First off - no free graphics today. I've not done any more edits lately (though there are a few in the works) so, nyeh.

I now know what I want for the battle system but it's gonna be bloody hard to do it. If worst comes to worst I may have to code a CBS, but hopefully I'll be able to find an existing script to edit or a scripter who wouldn't mind whipping something up.

Basically I'm thinking of a one-on-one battle system where you can swap characters at any time and each character has different skills to use. So, say you start a battle with whoever is currently leading the party. You can choose to use that characters' skills or change to one of the other characters right away. It'll cost some amount of time to do so.


So in that picture, the top left would have the time bar, the green circle would be a large battler of the current character, the star would be the monster. The middle box would be character commands and the box on the left would be a list of the characters available to change to. Pretty rough.

Battles would be more about working out the right strategy and less about button masshing. For example - you come across an armoured lizard creature. When you attack it is hardly damaged, so you switch to Denn who casts De-Armour, then change to Mielle who uses Scanner, then change to Lourne who has an elemental attack that it's weak against. By then the monster has probably re-buffed itself and used an elemental barrier of some sort, so you switch to Denn to use De-Armour, then to Orcas who attacks while its defence is down, the switch to Mielle and use her Special to attack with a finishing spell.

Each switch costs 1MP and 2-5 TP (Time Points). MP and HP will be in the lower end of the number spectrum but can be regenerated. TP will be what moves the time guage. Some attacks will cost less TP, whilst others will take all the TP. TP effects the speed of battle and is regained at a rate of 1 per second, though certain characters will gain it faster or slower.


As stated before each character has their own skills to bring to both battles and maps. I've been doing a lot of thinking about it and well, some of it will depend on whether or not I can get the battle system I want to work. But the map skills are all 'go' and the character page will be updated with that information (as well as the battle skills info if I can find the right script).
So here's a quick list of the map skills.
Sorionne - Long Shot. Uses her bow to hit things at a distance.
Ruon - Mini-bomb. Can break fragile things like floors and walls. Also can stun an enemy.
Hellem - Translate. Can read certain runes and decipher ancient text.
Mielle - Night vision. She can guide the party through dark areas.
Lourne - Strong Man. Moves heavy objects.
Villa - Long Jump. Can jump two spaces where marked, and doesn't fall through floor holes.
Denn - Charge! Attacks an enemy and can cause a back attack. May also break fragile walls.
Orcus - Haggle. Can make deals with people/things. Also finds hidden treasure easily.

To use the skills you must first have the character at the head of the party. Of course, you can switch on-map at any time by pressing the PGUP/PGDOWN buttons. As long as that character has been found you can switch to them. Yes, even if they aren't in the 'top four'.

I think that's enough for this update. Keep an eye out!

And if anyone wants to point me in the direction of a good battle script I'd be very thankful!