So I finally uploaded a load of vids. One thing I forgot about Vamoe Guardian Lucia was how freaking awful I was when it came to battle balance, right to the end. The current VX Ace build I’m working on is a massive, MASSIVE evolution. Surprisingly, moving to turn-based from ATB resulted in not only a much more balanced system but a faster system.
I was much better when it came to story, but all the effort I put into the battle system just to make it halfway decent sort of put a dent into the story quality. I kinda phoned it in when I rushed through making Act 2. It still ended up being pretty good, if a bit cheesy at times.
The Vera boss battle is a fight that changes depending on what path you took in Act 2. Act 2 is basically Keith’s story and splits into the Vera scenario, Sharon scenario, and Lucia scenario. This vid shows off the Vera and Sharon scenarios. Yeah, Lucia fights solo in the Vera scenario. I didn’t have a save ready for the Lucia scenario version.
The final boss of Act 2 is either Keith or Lucia. Additionally, you can bring either Lumen or Umbra with you through the dungeon, but you lose your high-level partner if you fight Lucia. Lucia was always intended to be the tougher fight, but I kinda made her ridiculously unfair. Pretty much the only way I could beat her was by using Taunt to limit her offense to physical attacks. If she casts magic, you’re screwed. Especially Healing Flames.
Now for the real meat: the changes. I haven’t finished all the skills yet, but what I’ve got done so far is pretty impressive I think.
I use Victor’s Animated Battle script and modified RPG Maker 2003 battlers. At first, the thought of making the simplest of skills seemed daunting, but I got the hang of it pretty quick. FYI, I have imported the old battle music from 2003, but I kinda like Battle 6 from the VX Ace set. Very Matoi Sakuraba-ish.
The biggest change with Lucia was the fact that I have both MP and SP (TP) to work with by default, so I finally managed to achieve my dream of Lucia having separate bars for elemental magic and holy magic. Likewise, she has separate skills to recharge them: Mana Call and Holy Charge.
Keith recharges SP naturally and is no longer worthless without MP-refresh items. He only uses MP to use Ignition and related skills, and SP-management is an important part of his play. The video doesn’t show it, but I also revamped his weapon system. In 2003, using swords, spears, and axes revolved around a somewhat confusing armor system that I called “skin, leather, armor.” Now enemies either have armor or they don’t. Sword damage is strong against some enemies, normal against most, and weak against armor. Spear damage is strong against armored enemies. Axes do normal damage, but has skills that lower defenses.
Vera and Sharon both had some identity issues skill-wise in 2003. Giving their skills more character is something I wanted to focus on, and as a result, Sharon got a major revamp. She no longer uses bows; instead, she equips “Harpy Pinions,” and her skills revolve around throwing razor-sharp feathers or attacking with her wings.
The balance does seem kind of wonky. Is Vera supposed to instakill Sharon on the second round?
VX Ace’s combat looks pretty nice. This is just an idle question, but is it possible to animate enemies now? Not being able to always kind of annoyed me about the older RPG Makers.
Also, there’s something about Keith’s sword swing animation that bugs me. Maybe you could extend it to have the sword end in a downward position? But you’d probably have to edit Keith’s arm for that frame too.
Nah, it’s just that Vera’s skills were overpowered. Since I have complete control over the battle system in VX Ace, I’ve actually redone a lot of skill formulas since this post.
It is in fact possible to animate enemies using the script I’ve been using, but it requires having sprite sheets, and I can’t do that with every enemy. The fun part is that every RPG Maker 2003 battler I have can be used as an animated enemy. There are some issues with battle animations when used by enemies, but nothing I can’t work around.
As for the swing animation, I’ll see what I can do, but I’m not going to make any edits to my existing battlers for the sake of attack animations. At least not at this point. I could change the weapon positions and add them in existing animations. They just aren’t in because of laziness right now. It took me much longer than I realized just to make the new tutorial / intro section.
Yeah, it’s easy to get bogged down with graphics. It’s probably better not to make them a high priority.
“It took me much longer than I realized just to make the new tutorial / intro section.”
I think that’s normal. I know that for me, scripting always took longer than expected.
Although I’m not likely to embark on any projects myself, it is interesting to hear how things have changed.
Well, the thing is I’d already spent weeks bogged down with graphics. The default battle system for VX Ace is a first person mode where you can only see your enemies. This also means all the default enemy graphics are large and facing the player, so no matter how amazing some the artwork is (especially the glorious succubus sprite) I can’t use any of them. I’ve had to do a lot of importing and editing just to use what I have now.
“The default battle system for VX Ace is a first person mode where you can only see your enemies.”
Oof. That’s like the oldest RPG Makers. That’s kind of annoying just to think about.