http://tkool.jp/products/rpgvxace/index.html



Hey guys, it's been a while since we could report something for the front page, but apparently Enterbrain is still working on new Makers. No console ones, it would seem, but I digress. This is a really nice-looking next step for RMVX, which was kind of limited in its options.

I'm looking forward to delving into it when it releases.

You should probably link to the English version of the web page.
http://rpgmakervxace.com/tkool/products ... index.html

Here's a gist of some of the new features:
* back to the tileset system of RMXP (meaning a lot more tiles to use)
* configure damage formulas in the editor itself (scripting not required!)
* FMV support
* built-in party member swap menu
* actual battle backgrounds instead of the swirly effect
* built-in character sprite AND faceset generator
* over 100 sample maps for beginners

And, there's a myserious "TP" feature for "finishers". How does it work? Gotta wait to find out.

I'm actually pretty excited for this one. It's got some of the things I wanted with the original VX, but didn't have and then some things you had to do with scripts before are now already implemented. The tileset deal was one of my biggest complaints about VX as you couldn't have drastically varying locales, which is important in games where you travel to all points of the world, or even one country. Plus it's easier to make a beach with a beach tileset. I'm also glad to see a damage formula editor inside skills and items. This opens the door to being able to easily customize your skills damage wise instead of having to try and constantly tweak a general formula to try and get as close as you can to what you want.

Having FMVs is probably the most useless out of the new features because how many people can put together animated movies? If you're an artist that knows how to do al that, then great, but most people won't. I could see it being used in certain ways, but I don't see it being used too much. I could be wrong though. Built-in party swap is great because trying to use a script for that can be a bit annoying, especially if it needs some sort of compatibility. Glad to see it available now. Battlebacks are win. The generators built in is a very nice touch. No having to download sh*t just to be able to generate things. The sample maps mean nothing to me as I can map already.

The finishers I would assume would kinda be like Limit Breaks or something like that. I can't say for sure, but it seems likely.

Now that I'm more receptive to gaming in a PC, I feel excited about this! When is it out?

It'll be out in Japan in a couple weeks. Dunno how long our wait will be.

We'll probably see it mid-way through next year or so. I've fiddled around with it a bit and it's pretty nice. Someone created a patch for the trial (and it's no biggie because the trial's free anyway) and I started looking around in it to see what's changed or has been added. I'll go into more detail later on in the day.

I've been playing around with it a little. The character generator isn't really fleshed out, but I assume it will be upon actual release. You basically can choose a gender, and then choose from between 1-3 different options for each selection. I have also encountered a glitch using the character generator, where, when selecting no hair, all it did was remove the hair from the back of the character's head.

The tilesets that came with the trial look good, pretty much the same as VX's, but with more options. I'm unsure if you can use more than 5 tilesets at a time for a single map, but when you create a new map, you can select a tileset type (Field, interior, exterior, dungeon, ect. and you can even make your own) and each one of these tileset types can have up to at least 5 tilesets A-E.

The music provided with the trial (Only 7 songs) are pretty good too, I'm liking most of them better than some of the stuff that VX gave us.

The damage calculations for different attacks seem pretty easy to understand too, the formula given for the skill Radiant Blade, which was preloaded is:
where a is the attacker, b is the defender, atk is attack power, mat is magic attack power, def is defense, and mdf is magic defense.

We are also given options for what we want the title screen of the game to look like, though only four possible options were available.

I assume Syn will be going into the events and scripting stuff.

Let's start off with the Database. In the actors (character) section, You have the ability to give characters 2 names, their real name and a nickname (Like "Bedwetter"). Then you can give your characters a bio that will show up in the status screen in-game. The "second name" and character description are new. Also, you do not do stat editing for the characters in the actor tab. A new feature for the database is "traits". Traits are a new method for giving characters or items unique qualities. For characters, you can give them innate elements or statuses, you can have them have multiple hits and various other things. This opens up a lot of things that you can customize your character with. Also there are traits that have field map bonuses or whatever. Meaning you can have character that can reduce encounters, increase gold gained or decrease it, and such. It's really cool to have. And of course you choose your characters' face portrait and character model.

Then there's the Class tab. The class tab is what it says. You create classes that you assign to your characters. This is where you set the stats for each level for each parameter. In previous versions, you could set HP, MP, Attack, Defense, Magic, and Speed. Now you have a couple of more parameters that people have been wanting (me included). The stats you can customize are now: HP, MP, Attack, Defense, Magic Attack, Magic Defense, Speed (Agility), and Luck. This is great because these are standard stats in most RPGs these days. You can also do traits with classes. You set the experience curve here too. A new addition to the EXP curve is another inflation slider so you can bend the curve more to your liking. You also set up what level you learn whatever skills you want the class to learn. You can set up the types of weapons and armor your characters/classes can use via traits.

Then you get to the Skills tab. Here is where you build your skills. This has more features in it as we now have TP available as another magic bar type of thing. You set the animation, the skill type (physical or magic), the MP used, TP used, and so on. You can set an area of effect and now you can set up to 4 random enemies to be effected. Unlike before, you don't set the damage in the little input boxes. That's done in the calculation formula. And you can set it to where you do HP or MP damage, HP or MP restore, or HP or MP absorption. Then it has elements you can set to it or just have it function like a normal attack. The formula is great if you want to base things off party and enemy stats instead of base damage, which is how I like to do things. There's "on use effects" where you can add statuses or elements to the attack (think magic sword spells or something). You can also set up heal percentages over there, I think. I'm working off memory. You can also have a spell or skill hit multiple times and it can also boost your TP. You can also create your own little action messages. Then there's weapon requirements. You can set up your skills where they're locked down to specific weapon types. So if you have a claw skill you want only on claws, you set that up there. You can also type out a spell description.

Then there's the Item tab. Pretty much like the skill tab, but with a little less stuff. Effects of the items are done in the "on use effects" section. Weapons and armor are pretty much standard, though they can boost all stats if you want them too. You can also add effects to them in traits. Traits is so useful, right?

Then you have the Enemy tab. Here you edit the enemies you'll have in your game. Pretty much the same as regular VX, though the enemies can now drop up to 3 items. Like you could before, you set up the enemies attacks in the action patterns box. You can also do traits with enemies. Troops works exactly like VX and XP. You can set the battle backgrounds and stuff, though I think it's for battle testing. You can set battlebacks via events. In case you didn't know, you can do in battle events here in the troops editor. You can have little cutscene type things going on in battle (though there some limits to it) like you see in some commercial games. I plan to make use of that now in regular VX.

States tab is for stat buffs, debuffs, and status effects. You have action restrictions where you attack an enemy (berserk), attack an ally (charm), attack enemy or ally (confuse), unable to act (paralysis, stun, stone), or none (always you to still act). You can also set up the priority of status effects. There's also traits for states. Then you have release options. You can have timed releases, damage infliction percentage releases, or step releases.

Animations is the same as VX. Nothing extra to say here other than you can create you battle animations here or just use the defaults.

Tilesets is a great comeback especially after VX's "all-purpose" tilesets. Here you can edit the passage settings for each tile. A tiles can only be edited for passage over or no passage. B, C, D, and E tiles can be edited for passage under tiles as well. Then they bring back directional passages where you can choose from which direction you can and cannot pass through a tile. Like if you have a big bridge with a rail, you don't want to pass through the rail, so you set a directional block to not be able to pass through it. This applies for being able to go over or under a tile. Then there's a "stairs" option where the tile will function like a set of stairs (basically you can only go up or down on that tile). Then there's "bush" where you pass through the tiles, but you will see the bottom third of your body be covered up by what is assigned as a bush. Basically, it's like walking through bushes. This is good for trees (world map) or tall grass. Then you can set up tiles as counters, which I recently found out, will allow you to talk to NPCs on the other side of a counter. So what we're saying here is that you have a table or counter in between you and the NPC. The counter tile will allow you to talk to the NPC on the other side without having to create an event on the table. Then you can make a tile cause damage (labeled floor damage) when you walk on it. Then terrain tags are really for events and scripts.

Common events are just like they've always been. They're universal events that you can run as a parallel process or run when called. That's basically their main use.

Then here's a nice menu. This is the System config tab. Here you set up your starting party, and you can start with more than just 4 party members thanks to the integrated party swap function (used to have to be done by script). Then you can rename your game project and change the name of your currency. You can also change the graphics of your boat, ship, and airship. You can change all the music and sound effects used for the game. You can also set up your title screen here (something you haven't been able to do since before XP). You can also choose to have the system place the title of the game on the title screen for you. Good if you don't want to really make your own custom title with your game name on it. You can select vehicle starting positions here and party starting position. Now the nice functions to work with. You can start as an invisible character or start with your character on screen (labeled "Start with Transparency"). This is good if you want to start a game with a cutscene without your character/party on screen. Then you can choose to disable the caterpillar system where the characters walk in single file (thank goodness). Then some options about not being able to fight with slip and floor damage. Then you can choose to display TP in battle or not. Then my favorite new feature (without scripts)... the ability for characters NOT in the party to receive experience. So this way you don't have to put them in your party just to gain levels. They will always be ready for combat. Glad they added this.

Then in the Terms tab, you set up what you want your stats, weapons, armor, commands, and so on. You can also create as many elements, skill types, weapon types, and armor types. This is a very nice thing.

Then we'll look a bit at the map creation. I'll cover events later (probably in a video I plan to post with stuff I already mentioned in this post). Anyway... With the map creator we can place our tiles on the map as usual with the pencil tool, rectangle, or ellipse. Then there's a new tool I'm fond of already. It's a show tool that allows you to add or remove shadows. If you've noticed with some houses and cave walls in VX, you create a shadow on the right hand side. Sometimes you don't want those shadows, but they'll pop up anyway. The shadow tool can get rid of them, or add them if you want them. Then there's the event tool that let's you place events on the map. Then you have a region tool that let's you set up regions on the map that allows for you to set up battle backs and I believe enemy encounters in those specific areas. Very cool and it goes up to 64 regions.

That's all I've got to say about it for now, but I think it's good enough.

It's about dang time!


It's about dang time!


It's about dang time!


Good. It was mind-boggling how VX brought back the world map but forced you to use the same enemy set for the entire map.

Overall, despite having the "VX" name, it definately sounds like it brings enough new stuff to the table to be considered a new maker.

Well, you could set up areas on the maps that could have different monsters in those areas. But the problem is trying to contain them efficiently and cleanly. It's annoying, sloppy, and hard to make precise areas for monsters. This makes it easier.

After I finish with Arc Arath, I thing I'm going to move exclusively to the PC makers. There's not enough of that going on around here.

Yeah, I'm definately thinking about moving directly to VX Ace once it comes out. My track record with making games kinda sucks, sure, but this sounds like the best not-RPGT4 Maker, yet.

More news for VX Ace. I checked out Wikipedia (and before the blackout) to see when VX Ace would be released Stateside. Well, it just happens to say that it will release next month, which is much sooner than I anticipated. This is good news.

I have downloaded the RTP that is already out. The graphics are pretty good, especially from a battle animations standpoint. They now even have summons. Also good are the charsets. There are some new downed poses and other types, I believe. There's also more monster characters that you can put on the map. The battlers (enemies) are plentiful and are better than the VX ones. Overall, there are more graphics. The map tiles are small in number, but they're better than VX's single set. More tiles for different locations (inside, outside, dungeon, and world).

Awesome!

The main blog has started some VX Ace post thing I believe on various features. Or maybe they're just covering the big one, traits.

http://blog.rpgmakerweb.com/announcemen ... ew-traits/

I think this thing has to be out by March. At least, I hope. If they're teasing stuff on the main blog and posting that preview video, they're probably going to strike while the iron's hot despite their official saying "No concrete release date".

Well, hopefully they stick to the February release date that's on the wiki. But if it comes out later, I'm okay with that. I need to do game planning anyway.

I absolutely agree. I don't have even the whole story on mine roughed out yet, let alone items and all that.

New post on their blog, this time going into detail about the tilesets with some pictures:

http://blog.rpgmakerweb.com/announcemen ... w-mapping/

The shadow thing is still exciting to me. I really think it adds to maps. The twitter feed is also saying "We're releasing soon", so I think it'll probably still be the Feb release date.

The two A-tile tools thing is also awesome. They have needed that! I am one of those who likes the grass not to just be grass a lot.

Edit: Also this-

"No official release date yet, but we should have it out within two months (and probably within one)."

Hurray! So that points to roughly a March 14-18ish release at the earliest. Mid April at the latest.

Just got an official newsletter from RPG Maker Web. March 15th is the release date.

With the recent release of the RPGT4 patch, I might go ahead and wait for a price drop.

Very true. It will probably come very soon. I suggest signing up for their mailing list, as they've stated they'll most likely send exclusive-to-mailing list coupons every once and a while.

RPGM4 is impressive, though... but not in the scope of my main project since I need a lot of custom art, graphics, and hopefully music.
If I can figure out how to actually play RPGM4 on one of my consoles and be able to make a game, I definitely will be making a smaller one on that though.

http://blog.rpgmakerweb.com/announcemen ... /#more-737

Official news post. March 15th, yadda yadda yadda... $90 is the official price, should be a discount for VX users.

AND, there's pre-orders. They start March 1st. What is pertinent, is that it comes with a discount as well for pre-ordering. I do not know how much.