Favorite Battle System (atb, etc) Available for Ace?

[Dark Horseman]

I know a lot of people have a preference for battle systems in JRPGs they've played in the past, but what about systems available as custom scripts for Ace? Things such as Victor ATB or Archeia CTB or the action rpg scripts for compatibility and feel. For example, although action rpgs are one of my favorites (Zelda or Secret of Mana), it just seems like RM Games can't work well with this type of gameplay and feel very clunky and awkward. Do most people prefer the default system (as player and developer) just because it's robust and reliable? Asking because I was going to work on another game in the near future and wanted to be on the look out for potential scripts until then.

 

[Iavra]

Personally, i loves the CTB system used in FFX and as such will use DoubleX's ECATB for tactical combat in my games. Although i currently think about not doing any combat at all in my current game and completely rely on puzzles. Also, i wanted to do a simple ABS in combination with a random dungeon generator, but i discarded that idea, since a turn-based on-map system would probably fit better to create that Rogue feeling.

 

[DarthVollis]

I have to go with Falcao's Pearl ABS. Since I have used it a lot I understand it and really enjoy it. 

 

[Fernyfer775]

FTB (Free Turn Battle) if done right could be pretty fun in terms of effectiveness and strategy involved in a turn-based setting. 

The battle system that the Grandia games used was my all time favorite though.

 

[Miss Nile]

Personally, I really like Action Battle Systems and sometimes Side-view battle systems. The former is what really makes me feel like I'm in a battle though. :3 I like Sapphire's Action Battle System the best, as it's easy to configure, requires no custom graphics and pretty simple . . . so I am definitely implementing it in my game. ^^

 

[Matseb2611]

My personal preference will go with:

Fully Turn-Based - I like to take my time deciding what strategy to use and then to see it all executed. ATB not only causes me to rush and spam Attack, but also takes my attention from the juicy combat animations because I'm busy deciding what skill to use before the enemy gets their turn. And as for action battles on-map, most of the time they just end up being a button mashing to hack and slash rather than any real strategy, so I can't stand them. Having said this, the turn-based battle system should be strategic and at least unique to some degree. Just slapping on a bunch of default skills to a character and calling it a day isn't fun. If I use the same methods in every single battle, then the battles start to get repetitive very fast.

Animated Side-View - I do enjoy front-view battle systems too, but side-view just feel much more satisfying, because you get to see your actors delivering the hits rather than just a simple animation being played on an enemy. And I personally like to see both actors and enemies fully animated. Gives it more immersion.

No Quick-Time button presses - I really can't stand it. I don't want to be rushed and given some complex button combo to quickly press so that my special attack actually lands. I can understand it appealing to some people, but not to me.

Party Swapping during battle - If there are more playable characters than spaces in the active party, I really really love the idea to be able to swap them mid-battle with no penalties. I think it lets you make battles much more strategic if each party member has strengths and weaknesses against certain enemy types. This is one of the things I seriously loved about FFX.

 

[lycheeDELETED]

As for me, I would either choose fully turn-based, or action battle system.

ATB-s reduce time for strategical thinking, and I especially hate when one of my characters has low health and ends up killed because I couldn't choose the right item/command in time.

On the other hand, I've been using Khas' SAS IV for quite a long time, and I just fell in love with it. Not only it solves the problem of random encounters, (I know it is possible to make on-map encounters with other systems, but you still don't have to enter a separate screen), but you can add more challenge and variety on your maps, for example cutting down plants etc. These are useful when there's no logical reason for enemies to be there.

Oh, and no menus. And for this reason, no scenarios like 'where did I put that potion/Phoenix Down/whatever... oops, you're all dead'.

 

[Iavra]

There are multiple kinds of ATB systems. The FFX one, for example, pauses whenever an actor starts his/her turn. ATB mainly describes a system where turn orders aren't pre-calculated, but ATB bars are filled over time, giving faster characters the option to get more attacks over the same period of time compared to slower ones. This can be extended by cooldowns, charge time and interrupts, which both make use of the bar system.

Personally, i don't like the FFXIII one, where enemies still attack you while you are making your move.

 

[Matseb2611]

I agree that at times ATB systems are executed really well, but more often than not I've found myself annoyed by them. They're either too fast that you don't get a chance to select commands in time, or they're too slow and you sit there waiting for the bars to fill up. The beauty with fully turn-based systems is that you don't need to do either of those. You're not waiting for any timers at any point.

Another thing that I don't like about ATB is that it's not always clear what the duration of a turn is. Some states might last a certain number of turns, and because in ATB faster characters have their bars fill up quicker than slower ones, the definition of one turn becomes very unclear, which also tends to ruin the strategic gameplay.

 

[Iavra]

In some systems, turns are determined by a global timer that fills up independently from the battle members. Of course, this isn't always positive, as some buffs that are meant to be short-term last for multiple actions on fast characters and slower ones might not even get to act before their buffs run out.

You can't really base turns on each character's actions in such a system, since states like petrification, which set AGI to 0, will never expire this way.

The 3rd way is setting a turn to be X actions over all characters, which also (possibly to a different extent) suffers from the same problems as a global timer.

 

[DoubleX]

In some systems, turns are determined by a global timer that fills up independently from the battle members. Of course, this isn't always positive, as some buffs that are meant to be short-term last for multiple actions on fast characters and slower ones might not even get to act before their buffs run out.

You can't really base turns on each character's actions in such a system, since states like petrification, which set AGI to 0, will never expire this way.

The 3rd way is setting a turn to be X actions over all characters, which also (possibly to a different extent) suffers from the same problems as a global timer.

There's actually at least 1 more - State Countdown Timer. It can either be fixed x seconds per turn, or variable x seconds per turn(x here can depend on many conditions).

I agree that at times ATB systems are executed really well, but more often than not I've found myself annoyed by them. They're either too fast that you don't get a chance to select commands in time, or they're too slow and you sit there waiting for the bars to fill up. The beauty with fully turn-based systems is that you don't need to do either of those. You're not waiting for any timers at any point.

Another thing that I don't like about ATB is that it's not always clear what the duration of a turn is. Some states might last a certain number of turns, and because in ATB faster characters have their bars fill up quicker than slower ones, the definition of one turn becomes very unclear, which also tends to ruin the strategic gameplay.

The ATB speed problem can be countered by letting developers control the global atb speed and wait conditions, even on the fly.

The turn problem can be countered by showing the global atb clock(with frame or executed actions as its unit), or the countdown timer for countdown states.

Actually, if implemented and used well, an ATB can even replicate a CTB

I personally prefer ATB, as an extremely powerful atb system can do almost anything the default battle system and CTB can do while the reverse is likely really false, and I still can't master the added movement and space control in ABS yet. For TBS, I think it can be combined with any battle system aforementioned, at least conceptual wise.

But after all, I just want to clean somethings up about the ATB, as I think choosing battle systems is up to developer needs and preferences

P.S.: Maybe later I'll open a post to talk about the existing atb system scripts I know so far, but I don't know where that post would belong to(e.g.: RMVXA Tutorial? Not quite a good match lol)