* Hot_Dog hugs too, and invites Kevin to #seekanddestroy if he ever has questions or needs a decent chat, not trolled, chat

Guys, this is serious by the way.  Here's what ztrumpet said:

I don't think I'll be able to get on Omnimaga until tomorrow, so could you tell DJ?  My computer got hit with a virus, so until I can show my Dad that there are no viruses on Omnimaga I will not be able to get on. =\
On Friday I'm leaving on a vacation, so I'll have another week that I'm not on computers.  =\

Agreed.  I kinda figure more people will use Xlib than Celtic III (no offense Iambian, it's just that Xlib has been around for a while), and that requires matrices for the tilemap. 

HOWEVER, the actual tile and map data will be stored in appvars or asm programs so that they can be archived and save space.  (I'll either use appvar 1.0 or asm programs).  No worries, that's code that I will be working on.

Prophets, I'm still on schedule for a Saturday information session!  

Until then, just for fun, a new map...the test map for the turn-based S.A.D., and a map that will appear in the original S.A.D. as well.  Called Vregana Pass.  ALL MAPS will now be done in this perspective, and eventually Orita Five will be redrawn to this perspective.

Of Mankind, the Ptaloids and the Tosonians (Part III)

Jamie was able to recover from her hysterics at Collin's death, but there was no hope for Megan at the time.  But both Jamie and Hope understood that they needed to get home in time to warn Earth of Captain Lee, and so they left Megan in the care of the Tosonians and continued to where the last materials they needed were located.

The area was a great city.  The city was not floating on the clouds, but many of the buildings were so high that they reached the clouds,  In addition, the city covered a vast area, about the size of China.  By examining a particularly interesting shield, and by watching some of the windows, Hope and Jamie speculated, though they could not know for sure, that this was the home of the Ptaloids.  They therefore proceeded with caution.

On picking up the last of their needed materials, the two children journeyed back to the Tosonians.  Upon reaching the underground factory that the UFO had led them to (which was not very far from the city), they noticed a very large power source.  Hoping to buy Earth enough time to build better weapons to face the inevitable attack by Captain Lee--and perhaps the Ptaloids themselves--the two destroyed the power source, causing the entire factory to wreck.  This brought Captain Lee, now all but completely insane, to the scene, and he attempted to kill Jamie and Hope once and for all.  He failed, as some Ptaloids came to the scene and rescued the children.

Despite being rescued by the Ptaloids, Jamie and Hope still believed that they were now in grave danger, especially since they were forced into the underground factory--in essence, back where they started.  They refused to listen to anything the Ptaloids were saying, instead trying to escape their grasp.  Only upon seeing Collin--fully alive and well--did they calm down and hear the Ptaloids out.

The Ptaloids--essentially yellow, human-sized insects with especially hard exoskeletons--explained that the war they started with Earth was for the sake of Earth, as they were attempting to keep it from starting World War IV on itself.  To answer the rest of the questions, the leader of the Ptaloids, Zhas, took the children further underground to the chamber of the creator of both the Ptaloids and the Tosonians: Dzhanus (Pronounced "Janus").

Dzhanus was basically a pure-energy being, enclosed inside a large glass ball, with what appeared to be a dead humanoid body gripping the ball.  It was here that that Collin, Jamie and Hope really began to feel nervous, but the voice of Dzhanus did more than calm there fears, helping them realize he was more of a friend than a foe.  Dzhanus felt that the best way to answer all their questions was to tell his story.

Dzhanus started out as a pure humanoid, but immortial, life form from a distant planet.  Although it was forbidden to search for, or even think of, extra-terrestrial life, Dzhanus had interest in it ever since he was a boy.  But since spacial travel was as forbidden as the thoughts of extra-terrestrial life, he had to learn how to leave the planet, so he took great risks to his life to learn how to achieve magic powers that supposedly had only existed in myths.  With his new-found power, he was able to scan for new worlds and to teleport himself to them.

But Earth was of the greatest interest to him.  He took years of his life to study human beings, and what fascinated him most of all was they had a soul, a spiritual trait not found in any other lifeforms.  (Indeed, Dzhanus's race had something entirely different and foreign to us humans).  Completely intrigued by the idea of a physical body and a spiritual soul living in complete harmony, he started becoming desirous for seeing such complete opposites living together, but seperate from each other.  As he left Earth, he realized he had learned something else from humans that his own kind had not shown him--the joys of having children.

So it was Dzhanus's goal to create his own children.  He wanted his children to have free will, and he wanted to make sure that he could in no way interfere with their choices, wanting love to be given, rather than forced.  Dzhanus also wanted these two to recognize that he was indeed their father.  He wanted to create both a "male" and a "female" child to be siblings and represent the two races he would create.  But most importantly, it was his desire that one race be entirely physical, and the other race entirely spiritual, hoping that total harmony would exist between these two races.

Dzhanus knew, however, that he only contained physical characteristics, as his race lacked any spiritual characteristics, including souls.  So he attempted to create his own soul in order to feel more love for the spiritual race he was about to create.  He was close, but since his body was different from a human's, his "soul" contained and lacked characteristics of a human's soul.  For instance, his soul now had to leave now and then from his body to recharge, or he would eventually die.  Essentially, he explained to the children, he was at the moment recharging his soul, and it was his body that was gripping the ball, "inactive" because the soul was not present.

After successfully making himself both physical and spiritual, Dzhanus created the Ptaloids, made to be completely physical.  His direct son was Zhas.  The Ptaloids were given whatever desires one could find in the physical, including the planet called Coranus, which was the planet everyone was currently on.  To Zhas himself, Dzhanus gave immortality and the ability to forget nothing.

Dzhanus also created the Tosonians, completely spiritual, and gave them the desires that one could find in the spiritual.  To Jasiline, his direct daughter, he gave immortality and the ability to see a few days into the future.

Finally, Dzhanus created two beings that were just like him, physical and with a "soul".  He also provided them with a world away from the Ptaloids and the Tosonians, as well as their own glass balls for recharging their souls.  Although Dzhanus created these two with free will, he had a desire that these two would create a new species of humanoid life that wished for knowledge and harmony just like he did.

Dzhanus's hopes for peace and harmony between the Ptaloids and the Tosonians  were dashed after a few years.  The Tosonians started feeling that because they were entirely spiritual, they were superior, and Jasiline felt that she was even more perfect than her father Dzhanus was.  The Tosonians grew jealous that a race as "flawed" as the Ptaloids should recieve just as much love and care from Dzhanus as the Tosonians did.  This jealously turned to hate, and a war started.  Dzhanus knew he would be unable to interfere, and instead tried to talk sense into the Tosonians.  But Jasiline felt so perfect that she had shunned out her father Dzhanus entirely, believing instead that it was her own mind trying to talk to her.

For a while, neither race could do anything in the war, as the Ptaloids could not create spiritual weapons and the Tosonians could not create physical weapons.  But by and by, the Tosonians were successful in designing physical weapons, and the Ptaloids were forced to retreat.  However, they had a shield around their great city to keep Tosonians out entirely, so the Tosonians, still filled with hatred and desire to eliminate the Ptaloids, instead stayed on the planet in humanoid form, hoping to build a physical weapon powerful enough to eventually destroy the Ptaloid city.

Dzhanus never again revealed himself to Jasiline, knowing that her overconfidence had left him as no more than a memory in her mind.  Instead he stayed with the Ptaloids, as Zhas still showed complete devotion and loyalty to his father.  As for Jasiline, she was able to learn to predict the future as much as two months ahead of time, and her pride had her believing falsely that she could predict centuries ahead of time.  Her belief in the perfection of the Tosonians was now complete.

It was troubling times for Dzhanus, but he never forgot just how much he owed humankind for what they taught him.  So, upon seeing a World War IV that would result in Earth's self-destruction, he had the Ptaloids try to gain control of Earth just long enough to help it get back on track and end all of its dreaded nature.  Unfortunately, the children's destruction of the factory meant there was no way the Ptaloids could intervene any longer.  Zhas knew that Earth was on its way to its doom.

With a fond farewell, the children left Dzhanus's room and left to return the parts to the Tosonians so that they could build the vessel needed to return them home.  Megan, of course, was overjoyed to see her brother alive, but poor Collin was troubled and lost in thought.  It seemed to him that the Tosonians, especially Jasiline, were too kind and gentle to show hatred to their brothers and their father, so he didn't know what to believe, as the Tosonians refused to say anything about their lives.  As the children headed home to Earth, he was left with a single prediction from Jasiline: "Thanks to you and your destruction of the Ptaloid's factory, Earth will be at total peace for all time.  There will never be any war among your people again...and you, children, will live long and happy lives."  Collin knew that if Dzhanus was correct, Jasiline would not have been able to see that far.  So he was left with the most difficult means of knowing who was telling the truth--if there would indeed be a devastating World War IV or not.  For both the sake of Earth and the sake of believing that such a sad history revealed by Dzhanus was a complete lie, he hoped that there would not be a World War IV on Earth.  (To be continued)

Now that things are settled in terms of extra routines I need, I'll start posting progress updates of S.A.D. in my signature, as well as letting everyone know what I'm working on next.

The rest of this week is going to be spent preparing for the Ti-Basic turn-based version of S.A.D., since I have a goal to finish it by the end of summer of this year.  Next week I'm going to start working on the cursor aspect of the real-time version of S.A.D. 

From now on, I will sometimes refer to the real-time version of S.A.D. as the "original."

Keep it up, man!

The new Axe still doesn't support large sprites, altough it adds program naming support. I can't wait until large sprite support, though, as well as triple buffering.

Are you planning to have two manuals, one that is complete and another smaller one for the TL;DR people? Or maybe have a quick-start guide or something?

The turn-based version will only have one manual--a quick one.  It will tell you everything you need to know to play the game, or nothing more.