Finishing up Lists/Data/Structure of ..stuff..

[Gleeok]

OK great. That helps a bunch.
-Items are treated like spells. (what I originally had).. (Item usages I should say)
-Added Sprite lists for weapons, misc, and effects. (Gui sprite list?)
-Adding SpriteSets for NPCs, Players...

Keep em' coming.


BattleActions are no problem. The BattleEngine will have queues for actions, events, messages, and Battles; the hard part is the GUI.
Buffs are strange... I don't know if these should just be a list for each battler or not. For example:
-Cast Temper on monk.(cheap ass spell)
-atk + 10;
-Cast temper.
-atk + 10??? (to stack, or not to stack, that is the question)
-Cast Dispell....
This is one example but there are far more 'grey area' effects, like buffs that last for an amount of time (condemn, or reflect) for example. I'm sure this is very confusing in the ROM, but we don't have the limitations of memory here. The best solution would be the most extensible and easy to use.

Also worth merit is whether or not Items in an Inventory are referencing an Item, or create their own instance of an item. There are important distinctions here;
with 1) It is simpler, but the item is effectively read-only. You cannot create a "Item Forging" (or whatever) script. (not easily anyway)
with 2) Can get complicated fast, and breaks most FF-style inventories unless implemented from the start.
(I do #1 right now)

This is why I need to finish most of the low and mid-level interface code before starting on logic. Otherwise it will turn into a mess where the higher level logical code starts having to implement all kinds of random stuff that it shouldn't even be dealing with, which leads to bugs.

..What else?

[Imzogelmo]

I think it's important to distinguish the various sets of data. Take character data, for instance:

1. There needs to be a block of constant data for initialization. These are the stats for a level 1 naked character.
2. There is a block of data for the current "naked" character. It is the data from above plus any added boosts from level ups.
3. There is an effective character data. This is number 2 plus any boosts (or penalties) from equipment.
4. Finally, there is a copy of #3 that goes into battle, but can be further modified by spells, status effects, items, etc.


Now let me explain why each one is necessary.
(1) is just the initialization data. It is needed for a base of the character's data. This doesn't have to be stored in memory, but has to be kept separate.
(2) is an accumulation of your stats as a result of level ups. It represents the "current" lowest common denominator. Since the 5 base stats have random chances of increase on each level up, over time, these can vary widely depending on your luck. In short, it cannot be definitely determined from level alone. This is probably what would be copied to a save file.
(3) is needed to indicate the effect of equipment. It is calculated from (2) and the equipment data.
(4) is needed since there are spells (and could easily be items too) that affect attributes. There are spells that lower evasion, for instance.

Each of these transitions (1) to (2), (2) to (3), and (3) to (4) can cause you to hit a cap, either at the top end or the bottom end. [Note, (1) to (2) shouldn't, but it's best to be consistent]. As a result of this necessary clamping, all of these types of data must be kept.

(I chose character data because it's the most complex).