Many (probably) dumb questions

[subak]

So I'm very new and testing out the program trying to make a harvest moon-esque game and have some questions.

http://youtu.be/N5DF3AkY9N8

This video shows what I have been able to do so far. As you can see, its not a lot lol...(I apologize for the typing sound! Didn't notice it till after uploading it)

I used this as a guide for my planting <http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/6528-multivariable-gardening-system-vx-ace/> and it uses separate variables and switches for each seed. While its good and works for a few seeds, it won't work if theres many seeds since I would have to put in variables and switches for each one.

In the video, I put down 3 seeds and even though I water only two of them all 3 grows. I put different wait timers on each one as well but when one grows all of them grows. Is there a work around? Script or event?

Also, like harvest moon, I would like the plants to take a few days to grow. Is there a way to make it so the watered plots become un-watered so that the player needs to water it again? 

Finally, I want the player to get a message when the press the action button on top of the planted plot. But that requires a action button trigger. On the other hand I want plants to grow on a timer so I have to make it parallel trigger. I tried making two events for it but it didn't work out so well...lol

Sorry for so many questions! I have a demo of it if anyone wants me to attach it

Thanks

 

[Andar]

What you need is a better understanding on how to use variables and switches. You'll also need to add a few scripts, because by default the game has only one timer - each command changes the same timer. But there are scripts that give event-dependant different timers, for example one of Galv's.


Please follow the link in my signature and work through the basic tutorials, especially the variables guide.

 

[subak]

Yeah I've actually been going through some of the tutorials and actually went through the tutorial game by Dreadshadow. I have absolutely no programming knowledge so its still a bit rough, but I definitely am understanding a lot more than I did when I first started.

But I guess I'm still not understanding what I'm doing wrong or am not doing at all. Should I scrap the idea of following through the above guide posted RzrBladeMontage and try to start over? Or is his way viable with what I'm asking?

And my brain is just too dumb to figure out the third question lol....I actually looked through a lot of the forums and tutorials and am not finding the answer to that one. I would like that one particular part of the event to run parallel (growing the plant) and with an action button (for a message or something). Is that even possible? Hmmm or maybe I should make the growing of the plant a common event? Would that solve my first and third question?

If it seems like I'm prying for all the answers, I am sorry...I'm really not. I actually don't like posting on forums unless I get desperate enough and at this point I'm just looking for some hints? haha I'll also look into Galv's timer thing though.

Thanks!!

 

[EternalShadow]

Finally, I want the player to get a message when the press the action button on top of the planted plot. But that requires a action button trigger. On the other hand I want plants to grow on a timer so I have to make it parallel trigger. I tried making two events for it but it didn't work out so well...lol

If you have the action button as a speech bubble spritesheet (with a finger pressing a button in it, for example, like you see in some other games), you could do it as a conditional branch above the planted pots when they're ready for pressing. Just turn on a switch on the plot below where you want the 'speech bubble' to appear, and on the action button event notification, set it to appear when the switch is on, and off when it is off. This means you can effectively time when you want the notification to appear. It's a bit 'cheaty' as it is only a visual notification, but very simple. 

 

[Andar]

If it seems like I'm prying for all the answers, I am sorry...


and at this point I'm just looking for some hints?

That is not a problem, we're here to help.
The real problem (and the reason why I didn't give a direct answer above) is something else:


Your questions were not specific enough.


Ace can do almost everything in making a game, but sometimes you have to work around the limitations of the editor to get what you want.


You can do that in a lot of ways (usually involving scripts, but often by restructuring your own logic), but in order to select the easiest way we need more informations about what you want to do.


As you said yourself, a farming event is very simple as long as it has only a few variants or settings - here the limit is the number of self-switches in the editor. If you want the player to have more options, there are several ways how to get them in - but without knowing what exactly you want, we can't tell you how to do this.


For example, if you want to allow for a lot of different plants but only 2-3 "growth stages", I would suggest using PK8's self-data-suite to store the plant values but still use eventing pages for growing.


If you want a lot of different growing stages but limit the game to a fixed (small) number of growing spots, I would suggest to go by pure eventing, only using a variable for each spot to store the current status.


If you want averything beyond the limits, it might be easiest to request a custom script for this - but then you'll be required to really list the features you want.


My redirecting you to tutorials was meant to help you structure what you want your game to be, and to help you learning the nomenclature and limits of the RPG-Makers, so that you can then ask more specific questions on where you still need help.

 

[subak]

Hey thanks for the suggestion guys! I guess I'm still far from being able to do anything properly haha...

@Hotfirelegend Unless I'm not understanding correctly, I didn't put in any speech bubble for my game. Furthermore, I made all the plots underneath the character so that the player can stand on it and hopefully give the message. I tried to put conditions and switches in a variety of places to no avail. =/ Thank you for the advice though

@Andar I really appreciate your patience and willingness to help. I will continue to look through all the tutorials and such. But I think my question was vague so you took it the wrong way. I haven't gotten to it yet, but I have an idea on how to get the growth stages to work using the self-switches. My biggest issue right now is that each seed is linked to one another. Again, I did it based on <http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/6528-multivariable-gardening-system-vx-ace/> and the guide states " You'll need TWO switches for EACH Seed, example: Flux Planted and Flux Grown. Because I have 3 Seeds and 3 Grow Spots, I'll need 3 Planted and 3 Grown switches for EACH Seed. I named them Flux Planted 1, Flux Grown 1, etc." 

What I'm getting from this is that, each grow spot requires a different switches. So basically if I want to grow 10 strawberries, I need to make "Strawberry Planted 1, Strawberry Planted 2, Strawberry Planted 3, etc..." as well as "Strawberry Grown 1, Strawberry Grown 2, Strawberry Grown, etc..." for 10 different growing areas. I tried just doing it with one switch on multiple planting area and when one event triggers, all of the triggers. (I watered one of them and all of them grew...how nice it would be if things in real life worked out like that lol). So basically I guess what I'm asking is, is it possible to make one switch/variable or script for strawberry seeds as a whole rather than each individual seed. 

Again, I apologize if I'm just being utterly dumb haha. If my question is still unintelligible please say so and I will get back to you after more tutorials lol...now back to reading those tutorials I go! The tutorial games people made are really useful too.

Thanks guys!

 

[EternalShadow]

Hey thanks for the suggestion guys! I guess I'm still far from being able to do anything properly haha...

@Hotfirelegend Unless I'm not understanding correctly, I didn't put in any speech bubble for my game. Furthermore, I made all the plots underneath the character so that the player can stand on it and hopefully give the message. I tried to put conditions and switches in a variety of places to no avail. =/ Thank you for the advice though

I meant make one or put one into the game. As in, like a characterset.spritesheet. This appears in an event with the graphic set to that image. Put its priority as 'above player' so it 'appears' above the plot, and the player can walk under it.

Note: Don't put it 'on' the event with the plot, put it one tile above.

 

[subak]

aaah lol duh...sorry for that. Thanks! I'll get right on it

Edit: So I tried it using your method Hotfirelegend but unfortunately I wasn't able to produce the result I wanted. It worked only under certain circumstances...like depending on where I was facing/standing. I probably did it wrong lol...but I actually managed to figure out a different method by using different switches in the event and on common events. Took me like 80 tries but finally got the result I wanted! yay...

I'm still being plagued by the problem of "Strawberry plant 1, 2, 3 etc" thing....

Thanks for your inputs!!

 

[Andar]

The limited number of self-switches and the problems with using general switches and variables are the reason why one of my suggestions was PK8's self-data-suite. That is a group of scripts that can be used to create additional self-switches or even self-variables.


From the short description above I think this will be enough to solve your problems - you'll have to use script commands to replace the control switch commands, but then it would work perfectly without requiring general numbered switches - just make one event with the needed self-switches and self-variables, and then copy it as often as you want without any need to change switches or variables.

 

[subak]

Again, thank you very much! I am looking into PK8's self data suite and it's actually a lot more complex than the other scripts I've been fiddling with. 

For one, I can't get the script calls to work properly. Are there any tutorials for custom script calls? I'm probably doing it all wrong. So basically I tried to follow the instructions but it was actually a bit minimal for someone with my level of understanding. And there really isn't much information regarding the script (I searched for like an hour straight!). Actually, I couldn't find a decent tutorial or article to read about this particular subject at all. I suppose I have to actually learn a bit of scripting to understand?

        

Base on what I read, I just tried it out hahaah. The doc gave me this:

Set: self_switch(id, bool)

Get: self_switch(id)

self_switch(id) == true

self_switch(id) == false


I know its a bit messy and I have to conditionals just on top of each other. I did that to see if the regular self switch would work vs PK's script. The regular stuff works fine but my sad sad attempts to try out the script did not and gave me this error.

I also tried it with variables as such (again testing both in program variables vs PK8's script) and it didn't really work. I got enough gold (35) but the NPC kept repeating that it wasn't enough. Plus

Set: self_variable(id, value)

Get: self_variable(id)

 

Would value here be "currency"?

I've digressed so much and asked so many questions lol....I feel bad. I'm sorry yet again. One last question for now, although I can't even get the self-switch to work. While I was looking up some help, I ran across a lot of questions regarding using the self switch in a new event page. People seem to be able to trigger it when its on the same page, but they couldn't when they tried to go to the next page. They also received no help. I feel like I'll run across this problem lol...

Sorry and thanks again guys

 

[EternalShadow]

Edit: So I tried it using your method Hotfirelegend but unfortunately I wasn't able to produce the result I wanted. It worked only under certain circumstances...like depending on where I was facing/standing. I probably did it wrong lol...but I actually managed to figure out a different method by using different switches in the event and on common events. Took me like 80 tries but finally got the result I wanted! yay...

Glad you got the result - the usage of different switches is often a stopgap measure, but can be useful to prevent bugs in events occurring when you don't want them to, such as in the case of an event with the switch it relies on being modified. Even though it took like 80 tries, the learning was good!

 

[PK8]

I haven't fiddled around with my own script in a while, but you'd use a string in place of an id.

For example, when setting the self variable, "currency" would replace id.

self_variable("currency", $game_variables[14])Using this code below returns the event's "currency" self variable.

self_variable("currency")So the condition you're looking for would be

self_variable("currency") <= 34

 

[subak]

ooh thank you!! I'll definitely try it out tonight