Small thought's on RPG Maker MV.

[DustyZiroto 3]

So, I've been playing around with the trial run of RPG Maker MV a bit, and I have to say...

 

I'm a bit disappointed.

 

Let's go over it's strong suits:

 

The Character generator: 

 

It's actually better than VX Ace's in so many ways.

 

No really, Ace's custom faceset burnt my eyes. It was that gross.

 

MV's faceset's are gorgeous! They look like they're from Fire Emblem Awakening. Comparison:

 

 

The resemblance is uncanny!

 

Anyway back on topic. The side view battler sprites look nice! They complement the original RPG Maker 2k series, and modernize them. They fit perfectly. Overworld sprites are okay, but when I look at one from the front, it's just... TRESH.

 

Eventing is more or less the same, with the exception of Plugin commands. Can't say much aside that the plugins are nice utilities. Higher resolutions, different menus,etc. Just nice little things for your game.

 

Mapping is the same as VX Ace's and I'm not liking it. Give me XP's mapping any day of that week.

 

The art style is very colorful, but I'm not a big fan. It's good, but it's just not my style. XP's artstyle kept a sense seriousness. The whole Chibi thing isn't really a good look for a game with a serious tone.

 

However, I can't forget HTML5, and mobile porting. HTML5 is excellent for one reason: Playtesting. It makes thing's for a user who wants to playtest a game much less worrisome about viruses, and can just play it in their browser. However, load times suck, and they're indeed, there. I wouldn't recommend making your final product on the browser. Mobile porting is also great for testing games on the go, and showing them off to your friends!

 

RPG Maker MV get's a 7/10. It's okay, but it'll need just a smidge more to beat XP's golden days. Maybe once scripts, and new plugins come for it, It'll be just fine.

[Bob423 52]

I think it's great, at least when compared to VX Ace, but I was definitely disappointed. There are some really awesome plugins out all ready that make it sooooo much better though.

Tip: Check out Yanfly's stuff. Those are my favorites.

 

While I'm not a big fan of the chibi style either, it's great for a small game with a simple, silly story and everything looks much better than VX or Ace. And as for the mapping...yeah, I XP's is so much better, but everyone always says that lol.

 

Anyway...I've got a few ideas that would make the next RPG Maker amazing, if there ever is one, even if they only add the first one.

 

 

• The option to use custom formulas for EVERYTHING. Parameters, MP cost, speed, damage (already has that at least), crit rate, TP cost and recovery (would allow me to make a true FF7-style limit system), stat increase/decrease rates, EXP rate, etc. using only the database. Just this one thing would make it sooooo much better and add like 100x more options for users.
• The ability to add custom parameters via database. Click "new paramater" > set min and max > set growth formula or auto-curve > set variable name (e.g. add a dexterity stat and make the variable name "dex" so it can be used in any formula)
• Non-chibi sprites option
• Out of battle sprite animations
• Enemy battle animations and sprites
• ATB battle system option (with the wait option exactly how it is in FF6)
• Allow the player to change window color, controls, and ATB mode (if using ATB) in-game
• Use any music file type, not just .ogg and .m4a
• RMXP-style map layers
• The ability to tell the game choose the face of a party member for message boxes in case their appearance changes.
• Controls editor
• Game GUI editor (to easily edit the look of menus or maybe to create your own)
• The ability to use comic-style message boxes that hover over events and point to them. They would be resizeable and moveable using the GUI editor
• Allow players to use the character generator in-game.
• Unity-style assets manager thing. Y'know that thing that shows all the folders in your project? Would allow users to easily open scripts and sprites to edit quickly rather than having to open them in windows explorer.
• Windowskins for specific windows
• Some form of optional physics engine with pixel movement to allow for all kinds of cool things including icey floors
• Optional ABS that uses the above mentioned out-of-battle sprite animations
• Autosave system to force the player to save at certain points if necessary. Would save in one of some number of special autosave slots ala Skyrim
• Multi-Tile Events or collision boxes for events similar to Unity's collison boxes.

 

 

 

Some of those can be done with scripts or plugins, but having them in the editor by default would be awesome. Especially if they didn't put limits on anything in the editor itself. (e.g. instead of the level cap being 99, or the max money added at once being 10 million or whatever it was, it would be infinite) That would make scripts that remove those caps much easier to use.

[dolarmak 23]

To be honest I wasn't expecting much so I was surprised at a few of the features they added. Its no where near perfect but it's steps up from VX/Ace and given time and new plugins being made I'm sure it'll be fine. 

 

My biggest complaint now is that the size of the file is huge when deployed...I can't really understand why the games are 5-20 times bigger than the engine even when there is nothing in the game....literally just 1 map and resources...makes no sense.

[Galv 1]

I think early days MV isn't perfect and unfortunately it was released with quite a few kinks to work out. But I think it's a step up from Ace and I'm enjoying using Javascript