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I am Vectra. The Master Eventor. I've gotten a request from a friend to do this. I did this for someone else a a week ago so i figured I'll make a tutorial for all who wants to know how. Here's what you need: 4 Variables 2 Conditional Branches What are the 4 variables?: X-Coord1 Y-Coord1 X-Coord2 Y-Coord2 Let's say you want to detect the distance between the player and a rock: 1 is Player and 2 is the rock. X-Coord = X coordinate Y-Coord = Y coordinate The multiplying by -1 is so that the number will be positive. In mathematics, distance cannot be a negative number. Due to you X-Coord and Y-Coord check needing to be 1, the system checks for diagonals too. You minus the rock's coordinates with the player's coordinates. If the answer is 1 or 0 then they're touching. If you want it like have it where if the rock is 5 steps away then you simply make the condition branches 5 or less instead of 1 or less. It'll look like this: This checks if it's 5 steps away horizontally and then checks vertically. Wait, but what if I want distance between two events? Then you replace player with whatever. For example, If i wanted the distance between 2 rocks then I simply replace X and Y Coord1 with another event's X and Y Coord instead. If you want to know the distance of more than 2 events then every event added needs 2 variables(X & Y Coord). SUB-TUTORIAL: DISTANCE Only difference is you scrap the Y-Coord PL check and add X-Coord and Y-Coord right before the proximity (which is now distance) check. SUB-TUTORIAL: Projectiles Description: I have left numerous comments (using the "comment" event command) to show you how to create projectiles. You will need extra switches and extra commands which will be shown and explained in the demo. You need to know the above first before proceeding to this. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6YgxySqsh57UnNVMHBSLUhybTQ Partial Credit goes to Retnuh If you have ANY questions plz ask.

I am Vectra. Today, i will be talking about how to make an evented shape shifting. The idea has came from this: http://www.rpgmakervxace.net/topic/33541-shapeshifting-in-battle/#entry227802 Note: I'm going to use a wolf as an example and Imma show two ways to do this. Here's what you need At least 2 Actors 1 common event 1 Switch 2 Variable 1 Condition Branch Let's say Billy wants to be a wolf. You need a actor who is a wolf and one who is Billy. You need 1 variable that equals to Billy's EXP You need 1 variable that equals to Wolf's EXP Go to Control Variable Go to game data <= If you have VX, skip this step and go to step 6 Go to actor Go to the right, you should see level Change it to EXP It should look like this: Control Variables: [Var ID: Billy's EXP] = [billy]'s EXP Vx Ace Vx @>Conditional Branch: Switch [0051:Wolf] == ON @>Control Switches: [0051:Wolf] == OFF @>Change EXP: [billy], - Variable [0002: Billy's EXP] @>Change EXP: [Wolf], + Variable [0002: Billy's EXP] @>Change Party Member: Add [Wolf] @>Change Party Member: Remove [billy] @> : Else @>Control Switches: [0051: Wolf] == ON @>Change level: [Wolf], - Variable [0003: Wolf's EX] @>Change EXP: [billy], + Variable [0003: Wolf's EXP] @>Change Party Member: Remove [Wolf] @>Change Party Member: Add [billy] : Branch End @> The switch tells whether you are a wolf or not. You subtract the EXP because you want it to be 0 so when they come back, you'll just add the EXP + gained EXP rather than having to find the difference of EXP and gained EXP and all that extra work. Adding one member and removing the other is the "transformation." You are replacing Billy with his wolf self and vise versa. Once you do the above, you make a skill call the common event. If you are on Vx, in the skills' tab, common event is next to "animation." If Vx Ace, go to the "effects" section, double-click, go to the 4th tab, and you should see this... Pick the correct common event and BAM! You're done. Here's another way to do this...(2nd method) This is only used if you don't wish to create another actor, but it is highly recommended as this requires much more work. Here's what you need 1 Actor 2 Common Events 1 States 2 Skills Create a skill called "Wolf Transformation" (or anything you like) Create a skill called "Wolf Transformation OFF"(or anything you like) This is how the common event for "Wolf Transformation" should look... @>Change Actor Graphic: [billy], 'Faceset name', index#, 'Charset Name', index# @>Change Actor Name: [billy], 'Wolf' @>Change Parameters: [billy], stat name -/+ # @>Change Skills, + [Wolf Transformation OFF] @>Change Skills, - [Wolf Transformation] @>Change Skills, + [skill Name](Encase you wanted to add any additional skills) @> This is how the common event for "Wolf Transformation OFF" should look... @>Change Actor Graphic: [Wolf], 'Faceset name', index#, 'Charset Name', index# @>Change Actor Name: [Wolf], 'Billy' @>Change Parameters: [Wolf], stat name -/+ # @>Change Skills, - [Wolf Transformation OFF] @>Change Skills, + [Wolf Transformation] @>Change Skills, + [skill Name](Encase you wanted to add any additional skills) @> Change parameter is if you want to give the wolf extra HP or extra ATK. You add the OFF skill to the Wolf to change to Billy. You use the "Wolf Transformation" skill to get from Billy to Wolf. It's so Wolf doesn't have the transformation skill and Billy won't have the OFF skill. Add (or subtract) any extra skills that you don't want the wolf(or Billy) to know. To make the skills call them, you do the exact same thing you do for the first method. Any Questions?

Hi! Purple Phantom, here, with some cool resources for you! Please note that I use my own resources quite often. I just thought I'd pass them on so you could use them, as well. I no longer take requests and am finishing up a few remaining ones. All resources are available for free use in non-commercial and commercial games as long as you credit me (and the original creator, if I've edited it) and let me know. I might not be able to play your game, as I'm broke as all get-out, but I'd love to know where my resources are used. Please don't redistribute these resources. Edits are allowed and distribution of the edits is allowed so long as I am credited and, if the resource was edited by me, the original source, whom I will credit. While the resources are made for VX Ace, you could resize them for use in MV or whichever RPG Maker engine you want. Enjoy! Tilesets Objects Sprites Icons

I had just discovered something a few seconds ago. Let's say you want to know how many HP Potions one has. Go to Control Variable Click on Game Data Go to where it say items pick HP Potion and you done Didn't know Ace had the feature, thought it was a new feature in MV but I was wrong. I can't believe how long it took me to discover this. Well, there you go. If you need any extra help, don't be scared to comment

Hoof to: Making gif's Using GIMP Free and simple way to create awesome banners! ~ Intoduction For the second or third time, I was asked how did I make my animated banners in my signature. Though I wish the answer would be 'professional' sounding, I'm actually using a simple method. + PROS - It's very easy (assuming, that you know the basics of using GIMP) - It's 100% Free - No quality loss like it happens with movie-to-gif converters (pixel~shading corruption) '- though there is still the gif type file's color limit - FULL control on every single pixel, frame and timing - CONS - It requires some time to make gifs - It may take ages to create complex gifs - Requires patience (dependable on complexity) ~ Let's hoof it! Don't be scared by the amount of steps and text in here. ^^ There's that much stuff, because I'm showing step by step, how I'm making my gifs, but if you have your layers ready (let's say you have 5 images and you want to make a gif with them to display all of them in one image file), then simply skip the first steps and check how to create a gif with your images. STEP 1: Create a New Image [►] SKIP TO NEXT STEP IF YOU KNOW THE BASICS OF GIMP [►►] SKIP IF YOU HAVE YOUR LAYERS ALREADY AND JUST WANT TO MAKE A GIF OF IT Just click "File" tab and select "New..." or simply use [Ctrl + N] shortcut. Then select your dimensions and click OK. For this tutorial, I'll create a simple progress bar gif with a size of 300x20. And we'll get this: And you have a new image! Well done! That's it! Now export it and upload to your signature! JK! ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) STEP 2: Draw or Import Your Banner [►►] SKIP IF YOU HAVE YOUR LAYERS ALREADY AND JUST WANT TO MAKE A GIF OF IT Well, now you need to draw your banner. It is important to keep things in separate layers, to not have problems later. For this tutorial, I've made a silly progress bar: STEP 3: Animate Animated Parts [►►] SKIP IF YOU HAVE YOUR LAYERS ALREADY AND JUST WANT TO MAKE A GIF OF IT Now we'll have to multiply our blue layer and make a simple animation with it. In this tutorial, I'll be simply moving these 'arrows' to the right. Complexity of the gif depends on how fast you'll get back to the beginning, for example I'll need 12 layers to make one arrow cover another, which will allow me to loop it. So first, let's duplicate the blue layer and move its content to the right by one pixel: I have marked the copied layer with purple, so now let's copy the purple layer and move it again to the right by one pixel: Repeat that action until you'll get a loop with the first frame (the blue layer): WARNING! Big gif, opening this spoiler may cause lag ( i ) NOTE: As seen on the gif above, the animation goes from the BOTTOM to the TOP, so the animation starts with the very bottom layer and goes all the way up. Now as you can see, it will loop, so now we're able to move further. STEP 4: Clean Remainings [►►] SKIP IF YOU HAVE YOUR LAYERS ALREADY AND JUST WANT TO MAKE A GIF OF IT Probably you have noticed, that the arrows are getting out of the bar and that's right, we need to remove them. Make every animated layer visible at once and you'll get this: Now you can see all animated layers at once and you can clearly see how the arrows are getting out. Now use selection tool (it can be either the normal Rectangle one or "Free Select Tool" or whatever you're comfortable with) to select the area with the arrows outside the bar: Now simply scroll though the animated layers and delete these parts. You can highlight the top frame and just press [DEL] then [ ↓ ] and again [DEL], [ ↓ ] and repeat... Be careful to not delete that part in a BASE layer etc.. After cleaning, you'll see this: STEP 5: Merge Stuff [►►] SKIP IF YOU HAVE YOUR LAYERS ALREADY AND JUST WANT TO MAKE A GIF OF IT Now let's merge the animated part with the base, but keep the percentage layer separate for future. Our awesome animation took 12 frames, so let's duplicate the BASE layer to make 12 of them and merge animation layers with the base ones, so each layer will have BASE and the ANIMATION: Now we have the base prepared! STEP 6: Put the Values! [►►] SKIP IF YOU HAVE YOUR LAYERS ALREADY AND JUST WANT TO MAKE A GIF OF IT Let's assume we have 20% of the progress, so we'll have to edit the percent layer and create a new one (I'll name it "FILL"), where we'll fill the bar: Note, that all the BASE (with animation) is at the bottom and the changeable stuff is at the top. Now SAVE all of this as a PROJECT to be able to access it (the layered version) later in case if you would like to change the percentage and move the bar etc.. As you can see, the banner looks generally ready, but we still need to put the percentage and fill on each frame, so when everything is ready, merge FILL with PERCENTAGE and duplicate it to be able to combine it with each BASE. Technically do the same as when merging arrows (animation) with BASE. Now don't save! Because you'll have troubles with editing it later as the layers will be merged. You may however, save this as a new project if you want to, but keep the raw version, because it's important. STEP 7: Exporting GIF! [◄◄] GO BACK TO SEE AN EXAMPLE ON HOW TO PREPARE IMAGES Now there's the main point of this tutorial, so if you have skipped the previous parts, because you know the basics and stuff, then you'll be totally fine from there. We have a project with 12 layers: WARNING! Big gif, opening this spoiler may cause lag Now we want to make a gif of it, then it's a very simple process. > Click 'File' tab and select "Export As..." OR simply use the shortcut by pressing and holding [Ctrl] and [shift] then pressing the [ E ] button. > Name your file and put .gif extension to it. For example name it: Progress Bar.gif > Oh noes! A warning emerged! This is because for some reason (I wasn't paying attention where it exactly happened) my layers are bigger than the image size: ~so this warning box is telling me, that I need to get rid of the extra-size of the layers in order to export the file as a gif. Don't worry it's nothing scary, just use the "Crop" skill and you'll one-hit-KO that enemy. Fun fact: When you'll click "Cancel" then GIMP will freeze for a moment. I think it's a bug, but after ~20 seconds it will un-freeze and throw an error, that you need to crop the layers or something. > Setup your gif ● Tick "As animation" box ● Tick "Loop forever" box ● Set delay between frames (it applies to ALL* frames) ~ the less, the faster '-> 15 is minimum. A value less than that, will result in slow-motion ~ the gif will be played weirdly ● Set "(replace)" in the frame disposal, so it will be displaying the layers one after another (You can use "(combine)" when dealing with transparency stuff ~ ~ one layer will be covering another and combining ~ you can experiment with that) > AND CLICK EXPORT! ^^ * ALL - I'll show how to setup different delays for each frame later, no worries. [ I I ] PAUSE HERE AND CHECK HOW TO SETUP DIFFERENT DELAYS NOW Step 8: Checking the exported gif [◄◄] GO BACK TO SEE AN EXAMPLE ON HOW TO PREPARE IMAGES [◄] GO TO PREVIOUS STEP TO SEE HOW TO EXPORT A GIF Now you have your gif file, so you'll probably want to see how it looks like. You can open it with "Windows Media Player", but this guy doesn't play gifs very well, especially when dealing with transparency. As long as you don't have any transparent points and you're basing only on "(replace)" then it should play it nicely. Personally I'm checking my gifs by opening a new tab in "Google Chrome" and just drag'n'dropping the file to the browser, then it will play the gif perfectly. Now when it does look right, upload it to image hosting sites, such as Imgur and simply use the image's URL in the text editor like with normal (like .png) pictures. STEP +: Setting Different Delays to Each Layer As you know, you can set the delay between frames during exporting the gif. You probably also noticed, that it says "where unspecified" - yes, you can set it before exporting. You just need to add 'commands' in the layer's name. for example "(50ms)" - will set the delay of this frame to 50ms. Putting for example (10000ms) in a layer's name will make it stop for a while on that frame. How it looks like in GIMP: You don't have to setup delays in every single frame. You can, for example when wanting to let's say put a delay of 2000ms in two frames and put 40ms in the rest, then you can simply add "(2000ms)" to the two frames and the rest fill automatically during exporting, where it asks what delay to set for frames, where it is unspecified. You can also during exporting tick a box, that will overwrite ALL layers and set the delay you'll enter there for all frames. [◄◄] GO BACK TO WHERE YOU'VE PAUSED (BEGINNING OF STEP 8) RESULT: With delay set to 40 ms: With delay set to 15 (minimum) ms: With the delays (with stops) set manually from Step +: THE END [ I◄ ] BACK TO THE TOP FAQ Q: What is the maximum possible delay of one frame? A: To be honest I don't know. I was using values like (20000ms) and it was working. I wasn't using higher values, but I guess you could go much higher than that. Q: How to edit the gif when I'd like to move the bar and stuff? A: That's why I told to save the project and keep the raw version. After you'll merge the layers and export the gif, it is quite difficult to edit. Having the 'raw' version will allow you to start from step 6, which is easier than struggling with each frame, though it also depends on complexity. Q: The gifs that you were posting all over the place - are they all made that way? A: Yes, all of my gifs were made using GIMP. Even this one: Q: Why it takes ages to export a gif? A: The more layers gif will have, the more time it will require to render. This process is not visible, so just wait. Q: I don't have GIMP, but I would like to download it, where I can do this and it is free? A: Yes, this program is free and you can download it from here. Q: I don't like GIMP - I'm too pro for this and I'm using Photoshop, how can I make a gif there? A: Sorry, no idea. I'm using GIMP. Q: Can I do this in Paint? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) A: I have no idea, but I doubt it ~ haven't checked, at least. Q: How big and long gifs I can make? A: I was making gifs that had about 200 frames and besides slightly long export time I've not encountered any issue, so I'm not sure if technically there's any limit. Q: For a comparison, how many frames your gifs have? A: My MLP Progress bar has 20 frames and each frame have delay set to 40ms. The MLP banner above the progress bar has 24 frames and also with delay set to 40ms for each frame. Q: lol Riki, how much time did you spent making this tutorial? A: 6 hours. Yes, I have really spent 6 hours on that (from ~8:00PM to ~2:00AM) working along the tutorial to give as much accurate images as I could and then polishing stuff at the end. If you'll have any questions or if there's a problem with something (grammar issue/typo/other) then let me know! ^^ I hope it will be useful for somebody! (= [ I◄ ] BACK TO THE TOP [ I◄◄] BACK TO GENERAL RM TUTORIALS [ I◄◄◄] RETURN TO COMMUNITY INDEX

Greetings reader, I'm Chaosian, I'm a professional game developer by day, and a game hobbyist by night. Overview This is a tutorial intended to give some (relatively) quick and in intuitive instruction, free of crazy complex legal-ese and forms, on the concept of Copyright Law. This tutorial will cover the fundamentals and basics, that everyone should be aware of whilst making their own RPG Maker game - as well as a few nuances. A lot of developers, (especially new developers) can easily loose themselves in the miasma that is copyright law, and decide to just say "screw it", and continue developing their game any way they want. After all, they're just a developer, and they can't be bothered with such silly affairs such as federal / international law! For the most part, these people won't actually see any repercussions for doing this (more below: Copyright Law is Perfect and Should Never Change), but for those wishing to be responsible, professional, or would just rather not see a cease and desist (example) in their mailbox - this is the tutorial for you! I will post a disclaimer as many do who give this kind of basic law advice will: that I am by no means a lawyer, and have not studied law, but have merely been educated in the basics of it by teachers, peers, and through my own private investigation. I have also- never been sued! That means I'm totally qualified to talk down to people about copyright law. Also bear in mind that copyright law changes, depending on the country the creation (your game) is being primarily made in. This tutorial will cover the more universal aspects, but expect details to shift between countries. What's the Big Deal with Copyright..? For the uninitiated, the concept of copyright might seem pretty strange, really broad, and really messy. It might seem that people are legally lashing out at one another seemingly randomly and without any real reason- and that's not too far off. Does anyone remember this scandal that occurred a few years back? Naughty Dog, the developers of the multi-million dollar AAA title, Last of Us, found themselves in the proverbial dog house because of a completely innocuous map that could be found in the game. Perhaps someone is familiar with the names of fan projects like Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes, Fighting is Magic, Streets of Rage Remake, Metal Gear Remake? These were all projects shut down because corporations threatened lawsuits against the developers. I assume everyone is familiar with the Ninendo Creator Program, or tangentially, the danger of Youtube's copyright strikes? Or the absolute fallout with the public because of it? It's all because of copyright, and copyright law. If you don't take precautions with your game - you have absolutely no legal defense for these kinds of things happening against you. You deal with the ramifications or you get sued. Fear-mongered enough yet? Great! On to the meat of the discussion. What is Copyright? Copyright is the label that is placed on a creative work to signify that the creator has the rights to. Put simpler: it's who owns stuff, and how they say it can be used. It's essentially how someone legally comes up with an idea or piece of art, and legally has the ownership to it. What is Copyrighted? When just like "copyright" when something is "copyrighted", it is labeled as being the creative work owned by either the creator, or a license holder. It's pretty much as simple as that. Typically, a lot of the time people who know nothing about copyright law will ask if some piece of art they like "is copyrighted" or not. The answer is pretty much always: yes. Since the late 1980s, every creative work is owned by it's creators, and they hold the copyright to it. They do not need to write on any kind of paper they own it, nor do they need to display notification for the copyright - by default they own it regardless under intentional law called the "Berne Convention". So what's © then? "©" or just "the copyright sign" (it really doesn't have a cool name), is a bit of a hold-over in the times since before the 1980s, when it's presence actually meant when something was a registered material or not. It is not required anymore to signify that something is copyrighted under the aforementioned Berne Convention (of the previous section). For the general public it mostly serves as a reminder now that, no, you are more than likely never going to be able to do anything legal with this material. It is relevant in another sense but only to your great grand-children (more below: Public Domain). What is my Copyrighted Material? For RPG Maker, you own the copyright to your games, probably including the whole shebang of character, story, scenario, plot, map, design, and name. You probably also own the copyright to the project file (I don't know for sure, but it'd be very difficult for anyone to fight your ownership of those). What don't I own? The RPG Maker Engine for one, some things around your actual .exe file as you signed away in the End User Lisence Agreement - but probably most damning, potentially the assets in the game. Enterbrain has granted you license to distribute RTP materials (you don't actually own the RTP assets at all) when you bought the program. They can also revoke this license from you at any time, but seemingly only if you break the agreement. It's in Japan Law though, so good luck fighting absolutely anything against a Japanese corporation. What can I do with my Copyrighted Material? Pretty much anything you want. If you create something, you are only limited by the law and materials of the pieces you used to create it. Would you like to show something you made? Put it on DVDs and distribute it? Sell it? Advertise it? Go ahead and edit it? Remake it? Change the license for it? Burn it and snort the ashes? Sell the rights to it so other people can do these things instead of you? By default, you can do all those things! Legally! And what can I do with other people's Copyrighted Material? This is where all the real problems come from. By default, there is VERY little you can do with another person's copyright. What may be able to do in some abstract cases is take someone's image, or music, have it on your computer, listen to it alone, and never do anything with it ever. Oh joy though, if you wanted a list of what you can't do with other people's stuff, then this is the page for you! You can't steal their work. That's called theft. You can't quote someone's work without attributing it. That's called plagiarism. You can't distribute, appropriate, or obtain any part or any amount of someone else's work. With credit, or not. That's called piracy. You cannot make derivative works (stories, songs, games, videos) about another person's copyrighted material. That's generally considered theft of intellectual property. You cannot take parts of someone else's work and integrate it in your own. Even if those are fictional and intangible such as “charactersâ€. That's also considered theft of intellectual property. You can't name your work after someone else's work. If you do any of this you are infringing copyright and are eligible to be issued a Cease and Desist / be sued (more below: Copyright Law is Perfect and Should Never Change). It's worth noting though that a lot of this can be negated by getting permission first, so it's great to have that, it opens a lot of doors (written word is always a lot more valuable than spoken word). Is it really so bad? I appropriate stuff all the time! You would, wouldn't you? But that's the thing, we all do! Web 3.0 is based upon doing it! It is highly likely that the use of your forum avatar is an illegal offense that you could be prosecuted for. It should be noted that the law often has stipulations about the severity of offenses based upon how much of the original work was stolen, what the context was, and what how much harm the end result was. The nice thing about Canada here is that there's quite a lot of stipulation around this, “Purposeâ€, “Characterâ€, “Amountâ€, “Alternativesâ€, “Natureâ€, and “Effectâ€. In practice these all exist so courts can throw out extremely petty cases. It won't stop you from being sued over your wedding music though, which is surprisingly common. (More on that all in: Copyright Law is Perfect and Should Never Change.) But-! But-! Fair Use! Yeah... no. And stop being so defensive, gawd. I would be quite surprised to hear if 0.1% of the activity RPG Maker is used for what actually constitutes as Fair Use. Let's take a quick peek why, and really take a moment to chew through the text. Fair Use in the United States consists of: commentary, search engines, criticism, parody, news reporting, research, teaching, library archiving and scholarship. Other legal structures such as the Commonwealth's Fair Dealing are quite similar. So… Are you making commentary on the subject? Highly unlikely. Are you a search engine? No you are not. Are you criticizing the subject? No you are not. Are you explicitly making fun of the subject? Highly unlikely. Good luck getting fair use parody laws to work for you in Canada. Are you reporting the news? No you are not. Are you doing research? No you are not. Are you teaching as part of an accredited, federally recognized institution? No you are not. Are you creating an archive for a public library? No you are not. Are you writing for scholarship? No you are not. You are not doing anything under fair use. Learning to read copyright, where to look? So now we understand who, what, when, how, and why copyright is but the question remains: where? As stated above, it's pretty much to be expected now that by default, something is copyrighted – even if it isn't labeled. But, a lot of things still are labeled, and it's up to you to find where those labels are. Here's a few basics to look out for: The words “licenseâ€, “licensedâ€. The words “EULAâ€, or “User Agreement†The word “copyrightâ€, or that aforementioned copyright symbol. The words “Creative Commonsâ€, “CC†(more below in: Creative Commons) Small text. Text at the bottom of a page, or in the sidebar. Occasionally, text in “About†pages. Here's some example images of where I found copyright information, and licensing terms. Linkin Park's Song “The Catalyst†on Youtube: Labeled with a “Standard Youtube Licenseâ€. This means that “The Catalyst†is a complete no-go for me, as I highly doubt Youtube's standard license is going to give anyone on the street the ability to just use the music (more the recording of the video, actually! More on that in: Additional Concerns / Pitfalls) however they'd like. Some RPG Maker sprite work I found on Deviantart: Labeled with “Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial 3.0 Licenseâ€. This is a good sign, and a good license (More on that in: Creative Commons) but it doesn't mean I'm totally out of the woods. I can't sell content that uses these materials, and I might want to consult a lawyer about taking donations for my work – if my only work involves this. Newgrounds: ...had an interesting side-box that didn't have any technical licensing terms, but it had a nice and easy to chew set of rules for a good song I found on it. YouLicence: I found actual licensing terms, and proper financial compensation for the use of the song awesome song “Standalone†on the You License website. The SCP Wiki: A large psudo-creepypasta website, has text at the bottom of it's footer stating that everything in it is part of the Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 license, which is honestly pretty brutal to read, but survivable (Again, more on that in: Creative Commons). It's not always easy though. I for the life of me cannot figure out where one would begin to look if they wanted to license Frank Sinatra's “Fly Me To The Moonâ€. I suppose it's by a contact / offer only: something for a lawyer to already know about, and be able to perform. I would possibly have the same problem if I actually wanted to license (and pay for) “The Catalystâ€. Good Alternatives for RPG Maker Developers. So? Life sucks then 'ya die, right? Well, it's not all doom and gloom. There exist quite a large repository of resources out there for you to exploit legally take from. It's all about where you look! Free for Use / Royalty Free / Stock / Library What exactly is something when it's “Royalty Freeâ€, or “Stockâ€? In truth, I couldn't properly define it, but as I understand it - when something is “Royalty Freeâ€, it means that you do not have to continually pay money to the license holder for using their music. If I wanted “The Catalyst†to play in my game, I might have to pay $5 for every sale of the game, in addition to $50K in distribution rights. That isn't the case with Royalty Free or Stock Assets / Libraries. It doesn't mean that you own the resources you use, nor does it actually mean that the resources are free, you may have to pay even several hundreds of dollars to obtain them. What it does mean is that you get to keep them once you own them (often times for as many projects as you want). It's very much the fire and forget way of buying things. Creative Commons Creative Commons is a massive sub-topic in copyright. Essentially, Creative Commons is a foundation that's created a bunch of universal licenses for people to use and refer to, called in turn Creative Commons licenses. Creative Commons could have it's own tutorial, but the gist is: it means other people can do things with someone else's work and it's all around a nice, altruistic, thing. It's especially nice for video games, because a lot of licenses forget that video games exist, and won't specify if you can use that material for video games or not; with Creative Commons you can use the material for just about anything. Creative Commons has gone through several legal iterations with 3.0 (and 4.0 now I think) being the latest and most commonly used versions. Creative Commons has a few permutations and variants that almost work like plug-ins. They can effect the license from ways that specifying the requirements for use, to the very license your own work has to be under if they use it. Once something enters Creative Commons, it cannot be undone – you are essentially giving up ownership of it. Attribution: Means don't be a jerk, and give credit to me if you use my stuff. Non-Commercial: Usually means, nobody can sell my stuff. You might be able to sell it with permission. No-Derivatives: Means you can have it and use, but you can't change it at all. I'm not sure how far remix goes (is fading in and out the beginning / end to a song considered a remix?), but it's best to err on the side of caution. Share-Alike: Is something you can think as a zombie virus of freedom. If something is under the Share-Alike license it's free, but any material that uses it, or parts of it, also has to be under the same Share-Alike license. Unless you want to completely give up ownership of your game AVOID. The term “Copyleft†often refers to this kind of freedom zombie license. 0: Or Zero. Is the Creative Commons way of saying “public domainâ€. Anyone can do anything with work under Creative Commons 0, though they don't technically own it. There are no restrictions, and credit isn't even needed. Public Domain / GNU / Open Source I'll admit, this is the field I know the least about, and that's a shame, because all these similar license types basically mean: go nuts. Public Domain is the end-all result of all licenses after they expire in a long, long time – it's like the white dwarf star of licenses. When something enters in the Public Domain, it can be used in absolutely any way by anyone. Sherlock Holmes is a great example: anyone anywhere can make a story about Sherlock Holmes – he's part of the zeitgeist, our collective consciousness, nobody owns him. How do you measure Public Domain? Well, things can be placed into the public domain by their creators, or the license can expire after a lot of time has passed since the death of the creator. It's pretty messy to figure out when the actual copyright for something expires, but thanks to those colossal [censored] lobbyists at Disney the rule of thumb for the US is until all the authors die + 70 years. Sinatra Singing Fly Me To The Moon will enter the public domain in roughly 2067. Fantastic, everyone hates you Disney. It could be better / worse though. That 70 is 50 in Canada, and 100 in Mexico. GNU, “General Public Licenseâ€, mostly commonly used in Wikipedia is a completely foreign entity to me. As I understand it, it's an awesome free reign license just like Public Domain. Software under GNU seems to always be copyleft however (See above: Share-Alike). Open Source, as my pa says, “is gonna save the worldâ€. Pretty much exclusive to software, Open Source means that the license and ownership is maintained, distributed, and moderated by a singular entity, but, anyone can go in and edit it / mod it / customize it for themselves and publish their own iterations of it. Pretty irrelevant to RPG Maker, but good to know what it is anyways. Maybe some scripts are under Open Source. Additional Concerns / Pitfalls… So you're all in the clear now, right? You know what you want: Handle's Messiah. It's perfect. There's no country in the world where that's not in the public domain. You go to put that in your game, and BOOM HEADSHOT! Lawsuit right in-between the eyes. What happened?! The problem is that while yes, Handle's Messiah is in the public domain across the entirety of the world – the recording of Handle's Messiah you used was not. When obtaining potentially licensed material, you need to be careful of absolutely any and all people who might have been in the process of the work. That is to say: All this is okay. This is not. This is okay. This is not. Recommendations. So it's a super-big super-scary super-lawsuit-headshot world out there, right? Is there anywhere that's safe?! Well, the good news is that yes, there is. Here are some of my findings... Art Steam Store: All packages you buy from the steam store are free for your use for as many projects as you want. Just don't redistribute the packages, that'd be that good ol' piracy again. Restaff: Each restaff package is free for you to use, but individual assets may have some terms of use, as included inside the package. Mostly it's just attribution (credit), and stipulations about commercial use without prior contact. Resource Requests: As part of the terms of agreement when you fill out a resource request for someone, they can have free reign on it. I personally, put all my content under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 when I help someone out with a resource. Distributed Resources: It's often difficult to find any actual terms of use, or licenses for them, but it is the generally accepted that when someone puts a sprite sheet up on the internet for RPG Maker as a resource, they are saying it is free for use, with credit. This would probably classify as a royalty free license. Be very careful not to steal resources though! Especially on the forum here. Many artists are simply looking for feedback. Always ask for permission, if you're unsure. Deviantart: Take this with a good grain of salt because a lot of artists, understandably don't want you to use their work without them saying you can. There is however, a modest community of people making art on Deviantart (often under a Creative Commons license) which is free for use. Be sure you aren't stealing anything, and be sure you give credit! Clip Art: Kind of an odd-ball, but often Clip Art is placed under the public domain. Take a look, you might be surprised. Music / Sound Kevin MacLeod: Ow, my credibility. Despite being a very, very, tapped well on the Internet, Kevin MacLeod's work is of high quality, and the community he's fostered is an impressive one. All his work is Royalty Free, and individual pieces are also free of charge. It's always nice to donate to such an altruistic soul though, or if not, purchase the entire library. Newgrounds: Ahh Newgrounds, my childhood. Newgrounds audio in particular is a massive repository of pretty much exclusively free music. Very friendly for indie developers. Freesound.org: Mostly for sound effects, this website is great! Each sound has it's own license it's placed under, but for any aspiring audio engineers, or anyone competent with Audacity, it's an awesome place to find a huge amount of uhh… free sound. Free Music Archive: Spanning all genres of music and all shades of Public Domain / Creative Commons – the only downside is that the search isn't all too powerful. Be careful though. Share-Alike plagues a massive amount of the archives. You License: If you're a serious developer (probably more serious than anyone who'll ever be reading this), and you're willing to shell out some cash, this looks be a GREAT website to get high quality (mostly indie, or small time) music. Vimeo Music Store: My secret weapon that no one else knows about. ._. Vimeo's store is one definitely for the savvy who how copyright works. A lot of the licenses for music require dissection, and don't support games, but they still have a very notable amount of people who contribute work under Creative Commons, especially my favorite of Creative Commons Attribution 3.0. Use it in good faith, my brothers and sisters. [Edit: as of November 2016, the Vimeo Music Store has been taken down. Fuck.] I Understand Now: Copyright Law is Perfect and Should Never Change. It wouldn't be a copyright lecture without someone standing up at the end and saying “nahâ€. And that's a perfectly valid response, even after this entire tutorial. The truth is that copyright law exists to protect corporations, so that their precious IPs that they run into the ground aren't touched upon the filthy, disgusting, plebs. Thank you again Disney. That big list of illegal things near the beginning is a list of things that happen hundreds, if not thousands of times over every minute across the world: the law does not suit the state of the world. That doesn't justify any of these things you probably do on a daily basis, it's still illegal, you can still be fined / go to jail / be sued over any of those things – but it is just a testament to our ever changing social contract. It's pretty much an unspoken rule, known to everyone, even corporations – that's why EA pays big names to do otherwise technically illegal Let's Plays of their games: because the world acts against the law, and it'll continue to thrive while doing so. Copyright is a rigid and ancient thing, actually pushing 150+ years old now, with the last big revisions occurring about 40 years ago. Copyright use is a fluid and spontaneous thing that happens every second, nearly always undocumented when it happens. If you, as a game developer, feel no obligation to copyright law, or feel you are not a target worth bothering over it, is a perfectly valid, and common occurrence to ignore Copyright law, and make your game using whatever. It's not professional, or responsible, it doesn't exempt from the ramifications, or the fact you could technically be a felon, especially if you're profiting from your work in any way – but, it works out for a lot of people. You survived! Thank you for reading my tutorial on Copyright. If you learned something through this whole tutorial, that's enough for me – hopefully it got you thinking at least. And even if you didn't, then… maybe that's a good thing too. If you have additional questions, comments, corrections, or concerns, please PM me, or post them below. Have a good one, folks.

So yeah, Maki here! How's your day? I hope it's great! If it isn't, then I wish for a better day, and I hope this writing can help lift up your mood! Somehow. Anyway... "Trapper Classes" have been a niche element in quite a number of games, from traditional RPGs, tactical RPGs, RTSs, MMOs, and even MOBAs. Some are more practical than the others, Trappers and their annoying arsenal of traps are usually associated with a more traditional RPG Class, the Ranger class. Ranger is one of those class that have much difference between its iterations in many RPGs. In Final Fantasy Tactics A2, Rangers can wield daggers and bows, has the ability to set traps and can "mirror" items to use against the enemies (Phoenix Dawn that kills, Remedy that inflicts status effect, etc.); on the other hand, Rangers in Phantasy Star Online 2 can wield Rifles and Grenade Launchers, has the ability to set traps and can load special bullets to their Rifles (Weak Bullet to cripple enemies, Bind Bullet to Stun enemies, etc.). Back to Trapper! This tutorial aims to help RPG Maker users who wants to emulate Traps in their RPGs. And while the title mainly says "VX Ace" and this tutorial would use that engine, I believe this can be done in "close neighbor" RPG Makers such as VX and MV. Well, so we're gonna make traps, right? But first, we need to think what kind of trap we're gonna make, and how the "trap" mechanic is handled in our games... In this tutorial, we're gonna make this trap: Mine Trap >Explodes upon contact, dealing damage to all enemies. >If more Mine Traps are laid, the damage would be greater when they are triggered. >Once the trap(s) are triggered, all of them would explode. >The player would have a skill that could force-donate the Mine Traps. The Trap Mechanic: >Traps are treated as Items. >The player has the ability to see the amount of Traps they have laid. >The traps trigger depending on the enemy troop's "intelligence"; the smarter the enemies are, the harder it is for the traps to trigger. Yosh, let's begin the main part! For this, we're gonna need these stuff: 1. Variable to count the amount of traps you have laid, let's call it "Mine Traps". 2. Variable to count the enemies' intelligence, let's name, let's call it "Troop Stupidity". 3. Variables to do the trigger calculations, let's call them "Trigger RNG" and "Trigger Modifier". 4. The Trap Item, properly call it "Mine Trap". 5. The "execution skill" for the Item, let's call it "Mine Trap Skill". 6. A Common Event for the Trap, name it "Mine Trap". That's all for the preparation to establish our Trap System, the "counting" and "force-donate" skills are to be prepared later. Let's focus on the core stuff now. First, edit the Trap Item. Make it a consumable and should only be usable during battle. Set target to none, and decide the price if you're planning for it to be trade-able. Finally, link it to the Mine Trap Common Event. Now, we're gonna make the execution Skill. Let's make it so that our skill deal exact damage, that gets multiplied by the amount of "Mine Traps" variable. Next, edit the Common Event. Make it so that it increases the Variable "Mine Traps" by 1. You can also add a piece of text dialogue as to mark the event. Finally, link the Item and the Common Event with the Effects options in the item setting. Now, we are about halfway done with the system! What's left is making in function in battles, so let's create some enemies! In this tutorial, we're gonna make 2 kinds of enemies: Zombie (dumb) and Mage (smart). The enemy settings are up to you. After that, make separate troops for each two. Now for the Troop Event. We're gonna do the Zombies first. In the Troop Event page, have it set at Turn 0, Span: Battle. This event would setup the stupidity of the Troop. Make it by setting the Variable "Enemy Stupidity" to a desired amount. Since we're gonna do a percentage-based system, make sure that the "Stupidity" value stands between 0 (Smartest) and 100 (Dumbest). For the Zombies *2 Troop, let's do a 75 Stupidity. Oh, and remember that this is Troop stupidity, not Individual. It's pretty flexible. You can decide various values depending on the troop members. Also, it is recommended to put in "character comment" in this event, to ease the player in knowing how intelligent the things they are about to fight. Next, create a new Event Page in the Zombie troop. This is where the rather difficult part starts, so let me show a picture for clarity. Using the picture above, I'll explain how the event works. The event takes place during each turn's end. First, the event would "refresh" the RNG and Modifier from the previous turn's. Next, the event would check if there's already a Mine Trap(s) laid on the field. If true, the event would proceed to calculate the trigger priority, with the Trigger Modifier as its central. Here's how it counts: [Amount of Mines + Enemy Stupidity = Trigger Modifier] For example, you are fighting a Zombie troop with 75 Stupidity and have laid 3 Mines. The calculation would become: 3 + 75 = 78% trigger chance. Fascinating, isn't it? Then, the RNG comes into action. It would take a number between 0 to 100 at random. If the number is lower than the Modifier, then the trap triggers. This means the more mines lying around, and the stupider the enemies are, the easier the traps would trigger. The trap triggers by-- Of course, having our Ranger use the Skill. After that, clear the "Mine Traps" variable because they all explode! (Remember that we set the skill to deal damage equal to the amount of mines?) That's all for the battle event. Move on to the next troop, the Mage. Set their intelligence to be higher, and copy the second event page of the Zombies troop to theirs. The system can actually work fine this way, but it would be easier to manage if you use scripts that enables the user to center all battle-related events in a single troop. Now, it's time for the second half of the tutorial! This parts would be about creating "trap counter" and "force-detonate" skills. First, we're gonna make the Trap Counting Skill. Make a Skill and Common Event, and call them "Trap Count". Yes, link the Skill to the Common Event the same way we link the Mine Item to its Common Event. Don't forget to set-it into battle-only, with no target. As for the Common Event, make it show a dialog box that contain something along the line of "Mines set: \V[n]" Notice the coding. The \V[n] stands for Variable n, with n being whatever the Mine Traps variable is. So if you make it variable 6 for example, the code would be \V[6]. Additionally, you can use Instant Cast script to make it so that checking the amount of Traps don't consume turns. Next, the forced-detonation. Make two skills, name one "Detonate" and the other "Detonate Execution". Also make the usual Common Event and link it to Detonate. Give Detonate a 50 MP cost. Detonate Execution deals damage equal to the amount of mines +100 to all enemies. Both skills are, again, battle-exclusive. The Common Event should check with Conditional Branch, the amount of Mine Traps laid. If there are 1 or more, the player would use the Execution skill to the enemies. Otherwise, the Skill would fail. Finally, make a Parallel Process event in the overworld that clears all used variables during battles. This is done as a fail-safe event just in case. That should be everything to make the evented Trap system this tutorial aims to guide. However, there are still many things that can be done with this system other than making Mine traps. That's why I've included a Demo to show some things that might become inspiration or base for those who are interested in this. The Demo is also good for those who likes practice more than theory, has difficulty in understanding the written version, or lacks internet connection to read the guide for reference. NPCs in the Demo: >Lime heals you for free. >Pennywipe sells Traps. >Skeleton, Orc and Wizard for different intelligence level during battles. >GIRL gives tips about the Trap system. She also gives a special Trap once you befriend her. The Demo uses custom scripts, but mostly only for making things neater or debugging, and in no way required for the system to work. These scripts are: 1. Include Battle Events from another Troop by Fomar0153. 2. Instant Cast by Yanfly. 3. Debug Extension by Yanfly. 4. Core Engine by LiTTleDRAgo. 5. Show Event Name by LiTTleDRAgo. Grab the Demo here: http://mega.nz/#!4pAhxbjZ!L4pPUHaxnDO0PVG-sMYOAPe5qpP66huofa6Pu7S6A8Q And finally, credits and thanks: 3. SEGA's Phantasy Star Online 2, for the inspiration. 2. Fomar0153, Yanfly and LiTTleDRAgo, for their helpful scripts used in the Demo. 1. You, for reading this! Well, I guess that's all for now! I hope this tutorial helps you and you enjoyed it! Happy designing! -Maki13

Welcome to Maki's Boss Battle Design Tutorial! Intro: Boss Battles have been pretty much a staple in almost every RPG out there. What make Boss Battles (and Bosses themselves) stand out is that they're usually pretty different and unique in design and executions than the usual battles. However, designing a nice Boss Battle is a challenge in and of itself. Yes, you can probably just take the graphic, make its stats triple than the party, make it immune to all status effects, insert it in its lonesome into a Troop, and call it a Boss... But doing so would make the battle bland and boring; and it also took away the fun in designing! Always remember that designing... is art! Well, that's why I write this guide. I want to share some advice, ideas, guidelines, etc. in creating more interesting Bosses, especially to the newer users of RMVXA. I'm not saying that you cannot create generic, "plain" boss. It's just... Wouldn't it be fun to spice up your boss battles with unique seasonings? Oh, and you can help to if you'd like! Just leave your feedback and, suggestions in the comments, or even additions you think would make the guide better! I'll see if that could be added later into the guide~ So without further adieu, let's begin! Chapter 1: ~What is a Boss?~ "Salazar went Berserk!" Yep, let's start and reflect from the very basic: What is a "Boss"? or What makes enemy a "Boss"? Answers may vary a lot, but I personally think that Bosses are special and usually stronger enemies that are there to either advance the plot or serve as "checkpoint" for the player in learning to play the game- It's not unusual to get a certain ability only to find it crucial in the next boss battle; the Zelda games are particularly fond of this. Some are locked into thinking that Bosses needs to be bombastic, one-of-a-kind enemy with 4xxxxx HP, scary stats, specials attacks and hours to beat. But in actuality, you don't need to fill all those criteria to make good boss fights. Looking at the beginnings though, these "cliches" are actually justified; it's just that they're just so overused they became tedious and sometimes annoying to go through. Boss Battles are usually set-up differently than usual enemy battles. There's a cutscene, the dialogue and stuff, and even a random winged lion in the forest usually have a short cutscene just about the monster appearing to the player. RMVXA itself has its own settings to determine if an enemy is a "Boss" by enabling the user to choose different collapse effect, SE, and the RTP is bundled with more than one "Battle Start" SE just in case the user wanted a different one to use in Boss Battles. Chapter 2: ~Boss Types~ There are a lot of Boss Types, it'll be quite difficult to explain them all here. I'm just going to highlight some of the more simpler ones, and you can expand from there. Be creative! "The Damage Sponge" As its name implies, the Damage Sponge can take a lot of punishment before going down. It also has a lot of stats, and usually the best strategy is just beating it to death with every offensive move you got. Sounds familiar? Well, it's the "basic" template for a Boss, and usually, when people think about Boss, they think about this type. Unless they play too many SMT games, probably. This boss type can be commonly found in older, retro games. The Final Fantasy series are also particularly fond of these. Example: Too many to count and give. Just grab your nearest RPG and play it, nine out of ten you'll encounter one. "The Puzzle Battler" The polar opposite of the Damage Sponge, the Puzzle Battler requires certain strategy to be taken down. This usually involve out-of the box tactics, but once the player figures out the way, they're usually pretty easy to take down. More prominent in platformer or side-scroller, but can be found in RPGs too. Examples: Wallman from Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. House of the Red Rose (Second Battle) from Yggdra Union. (Gotta love that game's difficulty...) "The Elemental Changer" This Boss mess with Elemental RPS. They constantly change affinities, and can be pretty annoying in games that use the "Accumulate actions, then execute turn" mechanic as the player usually can't help but seeing their Whirlwind gets absorbed by the Boss' new WIND -150% affinity. They usually stand in the border between Damage Sponge and Puzzle Battler, depending on the Boss. Examples: A certain "Hipster Angel" from Persona 4. Seiryuu from Final Fantasy V. "Undefeatable" Undefeatables are... Well... Undefeatable. You can't beat them because the plot said so. However, they're usually not Game Over-inducing, and some even give Game Overs if the player actually manages to beat them. Additionally, a Boss might be Undefeatable and/or certain point. The player could do something to make it defeatable. Examples: Beauty Queen Etna from Disgaea 2. The Black Knights from Final Fantasy II. "Multi-Limbs Boss" One of the favorite classics, Multi-Limbs Bosses are those who needs to be taken bits by bits, until ultimately brought down. They may be a giant octopus, a multi-headed dragon, or even a mob of angry people! Usually, there's a "core" part that serves as the hub/main part of the boss. More often than not, destroying the "core" instantly wins the battle. May overlap with Multi-Stage Boss if the limb-tearing takes multiple stages. Examples: Polaris from Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2. Menace from Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow. "Multi-Stage Boss: Another classic favorite, these are Bosses that transcend a stage to continue the fight. They usually do so by transforming into their "stronger" or "true" forms. Most of them takes really long time to beat, and they usually gets all their stats fresh like a jar o' skippy during the transition while your party have to cling on those Mega Potions or Greater Heals. May overlap with Multi-Limbs Boss if the battle involves battling various part of the boss. Examples: Kefka from Final Fantasy VI. Death from... Almost every Castlevania game he's in. Chapter 3: ~Tips and Tricks!~ Here are some of my tips, tricks and ideas in designing Boss Battles. You don't need to take them fully, these are just suggestions and advices for you. I'll be happy if they could help you out~ 1. Sense of Progress How convenient. Make sure that the Boss Battle is meaningful to the player. Or at least, not just a button-mashing galore (Except if your game is a hack-and-slash, probably.). I don't mean you can't pop a Chimeric Steed out of the mountains. You can. What needs a meaning is not the Boss, it's the Battle. Unneeded Boss Battles can be a hassle to some players, so take account into that. Of course, you can just ignore this advice completely for Bonus Bosses or Secret Bosses, as they're purely optional. Just make sure that the players don't feel like they're just wasting their play time by fighting the boss. 2. No "Attack Spam", Please... Just sleep, just dream. It's only a battle... One of the most glaring thing I saw when playing some RPGs is some of the Boss Battles consist of nothing but Attack-spamming. (Although it's inevitable if you chose 4 Warriors in Final Fantasy XD) The battle becomes pretty tedious by that, and the Boss Battle would just turn into a glorified random battle. Don't misunderstand- I'm not against it, everything can be cool if properly executed, it's just that I advise to be against Attack Spam design just for the sake of it. 3. Let's Party! (Author's note: It kinda looks like Oscar is dodging the rubbles ._.") How about making the Boss do something to the Party? It doesn't have to be the Boss joining after battle like pictured. You can use other options such as: a. The Boss being a bertraying party member all along! The reverse from the above situation happens, and the boss is removed from the party member. a. The Boss is actually a nice guy, and one of your party member's a traitor. The Boss joins in the middle of the battle, and a new battle starts against the betraying party member. A mix of the example picture and example a. 4. Utilize Those Status Effects! Aah... Succubus! You make Enchanter-chan sad Nine out of ten, you know that feeling. When you play a game where there are like 15 "Ailment" States present... But none of them worked on the Bosses. What's the purpose, then? The Warrior and Mage can just slash and burn through the small fries, so it's usually moot to Ailment them. So how useful would the Enchanter be? So my next suggestion is, make States more meaningful to the mechanic. Although, you'll need to manage which are affected with what. It probably wouldn't be a good idea to make Firespirit affected by Burn or Toxic Wyrm affected by Poison. Although I also suggest that the "Death"/"Knockout" State should not be able to be used on Bosses, since it could break the game's challenge. Or alternatively, don't add insta-death Skills. 5. Make a Duel Boss! Natalie would actually look pretty sweet as a cheerleader... Duel Boss is a kind of Boss where only a certain number of your Party may join the fight (Usually only one). You can specify whether only the Chosen Twins may fight the Twilight Ruler, or that only the Star Princess can soften the Solar Dragon's anger. Executed well, Duel Boss can make a Boss Battle challenging and/or fresh without looking too cheap. 6. Make "Irregular" Battle A Hero Arrives! (Spoiler: It's Noah) Alternatively, you can make a Boss Battle that ended in an unusual fashion. Be it a mysterious hero rescuing your Party and defeating the Demon once its HP reaches 40% or below, a Greater Demon that kills the Lesser Demon and replaces it during battle... The plot potential is strong! 7. Alternate Win/Lose Condition! You take care too, Isabelle. We need your Spells but your MHP seems to be against that. Usually, the main goal of a Boss Battle is to take down the Boss by making its HP reach 0. However, you don't have to always stick upon that. You can make alternate goals such as surviving for 30 Turns, protecting a friend who's channeling a Barrier, or walking the usual beat-to-death route, but with a mix such as making the Grave Squirmer only killable by casting Holy Spark! 8. Linked Enemies! SLASHTHEM You can make Multi-Parted bosses too in RMVXA! There are scripts for that I'm sure, but you can also make simpler ones with eventing. Multi-Part Bosses are essentially multiple Enemies set up in the same Troop. Once the "Core" dies, an event triggers that places Death state into the others. 9. Reverse Multi-Limb! Of course, talking is easier than executing. ... ...That pun. How about making a twist to the usual Multi-Limb fight, and make that you're easier/possible to win the less you bother with the "Core" enemy? If that sounds too easy, then remember that you could "Invoke" (Guess the hint?) the player to attack the forbidden. Be careful with balancing, though... There are many possibilities with this one: A Chaotic Spirit that is unaffected by all Magic but has Magic Seeker skill to turn all Elemental Magic toward him? Your hero's hostage girlfriend forced into an armor that redirects all Sword Skills toward her? Up to you! 10. Outside Battle Tweak (Suggested by AlliedG) MY EYES!!! (I luckily captured this state though SS ) Who says you cannot tweak the battle externally? You can apply circumstances that makes the a Boss Battle different depending on your doing outside it. You can make a Boss gets a weakness to Fire by completing a sidequest involving sabotaging the Boss' magical capability, or makes an NPC that will strengthen the Boss if you failed his request! XX. Hair-Pulling Edition: Yuu Narukami Myriad Truth SWAG (Requested by Casta) This basically emulates the final phase of the final boss fight in Persona 4, where you manually cast a certain skill on the boss in a scripted fight, which finally leads to winning. It's quite tricky (and long), and requires multiple Database setup, so please read and proceed very carefully. 12. The Persona Reaper Encounters! (Requested by Casta) This one is more into map eventing than battle eventing, but still cool for me, nonetheless! The Reaper encounter style from the Persona series 3, 4 and 4 Golden. The Reaper itself is a really tough special enemy that appears in Persona 3 and 4/G that is well-known for its extreme difficulty and special encounter method. And now we're going to mimic those encounter systems! This request would be separated into 3 parts, divided by the game the Reaper appears in, because the encounter method is different in each game. This is another one that's a bit more into the intermediate-to-advanced skill level, so please read thoroughly. Especially the P3 one. I spent the whole night figuring that one out, while the others don't even take 10 minutes. 12. 1. The Reaper Encounter (Persona 3) 12.2. The Reaper Encounter (Persona 4) 12.3. The Reaper Encounter (Persona 4 Golden) I hope you find these useful~ Useful Links: "Boss Battle" on TV Tropes. Basically a witty exposition about Bosses and Boss Battles, complete with a huge list in Tropenese. Are you One of Us, too? http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BossBattle "Battle Systems 101: Creating Bosses" by Lowell Richards. A neat guide found in this very forum. Has a well-written pointers and insights, including some small details not found in here. Despite seeming a bit incomplete, it's definitely worth reading! http://www.rpgmakervxace.net/topic/1098-battle-systems-101-creating-bosses/ Outro: Well, I think that's all for now! I'll update the guide once I got more, so stay tuned for that! Don't forget to give feedback and leave comments if you have any! I hope this guide would help you in designing cooler, more interesting Bosses and Boss Battles. Happy designing! -Maki

Voice Acting In RPG Maker VX Ace Intro This is an repost and update to my original tutorial from RRR which you can view here. The screenshots are still in VX, however it is the same commands for VXAce! When choosing whether Voice Acting is something that you want to do when making your RPG! You need to consider a number of important things. -Character Development: Do you have an idea in your head how your character is going to talk? Do you know enough about your character to give a potential VA instructions regarding their background, the way you want them to speak? The emotions in their voice? Their accent. All of this should be readily available to ensure that a potential Voice Artist can provide you with the Perfect Voice! - The Voice: Don't just settle for anyone, when trying to find your characters voice, ensure that it feels right. Hold Auditions to ensure that the Voice sounds perfect to what your character sounds like. Also ensure that there is minimal background noise. You should also ensure that the voice isn't to loud or too quiet. If the sound is too loud, then clipping will occur- please note that turning down the volume will NOT stop clipping! You MUST ensure that no clipping occurs in the recording. - The Script: The more of the script you have written up, the better! Ensure when writing the script you give stage directions! It is very important to include stage directions. certain software can make this easier! Audio Prepping You must ensure that there are NO gaps at the beginning of the audio... your VA may have already done this but IF they haven't .. Download the free software Audacity: Audacity Website open up the audio that you have been sent by your Voice Actor or Actress: Notice the flat line at the begining of the project, if you leave this then it means that your audio will have a gap at the beginning okay, so time to say goodbye to that section select it and delete it now then it should look like this: Now we need to EXPORT the audio to an audio type of your choice! (i prefer to use mp3) so... FILE>EXPORT TO MP3/OGG/WAV Input Into Project Folder! Excellent you have prepared you file NOW it is time to input it into your project folder! Here is where it is your choice but I prefer to input it into the SE folder as there is the the ability to stop the audio which will become important later! I normally just CUT and paste directly into Audio>SE! The Eventing Part! Okay, now that the prep has been done time to input this into your project! Now to go to the lines that are already placed into an event: Once you have done that you need to input the audio to do that we open up the event command window and go to page two: Then select the Voice Acting Line you wish to used: "Stop SE" If you are creating a game with voice acting, you must be prepared to have 3-4 characters speaking at once, now, the Stop SE event, ensures that if readers, don't want to read through all the text, the audio does't bleed through. This keeps it from sounding messy, and also reduces lag drastically (as 4-5 SE going at the same time, is nothing but a nightmare) To do this use the Stop SE event command on Page 2: Hope this tutorial helps, adding voice acting into RPG Maker Games, can help bring life to characters, I hope to see more voice acting in games in the future!

This is Lord Vectra, the Master Eventer. Today I will be showing how to make a timer without using the built-in timer. What made you think of this? In a series I'm remaking, World of Chaos, on the 3rd game, I needed a timer for when the character transformed to a werewolf. So I evented a timer because when the built-in timer went off, it will interrupt battle AND you can only have one timer at a time. So I improvised. You will need the following... 1 Variable for each timer you want 1 Conditional branch 1 Common Event for each timer 1 Switch Go to the "Wait" in the 2nd event tab in the upper-right corner. Make it 60 frames as 60 frames = 1 second. You need to make a variable for the timer. Name it whatever you like, imma name mine "Timer 1." After that, you need to check when the Timer = 0 by doing a conditional branch for it. Vectra, what's happening here? The variable is treated as the timer. Every 60 frames, the variable (timer) will go down by own. This should be in a parallel process common event. Due to this, you'll need a switch to activate it (its that "condition switch" in the upper-right corner). Notice how I turn the switch off when it reaches zero. That is so it doesn't continue into the negatives. When you want the timer to start at a number, you make the variable equal that number before calling the common event: Any questions?

I am Vectra. I know a lot of people are wondering how to work expansions. There is some limitation to this which will be explained later in the tutorial. How to get your game ready for expansions Make 2 copies(or more) of the game. Note: Know what expansions you want to add ahead of time Warning: Keep ALL data in the original game in the expansion one!!! This allows the player to keep everything he has in the original one to the expansion one and not doing this can create serious bugs in your game. If it's after the main quest & is not separate from the actual game You need to activate a switch once the final boss is killed ahead of time before you make the expansion. Transfer them to whatever(Ex: The Main Town). Therefore, people who already beat the game can play it. Have the player go somewhere to start the expansion. For example, go to the prophet in the main town and he'll tell you that some Plague Lord will come to kill everyone and you start the quest. If it's during Example: Guilds, Factions, etc. Do you know them three files called "Game"? Transfer the encrypted one from the expansion to the original and you should be fine or transfer save from original to the expansion. Either one works. Note: Just to be sure, don't forget to transfer the .dll in the systems folder. I don't know if that does anything but just to be sure, do it. If the expansion is a totally different game Example: Dragon age: Origins and Dragon Age: Awakening If Expansion is only playable after player beats the 1st one You need to activate a switch once the final boss is killed ahead of time before you make the expansion. Transfer them to Map 1. Create the expansion game as usual. In the beginning of the expansion game have a conditional branch of switch X has to be on. When you're trying to play this game from the original, you need to do something special. Vectra, does the coordiantes of MAP 1 have to match MAP 1 in expansion? No, I suggest making the Xcoord less than 17 and the YCoord less than 13. You can relocate the player by having a transfer player in the expansion game. Once you transfer the player to MAP1 MAKE SURE THEY GET A CHANCE TO SAVE IT!!! Vectra, you said we needed to do something special... what is it? You can do two things. Do you know the three files that all say "game"? Transfer the encrypted one from the expansion to the original. That has all the current variable values and whether the switch was turned on or not. Note: Make a copy of the original and then take the expansion one and insert it into the original one(the copied version) Note: Just to be sure, don't forget to transfer the .dll in the systems folder. I don't know if that does anything but just to be sure, do it. OR If you want to be different, you can have the expansion ask a question or ask for a password. You get the answer only when you beat the main quest. You might want to do something like a code you need to input in a variable to play the expansion. Like the code is 629475 and the player only knows that when they beat the 1st game. Vectra, people can cheat and tell each other the password! If all the monsters are high-leveled ones, I promise you they will regret coming in at lvl.5 against lvl.30 monsters lol. Note: If you use the code idea, remember to make it long so the player will have a really hard time guessing. Make it like 6 digits long. If it doesn't matter You create the expansion game as usual. The player just have to move over the save file. Note: Just to be sure, don't forget to transfer the .dll in the systems folder. I don't know if that does anything but just to be sure, do it. If you want more than one expansion I don't know. If they're separate expansions then it's very easily. If not, it's best to think of ALL your expansion packs you want and put them into one big one because when it comes to adding things like Factions, you can only do one. Same thing goes for separate expansions if you have expansions for the separate expansions. Perks from doing expansions Like Dragon Age: Origins and Awakening, you can have it where choices you make in one game and their effects will follow you to the next one. Like I said, expansions will have to be thought-out before hand UNLESS the expansion is created separately from the original game. Use your imagination and this can be really good for a game if done correctly. Warning: If adding scripts, make sure they are compatible!!! I think I've covered everything. Any Questions? Do you need anything explained more?

I have some eventing ways to lower lag Most people tell you if you want to delete an event permanently, you have to use a self-switch. Did you know even if you use a self-switch, that event is still taking up energy? Therefore, it can still take part in the lag. Well, I have a solution You still need the self-switch but have the page be on parallel process. Don't put anything on the event page except Erase Event. So therefore, whenever the event reappears when you enter the map again it disappears instantly. This way, the event isn't taking up energy and there is no lag from that particular event. Another helpful method Do you happen to have 5+ parallel process common events happening and it slows your computer? Well I had the same issue before. Let's say you have as much of them as me (11), first, turn all common events' triggers to none. second, add them all to one common event and call it something. third, add the "wait" command between each. You'll have to decide how much yourself since it depends on the length and energy your common events take. This is mine: The ones that aren't separated are ones I want done together. You will need a switch which is the condition switch for it to run. In my example, once it does "EXP Check" it takes 2 seconds and 5 frames to come back to "EXP Check" This allows the program to do one or two at a time rather than doing them all at once at all times. Basically, lowers the constant energy needed. Any Questions?

I am Vectra the master eventor. Someone asked how to do something and I decided to make it a tutorial of it. I am making the tutorial based on this: http://www.rpgmakervxace.net/topic/31724-tournament-game/#entry216926 Note: If anything becomes confusing, read at least 5X. If still confused, stop reading, and ask your question so I can answer it. Why Vectra? Why can't I just continue reading and come back to it? Eventing is like Math, if you are confused about little stuff it can possibly mess EVERYTHING up, so I heavily advise that you ask before continue. Picking the character(You can skip if this is irrelevant to you and/or you know how to do this) Now, let's say you're picking three out of 6 for your team. This one is pretty easy because all you're using is choices. Let's say character 1 is Bob and 2 is Billy @>Show choices: Bob, Billy : When [bob] @>Change Party Member: Add [bob] @> : When [billy] @>Change Party Member: Add [billy] @> : Branch End Now, let's say there are five teams. Vectra's Minions The Undead The Barbarians The Nasty Boogers The Killerz Now, let's say player controls one team and the other four are CPU. Let's say I'm playing and I am using the VM team. Now, here's a way you can do this. Event CPU activity This is for you want battles between teams happen randomly so meaning that there is no certain order on which team fights which. You will need the following 1 Variables for Battle chance 1 Variable for TEAM ID 1 Variable for Teams Picked 1 Variable for Battle win/lost 2 Switches for each team except the player 1 Common Event A LOT of conditional branches V1 - Battle Chance V2 - Specifies which Team attacks V3 - Team Picked V4 - Specifies which team lost and which one won S1 - Team ID , MUST USE or variable 2,3, and 4 wouldn't work(or at least you'll have trouble trying to make it work) All of the above goes into one common event. This Common Event will be parallel process. If you want it triggered you can use a switch. You need to decide what is the chance of a battle per sec. This will be done by making a variable pick randomly between 1 to whatever. @>Control Variables: [0001: Battle Chance] = Random No. (1...100) @>Conditional Branch: Variable [0001: Battle Chance] <= 30 @> : Else @> : Branch End This will say per sec there is a 30% chance of a battle happening between CPU's(Note: This is an example, don't actually make it 30%) There are 5 teams in total. The number of Var2 will decided which of the 4 CPU's will attack. Space is to organize things so it don't look so confusing. Note: If you're doing it as you read, DO NOT DO THIS STEP! Note: There is four CPU's because one is for the player. @>Control Variables: [0001: Battle Chance] = Random No. (1...100) @>Conditional Branch: Variable [0001: Battle Chance] <= 30 @>Control Variables: [0002: Team ID Fight!] = Random No. (1...4) @>Conditional Branch: Variable [0002: Team ID Fight!] == 1 @>Control Switches: [0001:CPU 1] = ON @> : Branch End @>Comment: Space @>Conditional Branch: Variable [0002: Team ID Fight!] == 2 @>Control Switches: [0001:CPU 2] = ON @> : Branch End @>Comment: Space @>Conditional Branch: Variable [0002: Team ID Fight!] == 3 @>Control Switches: [0001:CPU 3] = ON @> : Branch End @>Comment: Space @>Conditional Branch: Variable [0002: Team ID Fight!] == 4 @>Control Switches: [0001:CPU 4] = ON @> : Branch End @> : Else @> : Branch End Now you'll want only two picked. So you will put an additional conditional branch for Variable 3. So It'll look like this. THIS STEP YOU DO. Note: You will need a loop. Loop is shown in the example below. I'm going to bold it so you can see where to put it. Hint: Look for loop and repeat above Note: Var3 only goes up by one. Note: You want additional conditional branches so teams aren't picked twice. Those will be bolded as well so you can see them. Note: You need break loop. This will be bolded so you know where to put it. @>Control Variables: [0001: Battle Chance] = Random No. (1...100) @>Conditional Branch: Variable [0001: Battle Chance] <= 30 @>Loop @>Conditional Branch: Variable [0003: Teams Picked] == 2 @>Break Loop @> : Else @>Control Variables: [0002: Team ID Fight!] = Random No. (1...4) @>Conditional Branch: Variable [0002: Team ID Fight!] == 1 @>Condition Branch: Switch [0001:CPU 1] == OFF @>Control Variables: [0004: Teams Picked] +=1 @> : Branch End @>Control Switches: [0001:CPU 1] = ON @> : Branch End @>Comment: Space @>Conditional Branch: Variable [0002: Team ID Fight!] == 2 @>Condition Branch: Switch [0002:CPU 2] == OFF @>Control Variables: [0004: Teams Picked] +=1 @> : Branch End @>Control Switches: [0002:CPU 2] = ON @> : Branch End @>Comment: Space @>Conditional Branch: Variable [0002: Team ID Fight!] == 3 @>Condition Branch: Switch [0003:CPU 3] == OFF @>Control Variables: [0004: Teams Picked] +=1 @> : Branch End @>Control Switches: [0003:CPU 3] = ON @> : Branch End @>Comment: Space @>Conditional Branch: Variable [0002: Team ID Fight!] == 4 @>Condition Branch: Switch [0004:CPU 4] == OFF @>Control Variables: [0004: Teams Picked] +=1 @> : Branch End @>Control Switches: [0001:CPU 4] = ON @> : Branch End @> : Branch End @> : Repeat Above @> : Branch End @> Now when Teams Picked = 2 You then use Var4. That will look like this. @>Conditional Branch: Variable [0003: Teams Picked] == 2 @>Control Variables: [0001:Who win?] += Random No. (1...100) @>Conditional Branch: Variable [0001: Who's win?] <=50 @>Conditional Branch: Switch [0001: CPU 1] == ON @>Control Switches: [0005:CPU 1 Exterminated] == ON @> Else @>Conditional Branch: Switch [0001: CPU 2] == ON @>Control Switches: [0005:CPU 2 Exterminated] == ON @> Else (So on and so on) So at the end it'll look like this... Some things has been added because I forgot about them. INCLUDE THEM!!! @>Control Variables: [0001: Battle Chance] = Random No. (1...100) @>Conditional Branch: Variable [0001: Battle Chance] <= 30 @>Loop @>Conditional Branch: Variable [0003: Teams Picked] == 2 @>Control Variables: [0001:Who win?] += Random No. (1...100) @>Conditional Branch: Variable [0001: Who's win?] <=50 @>Conditional Branch: Switch [0001: CPU 1] == ON @>Control Switches: [0005:CPU 1 Exterminated] == ON @> Else @>Conditional Branch: Switch [0001: CPU 2] == ON @>Control Switches: [0005:CPU 2 Exterminated] == ON @> Else (So on and so on) @>Break Loop @> : Else @>Control Variables: [0002: Team ID Fight!] = Random No. (1...4) @>Conditional Branch: Variable [0002: Team ID Fight!] == 1 @>Condition Branch: Switch [0005:CPU 1 Exterminated] == ON @>Control Switches: [0001:CPU 1] = OFF @> Else @>Conditional Branch: Switch [0001: CPU 1] == OFF @>Control Switches: [0001:CPU 1] = ON @>Control Variables: [0004: Teams Picked] +=1 : Branch End @> : Branch End @>Comment: Space @>Conditional Branch: Variable [0002: Team ID Fight!] == 2 @>Condition Branch: Switch [0005:CPU 2 Exterminated] == ON @>Control Switches: [0001:CPU 2] = OFF @> Else @>Conditional Branch: Switch [0001: CPU 2] == OFF @>Control Switches: [0001:CPU 2] = ON @>Control Variables: [0004: Teams Picked] +=1 : Branch End @> : Branch End @>Comment: Space @>Conditional Branch: Variable [0002: Team ID Fight!] == 3 @>Condition Branch: Switch [0005:CPU 3 Exterminated] == ON @>Control Switches: [0001:CPU 3] = OFF @> Else @>Conditional Branch: Switch [0001: CPU 3] == OFF @>Control Switches: [0001:CPU 3] = ON @>Control Variables: [0004: Teams Picked] +=1 : Branch End @> : Branch End @>Comment: Space @>Conditional Branch: Variable [0002: Team ID Fight!] == 4 @>Condition Branch: Switch [0005:CPU 4 Exterminated] == ON @>Control Switches: [0001:CPU 4] = OFF @> Else @>Conditional Branch: Switch [0001: CPU 4] == OFF @>Control Switches: [0001:CPU 4] = ON @>Control Variables: [0004: Teams Picked] +=1 : Branch End @> : Branch End @> : Branch End @> : Repeat Above @> : Branch End @>Control Variables: [0004: Teams Picked] == 0 @> Vectra, is there any customization with this? You can change the battle chance to your liking. It can be 1 out of 1000 if you wanted. Max is 99,999,999 You can change number of Teams Picked. You can change the number of teams. Any Questions?

CREATING OBJECT SHADOWS USING PHOTOSHOP by Nestat REQUIREMENTS: You need to know your way around Photoshop; (this guide made with the use of version CS4 but you can use any version, i think) A game map as a template. LET'S GO! 1. Go ahead and load your map in Photoshop. 2. Separate the floor from the objects/furniture into two different layers as shown in the picture below. (This step will not be covered in this tutorial) 3. Right-click on the furniture layer and select "Blending Options..." 4. Choose "Drop Shadow" and click on it for more options. Drag the "Distance" slider to the right, 5-20 px (depends on how close/far your light source is.) Adjust the "Angle" to match the direction of light of your map. 5. Select Layer -> Layer Style -> Create Layer. Notice that your 'Shadow Effect' is now isolated in its own layer, separate from the furniture layer! Select the shadow layer. Give it a 15-35 % transparency. 6. Make the changes accordingly to your map needs. (erase shadows not needed, change shadow color etc.) That's it! Happy Shadowing!

This is a really simple setup that like the title says, can be used to create a randomized numerical code for 'secret code' scenarios in projects. To start off, I want to point out that I did this using six each switches and variables for a 4-digit code. If anyone can find a way to streamline it further, by all means do so and I'd love to hear it. I would also like to point out that there is a switch and a variable responsible for stopping the randomization of and recording each digit, respectively, so if you want to add or subtract digits, you'll have to adjust the number of switches and variables accordingly. Because this system utilizes variables and specifically the Input Number event command, obviously the limitation is 8 digits. To make this setup work, you first want to open the database, and navigate to the Common Events tab. Once there, make a new Common Event, name it what you will, and set it to parallel process with the trigger switch being a new one. In the event command window, set up a number of independent conditional branches equal to the number of digits you want in your code, each with a different on switch as the condition, and else if branches disabled. In the body of each conditional branch, set up a different variable control, each set to a random number batch from 0 to 9. An example of the completed event is as follows. After that, set up a number of NPC events throughout the area you want the search for the code to take place. How many will be determined again by how many digits in your code. Set each of them up so that the first thing that happens is that the switch associated with the number each NPC has knowledge of, is turned off at the time of speaking with the character. This ensures that once the information is given it does not change. An example is below. Note that in the image above, the NPC has a self switch after giving the information. This isn't necessary, but it allows for something more realistic than just having the character say the information the same way over and over again if you forget and ask for it again. Also, if the character will have his or her own life to live beyond giving the information, which they should, then you should set the event page where the information is first given with the condition of the switch that starts the common event being on, so you can supply normal conversation otherwise. In this case do not forget to turn that switch off after the secret code is delivered successfully so normal conversation can resume. Finally, set up one more NPC. After all, what good is a secret code if there's nothing to be gained from learning it? Because of the amount of commands on this one, I think it's far more efficient to just show the example than to try and fail to explain it all. Hopefully it won't be held against me, and if anyone doesn't understand anything they can just ask. Though I will say this. The multiplication and division of the variable values is necessary. Okay, here's the final example.

I am Vectra. The Master Eventor. Here I'm going to show you how to create a city building system using ONLY events. We're going to start with the exterior of the individual houses/apartments/villages/whatever you use. Here's how you're gonna know what you need: 1) All possible roofs, walls, doors, windows, accessories(plants) have to be characters and not tile sets. 2) 3 Variables needed for each house(Can vary depending on what you want). The # you give the variable is the color. 3) 4 Events for each house(Can vary depending on what you want). 4) A house with NOTHING in it but the floor. 5) The Door events has to be made to transfer player to whatever pre-made house it's suppose to go. Well Vectra, I don't understand. I'm confused . Can you explain a bit better? Well, I sure can. Let's say you can have a all-yellow house then a all-blue house. Variables: Variable 1: Wall/Wall Color Variable 2: Door/Door Color Variable 3: Window Color/Windows' Color Variable 4: Roof/Roof Color Events Event 1: Wall/Wall Color Event 2: Door/Door Color Event 3: Window Color/Windows' Color Event 4: Roof/Roof Color Here we go! Usually I'll do screenshots but I feel too lazy to make the characters and do all of that so Imma imitate how your event page should look like for one object. For example the roof. Blue = 1 Yellow = 2 Event 4: @>Conditional Branch: Variable[0004: Roof/Roof Color] == 1 @>Set Move Route: This Event (Wait) : $>Graphic: 'Roof_Blue', 0 : @> : else @>Condition Branch: Variable[0004: Roof/Roof Color] = 2 @>Set Move Route: This Event (Wait) : : $>Graphic: 'Roof_Yellow', 0 @> : else ...so on and so on end end You do that for the rest.(Doors, Windows, Walls, etc.) Now it's time for the interior. This one is A LOT more complex. 1)Each house item would be a character(bottle, bed, etc.) 2) Variable for each object. Number you give the variable can be type, style, color etc. 3)Event for each house item. 4) 2 Extra Variables for X coord and Y coord Your event pages will look like this... Black = 1 Red = 2 @>Conditional Branch: Variable[0004: Bookshelf] == 1 @>Set Move Route: This Event (Wait) : $>Graphic: 'Shelf_Black', 0 : @> : else @>Condition Branch: Variable[0004: Roof/Roof Color] = 2 @>Set Move Route: This Event (Wait) : : $>Graphic: 'Shelf_Red', 0 @> : else ...so on and so on end end This goes for the rest. This includes windows too(if you choose to). Now, here's what you do if you want the player to choose where to put the house, or the items inside. Here's how you find the X and Y of an event. 1)Go to Control Variables on 1st tab of the events. Click on it then pick the X or Y coord variable. 2)Click on game data 3)Go to character 4)Choose the event 5)Then go where it says Map X and pick Map X or Map Y. Once you do that you have the player pick which direction they want the object to go. I recommend have it go up or down by one. Here's what I mean... (Once you did the whole shelf customization) Right = X Coord + 1 Left = X Coord - 1 Up = Y Coord + 1 Down = Y Coord - 1 Loop Text: What do you want? (Choices are Right, Left, Up, or Down) For Example When Control Variable: [0001:X] += 1 Text: Good? (Choices yes or no) If no then it loops again. If say no say break loop and do self-switch A so the customization event for that house doesn't appear again. BOOM! There you go. If you have any questions plz ask me and I will answer them.

Skill Level: Medium Technical (knowledge of layers), Basic/Low Artistic (knowledge on how to place pixels) (to skip to the tutorial, click HERE) You have a fantastic game idea, a clever set of characters, and a storyline all written up. Now it's time to take a visual approach – to decide on what your characters are going to look like in game. For artists both pixel and otherwise, this is a relatively easy task. But for those who feel like they don't have a creative bone in their body (or simply have a tough time working with tiny pixels), they get stuck with default characters and character generators.* *Now, this isn't to say that default characters and character generators are bad things! They all have their uses, and can be a great starting point. They also offer alternative genre parts if you're creating a game that doesn't fall under the Fantasy tag. Here is a comparison between 2 generated sprites, 2 RTP sprites, and 1 custom sprite. I want you to note the differences – not the really superficial stuff like the clothing and colors – but the way the eyes look slightly different, the ways the hair (or lack thereof) is shaded differently, how the clothing is handled. This really shows the limitations of the default generator – the right three sprites have eyebrows, facial hair, expressions. You can tell that there's a middle aged guy and that one guy possibly is a fairly angry individual. You cannot get this effect using a generator – they have one face, and one face only. So if you want to create a unique character that isn't aged 16-25 with minimal facial hair, you're stuck with the defaults. Here's where I teach you that isn't quite true. You see, that custom sprite I pointed out, the rightmost one in the comparison? He's not really custom. He's a frankenstein* of 2 different RTP sprites. *Keep in mind that people who create true custom charsets may not be happy with you using their parts to make your own character. If it isn't RTP, ask the creator before you go messing with their stuff! Sure, he's been recolored, given a v-neck shirt and grew a goatee, but the parts are still there. So that's what you need to start doing when you're hunting for that perfect character – not see them for what they are, but for the parts they're made out of. Here's an example of taking 3 different sources and making them their own unique character. Do you have a mine section in your game? Of course you do, mine dungeons are the best! Obviously you need the main character in a mine cart, but where would you get such a thing... [anchor=tutorial][/anchor] Now if you've made it this far (or clicked the link at the beginning, I guess) you may be interested in learning exactly how do do this. What I'll be using for the actual tutorial section is GIMP 2.8, mostly for one incredibly useful feature – the Select by Color tool. This fantastic little tool allows me to do exactly what the name says it does, and select all of a single color. This comes in incredibly useful when trying to separate hair from a head or change the color of any object. Photoshop has no equivalent, which is why I'm using GIMP.* *I am unsure if any other common programs have this feature. If you're using Photoshop or a program that doesn't have a real 'select by color' feature, you'll have to settle for careful use of the lasso or magic wand tool. I have yet to test this using Photoshop's region select tool. I start with a character concept – this is a lady that's a down-to-earth hunter, the sort of person who would rather spend a lifetime in the forest than a single day in the city. I find the hair I want in Actor 5-1 – which, yes, is a guy, but he has the perfect hair for a hunter character and the RTP faces (not bodies) are interchangeable between genders. Another great one is Actor 4-7, whose curly ponytail does not look out of place on any female character. After looking through the outfits, I settle on Actor 3-4's.* *I may be using resources out of the Actor set, but don't feel limited to that. There are some great character designs in the People set and even in the generator. Imporant Note: If you're not working on a fresh canvas and instead editing the charsets on their native canvas, make sure that you set the image mode to RGB. By default, the Actor sets are Indexed, limiting their color depth. This limits color-changing possibilities and can cause some ill effects when bringing in other charsets to edit in this space. We're going to start by selecting the hair, fur, and head accessories from Actor 5-1. You'll want to make sure your selection threshold is set to 0. Since we're dealing with incredibly small images and working with exact color, this will make sure we'll only select the colors we want to select. Be sure to press SHIFT to add to your selection – if you accidentally select something you don't want to, use CTRL and click on the part you want to get rid of to do so. As we start to select the pieces we want to transplant onto Actor 3-4's body, we discover that the whites and grays used in the feather are the same that are used in the gloves. This presents a problem. There are two ways to go about this – go with this selection and delete the gloves in the next step, or deselect the white and the manually select the white part of the feather. Since the gloves have more pixels than the feather, I opt for the second approach, deselecting the whites and grays and then use the rectangular marquee/select to grab the white feather portion on every facing position. In addition, select the blacks. It'll require some clean-up afterward, but will keep the defining shape of the hair. Now copy this selection using CTRL+C, and then paste using CTRL+V and press the new layer button in the layers palette. This automatically makes the pasted selection into its own layer. Make the old layer invisible. There are a lot of lines left over from selecting the blacks. Time to clean them up! Take the eraser tool, select 'Hard Edge' in the Tool Options and make sure the size of the brush is 1px. Then go and erase any black lines that aren't a part of the hair or fur. DO NOT erase the irises from the eyes. They will come in useful in a few steps. When in doubt, leave the black. We can always fix any errors at the end. Now that this half is largely cleaned up, we move over to Actor 3-7, who gets to lose her hair. I do like her angry face, however, so we'll be keeping that. If you're working with identical faces, or if you prefer the face that came with the hair, or if you're using a face from something else altogether you can simply delete the head altogether by using the rectangular marquee/select. Make sure to deselect her eyebrows before getting rid of the hair! Don't worry too much about cleaning it up right now, because we're going to move the hair from Actor 5-1 over to this body. Simply move the hair layer over and line it up until it looks correctly. This is where leaving the irises comes in useful – simply line it up with the existing ones and you'll get a pretty good placement. However, I can see we still have some cleaning up to do with the leftovers from actor 3-4's hair. Hide the hair layer and move back down to the body layer. Erase the ribbons and the floating blacks, leaving the body and the face. Now we need to clean up her face, get rid of the transparent bits around the warpaint and the ears. On the body layer, I color pick the skin tone and follow the shading patterns until it's all filled up. Basically, I start with the lightest one until the surrounding area gets a bit darker, then switch to the darker tone, and so on. I'll also reference a hairless head to see how the shading is done around the cheek there. You can also simply copy and paste from that area on Actor 5-1, which is what I opt to do here. Now in all honesty we could move onto recoloring and be fairly fine, but I want to make a few adjustments. Because we took the fur scarf from a male character, the shoulders are a bit off on the female frame, so I'm going to color pick and just even it out in some of the blockier areas. I'm also going to lengthen her shirt so it covers her midriff. Now that we've finished that, and are pretty happy with how the image turned out, we're going to merge the layers so we can begin editing colors. This is where some artistic or fashion knowledge comes in handy, but it's not necessary as long as you remember a few things. Keep all metallics the same unless your character is meant to look eclectic – all golds or all silvers or all iron or whatever. Our character has gold necklace and bracelet and a silver buckle – something that looks a little odd. Pick a color and then play with neutrals on the opposite side of the color wheel. If you want the primary color to be blue, use warm browns for any neutrals. If you want the primary color to be red, go with cooler/bluer neutrals. Remember tone contrast. When you have colors you're pretty happy with, duplicate the layer and desaturate it. Can you still see where the shirt ends and the pants begin? If not, you need to either brighten or darken one of them to increase contrast. Since our character is a hunter, her colors are going to be green, gold, and brown. Her hair is going to go to a coppery shade, her eyes are going to be brown instead of blue. We begin by selecting objects by color – we'll start with the hair. We're going to be using the Colors → Colorize tool to recolor, primarily. Hair can be a little tricky because the highlights can get washed out after a colorize. You can fix this by selecting the highlights only after it's recolored, and using the hue/saturation tool to raise the saturation to acceptable levels. Remember to zoom out to 100% to see what it'll look like in game! Repeat this for the rest of the clothing and accessories. At the end, I had this character. You may have come up with something completely different if you followed along, and that's fine. All you have to do is ask "Does this character look like one that wouldn't look out of place alongside the other main characters?" If yes, then fantastic! If no... you may want to make the character stand out a little bit more. Congratulations! You've completed a custom-looking sprite with minimal artistic intervention. You can apply this sort of technique to a lot of things that may be difficult to find otherwise, from downed sprites to special animations. Now, go forth and create beautiful custom characters! And show me any you make using this tutorial, I'd love to see!* *If you need any help or if any part of the tutorial is unclear, feel free to send me a PM or leave a note here. I'll do my best to respond promptly!

Hey guys, this is the second part of my tutorial on how to create an addictive RPG. If you missed it, you can catch part one http://www.rpgmakervxace.net/topic/26193-rpg-addictiveness-part-1/. Go read that. Stop reading this, go read that. Have you read it? No? Go read it. Okay, you good? Let's go. So, my first tutorial went over the general format that I use personally when making games. I call it the Story and Rewards method, and relies on the high levels of dopamine. It generally goes like this: have a simple dungeon where the player is unstoppable, then a small bit of story, to set the scene. Repeat that once or twice. Then your dungeons should go up in difficulty. The first time they should feel a bit of a bump, where they can tell it's more difficult, then it should go up smoothly to the point that at the last dungeon, they're spending a lot of time in there and they really have to work for their big ending. So now, I'm going to go over exactly what happens in the story. First off, is character creation. There's lots of character generators out there to use if you'd like, but something I like to do is I put my music on shuffle and pick the first couple of songs. Each song will be the personality of each character. This only works if you have a variety of music, and the character generators will work too, in this case. That's when you start creating the actual character. The reason I use songs is so that I can listen to the song over and over while making the character. Each good song will have an overall feel and message in it, and that's what you have to listen to. There's many different information sheets out there to fill out, and it really depends how in depth your game is. My game, for example, is all about how every person has their own story, so most, if not all of my characters need in depth backgrounds. This website does a much better job of explaining this all around than I ever could: http://rpg.ashami.com/. Anyways, don't be afraid to have contrasting characters. These characters can't be exact opposites, because you need to make them have some sort common attribute that will bring them together. For example, a tough street thug and a rich cowardly man could be a good match if someone is threatening to steal the rich guys money so he offers some to the street thug to help him. That makes a common goal. Don't have the common goal be too stretched. The player will feel this and not be quite as interested. You'd be amazed as to what you can get away with, but you'd also be amazed as to what you can't. Now, let's talk about how the story relates to the Story and Rewards plan. When I'm planning my story out, this is the general path I follow. This is something that you can find in a lot of films to make the viewers sympathize with the characters. You'd be hard pressed to find a film that doesn't follow this to some degree. 0% - 10% - The first 10% of the film should draw the viewer into the initial setting of the film. What was life like beforehand? It should show the everyday life of the hero before the events of the film, show some flaws, what they're good at, etc. 10% - 10% of the way in they should be presented an opportunity. which will create a new, visible desire, and will start the character on her journey. The opportunity doesn't have to be quite what the main story is about, but it has to move them into a new situation. 10% - 25% - The next 15% of the story should show the character adapting to their new environment. They form plans on how to approach their new situation. Most of the time, they enter with excitement. 25% - About a quarter of the way through, something must happen to change their original, general goal into a visible, focused goal. The thing that the audience is rooting for the hero to do in the end is revealed.This is arguably the most important structural principle. If the hero's visible goal is defined too early, the story will run out of steam long before the climax. If it isn't defined until the halfway point, the viewer will have lost interest and moved on. 25% - 50% - This next quarter is simply the hero moving towards their goal. They could suffer minor setbacks, but they make a lot of progress here. 50% - At the midpoint, they must fully commit to the goal. Before, they could kinda get out of it and get around it, but now they need to burn their bridge back and go forward. 50% - 75% - For the next quarter, the obstacles become bigger and more frequent, achieving the visible goal becomes far more difficult, and the hero has much more to lose if he fails. The conflict begins to build until, just as it seems that success is within your hero's grasp... 75% - They suffer a major setback. This is a MAJOR setback. The audience should feel like EVERYTHING is lost. The hero's lies are revealed, the lovers break up, whatever it is. All hope must be completely lost. This just leaves the hero with one option. They can't go back to the life they lived before, since they burnt their bridge back already. Now they can only go out and launch one final, all out assault. 75% - 90-99% - Now they are beaten and battered, the fights are harder, the challenges are more difficult, and the pace has accelerated. They need to give everything they have. 90-99% - Several things must occur at the climax of the film. The hero must face the biggest obstacle of the entire story, they must determine their own fate (often overlooked) and the goal must be resolved, once and for all, for good or for bad. 90-99% - 100% - No movie ends with exactly what they were hoping for. The audience needs to feel something related to the excitement, emotion, sadness, romance, etc. in the end. Answer any unanswered question and show the hero after the battle. Now, that's quite a bit of information, but that's exactly what you should do with your game. Maybe make a few changes, specifically for the introduction. But there are two types of setbacks. Major and Minor. Now here's the information you're really looking for. When you're planning a game out with the Story and Rewards strategy, you need to plan out how many dungeons you have. Split it up into thirds. For example, twelve dungeons becomes 3 groups of 4. It doesn't have to be exact. Now, at the end of each group of dungeons (so, in the example of twelve dungeons, at the end of every fourth dungeon), you should have a Major setback. At the end of ones that don't have a Major setback, you put a Minor setback. The final major setback comes during the final dungeon, just before the final boss. This brings up the excitement, and the dopamine levels I went on about so much last part. The final part, at the 90-99% - 100% part of the story, this will generally be the final cutscene. I find the Final Fantasy series does that really well, where they tend to wrap up EVERY SINGLE @#$%ING CHARACTER. And I love it! It's brilliant. Anyways, your final cutscene should aim to do just that, unless you're going for a sequel or something like that. Again, don't forget, this is just one strategy. There are countless strategies. See if you like it. Anyways, here it is put in plain text for you, with the example of 12 dungeons once again. Introduction -> Simple Dungeon -> Bit of story -> Simple Dungeon -> Bit of story -> Simple Dungeon -> Bit of story -> bit more challenging dungeon -> Goal Change/Focus -> Dungeon -> Minor Setback/Progress -> Dungeon -> Minor Setback/Progress -> Dungeon -> Minor Setback/Progress -> Dungeon -> Point of No Return -> Dungeon -> Minor Setback/Progress -> Dungeon -> Minor Setback/Progress -> Dungeon -> Minor Setback/Progress -> Final Dungeon (Inside the Final Dungeon, there should be the Major Setback with all hope lost and the final battle). Hope this helped you guys! Feel free to comment if you had any questions about it

Hey guys, so there's something that a lot of people ask about and that is how long battles should go for, and specifically boss battles. How long should the player have to play for? How many times should they fail before they succeed? First, let me get a bit sciency behind this. (skip to the second to last paragraph if you don't wanna learn sciency stuff) I was inspired to do this from a recent episode of an internet show called Game Theory (you should check them out if you've never heard of them. Some brilliant topics on there). Most RPG games revolve around the battling, and what strategy you should take when battling. Of course, there are puzzles and things like that, but I would argue that most RPG's revolve around the battles themselves, especially in any of the RPG Maker developed games. Now, let's put you in the players shoes right now. Have you ever been hooked on a game, wanting to play it over and over until you beat it? You probably want to recreate that feeling, right? You should. That should be everyones ultimate goal. The method I use is something I call the Story and Rewards method. I'll create something more in depth about Story at a later time, but for now, let's go over the entire concept of this method. When you play a game and you finish a level you feel yourself getting a reward of a chemical in your brain called dopamine. Dopamine is your happy chemical. When you first start playing a game and you watch yourself rush through the levels, that's dopamine making you feel all strong and powerful. You can't keep that forever though, because that's one of the most boring games, just slashing down everything you see without a second glance. But why is that? Why is it that when you start, you like feeling powerful, but when you have a game where you're only ever powerful, you find it boring? It's because of desensitization. When you keep getting dopamine from the same thing, you eventually stop getting the same amount of dopamine. You need something different to stimulate the dopamine to come back out. That's where the Story and Rewards come in. Now, let's go back to your experiences. You know when you keep dying on that boss (which is so totally unfair because they keep on killing your healer in one shot)? And then you get that build up of excitement when you are about to beat it? That's your dopamine building back up. When you eventually do beat it, your brain gives you a big surge of dopamine to feel better. But for some reason, that big surge keeps happening despite killing bosses over and over again... Why is that? Well, two reasons: 1 - You see yourself overcoming a challenge you've been working towards for a while. 2 - They alternate the Rewards with the Story. You see, you need a good story (again, I'll write a new one if you happen to want to use this strategy and don't know where to go with your story) to go with the battles. So, the way I generally do it, is I put a major part of the story after each boss battle. Now, that doesn't mean put 75% of your story after each battle. That's impossible. What that means is that you should put a cliffhanger at the end of every boss battle for your story. So, I'll give a little example. You just beat down the dark knight, and you finally see your princess. For half the game you've been looking for her and you're running up to her for a big kiss. You feel all excited because of the dopamine surge you just got, as well as the fact that the story is giving you a different source of dopamine. Then the bad guy comes in. You feel worried. Your character argues with him before he kicks you away and runs off with the princess. There's no more story progression after a couple lines about having to follow him and get him back. Then you're back adventuring. You generally have three sources of dopamine in games, which are the story, the dungeon/boss combo and the adventuring. By doing this, you have just satisfied two of the three major categories of dopamine in your players game, as well as left them wanting more from the story. They are now back adventuring, something which, if your dungeons are created correctly, they haven't done in a while. When you return to the story, your brain now actually gets more dopamine because it was left on the high note, but here's the kicker: if your player doesn't spend long in the dungeon/boss combo, they won't get the dopamine high leading up to the story, and your story won't be as effective as a result. So how do you get a good dungeon/boss combo? In the beginning, your dungeons should be quick, bosses should be easy. This gives them that invincible feeling, and don't get too big with the story. Say we're going for ten dungeons. After one or two dungeons, you should start making them difficult. Suddenly, the player who previously ransacked the spiders nest and made a species extinct is having to go against goblins, and then got defeated once or twice! Now it's on. After that dungeon, you should slightly ramp up the difficulty with each dungeon. Make them more puzzling while making the monsters and bosses more difficult to kill. Get the player more and more excited with the story at each stage, and at the end, make sure that they are really working for their grand finale. Personally, I find that my final dungeons take 30 minutes - 60 minutes to complete if playing non-stop, and that's not counting their final boss. Also, for a final boss, I personally wouldn't let them get away with just one. Make them get that burst of dopamine as your dark knight falls to the ground, but watch as it turns into even more determination as your dark knight turns into a ghost and puts even more on the line. Again, this is only one method of doing it, and there's no one correct way to do it. I, personally, like playing with the emotions of my players and that's the way my styling tends to move towards. Play around with this strategy and see if you like it. Again, I'll be posting another tutorial with the story part of this attached. Keep an eye out for it, because it will be having some pretty important information for this style. Read Part 2 Here: http://www.rpgmakervxace.net/topic/26209-rpg-addictiveness-part-2/

Introduction: So i was doing this dungeon part in my game and realized that putting plain obscurity would be bad. Then i decided to search for a quick lantern tutorial as i didn't wanted to use scripts and didn't wanted to make my own system because i'm lazy as hell. My surprise was that the systems were truly BAD, impractical, brute and limitated (your map had to be at least 12 from the edges in order to work). Obviously i was like "seriously..." and ended up makin mine. In like 2 minutes. Ten thousand times more simple and effective. Process: Alright, pay attention. 1) First of all, you gonna need to make an image in Photoshop with your screen size (i'm using 640x480 right now but default is 544x416), grab the gradient tool, choose the radial gradient and check 'reverse' This will make the borders black but the center transparent, and this is what we want to do. Done? Alright, now go to canvas size and you have to double the normal screen size. That means, multiply it by 2. Because i'm a good person, i'll let you here the valors 1088x832 (544x416 normal size) and 1280x960 (640x480 normal size). Fill the transparent space with black and save that image (If you're bad at Photoshop or GIMP or whatever, i'll let you the images at the end of the post, don't worry~) 2) Go to the map you want to be the system, it doesn't cares if it is 600x600 or 24x15, this system will work everywhere. Now you gotta make three events (i make three for order purposes and because that is my way, you can do it in your own way) in one we will set the trigger to parallel process, in the command box we're going to use "Show Picture" in order to... show... the picture (i'm smart ) that we made, but be careful, in the X and Y boxes you gotta put the X and Y valor of the screen and you gotta check the "Center" checkbox instead of "Upper left". Remember, default is 544x416 and XP is 640x480 (did i mention that this works in every single RPG Maker? ) so we're going to put those valors in the boxes. To finish, put the "Erase event" at the end. By the way, you can put those valors for a 'transition' or you simply can create two variables (explained in the third step) and put them in the X and Y valors, just check the "Variable" checkbox instead of "Constant". Both ways will work perfectly. Explaining image: Make another event, this one will be in parallel process but do not put the Erase Event. Choose the "Move Picture" command, you gotta put the picture ID. This is where everything gets beautiful (i love variables <3). In the X and Y we're going to choose variables instead of constants (X and Y) so you gotta create two variables, i'll call them "Player Screen X" and "Player Screen Y". Put them in their respective positions. Do not forget that check "Center" instead of "Upper Left" and finally (this is all your please) put the frames delay ~~ the less the quicker the more the smoother, i chose 40 because that's enough smooth. Explaining image: In the third and final event all you gotta do is to create two variables (the variables we will use for the X and Y positions of the picture) and give them these valors: Explaining image: Conclusion: That's all. You got an awesome, quick, flexible, practical and... and practical system. Bonus: Here, grab some images:

Evented Enemy Scan System By Sgt.Twilight Hey guys, I was asked to be a member of the tutorial staff, so this is my first tutorial (in awhile at least). --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------What Engine does this tutorial use? It was made in VXA, but should work in VX and XP, but I am not positive. What would I need to make this tutorial work? Just a decent knowledge of Eventing, Variables and Patience..lots of patience. What will this tutorial look like in the end? Pros- Can look very nice. Can add an extra layer of lore. Does help the player get a better understanding Cons- Time consuming. Can lead to some inconsistencies. NOTES If their's (there's?) any part I glanced over or didn't explain very well, I will try my best to re-write it, I ambit I did get kind of tired of writing this after awhile. If anyone has questions about adding on to this tutorial, feel free to ask and I will try to add it in. Also should be noted that a Demo version and Video will be coming later today or tomorrow. Note: Those Screenshots were taken from my project, the rest will be made in a fresh project! STEP 1-Setting up the Skill/Skills. This part is pretty self explanatory, simply make a skill, lets make ours just called Study, but you can call yours what ever you want. Ok now make it call a "Common event", press the "effects" tab on the skills to open up a menu, then click on the tab "other" and locate Common event on the bottom. Select the Common event you made, or making your scan event in. Also make sure to set your skills scope to be "None". This is what it should look like if done right (Most stuff can vary however). STEP 2-Setting up the Events. This is where it gets tricky, so pay attention! In the common event you picked, create a switch. We're gonna call this Switch STUDY, but you can call yours what ever you want, but try to make it memorable and have a name you can recognize. In the event we're gonna set the switch STUDY to ON, then we're going to make a Variable, lets name it SCAN NUMBER. Now that we got our switch and Variable ready, lets make a Conditional branch, the Conditional branch is located on the first page of the Event page. When setting it up, you wanna set it to "Equal to" the variable you chose for it and set it to "constant", and just click OK. If you did everything right, it should look something like this. We're gonna revisit this in a bit, but first.. STEP 3-Setting up the Troop events. Alright, we're almost there, as this is a pretty short step! First go into your Troops section in your database and find your first troop. For my fresh project, it's the classic 2 slime's that haunt every RPG maker game. Make a new troop event run on Turn.no 0 and make its span "Battle". I haven't tried it on Turn, but Battle seems to work fine. Then in the event window, make "Control Variables" (which is located on the first section of the event page) and use the Variable you were using and set it to 0 (NOTE: I am using an early English patch, I heard it was called Variable Operation in the main one, I will make a screenshot at the bottom proving I own the program in case anyone would ask.). If its all done right it should look like this. STEP 4-Finishing the Events. Alright so we finished the troops, now we have to go make in the Common Events and finish this up! Remember when we made the Conditional ranch that equaled 0? We're gonna add to it now! Under the "SCAN NUMBER =0" there should be a @>, click the @> so that an event page will come up. From here we can make few different modifications, and this is where your creative parts can flow in making unique looking scans, but I'm just gonna use the one I already made. But first off make it a "Show choices command" and name the choices after the enemies in the troop. Like this. Now for actually writing the scan info! You can do it in any style you want, but I'm going to use the style I used for the "What does it look like", but I encourage you to experiment on it! The "code" I use for the bio is something among the lines of this. [Ruby] NAME:Giant bee LV.\i[125]\i[126]\i[126]\i[126]\i[126]\i[126]\i[126]\i[126]\i[126]\i[126] (1/10) (Troop) RACE:Insect | LOYALTY:Berserk | KARMA \c[28]â–²1\c[0] MORPH %NULL | SUMMON% 0/5 | RECRUIT% 0/5. Now anything from RACE to the RECRUIT part won't make since in every project, so just keep it from NAME to the LV. part, but this is only the over-view part. Under that we're going to make a status menu, now you can use the enemies actual stats, but I use the stars I used to show the enemies LV, the "code" I used for that is [ruby] HP \i[125]\i[126]\i[126]\i[126]\i[126] (1/5) | MP \i[125]\i[126]\i[126]\i[126]\i[126] (1/5) POWER \i[125]\i[126]\i[126]\i[126]\i[126] (1/5) | ARMOR \i[125]\i[126]\i[126]\i[126]\i[126] (1/5) MAGIC \i[125]\i[125]\i[126]\i[126]\i[126] (2/5) | SOUL \i[125]\i[126]\i[126]\i[126]\i[126] (1/5) SPEED \i[125]\i[125]\i[126]\i[126]\i[126] (2/5) | VALOR \i[125]\i[126]\i[126]\i[126]\i[126] (1/5) If you're wondering what they look like, just re-look at the first two images of thus tutorial. Also its optional to make a "bio" section, which contains a few sentences about the monster, it's pretty self-explanatory to make, but if anyone ask I will add it to this tutorial. Just close it off with the switch and it should look like this. And that's it for the most part! Now we just got to repeat this for every troop, I'll show you what it looks like to make multiple. Notice were it says "else"? Click the @> under it and copy and paste all the info we used for the first troop, which can be easily done by clicking on the "Show choices" tab and pressing CTRL+V and CTRL+C to paste it. Change the choices to reflect the new troops, if you have a re-used enemy that you made the info for, and don't want to clog up space, we're going to get into that a bit later so stay tuned. Make the new enemy scan and it should look like this. Notice the "Jump to Label: SLIME"? If you're re-using a enemy, put a "Label" on them and when you're making a call to them, use "Jump to Label". Label is found near the bottom on the first section of the Event page. And voila! Just rinse and repeat for all troops! EXTRAS I will be updating this as time goes on (if I can remember too). SCRIPTS THAT GO WELL WITH THIS Yanfly message script: Can remove the "NAME:" line and add it above the text box. ----- I'll try to continue to experiment with this as I go along and try to add to it, sorry but I'm rather tired now and have a small cold.

Jump maze/puzzle Tutorial In this Tutorial i will show you how to make a jumping event and how to implement it into a map with drop holes. I will start with explanation and then show a picture on how it will look, and then i will show you an example picture of a map with gaps where you can fall down. Positive: No scripts Few events Very Versatile Simple eventing Negative: limits it to player jump (follower probably won't follow) [tbh haven't tested yet] wall jump possible (check solution at the end) Short about the main functions of this "event jump system": First the common event in this tutorial will make it possible to jump on any map you create an event and use "Call common event: [Jump]" with a "parallel process" trigger on. Then by making a second event with "parallel process" trigger on we make use of three variables to check where we as the player is all the time and then wether we stand on region ID 1 or not, if not we get transfered to the start and that way we have to start over and try again. This tutorial contain: -Map with region id 1 (painted where you will be able to walk) -Variables: 3 -Common events: 1 8 Conditional branchs 4 Set move routes This doesn't need very much beyond these few things written above. The things written above is the things that will make it work, and then there is other things that make use of them but i will explain and show you an example, so don't worry and if you have a question even after reading it all put up a comment and i will answer as soon as i can. Okay here we go! Start of tutorial: Step 1 create 3 variables - 1 called "player x" and then - 1 called "player y", - 1 called "Region ID 1" or just "Region ID" (but if you want more information on which variable it is then write in the nr. 1) (the variable won't be used in common event but create all varibale now so we have them when we need them) Now when we made all variables we can start with the common event. Go to "Database" and then "Common events" tab and then start with naming the common event "Jump","Jumping" or "Jump event" whatever you find fitting (i would choose jump). Then create in the named common event(set triggers to "none") four conditional branches with "else" option marked. (CB=conditional branch) 1 CB should check "player is facing down" 2 CB should check "player is facing left" 3 CB should check "player is facing right" 4 CB should check "player is facing up" Then when that is done you create four more wich check if button "X" is pressed(with else option) and then place one in each and every of the first four you made(make sure nothing is in the else portion). When that is done you create four "set move route". 1 set move route:(skip, wait) Jump +0,+2 (facing down) 2 set move route:(skip, wait) Jump -2,+0 (facing left) 3 set move route:(skip, wait) Jump +2,+0 (facing right) 4 set move route:(skip, wait) Jump +0,-2 (facing up) When the set move routes is made, make sure they are placed inside the correct Conditional branch. Make sure once again that there isn't anything inside the else portion. Here is an example of how it should look when done:(open spoiler to see pictures) Now we have made the common event and now to use it in a map then all you have to do is to make an event on the map you want to enable jumping, use "Call common event:[Jump]" and then set the event trigger to "parallel process" and that's it if you have made it all correct then you will jump over 1 tile. So with that done now comes the complicated things(it is simple if you understand how it works, but if you don't understand then it is hard). Step 2 We will now use the three variables you made in step 1. Let's start with the 2 variables "player x" and "player y" now we need to create a new event with parallel process and then create a control variable for "player x" and then make sure it is marked on "set" and then go down to the "Game data" and then you get a new window where you want to find character and set that to "player's map X" Now do it all over but make sure you use the Y instead of the X. If you haven't made anything wrong you will now see two control variables that look like this: Control Variable: [0001:player x] = Player's Map X Control Variable: [0002:player y] = Player's Map Y Now we create one more control variable, where we use the third variable "Region ID 1" and then mark it as "set" and then "constant 1" so now it should look like this: Control Variable: [0001:player x] = Player's Map X Control Variable: [0002:player y] = Player's Map Y Control Variable: [0003:Region ID 1] = 1 Now we need to make a "Get location info" (you can find it in upper left corner on tab 3 in event commands) and in this "Get location info" we use the "Region ID 1" variable and then set "info type" to "region id" and then use "designation with variables" where we use the "player x" and "player y" variables, so now it should look like this: Control Variable: [0001:player x] = Player's Map X Control Variable: [0002:player y] = Player's Map Y Control Variable: [0003:Region ID 1] = 1 Get location info:[0003], Region ID, Variable [0001][0002] Now we make a conditional branch below this lot as it is shown above, the branch should then check the variable "Region ID 1" is equel to constant 1 with else option marked. Then you make in the else portion of the conditional branch, a wait command for 15 frames and then a player transfer. The transfer will have to be tweaked depending on how your map looks and where you want the player to round up if he falls down. So now it should looks like this: Control Variable: [0001:player x] = Player's Map X Control Variable: [0002:player y] = Player's Map Y Control Variable: [0003:Region ID 1] = 1 Get location info:[0003], Region ID, Variable [0001][0002] Conditional Branch: Variable [0003:Region ID 1] == 1 > else Wait: 15 frame(s) Transfer Player:[Map-Name](Map-cords)down (set the way you face to something else than retain, if you do it will look bad) > branch end Here is a picure on how it will look:(open spoiler to see picture) [!!ignore the comments in the picture!!, since they are more or less only some ideas on how to use it futher] Here is a map example on a maze and how it will be when you have painted all walkable places with region id 1, if you follow and use this tutorial you won't need to use a ton of events and you won't need to use any other region id's than region ID 1. Last but not least you will not need a script to do the same thing. (open spoiler to see picture) (if you look closely on this picture you can see that i have painted a small area with region id 2 just to test that it only works with region id 1, and yes if you follow this tutorial and paint a region in any region ID other than region ID 1 you will be transfered as if you fell down in the gap) I want to credit user: Reat ...for planting the idea for this tutorial with his tutorial on "Using Terrain Tags" which can be found here: http://www.rpgmakervxace.net/topic/2194-using-terrain-tags/ If you don't get it to work make sure you go over the tutorial 1-2 more times and check the list below before you comment or message me that you canot get it to work. Possible things that can be wrong: (these things can be easily corrected by double checking with the tutorial) Wrong setting on triggers - (make sure you tripple check the triggers on everything)-[very easy to miss if wrong] Wrong setting on a variable - (make sure that they look the same as i have shown) Missed creating "get location info" or wrong setting for the "get location info" - (might be easy to miss if wrong) Conditional branch is missing or has wrong setting - (make sure to double check this) If your problem do not have to do with these things i show above then make sure you gather as much info/pic as you can, so i can help you easier, hopefully there won't be any problems. Possible additions in the future: (ideas on how to use this idea further) - the usage of more than one region id so you can make save points, so you do not have to start over all the time. - the usage of different region id to send you to the floor below or into a dungeon/cave. - use region id 1 as monster free area and region id 2 or higher as random monster encounter area(within a jump maze map). So far that is all i have thought of, but im not sure if i will make a tutorial on how to do them. But anyone who want to, can do so without asking as long as you link to this tutorial. Wall Jump Solution: (Open spoiler to see solution) I hope this have been a helpful tutorial, i also hope you all have fun!