How Can I Make "Change Enemy HP" Show the Numbers?

[Psykai]

Greetings once again! Today I'm here with (hopefully) a much simpler issue.

I'm designing a secret boss fight and am pulling out all the stops to make it epic!

Half way through the fight, I'm having a cutscene play out where a character shows up (in the form of Show Image) delivers a cool line, and then blasts a spell at the boss, dealing massive damage (I purposefully gave the boss insane health, so this is kind of a mid-battle reward to help the players along).

Everything works perfect. The image shows up, the dialogue plays, the image goes away, it plays an animation of the spell over the boss, it's health DOES decrease, but the damage does not show up in a pop-up like it usually does. I guess this is due to the fact she's not actually being hit with anything, but I had hoped that ANY changes to HP would show in the pop-up numbers.

Is there a way around this? I want the players to actually SEE that the attack worked, lol.

 

[bgillisp]

The easiest way to do that is to make that character an actor in the database (just pick an empty spot), then give them a skill which does the damage you want it to do. Just go to the damage formula for that skill and type in the damage you want in the damage formula, set the animation you want to see in the skill animation, and set variance to 0.

Then, when you want it to be invoked, show the image, then use the command force action that actor you just created, that skill you just created. It seems the command doesn't require the actor to actually be in the party (at least it doesn't require it for me), so that should work.

 

[Psykai]

Ha, I actually thought of trying something like that but I figured if they weren't in the party then it wouldn't work. I'll give that a try tomorrow. Thanks!

 

[Shaz]

Could you also just give the skill to the enemy and set the target to Self and force action? If it has a really low priority and all the other skills have a high priority, the enemy would never use the skill other than this time.

 

[Psykai]

Knowing my luck, even with a 1% chance of using the skill, the enemy would do it just to ruin the scene, lol.

I just tried @bgillisp 's idea and it didn't work. Now the game freezes either on the 'Show Image' screen or it freezes just after it.

Did I set something up wrong?

 

[bgillisp]

It should work from my experience. Can you try it without the show picture and see if it works?

Oh...you may also have to initialize the actor once for it to take. Can do it in the event before the battle (just do add to party, initialize, then remove from party). But I don't think that's it as I use it for my game to have a character who hasn't yet joined but you are trying to rescue still throw a spell at the party to help them.

 

[Psykai]

If the picture is shown, it freezes on the picture (the music continues playing) and if I remove the Show Picture, the Party HUD disappears and it freezes there.

Adding the actor to the party didn't make a difference

This seems to be a recurring theme for me lately... I try something that seems simple and should only take a few minutes to implement, it fails miserably, and when I search what the problem is, I find that there shouldn't be one

 

[bgillisp]

I wonder if you got a script which is interferring. Can you list all of your scripts?

 

[Psykai]

There's a lot, lol

EDIT: Ok so after removing each individual part of the event to see if I could root out the problem, it's the Force Action that's causing the freeze to happen. Once I removed it, the game stopped freezing on the image and it would erase. The order was set so that the image would be erased first though, so I have no idea why having a 'Force Action' after a 'Erase Image' would cause a freeze.

 

[Roninator2]

then try a wait for 20 frames. see if that helps. Sometimes the program goes faster than what the command is able to do to finish. So erase picture takes part of a second to complete but if it's not complete then the force move is possible conflicting.
I know it seems strange, but I had a similar issue once where I had to slow it down. Usually a few frames is fine (5-20)

 

[Psykai]

I tried this and it both showed and erased the picture fine but froze immediately afterwards with the party HUD missing again. Music continued but nothing else. Tried 5, 20, 60 and 160 frames but all had the same result

 

[bgillisp]

I think its the order of your scripts myself. It looks like you got an odd hodge-podge of scripts there, and one of them is probably interfering with that command working. No idea which one though, may have to test it the hard way by removing them one at a time then testing the battle.

 

[Psykai]

I thought that would be long and tedious but the first script I removed fixed the problem and the cutscene played out perfectly.

The only problem is... it's the Yanfly Battle and Core script... i.e: the most important one. I hate my life...

So there's nothing I can do? No way I'm getting rid of the script so I'll just have to kiss my cutscene goodbye :/

EDIT: Holy sh*t. I pasted the script back in, but this time at the very bottom (just above main) just to see what would happen and it worked! :S I always thought the Yanfly Battle/Core had to be first in the Materials so I hope it won't mess something else up now instead.

 

[bgillisp]

It is supposed to go first. What that means is one of the other scripts is interfering with it and that command. I'd try putting it back at the top, and removing the others one at a time to see which one is interfering. Odds are it is one of the non-Yanfly scripts, as I no issues doing this with Yanfly scripts in my game.

PS: I think your Anti-Fail script is out of order. I thought it went near the bottom? Not sure if that is the issue, but maybe try moving that too.

PPS: My guess is it is the Hime Pre skill effects script. That is the only one that should even have a shot at affecting that command. But I could be wrong.

 

[Psykai]

Ok so removing Hime's Pre Skill Effects also cured the issue, but this is a core script for my game Am I really going to have to choose between the two?

 

[bgillisp]

Maybe, maybe not. Try putting Hime's Pre Skill Effects first. Then, check to see if it actually still does what it says it does (as it might not crash, but it might cease to function). If it still works when moved there, then you should be fine. If not, you will need to post under script requests and ask someone to make a patch for those two so they work together.

 

[Psykai]

Putting Pre Skill Effects first did fix the problem but you said Yanfly's Core should be first? Or is it ok if there's just one thing above it? Hope so 'cause that seemed to work fine lol

EDIT: Ah wait... nope. Now the character who needed the Pre-Skill Effect script isn't working...

 

[bgillisp]

Supposedly Yanfly Core needs to be first. But...test the game completely and be sure you still get the benefit of the pre skill effect with this change. If you do, then you are good to go.

 

[Psykai]

Nope

I only got the pre-skill effect script because I have a shapeshifter who's graphics refused to change straight away when using her skill (they'd change when she got hit or at the start of her turn and stuff like that) and it took me days to fix it and it was done with the pre-skill effect telling the graphics to change BEFORE it adds the status to her and such.

But now I've moved it, she's back to not changing again

 

[bgillisp]

Yeah, that will take a patch to fix. You *might* be able to code it into Yanfly's Lunatic Scripts though, but either way it will take coding. I'd post that under script support (RGSS3 if it is an option, else RGSSx will work) and see if someone can make a patch for it.