Rayvolution

Sounds risky.. lol :D Guess it can't hurt to try it on a backup copy :P

I'm toying with trying to convert the entire tileset from 32x32 to 16x16, is these even feasible without pretty much rewriting the graphics engine? I can't seem to figure it out. Currently, just to test my graphics im just enlarging my 16x16 art to 32x32\. While that works great, and will look exactly the same as if I changed the tileset to 16x16 I'd much rather it be natively supported. Any tips on where/how to get started?

Anyone know any good VB6 tutorials from their own personal experience that helped you code in EO? I've found several, but I was hoping the community would be able to provide me some references for what worked for them. :D

I've been learning visual basic, and I'm working on a custom GUI. I've managed to get quite a bit done, but one thing is really confusing me; how do I force certain layers to be on top? For example, I want my XP, HP and MP bars to be overtop the pictureBox, but no matter what I do they always end up behind and out of sight. :( My end goal is to have all the GUI windows "on the game screen" with the option to hide them, then make the chat window somewhat transparent.. optimizing the amount of gameplay can be on-screen. As of right now, I've figured out how to move around the boxes and how to increase the the main pictureBox properly, but I can't get any of my windows to overlay the pictureBox. :(

Sounds great, I'm glad to get a lot of positive reassurance. The project we're lining up may take over a year to complete and I'd hate to hit a hgue roadblock because of Eclipse's capabilities. We're going to be building a massive world, with completely custom 8-Bit art with thousands upon thousands of items and NPCs and countless dungeons to explore. We want to make a "true" MMO out of this. :)

I am working with a group of friends and we want to start an 8-Bit "Retro" MMO.. Eclipse looks capable of doing what we need, but we're unsure if it can. I was hoping a more experienced member here could give me the "Green light" on this idea. We're a very capable, dedicated and creative team. We know IF it can be done in Eclipse, we will do it. here's the outline of the proposed idea as given to my teammates. –-------------------------------------------- Basically, the idea is an MMO that's strongly community driven, with a lot of the core MMO aspects that I feel have been lost. I want to pull away from a lot of the mainsteam elements, and key back into the "core" RPG elements. Key Features: - NES/SNES Era 2D RPG graphics. Think "Chrono Trigger" or "Final Fantasy" like graphics. I always liked Top-down MMOs for some reason. - No set character classes You make your own character, everyone starts the same. Although there may be races, who get different perks. You develop your character in the direction you want. (Think: Elder Scrolls series) - No "End Game" This MMO has no end, there is no possible way to ever reach the hardest parts of this game. It will be designed in such a way that there will always be regions and dungeons to explore that even the most elite of players get clobbered in. If there's a place 10-15 of the best-of-the-best players can just barely survive in I have already designed 2 more places even harder than that. The idea is no one can ever feel like they've reached the end of the game, there's always something to work to. - No level cap. There is no level cap. But leveling up in the higher hierarchy of levels is EXTREMELY slow. If it takes a month to go from level 1-20, it takes 2 to go from 21-30\. By the time you reach your 50s it could take an entire month just to gain a single level. Most gamers will get to their mid-50s, while hardcore gamers may make it to their 60s and 70s. But only the most elite, whom have dedicated years to the game will reach levels up in the 80s, 90s and beyond. The idea is once you break into the "ultra-high" levels of 60-70 it can take months to just gain a single level. This isn't to make the game incredibly hard, there will be a ton of dungeons in all level ranges so you never feel like you're "Grinding". This concept is actually so you can stop focusing on leveling to "endgame" and focus on levels to get to "the next dungeon" or "the next area". Making your character goals more about seeing the cool new content (and earning bragging rights for getting there) not about just hitting whatever the max level is and playing "end game" for gear. - No instances. There are no instances, all the dungeons will be multifaceted non linear dungeons. Think Blackrock Mountain in WoW. When you enter the dungeon, your party can run off in any direction it wants, but could easily bump into other friends along the way. For those of you who played Ultima Online or any other pre-instance MMO, it's kinda like that. I feel instances take away from the "RPG" element. The idea is to make a real, thriving world. Not a video game. There are no instances in real life. - Skills and levels are separate. When you level up, your base stats improve (STR, DEX, INT, etc). Very Diablo2 style in that respect. But, your skills are going to be Ultima Online style, based on raw points. The more you do a skill, the better you get. For example, a level 50 with a ton of skillpoints in swordfighting can't pickup a mace and clobber people, chances are a level 30 with macefighting will defeat a level 50 swordsman whom is using a mace. - Crafting Crafting will be exactly like Ultima Online, that system is perfect. The more you do it, the better you get. As you get better, more item types are offered to you. Crafters will be able to collect ALL their mats without having to go into a dungeon. So players, if they want to, can be true crafters and never even bother fighting in a dungeon. High end crafters will be able to make some amazing equipment, but becoming a master of any craft will be exceptionally hard. Most players who decide to be a crafter will spend most of their gaming hours adventuring around looking for supplies in mines, forests, etc and creating goods that are actually useful, that can only be obtained by crafting to sell to players. - No bind-on-equip/pickup This concept is retarded, and my MMO won't have it. If you upgrade an item, trade/give the old one to someone else. - Homeownership Every city will have tons of empty rooms players can buy, they houses will be VERY expensive. Just owning a small house is an achievement. But, owning one will allow you to setup shop in the actual town, where you can do business by selling goods via your own NPC or it can just be a place you can call home and store your items. - PVP You can attack anyone, anywhere, at anytime. But, it'll be frowned upon. Players who kill other players will be labeled a "murderer" for days (Actual, real life days), will be unable to enter any town anywhere without the guards slaughtering them and will automatically be tagged as a "Bad guy" to be attacked on sight by any other player with no consequences what so ever. So, you can run around and be a jackass but you'll just make life very hard for you if you do. - Everyone everywhere killed by anyone is lootable. Anyone can loot anything, the idea here is if a player leaves some items behind another player can scavenge behind if he finds stuff. But, if he tries to take stuff within 2-3 minutes of the "kill" he will be labeled a "thief" and can be killed by the player who just made the kill without being tagged a "murder". - Dying sucks, avoid it at all costs. When you die, everything on your character will be laying on the floor for anyone to take. You have to get back to your stuff and recollect it. But, if anyone else tries to steal your stuff they will be labeled a Graverobber (Worse than the "thief" I mentioned before) and will be killed on sight if they enter town. A Graverobber and a Murderer will basically have the same flags set upon them, really screwing up their game for a while if they want to be jackasses. On the plus side, a "dead player body" will take 48 hours to decay, so there's no vital rush to collect your stuff. You literally have 2 days to get it all back. - Every object in the entire world can be opened/searched/looked in. Pretty much any storage container in the world can be peaked inside. Players can throw junk in a random crate in town, and another player can come by and pick it up. (One man's trash concept). Pretty much the same way Skyrim works; if you should be able to open it, you can open it.