Making items that activate events

Hello,

What I'm trying to do is have an item that, when used from the field menu, changes your character's sprite, then changes you back to normal when you use it again. If you've played Yume Nikki, then think of it as one of the "effects", because that's more or less what I'm trying to recreate.

It seems like the only way to do this is to have the item turn on a switch, and then have that switch be the condition for a common event. But I can't actually get that event to work. So far, I've made the common event, and only put one line in it, which is move event: hero, change graphic. Nothing happens when I use the item. I currently have it set to parallel processing, but only because selecting auto start creates an infinite loop that freezes the game. Either way nothing happens.

I guess my real question is, am I even going about this the right way?

yes you are.

make an item that activate a common event.Make it unlimited uses.

Then on the common event make it paralelll process. ex:(switch -stone)

then on the text you write

Show shoices: Do you want to use the stone?
if Yes

conditional branch: If character normal is on
Change hero graphics character WOLFMAN
switch stone off
switch stone on

else
conditional branch if character wolfman is on
change hero graphics character normal
switch stone off
switch stone on

if No
switch stone off
switch stone on

don't forget that you need to activate the switch before the first use.

Okay, a little progress...

I got it to change my character's sprite, but I can't figure out how to make it stop transitioning now. I used the battle animation "status healing 2" as a test transition from normal sprite to new sprite. When I use the item, it works and my sprite changes after the animation plays, but then the animation plays again. And again. And again... The good news is that I'm not "stuck" in it - I can still walk around and open the menu and whatnot. But I can't figure out how to get the animation to stop playing.

I have never had that problem, but if you post a pic of your common event, we could find someone to help.

My guess is that you didn't turn off the switch, so the parallel process is repeating itself endlessly... But IDK... I can never really tell unless I look at it (I'm not a very good mental imager... I need visualsm, baby! And I am far too lazy to 1. get to my good comp and 2. start the old dino up)

Ah, that was it - the switch wasn't being turned off. What is the difference between parallel processing and auto start?

Anyway, thanks for the help! That issue is solved...

...and no later did I finish that one that another one instantly arose.

This one is kind of unusual - I have a magic circle that I've made (actually I edited the default one), and I'm trying to overlay it on top of the floor and still have it be passable. But it's not - the game treats all the tiles in the circle as if they were marked "X" for being impassable. I've checked and checked and double checked to make sure both the circle and the floor underneath are passable, and checked directional pass, terrain, events, counter flag (I don't even know what that's for), and there is literally nothing that should keep me from being able to walk on it. I've used this circle before, and it was perfectly fine - I was able to walk all over it like it was a carpet. I can't think of any conceivable reason for this to happen. Is this a bug in RPG Maker?

EDIT: Alright, I figured it out. But the reason makes me almost as unhappy as the problem itself did.

The issue was being caused by the fact that a different tileset was using the same chipset file. And on that other tileset, those tiles were set to be impassible. For some reason, this tileset was referencing the passability data from that other one. Luckily I didn't need those tiles in the other one, so I just set them to be passable in both, and sure enough, it works fine now. But I still think this is a glitch.

The difference between Auto-Start and Parallel Processing is this:

Auto-Start makes players wait until the event is over (good if you want something to happen, but don't want the player be able to do a thing about it) and Parallel Process lets things take place while the character moves around (good for animation and fellow "characters")