The Lycan ABS

[DerVVulfman]

Actually, that would be more of an area effect. And for the melee weapons, the answer is no.

The system allows for 8 directional and 4 directional movement, and the melee range area affect is tied to this system. By setting the DIAGONAL_ACTION value to true, you allow for 8 directional movement. In doing so, all melee and enemy attacks (and that's the point... enemy attacks) are 8 directional and are sweeping. It would be unfair to not let enemies have that when the player can move and dance around them. But if you set the DIAGONAL_ACTION value to false, it more resembles the classic NES Legend of Zelda being only 4 directional and having attacks that do not sweep or go anywhere but up/down/left/right.

But you can set an area distance. A short sword or dagger can be made to affect enemies right next to them while spears may impale targets an additional tile away.

BTW....

I just updated the 'RAPIDSHARE' link so the demo now has a revised Help file which includes your previous query about the Frequency edit and about how you can make looping maps. Lycan can let you make maps that wrap or loop vertically and horizontally since day one... I just left it out of the help file.

[zephrael]

Hmm, okay. I'll stick with one-tile-ahead then.

Another thing - is it possible to allow ranged weapons - arrows, etc - to pass over particular impassible times? For example, to shoot an arrow across a
gap at a distant enemy?

Also... The companion move route script doesn't seem to be working. It gives an error upon the event that should begin it: Line 4434, Name Error: undefined local variable or method 'actor_id'... any idea?

[DerVVulfman]

Over impassible events, no. Over impassable terrains? Yes.

PASS_TAGS = array
This ABS allows you to shoot missiles across normally impassible terrains. These terrain are indicated by terrain tag that are entered within the array set here. The most common terrain would be for water, though other terrains may be blocked which you may want missiles to travel across.

And as to that script call? OH, FOR PITY SAKE!!!!!

Code:

def companion_move_route(actor_id, destination_x,destination_y)

Stuupid... STOOPID ... S T U P I D !!! Okay, line 4431 needs replacing. My next bump and version number will include this fix.

[zephrael]

Oh, worked perfectly once again, thanks! I'm sorry to continue my constant slurry of questions, but I'm having some troubles with skills now... I'll stop soon, honest!

So basically, I was wondering if there's any way to make a sort of Area of Effect skill that is just an explosion straight out from the actor rather than a projectile which then explodes. I tried setting the range of the skill to 0, but that just made the explosion happen from the tile directly in front of the actor - which isn't too bad, but is there any better way?

Also, is there a way to make particular skills/attacks/whatever do no damage to actors? I ask because, with this AoE skill, I don't want the player, who cast the spell, to get hurt by it...

Finally, I tried out the state effects and set skills to have the stun and sleep effects etc... But it doesn't seem to do anything. When I use a skill on an enemy that applies a state that is in the sleep_effect array in the script, the enemy just... keeps walking and attacking like normal. Something I'm doing wrong, maybe? The skill and the state both have 100% hit rate, so I'm not sure...

[DerVVulfman]

Ooof. Did I forget about status effects on Enemies? Pretty sure I had them affected, but I could be wrong.

Creating an attack effect that doesn't affect the good guys, but the enemies alone? Interesting option. Pardon the Anime/Manga/Japanese Novel reference, but that would be like Lina Inverse (The Slayers) being able to cast the Dragon Slave as she is shielded from the cataclysmic effects herself. As the books themselves state. Usually, it's an everyone or no one effect thingie. For it to hit enemies, it should hit ... whoever. :P I may look into that.

Making an area of effect skill in front of the player rather than surrounding the caster himself isn't hard. Just consider making an explosive range skill without having an actual missile graphic. If no one SEES the missile, that should work just fine. I've been having fun with a particle effect add-on so my custom magic spells use particle effects for the missile shot alone.

And the questions are not a bother, but a reassurance that there is interest. And as you find issues, those issues can be trampled and the system will grow.

[zephrael]

Hmm, it's just... I don't think I explained myself properly. What I meant is I wanted to set up an AOE spell that does surround the caster. One, I can't work out how to do that, and two, when I get close (i,e, having it explode just one tile in front of the caster), it hurts the caster too. That's why I asked about spells that have no effect on the caster.

Ooh, particle effects... Where can I get that add-on? It'd probably look better than a character sprite.

[DerVVulfman]

D O H ! ! ! !

I forgot to post the particle system patch!!!!???? I wrote it before Halloween!!!!

Here it is....
Meagan's Particles for the Lycan ABS
And you'll need this too...
Meagan's Particles

[DerVVulfman]

BUMP
to version 4.6

There have been massive things performed on the system, allowing for faster attack systems, a better built-in antilag feature, and enemies that don't stop following if you are using the map looping system.

First off, the anti-lag system is now part of a new 'Map Control' section in the Comfiguration page, which also includes the PASS_TAGS. Yep, I had to make some subtle changes to the configuration pages. But chnages throughout, so bare with me. Changes were performed to the ABS Engine Code and Sprite Control Page which handles the updating and graphic refresh of the sprites on the system. You can now adjust how many tiles outside of the visible 20x15 area that is updated, allowing the game designer to adjust when enemies refresh and when they don't.

A minor alteration was performed to the enemy movement system within the Game_Code page, specifically geared to move enemies into a direct line-of-sight vertically or horizontally so attacks can be performed when they previously failed.

Another alteration was performed so players couldn't accidentally (or intentionally) jump over large objects.... like trees. The fix now prevents the player from jumping over map tiles that have priorities set to 2 or higher. However, this didn't stop the player from jumping over events, so a special comment code system for tall events was created as a precaution. Now you can jump over killer rabbits, but not that 8 ft tall bodybuilder with an axe. Changes here were made to the Game_Code, the ABS Engine Code, and the first configuration page so you can set up your own 'too-tall' flag.

You could move and walk around in endless circles as long as you were in a looping map. However, enemies couldn't follow you across these invisible map borders. Now they can after new work was performed to both the Game_Code, Sprite Code and ABS Engine Code.

Did you think the attack animation was a little slow, even when you could take a frame or two out of the animation? Well, fret no more as another change was made to speed this up. The action poses (attack, hit, etc) are now slightly sped up, though the action speed can be configured thanks to changes made to the first and third configuraion pages, as well as changes made to the enemy comment control system. Besides the changes to the configuration pages I mentioned, changes were made to the Game_Code, ABS Engine Code and Combatant Control pages.

And a suggestion was made by JayRay... Respawn Points.

This new inclusion into the enemy comment and control system allows game developers to include alternate locations where the enemy may respawn. If the monster starts at the top right corner, a normal respawn would let it refresh back there. But now, you can set custom locations so it can respawn up there, down there, over here... wherever. The player can't just wait for the monster to respawn and beat it up again. Changes were done to the ABS Engine Code and the Combatant Code for the enemy to add the new feature.


Along with these, please note that two NEW script add-ons are included within the demos, JayRay's Lycan Game Log and Lycan Audible Alerts!!!

[DerVVulfman]

Dear friends, it is time that The Lycan ABS receives a

NEW YEARS
BUMP
to version 4.7

This time, the update was an issue related to the built-in map looping feature that was defective. While the system did move the player and objects so they crossed opposite ends of a map's border flawlessly, it damaged the passables checking system so you would virtually be a ghost and could walk through all sorts of objects from enemies to brick walls. Not exactly a good thing.

Most changes occurred to the 'Game code' and 'Scene code' pages, but a minor fix was also applied to the 'ABS ENGINE code' page. So if you wished to upgrade your system from version 4.6 to version 4.7, those three pages are all you need to replace.

[JayRay]

Got a question/bug/request

First let me say I'm not a detractor of the awesome script by any means... My question and bug report is in the hotkeys.

When choosing hotkeys, I find that they show up on my hotkey bar out of order... like 1, 4, 2, 3 5. Is there anyway that this hotkey bar can automatically place the items in order, from 1-5 or 1 to 8 or whatever?