Side-view battle, 5 party members, 100+ actors. need lotsa help

[Tsaiuki North]

So in my game, there are going to be over a lot of actors. Kind of like FF6. So I need a good party management.

I'm using Battle Symphony for the side battle view, and the YEA Party Manager, and that seems to be ok, 

 

But the real question is, is there a better system for me to be using for this? I want parts of the game where some characters are not available (this is easy through events, so not a problem), some parts where certain characters are required, and I don't really want free swapping out whenever. Such as having 8 active party members, but only 5 in the battle lineup. THAT part, you can switch the formation around with whenever. Just not with anyone that isn't part of those 8. But I want you to be able to change those 8 when in certain circumstances/places, like a ship, or base, or something where that would make sense to be available.. So if you have recruited 40 actors, you can choose 8 whenever you're in that base/availabilty. but not unless.

Also, I wanted an (active battle time? i'm not sure if that's what it is..) system, where rather than choosing all the actions, there's a "timer bar", that's according to agi, or something.. And when it's filled, you can choose an action. And the action is done as soon as it's chosen. There's no waiting.

i've actually been working on this for months, and i've looked around, and tried to combine, manage all kinds of different things, so I've at least tried before asking! I'm just not sure how efficient i'm being.

(i'm not actually sure if this is in the right place..)

 

[ArcaneEli]

Doesn't Yanfly's Battle System have a ATB add on? I don't know if you can have five people in battle though. But 5people in battle? With an option to switch between 8 while your in battle with like 60+ people to choose from? Why don't you just make a class system it would be easier then making 60+ peoples, with 60+ different personalities and looks (so you don't have 5people who look the same with different colored hair...) with 60+ different storylines and plots. It would be alot eaiser to have like 8-10 people with 4 on battle and like 10-20classes in my opinion.

 

[Tsaiuki North]

Actually, the number of people, with personalities and looks, stories, features, all that? That is no complication at all, as they already exist! That's already taken care of. Yes, 136 people that are all original and mine only.

(It's not easy to explain, but I'm a rather ill person ) And there is no class system either. I'm actually already working on drawing battle holders for all of them, but i've only got one that's kind of complete, it just doens't look that good XD. But I'm getting better at drawing my own sprites.

Anyway. Yes 5 people in battle is done. I already have that set up. What I meant, is not to be able to switch them in battle, but an active party of 8 while outside of battle. On the field, in dungeons, towns, maps, everywhere. 8 active party members. But in certain cases, like in the OP, on a ship, or some other designated areas, to be able to change that party. I'm sure I can already do this with the party manager, but I'm wondering if there is any alternative, or even a better one.

And I've looked and tried to find an ATB system that works with what I have. If there is one, then can i get help finding it? I had one, but I couldn't get it to work right. I don't remember which one that was, but I'd rather just have a suggestion from scratch rather than trying to get that specific one figured out because of a designated past experiment.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

Yami has an ATB script, I think that should work with his Symphony...

 

[Tsaiuki North]

ok. I think I got it to work, though I have some questions about it... I don't know if i need to post those here or not.

Really the biggest thing is that I don't want it to show the atb bar for the enemies. and it looks like if two bars max out at the same time, all my characters get stuck and can't do anything, but the enemy continues.

ill look for the answer, but i thought i'd just ask right now incase.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

I think there was an option for removing ATB bars on enemies, I think... as for two bars maxing out at the same time, I haven't experienced that in the past, though my tests on a full party was quite short as I mostly used his ATB for a single character game try

 

[Tsaiuki North]

Yeah i think the reason it happened so quick for me, is that i have 5 members all around level 3ish, and I have a low stat scale, so they all have between 3-5 agi... So naturally...;

ok I think I'm wrong. it's not when they both max out at the same time.

I was looking at it again, and i have one character that has an auto-battle flag. Every once in a while, it gets stuck when their bar fills out.

I don't know if that's an error on my part with something about that character, or what that could be.

when her bar maxes out, she doesn't take an action, and the other bars in my part continue to fill. they will all eventually fill up, but it doesn't bring up any action window. I have it set on the last option of "wait", so it when a bar fills, it pauses it until you select your action.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

I think the auto-battle feature is what's causing the problem. Try looking for fixes

 

[Tsaiuki North]

Ok, thankyou for your help 

 

[Venka]

If you haven't figured out your party problem yet.. you could event it When you unlock a character, make as switch that activates (to keep track of unlocked characters). Then they could join the active party when you first recruit them (or if you're full, then they go to your home base or ship or however you want it set up). The event at your base would only activate once the recruited switch is on.

So if want to go back to your base and recuit a different party, when you talk to the person and add them to your party, turn the switch off again. The party script might need adjusting for when you kick a party member out of the party so their switch turns on by itself.

Oh and if you find a fix for auto-battle working and ATB, I'd be interested in it too. I've run into that problem as well and just gave up on getting it to work.

 

[Tsaiuki North]

I've actually got all this figured out with variables. (except the auto-battle bug)

Eventing the recruitment and managaement is quite easy doing this. I have a "charprogression" variable reserved for each character. that lets me keep track of sidestories, activites, etc regarding them, using conditional branches. More directly, I have a variable of 6 = successfully recruited. 1 being your first interaction or introduction with them, and up to 5 being the events that transpire, with 5 being the ultimate join/dismiss before it's official, and 6 being conclusive recruitment. I set the variable to -1 if for some reason you failed to recruit them, or told them to bugger off. So in the end, the events are based off if conditional switch = 6 or above in variable retaining to character.

so llike when you're in a base, like a spaceship or something, and have all your characters walking around as events, their condtions for loading will simply be if variable "silvprogression" = 6 or above. Of they won't be there. Superbly simple!

You can also use this to change their dialogue based on any side events that may pertain to them. so if they're progression of story is at 20, they may have something else to say, and at 40, something else.

Aside from that, the party manager I have as mentioned above, in combination with event switches is sufficient.

Oh and if you find a fix for auto-battle working and ATB, I'd be interested in it too. I've run into that problem as well and just gave up on getting it to work.

And just reading this gave me an idea as to what might fix it! But I have to experiment.. So i'll get back with this as soon as I'm able to do so.