Not-So-Random Encounters

I am BACK!

AYEEE

I seem to take long breaks right after posting more than once a week.

Anyway, we covered random encounters last post, and here, we're going to take a look at how we can have visible enemies on the map.

But Whai?

Visible enemies give players a chance to avoid battles if they don't feel like spending their time fighting the 9566th group of Orcs while just trying to explore the place. I personally think an adventure RPG without random encounters is blasphemous, but then I'm old school and boring. And also just old in general.

We can split visible monster encounter into 2 types -

1. Re-spawning Monsters - ones that pop right back up from death if you exit the map and re-enter it. Perfect for dungeons (but not dragons, who wants dragons to re-spawn?)

2. The Opposite of Re-spawning Monsters - once ded, 4ever ded.

Let's take a look at how we can set them both up.

Re-spawning Monsters

Remember, Chester was to enter the Oceans of Paradise after our last post. I've already set up a couple of re-spawning monsters in one the dungeons he enters early on.

spaghetti

And these are easy to set up.

Double-click on any floor/ground tile in the events layer to create a new event. Pick your monster sprite from the graphics options. You'll need 2 main settings for this event -

1. Event trigger - you can keep this at 'Action Button' or 'Player Touch'.

2. I lied, there's only one Important Setting(TM). Just make sure your priority is appropriate for the trigger.

Next, in the event command box, you just need to add 2 commands - Battle Processing/Start Combat (tab 2, column 1) and Erase Event (tab 3, column 2).

IMPORTANT NOTE: I may be wrong, but I don't believe Dan's rip has the Erase Event command at all. A quick alternative (that can also be used on the official version of the software) is to replace the single Erase Event command with a Move Event (tab 2, column 2) command with the following actions for the monster event (not hero) - a) Change monster graphic to empty/skeleton, and; b) 'Start Slip T(h)rough'. These actions will be reset on exit and re-entry, just like it would in the case of Erase Event.

And that's pretty much it. Once the battle ends in victory for the player, the event automatically goes to the 'Erase Event' command, and the event will disappear from the map, temporarily. It will be back if you leave the map and enter it again though. You can, of course add in other sound of animation effects before erasing the event, these 2 are just the bare minimum commands needed.

Aha, but wait! you say. What happens if the player loses the battle? (say it now if you didn't yet).

You raise a good point. That will depend on your battle processing command settings. If you've selected 'Game Over' on defeat, well, the player sees the Game Over screen. If you've selected 'Conditional Branch' instead, you'll want to Erase Event on victory, and End Event Processing (tab 3, column 2) on loss (I can't seem to find the End Event Processing equivalent either, in Dan's rip. In which case, 'Stop All' (tab 2, column 2) works just as well - though be careful, as this may stop other non-parallel events you have running on the map).

NOTE: Remember to place any healing/recovery commands before the 'End Event...' command. Otherwise the event will end immediately, and any commands placed after it simply won't run.

Finished. Pat yourself on the back. With a rubber hammer. Pls.

The Opposite of Re-spawning Monsters

These battles are best reserved for tough monsters (like dragons) and boss fights (like those against boss dragons). Once you defeat the enemy, it will never be seen on the map - ever! Hah!

It's a little different here - recall how we have a couple of game 'objects' that retain their state throughout the game: switches and variables.

So all we need to do is, in place of the 'Erase Event' command, we turn on a switch or set a variable.

This is for non-respawning monsters

Then, in a new page in the event, we set the condition to that switch being on/variable being a certain value, change the graphic to a blank image and priority to' below hero' (this is important to prevent the hero from running into the now invisible event), or to some image of a skeleton or something. We don't need to add any commands in this page.

Reeeed reeeed waiiiiiiiine

And your boss monster battle sprite thing is done! DONE!!

Next post...what is even left to write anymore? I think I've covered all the basics already. Hmmm.

Next post, we'll just set up a boss battle. And maybe the one after that, we can tie up several things we've learnt together and create a nice little endgame cutscene involving the boss battle.

Farewell, forsooth!

- Mooth