RPG Maker Forums

I often see people post about being able to do additional things with enemies and troops, such as give them levels, or treat them more like actors. There are even a few threads in this section about various different aspects of improving said systems. This is more of a compilation of these threads and ideas. The ideas shared and discussed here will also be the basis for a more encompassing improvement proposal to the team as well if given enough votes.

The purpose of this proposal will be to improve upon the aspects of enemies and troops in a manner that maintains maximum compatibility with current games and most plugins. The way that will be done will also be discussed when necessary.

Description of the Feature:

• Enemy Types (as suggested by @Andar ) - Allow for enemies to have "types", such as "angel", "demon","ice",etc. Which would allow for additional event commands that use this type, or weapons/items/skills that are more effective against this type e.g "demon slayer sword" which would be more effective against "demon" types. (NOTE: The latter is already technically possible, but this would give way to another way of doing it or being more....obvious with it I guess)
  
• Enemy Levels (not really the same as this by @trexmaster8242) - Allow for enemies to have a "level range". With said level range it would allow the creator to make enemies know different attacks depending on the level. It may also allow the creator to give enemies different drop tables based on the level. This will also give more options for certain event commands.
  
• Stat Curves (incorporation with Enemy Levels) - Much like actors and classes this will allow enemies to have different stats based on their level. I've noticed some people have concerns about balancing being a problem with this, but we will discuss that a bit later. This would allow for enemies to dynamically scale and get a bit harder based on their level.
  
• Better Drop table management - Allow for more than three drops at maximum, as well as the aforementioned loot depending on an enemies level.
  
• General AI Improvements - The AI Isn't the smartest, and it could use a little bit of work. We could try to work on that here.
  

Code for Implementation:
I haven't started yet .

Mockups:
None yet, I may implement the editor UI for this to illustrate it in my spare time.

Why is this feature good?
An enemy and troop revamp would be good because, it would allow for more dynamic enemies and thus more dynamic fights. It would help with creation of an RPG that would use these features by not having to source or create plugins and use complicated and unnecessary notetags.

Possible issues with this feature?
Compatibility issues with currently being developed projects, and well quite frankly some plugins may become obsolete or less used.

How will we deal with compatibility?
Below I will discuss ideas to deal with compatibility issues with current projects or plugins in a QA/FAQ fashion.

Q: How will you handle enemy levels for existing games in troops and maps?
A: For current projects, all enemies by default will have a level of 1. The enemies current stats will remain the same as defined by the user, and the maximum level for an enemy will be 1. It will be up to the user to set a new maximum level and stat curves for anything higher than a level 1 encounter of that enemy.

Q: How will "enemy types" be handled for existing enemies?
A: This is quite simple, a default type of "none" will be added, and all enemies will have "none" as their type by default.

Q: How will troops be handled for enemy levels?
A: Much like handling default enemy levels, all troops will remain the same as they are now. As if they just all have level 1 variants of the enemy in them. When adding new enemies to the troops the user will be able to specify a level for the enemy to add up to the maximum level of the enemy. Users may even be able to specify a level range with different probabilities of occurring for the enemies in the troops, so users will not have to spend so much time setting up additional troops.

Q: Balancing the new stat curves for enemies will be hard, or a pain.
A: That really isn't the job of the engine, but the job of the creator. It is up to the creator to decide what is "balanced" for their game. It is up to the engine to allow the user to balance their game using the tools provided by the engine. That isn't to say the curves system currently in place is good enough or perfect, maybe it could use some additional features of its own but this topic isn't for that.

You are all welcome to propose additional ideas, or changes to ideas. The more discussion this has the better.

Thanks for reading and please don't forget to vote!
- Liquidize