ADVENTURERS!! II: The Cursed Mask and the Sword of Reality devblog

Build Update

2008-04-25T19:50:52Z

Yeah, I've got most of the stuff I was talking about yesterday in place, except fixing that one minor bug in the Journal. Sound is in, thanks to Soundsnap and pdsounds, offering free sound samples to use, and OpenAL providing the library!

Anyway, about the sound system:

I scrapped the part with the list of samples- now it just registers by filename in the various places it's called
It keeps any buffer it creates, unless it is cleared (which it does upon entering a new area, and such). it basically acts as a caching system.
It uses the first sound source (of which there is a limited number.. 20) it can find that's useful. If it can't find anything it fails
BG is a special source, although it counts towards the 20. If you try to play a new background music it'll stop the old one first.
I still need to add a timing feature for sound so that they can be properly timed (like special effects)
monsters and items can have their own 'hit' sounds.
Skills can have sounds, played at any part as part of the command list
Area scripting also allows the music to change and for sounds to play (and looping sound samples is also supported here, as well as stopping all sound)
I don't have the code to play sounds in the subscreen done yet (such as when using healing items)
the title screen music, miss sound effect, and victory theme are all coded in defines for now, since they're system-wide and not dependant on anything in the content.

And, regarding Journal:

It loads a big string, splits it by line, figures out wrapping and allows scrolling using the keyboard (although that's not all properly done yet)
There's a file to define which ones are available, and it uses it's position in the file to determine the order
The code to 'award' things such as when talking to someone or getting journal pages is not yet in place

Here's the build: adv2_20080425_1.zip

Here's the required Sound Pack, which I'm not going to update as often since it's big: sound_20080425_1.zip

Here's the OpenAL Driver pack if you don't already have a game that installed it for you already: oalinst.ex

Update, sorta

2008-04-24T14:45:28Z

I haven't posted a new build in a while, but unlike the other times that doesn't mean i haven't been working on it. I've been working on a few sub-systems which aren't yet ready to show:

The Journal screen.
I had to find a wrap-supporting code snippet that I could modify into a "scrolling text" thing, which I've largely done. It still has some problems with eating the character immediately after a carriage return, but that should be relatively easy to fix.
Sound support using OpenAL
This is a big thing, since it ties into everything.. I'm still getting my head around the way the "buffers" and "sources" work. I've got it playing some test sounds, but I haven't finished building the Manager which will:
1. Load a text file containing all the relevant samples
2. Load them into a buffer when they're called, using the loading code I already have (which supports pack files)
3. Put them into one of X sources when they need to be played
4. Remove them from the source when playing is complete, so I can 'juggle' the limited number of sources I have.

ADV2: OH MY GOD AN UPDATE!?

2008-03-18T22:50:48Z

What? It's been months upon months, but I've actually gotten some progress done on the game. Isn't that ridiculous?

It's odd, coming back to a project after so long. You forget the layout of the files so you end up having to read your own code. I actually discovered a bug really quickly that I didn't even know was there, I just saw it since I wasn't tunnel-visioned from coding before.

Anyway, today's update is.. EQUIPMENT. Yes! Go into the menu, and the equip screen, and you can now equip some items to the various characters:

Seems.. familiar somehow

Later, I finished the system which previews stat changes:

A rusty plate in the hand is worth 4 burlap robes in the bush. Or something?

There's some armor that works on everyone, and some that only work on Protagonist and Justica (as it's heavy armor). There's also one exra staff that has a +1000 hp bonus.

You'll also notice the item descriptions on the bottom there.

As another aside, I've moved all the text in the Menu screen to the strings file.

And here's the download link.

Capcom Store - Stay Away

2007-12-18T13:49:19Z

At Capcom's Online Store (http://shop.capcom.com/store/capcomus/DisplayStoreHomePage) they had a deal - pre-order the new Phoenix Wright game and get a free plush Phoenix. I ordered two, one for me and one for my friend.

The game's release date came and went, nothing. Unable to find a phone number for support, I contacted their support page.

After sending a couple of emails without a response, I received a message (sent to everyone who had pre-ordered I assume) saying they were sorry, and here was some compensation.

Unfortunately the compensation was useless - it was a 5% coupon code, only usable in November. Why would I order something from them when I still had no way of knowing I would receive the first thing?

Anyway, they promised it would ship "early november". Mid november hit, and I sent another email, with no response. I sent another one, and they just told me, sorry it's backordered. I sent another email asking if there was a reason it was backordered and when I could expect it. Then, insultingly, I received THE SAME form letter telling me it was backordered. The original email they sent was still visible in the reply quote text, but they sent it to me again.

I then sent another email complaining about my email not being read. And got no response. I sent another, and four days later received an email saying that the game shipped.

I said, okay, finally.

I received it last week, but there were no plush toys. Furious, I sent another email outlining how I've been wronged every step in the process and I demand compensation. I sent another, and another. I finally got a response- and it just said, be patient, the game shipped. WELL YES. It shipped. I have it, but the order was NOT COMPLETE.

I caution everyone never to shop at the Capcom Online Store, or any Digital River run store again - and I caution Capcom to find a provider that can actually provide the service they promise.

ECUADOR!

2007-09-20T00:15:34Z

There are things you don't expect are going to happen when you get up in the morning.

For instance, receiving an email from a radio station in Ecuador about being interviewed on the show about superheroes.

If you want to hear the interview, we made a recording... it might not be the best quality though, I'm going to ask if they can send me a disk or something.

But yeah... probably the most surreal thing to happen to me this year.

Edit: Fixed spelling of Ecuador.

The Game: The Name

2007-08-31T14:43:18Z

To lead off right now I'd like to make an announcement. The game is, and always has been ADVENTURERS 2. The full name of the game is- ADVENTURERS!! II: The Cursed Mask and the Sword of Reality

What, you want to see the logo? As a wallpaper? Well, if You insist..

Some facts: The three characters currently in game are products of the canonical couples from ADV! - Protagonist is Karn and Lumi's son, Dashijiru is Drecker and Karashi's son, and Justica is the offspring of Tesla and Ardam.

The build this time, I built a few days ago but never got around to posting it. New features are listed below.
DOWNLOAD BUILD

Title screen (with menu)
You can now use potions at all from the menu screens
Ditto spells
Learning spells is implemented (try levelling protagonist up and seeing the spells in the menu)
There's a few random bug fixes

I've got a report that the game can crash when you click an item in the item menu, neither they nor me were able to reproduce this bug, but if you see it, let me know.

More Toronto facts!

2007-08-29T01:16:00Z

- The Taste of the Danforth is severely overcrowded. I think they need to expand it a bit somehow.
- Someone really, really loves one way streets.
- Try all the doors HARD before you assume you're stuck in the stairway of a parking garage.
- Spaghetti Factory = very good.

Things Learned in Toronto

2007-08-09T23:45:40Z

I spent the last part of the weekend in Toronto with Nicole. We went shopping, and went to Ribfest.

I learned these things:

At Ribfest: Just because a rib place won last year doesn't mean this year they have ribs that are even halfway decent.
At Computer Stores: Most computer store owners have no clue if laptop DDR downclocks.
There are parts of Toronto where there are one way streets as far as the eye can see, and they change direction mid way through. It's like living Chu Chu Rocket.
There are some sketchy dealings at parking lots. The sign can say "$2.65 per half hour" but what that actually means is "$10 all day screw the rest of the sign".
Silver Snail closes at 6 on tuesdays. I found this fact out at 6:30 after finding parking.
There's capsule toy mario DS styluses. I got a bullet bill.
Carnival games are still as sketchy as they always were. There's no actual relationship depending on what you win and how many times you actually win, it seems.
a lot of games = a lot of customs
I know where to go if I want to buy a model of R-2 Powered now. Too bad I don't care about R-2 Powered. if it was R-1, maybe...
Venus versus Virus is a pretty good manga
It's hard to find a place to buy floppies now a days
Compusmart shut down all it's toronto stores. I found this out after searching for one for an hour
Hernando's Hideaway is a really good restaurant - best mexican I've ever had
Speghetti Factory + Closed due to power problem = Annoying
Parking is HELL
Rickard's Honey Brown isn't bad.

And one thing learned by another person, at Factory Direct:

Defective ram is still defective even if you tell the customer "It's your computer" before letting them finish telling you what's wrong with it.

Menu, please.

2007-08-04T22:46:12Z

Today's a great day, if yo like menus

DIAL M FOR MENU!

FEETURES:

Fixed a combat bug with status effects after a character dies
Added the menus! Press M when walking around
The item menu shows you the list of items, you can't use them yet
Quit quits the game (removed the ability to do so from the menu)
Party lets you switch party members.. double click or hit enter/space on one, and then on another. Use the "nobodies" to create a smaller party.
Back to return to the game
The party lists show up for equip and skills but you cant do anything here yet

Upcoming:

Make more of the menus actually do things
Replace the menus in the combat with these ones (since they work with both mouse and keyboard)

Known bugs:

Base 1 won't stay in the party. This is because he's not technically "in" the party but it wasn't checking it. Fixed in my local copy

GAME UPDATE!

2007-07-22T03:47:44Z

Here's the new build.

There's actually TWO builds since the last one (apparently livejournal failed to post the last one), so you might as well just read the list:

New features (20070718)

Equipment can now have triggered skills, such as on-attack or on-damage or some such. I've added one to Dashijiru's weapon, a 50% chance of gaining some mp back after his turn.

Skills can be set to resist (Poison has a small chance of it) based on arbitrary stats

Skills can have a chance to not fire (see the above 'mp regen" ability.)

Status Effects, are handled pretty much identically to weapons (and for now are defined in the weapon file)

I added a walking up animation for Protagonist on the map

Skills can now be set to either target dead or not target dead- I added a life spell to Dashijiru if you want to test it by killing off a party member

Added particle effect support (the actual particle engine is built into HGE) - see the healing skill and poison for examples

Skills can now modify stats, since I handle dead as a stat (instead of a status effect) that's how the revive skill works

in-combat-only stat modifiers can be done using statname_temp, and until nex turn can be statname_turn

Changed the directory structure to be easier to manage

Changed the fonts a bit to actually fit all the skills that need to be fit

Apparently the latest version of HGE had this all along: press alt-enter to play in full screen

New Features: (20070721)

Added the title screen handler, and removed the HGE logo in debug mode (when compiling in Release mode, it still shows up)
Added the beginnings of the camp screen: hit M when walking around
Added per-hit effects per weapons. Supports both particles and sprites. For the character that throws their weapons, it'll be used for that animation effect too.
Cleaned up losing code (try it out)
Added the ability to have a skill cast a second skill as an all target, for targeting all monsters. Try Rays of Lights for an example (it's also a good way to test losing)
Started making my own Gui controls (using the hgeGUIObject base class) - the first one is the menu items in the menu (notice the pointing finger)
Cleaned up some of the drawing-special-effect-location-code to use sprite centers instead of the hotspots which are used for sprite positioning
Put in support for absorbing (cast fire on SlimeLeader) or resistance (he has a high holy resistance, too) and Weakness to elements, properly. A defense stat over 255 starts to absorb.
Some stuff I dont have tests in for yet.
Preliminary Unfinished saving code that's currently inaccessable.

Known bugs:

Status effect.. effectiveness (say poison damage) currently cant be based on the caster's skill, so poison always does 15 damage.
Sometimes the menu highlights too many items.

That was easy

2007-07-14T22:24:04Z

I added running and defending. Both of them were very easy to add. Other stuff too, it's really shaping up.

Download build

Feature adds:

Fixed the bug with SlimeA
Added sprite/weapon for third main character - Dashijiru, the emo white mage
Shuffled the skills around to more match the character data sheet I wrote
Added a few skills, including one with a new effect
Changed the fonts
Added critical hits - it uses a random number compared with the agility of you and the target to determine if it hits. Basically it compares a random based on your agi, with the opponent agi to the power of two. Crits do double damage, and show up bigger.
Added misses, with a similar calculation as above. But it doesn't have a power two, so a miss will happen about 50% of the time given equal agility.
Added a heal spell. Compare Protagonist (mag=2) with Dashijiru (mag=10 +3 for weapon)
Added the ability to run away. It's based on your entire party's agility, and the agility of the entire monster party. It's rand * agi vs rand * agi * 10
Added the ability to defend. Any reducable-damage hit is reduced by half until next turn.
Actually I should talk about damage reduction, since I coded that without really putting any in a few versions ago. Damage has an element. it can be "phys" for physical, "magic" for generic magic, "[phys]fire" and such for fire physical, "fire" for fire magical, "other" for irreducable. Phys is reduced by DEF, magic by MDEF, physical fire by def and fire resistance, fire magic by mdef and fire resistance, and other is never reduced. Healing is not subject to these rules, but MP Damage is. It's vaugely a percentage based system- as your def goes up to 255, you reduce up to 99.9% or so. Damage cannot be reduced to zero. I haven't put in absorbing yet.
known bug: the fire sword attack is fire magic instead of fire physical, and the animation isn't timed properly for Ray of Light.

Item Build

2007-07-14T00:48:04Z

First off, here's the file so you can follow along.

I put in the inventory code. At least some of it. Max item stuff isn't coded, but otherwise it works. Basically, an item is attached to a skill, and it runs the skill as if it were casted when you use the item

Added inventory
Added ability to heal hp/mp
Added targeting-ally abilities.
I'm going to change the way target-all abilities work so I've removed the menu option for it.
Added item use code
Added menu items for run and defend, but they don't do anything yet

I think next I might focus on getting defend/run working, or getting the camp screen working. And I do have to get status effects, and trigger skills working sometime soon..

If you build it...

2007-07-10T23:39:56Z

Download new build

I've added a bunch of stuff, here's the rundown:

Added a sprite/definition for the 2nd main character: Justica
Added the Weapon sprite attachment code. Basically, every frame has a point with a rotation where to draw the weapon, which is drawn seperately allowing a huge number of weapon sprites!
Added the ItemManager and InventoryItem classes, and the beginnings of the equipment system. The default.sav gives each character a weapon, and items.itm defines the actual items.
There's no inventory yet, but when you gain items it uses the full name from the string file instead of the ID.
The victory screens are now in place. Try fighting a few times to gain a level to see how that shows up. I lowered the EXP for the fight, btw.

I think next.. either the Inventory system, or begin work n the Camp screen.

Some more quick additions

2007-07-07T19:08:52Z

New build. I'll let the bullets do the talking..

Replaced the textbox graphic
Added stats staying outside of battle, and levelling. The level stat gain is defined in the party file at the bottom. I also made the 2nd NPC heal you if you talk to him.
Added interface graphics in combat
Added a real headshot of Protagonist.
Fixed the intermittant second battle crashing issue, I hope.

next up, should be weapon sprites.

Buildy Buildy Build

2007-07-06T23:21:02Z

Some major things, this time. I've finally got most of the "test" values out to files, so now the characters, skills, skill lists, abilities, and everything are loaded from files. Even the party is!

Download Build

party.pty loads teh default for each character's stats and stuff.
Skills are listed as the level they have to be to use it, and negative if they dont 'know it' yet but can learn it.
default.sav is a save file- this updates what's been lodaed from party.pty, as well as other information. Essentially, starting a new game is the same as loading a 'default save', so that's how i'm going to handle it.
the main character, Protagonist, now has a preliminary combat sprite.
Bugs involving going into combat a 2nd time are now fixed.
The new Party Manager (party.pty) keeps track of all the characters, so you can add another character to it, and it'll be loaded, but not in the party (since that's chosen from the save file)
Next i'm going to make sure to have the stats go back to the party manager after combat, as well as having levels. There's placeholder code in there for these things already
I also added some extra friendly things: A line at top which says things like the skills being used, as well as using string tables instead of showing iDs all over the place.
I made the combat text area at the bottom smaller

New Build

2007-07-01T03:21:32Z

Some more skill/skill effect features today.

I need to eventually get the drawing weapons code in, but that's going to be totally murder....

moving the sprite is now possible in a skill. I've given the slimes an ability that does this
Monsters can now be given skill lists which let them randomly pick the skill they use
effect sprites and moves have two new locations to work from: target_above (or self_above) which is the top of the screen above the target, and target/self_default which is where they are supposed to stand.

Download now

WHAT? A GAME UPDATE?

2007-06-11T00:22:08Z

I recently bought a Server ($150 for a 4-drive p3 xeon box) and finally can start posting these again.
Click here to download build 20070610_1945
This version, the main features added are 1) one thing I forget that I added months ago but never actually uploaded
2) Spell effects.

Basically, a skill can now have effects added to it.

Only sprite animations are supported now. Eventually particle, and 'beam' sprites will be available as well.
You can animate based on time, and positions. EG: Fireball from caster to target, or a series of flames in different locations on the target
A sprite is given the amount of time it'll animate, AND another time number- this is how long it will take to start. It accomplishes this by adding the numbers together, and then not doing any drawing/animating until the value is in the 'regular' time. Eg: 1000 250, counts down from 1250, and starts animating at 1000.

Try the Doublefire, Firesword, and Fire1 abilities to see three examples of using the same animated sprite.

Anime North and stuff

2007-06-02T18:04:48Z

So, I went to Anime North last week. Here's some, as it were, "reporting" of it.

I lost my sheet. Fortunately, I was a panelist so...
When I got there after work on Friday, I went to the panelist reg desk instead of the normal reg desk (where I would have to stand in line)
After getting my badge (and a little name sign) I ate, and relaxed a bit before going to the VGCats panel
After the VG Cats panel, Scott got mobbed, and never showed up at the panel right after which was..
Webcomics, with me, and a webcomic fan, and someone who does a print comic that also posts on the web, and a not-present Scott.
I answered some questions about making comics, and then met up with the CMC crew right after.
I made a few sketches for them, and then left to sleep
Nicole was gracious enough to let me stay at her place during the weekend. We went to Golden Griddle, and I had half a sandwich (I didn't know it was going to be so big >_>)
I slept in a bit, and got to the Con in the afternoon by bus/sbway. Basically just hung out with the guys, and shopped a bit.
At like, midnight, I left, and decided once and for all to avoid Kennedy Station in toronto
On sunday, I got some stuff for my friends at the Con (including some plushies for Nicole) and then after the Con me and Nicole went downtown.
I got some manga books, and found a candy store that sold my favorite semi-nerdy candy: candy lego blocks. They even fit together and everything. I also got some Nintendo mints
Then we went to an all you can eat Sushi place, and I ate slightlky more than I could eat.

It was a really fun weekend, I got to meet some fans, and hang out with Nicole^^
Anyway, I'm sure I forgot some stuff, so next post, I guess, i'll probably add stuff.

A week of stuff

2007-05-21T04:04:01Z

I visited Nicole in Toronto last weekend, we played games and I stayed over (and broke the bed I was sleeping on >_>) and she took me around some places downtown. (Actually, she navigated and I drove. Driving in downtown Toronto is fun! for a given value of fun..) I got an import DS game (Jump Ultimate Stars) and she showed me a Korean BBQ place- if you've never been to one, they have a grill built into the table, and they give you raw meat to cook on it. (don't remember the name, Korean Grill maybe?) It's awesome. We went to Korea town afterwards, and I got some snacks (including more emoticon chocolates) and then we went to pacific mall. I almost bought some stuffed mario Mushrooms but didn't. I did get an 8-bit-mario keychain out of a bubble vending machine. It was a fun weekend=)

The rest of the week has been pretty normal. I cleaned up the apartment and put up a new bookshelf to separate my books and games. With the games all on their own shelf, with so much extra space, it feels like I don't have enough games. It's a weird feeling.

I went to Tom and Stephie's barbeque tonight, that was fun.

I can't find the coupons I had for the movie theatre =/

The RC helicopter that was missing a couple of parts that I bought cheap off a 'returns' table is going well. I actually hit it off the ceiling once. I just need to figure out how to stabilize it better... presumably that's one of the things the missing peice of hard plastic tube did.

Next week is Anime North. I'm on the Webcomics panel! Whee!

Heroes season finale is tomorrow, too...

Also: OMG WTF STARCRAFT 2!

What's up

2007-05-07T02:52:31Z

Yeah, I haven't really posted here in a while. I was going to keep posting on the game, but then redleaf went down and I haven't decided what I was going to do with that, so uh, woops.

Anyway, 10xStuff Up With Mes:

1- I was in a car accident, banged up my bumper, but it was entirely not my fault so I didn't pay anything to get anything fixed
2- Book #1 got published
3- I got a HDTV
4- I got a 360 (gamertag is emperorwebrunnr )
5- Nicole showed me this great sushi place in Toronto. Some of the best Sushi I've ever had, actually. It was a fun night, but I ate too much.
6- Phoenix Wright is awesome
7- I've bought like, one game at full price in the last 4 months, but i've been getting a lot of games. Thanks, Cheap Ass Gamer!
8- 52 ended with a moth eating time. Couldn't have asked for a better series, except maybe wishing that Vic didn't die. Countdown starts this week.
9- I finally got a Question heroclix
10- The new building at work is pretty neat

I'll be posting on this more often. I hope.

webrunner @ 2007-01-27T23:26:00

2007-01-28T04:30:00Z

Just a few minor things, changelog is later, I just want to explain one of the changes now:

I've implemented the begining of the runtime menu system (before, the menus were completely hard-coded). Granted, the actual menus are still hard coded, but they are hard coded outside of the thing that actually manages the menus- all I have to do is make the skill manager and party managers to be fully in there.

I haven't quite decided how I want to do in-battle menus, but right now they aren't going to actually support scrolling. I'd want scrolling later, but right now, using what I have, I can have an as many submenus as I want- so I can have "Magic" and then "Level 1"/"Level 2"/"Level 3" and then "Fire" "Water" etc. If one list needs more, I can just put a "More" link at the bottom of the list.

Changes:

Fixed that bug from yesterday
Protagonist animations for left, right, and standing. THis means the character transforms when moving up and down, but that's just because I dont have animations done yet.
Increased size of drawing sprites by 25% as a test
Runtime menu system (test it out by selecting 'skills')

BUILD

Next build should be skill system preliminaries

Fancy Combat Build!

2007-01-27T01:32:55Z

New battle systemmy build.

Next features should be the menu manager and skill managers. After that a party/inventory management system, and equipment maybe? Equipment in battle is going to be hard, but I think I have some ideas for it.

Anyway, here's the build info:

Damage calculation using stats (including defence)
Two player characters
Damage counters
Rudamentary menus
EffectManager (used just for damage counters right now) -will be used for graphical effects and stuff
Pick targets by clicking Fight and then the monster name.
Your turn is up when the player name goes white.

BUILD DOWNLOAD

OMG NEW BUILD?!?!?

2007-01-24T04:43:30Z

Today's build is very special.

You see, the first bits of the combat system are in and playable!
A lot is missing, but here's what you need to know

talk to the lower guy
(btw use ctrl to run on main screen)
press 1, 2, and 3 on keyboard to hit the three slimes (slimea, slimeb, and slimeleader)
the only attack that anyone has is 10 damage.
it's just stick figures.

TODAY'S BUILD!

Workin on Combat

2007-01-21T02:35:22Z

Still nothing to show, but I've got SOME combat stuff done. Right now, it loads the combat data files, and can display monster and player sprites on screen, as well as I have the ATB count system in place. There's, as of yet, no skills or abilities or attacking, or AI, but soon I'll be able to start putting that part of the code in.

Question and Answers #1

2007-01-18T17:12:26Z

I was asked some questions (woo) so I'm going to answer them here for everybody to see:

1. How exactly do you structure the elements you implement in games? Of course you first go with basic elements such as a sprite walking on a map, and eventually doing stuff, but how do you organize your priority on, say, mechanical and storyline elements? Do you flesh out a combat system first, or develop a spellcasting system that also includes out-of-combat effects?

Answer: You really have to prioritize mechanical elements, but having an idea of what the storyline requires helps figure out what your requirements are. I try to make my engines as generic as possible for the genre, though. There's no atomic "plot twist" class, plot and storyline just come from text and animation, and the engine as I'm developing it could be used to make a completely different RPG in terms of tone and story.

As for combat, the best thing to do is design your combat system first, then design a SKILL system that works into it, but is also flexible enough to work outside of combat (for healing and such).

But yeah, the important thing is that 99% of the time, there's no such thing as a 'storyline element' on the coding side of a video game, just ways to -display it-.

2.Speaking about combat...in general, what do you work on more: The capabilities of the heroes or the monsters?
Is it easier to implement monster abilities once you've coded hero abilities, or vice versa?

The trick is to make them mostly the same. Fire1 on a party member and Fire1 on a monster should pull from the same data tables and use the same stuff.

3.When will the next version of your game come out?

When there's a playable combat system.

4.What should we be able to expect of it?

A playable combat system. It might just be stick figures but it'll work.

5. Do you have a generic story/plot already done for that game, and/or are you open to suggestions or other ideas?

I have stuff in mind but I may completely change it.

6.Can/will you implement certain mechanical elements such as...

-a stealing system?

Stealing isn't so hard, a monster just needs a steal table and you add whatever is in the table to your party's inventory

-a way to summon (temporary) allies?

There will be summons, I dont know if there's going to be 'ally' summons a la FFX/FF12, but summon spells for sure will exist.

-a way to access nifty secret features or neat tricks such as ardam's reverse summon->"Summon Pantheon"?

Secrets will be done, but I don't know if there will be specific battle tricks like that or not.