Actor name with Yanfly message core bug or something else?

[signaltome]

Oh boy, so where to begin! First, there is a pic below to show what happens but I will try and explain it anyway, so here we go.


Everyone familiar with RPG Maker know you can use \n[x] to replace the Actor's name in text, dialogue and so on. (replacing x with the actors number in the Database obviously)


With Yanfly's Message Core plugin one can, as well, use \n<\n[x]> to make the Actor's name appear as a seperate name box on top of the message box. Up until now this has worked fine, I have had no problem with this.


In one of the first scenes in my game I have a long cutscene with an NPC, one of them a semi-important character later on so though she is not a main-character per say I made her an actor in the Database and used the above method to display her name in all text and dialogue. In case I wanted to rename her or something later, then it would be a bother to go back and redo her name all over the place. This worked fine in this scen, from beginning to end. (see also first line in the attached picture)


Just yesterday the main party returned from captivity and were ready to meet her again. And I set up the reunion and started to set up a cutscene with dialogue and movement as usual, nothing complicated that I had not done before. But when I started the game to do a preliminary test of the scene, all places where her name and name-boxes were concerned were blank. And I had copy/pasted the Actor # just like I usually do. Now, she is #8 on the Actor tab, so for funsies I replaced her "8" with some other Actor " and lo and behold, it worked as usual! (just the number, nothing else, namely 8 to 7 and then 5, both worked)


So my fist thought would have been that there is something wrong with the #8 Actor slot, EXCEPT that it worked FINE in the first scene. And not in the second, unless I replace the number of the actor when it does. Anyone have any idea why, because I have worked on the problem all day and have not gotten anywhere with it.


Edited: Moving the event tab to another map represented the same error as above. The same when I created a new dialogue with the same Actor #ID. Then  I copied the Actor to a fresh slot and that worked, so I will do that for now. I would still like an answer as to why a thing works once and then not again. BD

 

[Crimson Dragon Inc.]

can we get a screen shot of what it shows when you press f8 in the bad scene?

 

[Shaz]

I've moved this thread to JS/Plugin Support. Please be sure to post your threads in the correct forum next time. Thank you.


though it may not be related to the plugin at all.


F8 is not going to reveal anything, as there is no actual crash.

 

[signaltome]

Sorry about the posting, but I did place it in the general support because I was not sure it was the plugins fault since the \n[x] is already a part of RPG Maker, with or without Yanfly's excellent mods. And no, the game does not crash or anything, it plods along like normal.


The thing that I find strange (as I have mentioned) is that the same text command or whatever worked once and then not, using the exact same parameters. Creating a new event with the same Actor #ID ("8") did the exact same thing (nada), but changing the #, and the # ONLY made it work as if nothing was wrong with it in the first place.


So someone cursed the Actor #8 slot after the first scene it was used in!

 

[Crimson Dragon Inc.]

still that F8 could help us locate what is interfering with the plug in...... it could be you just need to update your plug ins

 

[signaltome]

I start to regret putting Yanfly's plugin in the title because I suspect it is not the plugins fault. (well, at least not that one)


In a burst of inspiration I turned it off and while there were no name boxes there were also still a lack of names with the \n[8] command while all others (say \n[7] "of" \n[9] ) still worked. (well, as far as I know all worked, tested all that have an Actor on them, 13 so far )


F8 gives me a big fat nothing, but I must admit I didn't know about it until Einherijar mentioned it, so thank you for that. Though I suppose I should learn to use it now, since there are some other plugins giving me grief as well, but that is besides the point in this topic. There are a few tabs in the F8 thing and all shows nothing, am I supposed to type in some commands? In that case I guess I need to look up some help files on the subject.


Though \n[8] STILL works in the first scene near the beginning, so something must interfere with that specific actor #ID from that to this one, several big events later.

 

[signaltome]

Also, I will mark it as solved until further notice, shall I.  A playthrough from the beginning seem to have resolved the matter. The changes I have made between the start of the game and the new events must have corrupted the save and somehow broken the usage of those commands. Thank you anyway for helpful suggestions. I should have tested that out further before making this thread. Sorry...  BD

 

[Shaz]

Any chance you've used a Change Actor Name, Input Name command, or have changed the name via a script call at some point and just forgotten about it?


Any chance you're using other plugins that might affect it?  If you can't track it down, disable ALL your plugins and see if the issue still happens.


I hesitated to move it, because you had the same thing happening in a plain message box, but without knowing what Yanfly's script did, I couldn't be sure that it was still something to do with the message formatting.  It could still be related to plugins though - just maybe a different one.

 

[signaltome]

I think I have marked this as resolved. I had made to many changes without actually updating the save I was using to test the new event. Starting again and getting there seemd to have solved the issue I had with it. Feel free to remove or archive or whatever you do with posts that are made by someone who's brain doesn't work at 4 AM in the morning. 


Edit: And no Shaz, no name changes or input commands. I spent all day trying to figure it out remember? In the end the easiest solutions are the best. An oversight on my part. But thank you for trying anyway, at least I know the people on this forum really try to help, even with idiotic posts like mine... BD


Edit again: And there is nothing wrong with Yanfly's plugins, which is a relief...

 

[Shaz]

You know, my very first thought was that it might be a save file thing, but I reasoned that if that were the case, the first event wouldn't work the way it did either.  Glad you figured it out.


Just know that if you make changes to the actor database, sometimes those changes will not be reflected in games you resume from a save made prior to the changes.

 

[signaltome]

Just know that if you make changes to the actor database, sometimes those changes will not be reflected in games you resume from a save made prior to the changes.

You know, it is strange. I don't remember how it was before (2k/2003) but some things you can change almost while you are actually playing, while others require a whole new run for it to implement. Guess it has with certain switches and other triggers that, if you put them in after you have already gone past that point in game it will not have been activated. You can always change switches and variables with F9 as long as you play in the editor, but I have been using a lot of self switches all over the place, with the Outer Selfswitch plugin, and you can't change those with F9, or anything else I don't think.


As for the first event is before it is even possible to save... Which is why I always have to test it from a fresh start. (three minutes or so into the game) If it had been further in it would have handled the same and I would have probably spotted it. But, like I said, the problem happened at a time where most people should have been asleep for five hours and so my sleep deprived mind used the whole day working on a problem instead of sleeping and figuring it out with the fresh mind later.


I DID figure it out, after posting this and getting some sleep. BD Go figure.

 

[Shaz]

If you change maps OTHER than the one you're on, they will probably be reflected the moment you go to those maps, because maps have to be loaded from the file every time you enter them.  Anything in the database, though, is loaded when you hit the play test button, so anything you do in there will not be refreshed until you do a new play test.


The thing with the actors is that when you add an actor to your party, a lot of their details are saved in $gameActors, which gets saved with your save file.  Only SOME things after that point will actually refer back to the database.  This is why you can make SOME changes and you'll see them when resuming a game you'd saved earlier, but for others, you have to start a new game.


Unless you have plugins that do weird things, I believe Actors is the only tab that has this unusual behaviour.

 

[signaltome]

That is probably the case, but I changed an face image in a dialogue text box a few times because I copied it and forgot to change it or felt that the dialogue would have a stronger impact with a slightly different expression and it (as far as I remember) changed immediately in game, that I still had open. I might misrmember though, don't quote me on it!