Equipment
Flags
For a player new to Alter Aeon it can be overwhelming determining what is a good piece of equipment and what you should throw away. In addition to the normal stat management you might be familiar with from other RPGs where you want to pick the right stats for your class, there is the concept of flags. Flags are properties of equipment that may restrict who can wear it or even what other equipment it can be worn with.
Alignment
There are two types of alignment flags: ANTI flags and what we'll call active flags. An ANTI flag on a piece of equipment is one of ANTI_EVIL, ANTI_NEUTRAL, or ANTI_GOOD. An active flag is one of GOOD or EVIL. Items with ANTI flags cannot be worn if either the player is that alignment OR if the player is wearing an item with an active flag of that alignment.
Example 1:
- Item A has the flag ANTI_GOOD
- Item B has the flag GOOD
These two items CANNOT be worn together regardless of the character's alignment. Likewise this is the case for ANTI_EVIL/EVIL.
Example 2:
- Item has the flag ANTI_GOOD ANTI_NEUTRAL
- Character is EVIL
This item CAN be worn because the character's alignment does not conflict with either ANTI_GOOD or ANTI_EVIL
Example 3:
- Item has the flag ANTI_GOOD
- Character is NEUTRAL
This item CAN be worn because the character's alignment does not conflict with either ANTI_GOOD and the item doesn't have an ANTI_NEUTRAL flag. The character doesn't have to be EVIL aligned to wear an ANTI_GOOD item, they just can't be GOOD aligned.
Note there is no NEUTRAL flag on item but there is an ANTI_NEUTRAL flag meaning NEUTRAL aligned characters cannot wear it.