Difference between revisions of "Battle System Differences VisuStella MZ"

From Yanfly.moe Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
(Turn-Based Battle Structure)
 
(3 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown)
Line 615: Line 615:
 
=== Turn-Based Battle Structure ===
 
=== Turn-Based Battle Structure ===
  
Turn-based battle systems are seen in most [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_Quest Dragon Quest] games, recent [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persona_(series) Persona] games, and even the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_(video_game_series) Pokémon] games. Battle flow revolves around (usually) giving an equal amount of turns and (usually) actions to perform to each battle participant in a balanced manner.
+
Turn-based battle systems are seen in most [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_Quest Dragon Quest] games, some of the spin off [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megami_Tensei Shin Megami Tensei] games, some of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persona_(series) Persona] games, and even the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_(video_game_series) Pokémon] games. Battle flow revolves around (usually) giving an equal amount of turns and (usually) actions to perform to each battle participant in a balanced manner.
  
 
'''Action Economy:''' Battle participants usually have one action they can perform each turn. However, in the scenarios where they can perform multiple actions a turn, the advantages given here are not as skewed as they would be in a tick-based battle system since every battle participant is guaranteed a turn within a set time frame (as long as they're able to act). Some games, like the SMT series, even allow performing multiple actions a turn without disrupting the balance and battle flow too much.
 
'''Action Economy:''' Battle participants usually have one action they can perform each turn. However, in the scenarios where they can perform multiple actions a turn, the advantages given here are not as skewed as they would be in a tick-based battle system since every battle participant is guaranteed a turn within a set time frame (as long as they're able to act). Some games, like the SMT series, even allow performing multiple actions a turn without disrupting the balance and battle flow too much.
Line 937: Line 937:
 
'''Exploit Systems''' are very situational and fit only a select handful of battle systems based on their turn/action logistics. Getting an extra turn is a huge deal to some of these battle systems and in the sense of [[Battle System - ATB VisuStella MZ|ATB]] and [[Battle System - CTB VisuStella MZ|CTB]], when combined with AGI advantages, can result in balance breaking to the extremes.
 
'''Exploit Systems''' are very situational and fit only a select handful of battle systems based on their turn/action logistics. Getting an extra turn is a huge deal to some of these battle systems and in the sense of [[Battle System - ATB VisuStella MZ|ATB]] and [[Battle System - CTB VisuStella MZ|CTB]], when combined with AGI advantages, can result in balance breaking to the extremes.
  
It's why mechanics like these aren't made global, but instead, we offer a more mild version called [[Break Shields VisuStella MZ|Break Shields]] to allow for stuns instead, a softer version of turn advantage. A softer turn advantage through stuns are far less likely to break the mechanical balance of a game.
+
It's why mechanics like these aren't made global, but instead, we offer a more mild version called [[Break Shields VisuStella MZ|Break Shields]] to allow for stuns instead, a softer version of turn advantage. A softer turn advantage through stuns is far less likely to break the mechanical balance of a game.
  
 
---
 
---
Line 946: Line 946:
  
 
---
 
---
 
 
  
 
== To Sum It Up ==
 
== To Sum It Up ==
Line 958: Line 956:
  
 
|}
 
|}
 +
 +
<html><script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.free-counters.org/count/dag9"></script><br>
 +
<a href='https://www.free-counters.org/'>... by Free-Counters.org</a> <script type='text/javascript' src='https://whomania.com/ctr?id=defd96e02d0659d336c51db9f09c77d6f7089973'></script></html>

Latest revision as of 21:12, 16 November 2023

Welcome to the wiki! This is where you can find resources from Yanfly.moe, Ækashics.moe,
VisuStella, Caz Wolf, Fallen Angel Olivia, Atelier Irina, and other affiliated content creators.


Introduction

Battlebegin.jpg

Some of you may have been wondering about which battle system to use for your RPG Maker MZ game. After all, if you're going to design your game's battle system, you'll want to pick the right foundation for it from the start or else the problems will compound upon one another as the game project develops further. This article will highlight the key aspects to take into consideration when picking the battle system suited for your game.

Yanfly.png This is an article written by Yanfly.


Difference Chart

Since this is probably what many of you are looking for, I'll go ahead and include it towards the top of this article so that there's less need to search around.


Battle System Comparison Chart
Category DTB TPB ATB BTB CTB ETB FTB OTB PTB STB
Stands For Default Turn Battle Time Progress Battle Active Turn Battle Brave Turn Battle Charge Turn Battle Energy Turn Battle Free Turn Battle Order Turn Battle Press Turn Battle Standard Turn Battle

General Data
Category DTB TPB ATB BTB CTB ETB FTB OTB PTB STB
Turn-based - - - - - -
Tick-based - - - - - - -
Team-based - - - - - - -
Proactive Playstyle - - - - -
Reactive Playstyle - - - - -
DTB Base - - - - - - -
TPB Base - - - - - - -
Plugin - -

Actions & Turn Order Handling
Category DTB TPB ATB BTB CTB ETB FTB OTB PTB STB
Immediate Action - -
Delayed Action - - - - -
Team-Based Actions - - - - - - -
Multi-Action Queue - - - - -
Positive Action Speed - - - -
Negative Action Speed - - -
Action Speed Carryover - - - - - -
Turn Lapping - - - - - - -
Time Gauge - - - - - - - -
Battle-Wide Turn Order - - - - -
Action Count Display - - - - - - -
Action Growth - - - - - - -
Action Stability - - -

Mechanics and Gimmicks
Category DTB TPB ATB BTB CTB ETB FTB OTB PTB STB
Action Count System - - - - - - -
Action Fusion System - - - - - - - - -
Brave System - - - - - - - - -
Exploit System - - - - - - - -
Free Switching - - - - - - - -
Instant Action - - - - - - - -
Interruption - - - - - - - - -
Speed Manipulation - - - - - - -
Turn Order Manipulation - - - - - - - -

End of Chart
Category DTB TPB ATB BTB CTB ETB FTB OTB PTB STB
- - - - - - - - - -

NOTE*: The battle systems in the chart above do not show which battle systems are "better" than others by having more ✅check marks. The number of ✅check marks is irrelevant to whether or not a battle system is fit for your game. Instead, you should be looking at where those ✅checkmarks are in order to determine which battle systems best suits your game design style.

Structure: Action Economy and Turn Advantage

TurnAdvantageComic.png

In traditional JRPG's, Action Economy refers to the quantity and frequency of how often a battler, an actor or an enemy, can perform during the scope of battle. The flow of battle determines the frequency of a traditional JRPG's action economy. This is extremely important to understand because the more turns a battler has, the more often he or she is able to apply pressure to the opposite team and move his or her own team towards victory.

Turn Advantage refers to describing the advantage a participating battler has based on turn-order. Depending on the battle flow, most of the time, those that act more quicker and more often have a better turn advantage than their opponents. Those with more turn advantage are also more likely to win the battle provided both sides are relatively balanced.

There is overlap between Action Economy and Turn Advantage but they are NOT the same. Action economy refers to the quantity of actions a battler can produce in a given time while Turn Advantage relates to the speed and priority of actions a battler can produce over time. Understanding both of these will help you understand the flow and structure of battle.

There are four types of battle flows that determine the frequency of when battlers get actions: Real-Time, Tick-Based, Turn-Based, Team-Based



Real-Time Battle Structure

Real-time battles are seen in games like Star Ocean, Tales of series, and Kingdom Hearts just to name a few examples. Their battles have all participants performing actions on demand as long as they're not in the middle of an action and have enough resources to commit to that action.

Action Economy: The Action Economy in a real-time battle system is next to unlimited, only limited by the unit's resources, action's frequency of use, and unit's current state of being able to perform an action or not.

Turn Advantage: Turn Advantage in a real-time battle system almost does not exist. All units are able to move and act whenever they player or AI needs them to.

Balancing: Balancing these types of battles can be a real challenge.

VisuStella MZ Plugins: There are no VisuStella MZ plugins for this type of battle flow.



Tick-Based Battle Structure

Tick-based battles are seen in games like many of the Final Fantasy games, Grandia, and the more recent Atelier Ryza. The battle flow is entirely dependent on each battle participant's AGI (or speed). AGI becomes the most important parameter in most tick-based battle systems.

Action Economy: Battle participants typically only have one action each time they have a turn to perform an action. This is balanced for the most part. However, due to the nature of turn advantage in a tick-based battle system, anyone who can perform multiple actions per turn will usually and drastically outperform any other battle participant.

Turn Advantage: Turns are determined by each participant's AGI. The more AGI a battler has, the more often their turn comes up. There is no limit to how many turns a battler can acquire in a set amount of time. Battlers with high enough AGI can overlap battlers with less AGI.

Balancing: Balancing a tick-based battle system is extremely tricky. Most games that utilize them keep AGI levels around a similar range without letting them grow too much over time and without letting them vary by too much either. Status effects like Haste and Slow are far more potent than status effects that raise damage dealt or reduce damage taken. This is to avoid giving any battler too much Turn Advantage.

VisuStella MZ Plugins: ATB, CTB, TPB



Turn-Based Battle Structure

Turn-based battle systems are seen in most Dragon Quest games, some of the spin off Shin Megami Tensei games, some of the Persona games, and even the Pokémon games. Battle flow revolves around (usually) giving an equal amount of turns and (usually) actions to perform to each battle participant in a balanced manner.

Action Economy: Battle participants usually have one action they can perform each turn. However, in the scenarios where they can perform multiple actions a turn, the advantages given here are not as skewed as they would be in a tick-based battle system since every battle participant is guaranteed a turn within a set time frame (as long as they're able to act). Some games, like the SMT series, even allow performing multiple actions a turn without disrupting the balance and battle flow too much.

Turn Advantage: Turns are granted to each battle participant evenly. Instead of AGI determining how frequent the battlers acquire turns, AGI instead determines how fast the battlers go in a given turn set. The faster the AGI, the earlier the battler can perform for that round. Battlers cannot overlap each other for turn advantage through AGI. A battler with 999 AGI will not have more turns than a battler with 20 AGI during a single battle round.

Balancing: Balancing a turn-based battle system is far easier than balancing one for a tick-based battle system. AGI values can vary drastically without giving one participant too much turn advantage. Characters with high action economies are also easier to manage for this reason, too.

VisuStella MZ Plugins: BTB, DTB, OTB, STB



Team-Based Battle Structure

Team-based battle systems revolve their turns around their teams than the individual battle participants. You see this in games like many of the Fire Emblem games, Disgaea games, the main line Shin Megami Tensei games, and even some mobile games like Granblue Fantasy. Teams take turn performing for all of their battle participants at a time or as long sa there's enough actions to perform. AGI hass little influence in this battle system as it no longer determines the frequency of turns for each battle member.

Action Economy: Depending on the battle system, units usually have one or two actions to perform at a time, or as many as the team allows before the team's turn is considered over.

Turn Advantage: Instead of turn advantage going to participants with more frequent turns or participants with faster speed, turn advantage, instead, goes to the team that goes first. In most cases, the team that goes first is almost always leading the battle system, though counterbalancing the advantage for the team going second is a common practice to be seen, too.

Balancing: Balancing for this type of battle flow can be tricky. It can be easier or harder than either tick-based or turn-based depending on how the battle is designed. Strategies also shift from having the key participant perform more frequently to making the most optimal team play for each turn as the norm.

VisuStella MZ Plugins: ETB, FTB, PTB



Individual Battle Systems

In this section, we'll take a look at each individual battle system and address the various aspects that make it unique.



Active Turn Battle

VisuMZ.022.jpg

The RPG Maker MZ Time Progress Battle (TPB) system is only a few steps away from the acclaimed Active Turn Battle (ATB) system. This plugin will grant it the various features needed to turn it from TPB into ATB.

This plugin will grant control over how the various mechanics work, ranging from penalties to calculations, to actions that can manipulate the ATB gauge of battlers. Battlers that are in the middle of casting a spell can also be interrupted with specific notetag traits.

ATB Gauges can also be displayed on enemies and/or allies, giving the player full access to the current battle state. The ATB Gauges are also improved, showing different colors for different states and showing a new gauge for the casting state.

---

Action Economy: Battle participants typically only have one action each time they have a turn to perform an action. This is balanced for the most part. However, due to the nature of turn advantage in a tick-based battle system, anyone who can perform multiple actions per turn will usually and drastically outperform any other battle participant.

Turn Advantage: Turns are determined by each participant's AGI. The more AGI a battler has, the more often their turn comes up. There is no limit to how many turns a battler can acquire in a set amount of time. Battlers with high enough AGI can overlap battlers with less AGI.

Balancing: Balancing a tick-based battle system is extremely tricky. Most games that utilize them keep AGI levels around a similar range without letting them grow too much over time and without letting them vary by too much either. Status effects like Haste and Slow are far more potent than status effects that raise damage dealt or reduce damage taken. This is to avoid giving any battler too much Turn Advantage.

---

Interruption: This mechanic allows actors and enemies to interrupt any battlers who happen to be casting/preparing a skill, causing them to lose progress and sending them back to having to ready up again. This takes advantage of the semi-real time nature of the battle system, which no turn-based battle system has.

Speed Manipulation: Speed manipulation allows the "Speed" stat of an action to influence the turn frequency/delay of future turns. This can be used strategically by the player to get in an extra action before an enemy can in the following turns.



Brave Turn Battle

VisuMZ.048.jpg

The Brave Turn Battle (BTB) system plays off RPG Maker MZ's default battle system with a twist of allowing actors (and enemies) to use up actions from the future or save up for later. These actions will be queued and delivered all in one go! Any borrowed actions from the future will result in following turns without any actions to use. Should a player decide to save up their actions instead through Guarding, they can charge actions with less repercussions. Players will have to be brave about how to go about the battle system strategically.

Because multiple actions can be queued up all at once, they can result in the creation of an action fusion. Some skills (and items) can appear instead of the originally queued actions to result in stronger, better, and more awesome effects, all of which, can be defined by the game dev.

A Turn Order Display will also appear on the screen to show the order the battlers will take their turns in. This lets the player plan in advance on how to go about the rest of the turn.

---

Action Economy: Battle participants usually have one action they can perform each turn. However, in the scenarios where they can perform multiple actions a turn, the advantages given here are not as skewed as they would be in a tick-based battle system since every battle participant is guaranteed a turn within a set time frame (as long as they're able to act). Some games, like the SMT series, even allow performing multiple actions a turn without disrupting the balance and battle flow too much.

Turn Advantage: Turns are granted to each battle participant evenly. Instead of AGI determining how frequent the battlers acquire turns, AGI instead determines how fast the battlers go in a given turn set. The faster the AGI, the earlier the battler can perform for that round. Battlers cannot overlap each other for turn advantage through AGI. A battler with 999 AGI will not have more turns than a battler with 20 AGI during a single battle round.

Balancing: Balancing a turn-based battle system is far easier than balancing one for a tick-based battle system. AGI values can vary drastically without giving one participant too much turn advantage. Characters with high action economies are also easier to manage for this reason, too.

---

Action Fusion System: As a battle system that lets you queue up multiple actions at a time before heading off into battle, special action combinations can be created and checked to create new attacks. If "Attack" is queued up twice, it can result in "Dual Attack". If "Attack" is queued up four times, perhaps you can let the actor perform a "Quadra Attack". If "Attack" and "Fireball" is queued up together in any order, the actor can perform a "Fire Strike". The combinations are all up to you.

Brave System: While queuing up actions is possible with DTB, it has to be done through items in a more permanent sense. The Brave System allows the actor to access extra actions during the current turn by borrowing them from a future turn in which the actor wouldn't have any actions to utilize.



Charge Turn Battle

VisuMZ.031.jpg

This plugin creates a Charge Turn Battle (CTB) system using RPG Maker MZ's TPB as a base. CTB functions by calculating the speed of every battler and balancing them relative to one another. When it's a battler's turn, the battler will either choose an action to perform immediately or charge it for later depending if the skill requires charging.

This is a battle system where agility plays an important factor in the progress of battle where higher agility values give battlers more advantage and additional turns over lower agility values, which give battlers less advantage and less turns.

A turn order display will appear to compensate for the removal of gauges. The turn order display will show a preview of what the turn order could possibly be like. This turn order display is variable and can be changed due to player and enemy influence by using different action speeds, effects provided by this plugin that alter the turn order, and more!

---

Action Economy: Battle participants typically only have one action each time they have a turn to perform an action. This is balanced for the most part. However, due to the nature of turn advantage in a tick-based battle system, anyone who can perform multiple actions per turn will usually and drastically outperform any other battle participant.

Turn Advantage: Turns are determined by each participant's AGI. The more AGI a battler has, the more often their turn comes up. There is no limit to how many turns a battler can acquire in a set amount of time. Battlers with high enough AGI can overlap battlers with less AGI.

Balancing: Balancing a tick-based battle system is extremely tricky. Most games that utilize them keep AGI levels around a similar range without letting them grow too much over time and without letting them vary by too much either. Status effects like Haste and Slow are far more potent than status effects that raise damage dealt or reduce damage taken. This is to avoid giving any battler too much Turn Advantage.

---

Speed Manipulation: Speed manipulation allows the "Speed" stat of an action to influence the turn frequency/delay of future turns. This can be used strategically by the player to get in an extra action before an enemy can in the following turns.

Turn Order Manipulation: Battlers can delay enemy turns and hasten ally turns through direct manipulation instead of through AGI. This opens up lots of potential strategies that can be utilized to bring the tides of battle into one's favor.



Default Turn Battle

RMMZ DTB.png

This is the default battle system found in RPG Maker MZ. It's also the default battle system for RPG Maker 2000, XP, VX, VX Ace, and MV. Players will input their actions for each party member that can act, then the turn starts, playing out the action order based on the speed of the individual actors and enemies.

---

Action Economy: Battle participants usually have one action they can perform each turn. However, in the scenarios where they can perform multiple actions a turn, the advantages given here are not as skewed as they would be in a tick-based battle system since every battle participant is guaranteed a turn within a set time frame (as long as they're able to act). Some games, like the SMT series, even allow performing multiple actions a turn without disrupting the balance and battle flow too much.

Turn Advantage: Turns are granted to each battle participant evenly. Instead of AGI determining how frequent the battlers acquire turns, AGI instead determines how fast the battlers go in a given turn set. The faster the AGI, the earlier the battler can perform for that round. Battlers cannot overlap each other for turn advantage through AGI. A battler with 999 AGI will not have more turns than a battler with 20 AGI during a single battle round.

Balancing: Balancing a turn-based battle system is far easier than balancing one for a tick-based battle system. AGI values can vary drastically without giving one participant too much turn advantage. Characters with high action economies are also easier to manage for this reason, too.

---

A very vanilla and basic battle system.



Energy Turn Battle

VisuMZ.080.jpg

Energy Turn Battle (ETB) is a type of battle system made for RPG Maker MZ, where the teams for actors and enemies take turns attacking one another as a whole. Energy is accumulated as turns pass on, allowing each team to perform more actions each turn. Each team can freely perform actions among their teammates as wanted. When the energy count is depleted or if one team ran out of battler's that can act, the other team begins their turn and so forth.

Similar to how Hearthstone plays, energy count starts at 1, then climbs up by 1 each turn up to a maximum of 10. This lets battle progression scale linearly from slow paced to fast paced. This energy scaling can be altered through the Plugin Parameters.

---

Action Economy: Depending on the battle system, units usually have one or two actions to perform at a time, or as many as the team allows before the team's turn is considered over.

Turn Advantage: Instead of turn advantage going to participants with more frequent turns or participants with faster speed, turn advantage, instead, goes to the team that goes first. In most cases, the team that goes first is almost always leading the battle system, though counterbalancing the advantage for the team going second is a common practice to be seen, too.

Balancing: Balancing for this type of battle flow can be tricky. It can be easier or harder than either tick-based or turn-based depending on how the battle is designed. Strategies also shift from having the key participant perform more frequently to making the most optimal team play for each turn as the norm.

---

Action Count System: The Action Count System makes it possible for either party or troop to perform actions with various team members any way they want. If a team wants one member to act multiple times, then as long as the action counts permit it, they can. Also with this, some actions can consume multiple action costs if they happen to be stronger.

Free Switching: The player can (optionally) pick who they want to perform an action in battle as long as all other conditions are met (alive, enough action counts, not stunned, etc). This gives players more freedom and range for potential strategies. If a player wants the Warrior to act 4 times, that's possible. If the player wants each party member to act once each, that's also possible.



Free Turn Battle

VisuMZ.057.jpg

Free Turn Battle (FTB) is a type of battle system made for RPG Maker MZ, where the teams for actors and enemies take turns attacking one another as a whole. During each team's turns, an action count is given to them and they can freely perform actions among their teammates as wanted (or if turned off by the Plugin Parameters, in a cycle). When the action count is depleted or if one team ran out of battler's that can act, the other team begins their turn and so forth.

Unlike ETB, there are set amounts of actions each turn available based on the number of members for each group (party and troop). Usually, the more party members, the more actions. AGI buffs can also affect this. The action count can be modified via the Plugin Parameters.

---

Action Economy: Depending on the battle system, units usually have one or two actions to perform at a time, or as many as the team allows before the team's turn is considered over.

Turn Advantage: Instead of turn advantage going to participants with more frequent turns or participants with faster speed, turn advantage, instead, goes to the team that goes first. In most cases, the team that goes first is almost always leading the battle system, though counterbalancing the advantage for the team going second is a common practice to be seen, too.

Balancing: Balancing for this type of battle flow can be tricky. It can be easier or harder than either tick-based or turn-based depending on how the battle is designed. Strategies also shift from having the key participant perform more frequently to making the most optimal team play for each turn as the norm.

---

Action Count System: The Action Count System makes it possible for either party or troop to perform actions with various team members any way they want. If a team wants one member to act multiple times, then as long as the action counts permit it, they can. Also with this, some actions can consume multiple action costs if they happen to be stronger.

Free Switching: The player can (optionally) pick who they want to perform an action in battle as long as all other conditions are met (alive, enough action counts, not stunned, etc). This gives players more freedom and range for potential strategies. If a player wants the Warrior to act 4 times, that's possible. If the player wants each party member to act once each, that's also possible.



Order Turn Battle

VisuMZ.066.jpg

This plugin changes the RPG Maker MZ battle system to "Order Turn Battle", a turn-based battle system where actions are executed immediately and the orders for both the current and next turn are not only visible, but also malleable. New mechanics are introduced where the player can manipulate the turn order of an action's user or action's target in various ways they want.

The two Turn Orders are displayed at the top of the top of the screen to give the player a clear understanding of who's turn it will be when it becomes time to act, making it easier and viable for the player to formulate strategies and adapt to the situation in battle.

---

Action Economy: Battle participants usually have one action they can perform each turn. However, in the scenarios where they can perform multiple actions a turn, the advantages given here are not as skewed as they would be in a tick-based battle system since every battle participant is guaranteed a turn within a set time frame (as long as they're able to act). Some games, like the SMT series, even allow performing multiple actions a turn without disrupting the balance and battle flow too much.

Turn Advantage: Turns are granted to each battle participant evenly. Instead of AGI determining how frequent the battlers acquire turns, AGI instead determines how fast the battlers go in a given turn set. The faster the AGI, the earlier the battler can perform for that round. Battlers cannot overlap each other for turn advantage through AGI. A battler with 999 AGI will not have more turns than a battler with 20 AGI during a single battle round.

Balancing: Balancing a turn-based battle system is far easier than balancing one for a tick-based battle system. AGI values can vary drastically without giving one participant too much turn advantage. Characters with high action economies are also easier to manage for this reason, too.

---

Instant Action: Instant actions allow the battler to perform a skill without consuming the current action. This is great for things like small spells that would otherwise never be a good pick in a highly competitive action economy. Examples would be stance changes, state toggles, and miniature self buffs.

Speed Manipulation: Speed manipulation allows the "Speed" stat of an action to influence the turn frequency/delay of future turns. This can be used strategically by the player to get in an extra action before an enemy can in the following turns.

Turn Order Manipulation: Battlers can delay enemy turns and hasten ally turns through direct manipulation instead of through AGI. This opens up lots of potential strategies that can be utilized to bring the tides of battle into one's favor.



Press Turn Battle

VisuMZ.086.jpg

Press Turn Battle (PTB) is a team-based battle system made for RPG Maker MZ where the teams for actors and enemies take turns attacking one another as a whole, consuming press actions in the process. When press actions have been emptied, the turn switches over to the opposite team and it repeats. Depending on the results of actions, Press Actions may consume a full action or be converted into a half action, allowing for more actions per turn. This is a battle system that rewards skillful play and punishes bad strategies.

Unlike ETB and FTB, more actions can be acquired based on better gameplay. Instead of favoring battle longevity or party member counts, this battle system focuses on player skill.

---

Action Economy: Depending on the battle system, units usually have one or two actions to perform at a time, or as many as the team allows before the team's turn is considered over.

Turn Advantage: Instead of turn advantage going to participants with more frequent turns or participants with faster speed, turn advantage, instead, goes to the team that goes first. In most cases, the team that goes first is almost always leading the battle system, though counterbalancing the advantage for the team going second is a common practice to be seen, too.

Balancing: Balancing for this type of battle flow can be tricky. It can be easier or harder than either tick-based or turn-based depending on how the battle is designed. Strategies also shift from having the key participant perform more frequently to making the most optimal team play for each turn as the norm.

---

Action Count System: The Action Count System makes it possible for either party or troop to perform actions with various team members any way they want. If a team wants one member to act multiple times, then as long as the action counts permit it, they can. Also with this, some actions can consume multiple action costs if they happen to be stronger.

Exploit System: The exploit system (optionally) grants teams extra advantages when hitting an opponent's weakness or landing a critical hit. These extra advantages often come in the form of extra turns or actions. This rewards good gameplay and makes lucky hits have even more impact.



Standard Turn Battle

VisuMZ.039.jpg

The Standard Turn Battle (STB) system uses RPG Maker MZ's default non-TPB battle system as a base. Action orders are determined by the battler's AGI values and they go from highest to lowest. However, actions are not selected at the start of the turn. Instead, as the turn progresses, actions are then picked as each battler's turn comes up and is executed immediately.

Optional to the battle system but fine tuned to it is the Exploit System. When landing an elemental weakness or critical hit against a foe, the battler can gain bonuses as well as an extra turn while the foe will become stunned or gain any desired state(s). When all enemies are exploited in a single turn, a common event can also be played, too.

A Turn Order Display will also appear on the screen to show the order the battlers will take their turns in. This lets the player plan in advance on how to go about the rest of the turn.

---

Action Economy: Battle participants usually have one action they can perform each turn. However, in the scenarios where they can perform multiple actions a turn, the advantages given here are not as skewed as they would be in a tick-based battle system since every battle participant is guaranteed a turn within a set time frame (as long as they're able to act). Some games, like the SMT series, even allow performing multiple actions a turn without disrupting the balance and battle flow too much.

Turn Advantage: Turns are granted to each battle participant evenly. Instead of AGI determining how frequent the battlers acquire turns, AGI instead determines how fast the battlers go in a given turn set. The faster the AGI, the earlier the battler can perform for that round. Battlers cannot overlap each other for turn advantage through AGI. A battler with 999 AGI will not have more turns than a battler with 20 AGI during a single battle round.

Balancing: Balancing a turn-based battle system is far easier than balancing one for a tick-based battle system. AGI values can vary drastically without giving one participant too much turn advantage. Characters with high action economies are also easier to manage for this reason, too.

---

Instant Action: Instant actions allow the battler to perform a skill without consuming the current action. This is great for things like small spells that would otherwise never be a good pick in a highly competitive action economy. Examples would be stance changes, state toggles, and miniature self buffs.

Exploit System: The exploit system (optionally) grants teams extra advantages when hitting an opponent's weakness or landing a critical hit. These extra advantages often come in the form of extra turns or actions. This rewards good gameplay and makes lucky hits have even more impact.



Time Progress Battle

RMMZ TPB.png

This is a new battle system found in RPG Maker MZ. It wasn't present for the past iterations of RPG Maker.

---

Action Economy: Battle participants typically only have one action each time they have a turn to perform an action. This is balanced for the most part. However, due to the nature of turn advantage in a tick-based battle system, anyone who can perform multiple actions per turn will usually and drastically outperform any other battle participant.

Turn Advantage: Turns are determined by each participant's AGI. The more AGI a battler has, the more often their turn comes up. There is no limit to how many turns a battler can acquire in a set amount of time. Battlers with high enough AGI can overlap battlers with less AGI.

Balancing: Balancing a tick-based battle system is extremely tricky. Most games that utilize them keep AGI levels around a similar range without letting them grow too much over time and without letting them vary by too much either. Status effects like Haste and Slow are far more potent than status effects that raise damage dealt or reduce damage taken. This is to avoid giving any battler too much Turn Advantage.

---

There's really not much else going for it other than breaking free of the turn-based structure of the DTB. Waiting times inbetween actions are dead and don't contribute much else.


Why Battle Systems Can't Have Everything

ThanosEverything.jpg

"Why can't you put x mechanic into y battle system?"

"Why can't you make everything mechanical available for all battle systems?"

These are common questions we receive as a team. We can understand how desirable certain mechanics are as they tend to make those battle systems unique. However, not all of them are possible to transplant over into different battle systems without lots of design issues and complications.

For example, the Action Count System would make very little sense in a battle system like BTB, where you can freely queue up actions already. Which ones take priority? Which ones shouldn't? Speed and Turn Order manipulation also doesn't really work well with team-based battle systems like FTB and PTB. Free Switching would also render turn orders meaningless for battle systems like OTB and STB.

Now, these examples are pretty obvious as no no's, but what about the others? Let's get into some specific cases that seem a bit more global but really aren't.

---

Brave System straight up borrows actions from future turns for the current turn. This feature could work in certain battle systems, but not mesh with it quite as well as the turn-based action queue structure. And the reason for this is due to the immediate action flow being broken up. The mechanic feels really out of place in comparison to everything else.

As an alternative to it that's more global, use the Boost Action to perform similar effects. Boost points do not take away future turns, but instead, they have to be slowly accumulated across battle, which invites a more steady flow and pacing.

---

Exploit Systems are very situational and fit only a select handful of battle systems based on their turn/action logistics. Getting an extra turn is a huge deal to some of these battle systems and in the sense of ATB and CTB, when combined with AGI advantages, can result in balance breaking to the extremes.

It's why mechanics like these aren't made global, but instead, we offer a more mild version called Break Shields to allow for stuns instead, a softer version of turn advantage. A softer turn advantage through stuns is far less likely to break the mechanical balance of a game.

---

Instant Action is something you've seen in the Yanfly Engine Plugins library as a near global mechanic. However, this couldn't be further from the truth. For DTB, it broke the battle system in so many ways due to how actions were never meant to be used during the input phase. For its place in ATB and CTB, all it really did was just replace an after use speed of 0. For STB, it pushed forth an additional action. It was a completely different effect each and every battle system that it was used with. This means that the effect wasn't global, but instead, have to be custom tailored to each battle system. There's many of you that would like to see it return for DTB, but honestly? With how it completely breaks the mold and ruins the input phase, I'd rather it not.

Each battle system we've made for VisuStella MZ's plugin library has a way to create a free use condition without impeding on the action economy, which is more or less the primary reason why people used Instant Actions in the first place without having to be an "Instant" effect in and of itself. For those, reference the battle systems themselves. They're usually a notetag effect.

---

To Sum It Up

SumsItUp.gif

There's a lot of nuances for each type battle system that makes them different from one another. These range from the types of data displayed to the mechanics they're able to access. By taking some time to read over each of them and learning their in's and out's, we hope that you can decide which battle system is the best fit for the type of game you'd like to make.

End of Article


... by Free-Counters.org