So many Plugins, where to start?

[ItsArchieTime]

This depends entirely on what you want your game to be. Do you plan to put on a crafting system? Do you want greater detail in the character portraits during conversations? What I usually do is plan out mechanics for my game first then look up plugins to see if one exists for the mechanic I have in mind.

@sabao That is a good point, and I'm currently at that stage. With the massive resources of plugins just felt buried and unsure how to proceed. But I'm definitely going to do more developing of my idea before proceeding.

Thank you for your answers!

 

[ItsArchieTime]

1. There is some hidden knowledge right there: most Learn RPG Maker don't cover plugins because there aren't much to be said about them. Grab de JS, put them in the js/plugins folder and follow the author's instructions. Plugins aren't essential and you shouldn't plan your game thinking about which plugins you'll add to it. You should be thinking in what kind of experience the player should have and how best you can tailor your game to shape this experience. This thought will determine the must have plugins.
   
   
2. Probably not. It's rare (almost non-existent) a plugin that needs to be installed at the beginning of the development. If some error occurs while installing a script, uninstall it. The plugin is just a JS file.
   
   
3. This is the kind of question that will lead you to your must have plugins or event systems. This question shows that you probably have some design about how the game experience in the overworld should be. This question shows even that you want an overworld map in your game. One that it'll fit your design.
   
   And yes, there are. The overworld map is just a map and map modifying plugins should work just fine in it. But if you want a specific experience (like the Mario's/Breath of Fire's map selection, or FF Mode 7 type), we would have to know it in further details.

@Kyo Panda

1. I did feel there is some hidden knowledge and didn't want to proceed before I understand the nature of the beast so to speak.
2. That's good to know, I ascertained from the process that they are just .js file with a on/off toggle in the manager.
3. Absolutely, I had no idea there were overworld map plugins, perhaps my search didn't have the correct keywords, I missed it among the myriad of other possibilities

Thank you for your answers!

 

[ItsArchieTime]

My suggestion is to start and see what you can make without plug-ins first. Then, when you think you're ready to add plug-ins, only add in plug-ins from the same author to start out (so either do all Yanfly, or all Victor Saint, or all Moghunter). This is so you avoid compatibility issues with other plug-ins by other authors.

Once you get that set up, then add other plug-ins if needed. I actually did this very thing with my game, and, if I can't do it in my game without the plug-ins from the author I'm using, I just do without or write the code for it myself. Has prevented many issues that way.

As for save games, many plug-ins break existing save games (in fact, loading a save game after adding a plug-in often leads to the famous Nil:Noclass error). Best to start playing your game from the beginning once you add plug-ins.

@bgillisp I didn't think of that, keeping it all from the same author!

Do you have any good resources on writing .js files?

Definitely will start with the plugins I need for the project.

Thank you for your answers!

 

[ItsArchieTime]

Everyone else has the correct answer but if you want to go the other route, choose a core library (Yanfly, Victor etc) and add the Core Engine and Battle Core. Expand from there when you come across additional features that you want that are in other plug-ins from the same developer. You can also try out additional plug-ins from other stand alone sources with the expectation that they could cause conflicts and need to be removed.

@Frogboy Makes sense, I'm leaning towards waiting to start the project until I figure out what plugins I'm going to use.

Thank you for your answers!

 

[bgillisp]

ItsArchieTime, please avoid double posting, as it is against the forum rules. You can use the "Edit" function on your posts to add additional information you've forgotten or respond to multiple people. You can review our forum rules here. Thank you.

Instead, please use the edit button and put all of those in one post next time.

And to answer your question, afraid I don't, as all my coding is for ACE right now. Maybe once this project is finished?

 

[ItsArchieTime]

[dpost]ItsArchieTime[/dpost]
Instead, please use the edit button and put all of those in one post next time.

And to answer your question, afraid I don't, as all my coding is for ACE right now. Maybe once this project is finished?

I apologize, I didn't realize that replying to each person would be considering double posting. I will be mindful of that in the future.

 

[Isaac The Red]

If your New to RPG Maker overall, like others have said, I definitely recommend making your first project plugin free and making a small game to learn what you can do with just the base editor and the event system down the line when you are comfortable working with the RPG maker engine and its editor, Look into Yanfly Engine, or Victor Engine, ect, and check out youtube videos for them, and see what you think best fits the game you want to make, and your personal development style. There are tonnes of videos on how to use the individual plugins. on top of that, there are a lot of good quality of life plugins from guys like SumRndmDde that work alongside the engines nicely.

As for 'Must have' plugins, there really is no answer for that, as the must have plugins really depend on what your game needs, to do the things you want it to do. If you go with yanfly engine plugins, Don't just drop them all in all at once, there's a LOT of them there, start small, and work your way up, These plugins have an order to them for installation too, if you have the plugins in the wrong order you can get a lot of errors. A really big quality of life thing you can do to get the most out of yanfly plugins is join his ******* at at least the $5 level, and get access to his Sample project, that has all of his plugins in it and setup with a lot of example setups that you can play with. Loading up his project into the editor along side your own game firing up the sample project in test play and going into the 'royal library' where all the example setups are, you can see how they run, and get descriptions of the plugins and the like, and then look at the areas in the editor that deal with those plugins, you can learn a LOT from rooting around in there.

Shilling aside, Adding plugins as you need them, really is the best way to go. In that line, expanding from the core to the extensions ect. But seriously, start small and don't overwhelm yourself.

 

[Shaz]

On the double posting issue ... if you feel you must quote each person's post (which usually isn't necessary), there's a + Quote button in the lower right corner of each post. Hit that on each post you want to quote, then when you're done, go to the Reply box at the end of the thread and click Insert Quotes - this will give you a single post with all of your quotes. If you do this, at the very least, delete the content of every quote that you're not specifically replying to, so your post isn't a mile long.

But the better way is just to use the @ method to identify each person you want to speak to (as people have done in previous posts in this thread) - you can answer several people in the same post, you're not quoting their entire post, it's clear who you're talking to, and they get notified that you've replied.

 

[Munchy]

If this thread is still active and could do with a bump, I personally recommend most of the Yanfly (YEP) Plugin list coupled with some of MOG's plugins, if your game absolutely requires plugins to function. However, I do agree with learning the basic event and script call system before hand. Its built in to RPG Maker MV and I suggest this to see if your game actually needs plugins. You can make a pretty good game with hardly any Dev knowledge or Java using the in built system itself . Of course any issues or further plugin recommendations by all means message me.