Weird, simplistic, noobish questions.

[Davant]

I warned you that I'd flood the support area with questions! The reckoning has begun.

Joking aside, I'm having a weird recurring problem with my cut scene events for my game (and I'm only about two days into the game's development... 2pro). When I attempt to have an NPC leave a room via an exit which has a transfer event placed on it, they can't pass/stand on it. I know that two events can't be placed on top of each other (to my slowly growing knowledge), so my first question is this: Is there a way around that little issue?

My second question is... also regarding cut scenes (even more 2pro). At least, I think it's considered a cut scene. I have an event where the player turns in a key item to an NPC, and after a little back-and-forth, the NPC leaves the room. The thing is, depending on which direction the player talks to the NPC from, that route might be blocked (If the exit is to the left, and the player is between the NPC and the exit, she won't move). I'm not sure what the best option for approaching this situation is, other than to put invisible walls around her and make the game weird. >_<; Does anyone know what the proper approach to this issue is?

If I think of more questions I'll be sure to bombard you with them as well. Thank you in advance!

 

[xcom]

1)  To the best of my knowledge, the NPC can't be teleported via a transfer point on the map.  The only thing I can suggest is when you bring up the MOVE ROUTE command panel, on the far right side there should be a option that says TRANSPARENT ON and TRANSPARENT OFF.  So when your NPC gets to that point, where it's suppose to "transfer" off of the map.  End it with a TRANSPARENT ON command.  If it's like a set of steps, you can add the PLAY SE option to add the step sound effect right before it "transfer".

2)  Again, at the MOVE ROUTE command panel.  On the far right side there's a command that says THROUGH ON and THROUGH OFF.  During the NPCs movement, add THROUGH ON command before it starts to move.  The THROUGH command allows the NPC to move through things that it normally should not be able to move through.  Like your character who might be in the way.  I would also recommend always adding the THROUGH OFF option at the end of it's movement.

 

[Kes]

Question 1 - To have it appear as if the NPC is leaving the room,

As part of your set move route, turn Through ON  That will allow your NPC to occupy the same tile as the transfer event.

When it reaches the appropriate tile, select 'Change grahic' and then select None.  That will cause the NPC to 'disappear'

Ninja'd!!  But note my addition of Through ON so that it can more realistically appear that the NPC has left the room in the normal way.

But I can see a problem with xcom's second suggestion, so will continue.

Question 2 -

The problem is that if the object is something that the player cannot walk through (e.g. a table), then logically the NPC can't do that either without it appearing a bit odd.

if you arrange it so that the player can only approach from one direction, you have to be careful that you don't thereby block the NPC's route as well.  The simplest way (which might not fit with your map design) is to block 2 sides from the NPC's persepctive, but sides and back from the player's point of view and have the exit behind the NPC, so when the player has finished speaking, the NPC turns round and exits.

 

[xcom]

Question 1 - To have it appear as if the NPC is leaving the room,

As part of your set move route, turn Through ON  That will allow your NPC to occupy the same tile as the transfer event.

When it reaches the appropriate tile, select 'Change grahic' and then select None.  That will cause the NPC to 'disappear'

Ninja'd!!  But note my addition of Through ON so that it can more realistically appear that the NPC has left the room in the normal way.

But I can see a problem with xcom's second suggestion, so will continue.

Question 2 -

The problem is that if the object is something that the player cannot walk through (e.g. a table), then logically the NPC can't do that either without it appearing a bit odd.

if you arrange it so that the player can only approach from one direction, you have to be careful that you don't thereby block the NPC's route as well.  The simplest way (which might not fit with your map design) is to block 2 sides from the NPC's persepctive, but sides and back from the player's point of view and have the exit behind the NPC, so when the player has finished speaking, the NPC turns round and exits.

Doh that's right!  He would have THROUGH ON to be able to enter the transfer point event.  If he didn't the NPC would stop when it hits that event square.  

 

[Davant]

Through on allows NPCs to move on the same space as events? Awesome, I had no idea!

It sounds like I'll have to re-arrange the library a little bit then... Or where the NPC is standing in it, at least.... Decisions.

 

[Andar]

It sounds like I'll have to re-arrange the library a little bit then... Or where the NPC is standing in it, at least.... Decisions.

alternatively, you can make number of conditional branches checking which direction the player is facing (if it's facing left, then the player has to stand to the right of the event if he activated it), and then give different move routes depending on the player facing (with the move route going around the player if the player blocks the way to the exit)

 

[Kes]

That can be tricky if followers are showing as they might snake around.

 

[Davant]

Me again, with a confirmation and another two questions (I'm told that members enjoy questions so much). First, the confirmation. Both ksjp/xcom's and Andar's workarounds worked awesomely. Because I only have my one character (the player) talking to the NPC, I could use conditional branches to check which direction of the NPC the player was interacting with, and then set up a move route so that the player goes to the NPC's front. In the end though, I went with the opposite; The NPC now checks which direction the player is interacting with them from, turns to them, dialogue happens, and the NPC's Through is set to On. if the player is in the way, she can just glance by him (he's pretty skinny anyway).

New question! I haven't reached this pitfall yet, and it's a pretty small pitfall that's pretty far off, but nonetheless, I'm wondering about the victory/defeat results of a battle. First off, I intend to have a few (but not many) 'random' encounters in my game. However, the nature of these encounters is such that after 'winning', the player (and/or his followers) don't outright beat whoever they're fighting; the just stun them for long enough to escape. As such, I'm wondering if there's an event command that lets me somehow edit the 'Player's party was victorious!' message after defeating an enemy to something a little more... fitting. I've been told to stay away from script hunting because it is evil and will delay my game completion (Those weren't the exact words...), so I'm hoping there's something actually built into RGSS3... maybe?

Second question is a bit more straightforward. I'm looking into the idea of having certain battles end in a 'loss', but not resulting in a game over (the game is designed to have multiple paths). Is this possible through event commands at all? Or is that another thing I'll have to script hunt for? Hoping for the latter, but I'm nothing if not flexible.

 

[Kes]

For your last question, if it is an evented battle, which sounds like it is the case, then when you set up battle processing (3rd tab in event command menu) select the 'Continue even when loser' option.

The other question (about the victory message) can't as far as I'm aware, be done through eventing.  It involves an alteration to whichever battle script you are using (default or custom) and I'm not sure that it can be done only for some battles.  The only way I've seen is when the vocab for all battles is changed.  But I may be wrong on that.

It might be better if you follow the recommendations to start a new topic when you have a new question, because others coming after you might have the same question but would never think to look in this topic for the answer.  Also, someone who might know the answer to this new question wouldn't necessarily look in it.

 

[Davant]

I'll take your advice. Thanks a bunch!

 

[Dandydan]

Question 2 -The problem is that if the object is something that the player cannot walk through (e.g. a table), then logically the NPC can't do that either without it appearing a bit odd.

A video game requires some suspension of belief. I would rather have an NPC walk through a table or a wall than have it spend two minutes as it tries to find a path through the maze. I have seen some odd pathfinding in my day and in my opinion it wrecks immersion just as much if not worse than simply having the NPC walk through the wall.

Obviously, like any thing else, this idea can be abused by a lazy designer. I'd simply caution that in an effort to avoid one visual oddity that the game designer doesn't create an even worse visual oddity.