Yeah, but despite that. It would still probably take less work to "Learn Gamemaker + Make your entire game in gamemaker" than to "Write everything in RPGMaker to make a custom system work + Make the rest of your game in RPGMaker"

Because, I certainly know it would take less than a few million hours to learn GameMaker. But I reckon since you already put a few million hours into making this one system for this game, you might as well see it through so that the current effort isn't wasted. (I'm just saying if you want to do it again, it would save you time to learn a more robust game making program) I'd only keep working with it if you already feel that there is a good chance of the system working. If you don't feel like your system is even close, then I'd scrap it now to go with a well tailored DBS. Because it would end up taking a lot more time than you've already spent on it, and probably lead to a result that falls below your expectations.

Who exactly said ABS's are garbage?

You know there are such things as good and bad! Not all ABS's are bad! Besides what do you expect when your using RPG Maker?

EDIT: If your worried about your work being wasted, then why not post a demo to see what kind of feedback you get, in which you can use to improve?

You could make it in ika!

But you will probably hate the map editor. It is probably on the same level of crap as the gamemaker one. You could always just script your own and make it more like the RM2k3 one.

RM2k3 + ABS usually equals crap. But I've played a few which were okay. Still, you can make a better ABS game in another maker.

You could try RPG Maker XP.

Maybe you can just throw something quick together with it so that the work doesn't go to waste? That's what I've been thinking of doing with some projects of mine that've been collecting dust for years now.

Well, if you spent so much time on it and you're reluctant to have it as your primary battle system, you could always implement it into your game as a form of minigame/sidequest somewhere. Like an arena or coliseum style event where the battles are in ABS format, I think that would be pretty cool, and you could have rewards for completing certain battles and have some form of extraordinary reward for completing the entire thing. That way your work wouldn't go to waste, in that you could still have a more publicly accepted primary battle system, but the ABS is always an option to players who want to try it.

I did. They're crap because 99% of the time the mechanic is kiting around monsters who just autofollow you. Not saying Immakinganaccountk's is bad as I haven't seen it. Break the mold, you can do it!

Maybe from the games you have played they are crap, but that doesn't mean that there aren't any good ABS's around.

Examples:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en-GB&v=tiKdUJx42DQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmnD-4dYZkY&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7SotgdE824
This was shown in the screenshot topic.

Immakinganaccountk you can try to maybe implement better enemy AI in your ABS so that it isn't so boring and crap and as vanit said don't just make them walk toward hero and move around randomly. Besides how are you going to have fun making games if you try to please everyone by making a really awesome battle system/Custom Menu or whatever.

If he feels that his ABS isn't be fun, it might be considered poor game design to implement it even as a side thing. I know I'd get pretty annoyed if there was an incredibly frustrating/dull minigame in an rpg that I felt obligated to complete due to the rewards. I'd either leave out the ABS or make the rewards trivial.

I didn't get the idea that he thought his ABS isn't fun from his post, I read that he was reluctant to use at as the primary battle system because of the community's general predisposition against them.

Which is why I suggested he upload for us to try out.

You can still have a shitty abs if it has pixel based movement. I think your question should be, how to make battles more fun as well as making ABS's better.