Alternative Battle Systems

[Dickjutsu]

So for one of the projects I'm on we've been discussing using something different than a standard turn-based RPG battle system. And it kind of got me thinking of a two-part question on battle mechanics.

1. What different types of alternative battle systems have you seen that you liked?
Me, personally - one of my favorites has always been the combat system of Ar Tonelico - with 3 front-line fighters and a rear-line mage. They work in an asynchronous fashion in that they are both commanded differently: The front-line warriors are just like a normal RPG combatant, but the mage works on a developing power-bar kind of system. The longer she (they are always women in the games) sing their songs to build up their magic abilities - the stronger their magic becomes.
Aside from that I really like tactical rpg battle systems, but at this point since they are their own genre, I guess its not really an alternative combat system.

2. What different kinds of interesting battle systems have you seen used in an RPG Maker game?
MV has both front-facing and side-view turn-based battle systems, I've seen a few ATB plug-ins. I was hired onto a project where the combat was front-facing but used an elemental system and allowed the player to combine different elemental gems in order to create skills, rather than just selecting them from a list. But that was still essentially just a turn-based, front-facing rpg battle system, really.

So what good alternative battle systems have you folks found? What have you witnessed being done with RPGMaker, in particular? You know what, I'll even go a step further - not just good ones, interesting ones that may or may not be good.

 

[Soulrender]

I Once saw on mobile game both as battle system and movement through dungeon using deck of cards.
Deck contains 4 types of card:
- Attack
- Defense
- Heal
- Something with thunder drawed on card (still don't know what is was)

Each card also had represented numbers - depending what you draw from deck (5, 10, 15, 20, 25) And that number in movement was amount
of fields you could move and in battle it was damage multiplier. (e.g your magic attack = 8, You used card Attack [15], then your magic attack was 135 in this turn).

When you run out of cards in hands you draw another 5 cards from top of deck, and if deck runs out, cards returns shuffle them and start over again drawing cards - of course it's a game F2Play, so you can buy more powerfull cards for real money...

 

[MushroomCake28]

I like tactics battle system. But of course you can have a game with a regular encounters be a tactical battle. So what I opted for in my project is what I call a semi-tactical battle system. It's an ATB but with a grid system (8x4 in total) with skills hat can have various AoE. So there is more than just attack/strong skills since you have to think carefully about the battlers' positions and which AoE skill will have the best effect. Also, I say grid, but imagine a row system (4 rows) with a "column" system (4 columns). So the position has an effect whether it's vertical or horizontal.

 

[TheoAllen]

For the first question:
I generally don't like ATB, but I like how Child of Light did their ATB (I think I've been mentioning this game several times already). All characters ATB is placed in a single line that it's easy to tell who is going first and later. Unlike most of ATB I know where the individual bar is placed on the character.

The battle system also has two phases. Idle and casting. If you get attacked during the casting phase, you will be interrupted and dragged back in the previous timeline. It somehow makes me think that if the enemy is already casting, there is no way I would catch them, so I had to use Guard in order to mitigate the damage. Guard is an instant cast, so it does not require casting at all. And with only having 2 battle member, it's easier to tell who's the enemy going to attack. Since there is not much choice to attack, so the Guard will always useful.

For the second question:
Currently, I'm a huge fan of FTB (Free Turn Battle) system (that is unfortunately only available in Ace). The system allows you to select any skill to perform an action in any order you want. And the action will be instantly executed. This also allows you to perform an action exactly in a sequence you want. For example, you place a debuff on the enemy first, then attack it. This prompts tactical thinking, and not relying on turn order placement like in CTB, ATB, or even default agility based turn order. Granted, it makes the agility useless, but I don't think I need a stat like agility in turn-based battle.

The battle system is really underappreciated that I don't think I have found someone really use the system to make a game. I've been tinkering a lot with many battle system including ATB and creating a grid-based battle, but I'm not competent enough to create content to make it feels engaging.

 

[Kuro DCupu]

I for one always love trying to develop new kind of battle system. Therefore, you can say I like what I made.
Most of them are from Eggion project.

Spoiler: Darkness of Hope : Save the Heart of Painful

Something like this.

Project thread : https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads/darkness-of-hope-save-the-heart-of-painful.29369/
There's no stats and HP in this battle. There's only 4 simple command and a dominance meter. You win when you override your opponent. The rest is just rock paper scissor. Unless, here you can learn the AI pattern and vice versa.

Spoiler: Darkness of Hope : The Pocket Watch

Basically the battle system is something like this...

Project thread : https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads/darkness-of-hope-the-pocket-watch.95835/

This one is the doped version from the other one. You input the order of your skill until your Action Point run out. Then all of the skill is automatically executed in a single round, clashing with the enemy's command. What's more, certain skill pattern will make up a combo skill.

Spoiler: Kitten Mita : Remastered

I can only show the older version tho... the Remaster version is planned to be the same, but with different interface.

Project thread : https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads/kitten-mita-remaster.35263/

So, the battle is an Active Turn Based. The skill you may cast is based on AT (Action Time) and distance. You can change your distance anytime in exchange of resetting your AT. Your opponent can do the same. When your AT is at the fullest, your MP will start charging. Your AT also rise your tier level, determine what skill tier you may cast.

Currently and until now, the battle system I took interest is this one

Spoiler: Yumina the Ethereal

It has cool concept of Debate Battle~ So it's justified they argue a lot in mid battle.
The winner is decided by approval rating (the big bar above) in front of the audience (the 4 colored bar).
Since the theme is debate battle, there are two type of attack (argument). Spirit and Logic (idealist and realist).

There are also 4 color type of personality.
Red = Spirit attacker, boast high Spirit defense.
Green = Spirit attacker, boast high Logic defense.
Blue = Logic attacker, boast high Spirit defense.
Black = Logic attacker, boast high Logic defense.

Each of this type need their Audience color to be able to cast their skill. Their color will be consumed by other color when they make a move, changing the audience perspective.

This battle system is truly define what debate really is, changing my opinion that a battle doesn't have to be an actual fighting or killing your opponent.

 

[MushroomCake28]

@Kuro DCupu Very neat and incredibly well done battle systems! I can only hope to develop some UI as beautiful as yours (I may be able to code any complex battle system, but I have a hard time making a beautiful and intuitive UI).

 

[Dickjutsu]

Wow, Kuro - those are some really neat systems. I definitely like what you've done there.

@Theo - Yeah, I've played a few games that use a FTB style system. Or at least a system wherein you can use your units in whatever order you like, even if it's just turn based (Operation Darkness was a good one like that).