How to approach a map with multiple changing events?

[megumi014]

Hiya!

I've been working on a game that relies heavily on the plot and I find myself with this issue:

There are maps (for example an Inn), in which many scenes/conversations happen. The same NPC might have different dialogues, cutscenes or locations depending on the moment of the story and I wonder how other people deal with it.

I run out of event pages for the same NPC and I guess I could fix it with a plugin that allows more self-switches, but I wonder if it wouldn't be just easier to make another identical map with different events and just change the teleportation event depending on the story progress. Would that make the game heavier? I would have more maps but less events running at the same time.

I'm using MV, but I think this question could be applied for any engine.

Thanks for your time.

 

[Andar]

why use self-switches for that at all?
you should have a variable "game step" that counts up for every step of the story, and then you can condition any reaction to the current gamestep (usually this variable goes up into the hundreds for bigger games)

 

[TheoAllen]

Use this

Increase it whenever the story progresses

 

[Kes]

Game Mechanics Design is for looking at aspects of game play at a more conceptual level. "How do I...?" (Implementation) questions go in the support forum for the engine you are using.
[move]RPGMaker MV[/move]

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

Yup, using a single "Story" variable is the best way to approach this. You increase that variable at specific points in your story and poof, all your events will follow suit.

For location changes, you can just make a parallel event at that map (so it runs before you actually see anything), check the variable and set locations of the events that need to be moved based on the variable value, and erase the parallel event so it wont run until you next visit the map

 

[SwiftSign]

^ those solutions don't help a pages issue, for more complicated events. Sure you can throw in conditionals, but it does make eventing a bit more confusing sometimes.

A copy of the map should work find.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

Variables can be used as page conditions just like self switches.. How will that not help page issues?

For super complicated stuff though or super duper many possible variations (like if your NPC changes dialogue every story progress and your story has like 20+ steps), separating them by maps might be good. Unless you're running out of them lolz

 

[TheoAllen]

Iirc max event page is 20, so you gonna hit the max sometimes. Using a new map is not a wrong answer.
If that works, then go ahead.

 

[Frogboy]

You could also just add a new controller event to get another 20 pages to work with.

 

[TheoAllen]

Was going to say that, but then I think a new map is not a bad idea either. Because a new event handler means more events on map, and potentially create an unnecessary process that might cause lag?

 

[megumi014]

Thank you everyone for the answers! I tried with the Story Variable and it works great for many dialogue options inside the page events, but not for the Autorun events (or at least I'm trying to do them the wrong way).

The conditions to activate an event with variables is Equal or Greater than that number, so it doesn't work for me, since the player can advance different parts of the story not linearly. And if I include the condition inside the event so it is only equal to the variable, for the autoruns i should still use switches or parallel processes depending on the story point.

Either way the variable helps me to shorten a bit the page event usage. I guess I will play around with the variables a bit more to see if I find an easier roundabout for the autorun cutscenes, but I guess with switches it won't make the map lag that much.

 

[Andar]

The conditions to activate an event with variables is Equal or Greater than that number, so it doesn't work for me, since the player can advance different parts of the story not linearly.

while it isn't perfect for branching stories, for the variable to work correctly as a condition you'll need to combine this with the page priority.
example: page one activates on variable > or equal than 5, and page two activates on variable > or equal than 6.
result: page one will only run on variable = 5, because if it becomes 6 it will switch to the next page.

 

[Eraine]

Your situation sounds a bit like mine. I'm working on a harvest moon - style game, with NPC's that have a different conversation each day and different locations during the day.
What I did was use a lot of common events. I made a separate common event for each NPC that contains their conversations. After you talk to them, a variable goes 1 point up. My NPC have the same event number on EVERY MAP (Events 1-49 in my case). That means that you can use the show animation and balloon etc. in the common event, because the NPC is always event 11, for example.
I have a different common event (again, each NPC his/her own) for the NPC location during the day. A parallel process runs initially when loading a new map, again activating a CE that checks which location the NPC should be at. The mapstart event moves the NPC to the correct spot on the map (and the switches itself off with a selfswitch). The NPC events themselves have this location variable as a page condition, to determine if they show up. If you interact with the NPC event it activates the conversation CE.
Autoruns are separate events, indeed activated by switches, and I control the NPC from within the autorun event. I run another common event each time the day changes into the next to see how storylines have progressed and which autorun switches I have to flip on.
May sound a bit complicated, but it's working fine for me so far, and I haven't had a problem with the eventpage limit at all. Maybe it could be an alternative solution for you as well?

 

[megumi014]

Your situation sounds a bit like mine. I'm working on a harvest moon - style game, with NPC's that have a different conversation each day and different locations during the day.
What I did was use a lot of common events. I made a separate common event for each NPC that contains their conversations. After you talk to them, a variable goes 1 point up. My NPC have the same event number on EVERY MAP (Events 1-49 in my case). That means that you can use the show animation and balloon etc. in the common event, because the NPC is always event 11, for example.
I have a different common event (again, each NPC his/her own) for the NPC location during the day. A parallel process runs initially when loading a new map, again activating a CE that checks which location the NPC should be at. The mapstart event moves the NPC to the correct spot on the map (and the switches itself off with a selfswitch). The NPC events themselves have this location variable as a page condition, to determine if they show up. If you interact with the NPC event it activates the conversation CE.
Autoruns are separate events, indeed activated by switches, and I control the NPC from within the autorun event. I run another common event each time the day changes into the next to see how storylines have progressed and which autorun switches I have to flip on.
May sound a bit complicated, but it's working fine for me so far, and I haven't had a problem with the eventpage limit at all. Maybe it could be an alternative solution for you as well?

Wow that actually sounds like it could be a great solution for me Thank you very much for explaining it, I will try it with my project!