NPCS AND THE KEY - ADDING NPC TO PARTY

Written by Gemin-Eye

Now we need to give the key that will open the chest to the hero. In this part of the tutorial, however, I am going to show you how to make Npc's disappear after you talk to them as well. The npc will give you the Iron Key only after you deliver a message to another npc.

1. Make a new event and set its 'Graphic' as an npc. (Any chara you choose will do). Now 'Event Conditions" - all blank, 'Graphic' = An npc, 'Event Star Conditions' = Push Key, 'Position' = Same as Hero, 'Animation Type' = Common/Without Stepping, , 'Movement Type' Stay Still, 'Movement Speed' = 3: 2x slower. The 'Event Commands' are as follows:

2. Obviously messages. Depending on your story the messages can be whatever you need them to be. For this tutorial make it as such:

<>Messg:Hi \n. Go see Ozzy over there and tell him to meet me at the park later and I'll give you something special.

. Also we need to make a switch here. This switch is for the npc2 (Ozzy who we will make later). When you first go to Ozzy, you don't want him to talk to you as if you had been talking to this npc first, cause what if you go talk to Ozzy BEFORE you talk to this npc? Then it wouldn't make any sense to the person playing the game. They would get some message like:

OZZY: "Ok thanks for telling me about I'll come see him in a bit."

So make a new 'Change Switch' in the 'Events Commands' window. Name it "Ozzy". Make sure it is set to 'ON'. Now make a new page in this event.

3. PAGE TWO. Now we need this event to turn to this page ONLY when a certain switch is activated. This switches ON will be in the Ozzy npc's event. So, put a check in the 'Switch' and make and name the switch "NPC1". Everything except the 'Events Commands' stays the same. In the' Event Commands' put a message. (remember this page comes on only AFTER the hero talks to Ozzy(the other npc)).

<>Messg:Great thanks for doing that for me, I'm so busy, here take this Iron Key as a gift, I don't know what its for so it's useless to me.

. Also you can (and should) make the messages a little more spiffy, like making a nice conversation between the hero and this npc. And Face Graphics are a nice touch.

4. Now you can either just tell the hero he found a key and leave it at that. OR you can go into your Database and make an Item called Iron Key, and actually give that item to the hero. (you did this above in Chest Step1 didn't you?) The only difference is that with the first option, the hero wont see the key in his Inventory. Whereas in the second option, he will. If you choose to make an Item in the Database (if you haven't already) Click here to learn to do it. Go do that, I'll wait here.

5. Done making the item? Good. Now open up the first npc's event and go back to page 2. In the 'Event Commands' double-click and select 'Add Item' set the 'Add/Drop Item' as "Fix" and select from the drop down box the "Iron Key" you just made. Set the Operand as "Set" "1". Click 'Ok'. This puts the Iron Key in the heroes INVENTORY.

6. Now either do some cool 'Flash Event' (page2) effect or use 'Move Event' to make the npc disappear or walk out a door. Don't forget to add sound effects if you feel you need them (page3 Play SE of the Events Commands editor). If you don't do anything at this point to remove the npc, it will just vanish after the hero finishes talking to them. Don't exit this event yet, we're not quite done.

7. OK, remember the locked chest? It requires a switch to be turned on in order to get the goodies. (see Chest Step3) So we need to turn on that switch when the hero gets this key. Put a 'Change Switch' in the 'Events Commands' window. This time select the switch name ("Iron Key") we made when you created the Locked Chest event. (On page 2 of the Chest event we made a switch called "Iron Key" Chest Step3). Now make yet another 'Change Switch' in the 'Events Commands' window. Name the switch "npc1 finished". This will finish this event once and for all so the hero cant respond to it any more.

8. Also we want to set a 'Variable' as a random number now. Double click in the window to open the Events Editor and select 'Change Variable', in the 'Variable Manager' select the 'One' and select the Variable called "Chest-Rand-Item". Under 'Operation' select "Set", Under 'Operand' select "Rand." and change the first edit as the beginning number and the second edit as the ending number. This is the numbers between x to x, (ex 1 to 10). These numbers will be 'Item' numbers in the Database. So choose a x to x that is suitable to your Items list. Click 'Ok'. Make a new Page in the event.

9. PAGE THREE. Put a check in the 'Switch' and make it the "npc1 finished" we just made. Set the 'Graphic as a blank, thats 'chipset 1' the top left square. Leave the rest of the event as is. Click 'Ok', we are done with this event.

10. OZZY: The second npc (Ozzy). Make another event and set the 'Graphic as a npc from the chara <rtp>. (Basically this first page is the same as the npc 1 that we made. Put a message in the 'Events Commands' window like "<>Messg:"Hey shouldn't you be in school or something? huh?"" Make a new page in this event.

11. PAGE TWO-OZZY. On this page, put a check in 'Switch' and select the switch we made way back when we made npc1 (Npcs and the Key Step2). The switch was called "Ozzy". Put a simple message in the 'Events Commands' also that would be like a response to what the hero would say to Ozzy after talking to npc1. . Also we need to put a 'Change Switch' in the 'Events Commands' box so that the npc1 event will flip to the second page. (Npcs and the Key step3) The switch was named "NPC1".

12. We don't want Ozzy to say this conversation again so we use another switch to turn to a page three in this event. (You should have a real good grasp of switches by now, but in case you don't...). Double click in the 'Events Commands' window and select 'Change Switch'. Make and name a new switch, like "Ozzy finished". Make a new page in this event.

13. PAGE THREE OZZY. This page will need a check in the 'Switch' and "Ozzy finished" in the box. You can put some message in the 'Events Commands' box like OZZY: "ya ya ya tell Harry I'll be over in a minute." and this message can repeat every time the hero talks to Ozzy.

Thats all there is too it. Heh heh. Was that confusing? Test it and try to see if it will get messed up if you don't follow the order right.

Too re cap, The hero will go to the chest and find its locked. Then he will come across this npc 1(Harry) who will tell the hero to go see another npc 2(Ozzy), after the hero does that, then the hero will return to the npc 1(Ozzy) and then the hero gets a key that he can use to open the chest. The chest will then give the hero a random item. *Whew* What do you think? Was that easy or Mission Impossible? : ] Remember even if the player does not follow the above re cap in the way I described it exactly, the whole system will still work! It accounts for all possible circumstances, and wont let one thing happen till the hero does what he's supposed to. Go over this until you get it down by heart.

Then move on to learn how to add Ozzy to your party.


Ozzy as a Party Member:

Lets say you want Ozzy to join your hero's party. How is this done? It's very easy. We will use the existing events above.

1. Open the Ozzy event by double clicking on it. Goto page 3. Delete the message (if there is one) and any other commands. Put a message in saying something like "Hey I'm going to help you on your quest \n. That ok with you?".

2. Open up the event editor again and this time select "Show Choice" (page1). Leave it as Yes / No. 'Cancel Case' Choice 2 select. Under the Case, double click on the <>. Put a 'Message' saying: OZZY: "Hellacool! Well make a great team." Double click under that and select 'Change Party' (page1). Put a dot on "Add Member" and select Ozzy from the pulldown list. It says 'Replace Main Hero with' but it does not actually do that unless you select "Remove Member" and select the main hero's name in the pulldown box, and THEN a new 'Change Party' "Add Member" and select the char you're talking to. then the char you're talking to becomes the hero char.

But whats this! !!Uh Ohhh!! Ozzy isn't on the List of characters to choose from! Yup we need to Make Ozzy before we can add him to the group. Exit (cancel) out of the Add Party dialog and the Event command dialog and select 'OK' in the 'Event Editor' to save your work on this Ozzy event.

Hit F8 for the Database. Go to Hero tab. Set up one of the chars there as Ozzy, or if you have already made all your chars just substitute the name 'Ozzy' for one of your own. Everything on the Hero Party dialog is pretty much self explanatory. Click here to learn the Hero - Database stuff.

Once you're done in here go back to your Ozzy event - page 3.

3. Ozzy event - page 3. Double click under that and select 'Change Party' (page1). Put a dot on "Add Member" and select Ozzy from the pulldown list. Under that put a message in saying "Ozzy has joined you on your Quest!" if you want.

4. Under that Double click and select 'Call Menu' (page3). This will call the system menu so the player can check out Ozzy's spells, weapons, and so on. Now under the "Call System menu" make a switch that will turn the page of this event. Switch "Ozzy Joined.". Make a new page and check the 'Switch' and set it as "Ozzy Joined". Make the 'Graphic' a blank.

5. You should put a 'Message' under the Case of the Show Choice as well, like "Fine I didn't really want to be in your party anyway." Also make a 'Switch' that will be used to skip over the next page (with the blank 'Graphic') to a page where Ozzy will be ticked off at the hero for not letting him join. Can you figure out how to do that yourself? If not read on.

6. Make the message under the Case and under that make a new 'Change Switch' called "Ozzy Snubbed". Click the tab to go to page 4 and hit the New Page button to make a page 5. Put a check in 'Switch' and select the "Ozzy Snubbed" switch we just made. Put a 'Graphic' of Ozzy back in the 'Graphic' box. And slap a ticked off sounding 'Message' in the 'Events Commands'. And we're done.

Q. I got an Invalid Hero message and could only select Ok and the test game closed on me!? What do I do?

A: This happened probably because you used a switch that is being used by another event and they conflicted. Maybe you tried making this tutorial and got halfway through or all the way through. Then you decided to go through it again but instead of deleting the events you made before you just left them. SOLUTION: Get rid of the conflicting events or change the switches you're using for the new events.