Ink Integration

[Merryjest]

It's a great script, but it looks like it completely breaks the sideview battler combat in MZ. The demo combat (first person) works fine, but when you switch it to sideview battle, it hangs and no actions are ever performed.
The same thing happened when I imported the plugin into my game, which uses the sideview battle option.

 

[theartofme]

It's a great script, but it looks like it completely breaks the sideview battler combat in MZ. The demo combat (first person) works fine, but when you switch it to sideview battle, it hangs and no actions are ever performed.
The same thing happened when I imported the plugin into my game, which uses the sideview battle option.

I'm glad you like the script! You're right, the demo hangs if you switch to sideview battle because I didn't include the sideview images to try to keep the zip as small as possible. If you add sideview images it works fine, or if you add the script to an existing sideview project it should work fine too.

 

[Merryjest]

I'm glad you like the script! You're right, the demo hangs if you switch to sideview battle because I didn't include the sideview images to try to keep the zip as small as possible. If you add sideview images it works fine, or if you add the script to an existing sideview project it should work fine too.

It doesn't, though- I have tested this with my game, which does include sideview battler images, and the battlers come onto the battlefield- and no turns ever happen.
This occurs even when I switch every other plugin off except yours. I'll post a video to show what I mean in the next pose, after I do some screencapping.

 

[Merryjest]

So here we have the combat initializing with all plugins (ink + Visustella, etc) active:

As you can see, the combat halts and no actions occur.


Here I turned off ALL plugins except the ink plugins (positioning of battlers is cray but that's not important), and as you see, the combat halts and no actions occur.



And here, all plugins are active except the ink plugins, and as you can see, sideview battle works just fine.

 

[theartofme]

So here we have the combat initializing with all plugins (ink + Visustella, etc) active...

It works with sideview fine in a minimal project, so there must be something going on that breaks things. Can you do one of the following to help track this down?

1. Send me a link to a project that causes the issue, or:
2. Open the debugging console (F8) and copy the whole contents of it after the problem happens.

 

[Merryjest]

I have found the issue.

Your demo is set to Turn-Based combat System. Because of the CTB Battle System I am using, my settings are set to Time Progress.

Your plugin, somehow, interferes with combat when the setting for 'Time Progress (Wait)' is on in the System1 tab. I have tested this and Time Progress (Wait) did not work- I changed the battle system to Turn-Based with all plugins but your Ink ones off, and it worked. Time Progress (Active) does not work either, so people who use this plugin in its current state will not be able to use Time Progress-style combat systems.

This issue also breaks the Visustella CTB Battle System - Not surprising, since their CTB battle system is a hybrid of turn-based and time progress.

To verify that this was not just happening to my game, I went back to your demo and switched the battle system to Time Progress (Wait) and tried to run the battle after I created sideview sprites for the battlers. Battle actions never appeared and nothing happened in the battle. I tried with TP(Active) and had the same results. I switched to Turn-Based and it worked.

The mystery is solved- now, we just need to see if there's a solution!

 

[theartofme]

I have found the issue.

Your demo is set to Turn-Based combat System. Because of the CTB Battle System I am using, my settings are set to Time Progress.

Your plugin, somehow, interferes with combat when the setting for 'Time Progress (Wait)' is on in the System1 tab. I have tested this and Time Progress (Wait) did not work- I changed the battle system to Turn-Based with all plugins but your Ink ones off, and it worked. Time Progress (Active) does not work either, so people who use this plugin in its current state will not be able to use Time Progress-style combat systems.

This issue also breaks the Visustella CTB Battle System - Not surprising, since their CTB battle system is a hybrid of turn-based and time progress.

To verify that this was not just happening to my game, I went back to your demo and switched the battle system to Time Progress (Wait) and tried to run the battle after I created sideview sprites for the battlers. Battle actions never appeared and nothing happened in the battle. I tried with TP(Active) and had the same results. I switched to Turn-Based and it worked.

The mystery is solved- now, we just need to see if there's a solution!

Awesome, nice find! Once you found the issue I was able to fix it pretty easily. The updated version of the script is available from the original download link.

 

[Merryjest]

Awesome, nice find! Once you found the issue I was able to fix it pretty easily. The updated version of the script is available from the original download link.

Thank you! You are awesome- it works like a charm!

 

[Merryjest]

I had a question: How does the plugin handle line breaks? For example, for things such as songs and poems, you'd normally just write in the message box

This princess had a lengthy name
Of “Sparklemuffin”, yes
Her father, King of Leavenites
Had dispatched all his best
To rescue her, this fair young lass
Was their chivalric quest

But if you do that in Ink like this:

= opening3
Bard: This princess had a lengthy name
Of “Sparklemuffin”, yes
Her father, King of Leavenites
Had dispatched all his best
To rescue her, this fair young lass
Was their chivalric quest
-> DONE

The plugin will display each line in a new message window without showing the previous ones. I know that the default in Ink is to add line breaks and you have to use Glue to get rid of that behavior. It seems that theway the plugin is interpreting it is the opposite, however.

EDIT: Ooof, I figured it out. I forgot you need to add two slashes and I was trying \n without much success!

 

[theartofme]

Look like you figured it out! Yes, by itself Ink supports multiple lines, but it also doesn't work very well unless you're using an automatic line wrapping tool, like the one in Visustella, which combines lines back together again. \n works in Visustella (and most similar auto-line-wrappers), but a backslash means something to Ink, so you need two backslashes to get Visustella to see just one backslash.

 

[Merryjest]

I was thinking: Is there any way that one could implement the triggering of audio files from within the ink script? Right now, that's the only thing that's missing to make this a perfect script for long dialogues and cutscenes. The current format is fine for non-voiced scenes, but for any voiced ones you'd have to chop up each node into a single line each in order to trigger the corresponding sound effect in between lines.

 

[theartofme]

I was thinking: Is there any way that one could implement the triggering of audio files from within the ink script? Right now, that's the only thing that's missing to make this a perfect script for long dialogues and cutscenes. The current format is fine for non-voiced scenes, but for any voiced ones you'd have to chop up each node into a single line each in order to trigger the corresponding sound effect in between lines.

Is the issue that you want a specific sound per line in the Ink source?

If it's per line, the current workaround is to have a separate common event for each bit of audio, then use the #common_event() hashtag to trigger them. That would be difficult to maintain though.

Since voiceover is so closely linked to text, it's something I think should have built-in support though. Do you have any ideas for how it could be most convenient? Some of my thoughts:

1. Have a hashtag, similar to the #common_event() one, specifically for audio. It would trigger the audio when the line is first displayed. This is the simplest option. It needs you to name each line, but you need to do that anyway to name the audio files so maybe it's not a big deal. The Ink would look something like:
   Alice said hello. #audio(hello)
2. Have an external function you call to trigger audio. This is slightly more complex but the idea is that it allows more precise triggering, so that the audio will play when the bit of text the function is in, is shown. The Ink would look something like:
   Alice said {audio("hello")} hello.
   And when "said hello" is ready to be shown in a dialog box, the file "hello" is played.

 

[Merryjest]

I think the hashtag would be the best approach, to be honest. The external function would be good for those who require very precise sound file triggering, which I don't require for my project...

But thinking it better, perhaps it should be considered because it would allow for granular control! The workaround using common events can easily create a monstrosity of common events, especially if the dev is using things like the Visustella action events plugin which require you to create actions via common events!

 

[theartofme]

I've added support for the hashtag approach. Just add the #audio(se name) hashtag to the end of a line of Ink script.

The Ink plugin will play all audio as SE, so the audio needs to be in the se folder. To get start/stop working, this also means it will stop all currently playing SE when it shows a dialog that has an #audio hashtag. It will also stop all currently playing SE when it finishes with Ink script that used the #audio hashtag, which shouldn't be a big deal unless you're using common events that also trigger sounds in the middle of Ink scripts.

Just download the latest version from the download link.

 

[Merryjest]

Oh this is wonderful! Thanks, you're awesome!

 

[Sarena]

Hi, it's me again!

I'm having some trouble displaying choices at the same time as a message when I create the choices in Ink. I think this is happening because I have a common event set up to activate at the start of all dialogue boxes playing that checks for a few variables and sets up my message box formatting. Is there a way to make the common event not play at the start of a message only if it's a show choices event, so that they can show at the same time without being disrupted?

Here's what's currently happening when I use the Ink choices when I have the common event before:

Spoiler: Ink

And my code in Ink looks like this:

== Intro ==

= test
NARRATOR: What choice should I make?
* [Choice 1] -> DONE
* [Choice 2] -> DONE

Ideally, I would love for it to display like how it does if you display a message and then choices like it does by default in RPG Maker MZ (or without the starting common event):

Spoiler: RPG Maker MZ

I hope that makes sense!

 

[theartofme]

Hi, it's me again!

I'm having some trouble displaying choices at the same time as a message when I create the choices in Ink. I think this is happening because I have a common event set up to activate at the start of all dialogue boxes playing that checks for a few variables and sets up my message box formatting. Is there a way to make the common event not play at the start of a message only if it's a show choices event, so that they can show at the same time without being disrupted?

I can replicate the problem, and you're right that it's to do with pre-dialog common events. The bug happens even if the common event is empty and does nothing! I'm still looking into what exactly is going on, I don't have a fix yet.

 

[theartofme]

Alright, good news is that I understand the problem. Bad news is it's not a quick fix.

 

[theartofme]

I'm having some trouble displaying choices at the same time as a message when I create the choices in Ink. I think this is happening because I have a common event set up to activate at the start of all dialogue boxes playing that checks for a few variables and sets up my message box formatting. Is there a way to make the common event not play at the start of a message only if it's a show choices event, so that they can show at the same time without being disrupted?

OK, fixed. The latest version is at the github link. I had to move around a bunch of code to make it work, and it seemed fine in my tests, but I wouldn't be surprised if I missed something else in the process, so let me know if there are any more problems!

 

[Sarena]

OK, fixed. The latest version is at the github link. I had to move around a bunch of code to make it work, and it seemed fine in my tests, but I wouldn't be surprised if I missed something else in the process, so let me know if there are any more problems!

It looks like it's working now! Thank you so much for fixing that so quickly, I really appreciate it!!

I'll be sure to let you know if I notice anything weird, but with a quick test, it seems good to me!