DEVELOPING LIKE A LAZY BUM!

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Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21806
author=NeverSilent
An alternative is also to just turn the Player sprite transparent and set it on Through, and have that move around instead. That has the special advantage that you can even scroll diagonally this way.

Or remove the sprite entirely. As in, make it blank. Sometimes, I've set up a Common Event to make the party empty for the same effect. And, yes, I've found that you can still control a party with zero size. It's pretty hard to tell where one is, obviously (Unless you change the player-sprite after making the party empty? I've not tried that yet.), but, it's possible!

Anyway, removing the sprite (or the party) might might not be smart for games with a lot of party variability. Wyrm Warriors comes chiefly to mind on this point. However, for more linear games where these things are more predictable, it's pretty useful!
BizarreMonkey
I'll never change. "Me" is better than your opinion, dummy!
1625
Developing P:A has made me so reliant on the strategy of 'never making the same event from scratched more than 10 times. Because it's all an evented battle system, I actually have made a map for enemies (fittingly called 'Monster Zoo'), that I then copy paste with their props (if applicable) to make their injection easier.

Each time I make a new map I copy an old one and edit a couple things to keep the battle systems intact.

All enemies now use defined 'batch id's' rather than their event id for collision checking, and I have a script made by Omegas7 (who I commisioned to write it) that let me pull a simple script call to check event / player / batch collision.

It's not so much I'm making it easier, just a lot less monotonous.
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
author=Sated
Assuming you're using a mono-space font (which you should) then you can do this:

1) Open RPGMaker
2) Make an event and put 1234567890 repeatedly into a message dialogue.
3) Open the game and speak to that event.
4) Make note of how many numbers are visible before they get cut off.
5) Put that many numbers into a Notepad/Word file.
6) Repeat with a Faceset visible if you're also using Facesets.
7) Write all dialogue in the Notepad/Word file and copy/paste it into RPGMaker.

As long as your sentences don't run longer than the string of numbers, they'll never get cut off. If you use a Word document then obviously make sure you're using the Courier font (or another mono-space font). I personally use Notepad, but the advantage of using Word is that it will also spell-check your dialogue as you're writing it.


I quoted this somewhere else, but I'm shocked that I didn't respond to this sooner. This is brilliant. As soon as I saw this post, I tried it myself, and it works great. The only problem I have is that apostrophes are still given a different symbol in Word that doesn't translate well when pasted into the editor. This isn't an issue on Notepad, so maybe I should just start with that, then copy/paste it to Word for a quick spellcheck if needed. Unless there's a font that mimics the correct apostrophes I can use? Hm...
A more in general game development thing rather than specific to RPG Maker, but something that people have been doing since the start of game development.

Work with your limitations, not against them. If you have some major roadblock that you feel like you need to do hours of scripting to work around, try to make it work for you instead.

IE: Couldn't figure out how to have multiple empty parties to signify different areas the player is dealing with. Could have spent hours trying to script a fix to allow the player fully customizable parties for those areas, allowing all characters to be taken out, etc...till I realized, I could just give each party a locked 'Chief' that also represents a fail condition of that area (if they die, its lost). Much easier, and the players won't even notice that I deviated from my original idea.
BizarreMonkey
I'll never change. "Me" is better than your opinion, dummy!
1625
author=Red_Nova
I quoted this somewhere else, but I'm shocked that I didn't respond to this sooner. This is brilliant. As soon as I saw this post, I tried it myself, and it works great.
There's also the personally preferred method of using Killozapit's text wrapping script, then all you have to watch out for is not to over do a whole textbox.

It's only for VX Ace, though. Though I'd wager VX and XP have an equivalent.
CashmereCat
Self-proclaimed Puzzle Snob
11638
author=BizarreMonkey
author=Red_Nova
I quoted this somewhere else, but I'm shocked that I didn't respond to this sooner. This is brilliant. As soon as I saw this post, I tried it myself, and it works great.
There's also the personally preferred method of using Killozapit's text wrapping script, then all you have to watch out for is not to over do a whole textbox.

It's only for VX Ace, though. Though I'd wager VX and XP have an equivalent.


With ATS: Formatting, you don't even need to worry about message box overflow, because it has a scrolling function.
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
Using Courier font, I wrote a sentence in Word, then copy/pasted it into the editor. I then wrote the same sentence directly into the editor right below it. You can see the difference here:



It's especially weird when you look at the sentence in the text box preview, where there's a odd space after the apostrophe, throwing off your formatting.
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
author=Red_Nova
Using Courier font, I wrote a sentence in Word, then copy/pasted it into the editor. I then wrote the same sentence directly into the editor right below it. You can see the difference here:



It's especially weird when you look at the sentence in the text box preview, where there's a odd space after the apostrophe, throwing off your formatting.


I have something that may or may not be related where VX Ace will render "..." either as three spread-out dots or three close-together dots. After trying to figure it out, I've pretty much just given up on it.
*unlurks*

By default (...I think), word autocorrects certain punctuation to special characters. In the most recent version of word, the box you need to uncheck is under file > options > proofing > autocorrect > autoformat.

*goes back to lurking*
author=Red_Nova
Don't make sprites from scratch

I would say yes and no to this. Making Generator parts tend to be harder compared to making things from scratch, not gonna lie. A template is one thing but separated parts have multitude of problems. It's an extremely time consuming process. I would say a few parts would work but some are just way too situational.
I think if anything, the advice should be make your stuff as modular as possible.
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
author=Breakingchains
*unlurks*

By default (...I think), word autocorrects certain punctuation to special characters. In the most recent version of word, the box you need to uncheck is under file > options > proofing > autocorrect > autoformat.

*goes back to lurking*

author=Sated
author=unity
author=Red_Nova
It's especially weird when you look at the sentence in the text box preview, where there's a odd space after the apostrophe, throwing off your formatting.
I have something that may or may not be related where VX Ace will render "..." either as three spread-out dots or three close-together dots. After trying to figure it out, I've pretty much just given up on it.
Are you copying from Word to get that to happen? Word will change "..." into a symbol specifically for ellipses unless you turn that feature off. It's incredibly annoying.

I usually write it in Google Docs, transfer it to Notepad on my laptop, and paste it into the game editor, so somewhere along the way it's doing that transfer. I'll have to check both of them. The weird part is that it seems inconsistent and sometimes will render it as three dots and sometimes as an ellipses symbol. Thanks for the advice!
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
On the programming side of laziness, you can have certain functions enabled only when you're playtesting:

if $TEST

end


Anything entered into that conditional branch will only function if you're playtesting. For example: say you don't plan on giving players the ability to save from the menu, so you want to take that function out. However, while you're developing, it would be nice if you could save anywhere you want. Well, open up a fresh script page and add this:

class Window_MenuCommand < Window_Command
  def make_command_list
    add_main_commands
    add_formation_command
    add_original_commands
    if $TEST
      add_save_command
    end
    add_game_end_command
  end
end


Now, save and playtest your project. You'll see the save command on the main menu. However, if you were to start the game from the .exe (without the editor), that save command is nowhere to be found!
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