Class System

[HungryforLint]

Well.... i gave up rm2k like a month ago and finally started to continue my game on Rm2k3... i transfered all the maps etc... one of the things i dont really understand about rm2k3 is the class system.... if u set all yur heroes stats and everyting is there a point to the class system.... if people can tell me somehting about the class system and some ideas would be nice... thanks.
-Alex

[Tyrannicide]

Well, you can make it so people can change jobs at any point or something like that. I don't really remember much. so here it goes







*summons Bluecube*

[BlueCube]

Well.... i gave up rm2k like a month ago and finally started to continue my game on Rm2k3... i transfered all the maps etc... one of the things i dont really understand about rm2k3 is the class system.... if u set all yur heroes stats and everyting is there a point to the class system.... if people can tell me somehting about the class system and some ideas would be nice... thanks.
-Alex

Okay, here's the breakdown:

Reason for Class System

Put simply, it's so you can have more than one growth/skill pattern for a character. A Class can be mapped to any and all characters you set up, and can be swapped at any time during gameplay. That means that you can have a Level 10 White Mage that switches to a Level 10 Black Mage, if you want. You can also have a character keep all his abilities when switching classes, or simply set them to whatever the new class would have at that point. Of course, there's always the option of setting the character back to level 1.. You can also force separate classes to use different equipment, if you want.

Ideas

The best ideas are pretty muchtaken anyway - it's your job to steal those ideas and work with them. Think Final Fantasy III (jap) or Final Fantasy V, where you can learn "jobs" to learn new kinds of abilities that you can use in and out of battle (such as the ability of a thief to see hidden passages or the standard White Mage's Telepo ability.)

There's also the ability to do a Dark Knight / Paladin swap, while still retaining the character himself.

You could also mimic Final Fantasy Tactics Advance's system, where each Job builds up your character permanently (abilities are gained through weapons, here.) You only have 50 levels in that game, so you want a really powerful fighter, you should gain most of your levels in tough, physical Jobs like Soldier or Fighter. If your guy's too slow, consider making him a Thief or a Ninja for a while to build up his Agility. At the end, your character's locked in to his final stats.

[HungryforLint]

Wow Thanks man... thats alot of help.... so lemme clear something up, say im a certain level for say 20 with some skills etc. If i make him a certain job does his lvl go to down to 1 or does it stay at 20 with the added stats and skill.... and 1 more thing....can u make it so you can change yur job class in the menu? or do i have to make a trigger or event..... thanks alot!

[KagomJack]

BlueCube helped me do a custom menu for job classes. It was pretty damn good!

[BlueCube]

Wow Thanks man... thats alot of help.... so lemme clear something up, say im a certain level for say 20 with some skills etc. If i make him a certain job does his lvl go to down to 1 or does it stay at 20 with the added stats and skill.... and 1 more thing....can u make it so you can change yur job class in the menu? or do i have to make a trigger or event..... thanks alot!

Hmm. I'll just go through the entire screen:

http://www.iownjoo.com/freeimghost/imps/Classscreen.JPG

Character - Obvious, this is the character who's class you want to change.
Class - Again, obvious. The class you want the Character to change into.

----------

Level:

( ) Retain current level : You'll stay the same level - but EXP will be reset, as though you just reached that level.
( ) Character Becomes Level 1: No explanation needed.

-----------

Learned Skills:

( ) No change in skills: You'll have the same skills as you did before. Any skills that you want to learn, you'll have to reach the level that you specified.
( ) Add Skills up to current level in New Class and Delete Old Skills: You'll lose all the skills you had, but you'll gain the abilities of the new class instantly.
( ) Add Skills up to current level in New Class to Old Skills: You'll keep your old skills, and you'll gain the skills of the new class instantly.

------------

Base Statistics:

( ) No Change in Statistics - You'll retain the same statistics. This is like the Final Fantasy Tactics Advance system I mentioned, where any changes to your class are permanent.
( ) Halve Statistics - You probably won't use this one often.
( ) Change Statistics to Level 1 in New Class - Useful only if you're changing the level to 1 at the same time.. otherwise, you'll be level 49 with level 1 stats..
( ) Change Statistics to Current Level in New Class - The one you'll use most often. If you switch from Fighter to Black Mage, you might have your strength decrease and Magic increased.

-------------

( ) Show level-up message if Level Differs after class change - This one is useless. You'll never level up - you'll either retain your level or set it to 1. I have no idea why this is there.

--------------

As KagomJack mentioned, I built him a class changing thing - I'll have to upload it somewhere or catch you on AIM for you to mess around with it.

[HungryforLint]

Dude yur freakin awesome... thanks for the help.... if u could upload the class systems thingy... that would be really cool too.... if you want contact me on AIM HungryforLint87.... thanks so much yur the greatest!

[BlueCube]

http://www.freewebs.com/bluecube/files/classdemo.zip

You'll have to copy/paste it into your browser, since freewebs doesn't like outside links.

(And no, the website ISN'T done. I'm working on the site locally, when I finish I'll put the rest of it up.)

[HungryforLint]

Thanks.... im kinda confused though....I dLed the Class demo.... and double clicked setup... there were all these question marks but i press ok and it installed.... now what do i do..

[BlueCube]

Forgot that the installer's in Japanese display.. That's a "feature" of it being fan-translated. And for some reason, even installing the Japanese language pack for Windows XP doesn't remove the question marks..

http://www.iownjoo.com/freeimghost/imps/Japanesedisp.JPG

To install it "normally", you'll want to browse to your Project directory, and install there. It'll make its own folder within that - then you can easily run it from RPG Maker.

Of course, you could actually just browse to the directory in which you've already installed it, and run the RPG_RT.exe located there. To run it through RPG Maker though, you'll have to change RM2k3's project folder to one level above the folder in which you already installed it. (Notice that when you open a project, all the project FOLDERS are shown - you're basically just browsing the Project directory.)

And obviously, you know that the left button is OK, the right button is Cancel.

[HungryforLint]

Thanks.... the class system thing is really cool.... I have a question... Its kinda stupid but i never knew about it. You know the Option Gamedisk? where u save yur game so people can play it? I was wondering if u can only put it a Floppy, A drive or if u could put it on a CD. Cuase a floppy has only so much space. And another questions.... te gamedisk option gets all the RTP so the person can play the game without having RPGMaker... does that mean it saves ALL the RTP i have on my computer or just the ones i used in my game... Thanks!

[KagomJack]

I can answer the GameDisk question. GameDisk can be saved to floppy (from past experiences, you'll need 3 floppies) or CD.

[BlueCube]

...Or you can always save it to the hard drive so you can upload it.

But it does save EVERYTHING in your RTP folder, if you set it with that checkmark.. Otherwise, it's better to actually "import" those resources from the RTP folder into your project folder. (Obviously, you won't need to include the RTP if the person you're sending it to has RPG Maker installed, but you already knew that)

[HungryforLint]

ic.... how would I put it on a CD... when i click the Gamedisk icon... its only enabled for the A Drive... Floppy...do i just manually copy and paste my project folder into the CD? And if i do, do i just copy and paste all the RTP i used in my gam into my profect folder? cuase i dont wanna have to send my friend ALL MY RTP cuase its just too much space.

[BlueCube]

Nah, hit the |...| button to the right of where it says "A:\". That'll let you browse to wherever you want to put the gamedisk files. You can also manually type the destination in, but only after you've hit the browse button. I suggest saving it to a folder on your desktop, and putting all of those files into one ZIP.

Note that you CAN copy/paste the files into your project folder (make sure they're in the right directory). You can also use the Resource manager in the Tools menu (or on the toolbar) to import the resources yourself. It's safer to import them, since you'll be able to make sure the transparency is working properly. (See http://zelaron.com/forum/showthread.php?postid=392327#poststop for more details on transparency while importing)

[thisisthedark]

Quick question: Say I'm a lv15 Knight and switch to Black Mage, with it set to take me to lv1. If I want to go back to a Knight, would I still be lv15 once I switched? Or would I have to start all over again?

[BlueCube]

You'll start over again. If you want to keep levels, you'll need to:

-Save current level in variable
-change class - level 1

And when you change back:

-change class
-increase level by variable, minus 1

[HungryforLint]

Hey BlueCube, How do u change the Color of yur Font.... ive seen some game where some of the text is like orange.. etc... and another question... do some rm2k3 games have like a write protect? I Dled a rm2k3 game to view and learn how to do certain things.... but for some reason it wont let me access it with RPGMaker

[BlueCube]

I haven't seen a write protected game myself - make sure the folder is directly off of the Project folder. Some people pack their games inside of a folder, so if you unzip MegaGame to C:\RPGMaker\Project\MegaGame, the actual folder might be C:\RPGMaker\Project\MegaGame\MegaGame and won't open in RPG Maker.

As to font, you do that directly in the "Show Message" command. You basically do this: \c[0]Hello. You can change the number in the brackets to anything between 0 and 19 (anything above that gives the same color as 19). The colors are determined by the system graphic, located in the System tab at the bottom right. The default sets all have the same color, but you could always edit them if you want a different scheme. \c[0] is normal text, by the way, and any color that you set continues for the rest of the message, or until you change it.

================

\c[2]BlueCube
\c[0] My name is highlighted!
\c[1]1\c[2]2\c[3]3\c[4]4\c[5]5\c[6]6\c[7]7\c[8]8\c[9]9\c[10]0
\c[11]1\c[12]2\c[13]3\c[14]4\c[15]5\c[16]6\c[17]7\c[18]8\c[19]9\c[20]0

================

Which comes out like this:

http://www.iownjoo.com/freeimghost/imps/colorz.GIF

[HungryforLint]

Wow.. Bluecube yur the best... man i thought it was a button or something... you have to type that everytime u wanna change colors :( im a slow typer this bites hehe