ATB System; Can it be quickened?

[Communist_Gamer]

We all know what an ATB system is; That's obvious, but while I was playing some PSX turn-based RPGs I noticed that the ATB gauges seem to fill up far quicker than what my created party of four can muster.

I tried to ratify this myself (of course);
First by reducing the monster speed and increasing the party speed, but the gauges never increased faster, the monsters simply attacked with reduced frequency.

I tried adjusting the stats allotted via equipment, but it also didn't make much of a difference.

What I noticed was, the ATB gauge increases far quicker when the party size in combat is few, meaning having one character alone in battle will have an ATB gauge that fills quickly while Monster speed seems to only affect how frequently the monster attacks-- But has no apparent connection to the parties ATB speed.

Is there a method or coding procedure I can use to allow the party ATB gauge to fill up quickly? Battle testing with large groups often feels as though there exists long periods of waiting in between selecting attacks for the party.
Basically I want to streamline the battle process and so want to make the ATB gauges fill up very quickly.

I tried creating a haste function, I set one characters speed to '500' while everyone else was set at '40-77' and that particular ATB gauge's speed increased dramatically. However when I increased everyone's speed to a similar level, the speed dropped back down for all members.

[Rahl]

Sounds like you might want to consider using XP, VX/Ace for thier custom scripting ability. I'm not sure that such a thing can be done in 2k3 or lower

[Prpl_Mage]

You actually nailed the biggest issue with rpgm2k3 right there.
If the party speed is pretty much equal, it will run at medium speed.
If someone in the party have significantly higher speed, that characters bar will go at the speed of light.
The more enemies with higher speed on the enemy side - the slower the characters atb will go.
It's kinda about the difference between the characters speed. The game will try to keep it on a medium level. But the game will slow one and speed one up based on the difference.

There's no real way to prevent this I'm afraid. That and the damage calculations is the reason why I always consider using something else than rpgm2k3.

[Meiscool]

The default battle system is pretty hard to work with. Either take it as it is or make your own.

[A Forgotten Legend]

I think if you use Dynrpg with your project its possible.  There's a plug-in here that seems to look the part:
http://rpgmaker.net/engines/rm2k3/utilities/60/

If you look around you'll find info on what Dynrpg is and such if you haven't seen it before.

[Meiscool]

Could also just set the speed of all heroes and enemies to be the same (or +/- 1) and the pacing will at least always be consistent.

[Prpl_Mage]

Could also just set the speed of all heroes and enemies to be the same (or +/- 1) and the pacing will at least always be consistent.

Yeah that's what I usually do.

[drenrin2120]

If you're going to continue using rm2k3, I highly recommend looking into DynRPG. It's fairly easy to use and fixes a lot of annoying bugs. Plus, there are a surprising amount of very useful plugins created for it.

[Communist_Gamer]

(Sorry I didn't check up on this fella's, I thought all was said and done xD)

So I looked into DynRPG.
And it sounds amazing. I'm reading all of the information now but this seems as though it could solve a LOT of tiny little bugs I've shelved because I couldn't work out a solution in the coding.

[Meiscool]

It does create some bugs just FYI. Nothing code-like, but when I used to use it transparencies no longer worked properly. Test it before committing to it.

[drenrin2120]

Meis is right, though there have been some updates since I last checked it out. Perhaps the bugs are fixed, perhaps not. You'll have to weigh the pros and cons. For me, no transparencies was something I could forgive considering it allowed me to create custom menus and battle systems with more reliability using text plugins.

[Communist_Gamer]

So I've spent the entire day pouring over archive text about this thing and how it works;
It's been updated frequently but it's still a pretty cult-thing (small but passionate and impressive); It runs on a plugin system but you can download (this is what I'm trying to figure out at the moment) a Luna.dll file to run an RM2K3 compatible Ruby scripting system.

At the very least, the DynRPG patch itself seems to have just fixed a myriad of little bugs and increased the overall aesthetics;
Monsters flash now when they attack, glitches are cleaned up, etc.

So; I ended up in the end solving my ATB problems (If you're interested I'm detailing my progress here);

http://rpgmaker.net/engines/rm2k3/utilities/25/
What I used was this plugin which allows you to adjust the internal battle speed itself (which I re-set to X3.5%). I had to go back and increase the Monster speeds so they could keep up with the far quicker ATB system.

All I had to do (after the DynRPG patch was added to my project) was download the .zip folder included in that link and extract it to the Dynplugin folder in your project directory;
Then in the same directory (outside of the plugin folder), open up the DynRPG.ini file in a notepad and add (asterisks included);

**********************************************



[faster_atb_advanced]

BattleSpeedVariable=4001

DefaultSpeed=350



**********************************************

The default internal battle speed is set at 100;
So naturally 200 would be double the internal speed
300 is triple, etc.

So far, nothing seems to be glitching or going crazy and there are some very impressive scripts and plugins available (It seems RM2K3 is gradually breaking down it's otherwise limited capacities).
But I'll keep a wary eye out just in case.

[drenrin2120]

PepsiOtaku has made some amazing scripts. I used quite a few of them myself.

You should check out other plugins by DragonHeartMan and Kazesui. DHM made a very simple but effective animated battles plugin and Kazesui has made particle effects plugins, on-screen text, and a surprisingly stable mode7 plugin.

[Moosetroop11]

I'm surprised I've never heard of this before...!

[A Forgotten Legend]

Its a beautiful addition to Rm2k3.  I was planning on using the ATB Overhaul plugin, but it takes a little more set-up then I'd like to do at the moment.  Glad I could be of assistance!