I'm a newbie and I have some questions :D

[acelohan]

First, hello all you guys! I just downloaded VX ace and very interested in it 

I really want to make a game (huge fan of turn-base RPG here  BD ) like FF,...etc

But I have some question! Hope you guys can help me 

Here, let's start! I want to make a game that begin with 1 main character (MC), then early game (not so much events appeared) he will go and find the rest of the party (maybe the party of 4 ppl). And I really want to each party member, actually, each class have their own "character" (like mischievous, funny guy, talkless guy,..etc) so I can make some funny conservation of them.

I figured it out that to do that, I have to make fixed character, like warrior, thief, healer, mage,.. but there will be an disadvantage - This game wont have much classes. Well I really dont like that 

But to make game with lot of class, I think the only ones who talk is MC and NPC   because if each class have different trait, the conservation will be seriously messed up I think b/c party will not always be the same 

So, wrap it up:

-Game with fixed classes: party member can talk to each other but this game will lack of classes 

-game with a lot of classes, then only MC will talk 

=> so can we do anything about this or I should just use method 2?

And some more question:

-can we make the class choosing scene for MC at start of the game? And can we make that class choosing stage have image of the class, and info about the class (weapon use, skill, etc)

-As I said before, I want my Mc find his party member later (like go to the soldier hiring places), and when choosing what classes to add to the party, the image and info show up as well

Pls answer me    Or if you guys had encountered these problems before or these problem is solved in somewhere pls send me link or something.

//Sorry for my poor English, hope you guys understand what I'm saying, if there is something you dont understand pls tell me then I can explain clearer for you 

 

[whitesphere]

There are 2 very separate things here.  First of all, you want a variety of personalities for interesting PC to NPC dialog.  Then, you want a variety of classes.

Think of a "Class" as the job a player does.  It doesn't automatically make a particular PC have certain traits.  So you can have 50 or more Classes, for a lot of player choice but have, say, 8 unique personalities.

Some things you can do to ease your workload:

- The plot might prevent the player from having more than, say, 2 or 3 specific characters at once.    In FFIV, you lose Kain before you gain Rydia in the party, for example.

- Some of the characters may not be as "chatty" as others, at certain points.  In my current game, one character barely speaks until later in the game when the plot focuses on him much more and he takes the lead.

However, if this is your first RPG Maker game, don't try to be too ambitious.  I think almost every one of us has done that --- we have these really ambitious ideas and quickly find out the game we're making becomes a mess, and try again with a much simpler game, at first.

If I were you, I would make an interesting story you like, with a game world, character backstories and significant events.   Write all of this information down in a document on the computer.  Revise it and have this well planned out before you even open up RPG Maker.  Let this focus you on what you need in the game, not what sounds nifty to add "just because".

Basically, make a small, simple RPG for your first game, to get the feel for the entire system, from making maps, to simple NPC dialog, to balancing random encounters, and so on.   Once you have done a small, short game (maybe 1 hour of content), then you'll be far better at knowing how much effort things are. 

How about making a small game focusing on a significant part of ONE of your character's backstories? 

And when creating a larger game, I find it extremely helpful to plan everything (plot, characters, backstory, etc) out before starting, so I know where I'm starting and where I'm going all of the time when creating the game itself.

Best of luck!

 

[acelohan]

Ya really, I just want to collect some documents for later use 

I havent even know how to draw a house right in game  BD

Ty for the help 

 

[Andar]

As a beginner, you might want to follow the link in my signature - it will lead you to examples, tutorials and more.


For you questions:


RPG-Maker is a very versatile program, you can do almost anything with it depending on the amount of work you put in - and you are NOT required to follow the basic definitions, you can make your own.


For example, you don't need to use the class system at all - you can simply ignore it (give each PC the same class, and give different skills by eventing or skill shops), you can use the class for some other functions (in my game, I use the class system to set the race of the PC and a script to give ability trees depending on other definitions), or you can make multiple classes for variants.

 

[acelohan]

Oh, I'm getting it now. Maybe I should just put 4 people in the party with their own trait, and then player can choose which class, job,..etc they are.

Why didnt I think about that before, haha.

 

[whitesphere]

Oh, I'm getting it now. Maybe I should just put 4 people in the party with their own trait, and then player can choose which class, job,..etc they are.

Why didnt I think about that before, haha.

The Dragon Quest IX game does this concept very well.  There are several Jobs you receive, early on.  Later, you find a series of Masters, scattered through the game world.  Each has a Quest.  When you finish the Quest, the Master unlocks a new Job.  Any character can be any job you have access to.  And, characters benefit from any skills they learn in any Job they've leveled up.

At first, you must go to a specific NPC to change jobs, but later in the game, you can open up a Job which lets you learn a Skill that lets anyone change Jobs at any time they're not in battle.

But, through all of this, you can keep the same 4 PCs.  It gives a lot of versatility without being too difficult to implement.  In the end, you have around 13 Jobs available, and the PCs can level up all 13 Jobs to Level 99 if so desired.

 

[TheAwakeJake]

It helps to write down general traits for each character on paper. This works for me cause I don't like typing that much.

The event editor contains actions that change character traits so check them out.

 

[Wavelength]

You've gotten some very good advice in this topic already, but I'm surprised no one mentioned this: you can change a character's class at any time you please with the "Change Class..." event command.  So like whitesphere mentioned, you won't need to create separate characters for each class, unless you specifically want to.

You could even combine this with the "Change Actor Graphic..." command to give each character a different "costume" for each class they might take on, like some games do.

 

[acelohan]

OK, thank you guys so much 

There so much stuffs to learn 

 

[whitesphere]

OK, thank you guys so much 

There so much stuffs to learn 

There definitely is!  Check out the excellent tutorials on this site, as well as examine the Sample Maps in VX Ace.  Right-click on the Maps tab and you can have VX Ace import a copy of a Sample Map to your current project.  This is invaluable to learn the basics of making maps.

And look for free sample VX Ace games which can show how to do some of the things in the tutorials.

Best of luck!