Rebuilding the Database

[theoryoferin 2]

Not gonna lie, this is something I've been avoiding as much as I possibly could because I knew how insanely huge and time consuming it was going to be.  However, I've gotten to the point in my story now where the second character comes in and it's time to think about classes and weapons and armor... So on and so forth. 

 

I've played a lot of RPGs and I've read over these tutorials multiple times. But other than that, there doesn't seem to be a lot around about rebuilding the database from scratch. Am I crazy for wanting to delete everything that's already there and start over with my own stuff, or is this just something that no one ever talks about?

 

Regardless, I'm interested in knowing what sort of tips / tricks any of you have for working on the database. Do you delete it all and start anew? or do you build off of what RMXP has already given us?

 

Personally, I'm working out of a multi-tabbed excel spreadsheet right now. I went through and established the eight classes I'm going to be using within my game and graded their stats / abilities on an A-F scale before deciding what type of weapons, equipment, and accessories would be available for each one. I'm working on the actual weapons and upgrades currently...

 

Which leads to another question, but more of an opinion than anything. Do you prefer the way RMXP has it set up with all types of weapons being bronze, iron, steel, mythril, over and over again? Or would you rather have more creative names, like plate mail, carabineer mail, dragon mail, mirror mail, etc.? I'm on the fence with that one, personally.

[Arkbennett 16]

Man, this is a good post to reply to. Sad that nobody has.

Not a crazy idea. I've done it several times. In fact, I actually have a blank database file specifically for that. Saves time instead of deleting things individually. I've never finished a game enough to give you tips on Database, but it doesn't hurt to use the default database as reference material
 

Doing weapons and armor by Metal type feels consistent and organized IMO, I consider naming them more disorganized.
I've done both. The former is boring. So what I try to do is name things creatively but give clear indication that one item is better than another (Leather Armor, Reinforced Leather Armor) or something like that.

[Sentay33 0]

Rebuilding the database is hard work, and it often times is pretty time-consuming. I decided to re-build my database from scratch basically. The reason why is because with RMXP their default stuff seems too... spiked, i guess you could say. I don't like how beginning characters have hundreds of HP, strength in the 50's-60's, enemies having 500-600 HP for basic enemies, attacks doing 200-300 per hit, it's too high for me. I prefer the style of starting with 100-200 HP, enemies having 40-50 health to start, and attacks doing 15-20 damage. it's all so much easier to manage, and as you level up I find it more rewarding because your stats increase drastically between lv1 and lv99.

 

How to start from scratch? well, I typically just delete everything, and start from complete scratch., one reason is because going through and re-adding the skills is much easier than going through and editing the properties of every individual skill to make them do less damage, or editing each enemy hand making their stats lowered. Another reason I restart the database is for organization. I go through and add in key items, skills, weapons, healing items, etc. by category, which is extremely useful for organization and I highly recommend it if you want a database that you don't have to closely scan everything and try to pinpoint one item that's out of place among others. 

 

Any tips for making it faster/easier? I only manage the database when I need to, which reduces the time I spend working in it, and thus prevents me from pulling my hair out. I work between towns, so in each new town I add new items, armors, weapons etc. so that way I know what should be available at that point in time, and you have a better representation of what your enemies should be doing for damage based on what healing items or weapons you have available at the time. I also recommend that for specific groups of weapons or armor (such as swords, daggers, shields, robes etc.) you have a basis for how much they will increase. Such as each new sword will go up 3 or 5 attack, so that way you don't ever let it get out of hand and end up with a starting sword with 15 attack, and by the 3rd town your swords have 80 attack. same with armor, keep a consistent amount of defense or magic defense, and perhaps have a line of shields/armors that specialize in magic defense above physical defense, that way if you have enemies like the Flan in Final Fantasy that resist physical attacks and use strong magic, your characters won't keep getting killed by the magic attacks easily.

 

Now, the names for weapons. I don't use the "Iron, Silver, Gold, Mythril" system, only because there's so few minerals that can be used to rank things like that. i've always used more unique names, such as "Flamberge" "Muramune" "Masamune" etc. but, depending on the kind of weapon, and if there's upgraded versions, I always make sure it's easy to tell which version will be better, such as something like "Twisted oak" or "twisted steel" staves, it's easy to tell that the twisted steel would be more powerful, since steel is a stronger substance than wood. I also typically add a description to the weapon (especially for accessories) that says what the character can benefit from it. as an example, let's say you have a "Magic Pendant" vs a "Gothic Amulet"

i'd add a description for each saying something like: "Magic Amulet: Increases INT+1/M-DEF+3" or "Gothic Amulet: Increases INT+2/M-DEF+1 and adds protection from DARK elements" then, the player can choose for themselves which item to choose, because they're both good items, but one isn't necessarily better than the other. same could be done with weapons, like have a sword that has the same attack, but has different elements to it, such as "Flamberge" "Iceberge" "Thunderberge" "Windberge" then you have a weapon that's the exact same no matter what, but it deals different element damage like wind, fire, ice or thunder. That way you have a good selection of weapons, but the player can pick whichever one they like the best. 

 

Hope my post helps you decide what to do, or helps you at all with your dilemma :)

[dolarmak 23]

I can see why they used materials as the default because people new to the game engine can easily identify what is stronger than what, instead of using unique names. That said, I never use them. I create a whole new set of equipment based on what my characters would use, not what in the default database. Some times it's because the game isn't using medieval weaponry, some times it's because my characters use unique types of weapons.

 

And just so you know Sentay33 the Flamberge is actually a real sword and has nothing to do with elements, it was named that because the blade is wavy looking like heat distortions.

[theoryoferin 2]

Rebuilding the database is hard work, and it often times is pretty time-consuming. I decided to re-build my database from scratch basically. The reason why is because with RMXP their default stuff seems too... spiked, i guess you could say. I don't like how beginning characters have hundreds of HP, strength in the 50's-60's, enemies having 500-600 HP for basic enemies, attacks doing 200-300 per hit, it's too high for me. I prefer the style of starting with 100-200 HP, enemies having 40-50 health to start, and attacks doing 15-20 damage. it's all so much easier to manage, and as you level up I find it more rewarding because your stats increase drastically between lv1 and lv99.

 

 

This was what made me decide to scrap everything and start fresh. I was originally just going to edit what was there and add more to make things more interesting, but I was terribly unimpressed with the super inflated numbers for literally everything. And I've managed to combine a [hopefully] decent mix of metal names and original, more creative ones as I go. 

 

I think just keeping my super time consuming and incredible OCD spreadsheet is going to be the best way about going about fixing everything up.