Post by BusterTheFox on Mar 12, 2012 3:04:56 GMT -8
I've been making a lot of RPG-Based tutorials lately. Combine these tips and suggestions with the other RPG resources I've uploaded and you'll be well on your way to making a great Stagecast RPG!
LIMIT BREAKS:
Ah, yes. The Limit Break. A powerful finishing move that the player can only use after a long, hard fight. It goes by many names... Overdrive, Limit, Coup de Grace. What RPG is complete without one?
To start off, you'll need a Global Variable. Let's title it "Limit". Assuming you already have the battle system for your game in working condition, you have a few options:
First, the gauge that shows how much stored power your character has. A couple of suggestions are a character that displays the Limit variable over 100, giving an exact amount that the player can go by.
Another idea is to make a graphic that changes its picture depending on what the Limit variable is at. Personally, I like to go for a gauge that fills up at every 20% interval; a different picture for 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 respectively. You're free to come up with your own solution, though!
The next choice you'll be making is how the Limit Gauge is filled. A common thing to do is to make the gauge go up when you're character takes damage. The best way to go about that is to make your game calculate the percentage of HP lost when attacked and then round that number to the nearest whole number. For those of you who have forgotten your 5th Grade math classes, here's how to get a percentage using the Calculator:
If Damage is 25 and MaxHP is 50, Dividing them would come to 0.5. Multiply that by 100 and you get 50. And, hey! 25 is 50% of 50! It would be the same if Damage was 15 and MaxHP was 30, or if Damage was 75 and MaxHP was 150. IMPORTANT: Some numbers don't divide evenly, so if you want to avoid a Limit variable that has something like 89.9980779, make sure to add "Rounded to 0" at the end of your calculation.
Of course, feel free to make the Gauge increase through other means as well. For instance, you could make it go on percentage of damage dealt to an enemy divided by 2. Of course, that would make it easy to simply fight a weak enemy and fill your Limit Gauge. Either way, it's the creator's call what to choose and how to fix the obvious problems.
BATTLE BACKGROUNDS:
All of those old 2D RPGs beyond the 8-Bit era have nice images in the background during fights. If you're in a field, that's where you fight the Goblins. If you're in a cave, you'll fight rock monsters to the backdrop of craggy cavern walls. Adding BattleBacks can inflate your Sims filesize substantially, but it also adds a great touch that makes the battles more fun and the game itself more memorable.
First, it's recommended that you have some sort of object on your battle stage that can do all of the background work, such as setting up the enemy's stats and setting your HP/MP back down if it ever goes above the maximum. It'll make for a good object to create this rule on!
Of course, first you'll need a background image. Google Images can produce some good results with a bit of thorough searching. Remember that Stagecast only supports a few file formats, excluding animated GIFs. It supports the most common file types though, so there should be no need to worry.
The final thing you'll need is a variable of some sort that can tell the rule what stage your player character is on (therefore which background to display). For instance, I use an "Area" variable that uses numbers to show which map the character is on. For instance, "1" is a field, "2" is a mountain, "3" is a Town, etc. If you opened the battle stage in a second window, you could just set which stage the PC is on as the BG. I'll leave it to you how to handle that part.
Now that we have all of the pre-requisites, the simple part is finished. Now time for the actual Rule!
You can find the Background variable for "Battle Stage" in the stages drawer an in the variables for your battle stage.
IMPORTANT: Don't put anything else in the "And If" side of the rule unless you need to. Keeping it like this will make it so that the BattleBG can change even if another one is already there.
IMPORTANT2: You'll need a completely separate stage for keeping your background within the game. If you import a background image and it isn't applied to anything when you save and exit Creator, it'll be gone the next time you load up the game. Title it something like, "BattleBG1Keep" or something so you know it's only there to keep your battle background from disappearing.
I'll add more techniques here if I come across anything I haven't made a tutorial for yet. Hope these are helpful!
LIMIT BREAKS:
Ah, yes. The Limit Break. A powerful finishing move that the player can only use after a long, hard fight. It goes by many names... Overdrive, Limit, Coup de Grace. What RPG is complete without one?
To start off, you'll need a Global Variable. Let's title it "Limit". Assuming you already have the battle system for your game in working condition, you have a few options:
First, the gauge that shows how much stored power your character has. A couple of suggestions are a character that displays the Limit variable over 100, giving an exact amount that the player can go by.
Another idea is to make a graphic that changes its picture depending on what the Limit variable is at. Personally, I like to go for a gauge that fills up at every 20% interval; a different picture for 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 respectively. You're free to come up with your own solution, though!
The next choice you'll be making is how the Limit Gauge is filled. A common thing to do is to make the gauge go up when you're character takes damage. The best way to go about that is to make your game calculate the percentage of HP lost when attacked and then round that number to the nearest whole number. For those of you who have forgotten your 5th Grade math classes, here's how to get a percentage using the Calculator:
[Damage]/[MaxHP]*100
If Damage is 25 and MaxHP is 50, Dividing them would come to 0.5. Multiply that by 100 and you get 50. And, hey! 25 is 50% of 50! It would be the same if Damage was 15 and MaxHP was 30, or if Damage was 75 and MaxHP was 150. IMPORTANT: Some numbers don't divide evenly, so if you want to avoid a Limit variable that has something like 89.9980779, make sure to add "Rounded to 0" at the end of your calculation.
Of course, feel free to make the Gauge increase through other means as well. For instance, you could make it go on percentage of damage dealt to an enemy divided by 2. Of course, that would make it easy to simply fight a weak enemy and fill your Limit Gauge. Either way, it's the creator's call what to choose and how to fix the obvious problems.
BATTLE BACKGROUNDS:
All of those old 2D RPGs beyond the 8-Bit era have nice images in the background during fights. If you're in a field, that's where you fight the Goblins. If you're in a cave, you'll fight rock monsters to the backdrop of craggy cavern walls. Adding BattleBacks can inflate your Sims filesize substantially, but it also adds a great touch that makes the battles more fun and the game itself more memorable.
First, it's recommended that you have some sort of object on your battle stage that can do all of the background work, such as setting up the enemy's stats and setting your HP/MP back down if it ever goes above the maximum. It'll make for a good object to create this rule on!
Of course, first you'll need a background image. Google Images can produce some good results with a bit of thorough searching. Remember that Stagecast only supports a few file formats, excluding animated GIFs. It supports the most common file types though, so there should be no need to worry.
The final thing you'll need is a variable of some sort that can tell the rule what stage your player character is on (therefore which background to display). For instance, I use an "Area" variable that uses numbers to show which map the character is on. For instance, "1" is a field, "2" is a mountain, "3" is a Town, etc. If you opened the battle stage in a second window, you could just set which stage the PC is on as the BG. I'll leave it to you how to handle that part.
Now that we have all of the pre-requisites, the simple part is finished. Now time for the actual Rule!
AND IF:
"Area" (Or whatever shows the rule what stage's BG to display) is "1",
THEN:
Change "Battle Stage" background to "BG Image"
You can find the Background variable for "Battle Stage" in the stages drawer an in the variables for your battle stage.
IMPORTANT: Don't put anything else in the "And If" side of the rule unless you need to. Keeping it like this will make it so that the BattleBG can change even if another one is already there.
IMPORTANT2: You'll need a completely separate stage for keeping your background within the game. If you import a background image and it isn't applied to anything when you save and exit Creator, it'll be gone the next time you load up the game. Title it something like, "BattleBG1Keep" or something so you know it's only there to keep your battle background from disappearing.
I'll add more techniques here if I come across anything I haven't made a tutorial for yet. Hope these are helpful!