Control switches question

[Tarnos]

Hey, I know there are tutorials for this, but I cant figure out how to do this.

I have an event which has 5 different event pages. Event is a npc which will move around the way i want (parallel process) and do some random stuff like jump or show baloon above his head etc. 4 other event pages and 4 different things he can say.

1st event:

Control Switches: [0001ialog1] = ON

after this there is a baloon icon and then Set move route after a while there is another:

Control Switches: [0001ialog1] = OFF

Control Switches: [0001ialog2] = ON

and another part of his route and so on until switch dialog 4. for some reason npc is not moving from his spot since i added Control Switches. If i remove it then its working fine.

What I want to achieve is a npc which will move around doing some stuff and will say different thing depending on when u talk to him.

Each dialog event has condition for a switch to be ON and are set for action button trigger

and a simple text message.

I hope you can understand my problem and maybe help me out. I dont mind using a different way to achieve what I want.

 

[Andar]

please post screenshots of all event pages - your informations about the event are incomplete, and we need to see the entire event options to see why it might stopp - it could be anything from wrong switch conditions to wrong page order, double use on the switches, passability problems or more.


Also, using parallel process for movement is usually a bad choice as it creates too much lag, creates more event pages than neccessary and might cause a lot of problems later. It's much better to use autonomous movement instead of a move route in the content of a parallel process page.


(autonomous movement is between the sprite grafic and the content area of each event page)

 

[Tarnos]

There is a reason why its a parallel process, but since u say its a bad idea I will have to change. I just want to make my character move for a while then do some kind of animation/jump etc then keep going again as u can see on this screenshoot

Spoiler

Spoiler

3rd up to 5th are exactly the same but condition switch is different "Dialog1" "Dialog2" up to "Dialog4"

If i delete control switch or move it further, then it will work up to the point when I use control switch again.

I found this:

The page with the highest number will always be displayed by default: the game processes higher-numbered pages as having a higher priority. This means that the new page with the opened chest will overwrite the first page even before the player opens the chest, unless we set it to appear only when specific conditions are met.

source: http://finalbossblues.com/rmvx-ace-switches-and-variables-p1/

but even if i moved event page 1 to page 5 my npc just keep moving to the left for some reason Anyway I am still reading tutorial so I might figure out a better way to make what I want.

 

[Shaz]

By default, you can only have ONE event page active at a time.  Since you turn on a switch right at the start to make a different page active, the rest of the commands may be getting ignored (anything that has a WAIT, such as your second command, will almost definitely cause everything after it to be ignored).

If your first page is simply to process the movement and animations, you're better off putting that into a completely separate event (leave it as parallel process), and change all of the Set Move Route commands to apply to EV001 instead of "This Event".  Then it will always be running, and the REAL event will also respond to player actions.

Or Tsukihime wrote a script that allows you to have multiple event pages active at the same time.  Do a search for parallel event pages or similar terms.

 

[Tarnos]

Andar wrote that using parallel process for movement may cause lag and all, do u think its a good idea to use it? with your answer I guess its possible to use autonomous movement with single event then use another one for dialog or maybe even put all in 1 event. I just want my npc to say different thing depending on his movement position or weather outside in other word If certain switch is on then he will say different thing.

 

[Andar]

but Andar said that using parallel process for movement may cause lag and all, do u think its a good idea to use it? with your answer I guess its possible to use autonomous movement with single event then use another one for dialog

excessive use of parallels cause lag - if every parallel is a bad idea, then that option would not exist.
Sometimes you have to use parallel processes - you should just make sure that you don't use them for things that can be done in other ways.


In your specific case, you haven't given us enough info to decide if it would be better to use a parallel or not - so we can only tell you what options you have, and you have to test them.

 

[Tarnos]

I have another question, simply using parallels process cause lag for a whole game no matter where our character is at that time? wont this event stop while we are on other map? If yes, then it wont cause any lag right? If I am wrong, or there is simply better way for that. Tell me other way how to make:

Npc which will move where I want him to( between each movement OR after certain amount of time/frames this npc will change his dialog and sometimes it will show balloon over npc head( if possible I want to set exact time where that balloon shows up )

Also about dialog I want it to change completely after certain actions have been made, like after u beat a boss it will change completely. I guess I can simply delete event when certain switch is on and turn on other event with another switch.

Does every even cause lag to the game? I mean even if my character is not on that certain map and even if he is but event is turned off, will it still matter? I am just curious. What will happen if I put 100 or more events on a single map but use just 10<will be active like parallel> not sure about event which require action button instead, they are turned off until i actually press that action button so it should not cause any lag right?.

Sorry if thats too much, I am not expecting u to make event for me or anything at all. I want to do it by myself. After reading about switches I came up with this idea but it seems to be no good

 

[Andar]

1) No, lag is only created by the map events on that map, plus common events on parallel (which run on all maps, that's why they're named common).


2) There are several ways to make an event like that, it all depends on some details you haven't told us or we would have been able to tell you how to do that.


For example, instead of spreading the different dialogues between several pages, you can make them on one page and use conditional branches to select which dialog is the current one. Using the switch command inside the move route instead of the control switch command outside will allow you to set the entire move route inside autonomous movement, so you need only one event page for everything in that event.


Then make a common event (NOT a map event) on parallel process in the database, condition it to a switch "ballon appears" and have it contain only the commands to display the balloon on that event, and a control switch OFF for itself. And whenever you switch that ON during moveroute, the balloon will appear, switching itself off in the next step.


3) Changing dialogue requires switches to condition those dialogues, but that is basic options

 

[Tarnos]

Thank you, now I will take my time to understand what u just wrote there

as for 1st, event created on map (even if parallel) will only work on that single map right? Only "common events" created in database and set to parallel will cause lag if there is too much of them. Thanks for really faster answer, I will figure out what next.( I actually forgot there are common events inside database...) Also I have no idea what more info u would require to give me a better idea of what to do, but thats fine, your answer was good enough I will learn from now on.

 

[Andar]

Using a common event to display an animation or a ballon on an event is a bit tricky, because it will happen to the event with that ID on any map when the common event is activated - but it does work, I just tested it. If you don't find out how it works I can provide screenshots in a few days when I have more time...

 

[Tarnos]

ok i will try it out later and see how it is. but I am not sure what trigger should be in common events...if its parallel then it will cause lag right? I mean I want to make balloons animations for most npcs in a game where there could be like 200 npcs or more. so I guess there must be a better way to make that or its possible to turn off  parallel event and it wont cause lag, but turn it on only when necessary,

 

[monkeyintartan]

There is a script called move route extras by Galv that allows you to do everything u need as part of your npc move route, no parallel processes needed so hardly any lag. Search rpg maker vx ace Galv scripts and check out his sight.

 

[Shaz]

Are you sure it will suit this situation?  This isn't just about using a parallel process - it's about having an event do two different things at the same time - one automatically, and one triggered by interaction.  That's the whole point of having a separate event - so the move route (from the separate event) won't reset every time the other event changes active pages.  Are you sure Galv's script can do that?

 

[Andar]

OK, I had a few minutes - the following way is tested and it works without any scripts.


However, it will work for ANY "Event #2" on any map, so you need to make sure that the switch is only turned on if the event #2 on the current map should display that balloon. And you might need to move the triggering switch in the moveroute to another line, depending on the timing when the balloon is really displayed.


First, you set up the event on the map using autonomous movement (and selected switches, don't forget to name them even if the move route command doesn't display the name):

Spoiler

 

After that you can go to database, common events, and set up the common event for the display of the balloons (you can't go to database first, because the event needs to exist before you can enter the commands:

Spoiler

And now you're finished without any risk of lag or any complex multipage-events.

 

[Tarnos]

Hey I just came to show u effect of my own work...and there u gave me almost the same result :> by event #2 u simply mean EV002? so as long as I change each event name it will be good?

and here is what I have created:

Spoiler

Thanks for your answer I can see yours looks different, I guess mine is messed up a bit but still it worked for me too :>

 

[Andar]

Hey I just came to show u effect of my own work...and there u gave me almost the same result :> by event #2 u simply mean EV002? so as long as I change each event name it will be good?

NO, I'm talking about the ID number two.

IDs are automatically given when an event is created - they are copied to the name, but a name-change will NOT change the event's ID.

Nothing changes an event's ID, you can only delete events and the next new event will take the lowest ID that is free (again if one was deleted).

 

[Tarnos]

so right now this event is #1 If my other map use event like transfer for doors and stuff it will show balloon above it when that switch is ON...but since it cant be ON because that parallel process is on other map it should be fine? so i just need to make sure that switch is ON/OFF only when on that map which is simple in this  situation where npc moves around and turn OFF/ON events between his movement.

 

[Andar]

yes, that switch will stay off unless you activate it manually - so you just have to make sure that you don't activate it on other maps.


Most probably such a thing will only happen by accident (that is one reason why it's bad that the switch names are not displayed in the move route), so you have to know about that problem for bughunting if such an accident happens.

 

[Tarnos]

ok thanks alot I guess if I want to make each npc to show a balloon over their heads the same way, I need to make new common event for each of them? Either on the same map or the other one. I could possibly use the same event ID for npc on other map and still use first common event u created there right? Why would I waste space for common events when currently existed event can be useful for other character in different map

 

[Andar]

you can do a lot, if you remember that the common event needs to be triggered and everything specified in it will then always happen.


For example, you can use a conditional branch to check which map you're on and select different commands depending on that.


However, be carefull not to outthink yourself. Yes, it's better to keep the number of common events low - but not to the point that the common event becomes a complex mess of dozen different function. You can have 999 different common events, and these self-disabling events don't cause lag - so unless you end up with several hundred events, there is no need to combine too much.