Blizz-ABS Bug and Suggestion Compilation

[winkio]

Yeah, I could make a jumping option for attacks, skills, etc. with a choice between hitting only on the ground, only jumping, or either.

[JellalFerd]

attacks, skills, etc. with a choice between hitting only on the ground, only jumping, or either.

Aren't we an overachiever?

[winkio]

it's about 5 minutes of extra work, on top of the hours and hours I have to do to finish the rewrite.  It's comparable to how high the waters of a lake rise when you spit into it.

EDIT: I had to rework the collisions system ever so slightly to account for yet another set of special cases in multibody collisions.  Anyways, I have other player characters appearing on the map, but they just get dragged around behind the player, they don't actually interact with the map yet.  I have running and sneaking implemented, and am working on the framework for all the attacking defending etc. actions.

Oh, and the big news is that you can have enemies in the player's party, and actors fighting against you (or npc actors fighting with you) on the battlefield.  These actors have the option to drop the equipment and items they are carrying upon death, which allows for a nicer way to multidrop.  Enemies are also able to use items and multidrop in a similar manner to the actors.  Right now though, it takes a lot of work to set up, so I'm looking to streamline that part and make it simple and easy to do.

So the next step is to get party members working, and then setting up all the battle related systems.  I'm looking at implementing a dynamic pathfinder so that the whole route doesn't have to be calculated beforehand (which causes lag on long routes), modular AI so that you can easily mix and match AI routines or add your own, improved combo system (I know people have been having trouble with it, I recognize that it is a bit unintuitive), and a faster paced battle system with no pauses (move while attacking, dynamic targeting, new hotkey setup).

Final point I want to address: you may be thinking that with all these changes you are going to have to remake a large portion of your game if you want to use the new Blizz-ABS.
1)  I'm preserving as much compatibility as possible between versions.  You can keep things mostly the same and just use the new script for bugfixes, etc. if you desire.
2)  With many new features, it is a great time to remake parts of your game such as your enemies, or skills, etc.  This is not a bad thing; it allows you more freedom and creativity, and will produce a better final product.
3)  I've put many hours into the remake of this script.  It is a lot of work, yes, but a remake is always worth it at the end.  You uncover hidden bugs, improve existing designs, and refine your product into something much more sophisticated than it was before.  The same things that make the remake of this script worthwhile also make the remake of your game worthwhile.

[Blizzard]

These changes sound very promising. I can't wait to play CoSLAL E.X.A. Edition once you have finished Blizz-ABS and updated CoSLAL.

BTW, I am not sure how good of an idea it is to have some sort of dynamic path finder. The problem is that if you don't calculate the whole route beforehand, it's likely that you will find a path that's not the shortest and the character can get stuck if he continuously moves between two tiles that calculate a different partial path each time.

[winkio]

The way I'm thinking about it right now, paths would still be calculated start to finish, just over a longer period of time.  The character would always be routed towards the closest open node until the path is found.  Another thing is that I want pathfinding to work better for moving targets.  And for events with different hitboxes.  It's gonna be complicated.

EDIT: so I was stuck thinking about how to make a good action system for running, jumping, attacking, etc. with sprite changes and everything that was extendable that also worked with combos.  Then I realized that instead of starting from scratch, I can use the combos from the last version as the base action, and just clean it up and add on a bit more functionality.  Makes my job easier, gives more consistent performance, and it also makes it that any add-ons that define new actions such as flying, cloaking, dodging, etc. will automatically be able to be used in combos.

[winkio]

So the new action format is starting to come together and it has an interesting consequence in the config.  All the active features of BlizzABS such as running, jumping, attacking, etc., are now defined as BlizzABS actions, which are similar to events but are self contained aren't locked to a map or battle, they can be run in any scene at any time.  Anyways, these definitions are in the config section.  What that means is that people can use the config app's new action editor (which looks very similar to the old combo editor, but it has also undergone some improvements) to define exactly what happens for each action, including sprite changes, animations, knockback, movement, etc.  These can be defined both in general (ex. for all weapons, for all items, etc.) and individually. 

The user is allowed to add unique features to their ABS game only by editing these actions in the config, which is the equivalent of eventing.

The ABS still retains its ease of use because the default actions will still exist and apply to everything not individually configured.  Changing an individual setting will be as easy as editing an event command.  I also thought of a way to build in support for custom scripted action commands without going through a plugin manager to allow the config app to be more versatile and less time consuming.  Scripters won't need to do anything extra, and it will take users all of 10 seconds to set up a custom action command for a new script.

Just to clarify, actions are not events.  They don't run through an RMXP interpreter, they don't pause the game, and most importantly they don't lag.  They give you access to a character and its corresponding battler, and have some RMXP functions as well as Blizz-ABS functions.

[Boba Fett Link]

Hey I have two suggestions for the next version that I need for my Zelda game, I have attempted altering the formulas for attacking, but I can't get rid of the variance. I was wondering if you could please make all of the weapon choices (i.e. boomerang, sword, bow, etc.) available for skills, so it would not have variance, because in Zelda games, a weapon's attack is always the same.   Also, I would like for the option of having a shield that blocks only the direction you are facing.  I still would like it to be used with a button.

Hey Blizz, can you give me a link?

Also, is the shield ? related to ABS

[Blizzard]

That's not Blizz-ABS related. In fact, I have seen scripts that take away the variance factor in the attack algorithm.

[Magus]

Blizz abseal doesn't really work right for 2.8 O_O. I have to manually use script calls to disable and enable blizzabs ._. For maps and what not.  Abseal within blizz-abs that is. 

[winkio]

Not that it will be fixed until next version anyways, but why do you need to enable and disable it within a map?  I'm just curious, it seems somewhat inefficient.

[Magus]

Not that it will be fixed until next version anyways, but why do you need to enable and disable it within a map?  I'm just curious, it seems somewhat inefficient.

If I don't, imagine the main character swinging his sword in a town or a map without enemies. No matter what option I select, Abseal doesn't work ._.

[Boba Fett Link]

For some reason, when I have default controls disabled you cannot access the menu.

[Blizzard]

Keep in mind that the controls in Blizz-ABS are different. F is the "cancel" key and is used to call the menu.

@Magus: That feature is already supported. The setting "Disable ABS Control" should be set to "in maps without enemies".

[Jakal]

For some reason, when I have default controls disabled you cannot access the menu.

Press F if its standard blizz-abs controls. cancel accesses menus.

[Boba Fett Link]

Okay. I forgot that the cancel button also accesses the menu  . I looked at the controls for BABS and didn't see one that specifically said menu.

[Jakal]

Okay. I forgot that the cancel button also accesses the menu  . I looked at the controls for BABS and didn't see one that specifically said menu.

Happened to me too. If the controls panel actually said "cancel/menu" it would help. lol

[JellalFerd]

Rewrite Progress

Spoiler: ShowHide

Currently Rewriting

• Character Graphics


• Caterpillar

Finished Rewriting

• AI Triggers


• Controls


• Event Tags


• Sprite Frame Data


• Pathfinder


• Minimap and Passability


• Cached Graphics

Graphics and Caterpillar must be a huge part to be worked on for 3 months.
?

[winkio]

It's been two months since that edit, and nothing has changed.  The only explanation is that I have an advanced form of skin cancer developing on my fingers rendering me unable to spend every waking second on RMXP scripting (this post alone took me 30 minutes to type with my toes).

?

[Blizzard]

Use your nose.

[Boba Fett Link]

How about a name command that disables knockback for that enemy. For example, a giant monster doesn't get knocked back from an attack.