NPC and Actor text merging?

[kawaiidesuchan]

Hi Everyone, I'm not sure if anyone else has ever experienced this issue, and I've tried my best to fix it (which included a lot of Google searches) to no avail.


I'm in the process of creating my first game, a little experiment of mine to learn the mechanics, and I've come across some trouble with the dialogue between my actor and an NPC. I'll try to explain it in the best way I can. This does not happen in all cases of dialogue, I've noticed that events that are not activated by a switch are not affected. Either way, I can't find a way to get rid of this issue.


Below are screenshots of the conversation event and what happens in the game. The first page of the event runs fine, but when the actor returns with the quest items (second page), what the NPC says merges with what the actor says. The only way I avoid this is by placing a 'show balloon icon' command in between the two strings of dialogue, or by placing a short 'wait' command, which ruins the smooth transition between character dialogue. Currently, I don't use any custom scripts. Perhaps the solution is simple and I apologise if I'm missing it, but I just can't seem to find a way to return the dialogue back to normal. 



I would be very grateful if someone could tell me if there is an error somewhere that I've missed. Thank you in advance. 

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[Andar]

Which scripts do you use in your project?


Especially if you're using some messaging scripts that would be important to know, because at the moment I can only think of some scripts as the cause, the default engine can't even increase the size of the window to five lines like in one of your screenshots...

 

[kawaiidesuchan]

Thank you for the response. 


I used:


Basic Options Menu v1.1 by Vlue: http://pastebin.com/LjRsUGeH


Yanfly Engine Ace - Enemy Death Transform v1.01: https://github.com/Archeia/YEARepo/blob/master/Battle/Enemy_Death_Transform.rb


Yanfly Engine Ace - Ace Shop Options v1.01: https://github.com/Archeia/YEARepo/blob/master/Menu/Ace_Shop_Options.rb


Galv's New Item Indication: https://galvs-scripts.com/galvs-new-item-indication/


Tactics Ogre PSP Crafting System by Mr. Bubble: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/89346660/Bubs%20-%20Tactics%20Ogre%20PSP%20Crafting%20System.txt


I completely removed the scripts but it didn't fix the issue unfortunately. 

 

[Rinobi]

@kawaiidesuchan


None of the scripts that you've listed appear to have anything to do with messaging...


Are those all of the scripts that you had installed?

 

[kawaiidesuchan]

Yes those are all. I only changed the windowskin but I don't think that could have caused this issue as the height and width is the same as in the default one.

 

[Shaz]

wow, those are big screenshots and slow to load.  Next time, use Alt+PrtScn so it captures only the active window instead of your whole desktop.  Gives a smaller file size and doesn't shrink the interesting bits so it's easier for us to read.


There MUST be another script in there that you've added and haven't removed.  Look at any slots that don't have names.  If you can't find it, if you can zip up your project and load it to dropbox and provide a link, I can take a look at it - it needs to be your original project, not compressed (I want to see the events and scripts and be able to change them, not just play the game).

 

[Rinobi]

@kawaiidesuchan


As mentioned by @Andar, displaying five lines of text like that isn't an option without scripting of some description. Changing the window-skin graphic shouldn't affect this. It looks like subsequent text boxes are being merged together to fill five lines. I vaguely remember ATS: Message Options by modern algebra doing something like this...


Unless you've modified the default scripts or have a script active that you're unaware of, I can't see how else this problem could occur. You may want to replace your Scripts.rvdata2 file with a fresh one before reinstalling your scripts.

 

[Shaz]

You can also try a brand new project, with NO changes to your scripts at all, and put in those events.  I'm guessing it will work then, which proves it's something about your project, and not Ace itself, that's causing the issue.

 

[kawaiidesuchan]

Sorry about the screenshots - noted for next time. 


I copied all the scripts I had into notepad before removing them, and I just put them back into script editor. I've looked through and haven't found anything, so it would be great if you could check to see if there's something that is causing this problem.


Here's a link to the game project and files:


https://www.dropbox.com/s/5emqus9bo4xi3kx/Experiment2.zip?dl=0


Thank you so much for the help. 

 

[Shaz]

You have two additional scripts that you didn't tell us about, that are not in named slots. You should have seen them both, as I told you to look in the unnamed slots.


The first one - for an options menu by the looks of it - uses switch 5 for something.  You have not customized that, and you've used switch 5 for a different purpose in your game (Denied Laura Tea).  This is going to cause a conflict.  This script is in the (insert here) slot.


The other one is Yanfly's Ace Message System, and had you told us in the OP that you had this script, we would have told you immediately that's what's causing the issue.  Again, you haven't customized the script.  VARIABLE_ROWS is set to 21 and VARIABLE_WIDTH is set to 22.  This means the message system is using variables 21 and 22 for its own purposes, and you have used variable 21 for the number of rosethorns gathered.  This means as you get more and more rosethorns and that variable goes up, your message boxes are going to have more and more lines (which explains why the problem only happens after you've completed her request and go back to talk to her again). This script is in the 'empty' slot below Materials.


So - two rules EVERY SINGLE TIME you add a script, to avoid problems like this:


1 - create a NEW script slot, paste the script in there, and give it a name that's going to let you know exactly what it's for at a glance.


2 - look through the header documentation and actually read everything, because that's where it tells you what switches or variables it's going to use.  Whenever you find those, you either need to go into an event command and call up the Control Switches or Control Variables commands, find those switch and variable numbers, and give them names so you know they're being used by the script (you just name them, hit Apply, and can then cancel out of the command - you don't need to actually create & save a command that uses those switches & variables).  Or, if those switches and variables are already used by something else in your game, find some that aren't used, name them, then go back into the script and change the numbers around.

 

[kawaiidesuchan]

I must have misplaced it into the empty slot and forgot about it! Sorry about that :  


I edited the script, changed the variables to 0 and the switch to 100, so one that I won't use. I tested the game and everything works great! Thank you very much for the help! 

 

[Shaz]

Changing the variable to 0 is a bit iffy.  I would not recommend that normally - this particular script just happens to be written to cater for a 0 in the variable, and the variables script just happens to be written to cater for returning a 0 if a variable isn't defined.  So it works because you're lucky.  Normally, if it asks for a variable ID, you need to give it a variable id.


And still name your switch.  You'd be surprised how many you will use, and if you haven't named it to show that it's being used by the script, you will end up overwriting it (plus the fact that you chose to use variable 21 when there were 20 other unused variables available before it, so you could well use switch 100).