Are you guys excited for the Ace release? I know I am. Today, I have a preview of a cool new feature in VX Ace: Traits
While not entirely new, the way traits are organized and how they can be applied is much more powerful and versatile than anything you could do without scripting in previous RPG Makers.
This screenshot of the database shows two things. Highlighted in green is where you add traits. The tabs with names highlighted in blue (Actors, Classes, Weapons, Armors, Enemies, and State) are parts of the database that you can apply traits to.
So what is a trait? I’ll walk you through a simple one. Lets say you want to change a character’s resistance to Poison. You double click in his actor trait section to bring up the trait window.
Here is the trait window. There are six tabs that organize the types of traits we can add and what we need is on the first tab. I’ve selected the State Efficiency: Poison, and changed the resistance the character has. Then I hit the OK button.
And here is the trait listed in the database section. Pretty straightforward and simple, huh? Now lets explore the breadth of options traits give you, and their versatility.
Things That Traits Can Do
- Set resistances to Elements and States
- Change a character stats
- Add a State on attack
- Add an Element to attack
- Add or Remove Skills and/or Skill Types
- Add Weapon/Armor types allowable
- Reduce or Remove random encounters
- Double currency or item acquisition after battle
- …AND MORE.
And here is where the versatility comes in. All of these things can be done by ANY of the items that can have traits applied to it. A character can gain skills based on the weapon he equips, have his resistances changed by his class, have an accessory add an element to his attack, have a state give him access to a new skill type, the list is nearly endless!
As you can see, this way of organizing what used to be a bunch of boxes to check in separate sections of the database into one unified section, and allowing the designer to apply any of them to so many different parts of a character (actor/class/equipment/state) gives you a lot more power that would have had to be scripted in previous RPG Makers.
Do you have some cool ideas of how to implement new systems in your games with the power of traits? or Maybe you just have some questions about them? Don’t hesitate to post in the comments section below.
It’s been a long road (okay, not really its been like 2 weeks) but we are finally ready to crown our Let’s Make a Scene Champion, as decided by you, the fans.
