RPGMAKER '03 efficiency...?, How efficient is '03 at making a specific kind of game. Options

[Kerunou]

First off, I'm new. Hello, I'm Kerunou and I am happy to be here. Now, onto my question. How efficient would RPG Maker '03 be at making a very specific game. I'm making a Dragonball RPG myself, and am wondering how efficient '03 is actually going to be at capturing what I want it to do. I want to make this game look like the Gameboy style DBZ RPGs, like almost to a T, so in your honest opinion do you think '03 has the efficiency to do what I'm asking of it? I've messed with it before, however I am more experienced with RPG Maker VX. I've been contemplating which to use and to tell the truth your opinions are going to be the deciding factor here.

Could I do something like these images, could '03 pull off a game looking like this????

http://gbamedia.gamespy.com/gba/image/arti...02033918468.jpg

http://pocketmedia.ign.com/pocket/image/ar...23072334587.jpg

http://i.neoseeker.com/screenshots/R2FtZXM...ury_image46.jpg

[bulmabriefs144]

In terms of included code (i.e. stuff you don't have to script for), pretty much only VX Ace stands up. VX Ace also has scripting making it a double whammy, but the price... Anyway, for the price (free) 2k3 is highly efficient, and fairly easy to learn because the text is clear and does not seem like stuff written by people who have English as a second language.

There's only two major flaws that I found (and more than a few minor ones), lack of battle support (despite having more options than either XP or VX, or even VX Ace, there's a lack of multi-targetting without INDIVIDUALLY CODING for each enemy, and risking a crash "monster referred to is not referenced" if you copy/paste, since there may be less monsters than the code lists. There's no way to copy/paste some code, so if you want stranger effects in battle, you'll need common events. Oh and the lack of conditions for if monster has X status, means certain code I simply con't do. Oh, and good luck trying to put pictures in battle, it just skips the code, even in common events). The second flaw are the limits of graphics (I found a conversion program for lossless color, but to have it fit the screen, you have to chop it down to 320 x 240, making a slight blur), and the fact that getting a song to just play once can't simply be put into "If music has played once", but you actually need to put it inside a loop. And yes, there is some code that because the programmers didn't make a few extra options, is more difficult than it needs to be.

That said, if you can think up a work around (like using hero names as storage, since they store names and spells, meaning things that would be excess switches can just be put inside a dummy character), there's few limits to what you can do. And some of those things actually need scripts on other engines, while the basic code is just varied and complete enough, that someone who knows what they're doing (or someone willing to experiment, which adds up to the same thing in a few years) that the things you can do are downright strange. Attack the screen? Sure. Make Japanese text boxes? Done it. Make a status that basically hard-kills an ally, and makes it so enemies can't keep attacking? Yep (though this is nasty to remove from the party, since you've gotta basically change the class of the character, to mess with their immunities). An absurdly easy XAS style battle, with not a line of script? It's been done (see the tutorial section), although ranged attacks are a bit more complex.

If all you care about is those images, the straight graphics can be done by conversion. The long ride comes with targetting the kamehameha and such. You'd have to understand more or less how to make a vertical and horizontal map variable, and code it for EVERY freaking map (since every map will have different targets).

This post has been edited by bulmabriefs144: Mar 31 2012, 09:49 AM