Post by Yal in Yal's Monster Collector Engine comments

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You'll need to change the mev_terminal_grab script a bit. This line

if(amp_read_var(AMP_FIRST_ACTIVE,amp_MONID) == NONE){

should be changed to

if(amp_read_var(AMP_FIRST_ACTIVE,amp_MONID) == NONE || amp_read_var(AMP_FIRST_ACTIVE + 1,amp_MONID) == NONE){

and now emptying either of the first two slots in the party (by going below 2 party members) should cancel the operation.

(Also, you probably want to update the message that is printed when this happens to read "2 monsters" instead of "1 monster", a little further down in the script)

Yal1 year ago (1 edit)

I just realized, doing it this way still will cause some issues since grabbing a party monster will move any monsters after it in the party lineup forwards one slot, and the undo overwrites the original slot (so grabbing the first monster when you have only 2 in the party will move the 2nd monster to the 1st slot, then it's overwritten by the undo).

It's probably safer to move the party-amount check to just after line 18 (inside the second "if(menuvalue_x < columns_party){" block), and have the check be something more like this:

var partymons = 0;
for(c = 0; c < PARTYSIZE_ACTIVE; c++){
  if(amp_read_var(AMP_FIRST_ACTIVE + c,amp_MONID) != NONE){
     partymons++;
  }
}
if(partymons <= 2){
  //Error message code goes here (but without the undo, since we don't always pick up the monster now)
}
else{
  //Regular "pick monster up" code goes here
}

So basically, disallow even picking up the monster if you don't have at least 2 after the operation.

beenbaba1 year ago (1 edit)

Thank you. If I'm understanding correctly, this will also mean that the player can no longer 'swap' a monster in the party for one in the box if they have only 2 in the party meaning they will first have to get the monster they want from the box and add it as the 3rd party member, then put the one from the party into the box they don't want, correct?

beenbaba1 year ago

I actually went about this a different way in the end. I modified the obj_terminalmenu step event so that you can't cancel out of the menu if the party has less than two members and put a warning if so. I remove the 1 party member warning from the grab so that you can freely move monsters however the player wants. I can't think of a reason why this wouldn't work, can you?

Yal1 year ago

This sounds like it should work as well, it doesn't matter if you enter an invalid state as long as you're forced to revert to a valid state before you can close the menu. Just be careful about implementing autosaving, new ways to cancel the menus (etc) so the player can't end up stuck with too few monsters that way.

beenbaba1 year ago (1 edit) (+1)

Yes for sure, I realised as well that there is not a release function in the box menu, at least, not one I can see??? So if that's the case and I implement one, I'll just need make sure that the party + box monsters is greater than 2 before you release a monster 😌. But anyway, big thanks for your help and the engine, has been a little tricky to get my head around some things but its progressing nicely

Yal1 year ago (1 edit)

Glad I could help! I've done my best to make everything as simple and easy-to-understand as possible, but between the big sweeping GML changes since I first created this project butchering some of the organizational aspects, and an RPG being pretty dang complex to begin with, things can get a bit overwhelming.

(Btw, if you haven't already, you might want to check out the old comments as well, I've answered a lot of programming questions for misc common features over the years and if you have a future question it might've already been answered in there)

itch.io

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