How do *you* deal with transitioning party "followers" to actors in cutscenes?

[EthanFox]

Might need to explain this a bit.

A pretty common feature of RPGs (and most (all?) versions of RPG Maker) is that the player walks around, dragging a "snake" of followers behind them. Sometimes the game is grid-based, sometimes it has free movement, sometimes it's 3D - but this appears in many RPGs.

But often, you'll arrive at a cutscene - triggered by a conversation with a character, or interacting with an event - and suddenly, one of your followers in the "snake" needs to become a fully-fledged character, moving around, talking, emoting and so on.

RPG Maker doesn't allow you to directly control followers, so people have come up with various solutions, some of which appear in other games too.

Some RPGs, like Final Fantasy VII, don't have followers; instead, when cutscenes need them, the characters simply appear, or "step out" of the main character.

In the existing Nina Aquila: Legal Eagle games, I did several things. Often I engineered the interactions so as help conceal the moment I "swap" the player's follower for an "actor" event, and when I swap it back, either by arranging the map carefully, or having a brief fadeout/fadein to bookend the cutscene.

But still, I'm sure there are as many ways to do this as there are RPGM developers - so, how do you do this?

 

[ATT_Turan]

I use Tyruswoo's Follower Control. Before that I used a hack to replace the followers with events, but the plugin commands make it more seamless and easy to work with.

 

[Gensun]

I use my own plugin for controlling followers: https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads/gensun-followers.157327
I wrote my own plugin since around 4 or something years ago and made occasional updated before finally making a public release. Last I remembered, Google searches came up dry when I tried searching for solutions

 

[Tai_MT]

Probably a stupid way to handle it:

Unless a cutscene specifically "calls for" the characters to be doing something, I leave them in the "snake" to give their commentary. To me, and most stories, their dialogue is more important than acting like a spastic just to be "eye catching" for a player.

If a "Cutscene" requires they move around and do stuff...

The Scene takes place upon "entry" to the location. In the background, I have the game remove all party members from the party (to remove the snake), then remember which party members the player has, and then finish the transition to the new screen. The characters then enter "one after the other" or are "already in the room" as the scene takes place. They do whatever I need them to do, then I "add them back into the party" following an animation of the characters walking back over to the main character. So, you know, the Snake comes back.

Because of the way I do this, I basically just have like a transition event I copy and paste anytime I need a Cutscene and just change the variables (like where you teleport to, or which positions the party members are in, etcetera).

I don't really have a need for a Cutscene to take place randomly as a player steps on a random square in a room. That's particularly jarring most of the time when you're playing a game. So, when it's cutscene time, I just do what I do.

 

[ATT_Turan]

In the background, I have the game remove all party members from the party (to remove the snake)

You probably know this, and it's unlikely to be worth changing if you already have common events set up.

But you should be able to use the Change Player Followers OFF event command to get rid of the snake without having to go through storing and actually removing party members.

 

[Sword_of_Dusk]

You probably know this, and it's unlikely to be worth changing if you already have common events set up.

But you should be able to use the Change Player Followers OFF event command to get rid of the snake without having to go through storing and actually removing party members.

This is how I get rid of the party chain myself.

 

[Sacrifyx]

I'm with @ATT_Turan on this, Tyruswoo's Follower Control plugin is a must have for just this reason. My cutscenes where followers had to be actors were usually pretty rough before finding that plugin.

 

[TheoAllen]

I don't like caterpillar followers. So I use the step out from the player character.
But if I have to use caterpillar followers, I would gather the followers to the player character when the cutscene starts and then spread it out.

 

[ATT_Turan]

But if I have to use caterpillar followers, I would gather the followers to the player character when the cutscene starts and then spread it out.

That's what I do, turn the caterpillar into a formation.

 

[Kes]

What I've done for the last several games is use a script by Meow Face (now using a VS plugin) so that the followers move independently if they have to arrange themselves or go somewhere in a cut scene. At the end of the cut scene when the player moves off, they all seamlessly go back into line.

I don't only use it for 'cut scenes' in the big sense. I also use it if the party has to e.g. speak to someone behind a desk for a longer piece of dialogue. Then they spread themselves out in front of the desk, rather than trailing behind the player.

It's a lot clunkier in MZ and I think I'm correct is saying that there isn't an MZ version of Tyruswoo's Follower Control plugin, but maybe I've overlooked it. The VS ability is not as fluid as that of Meow Face.

 

[Sacrifyx]

It's a lot clunkier in MZ and I think I'm correct is saying that there isn't an MZ version of Tyruswoo's Follower Control plugin, but maybe I've overlooked it. The VS ability is not as fluid as that of Meow Face

Tyruswoo has an MZ version of Follower Control on his website. It is a paid plugin.

 

[Tai_MT]

@ATT_Turan That's actually news to me. Good to know. Here I was working around a problem that didn't actually exist and adding crazy utility where none was needed.

 

[gstv87]

actual solution on my end:
-enter city as snake following.
-meet watch commander -> "Hey, the King was looking for you!"
-lock control.
-fade out.
-remove player and followers.
-fade in to castle gate, four events moving forward: commander in front, 'player' behind, party characters to either side.
-fade to castle interior, same formation. ('Player' Knighted cutscene)
-fade out.
-restore actual player.
-fade in to city plaza, actual player on standby, commander and party characters as NPCs.
-"Ok, baiiiii!" cutscene, everyone goes their separate ways.
-restore control.
-exit cutscene.
-player can move freely.

the player is only the player when playing.
anywhere else, it can be whatever object that looks like the player, moves around, and is present in the scene.
all objects "player", "event" and "follower" are objects "character", so they can be use interchangeably.

 

[BubblegumPatty]

I do the good ol' "Events wearing my follower's models" trick. Specifically:

1. have Transparent, Through On event to represent each party member with their sprites.
2. Gather followers
3. Turn off the snake
4. move the events on the player, turn off transparency, than move them into position.
5. Do steps in reverse at the end of the cutscene.

Alternatively, if I also need to move the player quick, I just fade to black and only turn off the transparency/change image while I transfer the player where I want them.

 

[Kes]

@Sacrifyx Thanks for the info.

 

[AquaEcho]

I turned off followers in my gane completely and replaced them with events with event pages. I use an on map ABS battle system though like Secret of Mana, Rune Factory, etc so I need them to move independently at all times and just loosely follow the player out of battle.

 

[SGHarlekin]

My crazy solution is having only 2 characters. Doesn't look so weird when the character behind is talking and if I ever need to move the second character, I'd just disable followers and show her as an event I guess.

 

[Danatoth]

I just fade screen to black, hide all party members, pop a switch. Switch makes page 2 open which shows where the party members should be for the cutscene and I control those for the event, then fade back to black, show party members again and kill the switch.