QQ: Can RPG Maker Reliably Read/Write Simple Arguments To/From an External Device?

[lashropa]

Hey all, lovely community, great reputation, happy to be here. Full disclosure; I'm brand new to RPG maker and I'm currently reading the documentation but I'm eager to jump in and I thought I'd take a shot and see if I can get an easy answer. Here goes:

I'd like to make a special RPG where events in the real world are able to effect the game state. Super easy stuff; log in at night, gameworld is night-time, got an A+ on your homework all week? you get 5000 extra GP. Did you quit smoking this week? Combat stat buff and so on. Keeping in mind that this is my core game mechanic, do you think RPG maker would be a good platform to work with, or would you just hop on to something more robust like Unity if you were me? Keeping in mind I'd like to go fully KISS on this one, what say you?

Thanks guys. In any case, I'll be checking out your projects for inspiration. 

Grind on...

 

[Andar]

(Mainly) no and (partially) yes - your question is too general to give an answer, it depends on a lot of details, including which maker you're talking about.


RMMV is HTML5-based, which means that it can load additional files from your website if you put them up there, but all browsers are specifically designed to sandbox websites and webprograms, which means its almost impossible for them to check local drives (unless the user manually copies the files to a predefined place)


Earlier Makers don't have online-access, which means that they can't check on the web but aren't as much restricted on loading local files - but still require the user to copy the files to a place where they look.


And that is not even considering that a lot of security software is designed to prevent "strange" file operations.


So basically it can be done but only if you as the developer provide the updates for the files to read in a way that is not blocked on the player's computer.


And that requires a lot of specific knowledge that you don't have yet (and need to learn on your own), or you wouldn't ask for this.

 

[Iavra]

If your game will only run locally, you also get access to the Node.js API, which enables you to do a lot more stuff with external files/APIs/devices.

 

[lashropa]

Good show all. A quick response and thank you & I'm off and running...

(Mainly) no and (partially) yes - your question is too general to give an answer, it depends on a lot of details, including which maker you're talking about.

RMMV is HTML5-based, which means that it can load additional files from your website if you put them up there, but all browsers are specifically designed to sandbox websites and webprograms, which means its almost impossible for them to check local drives (unless the user manually copies the files to a predefined place)
Earlier Makers don't have online-access, which means that they can't check on the web but aren't as much restricted on loading local files - but still require the user to copy the files to a place where they look

And that is not even considering that a lot of security software is designed to prevent "strange" file operations.


So basically it can be done but only if you as the developer provide the updates for the files to read in a way that is not blocked on the player's computer.
And that requires a lot of specific knowledge that you don't have yet (and need to learn on your own), or you wouldn't ask for this.

Noted. As far as I can tell HTML will be perfect. I'll give a prototype in RMMV a shot.

If your game will only run locally, you also get access to the Node.js API, which enables you to do a lot more stuff with external files/APIs/devices.

I'll take a look at this too. I would be happy with an off-line version of this feature as a stepping stone, especially if it helps me iterate quickly through the initial learning process.

**Thanks again guys. I'll let you know how it goes.

--lashropa

 

[astracat111]

You could probably use javascript to interface with php code to do it. You are working with an html file after all, so you should be able to use php. 

Here's the first link that pops up: 

http://php.net/manual/en/function.localtime.php

In php this is what I found as a stackoverflow.com answer:

// set default timezonedate_default_timezone_set('America/Chicago'); // CDT$current_date = date('d/m/Y == H:i:s');If you interface C++, C# or Java with rpg maker's javascript locally, this is what you'll be looking for:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms724390(v=vs.85).aspx

Here's more info about accessing mysql with javascript: 

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3020751/can-javascript-connect-with-mysql