FFVIII Draw System & Summons

[Lark Monster]

I really have no idea if this is in the right place or not...sorry in advance if it's not. :(

Right now I am mostly tinkering around and learning things (I just got RPG Maker MV about a week ago...), and I have a few ideas for what I want to do but almost no idea how to accomplish it. I have looked around at plugins and things like that, but right now it's pretty overwhelming and I've probably missed things that I could have used (mostly because I'm still learning what everything is & does).


Anyhow, here are things I am very interested in implementing but am pretty clueless how to do it. If anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear them, I like to learn how to do new things but just need a bit of direction on how to start.


Final Fantasy VIII 'Draw' system: (Like this http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Draw_(Final_Fantasy_VIII))

I think I can make a skill for this, or two? And have one be useable in battle, and the other useable in other areas to be used with specific events. I am still pretty new to this all so I am just guessing from what I have seen & figured out through experiments. I'm unsure of how to actually do the learning part, that seems way beyond me (to be honest this all does but I sort of have a grasp on some of it).

• Be able to sometimes 'draw' from the enemy.
• Be able to sometimes 'draw' from things you encounter in the world (like 'fire' from a campfire or something).
• Non-magic users are able to use 'draw' if they have equipment with the proper skill (Draw). They can't use it, but it goes into the party inventory like a regular item would. (Maybe. Still debating).
• With this draw system, you can't actually use the magic right off the bat. You have to draw a certain amount and learn how to use it, then after that you can draw & use it freely. (Example: You encounter an enemy that has 'Fire' and you haven't learned it yet, so you need to collect 25 of them to study. Once you've collected 25 you have the option to learn it, which uses them all up, and you then learn the Fire spell. After that you can use it freely.)
• • 
    
  • The character learns magic by observing and drawing magic from enemies & things around them in the world (Ex: a campfire, a block of ice and so on).
  • To complete learning a new rank, a certain amount of time in gameplay must pass. (Rank 1 is 5 minutes, and time doubles up until Rank 5 - last rank.)
  • Spells will be in ranks, and require a certain amount of that magic to either be in stock, or a greater amount of mana to use. (Ex: Fire Rank 1 will only require 1 Fire to be in stock to cast, but Fire rank 2 will require 5 Fire to be in stock to cast and so on up to Rank 5.)
  • In Battle you have the choice to just Draw the magic and stock it, or Draw the magic and then use it if you have the capability of doing so. Draw & Stock will require only 1 turn, Draw & Cast will require 2 turns to complete.
  • Once you have selected to Learn a new magic, you can attempt to cast it. This will result in the spell to backfire and possibly damage your fellow party members. There is a rare chance that you will be able to cast the magic successfully. This chance increases as the timer for learning gets closer to 00:00.
  • After Rank 2, you can rarely find or buy an item that will decrease the time of gameplay required to learn the next rank. You can only use this item while in the process of learning, and it is only good for one usage. (Time increments as 2.5 minutes, 5 minutes and possibly a 10 minute item.)
  • I think I will require a new Item Type, however I am uncertain.

Edit: I searched this and found someone else looking for almost the same thing on another forum. There was a script or plugin for RPG Maker VX, I've attached the 3 files from that below (original scripts by Tsukihime) if that helps give an idea of what I'm interested in & what direction I need to go to make this work. :)
Edit 2: I have further edited the above list to reflect other things I have decided I would like to have concerning this Draw system.


Summons

I am still thinking about this one and not 100% sure what I'd like, but basically it's for a hunter type of class (class name will likely change). I suppose this would work much like summons or GF's (another FFVIII thing), but be limited to just one character being able to do it.

• Has an ability to absorb/steal/whatever certain animals spirits to later call on them in battle.
• Can be used in battle and possibly in the world. (Example: Running into an enemy randomly on the field that is severely wounded or such).
• Would either need certain enemies to not 'vanish' during a fight after being defeated, or use a skill when the enemy is below a certain % of health...if the enemy is defeated you'd have a change of gaining their spirit.

Alchemical...something...?

My least thought-out plan/idea...I'd like some sort of alchemy system going on, where you can learn recipes to make your own potions and make the potions and other useful items. I assume I'd need a plugin to do this, and something to do with notes in the items...but beyond that I am pretty clueless. I just thought it would be a neat addition.

 

[Matriper]

Hi!
Maybe you've had time to figure out some of this by now, but here are a few ideas I had for your "draw" system :

-First, the way i see it, your magics should be managed as items or pieces of equippement. Unless you find a plugin that allows you to do otherwise.

-Draw from enemies : as you stated, you need to create a skill. It needs to check the enemy's Id so it knows which enemy has what. It can be achieved through a damage formula like this :

v[0001]=b.enemyId() ; 0

first part stores b(=skill's target)'s enemyId (same as your enemy tab) as a variable (in this case, it's variable 0001)
the 0 makes sure the skill makes 0 damage.

Have your skill call a common event.
In that event, use a conditionnal event to check the variable, like :



...and so on for every "drawable" enemy.
Last branch would be a "that doesn't work" textbox for every other enemy (the "non-drawable" ones)
(Note : Si=If, Objets=Items)

With this method, you'll be able to draw an infinite amount of magic, but if you want it to be finite, you can use more switches or variables.

-Draw from objects on the map : I don't think this one requires a skill, it could just be an event : creat an event that has the apearance of, for exemple a camp fire, same priority as player and action button triggered.
Then you can have it show text, play animation, change items, etc...
You can also use a self switch to prevent the event from re-running and also change its graphics (like if the fire goes out and so on)

And that's all that comes to mind for now.
I'm a bit of a noob too, so possibly there are better methods out there, but I hope it'll help you.
Let me know!