Magic system a la Final Fantasy 1

[Deeth Irteen]

I'm making a demo game (not an actual game) and testing out a combination of events in which you learn spells in the style of the 1st FF game. Basically, at first I have all the player characters fo;rget all their magic spells with an outo event at the start of the game.I selected a shop (so I don't use 1 of the 100 characters) and placed a bunch of big pots around the NOC so the player can't get to him (or her). Then I place an invisible 'button' event in front of the counter. in the event's event code, the choices are the player characters that are capable of learning magic (black or white) spells.then Iset up an event transition to an event the player can never get to. in that event, I set up a value cond. branch with 2 choices: 0 and 1. If the value (let's say internal variable 1.) is 0, the character can't learn a spell. but itf InV 1 is 1, then I set up another event transition to another event. In that event, I set up Value Cond. branches so that I have 15 choices. For an example, let's say there are 4 spells: fire, ice, bolt, quake. the character can only learn three of them:

V2=0 no spells
V2=1 fire
V2=2 ice
V2=3 bolt
V2=4 quake
V2=5 fire and ice
V2=6 fire and bolt
V2=7 fire and quake
V2=8 ice and bolt
V2=9 ice and quake
V2=10 bolt and quake
V2=11 fire, ice and bolt
V2=12 fire, ice and quake
V2=13 fire, bolt and quake
V2=14 ice, bolt and quake

by adding in decision branches, 'skill learned', modify variable and decrease variable events, you've pretty much recreated the skill learning system of Final Fantasy 1

[Perversion]

Re: Magic system a la Final Fantasy 1

Basically, at first I have all the player characters fo;rget all their magic spells with an outo event at the start of the game.

I do not think you need to do this (the auto event to forget spells)...if you set every spell to be learned at level 99, you can just have the characters learn the spell at the requisite time by making the command code for "learn spell."

Unless I'm not understanding your further explanation, there should be no reason for them to know every spell at the very beginning, and then forget them all.

[Deeth Irteen]

Re: Magic system a la Final Fantasy 1

I do not think you need to do this (the auto event to forget spells)...if you set every spell to be learned at level 99, you can just have the characters learn the spell at the requisite time by making the command code for "learn spell.".

If I did it like that, once the player reached level 99, they'd learn all the spells he didn't learn before. The way I have it, the player will only be able to learn three of four spells at a certain level.

[Lausen]

Re: Magic system a la Final Fantasy 1

The chances anyone would ever make it to level 99 in RPGM3 is near impossible. It would save you from using up a lot of coding.

[Perversion]

Re: Magic system a la Final Fantasy 1

And if characters in your game ARE able to get to level 99, it seems to me that nobody would ever finish playing your game, because honestly, that would just be WAY too long.

My first game has 15-20 hours of playtime, used 99.9% of memory, and the highest level I programmed spells for was for level 30. Someone MIGHT be able to get to level 35 if they spend a lot of time in the game just piddling around, butthey will not get spells at that level.

I had all my encounter rates set to the lowest possible setting, and the major complaint with my game was how many battles there were. If you set the frequency rate higher in order to have more battles in order to get more experience in order to max the characters out at level 99, people probably will not play for more than an hour or two, if even that much. Trust me on this.

[Deeth Irteen]

Re: Magic system a la Final Fantasy 1

whatever. I just thought the idea was worth a try.

[Perversion]

Re: Magic system a la Final Fantasy 1

No, the idea is okay...I'm just telling you not to do a bunch of unnecessary work if you do not need to. The magic system might work okay, but there is no need to "unlearn" all the spells at the beginning. As I said, just set them all to be learned at level 99, and then incorporate your system (assuming it works the way you are describing it....I've not looked at it too closely).

[Deeth Irteen]

Re: Magic system a la Final Fantasy 1

right. I'm also wondering whether to try the "X spells per day" system, but I think I'd have to set all the character's MP to 0 and modify the stats in-game to the amount of spell casts i want per day. Oh, and I'd have to set the MP costs to 1.

[MagusMartovich]

Re: Magic system a la Final Fantasy 1

I liked the first draft of this idea the best, because sure, level 99 is going to either a) force players to spend days/weeks/months/years/decades piddling around or b) cause the player to find the "Secret Magician" (or whatever you call him/her) who gives out the astounding bonus for finding his/her hiding place and later turns out to be the final boss...

Both methods have their own merit, depending on what was planned for the other events in the game. Not only that, but the limiting tactics used also forces the player to think somewhat strategically when choosing what magic they want to take along for the duration of the game. Just because fire was good doesn't mean its going to stay that way.

And lastly, would the White Magic be divided like this as well, grouped with the boosts magics, or just be mostly useless like they were in the 1st FF game???

[Deeth Irteen]

Re: Magic system a la Final Fantasy 1

And lastly, would the White Magic be divided like this as well, grouped with the boosts magics, or just be mostly useless like they were in the 1st FF game???

Well, these are the basic white magic stats. All others are hyped up versions of the below:
Cure: heals a set amount of hp
Life: revives a character
Heal poison: self explanitory
Heal petrify: self explanitoy, If you make a spell with the "Stop" effect and name it "petrify".
Haste: AGI + 50%
Slow: AGI - 50%
Holy: the only white magic spell that causes damage.

You could get creative with grouping spells together.