Seasons, Day/Night and Time

Welcome
Hi there and welcome at the Seasons, Day/Night and Time eventing tutorial.
Like in the newest Pokémon versions (Black and White and Black and White 2), you want to implement a seasons system! Well good for you.
Now, do you know how to do this? I guess you don't, otherwise you wouldn't be here, right?

For today, I'll show you on how to create a basic event that takes care of a time system and with that, day and night and some seasons....

What do you need?
2 Common events
1 Autorun event
6 Variables
1 Switch
1 Self Switch
4 Season maps (If more, you'll need to create a more advanced system for your seasons!)

How to start?
First of, create your maps. If you don't know how, here's a tutorial: Mapping basics 2

What's next?
Create the autorun event somewhere on the starting map. This is just to turn on the switch and set the time.
This should be in there on page 1: trigger = Autorun

Code:

@>Control Switches: [0001:Seasons ON] = ON
@>Control Variables: [0005:Hours] == 6
@>Control Variables: [0006:Minutes] == 30
@>Control Self Switch: A = ON

Page 2 of this event should be empty, no trigger, just as a condition: Self Switch A = ON

And then what?
Remember when I said that you needed 6 variables? And see how in the autorun the event sets only number 5 and 6? Well, here we go!!
Create the easiest common event first. Name it "Time Transition", trigger to parallel and switch to Season ON.

Code:

@>Control Variables: [0006:Minutes] += 10
@>Wait: 300 frame(s)

What this does is simple. Every 5 seconds, your minutes will go up by 10. You can change this to your linking!!

Yes, but where's the seasons, time and day/night thing then?
Well, that's the hardest part!
It's a rather long common event. You can call it Seasons for all I care, trigger needs to go to parallel again and switch to Seasons ON again.

Code:

@>Comment: Things you need to know before we start with anything else!
@>Control Variables: [0001:Player X] == Player's Map X
@>Control Variables: [0002:Player Y] == Player's Map Y
@>Control Variables: [0003:Map ID] == Map ID
@>Comment: The Time part!
:        :
:        :This takes care of the time progressing...
@>Conditional Branch: Variable [0006:Minutes] == 60
  @>Conditional Branch: Variable [0005:Hours] == 24
      @>Control Variables: [0004:Days] += 1
      @>Control Variables: [0005:Hours] == 0
      @>Control Variables: [0006:Minutes] == 0
      @>
  :    Else
      @>Control Variables: [0005:Hours] += 1
      @>Control Variables: [0006:Minutes] == 0
      @>
  :    Branch End
  @>
:    Branch End
...

This is the first part that needs to be evented into this Common Event. What it does is simple.
First, it gets the position of the player and the ID of the map you're on.
After the second comment, it checks to see if your time has reached 60 minutes or/and 24 hours. If so it updates the hours or/and days.
Now that you know that, here's the next part of this same common event!

Code:

...
@>Comment:The Seasons part!
:        :
:        :This is the determination of which map you should go to!
@>Conditional Branch: Variable [0004:Days] == 30
  @>Control Variables: [0004: Days] == 0
  @>Conditional Branch: Variable [0003:Map ID] == 5
      @>Control Variables: [0003:Map ID] == 2
      @>
  :    Else
      @>Control Variables: [0003:Map ID] += 1
      @>
  :    Branch End
@>Fadeout Screen
@>Transfer Player: Variable  [0003][0001][0002]
@>Fadein Screen
@>
:    Branch End
@>Comment:The Seasons part 2!
:        :
:        :To determine what the weather it
@>Conditional Branch: Variable [0003:Map ID] == 4
  @>Set Weather Effects: Rain, 5, @60
  @>Set Weather Effects: Rain, 2, @60
  @>Set Weather Effects: Rain, 6, @60
  @>Set Weather Effects: Rain, 1, @60
  @>
:    Else
  @>Conditional Branch: Variable [0003:Map ID] == 5
      @>Set Weather Effects: Snow, 5, @60
      @>Set Weather Effects: Snow, 2, @60
      @>Set Weather Effects: Snow, 6, @60
      @>Set Weather Effects: Snow, 1, @60
      @>
  :    Branch End
@>
:    Branch End
...

This here is quite simple. It checks if there are 30 days passed and if this is true, you'll change map...
Continuing with checking whether you're on Map 4 or Map 5 (Autumn or Winter) and applying the right weather for it. You can change that if you like or add weather for Spring or Summer as well.
There's one more part to add to this very same common event as it should all be done at the same time.
But I won't write this down as it's way to easy to event now you know how conditional branches work.
1. Create a conditional branch to check if the time is greater than or equal to a certain time. (Morning)
2. IF YES, check again for noon. Then IF YES, check again for night.
3. The very first IF YES and the very last ELSE are the same tint, namely Night.
4. The last but one ELSE is Morning.
5. The first ELSE is Noon
But then again, you can add as many transitions as you like. Just a note. Do not wait for TINT SCREEN transitions...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Get VX tutorial files from here!

If there are any more questions, just ask!

Grtz,
Amycha