2K3 BattleCharSet independent of hero or class?

[Ninjafish]

Hi, I'm new here, but I've been playing around with RM2K3 for a while now.

I'm trying to make a game and I want the BattleCharSet to be dependent on the armor worn by a hero instead of the class the hero is. But I can't figure out how to do this unless I want to make a separate class for each armor in the game for each hero/class combination.

There's got to be a better way.

Anyone know how?

[Prpl_Mage]

No, that's pretty much the way.

Well, unless you want to make 1 character for each armor that is.
The battle sprite is stuck with either a character or a class. So it's basically just pick and choose.
'Cuz I'm pretty sure that picture's don't work in battle.

[SaiKar]

I too cannot find another way.

But, it would be far easier to make a system where the game detects what armor you have equipped and changes your class accordingly than it would be to draw up a bunch of battle character sets for every set of armor. You'd have to be very subtle with the system since changing class resets your exp to its base for the level as well as unequips all the equipment the character was wearing, but as long as you account for these in your changeover scripts (you can set variables to be a character's exp and the value of items they have equipped, so that's convienent) the player would never know it's happening.

I actually do something similar in a swimming section of my game. I'll post my script if I need to, but you seem like a clever enough chap to figure it out without me.

[Prpl_Mage]

Oh yeah. The swimming sections. I remember the equipment issues when I made one like that.
There was this boss you fought in the water and I changed the characters' classes in the cutscene before the fight to the swimmin battlers. It took me some time to realise that the lack of armor made him so hard.

[Ninjafish]

Well, the whole idea was because I'm lazy and wanted to draw only four battlecharsets for each character instead of a lot more, so the effect isn't that neccesary, anyways.

But thanks for the advice. It is appreciated.

I think I'll either take the even lazier option and have one permanent battlecharset for each character, or have an epic showdown with my arch-nemesis pixel art and do the multiple identical classes for each character.

Seven characters X four classes X four armor groups = Carpal Tunnel Syndrome! Yay!

I think I'll flip a coin or something...

[Cerdiar]

Hey, at least it ain't that bad...
look at me, for example.
I have 8 different choosable main characters, and like 6 classes!
That's about 48.
And yeah, I LITERALLY have to make 48 classes because of this.
It shouldn't take too long with dedicated work, though.

[Ninjafish]

My problem is that I feel the need for original artwork for everything. Chipsets, that ain't so bad. Monsters I can do freehand in Paint and they come out alright. Original artwork for charsets and battle charsets require technique. That I where I have trouble.

The prospect of making 112 different charsets and battlecharsets is a little daunting when making one feels like an accomplisment.

Dedication or no, this might take me a while.

[Phayre]

If you make up a few base armors, and then just do recolors, it would go a lot more quickly. It would take away from the novelty of each armor, but it's pretty difficult to come up with that many unique designs for such small sprites anyway.
If you did different strips of colors (like maybe some had a band down the middle, and others had horizontal bands), you could come up with numerous different designs without having to drive yourself completely insane trying to come up with all the alternate armor designs.
Just a thought <3