Questions

[Sev]

I need to be blunt here, mefan: you've really not done much at all, and what you have done has been rather lackluster

Sure, you may be putting 110% into your efforts (and that's good), but if you expect to obtain contributor status just from a few sprites, you're expecting far too much. Plus, I have honestly seen much better sprites than yours; you seem best at recolors and splices which we're not looking for. That's not to say that they're bad sprites, but they likely won't find a place in the actual game.

I am honestly not meaning any offence by this. I think, however, that you're being too hasty with your ambitions right now.

True but my splices are more of alt uses somewhat the style of twoohfive205, but where i suck at is lighting. I'm jot trying to say i want to come in here and get contributer, but it would be useful to know some of this information so that i don't make mistakes over what i'm doing. I do agree with you on the being hasty with my ambitions, but i feel the need to know acess to some of the information ungiven to me. I try to put as much effort into helping as i can and i guessw i found out about this place a little to late. Thank-you?

[Reliability]

Unfortunately, there isn't much we can do to give you information if you don't ask for it. It just isn't possible for us to give a list to every new member as to what has and has not been done. You have one of two options:
A: You go around the forum, read some of the topics (especially the stickied ones) and get a feel for where certain things are. However, certain places (like the main web site) have sections that are outdated, so you have to be careful and check that you're getting the most recent information.
B: Ask here or through PM or in a visitors message or in an appropriate topic what still needs to be done, or if you aren't sure of something's status.

I understand that it can be frustrating to work on things and have them be useless. I spent about a month on a backsprite that became useless because the front sprite was replaced and I had to start over. Other times, sprites that I put a lot of time and effort into were tossed aside because something better showed up. So in reality, there is no "a little too late," because if you had given us your stuff even a few years ago, the stuff we have now would have been produced and displaced your work anyway. That's just what happens in projects: we take what is the best for the project, no matter how much work was put into all of the options, we can only have one sprite for each thing. But what you should try and look at is that any sprite you do wasn't really a waste since you practised your art, even if it isn't going to be useful. People here are pretty good about saying why things are bad and how they could be improved. But one way to not get any help is to complain about it. As IB said, you'll be treated as you act.

If I were you, I would do some research, get a better feel for what's going on, then ask questions, so that we know what information you have and what is still "ungiven." Then, you can focus what you want, if you think that your stuff will be good enough. If you want to improve your art in general, set yourself up a topic in the Cafe Topaz board and put up some of your stuff. I (and anyone else who stumbles in there) can give you some pointers on how to improve. Spriting isn't easy, and everyone starts out a little rough. But you can get better if you put in the effort.

[Sev]

well thank you alotm =)

[MK94]

i was wondering if you are excepting new trainr ideas

[Reliability]

It depends what you mean by "ideas". We have all of the character's identities and personalities pretty much set up, so really we just need sprites.

[Sev]

i noticed the SECOND i made my 30th post it said i was member not junior member. is it the same for senior member, and how many posts do you need?

[SilentSentinel]

Yeah, it's the same. Iunno about the post amount though.

[alex72super]

How to download?

[SilentSentinel]

The game is not made yet, we are working on a demo.

[STT]

and more than a few were genuinely surprised to get the status.

I just logged on one day to find that I had it. XD

[Foxurus]

Heyy, I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this, but I've been lurking around here a bit and it seems that some shiny back sprites are still needed. Is there an accurate list of which ones still need to be done, so I can help? Also, the site is down so I can't get the back sprites. Where else can I find them, if anywhere?

Oh, and the shiny evolved pumpkin thing whose name I've forgotten has some outline problems and the shiny Griffin (and therefore the evolution-whose-name-I've-also-forgotten, too) either has problems with its highlights or shadows, because the difference in shades is too extreme, at least in my opinion. Can I try fixing it, or are you guys not accepting changes any more?

Sorry for the stupid questions, but better to be an idiot here than everywhere else, right? xD;

[ImmunityBow]

The thing about shinies is that they can be fixed any time in a matter of minutes, if truly necessary. I'd prefer if you were to divert your energies to other endeavours, there's been far too much work on shinies done already and a lot of us are already really tired of the process.

[Tyrannigon64]

I have three questions:

What order are the cities/towns meant to be visited in?
What HMs are enabled by each gym?
What are the names of the badges?

[ImmunityBow]

1. No one knows anymore. It would seem that it follows pretty linearly (with a stopover at Cranewing) south to Gallea, where you take the ferry to Portwind, then from there it's a little hazy, but you visit everywhere, including Hollowlog again for Eastlog Forest, then go off to Colossus, Dynamo, detour up to Skobeloff Town, then trek back again to Saharan, then fly to Portwind and begin the journey to Aquapolis and Triumph Spire.
2. Not sure yet either.
3. There will need to be new badges created anyway, but it should be in the gym leaders topic.

[Tyrannigon64]

May I please see the map? The site is still down for maintenance, and for some reason the search doesn't let you search for three letter words (such as "map"). Could someone please show me a picture or link to a picture of the map? Also, does anyone have any clue how long it will take for the website to be available again?

[Foxurus]

Alright. I'm not sure what else there is to do that I could do, and I figured everyone else's time would be better spent doing important things, so... *shrugs* Would you mind if I did do the back sprites, or should I just shut up and go back to lurking?

Tyrannigon, not sure how up-to-date this is, but here's a map. Sorry if it's outdated. D:

[Reliability]

Alright. I'm not sure what else there is to do that I could do, and I figured everyone else's time would be better spent doing important things, so... *shrugs* Would you mind if I did do the back sprites, or should I just shut up and go back to lurking?

All of our backsprites are done, but several need improvements. However, until the site goes back up, there isn't really a place I can send you to look at them. If you poke around the Topaz Pokemon board, you'll find a few topics that'll have some in them.
If you want to take a stab at a few of them without knowing what the current version looks like, that would also be fine, but I don't know how good of a spriter you are and some of our sprites are REALLY good. But there isn't a need to lurk if you do not want. It would be awesome to get to know you better.

@Tyrannigon: Please go to the gym leader topic. I'll try to answer your questions there, to keep it all in one place.

[zeroality]

Seems like information about Gyms has been consolidated into this thread by Reliability.

Edit: Oops, late.

[Tyrannigon64]

What program is being used to make this? I've heard names like RPGMaker and Ruby around the forums, so I'd like to know. I'm thinking that if I get free time, I can try and learn how to use it. I haven't had programming experience really, but this could be a good start, and it seems like the kind of thing I think I would enjoy and be good at.

[Reliability]

RPGMaker is the program, Ruby the coding language we're using.

[Tyrannigon64]

Thanks. If I end up having free time, I'll try to work on learning this.

Edit: Which version of RPGMaker? Also, I've heard there is more than one version of Actionscript. Is the same true for Ruby? If so, what version is being used?

[Merlin]

I believe the version that's being used is RPG Maker XP (not sure so if someone could clarify that would be great) and the pokemon essentials script is also being used for this project as well.
And as to the Actionscript vs Ruby I have know idea what the differences might be (it's the first I've ever heard of actionscript).
[Btw RPG XP is the one I'm using so I could help out with some of it if you need any but other than that I'm not sure what the Topaz project is using.]

[Cyndadile]

I believe the version that's being used is RPG Maker XP (not sure so if someone could clarify that would be great) and the pokemon essentials script is also being used for this project as well.

Correct.

Also, it's whatever version of Ruby that comes with RPGMXP.

[Tyrannigon64]

Thank you! I probably won't download it for a while, because of homework, but once I get free time (which should hopefully be March Break at the latest) I'll download it and start trying to learn.

[Merlin]

Yeah some of it is really straight forward but the scripting i think will be a little harder (unless of course you know how to script in ruby) so it shouldn't be too hard for you to learn

[ImmunityBow]

Ruby is a variant of the Perl coding language. It's pretty different from Actionscript 2.0 and 3.0.

[Tyrannigon64]

Cyndadile already answered my question about Ruby.

[Tyrannigon64]

Can we expect an SoT for March?

[SilentSentinel]

Depends. They are basically done whenever there's enough stuff to have one / when IB feels like writing.

[ImmunityBow]

I'll go ahead and say yes.

[MeekRhino]

Wooo! I love SoT. Although I think that this time around I have kept up with everything pretty well.

[Tyrannigon64]

At what point of the game does the demo go to? I mean, which cities can you go to?

[NyteFyre]

Just till the second Gym Battle.

[SilentSentinel]

Neo Bay, Sunset Village, Softwind City, and Cranewing City are the 4 towns.

[Merlin]

i'm curious bout something---y'all are basing topaz off the RSE series while connected to Johto, so (y'all are probably gonna kill me for this) why isn't the extra area to the west of Cianwood city there? They added it in Crystal before HGSS ever added it...
(unfortunately i haven't found a map containing that part that isn't from HGSS yet)

[NyteFyre]

We're going to, though probably not the whole thing.

[Merlin]

well there's supposd to be a spot with like the battle tower or something past cianwood which is why i asked, i noticed it wasnt on the map for this region is all....

[NyteFyre]

-blink- The battle Tower is just outside Olivine. The Safari Zone is just outside Cianwood.

[ImmunityBow]

Might have to do something with the earthquake?

[Tyrannigon64]

There was an earthquake?