Castle Paradox

[Hei Xin]

I've been trying to create a spell for a character that would summon a monster in battle when cast. The problem is, I have no idea how to go about doing this. I know that there are on-hit settings within an enemy that will spawn monsters but that's not what I'm trying to do. I'm convinced that the only way to make this spell would be to have it scripted into the game somehow, and I'm not sure exactly how to do that.

Any help would be very much appreciated !

[Blue Pixel]

[Ysoft_Entertainment]

Ok, first off, you cannot summon a monster, neither in game, nor from plotscript. Plotscripts do not interface with the battle system.

The two ways to do that would be:
1. Create custom battle system(don't ask me how), and implement summon system.
2. You have to use "spawn enemy on hit" method, and have the summoned monster attack ally's if you want it to attack enemies. Have it attack enemies if you want it to hit you.


Hope this helps.
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[Hei Xin]

I already knew how to make an "enemy" that would aid my party, but I guess implementing it's the hard part. Oh well, there's another game thing filed away for later use.

Thanks for your suggestions and ideas, they've been pretty useful so far. I suppose the_dude257's idea would be easy to use, as I've a habit of not using my element slots...
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[Moogle1]

For games that I've created that have used summons, try Mystic Sky or Knight of the Ages. The latter is a better example.

Someday I may divulge how that was done, but until then I'll leave it for the clever to figure out.
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Slime Salad :: Independent Game Design

[Fernurion]

Well, the only way i know to do a summon is to draw the summoned creature as an attack graphic. Then have it either run across the screen or some sort of attack using the Null Target. After that, chain the attack. this will give you a Final Fantasy style summon.

[Hei Xin]

[LeRoy_Leo]

The best way that I've tried and is true is to summon on element hit. Name an element "summon", like you mentioned. Or you can make a chain of attacks that link to each other and create an interesting attack summon that lasts for one onslaught.

One word of warning, if you want the creature you call to stay in play: keep plenty of space on the battle field for your summon. I'm pretty sure the spawning cancels if you try when the field is occupied. It's a dumb warning, but anyone can make this mistake if they haven't thought about it.

Summoned Creature Type II: Sounds pretty balanced to me. Can't wait to see screen shots of these summons, man. Good luck.
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[Moogle1]

The downside to your example is that it allows for mass summoning. You could have five summons onscreen at the same time.

If you don't mind that, then it sounds great!
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Slime Salad :: Independent Game Design

[Mike Caron]

Well, if you're cunning, then you could create a "filler" monster that you put in all the blank spots (except one). The summoned creature would go in the empty spot.

The Filler monster would need to be untargetable by both heros and enemies.

One thing that might be a problem is that if you kill all the regular enemies, and the summon is still there, the battle won't end. The heros would need to hack away at the summon to end the battle...

Ooh, better: Give the summon an "alone" attack that kills itself. (duh, why wasn't that immediately obvious?)
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Final Fantasy Q
OHR Developer BLOG
Official OHRRPGCE Wiki and FAQ

[Moogle1]

Untargetable enemies don't hang battles.

Your solution is also insufficient, since as soon as you kill one enemy, you can summon another monster.
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Slime Salad :: Independent Game Design

[Mike Caron]

But, it may not be untargetable ("Oops, my summon (which uses fire attacks) is healing the enemies... better get rid of it...")

As for the second problem, just have enemies spawn a Filler on death.


Or, here's another way to do it:

~ The summon spell targets all enemies, with a 1 damage/No animation attack, and the damage Can Be Zero, and is of the element "Summon"
~ Every monster (except one) is resistant to "Summon", thus (because of the Damage Can Be Zero bitset) they take no damage.
~ Each battle has a "summon" monster, which is NOT resistant to Summon, so it takes the damage, and thusly dies. It spawns the summon on death.
~ The summon monster (not summoned) is untargetable
~ The summonED monster spawns a summon monster on death, so the Summon Spell is useable again.

I think that covers all the bases... (god, this would take, like, 3 lines if there were battle scripting. Alas, it is not to be...)
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Final Fantasy Q
OHR Developer BLOG
Official OHRRPGCE Wiki and FAQ

[TMC]

But that would mean you'd have an invisible summon enemy in the battle, which the heroes can target normally. It couldn't be untargetable, or the summon attack wouldn't be able to kill it.
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[Mike Caron]

Oooh... that's right... hmm...

I know! :flamedevil:

When you can't work within the rules, change them!

How about a new Targeting type: Foes (Spread, even untargetable)

That shouldn't be too hard to add, I think, maybe *hasn't looked yet*
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I stand corrected. No rivers ran blood today. At least, none that were caused by us.

Final Fantasy Q
OHR Developer BLOG
Official OHRRPGCE Wiki and FAQ

[Moogle1]

Or an attack bitset: "Target untargetable"

But it kind of seems counterintuitive to say "untargetable" at that point.
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Slime Salad :: Independent Game Design