How do you design your bosses?

[woootbm]

I'll agree that using a bit of code (or plugins) can be useful in creating great boss fights, but it's absolutely not necessary. With creative use of Troop Eventing, States, and Skills (which either use creative formulas or call Common Events to make interesting stuff happen), combined with smart databasing decisions like setting battlers' Evade to 0% and Hit to 100%, you can create intriguing, unique, fun boss battles in RPG Maker without ever touching a plugin or a line of code. The interface will still be clunky and basic (plugins can help improve that), but the battle itself will be awesome.

That's good to hear.

But what you're describing sounds like an awful lot figuring out. Not only that, it still relies on the abilities being listed in the enemy's stat sheet. Meaning they have to use that rating thing. The rating system only makes them more likely to do that thing. There is still tiny random chance that they will do something else even at the highest rating disparity.

Then there's targeting. I guess you're doing this with eventing and states somehow? Because just the simple act of making a healer enemy that heals the lowest health ally is a brainbuster for me. I'd rather just use my plugin that just tells him to do exactly that with a single line of text, rather than jump through a bunch of hoops re-inventing RPG Maker with a bunch of events and states.

 

[Wavelength]

That's good to hear.

But what you're describing sounds like an awful lot figuring out. Not only that, it still relies on the abilities being listed in the enemy's stat sheet. Meaning they have to use that rating thing. The rating system only makes them more likely to do that thing. There is still tiny random chance that they will do something else even at the highest rating disparity.

Then there's targeting. I guess you're doing this with eventing and states somehow? Because just the simple act of making a healer enemy that heals the lowest health ally is a brainbuster for me. I'd rather just use my plugin that just tells him to do exactly that with a single line of text, rather than jump through a bunch of hoops re-inventing RPG Maker with a bunch of events and states.

The Enemy Abilities system in RPG Maker (all versions AFAIK) will never pick an ability that's 3 (maybe 4, but I think 3) points lower than the highest-rated usable ability. That means that if you need to force a certain ability at a certain time, you can do so with 100% reliability.

Agreed about the targeting. That's actually something I really wish the engine would add as a native feature. In theory it's doable by using whatever eventing you need to check character stats, and then applying invisible 0% TGR rates to everyone but the intended target. In practice, like you said, plugins are a much better way to go as far as enemy targeting.

From a higher perspective, looking at boss design, however, I would argue that in most game it's rare that you would need a boss (or any enemies) to target certain battlers. Most of the time it's fine if they target party members essentially at random. I like when the enemy AI isn't stupid, but if it's too predictable it becomes abusable, and if it's too smart it can get in the way of offering the player the freedom to play their own way.

 

[Tai_MT]

That's good to hear.

But what you're describing sounds like an awful lot figuring out. Not only that, it still relies on the abilities being listed in the enemy's stat sheet. Meaning they have to use that rating thing. The rating system only makes them more likely to do that thing. There is still tiny random chance that they will do something else even at the highest rating disparity.

This largely depends on what engine you're using. In MV and I think VXAce at least, you can set up essentially "checks" for whether or not to use a specific skill. I've done this in MV pretty heavily. I have basic wolves that check "If has state Burn L1, L2, L3, L4, use "Escape" with Priority 1". This results in the skill never being used... unless they happen to have "Burn" on them. You just click the "Condition" section of each skill you give the enemy and there's a wide array of options to choose from... including switches.

Yep, that's right, you could have the players do something in your game... it flips a switch... that, say... makes the boss use a weaker version of an attack they would have normally... as a reward for completing some kind of quest... or using some kind of Key Item... And then, so long as that switch is flipped, that action will be on their Skill Table.

There are actually a ton of options in there and interesting things you can do.

Then there's targeting. I guess you're doing this with eventing and states somehow? Because just the simple act of making a healer enemy that heals the lowest health ally is a brainbuster for me. I'd rather just use my plugin that just tells him to do exactly that with a single line of text, rather than jump through a bunch of hoops re-inventing RPG Maker with a bunch of events and states.

Yeah, this is definitely a problem. I did what @Wavelength suggested to get my "heal the boss" enemies to work properly. They each have a Target Rate of 0% and their skill is set to "1 Ally". So, they never target themselves or each other and since their Target Rate is so low, they simply target the boss. But, they're designed to heal absolutely every single turn and do nothing else. If I wanted them to heal only at certain amounts of HP... I'd have a lot harder time doing it without a script or a plugin. I mean, it's doable... you could do it via Troop Commands, I think. Or creative use of the skills... But, it would probably require a lot of work that you just don't have to do with a script or a plugin.

You can do a lot with the basic engine, if you just get pretty creative in how it's used. I've accomplished a lot with very few plugins. I think all I'm really using is like... a Quest Journal (because I didn't want to muck about trying to event one and use Key Items to tell you if you completed it or not)… A "shop menu" thing that fixes shops so that they show more than just the benefits to "Attack" and "Defense" and actually show other stats... other features... elements of equipment... etcetera... a "status menu" thing in order to show off the same amount of stats to the players as the default status menu is kind of... bare bones... and a "party system" menu in order to keep a character in the party at all times and always in the same slot (a la Chrono from Chrono Trigger), since that would've been a nightmare to try to event. I simply haven't needed to script or plugin anything combat related. Heck, I accomplish a lot of interesting mechanics just by playing around with damage formulas and "Force Action" type effects from enemies. I even figured out a way to make enemies react when hit with certain elements.

You just gotta play with the engine a little bit. I tend to only resort to scripts/plugins when the engine doesn't do something I need it to do... or getting it to do that would take a lot of time eventing to accomplish.

 

[Biestmann]

My game is built for replayability. Players will fight the same boss many times. Therefore, I cannot go overboard implementing unique mechanics. The novelty would wear off very soon and turn into an annoyance. Nonetheless, bosses should be unique, and so are of different elements and have different, unique attacks.

 

[Mordridakon]

I was actually going to create a thread similar to this. Good thing I looked back a few pages

Right now I'm creating side bosses that are meant to be completed towards the end of game(though you can encounter them long before. The game will warn you before hand).
The primary design choice I'm using is basing a boss around a particular tactic or theme:
-The final boss uses primarily instant kill moves(and surprisingly isn't the hardest boss in the game since the moves aren't 100% inflict to make it beatable)
-I just created a boss who uses a unique status effect that can only be cured with an item found far elsewhere.
-I have a boss who debuffs your defense and them pounds you.

I also follow a few rules:
1. Almost Everything a boss does inflicts damage, even if the primary purpose of the move is to debuff or inflict status effects.
2. No bosses except the first shall normal attack you once per turn unless you are in a multi-character boss fight.
3. When inflicting status effects, always inflict multiple characters at once. Makes it far more challenging.(The only exception is the one with the unique status effect because the effect is a paralysis effect, and inflicting the entire team with it would cause it to be unbeatable).

The goal in the end is to make a challenging yet fair boss provided you are sufficiently leveled and come prepared with the right item set(Item preparation is critical to success in my game).

 

[lianderson]

I think to myself, what can make people cry and/or rage quit? And then I go from there.

If your player isn't in a psychward by the time they're done finishing your game, you're doing it wrong.


But on a serious note, all the enemies in my game have decent AI. So when I do a boss, I just pick an enemy, buff their stats, increase their status resistances to things like stun or confusion, and then just add a few more moves or conditional stuff. (also, them doing nothing on the first turn is a common theme, one I recommend for overly powerful bosses)

 

[Kupotepo]

I think many smart people above already said that is important already.

I just add on unimportant stuff.

What are the steps and thought processes you go through when designing these fights?
My answer would write the name and put the stats in the enemy database.

Do you like to use many conditions and have a strict pattern for the player to figure out?
You can but it is not important. For an example, the bird boss can only be damaged by ranged weapons.

Do you like trial and error or do you prefer to allow the player to discover during the first encounter of the boss?
I would prefer to inform the player. No right or wrong answer.

How do you make them challenging but fair? What strategies do you come up?
Tell a player' weakness of the boss and you can make a boss tank.

Do you like turn order conditions?
It depends.

How do you do your evening?
I just put the conditional branch(es) on the troop database.

How do you develop interesting and memorable mechanics unique to each boss?
It is just coming up in my head. I do not know where creativity came from.

It is your game and you know immediately when you playtest your boss. If you hate it, we probably hate it too.