Shadowrun Battling

[MrMister]

My game involves gun shootery.
I'm trying to get a Shadowrun type battle system, where you can trigger the pointer on and off for moving/shooting.
I've got a charset for the pointer, I need to find out how to toggle pointer and shoot people. I need the pointer to be triggered by a switch, though, so if you pull out a gun in a bar people will attack you(I know how to do that).

[MrMister]

Come on guys... come ooooonnnnnn..
I'll give you a candy treat.
I also need the thing to follow a guy once it targets him, like Shadowrun..

[DragonBlaze]

I don't know how the battle system in shadowrun goes, but I think I get the idea

Lets see, you have a character walking around on a map right? Then when you push a button, the character stops and a trigger cursor apears, when you target an enemy, the cursor locks on to it, and you can keep shooring it till its dead, then the cursor is free again. At any time, you can switch back to your character. Thats how I understand the battle system, if thats wrong, then the rest of this post may not help you much :p

I don't know the syntax off hand, but hopefully you'll be able to understand what I write anyway

- First off you're going to have to place a cursor sprite on each map (or every map you want this to work for). Have [trigger switch] is ON in the preconditions, set it above hero, set its move frequency to normal and its move speed to 8.

- Make a common event, name it hero/enemy locations. This event may be easier to make on a map rather then in the common events.
-- Make the following variables herox, heroy, cusorx, cursory, enemy1x, enemy1y.
-- Set herox to the hero's screen related x position. set hero y to the y possition, set cursorx to the triggers x position, and so forth. This will put the location of all the events in variables so that they're easier to work with later.

- Next make a common event, name it trigger switch, and make it a parallel process event.
-- In the event, make a key input process. Have it go to a variable called [toggle trigger var], and select the shift key.
-- Make a conditional branch so that if [toggle trigger var] is = 7, then it executes.
-- In the brange, make a move event command.
-- select hero, and leave it blank (you'll see why later).
-- Go to switch options, select a switch [toggle], and the select toggle ON/OFF option.

- Make a new common event, name it trigger action.
-- Make it a parallel process event, and have it execute if switch [toggle] is ON
-- Make a move event option. Select hero, select repeat pattern, and put in one wait function. This will stop the hero from moving when you turn on the trigger. The blank move hero event that you built earlier will interupt this event and allow your hero to move again once you turn off the switch.
-- Select the change event location option. Select the cursor event, for the position select herox and heroy. This will move the cursor on the hero when the tigger is turned on. If you don't do this, the cursor could be located off the screen or something when you toggle it.
-- Make a lable 1.
-- Make a key input process with the decision key and the arrow keys. Use a variable called [cursor menu]. Make sure the box 'wait until key is pressed' is OFF.
-- Make 5 conditional branches. One for if [cursor menu] is 1, one for 2, one for 3, on for 4, and one for 5.
-- Below all the conditional branges, use the jump to label option to jump to label 1. This will help so that the whole event isn't repeated, if the whole event was repeated, the cusor would jump back to the hero's location all the time.
-- In the branch for if cursor menu is 1, make an move event command, move cursor down 1. 1 is the variable value for down.
-- In the branch for 2, move the cursor left. In the branch for 3 move the cursor right, in the branch for 4, move the cursor up. You could switch the up and down branches so that if the down key is pressed the cursor moves up, and visa versa, but I don't know how cool that would be in a 2d game.

- You should have a cursor that moves on the screen now while the trigger is on, your character shouldn't move during this time, you should be able toggle the cursor on and off, and if its off, you should be able to move again. If all this works, you're ready to move on.

Now lets make it so the cursor locks on to an enemy.

-Below all 5 branches, and before the go to label option, insert another branch. Set this branch so that if cursor x = enemyx then it branches.
-- In that branch make another branch so that if cursory = enemyy, it branches.
-- Above these two branches, make another label, number it 2.
-- Now make 4 more branches in that branch.
-- One if cursorx < enemyx, one if cursorx > enemyx, one if cursory < enemyy, and one if cursory > enemyy.
-- In the if cursorx < enemyx branch, make a move event command and move cursor 1 space right. In the cursorx > cursory, move the cursor 1 space left. In the if cursory < enemyy, move the cursor 1 space down. And in the if cursory > enemyy, move the cursor 1 space up.
-- Your cursor should follow the target once its locked on, now lets make a way to break the lock.
-- Copy the key input process from before and paste it down here. Just copy all the movement forks, don't worry about the action key one.
-- In these four branches, after the movement command, make a go to label command and go to label 1.
-- After the four branches, insert a go to label command and go to label 2.

That should cover just about everything to do with the toggling, movement, and selection. I'll leave it up to you to build what happens if you attack an enemy, all that stuff would be located in the action key branch (the one with if menu is 5).

I didn't test this out, so I'm not 100% sure if it'll work, but I'm pretty sure, 95% or so :p

Oh and a little tip, the following the enemy cursor will work, but only for one enemyx and enemyy. The event would get extremely long if you did this for every enemy's x and y possition. So what I'd do would be this.

-- before the two branches for cursor and enemyy, make another two branches (two for every enemy).
-- If cursorx and y are equal to an enemy's x and y. Lets say enemy1. Then set enemyx to enemy1x, and enemyy to enemy1y.
-- All this does is sets the enemyx and y to the variable value of the current enemy you have selected.

Anway, I hope this tut helped a bit, if not  

[MrMister]

KICK
Thanks so much, I expanded it and made a bunch of different long range spells! You're my hero!

[Darkfox]

Shadowrun? Strange yet neat game I must say. The main char looks kinda like Duke Nukem, I found that funny. Dunno how you'll pull it off.

[MrMister]

I had to make one mall correction, because the hero could still move after the second time you toggle it.

[DragonBlaze]

Thanks Anyway, that tutorial was rather buggy, I found that out since I tested it. If you want an updated version, here it is. This new one also has the hero face the cursor and some AI features, so you could just look at that stuff if you wanted, or if you have the system the way you want, you don't have to go through it at all :p

The only problems with it is that in some of the key input processing I say to use the wait untill key is entered, some people have had problems if they do this, I had problems if I didn't. So you may just have to check that out.

Oh and this was originally made for Arcanagirl as a hunting system. But since that tut was an expanded version of this one, I might as well give it to you. The only thing with this tut is that it isn't really a battle system, its a hunting system, so you'd have to modify the attacking and such. And instead of bows and arrows, you'd have to use guns.

Hunting System Tutorial
By: DragonBlaze

Before we begin: There are 5 common events working together in this system. Since parts of these events rely on the other parts, some parts of this tutorial may not make sence when you start working on a part that relies on others that aren't yet built. I'll try to explain my best what everything does and why it works.

Oh and on a side note, I refer to conditional branches sometimes as fork conditions or forks. They're the same thing, I just don't want you to get confused if I'm talking about a conditional branch one second then the next I'm talking about a fork.

On Map Events: We need 2 on map events. The first is the cursor, it'll be the "bulls eye" that you'll target with.
- Make a new event, put it anywhere on the map.
-- Make this event triggered by a switch named [targetmode] (in the preconditions)
-- Have the graphics for this event be that
of the cursor
-- Set the movement frequency to normal and set the event layer to Above Hero

The second event (and all events following), will be for animals/game you'll be hunting.

- Make a new event
-- Give this event the graphic of the animal you wish it to be
-- Set the movement patern of it to what you want it to be like before the hero gets too close to it.
-- Make a new page
-- Set this page to be triggered if [animal1Dead] is ON
-- Give this the graphic of the item.
-- Treat the rest of this event like a treasure box, when you select it, you get the item, a sound plays, and you switch the event off or erase it, its up to you how you want the hero to recieve the item.

-- Make blank events for the maximum number of animals you want to have on the map at a time, its better to over do it then miss out on some. If you make too few, it may be hard to add them in later. You don't have to use all the animal events either

Now its time for the common events, there are 5 in total.

- Make a common event, name it variable locations, set it to parallel process, and set it to be triggered by the switch [on map]. When you teleport onto the hunting map, you'll want to turn [on map] ON, and when you leave the map, you'll want ot turn it OFF.
-- This event will turn the location of the hero, the cursor, and all the animals into variable values. With the x and y location of the events in variable values, we can determain their location according to other events, once we know this, we can use them in the system. This is a big part of making any type of action battle system.
-- Make a variable, name it [Hx], set it equal to the hero's x position.
-- Make another variable, name it [Hy] set it equal to the hero's y position.
-- Make another variable, name it [H2x], this time set it equal to the hero's screen related x position.
-- Set [H2y] to the hero's screen related y position.
-- Make another 4 variables, [Cx], [Cy], [C2x], and [C2y]. Set the first two to event 0001's x and y position, and set the next two to event 0001's screen related x and y position. Since the cursor should be the first event on the map, it'll be event 0001.
-- Make another 2 variables, name them [Ax] and [Ay], Set these two to event 0002's screen related x and y position. Event 0002 should be the animal. You don't need to worry about making variables for its regular x and y possition.
-- Make an aditional 2 variables for every animal you wish to have on the map (maximum). You don't need to use the maximum number of animals, it'll just need to be here for when you do.

 - Make another common event, name it Trigger Toggle, set it to parallel process, and set its trigger switch to [on map].
-- Make a conditional branch
-- Select switch (make one and name it) [trigger]. Select if switch is OFF, and uncheck the box marked "execute custom handler if condition is not met"
-- The conditional branch makes sure that the event won't run if you are currently in targeting mode.
-- Make a key input process event inside the branch.
-- Store the key code in a variable called [Trigger Menu], check the box labled "Wait until key is pressed", and under the area labled 'keys to process' check the shift key. The shift key will be the key that you need to push in order to go into targeting mode, you can change this to any key that you would like though.
-- Make a conditional branch under the key input process.
-- Select the variable [Trigger Menu], select equal to, and select the number 7. 7 is the variable code for the shift key, if you chose a differant key to toggle the targeting mode, you'll have to change the variable number to the variable of the key you selected.
-- In that branch, make a 'move event' event. Select the hero, select pause, and check the box labeled 'repeat movement'.
-- This freezes the hero so they won't move at all. This is necissary so that you can move the hero without moving the cursor.
-- Add a wait command, enter in the value of .5
-- Turn the switch [trigger] to ON
-- Change the hero graphic to the graphic of the hero drawing the bow.
-- Select the command called "Change Event Location"
-- Select event 0001 (cursor), for the location, select 'location referenced from variables'. For the x location, use [Hx] and for the y location use [Hy]. This'll move the cursor to your character when you enter targeting mode. If you didn't do this, the cursor may be located off screen when you enter targeting mode.

- Make a new common event, name it Targeting, make it parallel process, and set its trigger switch to [targeting]
- Make a key input process, use the variable [target menu 2], select the up, down, left, right, decision and shift keys. Uncheck the box labeled 'wait untill key is pressed'.
-- Make a conditional branch, select the variable [target menu 2], select equal to, enter the number 1.
-- In this event, you could make a move event command, and if you select event 0001 and move it down one space, you could move the cursor down without moving the hero. But since we don't want the cursor to be able to go off map, we're gonna have to make a few more events before we get to that part in order to limit the range of where the cursor could go.
-- Make a variable, name it [range], set it equal to [Cy].
-- Subtract [range] by the value of the variable [Hy]
-- Make a fork condition, select the variable [range], enter a value of 6, and select the 'less than' option.
-- Select the move event command, select event 0001, and select move down.
-- Add a wait command, wait for 0.1 seconds
-- When the hero's y position is subtracted from the cursors's y position, it'll tell you how far away the two events are from each other. If you get 0, then that means the two y positions are the same, meaning the cursor is at the same location as the hero. If the number is 6 or -6, it means the cursor is 6 spaces away from the hero, since we don't want the cursor to go any farther then that, we make the fork condition so that it'll only move down if it's less then 6 spaces away from the hero. If its more then 6 spaces, then it'll ignore the movement.
-- Now we're done with the down movment, but we need to make 3 more branches for up, right, and left.

-- Copy the branch for if [target menu 2] is 1.
-- Paste it below the branch.
-- Edit the new branch so that it triggers if the value is 4 instead of 1
-- Edit the inner branch (If range < 6) and change it so that instead of 6 the value is -6, and instead of less then it says greater then.
-- Change the movement so that event 0001 moves up instead of down.

-- Under all that, make another conditional branch, select the variable [target menu 2], enter the number 2, and select the 'Is equal to' option.
-- Set [range] equal to [cx]
-- Subtract  [range] by [hx]
-- Make a conditional branch, select the variable [range], enter the number -8, and select greater than.
-- Since the average computer screen has a greater width than the hight, we can make the cursor move more horazontaly than vertically, if you want the ranch of the cursor to be even, set the value to -6 instead.
-- In that branch, move event 0001 left
-- Add a wait command, wait 0.1 seconds

--Copy and paste that branch
-- Edit the branch so it triggers if [target menu 2] is 3
-- Edit the inner branch (if range > -8), change the value of -8 to 8, and change it from greater than to less than.
-- Change the event to move right instead of left.

-- You should now be able to move the cursor arount the screen freely We still have to build the option to exit targeting mode, artificial intelegence for the animals, and shooting the animals. You'll also notice that the hero can target things behind her, this looks kind of funny, so we also have to build a system so that the hero faces the dirrection of the cursor. First we'll build the system to attack the animal though becuase it goes in this same common event.

- After everything in that event, make yet another conditional branch, select the variable [target menu 2], enter the number 5, and select 'is equal to'
-- Have your sprite go through the animation of shooting the bow here.
-- Make another conditional banch, go to the second page of condtions, select sprite, select hero, and select the UP option.
-- Use the show picture command, select the picture of the arow facing up. For display coordinates select [h2x] for the x position and [h2y] for the y position. Set the picture number to 5,
-- Make a move picture event, move picture 5, set the transition time to 0.4 seconds, move it to the x and y positions of the varibles [C2x] and [C2y], uncheck the halt other processes during transition box.
-- Play a shooting sound effect.
-- wait 0.4 seconds.

-- Copy the above fork and paste, change the 'if hero is facing UP' to if hero is facing RIGHT. Display the picture for the arrow pointint right instead of the one pointing up.

-- Repeat same process for down and left.

-- Below the 4 dirrectional branches, make another branch. Select the switch [Animal 1 Dead] and select OFF. This way it won't kill the animal if its already dead.
-- In that fork, make another fork, select the variable [c2x], select value of variable [Ax], and select 'is equal to'
-- In that fork, make yet another fork, select the variable [c2y]. select value of variable [Ay], and select 'is equal to'
-- What the above did was forking if the cursor and the animal had the same x and y possitions, meaning the cursor is on top of the animal.
-- In that fork, play a sound effect for the animal dying.
-- Switch [Animal 1 dead] ON

-- You would repeat the whole fork for if [Animal 1 Dead] is OFF, for every animal you have (maximum).

-- Now below the big long branch for if [target menu 2] is 5 make another branch.
-- Select the variable [target menu 2] enter the number 7, and select the command 'is equal to'
-- Select the move event command, select hero, and leave it blank.
-- What this does is it allows the hero to move again. Before we made a move event command were the hero paused infinately. Only one move event command can be used on an event at any given time, thus if we make this move hero event, it'll interupt the last one that paused the hero, allowing the hero to move again.
-- Turn the switch [trigger] OFF

-- You're now down with this common event Next we'll make a common event that has the hero facing the direction of the cursor. The problem with this is that the cursor isn't always streight ahead of the hero, so we have to make conditions so that the hero faces the right dirrection if the cursor is located to the upper right of the hero and such. This was a lot harder to do then it seems, it took me like 30 minutes just to think of how to do it. I'm not going to explain anything in the following event, I'm just going to give you the commands. The truth is that I don't really know how or why it works, all I know that it does work. I took a peice of paper and started doing mathamatical equations for lines and then converted the math to rpg maker stuff. I don't get it, maybe you'll see the pattern though :p

- Make a new common event, name it facing, make it a parallel process event, and set the trigger switch to [trigger]
-- Make a variable [var1], set it equal to [Cx]
-- Select [var1] and subtract [Hx] from it
-- Make a variable [var2]. set it equal to [Cy]
-- Select [var2] and subtract [Hy] from it
-- Select [var1] and subtract [var2] from it
-- Make a variable [var3]. Set it equal to [Cx]
-- Select [var3] and subtract [hx] from it
-- Make a branch for if [var3] is less then 0
-- In that branch multibly [var3] by -1
-- After the branch, make a variable [var4]. Set it equal to [Cy]
-- Select [var4] and subtract [Hy] from it.
-- Make a branch for if [var4] is less then 0
-- In that branch multiply [var4] by -1
-- After the branch, select [var3] and subtract it by [var4]
-- Make a conditional branch for if [var1] is equal to or greater then 0, make sure the 'execute custom handler if conditions is not met' box is checked.
--In that branch, make another branch for if [var3] is less then or equal to 0. again, make sure the exectute custom hander box is checked
--Make a 3rd conditional branch for if [Cy] is greater then [Hy], make sure the execute custom handler box is checked
-- Select the move event option, select the hero, add the commands face right, and pause. Check the box that says repeat pattern.
-- In the else case, select the move event option, select the hero, add the commands face up and puase, and check the repeat pattern box.
-- In the second fork's else case, move event hero, face right, pause, and repeat pattern.
-- In the first fork's else case, make a conditional branch for if [var3] is less then or equal to 0, make sure the execute costom handler box is checked
-- Move event hero, face down, pause, repeat pattern.
-- In that else case, move event hero, face left, pause, repeat pattern.

-- That should be it for the dirrectional facings and such. You're almost done , all that's left is the Artificial Inteligince of the monsters.

- Make a new common event, name it AI, make it parallel process, set its trigger switch to [on map]
-- Make a variable [Ax2] and set it equal to [Ax]
-- Select [Ax2] and subtract [H2x] from it.
-- Make a branch for if [Ax2] is less then 0
-- In that branch, multiply [Ax2] by -1
-- What this is doing is its finding the absolute value of [Ax2]. Its a lot easier to work with the absolute value of the variable when dealing with proximity. What we're trying to do is find how far away the hero is from the animal, basically we're telling rpg maker that we're X amount of spaces away from the animal instead of -X spaces.
-- After the conditional branch, make a variable [Ay2] and set it eqaul to [Ay]
-- Select [Ay2] and subtract [H2y] from it.
-- Make a branch for if [Ay2] is less then 0
-- In that branch multiply [Ay2] by -1
-- After that branch, make another branch for if [Animal 1 Dead] is OFF, check the execute custom handler box.
-- In that branch, make another branch for if [Ax2] is less then 50
-- In that branch, make another branch for if [Ay2] is less then 50
-- 50 is how far away the hero is, its not 50 tiles, its more like 5 tiles, I don't know exactly though. You can increase this number to make the animal run away when the hero is further away, or reduce the number to make the animal run away when the hero is closer.
-- In that fork, move event 0002 (animal) away from hero, repeat the pattern.
-- Before the movement command, you can also increase it's movement speed, but I wouldn't do it in the same event as the move away from hero because it keeps repeating, and if you increase the speed in a repeating movemnt command, it'll go extreamly fast.
-- You could also make a wait command here, and after 10 seconds or so the animal decreases its speed and resumes its normal pattern, its up to you what you want your animal's AI to be like. You could also have it dissapear after a time limit so it truely runs away.
-- In the else case from the If [Animal 1 Dead] is OFF move event 0002 pause, and repeat that pattern.
-- The above just stops the item from the animal from moving once its dead. It wouldn't be too good if the item started running away when you got close to it :p

-- You'll have to repeat everyhting up there for every animal to make the AI

-- Guess what, YOU'RE DONE!!! With the system, but there's still a few things you need to do.

-- You need to leave the map, if you exit it by time or if you exit it by an event, you'll need to turn all the animal dead switches to OFF, you'll need to turn [trigger] OFF, and you'll need to turn [on map] off.

[MrMister]

Thanks, with the first one, I was just trying to make you feel smart. This one actually worked. I also added to it so the hero can hit himself with spells.
Just a little confusing because you referred to a variable as 'target mode' at the beginning and later referred to it as 'trigger'.

[DragonBlaze]

 

Just a little confusing because you referred to a variable as 'target mode' at the beginning and later referred to it as 'trigger'.

Oops :p, my bad, it took me two days to write this one. I must have forgotten which variable name I chose for that. Anyway, I'm glad you caught it.

[MrMister]

It really helped me out with two of my projects.
It was esay to customize too. Something I'm trying is to increase blast radius on some attacks.

[MrMister]

Ah poo.
I studied the hero facing thing and made sure it was identical..
But still this happens!

Edit: fixed it, I just had to change 'bigger's to 'above's, and 'smaller's to 'below's. I also had to change the second 'face right' to a 'face up'.

[DragonBlaze]

The same thing happened to arcanagirl :p

Anyway, the problem was that in the fork where [var4] is less then 0, she put if [var3] is less then 0. It took over a day for us to figure out whats wrong :-p

Post a screenshot of the facing script and I'll compare it to the one I built to see if I can find anything. Also send a screen of the common event where you assign values to all the x and y variables so I can test the math to see if there is a flaw in any of the equations. That explanation was rather confusing, and you could have put something in the wrong else case or something.

[MrMister]

I fixed it, and my version of RM2003 won't show much in a screenshot. It was just the second face right needed to be a face up.

[DragonBlaze]

Well I'm glad you got it to work

Oh yeah, you wanted the cursor to lock onto the target didn't you? Were you able to add that or would you like me to write up something on that as well?

[MrMister]

Originally posted by DragonBlaze
Well I'm glad you got it to work

Oh yeah, you wanted the cursor to lock onto the target didn't you? Were you able to add that or would you like me to write up something on that as well?

You can if you want to. You've helped me a lot already.