NPCs approaching you

[Travis.touchdown]

Dear RPG Maker users,

I've looked it up on the web, but couldn't find an answer to this specific question.

If I wanted an NPC to approach me, and THEN stop and talk to me, what would be the easiest way of doing that?

Furthermore, if I wanted an NPC to approach me AFTER I've talked to another character, how can I make sure, he/she's facing me in the right direction?
I know I could set a specific path for him/her to move towards me, but what if that doesn't match my actual position? 'Cause, you know, I could be approaching said character from behind, left or right as well, rather than just standing in front.

Thank you.

Kind regards
Josh

[MUDAH]

probably the best way to do this is to have a set path for the npc and have a movement path for the player character where the player would move into the exact possition you want it to

[Travis.touchdown]

引用自 darknessrules195：

probably the best way to do this is to have a set path for the npc and have a movement path for the player character where the player would move into the exact possition you want it to

Oh yeah, that makes sense! Thanks.

[Travis.touchdown]

Also, concerning the approach option, I take it that it's NOT designed for the purpose of an NPC moving towards you, then stopping, and then e.g. talking to you?

At least I couldn't figure out to do so (I'm very new to RPG Maker VX Ace). Whenever I use the approach command, all the NPC would do is circle around me like a mad man -- and I've yet to figure out how to use the script to transition this into something else.

So, it's basically just intended for chase scenes and the likes?

[Karanum]

The approach command works until the NPC is on the tile next to the player. You would have to count exactly how many steps it should walk until it reaches the player.

Anyway, events require a lot of planning. My suggestion would be to stay in control, know all the possible places the player could trigger the event from and prepare several move routes accordingly. (Conditional Branch that checks what direction the player is facing helps a lot.)

Also know that you can store the player's location in a variable and use that to maybe teleport the NPC to an off-screen location that's more convenient to work from. There's plenty of options to choose from, just experiment with it and find what works best for you.

[Marquise*]

You also have the follow player in your movements and you can speed up that event character and set it to activate on event contact. It is in the movement close to the picture you choose for the NPC/event. That character in a map enough large would eventually run straight to the player.

You can also trigger it by another event or zone wich would be more complex.

Also,you can have the player character or slow down in the area or stop then you'd have like a whole cutscene played (it is more complicated too but it exaust all possibilities upon how to make this with the other's suggestions.)

[Travis.touchdown]

Thank you all for the advice! I'll play around with some of the methods you've suggested, and, in addition, continue watching a series of YouTube tutorials which have helped me a little so far.

Cheers

[Travis.touchdown]

Oh, one thing I forgot to ask.

Maybe I'm handling events wrong or my understanding of what an event really is might be wrong...

I got this problem:
I created an event to be auto-run, pretty much like a cutscene.
I set a route for the NPC to approach me and put in some text to have him talk to me.

Now, I was intending to have him walk to me, THEN talk to me.
However, the way I set up the event he always starts talking as soon as he moves.

I guess I am missing something very basic here, and am sorry to bother you with such noob questions, but I couldn't figure it out so far. Do I have to work with switches in this case?
There must be some event command to tell the NPC to complete movement before talking, right?

Guess I'm making the mistake of viewing the event pages too much like a timeline, which obviously they are only to a limited extent.

Cheers

[Karanum]

Make sure "Wait for Completion" is ticked in the Set Move Route command.

[Travis.touchdown]

Thanks! But for some odd reason the "Wait for Completion" box is completely greyed out, I can't check it...

[Travis.touchdown]

Oh, nevermind. After reading through some tutorials I figured I had gotten the concept of what an "event" is or isn't rather wrong.

I initially set up individual events for EVERY single NPC or object on my map (containing dialogs, switches etc.) when really I shouldn't. Gets too convoluted and glitch-prone that way.
Classic noob mistake, eh? ;-)

I understand now that it's best to set up NPCs just like "puppets" that don't contain any commands, just the sprite, while you're using main event pages to contain everything that happens in a scene -- including the actions of NPCs...

Correct me if I'm wrong, please.

Cheers

[terwilliker]

You should be able to write your position and the position of NPCs to variables. Then compare those variables until they get to a certain distance and set a self switch on the NPC. Then the NPC can stop, talk and what not.

There are also proximity scripts that will do the heavy lifting for you such as http://galvs-scripts.com/galvs-move-route-extras/.

I also recommend that you start each event page with a short comment about why it is there.

My daughter has most of her events in the NPCs themselves. For what she was doing it just seemed to be the easiest way to organize things. The downside though is trying to move those NPCs between maps. If you want to do that your method of "puppets" works better.

[Karanum]

Yeah, after I posted my suggestion I figured you probably set the move route on the event itself, which is more of a constant thing than a one-shot movement path. Good to hear you figured it out though.

[Travis.touchdown]

引用自 terwilliker：

You should be able to write your position and the position of NPCs to variables. Then compare those variables until they get to a certain distance and set a self switch on the NPC. Then the NPC can stop, talk and what not.

Yes, that idea just occurred to me as well, thanks for clarifying that!

[Travis.touchdown]

引用自 Karanum：

Yeah, after I posted my suggestion I figured you probably set the move route on the event itself, which is more of a constant thing than a one-shot movement path. Good to hear you figured it out though.

Yeah, I was trying to set up an auto-run event/cutscene within the NPC event, which is probably a no-go, right?
Now the NPC is just sitting there on the map, waiting to be triggered by a main event page that contains everything happening in that scene.

Cheers

[Karanum]

Actually setting up autorun events on NPCs isn't that much of a problem, as long as you properly set a switch at the end of the event that stops the autorun page from being run.

No, the biggest issue was the way you tried to move your event. You probably tried to make the NPC move with this part over here: (screenshot)[gyazo.com]
But that part is used for continuous movement. You can't really control it very well. It's used for example for NPCs that randomly walk around on the map while there's no event running.

The way you want to set up your NPC movement is this: (screenshot)[gyazo.com]
Just in the event commands itself. The Set Move Route command on the second page.