RPG Maker MV

[Python Panda]

I'm looking at different engines, and what not to start developing on iOS and Android. The one think I haven't really seen much of or done much looking into  is RPG Maker MV. I'm wondering if anyone here has and would like to know if its worth the $80 on steam...

[WereAlpaca]

I might as well go on a rant here for you instead

Basically RPG maker MV no longer has restrictions - it's WELL worth the 80$. Not to mention the fact that it's already compatible with iOS and Android.

http://yanfly.moe/yep/ 
^ This plugin list alone unlocks SEVERAL functions to program very interesting traits into your game. 

With the ability to change all your keybindings, call common events from the overworld using keybindings, stop events from moving with a simple <note>, construct your own GUI using clickable Common Events that display locked to screen, the main menu manager for simply disabling unneeded entries, the script to add common events to the menu as list options, the banter plugin that allows for idle chat displayed to your choosing, literally plugins for customizing every aspect of the game to the nit picky grind.

With just one or two of the plugins listed, you can radically change your game. With the ability to call common events with a key bind, it allows for overworld combat to become possible. It simply takes smart engineering and using the tools available to you.

It's simply worth 80$ because the community surrounding it is absolutely fantastic.

 

Anyways, I have extensive experience with RPG maker VX but I have yet to dive in to MV simply because I can't afford it at the moment (and the idea of an mmo is taking me over). I was able to put together many concepts for changing the game from just spending a few days reading up on various plugins and how they're used.

EDIT:
Honestly, the best part about all of these plugins is the ability to remove the overly convoluted systems set in place by default. Instead you can take the core of the engine, strip it of the features you don't like - then replace the features with intelligent programming and eventing. It just opens a lot of doors for good design.

[Python Panda]

What kind of restrictions did it have?

[WereAlpaca]

The restriction literally boiled down to ease of access. Plugins replace scripts, which used to be placed in the database directly. Often this involved positioning everything so it wasn't royally screwing everything up. Then when you wanted to use the script, you had to dig through the data base - then find the line you need - set everything perfectly - all to do something that was quality of life. This is normally expected when diving into game creation... however it was a fucking nightmare. Also RPG maker VX literally has limited databases(Ex: may only have 300 items or something dumb like that). The Yanfly core engine lifts all these limits and lets you set your own. The run speed is also significantly improved - again with platform compat. on both iOS and Android. I don't mean to sound cliche, but it really is a whole new program.

[Agoraphobic]

When it came out it was a buggy mess; however, they have greatly improved it. I purchased it on sale again (refunded 1st time), but not sure I would pay full price for it.

[Python Panda]

Thanks guys. I might end up going with what I know which is C# so it may end up being Unity that I use.

[Dr.House]

I suggest you to try the Demo, then buy it if you're happy with it.

I have the engine, it's great, though I expected more from them, like a tactical battle system this time, instead of the old turn based one, meh.

[WereAlpaca]

Ya they under delivered on new features for sure. There are many great tactical battle system plugins though. It's easy to view it as the company using the community for features which is kind of shitty.

[Dr.House]

I haven't found ONE tactical battle plugin, at least not complete, there is 1, but it ain't complete, very early in development.

Could you please link to me some, cuz oh boy, I searched, haha  and couldn't find

[WereAlpaca]

Ahhh it appears I was wrong! lmao. I was thinking of the Active Turn Battle system, and the Charge Turn Battle system that Yanfly released. However, there are several plugins that allow an immense amount of customisation in the battle system, adding a grid and an action to move on this grid (with collision checks etc.) would be more that possible. With that grid and movement in place, you would likely only need range checks for individual attacks and skills to see when or not they can land a hit.
http://yanfly.moe/yep/
I encourage you to check out this plugin list, the second batch of entries are all about battle plugins. There is an IMMENSE amount of opportunities.

I have some time so I can make a very basic outline on how this may be done:

This adds a large amount of control and optimization to the current battle system:
http://yanfly.moe/2015/10/10/yep-3-battle-engine-core/

This is used for adding several clearly defined steps into mechanical actions:
http://yanfly.moe/2015/10/11/yep-4-action-sequence-pack-1/

This is used for adding several clearly defined steps into player movement during combat:
http://yanfly.moe/2015/10/12/yep-5-action-sequence-pack-2/

This is used for adding several clearly defined steps of animation and effects:
http://yanfly.moe/2015/10/12/yep-6-action-sequence-pack-3/

This adds the feature for enemies to be animated:
http://yanfly.moe/2015/12/13/yep-44-animated-sideview-enemies/

This adds a lot of ways to manipulate enemy AI, the biggest change is that enemies make their fighting decisions when it's their turn to attack - instead of at the end of the players turn:
http://yanfly.moe/2015/10/19/yep-16-battle-a-i-core/

This allows more control over selecting enemies, this will allow you to select enemies based on conditions. It also has a few other useful features:
http://yanfly.moe/2016/04/22/yep-94-selection-control/

This will give you extensive control over skills, more importantly - it will allow you to check conditions to see if a skill is usable
http://yanfly.moe/2015/10/13/yep-8-skill-core/

These are likely enough to do the trick... I'll try and hash it out a bit going off of reading all of these plugins features.

I'm just going to say each grid is 16x16 to simplify things - meaning enemy grid and player grid. If that's the case, I need 32 variables for each side. Assign a default variable to each actors starting position and determine the enemies starting positions when setting up encounters, the variable = 0 when it's empty and = 1 when it's occupied. Afterwards we can swoop right into skills, because we can control conditions for skills we can check in the variables adjacent to us if they are empty - with a cheesy work around we can simply make skills for every direction needed. This conditional checking will also lend the ability to check ranges for all attacks. If you desired, you could completely get rid of the attack option from the menu using the battle core engine, change skills to Engage - then have all of your skills for different actions. Using the action sequence plugins, you have more than enough opportunity to sneak in all the animations, variable changes, and checks you'll ever need. The selection plugin was added because it's another way for checking conditions without using skills, that way you don't actually have to get rid of your attack button. The animated enemy plugins allow you to have... well... animated enemies. This is very important because it gives you different animations for each phase an enemies goes through. The AI plugins is exactly what it sounds like, with that plugin alone you can give enemies a skill priority list. With a priority list you can quite simply create movement, attacks, healing, and anything else be executed when needed. It also can check variables to see whether or not an enemy skill will be executed.

There are still very many things to work out, like matching each grid variable to it's appropriate coords on screen. However, this should show that it's clearly possible. Albeit... I was still wrong. No plugin lmao.