Quick battles

[Valryia]

The premise:


Speed is an important factor in our gaming society. In all games i can think of, your skill is determined by how fast a game is finished. Of course, skill isn't the only reason why we play. Still, speed is a factor which we all like, even among those us who don't like speed(runs).


Deeper look:


You may ask me: What! I don't like speed. I want it slow and steady! Sadly, the human nature is... to get bored.


After all, a game may have the most beautiful landscape or the most interesting story, but if we have to see them often enough, we will get bored of them sooner then later. That is why modern games allow for cutscenes to be skipped. Or why we have fast travel. Or why many hate backtracking. Neptunia - among (few) others - even allow for attack animations to be quickened by holding down a button.


In short, cutting down wait time for more playtime.


My Problem:


While i have my - regreatably half-baked - solutions for cutscene skipping and cutting down most wait times, my real problem lies in cutting down the wait time in the actual battles.


My goal:


I want battles which can be over in less then 10 seconds, optimal would be ~6 seconds. From touching an enemy, to going back onto the map. Important: I still want the player to know all the information that he wants to know, may it be how much damage he dealt or what he got from the battle. Of course, the player should still have all the time in the world, which is why i go for round based. I would prefer to use yanfly's charge turn battle, btw.


My Questions:


How can i reduce the delay of attacks? For example, a normal average attack takes about ~3 seconds. I want to cut that down to half a second. While i can shorten the animations, how do i shorten the delay inbetween the animations? How do i shorten the animations at the start of an battle, and at it's end? Can i do it with Yanfly's plugins? Is there are another plugin to do that? Or do i need to learn javascript to do that? Or is it impossbile and i have to use Plan B?


Thank you for reading this textwall and thank you in advance for any reply. I am open to questions regarding my philosophy, of course.

 

[Henryetha]

There's a plugin for faster battles, however, it's just an overall faster animation, I doubt, you'd finish in 6 sec with it.


Then I think instant turn battle might result slightly faster than the default system, as you can choose each time the best possible move (as example, enemy has 1 hp left, you can just click 1 autoattack instead of choosing on all actors)


The fastes might be without a seperate battle scene. I haven't tried this by myself but thought about it.


A battle directly on the map, based on random factors and luck.


So basically an event with alot of conditional branches + variables.


Haven't looked further into this tho..

 

[Valryia]

There's a plugin for faster battles, however, it's just an overall faster animation, I doubt, you'd finish in 6 sec with it.


Then I think instant turn battle might result slightly faster than the default system, as you can choose each time the best possible move (as example, enemy has 1 hp left, you can just click 1 autoattack instead of choosing on all actors)


The fastes might be without a seperate battle scene. I haven't tried this by myself but thought about it.


A battle directly on the map, based on random factors and luck.


So basically an event with alot of conditional branches + variables.


Haven't looked further into this tho..

My goal is not an "spam attack and win" battle system. I want tactical decisions, but that they are also executed quickly.


You are speaking about Earthbound's instant wins? That is quite doable even without plugins, but not my goal.

 

[Kes]

My hunch is that, in practice, for many players 'tactical' and 'fast' (= "less than 10 seconds") are mutually exclusive.  If there are interesting tactical choices to be made, then time mounts up.  

 

[cekobico]

Have you looked at this Plugin: 

 

[Valryia]

My hunch is that, in practice, for many players 'tactical' and 'fast' (= "less than 10 seconds") are mutually exclusive.  If there are interesting tactical choices to be made, then time mounts up.  

Perhaps we have an misunderstanding here, but they are not mutually exclusive. Yes, there is a seemingly inverse proportional relation between the two, but a fast thinking individual can easily reduce the time needed to make tactical decisions.

Have you looked at this Plugin: 

Ah, thank you! I will look into it.


EDIT: It seems to not configure the animations, but the overall speed. I feel like that could cause problems when exporting to mobile platforms. Still, it's a start.

 

[cekobico]

Ah, thank you! I will look into it.


EDIT: It seems to not configure the animations, but the overall speed. I feel like that could cause problems when exporting to mobile platforms. Still, it's a start.

What do you mean? 


I can hold Enter to fast-forward battle, even each animation played by each skills are being played at super speed. 

 

[Oddball]

How about some enemies you can use an item to defeat them. like if an enemy says "im hungry!" at the beginning of the battle, you throw meat at them to defeat them

 

[Valryia]

What do you mean? 


I can hold Enter to fast-forward battle, even each animation played by each skills are being played at super speed. 

I mean that i would prefer to change the timing of the wait times between animations directly to advert future problems.


If i remember correctly, changing the overall speed, not the animations, needs more processing power. While this is - probably - not a problem on PC, this could lead to problems on mobile devices. I also don't know how - or if - it will work with highly customized attacks. There are a few other smaller problems, all of which could be avoided if i could change the wait time directly.

How about some enemies you can use an item to defeat them. like if an enemy says "im hungry!" at the beginning of the battle, you throw meat at them to defeat them

Well, there are certainly possibilities to prevent battles from occuring in the first place, but i would still like to know how to change the wait time between animations.

 

[cekobico]

I mean that i would prefer to change the timing of the wait times between animations directly to advert future problems.


If i remember correctly, changing the overall speed, not the animations, needs more processing power. While this is - probably - not a problem on PC, this could lead to problems on mobile devices. I also don't know how - or if - it will work with highly customized attacks. There are a few other smaller problems, all of which could be avoided if i could change the wait time directly.

Ah, I see. 


Well I'm YEP Action Sequence for all of my skills, and it does seem to hasten "wait: x" duration including multiple animations contained in a single skill. I'm sorry that plugin couldn't help you :/

 

[Oddball]

what about adding an option to skip animations altogether?

 

[Valryia]

Ah, I see. 


Well I'm YEP Action Sequence for all of my skills, and it does seem to hasten "wait: x" duration including multiple animations contained in a single skill. I'm sorry that plugin couldn't help you :/

Yes, i tried that already, too.

what about adding an option to skip animations altogether?

Well, i want to give my players some eye candy. The thing is, the animations are not the problem - i can change them. The wait time inbetween is the problem, i don't know how to change that. Like the PC's stepping forward, or moving towards enemies, etc.

 

[Kes]

If what you want is a specific "How do I change the wait time?" answer, then this is no longer the correct forum, but should be in MV Support.  However, all the initial discussion may not make it obvious there what the issue is.


You might like to think about having this thread closed and starting a new, focused thread which concentrates on the actual thing you want.  If you want this thread closing, please report your first post, as I might miss a post here, but will see your Report.

 

[Henryetha]

@Valryia The plugin I was talking about was the one, cekobico posted afterwards.


I know that instant wins are doable with eventing only.


As I've written before: "basically an event with alot of conditional branches + variables."


Please read properly when people try to help you..


So if you want to keep tactical decisions, you maybe really wanna try


1. The plugin to speed up battles (Battle High Speed Mode)


2. Instant Turn Battle System (by DreamX)


3. Deactivate cast animations, which is doable with yanfly plugins and a notetag in your skills - so only an animation on execution will happen and not before.


Anyway, 6 seconds are hardly doable unless your enemies are 1hit-defeated which would destroy the purpose of tactical decisions again as there is no need for tactic when your enemies are 1hitted.

 

[Valryia]

@Valryia The plugin I was talking about was the one, cekobico posted afterwards.


I know that instant wins are doable with eventing only.


As I've written before: "basically an event with alot of conditional branches + variables."


Please read properly when people try to help you..


So if you want to keep tactical decisions, you maybe really wanna try


1. The plugin to speed up battles (Battle High Speed Mode)


2. Instant Turn Battle System (by DreamX)


3. Deactivate cast animations, which is doable with yanfly plugins and a notetag in your skills - so only an animation on execution will happen and not before.


Anyway, 6 seconds are hardly doable unless your enemies are 1hit-defeated which would destroy the purpose of tactical decisions again as there is no need for tactic when your enemies are 1hitted.

Apperantly no one here understands that "tactical" doesn't mean "we need hp sponges". Example would be FFX, where using the right characters used against the right monsters would result in a swift victory in many battles.


Anyway, i'm thinking of learning javascript to solve my problem at the root and, as suggested by @ksjp17, asking the MV support forum, since the solutions listened gave me an rough idea, but no satisfying solution.

 

[Kes]

Closed by request of the OP.