Some weeks ago I found out about using terrain ID to examine stuff, which I hadn't seen at the time, and thought it was pretty darn neat ​.
Now I have discovered some cool stuff which will help me in my RTS. This has taken me all week and I consider it to be quite an advanced piece of work. From your travels, what would you consider to be an advanced or extraordinary feat done in basic old Rm2k? Also, what would you like to see happen, or what might you consider an impossible task? (Other than System 7 I think it's called)

- Mike

Well in the Database under Terrain Editor you set what each terrain type will be. This is generally used to set the backdrop for battles and damage tiles when walking. Then on the Chipsets tab you mark which terrain tiles will be known for each type - grass, dirt, water etc. Now the command:

Location is where the tile resides that you wish to COLLECT the id FROM and "Get terrain ID from variable" is the variable that it will be stored into. Yes, the wording should be something like "Store into this variable" instead.

So if tile position 4,7 is Grass (default 1) then the variable will get "0001" stored into it. My 'Examine All' explaination simply adds a custom message to it.
IF variable 0001 = 1 THEN message "You see grass fool!"

- Mike

If you want check out the tech demo in my sig, pretty intense stuff.  I actually used the store terrain ID in it also to determine if tiles were one of several things: unpassable, passable, grass, water, and different diagonals.  I had originally had it the entire map as events, but started created too much lag, so I found this nice workaround and it works perfectly.

Also, Mineyl, I had gotten camera panning to work with a character running around and nother npc that blocked your path, but it is really not worth the huge amount of work.  Plus, because you have to have the background as a picture, it creates a huge amount of unavoidable lag, especially if the map is big.

Another huge problem with rm2k/3 is how pictures can be moved.  Moving a picture requires knowing what number it is while in the programming step, instead of being able to move the picture based on the number in the variable.  I remedied this in the tech demo by create an objected oriented system that used pictures as objects were created.  So, for example, if a bush was hit, it would call the event, check to see the first available picture (lets say Picture 2), and then assign picture 2 to the bush animation.  Lets say a rupee drops from the bush, the event would be called, and picture 3 would be assigned as a rupee.  Lets now say that I shoot an arrow after I hit the bush, but before the rupee vanishes, the event would be called, and picture 2 is now free again to be used, so picture 2 is assigned to be an arrow.
The system is very useful to keep track of picture usage, and to create animations/objects of anything at any time.

Alexross7, I am wondering why banks are hard to make... considering you say that you have conquered almost everything in rm2k/3?'

Finally, Lackeos, I am wondering why you picked the seemingly random 3,000 lines of code.

monopolo

Carius seemed to be pretty swish at rm2k3, check out his games. the trouble was his games were very slow on any computer except his

I had a system in my (currently stalled) point and click detective game that enabled the player to take a photo of any scene that was shown in first person perspective (as opposed the the third person scenes that plastered my Gillian Seed look-a-like detective right in the middle of the frame). I used pictures for backgrounds, so it was really simple. A common event was called when the camera option was in use. The event checked the variable id of the picture, the current frame (if it was an animated scene) and the offset between the picture's center and the position of the camera's center.

An old video that depicts what I'm talking about

Edit - Apparently, the audio has been disabled for some time. Imagine Peter Murphy's "Crystal Wrists" as you watch the video. (I was listening to Deep a lot while working on the project - I was even considering using 'The line between the Devil's Teeth (and that which cannot be repeat)' as background music for one of the chase scenes.)

Well duh.  What year will it be 991 years from now?  I rest my case.

So you picked an arbitrary integer and used it as a baseline criteria for impressive rm2k coding based solely on the fact that it equaled the sum of two other arbitrary integers?

I have much to learn from you, rm2k coding guru.

Banks a relatively hard to make.

Huh? Like adding interest rates and contests for spending with them?

If you want check out the tech demo in my sig, pretty intense stuff.  I actually used the store terrain ID in it also to determine if tiles were one of several things: unpassable, passable, grass, water, and different diagonals.  I had originally had it the entire map as events, but started created too much lag, so I found this nice workaround and it works perfectly.

Also, Mineyl, I had gotten camera panning to work with a character running around and nother npc that blocked your path, but it is really not worth the huge amount of work.  Plus, because you have to have the background as a picture, it creates a huge amount of unavoidable lag, especially if the map is big.

Another huge problem with rm2k/3 is how pictures can be moved.  Moving a picture requires knowing what number it is while in the programming step, instead of being able to move the picture based on the number in the variable.  I remedied this in the tech demo by create an objected oriented system that used pictures as objects were created.  So, for example, if a bush was hit, it would call the event, check to see the first available picture (lets say Picture 2), and then assign picture 2 to the bush animation.  Lets say a rupee drops from the bush, the event would be called, and picture 3 would be assigned as a rupee.  Lets now say that I shoot an arrow after I hit the bush, but before the rupee vanishes, the event would be called, and picture 2 is now free again to be used, so picture 2 is assigned to be an arrow.
The system is very useful to keep track of picture usage, and to create animations/objects of anything at any time.

Alexross7, I am wondering why banks are hard to make... considering you say that you have conquered almost everything in rm2k/3?'

Finally, Lackeos, I am wondering why you picked the seemingly random 3,000 lines of code.

You can reference pictures by variable using Cherry's patches. Find it, download it, use it. Saves so many headaches.

But then where's the fun in breaking the engine?? OH OLD TOPIC! No seriously these are good ideas here. I am always interested when people try to really push the limits of a game engine, without adding a patch or creating a mod. You know, something cool that anyone can see without extra files... well excluding chipsets, pictures and sound of course.

- Mike