Chrono Trigger Battle System Tutorial

[wildguy3922]

Some people may think its easy, some may think its hard. I think its hard because all the work you have to do.

I'm just going to try to sum it up so that you may understand everything.



Okay, your hero is walking through the forest, and he encounters a monster, and the monster runs up to him. For each monster you have in your map, will have to be custom made so that your characters will go to the place you want them to go. Then, have them go into their stances.

Okay, in order to have your characters come out, have them located somewhere in the map with a switch so that they cannot be seen. When you encounter the monster, use the "Change Events Location" on page three. (I'm not 100% sure if that's what it is called, but you'll probably find it without much difficulty). Have them moved to where your hero is and make sure they are below hero so that they move away from the hero and into their positions.

You cannot use your hero event to be used as your actual hero in this battle. It will not be possible because of the option changing and the hero's stances. So, change the hero graphic and put him in an unmovable place.

Change the switch when they are moved so that they will be visible. And when they get into their positions, change a switch again to have them go into their stances. The Battle Frame (The thing that has the HP, MP, Attack options, etc.) is a picture, so you have to make it custom made. The maximum amount of pictures you are allowed to have is 20, so we have to be conservative.

The HP and MP have to made up through a code that took me quite a while to do, but I successfully completed it. Here's a simple explanation of what it is. Basically, it's a Fork Condition for every level. You make up the amount of HP, MP, and attack damage with the Fork Conditions. For instance, if the hero was level 32 and entered the fight, the fork conditions would go off and it would find level 32 Fork and you entered in there to make Variable HP: 267, Variable MP:100, and Variable Attack Damage: 632. These variables will be the key. If you would like the coding for this so it will be easier for you, just ask me, and I'll send you it.

When it's the character's turn, the Battle Frame picture will be shown. Each number included in the HP and MP will be shown, which will be totalled up to 6 pictures right there. The formula to display the HP and MP has not been worked on yet, but I'll let you know when it is finished.
The entire battle frame is one big picture, but you have to include the things like "Attack" "Magic" "Item" on the battle frame. It can't be its own picture.

If you want to put the status of the character, like poison, when the monster poisons the hero with an attack, show a picture that shows "poison" on the battle frame. Simple as that.

To go up and down on options will require skill of enter password. If you have three options for the hero, such as "Attack" "Magic" "Item", you will need to create three battle frames, and each one must look like the option is highlighted. When the player presses "up" the option will go up, if he presses "down", it will go down. So, use labels and fork conditions to make it so the program will know where the option is and where the player wants to go with the action.

Okay, on to the good stuff. If the player presses "enter" on the attack option, change the hero's graphic to a moving one, and have him run to the enemy, and change the graphics again to make it look like he's attacking him, then run back to your position. When it is the next character's turn, basically do the same exact thing with the battle frame, HP, MP, attack, options, etc. BUT, make sure that the HP MP and ATTACK have different variables than another character.

When a monster attacks, just basically move him fast and have it look like he's attacking the hero, or show Battle Animation to do a special.

You can also use Battle Animation for the hero to if you do not want to use sprites. I would recommend using Battle Animation for the special attacks because they are like Fire, Water, Lightning, etc., so it will be hard with sprites.

For the Items, I haven't created that option for my item system yet, but there are a couple of different routes for that.
-You could use the Choice command for the items. When the player presses "item", have the choice appear of what items they want. But have a FORK condition on there to make sure that the hero has the item.
-Or you could use the picture way. You could list the items in another battle frame and use pictures for the amount of the item.

The choice would be ultimately up to you. I don't have a lot of items on my game, so I use a limited method for the items.

If anyone has any questions, concerns, comments, etc., just reply to the thread.

I hope this helped someone out because it was a lot of typing.