EDIT: DISASTER STRUCK! I started making this guide way before MV was announced on steam, so I'm afraid this will be out dated and thus discontinued. I will publish it "as is" because even if it's no longer valid, most of the stuff I cover is used in MV as well, so they kind of link together and I don't have the time or patience to redo the whole thing for MV at the moment.

For now, enjoy this guide for VX Ace, and convert it in your mind using the power of ---fantasy--- to a guide of MV and you'd might lear a thing or two.

--------------------

OK, so let me first say this: Be prepared to experiment a lot. I will give you some basic guidelines and they say "Hey, here you go! Play around a bit with what I just taught you!" You HAVE to do that. Do not skip the experimenting part unless you already know about it. I can teach you the basics, but how to actually use those basics is up to you. I can't tell you how to make -your- game, but I can tell you how to make a game.

This guide will cover:
How to learn a new software, or "Having realistic expectations."
Events, what are they?
Events, how are they used?
Variables, switches and self switches... Madness or logic?
How are all these things combined, in what way do they enforce eachother?
Musings on basic game design.

This guide will not cover:
Leveldesign, game balancing, or anything that is just simple "read tooltip to see what it is" stuff. I won't go over the save project button or undo button in the taskbar, for instance. Simple stuff you can figure out on your own.

First let me tell you a bit about my ow history with RPG Maker. It began on a LAN party in the early years of this millenium. A friend had just got hold of a copy of RPG Maker 2000. He had got it from Japan, and then used an English translation patch to understand what everything meant.

It was clunky, had odd word spacings, the text window wasn't suited for English, some of the tool tips were still in Japanese, etc. etc., but it had the basics! I was enthralled. Sure, it had just the artwork that came with the software, so any creative endeavours were limited... But still, I sat down at his computer and started experimenting. Now, my time was limited, I had to go home at one point, and I couldn't hog up his computer... So I did the absolutely best thing I could do to quickly learn the concepts: I gave up on making a game and just experimented.

My friend had immediately started with a grand idea of an RPG of absolute Epic proportions, and had done two or three maps and was complaining how difficult some parts were. He made the same error many new RPG Makers do, as I've understood through the years. They open a completely new and alien piece of software and expect to be able to make a game straight out of the box!

...But that is rarely how things work. Sure, it is certainly possible, but whenever you encounter something new you want to do, you have to figure it out then and there... Which is an inefficient way of learning any software.

What he should have done, like I will have you do, and the way I did it, was this: Take the grand idea of an RPG you had in your head when you bought the software... Damn, that is a good idea! I wish I had such good ideas... But put it aside! For now, at least.

Do what I did: Make a room. Play around with events and the database until you know how to do most things, and THEN make your game. The next LAN Party, I had my first game ready: A short game about a LAN Party in a fantasy setting. It was broken, poorly ballanced, and hardly a challange. But it was a game! It had a beginning, a middle and an end. It had a fail state, a victory state and a challange to overcome. I shared it amongst the people of the LAN Party, and people were actually impressed. Sure, it took like 15 minutes to beat, but still, people genuinely liked it and a few came to me with ideas of improvements and completely new game ideas... By the end of the LAN nearly half the people were playing around with RPG Maker.

My friend on the other hand, had completely lost interest in making his grand RPG of epic proportions, and instead played Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2.

Me on the other hand, never burned out, because I didn't have to deal with constant frustrations along the lines of "HOW DO I MAKE THIS THING WORK THE WAY I WANT?!?!" Because I took care to try everything out before I even made a game.

And that is the method I will be using in this here guide. And, it's actually based on a real pedagogic method called "Scaffolding" which means you make sure your students have all the basic concepts down, a sturdy "foundation" for the scaffold, before you build the next level of scaffolding, and so on and so forth.

Let's dive right into it!

Boot up a new project, and you will be met by this:




"Eric," the default starting character, standing in the middle of an ocean. Hi Eric!.. OK, so first thing first. Set up an experimenting area. I won't tell you how to design it, and it isn't important. For now, right click MAP001, give it a more enticing name, and change the dimentions to 41 wide and 31 high. If you want to make other environments than a world map, change tileset to Interior for a room, exterior for a town or dungeon for a dungeon :) Then place a floor that your character can stand on, grass or floorboards, etc. If you aren't confident how to design maps, this is a good time to practice! Also, take a look at the map properties window, try setting a background music and backdrops etc. Leave the encounters empty for now, but this is where you add enemy troops that your character will randomly encounter as he moves around this particular map, and how many steps on average the player must take to encounter one.



I chose interior, played around a bit with the tiles to create something more pleasing to my eye, and this is the result:




Though, this is equally useful:




This, or whatever environment you choose, will be the area where you will be practising most of the things I teach you in this guide.

Now, before we continue, let's go over this:



What even is that? That is the only part of the toolbar I will cover, the rest is standards within software industry. I won't tell you which one is the save icon. If you can't figure that one out, you wouldn't be able to find this guide anyway.

Follow along, from left to right, as I go through each section and icon.


These are different parts of the level you can edit.
Map (F5): lets you edit the tiles of the level. You know, like you probably already did to set up the test area above.
Event (F6): Lets you place events in the level. More on events later.
Region (F7): Lets you edit regions into the level. Say, if you wanted certain monsters to spawn in certain parts of your map, and other monsters in different parts, you use the region editing to set up these regions, that are numbered 1-63. These are unique to each map.


These are the different "drawing tools" for map editing. They are pretty self explanitory if you ever used Microsoft Paint or similar drawing tool, so I'll leave them at that. The only exception is the "Shadow Pen" which lets you draw shadows on the map.


These are zoom levels. Try them out. Easy peasy.


Here things get interesting finally!
Database: Here is where you keep everything ever. No, seriously. This is the brain of your project, all the data is gathered here. Click that now and you will see this:
Actors, classes, enemies, troops, common events... Look around that for a while. See what the different parts are. Check some tool tips. I'll wait. But don't worry too much about it, most of it will be covered later!
Resource manager (F10): This is where you import and export game data. Sprites, tiles, music, sound effects, pictures, even movies. It's pretty simple stuff, import and export. But if you want other environments and tilesets than the 4 tilesets provided by the software, this is where you import said resources.
Script Editor: Scripting is a bit too advance for this guide. And by the time you need this tool to further the development of your game, you will have already learned all I can teach you.
Sound Test: This is an interface to test music and sound. It's what it is.
Character Generator: A fantastic tool for creating character sprites. It's a bit limited, but will do fine for at least a few hundred different-looking characters.


Manage Project (CTRL+M): Here you can manage your projects, save them to steam cloud or upload them to steam workshop.
Playtest (F12): For testing out your creation. Will be used often!


Speaking of Playtest, go ahead and click that now that you have a test area set up. Just to see that you can actually move around and haven't used impassible tiles as floor. Remember though, that if you hold down CTRL while in test mode, you can move through impassible tiles. Good to know for future debugging ^^

When you are certain you can move around like you intended, head on over to the next part.

What are events? If the map is the stage of your story, the events are the main event, heh. The life of your game. They can be NPC's, interactive elements of the map, traps, cutscene triggers, condition checks, transitions to different maps... All the stuff that comes together to create your game. As you can probably guess, events are kind of a big deal. First off, click the Event (F6) icon on the toolbar to enter Entity editing. Doubleclick somewhere you want an Event.

What you'll see pop up is this:



Let's break all that down, shall we? At a first glance, there's a lot of stuff here, but I'll explain what each section does. The next chapter I will go over how to use what you learn here, but for now, lets break it down!



This is basically what you call the Event. It's not something that players will see in game, so don't worry about that. This is for your benefit only, to keep tabs on which event is what and what it does. This is useful when you get to a point where you have 30 to 50 events on a map and need a way to organise them.





This is the field where new pages will come up. Every page holds new options, movement, graphics, content, etc. Like a whole new event..! Only it's not. This is basically used for having an event do different thing under different Conditions, more on those below!





This is where you set the prerequisite conditions for the event. What variables must be a certain value or above, which switches must be activated, what items must be present etc., etc. These won't be used until the chapter on variables, but for now, remember this field as we will be returning to it later.





Here you will be setting up the graphics and movement for the event. The graphics is how the Event will look in the game. The default is no graphic, and thus will be invisiable for the player. The movement is how the event will move around. You can set movement type, speed and frequency. The "Types" are these:
Fixed means that the event won't move on it's own. It will sit exaclty where you put it. It can still move using commands from this event, or others. But it will not move on it's own.
Random means it will move around in a random fashion. Can end up with some hilarious situations, but can also end up blocking the player from moving where they need to be.
Approach means the event will always move towards the player. I personally don't use it, but I guess it can be useful in a situation where you need the event to follow the player around.
Custom lets you set up a specific movement rout using the Move Route... button. This is the most common way to make NPC's move around on the map to make it feel alive. This is what the Move Route window looks like:


Speed lets you set how fast the event will move between two tiles, compared to the player.

Frequenchy lets you set how many long the event will rest in each tile before moving to the rest.

Please observe that you can set up speed and frequency in the "Custom" movement type as well.





Options lets you tick options for the graphics.

• "Walking Anim." ticked means that the graphic will animate when the event moves.
  
• "Stepping Anim." ticked means that the graphic will animate even when standing still.
  
• "Direction Fix" ticked means the graphic will not rotate to face the player when activated.
  
• "Through" ticked means the event can move through normally impassible terrain and other events.

Priority sets up on which level the graphic will generate in relation to the player.

• "Below Character" means the graphic will generate below the character, so if the player steps inside the same tile as the event, the player will appear to be above the event.
  
• "Same as Character" meanns the graphic will generate on the same level as the character, meaning the character usually can't move into the same time as the event.
  
• "Above Character" means the graphic will generate above the character, so if a player steps inside the same tile as the event, the player will appear to be underneath the event.

Trigger sets up how the player interact with the event, if at all. It's also semi dependent on what priority the event has (see above.)

• "Action Button" means that the player has to press the action button to activate the event. If the priority is set to "Same as Character" the player must stand right next to and face the event when pressing the action key. If the priority is set to "Below Character" or "Above Character" the player has to be on the same tile as the event and press the action button.
  
• "Player Touch" meanst the player has to touch the event to activate it. If the Priority is set to "Same as Character" the player needs to bump into the event to activate it. If it's set to "Above Character" or "Below Character" the player just need to enter the same tile as the event to activate it.
  
• "Event Touch" means that another event has to touch the event to activate it. Same rules as Player Touch apply.
  
• "Autorun" means that the event will activate as soon as it is loaded. The player and other events freeze during the event. Note that you need a way to turn off the event or the player will be frozen indefinately, and the event will continuously repeat iself forever. This is usually done with switches and new event pages. More on that later.
  
• "Parallel Process" means that the event will activate as soon as it is loaded. The player and other events continue to operate as normal during the event. Note that you need a way to turn off the event or the event will continuously repeat iself forever. This is usually done with switches and new event pages. More on that later.

In this area contains the commands that the event will execute upon activation. This is what "happens," what "events will transpire" heh. These are the three tabs of commands available.























As you can see, the commands are divided into categories. There's quite a lot of them, but don't worry, before long you will get a feel for at least the most common of the commands. These commands let you do basically everything you want, within limitations ofcourse. These limitations are only lifted when you learn how to script and make your own commands, but, that is not within the spectrum of this guide.





These are pretty self explainatory. Use these to create new pages, delete pages, etc.




Phew. Not too bad, right? It's all pretty logical if you think about it, even if it might appear daunting at first.

When you are comfortable with navigating the "New Event" page, move on to the next part, and we will go over how to use this knowledge!

Welcome back..! Because I hope you played around a bit with the New Event page, because now we will be putting that to good use! We will be dividing this chapter into different lessons. I will assume you know how to navigate the New Event page, if you run into any trouble, read through the previous chapter again! ^^


Alright! This is basic, the most basic of basic, but lets do it for practise and for the people who are very new to the software. Let's make a basic NPC (Non Player Character) to talk to!

Follow these instructions:

• Create a new event somewhere on the map.
  
• Set a graphic
  
• Set priority "Same as Character"
  
• Set trigger "Action Button"
  
• Add the Command "Show Text"

• Select a Face Graphic
  
• Write something the NPC will say. You can change settings if you wish, change position of the text and the background of the text. If you plan on writing longer dialogue and dont want to manually add multiple show text commands, check "Batch Entry" and the software will add as many commands needed to display the entire text... REMEMBER! You need to break lines your self, the software won't format the text to the display window in game. Use the Preview button to see that your text fits within the text window!
  
• When you are happy, click OK and then add a "Show Choices" command below the "Show Text" command you just added,

• Add two dialog choices, in Choice 1, write a response that will make the NPC keep talking, in Choice 2 write a line that will end the converstaion.
  
• Note the "When Cancel" field to the right. This sets the result if the player press escape to skip out of the dialog. In some cases you might want the event to do something special when the player tries to skip, in that case, use the "Branch" option. If you don't want the player to be able to skip the dialog at all, use the "Disallow" option. For now, let it stay at Choice 2, which means that skipping the dialogue is the same as choosing Choice 2.
  
• Now add a "Show Text" command under the first choice, use the same face graphic and write something more for the NPC to say.

You should have something that looks like this:


If so, well done! Click OK and then click Playtest (F12) in the toolbar. Make sure the dialogue works as intended. For now, there won't be any consequences of the dialogue, and it will be infinately repeatable. Let it stay that way for now. Dont delete this event, it will be used in later lessons!

Make another NPC and have him say other things. Try adding more conversation branches. Move on when you feel confident on the usage of choices and messages.




Again, very basic. We are doing this just to get a feeling for the New Event window and where to find different stuff. As I said earlier, the Event Commands window are divided into tabs (1, 2, 3) and categories withing those tabs. On the first tab you have the category "Message," "Party" and "Game Progression" etc. From now on I will direct you towards those categories, but won't mention under which tab they are. Again, so you can learn to navigate the software on your own.

Furthermore, I won't describe how to do stuff you already did before. If at any point you wonder "Ugh, how did choices work again?" for instance, check the previous lessons :) There's a reason why I give you practise assignment at the end of each lesson.

OK, so services. In most RPGs, JRPGs in particular, there are NPCs that run shops and Inns. It's pretty much a tradition. So lets get on with it, let's make a friendly shop/inn/gold NPC.

• Make a new Event. Give it a sprite, set it to fixed movement, same priority as player and action button trigger.
  
• Give it a hello message.
  
• Present the player with 4 choices, sett "Inn" as Choice 1, "Shop" as Choice 2, "Gold" as Choice 3 and "Nevermind" as Choice 4. Tick the Choice 4 as the "When Cancel" option.
  
• Under the "When [Inn]" line, add a text message that tells you the price, 10G.
  
• Add a show choice command. Set one of the choices to "Stay (10G)" and the other to "Nevermind" and tick the "Nevermind" choice as the "When Cancel" option.
  
• Under the "Stay" choice, add the command "Conditional Branch..." from under the "Flow Control" category. This is a very useful command that you will use in many, many different situations, and will be further explained in later lessons. This is how the window looks:

• For now, go to tab 4 of the "Conditional Branch" window and tick he gold option. Set 10 gold or more. Make sure the "set handling when conditions do not apply" box at the bottom of the window is ticked. This means the game will check if the party has 10 Gold or more, and give the player one result if he does have more than 10G and another result if he doesn't (hence the ticked "set handling when conditions do not apply" box). Click OK.
  
• Under the Conditional Branch: Gold is 10 or more" add the command "Change Gold" from under the "Party" category. This window is pretty self explainatory. Make it decrease party gold by 10.
  
• Add a "Fadeout Screen" command from under the "Screen Effects" category. Thiss will make the screen fade to black.
  
• Add a "Recover All" command from under the "Actor" category.
  
• Add a "Play SE" command from the "Music and Sounds" category. Set a sutiable sound effect.
  
• Add a "Wait" command from under the "Timing" category. Set it to 60 frames. 60 Frames is one second, 30 frames is half a second, and so on and so forth.
  
• Add a "Fadein Screen" command from under the "Screen Effects" category. This will make the screen fade back in from black.
  
• Under the "Else" line of the conditional branch, add a text message that tell the player they cant afford the Inn service.

Congratulations! You have now successfully used your first conditional branch! The end result should look something like this:



Let's move on with the other choices.

• Under the "When [Shop]" line add a "Shop Processing..." command from under the "Scene Control" category. This is again a very simple window. Double click on an empty "Goods" line and select what you want the shop to sell. You can even specify a custom price for each goods, but for now tick the "Standard" price to use the price set up for the item in the Database (F9).
  
• Add a potion, a battle axe and an iron plate armor to the shop. Let all prices be standard. Let the "Purchase Only" remain unticked.
  
• Under the "When [Gold]" line, add the command "Change Gold" and have it increase party gold by 1000G.
  
• Add a text message with the "Dim Background" background and "Middle" position that says "You got 1000G!" to inform the player of the generosity of this NPC.

Here is roughly what your finished product should look like:


There you go! A very basic NPC that offers vital services and gold for testing purposes!

Don't Delete this NPC, he will be useful in future playtesting!

Make an NPC that will change the weather for you using the "Set Weather Effects..." command from under the "Picture and Weather" category. Make him charge 100g for the bother.

OK, so last part we dealt with NPC. The first lesson will deal with NPC movement, but later we are going to deal with another type of events that i call "Triggers" which are events with below or above character priority and player touch trigger.

"Triggers" can be anything from invisible map transitions, visible teleporters, invisible traps, etc. These lessons rely on previous knowledge from lesson 1 and 2 as well as the "Events, what are they?" chapter.

By now you should have a decent grip on how to navigate the windows. I'll keep stuff shorter from now on.


This is a short lesson on how to make NPCs feel more alive. Remember the "Custom" movement type from the "Events, what are they?" chapter? Lets go back to that, read up on that before moving on.

• Make a new event with suitable graphic.
  
• Select "Custom" from the movement "Type:" dropdown meny.
  
• Click the "Move Route..." button.
  
• Make sure the "Repeat Action" box is ticked. This will make the NPC repeat the movement indefinitely instead of just once when you enter the map. The "Skip If Cannot Move" box makes the event skip impossible movement instructions and go ahead to the next movement in the route. This is best left unticked except under specific circumstances, as it can mess up your carefully planned rounte if, say, a player blocks the NPC's route by parking themselves in his way.
  
• Add three "Step Right" instructions.
  
• Add three "Step Left" instructions.
  
• Click OK.

This will make the NPC pace back and forth from left to right and back again. Since the "Skip If Cannot Move" box is unticked, the NPC will wait patiently for the player to move before pacing on. Run a playtest to make sure that he moves as you would expect.

Make the NPC move in a square fashion.
Make the NPC Jump.




OK, on to the triggers!

• Make two new events next to each other with at least 3 tiles spacing, below character priority, and player touch trigger. Keep in mind that normally you might want to keep map transition triggers invisible unless they are teleporters or magical or whatever, and thus leave graphics empty... But that means you would have a hard time finding the transition, so for training purposes set a glowing Hexagram graphic for both of them, and check the "Stepping Anim."
  
• Edit the leftmost hexagram event.
  
• Add a "Transfer Player" command. This is what you will see:

• It will default to the map you are currently editing, which suits us fine, but if you had more maps you could use any of those to connect your maps together by, say, activating an entity in a village to transfer into a house, for instance.
  
• For now, press the tripple dot next to the map name. You will see a zoomed out version of the map you have selected in the map list to the left. There should only be one map there, the test map you are currently editing, like so:

• From here, mark the right most hexagram event and click "OK."
  
• Choose the direction the player will face when teleported from the "Direction:" drop down menu. Select "Left." Select the "White" fade from the "Fade" drop down menu.
  
• Click OK.
  
• Add a suitable sound effect using the "Play SE" command.
  
• Click OK to finish editing this event.

Halfways there!

• Edit the rightmost hexagram event.
  
• Using the instructions above, have the player teleport to the leftmost hexagram event, facing right and with a white fade out!

Done! Now you just need to playtest to make sure everything works as intended!

Make a new map, and make an event teleport you to the new map.
Add a teleporter to this new map to bring you back to the test map.




This will just be a basic trap to show how trap mechanics work. Usually, you want traps to do more than damage the player's party, but for now we will have to make do with simple damage and status effects. And, unlikt most traps, this will be sprung every time you step on it.

Relax. In a later chapter, "The Road to Make an Actual Game, Events and Variables Combined!" there will be an "Advanced Traps" lesson. But you won't be able to do those without first understanding what variables are, which will be explained later. For now:

• Make an event below character priority, and player touch trigger. Keep in mind that normally you might want to keep trap triggers pretty much invisible or at least very discreet. But to make sure you can find your own trap, give it a hexagram graphic like the teleporters in the previous lesson.
  
• Use the "Show Animation" command and select the "050:Poison" animation and select "Player" for character. This will make the game play the animation on top of the player. Make sure the "Wait for Completion" box isn't ticked.
  
• Use the "Flash Screen" command and make it flash Red with a Strength of 255 for 6 frames (1/10th of a second). Make sure the "Wait for Completion" box isn't checked.
  
• Use the "Wait" command to have the player freeze for 6 frames, simulating the fact that they hindered by the trap springing.
  
• Use the "Change HP..." command to decrease the HP by 10 for the entire party.
  
• Use the "Change State..." comand to set all party members to poisoned.

You should now have something like this:



There you have it! Triggers like these, meaning events you step on, can be used in may ways. Play around with them a bit, try making something truly weird happen when you step on them. Now playtest your trap!


Make other traps that plays different animations, and apply different statuses.

These are practise regimes to make sure you can navigate successfuly through basic event editing, and how to combine the stuff I have taught up to this point.. I will just give you tasks, stuff to consider, and let you have a go at it.

• Make an NPC that lets you change between 3 classes. Remember that the new class will be level 1, no matter your previous level.
  
• Make an NPC that grants you levels.
  
• Make an NPC that lets you change an actor's name.
  
• Make trigger that change the background music.
  
• Make a trigger that starts a batle with two slimes.
  
• Make an event that looks like a chest. Have it give the character a potion. Marvel at the chest of endless potions! Endless I say!
  
• Make a trap that moves in a pattern.
  
• Make an NPC that runs super fast back and forth across the entire map! Remember the difference between speed and frequency!! Gotta go fast!

When you are done with these, move on to the next chapter.

The Database is where all the game's brains are at. This keeps track of things like actors, classes, items, skills, what you call your currency, the main menu, common events, tilesets, enemies, troops, etc., etc.

I showed you this thing before, remember? It looked like this:



This... Is a LOT to learn. I won't cover everything here, part because I don't have the time, but mostly because the stuff I won't cover isn't needed. Not that the functions are useless, but because the tooltips tell you what you need to know. I won't do a Database "breakdown" like I did with the "New Event" window back in "Events, what are they?"

I will explain what each tab does, and maybe give you a practice task to complete... Remember, in here, you could mess things up. Which is why we are doing things in this test project, and not in your grand 100+ hours long game of high adventure. This way, you won't worry about screwing things up beyond repair, just experiment to your heart's content.

Now, let's move on to the first tab...






Ah, here we go. This is where you keep your actors. Which means, your party members. People your player will be able to recruit in your game. People who will fight for them.

The first actor, Eric, is the one set to be your player character by default. Look at him for a while. You can see his name, his graphics, his "nickname," his intial and max levels, his starting gear...

The "Features" to the right are special effects for the specific actor. You can set certain immunities here, say if you had a lizard people hero, maybe you'd want him/her/it immune to poison or something like it?

• Change his name. Change his nickname. Change his starting gear, make it OP if you want. Change his sprite and face graphic. Change his class! Try adding a few features to him! Remember to check tooltips for each feature, as they can be somewhat obscure.
  
• Testrun and check out your new main hero!

You remember when you set your 001 Actor (Previousl known as Eric)'s class before? Well, here is where you create and edit classes. First off, see the "Change Maximum..." button to the bottom left? Click it and set a new maximum value to 11. Look at the empty class and notice how the parameter curves are all identical, there are no features and no skills.

Go back to the soldier class. Spot the difference between parameter curves? The soldier is better at some stuff than the empty class and worse at others. This is ofcourse because some classes are better at certain stuff than others, and the empty class is a tabula rasa, a jack-of-all-trades, master of none.

Click one of the curves of the empty class. There are different "Quick Settings" that are semi randomly generated when you click them. They range from curve type A to E where an A curve means that the class is really good at this parameter, and E means it sucks. If you go back to the soldier, count the amount of "A" curves among his parameters. There is only one really, ATK in this case. MHP and DEF are "B" curves, AGI and LUK are a "C" curves, the MDF as well as MAT are both "D" curves and MMP is a clear "E" curve,

To convert this to an easy game ballance when you make your own classes, think of it as this: Your empty class has a score of 0 curve points at the moment, since they are all "C" curves. For each D curve you get 1 point. For every E curve you get 2 points. Each B curve cost 1 point, and every A curve cost 2 points.

To keep things balanced, you need to keep the final sum 0. So, you can select one "E" curve parameter and get an "A" curve parameter or alternatively 2 B curve parameters. As long as the total when counting up all points equal 0, your class is relatively ballanced.

If you want your class to get more points, add negative features. Conversely, if you want a nice feature, like poison resistance or chance of double attacks, sacrifice a curve point.

Now when we've looked at curves, look at the skills... These are the skill your class learns as certain levels... Now look at the classes one by one, and look for the "Add Skill Type" features. There by dedault 2 skill types, each with their own skills. Having more than one skill type cost a curve point... Which is why mages are generally weaker than warriors, but has access to "Magic" skills.

Aside from skills, each class also has the ability to equip certain types of gear only, and these are set in the "Feature" field as well, as you can see if you inspect the other classes.

Later we will come to the part of the database where we create our own skill types, weapon types, etc. But for now, lets be happy for what we got!

• Try making your own class! Remember the curve point system and try to make a balanced class. Don't forget to set features like "Equip Armor" and "Equip Weapon" to set up what types of gear your class can wear.
  
• Try making your own class! Just go haywire and create the ultimate God class! Don't forget to set features like "Equip Armor" and "Equip Weapon" to set up what types of gear your class can wear.
  
• Try out both classes in playtest, either by having an NPC event change your class into these classes, or by setting it as Actor 001 (Eric)'s class.
  
• Try setting the initial level of Actor 001 (Eric) to test out the skills you add to the classes, or have an event that change your character's level.
  
• Also, have an event that lets you start a battle, or add a random encounter in the Map Properties window by rightclicking your map in the main window and selecting "Map Properties..."

Ssh, ssh, ssh, calm down. I'm here. I know it's a lot to take it, but it's really not that bad. Use your mouse cursor. Let it hover over each field, each dropdown, one by one. Read the tooltips, because they will tell you mostly what you need to know. I mean it. Go on, I'll wait for you.

Done? Nah. No cheating, come on now, do it properly.

Back? OK, good. I know I said I wouldn't do a breakdown, but here's a partial one anyway.

General Settings

Take a look at the skill "Bodyslam." It's skill number 021. I chose this skill because it offers a nice cross section of what a skill is. First, it has a name. It has an Icon which will be seen in the battle menu in-game. It also has a description that will be seen in-game, which tells the player what the skill will do in a simple way.

WIth me so far? OK. From here it gets a bit more advanced, but not tricky in any way. Remember to read the tooltips!

Bodslam is a "Special" skill type which means only classes and actors that has the Add Skill Type "Special" will be able to use it. Conversely, if it had been a Magic type, only classes or actors with the Add Skill Type "Magic" would be able to use it. Again, you can add a new entire skill type later on if you wish.

It doesn't cost neither TP (which is a resource that you build up while battling) nor MP (your mana).

It targets one enemy. It can only be used in battle (some skills can be used from the menus while not in battle, such as healing abilities etc).

Invocation

Speed is used to buff or debuff agility when the attack is used. Since Aglity (AGI) decides in what order the attacks land, you can make skills that take longer to use by giving speed a negative value and thus decreasing agility for the purpose of deciding attack order, or faster by giving speed a positive value and this buffing agility for the purpose of deciding attack order.

Success is measured in % and determine how great your chance is to successfully pull off the skill. Bodyslam has a success rate of 80% which means 20% of all times your player use the skill, it will just fail, the enemy won't even have to use it's evasion rate or magic reflection, the skill is just bust.

Repeats decide how many times the attack land. Bodyslam has 1 Repeat which means it will land 1 time. Compare to skill "004:Double Attack" which has 2 Repeat and this will land twice.

TP Gain sets how many TP points you get for using the attack. TP points are used to power certain powerful attacks. Bodyslam in this case has 0, which means it won't generate any TP.

Bodyslam's "Hit Type" is "Physical Attack", which means it's hit rate depends on the user's hit rate (HIT) and the defenders evasion rate (EVA). A Magic attack's hit rate depends on the defender's magic evasion (MEV) and suffer the risk of being substituted or even reflected back on the caster (Yikes!)

In the "Animation" drop down you set the animation you want to play on the target when using the ability. Bodyslam has it's own animation, 035:Bodyslam.

"Using Message" is basically a confirmation text for the player, telling them the skill has been used, cast or whatever. You can type whatever here, as long as you stay within the fields, the player should be able to read it.

Weapon requirements are none, and are self explanatory. If you have a weapon set in either of the drop down menus, the player need that weapons equipped to use the skill.

Damage

The "Type" drop down set the type of damage dealt. The damage types are HP Damage, MP Damage, HP Recover, MP Recover, HP Drain and MP Drain. Damage means it's will hurt the target's HP or MP. Recover means it will heal the target's HP or MP. Drain means that it drains the MP or HP of the target, meaning the skill's user gets equal amounts of HP or MP that was drained from the enemy. Drain attacks are usually pretty weak.

The "Element" drop down sets the elemental affinity of the attack. Bodyslam is of the physical element, the main damage dealt is physical, and enemies with physical resistance or weakness takes more or less damage. Same goes for the other elemental types.

The Formula sets the amount of damage. It can be a flat value, or an algorithm, or both. Bodyslam's formula is a.atk * 4 - b.def * 2.
"a" means the user of the skill, "b" means the target. This means the following:

• The damage of the Bodyslam is the user's ATK * 4.
  
• The defender's DEF * 2 is then substracted from that damage.

The formula does not take the resistances of the target into account at this stage of the damage calculation
Read the tooltip for more information on the available formula syntax.

The final damage is then affected by a variance. The variance for Bodyslam is 20, which means after the formula is calculated it can still vary +-20. This adds a random factor to the attack.

The "Critical" dropdown decides if the skill can score a critial hit based on the attackers crit raing (CRI) and the defender's crit evade (CEV). Bodyslam cannot critically hit, since it's set to "No."

Effects

Here you set up additional effects to the attack, and their chance to occur. Bodyslam has a 50% chance to inflict the "Stun" state on the target.

Notes

Lets you set notes for your own benefit. These are not viewable in-game.

• Increase the Maximum number of skills and make a new skill for the class of your main hero, the 001:Actor previously known as Eric. Also have a way for your hero to access that skill by leveling up, preferably using an event to add levels on activation.

Considerably less information to take in compared to skills, yes? Again, the information you need is in the tooltip. Take the item "001:Potion."

It has a name, an icon and a description.

It has the "Item Type" Normal which means it's a regular item compared to a key item that is used for quests or the likes, and is subject to special rules in-game.

It has a standard price, 50G. It is a consumable, which means once the item is used it is destroyed. The scope is one ally, it can always be used, in both battle and from the menus.

Invocation, Damage and Effects are all used in the same way as skills.




Ah, again, lot's in common with previous entries. For the purpose of this chapter, lets take a look at the item "001:Hand Ax" (typo comes out of the box, a feature of the software).

General Settings

Here you set the name of the item, the weapon type, the icon as seen from the menus, a desription of the item, it's price and attack animation.

Parameter Changes

Here you set how the item change the actor's parameters when equipped. The Hand Ax increase the ATK. Weapons could also decrease certain parameters if a negative value is used.

Features

Here you can set up penalties and bonuses to having the weapon equipped. In the case of the Hand Ax, you can see that it's ATK element is Physical. A flaming sword might be fire for instance. It has a HIT value of -10% which means it's an inaccurate weapon with a higher chance of missing it's target. It also has an Atk Speed value of -5 which means it is a slow weapon to swing and will hit later.




Same procedure as last year. Take a look at "023:Iron Plate." I won't even cover general settings here, it's the same as weapons, but an "Armor Type" instead of a "Weapon Type," and an "Equip Type" which lets you specify what type of armor it is, body armor, helmet, shield or accessory.

The "Paramenter Changes" work the same way as with weapons. Iron Plate increase DEF, decrease AGI.

"Features" also work the same way as weapons.

• Make an item, a weapon and an armor for the class of your main actor. Either equip them as starting gear or have an event give you the stuff in-game. Don't forget you can increase the maximum number of weapons, armors and items in the bottom left corner of the Database window.

Ah, here we go, new stuff to learn!.. Mostly. As you have probably noticed, a lot of stuff carries over from tab to tab. Let's break down the "Enemies" tab for now. Lets look at the enemy "027:Succubus."

General Settings

Here you name the enemy, set up the graphic that will be displayed in the battle, and also it's parameters. The parameters work just as they do for the actors. A high AGI means they will probably attack faster, etc.

Rewards and Drop Items

You can set the XP and Gold reward under the "Rewards" category, and right next to it, under the "Drop Items" category, you can set items the enemy will drop and the probability for the drop.

Action Patterns

Now, here's where things get interesting. Here you can set up the skills the enemy will use, the conditions that must be met for their use, and how often they are used. The higher Rating (R) the skill has, the more common is it's use. If two skills both have their conditions met, the one with the highest "R" is used. For more information, read the tooltip for the "Rating" field.

Features and Notes

As with Actors and Classes, lets you set up the enemies hit rating etc. Notes are, as always, only for your benefit.

• Add two enemies. Give them a skill set, with different ratings, set up their parameters and so on. Try and keep them reasonably easy for now, for testing purposes.

Here you set up the troops, which are the encounters of the game, be they random or called from "Battle Processing..." comands. Each troop contains at least one enemy. You can test the strength of any given troop by clicking the "Battle Test" button. There you will be able to set up a party of actors, their levels and equipment, etc. This way you won't have to run through a playtest to try out weapons, classes, etc. against enemies.

In the "Battle Event" category you can set up detailed events in a specific troop encounter... Useful for in-battle dialog between party members or enemies during, say, a boss fight.

• Make a new Troop and add the enemy you just made in the previous part of this chapter. Try your luck using the Battle Test button.

I won't go into any detail on the different states for the simple reason that the ones included by default should be enough for most intents and purposes.

In all my years of using RPG Maker I have never once needed to create a new state, or status. Sleep, stun, poison, etc. have all been enough for me. Perhaps I have tweaked and added more poisons with different levels of severity for some states. Sleeps that last longer, poisions that drains more hp, etc. But that is as easy as copying an existing state, rename it and change the features to give it more power.






Here you create animations for use in battle or on the map. This is a highly creative process, and thus there isn't much I can teach you. General Settings lets you name the animation, select which graphics to use in the animation and the number of frames the animation will consist of.

The "SE and Flash Timing" category lets you specify flashes and sound effects in certain frames of the animation.

The rest is basically adding graphics to each frames, drag them around and place them in a way that is entirely up to your creative vision. I can't help you there.






Here things get interesting again. The standard tilesets are already good to go out of the box, but whenever you add a new Tileset for the game, you need to set up rules for the tileset. Which tiles can you pass over or not? From which directions can you enter a tile? Is the tile rendered above events? Is the tile dangerous, as in, will it hurt the party if it travels across it?

First take a look at the "002:Exterior" tileset. Make sure the "Passage" button and the "A" tab of the tileset (the tabs are located at the bottom of the tileset view) is selected. Now you will see that the tiles have either Circles or Crosses on them. A crossed out tile means it's normally not accessible, and a circled Tileset means the party can move across the tile. There is a third kind of "Passage" Icon that is used to tell the game these tiles are drawn above the character to create an illusion of three dimensions. To see these in action go to tab "B" or "C" and find the tiles marked with a star.

These are just basic passage icons though, you can even set up from which sides of a tile a character can enter using the "Passage (4dir)" button.

"Ladder" tiles are used to pass over normally impassible tiles, such as walls. You can find a couple of these in the "B" tab as well.

"Bush" tiles has a semi transparent layer covering the lower part of your body giving the appearance of wading through the tile.

There are no "Counter" tiles in the "002:Exterior" tileset, but if you switch to "003:Interior" and tab "A" you will see 4 of them. These tiles let your player activate events behind it, as if talking over a counter... Hence the name. They also make excellent tables in leveldesign :)

Then we have "Damage Floor" which does exactly what it sounds like. It hurts the party when crossing the tile. That's it basically.

Finally there's "Terrain Tag" which lets you assign terrain numbers. These are used for events, and lets the event check the "tag" of the certain tile with the "Get Location Info..." command that lets you store the tag number in a varibale. That variable can then be checked with conditional branches etc. More on variables, self switches and switches later.

OK, so here's where things get really interesting. Common events are events that you can call from other places in game. For instance, from battle, from "conversation" with NPC and even from items! This lets you set up some pretty neat stuff. Here's a few simple examples I've used common events for throughout the years:

• A teleportation orb to the player's very own pocket dimension.
  
• A way for players to check their moral standing.
  
• A book with encrypted writing that the player gradually decrypts.

I won't go into detail on how to make a Common Event in this chapter, because it pretty much requires that you know how variables and switches work. But for now, read the tooltips if you want to, we will go over this again later on, so no worries.






Here you can set up a number of things. Your starting party, the garphics of vehicles, the window color, the music, the sound effects, the tile screen background, the starting positions of player and vehicles, the currency unit and some additional options. There isn't much to say here, again, these are all cosmetic options, and the ones that are not have perfectly transparent and understandable tooltips that tell you everything you need to know.






This is where you add more weapon and armor types, new skill types, change the in-game names of parameters like ATK, MaxHP etc. You can even change the names of menu selections like "New Game", and rename equpment slots. But for most part, the most common usage of this database tab is to add new weapon, skill, armor and element types.

• Create a new weapon type. Create a new weapon for that weapon type. Add that weapon type to your class. Equip that weapon on your main actor.
  
• Create a new skill type. Create a new skill for that skill type. Add that skill type to your class. Add that skill to your class.
  
• Rename the "New Game" button to something cooler.
  
• Run a playtest

Well, now you have tried out the software, more or less. You know your way around it, how to add stuff to the database, how to make simple events, both NPCs and Triggers. I haven't really gotten into the last two trigger types for events, which are "Auto Run" and "Parallel Process" because you can't really use those two effectively without understanding variables and switches, and how they are used. Same goes for "Common Events" as mentioned before.

Anyhow, let us dig right into it!




What are variables? Let's try and leave maths out of this. I do not know your mathematical understanding so I will presume you barely know how to read. Sorry for any mathematicians and geniuses out there :) This is for the uninitiated.

Variables are like named boxes. When you start out the boxes are empty, in other words, every variable starts with a default value of 0. Events can check what's inside the box and do different things depending on what it finds, or change what's inside the box. A variable, a box, can contain many things. It contain numbers in the forms of just flat numbers or actor levels, map data etc.

To get a feel for how you control the value of the variables, or the "content of the boxes," lets have a look at the "Control Variable" command window.




The "Variables" field lets you select which variable you want to use. Do that now and this window will pop up:




By default you have access to 100 variables. I usually crank that up to 2000. 100 Variables is nothing in a larger game. Using the Control Variable command you can select a box and change it's content. You can use the operations to change the value by adding to it, subtracting from it, multiply it, divide it or modify it.

For example, using the "Set" operation you can change the value to whatever operand you prefer, be it a constant, another variable's value, or game data like actor levels etc. Using the "Add" operation adds the operand to the already existing value. So if the value of the selected variable was 2 and you add 6, the new value of the variable would be 8. Simple maths.

You can also freely name each variable, because the game checks for the variable number (001 to 100 by default) rather than the name when it runs the command. A way to explain this is that even though you wrote a name on the box, the commands doesn't check the names, but it's location, the number of the variable (1 to 100 by default). Thus you can change the name however you want.

OK, so that is how you can change the contents of each box. How does the game check the contents? Remember back in chapter "Events, what are they?" Remember the breakdown we did? I think I promised I would go into this later, and here we are.



These are the simplest forms of checking variables. They are useful only for simple checks, becuse they can only check if switches are on or if variables are a certain value or above. This is great for simple stuff, but for more advanced checks you use conditional branches...



Here you can select a variable and then check if it is equal to, greater than, less than, greater than or equal to, less than or equal to, or not equal to a certain value or even compared to another variable.

Here's two examples:

• The variable 001:Example has the value 5, or in other words, the box 001:Example has the number 5 inside of it. A conditional branch checks the variable. It want's to know if the value is equal to 3, or in other words, if the box has the number 3 in it. It doesn't so it runs the "Else" branch of the conditional branch.

• The variable 001:Example has the value 5, or in other words, the box 001:Example has the number 5 inside of it. A conditional branch wants to know if the value is greater than the value of variable 002:Compare, which has a value of 3. In other words, it wants to compare whats inside box 001:Example to whar's inside box 002:Compare and see if the number inside box 001:Example is bigger. Since the number 5 is bigger than 3, the conditions are met, and it runs the conditional branch.

As you can see, it's more complex than just checking if a number is # or above as you would from the Event page.

Still, for simple stuff like NPC dialogue, using simple conditions rather than conditional branches would be useful for keeping the eventpage less cluttered... Here's an example where the event page conditions are good enough. Remember the first NPC we did? The one with basic dialogue? Edit that one.

Now, after the "tell me more" dialoge, add a "Control Variable..." command. Choose variable 001 and name it "HasTalkedTo" and set it to 1 using the operation "Set" and the "Constant" operand.

Now, copy and paste the eventpage. Delete all commands in the contents window. Add a new message that says "I already said all there is to say" or something along those lines. Then tick the "Variables" box



Now you should have something along the lines of this. Try it out. What happens in-game is this:

• When you first talk to the character, the game tests the conditions for each page.
  
• The first page has no conditions, but the second page does. Now, page's whose conditons are met always take priority over non conditional pages like page 1.
  
• It will see that the conditions for page 2 is not met, since the variable 001:HasTalkedTo is 0.
  
• Thus it will run page 1.
  
• If you choose to cancel the dialog or use choice 2, the event will follow the same steps as mentioned above because we didn't add the variable control to choice 2.
  
• If you use choice 1, the NPC will give you their message and set the variable 001:HasTalkedTo to 1.
  
• The next time you run the event, the game will test the conditions again and discover the conditon for page 2 is true, the variable 001:HasTalkedTo is equal to 1 or more.
  
• Thus it will run page 2.

Simple enough, eh? Let us move on to something a bit more advanced. Remember the guy that gave us gold? The one with the very deep pockets? Let's make him a bit less generous using a conditional branch. Open up that event now.

• Under the "When [Gold]" line, add a conditional branch.
  
• Tick the variable option, choose variable 002 and give it the name "HasGivenGold"
  
• Have it check if the variable is Not Equal To 1.
  
• Cut the "Give Gold" command and "Show Message" command and paste them under the conditional branch line.
  
• Under the "Give Gold" and "Show Message" commands, add a "Control Variable..." command. Have it set the variable 002:HasGivenGold to 1
  
• Under the "Else:" line add a message from the dude that says "Im not made of money."

What happens now is this:

• When you choose the "Gold" option in game, it will check if the variable "002:HasGivenGold" is not equal to 1.
  
• If it is not equal to 1 it will give the player gold, the text message will show up and the variable "002:HasGivenGold" will be set to 1.
  
• If it is equal to 1 , the conditions are not met and the "Else" branch is run, showing the "I'm not made of money" message.

That's about it for variables. You can make these conditional branches as complex as you like! You can add additional conditional branches within another conditional branch if you want to check many variables in a row. Say that you want the game to check if you have talked to two different NPCs before running an event.

Switches

Switches are simplified variables. There are two types, switches and self switches (will be covered further down in this chapter). Switches are used the same way as variables and function the same way with one crucial difference: They can only have one of two states: ON or OFF.

It's basically a true or false statement, a 1 or a 0. It's used in the same way as variables. This helps avoid cluttering the Variables, as simple "is variable 00X = 1" checks can be replaced with switches instead. You name and change switches using the "Control Switches" command. This is what that command looks like:




Not much to it. You can check one or several switches, and you can check if they are on or off. As with Variables, you name and select switches by clicking the tripple dots in the single field which opens the "Switch" window:




Familiar? Identical to the "Variable" window from the previous chapter, only it's switches instead of variables.

You can check switches using either conditional branches or the "Event Conditions" field of an Event Page:



Checking for switches using conditional branches is preferrable to checking via event pages, because in the event page you can just check if a switch is on... Not if it is off...

There isn't a whole lot more to say on the subject of Switches. Switches are global, which means they can be used by several Events across the game. An event in MAP008 can check a switch you set up back on MAP001 without problems. That doesn't work for self switches though...



Self Switch

There are but two differences between a Switch and a Self Switch. A Self Switch cannot be named, and it's local. That means they are unique to the event that use them, and cannot be accessed by external Events. There are 4 Self Switches per Event, A, B, C and D.

This leads to the following problem:

Say, EVENT001 has set Self Switch A to ON. EVENT001 can use that within it's own Event Pages. EVENT002 cannot react to the self switches of EVENT001. Any conditional branch set up within an event can only check that particular event's self switches. It cannot check if another Event's self switch is on or off.

Self Switches has VERY limited uses. The only benefit is to avoid cluttering the Switches window with switches you will only use once for that one particular Event.

This is how the "Control Self Switch" command window looks like:





Switches Practise

After using variables this should be a breeze. First off is Switches:

• Create an NPC. Have him say something and then using the "Control Switch..." command, name switch 001 to "HasTalkedSwitch" and set it to ON.
  
• Create another NPC. Using conditional branch, have him check if switch 001:HasTalkedSwitch is ON. If it is, Add a message. Under the "Else" line, add a message instructing the player to talk to the first NPC first.

Simple enough usage. Next up is Self Switches:

• Create an NPC.
  
• Add a Conditional branch checking if Self Switch A is ON.
  
• If it is, have him tell the player to leave him alone.
  
• Under the Else line, have him say a grumpy hello and then using the "Control Self Switch..." command set Self Switch "A" to ON.

Switches are too ez for a variable pro like you.

What are they?

These are events that both do basically the same thing. They run automatically when the player enters a map, but work differently.

Autorun pause anything else going on. Autonomous movement from NPC will freeze. The player will lose control of the game. And, you need to have a way to turn it off using switches or variables, or it will just loop endlessly and freece the game.

Paralell Process does the same, but it lets the player and other events do their thing as usual. Keep in mind that with paralell processes you don't need to turn off the event or switch event page, you can just add conditional brances and variables/switches to make sure the process doesn't repeat itself. SInce it doesn't effectively "Pause" the game, it doesn't matter that it keeps looping and doing it's thing in the back ground.


Uses, Cutscenes

Autorun and Paralell Processes can both be used for cutscenes. Autorun is perhaps ideal for this, if no other events need to play at the same time. Add the Autorun, play the cut scene using the "Movement" commands, show message, screen flash, whatever you want. Then, when the cutscene is done, just set a self switch A to ON, then a new event page with the condiotion "if self switch A is on" and let it be a regular, empty "player touch" event... Or whatever else you need to do to break the Autorun's control of the game. Another alternative is to have the Auto Run run in an identical copy of the map where the cut scene takes place and have the game transport you there and back again using transfer.

OR, you could just go with the Paralell Process. Have it run a conditonal branch, that checks if a switch, perhaps named "HasSeenCutscene" is OFF. Then have it run the cut scene, using the "Set Move Route..." for player to "Wait" 60 frames and have it repeat endlessly, making the player stand still as the cut scene takes place. At the end of the cutscene, set an empty movement route for the player and turn the Switch "HasSeenCutscene" to ON. The Paralell Process will keep running in the background, but because it's conditions to play the cutscene is never true, the game will go on as usual.


Uses, live switch/variable checking

Autorun is useless for this.

Paralell Process is fine though. Again, using a paralell process and a conditional branch, you can constantly check a variable or switch, and have things respond to player actions. Say, if you are in a church where weapons are dis allowed, you could have the event that let the player enter the church unequip their weapons. Then, to make sure the player isn't being naughty, you can have a paralell process enforce that law.

Using a conditional branch that checks if a player has a weapon equipped, the game show a message reminding the player weapons are forbidden and unequip them again.


Uses, weather and random happenings

Again, using paralell processes, you can have a paralell process set a variable to a random number every 5 minutes using wait commands... And after that, have conditional branches that respond when the variable is a certain number. Say, if you wanted a weather system on the world map, you could have a paralell process set a variable to a random number between 1 and 10 every 5 minutes. And after that have a conditinal branch that check if the variable is 8 or above, and if that is true, start a rain effect. Then, the paralell process will restart from the top, set the variable to a random number between 1 and 10 and then wait 5 minutes before running the conditional branch.

Using imagination, you can even use this to trigger random happenings in the game world!


Uses

Basically, use these events to breathe extra life into your game world. These are just two examples that I can think of from the top of my head, but I'm not here to tell you how to use the events, just how they work.

I had planned on adding additional practice chapters down here, but decided that will have to wait for another time. RPG Maker MV Was announced during the work on this guide, and now I want to dedicate my time to convert my 150 hours long project from VX Ace into MV. It will take time. It won't be pretty. But it will work.

MV Is basically the same as VX Ace from a consumer stand point, if you disregard the whole jump from ruby to java which has most bearings on advanced users. Again, I won't cover scripting here... And if you thought this guide was long winded, imagine a guide on how to write scripts in ruby! Oh man...


Uh, oh well. Thanks for reading this through if you managed all of it. I hope you get some enjoyment out of it. I expect most people will move on to MV as I did, so this guide, although I spent 15 hours on it, most likely will fade into oblivion. I will add a link to this from the MV Community page and hope it is at least of some use for you's, since the concepts are basically the same, even if the images in this guide won't add up to how MV looks (naturally)

Anyhow, keep calm, enjoy experimenting with MV! I sure will!