The obligatory 'Events versus Scripts' discussion

I like to use both. Events and scripts have their own places in which they excel, and ask myself before doing something, what would be best to solve my problem.

This completely.

I wouldn't write a message box cut scene with scripts, and I wouldn't make graphical modifications to the battle system with events.

I really think that a good combination of scripting and eventing is required to get the desired result.

There are some things you use events for; and whatever can't be accomplished through eventing can be accomplished through scripting.

I don't write my own scripts yet, because I'm still learning the syntax (but it's similar to python or C++, which are powerful class-based and object-oriented languages), but with the built-in guide to the default modules and classes, it's actually pretty nifty.

As I was voicing my opinion about why -I- dislike scripting, and have yet to see anything remotely accessible in the way of understanding it, I have no idea what your diatribe intends to achieve.

to answer some basic questions: Yes I hate any kind of code that fits the criterion of
1. have to use it to accomplish what I'm trying to do
2. don't understand it
3. difficult to find resources to understand it

About Blizzard's Guide to making one's existing scripting talents better,
0 x 1.1 is still 0, or as he said...

Are you reading this to learn how to script? Then this is NOT for you. If you want to understand this e-book fully, you need basic scripting knowledge. You can read this, of course, but you'll end up wasting your time by not understanding even half of it.

As my entire Project is intended to be a teaching tool for kids, I really don't find much use for Elitism or Arcane 'secrets of the code'.

to answer some basic questions: Yes I hate any kind of code that fits the criterion of
1. have to use it to accomplish what I'm trying to do
2. don't understand it
3. difficult to find resources to understand it

So you hate any code.
Considering interpreted languages like ruby are as easy as it gets, don't try doing anything more difficult/advanced for game making, you'll just hate it and not get anywhere.

Code isn't designed to be stupid easy to learn and stupid simple so anyone can do it, it's difficult, you have to learn it, THAT'S WHY PEOPLE ARE PAID SO MUCH TO DO IT.  Programming is a way of telling a computer to do what you want it to do.  It's not designed so that kids and teenagers with no coding experience or practice can do it just as good as people who go to school for it.

If you want to learn it, you have to do research and learn.  I wasn't born a scripted, I studied the RGSS scripts and basic library stuff, and learned how things worked.  Ruby is as close to english as coding gets.

and JFTR, Eventing isn't coding.

About Blizzard's Guide to making one's existing scripting talents better,
0 x 1.1 is still 0, or as he said...

Are you reading this to learn how to script? Then this is NOT for you. If you want to understand this e-book fully, you need basic scripting knowledge. You can read this, of course, but you'll end up wasting your time by not understanding even half of it.

As my entire Project is intended to be a teaching tool for kids, I really don't find much use for Elitism or Arcane 'secrets of the code'.

OH Cthulhu NO I HAVE TO LEARN SOMETHING THAT ISN'T EXPLAINED ENTIRELY TO ME DIRECTLY AND AT FACE VALUE IN ORDER TO ENHANCE MY GAME!

I -did- say INTERMEDIATE TO ADVANCED and LEARN -MORE-

OH Cthulhu THE SECRETS OF GOOGLE!

But hey, don't use scripts, you're just neutering yourself.

Shintashi's missing out on a lot... Try Dubalex's tutorial, his has something for everyone.

Or go here: http://rmrk.net/index.php/topic,1723.0.html You won't be able to script if your not willing to learn. If you don't need scripts in your game, that's perfectly fine. But there's a lot of things that you won't be able to do with simple eventing. Scripts, in most cases, are a lot more powerful than events.

In summary, try deleting Game_Interpreter and see what happens to your events.

Scripts >= Events

 I was writing scripts before using events, which may seem counter intuitive, but my first game didn't have the attributes I wanted so I tried adding them. Ironically, that's the part that made me dislike scripting, because everything was already compressed and essentially concealed within the code. While I would find several instances of an attribute like Strength or Intelligence, figuring out the flow of attributes in the game wasn't easy. I had to add the new attributes to the Status screen, so I figured out the coordinate system for that too.
At the time I couldn't figure out a way to change the attributes directly via character name or class, so I piggybacked a hybrid using level and stats, figuring the guys with high physical attributes would also have high stamina (sort of).

here was version 1
def base_sta
    n = 49 + level + Integer(base_str/2)

version 2
  n = 4 + level + Integer(base_str/2)

and version 3
n = 4 + Integer(level/3) + Integer(base_str/3) + Integer(base_agi/3)

in game actor I tossed something like

This:
    n = [[base_maxhp + @maxhp_plus + sta, 1].max, 9999].min

So Stamina would modify Hit points.

All together it ended up being several pages of script (as I don't want to bore you with my lame code). And this was done before I even knew what an event switch was, or understood variables weren't for dealing damage in units of x(1-50). I had a lot of misconceptions about events but making heads or tales out of the script was becoming troublesome. I asked a forum about Ruby on Rails and Ruby and what it had to do with RPGmaker and they basically said 'proprietary' and told me to not waste my time with the original code. I got so frustrated with the limits of the MAIN menu that I ended up downloading a hex editor and tried manually adding my extra attribute using hexadecimal. Also tried it with a Ruby editor but it kept crashing. The hex edited file caused RPGmaker to crash so I abandoned that and used a backup.

My current quest is as lost as my first quest - to figure out how to change which map an event is located on, to create droppable items and mobiles - kind of like the ones I used to use in diku, aber, circle, and other telnet programs. Someone showed me how to clone events into other maps, but the clones don't delete the original, making my maps look like something from Trouble with Tribbles.

I could read all the ruby guides in the world but unless I know what the RPGmaker programmer was thinking when assigning those variables, and attribute accessors, It's just a shot in the dark. I sometimes wonder if there were instruction manuals somewhere read by people when it came out and now the rest of us have to scour the earth for these gurus in hopes of finding out what it all means.

I could read all the ruby guides in the world but unless I know what the RPGmaker programmer was thinking when assigning those variables, and attribute accessors, It's just a shot in the dark. I sometimes wonder if there were instruction manuals somewhere read by people when it came out and now the rest of us have to scour the earth for these gurus in hopes of finding out what it all means.

That's what the RGSS Reference Manual (Located in the help file) is for. Hope it helps and rekindles your spirit for scripting. If it doesn't, oh well, at least I tried.

Yeah that forum was useless.
RGSS is a library, and a lot of stuff is built into RMXP and can't be changed (like the RMXP interface), so you can't add new attribute fields into that, that stuff is in RGSS and can't be edited.  RGSS is an extension to Ruby, providing easier ways to work on the game graphically and such.  Trust me, it's easier than if there was no RGSS.

HOWEVER, you -can- add new attributes and stuff by writing a script, like you did.

Also you can't move events from map to map, that's just something that is impossible to do with RM.

There was never an instructions manual, just the help files that detail what RGSS gives you.

Yeah that forum was useless.
RGSS is a library, and a lot of stuff is built into RMXP and can't be changed (like the RMXP interface), so you can't add new attribute fields into that, that stuff is in RGSS and can't be edited.  RGSS is an extension to Ruby, providing easier ways to work on the game graphically and such.  Trust me, it's easier than if there was no RGSS.

HOWEVER, you -can- add new attributes and stuff by writing a script, like you did.

Also you can't move events from map to map, that's just something that is impossible to do with RM.

There was never an instructions manual, just the help files that detail what RGSS gives you.

I think my problem is bad luck. I tend to try to do things with a program that a program can't do, and then when I can't find a resource explaining how to do it, over and over again, I eventually conclude there's little or no instructions. Some people like to say if you can't do something it's because you don't have enough experience to do it, that leaves ambitious newbies in a strange kind of limbo.

What I don't get is why can you clone an existing event from another map but you can't move the original or erase it without erasing both?

Well, because it's saved into a data file, which is reloaded everytime the game is started up and isn't saved into the player's save file. However, you could circumvent that by creating a hash or array in some object that is saved (like Game_System) that tracks which map each event is in. Then you could rewrite the part of Game_Map that loads events to correspond to that hash instead of the hash that is within the data file. So, it is possible.

Well, because it's saved into a data file, which is reloaded everytime the game is started up and isn't saved into the player's save file. However, you could circumvent that by creating a hash or array in some object that is saved (like Game_System) that tracks which map each event is in. Then you could rewrite the part of Game_Map that loads events to correspond to that hash instead of the hash that is within the data file. So, it is possible.

You'd have to be very careful about hash collision though, as well as events trying to load with the same ID.

yeah, it's be a pain, and especially hard to set move routes through events for transferred events. As for ID, you'd probably need to identify events by a combination of their original map ID and event ID in that map, rather than just by event ID. It's still possible though.

First I choose I use both because theres really no point in using a script to make an NPC or chest or something small like that. Then I voted on it depends on the specific situation because like I said you event small things with events however if you need something really complex usually scripting is the best way. Lastly I choose second comedy option cuz I dont know who dwarra is and Zeriab isnt the best

Depends on the maker and the situation for me really. I've got enough experience to event a CMS and have almost finished my first proper CBS in RM2k3, but I wouldn't do the same in RMXP or VX. They just don't seem to cope very well, whereas scripting it is much less laggy.

I used to hate scripting because the RMs that use it rely on it a lot to restore some lost functions, and things like the hbgames.org SDK were expected to be used, and my inexperience clashed with it. However I have learnt a bit more about RGSS now, and actually find it less time consuming for some things because you just have to edit code as opposed to make things from scratch most of the time.

If you want to change a little thing in the battle system with RGSS you can, with the older makers, you gotta do it all from a blank canvas. Or hack the runtime.

I voted for two in the same category
It seriously depends on the situation. Scripts can cause lag, but they can do stuff events can't, so it balances out.