A Lotta Questions

[162]

God I feel like an idiot for asking this but... I was thinking about buying this software (RPGM2). I heard it's hard, but I think I could handel it. And I aslo heard about these "movies" that you can make one it. Can you actually do this? I want to hear the opinions of people who have used it before.

Like I said, I feel like an idiot for asking.

[Biggie]

Re: A Lotta Questions

Yeah, you can do anything with RPGM2. Here are some clips of my RPGM2 movie.

http://www.pavilionboards.com/forum/...ead.php?t=7895
Warning! Lots of naughty language!

[thetruecoolness]

Re: A Lotta Questions

Yeah I would also check out Tabloid if you have a max drive. The whole thing is essentially a TV Show.

[Jeremy]

Re: A Lotta Questions

This game has been throwing up more walls than paths for me lately, and seems everything i'm wanting to do keeps hitting dead ends due to limits in usuable variables. That being said, it's vastly more powerful than RPG maker 1 and although i've never played 3 i've heard it was a lot more powerful than it too, so it's still the best one out there.

[ErikaFuzzbottom]

Re: A Lotta Questions

Jeremy, what sort of problems are you having? I bet they can be beat.

162, yup, movies are possible, but only in the sense that they're essentially cutscenes that don't break for gameplay. You're certainly not going to get FMVs. Yes, RPGM2 is hard, but it's way powerful, and IMO totally worth the 2-4 weeks it takes to learn its ins and outs (sans the default battle system; I'll never learn that thing, nor do I care to).

[Jeremy]

Re: A Lotta Questions

Quite a few lately - like being unable to check a target's resistance levels in battle. It really demoralized me throwing in all the time i did and still not being able to get it done. Kind of like hiking almost up a mountain then finding out the trail is out of commision or something right near the top, so you miss out on the climax, but still did all the work lol. And then my random item generator idea hit a giant snag when it turned out all the item equip stat variables are not allowed to be edited. But True is helping me out with that so i may be able to salvage it - so i'm crossing my fingers. I can't automatically save the game for the player either, which is a nuisance since it makes me unable to make any important decision-based gamplay because players can just simply reset and load, trying all the choices until they get the one that delivers the best effect.

I'm not knocking the game though, just doing a little bit of complaining so don't mind me It's a good game and does let you do a whole lot - just a lot of times i'm not smart enough to figure out how to do them is all.

[thetruecoolness]

Re: A Lotta Questions

Jeremy your last problem is not really a problem, does every commercial game try to prevent this. No they don't. Why, because the player has the ultimate decision of how they play the game. If they want to "ruin" your flow, then they should be able to if they want to spend that kind of time. I don't think a developer should try to prevent a player from having control over the game, even if that means cheating in a one player game. It's different for multiplayer games as that can ruin the experience for one of the players, and makes the balance unfair. But in a one player game I don't see any reason to prevent the player from cheating, though it should be logged so high scores using cheating and such don't count. So if people want to make multiple saves at one point to see what will happen I think they should be able to. No harm in it, since maybe they don't feel like or have time to play through your game multiple times and want the best possible ending. It's like using a GameFaq to play through a game, so would you rather the player explore this for himself, by allowing him to reset at a save point, or just look it up on the net.

The bottom line is it is up to the player to determine how they want to play your game, like it is up to the reader how they want to interpret a story.

As for the resistances it does suck, though like I told you there are ways around it, if you want to spend the time to build your own resistance system. The default one was mainly used for calculating damage, not for checking, which is unfortunate but it's just how it is.

So yeah RPGM2 has quite a few dumb things it doesn't allow, or can't do (like the 512 limit for buildings, and the resistance thing, and event scripts stopping completely if the event cannot satify a move command (by hitting a wall)). But if you keep at it you can overcome a lot of these obstacles, and you'll find that RPGM2 is limited mainly by ones imagination, and problem-solving skills more than the system. XP probably doesn't contain a lot of these constraints, but it is also just as or more involved then this, and requires good sprite drawing skills. So really when you use any game making framework you have to deal with limitations, unless you want to program it from the ground up, which will also have it's limitations on your ability, and time you can put into it, and the platform you're developing from. So you will always have limits, you just have to learn how to work around them.

[Jeremy]

Re: A Lotta Questions

Well it's not that i mind players being able to play the game as i want, that isn't really the problem. I was just planning to use a system that decreased or increased your stats depending on luck if you chose to gamble with certain aspects of your character. Sort of like a lottery game for stats which incorporated the use of items - but there is no way i can use this without an auto save function since players could and would just keep resetting and loading until the odds went to their favor, and all it would do is destroy the challenge of my game. Sort of like being able to go back in time and do something over when you go to a casino. If that was the case every casino on earth would be out of buisness. I know this doesn't bother you, but it does me. I let stupid things bother me, it's part of my nature.

It's not the end of the world and i can just abandon the idea, and thanks to your help with letting me able to use random stats it's helped me come up with a similair system that isn't so dependent on an auto save function. And yes - the building limit is very annoying. But like i said in my post, i'm not knocking the game - it lets me do way more than the other two RPG maker games i've played and i've put a scary amount of time into it, so it's obviously doing something right. Just didn't want the impression that the game lets you do anything you want to do, because it does have limitations - which, like you said, you're going to have to always deal with when dealing with someone else's framework other than your own. I do like the game, quite a bit - just frustrates me sometimes

[ErikaFuzzbottom]

Re: A Lotta Questions

I can't automatically save the game for the player either, which is a nuisance since it makes me unable to make any important decision-based gamplay because players can just simply reset and load, trying all the choices until they get the one that delivers the best effect.

That's the only thing that you listed that for certain is a limitation that can't be beat. And a bit of an unfortunate one, at that. In the game I'm working on, I'm going to make it so you don't simply return to the game's (custom) title screen at a Game Over, you also lose a collected item and have to collect it all over again. Those who don't like that will be able to simply hit the reset button and reload the file (though if they haven't saved in a while, sucks to be them!). Everyone else will go through with recollecting the item and hoping they don't lose all their lives again. Those are the people I'm aiming for when making Game Overs something to actually dread. Too many non-RPGs merely make Game Overs a simple nuisance, where all it really means is that you have to restart at the last save. Not like in the older days of gaming, where a Game Over meant you lost more than just a few minutes of gameplay.

BTW, have you ever used a save file on RPGM2? I don't mean the game you're creating, I mean when you're playing a game. Saving takes at least 10 seconds. Which would kinda be annoying if there were an auto-save feature, since the game is forced to pause when it saves. But that somewhat works to your advantage. It means it takes a decent chunk of time just to load your game and their save file. Most people would likely find it a waste of time to constantly reset if something didn't go according to their plan.

[Jeremy]

Re: A Lotta Questions

Unfortunate to be sure, as i was planning to automatically save the game during a lot of my scripts to prevent players from being tempted to manipulate the game to their advantage. I think you misunderstand me though when i say i want to be able to automatically save - because i don't mean a constant saving feature like diablo had, so the 10 second delay wouldn't be a problem at all. I would just like to be able to automatically save a game onto a file for the player every now and then, that or give them the option to save without the ability to say no and still continue. I can't do this though because the save game command has it's own user choice menu built into it that i can't get rid of or tamper with. I've played too many games where I resorted to use the reset and load technique to cheat my way through a game (you should have seen me in legend of mana with blacksmithing, i was shameless, and made a weapon that could one shot the mana goddess i cheated so bad). If there is a way to make something easier it just goes against human nature to not do it, though i would have much preferred the game was made in a way that didn't allow me to do so, thus killing the temptation all-together.

I'm going to do something similiar to what you're doing though, and am going to place the events i don't want players to be able to repeat over and over deep inside a dungeon and make it randomly occuring so it possibly could take the player hours and hours to find the event again. That way, if they are lucky enough to stumble upon the event they wouldn't pass it up hoping to find it again after they reset. Least i'm hoping that's how it turns out.

[DYRE]

Re: A Lotta Questions

You say that's bad, but it's really not much different from spending a few hours leveling up so that all the battles from then on are incredibly easy. And, even if there was auto-saving, someone could still copy their file and load that one if they didn't like the results of their choice.

[Crimson Knight]

Re: A Lotta Questions

Quite a few lately - like being unable to check a target's resistance levels in battle. It really demoralized me throwing in all the time i did and still not being able to get it done. Kind of like hiking almost up a mountain then finding out the trail is out of commision or something right near the top, so you miss out on the climax, but still did all the work lol. And then my random item generator idea hit a giant snag when it turned out all the item equip stat variables are not allowed to be edited. But True is helping me out with that so i may be able to salvage it - so i'm crossing my fingers. I can't automatically save the game for the player either, which is a nuisance since it makes me unable to make any important decision-based gamplay because players can just simply reset and load, trying all the choices until they get the one that delivers the best effect.

You can do what you're trying to do. The problem is that you aren't willing to find long workarounds. Sometimes that's the only solution to do something in RPG Maker 2. Also, even with autosave, players can simply reset/start over from another save anyway. I think it's kind of silly to have autosave in games.

[Jeremy]

Re: A Lotta Questions

You say that's bad, but it's really not much different from spending a few hours leveling up so that all the battles from then on are incredibly easy. And, even if there was auto-saving, someone could still copy their file and load that one if they didn't like the results of their choice.

You mean use a different memory card or something? Because if i controlled the saving i could prevent them from being able to save on a different file - as i would just automatically save them to the top file evertime i wanted to save the game for them. And on my game the battles will still offer some challenge no matter what level you are, the damage output doesn't vary all that greatly and hp increases at a rate that a level 1 monster is still capable of killing a level 99 member in 5 to 6 hits. They will be easier for sure, but i woudln't say incredibly easy, and if you let your guard down you can still die a quick death. So there really isn't a reasonable comparison when you compare leveling up on my game to saving and reloading in terms of ruining the game's challenge.

You can do what you're trying to do. The problem is that you aren't willing to find long workarounds. Sometimes that's the only solution to do something in RPG Maker 2. Also, even with autosave, players can simply reset/start over from another save anyway. I think it's kind of silly to have autosave in games.

I spent 6 months trying to find a work-around to getting my boss monsters to be able to check changing resistant levels on my members so they could alter their playing strategy to be most effective. If 6 months of constant trying isn't me willing to try to find long work-arounds i dont' know what it is, so that critique is a little unfounded.

Truecoolness gave me some good ideas, and i'm still trying to figure out if i can make them work. Me not being smart enough to figure out a way to work-around something doesn't mean i'm not willing to put in the effort to try and find one out. And i haven't asked anything of anyone on this forum i haven't tried to do on this forum myself first. If you know a way i can make a trait that is capable of checking resistant values of magical and weapon properites without the target having to use an ability of the property i'm wanting to check first - then by all means, please share, as i would love to know how. Afterall, if i knew all the answers i wouldn't need to be on a help forum to begin with.