What are the #1 mistakes that RPG Maker games make?

[SLEEP]

I'm not blind, but it doesn't make sense to me, and I never saw a game with emotion facesets even for unimportant NPCs characters.

Too many facesets can confuse the player.

If everyone has a faceset it's not that confusing? You'll have to use something other than facesets to demonstrate which characters are important. Also, there are lots of commericial games with facesets for everyone. first example that comes to mind is the final fantasy tactics series, fire emblem series i think i'm not into fire emblem but i think it does, can't be bothered thinking of any more right now but thats just me bein lazy

lol its up to you what you include, i'm just explaining why people do it, i don't like using facesets at all myself but ya know i also don't mind other people using 'em whatever

 

[Zoltor]

TP does increase per hit, you can set that up on the skills you know?

Not unless his TP gain is slow... You can't absolutely say that it's true or false, because that depends on the game itself

Yea you have a point there, if the developer changed the formula to be slower, then yea 20 TP for a powerful ability might not be broken

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

I can't think of a really non-important, accessible NPC on the Tactics series

 

[Dark_Metamorphosis]

I think It's interesting with this TP talk, cause I have sort of a problem with it myself. I have some (2 at the moment) characters that only uses TP as a resource and I have heard different opinions (just like here). Some go crazy if the TP is low, or even starts at 0 in every fight. I have the default mode right now which gives you a random number of TP at each fight, I have tried to balance it by giving a specifc number of TP for when the character attack, block and so on and even have a spell that can be used once per battle that will instantly recover a fix amount of TP. I think that a spell like that can be used as a strategic point as well. I'm not sure which mode is the best for a strategical reason but I would love to find out!

 

[Dalph]

If everyone has a faceset it's not that confusing? You'll have to use something other than facesets to demonstrate which characters are important. Also, there are lots of commericial games with emotion facesets for everyone. first example that comes to mind is the final fantasy tactics series, fire emblem series i think i'm not into fire emblem but i think it does, can't be bothered thinking of any more right now but thats just me bein lazy

lol its up to you what you include, i'm just explaining why people do it, i don't like using facesets at all myself but ya know

I should've said RM game instead of game but whatever...

 

I don't know, I like everyone having facesets as long as 

1. They are of a consistent style (I agree with you on that, it's terrible when you mix them)

2. None are repeated/recolored and there are enough for everyone. (almost no game has this that I can think of, but if this were true of a game then I'd have no problem with everyone having a face)

I know that Indrah hates this like the pest (and apparently me too), unless we're talking about important NPCs it's useless and a waste of time and space too to add countless facesets. But if someone likes it, I'm perfectly fine with it.

 

[Alexander Amnell]

p

I can't think of a really non-important, accessible NPC on the Tactics series

There are a few of them used in scenes like the two women chatting as you wait for the ponytail guy with the gun and they do have their own facesets. Though they do have facesets for these people as well.

 

[SLEEP]

I should've said RM game instead of game but whatever...

ok. I haven't played enough rpg maker games to know but i don't care enough either 

I can't think of a really non-important, accessible NPC on the Tactics series

[Removed]

 

[Chaos Avian]

With the whole TP thing it's something that can easily be remedied and/ to edited to your liking. You can take away the RNG for TP, have it initialize at 0 or any digit. For the whole powerful skill costing 20, that'd be easily fine if you take any the TRG via receiving damage in the base script and set it's max at 20. So it's not a bug with Ace, just Enterbrain's preference.

For NPCs, I understand the whole not giving them faces, especially if you aren't using RTP characters, but what I think works quite well (facesets or busts) is to have "stock" sets that are just silhouettes; little boy, young man, male fighter and elderly man. Same for the females. Saw that in 1 RMXP game YEARS back and I see it in VNs every now and again.

 

[GammaVector]

I like NPCs to have faces. I mean, real people have faces even when they're not important, right?


I understand where y'all are coming from, though. Back when I was on my early FF binge, I got kinda conditioned to expect someone having a face to mean they were important. So I can see why it might be jarring.


As for reusing a particular face for multiple NPCs, I don't mind that either. As long as the face matches the sprite reasonably well, I'm happy.


EDIT: I really do hate it when people mix portrait styles, though. DS and RTP seem to be the main culprits, or DS and Samurai. It doesn't match at all. Now, Samurai and RTP, sure. But DS is very different from either of them, so it tends to look strange to me.


What's even worse is when tiles are mixed between styles. It's okay if it's Mack and RTP sometimes, though not on the same map. But if you're mixing DS and really anything else, it's going to look bad. God help me, I once saw somebody using Mack sprites and a mix of Mack and DS tiles. I nearly died. The scale difference was hilarious in a so-bad-it's-almost-a-drinking-game kind of way.

 

[Samsonite]

I'm cool either way when it comes to faces for NPC's: faces for everyone, faces for only important NPC's, or no faces at all. I just wish they had a face for the cat NPC. I put some cats in a couple towns that don't really do anything, but you can talk to them. I don't know why but it would just make me laugh to see a cat face while the dialogue of "Meow!" pops up onto the screen.

 

[Zoltor]

I'm cool either way when it comes to faces for NPC's: faces for everyone, faces for only important NPC's, or no faces at all. I just wish they had a face for the cat NPC. I put some cats in a couple towns that don't really do anything, but you can talk to them. I don't know why but it would just make me laugh to see a cat face while the dialogue of "Meow!" pops up onto the screen.

There's 2 Tiger faces in the Samurai resource pack if you want lmao.

To overall face discussion, the most compatible faces are Samurai, and Fantasy Hero(note: due to the style the Fantasy Hero faces are in, they'll go well with most art styles used these days by free lance artists, so they are very compatible in general).

 

[Ksi]

If I ever get around to it (and finish the generator versions) I might try my hand at making Ace sprite versions of the DS portraits. Hell, even DS versions of the RTP portraits would be neat too. I mean, there's already Ace sprite versions for them so why not facesets too?

Please for the love of all that is holy, do not use generator faces with any other kind. They're not bad if you edit them a little, but using them with other face styles just makes me wanna scream.

For the TP thing - I like carry over. If I've spent a battle building my TP up to 100 so I can use a skill, I want it ready or at least near to ready in the next battle. I think a nice 20% erosion is cool - that is, made 100 in a battle, next battle start with 80. I mean, seriously? Why deplete it? It's annoying to build it up to use a skill only to have the battle end without using the skill, then having to build up all over again and so on and so forth. Especially healing skills. If I want to use that healing skill I will fricking defend a whole battle through and just build up but that's boring as Frick and bad design. Forcing a player to turtle in a battle just so they can heal and run is just ugh. Frick you creator.

Also, tile vomit. Please don't do this. Try to balance your map with some white space so the player isn't confused about what is what, where to go and just get lost in the details that cover everything. Details are great, but they don't need to take over a map in such a way that it draws attention away from the important areas. Balance, guys, that's what games really come down to. Balance.

 

[Samsonite]

There's 2 Tiger faces in the Samurai resource pack if you want lmao.

To overall face discussion, the most compatible faces are Samurai, and Fantasy Hero(note: due to the style the Fantasy Hero faces are in, they'll go well with most art styles used these days by free lance artists, so they are very compatible in general).

Nah. It's just a cat face.

 

[Mr. Detective]

2) Using facesets for everyone adds consistency to how message windows are laid out. It also allows developers to use emotion sets on NPCs to spice up dialogue. Some people prefer an all or nothing approach. shrug

Yup. I prefer NPCs with faces. Not having them is fine, but that is kinda boring.

Anyway, I don't like where this thread is going. It went from "#1 mistakes in RM games" to "What I don't like to do in my game and don't want to see in other games".

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

well, most of easier things that you will think of as a mistake are things that you don't like...


it's take a bit more effort to think of objective mistakes

 

[Sharm]

I agree with Mr. Detective, the focus should be more on things that are clearly only done by game makers who don't know any better and not just a list of "I hate this in games."

 

[Makio-Kuta]

Yeah there are subjective things and personal tastes - and then there are mistakes. Like, forgetting to turn on a self switch on an event and having it trigger every time the player steps on it. (which, is a pretty common newbie mistake)

 

[Zoltor]

If I ever get around to it (and finish the generator versions) I might try my hand at making Ace sprite versions of the DS portraits. Hell, even DS versions of the RTP portraits would be neat too. I mean, there's already Ace sprite versions for them so why not facesets too?

Please for the love of all that is holy, do not use generator faces with any other kind. They're not bad if you edit them a little, but using them with other face styles just makes me wanna scream.

For the TP thing - I like carry over. If I've spent a battle building my TP up to 100 so I can use a skill, I want it ready or at least near to ready in the next battle. I think a nice 20% erosion is cool - that is, made 100 in a battle, next battle start with 80. I mean, seriously? Why deplete it? It's annoying to build it up to use a skill only to have the battle end without using the skill, then having to build up all over again and so on and so forth. Especially healing skills. If I want to use that healing skill I will fricking defend a whole battle through and just build up but that's boring as Frick and bad design. Forcing a player to turtle in a battle just so they can heal and run is just ugh. Frick you creator.

Also, tile vomit. Please don't do this. Try to balance your map with some white space so the player isn't confused about what is what, where to go and just get lost in the details that cover everything. Details are great, but they don't need to take over a map in such a way that it draws attention away from the important areas. Balance, guys, that's what games really come down to. Balance.

Yea, the generator's faces are in a style so unique to its self, It's like the High Fantasy Faces(just nowhere near as cool lol), even the DS's faces are more compatible with other resource set's/RTP faces(and it Isn't very compatible at all, so that's saying something)

 

[Archeia]

I forgot to add, games with Touch Encounters AND Random Encounters on the map...all at the same time.

 

[Dalph]

It can be subjective I agree, but I think that some of my points are shared by quite a few people too.

I agree with Liberty that maybe making the TPs carry over (and decreasing them by a percentage after the battle) is a better idea, however I still prefer a reset to 0 instead of the silly randomness at start. (doesn't make sense)

TPs can also increase by attacking however and not just by doing the turtle, so it's not always a matter of GUARD, GUARD, GUARD.

To be honest I don't really care either way, since I don't use them in my games.