Enhancing Effects and the like

[Wavelength]

I'm trying to plan out all of my characters' skills, and I've got a couple questions about how a few of the mechanics work. Any answers and advice would be appreciated.

For Enhancing and Disabling spells where stats are raised or lowered, what is the formula to determine the final stat gain for enhancing effects and loss for disabling effects? For Enhancing, does the caster's Magic stat, or any other stat, have an effect? For Disabling, does the caster's Magic stat, the target's Magic Defense, or any other stat have an effect?

Approximately how long do effects such as "Immune to All Bad Status," "Immune to Magic Attacks," "Weak vs. Poison," or "Weak vs. Golems" last? (Or do they last for the duration of the battle?) For that matter, I could've sworn I've cast Fast on my guys and had it "run out" in a battle. How long do stat gains/losses and Fast/Slow last when cast in battle?

[MagusMartovich]

Re: Enhancing Effects and the like

I'm not positive, but I believe that a casters magic(target's mdef) stat only effects the odds that the attack is successful, not the damage (unless its a direct attack, then the magic/mdef values are compared and damage is dealt baesed upon the difference in numbers)
Added effects (weak to golems/ etc) last until the end of combat (unless the character dies) unless they are given as special abilities/weaknesses on the status screen during creation. I think JPS would be the best person to ask about the finer points but this should get you well on your way.

[JPS]

Re: Enhancing Effects and the like

I'm not sure if this answers your question but I'll try:

To figure out a Skills Magic Stats with player attacking target:

Damage Dealt To Target = (Player MAG - Target MDEF) + Magic Enhancement

Damage Dealt To Target = (Player MAG - Target MDEF) - Magic Disabling




To figure out a Skills Magic Stats with target attacking player:

Damage Dealt To Player = (Target MAG - Player MDEF) + Magic Enhancement

Damage Dealt To Player = (Target MAG - Player MDEF) - Magic Disabling



I think the amount of time a stat last is 3 turns... I'm not sure, I haven't played in a while, so I'm not really any help on that subject...

[Wavelength]

Re: Enhancing Effects and the like

I'm not positive, but I believe that a casters magic(target's mdef) stat only effects the odds that the attack is successful, not the damage (unless its a direct attack, then the magic/mdef values are compared and damage is dealt baesed upon the difference in numbers)
Added effects (weak to golems/ etc) last until the end of combat (unless the character dies) unless they are given as special abilities/weaknesses on the status screen during creation. I think JPS would be the best person to ask about the finer points but this should get you well on your way.

Thanks very much! So you're saying that, for a debilitating attack, the amount of stat loss is solely determined by the "Effect Points" setting. I'll check that; I'm glad you pointed it out as I'd been thinking it might be different. Added effects... wow, I'm surprised that something like "Immune to Physical Attacks" would last for the entire battle, but I may be able to use it to my advantage. I do wonder if enemies would stop targetting that player with Physical Attacks if possible.

I'm not sure if this answers your question but I'll try:

To figure out a Skills Magic Stats with player attacking target:

Damage Dealt To Target = (Player MAG - Target MDEF) + Magic Enhancement

Damage Dealt To Target = (Player MAG - Target MDEF) - Magic Disabling




To figure out a Skills Magic Stats with target attacking player:

Damage Dealt To Player = (Target MAG - Player MDEF) + Magic Enhancement

Damage Dealt To Player = (Target MAG - Player MDEF) - Magic Disabling



I think the amount of time a stat last is 3 turns... I'm not sure, I haven't played in a while, so I'm not really any help on that subject...

Thanks for the response... yes, I knew the formulas for damage; what I'm trying to figure out is what factors go into the final effect of the Enhance/Disable skills themselves, and how long they last. Any info would be appreciated, because it gives me a springboard to try and figure out the finer details. 3 turns, eh? That's a good place to start, it's definitely in the ballpark of the battles I remember.

[JPS]

Re: Enhancing Effects and the like

I do wonder if enemies would stop targetting that player with Physical Attacks if possible.

It depends on what their INT is set to, 0% is basically just random actions without any regard to player immunity/skills/etc... 100% INT will make the enemy more strategic, if he knows youre immune to magic he will not cast any...I havent fully tested the truth in this but the INT setting is the enemy difficulty during battle, so it's only common sense to assume that this is the way it is, but I dont know, RM3 has blown common sense to pieces before

And sorry about misinterpreting your question, I don't play with skills that much so I guess I can't really give an answer

[Wavelength]

Re: Enhancing Effects and the like

It depends on what their INT is set to, 0% is basically just random actions without any regard to player immunity/skills/etc... 100% INT will make the enemy more strategic, if he knows youre immune to magic he will not cast any...I havent fully tested the truth in this but the INT setting is the enemy difficulty during battle, so it's only common sense to assume that this is the way it is, but I dont know, RM3 has blown common sense to pieces before

Intriguing. I'd thought that INT simply showed how much they stuck to their assigned behavior. Crythania had mentioned that enemies with INT close to 100 sometimes act "dumb" by focusing on actions that fit their behavior but don't make sense in the current state of the battle. Now I'm really interested to see what intelligent and unintelligent enemies will do when faced with a situation like "Immunity To." That's something that won't be too hard to test, either.

[JPS]

Re: Enhancing Effects and the like

yes the INT does follow the Behavior, if you set behavior to Magic Only and 100%INT, if you're immune to magic he has no choice but to cast magic, but he'll cast the most effective spell, even if it does 0 damage, there is like a 1/10 chance that a 100% INT creature will do an odd action, but thats just to throw some variety in


I have figured out that if you give an enemy a "Ultimate Attack" and a bunch of little magic attacks he'll use ultimate attack until he runs out of MP regardless of what his INT is, which kinda sucks because you cant have the "Big Finale"

[MagusMartovich]

Re: Enhancing Effects and the like

UH, semi off topic, is there any kind of "self-destruct" kind of skill? Like, "You might own me but..." *BANG!* "...and now I'm dead..." kind of thing? I mean, should you give an enemy a "skill" that uses max HP to cast, would the enemy cast it?

[JPS]

Re: Enhancing Effects and the like

I dont think so, but it would have been nice to do

[Wavelength]

Re: Enhancing Effects and the like

UH, semi off topic, is there any kind of "self-destruct" kind of skill? Like, "You might own me but..." *BANG!* "...and now I'm dead..." kind of thing? I mean, should you give an enemy a "skill" that uses max HP to cast, would the enemy cast it?

That is something I'd hoped to add to a couple enemies in my game. Only way I could really see it working is if you were to make the enemy run out of MP after a few spells, and THEN maybe it will use that Skill. I really don't know.

But this relates moreso to working around the enemy AI than to AI reaction to enhancing. And I think that deserves a whole 'nother topic of its own.

[Red Dragon]

Re: Enhancing Effects and the like

Enemies dont use Skills if at 1 HP. Skills are the only way to make an enemy reduce thier own HP.

[MagusMartovich]

Re: Enhancing Effects and the like

That is something I'd hoped to add to a couple enemies in my game. Only way I could really see it working is if you were to make the enemy run out of MP after a few spells, and THEN maybe it will use that Skill. I really don't know.

But this relates moreso to working around the enemy AI than to AI reaction to enhancing. And I think that deserves a whole 'nother topic of its own.

Its like the opposite! Like a self-poisoning! The reason I asked is that I remember there was a "self-destruct" in RM1 (I'm pretty sure there was was in RM2 or you could make your own) and that particular skill seemed that it should have found a home in RM3 as well...

(Besides, its not like nobody cared in the first place...)

[Crythania]

Re: Enhancing Effects and the like

Intriguing. I'd thought that INT simply showed how much they stuck to their assigned behavior. Crythania had mentioned that enemies with INT close to 100 sometimes act "dumb" by focusing on actions that fit their behavior but don't make sense in the current state of the battle. Now I'm really interested to see what intelligent and unintelligent enemies will do when faced with a situation like "Immunity To." That's something that won't be too hard to test, either.

I had my monsters organized into three different basic classes. Melee fighter, spellcaster, and healer. At 100% Int, all the healer guys did was heal heal heal. Also, my original plan was to have a melee fighter with a "Phys Att Up" spell. I was thinking he could use it on himself and his allies to "power up" at the start of a battle, then attack thereafter. At 100% Int, he never used it. All he did was attack attack attack. So I took away his spell and had him be a normal melee fighter. This was before I started experimenting with Int values.

Anyway, the healer dudes made it pretty monotonous because all they did was heal themselves and their allies. It was especially monotonous if we defeated everyone in the party except the healer, then he's just standing there healing while we wail on him trying to defeat him. So I thought, "Well, let's see if we can give this guy something else to do." So I gave my healer dudes enhancing spells. "Phys Att Up", "Phys Def Up", "Speed Up", and so forth. Each healer character has a different enhancer(s) that he uses, for variety's sake.

At 100% Int, all the guy does is heal heal heal.

At 60%, the guy casts enhancers and attacks more often than he heals. Also uses that useless defend move.

At 70%, the guy casts enhancers more often than anything else. Sometimes heals, sometimes attacks. Never defends. (70% seems to be a "cut off point" where the defend move is no longer used.)

At 80%, he does a decent mixture of recovery and enhancer. I'd say it's well balanced. This guy also has a "recover Mp" spell, and he's a buffoon with it (tends to waste a turn on it after only having spent a little Mp; he's got plenty left; doesn't need to recover it yet).

At 90%, there's a bias toward healing over enhancing. This guy has a "Fast" enhancer (which is an uber spell that makes a character really, really fast). He uses that on himself and his allies to "power up" at the start of the battle, then mostly heals thereafter.

My verdict based on personal experience:
100% is bad. Only good if you want your guy to do exactly one thing.
70% is great for enhancers. Your guy will use them.
80% is great for a healer/enhancer combo.
90% is great for a healer while still affording him other options.

All of these guys are set on "Balanced" behavior. Anything else would skew it badly.

In my experience, the Int represents how likely he is to perform the most beneficial action, given the circumstances. Healing has a much better chance of keeping him in the game (and annoying the player). The closer you get toward 100%, the more of a bias there is toward that over all else. The problem for me was that healing is not always the most beneficial action. Enhancers can be beneficial as well.

My experiments were based only on getting a healer/enhancer combo up and running. If you're doing other combinations of actions, you may get different results.