RPG Maker 2003/Hero

The Hero tab, like the heroes and heroines you will create, may look complicated at first, as if it was a monster itself and stand in the way of you creating your perfect game, but all in due time. We'll take this tab apart piece by piece.

The Hero Area

See the area on the far left? Those are your heroes and heroines! These are the characters that you can create and customize, down to the last detail. The two main functions this serves are as follows:

It creates a list of all of your heroes and heroines, and allows you to select any of them for editing and customization.

It also allows you to create more simply by increasing the array size.

Array size: An array is the amount of a category you would like to exist. Many are limited to 5000 of any object, so use sparingly! Items such as switches, variables, items, heroes, and even some events are limited by the array size.

Name, Title, and Character Graphics

Now it's time to give your heroes and heroines some personality! These are the areas where, like in their names, allow you to change the name of your heroes/heroines, their titles, and what they'll look like during the course of the game. If you want someone to look like a ghost as they walk around, click "Transparent" next to their character sprite.

Under "Battle Sprite", there will be the picture of some battle sprites, and a scroll bar. You will go over those options in the Animations 2 page.

Options, Crit Hit, Min and Max Level, and Class

Such a big category of options! However, each is very basic and covers a minimal amount of options. The options area is a checklist, giving characters certain abilities, such as whether or not they can wield two weapons (Two Wpn), if they can't change equipment (Lock Eqp), if they can be controlled by artifical intelligence during battle (AI Control), or if they can have exceptional guarding abilities during battle (Mighty Grd).

The critical hit probability is exactly as it states; give them a chance to hit the enemies weakspot by changing the critical hit ratio. Want them to hit it a lot? Make the number lower. Is your hero/heroine really clumsy? Make it higher. Or, you can remove it completely.

The Minimum and Maximum Levels are the levels in which your characters are limited by. You can make them arrive in the game at a very high level, but not allow them to get much higher, or you can make them long lasting by giving them a low minimum level and a high maximum level. They are both limited at 1 and 99 as their lowest and highest.

The class is a different story though. This allows characters to be customized even more later in your games. If you feel one character is a soldier, give him/her that class. Don't worry though. You can have class changes later in the game.

Base Statistics

Now we're getting into some of the more complicated messes. These are the curves that you can create that make a character's leveling curve unique. If you want to change the base of a curve, simply double click the graphs. You will now see several tabs, labeled by the names of the different stats you can change, and buttons on the right. A complicated looking graph will be situated on the left.

Let's not worry about that right now. On the right, you'll see buttons labeled Outstanding, Above Average, Average, and Below Average. These are preset curves you can create for that specific character. Try clicking one of those buttons. See how the curve changes? You can use these to create general curves for characters, if you are kind of lazy.

Instead, this book suggests that you use the "Specify Endpoints" tab, and alter the "Accelerate Growth". First, you start with the amount you want your level 1 character to have of that stat, and then do the same with what you want your level 99 character to have. After you specify that, change the growth. You can make it where the character grows fast sooner, but starts slowing down as he/she gets higher in level, or make the character a late bloomer, and get more powerful later in the game. It's up to you.

If you're not satisfied with the graph, you might have to make it manually. You can do this by selecting the Level on the right, and changing the Maximum __ in accordance with your wishes. This might become a bit tedious after a while, but if you really want to do it manually, no one is stopping you. It could also have a bigger pay off.

Instead of manually entering the numbers, you can also click on the graph itself. Try clicking on some spot above the first bar. It should rise to where you clicked. The number underneath the Maximum __ should also change. This could make the task easier, but accuracy becomes a problem, since you have to be situated exactly above the bar you want to change. Otherwise, you can change a different bar, and ruin the perfect graph you had going.

Experience Curve

This is even more complicated than the Base Statistics section above, and you must read this to understand how it works. You should see two tabs on the top of the new window after you click the "Experience Curve" button. One should say "Total Experience", and display a large list of green numbers, three sliders on the bottom, and a graph on the right.The second tab should say "Experience per Level", and instead of green numbers, should have a large list of blue numbers.

Unlike the "Base Stats" section of the Hero tab, there is no way to manually change the numbers, but with the knowledge you'll gain here, you should be able to manipulate the numbers enough to get what you want.

Primary

First, start off with the "Experience per Level" tab. This will help you understand what is going on. Otherwise, you will get confused with the numbers being displayed on the other tab. Also, blue is a lot easier on the eyes than green.

Set the Tertiary and Secondary sliders to 0 and 1, respectively. Now, set Primary to any number. Do you see something? As you should, the first number on the list should be the primary number you chose, plus 1. This allows you to set a base for your curve. You will always have this number in the experience curve you choose.

Secondary

This one is what caused the extra numbers you saw in the Primary test. Notice how it starts with 1 on level 1, and then increases by 1 every level? That is what characterizes the secondary curve. Start with Primary on 300. Now set Secondary to 2. Now set it to 3. Do you see the pattern? It will increase by the number you set it to every time the character becomes the respective level.

This is true for any number you give it. If at level 1, (with Primary still at 300) it is 400, then at level 2, it should be 500. Can you guess what the Secondary curve is set at?If you guessed 100, then you are correct.

Tertiary

This is probably the easiest curve to change and understand. In the most simple of terms, it adds what number you give it to EVERY LEVEL. If you give it a number of 5, then 5 will be added to every number on the list. Try it out with Primary set to 300 and Secondary set to 300. Now change the Tertiary to any number you choose. Notice how the numbers change in the exact same way? That is how the Tertiary curve works.

Starting Equipment

Just as it states, the starting equipment is what the hero/heroine will start with at the beginning of the game. You can set the weapon, shield (this will be a second weapon if you chose Two Wpn in the options area), armor, helmet, and accessory of that particular hero/heroine.

You can change the kinds of equipment your hero/heroine can equip by changing them in the Item tab, which will be explained later.

Unarmed Battle Animation

This is what your hero's/heroine's punch or kick will look like when they are unarmed, or without weapons. You can select any of the premade animations, or create your own in the Animations tab, which will be explained later.

Skill Progression

You know how certain RPGs, like Pokemon, have you gain skills or attacks as you gain levels? You can do the same here using the "Skill Progression" area. To add a skill, right click on where the first skill will be, and click on "Edit". Now, you can choose any skill you want, and tell it on which level your hero/heroin will learn it.

You can add and edit skills in the Skill tab, which will be talked about later.

Condition Resist and Attribute Resist

Condition: a condition is what affects your character during a battle, and if specified, after a battle. These can range anywhere from poison, to sleep, to death.

Attribute: an attribute is the type of an attack or spell. This includes, but is not limited to, sword attacks, fire spells, or even fire-attributed swords.

These lists allow your character to live during certain attacks and falter during others. Let's assume that your hero is from the mountains. He can be very resistant to earth-attributed spells and attacks, as well as being very resistant to being confused. However, he is weak to water-attributed attacks and spells and the berserk condition.

To make these conditions and attributes able to be resisted (or otherwise), simply click on the letter next to it. It ranges from A to E, E being very weak to that condition or attribute, and A being very resistant to it.

You can create more attributes and conditions in the Attribute and Condition tabs, which will be discussed later.

That is the end of the discussion of the hero tab in the Database. If you are ready to move on, please proceed to the Class section, and learn about classes so you can further your RPG education!