How do I make bridges?

Started tinkering around with RPG Maker again after a long hiatus, and I am curious how I would make something like in Secret of Mana where the player could walk across a platform.. then run around underneath it.

Not sure if that makes sense... basically you could walk across a bridge and underneath it on the same screen.

Also, is there anyway to make characters run across rooftops? I am looking to put some secrets on the roof of a village like in Trinsic in Ultima 7. Right now when they go up there they get kind of... stuck.

Thanks for any advice!

You're looking for this tutorial.

Exactly what I am looking for!

Thank you so very much! *tips hat*

As for running on roofs, you just need to change the passability. If it is any roof on the map, don't forget to put ladders in and then make it passable to get onto and off of the roof only via the ladder.

How do I change passability? Again, thanks for taking the time to help a greenhorn.

You can learn basics in this guide: http://www.scribd.co...PG-Maker-VX-Ace

Here's a tutorial, how to make a bridge:

Select [Passage Settings] from the [Mode] menu on the main menu to display markers on the tile palette indicating whether a tile can be passed through. A circle mark indicates that the tile may be passed through, while an 'x' indicates an impassable tile. For tiles in Sets B through E, there is also a star symbol that indicates that the main character may pass behind the tile. The markers can be switched by clicking on them.

Okay... for the newb, how does that work? I found tilesets in the database.. but that looks like I would change the passability for ALL tiles of that sort.

I dont want players to be able to just walk from the street onto the roof, they would have to walk up a rope or climb a ladder or something and THEN be able to walk on the roof tiles. (and not be able to walk from the roof to teh street either unless they climb back down).

If you're using Ace, which I assume you are, there's a built in functionality where if there's a way for the player to access the roof, he can then walk on top of it, but only if accessing it from the wall beneath it, such as from a ladder. It's hard to explain, but if you make a building using the A tiles and then place a ladder on the wall leading to the roof (you can use the RTP for this; don't have to change a thing) you'll see what I mean.

With the new Tileset change option it would be not smart to make bridges using a lot of events.

First create two tilesets, they must have exactly the same objects.

Tileset "over bridge"

Tileset "under bridge"

As you can see the only difference, is that on the "under bridge" tileset, the bridge tiles are marked with a star, to be displayed above the actors. You can have different passabilities on both tilesets to suit your needs.

Then making your map using one of those tilesets:

Then create Two events, using the Event Command "Change Tileset..."

And make them swicth the tilesets according to the actors position, make sure to make them trigger on player touch. (depending on how the map can be acessed you migh add more events to manage the current tileset being used)

And this is the result:

The same concept can be used in making moveable rooftops, just make the "over" tileset passable.

If I were to do this in my game, I would do it through events as well. Note that there are probably easier or more efficient ways to do it, this is just the way I'd personally do it.

If there is a stairway leading up to the bridge and is a 1x1 square, I'd have an event there that triggered with a hero touch. I'd have an event below it that requires the switch named BRIDGE to be set to ON before it could trigger.

When you'd step on the top tile, it'd trigger the switch BRIDGE ON. As a second page for this top event, it'd have no commands, and be accessed when the switch BRIDGE is ON. The bottom event would switch over to Hero Touch, and when you step on it, it would turn the switch BRIDGE to OFF. That way, if you were to step on the top tile and immediately turn around, it would still turn the switch back off.

When the switch BRIDGE is ON, I'd have a "bridge" made from the tileset crossing the gap I created set to Below Character on priority. When the switch BRIDGE is OFF, I'd have it set to Above Character and have THROUGH checkmarked. That way, when you pass down the stairs, the switch would be back off, and the bridge would be above you. When you went up the stairs, the switch would be ON, and the bridge would be on the same level as the player, allowing you to walk on it.

That sounds incredibly complicated.

*Edit*

I just tried it, and it worked exactly the way you said you wanted it to. This is done on RPG Maker VX Ace.

Here is a screenshot of what it looks like:



To be a little more thorough, I'll show you what each event page looks like.

As seen in the screenshot, the bottom events on the stairs should look like this:

The top events should look like this:

The bridge events should look like this:

To make the two ends of the bridge unpassable when you're underneath it, just put two blank events on the ends of the bridge, and have them set up like this:

If you set your events up exactly like I did, you'll be able to walk up the stairs on EITHER side, walk across the bridge, walk down the stairs, and walk under the bridge. And repeat.

Here is a quick map I threw together to show what it looks like in-game. And like I said, this fully works and is done on RPG Maker VX Ace.

@LightofthedimVXA

The system you explained is the one for VX, wich needs events since you can't switch at ease the passability and priority, but it just a waste of resources (too many events = lag) and time to do this on Ace due to the tileset change option.

The same process you did with 10 events and used switches, can be done with 4 with no switch use.

For small brigdes this might be easy, but now try do the same thing for a big brigde?

Also your system has a failure, the player can walk left/right and ends above the hill if he stays bellow the bridge since theres nothing blocking the passability there.

I've only used Ace for about a month now, and have grown accustom to eventing since Rm2k. I wasn't aware of any significant tileset changes, lol. And I also have an easy workaround for the passability, it would have just took a little bit more explaining.

*Edit*

I included a way to prevent the two ends of the bridge from being passable while you're underneath it.

Yeah this works... but what about a bridge like this:



Using only events you would need more than 50 events, while using the tileset change the number of events woudn't change, only 4 for that huge bridge.

There's nothing stopping you from creating the entire bridge as a character set, and simply switch it to be above player/below player based on a trigger event set at the stairs.

I'm talking about the passability, not graphically. Even with a giant bridge charset, it's still needed a lot of events to manage the passability.The point is that i don't see why use workarounds that are less effective, when the maker offer a better option by default.

If you made a bridge that big as a character, the actual event would only be on the single square it occupies and not the rest of the bridge graphic. Meaning the left, right, top and bottom around the center of the event would have the same passability as the ground underneath it everywhere except for the event center. It would still take priority, but you'd be able to walk off the sides and onto the ground.

But, both methods Victor and I have posted work well. You can use either one. We're all here to help.

*edit*

I really need to get back into the feel of forums, it's been too long. I apologize for the double-post. =/

Merged the posts for you. Try to be more careful next time,LightofthedimVXA. :)

Okay... I think I am still doing something wrong so I am going to post images....

http://postimage.org/image/t3ysfu45x/

the arrow here points to the ladder you climb up to the escape route...

http://postimage.org/image/xnsr9dyfj/

and here is me stuck on the roof. The space to the north is where SUPPOSEDLY you could go back down... if you could move. Ignore that postimage.org glitch on the left hand side there. the escape route in question is to the south. I put down the startings of the bridge it might be working right but right now I cant seem to cross the roof.. so one thing at a time :p

Thanks for all the replies everyone!

Your problem is that you've used a leleport event to get to the roof. If you had a ladder going directly up the wall beneath the roof, on the same map, you could walk around on the roof. At least, I think that's the issue. That being the case, I'm not entirely sure how to fix the problem. I'll play around with the idea and see what I come up with.