RPG 2k3- abs issues

For some reason, abcore 3000 would not solve my flabby abs problem, so now I turn to this fair community.

But in all seriousness, trying to make a zelda type game, and cannot for the life of me figure out how to get link to swing his sword to destroy anything. I've tried several different methods but nothing works.
So far I've tried to make a common event and xeph's method. Xeph's actually had some effect I can't just whip out the blade whenever I feel like, have to be attacking an enemy, and who wants that? The common event either doesn't have any effect whatsoever or freezes my character to the floor.

Help?

It might help if you screenshot your code for those unfamiliar with "Xeph"'s method. Are you using events as projectiles, or just using a Push Key based event page for enemies? Does the hero move when they attack - actually to another tile, or do they just animate?

I'm not to clear on your issue.

What I've tried so far

http://www.rpgrevolution.com/tutorial/better-abs-in-rm2k3_181.html
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-an-Abs-in-RPG-Maker-2003

Xeph's method I found on here...somewhere...
Basically xeph's method was to make an enemy (as an event) "hitting" the enemy with your enter key would change your sprite to link with sword, if you don't press it you get hurt by the enemy.

I would really like to get the common event plan to work, but it either does nothing or freezes the character.

[Edit]


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This is what I've managed by my lonesome. Link swings his sword now.
It's not pretty but it works. I'm sure someone has a better way of making this work.
Follow up question: Any way to keep the sword out until the button is released?
And is there  any way to use more buttons than the very few listed here?
http://a.imageshack.us/img708/3710/passwordx.jpg

... there should be more key options than that. Ew, what version of RM2k3 are you using? Find RPG2003.exe or whatever it is called, view the properties, and somewhere should be the version number.

Methinks you've got a really outdated version.

In terms of your code, you're missing the 'password' (actually 'Key Input Processing') checking. Wrap the move events in a conditional branch that checks if variable 1 is equal to 5. That's how it works.

That's kind of what I was wondering
1.0.5.0 is the version I have.
Where might I get the obviously needed upgrade?

Would the conditional branch be a "fork conditions"?

If so is it supposed to look like this?


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Because that doesn't work.

You need to keep the 'Enter password' bit before the branch. You can find an upgrade to 1.08 on RPG Palace I believe.

When you upgrade, you should replace your RPG_RT.exe with the RPG_RT.exe.bak (and remove the .bak), and I think that'll upgrade your game too.

You might have to start again if there are incompatibility errors however.

So I upgraded to the newest version, but now it wont import any files like charsets and whatnot. Whenever I try it gives me this awful little error message.

The forces of the universe conspire against me....

[edit]
I actually only upgraded to 1.05
I checked rpg palace but didn't find a place to download it. If anyone has a link, I would be most appreciative. Still have no more options in the password event. Which is kind of annoying.
Got around the importing by copying and pasting once I found the reinstalled game had its rtp folder in a new location.
[edit #2]
I now have the fully upgraded version. Yay.
Link swings his sword when told to. Yay.
Still doesn't look perfect but that is the fault of the sprites I have, not the programming.

Thanks for the help taylor.

I'm glad that it worked out
Just a warning, 2k3 is totally not the best engine to make an ABS and you're better off using XP/VX because of 1.) tile issues 2.) limited engine. It's still possible but there'll be unavoidable issues.

Tile issues is what is making it not as pretty as should be (link jumps to the top of the square to point his sword down), however seeing as my pocket book is full of only moths and lint, I'll just have to stick with what I've got.