Scenario Questions & Answers Forum 81-90

( MaRz )

Q81: Hey there, I love this site Topaz, u have done very well indeed. I like all the anime decorataing the place too, very cool.
(Thanks ! I have so many RPG Anime pics I'm going to be releasing some as Storyboards in January, especially those that are generic and meet hundreds of story examples like pictures of evil armies, floating cities in the sky, and shadows in dark alleys- hope to see you there)

My question is a very stupid one unfortunately but I am not a complete newbie to comps if that's what ur thinkin. I just can't seem to get how too put tiles on the map. (very stupid question, can't say I didn't warn you) I would just like to know how to actually put them down after I have selected one.

Love the site, good work, and merry christmas everybody. Here in Australia it will be christmas in 20 minutes.
(This is one of the reasons I wanted everyone in the Guestbook to post their location, it's - interesting for me and others to meet so many people from all parts of the world like this!)

( Topaz )

A81: Greets MaRz:

There are no stupid questions only stupid answers and if you put both feet on the scale you will have yours shortly.. Sorry.. Couldn't resist.

is not mouse friendly neither did I plan on it being so. This is Keyboard Country so you will need the keyboard for this.

Years ago when I wrote paint software I forever marveled at how a mouse could mess up even the roughest draft of anything I was working on. I have a trackball now with the top ball removed so I can use the horizontal and vertical rollers inside with my fingers. Yes, that is the kind of accuracy I wanted and that is the kind of accuracy you have in

.

I wrote a graphic tool years ago for the Apple ][+ and did not have the ability to look for a [Shift] key (it didn't exist!). So I used strange keys like W-A-S-Z, Y-G-H-B, I-J-K-M, and P-L-;-. to manipulate and otherwise fine tune edit graphic images.

The one I use today is similar with the exception that in modern programming today, you CAN look for the [Shift] key. This then is how you mass draw tiles in

.

Hit the "P" key to Pick a new Tile from the 70 choices. You can use the (Spacebar) to draw a single tile at a time or use the number keypad. The number keypad is much faster but you must turn off NUM-LOCK. That is, when you type using these arrow keystrokes, they do not type digits but arrow keystrokes.

Doing this, you can now navigate including diagonally with the number keypad's,
[Home], [PgUp], [End], and [PgDn] keys and to plot a tile, hold down the [Shift] key without letting go and then hit your arrow direction. Release the [Shift] key anytime to move without plotting. A tile will be plotted just behind where the cursor was. I can draw graphics and maps very rapidly this way and I suspect others can too. It may take some getting used to but instead of using (Spacebar), get used to using the arrow keystrokes on the number keypad and depressing and releasing the [Shift] key to plot tiles and move the cursor as you go.

To change the zoom scale of the map to see more detail. Hit the backwards apostrophe key.
It is just about the [Tab] key and looks like an apostrophe with a sideways S "~" above it.
You have 4 zoom scales but you should always be in normal mode (the same scale you see in Testplay) whenever you add switches and invert tiles for best visibility.

If you hold down an arrow keystroke and it seems to move too slowly, you can speed it up by hitting [ESC] inside

from the main Map Editor and select from there,
CONFIGURE, KEYBOARD. If you are running Windows 95/98, your keyboard should have changed it's repeat rate. You can check this by now holding down one of the arrow keys on the keyboard to see the cursor zoom around much faster then it was before !

For the record, there are no stupid questions unless they have already been asked.
This was a new question and undoubtedly it helped others out there who are not used to map drawing this way.

Thank You !
P.S. Don't get too cozy to Persona # 22, I'm going to change that + the other few off-colored ones soon to much more bright vivid ones in the future like 26-50.

Hope This Helps !

( Topaz )
"Young Link," you have good questions but you are not registered in the Guestbook with this name, so no Q & A until you do so.

( Young Link )
(Well Young Link, that Guestbook Registration didn't hurt so bad now did it ?)
Q82: Is there any way to change the Title/menu backround image ?

( Topaz )

A82: Greets Young Link:

If you are referring to inserting a logo screen or your own custom bitmap there are ample instructions you can read by clicking HERE.

If you want to change the nice Minx holding the World in her hands, incidentally, that pix is going to get re-rendered pretty soon (same pix just better quality!), I'm not about to let that change until I see some worlds posted to ensure my system won't go too far out of bounds.

Ultimately I have planned to allow you to change that logo to something custom (should be neat to see what artwork people have in mind for it!) and to allow single .EXE games that do not require the

system to run. That also will probably not occur until after v0.1 which is upcoming ! I'm ready to start on my own RPG provided I can pull time away from building this website to do so !

Hope This Helps !

( F.I.A )

Q83: Any way to select a group of location in the Scenario and put the same tile on every of the selected locations?

I'm not fond of tapping "Enter","Enter","Enter" and "Enter" until the keyboard seems to beg me to stop tapping again.
And most of all,I stop with an "ARGGGHH!" when I find out that it doesn't fit what I wish it to be.

( Topaz )

A83: Hiya F.I.A:

Ahhm.. I'm trying to understand this.. Are you wanting to just plot a normal tile, or a special couched tile ? Let's see.. If you are pasting a region, and it can be a single cel if you like, you can just hit (Spacebar) or [Enter] over and over again..

If you are wanting to mass-enter a bunch of the same switch name. Be on one of the tiles that has the switch name you want, and hit the "A" key to enter Auto-Entry for switches.

If you are hitting Enter, Enter, Enter, Enter.. Maybe that you're doing a default Sprite last setting stuff ? If so, just clip that tiny cel into the clipboard and use the (Spacebar) or [Enter] to plot that special Sprite/Critter/Lock/Treasure over and over again.

Remember that when you use the clipboard, ALL Sprites, even those with long pages of stuff are clipped in there too so you can mass duplicate complex sprites that way too.

If I'm not hitting on the mark of your question, please explain in more detail..

I'm looking forward to seeing some more of your world crreation soon !
The world designs you've sent me so far are very good !

Hope This Helps !

( F.I.A )
SCEN92E IN CHAOS!
Description:
1)Scen92e loses some important commands!
No more "MEANWHILE SEQUENCE"! (When camera quickly moves to other view
quickly,and even slowly!)

2)No more free puppeting the Sprite from far away!

Note:Maybe F.I.A was wrong due to the bad weather. You may check it with the SAMPLE at 04:16:05 for the "Meanwhile Sequence" and you may try puppeting the sprite(For example,step on a place to cause a sprite 3 paces away to react.)

( Topaz )
(GOOD catch F.I.A! I'm looking into it now.. So far I have found it is only the
Shadow Icon Command does not work for Scen92e, everything else does)..

Okay, near as I can tell you caught a compiler error..These are hard to catch. Any occurance of the Shadow Command crashed Scenariov0.092e over here. I put a Nano, my little wakeup routine just before I call Shadow and that fixed it. I really should check the most complex parts of Scenario before posting thinking all will work well !

Okee, checked 04:16/05, it's fine.. look at the Message for it. It terminates if the flag is set.
That may make you think it's "broken" if you don't reset the flag.
I changed the sample to flip back and forth between the two states changingto
which instead of LIGHTING a flag, reverses it. If it were lit, now it's not, if it weren't, well now it is. Then you can see that the Shadow command works all the time for that one Sprite Event.
so it won't look like it's "broken." You did find some kind of curious error tho and (since it doesn't crash here now), I seem to have fixed it. Check your Shadow command again, it should work. If not, please let me know - but I won't know what to fix because it works well here now.

I also took the opportunity to update the logo intro screen. It's 2002 pretty soon coming !
And I'm going to slowly but surely remove all the "compresses" of the main images like system, tiles, sprites, critters, and combat backdrops. The filesize may get 100k bigger but that still fits neatly on a floppy since I don't have to worry about including the instructions now.

Thanks for the info, F.I.A !

( F.I.A )
Another problem(Please!I say in peace!)>_< (you're doing fine, F.I.A)
Soemtimes when I scroll through the Sprite Messenger I just made,I found something.Those which I actually left with no potrait was put with the last portrait for the last page!(It is hard to explain.You should try to scroll through the Sprite Messenger yourself.)

Hope you're not offenced!(=_=) (nada..)

I found out that Scen92d+ has none of those bugs I told you about!

( Topaz )
This isn't a bug, F.I.A, it's a feature, one that was in my original Scenario and when I rewrote the whole kit & kaboodle including the Sprite Messenger. It was missing. I think it's good it does this cause when you go to a new page, it carries over the portrait of who it was that was talking..
Now it also does carry over Inquiry/Flags/Labels so those are going to get cleared. If you would like it to not carry over the portraits, let me know and I will change it for you. I'm going to fix up the [Ctrl]-INS and [Ctrl]-DEL also so they don't carry contents of the page getting shifted or removed on the new blank page, even remove portrait too.
As so far you are the only one who seems to be getting any use out of my system for all of it's features, and not just and only the mapper like most of the worlds I've seen so far that have been submitted to me to look over..
So, because it caused a problem (and others are probably not used to it), I'll remove it for Scenario v0.092e+ which will be posted by the time you read this, will not copy the Portrait to the last blank page either.

( F.I.A )

Q84: The "Enter" in question 82 is actually "Spacebar".Maybe I get frustrated with the weather.(Sorry) What I mean is that how can I plot a religion with a same tile quickly rather than tapping "Spacebar" till my keyboard cries.

( Topaz )

A84: Hiya F.I.A:

You're not going to like this, this was answered in Question #81 which you can reach by clicking HERE.

However, I'll explain briefly. To plot tiles faster then using (Spacebar), make sure your NUM-LOCK light is turned off, and holding down the [Shift] key without letting go, tap any direction of the arrow keys on the Number Keypad including diagonals. If the [Shift] key is held down, then a tile will be plotted behind and the cursor will move the direction you told it. It is very easy and fast to make maps this way and I very rarely use the (Spacebar) to plot a Tile unless it is a replacement for a single cel I need. I could make a new key-command like "Z" which turns on and off the Painting of a tile so any arrow key with or without the (Spacebar) or [Shift] will plot. I don't like this tho cause the [Shift] is really convenient..

Huum.. I was curious, seems you can do it both ways. If you just want to use the four arrow keys to the right and beneath the [Enter] key, then you can also just hold down the [Shift] key and use those arrow keys instead, but you won't be able to get diagonal movements with just four arrows instead of the Number Keypad's 8 arrow directions.

Hope This Helps !

( Young Link )

Q85: What is the difference between the versions on the download page?
are some older/newer?

Q86: And as for my last question (#85) , when might that newer version with your own title thing and single .exe files (worlds) that do not require Scenario to run?

( Topaz )

A85: Greets YL:

The difference is solely between the times at which they were written. The older versions were written before the newer ones, and it is possible some new errors may crop up in the newer releases whereas in older they may not be there. However, you cannot use (and inform) me of any good features or errors if you do not download the latest version.

Also, the latest version has the newest Suzi's Quest and should always replace the older one as the older one will have less examples.

A86: That will happen after v0.1, after I install World Protection, and after I get a dozen or so worlds posted in the Download Station so I can see what RPGs are being made and what next needs to be added to the

Engine to facilitate each Worldbuilder as best as I can for their world creations. Hopefully at this time I will also be well into working on my own RPG I have in mind for

, "Acolyte."

Hope This Helps !

( Kevin McLeod )

Q87: How do I find the Rpg Maker version in this website

( Topaz )

A87: Greets KM:

It was part of signing up in the Guestbook so I'm surprised you missed it.
however, you can download a copy by clicking on HERE.

You will need WinZip to unzip that which you can find by clicking on HERE.
Good Luck and let me know if you have any more problems with anything else !

Hope This Helps !

( Wren Pheonix )

Q88: First, I have changed into a moogle, (you betcha!) second, I have a few questions!!!! (mwahahahahaha, I have taken a break from my intense world building (which so far has my world up around 605kb, and I have only 3 towns, 1 castle, 1 cave, 1 new runaway wav, and a few bmp's for various effects..) if anyone wants a little demo of what I have so
far, email me at

wrenpheonix@hotmail.com and I will set you up with a copy, just make sure you put something like "want game" in the subject line as I get loads of junk mails per day, and don't want to delete it

.

(1) Okay, now, I still need help with that shadow command, and wanted to know if I could use it to "possess" a critter and have him jump around and act.. well, critter like during a sprite message activated on an invisable sprite on the floor?

Q89: (2) i came up with a, to me, complicated sprite/switch system that would cause a switch to be flipped if several other switches were switched, in any order, and would not activate until they were all switched (i am sure you know how to do it already, but since you haven't posted how to do it yet, let me post what i did and see if you have a better way to do it) I took tiles on the floor, and turned them into the switches i wanted, in this case i used flowers couched over grass, so when it was switched, the flower turned into grass, then i made a sprite directly over it, that just simply said [litbulb] for the specific switch that it was on (i named them squash- squash4 ), then i made a sprite directly infront of the sprite character
that i wanted to be the main goal of this switch, and created an invisable sprite with several inquiry and labels. It went like this:
inquiry [litbulb]squash-goto 1 -next page- [lock] [terminate] -next page- label 1 inquiry [lightbulb]squash2- goto 2 -next page- [lock] [terminate] -next page- label 2 inquiry [lightbulb]squash3- goto 3
(you can see how this goes, just increase the label number and goto number with the squash switch number) and on the last page, the one after the one labeled 4 for the last squash switch, [litbulb]squash4, i had this label 5 [litbulb]allgone -next page- [lock] [terminate] now, this caused a slight slow down when the player would step on that tile, because scenario was checking all of those switches, until the last one was flipped and the whole thing locked off and is terminated when stepped on, but is there a way to make the sprite character tell the player which switches are not flipped, and maybe even provide the player with hints on where the switches can be located?????
If so, let me know, I have plans for this, since the [litbulb] could be anything from stepping on certain places, finding certain items, killing certain critters, the possibilities are endless. There might even be a way to create a non linear type game with scenario with this type of frequently used switching system, at the cost of a little slow down when stepped on.

Q90: (3) is there plans to use the player stat icons in the sprite messenger commands? Or are they already working?
I wanted to have something lower the exp and level of the player character during the game, is this possible? If not, no biggie.

( Topaz )

A88: Hi WrenP:

First off, congratulations on getting your world in order ! I'm sorry it didn't get sent correctly to me last time. If you're really serious about getting it posted, please post a copy on your website, I'll nip a copy from there, (binary download in my browser) and then we won't have to mess with problems of binary attachment in Email.

To answer your question, I've made an example for you in the "Answers" world. You can download that by clicking HERE. A bit of information on the Shadow

command though:
It's like a spirit that takes over anything and it moves instantly, there is no lag time between. You do need a space after your arrow strokes following it so it knows where to end or it will continue to search for arrows to the end of the line.

A89: You're doing quite well ! This is almost a carbon copy of the example multi-switch I have in SuziQ at 03:22/26. You must touch all 3 of the pillars in order to reveal the Angel Statue. If you just hit two of them, she won't show up. There is a careful Sprite Message attached to all 3 of the Pillars that look for the other two being activated.

A90: There are some rudimentary allowances for variables.. I don't think - you can change experience points.. Here are the values you can change currently. I can include Experience Points in next release if you like.
HitPoints, Goldpieces, Weapon Class, Armor Class, LO Potions, HI Potions, Miracles,
Fire Runestones, Ice Runestones, Bolt Runestones. So to check for 25 or less goldpieces would be in the Inquiry field for the Sprite Messenger:

. The

symbol is auto-created from hitting the "<" and "=" key one after another, or in reverse order. It changes to 1 symbol to give more room for comparison data.
It also makes it easier for me to find comparison data.

(more answers for you on the next page, click on the Next button below)

Hope This Helps !

( If you would like to link me, please use this picture, it's just under 10k )