Last Ray of Hope Home of Kaluriel Hargrove

Blite: Custom Menu System

The default RPG Maker 2000 menu was too limited in what it could do, so after a bit of researched, I thought up a way of using the available functionality to create my own menu when escape was pressed.

At first I borrowed  the text for level and exp. As for the menu items, due to the custom battle system, I could change the equipment system, as well as add additional features such as Gardua (the summons).

I think at the time I used Final Fantasy 6 or 7 as a basis for the menu options.

My Custom Battle System advanced a bit further to the point where EXP was attainable, and based on my level-exp system ( level = pow(exp+1, 1/3), expforlevel = pow( level, 3 ) - 1 ), I was able to output levels, and based on that and additional attributes, I could output HP and MP.

Now monsters in my C.B.S could drop money and items, and based on whatever map you were current on, a variable was set that I could now query to get the location.

Incase your trying to make your own C.M.S, the individual numbers being outputted were determined by integer division and modulus, so if you had a number 921, the 9 is gotten by dividing by 100, the 2 is gotten by modulus of 100 dividing by 10, and the 1 by modulus of 10.

Finally I refined the menu, to be slimmer and to only show menu options when they were available instead of the "???" system. As well as this, depending on the number of players, only a certain number of player panels are visible.

I decided that the level didn't need to be shown anymore, so I removed that, the only place it is visible now is on the status screen for players.

The colour of the menu is just two different images, which can be alternated in the configuration menu. For finishing touches, the arrow used on the main menu was changed for something smaller.

Blite: Custom Battle System

This is how my game Blite started, a custom battle system, also known throughout the RPG Maker 2000 community as a C.B.S.

First of all I designed a map, setup three NPC models and used a picture to display a monster. Once this was done, using event blocks, I created numbers to show health and magic points.

Now using three more image slots, I added three images to show part of the character faceset, with a small bar next to them to show how far until they are ready to attack.

Next for the classic Final Fantasy style of having an action menu with cursor, I also added a slightly transparent bar to highlight which character the menu is active for. I also added a small arrow above the NPC characters to show the active character.

As with most Final Fantasy games, there is usually some kind of special attack that happens if you are attacked enough, or if you take enough damage.

So based on the videos I had seem of Final Fantasy 10, I decided to add my own limit bar that would fill up as you take damage.

With the change of the menu colour, I updated the battle system menu as well. As you can see, some items within the C.B.S are still hard coded, such as the number of playable characters in the party.

I now also added an additional map to be teleported to if you were on a different land type. If you were on sand you'd goto the original map, if you were on a dirty path, you'd be sent to the new one. I also fixed the problem with the NPC characters being transparent.

I also changed around the limit bar and the A.T.B (Active Time Battle) wait time bar around. So now the bar next to the player faceset images represented how far before a limit break maneuver could be performed.

I now moved onto having the multiple enemies that could be targeted and killed (as well as attack the players). Also now, the correct number of playable characters is shown.

Once the enemies were setup and working, I decided to update the plain graphics I was using for the menu (the one I was using originally was borrowed from an RPG Maker 2000 game called Final Fantasy: Crystal Wings).

I now worked on a new map to be teleported to, this time a grass based map if you are on a grass tile.

With the Custom Item Menu also finished, I updated the action menu to open a sub menu for using items, and made those items also work. However, the number of items available for use is still not yet being displayed (due to the lack of available images).

Finally I decided to update the NPC character graphics to something more 3d looking. In addition to this, I used more event objects to display the name of the characters. As well as swap the A.T.B time bar with the limit bar again.

And to be more like Final Fantasy, I made the NPC characters move forward when it was their turn to attack (also in the main menu, you can swap the characters between the front and back, so they take half damage if on the back row but do half physical damage to the enemies.