Not So Predicatble...Yet.

I remember the first boss of The Fates We Weave.  It was a good demonstration of tanking, where the boss charges for one turn and you would Guard the next turn.  It was also when I wanted to have a "predictive" battle engine, one that can determine the next attack to Guard against.  Mind you that I was still learning the depths of VX Ace at the time, but looking back, I can say that it would have been difficult; enemy attacks occur sometime before they strike if the change in who they attack had anything to say.

But I think I will attempt it this time, at least a version that doesn't have to be as accurate.  

First, this prediction engine would activate at the end of the turn (or in the beginning before party commands).  Secondly, the engine will mainly predict the attack that needs to be Guarded.  Thankfully, I use a notetag to modify the skill, so I just have to look for skills with that property.

The general plan is that I would use a copy of the method that determines which skill an enemy chooses and repeat it several times to build an array.  I would then run the array to get a count of how many skills need to be Guarded as well as their general direction, then I play an animation based on that information.  For example, the boss I mentioned earlier uses a State to unlock the AoE, so the array should get me 10/10 of the Tanking: Normal attack, a red warning with a red haze.  The warning would be red or yellow depending on the likelihood Guard is needed.  The following haze would also be red or yellow; the haze would be yellow if the attack came from Left or Right which affects Guard positioning, but if the attack isn't that big on position, the red haze indicates a simpler selection.