I've been here the longest, and I have detailed files.
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animated start screen, yes.
If you have a set main character, IE FF series...no customization, then go for it.
Instead of teleporting to a splash screen with event links to immediately start your game do the following.
in your startgame event
teleport to a main location, use it as a company logo banner page, like 'capcom', 'konami', 'sega' etc..
then a wait item.
then a new game event. leave it blank.
then in you're main event, teleport to you're map which will act as your animated sstart screen.
the map can be whatever you want it to be, however you still need a way to start the game.
simple, let's say you're game has the options;
new game
quit
new game and quit would both be passive NPCs(0 stamina, 0 map movement range) with a player contact event. when you connect, they teleport you to the new game where you begin you're journey. this start screen map, should have a initialization event to change you're appearance to that of a cursor( a hand, an arrow, etc.) the real game level would need to change you to that of the main character.
Now i said this is for a set character, yeah it is, but in most games you still are afforded the option of naming the player, just use aa global entry dialog to change the player's name.
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level select, yes. relates to the animated screen, or something stranger.
it's basically the exact same as the animated start screen. instead the passives teleport you to other maps. It goes like so, animated start screen:
the player selects new game.
you teleport them to the level select location. (this could ideally be a main location as they'll just have to click to select a level) or you could set it up the same as the start screen, with them as a cursor.
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i believe you can attack and defend without the actual animations, you just dont have a visual indicator that its occuring.
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rollovers, yes and no.
In a non combat situation it is advisable. (the no)
but ahem, it can be done .(the yes.)
similar to the animated screen, change the player appearance to that of a cursor.
In CGE when you step on an event tile you can cause actions to occur.
we just need a stamp control,conditionals, and 2 events.
we'll work by adding and deleting the neutral(mouse out)
over top, to expose the active graphic below (mouse over)
the 1st event changes the graphic/button back to its neutral state,
conditional: if mouseover=0 end event
else
stamp control add neutral_gfx.pict
change global, mouseover set to 0
end event
second event, removes the neutral cover to reveal the hot button.
change global, mouseover set to 1
conditional: if mouseover = 1 stamp control, delete stamp neutral_gfx.pict
else
end event
place your neutral graphics on a layer above the hot layer, but below the player layer.
now how can you use thison an actual map during a real game in the heat of battle, as an actual menu, with selectable options ???
easy, unaturally inaccessable areas. (read the section n the user manual about access/visiblity).
what you do is create an area that you can't walk to and can only be manually moved to with a map position action.
let's say the player presses, m, for menu:
engine call. freeze characters. (halts NPC action)
change global. set xcalc = playerx
change global. set ycalc = playery, record previous position.
fade to black.
player map position, move to the menu area.
player map icon, change appearance to cursor.
fade from black.
the rest relates to the animated start screen section, use the contact events to bring up the different interface layouts...spell selection, inventory, item screen..etc.
no load times.
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mouse pointer, no.
just no.
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subtitles yes.
there is absolutely no reason to have dialog boxes in your game. Outside of situational choices, but then again you can always have the player actually physically make choices/perform actions with buttons instead...ie.
"So You came here to fight me did you?"
">Prepare yourself simpleton.
Uhm, no, i was looking for the john"
you could just have them attack or walk away. BUT i personally don't like having to constantly chomp through 28 dialog boxes during a in game cutscene.
you know the &&Name; variable that you can place into the main/map interfaces.
position in a useful place and use the Attribute Wizard action to change the text.
Even still, let's say your characters are doing a cutscene, discussing whatnot and moving about, using uncommon animations...well within the special animations, simply use a launch event flag, to fire off events with the attribute wizard action. This is provides an automated transcript without the needless button pressing.
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standing still animation, not really, it can be done.
But in order to have it occur naturally you need to devise a way to tel when the player has stopped moving.
If you were to incorporate it as a mode for the player, fine. IE a regenerative state (Namco's Tekken Series: Yoshimitsu's meditation pose). But you need to have a good reason to simply leave them like this.
It is possible to begin a countdown, with a looping animation, ie this would time after 1 revolution if the player is not moving then switch to the stand still state. It's bulky and if your game is complex i wouldn't go for it. The system would require about 4 animations, launching in succession.
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plugins ask RubberDucky, Stark, Chaos(yah,sp),StrayToaster...etc.
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Font/size, no.
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... I'm like Imhotep but don't flaunt it.