Battlescreen Mockup

[winkio]

So we need to figure out how we want our battle screen to look.

The battlescreen consists of the battleback, the battlers, the status display, the help display, and various command displays.  Come up with a mockup that organizes all of these.  Also, if the status window or any of the battlers use hp/sp/anything bars, include those in the mockup.

Normal battlebacks are 640x320, leaving a 640x160 space blank at the bottom for command windows.  All RTP battlebacks stretch vertically pretty well, so I see no problem with stretching it to the full 640x480 or even something in between, if we wanted.

While the default RMXP battle system uses windows for all the displays, we do not necessarily have to do that if we do not want to.  Instead, we can create HUD-like displays that are simply drawn over everything else.

For reference, here are some different battlescreens from famous 2D RPGs:

Spoiler: ShowHide

[WhiteRose]

Here is a quick (and I mean really quick) mockup that I just sketched by hand of a possible idea. It turned out a little blurry (my camera isn't very good,) so I'll translate what I wrote.

Spoiler: ShowHide

The menu on the left is the action selection menu. To the right of it is a window that pops out when "Magic" or "Item" or whatever is selected, allowing the player to select which one.

The party is on the right; they're kind of small, to make the monsters appear bigger and more epic. They're not extremely small, though; I'd say about 60% of RTP battlers, give or take a bit.

The enemies are on the side facing them. They have their own HP bars beneath them, in addition to possibly SP bars if they cast magic.

In the top right is the party HUD, displaying status, HP, SP, and MP.

So, thoughts?

[winkio]

Yeah, I was attempting to put together a mockup, and noticed that the battlers are enormous, so I think we have to place the battlers either horizontally or diagonally in order to fit everything.  I'm in favor of enemies having their own bars on their battlers, and underneath looks like a good spot for your setup.  Try and make a mockup using actual sprites when you can, but it looks good

[Blizzard]

IT'S A CARROT!

[AliveDrive]

I like this.

We so we need battlers facing to the LEFT then?

[G_G]

WhiteRose, I fucking love your drawing <3 Its so cutsie. And your handwriting is 10x better than mine xD

[WhiteRose]

WhiteRose, I fucking love your drawing <3 Its so cutsie. And your handwriting is 10x better than mine xD

Haha, thanks G_G.

[Blizzard]

My handwriting sucks in general. In comparison to your handwriting... Well, if your handwriting was an average person, then mine would be an ugly grandpa nazi zombie without an arm, a rotting eye and NO PENIS, OMG.

[G_G]

LOL http://theoatmeal.com/blog/handwriting

[winkio]

so going back to WhiteRose's drawing:
1.  The action window (attack/item/magic/etc.) does not show all the time.  That leaves us with an awkward empty space in the corner.  Do we extend the help window underneath it, use the command window as a secondary help window instead of making it go away, or arrange stuff differently?

EDIT: by using it as a secondary help window, we could use it to display stuff like

Ghost uses Haunt!  Critical Hit!  William takes 23 damage

Or since we are using timed hits, we can indicate when and what to press graphically.

EDIT2: to do this, we could have a little circle and the outline of a target.  The circle is programmed to move around differently for each attack/skill, but if you press it when it is in contact with the target outline, you get the timed hit.  If you press it when it is exactly in the center of the target (1 frame), it will critical.  For defense, in contact would be a normal block, in the center would be a perfect block (0 damage).  Thoughts?

EDIT3: in case anybody is still reading this topic, I'm just going to formally declare that I am working on a prototype of the battle system.  It is going to use the layout as depicted in WhiteRose's mockup and use the timed hits indicator I mentioned above.

[WhiteRose]

EDIT3: in case anybody is still reading this topic, I'm just going to formally declare that I am working on a prototype of the battle system.  It is going to use the layout as depicted in WhiteRose's mockup and use the timed hits indicator I mentioned above.

Excellent. I look forward to seeing your prototype.

[winkio]

Well I have the layout and cursor/target system done, all that's left is to program the animation and damage change for timed hits and draw some bars.

EDIT: trying to find a better idea for the menu

Spoiler: ShowHide

[Hatsamu]

I really like how the characters are displayed.

Could anything like this quick example be done?

Spoiler: ShowHide

(I mean, using an image with some cool shape instead of a regular window, maybe making the actual window invisible and using the show image command?)

[winkio]

We can use any graphics we want, but personally I like windows better.  Also, I got an idea for how to make the menu better, but I won't have time until Friday.

EDIT: built in the damage effect of timed hits.  there's two possible types right now: it either multiplies the damage (x2 for perfect, x1.5 for timed), or adds additional damage (+d for perfect, +d/2 for timed).  The reason for both is that the system allows for multiple target frames per hit, for example, if it's something like cross slash, we could have two targets that add 20 damage each, etc.  Still working on animation.

EDIT2: finally finished animation.  Each target has the option of playing a new animation, so we could have combos/whatnot with different animations and sounds.  Just working on the bars and then I'll put up a prototype.

EDIT3: I got sidetracked making a new type of window for the commands, but I just finished that.  The actor bars are done, just have to put the enemy bars in and set up a few examples, and then I should be able to put up the prototype.  It's looking pretty great and playing even better