Suggestions for the next RPG Maker

[whitesphere]

This would be very useful:

* How about direct "Download Scripts" support in the editor?  For example, the user would click "Manage Scripts", which would download a list of scripts from the Current Script List.   The user could then choose one or more Scripts which would be downloaded and inserted into the current project.  The user could also search by function, name, author, etc.  The "Download Scripts" support could also check the version of a Script against the newest one and offer to update any out-of-date scripts.

** When each Script is uploaded, it would have a simple tag set which identifies the author, describes the purpose, indicates if the script must be edited before use, and perhaps includes screenshots and an example project, as well as a download location.  These would be used to populate the Script List in the editor.

I know we currently have a script list, but this would make it easier to use directly from within RPG Maker.   And, most importantly, easier to search through the huge list of available scripts to find the right tool for the job.

Also I'm sure the below can be done nicely with scripts:

* The ability to set Conditions for Troop encounters, like we do for Events.  This would make it easy to say "If you defeat the head Thief, no more Thief encounters"

* During Battles, the ability to execute a Common Event when a particular enemy (or enemies) are hit.  This would make it easy to say "If you attack the Dark Lord with fire, he has an immediate magical counter-attack of, say, Dark Curse"  This type of technique is put to great effect in Chrono Trigger to make the bosses trickier.  There is a Counter-Attack status but that always seems to execute a Physical attack

* An extra Condition which is "True if item <X> is being worn."  I assume the Condition "Item <X> in inventory" doesn't care if the item is being worn or not.    This allows you to say "These goggles let you see ghosts if they're being worn," which makes much more sense than "These goggles let you see ghosts, even if they're in your pocket."

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

well, that will mean they need to have a dedicated place where we will upload our scripts... remember that not all people post their scripts here (Yanfly for example)...


as for the "if <X> item is equipped": You can get the currently equipped item of an actor as a condition, it's on the 2nd page of the conditional branch options

 

[Tai_MT]

Some people also charge for their Scripts, especially if you want to use them in a Commercial Game you plan to make money on.  A "download scripts" function may not be the best way to go about such things.  In fact, I'd say it might be a terrible way to go about things.

As for the thing about equipped things allow stuff...  Well, you can do that with common events.  Fairly easily as well.  "If X is equipped, change variable to 1".  Make every event that those goggles affect have a second page that is only active when that particular variable reads 1.  Then, in the "Else" option, you just have "Set Variable to 0".  If you wanted, you might even be able to set the Common Event to only activate once you pick up the goggles so as to minimize lag...  You might even be able to shut off the Common Event again once you no longer need those goggles for the same purpose of minimizing lag.

I currently, in my own game, have an event that runs down a timer if you have specific items equipped (well, it runs UP the timer, but the effect is an invisible countdown).  As long as it's equipped, the timer counts.  Unequip it, and the timer stops counting.  Same principle as what you're looking to do.

Also, I think your idea about the counter-attack thing would work without a script so long as you evented the encounter (there are pages in the monsters and troops stuff in there for things like that).  Looking through it, it might be tricky, but I think you could also set up a "conditional branch" that would force the enemy to use a specific attack as long as the condition of "enemy had status of x inflicted on it" was there.  You could easily just add hidden "status effects" on your elements that would only "tag" your enemies and do nothing else.  Kind of a crude way to do it, but you could easily cobble that together without a script in about 2 minutes.

I'm not sure if there's an easier way to do the "thief no longer shows up" thing except by making an exact duplicate of the map and simply removing the "Thief" enemy from it.  Then, you could simply teleport the players there.  I'm not sure if there's a way to add/remove those little colored/numbered boxes to the map or change their monsters with events (I haven't looked into it, or used the system yet).  In any case, I'd do it with the duplicate map/teleporting thing.

But, hey, I'm one of those people that only resorts to scripts when it's absolutely impossible to program otherwise.  As in, almost never.  Lots of things can be done through clever eventing.  Though, I do recommend scripting of some things just because it would a lot easier, a lot less time consuming, and in some cases, saves you a lot of processing power on maps (no lag).

 

[Matombo]

providing .txt files for dlc's with meta information that can be automaticaly read by the maker

like: passability for tilesets

or auto import the whole dlc in the right places

and also what would be very nice: license information and an automatic "generate credits" button or so

 

[SoulPour777]

• RM Project Patcher - A tool where you can easily patch your progress and changes throughout the project.

Code Snippets - A code snippet button and tool where you can generate well known and commonly or frequently requested script, such as HUDs, Score Board, Custom Menu (easy and simple), etc.

 

[whitesphere]

Some people also charge for their Scripts, especially if you want to use them in a Commercial Game you plan to make money on.  A "download scripts" function may not be the best way to go about such things.  In fact, I'd say it might be a terrible way to go about things.

As for the thing about equipped things allow stuff...  Well, you can do that with common events.  Fairly easily as well.  "If X is equipped, change variable to 1".  Make every event that those goggles affect have a second page that is only active when that particular variable reads 1.  Then, in the "Else" option, you just have "Set Variable to 0".  If you wanted, you might even be able to set the Common Event to only activate once you pick up the goggles so as to minimize lag...  You might even be able to shut off the Common Event again once you no longer need those goggles for the same purpose of minimizing lag.

I currently, in my own game, have an event that runs down a timer if you have specific items equipped (well, it runs UP the timer, but the effect is an invisible countdown).  As long as it's equipped, the timer counts.  Unequip it, and the timer stops counting.  Same principle as what you're looking to do.

Also, I think your idea about the counter-attack thing would work without a script so long as you evented the encounter (there are pages in the monsters and troops stuff in there for things like that).  Looking through it, it might be tricky, but I think you could also set up a "conditional branch" that would force the enemy to use a specific attack as long as the condition of "enemy had status of x inflicted on it" was there.  You could easily just add hidden "status effects" on your elements that would only "tag" your enemies and do nothing else.  Kind of a crude way to do it, but you could easily cobble that together without a script in about 2 minutes.

I'm not sure if there's an easier way to do the "thief no longer shows up" thing except by making an exact duplicate of the map and simply removing the "Thief" enemy from it.  Then, you could simply teleport the players there.  I'm not sure if there's a way to add/remove those little colored/numbered boxes to the map or change their monsters with events (I haven't looked into it, or used the system yet).  In any case, I'd do it with the duplicate map/teleporting thing.

But, hey, I'm one of those people that only resorts to scripts when it's absolutely impossible to program otherwise.  As in, almost never.  Lots of things can be done through clever eventing.  Though, I do recommend scripting of some things just because it would a lot easier, a lot less time consuming, and in some cases, saves you a lot of processing power on maps (no lag).

As for the first point:  Probably during the upload, the script would be tagged as "OK for commercial use" or "Contact author for permission.  The author might charge for commercial rights to his/her script."  And the game itself would be tagged as non-commercial or commercial.    So it is up to the game maker to be honest about the intentions, and if the game is commercial, it's up to the maker to contact the author.  

My concern is this:  right now, there are a ton of amazing scripts in the community which can solve pretty much any problem.  But trying to find said scripts seems to be rather difficult.  I have seen reference to a Master script list, which helps a lot, so to me it seemed to be a logical extension of that.  Many applications have plug-in managers which allow the user to easily install new plug-ins, and I feel scripts are the same idea for RPG Maker.

I like your idea with the "invisible status effects forcing the enemy to do something".  That looks like it might work.  So the weapon or Skill would inflict one of these hidden status effects, and the enemy would trigger off it.  

As for map duplication, that would partially resolve the issue, but that seems a very clunky way to go about it, because then I'd need to maintain 2 copies of the same map.  Granted, I would likely have a "Master" copy of the map and the slave which I just have the different encounter rate, but it's still a clunky workaround.  

I just like elegant, simple solutions.  

 

[amerk]

As was pointed out, you'd need a dedicated site that would handle this, and not everybody uses these sites. In fact, a lot of people use this site for the topic itself, but house the actual script on another site or blog. They'd have to want to come to a dedicated site to upload their scripts for such a functionality.

So if this was an option, you'd need both abilities (to manually insert scripts as well as to download it directly into the editor). The problem, though, unless people are willing to upload their scripts to a dedicated site as you are proposing, you're still going to have the issue of trying to find a lot of these scripts so you can manually insert them.

A better option might be to encourage people to start creating sample projects with their dlc's and scripts in tact, including any passabilities set for things like tilesets, to make it easier for users to copy and paste into existing projects, rather than confound the issue by having some things direct downloaded but not others.

 

[whitesphere]

As was pointed out, you'd need a dedicated site that would handle this, and not everybody uses these sites. In fact, a lot of people use this site for the topic itself, but house the actual script on another site or blog. They'd have to want to come to a dedicated site to upload their scripts for such a functionality.

So if this was an option, you'd need both abilities (to manually insert scripts as well as to download it directly into the editor). The problem, though, unless people are willing to upload their scripts to a dedicated site as you are proposing, you're still going to have the issue of trying to find a lot of these scripts so you can manually insert them.

A better option might be to encourage people to start creating sample projects with their dlc's and scripts in tact, including any passabilities set for things like tilesets, to make it easier for users to copy and paste into existing projects, rather than confound the issue by having some things direct downloaded but not others.

I see your point.  It would only help if virtually everyone who creates scripts were willing to upload their scripts to this site.  Otherwise, it wouldn't really help, because people still wouldn't be able to find all available scripts.

I do like the idea of all DLC having sample projects, especially new tilesets, since the passable flags probably won't match neatly into the RTP defaults.

 

[Tai_MT]

Yeah, the map thing would be clunky, but it is how I would go about it (I'm adverse to using scripts if I don't have to, so this would be my preferred way of doing things).  But, again, I haven't really messed with the other feature in which you can "paint" locations of enemies onto maps.  I'm not sure that can be altered or anything through eventing.  If it can't, I'd still go with the mapping (me, personally, anyone else is free to do as they please).  If it can... Then I'd go with that as it would be less clunky than making a duplicate of a map.

You'll have to remember that the "invisible status effects" must not be able to be used on your party members (or the jig is up and they're no longer invisible and the players are now wondering what these status effects do) and they must remove themselves at the end of the turn, otherwise the enemy will do the attack as long as they are active.

As for the scripts server idea thing...  I can see it going down this route fairly quick:  Server costs are really expensive, so the game makers are going to be paying for these servers in one way or another.  Bandwidth can be expensive as well.  I see whomever hosting the servers as charging those who put their scripts on there just to host them.  I then see most of the scripts (or all) suddenly turning into "pay to use" just so script developers could afford the cost of hosting their scripts.  It's likely they'd even require payment up front before you ever even saw a "Download Script" button appear.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

not really, if EB or Degica will host them... though unless the hosted page can be customized like how we go right now when posting our scripts on this site or on our own blogs (and preferably it's also accessible via a normal browser), I doubt I'd be willing to put my scripts in there


but then again, it will probably be a lot of work for them to build that

 

[amerk]

So after reading a topic about skills requiring multiple turns to use, and also seeing all the cool-down scripts for skills, I thought it might be kind of cool if we could get sort of a sub window we can use for skills like we do for enemy commands:

Let's say I want a skill that will need time to charge, and then causes a powerful attack that hits 100%, and then a chance to cool down:

I'd include my skill in the database. I'd then indicate the turn window for the skill to work (or whatever it would be called) and within it I'd say something to the nature:

3 turns to use:

Turn 1: Nothing happens (skill is being charged) - Maybe allow the user to type text to let the player know what's going on: Skill is charging.

Turn 2: Powerful hit (100% effective).

Turn 3: Nothing happens (skill is cooling down) - Maybe allow the user to type text to let the player know what's going on: Enemy is cooling down.

Just something that could be more flexible to use, and it would even work for enemies using the same skills against the player.

 

[TheoAllen]

Script call condition for event page would be nice ahay ~

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

I agree... that should have been included

 

[Knightmare]

Ace does a great job for most things RPG but I think next time they should make a Tactical RPG maker, or to be more diverse have three default builds you can use.  A regular firt person battle system like the current default, a sideview battle system, or a tactical battle system. 

 

[whitesphere]

I agree with Knightmare here.  It would be great to have at least 2 default battler views --- side view and front view.

Also, I'd like to see elemental absorption brought back, since it used to be present in XP.  For those who don't know, elemental absorption means "If you cast Fire at, say, a Fire Elemental, it heals the Fire Elemental instead of hurting it."

Also, for random encounters, it would be great if we could attach at least a Switch to the encounter.  So, if Switch X is ON, perform encounter X.

And, in the editor, it would be nice to at least add the "Draw Rectangle" and "Draw Ellipse" options to the region editing.  For large maps, it gets very awkward to draw the regions square by square.  Or, better yet, just add support for plug-in scripts to the editor, if that's at all feasible.  

Finally, I wonder how Enterbrain will decide which of the 300 million requested features in this thread they'll end up adding.

 

[Seacliff]

Finally, I wonder how Enterbrain will decide which of the 300 million requested features in this thread they'll end up adding.

With our luck? Probably none, chances are they never read this

 

[whitesphere]

With our luck? Probably none, chances are they never read this

I work on software, so my guess is the process will go something like this:

1. Find the, say, 20 most frequently requested features (they're already working on a prototype to port RPG Maker games to phones. the most requested feature)

2. Ask their developers to make estimates for how long it will take to implement each feature

3. Estimate how much money they're willing to invest in making the next RPG Maker version. 

4. Use the result from Step 3 and 2 to whittle down the feature list to one that can be fully implemented and tested within that time frame

5. Pay their developers to implement and test the features

6. Release new RPG Maker version

I'd just be interested in seeing the answer to #1, because I've been following this thread for months and have seen a ton of interesting ideas.

If I had to guess, I would say they'd start with this thread, since it is a useful starting point for people who, by definition, are already customers for RPG Maker. 

 

[Sharm]

Thing is, I don't think they will. This is a site run by Degica, not Enterbrain. Degica might be able to pass along some of our thoughts on the subject but more likely if Enterbrain is looking for ideas on what they should focus on next they'd probably stick to their own Japanese forums and ignore us entirely. I just hope that the quality of our art packs and the money we're making them will be enough for Enterbrain to at least be mildly curious about what we think.

 

[whitesphere]

Aaah, I forgot about that.  I wonder, in that case, what the Japanese forums users request, since that will probably be the lion's share of the results.  

 

[Tsukihime]

Ace does a great job for most things RPG but I think next time they should make a Tactical RPG maker, or to be more diverse have three default builds you can use.  A regular firt person battle system like the current default, a sideview battle system, or a tactical battle system.

They do have a maker specifically for tactical battle systems.




All of it basically comes out of the box.


http://rpgmaker.wikia.com/wiki/Sim_rpg_maker


It's really dated, but it was a pretty solid maker comparable to RPG Maker 95.


Probably wasn't any demand for it for further versions to be made though.