First of all, I just want to say thank you for making such an incredible battle system and sharing it with everyone freely. It's really kind, and it's really cool.
Thank you! I am glad you're enjoying it and having fun with trying to fiddle with it.
I'm trying to play through the demo now, and I don't know if it's a skill issue, but I can't get through the bit where you have to beat 10 enemies after the two quizzes. I'd really like to try out all these weapons types, but the lack of save points is really discouraging.
As a friendly reminder, the project is in-fact open to modification, and you're free to reduce enemy parameters as you see fit to accommodate your play style. As far as "is it a skill issue?", it is important to note that you are not expected to be able to defeat every enemy in that room upon arrival- the little danger indicators by the health bars explained in the previous room (that has a save point) by interacting with the book shelves mentions what the various indicators mean, and only some enemies are intended to be realistically defeated in that room. I did make sure there are enough to defeat that you can at level 6 or so.
Also, maybe I'm just really stupid, but I can't figure out how this system works. I've tried reading through the help in the plugins, but I find the whole thing impenetrable. May I ask for some simple tips for getting started? Thank you in advance!
This is to be expected when attempting to leverage an entire combat system that was custom-implemented in an engine that definitely didn't plan for it to begin with.
When it comes to "how do I use this plugin?", I think it is important to take a step back and ask yourself "what kind of game do I want to make?". The JABS engine grants you the ability to basically drop enemies (as events) on the map, and have you and your allies be able to engage in combat with them. This combat approach was inspired by Zelda and Ys, so the combat is intended to be fast and kinda button-mashy.
The enemy data used is largely what is found in the database combined with the extra JABS note tags (described in the plugin's "help" section, see: "SETTING UP YOUR ENEMY EVENTS").
Engagement in combat is driven by repeated skill execution, of which the skill data is largely what is found in the database combined with the extra JABS note tags (also described in the plugin's "help" section, see "FIRST TIME SETUP, THE ACTION MAP" and "SETTING UP YOUR SKILLS").
These two things together with your awesome story-telling skills, character asset management, and map-making abilities, makes the game. I can't really help you with the latter half. I can however, provide you examples of things you can do with JABS- and that is what the "Chef Adventure" demo you were playing is intended for. To demonstrate many of the capabilities of JABS (and many of my other plugins as well) and hopefully keep you mildly entertained while its happening.
I would encourage you pick apart the demo and spend some time dissecting the enemies, the skills, the innumerable tags (i think there are over 100 used across the demo from my various plugins, JABS included). In addition to this, pull up the project in your own RPG Maker MZ and play around on the "test oasis" map to get a grip on things. Fiddle with the tags and see what happens. Make new enemies and see how they interact based on the various tags you apply. Make new skills and see how they work- if they work.
And lastly, my engine is not flawless. JABS alone has over 35k lines of code last I checked, and all my plugins working together amount to an extra 100k+ lines of code, so I wouldn't be surprised if there were bugs.
Stay diligent and don't give up!
You can do this!
Or you can explore
other ABSes that are out there and have actual documentation- because they make more of a living off it than I make off this (all my plugins are just me writing stuff for myself in my free time- hobbiest stuff, and thus free).