CTB or ATB

[CielRpg]

I'm using RPG Maker Mv and I'm having trouble on deciding which battle system is most preferred by you guys/girls. ATB or CTB.

 

[Oscar92player]

My opinion in this is with the ATB mode. I think (for my experience playing games like Final Fantasy IV-IX, or Grandia II) it's more dynamic than CTB, or at least gives more action to the player, who needs to think and act more faster in order to enter the commands or react the attacks from the enemy. CTB mode is more paused, and I don't have good memories playing games like Final Fantasy X, which uses the same mode (if I remember correctly).

 

[Zevia]

I don't think one is inherently better than the other, but they will play very differently (and you should take into consideration what kinds of abilities you want to design).

Even when I played games with an ATB gauge, I usually changed the settings to "wait," which would pause the ATB system - and thus the enemies, as well - while I looked through my menu of abilities, because I didn't want to be penalized for having to scroll to Fire 3 or something.

To Oscar's point, ATB will probably make your battles feel a little more frantic and faster, because you're forcing the player to make quick decisions or be punished for thinking too long. How much they're punished is up to your battle design, but I think you have to cut the player more slack on enemy abilities with an ATB than a CTB.

CTB has more license to punish players not for making slow decisions, but for making bad decisions. You can arguably make more complex battles with CTB because you can allow the player lots of time to consider their response. The flipside to that is that a CTB almost requires more complex enemy behavior to make up for it.

However, if you want to gear more for players who enjoy "twitch" reflex play, ATB is definitely the better way to go - and it's also hard to create a sense of urgency with a CTB system.

 

[KayZaman]

What plugin you use? I used CTB but ATB is the most recommend. (Yanfly Engine Plugin)
I like CTB but it's really annoying that sometime player got double chances to attack or enemies got double/triple chances to attack.

But ATB like @Oscar92player said is just like FF7 to FF14. Looking at the meter that who's next.

 

[Basileus]

I used to enjoy both systems, but now when I play ATB games I feel like the system just doesn't really capture that "fast" feeling it's supposed to.

In a real-time Action Battle System like The Legend of Zelda you fight enemies on the map with no pause and no transition. The enemy is on the map and as soon as the player walks into range it's on. Attacks fly at the player with only the occasional pause or wind-up animation. This feels genuinely fast-paced and forces players to make decisions on the fly while also giving them to tools to do so since the combat is handled solely through inputs directly mapped to buttons instead of options in a menu.

In a "time slice" system like the classic Turn Based Combat or Conditional Turn Battle Systems in games like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy X you fight enemies on a "combat screen" and in rounds of actions with pauses when someone is taking their turn. In classic Turn Based Combat like Dragon Quest the actual combat is fast-paced since the player selects actions for each party member at the start and then the actions of the party members and enemies all take effect in a "round". This lets enemies take actions between player characters and forces the player to take the speed of all actors into account as part of the strategy. Conditional Turn Battle like in Final Fantasy X only lets you take one turn at a time and may have enemies take multiple turns in a row but time is still paused during player turns and the player can change what command they would have selected to react instantly to enemy actions (like making your slow guy use an antidote instead of attacking since the enemy poisoned an ally just before his turn came up). The battles are still fast since actions happen immediately after selecting them, followed immediately by enemy actions or directly to another party member.

In a "pseudo real-time" Active Time Battle System in games like Final Fantasy IV-VIII you get a mix of elements like separate "combat screens" and enabling enemies to take actions during the player's turns. More and more this style feels flawed as true real-time systems become better and better so a half-baked imitation doesn't hold up anymore. The battles are actually much slower than a turn-based style since there are often times where nobody is doing anything since both the party and the enemies are waiting for their ATB gauges to fill up before they can act. Then you get issues like the enemies acting as soon as their gauge fills because they are controlled by AI while the player can only issue orders to one party member at a time. And they have to do so through a menu while multiple enemies can smack the character in the last party slot to death and the player can't do anything about it because they were issuing orders to the first couple party slots and couldn't set the last one to defend in time. It fails to capture the fast combat of the Action Battle System while also not having the same level of depth as the Turn Based Combat System and skills in Active Time Battle System games are generally less complex and interesting due to constrained time to go through strategic options.

If you have only a single playable character, then you might be able to pull of an ATB System since you don't have to worry about being locked out of giving commands to other characters. If you have a full party then you may want a CTB System since it gives much more creative freedom and also has faster actual combat without the awkward pauses of waiting for gauges to fill up. If you really want a fast-paced game and only a single player then you may even want to go for an ABS game if there is a stable MV script for it yet.

 

[LaFlibuste]

Yeah it pretty much is my opinion too nowadays that ATB games fail at being "active". They generally feel slow because you have to wait for gauges to fill up and it's boring. CTBs actually feel quicker because there is no downtime, ever.

 

[LxCharon]

I love CTB, because when done right (though it's often not done right) it's way more strategy than an ATB. You have to watch the positioning of your characters and the enemies in the time bar and be aware of how to adjust everyone's timing. It just feels more thought out and therefore (for me) more fun to play.

 

[shadefoundry]

If I had to pick one or the other I would go with ATB for nostalgic reasons, as well as because I've seen it done pretty well in more modern games like Final Fantasy Dimensions. If I could pick any turn based battle system though I would probably go for a heavily modified version of the standard turn based. Not having to act as quickly can allow you to open doors to a lot of strategy in your game if you put it together right, and it's way easier to balance in the long run.