STRAK'S PROFILE

EDIT: Never mind!

I mean, let's face it, it's practically an addiction at this point.

Alright, I'm beating my head against a wall with this one, because as far as I can tell this should be working and it isn't. But it also is, just not properly.

What I'm trying to do is create a windowskin color changer in RPG Maker VX. I've got it mostly working, the problem is that it doesn't update in real time.

This is the bit of code that I'm using.



Elsewhere in this script, you can adjust the window variable to anywhere between 1 and 64. Essentially what this does is it pulls the colors of two pixels from a modified window skin I created where I added a color palette in some of what is technically dead space. Those colors are then used to create a gradient, filling in the top left part of the window skin (what is normally used as the background for the window itself).

This is the window skin.



So here's the problem. When you select the color, it does update the windowskin, but only when you close the window. I make sure to run this method every time the window variable is adjusted, but it doesn't actually change the color of the window as you're adjusting the variable.

I was using a slightly different bit of code that did update the window in the moment that you changed it, but it used several different image files. Here I'm updating one bitmap, not loading a whole new file. I know that certain methods (such as gradient_fill_rect) can be time consuming, and I suspect that the bitmap isn't fully loading before trying to process this, but I honestly don't know. I'm wondering if there's a way to have the window skin actually update in real time, not just when closing the window (and subsequently loading a new one). I feel like I'm missing something completely obvious, but I can't for the life of me figure it out.

I kind of consider myself an amateur when it comes to Ruby, everything I've learned has just been through trial and error. So I may have missed some fundamentals when learning how to code. Any help is greatly appreciated, and please let me know if this makes no sense. I'll try to explain it better if I can.

I have a dark mage in my own game that I had to develop some creative skills with when I introduced an Overdrive system. I gave the mage an ability called Chaos that temporarily gives an ally guaranteed critical hits. When used enough it levels up to Calamity, which gives ALL allies guaranteed critical hits. It lasts for a certain number of turns depending on how many enemies are on the field at the time of activation (it's an ATB system though, that might not work for more turn based games).

That's an Overdrive skill though, so you can only use it occasionally. Maybe adding restrictions to prevent it being overpowered could be useful. Something like immobilizing the user while the ally is affected maybe?

Just my thoughts. Hope it helps.

Anything by Jim Butcher. The Dresden Files are great, although they have their ups and downs. Long series though, think it's 17 books so far with at least 3 more to go. The Codex Alera is exceptionally well written as well.

Also the Villains series by V.E. Schwab. Vicious and Vengeful are two of the best books I've ever read.