SWITCHES TUTORIAL

Written by Gemin-Eye

We are going to make some switches where a character will be in a room and see two npc's talk. First make a small room with a entry way. Right click on the entry way and put the "Set Starting Party Position" there.

1. -The NPC's- Somewhere in the room choose a spot and right click on it to open the Event Editor. Set the 'Graphic' = a char from one of the charas.

2. Now click the NEW PAGE button and on that second page put a check in the topmost 'Switch' (under the event conditions) and click on the button. A "Select Switch" dialog pops up. Choose a switch number 0003 or whatever and give it a name 'NPC1' click 'Ok'. Now change the "Event Start Condition" as 'Parallel Process' in this event. Click 'Ok'.

3. In the EVENT COMMANDS box, double click and select "Message Style". A "Change Message Style" dialog pops up. In here you can change the way the message appears on screen.

'Window Format' = Norm - Shows the system graphics in the background.
Trans - Makes the message window's background transparent.
'Window Position' = Up - Puts the message window at the top of the screen.
Mid - Puts the window in the middle.
Down - Puts it on the bottom.

''Prevent hero from hiding' = Putting a check in here makes it so that the message window never covers the hero char on screen regardless of what you choose for 'Window Position'. So if the window is supposed to be at the bottom, but thats where the hero sprite is, then it will appear in the middle.
'Allow Other Events To Continue' = This means that if you put a check in here, the rest of the events below this one will not wait untill the message has ended to execute.

Make the message options as you like. Click 'Ok'.

4. Double click in the EVENTS COMMANDS box again, and select "Face Graphics". Click the Set button and choose a face that matches the npc who will be talking. You can Display the face on the left or right in the message box ("Display Position"). and even make it face the left or right("Option - Flip Horizontal"). Click .

5. Double click in the EVENTS COMMANDS box again, and select "Message". Type in a short message. You should be able to fit 32 characters. You can use \C (#=0-19) to make the text a certain color. \N to input the heroes name. (and here are others).

6. Go back to #3 and repeat the process but select a different image for the "Face Graphics" and a different "Message". This will be the conversation between the two npc's. Make as many as you want.

7. The last EVENT COMMANDs will be two more switches. The first switch will turn off the npc messages so it only happens once and never again. Select "Change Switch" and make and name a new switch 'NPC1-off'. Make the switch turn ON. Click 'Ok'. Select "Change Switch" again and select the 'NPC1' switch. Make the switch turn off. Click 'Ok'. This will turn this event back to the first page, which was blank, so nothing will happen.

8. Make another event nearby and different image graphic for the second npc. You only need to use one page in the event here, there is no commands, so its just a dummy event. A npc graphic, nothing more.

9. -The Belly of the Beast- Right click on a spot that the char MUST walk over. Select "NEW EVENT". An EVENT EDITOR pops up.

10. In the EVENT EDITOR we want the 'Grafix' = empty, the 'Event Start Condition' = At Hero Touch, 'Priority Type' = Common Char Below, only the EVENTS COMMANDS now need to be added.

11. -The guts of the event- Double click in the EVENTS COMMANDS box. Select "Change Switch" (first page). A Switch Management dialog pops up. Put a dot by the 'One' and click the button and select the NPC1 switch we just made. Tuh daa ! Now when the hero walks on this tile the two npc's will appear to talk to each other.

12. -The not so big finish-. In this event make a new page. Put a check in the first Switch box and change the switch to the one we made before; 'NPC1-off'. Leave the rest of the page blank.

Now when you test start the char will walk over the 'invisible' switch and activate the NPC1 switch which will make the npc's talk to each other, then the NPC1 switch will shut off and a new switch will turn on that ends the process. Thats it.

This was an over embellished way to make two npcs talk, there is an easier way, but I did it this way so you would learn how to make switches turn on other switches and such. If you still have a problem with switches, uninstall rm2k and take up a less thought provoking hobby .. like knitting or something. See if you can discover better and more inventive ways to use switches. Trial and error till you get a desired result.

Side note: Press F9 when in test play mode to see a list of all the switches and which are OFF/ON. Press ESC to exit.