purchasable stat ups?

[agent_Firestalker]

I have an idea, and as of right now it works, but it's several events and I trying to "consolodate" it into as few events as possible. Here's the idea...

Instead of traditional level-ups, I came up with a system I used in RPGM1 that controls a players stats.I have treasure items called ancient coins scattered through the game. Chests in dungeons can have 1-10 of them and you get a lot throughout the quest. When you visit the recluse mage, he will allow you to trade a coin for a +1 to a stat. (I use events since RPGM3 doesn't have the old "food" items.)

Problems...
#1 I have a different event for each character (several crates). When examined, if you do not have the corresponding char. it replies with a message (can't do...etc) I am trying to make one event where it first checks for a coin, then asks which character wants the "stat-up potion", then raises their stat.

Can this be done?
Any ideas are welcome.

Thanks,
Agent_Firestalker

[Perversion]

Re: purchasable stat ups?

If you are talking about the crates giving the level ups, then yes...it is possible to have just one. The thing you would need to do is assign a variable to each character (which I'm guessing you've already done, as each crate is looking for a character). I'm guessing in your game, you're going to have a bunch of different characters switching in and out of the party. The way I would do what you are asking is still not gonna work perfectly, but you might like it better than what you have.

In the first mode of an event, make a val cond branch for the first (or main) character's variable (or status in the party). If variable=1 (indicating he is in the party), make a choice branch asking if you want to upgrade this character's stats. If the player says yes, go to mode 2. If the player says no, have another val cond branch identical to the one you just made right below it, but use the second character's name, variable, etc. Repeat this as many times as you have characters. Just remember, in each mode you switch to, make sure to place code to go back to the original mode.

The major downside to this method is that you will have to answer yes or no for each character that's in your party each time you want to upgrade stats. The ONLY benefit I see of doing it this way is if you have secret characters that you do not want the player to know about. Because if the val cond branch does not recognize they are in the party, it'll switch right to the next one without saying anything. And you will also need to track variables EACH time a character switches in or out of the party.

Honestly, if you've only got 4 characters for the whole game, you're better off going with the crates.

[agent_Firestalker]

Re: purchasable stat ups?

I'm actually trying to use five or six characters (two are temps than only join for certain areas). I could just go with the crates, but I just need a good believable gimmick for the crates. Right now it is, "each character has their own storage space for coins". Sounds really cheesy and/or lame.

Thanks Perversion. Great idea.
Still can't figure out why I didn't think of that.

Agent_Firestalker

"Is this a job for intelligent men?"
"Well show me one, i'll ask him."
- Earl Basset, Val McKee, "Tremors"

[Ivan Rosenguard]

Re: purchasable stat ups?

Seeing as I'm already doing this for my game, I'll share with you how I do it for my six playable characters.

First of all, I have five stations (events): One for strength, one for magic, one for defense, one for magic defense, and one for Hp/Mp.

Each station has six modes, on for each character. My game is sci-fi (though not overly so, I used the "victorian/70's minimalist sci-fi" era with all the steam and gears and things, which I was able to do with RPGM3...only with beam-swords!) and the area used is virtual reality, so you have a "client" named Gatalya who helps you out by allowing you to "switch users" which changes the stations to the character of your choice. The "currency" you spend is Intelligence Points, and in addition to the INT stat being used to track it, you must also use a variable for each character (I use variable 1).

In order to keep characters from being able to be made all alike, I have different costs for each Stat depending on the character: I.E.: Rhannie is not very strong, but she's good at magic, so Strength costs 4 points, but Magic only costs 2. Michael is a good attacker and defender, so his defense only costs 1 point, and his Strength costs 2.

Strength: Increases by 3
Magic: Increases by 3
Defense: Increases by 1
Magic Defense: Increases by 1
HP: Increases by 25

In addition to that, I have a shared variable which counts how many TOTAL points the characters have received. I then use a four-variable branch event to make it so that the amount of INT you gain from battles drops as you acquire more of it (eventually fighting battles in lesser areas will net you absolutely NO points, meaning you will have to move on--you're most likely way overpowered if you ever experience that).

Agi is fixed in my game, so I didn't have to worry about that like you might want to.

I found this system to, so far, be quicker and more interesting than the "spooning water out of an ocean" level system in traditional RPGs, as you can keep upgrading your stats without having to wait for your exp to reach a certain number. You have points to upgrade with after every battle!

(You'll also need a variable that lets the game know when your INT reaches 100 on any character, so you don't end up having "invisible" upgrade points).

This is just what I'm doing, but I thought I'd post it since I have the closest example of what your talking about.

[Perversion]

Re: purchasable stat ups?

Release a damn demo of this already, Caveguy!

[Wavelength]

Re: purchasable stat ups?

Your system can be done and it's not too difficult, but the event length will be rather long.

So I recommend "consolidating" it into one location--if you need it to be accessible from multiple locations, have them all warp to your one "Stat Center" and use a variable to track which town or dungeon the player warped in from so that they can return there when they leave the Stat Center.

The way I would do this is to either have one event which allows you to pick a character, or several events, one for each character. Either way, you could use a Treasure Auto mode or variables--I find variables to be the easier way. When you get coins, have a "Number of Stat Coins" variable increase by the amount of coins you supposedly got. When you spend coins, have the variable decrease by the number of coins you spent.

If you do the one event, it will change to an Auto Mode in that event (one of which was set for each character).

Under each character's specific event or node, it will check whether that character is in your party, using a variable (each character needs one variable) which you set up to track whether a specific character is in your party (I like to use 0 = hasn't joined yet, 1 = in party, 2 = temporarily left the party, 3 = permanently left the party). So, using a Var-Cond branch, if the variable is 1 (or perhaps 2), the event will let you continue, otherwise it will say "Sorry, you can't do that!"

Then, the easy part. Give the player a choice which stat to increase. Since we already checked that the player is in your party and that the player has the coin, you can simply have each branch increase the character's stat by the appropriate amount and decrease the Coins variable and/or lose one Coins treasure item. Then the event can end. Good stuff.

One little warning--no matter what you do, I don't think you can directly increase the HP or MP stats. D'oh! You can increase the character's level, thus increasing their HP and MP by a fixed amount, but this can be awkward if the player could have also gained experience from monsters. You could give the player experience in exchange for tokens, but this tends not to work since the "experience curve" is set by the system and can't really be changed. And plus, HP and MP have to change together. I just thought it was worth saying all this in case you weren't aware of that particular limitation.

I'm creating a "Stat/Skill buying" system in Panacea, and I decided to just do away with level-ups entirely. Battles essentially give no "Experience Points," so each character's MP and HP is fixed for the entire game. The battles do give another type of points though, tracked by a variable, which allows you to trade them for magic, stat-ups, and other bonuses at a Skill House.

[MagusMartovich]

Re: purchasable stat ups?

In the first mode of an event, make a val cond branch for the first (or main) character's variable (or status in the party). If variable=1 (indicating he is in the party), make a choice branch asking if you want to upgrade this character's stats. If the player says yes, go to mode 2. If the player says no, have another val cond branch identical to the one you just made right below it, but use the second character's name, variable, etc. Repeat this as many times as you have characters. Just remember, in each mode you switch to, make sure to place code to go back to the original mode.

The major downside to this method is that you will have to answer yes or no for each character that's in your party each time you want to upgrade stats. The ONLY benefit I see of doing it this way is if you have secret characters that you do not want the player to know about. Because if the val cond branch does not recognize they are in the party, it'll switch right to the next one without saying anything. And you will also need to track variables EACH time a character switches in or out of the party.

Uh, instead of having the option be up to the player, why not make the event auto check to make sure a certain hero is present? You already have the crates character specific, so use what you have, then introduce the different modes with a Y/N as to the player's desire to increase "Bob the Ninja"'s stats... you know: work smart, not hard