Playtest Saves Use Old Events

Please do not close this thread for being a repeat of https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads/playtest-loads-old-version.99141/ . I'm being told this is a different topic. So if I can't ask here or there, well... that's a classic Catch 22, ain't it?

Anyway, my issue comes from trying to do versioning testing. When I use the Playtest button and load an old save, the events will reset to their default state. This is making it really confusing when developing a patch because the game is essentially reverting to an older version of the game.

So here are my questions:
1. Can I disable the event refreshing thing? I think it's actually a feature.
2. Anyone with any experience developing patches for live builds in MV got any advice? Kinda in general or on topic.

The thing I'm worried about is players with previous saves getting the update and having their progress messed up or lost in anyway.

I guess I might have to cut a full build to test this properly, at each step. But obviously that's not as fast. And would be unfortunate for testing a larger game... but not impossible.

I was under the impression that map and event info was reloaded from the database as soon as a savegame is loaded, which is why you can edit an event in the editor and immediately load a save that was on the same map as the event, and see the changes. The same is also true of adding or removing events, or changing tile priority.

The only objects that seem to update when you load an old save immediately are default database traits on items, skills, etc. Note tags update, but plugins that read note tags may not update on loading a save because of the way they read the note tags.

The only way I could see your events reverting to a previous state is if you're using some sort of plugin to save their position (yanfly has one), and it doesn't update when the game save is loaded.

@woootbm I have just seen this thread after splitting your query about making a patch compatible with a player's existing save file. Here you are asking that question again as well as the query about reverting to a previous version. I suggest you keep this thread for the reverting question and have the compatible patch question as a separate thread. Trying to have 2 very different questions in one thread tends, in our experience, to become very confused and confusing.

As for the reverting problem - no, this is not a feature of MV. It will be a result of something you have done in your specific project. ramza has made one suggestion about a particular plugin. Another possibility is that you have made changes to a plugin setting which your events use which requires you to start a new game, rather than picking up from an existing save file. That is because a lot of data is picked up when you first load the game and that data is carried forward into every save file.

Wait, hold on here...



Okay, so the first thing sounds like what I'm seeing. If you're saying that the events simply reload. Is that a default feature? Because I'm not saying that the events are going back to old versions of the game, necessarily. Just that they will reload upon loading the save. That kind of interaction is really confusing, and makes me think there's some kind of versioning error since I'm looking for any kind of random bugs that might crop up going from one build to another on the same save.

It could be a Yanfly plugin, I suppose. I'm one of those dirty slobs that "uses too many plugins." Sometimes I use one just for one feature... but then there are other features in it I don't really need.

Edit.. Ignore this one

I must have misunderstood what you were asking then, as I thought you were updating a map in a patch, and then loading an old save and still seeing the older version of the map.

It looks like @Engr. Adiktuzmiko knows a lot more about how this works than I do, suffice to say it is a feature, and if you disabled it, using the method mentioned in the other thread, you'd have a problem where old saves would still be using old versions of maps/events, so patching would have no effect whatsoever on an old save (which might actually be what you're going for here, though).

@ramza - actually Im confused right now, I think you're actually the right one. Im confused about what actually happens to his events/map. I hope he can actually give us a step by step of what is happening to clear things out.

And I also wanna know what he actually wants, for the game to update the events/map or for it not to update. And if he wants it to update, what's the extent?

@woootbm - default behavior of the engine is that it reloads the map data from the database if the game version is different from the saved file (checked during loading iirc, which sets the map's needsRefresh variable to true), this reloads events and common events, for that map. Any data of the event should theorerically be updated to the latest version at this point, except self switches because they actually arent saved into the events.

Its handled by Game_Map.prototype.refresh btw

@Engr. Adiktuzmiko

Now I'm confused, too, because I'm realizing some of these bugs are stemming from an ooold old save. But that's why the versioning thing is so important, because I'm worried this will somehow effect newer builds of the game.

At any rate, here's the step-by-step for the resetting thing that I am working with in all other cases:

1. Play your game using the Playtest button specifically (the below scenario doesn't happen in a live build).
2. Load into a level that has a one-time Event in it (like an intro cutscene) where the Event's position when it starts is different from where the Event ends. Let the event play out fully.
3. Save.
4. Exit out of the Playtest.
5. Hit Playtest again. Load that save you made.
6. ---> Event is back where it started.

This is a problem when doing versioning testing because it creates a false positive. I'm trying to make sure nothing goes "wrong" between versions, and the locations of my events is often important to both playability and presentation.

The ooold save issue I mentioned at the top I think is unrelated. I think it involves a build where I wasn't ending my events properly. So they would replay upon "entering" a level (or, say, loading into a save). It scares me that it still screws up when I load onto my current build, where I eventually learned proper eventing. Like if I were to change the events in an update, does that mean old saves wouldn't get that update?

If the event is back in its old location when you reload the map, that has nothing to do with you making a patch. That will always happen by default. If you want it to be in a new location you have 2 options.

1. Use a plugin which saves the event to its new location. There is a script by Shaz for that for Ace and I assume that there is something similar for MV.
Or
2. Use a switch to move the original event onto a new, blank page, so doesn't show up for the player, and have a second event in the new location which is turned on by the same switch.

Yeah, event locations are not saved. The only way for event locations to be saved is via plugin. Yanfly has a plugin that does this.

Wow, I'll have to remember this if I make a non-linear game. It seems that in a live build, re-loading a save does not count as "re-entering" a map. I may try that Yanfly plugin in the future regardless. Having my events all screwy makes testing really confusing. And, quite frankly, it invalidates certain testing.

I'm still curious about patching MV for a live build. If there's any general advice from someone who's done it. Like, things to look out for and be mindful of.

So I'm doing a versioning test between the two builds of my game. I created saves in the old build and moved those over to the new build. Whaddaya know. That stupid thing where it doesn't save event locations is causing that old softlock. Am I missing where RPG Maker projects save event location data? Because this doesn't happen when play the game normally (save, exit program, load save, everything is fine). If I could figure out what I did wrong in transferring over the saves, then this is just a false positive.

I REALLY wish it would just save that info along with the switches -_-

EDIT: I actually managed to figure out how to event a failsafe in this situation. I made another autorun event that simply places the out-of-position event where it needs to be. I left the event with "erase event" rather than the self-switch method so that SHOULD mean if the game decides the player has "re-entered" the stage after the fact (thus putting all the events back in their starting locations), it will ALSO rerun this failsafe event. The switch for the failsafe is one that is triggered when the needed event is already in position. So when playing the cutscene for the first time, the event simply teleports to the position it is already in (which the player can't see). WHEW. Crossing fingers on getting this patch out now ^_^;;