State of Topaz: November 27th, 2009

Sorry for the long delay. There wasn't much chance for me to write it earlier, and since icons reached their benchmark almost almost everything on the non-programming side of things is done. I can list the number of things to do be done non-programming-wise on my fingers. Not counting any additional modifications to the engine sprites Fangking Omega (our programmer) may need us to do, we need overworlds for one or both heroes, and item sprites. As far as I can recall that's it! I'm trying to contact Fangking to see if we can get this thing on the road programming-wise, but my MSN isn't working and that's always the best way to get him :/ . In terms of moves programming, Leithality (our moves programmer) has promised he'll do it sometime but right now he's addicted to Dragon Age so I guess we'll have to wait a little. Anyway, while we're waiting we can work on full game stuff.

So, announcements:

The site's back up, if anyone hasn't noticed. Very very big props to Zeroality on getting rid of that malware, everything seems to be working just fine now. I certainly don't know what I would have done without him.

Also, a new section of the forums has been created/reworked/changed. Arts and Graphics has become the more broad and general "Cafe Topaz". Why that name, to quote myself shamelessly: "It's kind of reminiscent of the coffee houses where writers, poets and artists famously convene to nice jazzy music. " Of course submitted music need not be jazzy. See Irot_rebot's excellent music corner. This is pretty old news, and I'm pleased with the reaction people took to being allowed to post literary and musical works as well as graphics in there. There's a few fics that I'm sure the authors would love to have comments on. Feel free to do so! If you love them, let them know! If you hate them, help them get better!

On another community note: Zeroality has been having fun hosting the first Pokemon Topaz D/P Tournament. Much as I would love to say that there were Topaz Pokemon, there weren't T_T. Anyway, after being crushed first round by Red Rocket (lots of hax on both sides, weren't there something like 8 critical hits?) as well as a cool second round, I'm holding my breath for final between Red Rocket and zeroality. Who'll win? Anyway, next time Zeroality does something like this I expect higher turnout! It's all fun and games guys! On the note of Shoddybattle... of course none of this is decided yet, but Colin has decided to make an easier to modify Shoddybattle 2... which may allow us to put Topaz Pokemon up for people to battle with. Possibility? Maybe, but nothing too sure yet.

On the site, the Region Map had an update, with Softwind City getting its map revealed and Hollowlog City getting a much needed flavor update. http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k1...indcity9zy.png This will be the last map update. Mistvale City would be next but Fangking has said he'll remake that map due to some issues he has with professional-ness.

Benengil got its Pokedex Entry finished, leaving only Kuranpu, Trillogill and Engil left Entry-less. Currently each needs about one or two more votes for the winning entry to have it official, so come by and have a look for these Pokemon's sake.

Thank you Eve for the recolours of shadow_rukario's Battle Platform. Now every Battle Platform is done! http://i677.photobucket.com/albums/v...eplatforms.png

Also, Caribrisk was changed from "Tundra Pokemon" to "Caribou Pokemon".

Now for the bigger things. I've been thinking of the parts of Topaz we can really develop and work on right now, and I've come up with four that we'll be prioritizing in. These we'll try to finish quickly and efficiently (expect my activity in these areas to go up as well. If it doesn't, feel free to kick me on my visitor messages page). These things are:

Pokedex Entries: If you haven't noticed yet, the Pokedex Entry Links page has been updated. Notice something? What was once a wall of stars has now been broken up once more! We need to make new Pokedex Entries for each returning previous-generation Pokemon! Expect rules to go up for those soon. There will be some major differences in the process between the returning Pokemon entries and the Topaz Pokemon entries, the former of which will be much freer and more streamlined in the way that it will be handled.

Revamps: Let's put the "rev" back in "revamps"! Thanks so much for those who took the initiative to revive the Eeveelutions revamp discussion, those are almost done! The Slo line would also like some opinions too, so let's get revamps going again! After all, there are only 18 (including the ones we're doing now) left to do! This is really important too as when the returning Pokemon are implemented onto the Orange Islands, they'll require their moves lists.

Item sprites: Something I have not encouraged enough is the production of item sprites. As said earlier, they're one of the things between us and the demo, so let's get started on these! The ones we'll need for the demo are Blessed Ankh, X Sp. Def, Dune Ball, Dairy Incense, and Burning Coal. I'd really prefer that most of our items are scratches and not easily recognizable splices and recolours (as much as Game Freak likes to do that), and as such the only ones on that list that will be allowed to be splice/recolours are X Sp. Def (of course) and Dune Ball. If you need a good base for Pokeballs to work on try the Ruby/Sapphire Premier Ball (don't worry about it conflicting with D/P style sprites, they use the same kind of sprites). Item sprites should be 24x24 pixels big.

Overworld sprites: Mainly just the heroes need them, but they're really really important! I'll allow these to be plain edits of the Fire Red / Leaf Green hero sprites, but we need full sheets! Not only walking but fishing, running, jumping off ledges, the whole lot.

So, in my closing words, don't forget to advertise! Also, you can join the Topaz Facebook Group if you feel like. Or you can help out with the TCG too. Try to find someplace to help, there's literally something for everyone!