MV - Immortal Sins[Disc 1][0.42.6-stable.20250817]

@breakbow I assume that you are on Celtia, correct? It should be active on the Menu. If not, I might be able to see why you can't access the Journal through your saves. You can use Northbridge Mantis to send them to me. Or through a link. Whichever works for you.

How do i do that?

@breakbow , Head to http://northbridgemantis.azurewebsites.com and select Immortal Sins on the top right corner. Then click on "Report Issue". Fill in the details. You can upload the save files (preferably, in an archive) there.

And here's a patch! This is mainly quality of life improvements and fixes.
Game:

• Re-designed Aigina.
• Polished the Battle UI.
• The mission in the Crystal Cave will no longer result in Game Over when Maria dies.
• Tweaked the enemy AI in the Crystal Caves.
• Reduced the amount of Ice Spiders in battle.
• Fixed a bug where Jena couldn't equip Handgear.
• Fixed a bug that caused the counters in the States to not update properly.
• [Workaround]Adjusted the size of the DP counter to reduce the garbage numbers taking up the DP bar.

Northbridge:

• Fixed a bug where the Export option would crash the launcher and the standalone Save Manager, due to not accessing the strings stored in the Northbridge Core library.

1. Released a bugfix build.
2. Working on lighting in dungeons...

3. Populated the manual.
http://northbridgemantis.azurewebsites.net/wiki/doku.php/en/immortalsins

Testing out a work-in-progress battle system, along with Pixi.js filter applied in battle (see the god rays). I know that some of the animations look weird. That's because VX Ace assumed that you'd use a small screen (where's MV has better-designed animations for larger screens). And since I've imported the animations from VX Ace (Immortal Sins runs on VX Ace), the animation code also transitioned as well. This will be a pain to fix... :(

I'm pretty sure that you are wondering: Why am I showing this? Well... I can't talk about what I'm working on (in parallel with preparing D0.20 Update 5) since it still needs work. Maybe when I have a public beta ready, you'll know what I am working on (but old followers may know exactly what I am working on). Do note that I'm not confirming anything yet.

So... What do you guys and gals think? Let me know.

I'll see you guys in the next post.

This mainly a hotfix or sorts for the Journal not showing up after the prologue. I'm saying sort of, since the Journal script is quite the stubborn one. I had to implement some code to add it back in. Although this doesn't catch all cases, it should add it back in when you:

1. When a new mission starts.

2. When you leave Aigina for good.

I'll see if I can improve the code so it can catch and fix it.

Aside from that, Rick got two new skills (which replace Fire Breath and Dragon Spirit). Tavern Brawl has the same effect as Fire Breath (sans Element) and Blitz Strike overwhelms the target, reducing their Max HP and Max MP for a while. Helpful in some cases.

And two bugfixes are included in, along with a slight graphical tweak for some maps.

Man... I said that I was going to be more active to the game's thread, but no! I had to leave it getting dusty. Ack!

Anyway, I am working on a big project that has a big relation to the game. I'm not unwrapping the mystery yet, but if you followed the game via my game dev blog, you might know what it is. So... keep an eye out. You'll never know when it's unwrapped.

Hello everyone.
It's been months of silence. I was working on a job and got enough cash to upgrade my laptop a bit. What upgrades did I do?


First off, I got a new hard drive. Sort of. The drive you see in the picture (inside the ESD protective bag) is a Solid State Hybrid Drive. It's essentially a hard drive with a bit of an SSD working as a cache. In all essentials, it copies frequently used files to the SSD and loads them from it when they are loaded. This hard drive has 2 Terabyte space with 8GB SSD used as cache. So not only do I have a lot of space (since I only have a laptop at the moment. I need as much space as I can get), development will be more comfortable (Visual Studio takes a long time to load with extensions).

The second this is getting a good quality thermal paste and putting it on the laptop. Mainly so the laptop runs well and keep it cool.
Of course, replacing the hard drive has this annoyance:


Yup. Reinstalling Windows. I don't need to explain why. I'm pretty sure everyone knows why. But I was able to recover the project files and my toolbox.


There are still some things to do, but I'll be back developing soon. Possibly tomorrow.
That is all for now. See you in the next post.

Took a long time to do it, but aside from polishing, the first public preview build of Immortal Sins Version D0.30 is now available. This update brings an overhauled engine, quality of life improvements and changes. In fact, once you start playing, you’ll see that the game is now named as Immortal Sins Second Edition. Yup, that big project I was talking about recently was remaking the game to a new engine. Let’s start with the small ones.

Part 1: Northbridge

Nothing much there. Mainly changes to support the new engine. But there are a few improvements. First of all, I’ve enabled .NET Framework’s multi-core Just-In-Time compiler, improving the startup times. I’ve also made some of the task faster on newer systems with multi-core processors. Not much but still helpful. Now, over to the meat of the update.

Part 2: The game


This is the part where most of the changes were done. As soon as you start playing you’ll notice the game starting in widescreen. This is mainly due to the game moving from RPG Maker VX Ace to MV. The new engine brings a lot of improvements from VX Ace. Aside from resolution, there are performance improvements (thanks to proper hardware acceleration support), Unicode support (no need for Compatibility Mode), real-time effects and a few graphical improvements. The maps received a few improvements thanks to layers used during mapping.


There is a major switch up in the gameplay. While most of the mechanics have been kept from the original, it got re-designed. The battle system is switched from Active Time Battle to Charge Turn Battle system. Drive Arts were slightly tweaked, having 300DP instead of 100DP. A new damage calculation algorithm was implemented, introduced Row Formation, added a quick way to switch between squad members and more quality of life improvements. Upgrading and learning new skills have been tweaked as well.


The rest of the changes are quality of life improvements. There are some quirks of the new engine though. Due to a new compression I’ve implemented, it will take some time to start the game up. Also, since MV is written to a different programming language (JavaScript, to be exact), the saves from the old version aren’t compatible. Northbridge settings will carry over, however.

There are some things that need to be ironed out before releasing the stable version. I’m releasing a pre-release build to get feedback for the new version. And it’s currently available on some mirrors (Gamejolt and itch.io). And Windows only for now. I am planning to release it on the rest of my mirrors and other OSes once the version is polished enough.

That is all for now. See you in the next post.

I’ve uploaded a new beta build for Immortal Sins SE. This fixes a small error where the dialogue skip button was mapped to W instead of Q (RB instead of LB on Xbox 360/One controllers). Also, this updates the renderer to version 0.33.3 which fixes a regression with the Gamepad API.

I've uploaded Beta Build 20181013 to itch.io, Gamejolt, and Indiexpo. This is primarily a bug fixing build. This is also the first build available for Linux (as a native app).

Game:
- Enemies have a slight animation.
- Added a bit of code to show the exact part of the code that crashed.
- Updated renderer to version 0.33.4.
- Slight optimization.
- Fixed a bug in Celtia where the characters moved to an unintentional part of the map when the player tried to head to the castle before talking to Gus.

Northbridge (Windows only)
- Fixed bugs that prevented the Save Manager from working correctly.

And another beta update is in the bag. Quite the overhaul.

CAUTION! Due to an overhaul in the engine, the game will show an error that a file couldn't be loaded , when loading a save file from an older version. Trying to retry loading will result in the same error. You have to start from the beginning. Apologies for the inconvenience.

Changelog:
Game:

• Overhauled the engine's rendering engine.
  • Reworked how layers are drawn to improve performance and memory usage.
  • Removed some particle effects to fix a crash when visiting some maps.
  • Replaced plugins that caused performance issues.
• Added new gameplay mechanics.
• Added the option to switch over to lightweight effects.
• New real-time godrays.
• Reduced the prices for the scrolls that unlock Mystic Arts.
• Added Action Icons.
• Bug fixes.

Northbridge (Windows only):

• The news tab will now use EdgeHTML instead of MSHTML when the game runs on Windows 10.
• Native Image is now included, improving performance and startup. (Requires .NET Famework 4.7.2 installed to use)
  • This results in dropping 32-bit support, due to this feature not supporting the AnyCPU configuration.
  • This also results in reduced space consumption.
• Fixed localization and graphical bugs.

Installer:

• The package is now a 64-bit MSI file. It will now install in the Program Files folder, rather than in the Program Files(x86) folder.

Just in time for the new year.

In a surprising twist, both the current and the beta version get updates. While for the most part, they are quality of life improvements and fixes, the current version has a major improvement.

Immortal Sins Version D0.20 Update 6

Immortal Sins SE Build 20181229

Hey there! It's been a while talking about the game's progress. This post will be mainly talking about some technical stuff, but there will be a bit about the state of the story.

Part 2 of the story when?
Yeah, I'm pretty sure you are waiting for the story to conclude, but at the moment, I keep having writer's block when I try to continue the story. I was able to write new dialogue (little by little) but it goes pretty slow. At the moment, I want to finish the MV version so I can make it the stable version. I want to finish it, but things at the moment are a bit hazy (especially when the university exams are coming really soon. And there was a big screwup by the management, but I'll refrain from talking about). And I am switching up how I work on the game since I had times where I burned out.

Game development can be a cruel mistress if you aren't careful.

Launcher getting a technical upgrade
While I am working on improving the Northbridge Platform as well, there are some details that I can't address fully without some extra implementation. Due to the nature of the managed code, your computer has to compile the code of the launcher. And while I have turned on Multicore JIT by creating a profile for the launcher, I can still improve it. One of the things I haven't used is NGEN (Native Image Generator). This pre-compiles the code of the launcher, thus improving significantly the performance. Running a short test shows that it can cut the startup time by about 50%. And it makes the program itself respond faster. Unfortunately, implementing it to all mirrors is rather difficult. The Gamejolt Client version will require the user to run NGEN manually, in order to optimize it. And the Microsoft Store requires some technical know-how to implement it fully. And it can make it a bit complex to ensure that the removal of the game is clean (Microsoft Store aside since it only requires a library to be used). But, a new version of .NET may have a better solution.

If you aren't aware, Microsoft open-sourced .NET in the form of .NET Core. Its purpose is to have a cross-platform, open-source application platform. I have developed an app that uses .NET Core and a .NET Standard library. In this year, .NET Core 3 will be released. Alongside improvements, it will also allow developers to bring over Windows Presentation Foundation and Windows Forms apps written in .NET Framework over to .NET Core. And it didn't take too long for me to port my compiler app to this new tech.



So... what does that mean for Immortal Sins, I hear you ask? Well:

- The Just-In-Time compiler is faster than the one on .NET Framework. It will greatly benefit everyone since I can have a nice, speedy program without doing a hexamagic. I wouldn't be surprised that there would be an option to make a native app that doesn't need .NET Core in the future (look for CoreRT).
- I can have a copy of .NET Core side-by-side. Immortal Sins at the moment needs .NET Framework 4.6.2 in order for Northbridge to work (so it can back up your saves). Although I wanted to use newer versions of it, it does result in a point where I may break compatibility with some operating systems (I found the hard way that 4.6.2 didn't support Windows 8, only 7, 8.1 and 10). With Core, it almost renders it moot. Plus, it doesn't require a restart if you don't have it since it already comes in.
-Maybe I can finally bring the platform to Linux. Not with the Desktop Pack, mind you (at the moment, there are no plans for official support for a cross-platform UI using WPF or WinForms) but it could make it easier to port it.

The road ahead:
So, for now, the big milestones for the near future are as follows:
- Polish the MV version so I can promote it to stable.
- Get new artwork.
- Port Northbridge to .NET Core.
I can't think of how to close this, so, thanks for reading this and I'll see you in the next post.

Released Beta Version D0.30 Update 2. This update does a lot of changes. Mainly quality of life and balancing changes, alongside a few changes in the prologue.

Changelog:

Just a quick maintenance patch for the MV beta:
Game:

• Fixed a bug where Maria’s mother blocked the house’s exit at the end of the prologue.
• Improved the handling of audio.

Northbridge:

• Added the options of importing, exporting, resetting and backing up the game settings.
• Fixed some bugs in the standalone Save Manager app.

Another beta build was released:

Game:
-Added items that add elements to attacks. Does not apply to attacks that are marked as physical.
-Reduced the game’s size. May improve the game startup times for some users.
-Changed the name of the maps to easily distinguish them in the DIary menu.
-Redesigned the last batch of interior maps.
-Tweaked the UI to improve the visibility of how’s tun it is.
-Fixed a visual bug where NPCs and some objects would “jitter” when moving through large maps.

Northbridge:
-Improved startup times of the launcher in multi-core devices.
-Added support for Discord’s Rich Presence API.
-Fixed a bug where the backup system would crash the launcher when the Single Backup mode is active.

Guess what...It won't install on my version of windows 10. Sorry...Oh wait ,it did

I started it..but it's bedtime so..See ya later.