[CGMZ] Map Upgrade (Patreon)

Add more information to maps, such as an icon property, recommended level, and more. Uses the plugin parameter system instead of note tags.

! SEE BOTTOM OF POST FOR UPDATES !

Hi all, introducing [CGMZ] Map Upgrade!

This plugin allows you to add more data to your maps, from including things like an icon, a recommended level, etc. You can use this new data in events by using the plugin commands to get the data into a game variable. Other plugins can also easily use this data, which may be required for some features in other [CGMZ] plugins.

New Data

A list of new data added to maps with this plugin is:

Name

Icon

Recommended Level

Safety Rating

Danger Rating

Common Event

Floor Damage

Image(s)

You can access most of this via the plugin command, either for the current map or for any map id. The name and images can only be accessed via script as they are strings instead of numbers.

On its own, this data does not do much. However, this will be used in the future to integrate with other [CGMZ] plugins that could use additional map data which can avoid more difficult and error prone notetags since this data is set up using the parameter system.

Mechanics

This plugin does allow you to automatically run a common event whenever the map loads. This can be useful to help set things up on the map without needing to use an auto-erasing parallel process event or in other ways. I am sure you will find many uses for running a common event when the map loads.

Future

I have plans to expand this to include more data as needed in [CGMZ] plugins or by user request. I also plan to provide more options for when the common event runs on map load, and anything else that could affect the map. Please let me know in the comments below any suggestions you may have for improvements to this plugin as well.

This version adds the ability to set a tile size per map instead of for the entire game which is what the editor allows. However, keep in mind that your maps in editor will look wrong unless you have the editor set to that tile size in the database. In game they will appear normally.

See below gif for how it can look:

  This version adds the option to disable drawing shadows from the shadow pen tool on each map, including from autoshadows. The blocky shadow can look quite poor in some cases, especially when compared against more advanced lighting or parallax effects. With this plugin, you now no longer need to erase all the autoshadows to prevent them from being drawn.

This update also changed the map id parameter to map type. This lets you have a map select ui in the plugin params, which is much easier to use than number input. If you are not yet on MZ 1.9.0, you can still enter the map id as a number as before.

This version adds the option to change the base map floor damage on a per-map basis. If map upgrade data not set up (or set to 0) for a map, it will be the default floor damage. The default floor damage is 10, but this can be massive if it is a low level area or barely affect your player if it is a high level area. This can let you set the floor damage to something more manageable at early levels, while still providing a challenge in maps that appear in the late game.

I also added variables that will automatically get set to various map upgrade data. There is 1 variable for each data type, which is the safety rating, danger rating, map icon index, and recommended level. Previously, you had to use a plugin command to get this data into a variable. Now, it should just work automatically (if variable parameters set up).

This update also adds a note parameter to your maps. This is not used by the plugin, but will get sent to the map upgrade data js object. It is mostly meant for your own notes, such as to write the name of the map so you can quickly see which map you need to edit at a glance of the upgrade data list.

This version adds more autoplay options for your BGM and BGS which can make it so your larger maps do not always play the exact same BGM and BGS. The player may spend quite a lot of time on some of your maps, or traverse some maps quite often, this can help make it so each time they are on the map it is slightly different and still feels new.