No matter what challenge, we can take on anything! Every single monster has what it takes to be special and to succeed, from Elder Dragon to Neopteron! If we do our best, we'll reach the stars!

Hey everyone! >vv</ Welcome back, FA!
I posted this a week ago on my bluesky, but didn't get to upload it here (and rant about my weeks) so let's do it!

Last week I spent a while building a stat table populator! Where do I start? If you don't know, stats in early pmd games were found in a lookup table- essentially every time a mon levels up, it gets a certain number of points in each stat in accordance to the row equal to its level! So at level 5, they'd look to the 5th row, pluck the numbers from each column (the stats) and put them into the level. Monster Mystery did this too! The problem is, lookup tables take a long time to make, since you're putting individual values in all the rows and columns in an attempt to balance stats... And frankly, the 23 monsters that were in chapter 1 were already a lot to make- imagine over doubling that number and making it not only 10 rows, but 15 or 20 to support a new level cap? Sounds pretty rough, especially the deeper we get into the game.

So, the solution? Make a robot do it! lol >vv< With the help of  arturony , I learned that mainline poké games use a base stat system in their level up algorithms! I always knew about base stats but I didn't know exactly how they played into anything- I thought it was maybe what they had at max level. Well I was wrong! The algorithm for leveling up actually takes 1/50th of the base stats into its calculations of what to add (in addition to nature, IV, and EV stuff). So here was the plan; make some code generate an entire lookup table for each monster using Base Stats and Lv 1 Stats (both of which I have to feed into it). (The level 1 stats are so you don't start with like... 2 hp and 1 attack lol, it would be unplayable >vv<)

Long story short, it works! There was a bit of code I needed to implement to smooth it out (so you get a good amount each level), but it now can generate up to level 100 in stats! That's a LOT less work that needs to be done, thankfully, especially long-term. BUT, it's not all good news! Though I can generate up to level 100, it doesn't mean I can let you get there yet! I will keeping a level cap on each chapter as we go for two reasons! One, it lets me control how strong you are- if you get really high in level, the rest of the game will be much much MUCH too easy for you (regardless if you wanted that or not). And secondly, skills and genes that will be implemented will be skipped by you. Making skills and genes aren't that easy depending on its effects, so I can't make every single skill every monster has in the game immediately, it would take much too long and would make balancing torturous Xvvx. While you can use the new Skill Reminder (I'll mention later) to learn skills that were skipped, genes are out of the question since they're unique to each monster and can't be relearnt. So at the end of the day, it just means a lot less work in the monster stats department so I can focus on important stuff (like the sprites and mechanics as I've been) ^vv^

Thank you to  arturony and  zeocin for the ideas and help coding that! ^vv^

Anyway, sorry for the long rant this time- this week I've been working on the Dojo- the place where Skill Learning, Skill Reminding, and the Rite of Channeling takes place, news to come!
So while I work on that, please have a great weekend! ^vv^/
Link to all my Monster Mystery project's stuffs