Character customization has been a highly requested feature, and I've always said "probably not, but you never know".

Well... after a ton of work overhauling how player sprites and animations are handled, and creating hundreds of new individual sprite sheets, character customization is now in the game.

The reason this feature was such a big "probably not", it mainly due to the engine this game is made in, RPG Maker MZ. While there are plenty of character customization solutions out there for the engine, they are all fairly basic and not very flexible. Welcome to Elderfield has a ton of functionality implemented which the engine doesn't natively support, such as diagonal movement, an animation system with many different player animations, idle animations, multiple different running animations, and so-on. No standard plug-and-play character builder plugin was going to cut it, and it was clear that something more custom would be required.

And so, after a significant amount of work, I've managed to build my own system for handling character customization. This involves a ton of extremely convoluted event-based system, and the use of a composite bitmap plugin which allows me to create new sprite sheets and images by combining multiple layers. This new customization system tells the game which options you've selected, and then a number of processes run which construct every animation sprite sheet, portrait image, and so-on for every individual tool, walk/run animation, player angle, idle animation, and so-on.

I'm glad that it ended up working out, but we'll see how well this system holds up. There may be bugs, and who really knows how this is all going to work out. There is always a chance that something breaks and the whole thing needs to be scrapped, so fingers crossed! With limited tools comes a limited ability to fix things, so hopefully it all just plays well with the rest of the game.


This update also brings a number of bug fixes and tweaks:


PATRONS CHANGELOG

• Added several Neighborhood Watch signs to the north part of town

NON-PATRONS CHANGELOG

• Added a character customization system
  
• Completely overhauled all of the player sprite and animation systems
  
• Added the Wardrobe back into the game (it now allows you to change your appearance)
  
• Fishing Rods no longer need to be equipped (only bait)
  
• Fixed pickaxes not mining faster when upgraded