Question about treasure chest and "face" commands

[Brotherbrian]

I have a question. I am trying to make a treasure chest event, but one that "describes" what you see before you decide to open it. Then I want a choice to open it or not. When I do this, I can get the graphic and the 1st message, but as soon as I add anything else, the graphic disappears from the test play, and it doesn't even give me the first message anymore. Help?

*edited in* I have found out that I cannot seem to run more than one message on a page. I don't want to have to hit the action button 2 or 3 times just to get the choice screen to come up. I want it to say "It looks like a footlocker". Then hit action once more to get "Would you like to open it?" with Yes or No choices. Right now the best I can get is to write a second page, which causes me to hit action button to get "looks like" text box, then hit enter again, and text box disappears. I hit action a 3rd time to finally get "Do you want to open it?". This is frustrating....

Also, what exactly is the reason for all the "face right/wait/face up/wait/face left/wait" commands in order to create a chest or a door? This is incredibly user unfriendly.... a manual describing these buttons and their purpose would be most helpful. All I can find is tutorials that tell you HOW to make them, but not really how to build your own custom events. Anyplace for a thoroughly detailed explanation of these keys?

Shalom,
Brian

[American Hero]

Re: Question about treasure chest and "face" commands

The problem with the graphic disappearing and the problem with the messages sounds like a problem with the script you are using. And as far as the "face right" commands, it may be better to use the "change graphic" and "wait" options. You should play around with those to get just the right animation.

[Brotherbrian]

Re: Question about treasure chest and "face" commands

Yes, I like that better. So far, I got it working much better.

But, after the chest is already opened and emptied (I have already set the switch to keep from getting treasure continuously)..... the box remains open, which is what I want, UNTIL I check it again, then it CLOSES when it tells me that its empty, then REOPENS when the textbox is finished. I have the 1st page graphic set to "chest 01 closed", and the 2nd page graphic set to "chest 01 opened". Any idea how to keep it open permanently after opening it, even if I want to recheck it?

[Ryner]

Re: Question about treasure chest and "face" commands

First off, do you have to ask the player if they want to open the chest? Are there any situations where they wouldn't do so? If there's no reason not to open a chest you come across, then just cut out the whole Yes/No question to make it more user friendly for the player. If you still want to keep that in, I'd highly advise you to have "It looks like a footlocker. Do you want to open it?" all in one dialogue box for simplicity sake.

Also, I can't think of any situation where the "wait" command would be used for a chest event, so I don't know what you're trying for there.

Regardless, I think your problem may be in your use of self switches in the chest event. You'll want the event to look like this:

-Text: It looks like a foot locker. Do you want to open it?
-Show Choices: Yes,No
-When [Yes]: Control Self Switch: A= On

Then you add another page to the chest event and set this one to come up when self switch A is on. Change the graphic to the open version of the chest, and commence scripting as you please.

Edit: The self switch will also prevent the chest looping like you described above, unless you script the new page to change something else about the chest, which I don't think you have reason to.

[American Hero]

Re: Question about treasure chest and "face" commands

Also, I can't think of any situation where the "wait" command would be used for a chest event, so I don't know what you're trying for there.

The "wait" command is used for making the animation of the chest opening, if you just put Change Graphic > Change Graphic > Change Graphic, your eye cannot see the animation, the frame rate is to fast. It looks like it jumps from shut straight to fully opened. It defiantly isn't necessary to add the "wait" command but it makes the animation look smoother.

Hell I use "wait" all the time. Even during dialogue, lol.

[Ryner]

Re: Question about treasure chest and "face" commands

True, but that's a minor thing that I sure don't care about. I always just go from closed graphic to open graphic.

[Brotherbrian]

Re: Question about treasure chest and "face" commands

Well, I did combine the two lines together "It looks like a footlocker. Do you want to open it?" and it works fine. I do want there to be a choice, because some chests are going to contain traps, poison, etc... or might alert people nearby, etc., making opening them more than just a routine act. One may as well just give the hero all of the treasure to be found in them at the start of the game, if they all just contain treasure.

I was wondering about the "face right-face left" commands, and now I know that "wait" helps the visual effect. I just didn't know what "face right/left/up/down, etc" had to do with a stationary treasure chest. Change Graphic is much easier to understand.

And I was initially shown to put the "choice" string in the first page, and the switch after that, THEN on the 2nd page put the text for the already open chest. I will try it your way, and see if it looks any better. Thank you for the input. This is all just academic, I am just trying to learn the mechanics of the game.

Another thing, for anyone to check out.... try standing BESIDE the treasure chest when you open it, instead of in front of it. The graphic changes somewhat. On mine it shows it partially opened when I hit the action button, even though I haven't decided to open it yet. But when in front of it, it looks and acts normal.

[American Hero]

Re: Question about treasure chest and "face" commands

try standing BESIDE the treasure chest when you open it, instead of in front of it. The graphic changes somewhat. On mine it shows it partially opened when I hit the action button, even though I haven't decided to open it yet. But when in front of it, it looks and acts normal.

That's easy to fix, go back into the event page and look beside where you choose the event graphics, you should see a box labeled "Lock Facing". You want to check that box, and make sure it is checked on all pages of the event. That'll solve the problem.

[Brotherbrian]

Re: Question about treasure chest and "face" commands

Yer so kewl! Fixed it! Now that I got the little stuff fingered out, i'm gonna have to learn about how to set up battles and shops.