Samocal

[Xeda112358]

Some years ago, I made an RPG with a simple title: BATTLE. It was a simple text based game at first, then I evolved that to use some minor graphics and then around the time I started playing with assembly opcodes (two years before I learned assembly), I started playing with polar sprites. This was version 5.3.2.3 and it included almost 60 items, tools for battle, material to build items, a blacksmith, over 20 monsters and two maps that were drawn using assembly (again, this was from messing with opcodes). Unfortunately, this was back before I had access to computers and internet outside of school and back before I had a cable. It was never backed up. I haven't really ventured much into developing, since, but when I finally discovered Celtic 3, I decided to take another stab at it. I never got far, but now I am thinking of remaking this with BatLib. Here is the Celtic 3 version (and yes, I made this under the alias of "Sven Thomas" in case anybody wonders).

Also, out of curiosity, I want to make region files that contain the map data for each region. I want them to be around 16384 bytes (maybe a little less, maybe a little more). So, here are my questions:

EDIT:

Should I use 16 tiles or 256?
If I use 16 tiles, I can save the maps at half the size. If I use 256 tiles, each tile will use a byte.
What should be the map size?
By my calculations, with 16 tiles, I can make a large 176x180 map at 15840 bytes (that can be in archive).
with 256 tiles, I can make a 128x128 tile map at 16384 bytes (that can be in archive).
How should the map scroll?
Should it scroll 1 tile at a time? If so, should it scroll when you get to the edge of the screen, or should your character stay centered (like in Pokémon)?
If I have it load up maps as you go off the screen (like in the screenshot), loading maps will be faster.
I could also do a compromise where I load sectors of the map and within those sectors it scrolls (kind of like Zelda).
I would prefer to use the fast method.

[Xeda112358]

It has been a while since the last update on this, but I finally put some work into it last night and today. I haven't gotten much, yet, but I can walk with collision detection and I have stats that I can view. I haven't added in the items and monsters yet, but I do have the monster sprites ready. The save file is 163 bytes:
3 bytes identify it as a Samocal save file
32 bytes are the stats and whatnot
64 bytes for items (up to 255 of each ?)
64 bytes for if I allow the user to organise their items

I am still deciding on whether those last 64 bytes will ever do something or if I should remove them. I have a bunch of notes ready for this including monster backgrounds, Item details, lore, technical info, and for if I ever get to it, moves as well as the info on them. Pretty much, if anybody is interested, I will post them, but otherwise, I will try to avoid too much text.