Easier way to remember previous team set-ups?

[Benny Jackdaw]

Ugh, I cannot tell you how ****ed I am that I have to redo my entire project. I hate putting months of work into **** for nothing, so pardon my bad mood. I might feel better if I knew something that could make things easier.

The Gordo Grande system which turns one character into a giant removes the rest of the team. To reset the team, I had to make tens, almost a hundred switches in every single room I had made just to reset the team to its general position. Is there an easier way to switch back to a team before the Gordo Grande system takes into effect?

 

[Poryg]

What kind of a battle system you use? Default RM2K3? Or a custom one?

 

[Benny Jackdaw]

What kind of a battle system you use? Default RM2K3? Or a custom one?

A default one. The GGsystem is operated through switches, and the "giant form" is a background with a large character sprite and the playable itself is the head, which is the only thing that's animated because those are the limits of 2003, but I don't mind cause I like being able to get creative like that.

 

[Poryg]

And why did you have to use tens or hundreds of switches in every room? Just a small question

 

[Benny Jackdaw]

When you add a character to your team, that turns on a switch. I used these switches to tell who's on each team before Gordo Grande, but I plan on having a LOT of characters in the long-run, which meant I would have to add LOTS of switches for every character in every room.

 

[Poryg]

Well...
Here is where the RM2k3 has more limitations than mv, because it doesn't allow manipulations based on actor ID.
However, you may turn all these switches into variables, each one for a party member. Since rpg maker 2003 doesn't allow more than four party members, it simplifies everything. You need four variables, each one will contain a party member's actor ID.
Then you will simply use Change party member -> add -> referenced by variables three times. No need for annoying conditional branches and switches anymore.
Also, if you add it into a parallel process common event that will work on a switch you turn on in battle, you'll have much easier job too. No need to bother with it in every room again.

Spoiler: See? Much cleaner code :)

You can remove the members using the exact same variables and then after the removal turn on the switch. However, you would need to know which party member is using the skill.

 

[Benny Jackdaw]

Okay, but does that work for remembering the original cast, or do I have to set every specific character to a variable?

 

[Poryg]

You will have to set it so that during the party change variable 1 gets a value based on actor ID (this is, gotta admit, one huge conditional branch). Variable 2 gets a value based on actor ID
variable 3 gets a value based on actor ID
and variable 4 gets a value based on actor ID.
These are four conditional branches you cannot avoid, because RPG maker 2003 doesn't allow you to work with actor ID directly. And substitute your hundreds of switches to make it more convenient later on.
But when you have their values stored, it will remember the original cast, because it is stored in the variables. and no further conditional branches will be necessary (maybe except for deciding who used the skill and where he is so that you don't remove him from the party).

 

[Benny Jackdaw]

But I still don't get how you actually assign "Player 1" or such to a variable. I've looked around, but I can't find a clear way of doing it.

 

[Poryg]

I'll show you in a project.

 

[Benny Jackdaw]

"Show you in a project?" What do you mean?

 

[Poryg]

In this zip folder there is an RM2003 project describing what I meant and how I meant to do it.
If you wish to check, you may press f9 in game btw. That allows you to take a look at switches and variables.

 

[Benny Jackdaw]

The program didn't seem to answer my question, I still don't get it. I also don't get how to conveniently erase a particular member from my team while keeping variables in mind.

 

[Poryg]

Well, at least i tried...

Reading through the thread once again though, I noticed you said that you have many switches in every single room, how does your party system work? Do you have multiple parties scattered across rooms?

 

[Benny Jackdaw]

I'll try to explain it the best I can.

No, all playable characters are situated in one single area. You choose a character to start with, and then you assemble your team at the HQ bunker. All the characters will be waiting in a bunker room, and as long as you have less than four members, you can talk to them and ask them to join, otherwise they will refuse and you would have to go to a character's bed to remove them. If you were to go to the bed of the initial leader, you can then there change your leader. For future characters, there will be new expansions to the room, and if you unlock a character during a mission, they can be added to your team, again, at the HQ bunker. You actually would have a lot of control over your team, but this is the only place where you can change your team. The only other time your team changes is with the Gordo Grande mode shift.

 

[Poryg]

Then the project answers your questions. Not all of them, but it does the most important ones...
First page the autostart event sets variables 1-4 equal to actors' IDs in the database.


However, I'll recreate it to mimic your system. I will also rename the actors so their names are equal to their place in database.

Done. Inside the project there are as many features as possible. Play through this game if necessary. Press f9 to check the variable values each time you add or remove a party member. This will help to give you a grasp to what is happening. There are also two events. One serves for removing all party members except for the first one, another one for removing any member you please.
One and Two have a Gordo-Grande-like skill. Inside common events you will find a common event that restores the party.

 

[Benny Jackdaw]

Huh, it appears I've run into a problem with your game. If I try to use Gordo Grande mode without a full team, the game will tell me that I have an invalid actor and shut off. I also notice that after using it with a FULL team, the game becomes really, really slow.

 

[Poryg]

Well, both bugs were natural, one was intentional and one was my tiredness.
First bug has an easy solution. Needs to check the party size. And then depending on the party size, you will add the remaining party members.
This was the intentional one so that I won't do all the work myself. All necessary clues are inside the project.
Second bug is because I forgot to turn switch three off in the end of Party restoration common event after gordo grande usage.

 

[Benny Jackdaw]

How do I check the party size?

 

[Poryg]

humanoid events in map0002 hide the answer to your question, the leftmost one also has comments about it.