A Question on Skills

[Scarecrow71]

So, I'm a new user to RPG Maker VX Ace, and so far I am digging/loving the program.  It's easy to use, and really laid out well.  I've spent several hours just playing around with the interface and trying to do different things to see how they work, and I've moved on now to doing the tutorials.  Which, I have to say, are fantastic and a huge help in getting me started.

However, with that said, I've come across something in the tutorials that I am having a bit of difficulty with.  The specific topic at hand is with Skills, and this is coming from tutorial 3 dealing with characters and their skills.  I tried searching for the answer on this, but I was mostly unsuccessful in narrowing topics to dealing with skills.  Maybe it's because I'm old and blind, but I can't find the answer to this any other way.

I followed the example to create the Focus skill for Ryan, and I was able to duplicate following that process to create the Pommel Strike, Dual Slash, and Hero Slash skills for our intrepid swordsman.  But when I come to trying to do the skills for Madilyn, I'm having a bit of difficulty in setting up the Physical Weapon Skills.  And the reason for this is that the skills do damage to an enemy as well as buffing/debuffing the player's defense.  And I'm a bit confused on how to set this up.

The way I understand things is that you set the scope for the skill, and then whatever damage and/or effects that are generated are done to the target of the scope.  So if I set the scope to be an enemy, any damage I set up AND whatever buff I declare will take effect on that target.

So the question:  How do I set up a skill to do damage to an enemy, but at the same time add or remove a buff to/from the character using the skill?

 

[Shaz]

Moving to VX Ace Support


What tutorial are you talking about? Please provide a link - specifically to the skill you're having trouble with.

 

[Andar]

1) If you want to set different effects for skill target and skill user, you need to use ruby commands inside the damage formula. That isn't easy as it requires basic programming knowledge, but there are topics about that here in the forum (search for "damage formula")


2) If you've a problem with the bonus tutorial 3.5 - some of the downloads have a bugged script attached, the correction is also available here on the forums.

 

[Scarecrow71]

Moving to VX Ace Support

What tutorial are you talking about? Please provide a link - specifically to the skill you're having trouble with.

The tutorial is Tutorial 3; link is http://s3-ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com/bc2prod/rpgmaker-20130522223546811/files/RPGMakerVXAceTutorial3.pdf

What I'm talking about is on page 7.  Specifically, the skills Shield Strike and Lunge, both of which do damage AND provide a buff to the character.

1) If you want to set different effects for skill target and skill user, you need to use ruby commands inside the damage formula. That isn't easy as it requires basic programming knowledge, but there are topics about that here in the forum (search for "damage formula")

Do you have a link to something that specifically deals with my question here?  I am a programmer by trade IRL, so I'm not afraid of picking up and using a new language if I have to.  I just need an example or two of how to do damage to an enemy AND buff the character using the skill at the same time.

 

[Shaz]

This is the thread on damage formulae that Andar mentioned. The damage formula is limited to a certain number of characters, so if you want to do something complex and don't have enough room, you can also create your own method in the Game_Battler class then have the damage formula call that method.


I don't see any reference in that tutorial to needing that extra script, and I don't know if the part you're stuck on is 3.5, but I was also wondering whether it was the issue of the buggy script. So again, follow Andar's suggestion and search for the correction to that script. If there's a link to it on the blog, it should be updated to the correct one. If you can't find it, post back, and someone else might have a link to a good version handy.

 

[Scarecrow71]

Ok, so thanks to the posts in this topic, I was able to decipher what I needed to do and where to go to find stuff.  I found the corrected script from tutorial 3.5, and I was able to do what I needed to in order to get the Lunge and Shield Strike skills correct.  Or, well, correct in the database; testing them in play will be a different ball of wax entirely.  

Anyhow, thank you!