RPG Maker VX Ace - Fourth Gap "Special Abilities"
November 28th, 2011



In today's fourth gap, and concerning a new element, we'll lightly touch on special abilities.


<Today's Gap> Special Abilities
In Ace, you can now set up skills to use points called TP, rather than MP. TP is represented in the image below as a green gauge.



TP is accumulated over time during battle while performing actions (usually normal attacks and skills), as well as when suffering from damage. Once TP reaches a set value for a character, it will become usable. When collecting TP, you can use it quickly on the small fry, but while at a boss, you'll likely want to save it up until the gauge fills to throw the very best maneuvers.

With default settings, magic will consume MP while special abilities will consume TP. It will be displayed on the battle screen like so.



The following image may be viewed larger (click on it to see an enlarged image). Pay attention to the red frame.



Did you notice anything? In Ace, you can freely add any type of skill. Please know that the number of frames that correspond to "Skill" may be increased freely. I'm very fond of this, personally!

*** Usage Example ***
I won't go too in-depth. Only about this!



Here you will see added character specific battle commands.
Character skills are prepared into subdivided categories. For example, if a character is a swordsman, the command itself is divided up for each stage of the skill.

Perhaps something such as having special abilities (= those not requiring a sword), arts (= requiring basic sword skills), mystic arts (= requiring mastered sword skills)? Needless to say, magic may also be subdivided (spirit magic or holy magic). It's also possible to make skills unable to be used unless a certain weapon type is equipped.

This is just one example to give you a feeling of how to work with the data, and I'm sure many ideas will come easily. As for that, "RPG Maker VX Ace" will be released on December 15, 2011!