JUDE'S PROFILE

In the context of menus, I use pointers to populate a spell menu in Necropolis's custom battle system. Since spells can be learned in a few different orders and taking up multiple pages, I needed a way to present them cleanly, without gaps. Unfortunately you still have to manually set the pictures, but pointers let me store spell IDs/costs/etc more easily overall. The spells are split into pages so that the interface matches another menu, but it can easily be switched to scrolling (think: item menu, for example) since doing menus that way is fairly flexible so long as the variables know where to look. That's just an example of how they can be used.

I find pointers very confusing to use and easily lose track of what I'm doing and getting my brain wires crossed (I have a poor short-term, working memory). The best way I've found to mitigate this is to duplicate all the variable events in Excel, so I can rapidly visualize and track what I'm doing before eventing it in RM2K3. That way I can punch a number into a field and see how everything will output if my cell pointers are set correctly. An alternative is to create a debug display in RM2K3 itself, but that takes more time.

This is a very good article. I hate writing for NPCs with a passion and you've given me things to think about.

Thanks. I drew those leaf animation in MS Paint in like two minutes. You can create similar effects using character events. Like burning embers that bounce off the ground and then smoke. Make it windy by sending the leaves at a hard angle, and mixing in sprite events that loop a 360. Really, whatever you can come up with. All that matters is how you spawn their starting point relative to the hero, their move pattern, and any conditions that change the animation.

I just wanted to add that before you beautify, you should always define the path the player will walk through first. By having a concrete layout first, it's easy to build off of without creating clutter.

As a rule of thumb I like the path (note that path doesn't mean road tile, but un-obscured walkable area without random crap obstructing it) to be 2-4 tiles wide depending on the type of environment it's in (and it shouldn't be considered a hard and fast rule). This means I disagree with your Magical Vacation screenshot, as I don't recommend obscuring the main path behind tree foliage like that (tertiary paths that lead to hidden objects like treasure, yes).

This is really clever! Of course, I'm not running out of switches any time soon so I will not be using it.