In Active Time battles each combatant has a timebar that is filled over time. A combatant can perform actions once the timebar is full (or reached a defined value).

Battle systems are found in Battles > Battle Systems.

The Timebar #

At the start of the battle, each combatant’s timebar will be filled with the result of the Start Calculation formula. This can be used to e.g. give each combatant a randomly filled timebar or give them a headstart based on their status values. Afterwards, the timebars of all combatants will increased using the Time Calculation formula – this happens each tick defined by the Tick Interval (in seconds).

You can optionally speed up battles using the Time Skip option. This’ll repeat the time calculation in a single tick until the next combatant is able to select actions.

The timebar itself has several settings handling how the battle takes place:

• Menu Border
  Defines at which timebar value the battle menu will be displayed (player only) and actions can be selected.
• Action Border
  Defines at which timebar value the selected actions can be performed.
• Maximum Timebar
  Defines the maximum value the timebar can have.

Using the same value for all 3 settings means that a combatant can select and perform actions when the timebar is filled completely.

An action will by default use the complete timebar. This can be changed in the Timebar Use settings and individual abilities and items. E.g. you can set items to only consume half of the timebar, having it filled after using an item at half of the time.

Multi Choice #

Using Multi Choice allows a combatant to select multiple actions before using them. An example for this kind of active time battle is the Final Fantasy XIII series, where a combatant can selects multiple actions that each use a part of the timebar. Naturally, multi choice is only useful when there are actions that use only a part of the timebar instead of the complete timebar.

When multi choice is used, you can define when the actions will be used:

• Action Border
  When combatant’s timebar reaches the Action Border.
• Max Timebar
  When the combatant’s timebar reaches the Maximum Timebar.
• End Turn
  When the combatant ends the turn (End battle command).

Optionally, the combatant can only select new actions after all previously selected actions have been completed. To use this, enable Use All Actions in the Multi Choice Settings.

Dynamic Combat #

When using Dynamic Combat, multiple actions can be performed at the same time. Combatants wont wait for other actions to finish and start their actions as soon as they can.