Seven Stones Bugs

[Dark Knight Of Lodis]

I'll be putting my bugs into this topic from now on to keep it organized and collected for myself, and to make it easy for people to see my progress. Thanks in advance to anyone who posts advice in here.

[Dark Knight Of Lodis]

At the moment, I have done the first "chapter" in Seven Stones, as well as most of my newly made cutscene intro (as opposed to my old text-based one).

In game, all seems to be going well, my skills work and look good, the enemies are the right level of power, dungeon looks great as does the town...

Unfortunately, my intro is not faring so well. It begins with a battle scene (the final battle in a war) and looks decent, except for the fact that I can't get the VFX to work and make it look like the soldiers are swinging swords. I also can't seem to make all the soldiers move together instead of apart, even though that is supposed to be ridiculously easy (I have made events that move togther before that worked).

At least these are my only problems, and at the moment the intro looks like crap but the game runs great.

[Dark Knight Of Lodis]

Okay, maybe I don't know how the script control: apply together thing works... lol

In my intro I have (not word for word, but the idea):

Script Control: Apply Together
Event move North 8
Party move North 8 (invisible character)
Script Control: Apply In Order
~the rest of the script~

Is there something wrong with this? I can't figure it out.

[Dungeon Warden]

Replace this:

Script Control: Apply Together
Event move North 8
Party move North 8 (invisible character)
Script Control: Apply In Order
~the rest of the script~

with this:

Script Control: Apply Together
Call Script [event move]
Call Script [party move]
Script Control: Apply In Order
~the rest of the script~

and create two new scripts:

Script 1: Event Move

Event move North 8

Script 2: Party Move

Party move North 8 (invisible character)

That should solve the problem.

Note: Movement commands can't be applied together but called scripts can. That's why your script failled but the correction works.

P.S. You can have as many movement commands as you want in the movement scripts. The only thing you need to worry about is if the two scripts are different lengths (in terms of Frames not commands) then the main script will continue to run while the longer movement script is still going. This may or may not cause problems depending on the timing of your cut scene. This is just something you need to watch out for.

[Rodak]

dungeonwarden said:

The only thing you need to worry about is if the two scripts are different lengths (in terms of Frames not commands) then the main script will continue to run while the longer movement script is still going. This may or may not cause problems depending on the timing of your cut scene. This is just something you need to watch out for.

And that is when "Wait For Script End" comes in handy. That will make the main script wait until all called scripts have finished running before continuing.

I could not make cut-scenes without it!

Good luck.

Peace.

[Dark Knight Of Lodis]

You rule, DW. I'm going to go try that in a couple minutes.

You wouldn't happen to know how to make a good slashing sword in a cutscene as well, would you? Mine doesn't show up at all no matter what I do...I think I'm putting it in the script right, just I am terrible at doing anything that's not related to inside of the battle system with VFX.

Edit:

You rule too, Rodak. You posted that while I was posting this.

[Rodak]

When you say your VFX do not show up it may have to do with how you place them.

For a soldier swinging a sword be sure you created the effect around the "source" figure and not an enemy (I realize you probably know that, but I am trying to cover several possibilities).

Also be sure to set the effect to the event and not Viewpoint.

If you want to see what may be wrong, temporarily pull the camera out really far and watch your scene again. Sometimes you can catch something way out of place and figure out what went wrong From that.

Again... Good luck with it.

[Dark Knight Of Lodis]

The soldiers now move as they should! Now, I just need to figure out the swinging sword...not having much luck. I have a hard time with the VFX editor right now when it is not the battle part.

[Rodak]

The best advice I can offer has already been buried in the old thread pages. It is HERE.

It's a run-down of how to use the VFX editor to make it create it's own coordinate system you can use as a reference in various ways to help pinpoint these things.

If you are having trouble with some other aspect of the VFX editor, post as specific a question as you can articulate and I'm sure you will get assistance. The problem with visual effects debugging is asking the right questions, we can't see what's happening!

I'm certain you'll get it right. It just takes a little practice.

One final, bleedin' obvious, tip: use the Help Files (press Start) on every "button" in the VFX Editor! They may be more helpful that you realize (if you have not read them already... but then again, a second reading never hurts).

[Dungeon Warden]

Is the problem with the sword effect or the sword apearing on screen? If you are having troble making the sword appear on screne, try using one of the other VFX and use the Screen : Effects : Events command to place the effect on an event. Many of the preset VFX can be used on the map, so you shouldn't have any problem making the VFX appear.

If the problem is getting the sword to appear in the right place, the tip that Rodak linked to should help.

[Deleted]

I encountered this with my intro cutscene too. I made a flag VFX for the pirate ship but it wouldn't display because it was in an action script and action scripts don't begin until after the enter script and intro events end. That might also be it. Gl, it's possible but difficult to make good-looking fight-scenes (I gave up on mine at a point ).

[Dungeon Warden]

If this is the case, you might need to set up the cut-scene so that is doesn't start until the player moves onto a touch event. Just place a touch event on the map and have a message appear, while the screen is still black, asking the player to push up (or whatever direction the touch event is in) to start the scene. This will allow the VFXs (and all other action scripts) to run while the game is waiting for the party to move.

[Dark Knight Of Lodis]

At the farm, the game starts lagging out real bad. I think that it slows down so much because I put so many crops (objects) in. Attempting to fix it without shrinking it...might be tricky. This is supposed to be a big farm that feeds the town.

[Dungeon Warden]

Reducing the shadows can get rid of a lot of slow down. You can find the lighting options in the Map Editor.

[Dark Knight Of Lodis]

dungeonwarden said:

Reducing the shadows can get rid of a lot of slow down. You can find the lighting options in the Map Editor.

Duh...thanks, DW. I should have thought of that one on my own.

[Zed Bloodrage]

It seems that Seven Stones was too much for you Dark Knight, such a shame. But your new game, is sooo much better. I like it alot more, and think it will do alot better than the Seven Stones idea. The stones idea kinda made me think of "The Legend of Dragoon." Well good luck with your new game.