Rmvx

http://www.rpgmakervx.com/

Basically XP on steroids.

The shriveling of the testicles is apparent in the ugly RTP.

Damn I've been getting weirder and weirder.

Looks like they actually started to pay attention to all of the people who simply can't do graphics/coding the way they're 'expected' to do.

- All of the tiles are going to behave in the same way as the standard water/grass does now? That's actually a good thing, though it might be tougher to design a tileset file now. Making something like a roof should be a bit easier, though it does make the graphics 'simpler'.

- Charsets are back, for whatever reason - guess they're treating everything as a library instead of just individual resources now. Assuming that they stick with that design, I wonder how the new tilesets are going to work?

- Facesets are back. I've rarely used those since they're tough to draw, but obviously they're very nice to see in a game. I'm not entirely sure why they actually took that out in RMXP.

- Built-in expressions? Guess you can set a 'mood' of some sort, with an expression bubble / faceset to match. A bit useless, but the whole point of an RPG is character development so I can see what they're trying to do here.

- Simplified battle system. Lowers the barrier of entry to having your own charset, since you don't need a battle charset as well, but I do hope that the side-battle view is still an option.

- Vehicles return! I didn't realize at the time that they were trying to remove the concept of a 'world map', but apparently that was the design philosophy for RMXP.

- Looks like a typical SNES/Genesis era RPG.. again. 1-tile characters and all. Again, lowers the entry barrier, and I imagine that the tilesets can be set to 2-tile characters if desired.. though that might mess around with the expression system.

- The database looks fairly normal, fewer tabs in VX (13) compared to 2003 (17 tabs). It looks like the tile passability is built into the normal map functions (based on the screenshot, anyway) - I imagine Terrain is handled the same way. If it's all a front-side battle system, I guess you wouldn't need Animations 2, either.

I don't see anything new in the database. It looks like the standard stuff - right down to the common event tab. With any luck it'll be easy enough to get into again. (I wonder if it'll support 2003->VX, or if it'll just be XP->VX. I guess the better question is "Will it actually import anything at all?")

Hmmm... looks interesting. Makes me want to get into it all again, too!

I like how they've brought back vehicles. You can't have a proper RPG without a world map and vehicles!

I'm sure you mentioned it, but can't find it on a read-through - no 'layers' of tiles in the map. That's something I really liked about RMXP. The fact that you can have three layers of tiles, and then the events layer. Unless I'm looking at the screenshots wrong, it seems to be the case that you can only have the tile layer and the event layer. Ouch.

http://www.rpgmakervx.com/gallery/in...=editor_01.jpg

Though I don't know. Whilst nothing else overlaps (if it were me, I'd have the grass going behind each roof, and so they'd overlap), the water does seem to be doing something funny, so I might be wrong.

And I don't think we've been given our lovely side-view battles back.

Still, it be something worth trying... until Enterbrain create an RPGMaker2XP3, at least.

I'm sure you mentioned it, but can't find it on a read-through - no 'layers' of tiles in the map. That's something I really liked about RMXP. The fact that you can have three layers of tiles, and then the events layer. Unless I'm looking at the screenshots wrong, it seems to be the case that you can only have the tile layer and the event layer. Ouch.

I thought it might actually have 5 layers (The A-E tabs below the tile selection area) which is a bit overkill, but I'm not complaining.

Five?! Baybey! I like the various layers.

Though, yeah, five might be a bit of overkill... unless you want to embellish things and add extra little bits onto what's there, I guess.

The resolution is smaller than XP, by around 100 pixels height and length, if I remember correctly. I never remember correctly, though.

All VX really is, in essence, is XP with built in features already made by the RMXP community's scripters.

I do have to say that double the frame rate of XP equals an instant buy from me. As much as it is an RMXP clone, including nothing that hasn't been done before, the frame rate will probably sell to everyone who had doubts about any "revolutionary" features that they pulled of in their own games with a little common sense and a few lines of RGSS. 60 fps is insane for a 2d PC RPG created with a maker.

I just hope Enterbrain has it translated sooner than XP was after the Japanese release. I'm guessing that after the amount of success XP harbored for them, they'll work their little asses off and distribute it online in March or May of 2008. I just want them to hurry, I don't care if there are any "Gralssland" incidents. Hell, knowing them, we'll get it in 2010. If it does turn out to be that long, I'm all for getting a pirated copy.

On a side note, how many days after the Japanese version is released do you figure a PK equivalent will arise on torrent sites? :P