I spent about 30 minutes today testing out different ways to include randomization in an RPG Maker 1 game. They include randomizing floors in a dungeon, NPC dialogue, and treasure chest contents. All of them were made using 2 way choices. I think I'm going to implement randomness into a future project heavily.

Has anyone ever used 2 way or 3 way choices this way before? and how would you guys feel about a game that relied heavily on randomness?

Randomizing treasure chest contents is a bad idea. I'd hate to find out I missed out on a good item because it randomly decided to give me money, instead. If I remember, they did this with Final Fantasy 12, and that didn't work out so well.

i liked the random chest to a certain extent. for rare chests that are equip or important items they should remain fixed. just change the generic crap chests to give something different. these would be ones that give small cash, healing items, and nicknack recovery junk - the kind of obligatory fodder every dungeon is filled with.

ive yet to implement something like this and i dont think i would until much later in the game when the freedom of my party is more... free? i think its a good idea, but done smartly.

I have used a bit of random every now and then... but I think the most I've used/seen was in a few RPGs that had a piano that would play a random note every time you check it.

Am I understanding this correctly? RPG Maker 1 doesn't have a built-in randomizer function either? I thought maybe the reason why RM3 doesn't have one is because it doesn't take itself seriously as a game editor (if it did, many things about it would be different).

Not sure how you got that idea. RPGM1 does have a randomization feature, either random 2-way or random 3-way with the ability to change the probabilities of each possible choice and the ability to string together multiple randomizations for those instances where 3-way isn't enough.

Random dungeon floors are pretty interesting.

Random treasure contents... not so much. Also because you'll have little control over what items the player has in his possession, and that can't be good for balancing.

But... Nethack was 99% random and it's still an incredible game, so the sky's the limit, man.

That's one of those areas where RPGM3 designers (like myself) have to sit marginalized in a bit of mediocrity and take our medicine.

If you are going to use random chests I'd say only for nonessential items like cash, healing herb, etc. not for a super powerful weapon unless you are guaranteed say one of 3 equally cool but characteristically different weapons chosen at random

I never really was planning on using random chest contents for any major items, only for normal or common items. The thing about random floors is that the only way to make it work completely is to make it Lufia 2 Ancient Cave like, where there are no stairs to go back to the floor you were previously on, because otherwise a player could just go up and down the stairs until they got to a floor they desired.

Unless you kept track of which rooms were chosen by using switches, but that would eat up memory fast, and when professional games like Lufia and Dragon Warrior Monsters don't allow backtracking (though being able to escape is a must), it's quite forgiveable if an RPGM game doesn't allow it either.

There would most likely be certain floors in dungeons that would allow you to warp to the entrance, or a spell/item perhaps in case some players would like to attempt to receive everything from a dungeon.

For those who don't know, you can stack three way chances on top of each other. So theoretically, you can have as many results as you want from one random action.

You don't say.

I was using it all the time in VIKINGMAN! Mostly for conversations though. The main problem I found was that the game would always eventually settle on one of the three paths I programed because the game doesn't deal with infinitely repeating decimal places, or fractions. (which you kind of need if you are programing a tree of 3 way choices, all with an equal chance to be chosen.) I suppose a way around this would be to bury the one 34% you'll always get in a several layers, but by the time you iron it out so that the games logic has no choice but to be random, you're probably looking at like 27-54 different choices. For conversations at least, this could take not only hours to program, but is going to eat up the scenario card like crazy.

Now you could sit there and program this whole random thing with 3 ways AND switches, but that smells more like hardcore binary programing to me, not to mention, that would DEFINITELY chew up you memory for sure.

remember that what you do doesnt have to be random, it just has to feel that way to the player. even as little as 10 different outcomes of conversation will feel random. sometimes its best to not waste time making a unique string for each town folk and just stick with what makes your game good in your eyes. save the randomizing for puzzles and other such important sequences.

I can dig randomizing items in treasure chests to the full extent. For those of you who have played azure dreams, even the first floor of the dungeon could boast wonderful items, and as long as the person got a wind crystal allowing him to escape the dungeon, all would be good. Also subsequent visits to the tower renewed the dungeon entirely. New items on floor 1 and the constant chance of getting a rare item. That being said, their wasn't an item in the entire game that gave you overwhelming power over your objective of getting to the final floor in the tower. With no true leveling structure (each subsequent visit to the tower caused your level to revert to 1, while the monsters you've leveled retain their level), you had to rely on items that powered up your weapon and shield. In the end, the only thing that TRULY mattered was your efforts to power up your sword, shield, and monsters. With your hp returning to 16 every time you reentered the tower, your shield determined whether lvl 2 enemies were able to kill you in 1 to 2 blows or not.

With the knowledge of how azure dreams works and what causes randomization to be okay, the game you want to work on could blow or win a game of the year award. But chest randomization must require absolutely no overpowering artifacts. If you acquired a str +1000 item in the first chest of the game, the rest of the game is nothing but storyline.

For my current project, I intend to randomize dungeons and chest contents to a great degree. The game itself is not based on very linear progression, and you can in fact repeat the same dungeons over and over, grabbing the very same chests on your next visit. Due to the randomized nature of their contents, repeating dungeons will sometimes be necessary in order to get those rare items you need later on in the game.

None of the equipment is terribly unique, or anything. Everything you can find can also be crafted by giving various components to blacksmiths. (in order to get a Steel Sword, for instance, you trade a chunk of alloy and a blade hilt, then pay a fee to have the weapon forged) Finding items in chests just bypasses the whole crafting process, making things a little easier. Some magical equipment is much harder to craft on your own, due to the rarity of the components involved. This is mainly the incentive for grinding dungeons over and over again, since there's a chance to find that equipment outright.

Key items won't be randomized, nor will dungeon floors that contain major events and bosses. Those will be static, always appearing in specific locations. Once you open those chests or clear those events, they never repeat.