Pet Summon Plugin

[Puppet Knight]

The next update will enable the Notetag <Summon: x> on Skills and Items that instantly summon Pets regardless of their existence in the Party. That probably will make some things easier for you

Safe to assume those skills will still have to be set to the dedicated Skill Type?

 

[Aerosys]

Safe to assume those skills will still have to be set to the dedicated Skill Type?

The current plan is as follows: When you define a Skill in the Editor and put the <Summon: x> Notetag, it can have any Skill Type. To come back to your example (which I really appreciate), you can have a Skill Type called "Necromancy" with some custom Skills combined with Summon Skills.

The dedicated Skill Type mainly exists for the automatic addition of skills by the Plugin. However, when an Actor has at least one Skill to summon Pet X, the Plugin will not auto-add the dummy Skill to summon X so you don't have unnecessarily duplicated Skills.

 

[Puppet Knight]

The current plan is as follows: When you define a Skill in the Editor and put the <Summon: x> Notetag, it can have any Skill Type. To come back to your example (which I really appreciate), you can have a Skill Type called "Necromancy" with some custom Skills combined with Summon Skills.

The dedicated Skill Type mainly exists for the automatic addition of skills by the Plugin. However, when an Actor has at least one Skill to summon Pet X, the Plugin will not auto-add the dummy Skill to summon X so you don't have unnecessarily duplicated Skills.

I love you. lol


Let me know when you're ready for testing. You know I'm all in

 

[Aerosys]

New update!

• This Plugin should work with MV now.
• You can add the <Summon: x> Notetag on Skills and Items. Chanting such Skills or using such Items instantly summons the associated Pet regardless of their existence in the Party. The Skills can have any Skill Type and the Skill Type can combine common Skills with your Summon Skills. The rules that you cannot summon Pet X when X is already summoned, or the Party is full, still apply.

Happy testing!

 

[FarOutFighter]

The next update will enable the Notetag <Summon: x> on Skills and Items that instantly summon Pets regardless of their existence in the Party. That probably will make some things easier for you

Well the issue is that I can't summon anything, even with plugin commands, when using the party system plugin, and I need that plugin...

 

[Puppet Knight]

Well the issue is that I can't summon anything, even with plugin commands, when using the party system plugin, and I need that plugin...

Unfortunately it is outside of VisuStella devs responsibility to figure out their obfuscated code.. You have been given suggestions of workarounds in increasing party size outside of battle and at least one other piece of advice. You have to figure out a way to make it work mate.

 

[Elisha_Allbright]

Answerring here vs message in case it benefits anyone else:

The only work around I've toyed around with is expanding the party size at battle start, which BAttle Core itself doesn't allow. Your best best would be to set your party size to at least 5 (or whatever +1 of your standard party size is) and then move the Pets/Summons you want into reserve prior to battle.

They should automatically be put into reserve when adding them to your party anyway.

So the big need is the party space up front. You should be able to update the main menu so only the characters that are "Party Members"/non pets-summons are visible outside of battle easily enough. You should not have to add them to your party at all if you use the "<Add Summons: > note tag and space is in the party.

I think you should be able to inject the script call for the Change Party Size plugin command as a JS Pre-Start function in the Battle Core Plugin. Though that might create an issue where one could easily fill the extra slot with another non-pet actor, that means it will necessitate locking players out of being able to switch party members mid-battle.

 

[Aerosys]

Well the issue is that I can't summon anything, even with plugin commands, when using the party system plugin, and I need that plugin...

Can you please share some more information? I need to know the following:

- Do you see the Summon Skills that the Plugin automatically adds for you? Are they enabled / disabled?
- Is your Party already full?
- What happens when you use the <Summon: x> Notetag on an individual Skill or an Item?
- What happens when you call a Common Event during battle(!) that calls either a Plugin Command or JS snippet

$gameParty.summonPet(1)

whereas 1 is the Actor Id of the Pet?

Summoning a Pet outside of battle is currently not supported. Should I enable this feature for you?

VS has some explanation of how their code works, and it might battle against mine, unfortunately.

 

[Puppet Knight]

• This Plugin should work with MV now.
• You can add the <Summon: x> Notetag on Skills and Items. Chanting such Skills or using such Items instantly summons the associated Pet regardless of their existence in the Party. The Skills can have any Skill Type and the Skill Type can combine common Skills with your Summon Skills. The rules that you cannot summon Pet X when X is already summoned, or the Party is full, still apply.

Running into an interesting (what I assume to be a) bug. Summons aren't dismissing at the end of battle.


They don't show as a part of the active party in the main menu. However when you enter a new battle they are already in place ready to go. I've tested this with defeating all enemies and also retreating just to be sure; same result.


If this is intentional could we possible get a plugin boolean to enable or disable this? Most summons are meant for a few turns or that battle only.


Edit: Also realizing in my testing I went well over the turns I set in the note tag. Its possible this has more to do with the Battle Type plugin I have in place and will further test before calling it your plugins fault


I appreciate that redundancy check so Actors don't have duplicate Summon Commands. I was worried about that. <3


Thinking in terms of Pet Battle AI; maybe a note tag like:
<Pet Actions> skill ID: rating skill ID: rating </Pet Actions>

The idea being to mimic the enemy Action Patterns


And allow for some more (I'm gonna say it!!!) customization. lol. I'd argue, if possible, to have this be an option that can be on the SkillNote tag OR the Actor Note/Item tag.

For Skill: These would only be in effect if a database skill was used to summon the pet
For Actor/Item: Would only be in effect if the Actor was called from a non Skill based method.


Separately, confirming the Skill based Summon is working swimmingly without being the same skill type as the base "Summon" skill set by plugin parameters and can even be Multityped with VisualStella SkillStates Core ^_^!.

Skill Type 5, Added Skill Type via Note tag: 3 (used to unify all available skills in battle into one skill type)

 

[Aerosys]

Running into an interesting (what I assume to be a) bug. Summons aren't dismissing at the end of battle.


They don't show as a part of the active party in the main menu. However when you enter a new battle they are already in place ready to go. I've tested this with defeating all enemies and also retreating just to be sure; same result.


If this is intentional could we possible get a plugin boolean to enable or disable this? Most summons are meant for a few turns or that battle only.

No, that's not supposed to happen. I will check it in the evening and fix it later. The feature to let Pets stay active over different battles and to summon Pets before a battle starts will come later, maybe in an extra Plugin.

I appreciate that redundancy check so Actors don't have duplicate Summon Commands. I was worried about that. <3

Thanks!

Thinking in terms of Pet Battle AI; maybe a note tag like:

I have no plans right now for an AI system. I designed this Plugin so that the player can control Pets like they would be Actors. Maybe I will write a Plugin someday that extends the RPG Maker's code for actors having their own will, or such Plugin already exists.

 

[Puppet Knight]

Maybe I will write a Plugin someday that extends the RPG Maker's code for actors having their own will, or such Plugin already exists.

I'll see if I can take a crack at this myself as well and tag you if I get anything fruitful together.

 

[Aerosys]

Minor update!

While I already implemented an <Auto Summon> Notetag, it was useable only on Actors (Pets). Now, you can add this Notetag on Classes, Equips, & States, too. Any Pet having this Notetag will be ready on Battle start. (Unless your Party is full, this rule cannot be broken.)

My next steps would be

• Check whether I can find a solution to summon Pets even when your Party is full. E.g., the maximum number of battlers should stay at 4; however, including Pets, it could be 5 or even more. This will likely battle with other Plugins, so this feature might be outsourced into an extra Plugin.
• Large Summons that will substitute the entire Party until it is knocked out or it expires.
• An extra Plugin to extend the Game menus to show more or less info about your Pets or even to hide them entirely.

Happy testing!

I'm also looking forward to feedback about how understandable my Plugin is, how easy and flexible it is to use, what you still miss, your wishes, etc.

 

[Puppet Knight]

Now, you can add this Notetag on Classes, Equips, & States, too.

Can you dig into the use case for this a little? I'm having a hard time understanding how the Auto Summon would work outside of the Actor note tag

 

[Aerosys]

Can you dig into the use case for this a little? I'm having a hard time understanding how the Auto Summon would work outside of the Actor note tag

Yes, of course!

So when the battle starts, the Plugin checks for every Pet if...
- it has the <Auto Summon> on its Notes
- it has the <Auto Summon> on its Class Notes
- it wears any Equip Item with the <Auto Summon>
- it is affected by any State having the <Auto Summon>

Every Pet for which at least one condition matches, is ready right on battle start.

For example, you can make a special Accessory with this Tag, and the Player can choose which of their Pets should get it. The JRPG Nights of Azure, which this Plugin is basically based on, has a similar system that allows the Player to choose exactly one Pet to be ready on battle start. It adds some more tactics, even more, when summoning costs a notable amount of MP (because Auto Summon does not consume MP).

On the other hand, this feature may not work well in your game if you don't want Pets to be manageable in the menus and instead prefer a system where Pets are like "creatures" that spawn for a few turns and then disappear. From what I have heard in our conversation that would be more the style that you prefer.

 

[Puppet Knight]

On the other hand, this feature may not work well in your game if you don't want Pets to be manageable in the menus and instead prefer a system where Pets are like "creatures" that spawn for a few turns and then disappear. From what I have heard in our conversation that would be more the style that you prefer

That's the secret @Aerosys *whispers* I don't even know myself how this is gonna end up

Lol.

Thank you for clarifying tho. I think this is a really cool features to bring into the fray then, Makes me think of Bofuri where each player can only bond with a single monster using a ring. Granted this would be the monster bonding with the entire party.



As such! A new(ish) challenge!!!!:

Similar to the one previously expressed before where we have a Final Fantasy X style summoning where the only people that stay on the field are the Summoner and Pet (which would avoid the party size issue on its own)

Instead though, the Pet would come in and have shared Battle Commands with the Actor that summoned. So say for example:

Actor Summons Pet A

Pet A has its skills added to the summoning Actor's command list as their own battle command of the Pets name maybe?

So the updates Actor command list might look something like:

Attack
SType 1
Stype 2
..
Skeleton: which when chosen acts as a pseudo skill type of Trait and Learned Skills of the Pet/Actor
Guard
Item
Escape

The caveat being? The Summoner and Pet would essentially share a turn. So if the Actor chooses a pet command, the Pet takes the action but that turn ends for the actor. If the Actor chooses their own Action, Pet wouldnt take their turn.

This could very well be its own plugin, and honestly this is the most self serving request since I have a set of Twins that that combined Command list would come in clutch for ^_^. Thoughts?


Bugs: I am still having the summon stay in the active battle party after the battle. Also something that may have been a thing but I just discovered, in the Retreat Command parameter:



If i set it to yes or no for show icon I get the following error.




I am in fact using VS plugins so I assume I should be leaving the option to what I show in the screenshot. But something of note in case it comes up for anyone else.

Related, I assume the retreat command would show up on the Pets command list right?
Any chance we could also have Skills Used to Summon turn into Retreat commands while the pet is out?

 

[Aerosys]

Similar to the one previously expressed before where we have a Final Fantasy X style summoning where the only people that stay on the field are the Summoner and Pet (which would avoid the party size issue on its own)

Instead though, the Pet would come in and have shared Battle Commands with the Actor that summoned. So say for example:

Actor Summons Pet A

Pet A has its skills added to the summoning Actor's command list as their own battle command of the Pets name maybe?

So the updates Actor command list might look something like:

Attack
SType 1
Stype 2
..
Skeleton: which when chosen acts as a pseudo skill type of Trait and Learned Skills of the Pet/Actor
Guard
Item
Escape

The caveat being? The Summoner and Pet would essentially share a turn. So if the Actor chooses a pet command, the Pet takes the action but that turn ends for the actor. If the Actor chooses their own Action, Pet wouldnt take their turn.

This could very well be its own plugin, and honestly this is the most self serving request since I have a set of Twins that that combined Command list would come in clutch for ^_^. Thoughts?

I think this would be too complicated and goes beyond my capacity that I planned for working on this project. The general idea of this Plugin is to use the functions that RPG Maker already provides (add Actor, remove Actor on knock-out, end battle when only Pets are active, prohibit Items for Pets, ...).

Bugs: I am still having the summon stay in the active battle party after the battle

I tried it again, and I could not reproduce it. Can you please try without any other Plugins?

If i set it to yes or no for show icon I get the following error.

I am in fact using VS plugins so I assume I should be leaving the option to what I show in the screenshot. But something of note in case it comes up for anyone else.

Can you please try without FOSSIL?

Related, I assume the retreat command would show up on the Pets command list right?
Any chance we could also have Skills Used to Summon turn into Retreat commands while the pet is out?

Do you think that would be useful that (also) the summoner can send Pets back? It is doable, but the code complexity would increase noticeably.

 

[ShadowDragon]

nice plugin, will save it, as for the battle members with max 4 battler members,
the idea I had is make the summon pet +1 battle member for the pet, and -1
when gone.

another idea if its possible if battle max members is 4, while you can set
pet slots (1-4) in front, depending on the different pet summons.

summon it once, and try to summon it again either refresh the turns or
remove it.

but I save the plugin, not sure if I can use it, but maybe for a 1 turn helper.
as I use MV, I hope it can work for frontview battle too.

if not, no worries, as its not really mendatory ^^

keep up the nice work though.

 

[Aerosys]

Thanks for your message!

as I use MV, I hope it can work for frontview battle too.

There should be no issues, and if otherwise, I will fix them.

 

[Puppet Knight]

Addressing without quotes:

Shared command functionality: Understandable. Its a crazy ask
Will try to reproduce on a blank project but knowing i have party altering plugins lets me know up front its probably me.

FOSSIL i need since my skill system is grounded in a MoogleX plugin that was never ported unfortunately.

 

[Aerosys]

FOSSIL i need since my skill system is grounded in a MoogleX plugin that was never ported unfortunately.

I already made an MV / MZ compatibility patch as technically correct as possible, and I call the common RPG Maker's method as officially described here: https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads/rpg-maker-mv-mz-script-call-list.46456/

Of course, I will try to fix this issue, but when FOSSIL is the cause of problems here, then I have bad news for you. I will not write an extra compatibility patch to another compatibility patch, which FOSSIL actually is.

Maybe it works when you disable animations in MK_Summon Plugin Manager?