Any new info on the BS?

[Deleted]

I'm curious how you're going to do it.

[Doan the Nado]

Me, too.

No, seriously, I'm going to start work on this area REAL soon, as soon as I'm done making major changes to this message board. I have a pretty good idea of how I'm going to accomplish my battles, and despite the fact that it's custom, it should still be able to be applied generally enough to create random battles.

The interesting aspect of my CBS is that it will be run entirely from action scripts. The only content scripts will be the Enter Map script that will initialize the battle, and the script at the end of battle that will have to be executed by pressing []. The fact that it will be run like this is kind of ironic because my CMS is run entirely from my Enter Map Script, meaning that it's one huge content script. Don't know why, but I find it kind of funny that my two major custom elements are run in entirely different ways.

As I begin work on the CBS, I'll be sure to keep you posted with its progress,

Doan the Nado

[vespuleth]

and the script at the end of battle that will have to be executed by pressing [].

doan, i dont like that idea at all. maybe you should have it work off of a flag, or a custom start condition.

but then again, i know very little about your system, too...

[Deleted]

So is kind of like a real-time strategy battle system? That's not really too bad of an idea (no pausing though), pretty interesting.

[Draygone]

There has got to be a way to end the battles without pressing [].

[Doan the Nado]

It's going to be more of an ATB system, like FF7. There will definitely be differences, as I haven't worked out all the details yet. The part where you have to press [] won't be that big of a problem, in my opinion. It'll be after the battle's over.... it will display the experienced gained and things like that, like most RPGs do, and then there will simply be a text box that says "Press [] to Continue", after which you'll be warped back to wherever you were on the map before the battle.

Is that so bad?

Doan the Nado

[Jugem]

Doan said:

Is that so bad?

I don't think so. I know I tell the player to press [] after the title screen, and whenever the player dies. It's only one button press, and with RPGM2's limitations, I'm sure the player would understand having to press it. And in your situation Doan, it seems like the player would have to press a button anyway, so it wouldn't really make a difference.

[vespuleth]

yeah, that actually is okay. i was thinkin something else, i guess...

[Draygone]

Ah, that's not so bad. I thought you meant you'd have to press [] after the last enemy dies to register the fact that you've won, not get out of the XP-gained screen.

[vespuleth]

thats what i thought too

[Sion]

Sounds awesome, but are you going to be able to see your fighters? I'm still using the Dragon Warrior style battles and no matter how hard I try. They still seem dull and irritating.. I need to see my character looking like Cloud, or Tidus, or Squall, Beating the hell out of some monsters! KEpp us updated. By the next time I get on here That question will allready be answered!

[NASH7777]

Yeah I'm kinda interested in your Battle System too.
You mind giving everyone an over-veiw of how a battle will play out and what options/moves the characters will have?

[Doan the Nado]

I was having a conversation with AMP tonight (or rather, early this morning), and I thought about and discussed some of my battle system's elements. Here they are:

I plan on writing my Enter Map script so that it can generalize for varying music, enemies, settings, and placements. I will write it so that I can just feed the script certain variables that will set each event in the proper place and initialize everything properly.

I will likely use a party member for each battle enemy. Every enemy in my game will have its stats saved in a certain party member database, then at the start of battle, these stats will be transferred to a temporary party member to hold stats for enemies 1-9 (?).

For example, let's say Crazy Bat is an enemy, and its stats are Party Member 40. A battle begins in which you will be fighting 3 Crazy Bats. Party Member 101-103 will represent enemy 1, 2, and 3. The stats from 40 will be copied into each slot, one at a time (with some randomness), and then events will be placed that access these stats to determine attack patterns and so on. Party actions will affect these temporary slots, and when HP reaches 0 (or something else happens), the event will be removed.

The beauty of this system is that there will be no visible party members. This means that everything on the map will be moveable through action scripts, and the only necessary content script will be the one used to exit battle, which will be achieved by using the [] button after viewing experience gained and so on.

All of this means that the rest of the battle (after the enter map script finishes) will be controlled with action scripts. There will be a timer script to control the speed of the ATB system by adding to a variable. There will be a button script that checks for button presses in order to determine which member the player is trying to target. Each event will have an action script that controls the behavior of the different enemies and party members (how fast action points regenerate, enemy attacking, etc).

I think if I can plan everything out beforehand and structure my scripts well, everything should fall into place. It will certainly be a challenge, but it is one that I look forward to tackling.

[Doan the Nado]

Great, so you now know how I do everything, but you may be wondering what this will mean to the player. The player will enter a battle (random or scripted), and his members will be placed in random (or set) locations on a small map. Enemies will also be placed in certain locations, sometimes random. A message window will come up that says each enemy (I will make this an option, it can be turned off), and then says "press X to begin battle".

Once the player presses something, the time starts moving. Some members will be ready to attack, others will have been "caught off guard" and will take some time to recover. Each member will be able to obtain up to a certain number of action points (based on agility and intelligence). Agility (and randomness) will determine how fast these action points regenerate, and different actions will require differing numbers of points.

Anyways, when battle begins, the clock will start and AP regeneration will begin. When enemies acheive certain AP numbers, they will act, usually by attacking a party member. When you decide to use one of your members, you will press the button that is displayed beside his or her graphic, and a menu will pop up, pausing the timer. This will likely be a series of text boxes with a 2d cursor VFX. You will choose what action to take with that member, and then choose who to act upon. Once all of this is chosen, some kind of animation will take place, either VFX or event movement, with SFX and so forth. The timer will then resume.

Some of the options I have in mind so far are the classics: Attack, Magic/Skill, Defend, and Move. Different actions will require different amounts of AP, and different members will use different amounts of AP for different actions. For example, near the beginning, the wife will be good at bandaging and would be able to fix someone up fairly quickly, using little AP. On the other hand, the son will be inexperienced and clumsy in this area, and for him to bandage someone, it will be less effective and will use up more AP (take longer). In doing this, I hope to give each member their own unique skills that will be useful in some facet of battling.

At any time during fighting, the player will be able to press Start. Doing so will pause the game (stop the timer script), dim the screen, and bring up a text box that says "Pause". Party HP and MP information will be visible on the screen at all times (right next to the party member), so pausing will not be advantageous in any way, it will merely allow the player to stop for a bit (little brother in front of TV?). I will probably add a few options for different camera angles, but that is not yet certain.

To run away, all party members will have to move to the edge of the map. This seems to more closely model what would be necessary for a party to escape battle. Otherwise, battle will end when the enemies are defeated. This will display the experience and gold gained, and then require the player to press []. After this, a message window will come up with any items that have been obtained, along with Level Up information (there will be some options for this, too). Finally, the battle will be over, and the party will be returned to the map.

[The Final Rune]

Sounds promising. I like to do something similar for ED:book two as I have a standard adventure party in that game. Once you get it working I'd love to see your scripts.

[Doan the Nado]

I'm not so sure that I'll be posting my exact CBS scripts. I published a much-simplified version of my CMS scripts, and those were still pretty complicated. My CBS will be much more complex, and will involve coordinating a bunch of different constantly-running actions scripts. I think it would be very hard for me to explain how I did everything. Sorry to disappoint.

[NASH7777]

You could have a player stat called "luck" that would improve their chances of the "randomness"

[The Final Rune]

No, what I meant was, once you're game is finished I'd like to look the scripts over once I have a copy of your game itself.

[Doan the Nado]

Neonash, that was actually my plan, as I talked about that in my Pavilion discussion of my game a while back. I know you probably weren't there at the time, but I'm just letting you know that is already in the plans.

Open-sourcing my game could be a possibility. I would only give the password out to members here, as I wouldn't want some of the agetec newbs just trying to copy my complicated scripts, not that they could figure out what is going on anyways.

[NASH7777]

Yeah sorta like how Doan is the only other person in the world that knows my password to my Zelda game...Although you've forgotten a few times lol...

[The Final Rune]

In my game I plan to create a sub quest that the player would have to go through in order to aquire the password. But, I don't really care if I'm copied, after all, isn't imatation the sincerest form of flatery? That is, as long as no one profits off my ideas, that's illegal and I will sue the out of you! You here me Mike! (None of you guys, he's and old enemy from high school)

[Jugem]

Sounds good Doan. You haven't really said too much, but I like the AP idea. Could be very promising, with this new strategy element of figuring out how much AP to use thrown in.

[Dungeon Warden]

I plan to put the password to my game in the final verson that can only be found if the player finds all the secrets. Anyone who's played the demo knows how much I like putting secerts in my games. I will let you guts have the password if you want it. I'm planning an FAQ for the battle system anyway, so there isn't much anyone can steal from my game that they can't learn by just asking me for information.

[Deleted]

I have a top-secret password in my game too, but it's not quite the same as what you're talking about...he he he

[millivanilli]

I wouldn't exactly feel comfortable giving my password for my game...
*my scripts and hard work, bah humbug* ;D