RPG Maker

[Kirin]

Massive necrobump of grand proportions!

So since /v/ is autistic as hell and can't answer any questions without starting a flame war, whats the opinion on VX Ace?

Not necessarily wanting to start and complete a whole game, but I would like to be able to put some ideas and characters down in a physical format to see how they would work.

I like the style of FF6 and Secret of Mana/Seiken 3 with the wheel menu. I've looked around youtube and watched a few demos of some personal character screen, menu screen, and battle mods but figure it's going to take me some time with fiddling to get stuff where I would want it.

Which version would be better? I can't find much about XP on youtube anymore, everything seems to be VX or VX Ace. How difficult is it to design areas and how varied can the designs be?

If I download a "less than legal" copy of VX/Ace is there a key or something needed to activate the full version? Saw Ace was like 90 bucks and I'm not quite ready to pay that unless I can get a grasp and pull what I want out of it.

[The Stig]

I was reading the topic with interest as I used to be heavily involved (but not to the point of directly releasing something full on as I hate working in teams) in RPG Maker 2000-VX and MUGEN.

While I've never tried VX or VXAce I believe they were expanded/improved on from XP (like Vista -> 7, more or less). By the looks of the screenshots it doesn't seem as if anything has changed all that much and the base of it all is pretty much the same.

Have you tried any of the software from previous versions? Such as RM2k (still popular I think), 2k3 and XP? On the base of it all, they are pretty much all exactly the same. The only thing going between each of them is obviously any additional features that makes life easier (or harder) and the support for more detailed (high res) graphics, and also whatever that can help scripting to make custom systems/features. XP, VX and VXAce's instance you would need to know Ruby-on-Rails scripting to create any sort of custom system.

VX Ace should be easily available "patched" as the community seems quick on such things, therefore it shouldn't be too hard to find.

Choice wise, it's really a matter of if you know how to make/edit resources for each of the systems. If you don't, you're solely dependant on resources from the web (which can vary from shit to premium/exclusive = overused)

For curiousity's sake, you should check out this spiffy FF7 Remake, done in RM2k3: http://www.rpgrevolution.com/forums/...howtopic=49016
It's a tiny/short demo but if you dig it deep enough it actually replicates the system 100% from what I've tested. Highly impressive in my opinion and somewhat shows that you can do impressive things no matter the system.

As Not Kuno said, there should be masses of scripts available by now for the older systems. As VXAce is relatively new, resources for it might be limited until later on down the line. If you go with VX first (should be easily found) and toy with the resources/scripts available from the community, like what you get, then VXAce should generally improve your life.

NOTE: Wikipedia states:

However, game data (other than graphics and audio) that are from RPG Maker VX are not compatible with this title.

I'm quite surprised by this, although if you know how the graphics format work it shouldn't be difficult to pull off conversions.

I dislike the new XP, VX and its new spawn, purely because there is still a lack of "high def" material for it. Whereas it's much easier to work with RM2k (despite the bugs) and/or RM2k3 due to the masses and masses of available resources to use and modify.

[Not Kuno]

I don't know VX Ace. From the looks of it, it seems better than VX. But the problem with new systems is that there will be many less scripts. I know Yanfly (who is a baller) was making a bunch of Ace scripts for it. But I haven't personally used Ace since my project is in VX and there's no way I want to redo it from scratch. So I think your biggest setback will be a lack of scripts, where VX has a huge database of scripts.

My actual biggest problem with VX is it suffers crippling lag when you have a lot of events on the screen/map at the same time. It is pretty damn debilitating. It prevents a lot of fun minigames and puzzles. RPG2k3 allowed events all over the damn place without any issue. Yeah there are "anti lag" scripts, but those don't help much and usually cause a lot of weird issues too.

I think I answered everything. Probably.

[Kirin]

I have some experience with RPG Maker way way back on the PSX. Nothing since.

Looking at some youtube stuff for 2k3, it's kinda got a Suikoden 1/2 feel to it and I can dig that too. Id like to have the stuff be as polished as possible, but if I take a graphical downgrade to be able to fiddle with stuff like combo's/limits/summons/etc then it's a fair trade I think. So far I have seem similar effects achieved in 2k3 as I have VX/Ace on youtube with just a slight graphics dip...id be ok with that.

I don't have much graphical creation ability so if I do anything myself it will be learning from scratch or borrowing from stuff found online.

Just a question for future reference. Say you do up your battle system with the player sprites not moving and then find out later how to animate them. Do you have to start the whole system over again or can you just edit the battle sprites to animate while leaving everything else intact?

Thanks for the help

[Not Kuno]

Although R2K3 has some nice stuff that is harder to work with in the new programs.. I would never recommend r2k3 to anyone. Seriously. Get the new stuff. Or at least, anything XP or newer.

[Karbuncle]

I use VX, But i have the Yanfly Script for the Battle system, since i hate the default battle system (Even though it lets you be super lazy with Self-buff move animations )

I haven't tried VXAce, But it fixes a lot of errors i had with VX, including the Shading problems. I was trying ot make a "Mountain Top" Village, But the shading made it nearly impossible to do... which sucked.

I recommedn VX with Scripts, or VXAce tbh, seems like the best bet.

[Datonare]

My actual biggest problem with VX is it suffers crippling lag when you have a lot of events on the screen/map at the same time.

Ain't that the truth. Game is almost unplayable on my shitty laptop when on my world map lol

My current project is in VX, but I've messed around with Ace and it definitely has a lot of nice fixes and tweaks, like multiple tilesets, TP system seems cool, taking out or putting in shadows, etc.

[Destinye]

Ace is definitely the way to go. The only issue I have with ace is if you're lazy like me and use a iconset with 6k+ icons rather than chopping em down to what you need from the get go..it will have a slight loading lag in the database, but aside that VX Ace is better especially if you know how to Parallax map.

[Not Kuno]

Ace is definitely the way to go. The only issue I have with ace is if you're lazy like me and use a iconset with 6k+ icons rather than chopping em down to what you need from the get go..it will have a slight loading lag in the database, but aside that VX Ace is better especially if you know how to Parallax map.

This shit happens on VX also. I have a 3mb icon set file. Oops.

[Destinye]

This shit happens on VX also. I have a 3mb icon set file. Oops.

Haha yeah..mine is 5.2mb , but you have basically unlimited icons to play with.

[Kirin]

Appreciate all the help. Lot of good info to move forward with.

Is there a site or wiki anyone knows of that kind of has a listing of available scripts and what they do?

Edit: Nevermind, stumbled upon the VX Ace wiki.

[Destinye]

Also http://yanflychannel.wordpress.com/ is your best friend for certain core fixes (among other things.) specifically http://yanflychannel.wordpress.com/rmvxa/ for ace.

[Shini]

http://victorscripts.wordpress.com/

also has some good scripts for VX Ace. Nowhere near the amount Yanfly has, but he's got a very good lighting script The 2 best places to check for VX Ace scripts are:

http://www.rpgmakervxace.net/forum/2...uby-scripting/
http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index....ker-scripting/

A lot of people have been converting the VX scripts to work with VX Ace.