RPG Maker MZ Playtest bugged? Help!

[IndigoDreamsArt]

I've been using the trial for a couple of days now and am working on a project with the intent to buy as I have a pretty complex
idea for a game. However, when I go to playtest my game, more often than not (just starting today) it randomly stops showing
commands that I've put in, or will show the wrong assets, or just stop working altogether. I have double, triple, quadruple checked that basic movement commands were put in properly, they were. Sometimes it just freezes in the middle of the
playtest. Sometimes deleting movements or commands and putting them in again works, often it does not.

I really want to justify purchasing MZ, and I've put a lot of time into this already, but if I can't progress with my game testing to
ensure everything is working, I don't know if I can buy this product or not. Does anyone have any suggestions about whether or
not it's the playtest or rpg maker that's bugged, how to fix this, or if anyone else has experienced this issue? thanks!

 

[Shaz]

I'm not aware of anyone else reporting issues like this, so it's more likely that you've got something wrong in your project. Maybe you need to make a video showing what's happening and we can take it from there.

Going to move this to MZ Support

 

[caethyril]

If it's not reflecting the changes you've made to events etc then it might be a file access issue, i.e. the editor may be accessing the "wrong" files for whatever reason. Some possibilities:

1. Restricted disk location, e.g. Program Files. Keep your project files in your Documents folder or somewhere like that. More info:
   

   Save games that can be loaded by the game, but do not match those in the game directory. (RPGM 2K)

   I came across a bizarre issue today: I noticed that the dates on the save files in the game directory were days old despite me having overwritten those since then. Some testing revealed that the saves that I could load in the game did not match those in the game directory, but the saves that...

   forums.rpgmakerweb.com
   
   
2. If you've deployed to your project's folder (File > Deployment, not sure if the trial version offers that?) then the package.json file will be overwritten, meaning playtest will run the deployed version, effectively ignoring edits made since then. It also unnecessarily bloats your game due to multiple copies of all game data. Always deploy to a separate folder!
   
   To fix this, I think you can just copy package.json from a new project into your current one. (You do not have to deploy your game in order to playtest.)
   
   
3. Interference by external apps, e.g. automatic backups, over-zealous antivirus, etc. These will have to be determined and treated individually. Manual backups are recommended; antivirus apps can be told to trust/allow certain files/folders if necessary; etc.

 

[IndigoDreamsArt]

I'm not aware of anyone else reporting issues like this, so it's more likely that you've got something wrong in your project. Maybe you need to make a video showing what's happening and we can take it from there.

[mod]Going to move this to MZ Support[/mod]

hi there, than you for responding. One of the issues I discovered with the movement commands, was that there were several tiles that the game thought had obstacles in (it was just normal floor) so I fixed it by setting "through" during any cutscenes that required a character to pass over that tile. The rest of
the behavior seems to be pretty erratic but also has gotten better over the last few days.

 

[IndigoDreamsArt]

If it's not reflecting the changes you've made to events etc then it might be a file access issue, i.e. the editor may be accessing the "wrong" files for whatever reason. Some possibilities:

1. Restricted disk location, e.g. Program Files. Keep your project files in your Documents folder or somewhere like that. More info:
   

   Save games that can be loaded by the game, but do not match those in the game directory. (RPGM 2K)

   I came across a bizarre issue today: I noticed that the dates on the save files in the game directory were days old despite me having overwritten those since then. Some testing revealed that the saves that I could load in the game did not match those in the game directory, but the saves that...

   forums.rpgmakerweb.com
   
   
2. If you've deployed to your project's folder (File > Deployment, not sure if the trial version offers that?) then the package.json file will be overwritten, meaning playtest will run the deployed version, effectively ignoring edits made since then. It also unnecessarily bloats your game due to multiple copies of all game data. Always deploy to a separate folder!
   
   To fix this, I think you can just copy package.json from a new project into your current one. (You do not have to deploy your game in order to playtest.)
   
   
3. Interference by external apps, e.g. automatic backups, over-zealous antivirus, etc. These will have to be determined and treated individually. Manual backups are recommended; antivirus apps can be told to trust/allow certain files/folders if necessary; etc.

Yes, this was along the lines of what I was wondering about. This is very helpful. Thank you. I did fix the initial issue, but will definitely use this next time to try and fix these issues, because I certainly had to take a longer route, haha. One of the issues was some sort of bug where either the playtest or rpg maker thought empty tiles had an obstacle in it, but this was just hindering the movement command. I was having all sorts of other issues, ha.

 

[Shaz]

If there are areas of plain floor that you cannot walk through, it means you have done something wrong (such as place a tile, decide you don't want it, and then draw over it with a blank tile with X passability - ONLY the very first B tile should be used to "erase"). Setting other tiles to through to overcome the problem is probably going to cause you more issues down the track.

 

[IndigoDreamsArt]

If there are areas of plain floor that you cannot walk through, it means you have done something wrong (such as place a tile, decide you don't want it, and then draw over it with a blank tile with X passability - ONLY the very first B tile should be used to "erase"). Setting other tiles to through to overcome the problem is probably going to cause you more issues down the track.

That is a very good point, haha. Thank you. I did manage to rectify this.

 

[Shaz]

This thread is being closed, due to being solved. If for some reason you would like this thread re-opened, please report this post and leave a message why. Thank you.