This page will tell you how to get started to use TBSE for your RPG Maker MZ project.

Table of Contents

• 1 Installation
• 2 Spriteset Rules
• 2.1 Spriteset Format
• 2.2 Naming Rules
• 3 Motion
• 3.1 Setting up default motion
• 3.2 Creating idle motion
• 3.3 Creating item & skill action

1. Installation

Drop this plugin in your project at the "js/plugins" directory. Enable it through the plugin manager.

However, the homework is not done yet. Due to how the action sequence is processed in this plugin, you have to manually set them up yourselves. Otherwise, it will not work.

2. Spriteset Rules

2.1 Spriteset Format

TBSE allows you to use your very own format of a sprite sheet. Whether you want to use the default RPG Maker SV sheet or be liberal about it. That said, you have to set the rules within the plugin parameter. Let's take a look.

The default TBSE sprite format uses the default MZ side view sprites, which are 6 rows and 9 columns.

However, you're free to change this format as you see fit. For example, you want to use a 6x4 format (6 rows, 4 columns). Change the plugin parameter accordingly. We are going to use this sprite format as an example.

(Image credit: 香月清人 for the base, richter_h for the edit)

2.2 Naming Rules

Using our previous sprite sample, let's name the sprite name "Gunslinger.png" and put them in at "img/sv_actors" folder. To use the sprite as the battler graphic, go ahead to the actor database and change the SV battler graphic to our "Gunslinger" graphic. The graphic might look like it is being cut, but it will not be a problem.

However, 6x4 sprite size is very limited in terms of available animation frames. You can extend the available frames using another sprite sheet by adding a suffix on their name. Let's say, we are going to add this "Gunslinger_2.png" in our collection. The way to use the second sprite set will be explained later. If you don't like the "_2" suffix, you may also change the suffix as you like. However, the sprite set format must follow the universal rules you have set in the plugin parameters.

3. Motions

3.1 Setting up default motions

TBSE uses the versatility of the plugin commands introduced in RPG Maker MZ. And thus, we are going to use common events to do our animation. First of all, we have to determine each of these motions belongs to which slot in our common events. See the list of available motions here.

The number represents the common event ID you're going to use as the idle sequence. The animation will be universally used by all actor battlers (and enemies that you have tagged it as animated). If you do not wish to use the default ID, you may change it here. In this example, we are going to use the default common event ID to set our animation up.

Note: For a sake of simplicity, you can always set all the default motions to refer to the same common event. For example, set all values to 1 (the first common event), nothing is gonna break.

3.2 Creating idle motion

In TBSE, you are free to pick any frame within your sprite set at any time without restriction. However, the consequence is that you have to manually configure how your animation behaves. In this example, we are going to make an idle animation. In TBSE, each frame in a sprite has an index value. We are going to use this index value to manually create a motion. See the following image sample.

Using the following example, we are going to use index 0-1-2-3 then repeat, as an idle animation. Go to the common event menu and use the plugin command as follow.

The frame field is used to determine which index we are going to pick as a motion. Then it will stay for a duration (in frame per second) determined in the wait field. We will leave the suffix field empty for now since we do not need an extra sprite. The result is going to be like this.

A standard boring idle you may have seen multiple times. To make it less boring, we could try to spice it up a bit by adding a delay before the breathing motion. For example, adding a longer delay when playing index 0 and a faster delay on everything else.

In my opinion, this is less boring. However, for a sake of more examples in this wiki, we can even enhance this further. Let's say, we are going to use the second sprite set that we named "Gunslinger_2.png". We are going to use the following motion in our animation.

The animation index are as follow: 20-21-20-21-20-21-20-21-22-23. The animation will be played after a few loops on breathing animation. To use the second sprite, we use the suffix field.

The result

3.3 Creating item & skill action

By default, when you use a skill or an item, it follows the default action sequence you set from the configuration. You have two ways to customize the action sequence for each skill.

To understand how action sequence works before you're making one, please read this page.

First method: Assign the common event ID through the item/skill effect

This way, you can assign and select the action sequence by using the interface provided by RPG Maker MZ. This also implies that this plugin completely disabled execute common events after the skill execution in favor of making it a sequence interface.

Second method: Using the notetag

The second way is to use a note tag <tbse motion: name> and put the common event name on it. The name is case insensitive so you don't need to worry about a wrong capitalize. This way, you also do not need to worry about if you want to reorganize the order of the common event since it will search by its name. Do note that if you have two common events under the same name, it will always pick the earliest.

And that's all folks. Make the rest of the motions yourself.