[Starlight] Item Usage + Keyboard Config (Patreon)

next feature is check. this one turned out to be more involved than i expected, but that's really not saying much at all. 

anyone who's ever played a fire emblem game knows how item usage works there, and this isn't much different, so i won't burn words elaborating there. here's how the item menu is looking:

the key difference is that, like the main selection menu, each item slot is bound to a button press so you don't have to waste time scrolling. this does mean each character is limited to 4 item slots, but since unlike FE that does not include the weapon, it's not much different.

pann-pora is hell's version of a basic vulenary/potion. it's currently the only item implemented, but it's probably the only item we're going to need for the demo. one change from FE's system is that these healing items work off of % health rather than a flat value, meaning they will always be useful throughout the length of the game.

surprisingly, the hardest part of this ordeal was getting those item icons to display. as i mentioned before, i've set the item system up so i can use it through RPG Maker's native UI even though it's not built for a tactical system. getting the database's icon to play nice with the image management system i wrote took more effort than i would've liked. no big deal in the end though, and having set up a system for it will be very useful. 

along the way i also updated the main unit menu a bit:

key differences include changing "Skills" to "Arts" because i guess that's what all the cool fire emblem games are calling it these days.  we've also separated the wait/cancel commands because although i really wanted to get this to work on four buttons only for controllers, switching between the two was not as intuitive as i hoped, and that would've meant only three item slots. the wait command will probably end up mapped to a trigger for controllers or something. we'll figure that out later.

speaking of control mapping, another unexpected speedbump was that although RPG Maker MV is definitely set up to use any keyboard button much more thoroughly than RMXP, it doesn't actually natively do anything with them. The quickest way around that (to add support for the A/S/C keys, in this case) ended up to use a plug-in that already enables fully customizable keyboard controls.

see:

everything in this image is place-holding default graphics and will definitely be prettied the fuck up before the demo.
also i have no clue who's idea it was to map "Insert" to cancel by default, but if anyone knows, i am willing to personally undertake the mission to assassinate them.

but. the point is this exists and is freely editable from the options menu. the only keys that cannot be changed are the arrow keys and the enter, to make sure that this config menu is always navigable. 

i was always planning on including something like this, but i had no expectations of doing it before the demo. this plugin, which is freely available, just happened to make it real easy. so, like, even better.
we'll have to get something for controller support too. but, that can be further down the line. that one possibly will not in the demo. idk, we'll see. 

that's gonna be it for today. Five major mechanics remain. next up is skill-- wait, no, uh, Art usage, and i fully expect that to be a doozy. having the item UI done means half the work on that part is done for me already-- but the other half is pretty lively. we'll see.