Falcao Pearl ABS: Strange Error Related To HP (I Think)

[TheKeeper]

Heyla!


So, I've been using the Falcao Pearl ABS Liquid v3 scripts in my game. And everything seems to work, perfectly... until I test the final battle scene. I'm not exactly sure why, but every now and then, while I'm trying to use either a health potion or a dispel herb, the game crashes with an error (nil class something or other) that points to the Pearl Sprite script, line 458. At first, I thought that it might have been related to my maybe using my potions at exactly the same time I'm getting killed, as in, just as my hp hits 0, I've hit the use potion tool button, which takes me to the target selection screen, which bugs out when I hit enter, because there's nothing to use the potion on, anymore. But then, while keeping an eye on my hp bar, I've realized that it will do this regardless of where my hp are at, so I'm back to not knowing exactly what's wrong, but that it happens at some seemingly random point in this battle, and while I'm using either my health potion or my dispel potion. I'm hoping that someone else can take a look at the demo I've included, which isolates & replicates that final battle (and that annoying error). All the scripts I'm using, with the exception of the Zlevel script by Hime (from the HF2 resource pack), are included in this demo, just in case something is clashing with another script.


Here is where I had downloaded the Pearl ABS, in case the original, unmodified scripts are needed:


https://falcaorgss.wordpress.com/category/pearl-abs-liquid/


I really hope that someone with a better and more experienced eye (this is my first game project) can figure out what's causing this issue.


Many thanks,


TheKeeper


View attachment Health Error Isolation.exe


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EDIT1


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I've been spending the last several hours playing around with the demo, isolating individual things to see if I can pin down what's causing the problem. And for whatever reason, the only time I can really get the error to occur is when I add in the "enemy die self switch" note tag to the trash mobs that spawn at different points in the battle (related to the boss health). When I remove the note tag, everything is apparently fine (I say "apparently," because there's still a chance I'm still wrong about what's causing the error). When I add it back in, at some point, the game just decides it's had enough and crashes. Again, that's about as close as I can get to deliberately causing the error.


If anyone can confirm that that really is the cause of the error, then I'm in another bind: I use the self-switch note tag to keep the enemies dead. I really don't want enemies spawning when a player returns to a map or, more importantly, reloading a save file in an area that is supposed to be safe after having been cleared. I'm not sure how to keep the enemies from spawning under those conditions, if I can't use the self switch. I'm starting to wonder if this is the real reason for the save points: they provide a safe area for the player to load back into, because there's no way to keep the mobs from coming back.

 

[cavemanK]

I would try to use Control Switches instead of self switches (Enemy Die Switch = x as Enemy Notetag in Falcao ABS) if you're not comfortable scripting it in Ruby. From here you can make the BASIC and SENSORIAL event pages "paralell process" and run a condition that deletes the event if the die switch indicated on the notetag is ON. 

This may not be the most elegant solution (it will use one control switch for each enemy *remember your naming conventions!) but it should work if you're just trying to polish the end off.

 

[TheKeeper]

I would try to use Control Switches instead of self switches (Enemy Die Switch = x as Enemy Notetag in Falcao ABS) if you're not comfortable scripting it in Ruby. From here you can make the BASIC and SENSORIAL event pages "paralell process" and run a condition that deletes the event if the die switch indicated on the notetag is ON. 

This may not be the most elegant solution (it will use one control switch for each enemy *remember your naming conventions!) but it should work if you're just trying to polish the end off.

Thank you, very much, for taking the time to help me out! Yeah, that's the only solution I was able to come up with, too (not very knowledgeable of and comfortable with Ruby, as you had surmised). That, or to simply let them spawn, again, upon re-entry of the map. The thing that really confuses me is why, if this is what's causing the problem, in the first place, the problem with the self switch arises only in the end fight? I had used them with other enemies in other areas, and I didn't get this error until I got to the end. Did I just get lucky? Does it have to do with the number of enemies I'm killing at once (there are a lot of enemy spawns in the boss fight, while enemies in other areas are scattered around and rarely heavily concentrated in one area)? If this is the root of the error, I'm curious as to why it seems to come up at certain moments, and not others, as I'm wondering if I should just get rid of the self-switches on all of the enemies on the previous maps, as well, just to make sure that error doesn't come up, again. And if so....I might need to re-think what to do about the enemy spawns.

 

[Sixth]

This error happens when you use that note-tag for self-switches on your events, so you guessed it right.


I recently encountered this error in a project I worked on (still working on it, actually).


It happens only when an enemy with this note-tag dies, and only sometimes.


This is because other scripts update the game at certain points where the @enemy variable is no longer defined for the defeated event, and there is no check to see this for the other methods used in the ABS.


I managed to fix this error, but will have to search for the fix, I couldn't code much in the past 2 weeks, will need to refresh my memory. 


Also, the fix I made was for projects using my Bugfixes script for Falcao's ABS, so let me know if you use that script or not in your project.

 

[TheKeeper]

This error happens when you use that note-tag for self-switches on your events, so you guessed it right.


I recently encountered this error in a project I worked on (still working on it, actually).


It happens only when an enemy with this note-tag dies, and only sometimes.


This is because other scripts update the game at certain points where the @enemy variable is no longer defined for the defeated event, and there is no check to see this for the other methods used in the ABS.


I managed to fix this error, but will have to search for the fix, I couldn't code much in the past 2 weeks, will need to refresh my memory. 


Also, the fix I made was for projects using my Bugfixes script for Falcao's ABS, so let me know if you use that script or not in your project.

Thank you, so very much, for confirming my suspicions! I'm glad I know what the problem is, and why it's so intermittent. I had only downloaded Falcao's ABS scripts, as I hadn't seen references to your Bugfixes script on the page I downloaded the ABS from. I take it the self switch fix isn''t already a part of the Bugfixes script? It's okay if it isn't. I'll download it, anyhow, because who doesn't want Bugfixes? So, I guess the answer to your question is: I'm not using your script, right now, but in a few minutes, I will be!


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EDIT1


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I've downloaded and installed the Bugfixes script in my game, so when you find the enemy die self switch fix, you shouldn't need to change it around or anything. By the way, like the fixes and new features in the Bugfixes!

 

[Sixth]

Updated the Bugfixes script with the fix for this issue, as well as with another bug fix (it was caused by the same note-tag).


You shouldn't get the crash issue anymore, unless I forgot to copy something from the project I made the fix originally.


I haven't tested this fix in the original demo project Falcao made, only checked if it causes a crash or not if inserted (it doesn't ), so let me know if it works in your project or not.

 

[TheKeeper]

Updated the Bugfixes script with the fix for this issue, as well as with another bug fix (it was caused by the same note-tag).


You shouldn't get the crash issue anymore, unless I forgot to copy something from the project I made the fix originally.


I haven't tested this fix in the original demo project Falcao made, only checked if it causes a crash or not if inserted (it doesn't ), so let me know if it works in your project or not.

Thank you, so much, for taking the time to update your Bugfixes script! I put it in my troubleshooting project (the one I used to isolate the problem) and tried to see if I can induce some kind of error. And I did get an error while fighting the enemies with the enemy die self switch note tag, and it pointed to Pearl Scenes, line 171 (@info_time -= 1 if @info_time > 0). It said that something was undefined, and showed the greater than symbol ">". Not sure if that's still related to the enemy die self switch issue, or if I hadn't set up the bugfixes script, correctly, but I thought I should let you know, either way. I'm going to try it a few more times, after going through and making sure I set everything up, correctly, both with and without the enemy die self switch, so I can see if that error is related to it, or not.


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EDIT1


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All right. So after checking things over, I ran the troubleshooting project, again, and I found that the error occurs with or without the enemy die self switch tag. The scene I test it in has a lot of the same enemy on the map, once the boss hits 75% health, and the error tends to happen when I'm in the middle of killing a number of said enemies, sometimes while trying to use an item, sometimes while not, it seems. The exact error I am getting (I wrote it down, in case it might be important) is:


Script 'Pearl Scenes' Line 172: NoMethodError Occurred


Undefined Method '>' For NilClass


I'm attaching a copy of the project to this post, just in case the problem is on my end, and I'm just not seeing it. (Honestly, I always feel that it's better to assume, first, that the problem is likely with me.)


Thank you, very much, for helping out with this! I really appreciate it!


View attachment Troubleshooting.exe

 

[Sixth]

That's actually from the experimental reflect feature I made in the Bugfixes script.


The error you get happens when a tool gets reflected and the scene changes during the reflect (like when you open the target selection scene, for example).


You are free to remove all reflect features (MRF) from your actors and enemies, they won't do anything at all without my reflect addon, but that addon never left the experimental phase, and as you can see, it is bugged right now.


You should not get that error afterwards.

 

[TheKeeper]

That's actually from the experimental reflect feature I made in the Bugfixes script.


The error you get happens when a tool gets reflected and the scene changes during the reflect (like when you open the target selection scene, for example).


You are free to remove all reflect features (MRF) from your actors and enemies, they won't do anything at all without my reflect addon, but that addon never left the experimental phase, and as you can see, it is bugged right now.


You should not get that error afterwards.

 You were right! Once I removed that feature from my character's class, everything ran smooth as silk. I don't get any more errors, with and without the enemy die self switch note tag.   Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you! And in case I hadn't said it, enough, thank you!