Battle Engine Melody (Manual)

Emptyview, also known as the default view

Emptyview

This is the Emptyview setting. The actors themselves are invisible and the enemies are lined up in the middle of the screen. In this battle view, there's no movement of any sort and animations are the main indicators of what actions are being performed and where. Adjustments made by Melody include the fact that animations will also be played on the actors even though they're invisible. The location of the animations played upon the actors is indicated by the status window at the bottom of the screen. For this reason, the horizontal aligned status window plays a more important part in determining which actor is being attacked. Enemies will also flash before performing an action to reduce the ambiguity of which enemy is actually performing.

Frontview, as seen in the game Final Fantasy Mystic Quest.

Frontview

Frontview places the actors in the front of the screen and the enemies higher on the screen. Actors are now visible and represented by their onscreen map sprites. Both actors and enemies will move in this view to attack each other, cast spells, use items, and more. The actors are aligned in a straight line relative to their status window. Animations are played on both the actors and enemies.

Sideview, as you've seen in nearly ever other RPG Maker game with a custom battle system.

Sideview

Sideview places the actors on the right side of the screen and the enemies on the left side of the screen. They leave a somewhat empty middle ground to allow for visual traveling between the two parties to attack each other, cast spells, etc. This type of view is seen very commonly in many commercial RPG's for the earlier generation consoles and many RPG Maker games that feature a custom battle system. This battle view is also one of the selling points of RPG Maker 2003. Animations are played on both the actors and enemies and actors will be depicted by their onscreen map sprites.

Angleview, also known as 3/4th view and Isoview.

Angleview

Angleview, also known as 3/4th view and Isoview, places the actors in the bottom right corner and the enemies in the upper left corner. They still leave a somewhat large middle ground for battlers to travel between the parties, cast spells, and more. Those familiar with the earlier Breath of Fire series may recognize this view. It was also featured in Super Mario RPG for the Super Nintendo. Animations are played on both the actors and enemies and actors will be depicted by their onscreen map sprites.

DTB, what came packed with the original RPG Maker VX.

Default Turn Battle

The Default Turn Battle system (will be called DTB from this point forth) is what came originally packaged with RPG Maker VX. In this battle system, actions are selected at the start of the turn for both actors and enemies alike. Once all the actions are selected, both parties enter a commonly shared battle phase where their speeds and such are matched to determine their turn order. There is no player input during the battle phase and it continues until all of the battlers have finished producing their actions.

For more detail on the Battle Engine Melody changes to the DTB, visit the Default Turn Battle System page.

PTB, trademark of Shin Megami Tensei's incredible game, Nocturne.

Press Turn Battle

The Press Turn Battle system (will be called PTB from this point forth) is a remake of Shin Megami Tensei's Digital Devil Saga's battle system and Shin Megami Tensei's Nocturne battle system. In this battle system, the player's party and the enemy's party swap turns with each other after their actions are depleted. Actions are performed immediately upon selection. However, under certain conditions, each party may lose or gain more actions depending on their performance in-battle.

For more information on how this battle system works, visit the Press Turn Battle System page.

ATB, taking on the form of Grandia's battle system.

Active Turn Battle

The Active Turn Battle system (will be called ATB from this point forth) removes the whole party action selection phase. Instead, throughout the whole battle, the player is able to enter in whatever actions they want and when. The actions then complete themselves upon the actors or enemies reaching the end of the ATB bar shown at the upper left corner of the screen. This gauge system is based off of Grandia's ATB system, in which case, many features are also borrowed from Grandia, too, such as knocking back battlers on the battle gauge, action command selection at certain points, and more.

For more information about this battle system, visit the Active Turn Battle System page.

CTB, for all of those who loved Final Fantasy X.

Charge Turn Battle

The Charge Turn Battle system (will be called CTB from this point forth) also removes the whole party action selection phase. But rather than actively having the ATB bar update, the battle will "pause" each time a battler can input an action. This action will take effect immediately unless it requires charging. At that point, the battler is then pushed back into the charging pool until their speed reaches threshold. Actions produced by the battlers will also determine their speed, how it's reset, and how it affects other units on the field.

For more information about this battle system, visit the Charge Turn Battle System page.

Spice up your monsters by animating them.

Animated Battlers

Both actors and enemies can be animated and use custom battlers. However, Battle Engine Melody strays away from the traditional battler graphic sheet format for many reasons. First, it's restrictive. Second, it lacks control. Third, animating them requires more trial and error. Instead, Battle Engine Melody makes use of battle animations in the database to replace their battlers. The reasoning behind this is to counteract the three points presented. By using battle animations, each battler increases the number of frames usable to 200 max (and it doesn't even have to be a set number), the number of image cell combinations to 200 max, up to 16 different animated cells onscreen at the same time (with blending options), and unlimited stance setups. That's right, if you decide to make an animation action called "Fireball of Death", all you need to do is use that exact string in your notebox for the stance name and it'll work. Animated battlers can also have their hues changed without needing to make new animations either. This is done in a way to save space amongst other things.

For more detailed information on how to set up custom animated battlers, view the Animated Battlers configuration section.

A smaller battle message window means you can see more of the screen.

Battle Message Window

The battle message window within the default RPG Maker VX battle system proved problematic. While it was certainly very detailed in describing what happened in battle, it completely obscured the player's view of their party's status. That means until all the actions were completed, you had no idea if Ralph lost all of his HP, Ulrika died, Bennett changed into a newt, or Ylva ran out of MP. Thus, the battle message window is moved upward to no longer hide away the status window.

In addition to moving it upward, the battle message window is also reduced in detail (although you can restore this lost detail through the Configuration). Thus, it became more important to pay attention to the battle itself rather than a little text window spelling out everything that's happening for the player. The battle message window is then used only minimally and only when necessary.

An automatically updating battle status window means more accuracy and less work for the user.

Battle Status Window

The layout of the status window has changed from a vertical column layout to a horizontal column layout. This is done to offer more room to display about each party member. Before, only 2 states were visible on a battler at a time, while now, up to four are. The battler's actions are also shown in the upper left while having a portrait behind all of the information for quick and easy recognition of the actor at first glance.

In RPG Maker VX's battle system, the status window needed to be refreshed manually in order to show any new changes. This means that if you, the user, were to add a state manually through an event, you'd have to fire up the script call event to refresh the battle status window in order to show the newly adjusted state. Now, the status window automatically updates itself in response to any changes made to HP, MP, status effects, which actor is highlighted, and which actor is active. HP, MP, and Rage gauges now scroll with damage to indicate to the player which direction they're heading. If HP damage is dealt, a red after trail follows. If HP is healed, a green path is shown to a climbing HP bar. Likewise for the MP and Rage gauges.

Marking your actors' coordinates is simple.

Battler Positioning

Although more is covered under the Battle Engine Melody Configuration page, here's a quick run through about what you can do about positioning your battlers.

Actors are positioned based on coordinates and what position they are in the party. The coordinates are exact, with a couple of offsets here and there based on their class row positioning. For example, a front row warrior will always be a few pixels forward while the back row archer will always be a few pixels behind the middle line. Although this part is optional, it certainly adds a new layer of depth to the party itself.

Enemies coordinates can be automatically converted based on the view type or manually done for the more artistically inclined. What does this mean? It means that you can just plop them straight in the database troop editor and it'll automatically convert their positions to angle properly with whatever battle view type you're using. Although the user loses out on positioning control, the user makes up for it with consistency. The battlers' screen X and screen Y positions are also then attuned to the newer settings.

Sometimes, there's too many numbers on the screen at once to tell how much damage you're really dealing.

Combo Counter

Multiple hits against a single target or a whole party can leave the player troubled at how much damage was actually dealt total. It becomes difficult for them to assess the worth of a skill or attack based on how quickly the information can pass through the screen at once. The combo counter at the upper right hand corner of the screen will appear whenever damage or healing occurs to let the player know how many hits were connected and how much damage was dealt total. This counter will disappear when no damage has been dealt for a small period of time.

Add more commands to each of these windows.

Command Windows

Before, at the start of battle, you'd see "Fight" and "Escape" with just those two boring options there. Then, you'd carry over to the actors where all you ever saw were "Attack", "Skill", "Guard", and "Item" and that was it. Wouldn't it be better to add more commands than just that? Well, it's possible now in Battle Engine Melody.

Party Command Window

This window originally appeared on the far left where major decisions were made about whether to fight or flee. That portion is now skipped and automatically selected as "Fight" for any DTB users. However, the option is still accessible by scrolling all the way left. Here, a number of options appear depending on what battle system you're currently using.

Actor Command Window

Instead of just having four basic commands consisting of "Attack", "Skill", "Defend", and "Item", a number of new commands can be added. These commands can be skills, equipment change, escaping, and more.

Confirm Command Window

In the DTB, before beginning the battle phase, the confirm window appears before entering it. Although it's an extra keystroke, it allows the player to check the party's condition, make sure all the skills are right, etc. before moving on. Because this window hasn't been removed in the other battle systems, it's accessible by scrolling all the way right where there are a number of other options to view.

For information on how to adjust these individual items, visit the Configuration page.

In-battle options menu, as you see them in commercial RPG's everywhere now.

Options Menu

One thing that will appear in all of the battle systems is the options menu. In this menu, the player has access to a number of things. These options will not affect battle-related mechanics, but rather, offer any non-mechanical changes that the player may see as more comfortable. Here's a small list of what each of the options have to offer.

Skill Help

This provides the player the skill's description underneath the skill name when it's used in battle. In the event your game uses some rather obscure naming schemes that nobody with a pocket dictionary could even understand, the skill's description will hopefully be able to provide the player information or even a detail of what the skill's supposed to do.

Animations

Some animations are just too drawn out while others are just plain boring to look at for the billionth time. Nobody wants to see Knights of the Round for the 8th time in the same battle after all. The player now as the option to show the animations or hide them. Note that hiding them will also minimize the movement needed by the visual battlers. They'll perform less steps than necessary and thus, speed up battles even more.

AutoCursor

Not everybody likes to scroll down to skill each time. If they've used skill last, they want that to be the first option highlighted when it's that actor's turn again. And that's exactly what AutoCursor does. By setting it to "Memory", the cursor will instantly move to the last selected command the player has performed with that actor. If it's set to "Reset", then the command will revert to whatever is first on the list.

NextActor

By default, this is set to "Auto" where upon selecting an actor's action will move onto the next selected actor immediately. Why is this? Because in Battle Engine Melody, you can tag between actors in your party with the Left and Right keys. By selecting "Auto" this process will reduce unnecessary key movements. However, some players may feel more comfortable with a more "Manual" setting where the selection does not instantly move onto the next actor. They may feel more in control with manual key strokes rather than automatic.

ATB Speed and ATB Type

Though this isn't shown in the screenshot to the left, these options will only appear if the currently selected battle system is an ATB. Here, the player can adjust the speed of the battle if it's too fast or slow for them, the ATB waiting type, and more to adjust the ATB to befit their comfort.

BGM, BGS, SFX Volume

Not all players will like your opera music, Spongebob sound effects, or that obnoxious siren in the background. This is a difficult truth to accept, but it's a truth nonetheless. Players will have the option to reduce the volume of these respective items or even mute them completely.

The options menu is also reconfigurable. Items may be added on or taken out depending on the user's decision. To make these changes, alter them within the script's Configuration.

Ranges from numbers to states to random messages.

Popups

Popups replace the typical battle messages you see such as "Ylva dealt 398 damage to Red Slime" and instead, give you a nice clean number popup instead. This reduces the need for the player to read and provide a quicker outline of the battle to the player within an instant. Popups also come in different schemes, too, as to distinguish them between damage popups, "Weakness" popups, status effect popups, and more. Here's a quick run through about how they differ:

HP Damage and HP Healing

Regular HP damage will appear in white text. This is nothing spectacular nor different from the usual. However, healed HP will appear with a green colour scheme and accompanied by a "+" in the front.

MP Damage and MP Healing

Regular MP damage will appear with a slightly purple-ish colour followed by an "MP" suffix to indicate MP damage has been dealt. When MP is healed, the colour is a faded blue with a "+" as the prefix and "MP" as the suffix.

Critical Hit

Critical hits will flash a colour-changing border around the HP or MP damage of the proper type. This flash can also change and the "Critical!" popup may also appear should the settings allow it.

Weakness, Resistance, and Immunities

If an elemental attack strikes a target that's weak, resistant, or immune to it, the proper popup will appear first accompanied by the damage afterwards. Weaknesses appear in red. Resistances appear green. Immunities appear blue. These match the "A", "D", and "E" settings in the database editor.

Absorb and Drain

If an elemental attack strikes a target who absorbs the element, "Absorb" will appear along with the converted healing popup. If a skill or item has a "Drain" property, the "Drain" popup will appear over the user's head.

Miss, Evade, and Nulled

These popups will appear if an attack misses against the target, the target has evaded the attack, or no damage has been dealt to the target. These appear as a regular white popup.

Adding and Removing States

States when added will appear with their icon along with a "+" sign next to their full name. States that are removed will also appear with their icon but followed by a "-" sign next to their full name. Their colour schemes can vary depending on whether they're being added or removed. Individual rules may be set for adding and removing each state, too, as to distinguish them between positive and negative states.

The schemes above are the default settings. Though they are default, they aren't permanent and users can also edit the current colour schemes or even make their own in the script's Configuration.

You can never have enough information.

Query Status Window

Players can now access each actor's in-battle status window to see how their stats fare, what their elemental affinities are, and what status effects are inflicted upon that actor. While the battle status window can show only up to four status effects at a time, the query status window's list can extend past that without a limit. In addition to an extensive list, it will also list the status effect's full name, too. For information on how to adjust this window, visit the Configuration page.

Each battle system type has their own set of turn order icons.

Turn Order Icons

As you may have noticed in many of the Battle Engine Melody screenshots already, there's a turn order gauge in the upper left portion of the screen. This turn order gauge allows the player to visualize the current and future positioning of each battler as the battle progresses and allows the player to make proper and better decisions in battle based on this knowledge alone. The turn order icons are actually sprites that are created based on a number of icons pieced together to distinguish them between friendly party and enemy party. As you may have noticed in the screenshot to the left, the friendly units have a blue border while the enemy units have a red border. Of course, this is changeable depending on whether or not you, the user, are willing to edit them.

For more detailed information on how to set up your turn order icons, view the Turn Order Icons configuration section.

Window positions have been changed, some windows have been added, and some were removed.

Window Positioning

Almost all of the windows used from the original battle system have been changed in one way or another. Namely, their positions have been altered. Otherwise, many new windows and items have also appeared. Here's a quick run-through with the changes.

Enemy Target Window

The enemy target window has been removed and replaced with a battle cursor along with a small help window at the top of the screen to indicate the targeted enemy's name. The reason upon its removal is simply because it was just an ineffective way of displaying proper information when needed. When faced with a party of multiple enemies, their names are split down in such a format where it's "Slime A", "Slime B", "Slime C", "Slime D", etc. As there was no default battle cursor to indicate which enemy was targeted, you'd just have to assume that the Slime C you're targeting is the third one from the left. If it wasn't, then the player may have made a mistake that was not their fault. By using a battle cursor and an enemy name tag window, there is less room for player error beyond their control.

Enemy HP/MP Gauges

Enemies will now have their HP and MP gauges shown as well as any states inflicted upon them if any. This information can be hidden or shown globally and individually and even the colour of the gauge bars may change, too. The gauge will appear under whatever enemy is currently selected.

Skill/Item Window

Both the skill and item windows were too big for their own good. They took up over half of the screen to provide a double column list of items that were scrollable at the player's leisure. And this was done at the expense of obscuring the visible battle field. Thus, their sizes have been reduced in battle to fit compactly in the lower portion of the screen while maintaining 8 viewable objects at once.

Help Window

Having a help window at the top of the screen while the skill and item windows were at the bottom of the screen tends to cause a bit of discomfort. The help window is then moved to the bottom of the screen right on top of the newly positioned skill and item windows.

Mini-Status Window

The mini-status window appears in the lower right corner. Since the entire party's status window isn't needed to let the player know whether or not one of the actors needs to have enough MP to cast a skill, the status window has been shrunk to a miniature size to allow for better screen compression.

When killing them with the default damage formula just isn't classy enough anymore...

Custom Damage Formulas

Damage formulas are quite possibly the most important thing in any battle system. A good damage formula will make or break the game no matter how good everything else is. It's important to not neglect this one factor. For those reasons alone, Battle Engine Melody offers extensive damage formula control down to every individual step of the damage formula creation capability. New features and changes made from the original battle system provided by RPG Maker VX include the following:

• Ability to raise multipliers past 200%.
• Give skills and items the ability to produce critical hits.
• States that can inflate, deflate, or even block or boost damage by set or percentile increments.
• Lunatic Mode section that allows for easy-access damage formula changes.

More information about these features will be provided in the Custom Damage Formulas page.

Pfft, MP? Who makes MP costing skills anymore?

Custom Skill Effects

Custom skill effects provided by Battle Engine Melody change the non-damage functionalities of your skills. These new functions range from making them cost something other than MP, such as HP, Rage, gold, and more. Skills can also have restricted usage, requiring either elements to be present in a user's attack or even a state to be present on the user. Skills can also undergo a cooldown phase or even have limited uses for each battle (or even the game itself!). Here's a quick run down of what to expect:

• Non-MP costing skills such as HP, Gold, Items, etc.
• A new Rage currency, which raises as the battler performs hits and receives hits.
• Option to use icons to represent cost types.
• Casting animations available for each skill.
• Instant cast properties.
• New requirements such as for elements to be present or states to be present.
• Cooldowns and limited uses for skills.
• Lunatic skill effects to allow for even further customization.

More information about these features will be provided in the Custom Skill Effects page.

I bet it's your first time seeing an item greyed out in battle, huh?

Custom Item Abilities

A lot of old functions from the former RPG Maker 2000 and RPG Maker 2003 have been left out in RPG Maker VX. Battle Engine Melody restores these old functions and even delivers more new features. Item traits such as item charges are restored and class restricted usage, too. All of which is present again.

• Item charges that allow for multiple use of a single item.
• Restricted use for certain actors or classes.
• Nullify upon use for certain actors, classes, or enemies.
• Instant use properties.
• Changing variables and switches without the need of common events.
• Unique effects produced when used by different actors or classes.

More information about these features will be provided in the Custom Item Abilities page.

When you launch a meteor on something, it better be huge.

Custom Target Options

Sometimes the default scopes just aren't enough for skills and items. And sometimes it's better to make an area of effect type skill rather than a target-all type skill. Perhaps it's better to have a random selection scoping item to heal your allies rather than setting it to heal just whoever you pick. Either way, Battle Engine Melody extends the target scoping properties for each item and skill to more levels.

• Target random allies or enemies. More than 3 times, too, if that's what you wish.
• Set an area of effect target range. Everything else outside of the range won't be included.
• Give unique magic circle images for each skill or item. They don't even have to be the same.
• Change the targeting text tooltip to just how you like it.
• Lunatic mode allows for an even larger selection of scopes.

More information about these features will be provided in the Custom Target Options page.

Status animations galore! Laugh at those dizzy slimes.

Custom Status Properties

Status effects have always played a rather low part of many RPG's and RPG Maker games are no different. Players tend to ignore them for something else and that's due to the fact that they just aren't made too well. Battle Engine Melody reverses this by allowing some fun ways to use status effects such as stacking them, providing HP and MP regeneration (and degeneration), and more.

• Status animations will play on an inflicted battler continuously until it wears off.
• Status effects can stack on each other and inflate their effects.
• Stat boosts can now go past 200%.
• Status effects can also alter MaxHP and MaxMP in battle.
• Status effects can regenerate HP and/or MP over time or decrease them over time by either set or percentile amounts.
• Status effects can adjust the costs of skills, MP, HP, you name it.
• Status effects can provide unique traits such as Super Guard, Pharmacology, Fast Attack, and more.
• Lunatic Mode offers even more options to become available for status effects.

More information about these features will be provided in the Custom Status Properties page.

Go ahead and makes those elemental enchantments the way you want them!

Custom Affinity Settings

Ever get tired that actors and enemies would have a set elemental and/or status affinity that never changes throughout the course of the game? Well, Battle Engine Melody now provides more options to make battles interesting in that regard. You can enchant allies with elemental attacks, status effects, give them shields against them, or douse enemies with an elemental weakness before striking them with it.

• Changes made the weapon appearance and animations through states.
• Increase or decrease ranks through states or equipment.
• Increase or decrease rates through states or equipment.
• Add elements to a physical attack element set.
• Add status effects to a physical attack status set.
• Change the way calculations are made when multiple elements exist.
• Have status effect probability be affected by an element.

More information about these features will be provided in the Custom Affinity Settings page.

Constructing custom Melody sequences take time but oh so worth it.

Battle Engine Melody offers its own unique scripting language for the database editor. This Melody language, while difficult at first, allows for full customization of how a skill behaves and acts in extreme detail while providing lots of control. This unique system allows the user to tackle nearly every aspect of the way skills, items, weapons, and enemies behave right from the notebox and even do things that weren't originally possible before. The Melody Language offers quite a few perks, too.

• An extensive list of commands for each Melody sequence.
• Adaptable and self-correcting Melodies should they be incomplete.
• The ability to import new Melodies made by others into Battle Engine Melody.
• Sectioned actions to allow for more direct and controllable sequences.
• The ability to copy Melody sequences from another skill, item, equipment, or enemy.
• Fully selectable target type system allowing you to pick any unit in the battlefield.

To read more about how the Melody Language works, visit the Melody Manual page.