Two questions about more of VNM's abilities

[kn1000a]

While I'm coming off with a script for the game (as I think this is what I should get done first before actually messing with anything in VNM), I came across two things that made me wonder if VNM is able to handle them:

1. Have multiple names assigned to characters/set flag when a name is revealed.
- First thing is self-explanatory, I was wonder if you can have multiple names assigned to a character. Of course, it will be during different scenes/chapters. I was thinking of making multiple folders and reupload the character files, except with different name. Will it work that way?
- The second is about more of condition and parameters (which I'm not very good at). Like in many VNs, sometimes they hide a character's name and use ???, until said character introduce themselves. I was wondering if that mechanic is doable in VNM too.

2. Having a movie/video played before the menu screen.
- Another thing that would be better implemented in a game where you are returned to the menu of the game when you finished a route, so you can replay and start another. It would be annoying to have a PV/OP played after you click "New Game" in the menu everytime. I want it to play when the VN starts up, and then after the video runs it will jump to the menu screen. That way if a player finish an ending and want to play the next one, they won't have to sit through the video again.

Thanks~

 

[Kentou]

- First thing is self-explanatory, I was wonder if you can have multiple names assigned to a character. Of course, it will be during different scenes/chapters. I was thinking of making multiple folders and reupload the character files, except with different name. Will it work that way?
- The second is about more of condition and parameters (which I'm not very good at). Like in many VNs, sometimes they hide a character's name and use ???, until said character introduce themselves. I was wondering if that mechanic is doable in VNM too.

That can be done easily. A character can only have one name at a time but you can change that name during the game. So for example, each character has the name ??? at first. But then when they introduce themselves, you can use Set Object Data command to assign the actual name of the character.

Also as an alternative, characters are separated from their graphics in VNM. You can also easily just create a character twice in the data base. One time with ??? name and one time with the real name.

- Another thing that would be better implemented in a game where you are returned to the menu of the game when you finished a route, so you can replay and start another. It would be annoying to have a PV/OP played after you click "New Game" in the menu everytime. I want it to play when the VN starts up, and then after the video runs it will jump to the menu screen. That way if a player finish an ending and want to play the next one, they won't have to sit through the video again.

I am not sure if I get the problem here. You can display a video when the game starts up and then after you go to title screen. If the player finishes a route, you go back to title screen and the video will not play because it is before the title screen. So that is what you want I think?

If the video plays after "New Game" has been selected, I would actually always give an option to skip the intro. VN Maker can handle that automatically for you, it can skip the video by clicking on it. But if you want to handle that yourself, you can just set a persistent switch "Game has been finished already" and if that switch is set, you will not play it. But like I said, I think the best option would be to let the user choose to skip or not. Or you can set a persistent switch "Game has been played through one time" and only if that switch is set you offer the option to skip or something. Depends on how you like to design it.

 

[kn1000a]

If the video plays after "New Game" has been selected, I would actually always give an option to skip the intro. VN Maker can handle that automatically for you, it can skip the video by clicking on it. But if you want to handle that yourself, you can just set a persistent switch "Game has been finished already" and if that switch is set, you will not play it. But like I said, I think the best option would be to let the user choose to skip or not. Or you can set a persistent switch "Game has been played through one time" and only if that switch is set you offer the option to skip or something. Depends on how you like to design it.

Thank you for the answer! The last point also raises some interest as I think this "persistent switch" will come in handy for me a lot (another thing I discussed in another thread is that I want a switch that can turn "on" when a player finish a route so they unlock a new one). Would you let me know which article in the VNM help database discusses this topic? I wanna read more about it~

Thanks again!