MZ - Schala Z Engine (Chrono Engine MZ) Suggestions Thread

Last week, I was working on porting MogHunter's Chrono Engine (specifically Chrono Mode) into MZ and duhbed it the "Schala Z System". I've ported the basic stuff into MZ, and also some of MogHunter's other plugins. You can check the progress so far here in the thread dedicated to the plugin or watch this video here to see it in action.

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I say that the system is currently in a somewhat beta stage as of now. I've been learning about adding new plugin parameters and noticed some stuff that could be fixed, which gave me the idea of this thread.

The goal here is to gather up suggestions for what to add or improve in the base Chrono Engine and implement them here into the Schala Z System, mainly quality of life improvements to the system as I'm so learning JS in RPG Maker MZ as In doing this, but I may implement bigger changes later if I have the chance :]

Here are some rules and conditions to consider:

1) This plugin is primarily focused on Chrono Mode, aka the Chrono Trigger-like battles. I have no intention of doing ABS mode as I'm more interested in implementing Chrono Mode into MZ. So any suggestions regarding ABS Mode won't be accepted unless what you're suggesting is in both ABS and Chrono Modes.

2) As I said, In still an amateur on how JS in RPG Maker works, so not everything is an instant guarantee, but if it's something that I can do, I'll consider doing it when I resume work.

3) Keep your suggestions related to the Chrono Engine itself and don't bring up anything else unless necessary.

4) Just because you've sent something doesn't mean it'll be automatically done. So if I don't do your request, it'll be either because I'm either working on it or may not consider it.

You can see if you can figure how to change the default popup text color in MOG PopupDamageEffects

Ha, Schala. Clever.

Someone got the reference :]

I have a meta suggestion so to speak: I think it would be easier to give suggestions-feedback if you added subtitles - emphasis in your gameplay video explaining which feature is doing what.

I will consider that. Sadly can't do that today since I'm busy, but I'll think about it


Well, managed to find the solution to this. Now to make it a plugin parameter and do the same with the other damage sprites and their outline colors :]

Thanks for the fix. I updated the plugin to add a number color parameter. Would you happen to know how to change the outline color? I can add that too.

Edit: Never mind I figured it out so I added both parameters. Uploaded to the other thread


MZ - MOG_DmgPopupEffects MZ with added features!

Well, I'll be darned. You beat me to the punch :]

Well, would you happen to know how to adjust the distance between the digits?

If I remember correctly, during my testing and fiddling around, it was this digit here that determined the spacing

Hm, well, I tested it and it doesn't exactly adjust the spacing between digits but the width of the entire number.

0.75 (default)


This is what it looks like if you change it to 0.2

Huh... I'll take a look at the code once I return home in a bit

Well, I'll leave it in as a parameter if anyone wants it for the next version.

Okay, I took another look at the script, and I found the solution. Although adjusting the w variable does indeed change the spacing if it's higher than 0.75, anything lower than that will squish it like you said. But, putting a variable at the place I marked there at the sprite.x line will adjust the position more effectively without issued according to my testings

Yeah, that works a lot better. Added it to the plugin parameters.

I'm gonna essentially list down the ideas I have for the Schala Z System. Some are easier than others, and some I may not do it immediately depending on its difficulty and mood. I'm just gonna list them in no particular order.

1. Import the MOG_CharPoses and the AltimitMovement plugins (or seek an alternative). The CharPoses plugin is the plugin responsible for adding various poses to characters such as idle, walk, or jump. I want to port that to MZ, and maybe add some extra poses like a death and victory pose. And possibly a parameter that makes the animation play only once. The AltimitMovement plugin is the only dot movement plugin that works with the Chrono Engine, literally, I tried other plugins and it wouldn't work (as the AltimitMovement was the one the came with the Chrono Engine demo), so there's also that I wanna work on.
2. Add the base RPG Maker MZ Battle Status and Window Command HUDs. This, to me at least, is a necessity. My issue with the Chrono Engine is that it only relied on images for its UI elements, especially the Battle Status and Battle Command Windows, and I know that there are some people out there that don't want to mess with editing the images and would probably want to stick to something more familiar, something prebuilt into MZ. So this is just an accessibility thing to those who don't have much photo-editing skills and wants something to work with and something easy, too. It's not gonna be easy, I tried my damnest to get the Battle Status window to appear on battles, and it felt like for every two steps forward there's always one step back. So, it ain't gonna be easy for me.
3. Replace the numbers in the MOG_BattleHUD plugin with the default numbers. Another QOL thing I want to do, and it's pretty simple, give the user an option to replace the picture numbers for the HP, MP, and TP, as well as their max values, with the numbers font that can be assigned in the editor. It's for the same reason as the previous one, just for those who don't want to fiddle around in photo editing, especially since, in my experience, editing the numbers to work how you want them to work is way tedious than it needs to be.

These of course aren't every single one of them, these are only the major ones. There's of course minor ones like adding more parameters and providing a translation for the help text. But maybe I'll add some more stuff to the list, either from me or from you guys. But it should be known, and I'll repeat it again, I'm mainly focusing on Chrono Mode, I'm pretty much removing the ABS stuff from the code because I purely want to focus on Chrono Mode

Does MOG CharPoses not work with MZ? I thought it did. You can also try TyrusWoo's MZ port of Altimit

Tyruswoo Altimit Movement MZ | Tyruswoo Studio

Last time I tried it with Fossil in both the Chrono and Cross demos, it wouldn't work, sometimes it could be a factor why the game wouldn't boot. Maybe it's just bad luck or something, but I'll give it another shot.

Also, I didn't know that Altimit was already ported. I'll give it a shot

Okay, very late reply as I finally have the time to test some more stuff and resume the project. I decided to give this a try and it barely works well. It makes the actors get into position, something the other pixel movement plugins don't do as far as my knowledge goes, but the battle wouldn't start as one of the followers would always spaz out and spin which causes the battle to not happen

You may need to use Math.floor() or other ways to remove the float value for the line up.

Chrono Engine is depending on the actors moving to a specific tile position which means any other pixel movement will require them to be at the exact position.

If it is off even by a fraction, it will continuously try to get to that position, resulting in a softlock with actors moving around like crazy.