ArcHammer2's tutorial for fighting with vehicles
(This isn't copyrighted or anything, but don't go around passing this off as your own, or I WILL hunt you down, I WILL find you, and I WILL hurt  you severely.)

Well, after the success of my other two tutorials, I felt compelled to write a tutorial as good, if not greater than my first. I had all but given up hope when I got a great idea for a Mech-warrior style RPG.
So, here you are:

"How to fight with your vehicles"

As with all of my tutorials, a basic understanding of RPG Maker 2000 is highly recomended.
And, just 'cause I'm such a nice guy, I'll let you have the character set and face set with my mechs at no extra cost! (included with this zip)


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Section I: The Vehicles
~~Land Vehiciles~~
This works best when you've got a set number of people in your party, but you don't need to have a set number.
Okay, You'll have to make characters for every vehicile that will be able to fight. (Since I used a Mech, I'll just use that in my examples.) Be sure to have the vehicles have relatively high stats, since they'll be fighting the same enemies the main character(s) will be fighting. You never saw Colonel Zecks shoot down Wing Zero with a shotgun, right?
For the most part, vehicles rely on their owners to upgrade them, etc, and they don't usually get experience points. So, it might be best if you use a flat rate of growth, or start the vehicle at the highest level.

Okay, now you're going to need an event that looks like the vehicle you'll be riding. for it, you're going to need to remove all members from party, and add the vehicle. Then, the event should be moved to a point on the map where it can't be seen. You're going to have to define a switch for this.

My example:
_____________
Event Name: Vehichere
Event Start Condition: Push Key
Priority Type: Common Char Top (so you can get in from underneath it)

Events Commands
<>Change Heroes Party:Vehicle->Add
<>Change Heroes Party:Alex->Remv
<>Set Event Place:   this Event . (000,001)
<>Disable System menu:   Disable
<>Change Switch: [####:RIDING VEHICLE]-ON Set
<>
_____________

Just so you know, I disabled the menu so that if the player hits the cancel key, they'll have the option of getting off.
If you're going to change the people in your party, just make make extra pages with basically the same thing. Plus, you'll have to set different switches instead of [####:RIDING VEHICLE]
Okay, now that that part's over, you're going to have to make a Common event. I'll assume you know where the common events are placed.
Just call it something like "Gett off vehicile" or whatever. This will ask the player is he/she want's to get off, or go to the menu.

My example:
_____________
Event Start Condition: Parallel Process
Appearance Conditions Switch: [####: RIDING VEHICLE]

<>Enter Password: [####:GET OUT OF VEHICILE]
<>Fork Optn:Varbl[####:GET OUT OF VEHICILE]-6
 <>Messg:Disembark?
 <>Show Choices: Yes/No
 :[Yes] Case
  <>Set Chara's Movement:  Hero ,FaceDown
  <>Stop All
  <>Memorize Place:  [0001],[0002],[0003]
  <>Change Heroes Party:Alex->Add
  <>Set Event Place:  Vehichere, (V[0002],V[0003])
  <>Change Heroes Party:Vehicle->Remv
  <>Variable Op:[####:GET OUT OF VEHICILE] Set, 0
  <>Move All
  <>Change Switch: [####:RIDING VEHICLE]-OFF Set
  <>Disable System Menu: Enable
  <>
 :[No] Case
  <>Messg:Go to menu?
  <>Show Choices: Yes/No
  :[Yes] Case
   <>Call System Menu
   <>
  :[No] Case
   <>
  :End case
  <>
 :End Case
 <>
:End Case
<>
_____________

And that's it! Now there are only a few things you might want to do. Usually, compared to the vehicle, the main character will be very small, to do this on a map, just add a clear event to change the way the player looks.

My example:
_____________
{Event Conditions Hero: (main character)}
Event Start Condition: Parallel Process
Priority Type: Common Char Below

Events Commands
<>Set Chara's Movement: Hero , Change Graphic
<>
_____________


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Section II: Upgrades
Like I said before, vehicles usually need owners for upgrades.
All you need to do is make items for any weapons you want to use with your vehicle, and for any upgrades (in other words, the "Other" equipment, or the "Materials")
If you want to make a shop where a mechanic will upgrade your mech, and charge you a price depending on how high your stats are already, it's relatively simple:

My example:
_____________
<>Variable Op:[####:Agility Cost] Set, Vehicle Agilit
<>Variable Op:[####:Agility Cost] * , 100 (to determine the cost: agility times 100)
<>Variable Op:[####:GOLD HELD] Set, Money #
<>Messg:I can upgrade your vehicle's agility by
:   :10 for... \V[####] silver (variable is variable number for agility cost)
:   :What do you say?
<>Show Choices: Okay/No way
:[Okay] Case
 <>Fork Optn:Varbl[####:Gold Held]-V[####]Over (variable is variable number for agility cost)
  <>Cahnge.Ability:Vehicle Agilit->10Raise
  <>
 :Excepting Case
  <>Messg: You don't have enough money.
  <>
 :End Case
 <>
:[No Way] Case
 <>
:End Case
<>
_____________


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Section II: Etc.
Alrighty, there you have it. Now all you need to do is some final touches. For example, you might want to add an extra page on the events that transport the characters into towns. A town-sized mech would look kinda silly next to human-sized people. This is so easy, I don't think I need to put it in here.

That's about all there is to it... All I ask is that if you use my character set or any variatons, please aknowledge that I made them. 



Made by ArcHammer for the general populus.
Thanks to Don Miguel for translating this kick-ass program among others.
Thanks to Squaresoft for making Xenogears, from which this tutorial was inspired.