[SOLVED and AWESOME] Favorite Food system

<Favorite Food>
<8/15/2010>

Summary
<< I would like a favorite food system in my game, much like there is in Star Ocean 2: The Second Story (SO2) for PS1. Let's say I chose Ralph's favorite food to be apples, which normally recovers 10% Max HP, but when used on Ralph, recovers 90% Max HP.
The first time 'apple' is used on Ralph, a message shows up that says something like "You discovered (name's) favorite food!" and because the favorite food was discovered, experience is gained (this only happens the first time; when the favorite food is discovered).
Once the favorite food is learned for a character, I would like it to show up in the bottom right hand side of the status screen please (under the equipment - it would say "favorite food: apple")
I know some of this can be done without a script (note: some) but it will be messy and I will not have all of the functions I desire.>>

Features Desired

• Each character has his/her own favorite food
• When a favorite food is discovered, exp is gained
• favorite foods increase HP/MP at a greater rate than the normal food itself

Mockups
<<The only visual part of this (besides a message showing up once the favorite food is discovered) is having "Favorite Food: (apple)" show up in the bottom right hand corner of the status menu for each character - this only shows up once the food is discovered>>

Games its been in

• Star Ocean 2: The Second Story
• Star Ocean 1 (maybe?)

Did you search?
<<yes>>

Where did you search?

• this forum
• rpgmakervx.net
• rpgrevolution

What did you search for?

• favorite food
• food

Thank you all for taking a look at this!!!

Seems like a neat idea. I'll do it tomorrow if I have time.

I'm thinking the best way to do it, in that it allows for the most customization, is to have it so that you set up two items, one which is the effect the apple has when used on a regular actor and one which is the effect it has on the actor who has it as their favourite food. The latter would never actually be in the inventory - all that would happen is that when the former item is used on the actor who has it as their favourite food, the effect would be replaced by the second item. It requires that more slots be used up, but I think it would be the best way since it allows for a lot of customizability as to what effect a favourite food has on an actor. Does that sound like a good way of doing it to you?

Thank you for the reply Modern Algebra!

That actually sounds like a better way to do it that what was originally in my head, so please by all means do that. That does allow for a lot more customization, so thank you! Would the system you are SO graciously tackling for me have the 'when the favorite food is discovered, the respective character gains exp' and the fact that the favorite food would show up in the respective character's status screen? Thank you again for looking at this, I really really appreciate it!

p.s. I am a huge fan of your scripting! Variable Stats saved my life!

To keep it even more flexible You could use this for Healing items affecting Zombie enemies in some cases too, and probably should have the option for it to be different for different monsters/actors. (as in more than just 2)

@ Terra

do you mean something along the lines of a hated food?

Like, one person has Carrots as their favorite food, but another person can't stand them and either doesn't get as much effect, or gets a negative effect?

Exactly.

I like the sound of that - thank you (yes, I know that this isn't just for me, but for the whole community - but still thank you!)

yeah, I have planned to include support for that, but I don't think I will include visual aspects for each of them, such as the status scene thing and the exp upon discovering.

How much of a pain would it be to just have the favorite food show up in the status once discovered? The experience part is not important, so I humbly ask you to reconsider just the favorite food name showing up in the status screen. I'll love you forever not that I don't already, you are a great part of this community!

No no, I was only saying that to Terra - that I wouldn't include a visual aspect for every item that might have a special effect on given actors, because the configuration for it would be silly. Doing it for just the one is easy though and I do intend to do it (in fact it is the only part of the script that isn't finished). The only thing that is a pain is showing a message when the actor discovers a favourite food, since that can happen in Scene_Item which means I need to introduce a new window and mess around there. I think I will use Zeriab's Dialog system to make it easier on myself though.

Ohh I see I see, my bad - sorry. If all four of my characters have different favorite foods, will this script be able to show the names in each of their status screens? Thank you again!

yeah, but I'm thinking I will make that a separate addon - it will be there when the script is released though.

That sounds perfect! Man I'm excited for this!

Alright. I've finished. The two scripts were released independently for various reasons, but they are designed to complement each other and together will do what you want.

Actor Specific Item Effects is the bulk of it. It does exactly as I had mentioned earlier. All you need to do is use the \favourite[actor_id, item_effect_id] code in the note field and, when this item is used on that actor, it will be as if using whatever item is specified by item_effect_id.

Graphical Favourite Items is completely independent and could be used without Actor Specific Item Effects, but this is what controls the graphical aspects. You will have to set up the hash separately (just using \favourite tags is not enough) since you can only have one favourite item per actor for this (unlike for ASIE). Anyway, it's easy enough to set up and there are lots of options for how you want things to be displayed. This script requires Zeriab's Dialog System

Although I said this on the posts with the scripts, it would not feel complete without doing it here. Thank you so much Modern Algebra for this. You truly are a kind soul.