There was so much detail in Shadow over Ragnoth that I actually had to use multiple menu pages just to cover character status. I even left mHP and mana out of the menus because: 1.) Not enough room without bumping essential statistics off the screen; and 2.) This is displayed in the character selection menu just prior to entering the status menu. That worked out fine in the end, though.

There isn't a whole lot of detail in PoD, but there's just enough that it couldn't merit having multiple pages. There would be nothing else to put in the empty space; so I have to cram what detail there actually is on a single page. I added a view of currently-equipped items to actually fill some of the empty space that was originally there. The window borders remain an awkward element because of how I decided to draw them. Basically, the main font is in 4x4 px blocks. In order to maintain spacing between rows, (so the pixels don't connect) It was necessary to draw them in a manner that's more like 4x8 blocks. This was also necessary to render enough space for icons. (which are more like 8x8 blocks) To have the font space properly with the window border intact, I had to create a duplicate font and blend the top part of the border. A consequence of this is the spacing and alignment outside of window borders. Any text I place outside of them is going to have an extra gap just between it and any neighboring windows. (i.e., the gap below "ANAXIMANDER" in the current status screen) This means I have to waste that space, since I can't reasonably cram any text there.



(the red lines represent a 4x4 grid)

On an off-topic note: I was surprised to find out that some people actually use MSPaint to render their tiles. I'm not sure how robust newer versions are, but I don't recall it having any grid or snap-to-grid features. I use Paint Shop Pro 9, which does have this feature. It's easy to define a grid for specific tile sizes, and snap them when dragging and dropping.

you made that game? (the video thumbnail)
what's the title? that's pretty high quality for BASIC!!

I couldn't code my way out of a paper-bag.

It's still a design in progress. I just enjoy putting ideas on paper, though I don't necessarily have the technical skills to program and fully produce them.

Oops. I thought Gale was talking to me. Didn't even notice the video in DJ's post.

So much for Internet context.

Nice video, by the way. That's certainly a lot of detail for one screen.

Nice as always Zera!

I generally store them into list format. Let me grab Illusiat 13 enemy data (well, parts of it. There are over 70 monsters and I didn't want to post too many spoilers ):

:If R=69:Then:"/[yhat]O→Str4
:"CERBERUZ→Str2
:{13050,1000,10,3000,145,0,1,1,0,1,2300,4681,1,9,0,0,8,0,13050:End
:If R=70:Then:"φK→Str4
:"TRIMAG→Str2
:{16000,1300,10,4000,280,1,2,.5,0,2,2750,6250,1,9,9,9,9,0,16000:End
:If R=71:Then:"Ω→Str4
:"MIME→Str2
:{L3(3),500+L3(13),5+int(L3(14)/20),3000+3L3(15),L3(16),2-.5L3(17),2-.5L3(18),2-.5L3(19),2-.5L3(20),0,1500+5L3(1),4500+10L3(1),1,int(L3(7)),int(L3(),int(L3(9)),int(L3(10)),0,L3(3:End



:If R=40:Then:"φK┼→Str4
:"PSY→Str2
:{20000,1,4000,200,100,999,0,0,0,0,2750,2750,3,0,6,6,0,1,20000
:End
:If R=39:Then:"φKo→Str4
:"HOLY→Str2
:{18000,1,10,400,50,1,1,1,1,1,5000,4000,0,8,0,0,9,1,18000:End
:If R=28:Then:"/X-→Str4
:"WARLOCK→Str2
:{20000,666,4,33333,1000,1,1,0,1,1,5000,0,1,1,1,2,1,1,20000:End
:If R=38:Then:"φK[[LastToken]]→Str4
:"BLITZ→Str2
:{16000,120,10,115,80,1,2,0,1,1,2700,2000,1,2,2,7,3,1,16000:End
:If R=37:Then:"φK∟→Str4
:"ICE→Str2
:{15000,115,12,130,30,3,0,1,0,1,2500,1750,1,0,5,2,0,1,15000:End
:If R=36:Then:"φKw→Str4
:"PYRO→Str2
:{10000,90,7,110,25,0,4,1,0,3,2000,1500,1,5,0,2,3,1,10000:End
:If R=31:Then:"T→Str4
:"IMP MAGI→Str2
:{3000,1,3,100,70,0,0,0,0,0,400,355,0,5,5,5,5,0,3000:End
:If R=30:Then:"Ò→Str4
:"EVIL BOMB→Str2
:{1200,105,5,105,55,2,1,2,0,0,300,325,1,9,0,0,0,0,1200:End
:If R=29:Then:"Ʃ=→Str4
:"HUNTER→Str2
:{1000,140,10,1,65,0,1,2,1,0,350,350,1,0,0,0,0,0,1000:End
:If R=50:Then:"^>→Str4
:"WYVERN→Str2
:{2000,150,6,150,75,0,1,1,1,1,450,403,1,6,4,0,0,0,2000:End
:If R=51:Then:"^X^→Str4
:"GARGOYLE→Str2
:{2500,200,5,1,100,2,2,2,2,2,500,352,1,0,0,0,0,0,2500:End
:If R=52:Then:"r→Str4
:"ALERT→Str2
:{1500,115,20,100,90,1,2,4,1,0,480,305,1,0,0,8,0,0,1500:End
:If R=53:Then:"ΔK*Δ→Str4
:"WALL MAGE→Str2
:{10000,250,20,250,50,0,0,0,0,0,2500,2500,1,9,6,8,7,0,10000:End


:If R=24:Then:"><→Str4
:"METALUX→Str2
:{800,80,8,80,40,1,1,3,1,1,300,350,1,2,2,2,2,0,800:End
:If R=23:Then:"θ→Str4
:"FAKE ORB→Str2
:{528,53,6,25,27,1,1,1,1,1,120,152,1,0,0,0,0,0,528:End
:If R=22:Then:"[M]→Str4
:"ICE MAGE→Str2
:{600,1,10,55,30,2,0,1,1,0,135,200,0,0,2,0,0,0,600:End
:If R=21:Then:"000→Str4
:"ICE WALL→Str2
:{200,55,99,55,30,30,0,5,0,5,200,259,1,0,2,0,0,0,200:End
:If R=20:Then:"Q→Str4
:"ICE MAN→Str2
:{900,75,13,1,25,2,0,1,1,1,200,400,1,0,0,0,0,0,900:End


:If R=5:Then:"}→Str4
:"MIRAGE→Str2
:{70,9,3,7,10,0,1,1,1,1,20,11,1,1,0,0,0,0,70:End
:If R=4:Then:"Q→Str4
:"BRUTE→Str2
:{30,5,1,1,4,1,2,1,1,1,13,5,1,0,0,0,0,0,30:End
:If R=3:Then:"T→Str4
:"IMP→Str2
:{20,4,1,1,6,1,1,1,1,1,11,3,1,0,0,0,0,0,20:End
:If R=2:Then:"X→Str4
:"ZOMBIE→Str2
:{8000,590,8,1,110,2,0,1,2,0,1392,1320,1,0,0,0,0,0,8000:End
:If R=1:Then:"*→Str4
:"SPIRIT→Str2
:{4325,220,9,888,104,2,0,1,0,1,1065,1230,1,5,0,0,0,0,4325
:End
:Ans→L4
:If .1=L3(29:1→L4(18

{Current HP,Attack,Defense,Magic,Speed,Fire protection,Ice protection,Bolt protection,Holy protection,Dark protection,Experience,Gold,Can use regular attacks?,Can use fire and at which LV?,Can use ice and at which LV?,Can use blitz and at which LV?,Can use aura and at which LV?,Is escaping possible?,Max HP

Each var didn't really have minimum and maximums, except that atk, def and mag had to be positive and not equal to zero. If speed was in the 2500s, the enemy did not even have any delay between attacks. The attack flag had no level, except if it was 3 instead of 1, it caused the boss to change elemental weakness that turn (only used during two or three super high defense boss fights). For magic at 0 the enemy wouldn't be able to use that magic, and from 1 to 9 he casted the spell at that level. If escape flag was 0, you could escape with 50% chance. At 1, escaping was impossible (boss fights). Max HP did not have much use, except for enemies with protection against one-hit-kills (hard-coded in the battle code, but no enemy had this yet). one-hit-kill is when you deal more damage against a monster than his max HP. It caused OVERKILL to show up over him. If an enemy had anti-overkill protection, if his HP was at maximum, the attack will leave him with 1 HP. Experience could range from 0 to 99999 and gold 0 to 999999.

EDIT: For Illusiat 12 random encounter stats looked like this:

If R≤9:Then:Repeat L5(R+1)=1:randInt(0,9)→R:End:End
If R=0:Then:"^X^"→Str1:{10+O2,2,3O,1,1,1,.5O2,.3O2+20,1,1,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,1→L4:End
If R=1:Then:"Q"→Str1:{15+2O2,3,2O,.5,.5,.5,.7O2,.2O2+20,1,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,2→L4:End
If R=2:Then:"K>"→Str1:{3O2+5,3,2O,.5,1,2,.3O2,.8O2+15,1,0,1,1,0,0,1,0,0,1,3→L4:End
If R=3:Then:"β"→Str1:{10+int(.5O2),1,9O,.5,4,.5,.2O2,O2,0,1,1,1,0,0,0,1,1,1,5→L4:End
If R=4:Then:"Ç"→Str1:{5O2,1,O,4,4,4,.9O2,2O2,0,1,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,7→L4:End
If R=5:Then:"w3"→Str1:{10+2O2,3,O,3,.5,1,.6O2,.2O2+10,0,1,0,0,1,0,0,1,0,0,6→L4:End
If R=6:Then:"δ"→Str1:{O2+20,2,2O,2,1,2,.4O2,.3O2+25,1,1,1,0,1,0,1,0,0,0,0→L4:End
If R=7:Then:"0"→Str1:{12+(2O)2,1,9O,.2,5,2,O2+1,O2+15,1,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,4→L4:End
If R=8:Then:"V"→Str1:{17+4O2,2,2O,2,2,2,O2,O2+17,1,0,1,1,0,1,1,0,1,0,0→L4:End
If R=9:Then:"."→Str1:{O2,1,O,3,3,3,.5O2,.3O2+20,1,0,0,1,0,1,0,1,0,0,1→L4:End

Where O was the current area enemy LV.

Wow, Zera. I was planning to do the exact same battle as you for TLM -_-;; I got inspired from some of the games that I played long time ago, but don't remember their names.

Ah. PoD has a much smaller world. The maximum map size is only 16x16 tiles. (both battle maps, and exploration maps) The overworld is just a ubiquitous map that lists the various regions and locations you can select. Although that limits the potential for ships and other transportation, there might be battle maps that place you on a ship during events where you're traveling across a sea to reach a distant region.

Wow, Zera. I was planning to do the exact same battle as you for TLM -_-;; I got inspired from some of the games that I played long time ago, but don't remember their names.

Feel free to borrow any ideas from PoD. I have some of the statistical information listed a page or so back.

I'm not quite sure what you mean. Target a square on the map, and if anything incidentally moves into that square, it's hit by the attack? FFTactics handles targeting this way. Archers and Dragoons had to "charge" an attack. If the targeted unit moved away from that square while the attack was still charging, then they wouldn't be hit by the time it got executed.

PoD only handles direct targeting of units that are within your range. Some abilities will target a square on the map, however. For instance: Palisade's Fire creates a trap on a designated map square. When an enemy unit touches the trap, they suffer fire damage. Many other spells are ranged, but you must be able to target something in order to cast them.