(http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/2729/mapkl8.png)
Progress report: cool map functionality is complete, many thanks to Troflip's tutorials on regions which helped me to write the code for this function. I actually thought I had made something pretty original here, but my brother reminded me that Quest for Glory II had basically the same thing I did! Oh well, it's still cool.
I'm still in the designing of the battle system...I need to draw the enemy sprites mainly. But it should be functional by next progress update (fingers crossed). I am forcing myself to work on pics more and more because this is what I need most at this point.