============================================================================== RPG Maker Full FAQ Version COMPLETE by Dias Flac DiasFlac84@Hotmail.com formatted by Kuro Madoushi for use with the Sony Playstation ============================================================================== ·············································································· TABLE OF CONTENTS: 1) Introduction 2) System Data 3) Scenario Data 4) A Word by Kuro Madoushi 5) Legal Information ·············································································· INTRODUCTION "Switches? Take Overs? Intro Events? Aaaaaahhh!!! I'm gonna go insane! There's no way I can make an RPG! Somebody HELP!!!" This is probably what you're thinking if you're reading this guide. You've been intimidated by RPG Maker's multitude of options and the instruction manuals that don't help you for crap. But really, it's not as big and bad as it looks. If you read this, you'll get an overview of what everything does, exactly how to do it, the basic options for the commands, and some of the more advanced stuff too. Without further ado, we'll start with the main edit menu, which looks a little something like this... ·············································································· SYSTEM DATA: Title Skill Configuration Monster Gameplay Edit Dungeon Parameter Name Field Magic Monster Appearance Item Main Character Game Info SCENARIO DATA: Event Game Info Now, I'm going to go in a logical order, explaining what you can do and in what order I advise you do it in. First, Configuration. You're confronted with this menu: Edit Cursor Speed BGM Sound Game Collision Sound Message Sound Level Up Sound Most of these are pretty self-explanatory, but I'm gonna explain them anyway. Cursor Speed--How fast the cursor moves during game creation. Higher is slower and lower is faster. I would definitely put this on high speed. BGM--What plays while you're making your game. I'd advise turning this off and putting in your favorite CD, but you've got 35 choices of tracks if you really want to listen to the same song for the hundreds of hours you spend creating your epic. Sound--Mono or Stereo. Simple. Collision Sound--For the love of God, turn this off! If you really want your game to make a sound every time you touch something, you can, but...no. Message Sound--The sound the game makes every time a message pops up. It's questionable using this, but if you do, make it something very quiet. Nobody will play your game if the message sound is annoying. Level Up Sound--The sound the game makes when a character levels up. Again, simple. Next, I usually go to Parameter Name. Don't let big words fool you, though; this is probably one of the easiest thing to do in the game. I'm not going to show the menu for this, simply because it's so easy to explain. You take one thing, and you name it something else. This is used for naming your monetary unit (Gold a bit overused, isn't it?), stats, and a bunch of other stuff. Just look at it and you'll get the drift. Next thing I check off the list is Gameplay Edit. This is another fairly simple menu, but I'll put it in here anyway. Special Moves Abilities Use of Class M DEF Monster Appearance Special Moves--Choose On/Off. If it's on, characters can learn S ATK's, that is, HP consuming magic. Abilities--Choose On/Off. If it's on, special effects caused by skills characters learn (like Critical Hit UP) are effective. Use of Class--Choose On/Off. If it's on, monsters will be weak to some types of magic that you give a certain "attribute" to. Defaultly, these attributes will be called "Magic A", "Magic B", "Magic C", and "None". You can rename them in Parameter Name, something like "Fire", "Ice", and "Thunder". The weaknesses work sorta like Rock, Paper, Scissors, but not quite. Here's how they work: If a monster is "Magic A" type, "Magic A" does 1/4 damage, "Magic B" does 1.5x damage, and "Magic C" does 1/2 damage. If a monster is "Magic B" type, "Magic A" does 1/2 damage, "Magic B" does 1/4 damage, and "Magic C" does 1.5x damage. If a monster is "Magic C" type, "Magic A" does 1.5x damage, "Magic B" does 1/2 damage, and "Magic C" does 1/4 damage. If a monster or magic is "None" class, all magic behaves normally (duh.) Understand? I didn't think you would. Thus, I wouldn't advise using magic class on your first game unless you use the instruction manual's table (page 41, book 1) or this and read it very closely until you understand it. M DEF--Choose On/Off. Contrary to popular belief, M DEF actually has nothing to do with defending against magic. No kidding. I don't know what they were thinking when they called it "M DEF", because it actually is defense against status changes, which most games call "Constitution" (CON). I'd advise you rename this in Parameter Name something similar. Monster Appearance--Choose Auto/Manual. Auto is great because all you have to do is set a probability rate for each dungeon and the monsters you want in it, as well as a BGM. With Manual, you have to do the same things, but you have to set zones where the monsters appear too. I wouldn't use manual if I were you, but hey, that's just me. The next thing I usually do is make a field map. Here's how you do it. There aren't a whole lot of things to explain here, but here's a couple of things you should know: -The L1 and L2 buttons are your friends. If you press one of these when placing field tiles, it'll scroll through tiles that might look good on your field, one at a time, and you'll be able to compare the pieces while you're still on the map. This saves you from trying to use the stupid "Parts" menu. I advise that you don't use the parts menu, except for maybe the first piece of your map; use L1 and L2 otherwise. -The "Tile A" option replaces unused map space with a map-looking background. The "Tile B" option just replaces it with black space. -The "Town" option is for putting everything on the map, not just towns. I hope this was pretty obvious, but hey, you never know. Well, anyway, here's the menu you're prompted with when you want to place a town: Graphics Name Appear Destination Location Method Now, for the rundown of the options: Graphics--The graphic that appears on the field to represent the area. Name--The name of the place. Appear--Probably the thing most players have trouble with, simply because they are unfamiliar with switching. If you are one of those unfortunate souls, check out my switching guide later in the tutorial, or go ahead and read this and just keep it in mind. After all that rant, the actual function of this is pretty simple. You pick a switch, and when the switch turns on, this area will appear on the field. If you pick "Always" the town is always on the map. Destination--Pick the dungeon the spot on the field represents. I usually come back and do this, since I make my field first. Location--The spot in the dungeon you selected that you want the player to be moved to. Method--What kind of fade the screen does when the player moves to the dungeon. Your choices are Black, Black Melt, White, White Melt. -The "Path" command draws a walkable area from one place to another. Players can't go to places where there is no path unless they have a "blimp" item. I pick "Path", I select one town, and then select the place I wanna connect it to. The path submenu is much simpler than town submenu. It looks like this: Appear Move Appear--Same as it was in town. Move--This command is rarely useful, but say you want to make a path to a town allegedly blocked by a boulder. Thus, you would know the path is there, but you wouldn't be able to move on it. After you talk to a miner in town, he agrees to clear the path for you, which, in turn, turns switch 001 on. For this, you would use set the path menu up something like this: Appear: Always Move: Switch 001 on If you got confused there, don't worry--this is most certainly NOT a vital skill. I don't think I've ever played an RPG that uses this. The next thing I usually do is create skills. If you know you're not going to use skills in your game, skip this section. Otherwise, read on. There isn't a whole lot of explanation to do in the first menu, so here's just a quick rundown of important stuff. Ability--If you set Abilities on in Gamplay Edit, you can have a skill give a character some special ability (hence the name). Here's a list of your choices, and what each one does: None--Hmmm, I wonder? First Attack--The character with this always gets the first attack in battle, regardless of agility. This DOESN'T mean the party will have an increased chance of getting "First Attack". Treasure Find UP--Increases the chances that an enemy will drop an item after battle. 1/2 MP Cost--Halves the amount of MP it costs to cast spells. 2x Magic Damage--SOMETIMES (which the manual doesn't tell you) doubles the damage an enemy takes from magic. Critical Hit UP--Increases the chances of inflicting a critical hit. Battle Heal--Commonly referred to as Regen in Final Fantasies. The character gains a certain percentage of his HP after his turn. I think it might be 5% or 10% of the character's max HP. Counter Attack--Sometimes when the character is physically attacked, he may counter attack. Attack +1--The character attacks one more time than usual. Reflect Attacks--The character reflects ALL physical attacks and the attack hits the enemy instead. Unless you plan for magic to be the main choice of attack in a game, don't use this skill. HP Drain--The character sometimes steals the HP from an enemy when physically attacking. EXP UP--SOMETIMES (again, not mentioned in the manual), experience received after battle is doubled. No Class--Basically, makes all the character's spells non-elemental, or whatever kind of attribute system you're using. Not too useful. Random Ability--The character gets a random ability during each turn of battle. Pretty worthless, but I'm not gonna stop you from using it. AI--The character is controlled by the computer. Not useful as a skill that characters can acquire, but great for when you want to make a computer-controlled character. Resist Magic--The enemy's magic is ineffective. I wouldn't use this if I were you. The stats listed on the screen are used to modify a characters abilities every time the character levels up. You can make the numbers positive or negative. For instance, say I give a character a skill I call "Berserker". I can have it increase his strength by and additional 2 points every time he levels up, but have it decrease his intelligence by 2 points at each level up simply by putting a +2 in the strength category and a -2 in the intelligence category. Conditions--The conditions a character must meet before being able to learn a skill. I won't put the menu here, because it's pretty easy to figure out what they want, but I will explain one thing. The characters section at the bottom doesn't mean any character can learn the skill as long as the marked characters are in the party. It means that only the marked characters can learn the skill. S ATK--First of All, special moves had to have been turned on in the gameplay edit menu. Secondly, you already had to have created S ATK's in the magic menu. You'll be presented with a menu like this one: Level S ATK HP Cost Level +0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 The most important thing to understand is the numbers down the side (+0, +1, etc.). These numbers indicate how many times the character must level up after getting the skill before he gets the indicated S ATK. If you set an S ATK at +0, the character gets the S ATK when he learns the skill (I think. If not, it's after one battle. You can tell how much I use S ATK's, can't you?). If you were to set an S ATK at +4, the character would have to level up 4 times before acquiring the indicated S ATK. You should know that, outside of an event, this is the only way a character can learn S ATK's. You CANNOT in any way learn an S ATK like a spell, i.e., you can't tell the game to give the character an S ATK at level 4, or level 25, etc. Next, for items. First off, here's the item menu: Type Drop Sell Gold Status Break Now, to go through all the types: Other--Just what it says. I use this typically for keys or items that are important to the plot. There are also several other unique ways this can be used, though they're too complex to explain here. Weapon--Used for, not surprisingly, weapons. You get a few extra things added to the menu here: Type Drop Sell Gold Status Break Graphic Attack Curse Atk# Class Range Magic Who You'll notice that Graphic, Curse, Class, Magic, Attack, Atk#, Range, and Who are all new. Here's an explanation of all these things: Graphic--What your weapon looks like when you attack. Curse--If a cursed item is equipped, it can't be removed except by a spell or item that uncurses it. Keep this in mind, however: if a player uncurses something, the item breaks. Class--Magic Class the weapon is considered to be, specifically. Look up around the Gameplay Edit section if you need a refresher on what this is. Magic--When you use the weapon as an item, the spell selected here is cast. However, the spell will NOT be randomly cast when attacking with the weapon. Attack--Pick a number, any number, as long as it's between -9999 and 9999. You'll probably use positive. ATK#--Number of attacks the weapon gives. Pick 1 or 2. Range--How many enemies a weapon hits. Your choices are: Single, Group, or All. Who--This is who can equip the weapon. Characters marked by a circle can, ones with an x can't. Now, back to the original list we were going on, the type list: Armor--Body equipment. You'll get a couple new options, but you should recognize them from the weapons section. Shield--Armor for one of the hands. Helmet--Head equipment. Accessory--For one of the two accessory slots. You'll get a new option here, too. I'll not list the menu, but here is the new option: Effect--You can select several stats here, and you can also select Magic GRD, or one of the magic classes (attributes). Pick anything but Magic GRD, and you'll get to pick a number again between -9999 and 9999. That's how much the stat will change. Pick Magic GRD, and you'll be able to pick a percentage, between 0% and 100%. This is the percent of magic damage the accessory blocks. Again, back to the type list: Magic--An item whose sole use is to cast a spell. Cure--An item that cures some status, HP, or MP. You get a new option, but it should be pretty obvious how to work it. It simply has you pick what you want the item to cure. Transport--You are again presented with a new option. In the new option, you have to pick either boat or blimp. If you pick boat, then characters will be able to travel over paths that cross the sea. After all, you didn't think you could walk over water, did you? If you pick blimp, characters will be able to travel to ANY area on the map, regardless of if the area is connected by a path or not. Key--If you really want to, you can use this option, though I wouldn't. You make an item like usual, and then you pick the Key type, A through H. You can then have a locked door where the player must actually go into his inventory and pick the key out that will open the particular type of door. It's a little complex (not really too bad) to explain, so basically, I won't. Just use "other" items for keys; it's much easier and even gives you a little more freedom. Food--The stuff that permanently increases stats. You'll also be able to give a character experience through items in this menu. Keep in mind, though: even if you give a character enough experience to level up, the character won't level up until he survives a battle. Now, on to the few other aspects of the item menu: Sell--Whether or not the player can sell the item. Status--Pick either Show or Hide. If you pick show, the status will be displayed as normal when a player moves over an item. If you pick hide, the item still appears in the player's inventory, but its effect doesn't. This is pretty useless for equipment, though, because when the character checks to equip the item, it'll still show how much the stat goes up or down. Drop--Whether or not the player is able to drop the item. Gold--How much money an item is sold for in stores. The player gets half this money back if he sells the item to a store. Break--The percent chance an item has of breaking when used. This does NOT include attacking with a weapon or being hit when wearing armor. Break only affects equipment if the equipment has a spell in it and is used like an item. Next thing I do, usually, is make some magic. Here's the menu: Name Type Effect Use of MP Points Class Range Graphics Message I'll now explain the menu and all its subcommands: Name--Could it be the name of the spell? Type--Pick either Magic or S ATK. S ATK won't be available if you turned S ATK off in Gameplay Edit. If you pick S ATK, "Use of MP" becomes "Use of HP." Effect: Here's the one with all the subcommands. This is what the spell does. I won't explain the ones that are self-explanatory. Here are the choices on the effect list: None Inflict Damage Recover HP Cure Poison Cure Silence Cure Confuse Cure Sleep Cure Paralyze Cure Petrify Cure Curse Revive--Only with 1 HP. There's no way to make it do any more than that. Restore Status--Doesn't include stat altering spells (such as Attack up or down). Decrease Attack Decrease Guard Decrease Agility Poison Silence Confuse Sleep Paralyze Petrify Death Increase Attack Increase Guard Increase AGI Steal MP--Based on opponent's current MP. Reflect Magic--Reflect spells are very unfair to give to PC's if you don't give bosses Dispel magic. Think about all possibilities before deciding to use this. 100% Res Magic 50% Res Magic 50% Res S ATK Enemies HP Dispel--This gets rid of stat-boosting/dropping spells. Doesn't remove bad statuses, though. Teleport--Only to places the party has been. Pretty well worthless. Escape Dungeon Encounter Down Check Item--Gives the player all the stats that the creator knows about an item, including break rate, spell it's imbued with, etc. Back to our regularly scheduled menu: Use of MP (HP)--Do I really have to explain? Points--How much HP is healed/taken away from target. Class--Magic Class. Only can be selected if "Use of Class" is on in the Gameplay Edit menu. Once again, if you want an explanation of classes, check under the Gameplay Edit section. Range--How many targets the spell hits: single, group, or all. The player's party is considered a group, so any group spells that target the party will hit the entire party. Graphics--What the spell looks like. I can't really give you an explanation of this since it's one of those things that you just have to see and experiment with. Message--You can have the game put one of it's built-in messages in before a spell name. For example, if I pick "Hurl ~ !" for the "Fireball" spell, the game will display "Hurl Fireball!" when the spell is cast. Next up: Main Character. Here's the menu: Name Skill STR Equip DEF Level STA Magic Level INT Graphic CLR AGI Luck M DEF Now, for my typical rant on all the stuff that's up there: Name--Why do I even put this in here? Skill--If you want to start a character with one of the skills you've made, this is how you do it. STR--Has to do with damage. It should be noted that for each of these settings, characters will gain the amount you put in here at each level up. Some things (like HP and MP) start off a little higher than you put them in (I think HP is 20 higher and MP is 10 higher), but the characters will not gain that extra amount at each level up. They will gain the base amount you put in. DEF--Protection from physical damage. STA--This is the character's HP after you add that extra 20 you get at the start of the game. INT--This is the character's MP after you add in the 10 you get at that start. AGI--This has to do with turn order, chance to escape battle, and hit rate. You must also keep in mind that a monster's AGI also affects rate. If you later run into trouble with monsters hitting the party, crank up their AGI, and that should fix the problem. Luck--Chances of critical hits and evade are determined by this. M DEF--This will only appear if you turned M DEF on in Gameplay Edit. I also told you up there that M DEF doesn't have to do with defending against magic, but resistance to status ailments. Don't forget that! Equip--Put the character's starting equipment on him here. Level--The level the character will be at when he joins the party. Magic Level--In here, all the magic spells will appear. S ATK's will to, but they're grayed out. That's because you can't set characters to learn S ATK's at a certain level, remember? Well, in here, you set a level number to a spell, and when the character reaches that level, he will acquire the spell. Graphic/CLR--The graphic for the character and the color of the character you're using. There are 68 graphics and 4 color sets for each graphic. NOTE: Also in the Main Characters menu is "Start Party." When a player starts the game, these characters will be in the party. Don't forget to put your characters that'll start the game in here! Now, for making dungeons. This is going to probably be the littlest section, but it still may be hard for you. The only way to get better at making dungeons is to play other people's games and look at what they did. Eventually, you'll get better. I'll explain a couple of things about dungeons, but that's it. -Dungeons are EVERYTHING in this game. No, they're not just dungeons, they're towns and every other area in your game. -If you're making a custom dungeon, you'll first be asked if the dungeon is inside or outside. The dungeon parts are, needless to say, different for the two. Sometimes, inside is a wiser choice for a few outside areas (such as entrances and exits to caves). -Wondering if characters can walk on the area you just put down? Scroll over the tiles in question and bring up the menu. There's a shoe icon in the top bar that shows the way. If it's an x, they can't. If it's a circle, they can. Remember, just because it looks like a character can walk on tile doesn't mean he can. The reverse is also true. -There's a mode button at the bottom of the dungeon creation menu. It turns on/off something the game calls Auto Fix. It's really tough to explain what Auto Fix does, so just keep it on and trust me. -There are two types of parts listed: Parts 1 and Parts 2. Parts 1 is just normal tile placement, while parts 2 is place of a "sheet" of tiles. Not all parts that are available in parts 1 are available in parts 2. When placing a sheet of tiles, here's what you do: Press X where you want to start. Then, move to where you want the sheet to end. Note that you can only move down and right when making sheets. Press X again. Ta-da! Oh, and while we're on the subject of unavailable parts, pretty well all of the parts in sample dungeons are not available in custom dungeons. -You can't modify sample dungeons unless you do it with events. Basically, if you modify a sample dungeon in events, all you have to do use a graphic and not put in any event contents. -Under BG, there are two options: tile and wallpaper. Wallpaper is useful only in a few occasions, but tile is something you should use constantly. As long as it doesn't make a dungeon look too bad, use a tile background for walking space, as you can walk on many tile backgrounds. This will save you A LOT of system space. Next thing up on the list is Monsters. This is one of the things that will truly make or break your game. If your balance is bad, players won't play your game. I'll help you along here. As you are probably getting used to by now, I'll list the menu: Name Graphic Color Edit Attack/Treasure Reverse HP MP Attack Guard M DEF EXP Gold More explanations, coming right up: Name--If I have to explain, I'm going to hurt someone. Graphic/Color--There are 99 monster graphics, and 4 color sets for each one. Pick one for your monster. Reverse--Change the direction a monster is facing. Generally quite useless. Edit Attack/Treasure--I'll explain this at the bottom of this section. I promise. HP--HP a monster has. MP--MP a monster has. Attack--Has to do with damage. Guard--Protection from physical attacks. AGI--Has to do with a bunch of stuff, including the chance of escape, hit rate, evade, and turn order. It's basically the combination of the luck and AGI stats of a character. M DEF--Resistance to status-changing attacks. Only appear if you have M DEF on in Gameplay Edit. EXP--EXP your party gets for slaying the beast. Gold--Gold your party gets for slaying the beast. Now, as I promised, Edit Attack/Treasure. Here's the basic menu: Abilities Attack Patterns Class Magic DEF MagicA MagicB MagicC None Treasure Content First, I'll explain your options in the abilities menu: No critical hits--The monster never hits critical. Critical Hit Up--The monster gets more critical hits. Double Attack--The monster gets two attacks. Don't use this too often, especially in random fights. Multi Attack--The monster gets three attacks. Use even less frequently than double attack. Miss 1/2 of the attacks--The monster misses half its attacks. 2x damage--The monster gets double attack power. Even though I've never used it, I still assume it only works some of the time. Auto Battle--Takes all your percentages that you put in attack patterns (which I'm going to explain next) and divides them evenly. It only affects things that you already marked with a percentage. I've been told that it also makes the enemy fight "smarter" with stuff like cure spells, but I have not confirmed. Judging from what the instruction book says, it seems like auto battle is only in effect some of the time, but again, I can't confirm or deny this. Now, on to the attack patterns screen. Note that you can only set up to seven attacks per monster. Here's your choices under the attack patterns screen: Normal attacks: Guess what? This has another sub-menu! I think this is officially a sub-sub-sub-menu now. Well, anyway, these are the choices: Normal Attack--A physical attack. Charge Attack--Automatically induces a counter attack from the attacked character, whether the character has a counter attack ability or not. Does normal damage, at least, according to the manual. I, again, cannot confirm or deny. Poison Attack--Normal damage plus poison. Paralyze Attack--Normal damage plus paralysis. Sleep Attack--Normal damage plus sleep. Petrify Attack--Normal damage plus petrification. Critical Hit--NOT to be confused with a hit that does extra damage. This will instantly kill the attacked character. It's probably wise not to use this except for super and final bosses. It tends to make many players mad. Next up on the attack patterns menu is Action, which, of course, has a sub-menu all its own: Do nothing--The monster...does nothing. Woo-hoo. Guard--Just like when a player guards. Physical damage is cut in half for a turn. Flee--The monster runs. Self-Destruct--The monster blows up when his HP is half or less. Messy, and does damage to a character. Steal MP--Steals MP from a character. I don't think it works quite the same way as an MP stealing attack, though I'm not sure. I don't use this command hardly ever. Hide--Basically, the enemy is dead until it comes out of hiding. That includes the end of battles, too. If enemies are hiding at the end of a battle, the battle is over. I don't ever use this command. The other two (or one option if you turned S ATK's off) are Magic and S ATK. Those are pretty self-explanatory. Now, going back to the main Edit Attack/Treasure menu: Magic GRD--Is only available if "Use of Class" is off in Gameplay Edit. If it's on, quoting from the manual, "enable[s] the magic guard value set in M DEF." If anyone has any idea what this does, explain it to me. I just let it be, and all seems to go well. The Various Magic Classes (MagicA, etc.)--If you have "Use of Class" on, and mark one of these classes as no, then magic from that class will not do any damage to the enemy. Treasure--The percent chance the monster will drop an item of battle. Contents--The item that the monster may drop after battle. We're coming close to being at the end of system data! These next few concepts are pretty simple. The next thing I'm going over is Monster Appearance. Here's the menu, along with descriptions (Note to all you using manual monster appearance against my advice: your menu will look the same, but you have to press Triangle (I think, though it might be X) over one of the zones that I explained way back in the Gameplay Edit section): Select Monster--Pick the monsters you want to appear in an area. Probability--Chances of encountering monsters. I STRONGLY recommend that you use nothing other than 1. BGM--Music played for battles in the dungeon you're setting monsters for. Battle Test--I won't explain the sub-menu here, since it's quite simple, but I insist that you use this. I've played some games that where the creator evidently didn't use battle test, and either EVERYTHING missed and/or did 1 or 2 damage (including the final boss) or there were tons of enemies that were WAY too powerful. Onward to the game info screen! Here's the menu and explanations: Title Name--Unsurprisingly, this is what will appear on your title screen. Scenario Name--Make ABSOLUTELY sure this is the same thing as the scenario name you have in the Scenario Data's Game Info option. If not, the game will not load properly when the game command is selected from the main menu. Staff Name--Where you brag all about yourself for those whopping first four lines of credits you get. System Password--Generally, you'll want to put this on your game right before you release it to people. Sadly, there are people in this world who will try to steal your ideas. Here's a safeguard. Just don't lock yourself out. Write it down somewhere and put it where you won't lose it. Delete Data--Delete EVERYTHING loaded in System Data. You probably won't be using this any time soon. Finally, the last thing to take in system data is Title. Here's the normal stuff I give: Screen--Pick one of 9 choices. The most commonly used ones are "Book", "Stars", and "Magic Symbol." BGM--The song that plays for the few seconds your title screen will probably be up. Text--Pick yes or no. Yes displays the title of your game which you entered in Game Info. The only reason you'd want to select no is if you've made your own title screen in anime maker (yeah, right) and wrote the name in on there. Color--The color of font your title is displayed in. You get the a whopping 3 choices: Blue, Silver, or Gold. Place--Where on the title screen that the name of your game will appear. Effect--How your titles comes into the screen. Preview--Look at the prettiful title screen that you just made. That's it for system data! Now, for Scenario Data... ·············································································· SCENARIO DATA First of all, I'm going to hand out pointers on some very basic things that you need to be able to do. Just because I say basic doesn't necessarily mean obvious, though. For many of the sections in Scenario Data, I will be giving basic uses of how to use a particular command, how to actually use each command, and some more complex uses of each command. Also, the Game Info section will not be covered in this part. Don't worry, though; it's just like the system one, except shorter. All you need to keep in mind about it is that you want the scenario name you type in there to match the one you typed in for scenario name in System Data's Game Info, Now, on to the basic scenario/event commands. First, you'll enter the event screen to find all the dungeons you have created so far. Pick one to begin placing events in that dungeon. Now, I want you to press Triangle. Along with your basic Cut, Copy, and Paste commands, you'll see Start Point. You can (logically) only place one Start Point per scenario. This is where the start party (set in system data) will begin the game, or, if you make multiple scenarios, the given scenario. As soon as you place one Start Point, the old one is removed. Also, you need to know that Cut is the only way to remove events that you no longer want from a dungeon. There is no delete button for events. Now, on to actually entering the event screen. First, press X somewhere on the screen where there is no event (I'm assuming there probably aren't any, if you're reading this, but I have to make sure). A menu will pop up with the choices of Create Event, Treasure Event, Duplicate Event, and Intro Event. I shall presently digress and explain each of these commands in detail: Create Event--The basic event creation command. You'll probably use this one the most. It doesn't do anything special, but all event commands are available here. Denoted by a number, somewhere between 1 and 128. You can place no more than 128 of any combination of events in a dungeon. Treasure Event--An event that occurs once, and after that, does nothing. Though you will probably most often use it for treasures, it can be used for ANY one-time and one-time only event. You set a before graphic, you set an after graphic. Before the event is activated, you have the before graphic showing, after it's been activated, the after graphic shows. Simple enough? All event commands are available from the Treasure Event menu. However, you can't set additional pages in Treasure Events, and Treasure Events can't be the target of Take Overs or Duplicate Events. If you didn't understand that, just keep it in mind--you will soon enough. Denoted by the letter T. Duplicate Event--Makes inaccessible copies of an event. Good for when you want to make large ranges of things do the same thing (like making a big poisonous marsh that deducts 3 HP from the party every time they step on it). First, you pick one normal event, which we call a "base." Really complex terminology, huh? (ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US!...oh, sorry, I just couldn't resist) Anyway, then select the location where you want the base to be duplicated. Poof! That's it. Now, any time you modify the base, all the duplicates will be modified automatically. The only other things you need to know about Duplicate Events is that they can't be the targets of Take Overs or other Duplicate Events. Denoted by the letter D. Intro Event--These are events that occur automatically when a player enters the screen. You are limited to only one of these per dungeon. Many commands are disabled from this screen. Basically, everything works exactly like a normal event other than that and the fact that it doesn't use a graphic. You can put down multiple pages, page conditions, etc. Since Intro Events don't appear on the map, they obviously cannot be the targets of Take Overs or Duplicate Events. The only way to access the Intro is to find a spot without an event on it and come to this command from the menu. Now, let's head back to the basics of creating an event. Pick Create Event from the menu and you will see something like this: Event No 1 Page 1/1 MEM Event Contents: Graphic: Move: Start: Page Conditions: - - - - - - Now, first of all, I want you to hit Triangle. Another menu pops up. Several commands on here should be familiar to you, but you'll also see "Add Page (front)" and "Add Page (back)." Picking Add Page (front) will basically take whatever you have on the current page and push it up one page. A blank page will take its place. Also, you'll notice pages have changed from 1 to 2 at the top of the menu. If you pick Add Page (back), a page is added to the end of the set of pages which you have. Basically, you're just adding a page without disturbing the others that are already being used. Keep in mind that events start by trying to activate the page with the highest number, and then descend from there (example: When the player starts the 4 page event you create, first, the game will try to activate page 4, then 3, etc.). This will be very important when we start to talk about page conditions. Remember it! That's all I really wanted to tell you about the menu under Triangle. Now, back to the screen I showed you above. Here is a list of what everything means in the menu I showed you above: Event No--The Event Number you're in. Not really to important to remember except for Take Over events. You can also see this on the outside of the event (the number that's inside the box). Page x/x--The current page you're on/the total number of pages. MEM--Don't worry about this one. It just shows how much memory is left in the dungeon you're putting events in. Event Contents--Press this to get into the event creation menu. If it displays none, you haven't put anything in the event yet. If it displays yes, then it does have stuff in it. Graphic--You've got a bunch of choices here. Let me list and explain them: Character--Pick one of the 68 characters. Object--Pick one of the 129 objects available for events. Color--Pick one of the 4 color sets available for the character or object. Face (direction)--Select this until the character is facing the direction you want him to. Objects cannot be made to face a direction. Ghost--Makes the character or object transparent. No Graphic--I wonder what this does? Now, back to the other stuff on the main menu: Move--Most of these are pretty obvious. This is how the event moves. You're probably going to be using this for characters most of the time. The only thing worth explaining here is the "Flashing" choice. This is where the event just stands where you place it and flashes. I, personally, have never used it. Start: How the player activates the event. The first part is what action the player must take to activate it. Touch and Check are probably your most common choices. Use Key and Use Item force the player to go into his inventory and pick the appropriate item to activate the event. Do Not Start is primarily used for stuff activated through a Take Over. Again, if you don't understand what I'm talking about, just wait; you will. The second part is just the direction the player can activate the event from. I'm not going to list the choices here, as they are quite obvious. Page Conditions: Here's a biggie. Page conditions are things that must be fulfilled in order for an event to activate. You cannot set page conditions for the first page of an event, but every other page is fair game. Your choices for page conditions are: Switch--Pick what switch has to be on or off for the page to activate. I'll explain switching in great detail later. Character--Used if a certain character needs to be in the party or can't be in the party for the page to activate. Item--Used if the player has to have an item or can't have an item for the page to activate. Gold--Used if the player has to have less than the entered amount or more than the entered amount of gold for the page to activate. Party--Used if the player has to have a particular number of members in his party for the page to activate. Specified means the player must have that number of members in his party, other means the player must have a number of members in the party other than the one listed. System--Whether or not a certain Game System (those will be explained later on in the appropriate event command) must be on or off for the page to activate. Now, even though you may not understand everything I'm about to type here, I'm going to give an example of a famous event that involves page conditions. This is also a good time to tell you how I'm going to give examples. In an example, I will list the menu just like it was when I introduced it to you. Below the menu, you will see numbers like this: 00: 01: 02: These represent event contents. After the numbers, different event commands will posted, like this: 00:Display Message: Anything that follows the event command (the event command in this case is Display Message) will be either a sub-command a message. Note that what I type will not necessarily be what you see on your RPG Maker screen. So, you can end up with something like this: 00:Display Message:Message 1:(This is the example text.) What you see in parentheses is an actual message that will be displayed. Now, on to the Page Conditions example. Remember, if you don't know what each command does, don't worry. Now, without further ado, the page conditions example: The Event 1 Page 1/2 Event Contents: Yes Graphic: (Aeris custom sprite) Start: Check From All Page Conditions: None 00:Display Message:Normal:(Flower Girl: Well, I'd sell you some flowers, but it looks like you're broke.) The Event 1 Page 2/2 Event Contents: Yes Graphic:(Aeris custom sprite) Start: Check From All Page Conditions: Have 1 Gil 00:Display Message:Normal:(Flower Girl: Would you like to buy a flower? They're only 1 gil.) 01:2 Way Choice:Yes/No 02:Gil -1 03:Add item:Flower 04:Display Message:Normal:(Flower Girl: Thanks a lot!) 05:Choice 2 06:Display Message:Normal:(Flower Girl: I'm sorry to hear that...) Well, even if you didn't understand everything I just put down, what happens is if you approach the flower girl and have no Gil, she won't offer her flowers to you. If you do, it's your choice whether or not to buy the flowers. What you have to keep in mind is that RPG Maker is "stupid", that is, it will "remove" items even if you don't have them. Thus, if a player has to give up an item to do something, you need a page condition for him having the item. If the player doesn't have the item and he activates the event, and you forgot page conditions, the event will go right through without a hitch, except the player didn't have to actually possess the item to get through. This can be a huge problem. Also, the game will not remove equipped items. I'll explain later how you can force the player to unequip items. Now, on to the event commands. First of all, you should know that there are 27 event commands. You access the command screen by pressing X over the first empty slot (labeled 00) in event contents. I know you only see 9 now, but if you press left and right on the controller, you'll be able to find the other 18. Also, you should know that there is a cut, copy, and paste for commands. It's under another menu you have to press Triangle to get to. Once again, cutting is the only way to delete unwanted event lines. Now, on to the actual commands: 1: Display Message Basic Uses--This is tied for the command you will probably use the most along with Move Location. It (obviously) displays all your messages. You are presented with a sub-menu of wonderful message types to choose from. Here are your choices and what they do: Normal--Box appears at bottom of screen, message is displayed. You can put up to 12 pages of text in one normal message command. Note that what RPG Maker considers a page differs greatly from what a computer considers a page. You don't need to use separate normal message events to signify dialogue. You'll use simple RPG style text, like this: (Text page 1) Bob: WHAASSSSSSSSSUUUUUUUUUUUUUPPPPPPPP! (Text page 2) Tom: WHAASSSSSSSSSUUUUUUUUUUUUUPPPPPPPP! As you can see in the bizarre example above, you can put more than one character speaking in the same event. If you press L1 when typing in text, then press down one more time than it takes to be at the bottom line, you'll automatically be advanced to the next page of text. If you string multiple normal message events together, it'll all look like the same set of text boxes, so really, you have an unlimited amount of pages. Main Character--A little bubble appears above the main character's head with the message. The major drawback of this message type is that you can only fit 12 characters into the tiny space it gives you. Pretty useless except for famous messages like "...", "!!!", "???", or "Zzzzzz..." Event--Same as main character, just over the event point instead. Message 1--The message scrolls up from the bottom of the screen. You, again, are restored to 12 pages of text. Breaks between this message type (when you enter 2 message 1 commands together) are characterized by long spaces of many lines. Message 2--Works the same way as a normal message, but displays the message in a black box in the middle of the screen. Now, back out of the sub-menu, sort of... How do I use it?--Well, it's pretty obvious, ain't it? Select Display Message, pick the message type, choose Enter Message, and enter the message. That wasn't so painful, was it? Well, if you had trouble with this, I advise you seek help immediately. Complex Uses--None. It's a freakin' message! What did you expect? 2: Move Location Basic Uses--This is also a pretty simple concept. In fact, it's easier than display message. All it does is moves the party to a different place. How do I use it?--Pick either dungeon or field. If you pick dungeon, you'll be prompted for a dungeon to move to. After you pick the dungeon, you'll be prompted for a location to move to in the dungeon. Pick the location and you're done. If you pick field, you'll be prompted for a field map, and then you'll be prompted for a town on that field. Pick those things and you're done. You need to make sure you don't place anything that you want to work after a Move Location, though; everything after a Move Location is ignored. Complex Uses--Move Location isn't just for moving the party through a dungeon, it's for ANY time you opt for a change of venue. This includes flashback scenes, dreams, events occurring in the mysterious time known as "Meanwhile...", etc. If cleverly used with things like making the party disappear, Intro Events, etc., you can make the things I listed above. 3: Take Over Basic Uses--This makes one event lead into another event. That's it. When an event reaches a Take Over, it just starts executing the event you tell it to move to. The instruction book makes it sound like some sort of hellacious process, but it's not. How do I use it?--When you make a Take Over, you'll be prompted for the event and page you want the Take Over to move to. Pick it and you're done. Quite simple, actually. Know, however, that everything after a Take Over is ignored, and a Take Over ignores page conditions. Say I make a Take Over the moves to a page with a condition of having an Ice Crystal. The game will NOT check to see if I have it or not, if the event with the condition starts from a Take Over. Don't Take Over to places with page conditions, kids. It just won't work. Complex Uses--Well, there aren't really any. A Take Over is a pretty boring event command, actually. 4: 2 Way Choice Basic Uses--Anytime you want a question with 2 choices answered, here's your pick. There's a sub-menu to go with this one, too. Here are the choices: and explanations: Yes/No--The player picks either yes or no. No maybe, no sometimes-always-never, just yes or no. 2 Messages--You enter the two choices the player has to choose from. You enter the first choice on the first line of text and the second on the second line. Simple enough? Use it for stuff like, "There are guards at the door. What will you do?" and make the choices "Break through" or "Look for another way." Probability--One of the most fun things to use, if you know how to use it properly. You'll be prompted for a percentage. The percentage you enter is the chance that choice 2 (NOT 1) will occur. I'll explain some of the more complex uses a little later. Win/Loss--You need to use this right after a battle event. If the player wins, choice 1 will occur. If the player loses, choice 2 will occur. Note that a loss in a battle with this afterwards doesn't cause a Game Over. How do I use it?--Well, there's not a whole lot to explain about selecting one of the options, but I'll give you an example of how to set it up in an event screen: Event 1 Page 1/1 Event Contents: Yes Graphic: (some guy) Start: Check From All Page Conditions: None 00:Display Message:Normal:(Do you think I'm cool?) 01:2 way choice:Yes/No 02:Display Message:Normal:(Hahaha, I know I am.) 03:Choice 2 04:Display Message:Normal:(You suck! I hate you!) The two major things you should have noticed were the placements of events that occur after each choice, and the Choice 2 thing that popped up. I'm going to explain the latter of the two first. Choice 2 appears automatically after you pick 2 Way Choice. Now, for the prior. Whatever you want to occur after choice 1 (Yes, in this case), you put directly under the 2 Way Choice command. Whatever you want to have occur after choice 2 (No), you'll put under the choice 2 command. Complex Uses--If you use 2 way choices with switches, you can make the choice occur only once, and from there, can change the entire direction of the plot by activating a switch after each choice. Also, you can do really neat things with probability. You can use probability to make casino games and other cool things if you're really creative. I've used it to make a pickpocketing system. If you've played Parasite Eve, you should know that most chests had a 90% chance of giving you a "normal" item, and a 10% chance of getting a "good" item. You can do that with probability, too. 5: 3 Way Choice Basic Uses--It's a 2 way choice plus 1. The main difference is the fact that you can only select 3 messages and Probability from the sub-menu. I'm not going to explain this any further since it works exactly like a 2 way choice with 1 more choice. 6: Switching Basic Uses--Stop it! Don't cover your eyes! Read this! Really, it's not as bad as it sounds. Again, this is a case of the instruction booklet overcomplicating something. All a switch is is a thing in the game that shows you've done something. It's either used to make things appear or disappear (including areas), or simply as a page condition. If you want to, imagine switches as items in your inventory that do absolutely nothing. How do I use it?--The sub-menu for switches is surprisingly simple. All you have to do is pick whether you're turning switches on or off, and what switches you're affecting. For some reason, I've seen people assume that a switch number has something to do with an event number. THEY HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH EACH OTHER!!! Erase the thought from your mind completely. Now, I'm going to give an example of switching. The scenario I'm creating will be that king wants you to slay a dragon, and then, after you slay the dragon, he will give you some other quest in a distant land. I'm going to show how to make the switch make the dragon vanish forever, the king say something different, and how to open up a town and path on the field with a switch. Note that the events I create will both be labeled as 1 (since the 2 events would be in different areas), but I will specify which is which by putting (king) by one and (dragon) by the other. Now, the example: Event 1 (king), Page 1/3 Event Contents: Yes Graphic: (king) Start: Check From All Page Conditions: None 00:Display Message:Normal:(Please slay the vicious dragon which is terrorizing my kingdom!) Event 1 (dragon), Page 1/2 Event Contents: None Graphic: No Graphic Start: (doesn't matter, since there are no contents) Page Conditions: None Event 1 (dragon), Page 2/2 Event Contents: Yes Graphic: (dragon) Start: Check From All Page Conditions: Switch 029 off 00:(roaring sound effect) 01:Battle (fight with the dragon) 02:Change Event Graphic:No Graphic 03:Switch 029 on Event 1 (king), Page 2/3 Event Contents: Yes Graphic: (king) Start: Check From All Page Conditions: Switch 029 on 00:Display Message:Normal:(Good job defeating the dragon! Now I want you to kill the Unicorn in the Distant Land.) 01:Switch 030 on Event 1 (king), Page 3/3 Event Contents: Yes Graphic: (king) Start: Check From All Page Conditions:Switch 030 on 00:Display Message:Normal:(Hurry up and kill the Unicorn!) Now, I'll go WAY back to system data and create an area called Distant Land on the field map. Assume that I already created the Castle and Dragon Cave (though the Dragon Cave isn't important at this point). I explained this when explaining the field map, but I'll tell you about the important part again, since it has to do with switching. When you create "Distant Land", it'll prompt you for, among other things, "Appear." If you set "Appear: Switch 030 on", "Distant Land" won't appear until after you've slain the dragon and talked to the king. Now, create a path as usual from the Castle to the Distant Land. Set "Appear: Switch 030 on" and "Move: Always." Now, the scenario will play out like this: If you talk to the king before slaying the dragon, he'll say what's on his first page. Go to the Dragon Cave and slay the dragon, and the dragon will never reappear due to switch 029 being turned on. Also due to the switch, if you go back and talk to the king, he'll say what's in his second page of contents. Talking to him also turns switch 030 on. Talk to him again, and you'll get a different message, the one that's in his third page. Switch 030 did this, as well as opened up "Distant Land", and the path to it from the Castle. This may have been a lot of writing, but the concept is actually very simple. Also, if you think you're going to use a lot of switches, I'd advise you keep a notebook of what switches are activated when. If you or someone else finds a problem with a switch somewhere, you can find the source very quickly as long as you have a notebook of switches. If not, things can get very messy, very fast. You're also much more likely to lose track of what switches you have and haven't used if you use a notebook. Final note: The max limit on switches is 500, but don't worry about exceeding it anytime soon. Complex Uses: There are a ton if you become really good with it. You can even make your own battle systems if you use them right, but such things are VERY complex, and take hours to do. If you want to make a new battle system, go right ahead; it'll probably make you and your game very popular, verging on famous. A simpler complex thing (that sounds weird, doesn't it?) you can do is this: make townspeople say different things after you talk them. To give them, like, 4 different things to say, have the first page turn on switch 001, the second page turns switch 002 on and has a condition of switch 001 being on, etc., until you get to the last page, at which point you turn all those switches off. This is also the kind of thing that will burn your switches up like mad, but go ahead and use if it you're not going to have a bunch of townspeople. 7: Change Screen Basic Uses--Change Screen is used when you want anything the screen to change colors or move. Pretty self-explanatory, no? There are sub-options, of course, for what kinds of changes you want to occur. Here they are, and what each one does: Shift Screen--You can make the screen move up to 65 spaces in any direction. Note that the screen will not shift back unless you use the next command. Default Screen--Moves the screen back after a shift. Flash Screen--Quickly flash a bright light on the screen. Good for several things when combined with sound effects, such as flash lightning and a character getting hit. Swing Screen--Moves the screen back and forth a couple of times. Primarily used with sound effects to generate an earthquake effect. Change Color--The color of the screen is changed to the one you specify by your modifications of the Red, Green, and Blue present. This has myriad uses, including used for fires, flashbacks, darkness, etc. The screen stays like this until you use the next command. You also have the choice of just changing certain elements: You can change only Character Color, Only Map Color, only Event Color, or any combination of the above. (NOTE: I'm not perfectly sure about the names of the options, but I know they pretty well have the effects they imply.) Default Color--Restores the color to Red 16, Blue 16, Green 16. How do I use it?--You pick the command and one of the sub-options. With Shift Screen, you pick the number of spaces the screen will move and the direction it will move in. With Change Color, you modify the amounts of Red, Green, and Blue in the screen to get the color the way you want it. Complex Uses--Change color can be used to make characters "blush" if you change only character (or event, in the case of another person) color without changing any of the others. Think about other ways change color can be used inventively. There are plenty out there. 8: Inventory Basic Uses--You use this to add or subtract Gold or items from the player's inventory. Generally, you'll use it for treasure boxes. How do I use it?--This is yet another very simple command. You choose either Add Item, Remove Item, or Gold. The first two are pretty self explanatory. When you want to add Gold to the player's inventory, pick Gold and a positive number. When you want to remove it, pick Gold and a negative number. The main the to keep in mind here is that you can't remove equipped items from a player's inventory. There is, however, a way to get around this...I'll explain that down with the Game System command. Complex Uses--With a few other commands, you can use the inventory commands and page conditions to create a blacksmithing system, or your own unique shop system. These kinds of things can add A LOT to a game. 9: Wait Basic Uses--I'm gonna explain everything here, as it is the simplest command to explain. All it is is a period of time where the controller is disabled, somewhere between 0.1 seconds and 24-ish (I think 24.6) seconds. You simply use it for pauses, moments of silence if you will. 10: Event Status Basic Uses--Event Status is used simply to do something to the event you're using. There's a bunch of sub-commands for this one. Here they all are: Event Direction--The direction you want the event to turn at any given time. Move Event--Move the event any direction, a certain number of spaces. Move to Point--Move the event to any given point. Note, however, that the game will not pay any attention to the path taken to the point, so even if the character will be walking through an object, the game will allow it. Flashing Event--Make an event flash for a specified amount of time. Good for killing off characters or for transformation. Turn Right--The event makes a full 360 degree turn, starting by turning right. Often, this is used to represent dancing. Turn Left--The same as above, just beginning by going left. Change Event Graphic--Changes the event graphic temporarily. I'm pretty sure the duration of this change, however, is only as long as you're still in the specified event. The graphic will return to normal after the event plays out if you don't use a switch or something similar. Unable to execute--Prevents the player from activating the event as long as he is in a particular room. The event will reset, however, after the player exits and re-enters the room. How do I use it?--Using this command is very simple--just pick a sub-option and go. A few of them require you to specify things, but they're self-explanatory. Complex Uses--Unable to execute is also an excellent thing to use in a non-random battle system. Just stick this at the end of each battle, and enemies won't regenerate until the player leaves the room. 11: Party Display Basic Uses--Party Display is used whenever you want to change how a party member or the entire party looks. As usual, there are sub-commands. Here they are: Disappear--Makes the entire party disappear. This doesn't stop until you use Default. Ghost--Makes the party transparent. Again, this doesn't wear off until you use Default. Default--Removes the effects of the rest of the Party Display commands, Flashing--Works just like "Flashing Event" in Event Status. Main Character--Changes the graphic of a particular character in the party (not just the one in the lead). I'm not sure if Default restores the character to his default graphic, as I have never used the command. How do I use it?--Again, just pick a sub-command and go. Very simple, really. Complex Uses--Use Disappear in conjunction with several other things to make a cut-scene where the main party isn't involved. Main Character can be used for a point when a party member changes skill (as long as it's not in a skill shop--at least, a skill shop in the normal sense). If you played FF4, think of the point where Cecil (SPOILER, for those who haven't played it) changes from a Dark Knight to a Paladin, minus the level drop. 12: Party Members Basic Uses--Generally used for changing party members. That's really just about it. How do I use it?--You'll be presented with a very simple sub-menu when you select the command. Add and remove characters do just that, but, if you remove a character and then add him, he'll come into the party just like he had for the first time. If you use Change Whole Party, on the other hand, you can make it to where the character will come back just like you left him. That said, the only thing left to explain is Move to Front, which simply moves the specified character to the front of the party. Complex Uses--Change Whole Party can be used in conjunction with some other commands to make a place where you can change party members, thus allowing you to have more than 4 members in the party (but not the ACTIVE party, just the party in general). Don't ask me how to do this, however. I've never used a party-changing room. 13: Move Party Basic Uses--Guess what? This command moves the party in some way, shape, or form. Here's the sub-commands: Character Direction--Makes the lead character (and ONLY the lead character) change directions. Move Party--Move the party x number of spaces in a given direction. Move Party to Point--Works just like Move to Point in Event Status. The same warning goes with this, too. Gather Party Members--Brings all the characters up to the tile the lead character is standing on. This is almost utterly worthless, as it lasts only as long as the player doesn't move the characters. How do I use it?--As is becoming habitual by now, just pick a sub-command and go. Most of these will ask you to specify some self-explanatory things again. Of course, since they're self-explanatory, I won't explain. Complex Uses--There aren't any. After all, it is just movement. 14: Party Status Basic Uses--Allows you to modify the physical status (i.e. NOT stuff like Strength, just temporary things) of the entire party. How do I use it?--Here's another self-explanatory sub-menu. Your options are Poison, Paralyze, Petrify, Restore Status, HP, MP, and Increase EXP. Anybody care to take a stab at what each does? All you really need to know is that you can increase or decrease HP and MP through their respective commands by setting positive or negative numbers. Oh, yeah, and keep in mind that if you give a character enough experience to level up through Increase Experience, the character will still have to fight in and survive another battle before he actually does. Complex Uses--The HP, MP, and Restore Status commands can allow you to develop a Tent-type item that can only be used at save points if you use a 3 way choice and some page conditions. If you want to know how to do this, you can always email me. It's somewhat lengthy, so I can't fully explain it here. 15: Character Status Basic Uses--THIS is how you modify permanent stats, such as strength. There are also a few other things you can do in this menu. Here are the sub-commands: Learn Magic--This gives a certain character a certain spell OR S ATK. Unlike the name implies, it can be used for both. Change Skill--Changes the skill of a given character. Remove Equip--Takes ALL the equipment off a specified character. Good for when characters leave the party, but you don't want them to take their equipment with them. Change STR, DEF, etc.--Changes the stat you pick, up or down, by the amount you put in. How do I use it?--Surprise! This, too, is fiendishly simple. Just follow the self-explanatory sub-menus. It's amazing that a game with such a hard manual to understand has such simple sub-menus, isn't it? Complex Uses--There are tons of them. Learn Magic can be used to make a system where characters gain magic ONLY by doing things, and not by leveling up. With page conditions and Remove Item, you can make an enemy skills system similar to FF8's. The stat-changing commands allow you to make a non-random battle system where levels are irrelevant, and characters gain random stat-ups after a battle when used in conjunction with several 2 and 3 Way Choices. There are plenty more, I just can't list them all here. 16: BGM Basic Uses--Changes the game's music in some way. This is a simple and usually infrequently used command. How do I use it?--From the sub-menu you get when you select the command, you can change the track that's playing, the volume of the music, the tempo, and the reverb. This is really quite a boring command. Complex Uses--There are none. 17: Sound Effect Basic Uses--Well, you just place a sound effect somewhere in the game. La-dee-frickin'-da. How do I use it?--You pick one of the 78 sound effects, then you pick one of the 19 pitches for it. Wow, that was painless. Complex Uses--On occasion, people have actually been known to compose songs entirely out of sound effects when they use them in conjunction with Wait. Keep in mind, though, that you can't have anything happen while a song is going on if you made it with sound effects, and songs usually take several hours to compose. 18: Shop Basic Uses--Unless you intend to create a custom shop system, this is what you'll be using for all your shops and inns in the game. Here's a listing of the shop types, and what each one does: Inn--Set an amount of Gold the player has to stay to spend the night. That's all there is to it. The game even has a couple of default messages programmed into it that'll be used when you use Inn. Inns, however, will not restore the party's status, so if you want that, you'll have to add it in as a separate command. Item--Used to sell any items you created. This includes weapons, armor, and anything else you've made. Sadly, there are no default messages for this or any shop that follows. Skill--Shops that allow the characters to change skills. Trade--I've never seen this used, and I've never seen a reason to use it. I may be wrong (since I've never used it), but the way I understand it, it's basically like selling items and then turning around and buying some, with a few exceptions. First, you never actually get the Gold for "selling" the items. Secondly, since you never get the Gold, you don't get change if you go over the price. Finally, you can't exchange the same items. If this seems to complex, don't use it. Even if it doesn't, still, I wouldn't use it. How do I use it?--As usual, all the real explanation was in the sub-command list. The menus themselves are very easy to operate. All you need to know is that you cannot set more than eight items for sale in a given shop. Complex Uses--About the only complex use with this is using it in conjunction with a 2 or 3 Way Choice. You can have one guy have separate shops for everything. That's really not THAT complex. 19: Battle Basic Uses--This is used any time you want an event-induced battle, like talking to some angry townsperson. Also, this is used for bosses. How do I use it?--You'll select the monsters you want in the battle and the battle's BGM. If you want the battle to end after a certain number of turns, you have an option to do so. When you select Battle Till End, you'll also find that you have the choice of ending the battle of x turns. This isn't all that useful, but it can be used on occasion. Note that the player cannot run from event-induced battles, and he can't view an enemy's stats in an event-induced battle via magic or items. Complex Uses--Again, there are none. It is what it says, nothing more. 20: Game System Basic Uses--This is used to change something major about how a game works. Here are the sub-commands: Magic--Turn the use of Magic on or off. Sadly, there's no command like this for physical attacks, so you can't make places like the Fanatics' Tower in FF6. Level--Turn the gain of EXP on or off. This is pretty well worthless. Equip--In this command, you're given a list of parts of the body to shut equipment off for. This is most useful when using a blacksmithing system. I'll go into more detail in Complex Uses. Skill--Turn the ability to acquire skills on or off. Again, quite useless. Gold--Turn the ability to acquire Gold on or off. Do things get more worthless? Monster--Finally, something useful. This command will allow you to turn random encounters on and off. This is great for places that you make safe for travel, like clearing a path for a village. How do I use it?--It usually isn't using it that's tricky, it's remembering to turn a given system back on that can be confusing. At the entrance to the dungeon, there should be an intro event to turn a system off. At all exits, there should be a Game System on event to counteract this effect. For example, if you turned monsters off at the beginning of a dungeon, you should have an event that looks like this at the every possible exit point: Event 1, Page 1/1 Event Contents: Yes Graphic: No Graphic Start: Touch From All 00:Game System:Monster:On 01:Move Location:Field:Wherever Understand? If not, you probably won't use Game Systems in your first game, so don't worry. Complex Uses--One of the best uses for Game System is in a blacksmithing system. There's always the hassle of trying to find a sure-fire way of getting an item out of the player's inventory. Since you can't remove equipped items, you have to make sure the player doesn't have the item equipped. This is how you do it: In a blacksmithing event, make sure to turn the appropriate part of the body off (Head for helmets, both arms for weapons or shields, etc.). Immediately after, remove the item from the player's inventory. Finally, before the event ends, turn the systems that you just turned off back on. This will unequip a certain part of the body. Don't forget to remind the player you unequipped that part of the body! 21: Effect Basic Uses--Just creates a special effect on screen. Optionally, you can use a sound effect with it. How do I use it?--Well, you designate the effect type (which is defaultly Explosion), then the location of the effect (defaultly Main Character) and finally the sound effect for the effect. Finally, hit preview to see what the effect will look and sound like. Complex Uses--There aren't any. 22: Display Title I REALLY hope I don't need to explain this. All it does is displays the title you made in system data. Thus, I shall go no further in my explanation. 23: Ending Basic Uses--You use it to either roll the credits, or to take snapshots for the credits. How do I use it?--Well, you just pick ending or snapshot. Ending...ends the game. Snapshot will basically take a picture of wherever you put it and show the pictures during the credits. You can take up to 20 snapshots for the credits. During a Test Play, a flash and camera sound will occur when there is a snapshot taken. Note that this will NOT occur during the normal game. Complex Uses--There are none, at least, not directly for this command. However, you should know that you can make your own credits (usually using message 1) so you can put stuff after the credits. Nothing will work after the normal ending command, so make your own credits if you want something special to happen after the credits. 24: Prohibit Escape Just like Display Title, this only needs a little explanation. All this does is prevent escape magic or items from being used in a dungeon. When the player leaves the dungeon (Remember: Dungeon means room in RPG Maker terms. Don't forget that!) he will be able to use escape magic/items again, so there is no "Turn Escape On" command. 25: Save Point I love these simple explanations, don't you? This takes the player into the memory card screen so he can save his game. That's it. 26: Next Scenario Basic Uses--Well, you probably won't be using this command any time soon if you're new to RPG Maker, but it allows you to make a game that spans several memory cards. Though you are limited in the amount of System Data you can make, Scenario Data is unlimited. How do I use it?--Just enter the name of the next scenario. Don't make any mistakes! Also, just like on a disc change, you should warn the player of a scenario change. Put a message that says something like, "Insert memory card with Scenario Data B, (Title of Scenario), on it now. (Press X when ready.)" Complex Uses--The Scenario Name appears in the middle-right (sorry, that's the best way I can explain it.) part of a save file. If you have many one-block scenarios, you can make "Chapters", like Chrono Trigger had. Each part of the game can have a different name. I've never seen anyone do this, however, so be warned that not everyone may react positively to such a change. 27: Exit Event Ah, the mystery command. No one on the face of the planet has found a use for this thing yet, so if you find one, email it to me. Well, I hope you understand things a bit better now. This FAQ should be enough to get you well on your way to learning how to make your first RPG. Keep it by your side as you make your first game, and use it often. If you have any questions that aren't answered here, email me at diasflac84@hotmail.com. You can send comments there, too, if this thing really helps you. Come visit me and my fellow RPG Makers at the GameFAQs board for RPG Maker (www.gamefaqs.com). Just type "RPG Maker" into the search box at the left of the webpage and click on "Board" once you find it. Have fun with RPG Maker! ·············································································· A WORD BY KURO MADOUSHI Dias Flac is a veteran member of the RPG Maker message board at GameFAQs, unarguably the most popular person there. For quite some time, he has been there, making intelligent posts and offering help to newbies. Due to his vast knowledge of RPG Maker, many people on the board, including myself and other friends, wanted Dias to make a FAQ. Well, he finally did it. I have a little experience writing mediocre FAQs and biased reviews, but I offered to format the guide for him, and being the kind person that he is, he gladly let me. Here in this little section he let me make, I want to honor him very much. Let's all give him a weird, individual round of applause. This document is copyright 2001 by Jerrod Peach. All rights reserved.