Game ran smoothly. However the mouse lagged when I moved over the screen while in the in-game menu. The mouse was fine in game. (Fixed, I turned off the menu GUI settings)
2) I played the first time in windowed mode, it was fine. I played again in full screen mode and the game ran fine. When I closed the game my refresh rate had changed to 60hz (I was on 75) and all my desktop icons were moved. It also unlocked my taskbar, which had a lot of shortcuts on it and shortened it. I tested it a couple of times and every time I load it up in full screen mode it changes my refresh rate.

However I like the new battle system. I like the fact that your characters re-spawn after a certain amount of time. I also like the refund points, I do still hope that there will be opportunities to fully reset your character throughout the game.

BTW - recently moved to Firefox over IE, And i cant log in to this forum on firefox. Ive tried the forgot password activating thing, didnt work.

Strange, I can log in with Firefox.

I got the shifting icons thing as well, didn't realise it changed the refresh rate as well :S

Well, it doesn't crash for me anymore! So yeah, it seems you fixed it.

How exactly do you earn refund points? I earn 2 by playing through the demo. Is it just from getting experience points?

Is 5 the maximum skill level, or does it increase as the game goes along?

And can you target specific allies for bless without having to use a skill chain? Granted, it's the only skill that seems to require a friendly target.

For those of you who didn't know, you can set the difficulty level by selecting Party in the status menu. Absurd mode didn't quite seem as absurd as I would like it, but that will probably change when fighting some of the tougher bosses.

Nice, no more crashes in newer version. I have no problems now, everything works :)
winXP, core2duo, radeon 3870

Hey guys!
Thanks a lot for the input. I'm glad to know the music issues are resolved.

I'll leave Mark to comment on the fullscreen issue, I've never had enough icons on my desktop to notice the problem. (oops!)

I believe the refund points are proportional to the amount of levels you gain. I know that I have enough at any point in the game to completely change a few stats on a character, but not enough to do that multiple times. I think the balance is just right and it seems appropriately setup (if maybe not just a smidge TOO easy to refund them). You really don't need a point to completely reset your character given this setup.

Thanks again for your feedback, you're all ensuring an easier release in... what is it now? 16 days?!

*whipcrack*

I deleted cookies and i can log in in firefox now.

60hz is a pretty common refresh rate, especially for CRT monitors. So if the game changes the refresh rate to 60hz for full screen mode then most people wont notice and will probably just get the icon moving bug like Jimbob.

However, at least with my card, the image is only sharp on 75hz, so thats why i noticed it.

Hi Lachlan,

The fullscreen problem is a nuisance. I hadn't noticed it myself until Jim pointed it out last week, because my desktop icons are set on auto-arrange.
MMF2's support for non 4:3, widescreen is bad. As in - it has none. Which is disappointing for a program released in 2006/07. You can't change the resolution at runtime with the default API either.

What's worse is that the only extension released to set custom resolution settings at runtime is, by the author's own admission I think, a little amateurish. I didn't realise that it was changing the entire desktop resolution, or the refresh rate too ( though I suspect this may have more to do with the LCD monitor auto-correcting, since mine seems reset the refresh rate without being asked when I change resolutions. )
There is a separate command for changing the refresh rate that I have not used.

Somebody ought to send Clickteam a widescreen monitor! ;)

What I'll do is try and add a third option for the default 4:3 MMF2 fullscreen mode, which I assume does not alter the desktop resolution. It'll make the options menu a little confusing, but it'll have to do.

Rogue:
Refund points are currently earned at +0.5 per battle.
The maximum skill level is currently set at 1/4 the party level. If there wasn't a cap it would probably be too easy to max out a single skill and blast your way through the early game with it. :)

It would have been nice to be able to set targets with the quick-select radial menu. ( maybe some dragging onto the target )
However those menus were a recent addition as early as last week, and I've only just finished ( I hope ) clearing up some unexpected issues that they caused. I don't want to make any more changes now, just 2 weeks from release, painful as it is to resist the urge to featurecreep. :( Hopefully I can look at this later.

I haven't tested the alternate difficulty levels right through the game ( I've been focused on balancing 'Normal' ), though I have been finding 'Hard' fairly tough.

A quick note that might please some players of the first game - if you hold down Ctrl you can now run. :D

Could you improve inventory? Some auto-equip function would be useful (double-click on some item in inventory -> item equiped). And is it possible to have more than 13 items in inventory?

/edit
The same for un-equip - doubleclick on equiped item -> item goes to inventory.
When I pick up an item, i can find it on the right side of the inventory. I don't like it, sorting from left side would be better.

Mark,

The game works fine for me in fullscreen, and I really don't see any problem with it. If you were to do something to it it'd only stretch the image and I think that'd be bad. The alternative solution is to make a second executable that has a different window size (or just change it) to a 4:3 resolution. That might be the appropriate workaround.

"Refund points are currently earned at +0.5 per battle."
Looks like we're going to have plenty of refund points then, unless we start gaining a level every battle!

"The maximum skill level is currently set at 1/4 the party level. If there wasn't a cap it would probably be too easy to max out a single skill and blast your way through the early game with it. :) "
Ah, thats a pretty good way of doing it.

Another way of doing it that I thought might be cool is if you made it so that the cost of leveling up a skill would increase by 1 point every time you trained it. And then the amount of skill points you gain per level would increase by 1 every 4 levels.(I guess starting with level 8 if you wanted to try to keep it consistent with what you have. I'm guessing you can't even start training them until level 4?) You'd be able to train skills further along later in the game, when the difference isn't as significant as it was earlier, but that might be cool. Also if you've been neglecting a skill, you'd be able to train it a lot more later on with a single level.

The flexibility might be fun, but your way is probably better for balance. People might be able to train specific skills to gain a cheap advantage over certain bosses. Or someone might pour all their skill points into a single skill (which was the best strategy in the first game) that is useless in the current area of the game, thus making things needlessly hard. Statistical flexibility and well balanced difficulty in a game are like opposing forces.

It would change things up quite a bit from what you have now, you wouldn't be able to train four skills to level 2 at level 8, and training low leveled skills later in the game would be very cheap, so it wouldn't be a good idea to change it now.

I'm not even sure if I should be giving you ideas or not...

"It would have been nice to be able to set targets with the quick-select radial menu. ( maybe some dragging onto the target )
However those menus were a recent addition as early as last week, and I've only just finished ( I hope ) clearing up some unexpected issues that they caused. I don't want to make any more changes now, just 2 weeks from release, painful as it is to resist the urge to featurecreep. :( Hopefully I can look at this later. "
If you think you can add it in quickly without messing things up, then do it, and I'll help test it. If not, then don't worry about it. There aren't many skills that have specific friendly targets, and you can already click enemies to target them, so it's a very minor problem.

"A quick note that might please some players of the first game - if you hold down Ctrl you can now run. :D"

Ah yes, the good old button that you pointlessly have to hold down all the time to run. It's been great ever since Super Mario Bros. It give the whole "I could be going slow, but I'm holding down a button, I'm awesome!" feeling. It's just so much more satisfying than if you just ran by default!

As for the whole fullscreen thing. I prefer the crisp, clean, pixel perfect look that it has on my monitor's native resolution myself. If you can't fix these little problems then you might want to just put a warning in a Read Me file or something. It shouldn't be that big of a deal.

"Or someone might pour all their skill points into a single skill (which was the best strategy in the first game) that is useless in the current area of the game, thus making things needlessly hard."

That won't work at all in this game, which is good news.

"If you think you can add it in quickly without messing things up, then do it, and I'll help test it. If not, then don't worry about it. There aren't many skills that have specific friendly targets, and you can already click enemies to target them, so it's a very minor problem."

There are actually plenty of skills that have friendly targets. And there are multiple ways to do targetting. In the chain setup you can pick "Nearest, Weakest, or Selected" enemy, for instance... and only when it's on Selected will it look to the enemy you point the arrow at. (:

"That won't work at all in this game, which is good news."
Very, very good news. Especially since it was just about the only strategy in the first Spirit Engine in which you could really beat the game comfortably.

I'm just throwing out some different ideas. I do think that with the current setup, a lot of skills will be better of ignored to pump up a few skills to the max later on, and put a few points into fortitude. With my setup, later on in the game, it would probably be good to put a few points into everything since it would be so cheap. It would probably be a good idea in my setup to set a maximum level for skills a few levels beyond the amount of skill points you'll be getting per level. Like by 4 or 5 so. The cost of going beyond the intended level early on would be too great to be effective, and the possible extra skill levels near the end of the game probably wouldn't imbalance things too much.

Like I said though, the way you have is a very good way of doing it.

"There are actually plenty of skills that have friendly targets. And there are multiple ways to do targetting. In the chain setup you can pick "Nearest, Weakest, or Selected" enemy, for instance... and only when it's on Selected will it look to the enemy you point the arrow at. (:"

I only know about bless and enpowder that have specific friendly targets, are there more? I know that a few skills aren't in the demo.

I know about all the ways you can target enemies with chains and stuff. Honestly though, I'm not really a chain person. Almost all of my chains in the first game consisted of a single attack. I do like the new party chains a lot though.

I don't really mind just having my all characters attack a single enemy, because thats usually the best strategy to kill them fast and reduce the amount of damage I'm taking. And I like to judge myself which one takes priority.

Right now though, if you want to specifically target a certain ally you have to have a chain set up before battle (you can't alter the chains mid battle like you could in the first Spirit Engine).

I finally beat the test on easy. I got beaten to death twice by the second group of enemies until I found out which attacks are the ones I'm supposed to use. :>

The game works just fine, no crashes or anything. In fullscreen mode I get black borders around everything while the game screen content stays centered. I'm using WinXP and my LCD monitor has a native resolution of 1280x1024. I estimate the game's display area in fullscreen at 1024x768 ;)

I'd like to point out some things I noticed while playing the demo as well. Also, I have some suggestions for minor improvements.

Skill chain menu:
- I think it would be nice to have a mouseover name tooltip on the attacks in a chain when editing that chain.
- The "W" checkbox on a chain (whatever that one does) cannot be unchecked when the chain is empty.
- Please let me cancel the skill select menu not only with right click, but also with left click anywhere. People like me like to try out submenus and be able to get rid of them their way. :)
- When I create a new chain and don't give it a name, it automatically gets one. This name doesn't appear until I reopen the menu, and the chain name of an erased chain doesn't disappear until reopening.

Inventory screen:
- The item description box doesn't update when I drop one item for another (exchanging the item in my cursor)
- It would be nice to have an "are you sure?" box when discarding items with right click :D (or make it double-rightclick)
- You might want to add labels to the inventory slots, such as "head", "hand" etc.
- Maybe allow to drag&drop items? (in addition to the current pick up - release mouse button - drag - drop thing)

Party menu:
- I'm sorry, but the icons for "Party Name", "Level" and basically everything here don't look good, especially the two mentioned. No suggestions though :>

Options menu:
- At first it's hard to tell which options are active and which are not. I had to try it out. (and/or look at the windowed option)

Scene / Battle screen:
- The game can be controlled 99% with the mouse. All that's missing is a way to exit the game - currently only possible with the ESC key afaik :) A small 4x4 or 8x8 icon in the top right corner could change that.
- When I select the party chain and then assign normal chains to a single character, I'd like to be able to have them resume with their party chain without interrupting the other characters, i.e. click the selected chain again and if party chain is active, the character switches to that. Similarly, please allow me to quit the party chain with a simple "party chain"-button click. The characters may continue with their respective first chains or whatever.
- When picking my chain in battle, again, this menu needs a cancel function. Right or left click anywhere, for example.

Things I liked about the demo:
- The new features rock. Like the close combat skills, or the refund points. More damage types. Just to name a few. It's really a huge improvement over the first game :)
- Ingame skill descriptions. No more interrupting the music experience with a sound from The Spiritual Compendium :)
- The enemy design is really creative. I love the walk & attack animation of these white block-shaped things. Good job!
- Character idle animations!
- Character journals. I look forward to reading all the events from every character's own perspective :)

Things I didn't like as much:
- You could have picked a more RPG-worthy font for all the text. But it's only a minor point.
- That you chose to add falling snow "because you can" isn't wrong in itself, it's just that real snow doesn't look anything like that. Again, nothing that really disturbs the game experience or anything.

Conclusion: Awesome! :D

Thanks for all the suggestions. I will look at how many of these interface changes or additions could be safely made this close to release.

I personally liked the snow, it was very charlie brown

After a distracting couple of days I've had to replace my old PC, which after a slow decline in the past year had become worryingly unstable.
I've just about got set up on my new machine now, and MMF2 seems to work fine on Vista64. Unfortunately, Vista doesn't seem to come with the Arial Narrow font, which had screwed up all the floating damage displays in TSE-2. Darn. :(

Well, if that's the case, I never saw them! >_<

You might have had it installed for some reason Josh. Maybe it comes with Office?

Now that I've got some free time and I'm fed up with copy-pasting code, I'll try and respond to some feedback in greater detail.


Firstly, a brief background to some of some interface issues ( and some excuses ;) )
I wrote the interface code 4 years ago working under the restrictions of Multimedia Fusion.
Earlier versions of MMF had object and event limits. Having run into them before I purposely set out to use as few elements as possible in the menus.
MMF also makes no use of 2D graphics card acceleration. Rendering is done on the CPU instead, so every object you place on screen impacts the frame rate on older computers.

The object limit as it turns out was not a problem. The rendering problem remains.
Having written the interface this way, updating it consistently has become difficult and tedious, as MMF encourages you to fragment your code across levels. In effect there is not one game engine but 90, and you have to update every one individually when you make a change.



"Could you improve inventory? Some auto-equip function would be useful (double-click on some item in inventory -> item equiped). And is it possible to have more than 13 items in inventory?
"

I'll try and get this done.
13 is the item limit. In practise it hasn't caused problems so far, since one new item tends to obselete previous ones and money is sparse.
Sorting from the left for picked up items is code that I don't want to mess with before release.
There's another issue with the lack of a shortcut to flick betwene shop and inventory screens that I won't be able to fix before release. :(

"
It would change things up quite a bit from what you have now, you wouldn't be able to train four skills to level 2 at level 8, and training low leveled skills later in the game would be very cheap, so it wouldn't be a good idea to change it now.
"

I seem to remember playing the Guild Wars beta when I was working on the engine, and they did the 'increasing cost' solution instead of 'diminishing returns'. It worked alright. I can't remember why I chose the current solution, which is fairly complex mathematically, but simpler on the interface.
Game rule mechanics are a fascinating area. There's rarely any perfectly right way to do them, and plenty of room for discussion!

"
I only know about bless and enpowder that have specific friendly targets, are there more? I know that a few skills aren't in the demo.
"

It is only bless and enpowder. As mentioned, I'd like to expand the radial menu to allow ally selection, but with time so short right now I fear that adding such code would create unforseen problems.

"
- I think it would be nice to have a mouseover name tooltip on the attacks in a chain when editing that chain.
"
Agreed, not sure if I have time to implement this properly.

"
- The "W" checkbox on a chain (whatever that one does) cannot be unchecked when the chain is empty.
"
This is a very minor issue and I don't think it'd be worth the effort to change. Thanks for letting me know though.

"
- Please let me cancel the skill select menu not only with right click, but also with left click anywhere.
"
I agree but right click does the job for now so it is a low priority.

"
- When I create a new chain and don't give it a name, it automatically gets one. This name doesn't appear until I reopen the menu, and the chain name of an erased chain doesn't disappear until reopening.
"
This is intentional. When you close down the menu, the program 'cleans up' any skill names that could cause confusion when you access this or the combat menus in the future.

"
- The item description box doesn't update when I drop one item for another (exchanging the item in my cursor)
"
I need to fix this.

"
- It would be nice to have an "are you sure?" box when discarding items with right click (or make it double-rightclick)
"
I'm not sure, it's easy to pick them back up, so I think the popup box would be more annoying in the long term.

"
- You might want to add labels to the inventory slots, such as "head", "hand" etc.
"
Agreed, this is another problem with my aim to keep the number of GUI elements low. I don't think I'll be able to change it soon.

"
- Maybe allow to drag&drop items? (in addition to the current pick up - release mouse button - drag - drop thing)
"
I like ugraugra's quick-equip suggestion above. It's actually how the shop works.

"
- I'm sorry, but the icons for "Party Name", "Level" and basically everything here don't look good, especially the two mentioned. No suggestions though :>
"

That whole screen is bland, but I don't find it offensive so it is a very low priority at the moment.

"
- At first it's hard to tell which options are active and which are not. I had to try it out.
"

It should become a little more obvious at first glance now that the fullscreen status is a 3-state radio button.

"
- The game can be controlled 99% with the mouse. All that's missing is a way to exit the game - currently only possible with the ESC key afaik A small 4x4 or 8x8 icon in the top right corner could change that.
"
Agreed, but it's another very low priority issue, given that Esc and Alt-F4 get the job done.

"
- When I select the party chain and then assign normal chains to a single character, I'd like to be able to have them resume with their party chain without interrupting the other characters, i.e. click the selected chain again and if party chain is active, the character switches to that. Similarly, please allow me to quit the party chain with a simple "party chain"-button click. The characters may continue with their respective first chains or whatever.
"
This is an interesting request. I think it would create complications for players who don't want to use that functionality.

"
- When picking my chain in battle, again, this menu needs a cancel function. Right or left click anywhere, for example.
"
Agreed, I added right-click cancel this-morning. Should have added left too but didn't yet because I was worried how it'd interact with the selection code.

"
- You could have picked a more RPG-worthy font for all the text. But it's only a minor point.
"

I tried to use a blitted font originally, but the extension crashed when I experimented with it, so I decided to leave it the heck alone.

"
- That you chose to add falling snow "because you can" isn't wrong in itself, it's just that real snow doesn't look anything like that. Again, nothing that really disturbs the game experience or anything.
"
I'm a bit confused on this one. It doesn't snow very often where I live but when it does, it looks like white fluffy stuff floating out of the sky. :) The scale is wrong but it has to be, because MMF can't do large numbers of small particles without using up too much CPU time.


Thanks again for all the feedback. I appreciate it. In an ideal world I'd really love to have the time free to sit down and implement features to please everyone. But I'm under pressure to get the release done now while I'm unemployed and I want to stick to the July 30th date. At the moment bugs and balance are taking priority over (minor) interface issues.
Do please keep your thoughts coming though! Any issues I can't address before release I want to keep looking at afterwards.

"Unfortunately, Vista doesn't seem to come with the Arial Narrow font, which had screwed up all the floating damage displays in TSE-2. Darn. :( "

Huh. You know, I never noticed it before you mentioned it, but they're messed up on my computer too. The version of Xp that I have doesn't seed to come with Arial Narrow either. The damages kind of poke up into the border, and when someone dodges or is immune, the words are too big to fit. It seems to default to Arial. I think that shrinking it a couple of sizes would work. It honestly doesn't seem so bad though. Like I said, I didn't notice it. I think I was too busy reading the damages and such to really care that much.

I noticed a little misspelling. In the description for flashbang, you spelt immobilize "imobilise".

Mark, may you round the price(10 instead 9.99;20 instead 19.90;30 instead 29.95 and so on)It's very anoying with so many 9 and it doesn't look much cheaper.If it is just a little bit expensive it'll affect alot.

Yeah, I'm thinking it must come with Office. I fixed it this-morning.

Thanks for catching that typo! It's very difficult to find all of the grammatical errors, especially since most of the dialogue has been edited substantially in the custom-built editor, without a spellchecker.
Jim has been helping tremendously as he playtests but even with his eagle-eye, it's difficult. The internet has given me a bad habit of skim-reading all text, even my own, and it's easy to miss stuff.

EDIT - GiB Yes I will! That annoys me too.

Wow so close to release.
It's been like SOOO many years.
I'll help you advertise it as much as I can ;O

Ill plug it as much as i can on Newgrounds.com, I can post to the front page in the developers section every fortnight, but that usualy only lasts a day now with so many people using it.

Mark - with regards to newgrounds.com - If you wanted to give out some free copies of the game to the winners of the monthly animation and games competitions (theres 10 in all) then Tom Fulp would probably plug your game on the front page of Newgrounds, or even if you just gave a free copy to Tom, he'd probably plug it anyway (he plugs stuff that he gets for free) - (Its an alexa top 500 website so thats some good traffic)

Its probably your sort of crowd over there, the sort of people that are into Indie stuff, and a lot of the ads on the website are for 'pay for' games. So its the sort of crowd that would be interested in TSE.

- BTW Tom is away at Comic Con until the 27th

The other person it might be worth giving a copy to is Ben "yahztee" croshaw, who does the Zero Punctuation game reviews for The Escapist Magazine (www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation)

Hes an indie game developer himself, and would probably give the game a plug on http://www.fullyramblomatic.com/ if he liked it, Maybe even a review on ZP (but thats unlikely)

10 boring annoing days left.

Hahaha, if by boring you mean BUSY BUSY BUSY then I agree. (:

"10 boring annoing days left."

Hey, Mark, after you finish TSE-2 are you going to make TSE-3?

"Hey, Mark, after you finish TSE-2 are you going to make TSE-3?"

You just made about 20 of my hairs fall right out of my head.

Thanks folks. I've just not got the energy for promotion at the moment. Hopefully I will have after the release. Not the best way round to handle things I know.

GiB - I don't want to work on another RPG/adventure immediately after this. After 4.5 years on this project I hope to tackle something a bit different next.

lol make TREMOR4!

6 days...

It comes out the Day before my Trial exams... so i wont be able to play it for 2 weeks.

wow that was great, the battles drag for quite a while and im still trying to get use to the controls. I think the southernstar doesn't look that great no afence, im still trying to get pass the third group of monsters :oops: hehe im getting goosepimples so close till tse2 comes hopefuly someone makes a guide like tse or im going to be stuck trying to get pass the fourth group of monsters haha :lol: one more thing i'm using the first downloaded version on my 5 year old comp which i upgraded to vista home premium works great no problems
i am such a noob at rpgs takes me ages just to get use to them.

Don't fear, the game isn't NEARLY as hard (imo) as that demo makes it out to be. When you play from the beginning things make a LOT more sense and you become more acquainted with your own style of play.

Do all the enemies come back to life after ten seconds or so? It seems to me like the battle could end up in a stalemate if the player is unlucky or unprepared, especially against those naturally regenerating ice cube things.

5 days :yawn:

Sorry I'm late, but I had to say what I thought of the demo. It was great, nuff said.

@Mark Pay: I also enjoyed messing around with the skills and creating my own skill chains.

No offense taken monsoonasiian :D I'm not entirely happy with them myself, especially the blast effect.

Nillo - Yes, all creatures in the game have a recovery timer. I haven't found that it creates stalemates but it does keep fights interesting right up until the final KO.
The Flumpus regeneration is largely unique in the game, though there are other creatures that heal when low on health. Simply hitting them with all three characters is enough to wear them down and kill them.
They're hard to get rid of but they do little damage, so you can afford to put all your characters on offense to finish them off. If they come back it should be possible to KO them in 2 or even 1 hit if you strike them as soon as they recover.

DBAce9Aura - Glad you're enjoying it! :D

Okay, I'll take your word for that, as I don't have enough information to form an opinion on the matter. It does raise a flag in the narrative, though, if a pesky little rat can recover after getting hacked up by the mightiest swordsman. :P

That said, it looks really good so far. The journal entries are intriguing and I'm looking forward to seeing them in context! :)

"... if a pesky little rat can recover after getting hacked up by the mightiest swordsman. :P
...
"

Hey, nobody´s going to fight pesky little rats! We´re dealing with very powerful creatures far beyond the strength of ordinary mortals...and I bet there´s even some evil magic behind it :wink:

anyway, I like it simply because it makes the battles more interesting.

No rats! I was, however, unable to resist the urge to include giant spiders, so I have at least one important cliche covered. ;)

can i just ask incidentaly, if there are any minigames in this one?

Lachlan - There's no minigames. It's a personal preference of mine, combined with time constraints.

When I'm playing other games I almost always ignore optional minigames. Non-optional minigames make my blood boil with rage. :) When I sit down with a game I'm usually looking for one type of gameplay experience and if I want another, I'll fire up another game.
Again, that's my personal preference. I know that they're common in other rpg and adventure games.

On another note, the plot *is* as linear as the first game and there is a *lot* of it. I've worked hard to make what I think is a significant improvement to the quality of the storytelling. I'll be interested to hear people's opinions on it after the release, because I know that it's popular these days to criticise linear narratives, despite what I feel is a lack of compelling non-linear alternatives.

Yeh well the good reviews in the commerical world, from what ive seen tend to go to the open world games. But i gather that thats an almost impossible task for an Indie developer.

Im personally a fan of a good story as long as i have the option of skipping the boring bits when im not in the mood. And i had that option in TSE 1, which made me happy. The story in TSE 1 was rather compelling though. I really like the whole Western meets magic meets technology aspect of the world.

That sort of super fantasy world, with what seemed to me like the People in the big Cities having all the power over the rest of the world, that was developing at different rates was a really cool idea. Its probably the sort of thing you see in crazy anime epics.

I would love to be able to somehow erase TSE-1 from existance and go back and do the story 'properly'. I think there was a lot of potential in there, especially with the reverse-wizard-of-oz stuff and the 'reality intruding on a fantasty world' themes.

The dialogue system in TSE-2 has a 'skip' function built in by default. It's less of a clean skip and more of a super fast-forward, which was many times easier to implement.

I like ( but don't love ) open world games myself. I don't think they're capable of providing a reliably compelling narrative in the RPG/adventure genre yet. And they probably won't be for a long time to come. It's a very difficult problem! But that's a subject for long essays and discussions.

Optional content for a game of this type is a problem for a lone developer. I find it very difficult to justify spending time on.

Oh, yeah, 2.5 days left. :o

( Panic panic panic, back to work )

And hey, there is a bit of a falsity there. There are a few optional minigames in a part of the game, if you can call them that. He makes it sound so drab (;

What are these optional minigames?

"What are these optional minigames?"

Wait and see; I guess calling them minigames implies that the gameplay ultimately differs during those segments, but that's not true. They are more optional things to do for fun that feel like minigames, how's that?

Actually something i did enjoy from the first game, was the race agains the clock near the end. (or am i thinking of a different game)

"Actually something i did enjoy from the first game, was the race agains the clock near the end. (or am i thinking of a different game)"

TSE-1 did have race against the clock moments - remember the blob in World 2? (I think its world 2, wow it's been a while)

""Actually something i did enjoy from the first game, was the race agains the clock near the end. (or am i thinking of a different game)"

TSE-1 did have race against the clock moments - remember the blob in World 2? (I think its world 2, wow it's been a while)"

Yes - "Arachnid Lane" in World 2 was the area afair

The Blob appeared just when I was about to feel secure about general tactics and beginning to fear that the battles might become boring from now on.
( - here the kinetic shield was more effective as defensive skill than Party Heal/ Recover, also preventing the Spider´s cobwebs from slowing you down)

Near the end is the fight on the elevator against this helicopter which worked a bit different: not fighting as quickly as possible but staying alive against respawning enemy for a certain time - hey there was also something similar in the jungle , holding the bridge until the pyromanic soldier suceeded in blowing it up (World 3).

Great moments in the game imo!

talking of clocks: 2 days to go btw

1 day left :lol:

I'm running a little behind schedule, but I still hope to make the release tomorrow. It's just about testing now.
Easy mode is currently... way too easy. :( I've got to fiddle with the ratios a bit. It's amazing what a difference +/-10% stats on the monsters makes.

Just one question - when exactly will be the game realised?Midnight?12:00?

I'm aiming for early afternoon, GMT. But I haven't used BMT Micro's ( or any online retailer's ) systems before, and something could go wrong between then and now.
I'm also concerned that the demo could lag behind slighty. It'll be the first 2 chapters of the game, but I haven't got it together yet.

Haha, well, the compatibility test was demo enough for me :) I'm going to get it right away!

Even if it turns out I don't like it, I still owe this to you for all the fun I had with the original game.

:shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:

A few late nights have got me buggin'
I'm very excited for the release tomorrow and I've been working my tail off getting the soundtrack absolutely polished and 100% to my liking (something which the first soundtrack was not - haha).

Anyway, I finished ingamemusic two nights ago, completing the last of 100 tracks that will actually be included in the game. For figures, the demo will include 30 of these.

You may or may not find this appealing, I don't know.

Thanks Nillo, that's very kind.

The final size of the installer seems to be about 214 megs here, still testing stuff.

One feature I might want is that when I level up a skill, I don't want it to be set in stone until I exit the stat screen. So if I level up something and change my mind right away I can right click it and get my skillpoint back instead of having to spend a refund point. It's not that important, but it would be a friendly improvement.

"I would love to be able to somehow erase TSE-1 from existance and go back and do the story 'properly'. I think there was a lot of potential in there, especially with the reverse-wizard-of-oz stuff and the 'reality intruding on a fantasty world' themes."
Why would you have to erase the original from existence? Lots of 'cool', multi billion dollar companies remake their games. Some indie companies too. If you have some good ideas for a remake of TSE-1, then I'd like to see them!

The afternoon approaches... :shock:

Shush you ;)

I'm slipping a little still. I found a rather silly looking bug this morning that took me a while to fix. I'm trying to arrange the vendor setup now. That'll take at least 4 or so hours assuming the upload doesn't screw up. Then the website needs sorting out. Then the demo, testing of the demo and trying to figure out hosting for the demo.

Good grief, this is the most stressful thing I've ever (optionally) done. What was I thinking?! :cry:

Rogue - I like that idea. It's a lot of work right now for small fix though.

Good luck with the release Mark, i hope everything will be alright.

I personally wont be crushed if its a few days late... down here in Oz its about an hour till Midnight and wednesday will be over.

Im sure itll be today, even if it is uploaded several hours after midnight at GMT :)

Thanks folks! I appreciate your kind support so much.
I am testing the download with BMT Micro at the moment. Their primary server seems overloaded but the secondary one is okay.

I hope to get the demo done this evening, but I don't want to release it late and then go to bed, in case there are any problems. Testing it and setting up file hosting for it are going to the be the most time-consuming issues.

Wow, this is nervewracking. o_O So much to do still.

Okay!
I've tested the download link out now. As mentioned, the primary server had some problems but the secondary one was ok. BMT Micro are a well known and reputable online vendor used by many independent developers and their help service has been good so far. ( which is why I chose them over Plimus )

So the download is up and working and I've updated the website. [url]http://thespiritengine.com/tse2-info.html

I'm not going to make a front page news post until I know whether or not I can get the demo out today. The demo is really important and I don't want to announce anything until it is available for people to try out too.
I'm going to get to work on cutting it now.

Woot :D

Oh and I'm buying the game for one of my friends too, in case you wonder why I'm ordering two of them at the same time - it's not a typo!

YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!I wanst so happy from years.

Just bought it straight away from BMT Micro, not doubting at any second that I won't regret it.

And although I haven't played it yet, just judging from what I know TSE-1 was, I think you're selling it at a very fair price!

So once the download is complete, I'll get back with some comments!

Hey, now I have a Paypalaccount - and 12 minutes to go.... :D

I am really touched by how many people have bought the game already without waiting for the main demo. Thank-you all. I appreciate your faith and I hope that you enjoy it.
Please let me know if you have any problems.

I'm testing the demo at the moment. If it isn't released tonight, it will be tomorrow morning. (GMT)

You know how inside the letters on the battle victory screen, there is a crowd cheering? Well inside the "V" the crowd stands still. That's kind of weird.

Also the game crashed when I tried to change the controls in the options. But the defaults are good enough for me and all things considered I have been very impressed by the game so far! :)

Nillo - that is unusual. Which option controls are causing the game to crash? Is it all of them or just specific ones?

Not sure, I didn't try it a second time after the crash. I'll do that and see if it happens again, then post the results here.

I have the demo uploaded at last!

[url]http://files.filefront.com/TSE2+Demo+Installer+v100exe/;11288524;/fileinfo.html

I've used FileFront for now. They're a big site, I've downloaded files from them before and I haven't been able to find any reports of serious problems with them. If anybody does has any issues with FileFront, please let me know.
I'll look at adding more mirrors later if needed.

I found the cause of the options bug: The Tab key. When I try to set an action to the Tab key, the keyboard becomes unresponsive, however I was able to get it to work again by repeatedly pressing Tab.

Yes! knocked out the first undead creatures and found some treasure - great artwork, fantastic music as expected - experienced no bugs so far, enjoyed a delightful hour (missing silver bullet and life rain, though a bit) looking forward...good night!

Minor nitpicking, after the briefcase incident:

"He was a solider to the end."

Slipped through the spellchecker I'm guessing :)

I'm not sure where (or whether) I should point out the small things I notice while playing. This thread has gotten kinda off-topic, but I am reluctant to start a new one just to correct a typo.

Ahh well, like my efforts at playing pokémon, I never could catch 'em all... but I got pretty close!

Hah, I'm sure you've done a great job. I don't believe I saw any other typos so far. Except for Charlotte's journal, of course. That thing drives me crazy! :P

Nillo - I've had issues with the Tab key in the past as well. The code extension used to set up the customisable keyboard shortcuts seems to have a intermittant problem with it. Unfortunately it would be extraordinarily difficult to remove it at this point.

I shall have to start a combined typo thread!

Charlotte's journal was difficult. How do you write for someone who is supposed to be largely illiterate and still have it read well? I don't think that I ever found the answer. :(

ROD - Glad you're enjoying it so far!

Congratulations on finishing a great game.
I bought a copy an hour ago and have to say I'm thouroughly impressed.

I remember playing TSE1 like it was yesterday(Got to the last boss, couldn't beat him the first few tries, so I decided to continue tomorrow. Well, as fate had seen fit, the next day a virus destroyed ALL of my executable files and that was that, never got to finish it XD), so I knew this one would be a good buy.

Good luck with any future endeavors you may have planned!

I just played the demo. A stellar improvement on the "other" demo. Like with the first demo, it was great, nuff said.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Im right in the middle of the second most important exams ill ever have... but i couldn't help myself... i played the demo, Its ORSM

And next week i will definatly be purchasing the full game once all the stress from exams is over.

One thing i found myself wanting however, was roll over help. If i forgot what the tutorial said about a certain function i had to search through the manual to find it. But i didnt find myself having to do that too much. It also runs a lot smoother than the other demo did.

Oh and of course, the music sounds great, Stellar job. Can i ask if the game has been popular so far?

OK, Ive downloaded the demo because I cant buy the game at the moment.I didnt look at the clock, but Im sure you can reach to the end of second chapter for less than a hour if you skip the talking(but I didnt skip it so it take to me a little bit longer)I want to ask what is the best party for the beginers like all of us(nobody can become an expert in less than a day) and what is the most chelenging party when we want to challenge us.

Does anyone know if the download like is Resume supported? I will most likely have to download it over night and my internet often cuts out (bloody wireless)

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Thank-you everyone for your kind words.

If you want to squeeze a little more out of Demo B ( the main one ), you should be able to copy your save over to /Save/Current in Demo A ( the older one level test ) and play that, since it is the first action level of Chapter 3.

amwbonfire - It is certainly sad that pixel art seems to have largely vanished from the mainstream, with the exception of some NDS and phone games. It does makes it a quite an attractive option for small developers though. As much as I like cutting edge 3D, I never get tired of pixel art.
The art in the game is rather mass-produced and in most cases I have had to sacrifice quality for quantity. ( or at least getting the game finished within a decade! )

GiB - The best party ought to one with a Knight/Musketeer/Priest combination.
I'm not sure what the hardest is - it could be 3xPriest because of the lack of AOE and targetted skills. I have tried hard to balance the 3 classes.
The higher difficulty levels ought hopefully to provide a good challenge as well. :)

Lachlan - The BMT Micro download ought to be available for up to 31 days after you buy as well.
Good luck with your exams! Stay focused.

"
GiB - The best party ought to one with a Knight/Musketeer/Priest combination.
I'm not sure what the hardest is - it could be 3xPriest because of the lack of AOE and targetted skills. I have tried hard to balance the 3 classes.
The higher difficulty levels ought hopefully to provide a good challenge as well. :)
"
So there isnt any difrence between the three Knights/Musketeers/Ptiests.In TSE-1 every charcter was specialized with two and unfamiliar with two skills.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I think Knights end up with the same skills but there is a slight variation for the Musketeers and the Priests, namely with Powder Imps/Smokescreen and Damn/Trick... I think :P

ok, never registered myself on the forum, but now that it's finally out, I bought it right away even if I found the price a little higher than expected (was thinking of something around 10$ + I'm short on money right now because I just spent 1500$ for a new comp two weeks ago, all my money got in it, but well, the hell of that, TSE is worth it whatever the price and the money I have, if I spent 1500$ on a comp, I sure could do with 18 more on TSE2 ^^)

Anyway I was not disapointed in the game, very good, I love it even if I only played it a little since I don't want to go too fast and finish it prematurely.
I want to enjoy it as much as possible.
So... I was just passing by to say : great job, was totally worth the waiting, nice graphics, nice music, nice gameplay, nice story, I love it all.
I regret the fact that the characters are little described, would be nice to know their characteristics and pros/cons before having to choose. A compendium like the one for TSE would be good too. And maybe making running with double click instead of keyboard, making the game fully playable by mouse ^^

And again, great job, TSE 1/2 are my fav amateur games with cave story ^^ (EDIT : nearly forgot StillBomber2)

"I think Knights end up with the same skills but there is a slight variation for the Musketeers and the Priests, namely with Powder Imps/Smokescreen and Damn/Trick... I think :P"

If you look at the manual you can see that there are 10 Knight skills and 11 Musketeer/Priest skills.
Since each character has 10 skill slots, Knights naturally learn all available skills as the adventure proceeds.
Musketeers and Priests though, miss out on one skill, which I guess differs for each character to make them a bit different from each other.

Due to my party setup, I know that Charlotte doesn't get High Fire and Enshadu misses out on Trick.

There were originally 11 Knight skills too, but I dropped one because it just wasn't very useful. PyanPau misses out on Damn and Ionae misses out on Explosive Shell.

Thanks for your post FurryRage, and your suggestions too. I'm really glad that you're enjoying the game so far.
I too recently broke open my savings and spent more money than I would have liked replacing my dying old computer. It's going to be a good coming year for PC gaming I feel, so it ought to be worth it.

amwbonfire - I have to agree with you on bloom. I'm pretty sure that real-life doesn't glow like that all the time. :)
I think that 3D games and hardware are reaching a plateau now where they're 'good enough'. I hope that developers acknowledge that and stop expending so much effort trying to push photorealism so hard. I'd love to see more variations in style like Team Fortress 2 that aren't done merely to reduce art budgets.

So...

Ionae misses out on Explosive Shell
Charlotte misses out on High Fire
Grace misses out on ?

Mericious misses out on ?
Pyan Pau misses out on Damn
Enshadu misses out on Trick

I'd guess that Grace doesn't get Lucky Shot and Mericious doesn't get either Bless or Staggering Blow?

I think Mericious misses out on trick, but Im not very sure, because I have the demo.

Grace misses out on Powder Imps and Mericious misses out on Staggering Blow.

When I started developing TSE-2, most people still had CRTs and widescreen displays were very rare. This has changed a lot over the last five years, and when I recently went to buy a new monitor, there was nothing on the shelves but widescreen LCDs.

TSE-2 itself uses a rather odd window size ( 500x400 ) which was necessary to keep the art requirements down, but is now causing problems.

At the moment, I am looking at improving the support for widescreen monitors in the game. This isn't easy because MMF 1.5 is of a similar era and gives limited options for screen control.
It does have a nice option for scaling the displayed area ( 2x, 3x magnification looked great ). But I was slightly heartbroken to find that the objects I have used for many mouse input buttons do not scale correctly in this mode and so I cannot use it.

This leaves me only with resolution switching to rescale the window for fullscreen. So I am trying to add custom resolutions for users, rather than the 640x480 MMF defaults to. Sadly, the lowest available resolution in the correct 16:9 aspect supported by my own widescreen monitor leaves the game window looking rather small.

What are your own experiences with widescreen monitors? Do you have one? What is the minimum resolution that your monitor supports? Does your widescreen monitor offer support for displaying 4:3 resolutions correctly, unstretched?

Any feedback that you have on this issue would be welcomed.

Samsung SyncMaster 2032BW

Lowest resolution 800x600 (unfortunatly stretches all 4:3 resolutions)

I've been testing the game on my Widescreen in Vista, with no qualms. Works great. (:

Thanks for the post Skalis. I was using a SyncMaster 245B at work, a huge 24" thing. I don't know much about LCDs but I was impressed. The 2032BW looks like a more affordable version.

Josh, does the image stretch on your widescreen, or is it displayed at the correct aspect ratio? ( padded at the sides I'd assume )

Padded at the sides (:

Aha, yours is the smarter monitor. :)

Hmm, that maybe the case. It did that with Bonesaw too, actually, and I heard from some people that it wasn't the case. I also had no trouble with Aquaria that other people needed a fix for. Weird!

There is about one month to releasing of the game and many things are unknown.How many charecters will be, their skills, items etc.And some new screenshots will be nice.
I just cant wait to 30th July just listening to the TSE-2 music and looking at the forum for new posts.So, please, update the site at least a little bit, I suggest that wont hurt.

Hi GiB. :D Thanks for your post. I've been busy the past 2 weeks moving home and then converting TSE-2 over into Multimedia Fusion 2. That's mostly done now. There's still some odd quirks to fix, but I can finally spend some time on other things.

I'm definately going to be updating the site with more information in the coming month. I've got a character profile page lying around here that I wrote two years ago. :3 I'm hoping to put up a one-level demo for people to test at the end of this week too.

What programs are used to make TSE-1 and TSE-2 sound effects?Theyre pretty cool and I want to make similiar ones 8)

I don't have the knowledge or the equipment to generate my own sound effects. :(

Those in TSE-2 come from the Multimedia Fusion sound libraries, public domain online sources, or I buy them from www.sounddogs.com ( great site, good prices, huge selection )

This is a useful application for sound creation!

It's a nifty program that allows you to randomly generate sound effects based on selected options and slider settings. Subsequently, you can save your work as .wav files for use in projects.

Thank you, Novalon, Ill try it.

EDIT:Its great little program.I'll definitly use it.Thank you again.

I'm glad you liked it! If you're also thinking of creating some melodies, I would recommend Musagi.

This incredibly polished music editor and synthesizer made by the one behind sfxr, boasts comprehensive sound-editing features but it is also accessible to those who are not composers and want to create a nice tune right away.

This program also is great and may be Ill begin to compose music if I can explore it.

Ive always thought it would be cool to be a sound engineer for a movie studio. Getting to go out with big microphones into the country and the city and just record sounds.

Hey everyone, I'm working on the TSE2 soundtrack, and I've had it labeled "The Spirit Engine II OST" in my library. Maybe its stagnant after these few years, but I'd like to see what you guys think...

Definately one using a 'The'.
The 'II' probably looks a little classier too. :)

I agree, "The Spirit Engine II OST" is obviously the coolest looking title of the lot! ;p

I cant understand - whats the difference between 2 and II?Is there any?

No difference. It's all a matter of typography. (:

If any of you know about video games and the Internet then you probably know about Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw. Hes the creator of Zero Punctuation. He's every game developers worst nightmare, the fast talking, hat weilding online game reviewer.
Well when hes not slamming SS Brawl and making fun of GTA, he makes indie games as well.

Well he's made 1... But its AWESOME. It may not be beautiful graphicaly like Marks games, but the gameplay is really fun and it gets quite addictive.
Check it out:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/content/games/yahtzee/artoftheft

In short you play as a thief and you're trying to get your reputation up by completing the missions with as little disturbance as possible.

He's made many an adventure game as well... you should visit www.fullyramblomatic.com and get the Chzo series (5 Days a Stranger, 7 Days a Skeptic, Trilby's Notes, and 6 Days a Sacrifice, they are related to this Trilby game) if you want some pant-wettingly good adventure games...

...and yes Art of Theft is good, but I wasn't terribly good at it :(

Also, for something a little like Art of Theft but harder, he made the 1213 series, that are a little more like Prince of Persia/Flashback in execution and a little (okay, a lot) more bloody.

Yeh i stand corrected, i checked Fully Ramblomatic before you posted this but after i posted the origional message, Yeh i must try some of his other games.
They dont advertise any of his others on the Escapist.

The Escapist is a fantastic digizine. I think I liked it more before they made it a huge site sort of thing, but it's still great.

Lol digizine.

Yeh i love it. I usually only check up on ZP but the animated one with the knights amuses me as well.

Have the devs of spirit engine ever considered having their game on the XBLA market place? it would most likely sell like hot cakes on there and i know they are looking for indie devs all the time.

I doubt it's feasible at the moment. You have to write it in XNA for it to be playable on the XBox (and made available on the XBLA service) as far as I recall and at the moment that seems like a long and painful shot to take.

Pigs might still fly though, I'm holding out for that... ;)

I understand what your saying i have my fingers crossed that one day we will see these two bad boys on live but for now i'll enjoy them on my PC.

I can see The spirit engine being a big XBLA franchise sort of like a Suikedon game.

Haha I'd be up to porting the TSE engine in C# for XBLA if Mark wouldn't mind converting the assets, but again... what are the chances of this happening. I think the consensus is that we want to put this to rest... but who doesn't like making hordes of cash!?

But then again, the standards are rough:
What kind of games is Xbox LIVE Arcade looking for?

1. Full game experience – the game must be complete and stand on its own
2. Less than 150MB in size
3. Original and innovative gameplay
4. Playable without physical media or other dependencies – No instruction manual should be required. The game should be approachable. Easy to learn, hard to master
5. Pick-up-and-play – Xbox LIVE Arcade games are meant to be fast and fun, not exact substitutes for retail games
6. Free Trial Version with limited but entertaining gameplay – the game must be purchased to unlock the full version of the game
7. Plugs into Xbox LIVE Arcade around-the-game experiences – includes out-of-game leaderboards, achievements and gamerscore, and cross-game invites
8. Clearly defined audience – titles enjoyed by both hardcore and casual gamers are especially desired
9. Features – social experiences, novel uses of camera, compelling uses of PDLC, compelling visual experiences are all pluses, though they should be used appropriately within the context of the game being developed


--
EDIT:
It looks like the XNA is the better solution. I'd actually like to have a hand at making a stupid little game in XNA for windows to have my try at it. I don't have an Xbox360 (or the membership needed to test games on it, for that matter) though, so that makes that idea rough. But if it's something we seriously considered than that'd be neat.

Again, don't take anything I say seriously. Mark's words are the only words you should take seriously on these sorts of matters related to the game itself. I'm just the monkey who writes the music. (;

Hi Snoogle,

Unfortunately, I don't think that either game will ever be seen on XBLA. Because both are built on the Multimedia Fusion authoring tool, the entire game would have to be rewritten from scratch in C#. That's a tremendous amount of work, and especially painful for the first game which I cannot bear to look at anymore. ;)

Thanks for the question, sorry to let you down.

Twi if your university is part of it, try the Dreamspark programme by Microsoft. You get a free 12 month creator club account and free Visual C# software... (not just the Express version). Might help out...

Haha, my university wasn't really a part of it, you just have to verify student status, which I did. More power to me. Now I have to wait until I'm filthy rich and can buy an Xbox... and takers?

i need some help i got a new desktop background looking great and the image is on the right hand side thats where all my kool looking gadgetzs go so i moved my gadgetz left so i can see the image now when i download something it's covered by the gadgetz

does anyone know how to relocate a file when u first download it ???

Load your desktop background in MS Paint and mirror it horizontally.

ahhh thanks that was really helpful. to bad i got a new desktop wallpaper haha thanks for the help anyways

Found this the other day
[url]http://storygamer.blogspot.com/2008/02/indy-review-spirit-engine.html

I never though of TSE as the wild west, Probably coz i dont remember any Cowboy music. Will there be Cowboy music in this one? Maybe something like Knights of Cydonia...

Hahahaha well THAT would be weird.

Thanks for the link Josh!
Thematically, TSE-1 is all over the place. :) It'll be interesting to see how reviewers compare it to the sequel. People tend to be overly kind to freeware games.

Definitely a good point there. I'm interested too. At first I thought you meant that many of the themes in TSE1 were in TSE2, but then I understood you to mean that TSE1 has MANY themes, which is also very true. I know I tried to sneak a few things in musically to please the TSE1 fans. :D

just downloading TSE 2, looking forward to such a well put together game.. been looking everyday and am biting my nails in anticipation.. well done mark congratulations i hope all goes well for you in your future endeavours, ile be a continual member of the forum site.. congrats again AJ :D :lol: :wink:

Thanks ajk123! I hope the game lives up to your expectations. :D

:D I just bought TSE2 as well! I hope everything goes alright. How long do you think the delivery will take? I asked for the cd order and I'm in Australia and I JUST CAN'T WAIT! :mrgreen: yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyeshyesyeshyeshyeshyesh!Wahoo000OOooooo..
...
..
Okay, I think i'm right now...phew!
I appreciate you patience and resolution in finishing the game over the years. Thank you so much for a 2d side-scroller series that really takes the cake. Here's wishing all the best for the future of indie developers, it's fans, you, and TSE! Cheers. :wink:

Can I ask how many sales you got so far?
Just curious about it ^^

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Can I ask how many sales you got so far?"
A little over 50 so far, which I'm personally very happy with since my expectations were fairly low. I'm very grateful to everybody who has bought a copy.

50 for two days and several hours?People are just crazy about thus game.

Hi, I just started the game, and I found a small bug in the skill chains menu:

Open de skill chains menu for a musketeer and select a skill chain.
Select "high fire", but instead of selecting nearest/selected/weakest, right-click on the screen. You're now free to navigate and exit the menu without choosing any of the 3 nearest/selected/weakest options, which are then stuck on the screen.

Here's a screenshot:
http://kcl.kwokkie.net/images/tse2_bug000.gif


Cheers!

Thanks for the bug report dummy. Including a screenshot too is really helpful Please let me know if you find any other issues. I'll start putting togther a patch list.

I had the same problem in the Demo. I fixed it by choosing the skill again (faithsword i think) and then it let me select one of the options and it dissapeared. Although i never made it out of the menu like you did.

I spotted another bug, but haven't been able to reproduce so fare:

I defeated the Crone in the Cathedral of Edges, and returned to the Bowbuffer where I talked to the merchant (haven't bought anything). Then, I ran back to the left and ran off the edge of the world, so to speak:

http://kcl.kwokkie.net/images/tse2_bug001.gif

wow, never seen that happen before :P

Me neither. :shock:
The code for level exit is the same throughout the game and should not be affected by any other variables. So if this can happen here, in theory it can happen anywhere.
I've looked at the code and I can't figure out what could cause this. It's a puzzler. :/

Thanks for the reports dummy, I'm sorry that you've come across these problems.

List of known typos in version 1.00:
-------------------------------------

Party Creation - "as as priest"

C3 - "solider to the end"

I'm at Underport now and I've seen at least one more instance of "solider"... I don't remember exactly where. Can you do an automated word search for solider and replace it with soldier? It is unlikely that you've used the word in its other meaning anywhere (more solid).

Edit: I remember now - when they're at the bar in Underport and talk about the contents of the briefcase, Kaltos says "I'm no solider and my life is my own."

In that same conversation in the Underport inn, if you have Ionae, there's a 'siege' mis-spelling.

Also after Elai dies:
Ionae: "...take it as an early windfall."

In the Bowbuffer with Charlotte, Jose still refers to it as the BowBuffer...

On approaching the guard, Grace somehow becomes 'Underport' when she first speaks.

Charlotte at the Promenade: "It's hard enough without you having you around." should probably be "It's hard enough without having you around."

Ouch. :/ That's another edit I made shortly before release.
It's funny how your mind skips over words, even when you're trying to read carefully, because it thinks it already knows what you've written.

In Aid Station 12, two of the Parliamentarians have misspelled names.

Prlmentarian Greenweave
and
Parliamentarain Batiste

Ambassador's Ring says it can be equipped only by Charlotte when it is clearly usable by everyone.

Haha, I noticed that Nillo, except I had Ferwin, must be a CHAR2 thing.

Demo, Beginning of chapter two, Isabelle "and how I [color=red:6e028b46f0]shan't be able to see them again." Something about that sentence just doesn't feel right; perhaps it's just my poor english, but it makes no sense for me at all.
Edit: "you shall not do something what is not possible" this makes sense, too?

Shan't means "shall not".

So that sentence would mean "I shall not be able to see them again." I don't see anything odd with it.

After the final battle with you-know-who, "embaress". I forget who said it, but I'm guessing it was Charlotte.

not really a typo but when your ennemy have more than 10000 HP (count cristoff on hard) the last number is out of the red display.

There is a fight that gives 25000+25000+25000 experience, which causes a line break and hides "the party gains X levels" from view.

The one that follows every battle might be significant. Here's one example:
My Party have fought 2 foes and have been victorious.

"Have" should be replaced with "has" considering that party is singular much like group.

Another common error can be shown by this instance "everyone has their own equipment," That should be substituted with everyone has "his/her" own equipment since everyone is also singular.

This was discussed before, and we thought 'have' reads better in all possible situations of party names (think 'The Bandits' or 'Arctic Monkeys'). I think it would read oddly if the sentence went 'Arctic Monkeys has gained x EXP' - it sounds like a bad lolcat phrase.

As for the use of 'their', it can also be used singularly, it is just that we don't have a different word for the singular use like you may do in French and German. But again, if your party is completely male or female, both options are covered (and the mixed party) with 'their'.

That was the reasoning behind those (for me anyway).

Ah, Jim beat me to it!
Conveniently, 'have' works as past tense for both singular and plural party names ( "we have", "you have", "they have", "I have" ) whereas 'has' only covers past tense for an individual. I think...
Oh, the joys of irregular English verbs. :roll:

The use of 'their' is a grey area. It may be technically more correct to use "his or her", but the use of 'their' as I hear it used in everyday speech has spread to include possession by singles, groups and groups of singles. To my ears, it sounds alright.

In the world eye, after the rune story Charlotte says "He'll have deal with.." I think you're missing a "to" there.

Ionae in Longreach: "I wasn't planning to sit here and wait anywat."

Also, the "eerie" is misspelled in "Eeire Miquelet".

Oh, that's a bad one. And I keep miss-spelling 'eerie', no matter how much Jim has kept correcting me. :?

I must apologise for the typos. Although 99.95+% of the text is correct, it's the few errors that really stand out.

Ferwin in the Trader town: "It's a letter from girl..." should probably be either "from a girl" or "from the girl", whichever you prefer.

Dialogue on Templeson Bridge after defeating The Crone

"...nethertheless"

Shouldn´t it be nevertheless? I´m no native speaker...

Yes it should.

There are instances in which the text glitches for some reason; it's always a thin square followed by a capital E. It may have to do with the fact that the game uses special characters at times, which does not coincide well with Japanese regional settings. In any case, is it possible to fix the text so that it is more compatible? Here's one example:

http://i33.tinypic.com/20t55oz.jpg

There are no deliberately inserted special characters. I think what has happened is that MS Word, which I wrote the original draft of the dialogue in, has abbreviated some of them. In this case it's '...' which appears both as '.'x3 and as a single special character.

I will look at adding a function to scan and replace text in the script files, though I suspect it might take less time and be safer to just go through them manually if it is just this one character causing you problems.
It would also be a great help if you could report any other instances of characters that do not display correctly with your language settings.

Thanks.

Inquisitor Thanes speaking to Mericious in Littlehampton. When he mentions "heresy" at the end of a sentence, there is no dot after it.

Edit: same dialog: Mericious says: "I cannot not go with you." There's a "not" too much if I'm correct?