Ruby Scripting

[kyonides]

Using or Abusing of Game Logic:

The Perfect Excuse for Covering a Clear Case of Friendly Fire

Normally, we wouldn't combine a game skill or plot to cover a sinister plot that involves a casualty caused by some friendly fire.
Why would anybody ever do that, right?

Yet, somebody unintentionally managed to come up with the perfect scenario where the heroic    platoon can no longer blame anybody else, like a devious foe, for hurting them. Why? I'll tell you why in a moment.

Code:

$game_party.members.each do |mem|
  item = $data_skills[80]
  mem.item_apply(mem, item)
end

That code above lets you apply a skill as an item, because that's how VX ACE implemented both of them, on a given target. In this case the target is a hero, starting from the party leader himself.

This is the first quake alarm that should shake us like crazy... if we ever care about these petty details, that is.

IF you pay close attention to that seemingly innocent piece of code, it has a serious flaw. A logical one indeed.

You see, both the actual attacker and its victim is... the same guy! The hero himself!  
So now they all can claim that they were hit by an ally!
That's what we'd call an extreme but also laughable instance of friendly fire taking place under the hood.

How do I know that?
That's an easy one, guys!  
I know that because both the attacker and the target are the same mem or party member  in that specific order.

What Actually Happens There

Let's say your skill is magical by definition. That would mean that   mages who normally have high MATK stats could be seriously hurt by that skill while fighters like  Orson wouldn't. If it's physical by nature, then  Orson would be the first casualty here.
Of course, this might not take place if they also have high DEF or MDEF stats.

Of course, if you simply don't mind about these technicalities, well, you're good to go!  

My Suggestion

You better pick an enemy from the database to cast the spell instead.
And yes, it's that simple.

Notes:
Here the caster or attacker must be a Game_Battler or one of its child classes like Game_Enemy.
item doesn't need to be redefined every single time you pick another hero.

Code:

caster = Game_Enemy.new(0, 1) # Enemy ID is 1 here
item = $data_skills[80]
$game_party.members.each do |member|
  member.item_apply(caster, item)
end

It doesn't have to be enemy #1 , obviously.
Keep in mind that now your heroes would no longer need to worry about not cleaning their guns properly following all local regulations.