Enemy/encounter questions

[shadowmimiiru]

I hope I'm putting this in the right spot.  Once again, hi I'm a newb to all of this and I hope my questions aren't completely mindblowingly easy that a trained monkey would be able to know what to do without asking.  Okay, now that I'm done making fun of myself I have two questions regarding monsters, one is really just a looking for confirmation on what I already think, the other is a real question.

1.  In the action section of the enemy tab in the database there is a button for level.  When setting up a random encounter type world map would setting certain enemies to certain levels mean that there won't be an encounter if the party is below that level?

2.  There are a lot more enemy and battler graphics then there are premade enemies and troops, is there a online database or tutorial or something that has suggested information for setting these up?  Example:  I want to set up bees as enemies, as well as a hued bee (wasp) but everything starts out with a base of 500 and I don't know what is too strong or too weak for a level 1 or 2 party.  This is an example, so while I want to do this there are more I want to do working up the level chain.

Again sorry for the stupid questions that possibly have been answered.  I've learned I suck with the search system.

Edit:  Sorry, forgot to mention that I'm using XP.

 

[Kylebot2000]

Well aren't you lucky? I opened up RPG MAker XP just for you!

1.  In the action section of the enemy tab in the database there is a button for level.  When setting up a random encounter type world map would setting certain enemies to certain levels mean that there won't be an encounter if the party is below that level?

First of all, you aren't getting the concept of the "Level" action. The level action applies WHILE YOU'RE IN BATTLE, AND NOWHERE ELSE. So if you were to check the "Level" box to level 20 or above, and put a skill, the enemy wouldn't use that skill unless the PARTY is level 20 or above.

2.  There are a lot more enemy and battler graphics then there are premade enemies and troops, is there a online database or tutorial or something that has suggested information for setting these up?  Example:  I want to set up bees as enemies, as well as a hued bee (wasp) but everything starts out with a base of 500 and I don't know what is too strong or too weak for a level 1 or 2 party.  This is an example, so while I want to do this there are more I want to do working up the level chain.

Usually less that 20 - 10 attack is fine, the hp shouldn't be above 1000 for a level one party, however. Speed should be relative to the parties speed - if not a little faster. Make up the rest of them for yourself - experiment a little bit!

 

[Sarkilas]

Though Kylebot2000 wrote a proper answer to your questions, I would like to add that HP and other stats of your enemies should be based the relative values of the same stats your actors have. For instance, if you want to have your actors deal low damage (like 3-10 or something) at a lower level, then your enemies won't have 500 HP at the start. Experimenting is the key. I've used quite some time to get used to the formulas of RMXP and actually make these values fair over time. Note that with every value set to default in RMXP, 500 health is 2-3 hits worth, meaning the enemy will be dead after 2-3 hits.

As written earlier, experiment. That's what you have to do. You have no idea how long time I have used to fully understand the formulas of this system...

 

[shadowmimiiru]

Okay so now I know what that section means, thanks Kyle, and between the both of you I know that I should keep doing what I was doing (which is what you both said with the trail and error thing, I was just trying to make things easy).  The one question I still have is:

Is there a way to adjust what enemies my players face depending on their level?  If I have to players at level one, then 2 ghosts are okay and they can deal with them.  However, if I have those same two level one players facing  2 Cobolds then they're royally screwed.  One option is to take out random battles altogether, and run things by player touch events.  The other is the same thing but with visible enemies shambling through the maps in the weird jerky way everything moves in XP.

I really don't like either option, and would rather the classic random encounter feel, but I'll do what needs to be done.

 

[Sarkilas]

When it comes to monsters leveling along with the player, this can only be done with a script (modification). There is no default option in RMXP that allows this, unless using a paralell process on each map to check for which monsters to encounter. If you want to do this, I can provide a simple-to-use event.

 

[Unka Josh]

Actually, there are (complicated) event systems that could do this-- make troops that have several different kinds of enemies in them with the "Add later" option on, and then at the start of the battle, add the ones that fit the player's level, or just add extra ones if there's enough characters or levels.

 

[shadowmimiiru]

Unka can you explain this please?

Also I found a script but it gives me problems, should I make a new topic in the script area or would I be okay if I posted that here?

 

[Unka Josh]

Okay.  First of all, you'll need an event on parallel process setting a variable equal to the character's level. (There are other ways to do this-- in my games, I tend to create a "Chapter" variable that goes up during gameplay that I'd use for this.)

Next, create a troop.  Pick a mix of monsters of various levels, but activate "Appear Halfway" on any of them that you don't want to always show up.

For that troop, go to the Battle Event section.  (It's right below the place where you place the monsters.)  Set a page to active with Condition:  Turn 0, Span:  Battle.

On this page, put a conditional branch that checks the variable that you're using.  When the variable is high enough, use a "Enemy Appearance" command for the higher-level monsters. 

Ta da!

Edit:  If that's not clear enough, let me know, and I'll mock up a screenshot or three.