What's up, RMers?

[DerVVulfman]

Ahhh, more work on the Lycan ABS continues...

While in a preliminary stage, I have begun work on the creation of a new optional delay system which could be used to create 'chanting' styled animations.  For those who don't know what I am talking about, there will be three types of delay systems in the Lycan ABS whereby most other ABSs have only one:  They are as follows

• The Button Mash:  (Already Present) Typically a system that prevents the player from repeatedly pressing the Attack key super-rapidly like a machine gun.  This is in most all ABSs.
  

• Action Animation:  (Already Present) When the player/enemy/whatever attacks, the character swings his sword or whatnot.  This 'Action Animation' delay just lets you determine when the actual 'HIT' takes place, either instantly after the Attack keys is pressed or after a few frames of animation so the sword appears to have been swung.
  

• Chanting/Stance:  (In the works!)  This is an optional delay system.  Once the player presses the attack key, it MAY play out a special action stance such as a chanting pose for X frames of animation before actually performing an attack.
  

Right now, I have a preliminary version of the Chanting/Stance delay system functioning for the Player.  For now, it is performing the attack animation during both the 'Chanting/Stance' delay as well as when the player is actively attacking... So it's weird to see Jane pull a gun... and then pull a gun a second time to fire.   But it IS working. 

For the Stance animations, I just need to craft a new form of 'Stance' pose for attacks much like how I have a pose option for each weapon attack.  Optionally, i might use a 'nil' value within just to skip the Stance animation.  Not every attack will have it.  Heck, most attacks might not at all.

Still, it is currently being worked on just for the player system right now.   But before I began working on it, I did some preliminary re-study of my system to find where these systems need to be placed, not only within the player code but also within the enemy and companion system code.  And where I have it within the Player code, it works like a dream.

Then after that... status ailments that can affect the duration OF the Stance animations...  Mwahahaha!!!

Jane with the gun (>^_^)>+-  -   -   -  *Pew Pew Pew!!!!*

[kyonides]

Is it just me? Or the XP enemy transform event command is merely cosmetic? O_o? I never found a trace of updating stats after transformation, meaning the transformed enemy would be as weaken as the original monster. =_= A real waste of time!

[DerVVulfman]

ROFL! Yes! It DOES just change the enemy's battler and battler hue!

I guess you found a new script to write. I already did one for actors.

---

Oooh... I got more headway with my Lycan ABS's new 'stance' feature. It's taking a while to be sure. But with my Store#2 demo, I have Jane performing a repetitive looping animation before she even draws her gun to shoot. This might not seem like much, but it begins what could allow for 'casting' poses for complex spells, having a character pull a grenade out of his/her pocket, or whatever.

I do admit, I may be changing the configuration section's ATTACK page to allow for the new actions. Yarg.... I hate that.

Meanwhile, I have in mind of a popup window showing what goodies you snagged from the map. That is, stuff you find left behind after killing an anemy. It should be able to go into its own popup window (set to a timer) or into JayRay's log window. Hmmm.... Mebby both.

[Steel Beast 6Beets]

Is it just me? Or the XP enemy transform event command is merely cosmetic? O_o? I never found a trace of updating stats after transformation, meaning the transformed enemy would be as weaken as the original monster. =_= A real waste of time!

Pretty sure it was like that in previous RPG Makers as well, methinks.

[Mel]

Uhm, I remember a boss in a very old game of mine who transformed and had more MaxHP after the transformation. And I'm pretty sure he was stronger aswell and used different skills. But maybe I'm remembering wrong, since I made that in 2010 or something.

[DerVVulfman]

Well, either Kyo makes a script for enemies, or I might update Rosy's Transformations to handle enemies as well as actors.

But first with Lycan. I'm streamlining my existing "NEW" code for the new pre-attack pose system. And a new method verifies button mash times, action timing and pre-attack pose delay times while ensuring no invalid values get passed. ^_^

There WAS an issue I had with poses... a sort of overlapping of characterset names. But a simple one-line fix took care of this issue.

Meanwhile, I now coded the Range Weapons to work for the Companions. I guess the next stage will be ye classic Melee weapons.

[kyonides]

Actually KEW XP already handles enemy transformations including stats updates and Kolloseum States XP already includes all of KEW XP features so...

[DerVVulfman]

Just as traditional battlesystems have Skill delay systems, work is still underway to allow the Lycan ABS to have its own 'Stance' system. I'm referring it to 'Stance' as it can be applied to all attack styles: Melee and Ranged weapon attacks, Skill attacks, and Item-based attacks. And so far, so good.

Integration of a 'Stance' system for both Melee and Ranged Weapon attacks has been successful. While said weapons are available to companions, the bulk of this system was meant for the Player as Enemies carry no weapons. As such, I took some spare time to compare the Player's ABS code from the currently released version of the Lycan ABS with the new version in the works.

Compared to the current version, the new version of the Lycan ABS has changed only six methods within the Player's ABS code while adding but two more methods. And after narrowing down the methods that have been changed made it extremely easy to add the 'Stance' system for Item-based attacks.

Actually, only 30 minutes tops, and that includes features like 'landmines'!!

So now, I have a working version of the Lycan ABS that permits 'Stance' poses for Weapon and Item based attacks. Next up will be the work upon the Skill-based attacks.

And that's the part that scares me. Any wonder why early ABS scripts start off without Skills? They're pretty entertainly hard to craft.

[DerVVulfman]

The Lycan ABS just gave me some issues (or headaches) with Melee combat. To be specific, I had issues adapting the stance system to the enemies.

For the player, each weapon may have a preset stance pose. This I created without thinking about the players possibly having a single default entry. However, enemies have no weapons, so they DO need a default stance pose setting. So yeah, I had to add extra default settings. This temporary 'lack' of a stance pose showed off an issue where characterset graphics got erased. But once this default stance entry was crafted and put to use, MOST of the enemy melee stance system was added with ease.

However, a stance pose is meant to have the enemy stay in place chanting (or whatever) before attacking. And that wasn't happening. The enemies were still moving around on the map. EASY PEASEY. I added move_type values to the enemy, effectively halting it in place while changing the order of some content in the 'update_enemy' main method.

So now enemy melee attacks have a stance system that works MOSTLY as it should. I'm leaving some battle animation garbage for later.

[DerVVulfman]

Immediate work upon the Skill Stance pose within the Lycan ABS has begun. So right now, Enemies have a really rudimentary delayed effect when using skills. For testing purposes, a cowboy enemy from the 2nd Lycan ABS Story now has a stance pose before drawing his gun and firing. Er, since enemies don't carry weapons, a skill is used to simulate weapon's fire.