RPG Maker


SWITCHING v1.0
RPG Maker FAQ
E-mail: [email protected]
June 26, 2001

Table of contents:

1. Intro
2. Conditions
3. Pages
4. Switches
5. Advanced Stuff
6. FAQ
7. Thanks
8. Copyright

1. Intro:
Ah, switching. Quite possibly the most confusing,
irritating, hard to learn element of RPG Maker. And
with good reason. So, I’m writing this little FAQ. RPG
Maker is a great game, and many people give up on it
because of… switching. Anyways, on with the guide.

2. Conditions

Before we go into actual switching, you must first learn
about conditions. Conditions are on the main
menu/window thing of all events besides Treasure
Events. Conditions are just that: In order for the
event to happen, all the conditions on that page of the
event have to be fulfilled. Emphasis on ALL. Let’s say
the following conditions are on a page: Switch 006,
Specific item(let’s use Potion for example), And
specific character(let’s say the character’s name is
Max). Let’s say the particular Event is a Move Location
Event. Now you won’t be able to move to the designated
location you want to use that in that Event unless you
have at least one Potion, Max is in your current party,
and Switch 006 is triggered. If you just have switch
006 triggered(whatever that ay be, more on that later),
Max in your party, but you don’t have at least one
potion, then you can’t use the Move Location Event. You
can only have 6 conditions per page.

3. Pages

Pages, I think are the most confusing part about
switching. That means it’s really hard to write this so
that people will understand it. Pages are sort of
like “stages”(sorry, there’s just no away around that
rhyme) of an event. For example, a character that plays
an important role in the story throughout the game, like
a king, a scientist or something of that nature. After
you kill this or accomplish that, what he says or does
is different than from before that happened. Take this
situation for instance: You’re talking to the King, and
he wants you to kill a dragon in another castle. So,
you go and kill the dragon, and then go back to the
King. Now he wants you to save the princess somewhere
else, you save her come back, and now he wants you to do
something else, and you get the picture. That’s using
pages. I’m not sure of the maximum amount of pages per
event, although I’m sure it’s pretty high.

4. Switches

Okay, now for actual switching. Instead of actually
explaining it to you, I will give you some examples,
then explain. Let's take a situation from my game,
CastleMania. Main Character Max starts the game in his
room. He can only go right. I want to make an intro
for the game. So, I go to create event. Select no
graphic, touch activation, blah blah blah. Go to event
contents. I set the message, message type, and display
title. Now, I go to switching and turn on switch 001.
Now go back to event main window. Press TRIANGLE and
select to add a page to the back. Now I don't want to
see the intro again, as it would be annoying and
stupid. So, go to the second page and go to page
conditions, select switch one. Go to activation method
and set Do Not Start. Now the intro will never happen
again, which is good.

Next situation. After the intro, Max goes downstairs
and talks to his sister Crystal. I don't want Max to
leave the house without Crystal. So, I go to the
entrance and set the following event. No graphic,
starting method touch, etc. Go to Event Contents and
set the message something along the lines of "Talk to
Crystal before you go." Now, back at the Event main
window, add a page to the back with triangle like last
time. On the second page, go to conditions and switch
002. Go to event contents and put Move to Location, and
put location to wherever you want, like a normal
location move. Now for step two. Set a new event at
wherever you want Crystal to stand. Set her graphic,
start method check, etc. Go to event contents and set
her message. Now you want her to join you, meaning you
want the event to go away afterwards. So, after you
select add to party Crystal, and go to change event
graphic to no graphic, and set a message like "Crystal
has joined your party!". Now go to switching and turn
on switch 002. Back at the Event main window, add a
page to the back with triangle, like the last two
times. On the second page, set the condition to switch
002. Set no graphic, and select Do Not Start. Now,
Crystal will successfully join you, and her event will
disappear, which is good.

Think of it as a lock and key sort of thing. At the
entrance, you were not allowed to leave, as the
conditions stated switch 002 was needed in the Event
main window. When Crystal joined, Switch 002 was
activated/acquired, allowing you to leave the house.

There is another element about switching that is often
misunderstood. Remember how the first situation dealt
with switch 001, and the second was using switch 002.
This is very important. Once you use a particular
switch number, it can’t be used again. The intro
situation used switch 001, and that situation is the
only one that can use switch 001. The second situation
used switch 002, and is the only one that can use switch
002. This means that the next event that uses switching
must use any other switch number other than 001 or 001
(for sanity’s sake, just use switches in numerical
order). That, I think should give a good, solid
tutorial to switching

5. Advanced Stuff

Don’t even bother with this stuff if you’re just
learning. This for experienced switch users. Let’s use
another example from my game. There are two people, a
husband and a wife, who each own a store. They have
separate stores, because they are mad at each other, and
the wife kicked the husband out. When you talk to
either one, you are given two choices: Shop, or listen
to what they have to say. So, let’s say you talked to
the wife first. You select to hear what she has to
say. She talks to you about how she’s mad at her
husband. When she tells you this, switch 018 is
activated. Now go to the husband and do the same,
activating switch 019. Go back to the wife and again
see what she has to say. She tells you that she
secretly still loves her husband, turning on switch
020. Go back to the husband, he tells that he still
secretly loves his wife, activating switch 021. Go back
to the wife yet again, and you tell her what the husband
said. She feels so happy, she calls him up, they’re not
mad at each other anymore, and for your troubles, the
wife gives you a piece of gold (not too bad, I say).
Now how does this all work? Read the data below and
read the above story along with it.

Wife’s
Event:

Page
1


Event
Contents:

Display message :Hello there!
2 way choice:
shop
What’s
up?
Shop

choice
2:

(ranting about
husband)
turn on switch
018

Page
2


Conditions:

Switch
018

Switch 019

Event
Contents:

Display message: Hello there!
2 way choice:
shop
What’s
up?

Shop

Choice
2:

(explaining she
secretly
loves
husband)

turn on switch
020

Page
3


Conditions:

Switch
020

Switch 021

Event
contents:


Display Message: Hello there!
2 way choice:
shop
(Your husband secretly loves
you too)
shop
choice 2
(She’s happy and calls her
husband, and they’re not mad
any more)
inventory: add gold (item)
turn on switch 022

Page 4

Conditions:

Switch 022

Event Contents:

Display Message: Hello there!
shop


Husband’s Event

Page 1

Event Contents

Display Message: Hi there!
2 way choice: shop
What’s up?
Shop
Choice 2:
(ranting about wife)
Turn on switch 018

Page 2

Conditions:
Switch 020

Event contents:

Display Message: Hi there!
2 way choice: shop
What’s up?
Choice 2:
(Explaining he secretly loves his wife)
Turn on Switch 021

Page 3:

Conditions:
Switch 022

Event Contents:
Display Message: Hi there!
shop


And there you have it. In the actual version, as you
might guess, it’s a lot more complex, but I did show the
basic gist of the switching aspect.
MORE TO COME

6. FAQ
To be created- don’t worry, I’ll make it eventually. I
just wanted to get this out there as fast as I could

7. Thanks

I would like thank the following:
Me, jerbils
My parents, for letting me get RPG Maker
Me
Me
The folks at the message boards, especially Dias Flac,
Kuro Madoushi, IceTray2001, The Red Baron, mmx2,
Chimera245, tonydoo, Rygon, Flaming Masamune,
triplejay13, ff8ribbon, kruulus, undaunt, Dburks2818,
RobRush, and ZaneCrawford. There’s probably a few I’m
missing, sorry ‘bout that!
Me
Agetec
Splice
The name of the company that’s in Japanese in the
opening credits
The good people of GameFAQs
Oh, yes, and Me

Copyrights:

This Frequently Asked Question/switching guide
originally posted at GameFAQs.com, is copyright to the
author, me. Anyone is free to post, read, copy to their
website, etc., as long as I get a decent share of
royalties, if any.

Copyright 2001 by Jeremy Kahn

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