MrMo's ABS Ultimate

[DerVVulfman]

BUMP!
To Version 5.0

There have been a number of things done with the ABS system, like the Distance Replacement system. But I am getting ahead of myself.

First off, I reduced some code by making a couple of routines that hendle the skill point costs, animations and button mash delays for the various skill types. Separate routines were employed for enemies, players and companions and were similar in design. But because of this compartmentalization, you can attach code to this method rather than needlessly changing/editing the original looooong method it was previously within.

I reduced the code further by creating methods that hendled ranged (all-enemy) attacks that did not use one the MrMo missile system. If you made an all-enemies system that was not defined in the RANGE_SKILLS or RANGE_EXPLODE arrays, they will hit one or more enemies on the screen without fail (other than MDef affecting it). This has always been the case and not something new. But I reduced the code by isolating the damage effect, hit, jump and other related stuff and putting it into its own method. It had to be done for both players and companions, but it reduced the code by about 18 lines of commands.

A minor bug fix was done to skill effects for companions as I accidentally removed the target animation effect a couple updates ago.

And all user animations and target animations have been straightened out to normal. TARGET animations are no longer used to display on the caster. It was kinda in the original MrMo system, but I never fixed it until now.

I reworked some of the routines that check the ability to use a skill and found some code needing to be fixed. MrMo's system initially used a 'can_use_skill' method and I'm keeping it for ABS reasons. Some code was flawed and needed to be fixed.

Big whoops found when I discovered that the companions lacked the code which prevents them from moving through 'barriers'. So now it's replicated from the Player's system.

But worse. ENEMIES and MISSILES were not stopped by solid barriers either. Now that totally sucked and needed to be handled.

On top of that, I added some new code for ABS Enemies that is run when the enemy decides which attack to perform. This makes the use of skills and/or attacks work a bit better. Previously, it didn't want to work so well and if the enemy wanted to cast a skill, it wouldn't change to a different attack if he didn't have enough points. He'd just freeze and do nothing but wait until his next turn. But he/she still will freeze if he doesn't have a melee attack if you don't do anything.

But now, here's something you'll love.

Enemies have a flag called 'Personality' which controls some of its behavior in combat. With it, you can set an enemy to keep its distance from the player. However, it sucked when the enemy ran out of SP and could only perform melee attacks. IT WOULD ALWAYS BACK AWAY FROM YOU!!! Because of that, additional work was done to the system. Now, when you have an enemy set up to keep its distance and it runs out of skill points, it changes its behavior to a normal enemy. It can then approach the player and use melee attacks.

This should make those pesky spell lobbing, arrow launching enemies even more dangerous.