[MZ] JABS - J's Action Battle System

Thank you kindly! It was about 6 months of coding to get it to where its at today, so I'm glad you are enjoying it.

Regarding your request, I don't think I fully understand what you're asking, so I'll tell you the current implementation of "animations" and you can tell me if that is what you were looking for, or not:

Currently, the closest thing to action animations is the "poseSuffix" tag for skills. This is a tag that you add to a skill, and when the skill is executed, it will replace the battler's existing character sheet temporarily with another matching the suffix.

As an example, let's say you have a character named "chara_j.png" (the default character in the demo), and he uses a skill that has a pose suffix of "-atk", this would temporarily replace the "chara_j.png" with another character sheet named "chara_j-atk.png" for the duration specified. This can give the effect that the player swings a weapon or whatever you want it to do.

I am no sprite artist, and didn't want to commission anyone to make me sprites for the sake of building this feature, so its probably the clumsiest feature currently in the engine. Let me know if that is what you were looking for, though.

That's exactly what i was looking for, thanks!

Im getting this error when i try to move!

Either you're doing more than just trying to move, or there are enemies on the map that are doing this, but... a quick gander of the error you've posted, it looks it is trying to find an action event that doesn't exist, so if I had to guess I'd say you are missing your action map or referring to an action event on the action map that isn't there.

Also, it looks like you're using MZ3D, which is a cool system but not 100% compatible with JABS last I checked (issues with event spawning/generation that I can't resolve because I didn't buy their engine and I believe it's obfuscated).

I'd be happy to troubleshoot, but I'd probably require a bit more detail, like a list of the other plugins you're using, the details of your action map, etc.

Does the cast time note work? I've tried it myself and nothing changed. I also looked through your project file and didn't see you use it for any of the skills.

Really cool plugin btw.

it _should_ work? My "demo" is very barebones and doesn't showcase 100% of the functionality of JABS, but, I've actually got another update I'm preparing to include a more full-fleshed sampling of most all the functionality in a bit more of an organized way.

I guess I've not really put a lot of effort into it because it seems there hasn't been a big demand for this type of system like there used to be for earlier engines, and I hadn't gotten a lot of input/feedback- I just built the stuff that I personally wanted in it. Sorry about that, @Arbiter1. Glad ya like it though!

If ya have any other questions or want details on functionality, or want more features that don't appear to be present, drop a line here in the thread! :)

Hey, gotta say it's a great plugin. I was wondering if there was a way to do different poses for other things, such as idling or being damaged. Would <posesuffix>work anywhere else I guess?

I'm afraid I haven't really implemented any sort of reactionary "poses" like idling or being damaged. Though, that would be pretty useful, wouldn't it? Hmm...

For understanding, <poseSuffix> exclusively applies to skill execution, but extending it to also handle other types of poses might be possible. I'll have to revisit that when I get my hands on a full character spritesheet of various poses.

Ah well I wish I were a good pixel artist then. If I see any resources like that I'll let you know lol

I scoured the internet for free to use resources and I found a few, but they were not of the default mz style if that's what you need sadly :(

hello, I have another question or two about JABS. First, is there a way to make the hero pause when attacking, meaning you can't walk and attack at the same time? I tried applying a state in the tool map for the attack, but no avail(Stun for testing).
Second, there is a bug I noticed that when the enemies are idling, It will often show the wrong portion of the character sheet. (It shows parts of the sprites above them).
Thanks again and nice plugin.

The stuff on the action map is what makes up the visual components of stuff. I don't believe anything you could adjust in there would affect the way the player operates directly, such as locking the player in place. I did not design any tags or anything to prevent the player's movement for any duration simply because I'm not really sure how one would track it short of another arbitrary tag to designate how long a skill should keep the player stationary. The casting functionality locks the caster in place, and may achieve what you're looking for? Though that would also prevent the skill from firing until after the cast time is complete, which might feel clumsy.

This is fixed in a separate branch of the code that I haven't yet promoted. It has to do with the way I (poorly) added a form of 8-directional movement and projectile navigation. Due to the current implementation of RPG Maker MZ, if you specify that a character is facing a "diagonal" direction, it'll try to render... well, the diagonal sprite. As you've seen, when it does that, its actually trying to draw a portion of one 4x3 grid, and a portion of another 4x3 grid on the character sheet. I'll be sure to upload this sooner than later, I've just been busy with other things (other plugins I'm building).

Hey no problem. Appreciate your quick reply thank you!

Hello, I played the demo and appreciate you for the abs. I wanted to say I got an error when equipping the sledge hammer.

Hi, how do you respawn an enemy event without leaving the map and coming back in? Like, after a Switch/Variable/Wait ....

I can get the events to appear/disappear based on the above, but only after teleporting back into the map.
Can you respawn enemy events while on the same map through script calls?
Can you keep a count of each type of enemy killed? or can it log each kill you make using variables?
I imported my map into your demo to test it out and it works great. =)

Literally wanting this type of system since RMXP. Thanks for creating. =)
Works with all the VisuStella, CGMZ, Galv and Cam/Gamepad scripts I'm using too.

found the tutorial in the demo about on-demand deaths...just add the variable/switch call after the comments in the enemy event. =b lol noice. adds the ability to do special death throes for certain enemies/bosses.. and using Galv's event spawner I'm able to respawn enemy events from another map to the current one without having to reload.

Next question (I may end up figuring out myself if I mess around enough)..... How do you get the AllyAI to use the Support function, as in casting a Heal spell on the party or party member short on health or sick without having to switch to the healer?

I got a dog working. Added its own biting attack and special. But the healer won't "heal" on its own. =b
It will use a fireball spell no problem, so a mage will work, but I want the Healer to cast spells on party members to buff and such..


Basic heal spell......what am I missing? =b

Do you think I can make my own hud player and party member? Or not?

it's a really great plugin.
This has taken me to a new level in making games.

I am greatly inspired by you.
Thank you very much.

I have a question,
Can you make allies with events?

Don't set ACTOR
I would like to be able to create an allied army through a map event and fight the enemy.

I tried several attempts, the <inanimate> function gave a similar effect, but failed in the end.

I wish I could create an event alliance.



And why is the character like this? :rswt