What is a good method for character place holding?

[Blix]

What I mean is the default party limit is 4 but In my next game you get to recruit several characters, what would the best method be to say add a character and then maybe have like a home base of sorts where you can go back and pick and choose who you want to team up with.

[Ωbright]

Re: What is a good method for character place holding?

Well in my games, I've done this 2 different ways. In Shadow of the Towers I made an HQ where you could find all of the possible playable characters...if you unlocked them. There was a 'battle roster" event that checked who was in the party, and asked if you wanted to remove each one in turn. Once you had made room, you could add other people by talking to them in the HQ.

That worked, and was actually really convenient in the game, but if we're talking about RM3...it forces you to use an extra character for every one that you have...one that you run into during the course of the game, and one for the HQ. The world in that game was HUGE, though...so it needed that.

In Tree of Life, the entire game took place on one map...in one town, so I could get away with having only one version of them (for that, anyway...don't get me started...LOL!) You encounter them in town, they join your party, and when you come back into town you disband automatically.

The best way is determined by what kind of game you plan to make, but they each have advantages and disadvantages.

[ErikaFuzzbottom]

Re: What is a good method for character place holding?

I love how people keep giving Blix advice for the wrong RPGMs.

Do you know how switches work, Blix? They're just one of several page conditions you can have. There are also conditions for when a certain party member is in your group, and for when your party has reached 4 members. So here's what you could do:

When you enter your party's "camp" (or whatever recruitment place you have), remove all the party members. This will leave you with one member, on account you can't have 0 party members. If this last member is required to always be in the party, that's fine. But if you want to be able to change out any party member, you'll want to add in a placeholder character (say, a shadow or something) in order to remove that last member.

Have a group of events that represent your party members. On the first page, it asks if you want to add the party member, and adds it.

On the second page, you want a condition that you already have 4 party members. That page will tell you that your party is full and you can't add any more members.

If you're using the placeholder character method I mentioned, for the third page, you'll want the condition to be that the placeholder character is in your party. It'll do the same thing as the first page, except in addition to adding the party member, it'll remove the placeholder character.

The final page will be if that particular party member is in the party, and the page will not have a graphic and won't do anything.

When you leave the camp, you'll want the "exit room" event to make sure that the placeholder member is not in your party before it'll allow you to leave. Or, if you want the player to leave with a specific amount of members, have it make sure they have that many members before it lets them leave.

Hopefully you'll understand this little explanation and be able to impliment it into your game.

[Blix]

Re: What is a good method for character place holding?

I love how people keep giving Blix advice for the wrong RPGMs.

Do you know how switches work, Blix? They're just one of several page conditions you can have. There are also conditions for when a certain party member is in your group, and for when your party has reached 4 members. So here's what you could do:

When you enter your party's "camp" (or whatever recruitment place you have), remove all the party members. This will leave you with one member, on account you can't have 0 party members. If this last member is required to always be in the party, that's fine. But if you want to be able to change out any party member, you'll want to add in a placeholder character (say, a shadow or something) in order to remove that last member.

Have a group of events that represent your party members. On the first page, it asks if you want to add the party member, and adds it.

On the second page, you want a condition that you already have 4 party members. That page will tell you that your party is full and you can't add any more members.

If you're using the placeholder character method I mentioned, for the third page, you'll want the condition to be that the placeholder character is in your party. It'll do the same thing as the first page, except in addition to adding the party member, it'll remove the placeholder character.

The final page will be if that particular party member is in the party, and the page will not have a graphic and won't do anything.

When you leave the camp, you'll want the "exit room" event to make sure that the placeholder member is not in your party before it'll allow you to leave. Or, if you want the player to leave with a specific amount of members, have it make sure they have that many members before it lets them leave.

Hopefully you'll understand this little explanation and be able to impliment it into your game.

Thanks Erika - I knew about switches but as only using them to unlock towns and battlefields as the story progressed and had/have not tried using them for the party as you mentioned (to be honest it confused & intimidated me at first so I avoided it). I want to try this method on my 2nd game, so basically I just need to do what I did for Chaos Planet 1 in the Clock Tower Cheat HQ, where every playable character is an event and you speak to them to get them to join your party (except it was not as advanced as yours as they did not disappear or reappear they simply remained the same as before).

[Karr Lord of Chaos]

Re: What is a good method for character place holding?

ive seen this done many different ways and i find the best ones are the ones that offer a visual snapshot of who to add to your party. providing a room with all unlocked characters wandering or standing still is the easiest. having a custom menu selectable to pick a new party at a save point is another.

be creative and use conditions and switches. conditions for who is in your party and who isnt, switches for unlocked characters, for other conditions you may want. you may want the player to leave with a full party so you can use a switch system or an item condition to check for that (add a char item when they join, when they leave have it check for the item and remove it by using a narrow hallway).

[Blix]

Re: What is a good method for character place holding?

ive seen this done many different ways and i find the best ones are the ones that offer a visual snapshot of who to add to your party. providing a room with all unlocked characters wandering or standing still is the easiest. having a custom menu selectable to pick a new party at a save point is another.

be creative and use conditions and switches. conditions for who is in your party and who isnt, switches for unlocked characters, for other conditions you may want. you may want the player to leave with a full party so you can use a switch system or an item condition to check for that (add a char item when they join, when they leave have it check for the item and remove it by using a narrow hallway).

Going back through I'm a little confused at how to add the switch/condition for the new recruits and juxtapose it with the Camp. Do I make an invisible event that does not "activate" or become visible until a certain switch is flipped? And can I do all of this for one camp so I am not having to create duplicates each time someone joins?

[Gustaff 13]

Re: What is a good method for character place holding?

Each page of an event may have a different sprite:

• The first page with no conditions will be blank. (No Graphic)
• The second page will display the character's sprite. The condition will be the switch which was activated in the event where he joins. Here you'll generally want the event to start when Checked.
• The 3rd page will be blank once again, the condition here is that the character is currently in the party.

The event can then be copied and pasted into other dungeons. You can edit the sprites and switches used as well as some of the other contents to make the event suitable to each character.

Validating if the party is full before adding a new member is a little bit more complicated. You will need to use switches or items, and check them on a 4th page, otherwise the joining character will simply replace the current 4th character.

The easiest way around this would be removing all party members but the protagonist in the intro event of the camp, then allowing the player to assemble his party by speaking to the events in the order of his choosing.

[Ωbright]

Re: What is a good method for character place holding?

Sorry, I thought this was in RPGM General.

[Blix]

Re: What is a good method for character place holding?

Each page of an event may have a different sprite:

• The first page with no conditions will be blank. (No Graphic)
• The second page will display the character's sprite. The condition will be the switch which was activated in the event where he joins. Here you'll generally want the event to start when Checked.
• The 3rd page will be blank once again, the condition here is that the character is currently in the party.

The event can then be copied and pasted into other dungeons. You can edit the sprites and switches used as well as some of the other contents to make the event suitable to each character.

Validating if the party is full before adding a new member is a little bit more complicated. You will need to use switches or items, and check them on a 4th page, otherwise the joining character will simply replace the current 4th character.

The easiest way around this would be removing all party members but the protagonist in the intro event of the camp, then allowing the player to assemble his party by speaking to the events in the order of his choosing.

Ah okay I'll try that. (Sorry to reiterate so much but basically add the future/hidden characters in the camp along with everyone else BUT use switches/conditions to make them inactive/invisible until a certain switch is flipped? I was thinking about the suggestion to make a camp option from the main menu or the save menu, is there anyway to make it so that it will send you to the camp by clicking on it or does it have to be a place on the field?

[Karr Lord of Chaos]

Re: What is a good method for character place holding?

you have to make a save point style menu. meaning you have to have a save point or party switch point, having that specific event activate a switch so you can return to that point. from there do a move location to your "camp" place and have your party switch happen there. then have an even that asks if your done and depending on the switch flipped, sends you back to the right event that you took you to the camp. you can use this style of custom menu to do other things like activate a party shop or some other kind of thing.

be very careful about the order of operations. the game checks the last page first then checks each page backwards till the first page. the game stops once its reached a page that meets all conditions. if no page meets the requirements then the very first page will activate (this is considered a boolean function system where "if than's" are the pages and their conditions, and "else" is the first page). there is some issues with pages without any conditions, as they seam to be ignored (i cant remember what tests i did on this so be careful).

[Blix]

Re: What is a good method for character place holding?

I made the camp and tested it out, it seems to work fine - in fact I realized that I really only needed the camp intro event to be duplicated once (or twice) and the rest of the events were switches that were triggered later on in the game. Since figuring out the switch system I can already tell I will be saving some memory instead of duplicating multiple boards.

[ErikaFuzzbottom]

Re: What is a good method for character place holding?

Sorry, I thought this was in RPGM General.

That's okay, I sometimes have to double-check which forum I'm in, myself.