===========SWITCHES===========The Basics===========A Gemin-eye Tutorial===============(his first)

 I see alot of people asking how switches work and how to make a switch.
 I can't figure out how they can't figure it out, but oh well here's how:

 We are going to make some switches where a character will walk into a
 room and see two npc's talk. First make a small room with a entryway.
 Right click on the entryway and put the "Set Starting Party Position" there.

1. -The NPC's- Somewhere in the room choose a spot and right click
 on it to open the Event Editor. Set the 'Graphic' = a char from one of the charas. 

2. Now click the NEW PAGE button and on that second page put a 
 check in the topmost 'Switch' (under the event conditions) and 
 click on the [...] button. A "Select Switch" dialog pops up. 
 Choose a switch number 0003 or whatever and give it a name 
 'NPC1' click 'OK'. Now change the "Event Start Condition" as
 'Parallel Process' in this event. Click 'OK'. 

3. In the EVENT COMMANDS box, double click and select
 "Message Style". A "Change Message Style" dialog pops up.
 In here you can change the way the message appears on screen.

'Window Format' = Norm - Shows the system graphics in the background. 
                  Trans - Makes the message window's background transparent.

'Window Position' = Up - Puts the message window at the top of the screen. 
                    Mid - Puts the window in the middle.
                    Down - Puts it on the bottom.

''[]Autoscroll, Prevents hero from hiding' = Putting a check
 in here makes it so that the message window never covers the
 hero char on screen reguardles of what you choose for 
 'Window Position'. So if the window is supposed 
 to be at the bottom, but thats where the hero sprite is,
 then it will appear in the middle.

"[]Other Events Wait" = This means that if you put a check in here,
 the rest of the events below this one must wait till the
 message has ended to execute.

Make the message options as you like. Click 'OK'.

4. Double click in the EVENTS COMMANDS box again, and select
 "Face Graphics". Set button and choose a face that matches the
 npc who will be talking. You can Display the face on the left
 or right in the message box ("Display Position"). and even
 make it face the left or right("Option - Flip Horizontal").
 Click 'OK'.

5. Double click in the EVENTS COMMANDS box again, and
 select "Message". Type in a short message. You should be
 able to fit 32 characters. You can use \C[#] (#=1-9) to
 make the text a certain color. \N[1] to input the heros
 name. (and there are others).

6. Go back to #3 and repeat the process but select a different
 image for the "Face Graphics" and a different "Message".
 This will be the conversation between the two npc's.
 Make as many as you want. 

7. The last EVENT COMMANDs will be two more switches. The
 first switch will turn off the npc messages so it only 
 happens once and never again. Select "Change Switch" and make 
 and name a new switch 'NPC1-off'. Make the switch turn ON.
 Click 'OK'. Select "Change Switch" again and select the 
 'NPC1' switch. Make the switch turn off. Click 'OK'. 
 This will turn this event back to the first page, which
 was blank, so nothing will happen.

8. Make another event nearby and different image graphic
 for the second npc. You only need to use one page in
 the event here, there is no commands, so its just a
 dummy event. A npc graphic, nothing more. 

9. -The Belly of the Beast- Right click on a spot that
 the char MUST walk over. Select "NEW EVENT".
 An EVENT EDITOR pops up.

10. In the EVENT EDITOR we want the 'Grafix' = empty, 
 the 'Event Start Condition' = At Hero Touch, 
 'Priority Type' = Common Char Below,
 only the EVENTS COMMANDS now need to be added.

11. -The guts of the event- Double click in the EVENTS COMMANDS box.
 Select "Change Switch" (first page). A Switch Management
 dialog pops up. Put a dot by the 'One' and click the [...]
 button and select the NPC1 switch we just made. Tuh daa !
 Now when the hero walks on this tile the two npc's
 will appear to talk to each other. 

12. -The not so big finish-. In this event make a new page.
 Put a check in the first []Switch and change the switch to
 the one we made before; 'NPC1-off'. Leave the rest of the page blank.

 Now when you test start the the char will walk over the
 'invisible' switch and activate the NPC1 switch which will
 make the npc's talk to each other, then the NPC1 switch
 will shut off and a new switch will turn on that ends
 the process. Thats it. 

 This was an over embellished way to make two npcs talk,
 there is an eisier way, but I did it this way so you would 
 learn how to make switches turn on other switches and such.
 If you still have a problem with switches, uninstall rm2k
 and take up a less thought provoking hobby .. like
 knitting or something. See if you can discover better
 and more inventive ways to use switches. 

 Trial and error till you get a desired result. 

Side note: Press F9 when in test paly mode to see a
           list of all the switches and which are
           OFF/ON. Press ESC to exit.

===========TIMERS=============The basics============A Gemin-eye Tutorial===============(his first)

 Suppose you want a timer to count down to 0 and then something
 happens. How do you do that you ask? Easy.

!. -Make an event.- The event pic can be whatever you like.
 Depending on how you want the timer to be set off, adjust
 the event as needed, but leave the EVENT COMMANDS alone.

2. -Insert "Timer Operations".- (double click in the EVENT COMMANDS
 window) Select "Timer Operations" from the first page.
 Choose "Set", and Set the time in the 'Operand box'. 
 If you wanted a timer set for 1 min 10 secs, this is 
 where you set it. You can use a variable here as well,
 but I'll leave that for later. Click 'OK' when you get
 the time put in.

3. -Start Timer-. Now we start the timer. As above,
 select "Timer Operations", and this time click the
 "Start". The timer stuff below will be blocked out
 now. This Start pertains to this timer you just set.
 You can select to make the timer visible or available
 in battle. Making the timer visible shows the coutdown
 in the top corner. Making available in battle probably
 allows the timer to force an event to occur in battles.
 I havent tried it yet, just guessing.

4. -The Switch-. Now add a switch. Open the "Event Command"
 window and select "Change Switch" (its on the first page).
 Name a switch you are not using "timer-test".
 (I hope you know how to make a switch).

5. -Page two-. Click "NEW PAGE" in the same event to
 make a second (blank) page. Open that page. Under
 the Event Conditions, put a check beside Switch and
 select the "timer-test" switch we just made. Now the
 timer will start and turn on the switch, and go to this page. 

6. The Guts of the Timer-. In the EVENT COMMANDS box double
 click and select "Fork Conditions", (on page three). You
 have 4 options here, Switch, Variable, Timer and, Money.
 Guess which one we will be using. Thats right put a dot
 in the 'Timer' one. We need to select when the command
 will execute during the timer. Before or after a certain
 time. We will put all zeros in for now, and select below
 from the dropdown box. This means that the commands we put
 in the Fork Option will only occur when the timer reaches
 zero (or less). At the bottom of the Fork Conditions dialog
 is an 'Option' Contents of management when it dosent apply
 to the condition are ______ . (dropped is my guess).
 Take the check out of this option. This means that if
 the timer reaches zero something happens, if it dosent
 get a chance to reach zero (like it stops) then nothing
 happens. Click 'OK'.

7. -Times UP!- Now under the "Fork Optn:Timer- 0m.00s.Less"
 in the EVENT COMMANDS box, double click and put a
 simple "Message" in to say "Too late times up!". 
 and click ok. Now a message will pop up when the timer
 reaches zero. You can put any commands you want to
 happen when the timer runs out, use your imagination.

8. Finally, make sure to make this event page run on
 'Parallel Process", and thats it. The timer will go
 off in the way you set it on page one. Be it a push
 key or at hero touch.

 Now how do I stop the timer Gemin-eye?
 You ask? Again its easy.

1. Make a new EVENT somewhere near the timer one.
 Make it on Push key or hero touch whatever. 

2. In the EVENT COMMANDS box double click and select
 the "Timer Operations" This time put a check on 
 'Stop'. This blocks out the edit boxes below. (Thats ok)
 Now this command will stop the timers that are running.
 Namely the one we just made. And thats it. The timer
 will stop when the char interacts with this event.
 If you want the timer to be able to go back on again,
 put a "Change Switch" (the "timer-test" one) under the
 "Timer Operations". This will set the Event we made 
 before from page two back to page one. You can put a 
 "Message" or whatever "Hey you stopped the timer!" s'up to you.
 Well Thats it for now. I'll go deeper on timers in my next 
 tutorial, Variables. Where I teach you how to do what
 Don Miguel did with the compass and map in his 1.03 sample game,
 if you havent already figured it out. It's a very necessary skill. Later .. 

Gemin-eye June 23rd/2000 4:54am


