RPG Maker Forums

So I've been playing around with MV since launch and I gotta say, my experience has been, middling. It's strange, I have never been so torn on a software like this before. I really want to like it more than I like VX Ace but just some of the oddities and technicalities of the new version are making it sort of difficult. And every time I attempt to get an answer or fix, I'm often met with being told to either get over it, or that it was a "design choice."

Before I start talking about the bad though I would like to talk about what I actually like about MV, since there is a lot. The side view was a great addition. And given that it's now default to RPG Maker, it will allows the plugins to be more versatile with it. I also appreciate the option to flat up open the game's folder from one of the program's tab! No longer do I need to dig though my files just to insert artwork and the like. Plugins are a nice touch. They're basically scripts with parameters that are easier to modify.

The ability to create games for browsers and mobile are a much welcome addition. This will allow people to make more kinds of games that fit those platforms. And finally, the move to make all of the game code write out in Javascript was a great idea. It's simply more universal than Ruby, and will in turn allow even more brilliant minds into the community. With that in mind however, there are unfortunately a lot of problems I have with MV as well.

First off, the UI is humongous. When I first booted it up, I honestly thought something went wrong with my computer's resolution. Comparing it to Ace though the difference was clear as day. The buttons were huge, the database window is huge, even the text size was far larger than it really should be. Was readability a problem with VX Ace or something because I honestly can't thing of any other reason everything needed to nearly double in size. I'm one of those people who likes to set most size options to their lowest because unlike some developers, I don't have a second monitor and as a result screen space is precious. What used to take up just a cozy 4th of my screen not must take up at least half for no other reason I can think of than "because it feel like it." I understand why the tiles in the game are larger, more detail and the like, but an option to change the resolution and button/window size of the program itself would be appreciated.

I'm sorry, but omitting the Script Editor is not acceptable. Again, keeping with how compact of a program Ace was, I liked the ability to open the script in the game and play around with it. It was so much fun for me that I actually ended up learning some Ruby just scrolling through and attempting to edit the various codes. They were even sectioned off not only by type of code, but by what the code even did! Wanted to change how the status screen looked? Just go to Window_Status. Wanted to change how critical hits worked? Just go to Battler_damage or something. I loved the Script Editor, and its exclusion was one of the first major problems I found with the new version.

The most common reason I've found for it to be gone really isn't that appealing to me either. I see people claim that it was removed because people often used other programs to work with the code. Well, good for those people, but not everyone is familiar with those kind of external softwares. Heck, I didn't even know they could view and edit .js files until I looked up why the Script Editor was mysteriously absent. I learned basic Ruby because of that feature, and excluding it because more people just happen to know Javascript seems like a disservice. Remember, on the website it says that RPG Maker is "simple enough for a child." Well, doing so much as downloading an entire third-party software to so much as change if my luck stat shows up on the status screen doesn't strike me as very "simple."

While not necessarily a problem for me, I don't like how defensive I've seen members of the staff be when asked about how to include ads in their mobile and browser games. They often say that they do not support that kind of practice. And while I understand that mentality, remember that this is an open software. People WILL want to know answers to just about everything. And blowing off questions because you don't like them is frankly a little childish. I find this strange too because apparently a big selling point to MV is that you can finally put your games on mobile and in browsers.

This kind of clashes with whole ads question though. How on Earth can you expect people to want to put games made in your program on browsers and on mobile and not talk about ads? 90% of the time, that's how those games make their money. Free browser games needs ads on the game in order to stay free, or else developers will have to pay out of pocket for them to stay on the site (I think that's how it works). Same for mobile games and their respective app stores. Microtransactions are kind of a similar story.

Also, I don't understand this, but the Quick Damage Setting is gone. I remember the first time I ever used Ace and was playing around with the skills. I was a bit overwhelmed because of all the boxes but I wanted to start simple and create a skill that dealt double the damage a normal attack did. I saw this little "Quick..." button underneath the windows that calculated how much damage the move did. I then saw the tooltip saying that 100 is a typical attack. Well, 200! Boom, done. Just like that. Even to this day I don't quite understand how those numbers work but I know that that little "quick" option is always there to help.

I don't understand why something that minuscule has not returned. I've even seen someone on the site say that you should just "use it in Ace, then paste in the formula that it gives you". If that's the case, then the 2 formulas are identical, so why leave out something like that? It's also a bit alienating, since not everyone is going to own VX Ace.

Now admittedly, I've never actually bought any DLC for any RPG Maker title, however I hear that a lot of people claim that the DLC is very lastluster this time around. As I was looking through the assets preordering MV gave me, I couldn't help but think "This is normally 10 bucks?" Call me spoiled, but if this is the "norm" for DLC, then I really don't see myself buying much in the future.

I also hear some other weird oddities that other users are having problems with. Audio files are apparently a pain in the butt to import, and many of the DLC and resources that apparently come with the game are somewhat hidden, requiring you to dig through your Steam files in order to find them. And what's this I hear about possible legal trouble involving how MV handles .js files? What does that mean for the developers using the software? Will we get in trouble for making a game using the primitive code that came at launch or something? I've also heard about problems with file size, lag, and load time. Personally, I haven't encountered any of this, but will people playing my game have to deal with these problems? All of this is very strange.

But with all this in mind though, do I hate MV? Do I want to demand a refund and go back to VX Ace forever? Well, no. Again, there are things I like about MV. The plugin feature, while a little confusing to get used to, is very creative and is a neat alternative to scripts. The side view is a great addition and there are probably going to be a lot of people out there finding unique ways to use it. Opening the gates to Java coders will bring a whole new set of talents to the community as well.

So no, I don't hate the game, but I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. For every thing that I absolutely love about MV there was one or two tiny things that just make the program not as fun to work with as VX Ace was. So, I'm torn. I have never wanted there to be a "neutral review" option on Steam so badly before. There are things I love about MV, but there are also things that make me very frustrated while using it. I really don't know if I should continue using MV, or just admit that VX Ace is the definitive way to make RPGs and only fall back on MV if I one day want to make a browser game or something.

However, most of these problems seem like they would be easy fixes. Like they could be remedied in a upcoming patch or an RPG Maker MV Ace or something. But overall, it just doesn't feel complete. It feel like something that was a little rushed when it needed a few more months to cook. In short, MV just feels like an open beta at best.

Some people tell me that these features are minuscule and that in the grand scheme of things, you don't need them to make a good game. To that, let me say this. You don't necessarily NEED RPG Maker as a whole to make a good RPG either. It just makes it a heck of a lot easier. It's the convince and efficiency that makes RPG Maker so special to me, and all these "small" things that are missing add up to one big inconvenience. It's the little things that count, guys.

I sort of hope that one of the developers sees this. I love what MV brings to the table, but there are a lot of strange quirks that just make it difficult to use. Meanwhile, said exact features needed to fix 90% of these problems were either in VX Ace, or could potentially be fixed with a patch. MV has the potential to be the best RPG Maker yet, I just feel it needs more polish to achieve that goal!