RMMV I have a game idea, but not sure if it's possible?

[SunnySkiesDesign]

Hello there! I'm an artist and I've been wanting to for a while to create a game with RPG Maker MV. The problem I keep coming to is that I'm not sure if my ideas are possible.

Idea:
I've had an idea for a while for a little game that stars two protagonists where one is the fighter/one who moves heavy things and the other is more so the puzzle solver/ one who talks with people.

Game play:

So, I could see where in the game the player can swap in real time between the two characters. Like they actually swap places in the follow order? The goal with this is that since both characters have their strong suits they get different prompts depending on who's leading. I could see that if a puzzle is in front of the fighter character, he can't do anything (or gets a different text box pop up?) while if the puzzle solver is in front of the puzzle, any keys/minigame/correct text, will pop up.

Preferably, real time fighting could be fun with the fighting character. That way if the puzzle character is leading, they'll get hurt, but it looks like MV doesn't do real time. So maybe no matter who is "leading" around the map, the fighter will always do the fighting with the other character only able to "analyze" or give words of encouragement to the fighter. That way they'll still get hurt?


Idk what do you all think? I figure the fighting part may be the easiest thing to program since both would be "fighting", but I do just like the idea of two characters swapping and getting different prompts around the world.

 

[Ellenor]

Oh that is possible, even though I'm using a different engine than RM currently it should still be possible in RM.
Like creating the condition depending who is the leader.
Here is a link talking about it.

Events triggered when specific character is leading

Hey good morning everyone. Quick question for you guys. I'd like to make an event occur when a specific party member is leading. How would I do this? :)

forums.rpgmakerweb.com

 

[TheAM-Dol]

I mean...with the right knowledge and skill, you can do a lot of things in RPG Maker...So in short: Yes, all of that is possible.

The still-pretty-short, but slightly-longer answer is: Yes it's possible, but you are going to need some plugins. And as most would recommend, starting with your magnum opus is a quick way to disappointment and frustration, so I recommend cracking the engine open and building some basic games.
On the other hand, keeping an eye on upcoming tools/engines such as RPG Maker Unite or RPG Architect may be better tools at handling what you want to do...so learning the basics of game design and getting some experience now with RPG Maker MV/MZ while you wait for those is a good idea.

edit:
PS, your drawings are cute.

 

[Artisticdog]

Those drawings are excellent! And I think it’s possible. Tho this is coming from a person who don’t really know how to code a lot.

 

[fop]

What a cute idea! I really like it! As for getting it to work, it's definitely possible to have different prompts depending on who is the party leader at the moment. I threw a quick test into my own game project to show you in case you wanted to see an example in action.

Spoiler: Different dialogue for different party leader.

This is what my event looks like!

Since you're just talking about two characters, it's as easy as using an 'else' on the one conditional branch. That script I put in checks to see if the party leader is actor id #1 (in my game Noein). If Noein is the party leader, it'll give that conditional dialogue. If not, it'll give the other. You could also do this with more than two options, but with different conditional branches and no 'else' commands. Change the number in the script from 1 to actor 2, 3, etc.

Here's the script:

$gameParty.leader().actorId() === 1

And here it is in-game!

As for changing the party leader in real time, there's a number of ways you could do it. A very straightforward way would be this plugin by PrimeHover.

A more tedious way (but also would have more flexibility to potentially to show lots of graphical cuteness and, judging by your drawings, I'm just assuming you're going to be doing custom sprites etc) would be to find a plugin that plays a common event when you push a button. This assigned button can be your 'leader swap' button. In your leader swap common event, you could use the same code I showed before to check who the leader is, then remove the actors from the party and put them back in in the opposite order as they were before. Doing it this way means you could show an animation when you swap leaders or other cool stuff.

Anyway, with only the two party members it is very, very doable! Just use conditional branches and check who's the leader before every event, basically.

Hope you get around to making this! I love the idea and think it could make a very fun game.

 

[Ingwer]

I don't see why anything you've mentioned would need more than the default options of the software, actually. With the usage of parallel events and conditional checks, as well as standard event commands, one can easily switch out party members and therefore their order. You can also adjust variables and switches so everything you want to happen with said switch can be triggered and conditional checked within (multiple) map(s).

Now, this of course goes for the basic concept of things. The more complex and deeper your systems should go it could be that the editor runs out of settings to adjust, or it may just not be feasible without external support.

The most important thing to keep in mind here: RPG Maker is a rather...slow and stiff engine, which I don't mean in a bad way, specifically. But as you said yourself: "MV does not do real time". You have to keep that in mind for basically everything. It is certainly doable, either with events or plugins, to create something more "real-time" and flexible, but the way the engine is done will probably always give you disadvantages or things to double-check.
Example: Switching a character out stationary (certain spot) is easy, as you can always be sure what will happen and when the player triggers it. If you enable the switch to be happening whenever you want via button trigger, it will make things way more complicated for you to test out, especially the deeper your systems run feature-wise. Now, this part is not actually that engine-specific, just general game design. What RPG Maker makes more difficult here is how certain event and map movement behaviours work and how that can mess up quick and constant changes. So, you basically have to double-dip into testing and "trying to break your own game" so to speak to be sure you found a solid and reliable way to include your features. This will also reflect on what you include in the long run or not, how your puzzles will look, etc.

Last, the battle system. If you decide to search for a real-time solution, I would try to look into what that battle system can offer you and how (or if) you can include event / script commands to make the most of it. In general though, same as with switching characters, you can always use default options to adjust things before even going into battle. For example yes, you can remove the "thinker" of your group and place him somewhere safe, while using the "fighter" as the one character for the battle system. Now, if you want the "thinker" to automatically do something while fighting, it will either be something that is included in the plugin for the battle system, or something you can create step-by-step with event commands, as well. Just keep in mind that, here as well, making something fluid can quickly become problematic. For example if the "thinker" has to move around on auto-pilot during the fight and you don't want him to go to specific spots - soft-locking himself or the player.
If you want to use the default system, it is mostly a thing of either excluding him entirely, or if you want him to be a valid party member, just change his parameters, traits, skills and effects to give him a set role you want him to have. You can even add event commands into battles, for example him leaving the battle (or at least get an effect where he is not participating anymore).

I guess the general gist is, for every idea you can look at it like this: Can I include it into a more tile-based rpg with block-logic (in terms of how all scenes work together and after another). The more your idea fits in terms of above and complexity, it will probably work out of the box. The better you can handle the software, even way more is actually possible, depending on the context.
If there are still things not manageable, because some option is just missing or not "deep" enough, or you just want something special, there are always plugins to expand what there already is.

Final note: From what I can tell, you specifically want the second character to be more than a "dummy" within the map environment. I think that would actually need something external, if you want it to work fluently - exactly for what I've pointed out above. While RPG Maker supports followers by default, they are nothing more than optical "accessories" and cannot interact with their environment. Now, you can add an event to reflect him as a second member, but keeping him always behind your back, or maybe even cleverly following you based on AI, would certainly be more complicated and with only the default options, you've guessed it, probably get him stuck a lot.
So I guess this would be the only thing where I would suggest to look into existing plugins from the get-go, or trying to make your concept work differently in that regard.

 

[gstv87]

one is the fighter/one who moves heavy things and the other is more so the puzzle solver/ one who talks with people.

Jodie and Aiden, from Beyond: Two Souls.

 

[SGHarlekin]

Yeah, pretty sure you can accomplish that without any plugins whatsoever. And I'd go as far as saying it wouldn't even be any level of complicated to do it.