Super Simple Vehicle System - Enhanced

[DerVVulfman]

Thank you for the update. It appears odd that a few things have gone awry. The vehicles did not previously disappear when exiting/entering an HQ map. And somehow a line was commented out which prevented the ESC button crash, that being line 897. How or why it was commented out is... well, it's been years..

[DerVVulfman]

BUMP

to version X
That's Roman Numeral 10, guys.

No one caught the bug that Geminil noticed.  And thanks to his bug report, I got on the job to find out about the issue.  It was not really the Vehicles script itself, but one of the Event Spawner Add-ons itself.  That too will be updated.   So thanks, Geminil!  Yer in the credits.

Meanwhile, I updated more of the Vehicles code and tried it out with the Enhanced Squad Movement script I posted last week.  To my delight, they had almost no issues with one another.  The only thing necessary to work out was to make party member vanish when the player boards a vehicle.  That took all of DINNER TIME to get working.

So go and try it now.  I think you'll be pleased.

[DerVVulfman]

BUMP

to version 10.1

Not an upgrade because of bugs, but because of features and that a patch is no longer required to fix compatibility issues.

I have kept a demo on my Hard Drive from a while back, one that had an old copy of Vehicles working with MGC's Mode7 system. Quite a bit of the patch I wrote no longer worked as methods were rewritten or streamlined. So I decided to take a look to see how compatible the two systems were. To my surprise, they were VERY compatible. In fact, the only issue between the two occurred if the vehicle was to cross the imaginary map border on a looping map and only for terrain tags. This was solved by the inclusion of merely four lines of code and a comment within my 'vehicle_passable?' method in Game_Map. These lines will not affect any other script, but should make Vehicles possible to cross looping map borders with any script that grants such a feature.

The Mode7 systems I tested were both MGC's original and my Mode7 Edit scripts.

Meanwhile, I decided to put Vehicles through some more tests. Not only can Vehicles work with 'Enhanced Squad Movement' and 'Mode7', but with the recently released 'BIG MAPS' script I posted. But more than that, I put all of the above listed scripts into a single project and ran them together.

It may not be much to look at, but the three party members are indeed following Aluxes on a Mode7 map with the traditionally used wooden sailing vessel right at the shore. The only thing you cannot see is that this demo is using Big Maps to piece together four individual maps into one. Not only can this map loop, but loops properly and with Mode7 and allows the vehicle to cross looping borders. All of this in one project.

The Vehicles script now includes instructions on script placement to allow it to be combined with the others mentioned, and even gives extra instructions related to Squad Members and the Mode7 systems. As of now, world maps can be greatly expansive and entertaining.

I hope you will enjoy it.

[DerVVulfman]

BUMP

to version 10.2

Well, it's been a while since I did an upgrade to this system.  But I decided to perform a few edits.  Some of the methods were renamed for a certain coding convention.  But it shouldn't give you really any problems with the patches.  IF they do, a method was renamed.  That's really it regarding naming methods.

BUT now, I modified the code so you can have a vehicle change its appearance for individual actors.  That is to say, you can make it so Aluxes can be seen riding a horse, or Basil riding a horse. Yeah, you'd need additional graphics per horse (like horse_Aluxes, horse_Basil), but you now have that liberty.

[DerVVulfman]

BUMP

to version 10.3

For quite some time, this package includes a script called "Permanent Event Erase", a script that ensures that the event that acts as your vehicle before boarding is erased permanently. However, it dawned on me that a 'Dynamic Map'-type script that saves/stores a map's events and values could do exactly that. However, the Vehicles script literally made a reference to Permanent Event Erase.

Version 10.3 now includes a new configurable option that may be turned on/off, determining if you are or are not using Permanent Event Erase. After all, why include it when you are using a Dynamic Maps script that does the same?

[DerVVulfman]

BUMP

to version 10.4

Some may appreciate the system in question. Others may be like.... who?

The Vehicles system now has a small adaption that allows it to function with Charlie's Mini-Map Extended.

Until now, you could see the vehicle events prior to riding them, but once you stopped riding any vehicle, the vehicle would no longer appear in the mini-map. This because the vehicle event was a brand new event that was not present when the mini-map was generated.

The new adaption performs a simple refresh of the mini-map once you disembark the vehicle. That was pretty much all that was needed. However, the adaption must be turned on. So a simple switch ( CFMINIMAP ) was added to the Vehicle system's configuration. Just have it set to true, and it works with the mini-map. Otherwise, turn the switch off because the mini-map refresh command is specific to Charlie's Mini-Map Extended.

[DerVVulfman]

BUMP

to version 10.5

It has been a while since any feature was requested or a bug report given.  However, I received a report only just a day ago.  As it turns out, Nathylia requested a feature where the vehicle/mount for the player be an animated event. Such an event could be a spaceship with a rotating set of glowing colors, a car with a bad exhaust with smoke coming from the tailpipe, or other options.

One can set the event to appear animated with the 'Stop Animation'* checkbox. But after using a vehicle and disembarking/dismounting it, the event was no longer animated.  This had to be fixed in some way.

* Stop animation: Likely a mis-translation of 'Step Animation' as when turned on/checked, the animation actually functions and repeatedly steps.

 So the quandry was this.  Should I make the 'animation step option' of the un-ridden vehicle be the same as the vehicle after leaving the vehicle?  Or perhaps I may come up with another option...?  

I chose the latter.

In the first section of the vehicle configuration section, I added a new option where you can set whether a vehicle you disembark will be animated with the stop/step animation feature. So you can make the vehicle essentially NOT animated before boarding and animated after leaving, or visa versa or both or neither.

Happy travels.

[DerVVulfman]

BUMP

to version 10.6

The main system has not been altered with this latest upgrade.  Instead, a new script call has been added and introduced:  Move Vehicle.

The function of the new Move Vehicle command is one that lets the game developer move a vehicle from one place on a given map onto another place on the same map.  This feature is akin to the function of the default [Set Event Location] system, but with a particular difference that will be explained.

The default [Set Event Location] command allows the game developer to move an event about on the map.  This is fine for normal RPGMaker XP events.  Their IDs remain the same and the events themselves do not physically change apart from graphics or paging.  But this is not the case with vehicles.

A vehicle starts off as a normal event, like any other. And when they are first introduced on a map, they can be subject to the same [Set Event Location] as any other.  However, when the player rides a vehicle, the actual event that the player activates/clicks to board is actually 'erased'.  The event becomes no more.  It is gone, and the [Set Event Location] command is now useless.  And when the player exits the vehicle, a brand new event is created.  This event now has a new ID which [Set Event Location] will not be able to access as it will not be available in the game editor.  It's completely new.

Enter the new Move Vehicle command.

Unlike its predecessor event command, Move Vehicle does not rely upon the Event ID of the vehicle, but instead relies upon the vehicle's unique key name. This key name can be 'Canoe', 'BigBird', 'Boat' or whatever the game designer uses to identify the vehicle on the map and in the configuration section itself. So one could use the command thus:

move_vehicle('Canoe', 15, 22)
(Remember, the unique key name 'is' case sensitive, canoe and Canoe are not the same.)

This simple command moves the 'Canoe' vehicle to x/y coordinates of 15, 22 on the map, this whether or not the player had previously ridden the vehicle.  This would not be possible with [Set Event Location], but now possible with the new Move Vehicle command now available in version 10.6

[DerVVulfman]

BUMP

to version 10.8

The system now has been altered to handle some issues where the player exits the vehicle HQ and returns to flying/driving/riding a vehicle, only to find out that the vehicle's custom music did not exist.  And after that, disembarking the vehicle did not return the music from the field map.

A series of changes were made to the engine to keep track of the fieldmap music for the latter, and a very simple change to a method within Game_Map was made to fix the former.

However, not everything is perfect.  If the player returns from the Vehicle Headquarters to a vehicle that does not have a set background music piece, no music sounds. Technically, it should instead play the fieldmap's own music. But the music reset system currently employs itself before the map has as yet changed.  So for now, one can simply apply the Change Background Music event command when using the command that returns you to the vehicle.

Meanwhile, the instructions now includes a new section, one to cover script calls.  A fair number of these were inspired by Habs11 during his request to allow scripted transfers to and from vehicles and headquarters back in 2010. However, the instructions never included these.  Clearly an oversight, they have now been included.

[Sujabes467]

Hey, DerVVulfman. It's been a long time since I was on this site, so I apologise for the necropost. In the project 
I've been working on for a long time I've recently migrated from XAS to Blizz abs for performance reasons. Now 
I am experiencing a problem where I cannot enter any vehicle no matter which button I map in the script. I've tried 
what I could but no luck. This makes me question if Blizzabs is compatible with your script. Any assistance would be 
appreciated.