State of Topaz: August 6th, 2009

Okay, I expected a lot more activity to come with the summer, but sadly a lot of you who announced a lot of your time had freed up have been shying away from the project lately. A small bit of appreciation to ragingprimeape, a new member who's been helping quite a bit with Random NPC Lines, an area long forgotten before he came, as well as Wild Encounter Rates. I'd also like to encourage newer members to step up and see what they can do for the project, there's always something that needs commenting on!

So, what's happened in the past month...

Chronicler, as you may have noticed, hasn't been on for the past while. Worry not, right now he's dealing with some viruses and so his computer's at the shop, he will be returning after the problems there are over to come help out once more.

Also, Eve has started a new forum, and is linking to Topaz from it. You might want to take a visit, because the more traffic her forums get, the traffic we might get! You can find her forum here: http://www.s1.zetaboards.com/pokefans

Now, on to progress:

The TRPG at Orange Islands is finally moving again, at Icthyes City thereabouts, and I have to sort through the long Orion/Rocket quest now. T_T

In Pokedex Entries, which gets a peep once in a while now, we've managed to complete two: Duval and Tagati (two dark types!), we've still got Serebine, Cirroft, Chiarame and Malduval up and they're in a deadlock right now so come, vote and break the ties! Apart from those, we have a grand total of 5 Pokedex entries left to do for Topaz Pokemon: Trillogill, Cumuloft, Engil, Benegil and Kuranpu. Those still don't have enough tentative entries to have a topic, so I'd love it if you'd try your hand at them here: http://www.pokemontopaz.net/forums/s...hp?t=57&page=5.

Little Corrections Topic still has a fair few things to discuss, and I'd love to get the newer member's opinions on things like: Replacement for Shatter on Huskii/Tundrolf/Wolfrost. Change Caribrisk from "Tundra Pokemon" to something else? Increase Mallarge's size to 6'5" Remove Calm Wind from Cumuloft's moveset and replace it with something else. Please go there and post your opinions and ideas on how to fix these issues!

Wild Encounter Rates luckily due to the driving force of ragingprimeape have had lots of progress, there are no more land routes to do, just caves and some surf routes and fishing things! This also means that the TRPG will be done quicker!

Revamps still haven't had any progress, and though they're not too important yet those who don't know where else to contribute, this is for you! Slowpoke and Eevee say hi. Go on, post your opinions. They won't bite.

Two existing trainer sprites have been given updates that need your input! Tell us what you like and don't like about them, and where they can be improved! If you think they're perfect say that too! http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/6793/tg3x.png and http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/279...candyfinal.png These two sprites feel like getting some feedback on how they look. Will you help these ladies out?

Speaking of sprites. A large amount of sprites have now been added to the Topaz Photobucket and are now official in every sense of the word: http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k1...loreonNew1.gif http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k1...MirustNew2.gif and http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k1...errainNew1.gif are all now on our site's sprite page. Also, Reliability's Arachmare, Spidream and Harskrow backsprites have been added as well as Novoni's Kipporok backsprite. (Coroona should come soon too!) You can follow Reliability's progress with backsprite in his topic. Every icon made for Topaz is also in the Photobucket, except for Fahramane and Mermeidon by PapaLuLu27, which I haven't had time to transparentize and shift into proper boxes. Also pending officialization is his Firrel sprite. There are but 5 icons still needed for the demo: Dionare Kelvoyant Dolphure Wolvine Wolflower Actually Wolvine and Wolflower aren't _really_ needed because they won't be obtainable or met at any point in the demo, so really 3.

The gorgeous concept art by PapaLuLu27, DracoNyon and Novoni have now been updated to the Concept Art page, which as you can see has been filled out tons. The Pokemon that received concept art are Venap, Celsinge, Echoise, Ohmure, Dionare, Gargoth, Grific and Typhidna. Thanks to you three for your wonderful art!

PikangX has been working on cries, which are for the most part pretty awesome and which also need comments. He can't work on them right now due to computer issues (don't worry about the files, they're all saved off-computer) but we look forward to him coming back and doing the rest of the ones needed for the demo!

Heroine Back Sprites are pretty much done but still need input on what can be improved! The current set is: http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/9...irlupdate2.png Thanks to MewLoverEX for drafting these up!

There are also a lot of little things to be done. Small bits of information about the Pokemon that are very important and don't require any skill to do. These are EVs, EXP Yield, Catch Rates, as well as Item/TM appearances in demo. If you can't find anywhere to help out, this is where you can NOT go wrong! Just attempt a few and if they're good they'll be kept, if they're not they'll be tweaked with nothing against you. Don't be afraid, post!

Finally, an update on programming. Fangking Omega has hit a big roadblock in that he modified the Poccil's Essentials starter kit to allow the 80x80 sprites that look so beautiful and that are used in Topaz, but this meant that he has to now modify all the screens, menus and interface sprites because of the new larger screen size! This is VASTLY important and everyone with spriting talent should try to help out! The first thing we can help out with is spriting new Battle Platforms that suit 80x80 Pokemon instead of 64x64 Pokemon. Come on, people, this is really important!

Finally, we have a surprise coming up soon. I won't tell it just yet but it involves something that Fangking Omega is very good at (if you know don't tell!) So, stay tuned for an announcement that may be coming your way soon, and thanks for sticking with the Pokemon Topaz Project!

Phew, that was a lot of typing to do.