RPG in a Box News

Hey everyone, I have some exciting news to share! After extensive consideration, I've decided to rename RPG in a Box to FPS in a Box! As part of this transition, I'll be gradually phasing out any RPG-related mechanics and will begin centering the engine around shooters (with a focus on first-person). Keep an eye out for more information coming soon! 😄

Hello! I'm Stumpy the Squirrel. Let's make a game with RPG in a Box! In this tutorial, we'll create and layer some wall tiles in our map. It's a fun way to learn about the tile coordinate system and how to put things on top of other things!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

New Features/Changes:

• Added ability to offset objects within their tile by adjusting XYZ values from the Entity Properties panel in the Map Editor
  
• Added ability to add multiple objects per tile in the Map Editor (Z offset will be automatically set when hovering over an existing object, e.g. a table)
  
• Added ability to rotate objects around the X and Y axes (in addition to the Z axis) from the Entity Properties panel in the Map Editor
  
• Added "View Model" camera setting to gameplay configuration for assigning a model to attach to the camera while in first-person (model needs attach point with ID of "camera")
  
• Added special global property "view_model" as a temporary way of referencing the view model attached to the camera (e.g. play_animation(global.property["view_model"], "anim_name"))
  
• Added "Background Image" option to NPC, Player, and Message nodes for displaying a background image during dialogue (located on node toolbar next to style override)
  
• Added "speak" pre-defined animation for characters that will automatically play whenever they're the active speaker during dialogue
  
• Added "Behaviors" section to the Game Configuration dialog for managing NPC behavior presets without needing to use the Map Editor
  
• Added "Display Name" setting to the Voxel Editor and Map Editor for assigning an object's display name (used when interacting with multiple scripted objects via keyboard)
  
• Added "Custom Properties" section to the Item Editor for defining custom item properties (string, number, or boolean types)
  
• Added "Loading Image Override" setting to the Map Properties panel for overriding the default loading screen image per map
  
• Added popup dialog when enabling free movement from the Game Configuration dialog with information about the feature being in an alpha state
  
• Updated attach point tool in the Voxel Editor to allow attach points to be created by clicking directly on the grid without the need for an existing voxel
  
• Updated "Duplicate Frame" functionality in the Voxel Editor to copy any existing textures to the newly created frame
  
• Updated alpha slider in the Voxel Editor to allow values between 0 and 0.9 and changed the increment value from 0.05 to 0.01 for allow for finer tuning of transparency
  
• Updated alpha slider in the Voxel Editor to include icons on each end of the slider to make it more apparent which end is which (min vs. max alpha)
  
• Updated movement speed setting for tile platforms to allow speeds in increments of 0.1 instead of requiring an integer value
  
• Updated "On Equip" and "On Unequip" item script functionality to store the equipment slot ID in a local variable named $slot for use in the script
  
• Updated "Add Effect" scripting function to properly validate the effect name parameter to ensure the value is a string
  
• Updated "Detach Object" failure message from an error to a warning when attempting to detach an object from an attach point with nothing attached
  
• Updated dialogue functionality to not use typing effect when called from the "Display Choices" function without a speaker entity specified
  
• Updated stretch mode for background image in the Main Menu Editor to default to "Keep Aspect Covered" for best compatibility
  

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed issue that would sometimes cause a crash if the player saved the game after having dealt damage to an enemy or having received damage
  
• Fixed issue where directional attack animations for characters ("attack_north", etc.) were not being properly triggered in certain scenarios
  
• Fixed issue where disabling mouse movement controls in the gameplay configuration would prevent tool item scripts from working on tiles
  
• Fixed issue where the player's mouse sensitivity setting was losing the correct sensitivity value after restarting the game
  
• Fixed issue with "When Player Interacts" and "When Next to Player" resource dropdowns not being hidden when an NPC was set to be attackable from their behavior settings
  
• Fixed issue with the obstacle reaction script dropdown on the NPC behavior settings panel not being populated with values until clicked on
  
• Fixed issue with the obstacle reaction script dropdown not being hidden on the NPC behavior settings panel when switching to a move direction of "None" or "Random"
  
• Fixed issue where undo/redo actions were not being created when an entity's scale was changed from the Entity Properties panel
  
• Fixed issue that could occur in-game or in the Map Editor when editing or referencing a tile that previously had a character on it but the character had been removed
  
• Fixed issue in the Map Editor where a tile sometimes couldn't be deleted from the map ("remove_entity_id_lookup" error was displayed in console)
  
• Fixed issue where the Y and Z values of an entity's scale were switched on the Entity Properties panel when selecting an object or character in the Map Editor
  
• Fixed issue where models with transparency could be seen through the marker icons that are shown above entities in the Map Editor
  
• Fixed issue with "Add Object" scripting function where attempting to use an invalid tile coordinate was not being properly handled and displayed in the console
  
• Fixed issue with "Hide Group" and "Show Group" scripting functions not working properly when used to hide/show effects
  
• Fixed issue with "Display Image" scripting function not working properly unless both the duration and background color were explicitly specified
  
• Fixed issue where the "Character enters tile" event wasn't being triggered after the player character was moved with "Put Player" then walked to another tile
  
• Fixed issue where the "Character stops on tile" event wasn't being triggered after the player character was moved with "Put Player"
  
• Fixed issue in Combat Editor where the battle map dropdown was not being updated when switching to a menu-driven turn-based battle
  
• Fixed issue that could occur when attempting to attack with an unlimited use ranged weapon that didn't have an object model defined
  
• Fixed issue where characters configured as "Two-Dimensional" were being rotated when firing a ranged weapon instead of only triggering their directional attack animation
  
• Fixed issue in Dialogue Editor where a player node could be dragged back on itself, which would then result in a broken dialogue
  
• Fixed issue in Dialogue Editor where player nodes would be dragged when attempting to drag and select the dialogue text while in compact mode
  
• Fixed issue in Main Menu Editor where the background image's appearance was not being updated properly when switching images until the editor was resized
  
• Fixed issue with the stretch mode for main menu background images and loading screen images not working properly when the image was larger than the screen size
  
• Fixed issue where changing properties in the Effect Editor would affect another effect after using "Save As" to copy an effect then opening the original effect
  
• Fixed issue with Y and Z scale values on the Model Properties panel being reversed for attach points in the Voxel Editor
  
• Fixed issue with UI theme not being properly applied to equipment slots, shop item slots, and crafting input slots
  
• Fixed issue where the editor was not properly checking for changes to the Quest Editor or clearing out the quest list when closing the project
  

Documentation:

• Added initial version of built-in docs for "Pushing", which includes a basic walkthrough of how to set up a pushable object
  
• Added initial version of built-in docs for "Skill Slot", which includes basic info about the skill slot element and a scripting example
  
• Updated "Scripting Reference" built-in docs to include list of global, map, camera, party, and system variables
  
• Updated "Entity Properties" built-in docs to include descriptions for each tile trigger event (including new events for pushable objects)
  
• Updated "Tile", "Object", and "Character" built-in docs to include info about the "textures" property, which returns an array of textures for the entity
  
• Updated "Tile", "Object", and "Character" built-in docs to include info about "attachment["x"]" and "effect["x"]" properties for referencing attachments and effects
  
• Updated "Character" built-in docs to include info about the "behavior" property for retrieving and modifying a character's behavior
  
• Updated "Map Editor" built-in docs to include info about using Shift and Shift + Alt to add/remove entities from the current selection
  
• Updated "Global Event Scripts" built-in docs to include info about several global event scripts that were missing
  
• Updated "Conditional Expression" built-in docs to include info about the "!contains" syntax (i.e. "doesn't contain")
  
• Updated "Debug Console" built-in docs to include info about using "self" keyword to reference the entity at the mouse cursor's location
  
• Updated "Codex" built-in docs to include a code example of inserting a new key/value pair into a codex
  
• Updated "Array" built-in docs to include info about the "remove" function and a code example of using it with an array
  
• Updated "Give Item", "Remove Item", and "Add Item To Container" built-in docs to include info about return values (i.e. number of items added/removed)
  
• Updated "Add Tile", "Add Object", and "Add Character" built-in docs to include info about return values (i.e. reference to new entity)
  
• Updated "Assign Entity ID" built-in docs to include info about return value (i.e. true if the ID was successfully assigned, false otherwise)