Recruiting monsters to party

[Russ1981]

I'm planning my game to be a horror themed RPG, and I'm wondering if there's any way to make it so I can recruit monsters to my party or give my party members monster specific abilities. To be specific, I want to create a vampire character. Are there any ability sets or sprites I can use in the default program or would I have to script it or get an add-on?

 

[Andar]

You can only add actors to the party, but nothing prevents you from making a "Vampire" actor by giving an actor the same skills and features as an enemy. Just define a class and skillset that fits and make that member recruited after the monster battle (or however you want to handle that)

 

[Probotector 200X]

You can make a giant scorpion join the party, and attack with poisonous stingers if you want. There's even a sprite for it! But no faceset sadly. You know, it's RPG Maker, you can make a giant scorpion the hero who's skilled with ice elemental gun techniques, if you really want!

As for Vampires...if you want basic draining, that's really easy. I love how easy it is to make HP Drain (and MP Drain!) skills in VXAce! You can use events so you can't enter peoples homes uninvited when the vampire character is in your party. You can make their attacks bypass Reflect. You can make them weak against Garlic, Wood, and Light elementals...

As for sprites...nothing in RTP, but there's a good sprite made by PinedaVX here. (scroll down until you find the actorsets with 8 characters per image, 4th row, 1st column, click and go back to top, there you go!)

Also, a portrait for that sprite, by Soruve. (scroll down, you'll see it)

I know you didn't actually ask for that, and...this isn't the forum section to ask for that, but I just felt like throwing that in.

ONE MORE THING, I think I've seen a script that lets you recruit monsters into your party, without having to make them actual actors, but...I'm not really sure...and, it's probably hard to make things work out, like party group switching, actor based events, and so on.

 

[Tsukihime]

Those scripts likely create actors on-the-fly based on enemy data.

 

[Russ1981]

You can make a giant scorpion join the party, and attack with poisonous stingers if you want. There's even a sprite for it! But no faceset sadly. You know, it's RPG Maker, you can make a giant scorpion the hero who's skilled with ice elemental gun techniques, if you really want!

As for Vampires...if you want basic draining, that's really easy. I love how easy it is to make HP Drain (and MP Drain!) skills in VXAce! You can use events so you can't enter peoples homes uninvited when the vampire character is in your party. You can make their attacks bypass Reflect. You can make them weak against Garlic, Wood, and Light elementals...

As for sprites...nothing in RTP, but there's a good sprite made by PinedaVX here. (scroll down until you find the actorsets with 8 characters per image, 4th row, 1st column, click and go back to top, there you go!)

Also, a portrait for that sprite, by Soruve. (scroll down, you'll see it)

I know you didn't actually ask for that, and...this isn't the forum section to ask for that, but I just felt like throwing that in.

ONE MORE THING, I think I've seen a script that lets you recruit monsters into your party, without having to make them actual actors, but...I'm not really sure...and, it's probably hard to make things work out, like party group switching, actor based events, and so on.

I really like those sprites, I'm guessing I have to have a subscription to be able to use them? Does the commercial license run out when the subscription does? Not that I need a commercial license right now since I'm really just playing with it to see what I can do.

 

[Probotector 200X]

I really like those sprites, I'm guessing I have to have a subscription to be able to use them? Does the commercial license run out when the subscription does? Not that I need a commercial license right now since I'm really just playing with it to see what I can do.

Subscription? Commercial license? To use those sprites, you just need to credit the creators. Well, if you plan on using them in a commercial project, you probably need extra permission maybe, should always check that. Is that what you mean? As long as you have VX or VXAce (well, I assume you need to be using those to use most VX style stuff??) and it's not a commercial project, you can use 'em.

 

[Russ1981]

Subscription? Commercial license? To use those sprites, you just need to credit the creators. Well, if you plan on using them in a commercial project, you probably need extra permission maybe, should always check that. Is that what you mean? As long as you have VX or VXAce (well, I assume you need to be using those to use most VX style stuff??) and it's not a commercial project, you can use 'em.

Well I looked at the website and didn't see any way to get them into my program, so I assumed maybe I needed to pay for them. I looked at the part labeled PineShop and it said I needed to pay a subscription to use the materials. So it's actually free? I don't see a download link though, is it as simple as right clicking and saving the images to a folder?

 

[orochii]

Those scripts likely create actors on-the-fly based on enemy data.

I once made a system like that on RMXP (I like SMT), and yeah I made something like that. Well, actually what I made was a variable inside any actor named "akuma_id", then made that when that ID != 0, the actor base statistics were calculated based on a monster's data (the monster from the ID). It's a conditional inside every method for base statistics (same for element and status resistances). Ace's features too.

For the skills, I made almost the same, but converting any skill found on the enemy actions to an useable actor skill (that is, just the skill ID inside the skill array). That was made inside the set_akuma_id method (so you don't need to re-make the skill array everytime). Lastly, the graphics. Again, the set_akuma_id method doing a change of character, battler (if any) and face (again, if any) to your liking.

It's easy to do, I think, you just need to do a little of juggling with data,

Orochii Zouveleki

 

[Alouette]

Pineda's "license" is only required if you're making a commercial game, which I'm assuming you're not. To get Pineda's resources, you left click on the small thumbnails to make the true image appear up top. Then, yeah, you do simply right-click and save it inside a folder.

Once you've saved them to your computer, you need to add those resources to your project.

To add resources to your project within RPG Maker VX Ace, press F10 to open the Resource Manager, and import the files to the appropriate folder.

To add resources to your project manually, find your project folder and move files into the appropriate folder.

 

[Russ1981]

So I got the vampire sprite, but I can't figure out how to get rid of the green background. I'm sure it's somewhere in the tutorials but this is all confusing. Is there some kind of graphic editing software I need to get rid of that background?

 

[Andar]

So I got the vampire sprite, but I can't figure out how to get rid of the green background. I'm sure it's somewhere in the tutorials but this is all confusing. Is there some kind of graphic editing software I need to get rid of that background?

You either need to edit it externally with a program like photoshop or GIMP and then save as PNG with transparency, or you need to use the resource manager to import it from JPG/BMP and then set the green as the transparent color inside the resource manager's import window.

 

[Russ1981]

You either need to edit it externally with a program like photoshop or GIMP and then save as PNG with transparency, or you need to use the resource manager to import it from JPG/BMP and then set the green as the transparent color inside the resource manager's import window.

I'm now running into another problem lol. I did a playtest with the sprite in my party and it appears REALLY tiny next to my main character's sprite. I assume I need to stretch it in GIMP to make it the proper size? I realize this thread may have gone slightly off topic by now lol.

 

[Tsukihime]

Put a $ in front of the name

$yourSprite.png

 

[Russ1981]

Put a $ in front of the name

$yourSprite.png

It already has a $ in the name. Not sure what else I'd need to do.

 

[Alouette]

Compare the sizes of the pictures.

If the file containing your main character is, say, 1536 x 1024, and your new vampire sprite is 384 x 256, then there are obviously going to be problems.

 

[Russ1981]

My main character is actually apparently smaller than 384 x 256, I was using one of the defaults in the actor 4 file. What are the default dimensions of the prebuilt characters?

 

[Probotector 200X]

It sounds like you saved the thumbnail, not the bigger version that appears at the top?

 

[Russ1981]

It sounds like you saved the thumbnail, not the bigger version that appears at the top?

I actually tried doing both, if I saved the thumbnail it ended up being too small, but the bigger version was huge.

 

[Xypher]

the single character pictures are just previews, find the character in one of the 8 character sets

 

[Russ1981]

I don't know if I'm blind or what, but I can't seem to find the character set with the sprite that matches. In the previews I want the vampire character, 7th row, 2nd column of the single characters, but it doesn't seem to be available in a set. Am I out of luck then?