Stat Growth While Leveling Up

[WhatZitTooya]

Not sure if this the place for this, but I had to start somewhere, eh?

So, I'm a total newbie that just downloaded the demo a few hours ago, and after dicking around for a bit, I found the Database. So I decided to play around with the character stats and tweak a few things. Apparently, the only way to edit the stat growths is by manually assigning values to each level (or by using the slope feature).

And honestly, that sounds dumb. Not only is that a collosal waste of time in my eyes (without sloping it), but it's awfully inorganic. Most RPG's I've played, anyways, don't work like that. There's always an element of randomness to it, so no one playthrough with that character goes down the same as another. The Phantasy Star franchise, from what I can tell, doesn't have predetermined value increases for every level-up, the Mario & Luigi series doesn't, in fact it has a bonus slot allowing for a little extra increase for luckier players. Something like Fire Emblem takes the concept a bit far, turning every level-up into a game chance to a degree, which is admittedly pretty doodie. But even then, you got games like Pokemon, which could get away with that because it essentially already has hundreds of different characters worth of variety, but it still has a whole system of EV's and IV's that allow a Pokemon to get better in different ways by fighting different types of enemies, so that no 2 Pokemon of the same species are identical.

Long story short, RPG Maker should have something like that, if it already doesn't, that is. If it does, I'd appreciate help figuring out how to get that done. If not, is it possible to find any plug-ins or anything that can do that. I know just about jack when it comes to scripting, but I'd be willing to learn something if it means my characters could have a more engaging stat growth. Thanks in advance, I'll be looking forward to using this program in the future.

 

[bgillisp]

Moved to Plug-In Requests

You've played about the only games that do have randomness at level up that I know of honestly, as many players feel that is bad design as if you get a bad roll, your characters can get messed up permanently. So the reason it is this way is a majority of RPG's use a static level up growth curve so that you can 1) better balance it and 2) you don't have bad RNG mess up a player. And yes, I played one game where I was the unlucky one with such poor random rolls I was stuck trying to survive with a 19 HP mage at level 15. It didn't go well.

 

[WhatZitTooya]

[mod]Moved to Plug-In Requests[/mod]
You've played about the only games that do have randomness at level up that I know of honestly, as many players feel that is bad design as if you get a bad roll, your characters can get messed up permanently. So the reason it is this way is a majority of RPG's use a static level up growth curve so that you can 1) better balance it and 2) you don't have bad RNG mess up a player. And yes, I played one game where I was the unlucky one with such poor random rolls I was stuck trying to survive with a 19 HP mage at level 15. It didn't go well.

Aight. Good point. And like I said with FE, it can go pretty downhill if you keep getting bad rolls. Even so, there are ways of doing it right. Like, back to my Pokemon example, there's nothing to lose in that system. You got your set increase, and whatever extra you get can only help. Either way, so long as the minimum stat increases allow the character to be able to keep up with the scaling enemies. The stat growth should always just be a bonus, like an incentive for smarter grinding.

 

[MushroomCake28]

You got the right place you need a plugin for this indeed. The thing with the default engine is that it doesn't really store the value of parameters. Every time an actor's parameter is called, it simply takes the curve math function from the database and calculate the value at the actor's level. In order to achieve what you want, someone needs to create a system that stores the parameters and saves it directly in the actor object.

As for Pokemon, the randomness isn't really random. I mean it is random, but it highly depends on the pokemon IVs, which the player can train and increase. A good example of random system I think is Mario and Luigi superstar/partner in time where you get the default class parameter boost, plus you have the choice to add a random stat increase on one of the parameter of your choice.

 

[Andar]

There is another problem to be considered here:

The more options the player has, the more different the actors can turn out instead of being fixed in their development - the more balancing is needed during playtesting (unless you don't want the player to have a reasonable chance of loosing and simply make them overpowered).

And all the names you've given for games that use such methods are from AAA companies that have big teams working years on each release.
A private developer or a small indie company simply can't afford to place that much power into balancing and playtesting, so they're much better with a static approach.

And the RPG-Makers target that small group, they're not for the AAA companies. So it's much better if the default is static and only those who really want it otherwise can use plugins to change that.

 

[Weremole]

The middle ground is something like Final Fantasy 7 that soft rolls your characters stats when you start the game so you're never sure if you end up with a Cloud that favors magic or physical abilities. Then again FF7 also had the problem of all characters turning out too similar besides their Limit breaks anyway since you could reshape their stats with materia anytime you wanted.

 

[Creative Ed]

Welcome to the forums @WhatZitTooya!
RPG Maker pretty much provides you mostly with the most generic / basic instruments to create an Rpg, so when you desire a more specific or unique kind of system you can do so by installing plug-ins. There is an outstanding amount of plug-ins out there that you can check out and see if it fits your idea (do not get lost in wanting anything and everything you see out there though, it's a real struggle!) the software itself also comes with a wide range of plug-ins that might also be useful inside the DLC folder.

In this case there's already a plug-in that does the job:

https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/inde...1-1-1-combine-with-sockets-for-materia.48468/

Cheers!