Saving a party formation with variables

[Convict24601]

alternate title "I Found a Thread in the MV Forums That I Couldn't Figure Out and Didn't Want to Necro"

Good morning people who live in my computer! It's me, that guy that posts questions that range from "blindingly simple" to "still pretty simple" that I just can't figure out. Todays problem:

I want to do a flashback scene. Party of 4 characters encounters a guy, talks to the guy, area changes and BAM new party. That part is easy. Once that's done with, though, I want to be able to return to the first map and have the party revert back to what it was before.

i.e. Jim, Jimothy, Jimmy, and The Jimster talk to "The Guy", new party is formed on the map that the player transfers to, play through that area, then return to where you just were with Jim, Jimothy, Jimmy and The Jimster back in their original places. The thing is, there are a bunch of characters who *could* be in the party (I'm up to 13 characters in this game, please someone stop me I have a problem) and I'm not sure how to make the game read who they are and save that information.

In the thread I linked above the Venerable ATT-Turan (first of his name) said

While you certainly could use either of the plugins mentioned above, it's still pretty easy to do this in an event.

Right in Control Variable, under Gamedata, is the Actor ID of each Party Member.

So you just set four variables to have the IDs of the four party members, then remove them and put your main character in.

Then on the way out you take out the main character and use conditionals on those four variables to add the correct party members back in.

Using one of the plugins would perhaps be a bit sleeker, but if you're having a hard time reading the instructions, the above method should work just fine.

Which is awesome but I'm really lost on how exactly to set up that information and also how to then reference that information (and I wasn't sure if there was a difference between MV and MZ in that regard).

So that's what I got. Can anyone help me give my player the flashback they deserve?

(also sorry mods if I should have just added to that thread to begin with)

 

[ATT_Turan]

I, the Venerable, Father of Scriptlets, Breaker of Code, do so inquire:

Is there a reason you need to have two parties? Your description of the flashback is that it's a cutscene, and to my mind there's no reason you would care who is currently in your party for that cutscene.

Change Player Followers OFF, Move Route Player Transparent ON, and everything is invisible.

Plop down four events with the graphics of the characters you want to be in the past party. Manipulate them around for the flashback.

When you're done, reverse those two prior event commands to make everything visible again.

If you're actually controlling the past party in the flashback and moving around as them and such, then that's a different matter...but your wording of your question doesn't seem to jive with what you say you're doing.

(as far as my bit that you quoted...I tried to already state it in a procedural way, so I can answer your question better if you tell me which specific instruction you don't know how to follow)

 

[Convict24601]

Ah crud, sorry, I can see how that was not clear.

Yeah, the flashback is an area with battles and exploration and all the good stuff. The main party that the player has been controlling up to this point vanishes and then you have several new characters that the player takes control of for a brief time.

Once they finish the area, it goes back to that first place and the party reverts to what it was.

As for the meat and potatoes of the event, I have put a couple screen caps below.

Spoiler: Common Event

Again, sorry for the confusion! And thanks for the help in advance.

 

[ATT_Turan]

Yeah, the flashback is an area with battles and exploration and all the good stuff. The main party that the player has been controlling up to this point vanishes and then you have several new characters that the player takes control of for a brief time.

Okay, so the thread you linked to above is not really the same thing. That's about figuring out the current party members to display as map events, not switching between parties.

I would use HimeWorks' Party Manager: https://himeworks.com/2016/02/party-manager-mv/

You could do it without a plugin through lots of variable wrangling and stuff, but why not really easily automate all of that?

As for the meat and potatoes of the event, I have put a couple screen caps below.

Again, what you're asking about was intended to interact with map events meeting conditions for which page displays. It was not talking about actually adding party members. You'd need to use a script call for that:

$gameParty.addActor($gameVariables.value(25));

will add the ID stored in variable 25 to your party.

 

[Convict24601]

Ah ha! I understand now... Thanks very much, I'll grab that plugin!

Someday I'll understand the very basics of the engine I've spend 850 hours working on...

Thanks again,