Statistics

[Descartes]

In most instruction manuals the agility stat is supposed to dictate the order in which ones characters make their moves. The problem is, in many games the order is different every single battle. This is unsettling to me. I believe the stats should be used properly: to plan out ones commands. If a character has the highest agility they should always move first, the exception being when they have a stat modifier such as “stun” used on them, which reduces agility or prevents movement entirely. Let me throw out a random example: most people have played FF1. Notice how the characters move in a different order every single time. Perhaps the East is less strict, as I have noticed much stricter rules within the early dungeon hackers. Any thoughts?

[CosmicMonkey]

The only turn-based RPG I've ever managed to play through is Skies of Arcadia. I must admit, the order of attacks was a bit of a mystery to me at times. Took a while to get to grips with the ship-to-ship battles too, and how the turns worked out.

Still, managed to get through it all. Excellent game.

[badinsults]

Even though the stat multipliers do play a large influence in determining the order of attacks, there is still an element of randomness added in. For instance, in Dragon Warrior 4, Alena will almost always attack before Ragnar, because his stat multiplier is extremely low, and Alena's is maxed out by the time you reach level 40. There are rare instances that Ragnar attacks first, but it is extremely uncommon. The algorithm used is different for each game of course.