RPG Maker SWITCHING v1.0 RPG Maker FAQ E-mail: jerbils@att.net June 26, 2001 Table of contents: 1. Intro 2. Conditions 3. Pages 4. Switches 5. Advanced Stuff 6. FAQ 7. Thanks 8. Copyright 1. Intro: Ah, switching. Quite possibly the most confusing, irritating, hard to learn element of RPG Maker. And with good reason. So, I’m writing this little FAQ. RPG Maker is a great game, and many people give up on it because of… switching. Anyways, on with the guide. 2. Conditions Before we go into actual switching, you must first learn about conditions. Conditions are on the main menu/window thing of all events besides Treasure Events. Conditions are just that: In order for the event to happen, all the conditions on that page of the event have to be fulfilled. Emphasis on ALL. Let’s say the following conditions are on a page: Switch 006, Specific item(let’s use Potion for example), And specific character(let’s say the character’s name is Max). Let’s say the particular Event is a Move Location Event. Now you won’t be able to move to the designated location you want to use that in that Event unless you have at least one Potion, Max is in your current party, and Switch 006 is triggered. If you just have switch 006 triggered(whatever that ay be, more on that later), Max in your party, but you don’t have at least one potion, then you can’t use the Move Location Event. You can only have 6 conditions per page. 3. Pages Pages, I think are the most confusing part about switching. That means it’s really hard to write this so that people will understand it. Pages are sort of like “stages”(sorry, there’s just no away around that rhyme) of an event. For example, a character that plays an important role in the story throughout the game, like a king, a scientist or something of that nature. After you kill this or accomplish that, what he says or does is different than from before that happened. Take this situation for instance: You’re talking to the King, and he wants you to kill a dragon in another castle. So, you go and kill the dragon, and then go back to the King. Now he wants you to save the princess somewhere else, you save her come back, and now he wants you to do something else, and you get the picture. That’s using pages. I’m not sure of the maximum amount of pages per event, although I’m sure it’s pretty high. 4. Switches Okay, now for actual switching. Instead of actually explaining it to you, I will give you some examples, then explain. Let's take a situation from my game, CastleMania. Main Character Max starts the game in his room. He can only go right. I want to make an intro for the game. So, I go to create event. Select no graphic, touch activation, blah blah blah. Go to event contents. I set the message, message type, and display title. Now, I go to switching and turn on switch 001. Now go back to event main window. Press TRIANGLE and select to add a page to the back. Now I don't want to see the intro again, as it would be annoying and stupid. So, go to the second page and go to page conditions, select switch one. Go to activation method and set Do Not Start. Now the intro will never happen again, which is good. Next situation. After the intro, Max goes downstairs and talks to his sister Crystal. I don't want Max to leave the house without Crystal. So, I go to the entrance and set the following event. No graphic, starting method touch, etc. Go to Event Contents and set the message something along the lines of "Talk to Crystal before you go." Now, back at the Event main window, add a page to the back with triangle like last time. On the second page, go to conditions and switch 002. Go to event contents and put Move to Location, and put location to wherever you want, like a normal location move. Now for step two. Set a new event at wherever you want Crystal to stand. Set her graphic, start method check, etc. Go to event contents and set her message. Now you want her to join you, meaning you want the event to go away afterwards. So, after you select add to party Crystal, and go to change event graphic to no graphic, and set a message like "Crystal has joined your party!". Now go to switching and turn on switch 002. Back at the Event main window, add a page to the back with triangle, like the last two times. On the second page, set the condition to switch 002. Set no graphic, and select Do Not Start. Now, Crystal will successfully join you, and her event will disappear, which is good. Think of it as a lock and key sort of thing. At the entrance, you were not allowed to leave, as the conditions stated switch 002 was needed in the Event main window. When Crystal joined, Switch 002 was activated/acquired, allowing you to leave the house. There is another element about switching that is often misunderstood. Remember how the first situation dealt with switch 001, and the second was using switch 002. This is very important. Once you use a particular switch number, it can’t be used again. The intro situation used switch 001, and that situation is the only one that can use switch 001. The second situation used switch 002, and is the only one that can use switch 002. This means that the next event that uses switching must use any other switch number other than 001 or 001 (for sanity’s sake, just use switches in numerical order). That, I think should give a good, solid tutorial to switching 5. Advanced Stuff Don’t even bother with this stuff if you’re just learning. This for experienced switch users. Let’s use another example from my game. There are two people, a husband and a wife, who each own a store. They have separate stores, because they are mad at each other, and the wife kicked the husband out. When you talk to either one, you are given two choices: Shop, or listen to what they have to say. So, let’s say you talked to the wife first. You select to hear what she has to say. She talks to you about how she’s mad at her husband. When she tells you this, switch 018 is activated. Now go to the husband and do the same, activating switch 019. Go back to the wife and again see what she has to say. She tells you that she secretly still loves her husband, turning on switch 020. Go back to the husband, he tells that he still secretly loves his wife, activating switch 021. Go back to the wife yet again, and you tell her what the husband said. She feels so happy, she calls him up, they’re not mad at each other anymore, and for your troubles, the wife gives you a piece of gold (not too bad, I say). Now how does this all work? Read the data below and read the above story along with it. Wife’s Event: Page 1 Event Contents: Display message :Hello there! 2 way choice: shop What’s up? Shop choice 2: (ranting about husband) turn on switch 018 Page 2 Conditions: Switch 018 Switch 019 Event Contents: Display message: Hello there! 2 way choice: shop What’s up? Shop Choice 2: (explaining she secretly loves husband) turn on switch 020 Page 3 Conditions: Switch 020 Switch 021 Event contents: Display Message: Hello there! 2 way choice: shop (Your husband secretly loves you too) shop choice 2 (She’s happy and calls her husband, and they’re not mad any more) inventory: add gold (item) turn on switch 022 Page 4 Conditions: Switch 022 Event Contents: Display Message: Hello there! shop Husband’s Event Page 1 Event Contents Display Message: Hi there! 2 way choice: shop What’s up? Shop Choice 2: (ranting about wife) Turn on switch 018 Page 2 Conditions: Switch 020 Event contents: Display Message: Hi there! 2 way choice: shop What’s up? Choice 2: (Explaining he secretly loves his wife) Turn on Switch 021 Page 3: Conditions: Switch 022 Event Contents: Display Message: Hi there! shop And there you have it. In the actual version, as you might guess, it’s a lot more complex, but I did show the basic gist of the switching aspect. MORE TO COME 6. FAQ To be created- don’t worry, I’ll make it eventually. I just wanted to get this out there as fast as I could 7. Thanks I would like thank the following: Me, jerbils My parents, for letting me get RPG Maker Me Me The folks at the message boards, especially Dias Flac, Kuro Madoushi, IceTray2001, The Red Baron, mmx2, Chimera245, tonydoo, Rygon, Flaming Masamune, triplejay13, ff8ribbon, kruulus, undaunt, Dburks2818, RobRush, and ZaneCrawford. There’s probably a few I’m missing, sorry ‘bout that! Me Agetec Splice The name of the company that’s in Japanese in the opening credits The good people of GameFAQs Oh, yes, and Me Copyrights: This Frequently Asked Question/switching guide originally posted at GameFAQs.com, is copyright to the author, me. Anyone is free to post, read, copy to their website, etc., as long as I get a decent share of royalties, if any. Copyright 2001 by Jeremy Kahn