Kuick Leader Swap XP

[kyonides]

Kuick Leader Swap XP

by Kyonides

Introduction

Once upon a gaming time, some forumer, who might have recently escaped from Minecraft for unknown reasons, wanted to easily swap the current party leader, not just by pressing the L or R button but also via direct assignment.

Well, we don't know how accurate this legend might be, but this is the final outcome of that ancient story.

Script Calls

Set a Temporary Leader:
- RememberLeaderIndex? stands for a boolean value: true or false.
- This new leader becomes permanent if RememberLeaderIndex? is false.

Code:

$game_party.temp_leader(PartyIndex, RememberLeaderIndex?)

Restore the Previous Leader (If Any):

Code:

$game_party.restore_leader

Set a Leader by Actor's ID:

Code:

$game_party.set_leader_by_id(ActorID)

Set a Leader Randomly!

Code:

$game_party.set_random_leader!

L & R Button-Related Script Calls

Prevent the player from Swapping the current Leader:

Code:

$game_party.keep_leader!

Reenable the player to Swap the current Leader:

Code:

$game_party.swap_leader!

Check Current Keep Leader State - Returns either true or false:

Code:

$game_party.keep_leader

The Script

Code:

# * Kuick Leader Swap XP * #
#   Scripter : Kyonides
#   v1.1.3 - 2025-09-29

# * Script Calls * #

# - Set a Temporary Leader!
#   RememberLeaderIndex? stands for a boolean value: true or false.
#   This new leader becomes permanent if RememberLeaderIndex? is false.
# $game_party.temp_leader(PartyIndex, RememberLeaderIndex?)

# - Restore the Previous Leader! (If Any!)
# $game_party.restore_leader

# - Set a Leader by Actor's ID!
# $game_party.set_leader_by_id(ActorID)

# - Set a Leader Randomly!
# $game_party.set_random_leader!

# * L & R Button-Related Script Calls * #
# - Prevent the player from Swapping the current Leader:
# $game_party.keep_leader!

# - Reenable the player to Swap the current Leader:
# $game_party.swap_leader!

# - Check Current Keep Leader State:
# $game_party.keep_leader (Returns: true or false)

class Game_Party
  def leader
    @actors[0]
  end

  def keep_leader!
    @keep_leader = true
  end

  def swap_leader!
    @keep_leader = false
    nil
  end

  def change_leader(n)
    return if @keep_leader or @actors.empty?
    if n < 0
      @actors.unshift @actors.pop
    else
      @actors << @actors.shift
    end
  end

  def set_leader_by_id(actor_id)
    actor = $game_actors[actor_id]
    n = @actors.index(actor)
    swap_leader(n) if n and n != 0
  end

  def set_random_leader!
    n = rand(@actors.size)
    swap_leader(n) if n and n != 0
  end

  def temp_leader(n, remember)
    @temp_leader_index = n if remember
    swap_leader(n)
  end

  def restore_leader
    swap_leader(@temp_leader_index) if @temp_leader_index
    @temp_leader_index = nil
  end
  private
  def swap_leader(n)
    @actors[0], @actors[n] = @actors[n], @actors[0]
    $game_player.refresh
  end
  attr_accessor :keep_leader
end

class Game_Player
  alias :kyon_kuick_leader_swap_gm_plyr_up :update
  def update
    kyon_kuick_leader_swap_gm_plyr_up
    if Input.trigger?(Input::L)
      $game_party.change_leader(-1)
      refresh
      return
    elsif Input.trigger?(Input::R)
      $game_party.change_leader(1)
      refresh
    end
  end
end

Terms & Conditions

Free as in  beer for any kind of games.
Include my nickname in your game credits.
Thank Ace_V for unwillingly inspiring me to craft the script. (Just don't or else his PM box will get full any time soon. )
That's it!

[Ace_V]

This really is useful and very light and easy to implement! Thanks again, kyonides! I spent the better part of a day going through all my previously-finished quest lines to implement the script call to ensure the correct character is in the lead to further enhance some cutscenes.

(I've never played Minecraft, though!) 

[kyonides]

Script Update

Starting from version 1.1.0, you can now make script calls that will affect the way the L & R buttons work. They will allow you to either (re-)enable or disable that feature at will. But don't worry pals! The original features remain intact and unblocked by this change.

[Ace_V]

Nice new feature! That's very useful for scenes that rely on parallel processes (perhaps a hallway with text/effects popping up slowly as you walk through) and you need a specific leader.

[kyonides]

Just in case I didn't explain myself clearly enough on my previous post, I am leaving a summary here as well.

The only new feature in version 1.1.0 is the ability to disable the L & R buttons and to reenable them later on. Needing a specific leader was taken care of by the previous release, namely 1.0.2.

Rest assure that I have NOT removed any previous feature so you are free to change the leader by using any of the previous script calls. If deemed necessary.

[kyonides]

New Feature Available!

Version 1.1.1 sports a quite weird feature indeed: to set your next party's leader randomly!

Here's the script call:

Code:

$game_party.set_random_leader!

[Ace_V]

I've encountered a tiny issue:

Whenever I play the intro of my game (which temporarily removes all characters in the party) and I accidentally press Q/W, the game would crash. So, I ran the disable script call

Code:

$game_party.keep_leader!

Which fixed that issue. Nothing happens when the player presses Q/W and the intro proceeds as planned.

However, another issue arose. After the intro and after returning the character to the party, I then ran the second script call to re-enable the swap function

Code:

$game_party.swap_leader!

Unfortunately, for some reason this causes the game to hang. No inputs register ASIDE from the Q/W swap, the music keeps playing, but the player can do nothing else. No directional button input and menu doesn't pop up.

I tried this on both a new game and an old save, with the same results. 

EDIT: I should also note that the other events still run (in my testing with an older save, NPCs still walked around after the script call to re-enable the swapper, but effects like fade to black and fade to normal all stop (basically anything after the script call won't run).

[kyonides]

Script Update!

To prevent the game from changing the current leader if you're using a map intro scene, I added a check that will stop the changing process if the actors' list is empty.

Concerning the $game_party.swap_leader! call, that's not really my script's fault. You see, the Interpreter script has a bug where returning a false value freezes any game.  You'd have to either look for a Interpreter bug fix or make sure the script call event command never return a false value in the first place. (We even had a long discussion on that topic here on the board.)

Even so, I altered that call to still change its value to false but it'll now return a nil right thereafter. AFAIK, a nil value won't cause any issues.

[Ace_V]

Hooray! I removed the script calls in my intro altogether and v1.1.3 no longer causes any crashes! Thanks, kyonides.