Taylor's Simple Message System 2000

Introduction
When I first switched back to RPG Maker XP after becoming fed up with RMVXAce, I ran into a problem with message scripts. Specifically I felt they were all overly-complicated when I wanted to be able to make edits to them myself.

The purpose of this script is to restore the functions of the original RPG Maker 2000 for the sake of simplicity, and give room for more advanced scripters to add their own syntax.


Features

• Classic typewriter-effect behaviour,
• Classic RM2k commands,
• Classic-style face graphic display,
• Text speed and text sound effect customisation.

Download and Credits
Download Page (includes expanded details on the features)
Download Demo (v1.4)
Credits should go to myself, Taylor.
Also would like to thank, ah, RMVX and VXAce's default script code which I referenced in this script's creation.

Addendum
I'm not sure if I'll be adding new features to this, except anything to improve the base functionality. The way I made this I wanted to keep core/classic features separate from optional ones, to reduce script size and clutter.

Sounds like what I need for mugshots and message boxes but how much does it cost? Also can it do mouth movements and blinking eyes after all the text is finished typing out?

@goldenhawk It's free.

Back then I couldn't find any scripts as good as this for letter to letter text. Most of them were either overly complex, broken, or buggy. This is amazing since it includes multiple customizable sounds, customizable speed, pauses, easier face display, and text colors. Thankyou for making this masterpiece.

EDIT:
YOU ADDED A TEXT SKIP OPTION, YOU HAVE MADE MY DAY.

Can it do mouth movements and blinking eyes after all the text is finished typing out? is it compatible with rpg maker xp?

Well, this is the RGSS / RPGMaker XP board for scripts. And if you read the page she has linked, it reads "Changing graphic mid-message!" Now I cannot say that means it is animated (prolly not). But one could do facial expression changes to match dialog as it prints.

A minor note from something I randomly noticed: by default, RMXP updates @status_window constantly during event processing. What this does, is it causes massive lag when dialogue is printing out.

There isn't really a clean way to add this to the script or demo, instead you'll have to find the relevant code in your own battle system, if you're finding dialogue lags in battle.
In the default scripts, it's in Scene_Battle 1 at line 235: if @phase != 5, add && !$game_temp.message_window_showing to it. In custom scripts, look for the phase conditions that @status_window.refresh is run.

This might mean you'll need to add @status_window.refresh as a script event command during battle events if you want to show status changes, however.

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Unfortunately not. The script only does static face imagery ala RM2k - no blinking and mouth animation. There is a number of scripts that provide such functionality though.
As DerVV says, the most you can do is mid-text expression changes, but they'll otherwise be static.

Updated to version v1.3.
New version can be downloaded from the main post.

• You can now disable the single-message skip function. (Pressing C/X, as opposed to fast-forward with SHIFT. Fast-forward can be disabled by setting SKIP_KEY to nil.)
• Text can be set whether, on meeting a mid-message pause (\!), to fully skip the message, or stop on such pauses.
• General improvements to text speed - multiple letters drawn at once for faster minimum speeds, and reduces to single-letter rendering as the delay is increased.
• General improvements to blip effect speed - blips now only play on normal characters (ie. not syntax) and can be set to skip things like spaces and grammar.
  • You will need to add "@play_blip = true" to your own custom tags if blips are needed. This has been updated for the EXFONT. Bear in mind text-based stuff like the demo's name tag work without it.

I was also going to update face rendering to be divorced from window.contents, so it could be displayed overlapping (underlapping?) text and not erase it when it's drawn, but I spent so long on getting text speeds working better and just wanted to get this out.

For now, since I've based face graphics on the old-style 4x4 grid setup, I'm not sure a larger overlapping-type style is likely to fit with this script's design direction.

EDIT: Go me that I would make a pretty big mistake after implementing it into my own game. The script would softlock if you somehow ended up with a negative pause. That's been fixed.

Sorry if I'm asking sort of dumb question, but if this is for RPG Maker XP, how do you install the script? I'm not used to downloading scripts. Usually, don't you just paste them into the "scripts" section of your project?

Minor update to version 1.3b: I discovered a bug where an unclosed instant-text tag (\>) carried instant text behaviour into future message boxes. This has been fixed.

This is a pretty tiny fix, so instead of redownloading the script, you can also just locate def terminate_message and add @skipping_text = false.

I learned a trick last night. (It's get_ and set_pixel.) So I thought I'd update code here too.

Update to version 1.4 - EXFONT can now use message colours! Just like in RM2k! Technically this is an update to the custom code demonstration - it's not part of the core script. But I still consider this a great improvement

That said as I also discovered, for some reason modifying the get'd colour causes some weird bugs if I don't then reset it afterwards. (Specifically colour modifications seem to carry to all windows??) The code does reset it, but I can't help but wonder why it happens at all.

Oh, and my clear_rect code is incompatible with MKXP. MKXP should have its own native clear_rect, so you can remove it if you're using MKXP. (Maybe, it's possible only MKXP-Z shares RGSS3 Bitmap functions with RGSS1 mode.)

You can do this instead

Oh interesting, true I guess I could've done something like that or defined?, to check if clear_rect exists. I was hoping to revise my definition of clear_rect if it's malformed in some way, but I'll keep that in mind.