Can I make a Party member non-playable in battle?

First time on the site, completely sorry if this is in the wrong directory.

So I was just wondering, is there a way to have characters be in your party and fight with you, but where you can't choose what they do?

For example in pokemon with double battles when someone teams up with you. I'm not making a game like that, but it is the best example I could think of; or if they are in your party, you have to choose what attacks they can do?

Thank you for any help,

RWACU

I've moved this thread to RGSS Script Requests (since I suspect a script will be required). Please be sure to post your threads in the correct forum next time. Thank you.


I assume you're using RMXP?

I am using RMXP, I wasn't quite sure if there was an in-program solution or not, that's why I didn't post in the scripts page.

The place to post would be RGSS Script Requests if you thought scripts might be needed, or RMXP Support if you didn't think they'd be needed or weren't sure. In either case, it's not a technical issue :)

Is the non-playable party member around for a while or just a single battle? If they're around for multiple battles you'll probably need a script, but if it's just one battle then you could handle it in-program.

I was thinking all other characters than the main, as there would be a lot of choice and swapping out party members. It's not really a desperate problem for me if there isn't an easy solution, I just thought I'd ask just in case this has come up before.

Ok, so you'll definitely need a script then. The biggest thing with doing a script like this though is it'll need to be compatible with whatever battle system you're using. For instance, I could write a system that works with the default battle system, but unless you're using the default system then the script probably won't work for you.

The short answer is "Yes, you can do that."  Dragon Warrior/Quest IV is a good example, once everyone gets together.

The long answer is the characters you don't control will be dumb as rocks if you don't also code a decent AI system for them. That's where things start to get hairy, especially if you're using any custom skills, abilities, equipment, other than the default RTP (because the AI will have to take into account your custom systems as well).

Can it be done? Yes. Can it be done easily? NO. Writing the AI for a tic-tac-toe game, assuming you don't just check win, block, then brute force list the matrices, is a pretty big job (and a very good learning exercise for someone starting in AI theory). When you've got attacks; spells and MP usage; attack vs. defend vs. heal vs. item; and other factors even a 'basic' AI would have to take into consideration you've got your work cut out for you (or someone else).

What Mouser said makes sense. It would be complicated and I wouldn`t want players kicking and screaming at stupid AI, I didn`t really think of that. I`ll just have them be controllable to the player then.