Battle Layout Opinions Wanted

[Cloud9_]

With the functionality of the battle system pretty much done, I'm working on the layout. The layout i have now is very cluttered... especially in the upper right where all the party members Command windows are. I thought about putting them along the right border instead and moving the players party members out some, or even a lufia style ring system... but what do you guys think would look better?

http://shackpics.com/files/Battle1_l...omk4x7khs9.jpg
http://shackpics.com/files/Battle3_7...nnz3k6p9bj.jpg
http://shackpics.com/files/Battle4_c...y5q6mrefmx.jpg

this is an idea of hte lufia style system... pretend the 3 boxes wern't there (or were much much much smaller) and replace the F(ight) D(efend) R(run) with battle icons and align them a little better...
http://shackpics.com/files/Battle5_s...njkbwhrmew.jpg

[Froofy-D]

I'd say keep the character boxes at the top, maybe make them a little smaller though. But not too much smaller. Putting them on the right would make your battlefield very small. You should leave room for a lot of mobs, or some really big ones.

Also, where are you gonna put enemy names? Maybe you could just put a name/health bar above their heads to have max battle space and less menu space.

Looks pretty cool so far though.

[Cloud9_]

Trying out the boxes down low but with some tweaking...

Look any better?
http://shackpics.com/files/Battle6_1...okb2yqbj3q.jpg

[LennyLenard]

I think you had it right with the first setup. Just had to shrink the text a tad, and get rid of the excess box space. The shots are 800x600, but guessing from the graphics the game usually is played on a small display, so the boxes and/or text might prove to be too small. But, here's my suggestion:

[Cloud9_]

Option 1: http://shackpics.com/files/battle8_2...1l6b0irqvj.jpg
Option 2: http://shackpics.com/files/battle7_2...bdnyme7xt1.jpg

Also, the changes... yay? nay? Monster health, a bar like the player health above / below the monster? keep health values? any other tweaks that you'd like to see?

[LennyLenard]

The changes look good. As for monster health, I suppose it depends on how you plan to use it. Are you going to have any abilities or mechanics that revolve around knowing/not knowing monsters health?

I think either way a bar above the monsters head in the same fashion as the player's health would work well. Whether or not you want to allow the player to know the monster's health, you could either just give a max value, or current value or both. But I think definitely the bar would be good.

[Chrisb3]

Originally Posted by Cloud9_

Option 1: http://shackpics.com/files/battle8_2...1l6b0irqvj.jpg
Option 2: http://shackpics.com/files/battle7_2...bdnyme7xt1.jpg

Also, the changes... yay? nay? Monster health, a bar like the player health above / below the monster? keep health values? any other tweaks that you'd like to see?

Trying to be constructive here. Purely from what I've seen in this thread, you are basically making something that is a copy of Final Fantasy (and that isn't a bad thing).
So learn the lessons that they learned:

Health Bars / Info is setup totaly wrong.
1) Put it at the bottom of the screen, right side.
2) Have one characters info on one line, not three lines.
3) Don't have a seperate box for each character.

Enemy display.
1) Remove the health displays. They look silly.
2) Consider a spell that shows enemies health.
3) If you must, give them a health bar like a 100 pixels long that shows what % of health they have left. Have it pop up for 5 seconds after damage is dealt. Maybe a button to make it pop up depending on how you want your game to be.
4) The enemies are too close to the player characters. Need a clear gap inbetween them.

Character commands.
You haven't shown how you are handling them, a box with a list seems to work well enough. If characters only have 4 commands then bind them to the arrow keys / dpad, otherwise you'll have to scroll though them.

Basically, if you are using the same character parameters as Final Fantasy (Picture/Name/HP/ATB), then use their way of displaying it. Just because I think that similar games should have similar UI, and if they randomly have a different UI for the sake of having a different UI - it just looks wrong and confuses people who have played these games before.
However do try and bring something new to it and edit the UI accordingly, but only change it for a purpose - not to randomly differenciate yourself

EDIT: Option 2 looks ok.

[Vinen]

Originally Posted by Chrisb3

Trying to be constructive here. Purely from what I've seen in this thread, you are basically making something that is a copy of Final Fantasy (and that isn't a bad thing).
So learn the lessons that they learned:

Health Bars / Info is setup totaly wrong.
1) Put it at the bottom of the screen, right side.
2) Have one characters info on one line, not three lines.
3) Don't have a seperate box for each character.

Enemy display.
1) Remove the health displays. They look silly.
2) Consider a spell that shows enemies health.
3) If you must, give them a health bar like a 100 pixels long that shows what % of health they have left. Have it pop up for 5 seconds after damage is dealt. Maybe a button to make it pop up depending on how you want your game to be.
4) The enemies are too close to the player characters. Need a clear gap inbetween them.

Character commands.
You haven't shown how you are handling them, a box with a list seems to work well enough. If characters only have 4 commands then bind them to the arrow keys / dpad, otherwise you'll have to scroll though them.

Basically, if you are using the same character parameters as Final Fantasy (Picture/Name/HP/ATB), then use their way of displaying it. Just because I think that similar games should have similar UI, and if they randomly have a different UI for the sake of having a different UI - it just looks wrong and confuses people who have played these games before.
However do try and bring something new to it and edit the UI accordingly, but only change it for a purpose - not to randomly differenciate yourself

EDIT: Option 2 looks ok.

More or less what he said. Don't try to be different when dealing with UI's. There is a reason so many are similar...

[WillzZz]

What they said, with extra emphasis on the "monsters too close to the characters" from me. Great start though, what program are you using for this? That new RPGMaker VX or whatever?

[Vinen]

Originally Posted by WillzZz

What they said, with extra emphasis on the "monsters too close to the characters" from me. Great start though, what program are you using for this? That new RPGMaker VX or whatever?

He's designing it on his own using XNA last I remember. I need to get my ass back to working on the system I was designing... got carried away going through a few books.

And second on monsters too close. IMHO there should be at least 1/8~1/4 (Really need to base if off the resolution I guess but it should get the general gist across) screen width of space between the characters and the monsters.

[Cloud9_]

Programming it with XNA; I just released an alpha of it to a few friends to see if they can give input... its VERY VERY basic and really the only "polished" thing on there is the map editor which I threw together in a day or two. Would love some feedback though, so feel free to give it a go and post what you think. (remember though, i've only been programming for a few months, so go easy )

ShackRPG Alpha v.1.0 RELEASE!!!

Included in this file is the tile engine, in-game map editor, and basic battle engine.

Title screen: Press NumPad 2 to start.
TestGame screen:
W - A - S - D = walk around
Hold 2 to run
Num5 to bring up Stats screen
1 to cancel out of any screens you may have brought up
Enter to start a battle
E to bring up Map Editor

Battle screen:
A or D for "Previous Player" and "next player"
W or S for "Previous battle command" and "Next battle command"
Numb2 to select command.
If command is fight, cycle enemies by pressing A or D, then "Enter" to attack.

Each party member gains exp based on the level difference between the monster and their own level.

MapEditor Screen:
There are directions all over the damn screen, so i hope you can figure it out.

Link to Download: MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service

SS's of the map editor
http://shackpics.com/files/Mapeditor...bru9mpoyq8.jpg
http://shackpics.com/files/Mapeditor...hl52vds7cu.jpg

Videos of eariler builds
TileMap Editor: YouTube - XNA ShackRPG Tech Video 4 - Tile Engine Map Editor
TileMap Engine + Battle Engine: YouTube - XNA ShackRPG Tech Video 3 - Tile Engine + Battle