Table of contents

• Preamble
• Modding the game
• Laying out a plan
• Unpacking the game
• Installing RPG Maker
• Setting up the project
• Editing the files
• Exporting
• Addendum

#Preamble

I've been playing this game called Super Lesbian Animal RPG or SLARPG for short. It's overall really fun and I've been enjoying my time with it a lot! However, there's one persistent issue I've had with it: the battles take sooooo freaking long! Watching the turn's actions play out can take a solid 15 seconds of pure AFK time, which can get very annoying, especially if you're doing the same 2 setup moves on every fight.

So, 20 hours into the game, right before the final boss, I decided to finally write a mod to make battles faster. Perhaps it'll be more useful for those playing the game after me.

This post is gonna be half me complaining about my experience and half an actual guide on how to mod this game.

#Modding the game

#Laying out a plan

SLARPG is made with RPG Maker, this is easily inferable from how it plays and the game files. I've never modded an RPG Maker game before, so it's time to look into the existing SLARPG modding scene.

There are 2 mods on SLARPG's gamebanana page, both abandoned and 2 years old. But, we get some installation instructions: replace Game.rgss3a with the one provided by the mod.

Great, so we probably just have to

1. unpack that file
2. edit a script
3. then repack.

#Unpacking the game

To unpack Game.rgss3a, I found a tool called RPGMakerDecrypter on GitHub. Thankfully, the maintainer provides a linux binary. So I run ./RPGMakerDecrypter-cli ./Game.rgss3a and am silently provided with a brand new Data folder, sweet!

This Data folder contains a bunch of .rvdata2 files. Search results tell me that those are RPG Maker VX Ace files, so I work on installing that.

#Installing RPG Maker

The official downloads page gives me only an exe installer file. Great, another Windows-only tool.

The Installer runs fine using wine, nothing seems to be breaking. At the end of the installation process, the installer prompts if you want to also install RPG Maker RTP. This is an external dependency/library of RPG Maker. Clicking 'yes' seems to install that fine too. However, upon running the program, only a blank white window opens, and wine complains about Wine Gecko being missing and HTML rendering thus being impossible.

Let's try Proton by adding the program as a non-steam game instead then, that usually makes things run okay without much setup. The window now renders correctly, nice! After choosing to continue with the 30 day trial version, however, an error pops up that RPG Maker RTP isn't installed, which wasn't fixed by installing it again manually via its own installer exe.

Bottles was my next attempt. After all, it's designed for isolated environments that might contain multiple pieces of software. At first I encountered some very weird issues that were fixed by running flatpak update. I created a new bottle with 'Custom' configuration, ran the installer and..... IT WORKS!

#Setting up the project

Upon starting RPG Maker and trying to open the files you'll find that you need to open an rvproj2 file to open a project. Searching around revealed no way to create one from the decrypted game files, so I just created a new project and called it Game.¹ After that, I deleted all files but Game.rvproj2 and copied all of the SLARPG game files over.

We'll be calling the original files location /gamefiles/ and the RPG Maker project files location /projectfiles/.

The Graphics folder is very weird. SLARPG on Steam will download a lot of very generic looking assets that don't actually belong to the game into the Graphics folder, these seem to be part of the default RPG Maker project or RPG Maker RTP or something. When decrypting Game.rgss3a, the tool will not overwrite any files with the same name, which causes issues, as the game DOES use some of the default assets, such as Graphics/System/Shadow.png. You'll want to:

1. Rename the original /gamefiles/Graphics folder (without decrypted files) to Graphics_steam.
2. Decrypt /gamefiles/Game.rgss3a, you now get a new /gamefiles/Graphics folder with only the game assets.
3. Rename /gamefiles/Graphics to Graphics_decrypted
4. Delete the existing /projectfiles/Graphics folder, if there is one.
5. Copy /gamefiles/Graphics_decrypted to /projectfiles/Graphics.
6. Copy /gamefiles/Graphics_steam/* to /projectfiles/Graphics/, but don't overwrite any existing files.

Now we can finally open the project and work with it!

#Editing the files

For my purposes, I only needed the script editor, which you can get by pressing F11. You should be greeted by incorrectly rendered ASCII art of Melody's face, followed by a threat:

#NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
#NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNX0OKNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
#NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNXOo:cccxXNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
#NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNKd:.,o0KkclONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNXXKKKKXNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
#NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNKo,..,kKXXK0l:kXNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNXKOxolc:;,:odxKNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
#NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNXx,...'xKXXXXXKo:dXNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNX0xl:,'....,cdOK0dkNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
#NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOc..'..oKKXXKXXXKd;xNNNXKOxddddxxxkkkxxkkxo;'..'''',cdOKXXX0odXNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
#NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNXk,.','.:O0O0KXXXKXKocxkddooodxk00KKXNNXK00Oxooc;'.,oOK00KXKXKooXNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
#NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNXx'.',,.'d0KOkOOO0KXX0c;dO0KXXNNWWMMMMMMMMWNWMMMWX0xxxxkO0KXKXKooKNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
#NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNO,.',,'.:0X0kk000kkKXXkcdKXXNWMMMMMMMMMMMMMNNWMMMMMMMN0xookKKXKooKNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
#NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNK:.',,,.'xXKKKKKXKOx0KK0llKNWMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMWXNWMMMMMMMMMNOolkK0loXNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
#NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNd..,,,,.;OXKXXKXX0doxxxxcoNMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMNXNMMMMMMMMMMMNklodlxNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
#NNNNNNNNNNNNNNK:.',,,'.:0XXXKKKOdloodddcoNMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMWXXWMMMMMMMMMMMMXo'c0NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
#NNNNNNNNNNNNNNO,.',,,'.:0XK0Oxdloddxxxxc:0MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMNKNMMMMMMMMMMMMMXl;ONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
#NNNNNNNNNNNNNNk'.,,,,,.,xKOdooddddddxxxo;dWMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMWXKWMMMMMMMMMMMMMKccKNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
#NNNNNNNNNNNNNN0,.',,,,'.:ddddxxdxddxdxxd:;OWMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMWKXWMMMMMMMMMMMMMk;dNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
#NNNNNNNNNNNNNNXl..,,,,'.'lxddxxddddddddxd;:0WMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMNKXWMMMMMMMMMMMWK::KNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
#NNNNNNNNNNNNNKkl..',,,'.,dxxddxdddddddddxo;;kNWWMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMNKXWMMMMMMMMMWNXd;xNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
#NNNNNNNNNNNKdclkd'.','..cdxddxdddddddddddxo;'oKNNWWWMMMMMMMMMMMMMWXKNWMMMMMMWNXXk,cXNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
#NNNNNNNNNNk;.l0XKx,....cdddxddddddddddddddxo;.:xKXXXNNWWWMMMMMMMMMWNXKXWWWWNXXKX0c,kNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
#NNNNNNNNXx,.:kXXXK0l.'ldddddddddddddddddddxdc,..;dO0KXXXXNNNWWWWWWWWWNK00OO0KXKKKx,;ONNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
#NNNNNNNNx'.,lOKKXXXKkccddddxxdddddddddddlc::;;;,''',cdOKXXXXXXXKXXXXXXXKKOkkkkkOOxl,;kNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
#NNNNNNNO;.,;:xKXKXXXKkccdxxdddddddddddddlclodddoc;'....,cdk00KK0OOOOOOOOO000Okxoollc,,dKNNNNNNNNNNNN
#NNNNNNNd.';;;ckKXXXXXXkccdxdddddxddxdxxdxxddddo:,,,;::,...',;cldxkkxxxddxxxxxxxdddool;';xXNNNNNNNNNN
#NNNNNNXl.,;;;;cd0KXXXXKx;cddddddxxddxdxxddddl;;cdkOO0Odc,.,;,''''',;cloddxxxdxdddddxddl;':kXNNNNNNNN
#NNNNNNXc.,;;;;;;cx0KXXXKl,lxdxxdxxdddddddoc,;lk0KKKKOc,''.;lc:;;;......',;clodddxxxddxddo;'l0NNNNNNN
#NNNNNNXl.,;;;;;;;;cx0KXXx,:dxxddxxdddxo:,..:kKXNWWMMXkoc''cddoll:;;,;codl,...',;clddddxdddl,:ONNNNNN
#NNNNNNNo.,;;;;;;;;;;cx0XO;,dxddxdddddxdo:.;ONWMMMMMWNKkl;:odddddddl;lOXNNk'.. .....,:clddxxo,:0NNNNN
#NNNNNNNO;';;;;;;;;;;;;lk0c'lxddddxxdddxd;,kWMMMMMMMKoloc;lxddddxdOo;lllkKO;....,'....',;:codc'oXNNNN
#NNNNNX0d,.,;;;;;;;;;;;;:xl'ckkkkkxxxxxxo,;KMMMMMMMM0::o::dxddddddko;ccc0WK:...',,,'...;;,,,:c';0NNNN
#NNNXxc::;'':;;;;;;;;;;;'::'o0KKKK00Okkxd,;0MMMMMMMMNo;::dkxddddddxx:,;oNMO,,;''',,,'..';;;;''.;ONNNN
#NN0c,:odd:;lc;;;;;;;;;;''''dKKKKXXKKKK0kc'dNMMMMMMMMXdok0kxdddddddxo:oXW0c;dkl'',,,,. .;;;;,. :KNNNN
#NXc'cdddo:coc;;;;;;;;;,...,kKKXKKKKKKKKK0o;lOXWMMMMMMWNKkxddddddddddllxkddO0xc'.,,,,. .;;;;,..dXNNNN
#N0,'oxddllol:;;;;;;;;,....c0XXKKKKKKKKKKKKOdlldkOKKXK0Oxxddddddddddxxo;,lOK0ko,',,,...,;;;;..oXNNNNN
#NKc.;looll::;;;;;;;;,..'.,kKKKKKKKKKKKKXKKKXKK0000K0000OOOkkkkxxxxxdxOOxc:lxx;.,,'...,;;;,.'dXNNNNNN
#NN0:.';;;;;;;;;;;;,'''...oKXKKXXKKKKKKKXXXKKXXKXKKXKKXKKKKKKKK000OOkocc:;'....''....,;;'.':kXNNNNNNN
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#NNNNNKd:'........... .',...:x0KKXXKKKKXKKKKKKXXXXXXXXKKOdkKKXXKKXKKKKKkc,;'....,:ccldkKXNNNNNNNNNNNN
#NNNNNNNXKko,..........','...,:clodxkkOO00KKKKXXXXXXKKKKOoxKKKKXKKXKKKX0d;.....'dXNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
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#NNNNNN0xc::cdxxxxkOOOOOOOOkl':xOKNNNXo;kXXNNNNNNNX0d,:OXNNKO00c'lOOOOOOOOOkxxdoollcldOXNNNNNNNNNNNNN
#NNNKxc;;cdkOOOOkddkOOOOOOOOko;,cxKNNXc;0NNNNNNNNXXNXk:c0NXOOXd':kOOOOOOOOkkOOOOOOOxc,':kXNNNNNNNNNNN
#XOl;,:okOOOOOOOOOxdxkOOOOOOOkdc,'ckX0:lXNNNNNNNNXOk0XO;cOOO0d;:xOOOOOOOOkkOOOOOOOOOkxc,'oKNNNNNNNNNN
#c;;ldkOOOOOOOOOOOOkddkOOOOOOOOkdc''lo;oXNNNNNNNNN0kxOXk:ckxc;cxOOOOOOOOkkOOOOOOOOOOOOxo:'c0NNNNNNNNN
#,ldxOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOxoxOOOOOOOOOkd:,;.'xNNNNNNNNNNXXxo0Xo';',lxOOOOOOOOOkkOOOOOOOOOOOOOxo;.lXNNNNNNNN
# hello hacker fucker
# this is matt furniss
# heres the deal.
# if you hack this game
# i will find you
# where ever you are
# and break your legs
# and thats a promise

Without being discouraged by that, I looked for the battle script, and eventually found it at Scene_Battle. There, I found a function:

  def wait(duration)
    duration.times {|i| update_for_wait if i < duration / 2 || !show_fast? }
  end

I commented out the body's only line, saved, and pressed playtest (F12). I made my way to an enemy encounter and found that it worked! 🎉🎉🎉

#Exporting

The option to export the game files is File > Compress Game Data.... Unfortunately, this option has some issues:

• Somehow the Game.rgss3a file is 100MB larger than the original.
• The file gets deleted and moved into a single .exe file once the process is done.

The working process is:

1. Delete /projectfiles/Graphics.
2. Copy /gamefiles/Graphics_decrypted to /projectfiles/Graphics. You should now be unable to playtest the game as an error pops up.
3. Compress Game Data, enabling Create Encrypted Archive and disabling Include RTP Data.
4. Wait until the first progress bar has finished loading. All the graphics and scripts are now in /projectfiles/Game.rgss3a.
5. Before the second progress bar finishes, copy /projectfiles/Game.rgss3a to /projectfiles/Game.rgss3a.bak.

If everything went right, you should be able to copy /projectfiles/Game.rgss3a.bak to /gamefiles/Game.rgss3a, overwriting the original, and start the game.

#Addendum

After everything was done, I uploaded the mod to gamebanana. You can find it at https://gamebanana.com/mods/691763.

There is another thing I wanted to mod, but couldn't figure out how to. The game's text sound effect system produces a lot of lag! To the point where you have to turn this feature off entirely to comfortably play the game on steam deck, but it's also noticeable on PC. With text speed set to instant, the text appearance takes 1 frame without sounds, but has 10 additional frames of lag with sound effects enabled! This scales with the amount of text.

If anyone else wants to try their hands at this, the text sound playing logic is at Window_Message and the plugin is at Text_Sound_Effect. The same laggy behavior also happens when playing a different (system) sound using the Sound module, so I'm honestly clueless if this is even fixable or just an engine issue.

With love, Flora :)