Suggestions for the next RPG Maker

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

All we can do is hope... at the very least, 1.02a has a larger script box

 

[Tsukihime]

I don't know why they couldn't make the windows resizable. That seems like something Windows provides in their API.


I know some application developers enforce dimension restrictions because they don't really want to have to deal with how to resize the interface, but a script box ... is a box with a text area and two buttons.

 

[cabfe]

I don't know why they couldn't make the windows resizable. That seems like something Windows provides in their API.

I know some application developers enforce dimension restrictions because they don't really want to have to deal with how to resize the interface, but a script box ... is a box with a text area and two buttons.

I heard something about the program being made with .net framework, which IIRC is not very malleable in terms of window resizing.

Maybe a more advanced dev can confirm.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

I've used and made quite a number of programs using .NET framework and it's not that hard to make them resizable (I just chose not to, for most of them are just simple utilities anyways, so resize doesn't make sense)...


the only real problem with resizing is that you need to decide how the interface deals with the window resize, though as Hime said, it's only a text box with 2 buttons. and they could at least make it not-wrap texts since that will be easier to do than resizing I think...

 

[Ultimacj]

Yeah don't make it $90, I dont care what it can or cant do, just dont make it $90 or anywhere near that much lol.

Or wait til it goes on super sale on steam.  $17.99 out does $69.99

 

[jknightandkarr]

I hope this is in the right area, I couldn't think of where else to put it, so if its in the wrong area, I do appologize.

I thought of a possible update to RPG Maker VX Ace or even something to add to the next program in the series. After downloading the High Fantasy Resource Bundle packages, I was amazed at them, and wanted to add as many tile sets to each tile set collection as I could. I wanted to do stuff like add HF1_A3_1, HF1_A3_2 with HF2_A3_1, HF2_A3_2, so I could use all 4 of them on any town map I create, but couldn't. And I know that I can't expand them past the size of each tile set since they have to be a fixed size, so thought that maybe future VXA updates or next in series maybe change the tile set page so someone can add more then one A1 if one desired or F, G, H ect or possibly add a function to link tile set A1-A5 & B-E collections with other title set A1-A5 & B-E collections or now that I think of it maybe make it so I could take multiple A3's for example like the 4 A3's that are in the High Fantasy Resource Bundles and make one bigger A3 Title set that could optionally support something like 512 x 256*4 or 512*2 x 256*2 instead of just 512 x 256. Of course with in limits, after all we wouldn't want a 5,120 x 2,560 tile set. lol

Like I said, it's just a thought I had from me trying to use more High Fantasy Resource Bundles title sets into one collection.

Joe

 

[Shaz]

There is a thread for "suggestions for the next maker". I'll merge this post with that one. You might want to take a look through it to see what others have suggested.


You can edit the tilesheet images (or rather, a copy of them) which will allow you to merge tiles from different packs. However, with the A tiles, you have to be very careful about putting them in the right spot for their purpose.

 

[amerk]

The problem isn't so much a need of having unlimited tiles per each map. Every map has its limits of how many different tiles you're putting on before it becomes a mess. I don't think we need to revert back to XP's way of unlimited size, which became quite laggy and was a chore to hunt through a sheet that seemed to stretch on forever for the one single tile we wanted, just because we wanted to cram everything else in.

As Shaz stated, we can customize our own tilesets by picking and choosing which tiles we want from various sets. This is nice for a quick fix, but it does get a bit cumbersome when you have to do this over and over again, but at least the option is there, unlike with VX.

Personally, I'd like to see a sort of "click n paste" option in the next editor that allows you to select tiles you want and paste them into a blank sheet, and then "save as" in order to create your own sets. That way you don't have to mess with using 3rd party software and trying to deal with proper grid alignment, transparencies, proper saved formats, etc., unless you're also trying to recolor, edit, frankensprite, or clump tiles together.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

Unlimited layers, yes... but unlimited tiles per map? Just how big is the map you're making??? might as well just go with Zoltor's (if I'm right) suggestion of having the option to use any imported tilesheets... that way you won't even need to make tilesets on the database

 

[sitebender]

I've been using RPG Maker since maybe RPG Maker 95. The maker itself is pretty much the same with things added to game mechanics. But using it as extensively as I do, it feels very cumbersome to use, so I'd like to suggest some things.

Database search: You have find functions in the scripts, but not in the database itself. If I'm selecting a skill for an enemy to use, I have 600 skills. How will I find it? I sure can't type it in nor can I even find it with the first letter since everything is number coded. When I set actor skills, nothing is number coded. Where's the consistency there? Heck even being able to use the first (and second) letter to quickly find things would be so much easier.

Quick edit an entry: If I am editing an enemy skills, and stats, what about a quick jump to the skill I am opening instead of having to click skills, then find the skill or find the state.

Sort order entries: What about a sort order by alphabetic? You still have the IDs in the database, why not sort them? The IDs wouldn't change, but sorting them so a human can find things would be nice. In game there are ways to alphabetize things with scripts, but not in the actual maker itself.

Filters: Yep what about filters? If I want a skill that regenerates MP, I don't want to look through all 600 skills to find which 3 regenerate MP. Or how about finding enemies with over 1,000 HP?

Find in common events (or dialog): Some of my common events are excessively long. Dialog trees and such. How about a find feature to find things or even a jump to line feature?

Why haven't these things been implemented in almost 20 years of RPG maker?

Square and elliptical makers for battle regions: So I don't have to individually paint in areas. Heck why not even a fill function that will fill tilesetA that isn't water or lava? This can be done!

 

[Aceri]

I would like to see the next RPG Maker have:

Double support for both Ace and XP styles

Bring back the RM2k(3?) feature where you could choose between side-view and first-person view battle systems. When I say this I also mean giving the default actors a side-view battle sheet, just like in rm2k(3?)

Layers. I would love to see layers come back, though getting rid of the single layer design of Ace might hurt people like Celianna and Lunarea who do a lot of parallax mapping.

A progression difficulty setting. What I mean by this is like, if you're making multiple difficulties for your game(whether chosen by player or after beating the game on one), it would be nice, for me at least, to have a progression setting to play around with. For instance, for your first difficulty(easy/normal whatever) you go through and manually change the stats of the monsters you face and items you find. Then once ALL of that databasing has been done, have a feature where you can set the next difficulty to be a percentage higher than the previous one. Like say if I want my second difficulty to be 25% harder, I just go to where that's located in the database, and type in 25% and hit apply. I mean it probably wouldn't/couldn't be as simple as that, but that's just to give you a gist of what I mean.

A way to be able to add a difficulty tier, or "new game+" option to your game.

I had a few more ideas, but I forgot them.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

Allow parts of animations to go behind the target...

 

[Zoltor]

Allow parts of animations to go behind the target...

That would be cool, it would give the optical illusion of a effect surrounding the enemy, without needing the whole thing to be a cumbersome 3D mess(which thankfully this engine Isn't designed to do anyway)

 

[amerk]

I've seen a lot of great suggestions here. I've asked many myself. I think the top four areas that could made more flexible is in Map Properties by adding switch/variable options, Map Areas (bring those back but make them more advanced), changes in the database, and a more flexible music player.

Noteboxes added in for Map Properties, Map Areas, all areas of the database where they're not currently in, and in the Music Player. I can't think of how the Noteboxes could be used for some of these areas, but the more noteboxes we have, the better it will be to script for in the long run.

For that matter, including Noteboxes in the event commands might allow scripters the ability to change the way a command processes, or the ability to add commands not currently there - not entirely sure about this one though.

As for the flexibility of the music player, what I'm looking for is something like this:

• The ability to create loops within the maker for any track on any given map, scene, or battle.
• The ability to decide when a track should play. For example, if you want a BGM to begin after an intro ME, you currently have to time it and add the wait commands. A feature that tells the system to wait until the ME ends to play this music would be nice.
• The ability to fastforward a BGM or ME.
• The ability to play with the pitch of a BGM or ME while it's running, so you don't have to start it over each and every time - especially when you want to test the pitch somewhere in the middle of the track.
• The ability to set pitch changes throughout the track. This would be exceptionally useful to be used in conjunction with loops, since you can have a track start off at one pitch, but then increase or decrease as the scene unfolds, and have it loop at the point the pitch changes so it doesn't start over again.
• The ability to export are altered BGM/ME's (with their changes in volume, pitches, and loops) so we can easily copy and paste for other projects we want to use these in, without having to scrounge for the event these all changed in.

 

[Mouser]

Suggestions: First, as alluded to above: the ability to change the pitch of a sound track but WITHOUT changing its tempo. It's 2014, that's old technology now.

Unlimited Regions per map (or at least practially unlimited - a 64 bit INT's worth). I don't want to have to chop my world map into bite sized pieces because I can only have a few mob sets in the world.

Networking support: Anyone who doesn't think a multiplayer 2D game could catch on should check out Maple Story.

Multiple screen resolutions - and the ability for the player to select the resolution they want to play at (again, 2014).

Better support for concurrent processes. Threads, not just Fibers.

Those are my top five.

Oh, and how could I forget tilesets - easiest way would be add pages F, G, H, I, and J.  And  map layers. multiple map layers with out of the box Photoshop support.

Price point doesn't bother me as long as it delivers: $200 or $199, $150 on sale would be fine - the price of three or four console games. I'd say PC games, but I'm not sure how much longer there will even be non-MMO or 'casual' PC games at this point...

 

[Tsukihime]

Unlimited Regions per map (or at least practially unlimited - a 64 bit INT's worth). I don't want to have to chop my world map into bite sized pieces because I can only have a few mob sets in the world.

unsigned 16-bits worth for the region is enough (rather than the current 6 bits).


I don't think anyone will have any practical need for 65000 regions on a single map, especially the way it is currently designed.


If they removed the 250k tile limit on a map then there might become a need for more regions (4-bytes would still be better than 8-bytes)


Using 64 bits per region would mean the size of your map file will go up by a huge amount (relatively) even when most of them are probably zero region.

Better support for concurrent processes. Threads, not just Fibers.

I think this is a Ruby limitation.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

@Amerk - doesn't the regions basically do what the old Areas does? as for noteboxes in events, I think people already just use the comments command for that.

And map layers. multiple map layers with out of the box Photoshop support.

What will the Photoshop support be for?

 

[Tsukihime]

@Amerk - doesn't the regions basically do what the old Areas does? as for noteboxes in events, I think people already just use the comments command for that.

I don't like cluttering event commands with comments.

 

[2d_quest]

It's a lot harder to do programming in battle.  It would be easier if we had battle conditions that we could check for in the actor and enemies, but more than just their hp. 

            common battle events

-allows the same conditions as the pages for troops do which are different than regular event pages, but allows application to all battles without copying code 100 times.

            new battle conditions for actor and enemy conditions

                        players

                                    -being ordered

                                    -being attacked

                                    -using skill (includes attacking) and which skill

                        enemy

                                    -being attacked

                                    -using skill and which skill

 

[Aceri]

Allow characters and monsters to have inheritable, customizable states. I would like the ability to make my bosses enrage if the fight goes on longer than it should(gear check basically) without having to screw around with switches and variables for every boss to make it happen.