I'll start with the good news to assuage any concerns after the snag that passed, development is back on track.

That said, because of how it was solved, well, you deserve to know. Also, thought it'd make for a good development story/cautionary tale.

To those who don't know, one set of scripts used to pull off the aesthetic of my VN's so far are those from Moghunter (you can see him in the credits for all of them). GNCR X marked the first time I was prominently using one of Mog's combat-based scripts, LMBS (Linear Motion Battle System). After some getting used to, it worked like a charm. Ran smooth as butter, was fun to play, had real-time action to convey the panic of a horror game, seemed like a keeper.

Then, that pesky "beta" in the title of the script came back to bite me in the ass. See, because it was perfectly functional for the purposes I had in mind, and that no other Mog script failed me after compression, I went ahead and compressed a nice beta version for... reasons. As expected, everything was running smoothly, even the OTHER experimental scripts in the bunch. Then the first fight in the game began. Now, in all fairness, the fight itself ran smoothly, no game-breaking glitches, nothing.

See the way the engine worked was you had a parent battler, which would be attached to individual sprite sheets for each animation/action. The former for placing characters into a battle scene, and the latter for when they move around. Here's the thing: once the game was compressed in a way it should be for commercial use... all of the sprites were stuck in the parent battler. It was the difference between animated sprites, and just moving a single sprite for each character around on a stick. I'm sure that could be someone's aesthetic, but frankly, I don't care for it.

So, I got to work looking for the problem. T'was hard as A) Again, this issue didn't arise in regular playtests, and B) My scripting knowledge is somewhat limited (it's RPG Maker, not Assembly, sue me). Because of this, I inevitably got stuck in a way that bordered on the titular, and did what every other newbie would in this situation: ask the experts.

Because I'm skeptical if any RPG Maker-specific forums still actively discuss VX Ace (let alone Moghunter), I turned to the Steam Community (doubted google would decide I meant MV instead at that point). That said, I also know a guy. He was able to ask three coding experts he DID have a chance at figuring this out, and the results...

Nothing, nada, diddly squat. My predicament was so specific that no one could even come close to figuring out the issue. But that was fine, because I'm a Saavedra, and we always have a backup plan.

At this point, in case this was a problem I wouldn't be able to solve soon enough, I got to work switching to an ATB System. Not quite real-time, but with the right scripts, settings, and enemy routing, I could still pull off the two most important aspects of the combat: Panic, and Animation.

This is where the blessing comes in. Not only did I find two scripts perfect for the cause (shoutout to Fomar's standalone ATB System, and Kread-EX's Animated Battlers), but also because the combat technically revolves around turn-based elements again, I can now bring back certain features and set pieces that were removed due to LMBS's limitations. Without going into too much detail: smoother in-battle cutscenes, more expansive animations for every character, battlebacks for the whole facility (Tom's jumping made hallways out of the question), and switching between different versions of a character (enemies AND actors) during a fight.

So, in short. The battle system is switching from the fully real-time LMBS combat to a somewhat real-time ATB system due to technical difficulties because my dumb butt didn't test things sooner. But, this worked in my favor since it's not only much more practical and flexible to work with, but also keeps in what's supposed to make this a horror game: the panic of trying to get out of a situation before the enemy can kill you.

Do I miss LMBS? Yes, oh god am I gonna miss it. But as they say, c'est la vie. Again, at least now development's back on track. Already worked the characters' sprites into the new system (thanks for doing half the work for me, Past Chris), and I'll get right to business once this devlog's up.

Oh, but don't think this small yet large setback will change much, I plan on releasing a little something to tide everyone over in the meantime. Just needs some minor polish is all.

As always, I do thank you for putting up with my abysmal foresight and walls of text, but at least THIS TIME, we got it all figured out. I'll be seeing you again real soon.

-Chris

P.S. Promotional materials and descriptions showing the old combat are being edited to reflect this change as we speak.