Feature Mechanic: Sorcerer's Ring + Corrine

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So today, I have two things I like to talk about. The first of which involves a tool that is common in most Tales games, the Sorcerer's Ring!

How It Works

Now, there are a couple of plugins to make this work. One is the Yanfly Button Common Events plugin, while the other is the Event Chain Reactions plugin. The first one is rather simple; when you press a certain key (like in this case, currently, the V key), it would activate a Common Event that you assign to it. By default, the plugin would have their value assigned to 0 (meaning no event), but by assigning an event to a key, it would cause it to activate the event.

Now, this alone can give me ideas for other things. Like quick access to certain menus, a way to activate skits (once I figure out a good method for those), etc. In any case, this event checks to see if the party has the item in question, and if the Switch that allows you to use the ring is active, then it would turn on another switch that correlates to an event on the map.

Now, this is just a small sample of what this does. When the aforementioned switch turns on, it plays this event (meant to be Autorun but for some reason this one is on Action). It stores the coordinates for where the player is, places it below the character, and then after it moves away once (based on where you're facing) it will turn on a Self Switch to become more solid while still playing out the rest of the event. Once it finishes moving where it feasibly can (limited by tile settings and other things), it disappears while turning off earlier switches; essentially it resets so that it can be used again later. Now, here's where the other plugin comes in.

On this page, you'll see a comment mentioning a Catalyst. As part of the Event Chain Reaction plugin, events with certain notetags can react with other events with similar notetags (like <Ring Reactor Switch On: A> in this case) so that when they touch in a certain way they will turn on whatever switch it has. As demonstrated in the above video, the fireball will react with the torch and make it light up. That's not all I can have it do.

I've added pages to all the enemy events I have so far, so that when the activation switch plays, it makes them open to where it waits for if they're hit by the fireball. If they aren't, they resume their other functions, but if they are, they get stunned and cannot be interacted with until their event plays out. This of course means that I have to copy and paste the same fireball event to every page I intend to have you use the ring, and then I would need to create other events that would come up when you do certain things (like a bush that's part of a small puzzle or something). You hit it with a fireball, it causes another event to spawn on top to simulate it burning, before showing the results. These are things I will need to account for when coming up with ring functions later, which I haven't decided on making them like in Abyss (where you have multiple ones you can switch between) or in Symphonia where unique functions are limited to different dungeons. I'll have all the time in the world to play around with new ideas as I progress through the story.

Possible Character Mechanic for Vera

Now, before I mentioned about having Vera use magic arrays for certain things. While I still would like to implement that, I think it might be the one universal mechanic that everyone (including enemies, if I can figure out a good method for them) has access to. So instead, and this is something that will relate to her adventure, I'm thinking of making use of the Dragonbones Plugin to have her change Armatures, as it were, based on who she 'summons'. And in this example, we have her son, Corrine.

Now, obviously I'm going to need to come up with a way to hide the brief moment where she completely disappears so the transition is seamless. But before moving on, I want to mention that the way Corrine is present is similar to how I have the Shadow and Magic Array appear. They're their own set of frames that, based on what animation I want to use (such as Idle), it would display only what I want. So normally, it would just be her and the necessary frames; but in this case, I can have Corrine appear by switching to a different Armature through a plugin command.

For the sake of testing, I had to make a duplicate file of Vera, since I wasn't sure if having multiple armatures in the same file would do anything. If I can have them share the same file, that might cut down on resources. Otherwise, it's looking like I'll have multiple .tex and .json files of her and whoever she's with. Which leads to the matter at hand, what do I do with this? The answer is...have whoever she has out affect her condition. Like, having no one out would have her function like normal. But if she summons Corrine out, I can have it where her artes cost half the TP but with half power, though she gets another action because Corrine is with her so you can do combos with her early on (before even accounting the Action Plus skills), and maybe if you do summon him right away, he can do an arte of his own. These are things to consider, since if I do that, I can apply that to any of the Great Spirits she meets along the way for an assortment of uses. She would need balancing like crazy because of this, and I am considering the use of turn limits for the Great Spirits brought out this way. Maybe they can only be brought out through an Overlimit mode (yet to be determined) or something. So many possibilities, and plenty of time to figure them out.

Wrap-Up

With Vera and Corrine, I can wait on doing for a while since I only have his one idle animation anyway. I'll have to commission more for him, so that he acts as a pseudo party member, where he behaves according to how his mother acts. The Sorcerer's Ring will see refinement overtime, though I feel it's functional enough that I can focus more on getting the first dungeon completed. It is mapped out, and I can always fix that up overtime, I just need to get the story programmed, and make any new sprites to play during those scenes. I feel like I'm on track to get a story demo out by the end of the year, with whatever I was able to get working or have included. I'll bring up plans for what I'll do after that later.

Art References