Fortune Telling

[Zaryn]

I was writing down an event for lockpicking when I realized a way to have very "random" fortune telling. What you do is create an event. Set the variable to 4. Have 4 questions, with 2 to 3 answers each. 1 answer will subtract 1 from the variable. Another will add 1. If you have three answers the third will not effect the variable. With this, the highest the variable can go is 8 and the least is 0. For each variable possible write a fortune. Then set the variable back to 4. This circumvents the normal fortune telling system where the fortune teller tells you the same thing over and over again.
I haven't tested it but I'm sure it will work.

[Perversion]

Re: Fortune Telling

Both Wavelength and myself (among others here) are big proponents of a pseudo random number generator system. I browse on the PS3, which just recently got a copy and paste feature, so as soon as I find threads describing this system, I'll edit and link you to them.


You probably CAN use the system you described, but there are other ways to make such a system, which are more complex and give you a wider array of "random" events. For the situation you're describing, you can probably use what you posted. I cannot vouch 100% for what Wavelength used in his Hell's Dining Room minigame (I judged it, but did not go into the edit screen), but I find if you plan on using "random" numbers for more than one event (a bunch of my minigames in A Series Aside used them, as did a bunch of events and conversations in my as yet unreleased farming/dating sim), it's good to have more than one "random" variable.


I like using at least 2, one with a value of 0, 1, or 2, for three "random" values, and one that goes from 0 to 9 for ten "random" values. In any other val cond branch or choice branch, it would check the current value of the variable in question, and either add or subtract a value (in the case with the 0-2 variable), or change it to a completely different number (in the case of the 0-9 variable).


In this way, I could do things like have a fishing minigame based on luck AND skill (if your fishing skill was level 1, as an example, it would take whatever the "random" number is and add one to it. So even if you have a skill of three, but get the random outcome of 0, you'd only get a less valuable fish. However, if you have a skill of one, but get lucky and get a random number of 9, you'd catch the most valuable fish....well, one of them, anyway...there was another random variable check within all that to see which of the two highest tier fish you caught, using the 0-2 variable).



So, if you can wrap your head around the system you describe above, you can conceivably take that to any level you want, with any amount of complexity you want, depending on what you are trying to do.

[Wavelength]

Re: Fortune Telling

Well, as Wavelength, I've got to appreciate anyone who comes in with an RPG Maker idea and has a bunch of scientific-looking waves in their avatar, yes? Welcome!

Yup, your Fortune Teller idea will work, but I can spot one aspect of it that might be a flaw if you wanted all the outcomes to be equally likely. Let's say your variable goes from 0 to 8... the 4 is going to be the most likely outcome by far (then the 3 and the 5, etc.), the same way if you flip a coin eight times, you're most likely to get four heads and four tails. Only one combination of answers could lead you to the 0 or the 8. Again, you can use this to your advantage if you want to skew the distribution of outcomes.

If you'd rather have them equal, there are a few ways to do it, including tracking the values of four different "types" of responses separately (if the answers have a lot of meaning to them), or having each response add a certain number to your variable and then reducing the value by X when it gets above X (this is what I've used in my games). If you want some pseudo-code for either of these, let me know.

If you're just going for something like the Fortune Telling in Belome Temple from Super Mario RPG, though, your system is perfectly fine, and I think could be very cool.


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Edit: Perversion, to answer your question, you hit the nail on the head. I was indeed using multiple pseudo-RNGs in Hell's Dining Room. Three of them, to be precise, and the varied between 0 and 11. 12 choices was nice because you can divide evenly by 2, 3, and 4.