I, too, like using RPGmaker Ace: it's a very robust engine that is simple enough to use. I created three games with it, and I cannot understand why some people speak ill of RPG Maker, only to fail and despair because they are unable to finish their "more fancy" Unity/Unreal Engine game. I learned a lot using RPGmaker Ace and am thankful for it.
Viewing post in What game engines are you all using?
Ahh, very cool! The whole engine series is pretty great, honestly. 2K, 2K3 and XP are far more interesting than some people understand~
Honestly, there's not a huge difference between MV and Z. The biggest difference is that MZ is a more polished version of MV, just like how miniscule the differences between VX and VXA really are. At least that's what I've noticed when I played around with both of them; granted, I haven't used MV/Z as frequently as I have the older ones, so there might be more differences between the two than what I've noticed.
You're welcome :) I'm honestly not sure if point-and-click games would be possible to make in RPG Maker, even though it is possible (and pretty easy) to find and incorporate scripts that allow mouse controls. It's definitely worth a shot, though!
Hmm... honestly, that's a hard call. I'd recommend either VX or Ace, because they have a ton of tutorials, scripts, graphical and musical resources that you can find on RPGMakerWeb's forums for free.
MV/Z don't have as much available and a large chunk of plugins cost quite a bit (Yanfly and VisuStella seem to be extremely popular, with the latter being costly.)
XP is very good, it's not hard to find resources for and has a large number of tutorials as well. The deciding factor, I think, between it and VX/Ace would probably be what visual style you prefer. XP is more detailed and has larger sprites, but the mapping isn't quite as easy as it is with VX/Ace.
Even though I started with 95, then moved up to 2K and 2K3, I'd say to dabble in the oldest trio once you've managed to get your toes wet a bit. The three of them are easier to use, but limited, so it would help to have a little experience with the series as a whole before trying to push those three, which you would need to do, with their limitations.