Let’s start our little journey into scripting by getting a few orders of business out of the way quickly. First, I don’t intend to spend too much time talking about the details and syntax of the Ruby language, or about programming theory, and concepts in object-oriented programming. These things are all part of scripting for RGSS, of course. However, they are very deep topics that would take dozens of tutorials to cover adequately, and are already well documented elsewhere, so there’s no sense in duplicating the effort here.
Second, before delving into scripting, be sure to have a strong knowledge of using the maker on it’s own, in particular, the details of the database, and a strong understanding of writing events. Although not identical, complicated events that utilize conditional branching, switches, and variable handling, have a lot in common with writing scripts. A good event writer will likely have an easy time starting to learn scripting.
Lastly, realize that when one first starts modifying scripts, it’s unlikely they are going to write a new custom battle system within their first few days. On the contrary, the longest and most complicated scripts come from those who have substantial experience in the various versions of RGSS, or a programming background in other areas. With all of that said and out of the way, we can’t learn to swim without getting into the water, so let’s start taking a look at the existing scripts, and then we’ll learn how to implement a simple change to how the default engine works, as an example. Continue reading →
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