TDS'S PROFILE

I never realized how hard it was to find a drawing of a spell or a weapon that matched VX until I started to work on this.

The Intro to tales of phantasia was what inspired the casting process, originally it did not pause the battle system at all... And it was the most horrible thing put to code that I've ever done.

Without those small pauses characters and enemies could spam animations all over the screen, covering damage and basically removing all awareness of what is going on in the battle. The pauses are annoying but they are vital, they also allow you for a brief moment to turn your attention towards the characters information to see if anything is needed there.

As for the the text, this is a strange thing to say but you should not itemize the battle system, because it just wont work that way.

Everything on the screen is meant to kill you or confuse you, including that text at the bottom, of course no normal person could follow it but some will try and that split second you spend looking at the bottom of the screen could mean you're dead and since there is no way to bring back a dead party member that is a huge loss. That is also the case with the HUD at the top, most people watching the video don't notice it but when playing the game itself nearly everyone left the main character die because they basically forgot the bars were not at the bottom like the rest of the party. Each little detail is there to kill you, and force you to put your attention into split second decisions.

Also this battle system is very hard to convey through most mediums, as it is completely different when you play it and when you just see it.

author=Large
An answer that sarcasm didn't improve.

Nothing in my answer was meant to be taken as sarcasm.

author=alterego
Haha! Were you trying to incite an argument from the beginning, TDS? xD He said "Great. Thanks for sharing." Couldn't you just leave it at that? Even if you read it with a passive-aggressive tone, it was a way much better reply that any of yours.

Next time, instead of ranting away, why don't you just explain something if you're asked nicely? You'll end up wasting much less time.

I was not really trying to incite any arguments, I just explained things in a way that would make people think when they see a screenshot instead of expecting everything explained to them, RPG games are getting dumber by the year because we are trying to explain way too much and not letting people experiment and fail because of their mistakes.

And yes, I could always just not say anything and be like the other sheep, or I could set fire to all the other sheep so the farmer knows there's something wrong in the flock.

You play it and you enjoy/understand it or don't, that's all there is to it.

author=chana

author=TDS
Do you mean the skills stopping the battle?

No, the way they move towards and away from each other, it could maybe be a little faster, with a "second"'s halt between the hits and a little more irregular (easy to say!).

Do you mean the pushing and knock back when they clash with each other? Adding a pause there might not be possible without re balancing the battle system, but variance could be added to the push power to simulate random pushing distances which would be different with each hit.

author=Large
That's interesting from a programming point of view, I guess, but personally, I like to control the actions of my player.

The rules of the contest were that simulated battles were ok, but battles with input were not, so I decided to create a battle system with the rules of the contest in mind.