Marcus' semi-sample game

[marcus]

This was the first game I created when the program was released around this time last year. It's incredibly simple but I learned a lot from making it so hopefully anyone who's new to the program can learn something by evaluating it. I didn't add many comments to the events because a lot of them are self explainatory and if you have any questions about how I did something, simply post.

Note about custom scripts: I tried to use as little custom scripts as possible (mainly because they weren't available in bulk a year ago) and just provide an example of what the raw program can do with a few hours of work (this game took about 3 days to make). If you want, go ahead and use the scripts in your own game by simply copying and pasting them before Main (credit is given in the script comments, I made none of them). The scripts are:

RTAB: modifies dbs to zoom in and out for a cinematic feel and also adds an atb (a la final fantasy) bar to the dbs.
Hp/mp/exp bars: adds gradient bars for hp, mp, and exp that grow and shrink
advanced message system: modifies the messages for letter by letter text and increased control over actual messages.

Information on the game: The game is a simple parody of commercial rpg's. You play as Arshes (the now renamed hero of rmxp) who's quest to grab a mushroom in the Amuf mountains (tell me to stop if you rpgm2'ers find this familiar) only to bump into a girl named Gloria who's protecting an artifact that could be used to unleash untold destruction upon the world. This is the first (and probably only) chapter. It's pretty much bug free and I turned down the difficulty to make it more evaluation friendly.

EDIT: whoops, pressed create topic too soon.

Download link: click here

[Kickback]

Re: Marcus' semi-sample game

I'm a huge fan of this game but I have a few questions because I'm a total noobie and therefore don't know anything about anything.

Love the way you have the text set up. Is that scripted and if so where, and how can I grab it?

I know I'll have more in a few...

[Pandacon]

Re: Marcus' semi-sample game

I was wondering if I could live against the Tree thing since he was healing so much, but then I discovered the oil that made my attacks stronger.

Nice job though, I found it ammusing.

[TheHonorableRyu]

Re: Marcus' semi-sample game

I played it through!

It's nice to see some of the simple scripts in action.
I see what you meant with the in-battle zoom effects. I got a good idea of how the RATB works by looking at the script, but I think I'll be spending much more time with it and some of the other famous scripts (like Cybersam's ATB) when it comes time to actually program my custom battle system.


Bugs/Glitches:

There's apparently a bug in the author's advanced message system which causes some minor text clipping (the last character is cut in half in some lines in some windows).

Also, you can walk through this tile:




I liked this sample.

It had a very illustrative use of tilesets in the maps.

I gained a realization/appreciation of how much cool "battle scripting" you can do with the Enemy action conditions, even without the use of Enemy Troup battle events.

Having the Ripjaw Treehugger:
-able to cast Poison Breath only if it HP are not full
-heal every other turn after turn 3
-able to cause paralyze or raise its attack if its HP<50%
-able to cause a more damaging spell if its HP<10%
...were all less-than-boring decisions, giving the boss battle a feel other than of randomness. And that's only a very simple example.

[marcus]

Re: Marcus' semi-sample game

Glad you guys liked it. I'm thinking a SEQUEL to the Arshes and Gloria escapades is in order.

I'm a huge fan of this game but I have a few questions because I'm a total noobie and therefore don't know anything about anything.

Love the way you have the text set up. Is that scripted and if so where, and how can I grab it?

I know I'll have more in a few...

Ask any questions you want. I'm here to answer. The three scripts I used can be found in the scripts tab of the main editor. Just open it up and scroll to the bottom and you'll find RTAB, Advanced Message, and HP/EXP bars above the script called main.

I was wondering if I could live against the Tree thing since he was healing so much, but then I discovered the oil that made my attacks stronger.

To be honest, he was much easier during earlier versions of the game but the game itself was about 10x harder. The prices for the items were insane, the enemy items didn't sell for much, I didn't give as many items in the treasure chest, and if you used the defend option you could regenerate hp and mp (but the RTAB disabled that feature for some reason which is why I renamed defend to 'pointless'). After test playing the game before I put it up for download I realized the boss had 1hp for test purposes so I simply set it to a reasonable amount (5,000) at the last minute. So you guys got the hard version of him (original hp was 3,000) but you also had more items to fight with.

There's apparently a bug in the author's advanced message system which causes some minor text clipping (the last character is cut in half in some lines in some windows).

I think that's actually because of the system skin I'm using. It doesn't do that with any of the other games I use the script with.

Having the Ripjaw Treehugger:
-able to cast Poison Breath only if it HP are not full
-heal every other turn after turn 3
-able to cause paralyze or raise its attack if its HP<50%
-able to cause a more damaging spell if its HP<10%
...were all less-than-boring decisions, giving the boss battle a feel other than of randomness. And that's only a very simple example.

I always felt boss fights were the best part of any games battles and I really wish both commercial gamemakers and amateurs would include at least a little bit of enemy AI or challenge in their boss fights. I was mainly inspired by Chrono Trigger bosses because a few of them were actually puzzles instead of enemies (anyone who's played CT should remember the sun monster).

[TheHonorableRyu]

Re: Marcus' semi-sample game

The Chrono-Marle influence upon Arshes and Gloria was blatant, too.


But yeah, Chrono Trigger...In the FFVII topic another Pavilionite said he didn't understand what was so special about Chrono Trigger, and I began writing a response but didn't finish because it was taking too long.

I said that Chrono Trigger does everything right that modern commercial RPGs do wrong. Among other things, I pointed to the interesting and unique battles.

One normal enemy switched its defenses to strong vs. physical and weak vs. magic if it was hit with a physical attack and vica-versa if it were hit with a magic attack, and there could be a number of them on-screen at once, so you had to keep careful watch on which one was weak to what. One enemy attacked your party members by throwing another party member into them.

The boss battles were best of all. Most boss fights involved bosses with multiple parts/targets, each with different attacks and weaknesses--even the early ones, like the Dragon Tank. The Son of Sun had to be defeated differently from Giga Gaia. Nizbel was weak to lightning magic you had to be ready once took too many lightning hits and discharged it as a devastating attack.

Compare this to the trend of modern RPGs over the past few years. In Chrono Cross or FF9, the bosses are usually giant clumps that you attack as a whole. To defeat them, the recommended formula is heal often and attack that single target with their weakness, if any, as they use one of three attacks that any other boss could have.

A lot of people rightly didn't like the limitations of RPGM1's built-in battle system, and some of the more creative games didn't have any battles at all. But I don't think anyone's pushed that simple battle system to its creative limits. I was trying to do so during fall-winter 2003: I got great results but never finished the game.

Now with RPGM XP we're really free to put battle engine creativity on overdrive.

[RPG Learner]

Re: Marcus' semi-sample game

Played your sample game and i've wondered how you did the ATB is it even possible to completely ditch the default system or improve it.

Can we also do that for the status screen as well.

[marcus]

Re: Marcus' semi-sample game

The ATB is part of the RTAB system (it's in the script editor, just copy and paste it above main). You can edit EVERYTHING within the game from the menu to the battle system and even the way maps are loaded. You have to know RGSS, but every single piece of the engine can be altered or changed the way you want it and that's the true power of rmxp; it's the complexity of rpgm2 with the simplicity of rpgm1 for people who don't want to learn coding.

[RPG Advocate]

Re: Marcus' semi-sample game

Played your sample game and i've wondered how you did the ATB is it even possible to completely ditch the default system or improve it.

Can we also do that for the status screen as well.

The answer is pretty much "if you can do it in a SNES game, you can do it in RMXP". You can remove all the default code and write your own engine if you want.

A completely changed battle system:

[marcus]

Re: Marcus' semi-sample game

Yes, go to:

www.phylomortis.com

And download Advocate's game "Phylomortis: Avant Garde"

It's the most heavily customized (and professional) game on rmxp and almost every feature is completely ORIGINAL (as in it doesn't exist in commercial or amateur games). You just have to get past the dialog style because it mocks the way politicians speak with it's intense vocabulary.

[Ryner]

Re: Marcus' semi-sample game

That's really great, marcus. Well done.

How do you get those name boxes to appear with the text box?

[Pandacon]

Re: Marcus' semi-sample game

I found another bug, after you beat the tree and if you walk back to the house it becomes daytime again when you get to the intersection.

[Smurvis]

Re: Marcus' semi-sample game

I can't find Avant Garde on the site. Where is it?

[marcus]

Re: Marcus' semi-sample game

I can't find Avant Garde on the site. Where is it?

click here

How do you get those name boxes to appear with the text box?

It's part of the advance message script. If you want to use the advance message script in your game, copy and paste it into your script section above main and use the following codes while typing a message for different effects:

Instruction Manual:

Each of those "commands" are to be used in your message events.

icon_fleche_ff3.gif Change the text color temporarly (Default):

\c[ColorID]

Insert the color ID of your choice. All colors are coded in Window_Base starting at line #39, 0 is white.

icon_fleche_ff3.gif Change the text color temporarly (Hexadecimal):

\c[#000000]

Enter an Hexadecimal color code as in HTML in there. For example:

#000000 = black
#FFFFFF = white

icon_fleche_ff3.gif Show the gold window:

\G

This will show a gold window in the top-right corner of the screen, with the amount of gold the player have in possesion.

icon_fleche_ff3.gif Show the hero's name:

\n[HeroID]

Use the hero ID of the hero's name you want to display in the message box.

icon_fleche_ff3.gif Show the monter's name:

\m[MonsterID]

Use the monster ID of the monster's name you want to display in the message box. This function was added by Dubealex.

icon_fleche_ff3.gif Show an item's price:

\Price[ItemID]

Use the item ID of the item's price you want to display in the message box. This function was added by Dubealex.

icon_fleche_ff3.gif Show the current map name:

\Map

This will show the name of the map you are currently on. This function was added by Dubealex.

icon_fleche_ff3.gif Show a face graphic in your message box:

\f[FaceName]

FaceName must be the filename of a graphic file found in the directoyr Graphics\Pictures of your RPG Maker XP project. The file must be a PNG of 96X96 pixels. You do not need to write the file extention.

icon_fleche_ff3.gif Show the class name of a character:

\Class[HeroID]

Use the hero ID of the hero's class name you want to display in the message box. This function was added by Dubealex.

icon_fleche_ff3.gif Show variables, items, weapons, armor and skill names:

\v[xID]

You must replace the x by the first lettter of what you want to modify, it goes as follows:

Variable = Do not write anything, use the standard \v[VariableID]
Items = i + itemID --> \v[iID]
Armors = a + armorID --> \v[aID]
Weapons = w + weaponID --> \v[wID]
Skills = s + skillID --> \v[sID]

icon_fleche_ff3.gif Show a name or other info in a name box:

\Name[text]

Use this to show a name box above the message box that will contains the text you specified. You can also use variable and other commands such as "Show hero name" in that name box. As the following example:

\Name[\v[12]] --> Will show the value of variable ID# 12 in the name box.
\Name[Dubealex] --> Will show "Dubealex" in the name box.
\Name[\n[1]] --> Will show the name of hero ID# 1 in the name box.

icon_fleche_ff3.gif Modify the text opacity:

\o[Opacity]

Use this to modify the opacity of the text in the message box. Enter a number between 0 and 255, where 255 is fully opaque and 0 is fully transparent.

icon_fleche_ff3.gif Modify the text speed:

\s[Speed]

Use this to modify the speed of the text in the message box. Enter a number between 1 and 19, where 19 is the slowest.

icon_fleche_ff3.gif Modify the text size:

\h[Size]

Use this to modify the size of the text in the message box. Enter a number between 6 and 32, where 32 is the biggest.

icon_fleche_ff3.gif Show the message box above player or events:

\p[Option]

Use this to set the window to appear whether above the player or any event present in your map. Use the following options:

\p[Event ID]
\P[0]
\p[-1]

Using "\p[Event ID]" will put the window on top of the specified event ID.
Using "\p[0]" will put the window on top of the player.
Using "\p[-1]" will make a window without background and without borders.

icon_fleche_ff3.gif Add wait in message and other commands like that:

\| --> Wait for 1 second
\. --> Wait for .25 second
\~ --> Auto close window at last letter
\! --> Wait for key input from the player
\\ --> Will show the backslash \ character

icon_fleche_ff3.gif Set the letter by letter ON/OFF temporarly:

\< --> Will set it ON
\> --> Will set it OFF

icon_fleche_ff3.gif Change the font in a message box (permanent):

\t[FontName]

FontName must be a .TTF found in Windows\Fonts and must be case sensitive. The changes made to the font will be permanent. So remember to do another command to revert it to anything you want. This script now works with the parenthesis, new in R3... So no worry about that ! It's safe now. This feature was added by Dubealex.

icon_fleche_ff3.gif Play an SE as the letter are shown (permanent):

\a[FileName]

File must be in directory Audio\SE
Remember to set that effect OFF when you dont need it anymore using \a[] Leaving the brackets empty, or else the SE will be heard on all window from this point on.

icon_fleche_ff3.gif Display text as a superscript:

\[First]second

The "FIRST" will be at normal size, and "SECOND" will be a little bit higher on the line, as a superscript.

icon_fleche_ff3.gif Allow / Disallow Text Skip button (permanent):

\%

Use this command to toggle the text skip button to whether enabled or disabled. It's useful if you want to control the flow of some stories and you don't want the player to be able to skip the text by himself. Remember that the changes are permanent, meaning that if you use it once to disable the text skip, it will stay like that. Remember to do it once again to revert the text skip to enabled for the rest of the game. Feature added by Dubealex.

icon_fleche_ff3.gif Modify the text color of the name box (permanent):

\z[ColorID]

Use this as you use the normal color command \c[ColorID] - But this time it will set the color used in the name box; and the changes will be permanent. So remember to do it once again to change the color back. Feature added by Dubealex.

icon_fleche_ff3.gif Change the color of the text in message box permanentatly:

\Color[ColorID]

Use this as you use the normal color command \c[ColorID] - But this time it will set the color used in the message box permanently.

Credit goes to dubealex for that. I would link to his site but he's one of the few people who still have the pirated version up (

Right now I'm working on a dystopian modern game that features an action battle system by Near and it works pretty well. I think I'll post a preview topic complete with a mini-training demo and introduction soon. It's also my first game made with the official english version.

[yugdesiral]

Re: Marcus' semi-sample game

Requesting a link to a site with pirated software, no matter the reason, is a bannable offense. not only are you risking getting yourself banned, but also essentially asking marcus to get himself banned as well.

you have a ban warning for this.

I didn't know it was wrong to get legal info from a site that also has illegal stuff. I'm gonna buy this game, and I could use all the legal info I can get...no matter the source. I didn't mean to support piracy in any way. Sorry, dude.