RPG Maker Forums

Hi! First, sorry if my wording is off, I'm new. By "Actor frame" I mean the panel in the main menu that shows the actor's face and hp and whatnot. Is there an actual word for that?

Anyway, I've been searching for a way to change what appears in the frame, and the closest I've come so far is Driftwood's fully customized menu (that transfers the player to a new map with a parallax menu image). That's an amazing video, but I don't need quite that much flashy customization. Yanfly's Status Menu Core is sort of similar, but that's the status menu and not the main menu.

Getting more specific with what I'm trying to accomplish, I need the frame not to show battle stats (level, hp, mp) and instead show a small number of variables I have functioning as role-play stats like Willpower and Hunger. Since I'm new, I'm keeping my ambitions super under control, and that means sleeping on any kind of battle system for the first release. As a result, battle stats aren't being used at all. For now, it's more of a slice-of-life simulator with lots of text narration/minor visual novel elements. I know, I know, VNM. But I researched both options, and VNM got bad reviews and seemed a lot more reliant on custom art (and my art level is like, -2). Also, battle IS a feature I want to add eventually. The free movement in RM also just felt like a more organic experience.

Anyway, while changing the actor menu frame would be ideal, my alternative would be to disable the menu entirely, use Button Common Events to return access to essential functions like save and options, and then do a Show Text CE to throw up a panel that lists the stat variables. I'd rather not do this because it seems janky, and even if I did, I'd be looking at a way to make the panel somehow parallel (so it can sit informatively at the side of the screen while the player goes about his/her business). Which, I currently have no idea how to do.

Thanks for your time, everyone!