Offline Due To Internet "Technical" Problems

The lack of updates is primarily due to being offline due to major technical issues with my phone/internet provider. I am NOT happy about this at all, but what can you do? It's funny how much we rely on technology nowadays and take it for granted. When something goes wrong with it, suddenly it's the end of the world!

Honestly, it's to the point where I'm ready to sign the contract with another service provider. My proverbial pen is poised. An engineer is visiting tomorrow and, depending on the results of his tests and how much more of a delay I can expect, that's when the pen will raise or lower accordingly.

Fingers crossed for an expedient resolution and compensation.

Busy As A Bee

I haven't been able to update RPG Maker Times as often as I'd like. I've been commissioned to design a website, Flower Mint's Garden. Unfortunately, this has taken up most of my time.

And for the fact that I've started playing Runescape again after "winning" a free 14-day membership. I will be continuing my membership after the trial, so if any Runescape players are interested in adding me, my user name there is FereWulfO2. EDIT: I decided to become a full member again after all this time. I no longer play Runescape.

Once things settle down again I'll be able to update this blog and RPG Maker Times Companion more frequently.

June 2012 Poll - The Gladiator Project Animated Title Screen Votes

The poll for the "official" Title Screen for The Gladiator Project is now open. Vote for your favorite Animated Title Screen. This will run for a month and the video with the highest result will be the official title screen in The Gladiator Project.

Cast your votes here or by using the widget on the right-hand side. Or in the comments box below.

The Gladiator Project Voting Begins Soon

Sit Suffragiorum Incipiunt
(Let The Voting Begin)

Picture Courtesy of Sodahead

As part of an ongoing theme, visitors will be able to vote on certain aspects of The Gladiator Project.

Starting on 1 June, 2012, voting will begin for the Title Animation. Whichever one has the highest votes will be implemented in the game.

On 1 July, 2012, votes will commence for the Title Screen Music, whichever fits most appropriately with the title animation chosen and the overall game theme.

Both polls will run for about a month each. Votes can be cast on RPG Maker Times, Facebook or on The Gladiator Project.

Once the results from all sources have been collected and collated, the ones with the most votes will be implemented in the game.

Domain Name Technical Issues

It appears that RPG Maker Times's new domain is having "issues". I'm not sure at this point if it's due to the web host, my computer/firewall, or the domain transfer. Hopefully, this'll all be resolved soon. If not, then I'll approach it a different way and revert to its subdomain until a proper solution can be found.

EDIT: As of 22 May, 2012, it's still down. The source of the problem has been traced to a database corruption, which is in the process of being restored and backed up.

EDIT: As of 25 May, 2012, the new domain site is up and running again. The problem was established as a corrupted database. The backup post file was also corrupted, which means literally starting afresh using the backed-up posts and materials.

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EDIT: The new domain can be found here.

New Domain Names Implemented

The domain name, http://blog.rpgmakertimes.info, for RPG Maker Times Collective (now officially renamed Companion) is up. Although it's still under heavy construction, there's still a lot of content available. I'll be doing more work to the blogsite over the next few months and by the end of June it should be up and running proper.

Furthermore, you can also use http://rpgmakertimes.co.cc/blog to load RPG Maker Times. The current address works as well, since this is simply a URL referrer. So, whichever one you prefer you can use as easily. (No longer active.)

All of the tutorials, present and future, will also be implemented on the blogsite. And I'm hoping to have a few more tutorials as time goes by.

Finally, as a result of the consolidation process, the following blogs/sites will be deleted:

• RPG Maker Times Companion - This will not be deleted per se and will remain as is. There will be fewer, if any, updates to it.
• RPG Maker Times Cartoon Strip - All of the cartoon entries will be transferred and eventually the blog will be deleted.
• RPG Maker Times Windowskins - Once all of the windowskins have been ported over, this blog will also be deleted, making provision for more windowskins, which I'll attempt on creating from scratch in Paint.NET and Gimp.
• RPG Maker 2K3 Master - Although I mentioned a while back that this blog was scheduled for deletion, I've kept it going for a while longer. After the Companion blogsite is all the way complete, 2K3 Master will finally be deleted.

Bear with me as the transition takes place. There's a long way to go yet, but steady progress is taking place. If you'd like to contribute in any way, comment below or through Facebook. Thanks in advance!

RPG Maker Magazine

RPG Maker Magazine is an online magazine dedicated to "console RPG Maker games", especially RPG Makers 2 and 3 for the PS2.

Not only that, they do have an active forum, which also contains some (though not much) content on the PC version RPG Makers.

There are some interesting articles in its online magazines as well, although this part of the site doesn't appear to have been updated in a while. Notwithstanding, it's still worth reading through them.

The list of games in the "Game Vault" is quite comprehensive, including RMXP and RMVX projects. And, of course, there's the inevitable guides and tutorials, including the game manual.

Overall, the site doesn't have much in the way of active content or updates - for all intents and purposes it's inactive - but it's still worth a mention solely based on its content and list of games. (I spent at least 90 minutes browsing through.)

The Gladiator Project Development Commencement

Development on The Gladiator Project has recommenced. Progress has also been made on gameplay as well as additional scripts. For progress updates, click on the TGP Updates tab on the right.

For those of you who have been following RPG Maker Times on Facebook will already be aware of the new Status Menu theme. Well, I'll be doing something a little different.

I'll be encouraging viewers both from RPG Maker Times and Facebook to vote on a few aspects of the game, so will be conducting regular polls. At the moment, these include:

• Which animated title screen looks best
• Which music/score goes best with the title
• Which Status Window layout looks best

And there will probably be more as development continues.

Each poll will last for a month, posted both here and on Facebook, along with images and videos as necessary. The results will then be collated and those with the highest scores will be implemented in the game.

(The Gladiator Project website has not been updated, but it will be soon.)

New Domain For RPG Maker Times Collection

The RPG Maker Times Collection RPG Maker Times Companion website is in the process of transferring to a new host, along with its own domain name. This'll make it much easier long term.

Not only that, it'll be has officially been renamed from Collection to Companion - not to be confused with the blog of the same name, but that'll eventually be renamed to something else and may eventually be removed altogether. The new website can be found at its domain-hosted site, although it's undergoing heavy construction.

The current template will not be the actual template. For the most part, it'll be Wordpress-ised for easier organisation and to make it more search-friendly, but it'll also combine website elements as well.

Construction will begin this month and by the end of the month the transfer from the old web host to this one will be complete.

Animated Title (RMVX) - The Chronicles of Yrd

This started out as an experiment with sprites, but developed into a simple title animation. The title itself, "The Chronicles of Yrth", is taken from a novella I wrote in the early '90s but which was never published. This will be a future project, based loosely on that novella.

The script may or may not eventually be shared on RPG Maker Times Companion. It depends what happens between now and then, and if the project actually goes ahead as a planned collaboration.