Adding new party members [RESOLVED]

[funky pants]

In my game there's a part where a new character is added to the party, nothing special, but when they are added they are automatically placed last in the formation. Of course you can change their position in the formation yourself in game, but I'd rather just have them automatically put right behind the other character.

While we're at this topic, is there also a way to make it so the player can't change order of formation?

EDIT: I just added the character to the starting party, then removed them as soon as the game started. When I added them back, they were in the right position. Also there's a formation option on the system settings

[Iguana Guy]

Yanfly's "Party System" plugin has plugin commands and script notetags that allow you to lock actors into formation places so if they are needed for the next quest, let's say, then they cannot be swapped out. I have had the same problem with adding new peopl in and the only way around it I have found effective was to add whoever was supposed to be in the lead (even if they are in party already ) and then remove everyone else and add them back in the order from first the last. I do this using event commands "remove actor/add actor" I could be doing this a primitive waybut it works for my game. i don't use this formation plugin myself becuase my game doesn't really have a need for it. Another plugin is the Hime Party manager one. it allows you to switch between one or more parties in the same game. Kind of like how FF6 had it so you could make three groups to fight in the big dungeons.

[funky pants]

Originally posted by IguanaRebel:

Yanfly's "Party System" plugin has plugin commands and script notetags that allow you to lock actors into formation places so if they are needed for the next quest, let's say, then they cannot be swapped out. I have had the same problem with adding new peopl in and the only way around it I have found effective was to add whoever was supposed to be in the lead (even if they are in party already ) and then remove everyone else and add them back in the order from first the last. I do this using event commands "remove actor/add actor" I could be doing this a primitive waybut it works for my game. i don't use this formation plugin myself becuase my game doesn't really have a need for it. Another plugin is the Hime Party manager one. it allows you to switch between one or more parties in the same game. Kind of like how FF6 had it so you could make three groups to fight in the big dungeons.

Weird, I tried to set it so that it adds the character who was already in the party (we'll call them ch1) and then adds the second character (ch2) to the party, yet it still puts ch2 in the back of the formation. The problem here is that ch2 follows ch1 around with two tiles between them and looks very strange, and I don't want the player to have to go into the menu and change it themselves.

I even tried removing ch1, then adding ch1 and then adding ch2, but that makes the lead character no one, and ch1 is in formation at #3 and ch2 is in formation at #4.

I should also mention I'm not super good at this, not even sorta good I'd say. I just bought this on sale once and I'm making a funny game for a friend. All I use are events and they seem to have worked for me this far

I'll try installing Yanfly's party system and see how that goes

[funky pants]

Originally posted by grilled cheese sandwich:

Originally posted by IguanaRebel:

Yanfly's "Party System" plugin has plugin commands and script notetags that allow you to lock actors into formation places so if they are needed for the next quest, let's say, then they cannot be swapped out. I have had the same problem with adding new peopl in and the only way around it I have found effective was to add whoever was supposed to be in the lead (even if they are in party already ) and then remove everyone else and add them back in the order from first the last. I do this using event commands "remove actor/add actor" I could be doing this a primitive waybut it works for my game. i don't use this formation plugin myself becuase my game doesn't really have a need for it. Another plugin is the Hime Party manager one. it allows you to switch between one or more parties in the same game. Kind of like how FF6 had it so you could make three groups to fight in the big dungeons.

Weird, I tried to set it so that it adds the character who was already in the party (we'll call them ch1) and then adds the second character (ch2) to the party, yet it still puts ch2 in the back of the formation. The problem here is that ch2 follows ch1 around with two tiles between them and looks very strange, and I don't want the player to have to go into the menu and change it themselves.

I even tried removing ch1, then adding ch1 and then adding ch2, but that makes the lead character no one, and ch1 is in formation at #3 and ch2 is in formation at #4.

I should also mention I'm not super good at this, not even sorta good I'd say. I just bought this on sale once and I'm making a funny game for a friend. All I use are events and they seem to have worked for me this far

I'll try installing Yanfly's party system and see how that goes

I installed Yanfly's Party System, I tried changing it so that you can only have 2 characters in your party yet when I add ch2 they still go to the back and thus are not in the party.

This is really annoying at this point and I don't know why they are placed in the back of the party

[Caethyril]

Maybe you have a couple of invisible party members (actors with no graphics assigned)? Check the System tab in the database. There's a "Starting Party" list in the top-left, try deleting all entries (some of them may appear blank or "?") then add the ones you want. Also, test from a new game, not a save.

Also on the System tab is a set of options labelled "Menu Commands" that lets you show/hide various pause menu commands, including Formation. =)

[Iguana Guy]

Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner. Also what is your starting party setup on the system page? Change that to reflect who you want to start the game with right away. The actor list seems to follow a priority list as well from my experimenting. If the actor is higher on the list they usually take the higher positions by default.

[funky pants]

Originally posted by Caethyril:

Maybe you have a couple of invisible party members (actors with no graphics assigned)? Check the System tab in the database. There's a "Starting Party" list in the top-left, try deleting all entries (some of them may appear blank or "?") then add the ones you want. Also, test from a new game, not a save.

Also on the System tab is a set of options labelled "Menu Commands" that lets you show/hide various pause menu commands, including Formation. =)

Originally posted by IguanaRebel:

Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner. Also what is your starting party setup on the system page? Change that to reflect who you want to start the game with right away. The actor list seems to follow a priority list as well from my experimenting. If the actor is higher on the list they usually take the higher positions by default.

Alright thanks for your help everyone, but I figured it out. Yes I did get rid of the formation from the menu.

Also for the starting party I added ch2 to it, even though I don't want to start with them, then as soon as the game starts there's already an event that autoruns so I just had that event remove ch2. Later when ch2 is added back they get added to the right spot.

Also thanks for the advice on starting a new game, I was starting from a save so I could skip the beginning

[Rasman]

Hello. I'm also having this same problem - basically when I add a new character to my party it puts them in the back formation spot - like you said it looks weird. I tried doing what you did. I set the initial party formation to two characters and then have an autorun event occur that immediately removes the second character from the party (which it does) - but when i actually come to add the 2nd character to the party again, it once again puts them in the back formation spot. Help?

[Caethyril]

Positions aren't remembered when a character leaves the party. When a character is added to the party, they are added to the end of the list.

If you want to add a new character to a specific position, you can either:

1. Remove all characters from that position onwards, add the new character, then re-add any characters you just removed (generally awkward to implement); or
   
   
2. Add them as normal, then use a script call to swap the party order, e.g.
   

   $gameParty.swapOrder(0, $gameParty.size() - 1);

   I think this will swap the party leader (index 0) with the last follower. Change the 0 as you like~

Remember that the player can manually change the party order from the pause menu, unless you have disabled the Formation command (System tab in the database).