Abilities and X menu for DoL:T3W

[YesterdaysMoose]

In Defenders Of Light: The Three Worlds your characters can learn abilities. These abilities are mainly controlled by Variables, but I recently created an Ability in the System and added it to the first character (party member).

Now, I noticed that it shows a star beside the ability (in game, X MENU). Assuming that this was controlled by character's level, I raised it and nothing happened...?

Does anyone know if it's possible to add more stars or take them away? It would be nice that as the character gains another ability there would then be two stars.

Also, does anyone know how to display the information that is contained within the Ability in the game itself? The description? For some reason it doesn't show that information for the Ability, only the star.

X MENU or not to X MENU?, that is the question...

DoLT3W uses a custom [] SQUARE MENU system. That being said, I still edited all the details that show up in the X MENU, for the System and the characters. As mentioned above, there is an Ability which can now be only seen in the X MENU under your characters STATUS (where it shows all your items, magics, abilities, etc.).

Most importantly, the WARP magic works perfectly when used! It will show ONLY the places you've visited! Not to mention you can actively change the text speed, toggle Vibration ON/OFF, and view how long you've been playing! (Unless any or all of these things can be accomplished another way....?)

As of now the [] SQUARE MENU shows ALL the places you can go to. Although, you cannot warp to a place you haven't visited yet. This can be programmed away, I know. I could just make different menus depending on where you go first. However, for the most part, I want the player to know the places they're going... even before they've visited; only the WARP option would be affected.

(Now I'm wondering if I have to go about making a bunch of new menu screens for the [] SQUARE MENU...? AND make it so you can only view the STATS of the places you've visited as well, then you wouldn't know the name of the area until you visited it first. The video game logic is sound, but it's a lot of effort and somehow I feel like it changes the nature of my game. After all, the characters are from The Three Worlds, you're exploring The Three Worlds, why wouldn't you know what places are called?)

Question: Keep names of areas viewable ALL the time, even for warping? Or, Show names of areas only after you've visited them first?

The big question is, though. Should I keep BOTH menu systems in, which I've been thinking of doing? Or, should I just focus on the [] SQUARE MENU as being the only menu in the game?

I figured if I kept both, consider the X MENU to be the SYSTEM MENU and the [] SQUARE MENU the GAME MENU. Which I suppose I would explain in the Instructions.

[Jeremy]

Re: Abilities and X menu for DoL:T3W

In Defenders Of Light: The Three Worlds your characters can learn abilities. These abilities are mainly controlled by Variables, but I recently created an Ability in the System and added it to the first character (party member).

Now, I noticed that it shows a star beside the ability (in game, X MENU). Assuming that this was controlled by character's level, I raised it and nothing happened...?

Does anyone know if it's possible to add more stars or take them away? It would be nice that as the character gains another ability there would then be two stars.

Also, does anyone know how to display the information that is contained within the Ability in the game itself? The description? For some reason it doesn't show that information for the Ability, only the star.

X MENU or not to X MENU?, that is the question...

DoLT3W uses a custom [] SQUARE MENU system. That being said, I still edited all the details that show up in the X MENU, for the System and the characters. As mentioned above, there is an Ability which can now be only seen in the X MENU under your characters STATUS (where it shows all your items, magics, abilities, etc.).

Most importantly, the WARP magic works perfectly when used! It will show ONLY the places you've visited! Not to mention you can actively change the text speed, toggle Vibration ON/OFF, and view how long you've been playing! (Unless any or all of these things can be accomplished another way....?)

As of now the [] SQUARE MENU shows ALL the places you can go to. Although, you cannot warp to a place you haven't visited yet. This can be programmed away, I know. I could just make different menus depending on where you go first. However, for the most part, I want the player to know the places they're going... even before they've visited; only the WARP option would be affected.

(Now I'm wondering if I have to go about making a bunch of new menu screens for the [] SQUARE MENU...? AND make it so you can only view the STATS of the places you've visited as well, then you wouldn't know the name of the area until you visited it first. The video game logic is sound, but it's a lot of effort and somehow I feel like it changes the nature of my game. After all, the characters are from The Three Worlds, you're exploring The Three Worlds, why wouldn't you know what places are called?)

Question: Keep names of areas viewable ALL the time, even for warping? Or, Show names of areas only after you've visited them first?

The big question is, though. Should I keep BOTH menu systems in, which I've been thinking of doing? Or, should I just focus on the [] SQUARE MENU as being the only menu in the game?

I figured if I kept both, consider the X MENU to be the SYSTEM MENU and the [] SQUARE MENU the GAME MENU. Which I suppose I would explain in the Instructions.

Those are really good questions, and I regret to say I haven't found ideal solutions to them. One of my biggest issues with RPG Maker2 was my inability to figure out how to transfer text relating to certain variables into the menu system itself.

The best I was able to do was include the number value of variables by inserting script calls into the Error Message script. That way when the system reads specific items or abilities I can tag a specific number to it. But sadly this only reads in text windows and not the menus themselves. So if you figure out a way to include variable-related text into the default menu system please let me know. I'd love to be able to do that.

I'm not sure what you mean by stars next to abilities. As far as I know, stars only represent class ranks, but from the sound of things you seem to be using a highly customized menu system so that might be why it's different for me. I mostly just use the in-game menu system with a lot of tweaking.

As far as questions relating to your warp menus - I think it would be better if you showed all the names - but just have the ones the player has already visited show up in a different color text or something. That way players can see the areas they haven't discovered yet, and it might encourage them to go looking for them. I think that would be pretty cool.

[YesterdaysMoose]

Re: Abilities and X menu for DoL:T3W

Those are really good questions, and I regret to say I haven't found ideal solutions to them. One of my biggest issues with RPG Maker2 was my inability to figure out how to transfer text relating to certain variables into the menu system itself.

The best I was able to do was include the number value of variables by inserting script calls into the Error Message script. That way when the system reads specific items or abilities I can tag a specific number to it. But sadly this only reads in text windows and not the menus themselves. So if you figure out a way to include variable-related text into the default menu system please let me know. I'd love to be able to do that.

I'm not sure what you mean by stars next to abilities. As far as I know, stars only represent class ranks, but from the sound of things you seem to be using a highly customized menu system so that might be why it's different for me. I mostly just use the in-game menu system with a lot of tweaking.

As far as questions relating to your warp menus - I think it would be better if you showed all the names - but just have the ones the player has already visited show up in a different color text or something. That way players can see the areas they haven't discovered yet, and it might encourage them to go looking for them. I think that would be pretty cool.

1) If I can get the text to show up, I will share it for sure.

2) Yes, I want to increase the class rank so it will show more than one star. Is that possible? (This Ability is in the X Menu options, and it's a class.) So, for each ability you gain your Defender rank (star) would increase by 1.


3) As for the Land names, I decided I will go with the more complex system. This way it will be more like Defenders Of Light (part 1), such that each Land will be a surprise.

Below is an example:

First World
?????
?????
?????

Then:

First World
Land Name
?????
?????

Or:

First World
??????
Land Name
??????

Or:

First World
?????
?????
Land Name

So, depending on where you go first, that name will be revealed.

It's also more in keeping with video game convention (which I am somewhat trying to do). Kind of like how some bosses will have different modes: first mode, (after you hit them) second (more powerful) mode, (hit) thirst (even worse) mode, (final hit) dead!

Another reason is that, although the X Menu warp works great, the land names will be out of order. Oh, and, I will be using the Warp Location to highlight things on the Map... which I think is pretty cool.

Thoughts?

[Jeremy]

Re: Abilities and X menu for DoL:T3W

1) If I can get the text to show up, I will share it for sure.

2) Yes, I want to increase the class rank so it will show more than one star. Is that possible? (This Ability is in the X Menu options, and it's a class.) So, for each ability you gain your Defender rank (star) would increase by 1.


3) As for the Land names, I decided I will go with the more complex system. This way it will be more like Defenders Of Light (part 1), such that each Land will be a surprise.

Below is an example:


So, depending on where you go first, that name will be revealed.

It's also more in keeping with video game convention (which I am somewhat trying to do). Kind of like how some bosses will have different modes: first mode, (after you hit them) second (more powerful) mode, (hit) thirst (even worse) mode, (final hit) dead!

Another reason is that, although the X Menu warp works great, the land names will be out of order. Oh, and, I will be using the Warp Location to highlight things on the Map... which I think is pretty cool.

Thoughts?

Oh the ability is the same as a class. The default system is to increase class rank through experience points since that is what turns on the Class Rank Up Flag upon winning a battle - but I've never really delved into figuring out alternative ways to increase rank so there could be other ways. You can set the amount of experience it takes to rank up in the Custom tab under the Class Editor.

But if that doesn't work for your game design you could always just write a script using the Members/Class Rank command and set the rank from there.

And I really like the new system you have for warping. I think it's better than what I suggested, because the ???? leaves more to the player's imagination while at the same time letting them know there are still undiscovered places.

[YesterdaysMoose]

Re: Abilities and X menu for DoL:T3W

Oh the ability is the same as a class. The default system is to increase class rank through experience points since that is what turns on the Class Rank Up Flag upon winning a battle - but I've never really delved into figuring out alternative ways to increase rank so there could be other ways. You can set the amount of experience it takes to rank up in the Custom tab under the Class Editor.

But if that doesn't work for your game design you could always just write a script using the Members/Class Rank command and set the rank from there.

And I really like the new system you have for warping. I think it's better than what I suggested, because the ???? leaves more to the player's imagination while at the same time letting them know there are still undiscovered places.

Shortly after posting I tried the class command, rising it up, and, of course, it worked. In my case the name of each class rank is the same.

Recently I found / created a game breaking glitch. You know, one where it freezes and you're forced to reset the PS2... This has happened to me before. Guess it serves me right for trying to push RM2 to it's limits all the time.

I wondered if anyone else has encountered one before?

I lost all my work, but got it back in shape after about 2 1/2 hours... which was less than how long it took me before the crash. The glitch still occurred in test play though. Funny thing was that what made it break was something that was working fine before my additions. I'm still not sure why it stopped working, but I fixed it again... twice.

My first fix changed something that I didn't want to change. It would've altered an aspect of game play. Now, assuming the player found the in-game work around, maybe no one would've been the wiser and they'd think that it was just the way the game was supposed to be. I, however, would've known and been unhappy about it.

So... I determined that there might be a fix that would keep things the way I had intended and figured I'd keep trying until I ran out of possible fixes. Yesterday I found the solution!

Funny thing though is the solution pretty much does the same thing as before in a slightly different way, so it doesn't make a lot of sense. I have a sound theory about why it works, so that will be enough for me.

I hope I don't find too many of these glitches. Now if only there was a way around slow down! Yup, you can cause it with too many things (effects, moving "buildings", etc.) happening at once.

[Jeremy]

Re: Abilities and X menu for DoL:T3W

Shortly after posting I tried the class command, rising it up, and, of course, it worked. In my case the name of each class rank is the same.

Recently I found / created a game breaking glitch. You know, one where it freezes and you're forced to reset the PS2... This has happened to me before. Guess it serves me right for trying to push RM2 to it's limits all the time.

I wondered if anyone else has encountered one before?

I lost all my work, but got it back in shape after about 2 1/2 hours... which was less than how long it took me before the crash. The glitch still occurred in test play though. Funny thing was that what made it break was something that was working fine before my additions. I'm still not sure why it stopped working, but I fixed it again... twice.

My first fix changed something that I didn't want to change. It would've altered an aspect of game play. Now, assuming the player found the in-game work around, maybe no one would've been the wiser and they'd think that it was just the way the game was supposed to be. I, however, would've known and been unhappy about it.

So... I determined that there might be a fix that would keep things the way I had intended and figured I'd keep trying until I ran out of possible fixes. Yesterday I found the solution!

Funny thing though is the solution pretty much does the same thing as before in a slightly different way, so it doesn't make a lot of sense. I have a sound theory about why it works, so that will be enough for me.

I hope I don't find too many of these glitches. Now if only there was a way around slow down! Yup, you can cause it with too many things (effects, moving "buildings", etc.) happening at once.

Yeah RPG Maker 2 isn't very good about managing a lot of different motions at once. It doesn't take much at all to create a lot of slow down. That's one of the reasons I don't have a lot of visual effects on my game - but I do find it helps a lot to clear all effects before introducing new ones. That helps alleviate the slowdown a lot, at least for me.

Far as glitches that cause you to have to reset the ps2 - I occasionally have to do this. That's why I save often as a I can. I find it happens to me most often when I"m going in and out of making quick changes to the map editor. So I try to go a little slower while doing that, and it seems to help.

[YesterdaysMoose]

Re: Abilities and X menu for DoL:T3W

My current slow down issue is caused by moving too many "buildings" at the same time. If I can get a visual effect to look like it, in this case, it may solve the problem. I'm aware of the visual effect slow down problem and compensate other ways.

Your glitch sounds weird too. Never had the game freeze from working too fast. Good to know since I tend to zip through fairly fast while working.

My glitch seemed to be caused by placing vehicle(s) on the map. This worked fine before then I made some changes. After that if you were character one everything was fine. However, if you were any other character and warped to the same map you were on it crashed. I wanted this feature so savvy players could use it as a time saving measure to get back to the level / map start faster. I added the check party member command and just made it character specific. In other words, only the character who can use said vehicle will trigger the placement of the vehicle on the map, including when the vehicle is moved so it's back to it's starting point. For some reason it worked, although it's almost the same as beore.

It's strange because so far character one and three both can use a vehicle. The glitch didn't affect character one but three was, as well as the rest. Now, with the conditions it works fine again. The exact same thing is happening except for the character specific conditions I added. My theory is that when I added more vehicles after that it caused a problem. So, the conditions simply prevent many vehicles from being placed on the same map, at the same position too many times... however many that it. It's still placing the vehicles over and over again, but now it's character specific.

Anywho it worked, so I'm good with that.

[Drew]

Re: Abilities and X menu for DoL:T3W

There are ways around VFX slow downs. Make sure in the editor you have 1F and 1F ticked if it's a constant VFX being displayed.

Do you have any scripts that are constantly checking things? If so with RPGM2 when you're checking a lot of things it's best to have at least a 1F wait either right after

Script: Branch Condition Flag Fixed=off {
1f WAIT

rest of your checks here
}

And as for the X menu i'd rather make a customized system. Honestly the only real presets I use from RPGM2 are models, maps, etc. I would rather make a menu system I know for a fact what it FULLY does. But that's just me.

[YesterdaysMoose]

Re: Abilities and X menu for DoL:T3W

There are ways around VFX slow downs. Make sure in the editor you have 1F and 1F ticked if it's a constant VFX being displayed.

Do you have any scripts that are constantly checking things? If so with RPGM2 when you're checking a lot of things it's best to have at least a 1F wait either right after

Script: Branch Condition Flag Fixed=off {
1f WAIT

rest of your checks here
}

And as for the X menu i'd rather make a customized system. Honestly the only real presets I use from RPGM2 are models, maps, etc. I would rather make a menu system I know for a fact what it FULLY does. But that's just me.

Hmm... VFX aren't the problem, it's moving too many "buildings" around. See, I'm using some blocks from the building editor to represent something, and there's many of them, and they move. So, now, if I replace them with a VFX it will probably solve the slow down issue. The dilemma is making the VFX look similar to the blocks. I'm not sure if I can pull it off since I'm not as skilled with it as some people may be. Or I'm just not confidant enough that I can do it, or it might look silly. I don't really want to change it, it's just that it slows down so much that it negatively affects game play.

Thank you for the feedback about the menus. However, I made a few more alterations and will keep both the X menu and square menu. Reason being that the X menu shows how long you've been playing. Also I added a few more bells and whistles too that will make the X menu have some purpose, however superficial that purpose may seem.

I mean, I could leave out the X menu out altogether and no one would be the wiser... for a long time I wasn't going to have it at all... but I personally would like to see the amount of play time, since you have the option to view it. Unlike RM1s play time that reset every time you saved again after a reload.

And, as I said, there are other things that will show up in the X menu that should / will be interesting. An example is (mentioned before) how I'm using the class system now. Each character starts with one star and gains another each time an ability is gained / learned. It doesn't need to be there, but I thought it added a nice touch. There's some other things too that I will keep to myself until I release another updated demo, or the full game itself.

I will try testing the wait command in the script for the "buildings" and see if it makes a difference. With luck I won't have to use a VFX instead of blocks.

[Drew]

Re: Abilities and X menu for DoL:T3W

Not a problem, and how many buildings are you trying to display at once? Buildings are finicky when it comes to events.

[YesterdaysMoose]

Re: Abilities and X menu for DoL:T3W

Your 1 frame wait suggestion worked like a charm, now there's zero slow down. Thanks!

The "buildings" were running additional script commands besides just moving around, so strategic placement of the wait command fixed it.

It makes sense, since I've had to add a 3 frame delay before some other commands to get them to work correctly. Even though it seems like RM2 should work without the 3 frame delay, it must be added to fix whatever issue is present when the delay isn't there.

After that was done, I tinkered around with the older existing scripts and found a few more places where I had neglected to optimize my data usage. It was probably because (at the time) I no doubt thought that the script wouldn't work properly. Seems I was wrong... Or I simply didn't do it in the first place.

[Drew]

Re: Abilities and X menu for DoL:T3W

Your 1 frame wait suggestion worked like a charm, now there's zero slow down. Thanks!

The "buildings" were running additional script commands besides just moving around, so strategic placement of the wait command fixed it.

It makes sense, since I've had to add a 3 frame delay before some other commands to get them to work correctly. Even though it seems like RM2 should work without the 3 frame delay, it must be added to fix whatever issue is present when the delay isn't there.

After that was done, I tinkered around with the older existing scripts and found a few more places where I had neglected to optimize my data usage. It was probably because (at the time) I no doubt thought that the script wouldn't work properly. Seems I was wrong... Or I simply didn't do it in the first place.

Glad I could be of assistance

[Jeremy]

Re: Abilities and X menu for DoL:T3W

There are ways around VFX slow downs. Make sure in the editor you have 1F and 1F ticked if it's a constant VFX being displayed.

Do you have any scripts that are constantly checking things? If so with RPGM2 when you're checking a lot of things it's best to have at least a 1F wait either right after

Script: Branch Condition Flag Fixed=off {
1f WAIT

rest of your checks here
}

And as for the X menu i'd rather make a customized system. Honestly the only real presets I use from RPGM2 are models, maps, etc. I would rather make a menu system I know for a fact what it FULLY does. But that's just me.

Interesting. I'll have to add this to my event motions and see if it helps. I never knew about this.

And if you have a lot of experience making menus, I wonder if you know a way to include text corresponding to certain variables into the default menu system? That's one thing I've never been able to figure out how to do, and be nice if I could. It's kind of frustrating having to design seperate events to display items all the time. For example: I have to create a seperate event that gives more in-depth details about the items for sale at all my shops, because I can't for the life of me figure out how to include them into the shop windows themselves. It's nothing game-breaking, but is a nuisance.

[Jeremy]

Re: Abilities and X menu for DoL:T3W

Hmm... VFX aren't the problem, it's moving too many "buildings" around. See, I'm using some blocks from the building editor to represent something, and there's many of them, and they move. So, now, if I replace them with a VFX it will probably solve the slow down issue. The dilemma is making the VFX look similar to the blocks. I'm not sure if I can pull it off since I'm not as skilled with it as some people may be. Or I'm just not confidant enough that I can do it, or it might look silly. I don't really want to change it, it's just that it slows down so much that it negatively affects game play.
.

I had a similiar problem from the sound of it. I was trying to move buildings around to conserve memory each time a player entered a new area - but it gave my game such horrible load times I decided it wasn't worth it. Memory is my constant nemesis on RPG Maker2

And nice job fixing that glitch you was having. I don't use any vehicles on my game so I don't have much experience at working with those, so I"m glad you was able to find a workable solution. I make players get around the old fashioned way on my game ^^

[Drew]

Re: Abilities and X menu for DoL:T3W

Interesting. I'll have to add this to my event motions and see if it helps. I never knew about this.

And if you have a lot of experience making menus, I wonder if you know a way to include text corresponding to certain variables into the default menu system? That's one thing I've never been able to figure out how to do, and be nice if I could. It's kind of frustrating having to design seperate events to display items all the time. For example: I have to create a seperate event that gives more in-depth details about the items for sale at all my shops, because I can't for the life of me figure out how to include them into the shop windows themselves. It's nothing game-breaking, but is a nuisance.

Unfortunately I don't use the main systems. When I have shops I make a whole custom system. And honestly the only way I know how to display variables is

Screen Text: Content Variable [X VARIABLE]

Hope that helped.