Battle System Ultima Drive(in development)

[Novaultima]

Hi guys, wasn´t active in this forum for quiet some time and wanted to share my development progress of my completely new battle system, complety made with MV basic functions, variables and stuff. So no scripts or plugins.

The battle system will be a conditional turn based system like Final Fantasy X. But there will be some differences. There is a limit bar, but in addition there is something new, an ultimate attack which is even stronger than the limits of each character, but is a teamattack triggered by something I don´t want to descripe for now.

This is the first battle system project I will finish 100% some day, since I want to to use it for a project I already started and really fits to what I have in mind with the battlesystem.

I would like to show my progress here from time to time and I´m looking forward to your feedback.

This is my actual progress:

- Turn system is programmed and works.
- Pointer and marker are working flawless.
- Attack and some Techs are already implemented and work fine, but battle animations of techs must be improved.

- The upper right UI is for showing the turns, wich has to be finished programing yet and will look different later.

- Weaponanimation will be added.
- All enemies are moving, they are animated and move DIRECTLY to the hero who they attack.
- All heros are animated and move DIRECTLY to the target which they attack.
- You can select the target you want to attack.
- The black bars are empty "limit" bars, the exact name is not decided yet.
- HP and MP are pregenerated but must be finished in programing yet.
- The status agility is already implemented and can be changed so that the system automatically set the new turns, once a hero has suddenly lower agility than another.
- Force are techs, the tech menu is already implemented but offers only 1 force for each character yet. More to come...

- Max 3 heroes can participate in a battle, but I think about a method to exchange heros in battle.
- It´s planned to show all battle actions in a cinematic method.
- Summons are planed.
More to come...

A video will come soon. Actually before that, I want to make the battlesystem more intensive and great to show the full potencial. But also, I have to wait for my new PC.


So what are you first impressions on the visual aspect?

 

[ejronin]

Visually, I think it's a great starting point. I can definitely see a Square-Enix influence in both layout and design. I like the direction and as I said, the execution thus far shows dedication and thought prior to acting on the idea - but it feels a little busy for how light it actually appears. In fact, most of that comes from the bottom window feeling unbalanced and the left turn column looking a bit unrefined.

The weight of the black lines under the player names might be improved by reducing the weight to match that of the typeface. In the current state, they throw the visual consistency off a bit for me and my eyes struggle to balance the image overall.

I feel like the top-most right column that denotes turns might be better as player images and moved to the bottom left with image borders at about 2-3px, under static numbers 1-8 (meaning only the icons will shift position)

1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8

Then I'd shift your command console over toward the middle and maybe butt it up to the character images on the right (or pad it 30px).

I understand that this may be tedium as it will require making small icons of every enemy and character in the game and calling them to the screen in every battle, but it will add to a more refined look overall in my opinion.

So, right now I think you're greatest opportunity lies in visual balance. You've got a unused realestate on the screen and you'll need to decide whether you want to bring an elegant and simple GUI to players by giving even weight to the left and right, or if you want to hit them with something solid and add the weight to the bottom where most players are accustomed to seeking the information you're throwing at them.

This and other design questions are actually a heavy topic in the books, 'Desingning the Obvious," "UI is Communication," "Evil by Design," and several blog postings by Dan Cedarholm. Most of Cedarholm's musing revolve around web design, CSS specifically, but he discusses balancing the visual aspects of code and I think it translates seamlessly to this design challenge.

Hope that helps

 

[Novaultima]

Thanks for your oppinion

The middle room on the action bar is used for menus(techs, items and more), forgot to mention it.

The right black bars are empty limit bars, if they fill they will be very clear to see i think. I tried to make them bigger already, but I didn´t like how it looked. I may try it out again when the system is progress very far.

The turn display will have character and monster pictures, it´s just a template for now. I have already a code for it in mind, but this element will be finished when everything else is done. I will also try how it looks on the left side.