How to disable (or ignore) MP~?

[Hedera]

Is there a way to make it so that MP~ doesn't affect MP costs for attacks? I want to reuse the stat for something else.

[TMC]

Not yet. We have a pretty ambitious plan to let you add more stats and define properties of stats such as whether they are reset after battles. It's not in the plan yet, but settings could be added to remove MP~ and Hits too.

Honestly, some of the details of that plan are so ambitious that I'm sceptical that it will ever be fully implemented, but we definitely do want to let you at least add more stats.

In the meantime, I think adding two bits to disable the builtin meanings of MP~ and Hits stats is a good idea.

[FnrrfYgmSchnish]

I thought there was already a bitset for "attacks ignore Extra Hits stat" or something along those lines? Or is that only possible on a per-attack basis? I can't remember for sure.

[TMC]

Heh, opps! I forgot about that. All the more reason to add another bit then.

[polkakitty]

Honestly, some of the details of that plan are so ambitious that I'm sceptical that it will ever be fully implemented, but we definitely do want to let you at least add more stats.

I'd be happy with just two things being added: the ability to define more stats, and an option to have any stat be visible in some way in the battle HUD. (With the latter feature, it would become much more practical to make things like a limit break meter, or a combo system where, after you use a basic attack a certain number of times, you can use a finishing move, or a power level like the "Psyche Up" mechanic in Dragon Quest 8. These are all things that are technically possible to do in the OHRRPGCE already, but they aren't really practical, because there isn't a good way to clearly indicate to the player which of the relevant states each of their characters is in at any given time.)

If we could define new stats, then we wouldn't need to worry about changing the properties of stats like MP~ to stop them doing things we didn't want, because we could just use custom stats for anything we needed, and hide MP~ from view in the settings for each hero.

I thought there was already a bitset for "attacks ignore Extra Hits stat" or something along those lines? Or is that only possible on a per-attack basis? I can't remember for sure.

There is. What you do is, from the main menu, click "Edit General Game Settings", then "Battle System", then "Battle Preference Bitsets", and there will be an option labeled "Attacks ignore extra hits stat". With this option on, all attacks will ignore the "extra hits" stat, so you can use that stat for something else (although it can't go higher than 20, so you'll need to take that into account when deciding what to use it for.)

(In the game I'm making, there's a skill system where some of the skills a character can have allow them to make extra strikes per turn when equipped with a specific type of weapon, and each weapon type has a special property (daggers increase your speed, axes ignore enemies' defense stats, etc.) So it makes a lot of use of the "extra hits" stat, but I don't like the way the default "extra hits" mechanic adds a random number of hits instead of adding the same number of hits every time, so I actually have the built-in "extra hits" mechanic disabled. The way I have it working is, the assigned attack for each sword is a single strike with an instead-chain that checks whether the user's extra hits stat is greater than 0. If it is, it chains to an attack that hits twice, and has an instead-chain that checks whether the user's extra hits stat is greater than 1, and so on.)

[Hedera]

Someday, then.

[TMC]

If we could define new stats, then we wouldn't need to worry about changing the properties of stats like MP~ to stop them doing things we didn't want, because we could just use custom stats for anything we needed, and hide MP~ from view in the settings for each hero

Yes, if you could add more stats then we mightn't bother with a setting to disable the builtin meaning of MP~. (On the other hand, if you don't want it, it is nice to be able to remove it completely instead of just hide it).
But adding more stats is a future feature, adding a setting to let you use MP~ for other stuff is something I'm doing now.
Nathan also complained about the low stat caps on MP~ and Hits; that's something I've been meaning to do something about too.

[TMC]

Latest nightly builds now a general preference bit to "ignore" the MP~ stat so you can repurpose it as you wish. I'm also going to remove the stat limits on MP~ and Hits next.

[Hedera]

Latest nightly builds now a general preference bit to "ignore" the MP~ stat so you can repurpose it as you wish. I'm also going to remove the stat limits on MP~ and Hits next.

Awesome, thanks!