[RMVX ACE] GAMEPLAY HEALING SKILL ADVICE! - ALL ADVICE WELCOME!

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In a project I've been working on for awhile, I'm trying to create a sort of different idea when it comes to healing abilities. My goal is for no one character to be a healer, as there are no healing skills, but rather all healing abilities are relegated to item usage. This way, all character can conceivably be healers, should the need arise.

Obviously, this needs some serious restrictions.

I would love all of the advice I can get on this matter.

- SYSTEM 1 CONCEPT
My first idea was to have a Suikoden style item system using Selchar's actor inventory, combined with Tsukihime's instance items, with item charges and item recharges. The first problem I encounter with this: the idea is to have 3 classes of items (1. healing, (2. support, (3. basic damage dealing. I've created a custom equip slot for all three. But the problem is that, within these scripts, all consumable items are treated the same, therefore separating them into unique classes seems impossible without script tinkering. I'm not qualified to do that, to put it lightly. Also, for the rest of the design of the game having instance items would no be preferable.

- SYSTEM 2 CONCEPT
The second was to bypass this concept and instead, create unique classes for accessories, like a really simplified materia sort of thing, where you equip something like HEAL ORB, and while it's equipped, have the skill HEAL (just an example). Again, issues arise with this, too. Under the current designs, the physical characters have no MP, so I don't want these skills to consume MP. My first idea was to do cooldowns, like HEAL can be used, but then takes another few turns before it can used again, which I think would be a good balancing idea. But the biggest issue with this is not being able to use these abilities outside of battle, otherwise it's far too exploitable (can't do cooldowns this way, infinite usage). Outside of battle is traditionally where most healing will occur.

- SYSTEM 3 CONCEPT
This was more convoluted. The same as above, but instead of cooldowns, the skills would consume items. Some sort of ammunition, so to speak, for the skill to work, once the accessory is equipped. Of course, this is a lot of extra trouble to force on the player, and it's sloppy. In the Yanfly Custom Skill Costs, a skill can consume items, and that's doable even without a script, but what is seemingly undoable is the ability to view the number of items left in the inventory per skill. Wouldn't want to force the player to guess. Also, it's inconvenient for the player, for sure.

The basic idea here, to reiterate, is to create a healing system where unique objects are used for healing, require a specific number of uses before being recharge, like a permanent potion.

So, which of these concepts seem the most appealing? And certainly, if you have a better idea, I'd love to hear it.

Thanks!
is your game a turn based strategy, action rpg? is your game difficult? i would suggest just using healing items but make them expensive, limited or hard to get so the player cant spam it.
It's a turn-based RPG. If you've ever played Paladin's Quest (or Lennus) for the SNES, what I would like to do is along those lines: healing items are difficult to come by, as you said, and each one has about 10-15 uses before it must be refilled (a potion, now the bottle is empty). I always appreciated the mechanic, thought it was fun in a limiting way.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
You could set it up so that players have exactly the number of medicine/potions you want after activating whatever event it is that refills the amount/charges.

How you do that will depend on the nature of your game. Both will probably involve a Change Items event-command, but the difference would be in how it's used. For instance, if you want to cap all items so that players cannot carry any more than a specified amount, you can change that cap via...

class Game_Party < Game_Unit
  #--------------------------------------------------------------------------
  # * Get Maximum Number of Items Possessed
  #--------------------------------------------------------------------------
  def max_item_number(item)
    return 15
  end
end

...this bit of code, as an example, then just do a Change Items for 15 Potions. If it's just Potions, it would probably be a Common event that might look something like...


Control Variables: [0001: num] = 15
Control Variables: [0001: num] -= [Potion] in inventory
Change Items: [Potion], + Variable[0001: num]

...that.
Couldn't you make it so there's a healing skill resource with the rune system, and the custom cost system? If you're not using TP you could instead have it be used as a sort of "Heal Mana", that way, anyone with the healing skill can have high healing mp, but lower attack mp. Or alternatively just make it so all healing costs TP, and you build up the ability to heal through fighting, up to you.
author=Mambratom
My first idea was to have a Suikoden style item system using Selchar's actor inventory


whoa, I've wanted something like that for a while. Where can I find it?
So far I've come upon this: http://himeworks.com/2013/07/actor-inventory/

Anyway, making a game without a healer sounds like a disadvantage, because when I think about it, it's pretty tricky to make each party member unique and feel justified in the game. By having a healer you at least get to cross one character off the list.

Though, I've considered having a game where everyone is the same and all skills are items. The only thing differentiating the characters is their element.
But maybe the reason I had this idea was because I didn't know of a way to have actor-specific inventories, so having that might mean I have to rethink the whole thing from the ground up. (having freedom can be so inconvenient sometimes)
@Zeelo, no offense dude, but characters should be justified by their story role, if their battle potential is the only reason they're there, it's not the best character...
@Zeelo - sorry, didn't mean Selchar, but Kread-EX, prolific scripter.

LINK:
https://grimoirecastle.wordpress.com/rgss3-scripts/gameplay-scripts/actor-inventory/

Sorry, though. Right now his DL links seem to be down, but someone can probably shoot you a duplicate. It works well with Selchar's item charges and recharge scene scripts, which i would recommend as supplements.

@Terozu - yeah, after immense troubleshooting with various scripts and ideas, I can't really find anything that covers the exact concept perfectly. With custom costs for skills through the yanfly script, even though you can see the cost of the skill, there's no obvious way to also list the number of items left, and worse, the consumption of the items doesn't happen until actual turn processing, therefore several characters could use the skill, and if you only had one usage left (or consumable fuel whatever), one character would perform the action, whereas the others would simply lose their turn.

I tried messing around with Estriole's excellent suikoden rune system, but even that has proved to be a tad problematic.

I don't know. For now, yeah, I've sort of admitted defeat and chosen to use TP, which is fine. But, the situation is that creating heal skills that can't be used outside of battle is a seemingly pointless endeavor, as most of the healing in any traditional turn-based RPG takes place outside of combat.

That Suikoden rune script is pretty appealing, though.

@Marrend - that code snippet is snazzy. As an much more informed individual than I, do you know if there's a similar method for such a thing that could bind the potions to a unique battle command?

Thanks for your input, friends!
Can't TP skills be used outside of battle? I thought they could...
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
I think TP, by default, resets after every battle unless the character/class in question has a "Preserve TP" trait? Not 100% sure, as it's been a while since I've messed with TP, but, if my thinking is correct...

As for a command that skips over the item window go directly to targeting a character with a Potion? The thought in my head is that such code would probably lie somewhere in Window_ActorCommand with some follow-up code to back up that command in... Scene_Battle? Not 100% sure how that would look off-hand, though.


*Edit: I seem to recall being able to give more "Use <Item>" orders than I have physical copies of said item with the default combat engine. Though, I may also be remembering incorrectly, and thinking of my various play-throughs/play-tests of a VX game, rather can a thing that happens in VX Ace.
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