The continuing quandries of Wang...

Ok, for the sake of sounding like an idiot, here's my question...  I've looked over the forums pretty well now, and I've been looking for a really good, or more detailed way of doing this, but I'm still a little lost.  I'm using XP version, and I'm trying to do a cutscene.  Now, I get the whole idea of events, but I can't figure out something:

- How to load the cutscene without actually having the main character in it.  Then, to have the cutscene go on, then cut over to the main character in a different scene.

Now, there are a few examples of this on the boards, but nothing that I can completely get.  I do understand events to some degree, but since I've only been at this for a short time it's still a little new to me.  I'm sure it's pretty to do, but I'm just an idiot.  Any push in the right direction would definately help me out.  And of course thanks in advance, everyone on the boards are super helpful, I can definately tell I'm going to like it here!

-wang

p.s. This cutscene is going to be used as a short introduction.  What I'm attempting to do is have the interior of a church, where someone stumbles in dying, and the priest/nun rushes to them to have a short dialogue before they actually die.  So, the cutscene will have the character "enter" the church, take a few steps and fall forward, then the priest will rush to their side and have a short dialogue with the dying man before he dies, then it'll fade out.

You were a fantastic help.  I've got the intro cutscene done, and I'm working on the first town our hero finds himself in.  I'm just putting together a little "demo" game to practice, and to show a few buddies, but I'm having so much fun.  If anyone's ever interested in seeing the demo when it's done, just let me know!  And, of course, I've got another interesting question...

How do you use the main hero's name without using his name?  As in, is there a recognisable placeholder?  Like, $N or such, that a character can use in conversation.

Example:

Woman: "Hello there $N, how're you today?"
choices -
              1- I'm going great!
              2- I'm not doing so well...


I know how to set up the conversation tree, just not that placeholder.  Any ideas?  And, p.s.  Diablo you're a saint.

Awesome, I never knew that.  I know these may seem like far too simple, borderline moronic questions to some, but since I'm a little new any help is good help.  And Diablo, you've been so far an amazing help!  I'm at work now, so I can't go check it out until I get home.

This thing is just flying along, going really well too, but I'm working on a little quest where the hero fetches another character (a rabbit) and as part of the quest, coaxes him (the rabbit) to follow all the way back to the man (who initiates the quest) that owns him.  When the hero gets back to the man, the man will thank the hero for finding the rabbit, and reward him.  Now, I've basically done this with item checks.  When you accept the quest, the man gives you an item (berries) to coax the rabbit into following you.  Then I A switch the rabbit on to follow mode.  The rabbit follows the hero no problem, and generates an item on the hero (aptly named after the rabbit) which the man recognises upon talking too and reacts.  However, what suggestions might you have for me getting the rabbit to stop following the hero when they reach the quest giver?  Either stop following, or even totally dissapear.  Just a thought, maybe any other inspiring ideas might help me along quicker, and of course someone else might know how to do it a lot less sloppy or complicated as I would at first make it.

-Wang

if i got it right-
you go from npc X to rabbit npc, the npc get  a switch turned on and he follows you all the way (i guess only one map otherwise it's going to be freakishly complicated since if you let it follow one map then you have to  make him in all the maps you'll make just in case some1 will decide the rabbit is too cute to give to the man )
and then you get back to the guy, get the prize and... thats it?
if thats so- when you get to the guy and get the prize simply add another switch and add in mr bunny the following:
if switch (switch name) on
 delete event

and that should do it, for as long as you'll never turn the switch off that is

Alrighty, as soon as I get home I'll give it a try.  But while I'm here (posting from my phone in class) let me ask any opinions on if I should use a world map, or zone to zone mapping.  A world map of course is easier to travel on, and navigate around, as well as making town to town travel faster.  But (I've yet to dive into the battle system yet) are random battles possible?  For instance, random battles called up while on the main map?

-wang

if you'll ask me the zone to zone system although harder to nevigate is far better
simply cus... it's harder to nevigate  :^^:
since you don't see all of it , it allows you , the creator, to make secret paths, put chests in spots that any1 who just walk ahead without xploring won't see, hidden quests and all that
also it allows you to set diffrent random monster ecounters without putting crazy scripts i am not even sure exist

the best way to save the walking again and again problam is by making teleport scrolls (each town sell it's own) as well as free teleporters between every city - only if you already reached that city ^^

Now, working with an overworld is proving unusual with some of the tilesets that have astounding options for world map visuals, but some of them seem to keep their backgrounds (i.e. white or pink) when I place the units on the seperate layer.  Is there something I should do to the file, or a special way I should be importing them to keep their transparancy?

-Wang

when you import ANY image file to rmxp make sure u left and right mouse click on the color you don't wish to see (that is the background) in the preview screen (you'll see 2 lines normally colored white at the bottom, if the bg is pink they will be colored pink and u won't see the pink anymore)

Has anyone made any character sets that were smaller in size?  I recall seeing a thread on it, but I don't know if anyone ever has yet (or at least of the main hero character that comes default with xp).

-Wang

well i suppose that all you need to do is to take the big chars and shrink the images
keep the way their blocks are showing and their sizes and shrink the char in it

so say X=block and  y=char and 1 block looks like this:
XXXX
XXXX
XXXX
XXXX

normal chars will look like:
YYYY
YYYY
YYYY
YYYY

but you want:
XXXX
XXXX
XXYY
XXYY

y being the char x being the blank
i sort of wonder if it will work but i don't see why not.. tell me if it did  :^^:

As far as the zone to zone or world map question...you could always just use both, there's no reason you can't...You could have a forrest for example with several different areas, and you can exit the forest into a worldmap.

yeah but still it doesn't look realistic to me when your character walks on a map even if he does enter places.. it's weird..very very weird...
what world maps usually scream to me is that either the game is too long for you to finish it if you had to walk, or the creator didn't make teleporters or the creator don't want to put such an effort in the game