How flexible is RPG Maker?

[Aesop]

Now, I realize RPG maker.. is an RPG maker.

So I'd understand if this wasn't possible with this engine:

But would it be possible to modify VX Ace in a manner where there's action combat and dodge rolling similar to that of Titan Souls?

If not, does anybody have an engine they'd recommend?

Thank you for all your replies ahead of time.

 

[YoraeRasante]

Possible, it is. In fact, many people used to make many different engines even in the old, non-scripting-avaliable RPG Maker 2000 and 2003.

 

[Narcissus]

I've heard of action battle scripts, but I don't believe any of them actually have a dodge feature, though I imagine it may be possible.

 

[Aesop]

Do you guys know what engine Titan Souls is made in?

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-28/?action=preview&uid=7984

We're going for a similar action type of game.

 

[Lunarea]

Moved to Program Discussion.

 

[Aesop]

Moved to Program Discussion.

Thank you!

I apologize about this being in the wrong section!

 

[Randommerade]

Well, I tried bending it once, but it didn't work out that great, so I don't think RPG Maker is flexible at all....

 

[orochii]

Just did some research, and here is the "engine" Titan Souls uses (more specifically, language and framework): Action Script 3 + Flashpunk.

As for the game itself. I have to say, if you want the same kind of smooth movement and stuff, you'll need to do some heavy modifications to the basic RPG Maker engine. But other than that, I think it should be possible.

One of these days I made a pixel movement... thing. My interest was to use a bitmap as a collision mask. And... yeah, I did it. And it works (some things need to be reworked, like vehicles and followers (they work, but have a nasty bug because of how the feature is implemented, but that I will fix if I need them).

So, yeah. It's possible. If one of you or your friends has experience building these kind of engines from scratch, much better.

 

[Andar]

Back to the original question:


RPG Maker is extremely flexible - there are scripts that turn it into action RPGs (called ABS-Scripts around here), there is one that turns it into a platformer/jump'n Run game, one for tactical battles and hundreds of scripts that add smaller game mechanics without changing the basic engine. I haven't counted them in the last months, but I think the master script list now contains more than a thousand different scripts for use in the Ace engine.


That said, if you want a very specific mechanic then it's a bit of luck whether someone already wrote it or not - in most cases you only find mechanics that are generally similiar and need to adapt them for a game you want, or modify your idea to the existing scripts.


Writing a new script for exactly what you want requires programming knowledge - if you can't do that yourself, there are several scripters here that offer your help, but a complete ABS script isn't something you can get for free (we have a forum where you can requests scripts for free, but those requests are usually only fulfilled if the work can be done in a few hours - a complete ABS from scratch would need months of work).

 

[Tsukihime]

RPG Maker is capable of anything that you expect a computer to be able to do.

 

[orochii]

RPG Maker is capable of anything that you expect a computer to be able to do.

Hahahaha, yeah. Now, the thing is where it starts to lag...