What ABS is the best to use and friendly to modifications

[dullman]

Hello it's my question again, since i'm near the end of writing editor for game, i ask the basic question what ABS is the best i found two on internet that are popular XAS and Blizz-Abs but maybe there is another who will fit better for my projects here the criteria i want to be able to do in battle system:

- First general look (From screenes it's seems that XAS is better)
- Ability to summoning adittional creatures in fight (from what is written the XAS has also this ability)
- the team move in "squad" not catepillar (i really didn't like how catepillar looks)
- Ability to transform actor into beast/animal etc. with change in his skills etc. during fight for set time frame
- Compatibility with Time system (i want that one round last one minute in CCTS or more also scalable if user change flow of time to slower the time between attack takes longer)
- Ability to create large scale battles between two different factions (not counting player faction, the example is the arena when you can look for battle between two monsters, or attack on town where you are part of large defending forces (in this case it must be possbile to turn off all anti lag scripts since i want all characters fight on map not only those who are close to player)). From what i know the factions settings is available in Blizz-Abs
- when the map is loaded all enemies are created through script call Game_Enemy.new since i want to customize enemy class to have each instance og enemy have different bonuses, stats, loot etc.
- ability to change factions during fight (but it can be also use as state to attack friends, want to charm enemies)
- ability to call a script call to all enemies in a range (like every male who attack sexy female receives penalty to attack)
- ability to customize script by changing damage or how the hit is calculated.
- I want to use for semi-commecial game (crowdfunding will be used to finance animation for game so during developing phase only donators will have access to current version, free version will be released after completed game with source code and maybe some demo during developing phase). I know the blizz-abs has a term that are for non-commercial usage but if i decided to use blizz-abs i ask blizzard for permission and if rejected i go to second option
- Ability to use potions during fight
- And many more that will appear during developing phase

I appreaciate all opinions that will be said here, and if you know some other ABS write it.

[Zexion]

I don't think either abs has these by default, but I think XAS would be more likely to have all the plugins online somewhere. Another one you might want to look at is the Lycan Abs at Save-Point. I think it has most if not all of what you asked for. As for looks, if you mean the HUDs and combo counters, most of that has been released for BABS as well.

Also, it seems like you are already leaning towards XAS anyway xD

[Blizzard]

- First general look (From screenes it's seems that XAS is better)

Because it comes packed with extra graphics. But that also means that most XAS games look the same.

- Ability to transform actor into beast/animal etc. with change in his skills etc. during fight for set time frame

You can use Chaos Drive with Blizz-ABS for that. Actually this can be evented rather easily as well.

- ability to customize script by changing damage or how the hit is calculated.

This is independent from ABSes. That is, I'm not sure how XAS calculates the damage, but Blizz-ABS uses the default damage system. That means that if you have a separate script that will alter the defaults, Blizz-ABS should work with it. Just put it above Blizz-ABS in the script editor.

- I want to use for semi-commecial game (crowdfunding will be used to finance animation for game so during developing phase only donators will have access to current version, free version will be released after completed game with source code and maybe some demo during developing phase). I know the blizz-abs has a term that are for non-commercial usage but if i decided to use blizz-abs i ask blizzard for permission and if rejected i go to second option

I have never turned down a permission request so far so no worries there.
I actually just put it there so people can't go ahead and claim they made Blizz-ABS. If they try, this way I can sue their asses.



Look at it like this. If you need heavy, heavy customization, XAS might be better. If you are going to script a shitload yourself and change the ABS a lot, XAS might be the better choice even if the code is a mess, because as a coder you will have the flexibility you need. On the other hand Blizz-ABS provides well-defined features and high compatibility with existing 3rd party scripts. It's easier to understand and minor and medium edits shouldn't be a problem. But changing certain things such as the AI is difficult, because it's a huge subsystem which was carefully designed and debugged and has dependent sections of code. Regardless, I still think that the AI code is still simpler to understand than all of XAS. I've seen and tried to understand XAS. The code scares me, because code sections look like they are doing something, but then it turns out that they are doing something completely different.

[dullman]

I don't think either abs has these by default, but I think XAS would be more likely to have all the plugins online somewhere. Another one you might want to look at is the Lycan Abs at Save-Point. I think it has most if not all of what you asked for. As for looks, if you mean the HUDs and combo counters, most of that has been released for BABS as well.

Also, it seems like you are already leaning towards XAS anyway xD

It's not like i'm leaning towards XAS, it just have better look and summoning, if summoning is easy implement in Blizz-Abs then it's my favourite (by easy i mean if we have an array like $game_allies and it's only need to add monster to array and maybe set AI and we have additional member in party(all changing controlling people in party will be disabled since we control only main character)). Also my personal best rpg maker game use blizz-abs, so i might feel sentiment towards it.

ps. About a look i found someone who is willing to create interfaces for me so i might even if blizzabs redesing it.

- First general look (From screenes it's seems that XAS is better)

Because it comes packed with extra graphics. But that also means that most XAS games look the same.

- Ability to transform actor into beast/animal etc. with change in his skills etc. during fight for set time frame

You can use Chaos Drive with Blizz-ABS for that. Actually this can be evented rather easily as well.

- ability to customize script by changing damage or how the hit is calculated.

This is independent from ABSes. That is, I'm not sure how XAS calculates the damage, but Blizz-ABS uses the default damage system. That means that if you have a separate script that will alter the defaults, Blizz-ABS should work with it. Just put it above Blizz-ABS in the script editor.

- I want to use for semi-commecial game (crowdfunding will be used to finance animation for game so during developing phase only donators will have access to current version, free version will be released after completed game with source code and maybe some demo during developing phase). I know the blizz-abs has a term that are for non-commercial usage but if i decided to use blizz-abs i ask blizzard for permission and if rejected i go to second option

I have never turned down a permission request so far so no worries there.
I actually just put it there so people can't go ahead and claim they made Blizz-ABS. If they try, this way I can sue their asses.



Look at it like this. If you need heavy, heavy customization, XAS might be better. If you are going to script a shitload yourself and change the ABS a lot, XAS might be the better choice even if the code is a mess, because as a coder you will have the flexibility you need. On the other hand Blizz-ABS provides well-defined features and high compatibility with existing 3rd party scripts. It's easier to understand and minor and medium edits shouldn't be a problem. But changing certain things such as the AI is difficult, because it's a huge subsystem which was carefully designed and debugged and has dependent sections of code. Regardless, I still think that the AI code is still simpler to understand than all of XAS. I've seen and tried to understand XAS. The code scares me, because code sections look like they are doing something, but then it turns out that they are doing something completely different.

I must say about XAS there is a problem with availability since last version 3.91 isn't available on theirs blog/site (seems like everything was either removed or they have problems with site) so i need to find it from other sites, similar situation with eventual additions to XAS, entire downloads section is empty. So i found 3.8x version and i try to understand how it works at least to make minor changes.
As for ABS i would prefer simple and powerful ABS (since making ABS from scratch is besides me, i can make a dynamic sprite since it changes code in few places at most, but heavy modifications especially on the code that i doesn't understand is besides me - since truthfully i'm to lazy to spend half a month trying to understand code just to add one features)).

As for blizz-abs i thought maybe AI would be easier, since if i go i need to create new route for druid when he should shapeshifting (either at the beginning of fight or when he loses more than 50% he change into something more durable), also to move some configuration option (currently i'm guessing that is something like range of skill stored in array, so i would move for example into data_skills to have it also available in my editor because setting for one thing in two (three places if we include base DB skills import from them animations although i'm thinking about loading a list of available animations from DB into editor, and user can choose animation by name) seems overdoing).

As for battle i do not plan making heavy customization, rather i change the way how always is calculate, the only customization is planned by me are those who are wrote earlier (meaning summoning, shapeshifting, binding with time system the speed between attacks, as for "squade" moving few years ago i found a script so the ability to import it into ABS and the most important creating new enemies by calling base Game_Enemy.new and use new formulas to check dmg, health, loot, exp, level, traits, skills etc. since i plan it to be modable by scaling enemies to party level in some places), so it doesn't seem to me like heavy modding, the other parts of my game will be heavy modded not battle system.

[Blizzard]

Considering these things, I think that Blizz-ABS might be the better choice.

I thought XAS was already version 4. O_o

[MetalZelda]

Considering these things, I think that Blizz-ABS might be the better choice.

I thought XAS was already version 4. O_o

XAS 4 was planned in October 2012 ... With tons of new features ...
Still waiting, or maybe in dev for VX Ace who knows ^^


Anyway, to answer this topic, it depend on what kind of game you want to make, if you focus on hard AI, multiple combo w/ Item and a Zelda styled game, XAS is good but the way it works is pretty dicky but customizable so possible
There is also Blizz ABS which is good because it have an active communauty (this forum) that expend Blizz ABS's functionnality.


Pros and Cons :

XAS :Pros  : Powerful ABS, customizable
        Cons : A lot of work is needed to make it work

Blizz: Pros : Huge compatibility, user friendly
         Cons : It's on RPG Maker XP