Boss Patterns

When designing Enemies, they can generally be separated into actual Enemies and Bosses.  Some of you may be tempted to work on bosses since their fights stand out more, so let's look at Bosses first.

Now, there are different opinions on what makes a good or bad Boss.  A basic boss would generally take more hits and is able to outpace your normal attack pattern; Bowser and Robotnik are two reoccurring bosses where jumps and spindashes are not as effective and other means of attacks takes time to whittle down their health.  You may also notice that both villains set the standards for the rest of the following bosses, where Bowser adds more attacks while Robotnik goes for different patterns.  For Bowser, even if he throws more hammers and fireballs, players at this point would notice a small but safe pattern to get past him and drop the bridge.

What you may have noticed is that many boss fights have a sort of pattern to them.  While I'm tempted to follow World of Warcraft's boss mechanics, I also take a look at boss fights from other genres like platformers and shooters.  Let's take Graveward from looter-shooter Borderlands 3 for example.  The first type of pattern is his Attack Patterns.  He will usually open with a Slam that tilts the ground and causes a wave of boulders to roll down, then he will generally Punch or Sweep the battlefield, and if not dealt with quickly, he also Summons Mobs.  However, Graveward is a Damage Sponge that was patched to not take much Damage Over Time, which is where the Weakness Pattern can be exploited; other than his chest, Graveward leaves himself open to big damage after a Punch and if his HP is down to a certain point.   Of course, these patterns also affect a player's reaction, from making sure they don't slip down the slope to dealing with mobs and shooting the critical points.

To the First Dungeon

 Continuing my rant from before, I want to make the first dungeon before I start making the game.

 Technically, the roadmap of the first dungeon is the Town, the Field, and the Dungeon.  Some games may start with a "Tutorial Zone" that may start in a Field or Dungeon, but generally, it may be a good idea to start with this three-part leg before you start teaching players how to play the game.

First, let's start with the Town.  This is the Safe Zone, a place with no monsters to encounter, which would also include places to refill and upgrade yourself using what you earned.  When designing a Dungeon, the question is if you want to return to this Town or if you plan to head to the next Town.

Next, we have the Field.  This area may or may not have battles, but the area is quicker or lighter to move through than a dungeon.  Traditionally, the World Map is a Field from one Town or Dungeon to another, though some Fields can also be normal maps that connect Towns and Dungeons.

After you get an idea how the three sets of maps connect to each other, then we figure out how to make a Dungeon.  Most RPGs tend to have one Boss at the end of each Dungeon, though some bosses may have more.  Some RPGs also place puzzles and some tools in these Dungeons, but regardless of how these dungeons are set up, most dungeons generally follow the same structure as the first.  That is why it's important to work on the First Dungeon set so that you basically make a template for the other dungeons.

Simple? I Wish.

I have so many ideas, but I think, in order to realize these ideas, I should start simple.

First, I should experiment using only the Base settings.  In MV, there are only four items and four armors, and I should only work with these things.  This is because I'm likely to test the game without leveling the party at this point, so making future equipment should not be a big concern.  Also, part of the first test batch would be to adjust the base items if needed, so at a later date, I can copy and upgrade from these base "templates".*

Second, I should experiment with little to no Plugins.  I say little as I would pre-load some Plugins if I plan to build my game around some mechanics, but those mechanics are around battle strategies and not equipment.  In MMOs, most players would start with small amounts of common equipment and are not expected to wear special properties until after the introduction stage, so no Plugins would be in effect at that point.  

To put it this way, I want to plan out the first game, but I should actually be planning the first dungeon then the first half of the game.  I need to ask myself:  What would I start with and what would I have or need to do when I reach the first boss?  If I am able to complete the first dungeon, I expect the second dungeon to act like the first, so I can then copy the first dungeon over to the second.  Like the Legend of Zelda, my first dungeon introduces the layout of going through the place with a sword and shield, grabbing a new tool halfway, so future dungeons can be like this.  It's only after the "midpoint" of the actual game where more advanced mechanics like time travel and upgrades should be present, so it's only after I workout the starting details that I can then add in the actual details.

*I did see a Plugin that should re-organize items by tagged priority, which should be useful if you are planning to upgrade items by series but want to sort them in the game by type.

Smart Weapon

 

Plugin:  Smart Weapon

Download: Right Click and Save

MZ Version: Right Click and Save

What does it do:

Based on World of Warcraft, players with a specific "stat" gains the main "stat" of the equipment.

Actors/Classes that have <SmartStat: string> that match part of the Equipment with a <SmartStat: string> will gain stats defined in the Plugin.  <SmartStatName paramid: string> can also be placed on an Actor/Class to rename that stat.

Example:

The default stat will be Attack, and we have a Vanilla Dagger that gives 10 Attack and 10 HP, and the Dagger is designed for Int and Agi.  A wizard with Int gains 10 Attack and 10 HP, but a Warrior with Str only gains the 10 HP.

Enemy Design

Currently designing Enemies.  But what does that mean?

If you are using RPG Maker's default monsters...Most of Ace's monsters use Attack and another skill, though MZ at least sets a few conditions for the second skill.  However, RPG Maker tends to also had default troops of the same monsters, plus monsters progressively get stronger than their previous entries.  Some RPG Maker games default to this design, so when I fight a group containing a Succubus, I'm likely to fight a group of Succubus, so I lack variety.

Of course, if you read Yanfly's Dungeon Design, one way to design dungeons is to create archetypes of the monsters you're fighting.  While Yanfly uses a "party" example, I did play a game where each dungeon is focused on a group of States and two enemies generally cast one of the States (so there are about 4-6 monsters per dungeon).

Similarly, the monsters can be designed on gimmicks rather than architypes, based on a book I read.  In that book, I read that two example monsters were weak, but one could attack more times and another was designed to appear in mass numbers.  Of course, this gimmick can also apply to rarer monsters like the Mimic.

Currently, I am following the archetype design, but I will generally use five kinds of monsters:  Normal, two ranks of the State-appliers, and two ranks of Eaters, and because I want to make a tiered dungeon, there are three core groups, where each tier would increase in difficulty by adding a new archetype of monster (first tier accesses three types of monsters, the second tier accesses four types.)

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Using the first dungeon as an example, this one only has two bosses and the first half is intended to be a tutorial zone, so I actually have four monsters rather than five. Rather than straight attacking, I want to add some varieties.  Oh, and I intend for the dungeons to focus on one state, which in this case is Web (which turns into Cocoon after a few stacks).

-Rat - A simply monster.  While it will attack, it sometimes will Sniff and increases its Accuracy.

-Barnacle- A rather immobile monster, so it should have less Evasion.  It's one of the Appliers, so in addition to attacking and guarding, it also applies Web.

-Spider- The advanced Applier of Web.  What I mean is that, in addition to applying Web, it can also Entangle to have a chance of converting Web to Cocoon instantly and Bite will apply Poison when the target is Cocooned.  In the first tier, only one Spider may be in battle.

- Worm- The dungeon's Eater, appears inside the second tier.  While it attacks, it can also Swallow, and when it does, it is able to Squeeze the victim inside.

MV Battler Samples

 So here's my progress on some of the Battlers:

Outside of my games, I plan to draw the 30 RTP monsters as listed in VX Ace, but sized and color-coded for MV.  These 30 monsters will be free.  But...

I also plan to craft variants of these 30 monsters.  For each monster, there will be 3 other "brothers in arms" species variants and 2 "father and son" size variants, crossing with each other.  One monster would have 12 selections to choose from, so my "Paid" pack would have 360 monsters in total!  No price yet, though, but likely to be available on Itch.io when done.

Bondage Movment System for MV

 Plugin: Bondage Movement System MV

Download:  Itchio  

Link includes additional bondage-related Plugins and a Demo.  All Plugins are compatible with MZ

What Does it Do?:

This plugin simulates bondage on the map (and partly in battle).   There are five tags that can be placed on the actors, armors and states:

<Hop> - You must hop to get through the place!

<Stuck> - Wiggle as you're rooted in place!

<Go> - You can't stop, even if you're not touching anything!

<Confuse: n> - The higher this number, the more likely you'll go off course!

<Jolt: n> - The higher this number, the more frequent you'll experience a jump!

The sixth tag, <Disarmed>, doesn't affect movement but can be altered to prevent ladder-climbing and is used to remove the weapon sprite.  This also includes a simple State Graphic replacer.

If I posted this on the blog before, this has 3 more tags than what was released in the Ace version, one of them a recent development.

What do the other Plugins do?:

I may have already featured them on this blog, but in case  I didn't, the plugins are MV/MZ versions of Gagspeak, Party Chaser, Swap Preserve, and standalone of the Disarmed tag.