The Gladiator Project

If there's a period in history that fascinates me the most, it would have to be the Roman gladiatorial games. So I thought, a while ago now, why not create a game loosely based on precisely that. I started the project (initially for RM2K3), entitled Brotherhood: Gladiator, which I've now nicknamed "The Gladiator Project". The project was abandoned and soon forgotten about for various reasons. I rediscovered part of it recently and decided to try and port it over to RMXP/VX, bringing it a little more up-to-date.

Although the RM2K3 project was about 50% complete, when my hard drive died I lost a large portion of the materials I had for it and porting it over to RMXP/VX was at that particular time somewhat overwhelming. I'm now starting it anew, specifically for RMXP/VX. Because of RGSS's versatility and flexibility, it means that a lot more detail can go towards things like custom menus and in-game variables, not to mention aesthetics.

Some of the features I'm hoping to include in the game are:

• Bestiary (Bestiarius): For logging opponents fought in the arena and keeping track of their strengths and weaknesses.
• Achievement Diary (Diarium Facti): A log of major accomplishments and achievements, such as killing a certain number of opponents or surviving for a certain number of battles in the Arena.
• Job Log (Laboris Tabulae): In between combats, the opportunity to perform various tasks for others, gaining additional experience and kudos.
• Calendrical System: A complete time/calendar system for use in the Arena.
• System Options: Additional options to change things like windowskin color, background music/sound effects volume control, and more besides.

At the moment, "The Gladiator Project" is in its embryo stages, but progress is slowly being made. Watch this space for more info and updates!

Real Time KTS Mod

This is in answer to Miaucho's question (in the comments) about how it would be possible to rename the months to something else and is a followup to the Kylock Time System Script I posted a while ago.

While I have an intermediate understanding of RGSS at the moment, I will experiment on my own. That's how I learn things. Thing is I couldn't quite figure out how to implement the month array into the time system without encountering a few problems. My mind drew a blank.

Anyway, I found the Real Time KTS Mod by accident. This is a modification of Kylock's, but it's a very good one at that, utilizing the system clock for real time. Its rich array of features include:

• Current Time (hours, minutes and seconds)
• Current Date (weekday, month and year)
• Seasons
• Weather (according to season)

The demo version can also be downloaded here.

It should be easy to rename the months by placing an array in the KTS Module, something like:

MONTH_NAME = ["Month One", "Month Two" ... etc.]

Then calling it later (in getMonthName):

monthname = KTS::MONTH_NAME[@month]

And that should work. (I can't thoroughly test it yet - but I will soon - as my copy of RMVX isn't working properly for some reason!)

Kylock Time System Script

This is in answer to Steve's question (in one of the comments), asking if it was possible to place the actual time and date into separate in-game variables. Short answer is "Yes, it is!"

I'm still working on my full calendrical system script, but the best time system that I've found is this one:

This video shows how to use the demo script, downloadable here.

Alternatively, the "original" forum post goes into much more detail.

Still Here!

Apologies for the lack of updates. I haven't abandoned this blog. Things have been hectic and, due to my hard drive failing, lost my data, including my RPG Maker programs and projects. I'm not really bothered by it because they can be redone, and just like writing, the first draft is always the rough draft anyway.

Thanks for the comments and support. I've just re-downloaded RMVX, so will be making full use of it again. And will answer your question, Steve, soon. Just please bear with me.