Well, you've got the program, and now you want to "make the most epoch game evar!!one11!".
Hold on there partner, there's more to it then just saying you're going to do it. An RMXP project is not something that can be done overnight. Something I wanted to do when I first looked into making my first project was making sure I knew what RMXP could actually do. No point in saying "I'm going to make the best old school NES looking game ever made!" if you don't know what you are going to need to do to get there.
So, in this little "tutorial" we're going to take a look at the RMXP Database, and find out exactly what can be done with it.
Let's begin shall we?
The Database
The database is going to be your best friend when using RMXP. It is here that you can change almost all of the data in the game, be it character graphics, their base stats (HP, SP, ATK, etc), tilesets, and terms (is it gold you work with, or something else?)
Actors
The "Actors" tab is where you will be able to create the party for your game. You can change their name, their graphics (both battler and sprites), as well as their starting equipment. You can also change their stats, and determine how they will develop as a character. Will you have a game where the HPs are low (base of 20) or a game where the HPs are high (base of 500). What you decide here will determine how you will have change the enemies in the game. If you have a base HP of 20, it won't do you any good to be fighting monsters that deal 57 damage now will it?
The RTP of RMXP is relatively limited. Unlike VX, there are no built in face graphics, and the sprites are not necessarily the greatest. But, for a first project, they usually work out just fine (I used all RTP in my first project while I got a knack for RMXP).
If you you decide to get a sideview battle system (see: Scripting section), you will replace the Battler graphic with the sideview template (if applicable).
Classes
The "Classes" tab is where you will create or edit the type of characters you can have. The default classes are: Fighter, Lancer, Warrior, Thief, Hunter, Gunner, Cleric, and Mage. Each class has their own set skills and equipment that they can use, as well as the type of efficiency they have in certain situations (perhaps you create a Paladin class that is effective against the Undead). You can also choose where to place your classes when in battle. Lastly, you can choose what skills a class should learn, and at what level they will learn it.
Skills
The "Skills" tab should go hand in hand with the "Classes" tab. It is here that you can create and edit the skills that a character can learn.
The Skills tab is very in depth in terms of what each skill calls for. You must name your skill, and give a brief description as well. You choose the animation of both the character (what it does when it casts a spell) and the target (what does the attack look like). You also choose the element, if applicable, and the state it causes to an opponent. You must also determine how much power a skill has, and how much HP it drains.
It seems like a complex tab at first, but when you break it down, it can be quite easy to get used to. Let's walk through creating a new skill for the Fighter class. Call it "Power Slash".
Items
The "Items" tab is where you can create consumable items that you will use in game, as well as determine how effective they are. The steps used in creating a new item are almost identical to that of the Skills tab. The only difference is that instead of choosing how much power and SP an item has, you choose how much it helps you. Do you want potions that recover a percentage of your health, or just a solid number? There are also items that give boosts to a player's stats.
The Items tab is also where you will create your keys, access cards, etc. You can also create items that a player must have in order to do certain things in a game. For example, if you created a lockpick, you would be able to get into any door, no matter if it was locked or not (this would be done through eventing, which we will be talking about later).
Weapons and Armors
The "Weapons" and "Armors" tab are almost identical, so we will look at these together. There are very similar to the Items and Skills tabs, but to a more basic extent. Here you can choose how powerful an item is, as well as its efficiency in certain situations (bows are useful against birds, etc).
You can also create accessories, such as rings or amulets that can aid in a character's journey. These accessories can give elemental resistances, or give stat bonuses. You cannot, however, create an accessory for offensive purposes. You would need to create a special weapon.
Enemies and Troops
Because these two tabs go hand in hand, we will take a look at them as a pair.
In the "Enemies" tab, you will be able to create and edit monsters that you will encounter in battle. If you are creating an enemy, you must choose how it will fare in battle. We will make a new enemy to show you how to do this, but first we'll take a look at the "Troops" tab.
The "Troops" tab is the jelly to the "Enemies" tab peanut butter. In the Enemies tab we created a new monster that we will face in combat. In the Troops tab, we will actually be able to select the monster as a mob. Do we want just one of them? Or maybe we will face numerous enemies.
But because this can be somewhat confusing at times, let's take a shot at making a new enemy. I personally get tired of bashing on monsters all the time, so I will be making a human soldier for which to do battle.
States
The "States" tab is where you create new states to be used in battle (or outside as well if applicable). States are things (spells, attacks, etc) that affect a character. For example, the "Knockout" state only occurs if a character hits 0 HP. They will not receive any EXP from battle, and cannot be used for the remainder of the fight.
For the percentages, it deals with how effective they are against the character. So, if you want to weaken an enemy who has been stunned, set his STR % lower than 100.
You can also choose how long a state is effective for (unless an item is used to reverse it) and if the state is released after battle (will a unit that dies in battle be revived after battle, or is he dead for good?).
Animations
The "Animations" tab is where you will be able to set the animations of an attack or skill. It is the most advanced tab in the Database (in my opinion) and is probably the only one you wouldn't need to touch. I personally would recommend leaving this tab alone until you are more familiar with RMXP, as it can be very confusing for somebody who is new to the program. At least, that's my opinion.
So, for now, we're going to act as though this tab doesn't exist. Personally, I have no created a new animation, and I am not new to the program. So the odds of you needing this for a starter project are very slim.
Tilesets
The "Tilesets" tab is where you can edit a tileset to determine what you can and can't walk on/through. You can also change the Autotiles (tiles that tile and border automatically, usually for floors, grounds, ceilings, etc) for a tileset here.
The Tilesets tab can be confusing (I rate it second only to the Animations tab), but it's one that you very likely will use. Personally, I recommend getting used to the RTP maps at first, but there are many tilesets that are RTP bundles that make mapping a lot easier.
The simple way to import a tileset is to use the Materials folder (it's the icon of the folder and 3 pages on the taskbar). And, the easiest way to set it is if there is a demo with the tileset already in use, because you can simply copy/paste it from the other project.
However, many times that is not an option. So, we'll need to take a look at each setting in the Tilesets menu.
The passage option simply means if you can walk on that tile or not. Autotiles also have a separate setting (the square) that means if the tile is set in a row, that the player may walk on the top tile. Passage (4 dir) is just a more advanced way to set the passage. It means what ways can a player walk on a tile. So, if there is a railing, you may be able to walk up, left, and right, but not down.
The priority settings simply mean what tiles the game puts on top. So, if a player walks behind a tree, the tree will need a higher priority, so that the player doesn't look like he is standing on a branch. The higher the number, the closer to the foreground the tile is displayed (in relation to the character).
The Bush flag is used to make a character look like he's actually in water or tall grass. It brings a sense of realism to your maps.
Counter flags and terrain tags are rarely ever used (I have yet to see it). Counter flags set an event to start after a certain number of "counters" have been recorded. Terrain tags, to be completely honest, I have no idea. But honestly, you won't need this feature, so you don't need to worry about it.
Common Events
Common Events make life so much easier when you're making a game. They allow you to make a chest or door open with a simple command, rather than having to do the eventing over and over. They can also be used for lockpicking events, etc.
I will not be going in depth with this tab, because it requires the knowledge of eventing. However, I may write up an eventing tutorial at some point which will be applicable to this tab in the database.
System
Last, but certainly not least, we have the System tab. It is here that you can do all the little data things with your game. You can choose your starting party, the names of elements, and all the graphics/terms your game uses. Essentially, this tab is dependent on the game itself, and aside from knowing BGM is background music, and SE is sound effect, this is a tab that you will need to play around with in order to understand. It's pretty basic for the most part, and unless you have custom music/graphics for your game, odds are you won't touch this page. However, if you do, make sure you have everything imported into your Materialbase, otherwise it won't be found by the system.
Well, that about does it for the Database. Hopefully you learned something from this tutorial. RMXP can be pretty confusing if you're new to it. Hell, I'm not new to it and I still get confused sometimes.
I hope you enjoyed my little tutorial. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them, and I (or another of the many RMXP users of this site if they get to it first) will be happy to help in any way that I can.
Hold on there partner, there's more to it then just saying you're going to do it. An RMXP project is not something that can be done overnight. Something I wanted to do when I first looked into making my first project was making sure I knew what RMXP could actually do. No point in saying "I'm going to make the best old school NES looking game ever made!" if you don't know what you are going to need to do to get there.
So, in this little "tutorial" we're going to take a look at the RMXP Database, and find out exactly what can be done with it.
Let's begin shall we?
The Database
The database is going to be your best friend when using RMXP. It is here that you can change almost all of the data in the game, be it character graphics, their base stats (HP, SP, ATK, etc), tilesets, and terms (is it gold you work with, or something else?)
Actors
The "Actors" tab is where you will be able to create the party for your game. You can change their name, their graphics (both battler and sprites), as well as their starting equipment. You can also change their stats, and determine how they will develop as a character. Will you have a game where the HPs are low (base of 20) or a game where the HPs are high (base of 500). What you decide here will determine how you will have change the enemies in the game. If you have a base HP of 20, it won't do you any good to be fighting monsters that deal 57 damage now will it?
The RTP of RMXP is relatively limited. Unlike VX, there are no built in face graphics, and the sprites are not necessarily the greatest. But, for a first project, they usually work out just fine (I used all RTP in my first project while I got a knack for RMXP).
If you you decide to get a sideview battle system (see: Scripting section), you will replace the Battler graphic with the sideview template (if applicable).
Classes
The "Classes" tab is where you will create or edit the type of characters you can have. The default classes are: Fighter, Lancer, Warrior, Thief, Hunter, Gunner, Cleric, and Mage. Each class has their own set skills and equipment that they can use, as well as the type of efficiency they have in certain situations (perhaps you create a Paladin class that is effective against the Undead). You can also choose where to place your classes when in battle. Lastly, you can choose what skills a class should learn, and at what level they will learn it.
Skills
The "Skills" tab should go hand in hand with the "Classes" tab. It is here that you can create and edit the skills that a character can learn.
The Skills tab is very in depth in terms of what each skill calls for. You must name your skill, and give a brief description as well. You choose the animation of both the character (what it does when it casts a spell) and the target (what does the attack look like). You also choose the element, if applicable, and the state it causes to an opponent. You must also determine how much power a skill has, and how much HP it drains.
It seems like a complex tab at first, but when you break it down, it can be quite easy to get used to. Let's walk through creating a new skill for the Fighter class. Call it "Power Slash".
First, we'll have to make room for this new skill. Hit the "Change Maximum" button in the bottom left hand corner of the window. You can change it to whatever you'd like, but we're only using 1 slot for now.
As said above, name this new skill "Power Slash", and choose the "001-Weapon01" Icon. It's the first one you'll see.
For the description I put "Fighter's skill. A powerful slash that can crush armor". You don't have to copy that if you don't like it. Use whatever you think sounds appropriate.
Next is the scope. This will be an attack that can only be used on "One Enemy", and leave "Only in Battle" alone, as that will be the only place we can use this.
For the Animations I simply used "Special Move" and "Sword" respectively.
We'll be assuming that we haven't changed the default stats for this skill, and we will need to choose the skill's stats next. I chose to use 80 SP when this skill is used. For Power, I put 18, as this will be a starting skill. For ATK-F, EVA-F, and STR-F, I put 100. What these stats all mean is that there will be 100% of the player's stats affecting this skill. So whatever the ATK, EVA, and STR of the player are will be used. 100 is average for attacks, and anything above that would be additional power. So, if we chose to create a skill that increases our strength when we use it, we'd put STR-F at 120 or so.
Put the hit rate at 100, and PDEF-F at 100 as well. Leave Variance at 15. What Variance does, is fluctuates the attack power. Basically, Variance is what causes a player to do a range of damage, such as 8-10, rather than a base damage every time.
You can now add this skill to your Fighter class in the "Classes" tab. Simply double click on an empty space in the "Skills" box in the bottom right-hand corner, and choose the level you wish to use.
There you have it! You have no created a new skill called "Power Slash"
As said above, name this new skill "Power Slash", and choose the "001-Weapon01" Icon. It's the first one you'll see.
For the description I put "Fighter's skill. A powerful slash that can crush armor". You don't have to copy that if you don't like it. Use whatever you think sounds appropriate.
Next is the scope. This will be an attack that can only be used on "One Enemy", and leave "Only in Battle" alone, as that will be the only place we can use this.
For the Animations I simply used "Special Move" and "Sword" respectively.
We'll be assuming that we haven't changed the default stats for this skill, and we will need to choose the skill's stats next. I chose to use 80 SP when this skill is used. For Power, I put 18, as this will be a starting skill. For ATK-F, EVA-F, and STR-F, I put 100. What these stats all mean is that there will be 100% of the player's stats affecting this skill. So whatever the ATK, EVA, and STR of the player are will be used. 100 is average for attacks, and anything above that would be additional power. So, if we chose to create a skill that increases our strength when we use it, we'd put STR-F at 120 or so.
Put the hit rate at 100, and PDEF-F at 100 as well. Leave Variance at 15. What Variance does, is fluctuates the attack power. Basically, Variance is what causes a player to do a range of damage, such as 8-10, rather than a base damage every time.
You can now add this skill to your Fighter class in the "Classes" tab. Simply double click on an empty space in the "Skills" box in the bottom right-hand corner, and choose the level you wish to use.
There you have it! You have no created a new skill called "Power Slash"
Items
The "Items" tab is where you can create consumable items that you will use in game, as well as determine how effective they are. The steps used in creating a new item are almost identical to that of the Skills tab. The only difference is that instead of choosing how much power and SP an item has, you choose how much it helps you. Do you want potions that recover a percentage of your health, or just a solid number? There are also items that give boosts to a player's stats.
The Items tab is also where you will create your keys, access cards, etc. You can also create items that a player must have in order to do certain things in a game. For example, if you created a lockpick, you would be able to get into any door, no matter if it was locked or not (this would be done through eventing, which we will be talking about later).
Weapons and Armors
The "Weapons" and "Armors" tab are almost identical, so we will look at these together. There are very similar to the Items and Skills tabs, but to a more basic extent. Here you can choose how powerful an item is, as well as its efficiency in certain situations (bows are useful against birds, etc).
You can also create accessories, such as rings or amulets that can aid in a character's journey. These accessories can give elemental resistances, or give stat bonuses. You cannot, however, create an accessory for offensive purposes. You would need to create a special weapon.
Enemies and Troops
Because these two tabs go hand in hand, we will take a look at them as a pair.
In the "Enemies" tab, you will be able to create and edit monsters that you will encounter in battle. If you are creating an enemy, you must choose how it will fare in battle. We will make a new enemy to show you how to do this, but first we'll take a look at the "Troops" tab.
The "Troops" tab is the jelly to the "Enemies" tab peanut butter. In the Enemies tab we created a new monster that we will face in combat. In the Troops tab, we will actually be able to select the monster as a mob. Do we want just one of them? Or maybe we will face numerous enemies.
But because this can be somewhat confusing at times, let's take a shot at making a new enemy. I personally get tired of bashing on monsters all the time, so I will be making a human soldier for which to do battle.
As with the Skills tab, the first thing we must to is change the maximum number of enemies we can have in our game. I normally set this number higher, just because I know I'm going to make at least a couple of monsters for the game, but feel free to use whatever number you like.
Our bad guy is going to need a name. We can't use "Bad Guy" because that just sounds bad. So, let's go with something simple. Knight. I always choose a graphic next. There are a number of options here, but I chose "005-Fighter05". He just looks like a Knight to me. He's spent his life in the service to the King. Next we'll have to choose his HP and MP. I don't see Knights as the type of people who are going to be using a lot of magic, so I made his MP somewhat low, with a total of 360. It's good to have SOME MP, because you can add skills to the enemy later. I gave him 540 HP, because he's got to be a challenge.
Next we must choose his stats. I left his STR at 50, because Knights are typically strong. His DEX and AGI I put at moderate levels of 39 and 35 respectively, because Knights won't be dodging attacks all the time, but they will sometimes. his DEX determines his hit rate, and though we don't want him hitting us all the time, we don't want to dodge it 9/10 times either. Unless you have a magic caster, you typically make INT low, and I have it at 25 for our elderly warrior.
ATK, PDEF, and MDEF simply mean how strong the enemy will be. The higher the numbers, the tougher the opponent will be. 100 is average, so I left the Knights ATK and PDEF at 100, but made his MDEF 90. Unless you want an enemy with a high EVA rate, it's best to leave that at 0.
Next we'll look at his efficiency. Because he's a Knight, there isn't really any efficiencies that will work well against him. So, for this character, we'll leave these alone. But for future reference, each time you click on an efficiency, it will be given a rating of A through F. C means it has no effect either way, and B and A are how effective it can be. If you go with D or F, it means that those skills have little or no effect on the enemy.
Because the EXP curve in RMXP is relatively low, I gave this Knight 10 EXP if you win, which is pretty high for a single unit. I also said he would drop 15 gold.
Now, Knights are typically not the kind of people who can just attack. So I gave him the Power Slash skill we created earlier.
And that does it. We now have created an enemy. But in order to be able to fight him in battle, we must first add him to the Troops tab. So, click on the Troops tab, and change the maximum.
Choose the new troop and name it Knight. On the right-hand side you'll see a list of the enemies. Scroll down and select the Knight and hit the arrow that points towards the graphic of the forest. He is now in the game. The "C" button clears the current troops, and the "A" button moves them back to default positions (only applicable if you moved them).
Because we have not yet learned how to event, we will leave the bottom section empty.
Congratulations! You've just made your first enemy for your new game! You can now hit the "Battle Test" button and see how you fare against this new enemy.
Our bad guy is going to need a name. We can't use "Bad Guy" because that just sounds bad. So, let's go with something simple. Knight. I always choose a graphic next. There are a number of options here, but I chose "005-Fighter05". He just looks like a Knight to me. He's spent his life in the service to the King. Next we'll have to choose his HP and MP. I don't see Knights as the type of people who are going to be using a lot of magic, so I made his MP somewhat low, with a total of 360. It's good to have SOME MP, because you can add skills to the enemy later. I gave him 540 HP, because he's got to be a challenge.
Next we must choose his stats. I left his STR at 50, because Knights are typically strong. His DEX and AGI I put at moderate levels of 39 and 35 respectively, because Knights won't be dodging attacks all the time, but they will sometimes. his DEX determines his hit rate, and though we don't want him hitting us all the time, we don't want to dodge it 9/10 times either. Unless you have a magic caster, you typically make INT low, and I have it at 25 for our elderly warrior.
ATK, PDEF, and MDEF simply mean how strong the enemy will be. The higher the numbers, the tougher the opponent will be. 100 is average, so I left the Knights ATK and PDEF at 100, but made his MDEF 90. Unless you want an enemy with a high EVA rate, it's best to leave that at 0.
Next we'll look at his efficiency. Because he's a Knight, there isn't really any efficiencies that will work well against him. So, for this character, we'll leave these alone. But for future reference, each time you click on an efficiency, it will be given a rating of A through F. C means it has no effect either way, and B and A are how effective it can be. If you go with D or F, it means that those skills have little or no effect on the enemy.
Because the EXP curve in RMXP is relatively low, I gave this Knight 10 EXP if you win, which is pretty high for a single unit. I also said he would drop 15 gold.
Now, Knights are typically not the kind of people who can just attack. So I gave him the Power Slash skill we created earlier.
And that does it. We now have created an enemy. But in order to be able to fight him in battle, we must first add him to the Troops tab. So, click on the Troops tab, and change the maximum.
Choose the new troop and name it Knight. On the right-hand side you'll see a list of the enemies. Scroll down and select the Knight and hit the arrow that points towards the graphic of the forest. He is now in the game. The "C" button clears the current troops, and the "A" button moves them back to default positions (only applicable if you moved them).
Because we have not yet learned how to event, we will leave the bottom section empty.
Congratulations! You've just made your first enemy for your new game! You can now hit the "Battle Test" button and see how you fare against this new enemy.
States
The "States" tab is where you create new states to be used in battle (or outside as well if applicable). States are things (spells, attacks, etc) that affect a character. For example, the "Knockout" state only occurs if a character hits 0 HP. They will not receive any EXP from battle, and cannot be used for the remainder of the fight.
For the percentages, it deals with how effective they are against the character. So, if you want to weaken an enemy who has been stunned, set his STR % lower than 100.
You can also choose how long a state is effective for (unless an item is used to reverse it) and if the state is released after battle (will a unit that dies in battle be revived after battle, or is he dead for good?).
Animations
The "Animations" tab is where you will be able to set the animations of an attack or skill. It is the most advanced tab in the Database (in my opinion) and is probably the only one you wouldn't need to touch. I personally would recommend leaving this tab alone until you are more familiar with RMXP, as it can be very confusing for somebody who is new to the program. At least, that's my opinion.
So, for now, we're going to act as though this tab doesn't exist. Personally, I have no created a new animation, and I am not new to the program. So the odds of you needing this for a starter project are very slim.
Tilesets
The "Tilesets" tab is where you can edit a tileset to determine what you can and can't walk on/through. You can also change the Autotiles (tiles that tile and border automatically, usually for floors, grounds, ceilings, etc) for a tileset here.
The Tilesets tab can be confusing (I rate it second only to the Animations tab), but it's one that you very likely will use. Personally, I recommend getting used to the RTP maps at first, but there are many tilesets that are RTP bundles that make mapping a lot easier.
The simple way to import a tileset is to use the Materials folder (it's the icon of the folder and 3 pages on the taskbar). And, the easiest way to set it is if there is a demo with the tileset already in use, because you can simply copy/paste it from the other project.
However, many times that is not an option. So, we'll need to take a look at each setting in the Tilesets menu.
The passage option simply means if you can walk on that tile or not. Autotiles also have a separate setting (the square) that means if the tile is set in a row, that the player may walk on the top tile. Passage (4 dir) is just a more advanced way to set the passage. It means what ways can a player walk on a tile. So, if there is a railing, you may be able to walk up, left, and right, but not down.
The priority settings simply mean what tiles the game puts on top. So, if a player walks behind a tree, the tree will need a higher priority, so that the player doesn't look like he is standing on a branch. The higher the number, the closer to the foreground the tile is displayed (in relation to the character).
The Bush flag is used to make a character look like he's actually in water or tall grass. It brings a sense of realism to your maps.
Counter flags and terrain tags are rarely ever used (I have yet to see it). Counter flags set an event to start after a certain number of "counters" have been recorded. Terrain tags, to be completely honest, I have no idea. But honestly, you won't need this feature, so you don't need to worry about it.
Common Events
Common Events make life so much easier when you're making a game. They allow you to make a chest or door open with a simple command, rather than having to do the eventing over and over. They can also be used for lockpicking events, etc.
I will not be going in depth with this tab, because it requires the knowledge of eventing. However, I may write up an eventing tutorial at some point which will be applicable to this tab in the database.
System
Last, but certainly not least, we have the System tab. It is here that you can do all the little data things with your game. You can choose your starting party, the names of elements, and all the graphics/terms your game uses. Essentially, this tab is dependent on the game itself, and aside from knowing BGM is background music, and SE is sound effect, this is a tab that you will need to play around with in order to understand. It's pretty basic for the most part, and unless you have custom music/graphics for your game, odds are you won't touch this page. However, if you do, make sure you have everything imported into your Materialbase, otherwise it won't be found by the system.
Well, that about does it for the Database. Hopefully you learned something from this tutorial. RMXP can be pretty confusing if you're new to it. Hell, I'm not new to it and I still get confused sometimes.
I hope you enjoyed my little tutorial. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them, and I (or another of the many RMXP users of this site if they get to it first) will be happy to help in any way that I can.