Programming 'Combat'?

[burnout02urza]

Uh, I've just played 'Heikou', and I've been wondering...How do I program a system like that in Ren'py? Does anyone have any idea how to do it?

[PyTom]

Well, as of now, you pretty much can't. Ren'Py was designed to be a visual novel engine, and so isn't intended for RPGs with realtime combat.

With enough programming, it would definintely be possible to support such combat. Non-realtime combat (where time pauses while the user makes selections for characters) would be even easier to support, and would probably fit better into the Ren'Py interface model.

Right now, this isn't a priority. If someone was to convince me that they were going to make a game that needed combat, then I'd add it as an extra on the level of the DSE. But even then, the earliest time I could add it would be the end of the month.

[ShiraiJunichi]

non real time combat should be really easy to implement. Just use variables to store statistical values, and use control statements to loop the rounds in a battle until either the character, or the enemies die. Implementing exactly what you want should be fairly easy. However, implementing something that is configurable enough for anyone to use it to do exactly what they wanted might be another story. Not many people use combat in ren'ai games- so it might just be better for each person who wants to use it to implement their own system. Though, maybe a really basic built in system might be nice- for games that want to add in just one or two simple battles (like ToL1)

[PyTom]

The more I think about it, the more complicated the combat problem gets. I'm agreeing with SJ that it's probably going to be too complicated to try to come up with a generic combat system. So what's probably best would be for someone who wants combat to send me the design doc for their game, and then I can try to code it or suggest modifications.

(But please note my dance card is full until the end of the month or so.)