Rpg Maker Developers Group

Intro

The script adds 'battle formations' as are known in the breath of fire series. These battle formations affect the battle party through several boosts and penalties, also have a visual presentation with different character positioning in battle, depending on the current formation.

This type of battle formations adds a new layer of strategy to the battle system, with a different approach row formation system does.


Version and TODO list.

Current Version:

1.0: First version, maybe need some polishing but should be 100% usable and mostly bug-free.


TODO list:

- Full compatibility with a minor integration with Yanfly Party system (especially the option to lock positions or require characters in battle).

- Extend the party maximum to 6 characters (should be easy enough).

- More customization options, possibly some visual customizations for the battle formations screen.

- Maybe some special restrictions by actor, so some formation maybe are only usable if X actor is in battle party.

- Some code refinement. While I am pretty happy with the initial result, Some things left there bugs me a little (there's some weird image load behavior for instance).

- Maybe some plugin commands?

Tech Specs

This script requires version 1.5 of RPG Maker of greater in order to use it properly, as makes heavy use of advanced configuration options only available from this version onwards.

This script is standalone (no plugin dependencies) and plug & play (no need for new game to its full use). The performance should be excellent (no lag due to the extra processing).

Should be placed before any plugin that may alter the battle system (so the positioning takes effect).

The script is fully configurable inside the RPG Maker program through the plugin manager parameters. All parameters have a help text indicating what
they affect.

Most texts are fully customizable using the formatting options available in text windows and any text window plugin extension.

There are 10 formations as default, you can configure up to 20 formations. The states should be reviewed, however (they should at least exist).

Should be highly compatible with most plugins, as in practice only alter the party positioning in battle, the max battle characters, and adds a permanent state to battlers dynamically.

Details

This option will be only available through the menu screen options, and can optionally replace the "Formation" option.

If the default formation menu option is disabled, 'battle formation' option will also be affected.

These formations will position your characters in battle at specific points, and will also add a state permanently to each battle party member.

Through states, you can change any parameter using state traits and any plugin that add custom traits to states (IE: Magic Element Augments, Critical Damage).

Formations can be either always available, or you can turn them On/Off using a switch. Formations only apply to a number of party characters, so a formation of 3 characters will be only usable if you have exactly three battle characters.

If you didn't configure a formation for the current number of battle characters, there's a default "None" formation that will apply default positioning and no states.

On the 'party setup' option, you can modify current battle members, taking members to the reserve if you want to. This is optional as you can restrict the 'party setup' to only swap characters.

When you add or remove a character to the party, formations are checked and possibly reset if the max number of battle characters has changed. The default formation at that moment will be the first formation valid for the number of characters (not switched off).

Thanks

This is my first serious plugin, took me lots of hours to get here. I have to thank Yanfly immensely, looking at their plugins saved me a lot of trial and error, also helped me out to get some good programming practices in this framework.