The main list of changes is HERE.

The update was delayed for a considerable amount of time and the plan was to release this version as early as New Year's Eve, but it didn't work out.

As it was intended, if possible, the weight of the game folder has been reduced many times, thus its size is even smaller than the version v1.56.

I don't want to see these two chapters anymore, that's it! There will be no more updates unless absolutely necessary. I almost had a nervous breakdown while I was finalizing this version and find out that - one thing does not work, then another.

727 649 Mb

Patch:

Changed the condition for checking the "Difficulty" variable. If the selected difficulty is between 1 and 3 (very easy and easy), some achievements will not be given. Such achievements include:

Silent and Invisible, New Powers new abilities, Great and Powerfull Defender, You're a Cheater , and the achievement for the final battle.

Others:

• Added more backgrounds for menu scenes;

  
  
  

• More mini-games (available in Crystal Clear);;

• Corrected inscriptions in "Scores" for the GameJolt game page, added a new record item for the mini-game "Luna Vs. Changelings" (the "Records" themselves were added purely for fun to test the capabilities of the GameJolt API/Game Custom Data scripts and do not contain anything special). Changelings" (the "Records" were added purely for fun and to test the capabilities of GameJolt API/Game Custom Data scripts, and they do not contain anything special);

• Item storage has been brought back into the game. The storage limit for one item type is 60, the money limit is 999,999,999 (one vault);

• Added an additional way to change the screen (similar to screen unwrapping in games made on RPG Maker MV):

  • F6 - resize windowed mode (4:3);

  • F7 - full screen mode (4:3);

  

  Note: Do not use the standard full screen mode (ALT + Enter) with the game unwrapped at F7, because switching back ALT + Enter causes a white screen, which is removed by pressing the F7 key;

  On some monitors, given certain settings and video cards, a full screen picture can be... soapy, and even the game's built-in zoom functions other than Fullscreen may work worse (even for optimization).

  Therefore, I can also recommend this program IntegerScaler (not advertising, but as another option). Although if you sit far away from the monitor with a joystick.....

• Radiant Hope's eyes have been changed (or finalized);

  

• The state indicator will show all the states imposed on the hero in a carousel;

  

• After leveling up, the maximum amount of HP (MP) will be restored (For example, if you have 113/140 HP before leveling up, you will have 133/160 after leveling up.);

• Added shadows for characters;

  

• Crystal Empire map tweaks (again...). Reduced the number of "guardian" events and removed unused objects (which make no sense, even in terms of decoration) to reduce CPU load;

  

• "Tweaking" events on the Canterlot map (again...) to reduce CPU load, removed unused ones. Also (again) changed the appearance of the fountain (I still can't decide which look will suit it better given the limitations of the perspective and engine);

• Tweaked Ponyville map events (again) to reduce CPU load, removed unused ones;

• Добавлены указательные таблички, которые направляют камеру на интересующее место (добавлено в связи с просьбами "упростить" навигацию на больших картах);

• Final battle has been finalized. Fast, difficult, but passable, especially if defeated many times (the more defeats, the stronger the character each time);

  

• Improved part of the graphics. Improved sprites of guards (fixed position + extra pixels + eyes);

Удалено / Исправления ошибок:

• Launching the game is now faster;

• During combat, there will no longer be a wait for the camera to "focus" on a character who is about to use a skill (quickness);

• Removed "Special screen resolution" selection due to higher CPU load (possible only with NVIDIA);

• Fixed blinking of doors on the "Cleverok's House" location when a character interacts with them by turning downwards (event fix);

  

• Removed the Abjust Limits script, it caused a lot of weird problems, including:

  • when loading the game, items of actors who are not in a group were given out;

  • the background of the game's internal menu was not removed and moved to other "windows" like "Stuff", "Equipment" or "Save/Load" (the reason for this bug I couldn't figure out for years!). This is especially noticeable when there should be no backgrounds in other windows;

  

• The font "Woodstick" has been removed from the internal menu, because its loading required more loading time (fast performance), and replaced by Georgia. Now the transition to the menu will be faster;

• Changed parallel events that constantly update variables (number of battles, item quantity, region, etc.). Instead, "conditions" are now used that directly check the requirements using a script.Changed because the constant updating of a variable by a parallel event made the game slow down more often (especially noticeable in locations where there are a lot of events);

• Several cut-scenes on large maps have been moved to separate maps (so as not to get in the way);

• Changes for Crystal Cave (entrance). Due to its size and the number of events on the first map of Crystal Caves, where you need to collect enough herbs this location has very noticeable slowdowns. Therefore, the location has received a few changes for the time being:

  1. The very first and described above - changed the checking parallel event, which instead of constantly updating the variable depending on the number of collected herbs and then checking the condition to advance the story will directly check the condition of the number of items, not the variable;

  2. If the game's difficulty is set to "Story" or lower, you won't need to collect n-number of herbs to advance further. However, if the difficulty is set to "Hard" or "Mental", you will have to work as hard as before...This has been changed to "ease" the process without dragging out the game time;

  3. After collecting n-number of herbs, and further progressing through the story, the crystal grass will no longer create a "highlighting" animation (or particles, making it easier to distinguish the bush from other objects), which will also slightly increase the performance of this map;

  Note from the author: In the future I will consider a complete redesign of the Crystal Caves, both in terms of "detailing", so for optimization, and for some edits due to the plot.The current look of these locations does not suit even me, not to mention the complexity and annoyance.... :/

Выводы:

The limitations of the engine and the default ways of "optimizing" are staggering...

Trying to "revitalize" the game by adding more ponies has led me to the point where I need to approach this issue from a different angle. And that, in turn, will lead to... Completely redesigning the locations in terms of size and reducing the number of events on them.

Использование антилагов? Не вариант, т.к. в этом случае нужно делать много проверок, включая проверку на совместимость с другими скриптами и .dll. Ранее применялись некоторые антилаги для событий, но они были убраны в связи с конфликтами скриптов, что приводило к вылету игры в самый неожиданный момент.

Переход на другие движки, вроде MV или MZ, а то и вовсе полная смена движка? Также не самый оптимальный вариант, особенно с моими ограничениями (хотя Click Team и RPG Maker MZ мне понравились).

Prologue and Chapter One are done for now. If anything is going to come out on them, it will only be revisions (+ translation). Now I want to fully immerse myself over the sequel, without the distractions that have dragged me down for several years. Night of Nightmares and Another Reality, those are the chapters I really want to work on right now.