Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 15-8.
The conditions for page 1 of the troop event. Page 2 requires that the other enemy (2. Skeleton) be at 0% HP
or below, instead
With that set up, we can fill out the pages themselves. Both of the pages will have a Span of Turn (so that they
trigger once every turn) and a single Force Action event command.
Page 1's Force Action command is:
[2. Skeleton], [Reanimate], Index 1
.
Meanwhile, Page 2's Force Action command is:
[1. Skeleton Knight], [Reanimate], Index 2.
To create Reanimate, I took the Raise spell and copied it to a new slot. Then, I zeroed out its MP cost and changed
the damage formula from
b.mhp/10
to
b.mhp
(turning the 10% HP heal into a full heal). That concludes this exercise!
Let me end this section with a few interesting notes about Force Action.
•
A skill used with Force Action can be executed even if the user doesn't have the MP to cast it.
•
Similarly, the user doesn't even need to
have
the skill in his/her list to be forced into using it. I
confirmed this particular fact by having Eric throw Thunder II spells around with Force Action.
•
You can have a skill force the user to use another skill. If you're not careful, you could create
a loop of skills that keep triggering infinitely until the battle is done or otherwise unwinnable
(depending on what the skill in question does).
A Full House
While we're on the subject of troops and enemies, there's one other thing I've neglected to mention up to now. If you
right-click a specific enemy's graphic within a troop, you get a single option named Appear Halfway. Clicking it causes
the enemy to appear translucent in the troop display at the Database. If you begin a battle with some of the enemies in
that state, they will not appear in the encounter. As the name of the option pretty much blurts out, you can use this to
have enemies that appear during the course of a battle. This is useful in situations such as the following:
•
A battle in which enemy reinforcements arrive at regular intervals
•
An enemy that has a skill that causes allies to appear
•
A battle with multiple waves of enemies. Defeat one wave to cause the next one to appear.
For this exercise, we will create a troop containing five Orcs. The first, third, and fifth Orcs will be present from
the start of the battle. The second and fourth Orcs will appear in response to their defeated allies. Take a look at
Figure
15-9
.
