RMMV A missing actor doesn't automatically shift the next actor in the index sequence.

[PoptartPresident]

I don't think there is a direct to do this, according to this thread about my game issue:

How do I...work with Party Member/Actor ID's for UI configuration?

Hey everyone! I am afraid this might be a bigger core issue, but I'm not too sure. I will try to break this down as much as I can think: So in my game, I have (up to 4) party members that are able to be played during the course of the entire game. Here is that database: So during battle and...

forums.rpgmakerweb.com

If possible, could someone please make a plugin where, if Actor(s) are missing from the party, the game doesn't automatically make the other Actors change to the next IDs in the sequence?

What I mean is, I have 4 Actors.
Actor001, 002, 003, and 004.

Say for instance, Actor 001 is gone for some portion of my game. It would be great if the plugin made it to where Actor002 doesn't become the new Actor001, and just remains as Actor002.
So essentially their usual spots in the party are just blank.

In-battle, the missing actor's spots are just blank since they aren't there. [This would help me with my UI configuration]
Outside of battle, the missing actors are not in the party, so whoever is left should just be in their own little follower/formation, and not just have a blank spot for the missing members.

 

[Andar]

first, you're mixing up different values.
the actor ID never changes, and no actor wilol ever become a different one. Tthe only thing that changes is the party index.

second, the party index is used for more than just UI positioning, it also determines battle targeting.

What you want can be done, but you'll need to give very clear indications of what you want to happen for which case before someone can write such a custom plugin.

 

[PoptartPresident]

first, you're mixing up different values.
the actor ID never changes, and no actor wilol ever become a different one. Tthe only thing that changes is the party index.

second, the party index is used for more than just UI positioning, it also determines battle targeting.

What you want can be done, but you'll need to give very clear indications of what you want to happen for which case before someone can write such a custom plugin.

Ahh, I had no idea! Thank you Andar.

So basically, what I want is this:

If someone in the party of the normal 4 is missing, their party index does not automatically change/follow the previously missing Actor's place. So what should happen is that their respective party indexes remain the same, even with missing actors.

This way, the leftover Actors can remain in their normal "spot" in-battle.



This is what my party normally looks like in-battle. I was using SRD's HUD plugins to make all the custom HP/MP bars displayed.

Here is what happens the moment one of the actors are missing:


Of course this is just 1 example, but the UI gets a little weird anytime I mix the actors around.

I think this is because of the party index as Andar said.

If there was a way to see if actors could just stay in their 'spots' without changing positions in the battle UI, that would be awesome!
(For instance, Yellow box frankie should have stayed in his bottom right corner)

Also, I'm not sure if this would effect the overworld formation, but the party would just be squished without any blank actor spots.

 

[ATT_Turan]

The problem is that RPG Maker's engine is coded with the expectation that the array of party members has valid actors for each element.

Theoretically, what you want is doable where you remove an actor from your party and instead of shifting the others up you just make the element at that array index undefined.

However, in practice, freaking everything in the code that looked at any actor would then proceed to throw errors because it was never necessary to check whether this index of the party actually holds a valid object.

The amount of stuff you'd have to add to every nook of the code would be a prohibitive amount of effort.

I think it would be much simpler to try making blank actors (no name or images) and swap them into the party in the place of whichever actor is leaving. You'd have to get a little plugin that doesn't display their HP/MP/TP gauges in battle, or to allow that actor to display as 0, but that would be way easier than the alternative.

 

[PoptartPresident]

The problem is that RPG Maker's engine is coded with the expectation that the array of party members has valid actors for each element.

Theoretically, what you want is doable where you remove an actor from your party and instead of shifting the others up you just make the element at that array index undefined.

However, in practice, freaking everything in the code that looked at any actor would then proceed to throw errors because it was never necessary to check whether this index of the party actually holds a valid object.

The amount of stuff you'd have to add to every nook of the code would be a prohibitive amount of effort.

I think it would be much simpler to try making blank actors (no name or images) and swap them into the party in the place of whichever actor is leaving. You'd have to get a little plugin that doesn't display their HP/MP/TP gauges in battle, or to allow that actor to display as 0, but that would be way easier than the alternative.

Ahh yeah this is the dummy actor idea I was thinking about earlier.

Making sure they don't display HP/MP shouldn't be a problem, since I am using SRD's HUD to move that menu off screen, so those Menus are never actually seen anyway.

The only thing too is, I'd have to have it to where the "dummy actors" also don't appear during combat, and are not interactable in anyway...especially for things like AoE skills.
I'm thinking perhaps I could make it to where, when enemy encounters happen, I can just Event the game to add in those Dummy Actors and take them away after combat ends. I will not have enemies that are randomly-stepped on, all my enemies are physical events/entities that can touch you.

I wouldn't mind having a set of some Dummy Actors who are just blank, and take the place of the others when they are gone, in order to keep the actual actors in their spots in the game combat. Perhaps this is a good idea for a plugin? Cause I don't really know how I would accomplish that with the default engine's settings...the tricky thing is the whole making them non-interactable in anyway shape or form during battle.

 

[ATT_Turan]

The only thing too is, I'd have to have it to where the "dummy actors" also don't appear during combat, and are not interactable in anyway...especially for things like AoE skills.

Well, you can give them no graphics and stuff.

But if the whole big point of this is to affect the actor positioning in combat, you could try just coding it into your actor position formula (or HUD formula or whatever).

 

[Andar]

and you can prevent the dummies from being affected by 0% target rate and 0% damage everything and immune to all states.

That said, why not simply change the HUD to be based on actor ID instead of party position?
I admit that I never checked any of SRDs plugins, but if you can use them to change the battle UI that far, it should also be possible to change what is used for conditions and definitions.

This would be a display change only and then not cause any of the other side effects of skipping party index, because you would be ignoring the party index.

 

[PoptartPresident]

and you can prevent the dummies from being affected by 0% target rate and 0% damage everything and immune to all states.

That said, why not simply change the HUD to be based on actor ID instead of party position?
I admit that I never checked any of SRDs plugins, but if you can use them to change the battle UI that far, it should also be possible to change what is used for conditions and definitions.

This would be a display change only and then not cause any of the other side effects of skipping party index, because you would be ignoring the party index.

Ahhh, I as wondering if maybe that could help, with the way the conditions are coded.
Here is the code I am using currently to display my HUD graphics:

$gameParty.members()[0]
$gameParty.members()[1]
$gameParty.members()[2]
$gameParty.members()[3]

Under my Conditions tab, I use these pieces of code for making those 8-bit markers appear.


In this example, I have Helm's 8-bit icon displayed thanks to the Condition of

$gameParty.members()[0]

being true. 1,2,3 all apply for the other 8-bit icons as well.

BattleManager.actor() ? BattleManager.actor().index() === 0 : false
BattleManager.actor() ? BattleManager.actor().index() === 1 : false
BattleManager.actor() ? BattleManager.actor().index() === 2 : false
BattleManager.actor() ? BattleManager.actor().index() === 3 : false

Also, I use these pieces of code in the Conditions tab to display the image of "What will (ACTOR) do?" during turn decisions. These are displayed during the party member's Turn.





In this example, I have the image displayed above of: "What will FRANKIE do?". The condition of:

BattleManager.actor() ? BattleManager.actor().index() === 3 : false

allows me to only display this when it is Frankie's turn, and he is deciding what to do.



I am totally open to using other Conditional Code pieces if that will solve my problem. You said there was something for Actor ID's correct? How could I use that in these circumstances?