Mega Death/InstaKill Moves?

[divinexremembrance]

So I'm programming my game and I'm going over some skills that I want to include. If you're familiar with Final Fantasy X, the infamous "Yunalesca" battle half way, during the last phase, she casts a spell called "Mega Death"


The move does what it says; it inflicts death on all party members, but the gimmick here is that she inflicts the party with the zombie status, which nulls death. Is there a way to program something like this in the game? I also have another status ailment called "Sadness" and casting the spell "Evil Eye" will instantly kill a party member, so pretty much the opposite to Zombie resisting Death.

 

[Wavelength]

The move does what it says; it inflicts death on all party members, but the gimmick here is that she inflicts the party with the zombie status, which nulls death. Is there a way to program something like this in the game? I also have another status ailment called "Sadness" and casting the spell "Evil Eye" will instantly kill a party member, so pretty much the opposite to Zombie resisting Death.

Zombie Status: There is a Feature available in the Features Box (on the States tab or many other tabs) called "State Rate": This will modify the chance of having a certain state inflicted by skills and items. So if you choose the Feature "State Rate: Death, 0%" for the Zombie state on the States tab, that should do it. Then give enemies a skill with the Feature "Add State: Death, 100%" or any other percentage. Anyone who's in the Zombie state will have a 0% chance (100% times 0% = 0%) to receive the Death state.

• Note that there is also a feature called "State Resist". Do not use that for Zombie. State Resist makes it impossible for a state to be added to a battler, which sounds good, but in the case of Death, it will mean that the battler cannot die by any means including having their HP reduced to 0. I assume that's not what you want.

Evil Eye Skill: If I understand correctly, it will target one party member, and if that party member has Sadness inflicted, it will immediately kill them, right? If so, there are a few different ways to do this, including creative use of damage formulas (to check and inflict states) or the use of Yanfly's Plugins, but the most straightforward way is probably giving this skill two different Features. The first Feature is a simple "Add State: Targeted by Evil Eye, 999%". Targeted by Evil Eye should be a "dummy" state - in other words, it has no icon, 0 Priority, and no intrinsic effects. It's solely there to keep track of who was targeted this turn. The second Feature is a Common Event that you create. The Common Event uses a Conditional Branch for each Character, to check whether they're affected by "Targeted by Evil Eye", and if so, uses a second Conditional Branch (inside the first) to check whether they're affected by "Sadness". If both are true, add the state Death to that party member (and play special animations/sound effects if you'd like). At the end of this Common Event, remove the "Targeted by Evil Eye" state from the entire party.

• If it's possible for party members to use this skill, you will also need to create the same checks for each enemy, #1 through #8, to check whether they have both states on them and kill the enemy if they do. Remember to remove the Targeted by EE state from the entire troop of enemies at the end of the event, as well.

 

[bgillisp]

In ACE There's a script by Yanfly which will make skills only target those with x state, you could use that too. However, there is a disadvantage that if no one has that state, the skill does nothing at all, no animation plays or anything, so that might not work for what you want, but could be an idea to consider.

BTW, I'd be careful of duplicating the Yunalesca battle, that was considered the CHEAPEST battle ever at the time the game came out, as the game never communicated to you that you needed zombie to survive that skill in any way shape or form. I remember my first time I got to that battle no one had zombie (and why would they, as the game never suggested you should ever leave a status ailment on a character) so I got an instant party wipe out.

In was widely considered an example of a guidedangit, as you needed a guide to have an idea how to approach the battle. So be sure you train your players properly as otherwise they will have no idea how to proceed unless they find it by luck.

 

[divinexremembrance]

@Wavelength Oh yes, of course! Okay, that makes perfect sense... buut, that means that if they can state resist knockout/death like that, it's impossible entirely to KO them, right? I'm thinking that zombie could be like FF's zombie where healing people hurts them, and they can still be killed in a way. Would it be good to program a "super dead" state thats like knockout but firmer? Or would I have to go out an entire way to doing that?

And I knew that I had to use common events with conditional branching but thats what I forgot to do! To add the part where it checks properly for the "Targeted by Evil Eye" effect. Thank you so much, I will try to test this out and get back to you.

@bgillisp That's fascinating, it could be possibly to ask the team directly and inquire them about converting it to MV properly... I think that actually could work because I would only want the spell to activate IF the party(or party member) is under the state that would cause that. Thank you for recommending that!

And yes, haha! I do remember how cheap people thought it was(and I still do believe it was cheap to the T.) My whole party was wiped out by Megadeath because I didn't know at all Zombie shielded and had to watch that long cutscene over and try to survive 2 forms once more. I really hated the lack of communication because there are no cues to tell you you should do it. What a mess!
With how my game is going, there's no way I wouldn't put communication or a very important hint towards something as grave as this. Despite that horror I went through, I really find that kind of strategy interesting and a way to spice up the game; adding a bit of challenge but not being as cheap. But thank you for giving me the warning regardless!

 

[Wavelength]

@Wavelength Oh yes, of course! Okay, that makes perfect sense... buut, that means that if they can state resist knockout/death like that, it's impossible entirely to KO them, right?

Right, but that's why I recommended using State Rate * 0 instead of State Resist.

State Rate * 0 means that skills and items cannot apply the given state to a battler who has the State Rate * 0 feature. If a skill explicitly tries to "Add State: Death", it won't work. This is what you want from your Zombie state, as I understand it. State Rate * 0 will not prevent a state from being applied by other means, such as Common Events and Troop Events. It also will not stop Death from being applied via a battler reaching 0 HP.

State Resist means that a state can never appear on a battler while they have the State Resist feature. State Resist to Death will prevent Death from being applied by Skills, Items, Events, 0 HP, etc. This is not what you want - use State Rate * 0 instead.

 

[divinexremembrance]

AHHHHHHH okay now I fully get it. I was super confused while programming! This is what happens when you're sleep deprived.

That's absolutely perfect! Thank you so much for explaining that more clearly, that also opens up a whole world of possibility with status ailments too.