Lesson 21 - Limbic System

Note: This only works with scripted spells.
Shadowtext: First off, let me explain that "Limbic" means emotional.

Master Mage: "Today is a lesson on making characters act in-battle like
they do in the game. The main example is characters who dislike each other."

Shadowtext: This means lowered success rates in battle for Combo Spells,
due to poor synchronization(which can also be a seperate variable). It
could mean "showing off" in front of a girl that the main fighter wants to
impress....leading to more powerful (but less successful) attacks.

Master Mage: "The main problem is that the emotions must FIRST take place
OUTSIDE of battle!"

Shadowtext: Right--you need to explain away these features outside of
battle. One option is to create an entire "Limbic System" for your
party--each action affects the other character's emotions for one another.
But that's not what I'm teaching--I'm teaching how to implement the battle
effects.

Master Mage: "The 'fastest' way of doing this is to simply add the concept
INTO the battle mechanism, but..."

Shadowtext: ...but that loses Dynamacy. One thing that you'll see in this
and all future tutorials (and hopefully in the ones before it) is an
attention to making things portable. You want your system to be very easy
to implement from DIFFERENT places. This generally means subroutines.

Master Mage: "Let's start by changing some of the regular math."

Shadowtext: First, change your old Success Rate Algorythm for the spell in
question. Let's say that it used to be...

Change Variable [00001: SuccessOperand] = Random 1 100
Change Variable [00002: SuccessRate] = [00001: SuccessOperand] SET
Fork Conditions Variable [00002: SuccessRate] 20 Smaller
____ Comment: Insert Success Script Here
Else
____ Comment: Insert Fail Script Here
End Case

Shadowtext: You want to change it a bit, by adding a simple operand that
will in most cases equal zero. Name it "EmotiveOperand"

Change Variable [00001: SuccessOperand] = Random 1 100
Change Variable [00002: SuccessRate] = [00001: SuccessOperand] SET
Change Variable [00002: SuccessRate] - [00003: EmotiveOperand]
Fork Conditions Variable [00002: SuccessRate] 20 Smaller
____ Comment: Insert Success Script Here
Else
____ Comment: Insert Fail Script Here
End Case

Master Mage: "Now, whenever a battler is feeling emotional, all one must do
is call it!"

Shadowtext: This would be done by simply adding in a "call" or "Goto"
subroutine, for instance,
Quote: Change Variable [00003: EmotiveOperand] = Change Variable [00101:
HeroStress]

Master Mage: "As to announcing one's feelings, that, too, is simple."

Shadowtext: This one is even better! All you need is a switch! Add this to
the Battle-Damage "Report" message.

Fork Conditions Switch [00001: HeroStressed] = TRUE
____Message: "Hero is feeling stressed!"
End Case

Master Mage: "Of course, this technique is malleable..."

Shadowtext: You'll want to change the Message itself, and maybe even make
that message and the damage dealt the same message. Well--that's your problem!

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