[Eventing] SaGa-Style Junk Shop System

[That One NPC 321]

So for those unfamiliar with SaGa Frontier's Junk Shop, it was a special equipment shop in the Scrap Region. When you entered this shop, you could pay a set amount of credits to access the junk cage and pull 3 items. Inside the junk cage were piles of boxes filled with scrap items that had been salvaged. The player could find several boxes that had certain equip types inside of them. These boxes gave you random items depending on the overall strength of your party (or main quest character). So as you became stronger, the price of those 3 item pulls increased, and so too did the chance of pulling better quality gear.

 

I am currently doing a game that is a nod to SaGa, so I've been thinking about adding a variation of the Junk Shop.

 

I believe it can be done using switches and variables, but there are some sketchy areas to the process.

 

• The player need to select Yes when asked if they want to try their luck.
• This gives them access to the area containing the junk piles.
• They can only pull items 3 times.
• Every item has to be random
• Actor Level benchmarks need to unlock better quality pull variables, and increase the price of admission.

 

 

I'm wondering if it seems very possible and or easy using editor tools alone, or if someone wants to assist me in actually creating this.

 

If you were to assist me:

 

• You would be credited (however you specify) as the Junk Shop Programmer, as it will be something made for Legacy Frontier.
• You would be free to use it, and share it with the rest of the community.

 

 

 

It seems possible to my knowledge, but I'm not sure I could pull it all off. The pulls themselves are the easy part to set up. 

Edited February 21, 2019 by Loco Choco

[Harosata 6]

Give me 3 hun' and I'll let you pick some quality junk.

Choice:

[Yes]

If Actor. Level > 50

-Variable GoldJunk = 1000

Else

-If Actor.Level > 25

--Variable GoldJunk = 750

-Else

--Variable GoldJunk = 500

-End

End

If Party Gold >= Variable GoldJunk Gold 

-Teleport/Move to Junk area

- Variable Junk = 3

-(Switch if you want Common Event to teleport player out later)

Else

- Nope!  Just because they're worthless doesn't mean they're cheap!  Git!

End

[No]

 

---

 

Junk Pile:

If Actor Level > 50

-(Common Event for junk here)

Else

-If Actor Level > 25

--(Common Event for junk here)

-Else

--(Common Event for junk here)

-End

End

 

---

 

Junk Common Event:

(You can either have one Common Event and call a variable to determine which branch is called or multiple common events.  Or you can have the code straight in the junk pile.)

Variable Junk -= 1

Variable DumpDive = rand(100)

If Variable DumpDive < 10

-Get Potion

Else

...

 

--------

 

Alternate ways to write:

Nesting the If-Else would make some of the items go far right, so you could do

If Variable DumpDive >= 10

-If Variable DumpDive < 20

--Get Ether

-End

End

If Variable DumpDive >= 20

-If Variable DumpDive < 30

--Get High Potion

-End

End

 

or

If Script: ($game_variables[12] >= 10 and $game_variables[12]  < 20)

-Get Ether

End

If Script: ($game_variables[12] >= 20 and $game_variables[12]  < 30)

-Get High Potion

End

 

Also, I did mention you can use variables to determine which pile you're accessing.  It can go like

 

If Level > 50

Variable Junk Level = 3

if Level > 25

Variable Junk Level = 2

Else

Variable Junk Level = 1

End

Common Event Junkpile 

(If Variable Junk Level  == 1

Dump Dive =  rand(100)

if Dump Dive < 10...)

Edited February 21, 2019 by Harosata

[That One NPC 321]

Thank you SO much. That was amazing, and not only much easier than I know I would have done it, but also flexible. @Harosata, you are the best.

 

I will credit you in the project for this.

[Harosata 6]

Browser couldn't bring up a proper edit window, so before I forget, you might want to include a negation for your Junk variable in case you don't plan to teleport out:

 

If Variable Junk > 0

-Determine Level

-Get Junk

End

 

And similarly, controls on the variable so that you don't spend while you still have junk to search.

[Kayzee 4,032]

Oooh! Oooh! Will this version also have a blatantly abusable trick to getting as much cool stuff as you want? I hope you have a buggy gold exchange to exploit too! :3 Hehe, I kid, I kid. I love SaGa Frontier! I really do love SaGa Frontier to bits, it's like one of my all time favorite RPGs. It has it's fair share of wacky bugs and exploits, but what game of that era dosn't? I love the whole series really, but SaGa Frontier is my favorite. Partly because it's kinda like the wackiness of the old gameboy SaGa games (also known as the Final Fantasy Legend series) mixed with the more refined gameplay of the snes Romancing SaGa series... Too bad they took out most of the fun wackiness in SaGa Frontier 2. It's good (and also very very pretty), but I always liked SF1 more. It has Robots and Mystics and Monsters, oh my!

 

... OOps sorry to nerd out about the series there. Hehe...

 

Though really, back on topic, but I never quite felt the junk shop is worth what you pay for it unless you blatantly exploit the hell out of that one glitch. But I think that's partly because if I recall right, in SaGa Frontier the cost of using the junk shop goes up a bunch each time it's used, but the prize pool doesn't go up nearly as fast.

Edited February 22, 2019 by Kayzee

[That One NPC 321]

4 hours ago, Kayzee said:

Oooh! Oooh! Will this version also have a blatantly abusable trick to getting as much cool stuff as you want? I hope you have a buggy gold exchange to exploit too! :3 Hehe, I kid, I kid. I love SaGa Frontier! I really do love SaGa Frontier to bits, it's like one of my all time favorite RPGs. It has it's fair share of wacky bugs and exploits, but what game of that era dosn't? I love the whole series really, but SaGa Frontier is my favorite. Partly because it's kinda like the wackiness of the old gameboy SaGa games (also known as the Final Fantasy Legend series) mixed with the more refined gameplay of the snes Romancing SaGa series... Too bad they took out most of the fun wackiness in SaGa Frontier 2. It's good (and also very very pretty), but I always liked SF1 more. It has Robots and Mystics and Monsters, oh my!

 

... OOps sorry to nerd out about the series there. Hehe...

 

Though really, back on topic, but I never quite felt the junk shop is worth what you pay for it unless you blatantly exploit the hell out of that one glitch. But I think that's partly because if I recall right, in SaGa Frontier the cost of using the junk shop goes up a bunch each time it's used, but the prize pool doesn't go up nearly as fast.

 

 

Haha, I was seriously debating putting in - not an exploit - but a secret (condition-triggered) side quest you can do for the owner that bumps your pull count to 6 for the same costs.

 

One of the optional playables is a travelling businessman and investor. I had planned to make his 'party perk' primarily Shop Owner side quests that earn you discounts at the shops. The trigger for Junk Shop would probably be completing all other Shop Quests, or spending X amount total at the Junk Shop.

 

One thing I'm doing to make my Junk Shop a bit more appealing is making all the actual junk keystone items for crafting. Like wiring, scrap metal, etc. I had thought about lowering core cost and making good item pulls a bit more rare, so it is essentially a place to gather quick 'junk' in the post-intro portions when the player has some bank roll and wants to get some crafting done.

 

Maybe when you get junk items, you get 2 at a time or something, to make it less of a cash pit.

 

 

This is awesome. I would have made such a mess if I tried to do this myself.

Edited February 22, 2019 by Loco Choco

[Kayzee 4,032]

Honestly I like the idea of lowering the core cost and making super good items more rare. If I were doing it perhaps I would totally change how it works so it's more like a flea market. Rather then an up front cost for getting x random items, it is a place that offers new random deals on random items each visit, perhaps with a limit of how many items you can buy per visit, maybe with a membership fee you have to pay every once and a while or a flat entrance fee. Ooh now I am getting all sorts of wacky ideas. Like having some identified items where you see exactly what you are getting and are usually more expensive, and having some unsorted item piles which don't tell you exactly what you will be getting to after you get it but are cheaper. Huh... Now I am thinking of some actual places I have shopped at before...

[That One NPC 321]

I like the idea of a random item shop. Never know what it's going to have. I'd want it to be set up on a universal timer, so you couldn't just refresh the inventory every time you load the map. I would make them sketchy, underground smuggler-type shops that are hard to find on average. Maybe have 1 that's easy to come by and used to introduce the concept.

 

I also had some neat shop-related ideas as well. Every character in the game has a certain 'party perk' that they provide the player with. For some characters it's access to a certain crafting category. Goodwin unlocks invention and opens Shop quests. Edwin unlocks invention and mystery/investigation quests, as a few examples. That might seem redundant but under normal circumstances the player has to choose between one or the other.

 

I wanted Acosta's perk to be smuggling, as she is a smuggler by trade. I was thinking you could do different types of Shop quests through Acosta where you actually have to smuggle tech and weapons from Tanis (the highly advanced nation) for the vendors, unlocking the type of items normally only found in Tanis, which you only get to pass through via story line. There is one really hard way to gain permanent and open access to Tanis, and that is by curing Maxwell's Lycanthropy, and good luck with that.  May need to crack 'er open and examine the insides to figure out what switches make that happen.  I plan to make that the best kept secret in the game. One of those ones that you can mess up before you know it exists.

 

I really want to go above and beyond with my shop systems, to make sure they don' become outdated and useless almost immediately after discovering them, like in so many other games. I want my shops to be something the player can work with and use to the very end.

 

I'm going to have may types of shops as well. Pharmacies for cure and remedy items, gun shops, weapon shops, Tech shops (for the android), grocery stores for food & cooking items, hardware stores for crafting supplies, etc.

 

 

I've been trying to come up with ways to add in lots of food, without having 90% of it become useless. I came up with an idea for Fast Food stores, and using those items only in battle for quick doses of HP, MP, or to modify params. For example if a monster had a skill that dampens an actor's ATT by -5 for 5 turns, you could drive a burger down your gullet and bring that ATT back up by 5 for 5 turns. Or alternatively, get ahead of it and boost your ATT by 5 for 5.

 

Craftable meals will be for outside the heat of battle to eat properly. I may remove 'potions' for HP & MP to facilitate a bigger food market.

 

Edited February 22, 2019 by Loco Choco

[That One NPC 321]

@Harosata @Kayzee

 

I drafted a Junk Shop for my game.

 

EDIT: I recolored the A2 water junk to not look so off. I told myself it would just look flooded, but it wasn't coming together.

Edited March 10, 2019 by Loco Choco

[Kayzee 4,032]

Neato! I miss the funny lizard shopkeepers though...

[That One NPC 321]

On 3/9/2019 at 12:25 PM, Kayzee said:

Neato! I miss the funny lizard shopkeepers though...

 

Thanks. It might surprise you to find out how much thought I put into this. I looked through my sprite folder twice over for suitable characters. The I thought, why are there lizard men? What's their story? That was a whole can of worms, so I thought of alternatives.

 

The cliche of waste disposal companies being fronts for crime families is pretty well known, so I thought I would play on that humor a bit and Midas happened to have a crime family in the planned story line, so it worked well. The whole concept of buying back mainly guns checked out with the whole theme. The idea of the Junk Shop being a total racket, kinda checked out.

 

I kinda liked it. But what I really, really want is a miniature, doll-sized version of one of the lizards that I can put on the computer desk behind the counter. Maybe put a recolor on the far right end of the counter.

Edited March 13, 2019 by Loco Choco

[Kayzee 4,032]

I see what you mean! There was even a crime family in that town in SaGa Frontier wasn't there? Still, one of the things I find fun about SaGa Frontier is it was a game where those random lizard shopkeepers just kinda fit in and I never really questioned it. Monsters are basically just another race who live along side humans and mystics and robots. Then again, SaGa Frontier was really vague about a lot of how it's world worked wasn't it? I mean what exactly were 'regions'? How did the many regions fit together? It felt like traveling randomly through time and space at times. I kinda liked that aspect of it in a way though, it was delightfully wacky.

 

 

[That One NPC 321]

When I was younger I thought each Region was a planet because of the flight cutscene. Looked like they were travelling through wormholes or something. But I guess it's one world, and the Regions are like countries, some being similar to one another, like Manhattan and Shrike.

 

I guess, upon a wikipedia root, they were different planets. SaGa was an enigma of a game, simply put.

 

 

[Kayzee 4,032]

I think it's supposed to be something a bit in between, like bubbles in a giant sea of aethier. Also we know for sure that some regions are connected, like IRPO and Mosperiburg. We also know for sure some are disconnected, like Riki's world. Then there is blue's 'region map' item which... doesn't help one bit to explain anything.

[That One NPC 321]

Having to connect at Koorong was a huge indicator to me that this wasn't a 'globe' of any kind when I was younger. A friend convinced me it was just one world of massive scale with little settled areas between regions. I'm so excited to find out there were multiple worlds. It restores some of SaGa's charm for me.

 

 

If I ever get Legacy done, I might make a sequel where Terra isn't the only planet. In the end of 1 I want the player to get to choose whether Acosta stays on Terra with Faris, or if she returns to deep space with Luxor and cohorts. So maybe there's another story there.

Edited March 14, 2019 by Loco Choco