Demo updated with the text display issue being rectified. Hopefully, this will be the last one for a while?
While trying to move forward with the full version, I did various rounds of playtesting. In so doing, I noticed something peculiar about Unites. The specific case was Richard (involved via Best Friends (Richard/Lester) or Bounty Hunters (Richard/Jodelle)), was the target of a First Aid from Janice. Now, the intent is that once a Unite is done, the involved characters step back into formation, like any other skill, or ability, out there. However, in certain observed cases, the characters were still in their “stepped forward” position when another character stepped forward, and activated their action. Then, once that action was done, all of the characters stepped back into formation.
At this juncture, I cannot say for certain how consistent this bug is. Aside from the above scenario, I’ve seen instances of one of the bounty monsters targeting an in-Unite Richard, and the characters wouldn’t step back until after Janice’s First Aid, which appeared to be the last skill on the queue in that scenario.
There’s instances where things appear to work as intended as well. I wasn’t paying attention to see if the target in such instances was a character other than the character who put the Unite skill into the queue. I also am considering that it could also stem from how I got all characters involved in a Unite to step forward to begin with. For the moment, I’m largely scratching my head about what the heck is going on, or what kinds of workarounds might need to happen.
The easiest solution would be to increase the speed penalty on Unite skills, and don’t mess with things further. Though, if I go that route, I would be inclined to increase the damage multiplier for Unites, as the risk for the skill to be cancelled becomes greater.
The fix wasn’t as bad as I thought, but, there were certainly headaches to be had before said fix was found.
So, what was happening was in the BattleManager.endBattlerActions function. If a character is using a unite skill, there is a a variable inside BattleManager.processTurn to remember the skill.
// Process when an actor finishes their action.
BattleManager.processTurn = function() {
const subject = this._subject;
const action = subject.currentAction();
if (action) {
action.prepare();
if (action.isValid()) {
this.startAction();
if (subject.isUnite()) {
subject.setActionStateUnite("acting");
// The action would be removed from the stack below, but, we still need it for a bit longer.
this.unite = action;
};
};
subject.removeCurrentAction();
} else {
this.endAction();
this._subject = null;
}
};
Since the action is removed from the action queue, my thought was to use the endBattlerActions function to put it back on the queue, even temporarily, and set the involved characters to the “done” state/motion.
// Process when an actor finishes their turn.
BattleManager.endBattlerActions = function(battler) {
// Hey, was there a Unite skill stored earlier?
if (this.unite) {
// Cool. Put it back onto the current actor's queue.
battler._actions.push(unite);
// Have everyone involved get an action state of "done".
// I'm not concerned about the value of `this.isTpd()`, so...
battler.setActionStateUnite("done");
// Remove the action again.
battler.removeCurrentAction();
// Forget this ever happened.
this.unite = undefined;
} else {
// Regular processing.
battler.setActionState(this.isTpb() ? "undecided" : "done");
};
battler.onAllActionsEnd();
battler.clearTpbChargeTime();
this.displayBattlerStatus(battler, true);
};
One problem with this. The line that would put the skill on the stack?
battler._actions.push(unite);
That line puts an entirely different thing in there than what this.unite would put in there.
// Base unite damage formula, replacing "a.atk", "a.mat", or possibly both.
function unite(skill_id, mode=undefined) {
let array = uniteArray(skill_id);
let total = 0;
switch (mode) {
case "physical":
for (let i=0; i<array.length; i++) {
total += $gameActors.actor(array[i]).atk;
};
return total;
case "magical":
for (let i=0; i<array.length; i++) {
total += $gameActors.actor(array[i]).mat;
};
return total;
default:
for (let i=0; i<array.length; i++) {
total += $gameActors.actor(array[i]).atk;
total += $gameActors.actor(array[i]).mat;
};
return total;
};
};
So, while the correct motion/state may be being passed, the check to see if the involved characters would fail, because the return value for the unite function would be undefined in the context it was given.
Suffice it to say, I’ve updated the demo again (again again again again) with this fixed.