Instance battles verses constant action battles.

[(Hexamin)]

Alright, so I'm getting close to having my first 40 skills completed for my current project and so I'll begin implementing the full battle system soon and can't quite decide which would be more entertaining.  An avoidable "instance battling" where enemies are on the map, but the battle only activates on touch, so if you wanted you could attempt to avoid the battles.  Once activated, you'd have a transition and go into a battle map (according to where you were) and the battle would commence, you'd kill all the enemies on the map, then be transfered back to the location you were previously at.  If I used this method, I'd also either throw in a chest that appears once all enemies are killed (and use variables based on enemy type, number of enemies, time taken to kill all enemies, hp lost, etc.) and loot would be in the chest (as opposed to enemies dropping loot directly.

If not this system, then just the standard, enemies are on the map, they see you and you kill them, moving along quickly at the same pace the whole game (more or less) constant action battles.

I think I convinced myself to do instance battles, haha.  But, I want other people's thoughts too, so add them please.

[Blizzard]

A lot of people hate random encounter, that's all I can add. Maybe it helps you decide. :3

[SwiftDeathSK]

Well, instance battles would be a bit more original, though would be more work overall. I rather enjoy battle setups like that. It sounds like you already are leaning more towards instance anyways, so i say go for it

[(Hexamin)]

Hmm... well the "random" encounter will be... either you running into the event or the event running into you.  I've not decided whether to make aggressive events that charge at you or passive ones that you can go up to and get experience and loot from them, but you don't have to.  You might be screwed on boss battles if you avoid everything though, so, it'll be encouraged to fight (and hopefully with the amount of work I'm putting into it fun).

I think experience will be calculated not just by what enemies you kill, but your "skill" i.e. how much mana you use, how much health you lose, how many steps you take, stuff along those lines, that'll boost or negate experience gain.

More work usually leads to a better product anyway, I just don't want to make it too complex, while remaining semi-"original".

[Landith]

I do like the idea of Instance Battles but, I think it would be cooler to stay on the same map.
Like (IDK 0if this would be reasonable as the limitations for rmxp is ridiculous) have it where once you hit the enemy it starts to attack you and if you are so many steps away from the enemy you have a chance of escaping but if not then the enemy comes charging at you and you might lose HP. Also maybe make it were you can 'suprise attack' an enemy if they aren't paying attention, for that extra hit at the beginning. Also this system would be really cool with a combo system (:

Once again just a suggestion and Idk if it's really a reasonable one at that because of RMXP and the amount of time and effort it would be to find a way to do it.
But good idea with the Instance Battles.

[nathmatt]

if u do instance battles here is a Blizz-ABS script add_on for that   cough made by me cough

http://forum.chaos-project.com/index.php/topic,3183.0.html

[Aqua]

Mmm... look at some ABS-ish games and then compare and contrast

Constant in-map
Zelda series, Dynasty/Samurai Warriors series

Instances
Tales of series, Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria (Maybe in all of the VP series, but I've only played 2)

Combination
Okami


I can't think of more games ._.

[(Hexamin)]

K, well now I'ma go check out the script and games.

I'll probably just go with an event based instance system, I've done it before with a project, and liked the way it worked out.  But I might be able to get some ideas to improve it from your script, nath.

I do like the idea of being able to sneak up on enemies, and them being able to sneak up on you, so I'll try implementing that into the system.  It's BABS, so maybe I'll create some "suprised" state, where they're immobile or have lower defense or something, but I think it can work.

[ForeverZer0]

I had setup an instance battles system through events, very much the same as you mentioned above. It worked very well, but I changed my mind after I realized what a pain in the ass it would be to implement throughout a whole game.  

If you do decide to go with instance battles, I would suggest finding a way to script it so that making the enemies "attack" you (i.e. see you and run towards you) could be done through a comment in their event page or something like that.  

Check out Claimh's ATB CBS with his Chrono Trigger Interface.  That would be a good place to start.

[(Hexamin)]

I'm using BlizzABS

All I have to do is set up a "faux enemy" on the battlers of the real map, with a Comment: Trigger:Event Touch that does whatever transition and ports the player to the battle map.  The event on the map will just go up and attack the player, instead activating the transition but it won't do any damage, and BlizzABS will be disabled.

If I didn't use that system, I could and have already set up a random encounter parallel process event that's pretty easy to implement.

I already have the battle map set up so a random number of enemies spawn, and after all the enemies are killed, the screen will fade and a battle result window will appear.  You'll get a random amount of gold (adjustable based on where you are in the game) and throughout the battle, based on how many enemies you killed, what kind you killed, how fast you killed them, how much health you lost, etc, etc your "loot score" will be calculated and the higher the loot score the better the loot you'll get.  So its not neccessarily the specific monster that will get you the best items in the game, but the combination of your skill and the total number and strength of the enemies your fighting will determine what you get from battles.