XIVYRO - Sword Saint Soriel v0.3 Release! | SSS Devlog #5 part 2

Hello, everyone! v0.3 is finally here! There are many things I want to go over, but first and foremost, thank you so much for your patience!

v0.3 officially introduces the long-awaited and gruelingly developed Dynamic Portrait system into the game. The previous system for displaying Soriel's portrait during dialogue (Irina's Visual Novel Busts, which I went over in Devlog #4) has been replaced by a mostly custom, robust system that accounts for player outfit changes. This update also includes various bug fixes, typo corrections, and tweaks.

As mentioned before, this is primarily a functionality-focused update. I'll be addressing dialogue changes, presentation improvements, and other related details in future updates.

For those who'd like to check it out already, the game is available to download for supporters at Knight-tier and above in #knights-rewards!

While I won't go back and change it or anything, the previous devlog, which I naively titled "Dynamic Portraits Complete!", couldn't have been further from the truth. Though I'd like to consider my testing thorough, actually implementing the system into the game revealed a large number of issues.

While not all of these changes are player-facing, I've had to update the "complete" plugins with the following:

Introduce a base layer into DynamicPortrait, which was initially handled by the original LL_StandingPictureMV plugin. This is something I should've done from the beginning, but adding it made a number of other improvements possible.

Rework Snapshot and Dim to work with the new version of the main plugin.

Add support for transition codes such as FadeOut, FadeIn, FloatRight, and so on, along with the ability to specify the transition duration in frames within a single code. These were useful features from the previous portrait system that I didn't want to go without.

Make portraits created by DynamicPortrait respect RPG Maker MV's screen fades, instead of appearing over them and making certain scenes look jarring.

Make DynamicPortrait's layers respect the engine's screen tints, while leaving standing pictures drawn directly by LL_StandingPictureMV unaffected.

Add script calls to capture and restore portrait variables. Since the portrait's appearance is mainly controlled by variables, their values need to change whenever a cutscene or specific event requires a particular outfit or hairstyle. A script call at the start of the dialogue captures the current values. If those values change during the dialogue and need to be reverted afterward, another script call restores the specified Base/Outfit/Over variables to their previously captured state.

Update PortraitDim to also look for plain text such as "Soriel:", which is what appears in H-scenes when the textbox is dimmed. Something I somehow didn't consider initially...

Last but not least, the HP-based outfit damage from battles can now be reflected in dialogue portraits. This isn't visually present in this version, since the assets haven't been drawn yet. I would've normally given this feature its own subheading, but I'll hold my horses until it's feature complete. The same functionality has been given to the map standing picture as well. A video demo is included in the attachments. ※ The variants are only for demonstration purposes.

While I don't plan on actually using it, I also created a "Streamer Mode" option after a chat with a streamer (AstralKnight.) He has a copy to prove it if he decides to stream the game, but here's what it looks like.

Yes, I made the plugin, censored all of the CGs and portraits, and then decided I wouldn't bother with it after all. A video is also included in the attachments if you're curious.

The results of the previous poll seem to be in favor of AI-translations. I'll consider how to approach this once the foundation of the game has been settled.

Also, I forgot to set an end date for the poll, though I did manually close it a little over 24 hours later. Do let me know whether I should wait for a certain voter threshold or use a set time limit for future polls. That was my very first one, and I'd like to do more soon. Please let me know what you think, either in the comments or DMs.

For the moment, I'd like to focus on improving some assets, keeping an eye out for bugs, and hearing your thoughts on the current update.

Afterward, though, I'm unsure whether to continue improving the foundation or move forward with the story and add more scenes using the current assets. Since I'm torn on this, I'll leave it up to you to decide in a poll soon.

Thank you so much for reading and for your ongoing support!