What can you do with RM?

[Galenmereth]

@Sharm: for that one I made the animation in Game Maker, captured it with a gif capture program, put the separate frames of the gifs into a ton of character sheets then set a custom move route for the event (triggered by another so it continues animating when Ko interacts with it) using Galv's Move Route Extras script to 'turn' the event through each frame of the animation and switch out the character sheets. Took a while, but I'm pleased with the end result.

Would it be possible to do this kind of thing with an effect animation? Any easier/quicker methods would be good to know, I searched around but couldn't find anything.

By default it's not possible with animations. Not reliably and without performance drop. But this gives me an idea for a simple script; would it be nice to be able to have an event play a spritesheet in sequential order at a given framerate by a simple script call in the move route box? For example "play_as_animation(framerate, looping?)"?

 

[Kvich]

@Kvich - how long did it take you overall?

From initial idea, to a complete working and thoroughly tested system, ~3 hours - I estimate about another 24 hours to fully incorporate it in my project, since different enemies needs different items, and some are easier and some are harder to steal from, and then come all the balancing for this, calculations on what effect it will have on the economical system of my project.

I love to read all the other stuff people here have added, especially those added only through events, really helps push the boundaries and find both new ways and new ideas for things to add to a game.

Edit:

After reading a bit more, maybe the topic tittle should be changed to "What can't be done with RM?"

 

[Fernyfer775]

I would have to say that I'm fairly proud of some of my action/fight cut-scenes in Demon Hunter. There's not many, but watching the little sprites running around the map beating each other up and getting everything timed correctly sure gives a sense of accomplishment once the finishing product it done.

 

[Silenity]

Since I suck at most things I can't do much; even with over 300 hours logged.

I can event at an intermediate level and I can edit the database. Kappa.

 

[Simon D. Aelsi]

@Dekita Thank you.  I do my best.

I love all the things other people have done as well!

 

[Sharm]

@Galenmereth: I think anything that makes longer animations easier would be nice.

 

[??????]

After reading a bit more, maybe the topic tittle should be changed to "What can't be done with RM?"

Maybe, but then it would just get loads of people saying about the real flaws of the maker, such as its frame rendering limitations etc..

Edit: To be fair, if you really get into the frame rendering process could be completely replaced anyway, so thats not even a real argument.

 

[bgillisp]

I dunno, I'm pretty sure RM cannot be programmed to eat hummus. But in all seriousness, from what I've seen, if you want it done, you can usually script it. So, if you wanted to make the next Doom game in RM, I'm sure it can be done, somehow.

 

[??????]

I have seen a script that allowed the classic doom view. Duno how user friendly it was, but yea, it does exist.

 

[Geoff Moore]

By default it's not possible with animations. Not reliably and without performance drop. But this gives me an idea for a simple script; would it be nice to be able to have an event play a spritesheet in sequential order at a given framerate by a simple script call in the move route box? For example "play_as_animation(framerate, looping?)"?

YES PLEASE!! *bites hand off*

 

[CrazyCrab]

Hmm, I guess that for me it would still be my silly ''a bit like civilization but not really'' strategy ''engine''. 

The game's divided into days, which function as turns.

-Every day you gain Production, Food, Research, Gold - every variable is calculated on the spot and depends on the number of buildings, number of citizens, technology level and event modifiers. Then some food is consumed by the population (again, depends on how many citizens you have and how much you feed them). 

- Additionally Happiness / Unrest, Hygiene / Pollution, Security / Danger is calculated. Again, depends on everything.

- Every day you also generate resources like wood, stone, etc. Depends on random chance for things like gems, number of woodcutters for wood. 

- There is a chance that you will get additional citizen(s) every day. Then you assign them jobs, like Harvester or Explorer. Most buildings require X workers to function. The birth chance depends, again, on a pile of factors like hygiene, housing, etc.

- At last events are picked from a pool, they depend on the previously mentioned stats - if your pollution is high, there may be a magical explosion. If your danger is high, mutants may invade and kill some of your people, etc. 

Now, what do you do with those things?

- Use resources and production to build buildings. Place whatever you want wherever you want on the world map. Then you can enjoy the passive benefits or use them (like shops).

- Use research to unlock technologies (there is a proper tech tree) that in turn give you access to new buildings, new classes, equipment and other stuff.

- Use Gold to bribe your way through events, diplomacy and trade. Also buy your explorers new equipment and useful gear.

- Use leftover food for expeditions that will give you treasure in return, most of the time.

And where does the RPG element come into play?

Well, some of your citizens are explorers, meaning that they are your usual actors in an RPG game. They level up, fight, do all that stuff. You also pick their names, classes, gendrers, all that stuff. On top of that there are some special premade characters that may eventually join you. All characters can die forever though, so be careful, but at the same time they can all be replaced...

Took me a lot time to get it to work but the whole package functions pretty well at this stage.

The coolest part? It's all evented. Only scripts I'm using are lighting, combat, ''use item on event'' (since it can't really be evented well) and better dialogue.

 

[??????]

Does that event run as a parallel process? Does it cause FPS loss?

Either way, thats very impressive for being evented. Good job

How long has that system taken you thus far?

 

[CrazyCrab]

Does that event run as a parallel process? Does it cause FPS loss?

Either way, thats very impressive for being evented. Good job

How long has that system taken you thus far?

Nah, because it is only triggered once at the beginning of each day This way it has no impact on performance.

I have no clue how long it took me, but it is my 2nd shot at the whole strategy thing - my 1st project was inherently flawed because of a silly building system that required me to edit so, so many pages every time I wanted to change something. Right now it's all about the common events and self switches, works much better. 

 

[??????]

Second attempts are always much much better.  Hell, I'm on my 13/14th? HTTP Processing system. My very first was was uber basic, written in pure ruby - then I was having some problems, so wrote up a dll to fix the issues I was having... Since then I'm not even working on HTTP anymore - I'm way way past that and figuring out how to deal with over 1000+ concurrent connections to a single server whilst maintaining a reasonable update speed on a of them...

^FYI - Not easy to test!

 

[bgillisp]

Agreed. My HP Barrier script was my 2nd attempt at it, the first I was dead-set on using states to activate it, but once I learned I could do that as part of the damage application step, it worked so much better.

Also, my game is on its 4th (5th?) attempt from the start now. Though attempt 1 didn't last long (4 days?), and technically the IGMC version was attempt 2.

 

[demonhead]

@demonhead - Have you learned much Japanese from it?  How did you manage to do that?

There's a video with some of what I did on my introduction topic.

http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/38788-japanese-learner-demonhead-desu

I think I learned some things. I spent more time adding things than I did reviewing what I added. I mainly looked up the definition for a sprite, then copy and pasted the definition into the textbox.

Such as a sink. I'd look up the Japanese word for sink, and when my character clicks on the sink the Kanji will come up, if I can read it I'll click "...", if not the ? will give the reading for it.

 

[Kaelan]

I made a D&D game thing

 

[Warpmind]

...That's it, folks, Kaelan wins; we can all pack up and go back to bed now...

(Okay, not quite that bad, but HOT DAMN that's sweet-looking!)

 

[??????]

@Kaelan - That is pretty cool. How long have you been working on that?

Fyi - your mouse help window seems very laggy

 

[Kaelan]

Yeah, there's a couple things that don't run as smooth as they should right now. I've improved the performance a bunch since I made that video, but it's still not perfect.

I've been working on it on and off for....a little over 2 years now? I take long breaks when life gets in the way, so it's probably about a year of actual work.