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.)

---

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.   

Vore DBS...for MV!

 

Plugin:  Vore DBS MV (Basic)

Download: Itchio

Link also includes MZ version of Plugin and MV Demo.

What does it do?

The Vore DBS simulates vore through the battle system.  When the pred applies a Vore state to a target, the prey is limited to the "stomach" while the outside party won't be able to reach the target normally.

Aside from the core mechanic, there are numerous tags to customize the pred from digestion to graphic changes.  This is regarded as the Basic version compared to what was put in Ace, so there should be an Advanced version at a later date with more mechanics.

Test your (Poison) Limit

Plugin:  Poison Limit

Download: Right Click and Save

What does it do:

This Plugin allows you to alter the Regen/Poison so that the same state does not affect everyone the same way.  It should work for MV and MZ.

Tags are structured as <(Poison/Regen)(Multiplier/Limit)(Hp/Mp/Tp): n>,  so <PoisonMultiplierHp: 50> will make negative Hp regen 50% effective.

-Poison affects total negative regen while Regen affects total positive regen.  This means if you have 5% negative regen and 3% positive regen, the first total is 2% negative regen so the Poison tags take effect.

-Multiplier multiplies the value (100 = 100%) and stacks multiplicative (50% * 50% = 25%).  Limit sets an upper cap for the value.

-Hp/Mp/Tp affects that stat.  If you want to affect Hp and Mp on one object, you would have to use two tags.

Tags can be placed in enemies/actors, armor and states.

Example:

Evil King Bob is a strong boss with 100000 HP, strong enough to take 50% Poison damage and has an amulet that caps Poison damage at 1000 HP.  Now,  a pesky hero hits him with Poison, usually dealing 10% of max health, so someone with as much HP as him may suffer 10000 damage per turn!  Thankfully, he is strong enough to theoretically get 5000 damage instead, but his equipment means he only gets 1000 damage per turn!

As seen above, this plugin can be used to reduce the amount of damage a boss gets compared to a regular enemy so that Poison states can't be used to cheese bosses.  Fans of Borderlands two can also apply Slag, which doubles DoTs.  And it turns out you can use negative numbers with meta tags, so  you can turn Poison into Regen.

Changelog:

2/13 - A few fixes.  Separated Poison and Regen.

Am I back?

Sorry for skipping a year.  I did not focus much on RPG Maker for a time, but I'm planning to this year, and hopefully, I will rant some ideas in-between actual content.

Anyway, my current plan is to make at least one Battler pack and one full game by the end of this year, though I hope to do two of each.  Also, at this point, I will start focusing on RPG Maker MV (and probably MZ at some point).

Stealing the Party

http://bastianfanworks.dreamchaos.net/downloads/PartyStealer.txt

So here's another script.  What this does is that if an event script-calls party_steal , the event will most likely take your party leader or specified actor.  You can also return or relocate that party member, plus you can set the event's graphics to match that party member.

Edit: The leader can now be captured too!  If you decide to have a party but only want the leader to be captured, you can set STRAIGHTCAPTURE to true.
Edit 2: A couple of bug fixes.  Camera will follow event containing Player and released actors will spawn at their holding events.  In addition, the self-switch and the ability to not capture the Player can be specified, and there are notetags to relocate or "release" (trigger event) the actor if a state is found.  Plus finding/retrieving lost actors has been changed, now able to specify a group of maps.

Random Sprites by Random Sprites

Yeah, I don't know where I'm going with these sprites.

Tasty Bunny, I mean, Yanfly Vore version up.

Okay, so two things.

Vore Default Battle System script (updated)

Vore Yanfly Battle Edition script  (place this version after Yanlfy Battle Engine)


Since the last time I posted, the Vore DBS has been updated, mainly with these changes:
- Addons merged with VDBS:
-- Healgestion can make allied prey negate digestion and heal their preds.
-- Death on Digestion can give preds another animation.
-- Digestion can change switches and variables, and can also remove actors or force defeat.
- Fixed a bug where death to prey before digestion can cause digestion damage to everyone.
- Fixed a bug where party didn't target themselves properly.

The Yanfly version is up to date with this feature, though there is one change from the DBS version:
- Tags to add Actor Battlers (and positions) removed.
- The PredBattler and PreyBattler tags can be used to set the faces of the actors instead.

Sitting on Resources

Just figured I should have some graphics up.  What are they used for?  Looking pretty?

First Addons for VDBS

So here are a few snippets to change up the Vore DBS.  Just place one of these snippets after the Vore DBS script.  Note that these snippets were made on a one-by-one basis so multiple snippets may not work together.

Digest (Percent) - This changes the Digest and PreyDigest tags to remove HP by percent rather than flat damage.

Digest (Formula) - This changes the Digest tag into <DigestHP: formula> and <DigestMP: formula> (and PreyDigest too).  The formula has a = pred and b = prey.

Digest Switches and Removal - This allow you to do the following:
- Prey with <DigestSwitch: id> turns that switch on.
- Prey with <DigestVariable: id type> changes that variable depending on type:
-- 1 - Adds 1
-- 2 - Subtract 1
-- 3 - Get ID of current map.
-- 4 - Get ID of pred.
-- 5 - Reset to 0
- Party Removal if Prey with <DigestRemove> is dead (last prey is not removed so that Defeat is triggered).
- Defeat if Prey with <DigestGameOver> is dead.

Healgestion - Allied Prey with <HealgestionHP: formula> or <HealgestionMP: formula> will not receive Digestion damage and will heal their friendly pred that amount.

Layered States Script Finished!

Script: Layered States (VX ACE)
Difficulty: Easy/Medium
Short Version: Layer your States like a sandwich!

Like a Layered Dip

I want to experiment on having Layered States.

Any state tagged as a Layer State currently shares one array.  Adding a Layer State would add to that array in the order used.  Removing a Layer State, however, will remove the latest layer (assuming the skill possesses removal for that state).

I want to try making this because, from a bondage standpoint, it would be interesting having to open each layer one by one.  From a non-fetish standpoint, perhaps layering barrier spells.

Right now, though, I did make the prototype using a separate array from states, so I'll have to add the Layer states with the regular states.  I'll also have to work out some "priorities" as I won't be able to fit a bodybag over a barrier spell.  And eventually, I may experiment on either an Equip version or a Scene to read-out the layers.

Vore DBS Version 2

Game: VoreDBS
Status: Demo V1.0
Link: http://www.mediafire.com/file/1kzrt2s4ea8i4e9/VDBS2.zip/file

My version of a Vore battle system.  When you apply the designated Vore State, the caster becomes the pred and the prey will be limited to targeting the belly.

Features:
- It will be possible for both enemies and actors to be preds, even eat each other!
- Features like digestion, eating multiple preds, changing graphics, prevoring, willing prey, and a lot of stuff.
- You can use the script inside the demo (co-credit Himeworks as her State Casters made this version of Vore DBS possible).

Update:
12-14-19 - Fixes to Damage Balance and Digestion, 5 more battles (talk to all healers to access them)
12-14-19 - Graphics won't overwrite with "default", some new tags.

Most of the progress is from adjusting the database.  Here is what will be featured when the next rubbery demo comes around:
-You will earn EXP and Gold by playing with rubbery victims, escaping any time.  You can earn more by making them collapse.  However, patrols might come to ruin your fun (and you can't earn partial/escape EXP from them).
-Hybrid enemies are powered with rubbery "cores".  You can fight it normally, but you can also play with the core to drain its MP and mess up its strategy.
-Tactical enemies are too small and quick to fight properly.
-And stuff.

Ideas for future release:
-Perhaps human guards and a state to turn them into rubbery playthings.
-Try to have the Battler Layers reset for transformations and certain revives.

Patting is Not Damage

A few adjustments to the battle system.  As you may know, I'm planning for this project to have 2 main skill types, where one type can only target Fun enemies and the other can only target Fighting enemies.

-Adjustment 1: Skill Types determine damage motion, where Fun skills would make an enemy quiver while Fight Skills has the normal animation.  Since animations don't seem to be based on items, I simply add a state inside the damage method so that the battler can be used inside the animation.  This also means keeping the state on death and removing it at the end of the animation.

-Adjustment 2: Using a Fun skill on a Fun enemy will deal HP damage.  However, using a Fun Skill on Hybrid enemies (tagged with both Fun and Fight) will instead deal MP damage, then deal leftover as HP damage.  For example, Battery Armor is considered a Hybrid since it is a Robot with an exposed rubber person as a power supply; having Fun with the enemy would drain that power supply which can mess up their battle behavior.