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

[Milennin]

I'm not sure since I've never used it, but TP is built every turn and can be used for special abilities? I would make the game remember each character's TP, but also make it decrease by a set % after a battle ends, otherwise the player can just save up full TP bars for a boss fight. By decreasing it after a battle it also motivates the player to use TP more regularly instead of saving it for tough battles only.

 

[Chaos Avian]

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

Well unless it happens to be a first person dungeon crawler and an orange ball of death starts chasing you, then no. Random encounters and touch encounters on the same map can go to hell.

I'm not sure since I've never used it, but TP is built every turn and can be used for special abilities?

I think the way Ace intended it to was for the physical based characters. i.e. The Warrior/ Solider would use skills that cost TP rather than MP and due to the default way TP is generated it could keep the physical classes using their special skills almost constantly. In theory anyway, just speculation on my end.

Another thing which I feel is bad is making a puzzle with no way to reset it if you screw up. "Whoops I made a mistake! Better step on this tile or exit and re-enter the room to try it agai-- HUH? IT'S THE SAME? Well screw you." That's bad and really turns off players. I don't want to have to reset your game in order to re-try a puzzle. God help you if you were doing everything on 1 save file and you happened to save mid-puzzle.

 

[amerk]

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

Most definitely. I've played my share of games like this. I won't debate the argument of which is better, since I play both styles religiously, however, when I see touch I come to believe the game is built on this style, and when I don't I believe it will be random.

When I see touch and then get into a random encounter on the same map, it catches me off guard, and not in a good way. It makes me think the developer didn't know what they were doing or how to design their own game, and that's a quick turn off.

 

[Indrah]

@the face thing: I dont want UNIMPORTANT (hat word beign vital) npcs having faces becuase it becoems a mess to tell who the heck is supposed to matter and who's just filler. It's not like a DEALBREAKER to me, but still an annoyance, and I feel a major waste or resources. THe only time I feel it's justified is when you have like a huvb city in the game where every time you return characters develop and behave differently, so each npoc is important on their own.

Otherwise Frick it. it just gets tiresome to try and remember who the heck is imporant since everyone is gvien the same treatment. It can already be ahrd on the player when you make unqiue sprites for anyone, adding in faces makes it a bit of a clusterufck to remember who's who and WHY YOU SHOULD CARE about them. I just find that have ven a egneric face/display for non imporotant chracters works better in the long run, since the player can tell right away what to expect and how to find important npcs.

Also, Visual Novels do this ebcause graphcis there are VERY IMPORTANT. You literally onyl ahvea  background and whatever busts you use. You don't have map sprites to signal you're talkign to anyone at all, so I woudln't count them here.

Another thing is that by usign faces you have 1-extra work and 2-a distraction. It's easy for a dev that's sitll a bit inexperienced to focus more on finding a good face that actually giving the damn nc good thigns to say. Content first! If the npc had nothign interesting to say, why would I care abotu a fuc*ing face.

@the tp thing: It's annoying when the RANDOMNESS prevents strategy. I mean that SOMTIMES you will have enough tp to start with a skill, and soemtimes you won't an be stuck twiddlign your thumbs. Magic casters can be effective from the first turn since their MP (however you want to use it, raise etc) is awasy fixed values, but starting tp is totally random, and it could go from 5 aka Frick you no skills to 20 aka ahahah sure have a free shot. If you want to use a starter mp, go rigth ahead. I have no issues there. I jsut have when the amount is random in a way that totally breaks a melee character's functionality in battle. It just becomes a fight agaisnt the random number generator :<

Tl: dr I have no problem with starting with a set number of TP (actually I'd rather start at least with a tiny bit to do at least a small skill), the problem comes when that numebr is random and can be too low to do anything, since MP does not have that issue and it becomes unfair to melee classes.

(A great example of this was Vagabond pre-patch, where melee classes didnt even have a basic "attack" and you could ONLY use skills. Meaning if you didnt start with the required 5 tp for the most basic skill, you were stuck sitting on your ass, while magic classes never had the issue).

@Ksi tile vomit? Ew woman don't bring those mental images up XD (tho I certainly agree)

@Touch and random encounters?! Are you insane?! FU*K NO. Unles it's static boss/gaurding sprites or evented chase sequences, fuc* that.

 

[Diretooth]

With TP, I generally have the characters keep the TP and let it fuel Limit Break type skills.

 

[Zane]

I don't know if this was mentioned but

- Wide spaced maps with no detail & the inability to sprint for no reason.

I hate it in the sense it means nothing 99% of the time.

 

[Mr. Detective]

Yeah, that's bad mapping. They already mentioned it.

Personally, I let the players sprint by pressing Shift, or turn on the automatic dash option in the menu.

 

[Diretooth]

I wonder if one could edit the base engine so that running is default, and pressing shift makes you move at walking speed.

 

[Kes]

@Diretooth

I don't think you can.  I use Yanfly's System Options script, set it to autodash as default at the beginning of the game, and then shift operates to make it walking speed.  If the player really hates that, s/he can put it back to the usual mode in Options.

 

[Ksi]

There is at least one script out there that allows you to change the speed of your walk, so making it into the same as dash speed, then turning off dash, is my cuppa tea~ Or if you have small maps, even some number between normal walk and dash works, too.

I'll double the random encounters and on-map battles. I recently played a game with both on the same map... it wasn't pretty. Now here's the kicker - I don't mind if it's separate maps, like one map has on-touch and another has random, as long as there's a good reason for it. Perhaps you've been sent to hunt mice in a basement and they've nicely put them as on-touch for ease of use. That, in my book, is perfectly fine.

I don't mind facesets for normal NPCs as long as they're more generic than the main characters and important NPCs. A reused faceset for just random NPCs is fine by me.

What I don't like when it comes to faces is using both facesets and names in-box. There's really no need for it. You have an identifier, you're just wasting space. We know who that person is - you showed us. You don't need to show us again. It's really just a little irk I have rather than a full-blown issue, but there it is.

 

[Zoltor]

@Diretooth

I don't think you can.  I use Yanfly's System Options script, set it to autodash as default at the beginning of the game, and then shift operates to make it walking speed.  If the player really hates that, s/he can put it back to the usual mode in Options.

With Yanfly's dash by default script, if I disable dashing on a certain map( aka like the world map), will it make the char move at walking speed or will the char be at dashing speed, due the dashing being turned into the default speed from the script?

You see I want dashing to not require holding down the stupid shift in towns, but at the same time, I don't want dashing speed allowed on "every" type of map.

 

[Dark_Metamorphosis]

With Yanfly's dash by default script, if I disable dashing on a certain map( aka like the world map), will it make the char move at walking speed or will the char be at dashing speed, due the dashing being turned into the default speed from the script?

You see I want dashing to not require holding down the stupid shift in towns, but at the same time, I don't want dashing speed allowed on "every" type of map.

If you disable dash completely, the run speed wont work at all. So yes you can toggle it even if It's set to be dashing by default.

 

[Zoltor]

If you disable dash completely, the run speed wont work at all. So yes you can toggle it even if It's set to be dashing by default.

That's awesome, thanks a lot.

 

[Dalph]

 

What I don't like when it comes to faces is using both facesets and names in-box. There's really no need for it. You have an identifier, you're just wasting space. We know who that person is - you showed us. You don't need to show us again. It's really just a little irk I have rather than a full-blown issue, but there it is.

It depends Liberty, if you have a lot of important characters that are introduced early in your game then it's hard to remember every name at first (but thank God this almost never happens in a game), so you have to use the names for sure. But can be a bit messy creating dialogues by two or more unknown characters without a faceset (unless you use a popup dialogue window on the character).

If the characters are not too many and introduced one at a time then yes, you don't need both the things and you can only use the facesets.

I agree.

 

[SLEEP]

People who disable dashing are literally the worst. LITERALLY THE WORST.

 

[Caustic]

I don't have a problem with not dashing, as long as it's appropriate. 

I wouldn't go running all amok in a dark room, would I? Neither is one going to dashing like crazy across a burning battlefield with an injured character, possibly screaming "Wheeeee!!" while doing so. Neither of those make a single bit of sense.

Now, cutting out the ability to flee in an area full of monsters, or having to drag one's arse across a large field map with nothing interesting to look at at a snail's pace? That is kind of a dick move.

 

[Ksi]

I'm fine with disabling it if you at least up the walk speed from, oh, snail to around hyperactive toddler instead.

 

[T.G.Fighterdoken]

the biggest mistake is a lack of testing.  for games to be complete they need lots of testing by many different people.  too many times i play games (rm specifically) and ever few steps there is a wall i can walk through, or a table i can climb on... or a move event the breaks the game... i can handle slow walk speeds, i can handle long intro's and cut scenes (i'm a fan of them if done right) - but games that play like crap, are usually crap.  story and "overall" experiance can make it better, but testing. test test test.

 

[Housekeeping]

What I don't like when it comes to faces is using both facesets and names in-box. There's really no need for it. You have an identifier, you're just wasting space. We know who that person is - you showed us. You don't need to show us again. It's really just a little irk I have rather than a full-blown issue, but there it is.

Welp, I'm guilty of this.  I get what you're saying, but I feel like name boxes and face sets have unique bonuses.  Names let me skip dialogue like, "Hello, I'm Gary," and then, after Gary has been introduced, I don't need, "Look, move out of the way, Gary--I'm talking specifically to you, Gary, just want to make that clear."  I like facesets because they allow characters to emote, so I can avoid dialogue like, "I'm so sad now that Gary's in that irreversible coma."  Instead I can show Gary in an iron lung and then just show a despondent looking person, which will feel more natural.

So don't judge me, damn it!

 

[Indrah]

If i use nameboxes at all, they will get used, face or not. I have no problem with it and it doesn't look bad to me.

(Besides it gives a chance to people who name their characters silly things to remember wtf they called them).

May or may not be an issue, buit certainly nto somthign that btohers me enough to change mah ways. *clings to her style*