Getting Started with the AAO Trial Editor (V6)

Get started with the upcoming AAO version 6.

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drvonkitty
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Getting Started with the AAO Trial Editor (V6)

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GETTING STARTED WITH AAO V6
SECTION I: Familiarizing yourself with v6
Spoiler : :
The Manager

One of the biggest changes from v5 to v6 is the layout of the editor. Practically everything is changed, so whether you're brand new to AAO or returning after a leave of absence, let's get started in figuring this out. Let's go ahead and open up the website.

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Everything is different than it once was. The games and manager section have now been split apart - featured trials etc are under the games category, whereas your own trials are under the manager section. Since you're on a "Getting Started" guide, I'm going to assume you're here because you want to make your own trial, so the manager section is where you'll want to go.

On the manager page you'll find a list of all your current trials. Scroll down to find this:

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Enter in your title, select your language, and hit "create a new trial". It'll pop up under "independent trials." Next, click on edit.

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Your screen is going to look something like this, with whatever title you've chosen. When it comes to dealing with the details of your trial, such as release, this is where you're going to be spending most of your time. There's several different sections here, so let's go through them all.

a. Metadata

The metadata section has all of the information about your trial, such as the title. If you want to change your title or language, this is where you do it. This is also where you choose to publicly release your trial. If this is set to "no", then only people set as collaborators and playtesters can access it other than administrators such as Unas or Enthalpy! If you're planning on releasing your trial by posting a link on the forums, make sure you set this to "yes."

b. Trial File Backups
This section contains all of the backups for your trial from the past. Right now, it's empty since you just created this trial. In the future, there'll be a list of backups that you can restore from. If something were to happen and the current version of your trial were to be corrupted, or if you were to delete everything and accidentally hit save, these backups contain stored versions of your trial throughout its history.

c. Collaborators and Playtesters
This is where you can add both collaborators and playtesters to your trial. But what is the difference between these two? The difference is that a collaborator is somebody who is helping you make the trial. They can both play and edit your trial, even if it's unreleased. If someone is helping you create your trial, then they'll likely be set as a collaborator. A playtester is someone who can play your trial even if it's unreleased, but cannot edit it. If someone is betatesting your case (playing it before the public release) then they would be set as a playtester.

d. Delete Trial
This completely erases your trial - do NOT use this unless you absolutely want to get rid of your trial!

That's the use of the manager of your trial. But what about actually creating it?

The Editor

So now you've created your trial, given it a name, and determined who will be helping you create it. Now let's get started: Click on the big "open in editor" button.

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There's a lot to process here. Let's break down each tab available to use.

a. Characters
If you're going to make an Ace Attorney case, you're going to want some characters. You're here by default, but if you've switched to another tab, just click "Characters" in the top left of the screen to switch back. Next, click "Insert a profile here".

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There's lot of potential information to add about your characters! The first thing you need to do is add a name - click "profile name" and enter it in. You also need to add a name to "displayed name", which will be what shows up in the player itself.

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Ah, the perfect username. Next, you need to add a description. That's what "civil status" is for. Traditionally, the Ace Attorney games use this for age and gender, but you could use it for a variety of other things if you're not going for full game accuracy.

v5 veteran tip: This is new! In v5, there was no separate section for age and gender.

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Alright! Our character is really starting to take shape. Next, we need to write a description of the character - you can do whatever you want with this, really. Click "element description" and type it in. He also needs a face - go to "character base" and find the character you want to use.

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Perfect! You've made your first character - from here, you can add custom sprites or change the default voice if you so choose. The default voice is determined based upon the gender of the character. A "male" voice will use male blips, and a "female" voice will use female ones.

b. Evidence
The backbone of any true Ace Attorney game is the evidence. Thankfully, evidence is easy to make, and very similar to creating a character. Go to "Evidence" in the top left corner and click the button "insert a piece of evidence here."

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Looks similar, doesn't it? We have both the metadata section, and the description. The metadata section typically contains a "Type" of evidence, as well as where the evidence was retrieved.
Metadata wrote:
  • Types include things like "Personal," "Documents," "Evidence," "Other," "Photos," "Weapons," and "Video" to name some of the standard ones used in the AA games.
  • Retrieval information includes either from whom the evidence was obtained, or where the evidence was found. If Prosecutor Edgeworth presented the Autopsy in court, then this would be "Presented by Prosecutor Edgeworth."
Description wrote:This section contains more information about the piece of evidence. This is usually where contradictory details about a piece of evidence will be located. For AA game accuracy, keep this to no more than three lines.
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Looks good! Under "Check button data" you can add more information about a piece of evidence. This can contain text, an image, or even a sound file.

c. Places
So you've got your characters and your evidence. But those characters and that evidence needs a place to go - hence why we're now talking about "Places," Same drill as before, hit "Places" in the top left and hit the blue button that appears.

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Add the name of your place and then click on "place editor".

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The primary thing you need from this screen is the "background" section - click on the drop down and choose your place. The other two sections - background object and foreground object respectively, are probably not something you're going to be using in your first trial. I'll do a quick rundown of what each one does, though, in case you need it.

Background objects adds an object to a specific place in the background, behind the character. If you have a piece of evidence that appears in an investigation scene, this would be a background object. Once the player has discovered that evidence and added it to the Court Record, you could hide this background object.
Foreground objects adds something to the screen in front of the character. Like the witness bench, for example.

v5 veteran tip: This is how you insert custom graphics and backgrounds into a trial. Use "external background" instead of just inserting the graphic in on the storyboard.

d. Popups
The next section are popups. Well, first things first, what exactly IS a pop-up? Those most certainly weren't in v5, and it isn't anything a newcomer will have ever heard of. A popup is a graphic that appears on the screen, in front of the characters. Think the objection bubble or the witness testimony graphic.

v5 veteran tip: This is the same thing as a "special sprite" was in v5.

Go to pop-ups and click "add a popup". The screen that pops up (haha, see what I did there) is practically identical to the one you found under "places" - add its name and click the dropdown box. Select the one you want, and you're good to go! You can also add custom popups should the need arise. AAO6 contains many of these by default, like the Objection! bubble, but if you want to add another popup, you can do so.

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e. Music and Sounds
What sort of Ace Attorney trial would this be without some music and sounds - if it weren't for hearing that awesome pursuit theme as you take the killer down, it'd be quite boring, really. So let's add some! These both work in practically the same way, so I'll just show the process behind music. The only difference with sounds is that there's no loop start time.

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Add the name of your track and hit the drop down "select track" box and choose the song you want to play. You'll probably need to add several of these depending on what sort of trial you're making.

Next, there's two new things that have been added in AAO6. Track Volume and Loop Start Time. These are both pretty much self explanatory - if you want to make the song quieter, lower that number in the track volume selection. If you want to make it loop to a different part of the song, change the loop start time.

As I said, sounds have a very similar GUI, so you should be able to reason out how to use those.

f. Save and Playtest

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These two buttons don't lead you to a separate section, but they're absolutely crucial. Use the "save" feature when you're trying to save all of your hard work - if you neglect to save and close out of the window, you will lose all of your progress!
Use the playtest button if you want to play through what you already have. I'll cover this more in detail later.

v5 veteran tip: You now use "playtest" instead of changing the word "editeur" to "jeu".

g. Storyboard
You've made all of your characters. You've added the evidence. You've made places, pop-ups, and you've got some snazzy music and sounds to top it all off. It's finally time to create the actual trial!
SECTION II. Creating the actual trial
Spoiler : :
The Frame Editor
It's finally time to do some actual creation. If you're new to making trials on AAO, then you're probably wondering what a "frame" is. Well, a frame is one separate display of dialogue. Think back to the AA games - each time you hit the "continue" button, you were switching to a difference "frame" of dialogue. That's exactly how it's done in AAO6 - except each of those different dialogues is divided as a single frame.

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So this is one frame - and there's certainly a lot of parts that make up just one of these frames! I've divided it up into six sections so that I can cover each one individually.

a. Section 1
Section one is where you're going to dealing with the "Place," "Characters," and "Popups" that we learned how to add in Section 1. There's three buttons visible when you hover your mouse here - you have place, screen position, and screen editor. Let me quickly breakdown what these three things are.

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  • Place - This dropdown allows you to quickly define a place. For example, I could define "Black background" to make a black screen appear on this frame.
  • Screen position - This determines the position on the background the frame will be in. In the AA games, some backgrounds are larger than the standard 256x192 pixel DS screen size. The prime example of this is the courtroom background. The courtroom background contains several different "positions" that represent different backgrounds. There's the defense bench, witness stand, and prosecutor's bench. To display each of these different backgrounds, you set the screen position accordingly. Thus, the defense bench is "left-aligned," the witness stand is "centered," and the prosecutor's bench is "right-aligned."
  • Screen editor - This one lets us edit the actual contents of the screen. Go ahead and click it.
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On the screen editor, you'll find the tools to edit the display. On the left, you'll find both the place and screen position editors, as were available on the quick access popup. There's also two new features - "Smooth scrolling" and "Hide previously shown character." The latter of these two is self explanatory. If the on-screen character is changing, you'll want to ensure that this box is checked, so as not to have the two characters appear on-screen, overlapping.

Tip: Setting a new background will automatically check this box.

"Smooth scrolling" is used primarily for the courtroom background. Remember in when the screen "scrolls" between the defense, witness, and prosecution benches? Enabling this allows you to do this in your own trial. There's several options here.
Smooth scrolling wrote:
  • Linear (Hard) - Pans in one motion, at a set velocity.
  • Bezier (Soft) - Pans slowly at first, then speeds up, and then slows down, creating a less uniform transition.
  • Ease In - Pans quickly, then slows.
  • Ease Out - Pans slowly, then quickens.
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I've gone ahead and selected the courtroom as my place. Since the courtroom is a large background, I also have to choose the screen position. By setting it to "left aligned," I've made it so the screen position is on the defense bench.

v5 veteran tip: The courtroom is no longer divided into three different sections for the defense, prosecution, and witness. Now you just use the one background and change the screen alignment.

Next, we have the section involving characters. Click on the dropdown and select your character.

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Oh no! What's wrong?! Why is he so malformed?! Wait no, don't report this on the forums yet, this is easily fixed. Firstly, select which sprite you want to appear under the dropdown "character sprite" box. Then, you choose his character position, matching the screen position. Since you've already set the place, your character should be in the right position already. If not, you can change it using that dropdown.

Then you have talking animation mode. Change this if you don't want your character to speak or if you want them to speak (such as if they're in thought) or if you want them to keep talking the whole time (for whatever reason). Otherwise, keep it as automatic.

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I haven't mentioned the "Startup animation mode" yet, however. If you've selected a sprite that has a animation that plays before the character talks, then it has a startup animation. In this case, it's Edgeworth shaking his head no, but it also applies to many other characters, like Phoenix pointing.

If you select that box, you have three options. The default is skip start-up animation, used if you don't want your character to play the animation. Then there's two more - play before typing and play while typing. These are pretty self explanatory - if you want the animation to play while the character speaks, choose the latter. If you want it to play before, use the former.

v5 veteran tip: You don't have to add a pause anymore when using a start-up animation - the editor will pause it for you, if you so choose!

But there's still an issue. Edgeworth is floating off the edge of the bench, and drvonkitty is far too stupid to use the defense attorney sprites he has! Thankfully, AAO6 contains a "Apply mirror effect" option! Check that box and it'll mirror the character's sprite for you.

Tip: If you're doing a lot of mirroring, though, you may want to create an already mirrored sprite and add it as a custom sprite. This will avoid you having to constantly check that box.

There's also the "Popups displayed during this frame" section. Here, you can select any popups you want to appear during the frame. Click "Add a popup" and a list of your previously added popups (from the prior section) as well as all other available ones will appear. If you want a popup, click on it and it will be added to the screen.

v5 veteran tip: You can now add multiple pop-ups to frames if you so desire.

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b. Section 2
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This section allows you to add sound effects and music to the frame. This is rather easy to do - hover your mouse over and click the dropdown and select the ones you want - you can select from a huge list or from the ones you've already added as presets. Note that, when adding music to a frame, you only need to add it to one frame. The music will play from that frame on, either until you set a new track, or set the music to "Stop current music."

v5 veteran tip: You can hover over the black triangle to listen to it instead of having to click the actual music/sound image.

c. Section 3
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You probably want your character to speak during the trial - after all, dialogue is the main vehicle by a which a story is told in an AA game. That's where the text box comes in: here you can enter what your character is going to say. Just click on it and type in whatever you want to appear in the frame.

v5 veteran tip: You can now use spaces in the text boxes to center text, since v6 now supports them!

There's a lot of other things that you can add to the text box - I'll provide a short list of some of them here.
  • Pauses - use the [#] command to add a pause. The time is measured in milliseconds, so [#2000] would pause for 2 seconds. See the "Helpful hints" section for information on standard pauses for your trials.
    v5 veteran note: AAO6 uses milliseconds instead of centiseconds.
  • Flashes - use the [#fb] command to add a flash that plays while the character talks. Add a [#f] to make a flash that pauses the dialogue temporarily.
  • Shakes - use the [#sb] command to add a shake that plays while the character talks. Add a [#s] to make a shake that pauses the dialogue temporarily.
  • [#/colour: {insert name or hex here}]{your input}[/#] - this tag allows you to change certain words to a different color. You can also use the color selector to choose any of a variety of colors, if you want a different color than the presets provided.
    v5 veteran note: This no longer makes the text appear instantly! The text will play out as normal even if you use this command. However...
  • [#/instant: {insert name or hex here}]{your input}[/#] - this tag will cause the {input} to appear instantly, without typing out.
You can use the small blue box to change the name of the character. You can also check the "text preview" box to get a short preview of how it'll look in the player; this is particularly helpful when judging how to do line breaks, if that's your thing. If you want to give your character a different name than is normal displayed, use "custom name." This is how you would make an unknown character's name appear as "???" for example.

d. Section 4
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Now we come to some more mechanical, behind the scenes stuff. The top dropdown box allows you to change the voice of the character - use male for males & evidence being added, female for females, and typewriter for location tags. The bottom is the typing speed - the "1" displayed is the default speed. You can change this to be higher or lower depending on what your character is saying/how they're saying it. A character yelling might use a speed of "3" while a character mumbling sadly might use a speed of "0.5".

v5 veteran tip: The default textspeed in v6 is far higher than it was in v5! In v5, it was 2/3 the speed for the default. Converted trials will default to a speed of 0.67.

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There's a couple of things at this next section. Use the "Hide at the start" checkbox to hide the frame at the start of the game. (See the "Actions & how to use them" section for how to reveal hidden frames.) Use the "merge with next" checkbox to make the selected frame and the frame beneath it (aka the next frame) to combine into one. This allows you to do multiple sound effects in one "frame," or change the position of the screen midway through the dialogue. Use "Wait for" if you want the frame to automatically proceed to the next frame. If you have an "Objection!" popup, then you'll likely want to set this value to 1500 ms, so that the popup will appear, and then automatically proceed to the character speaking. See "Helpful Tips" for standard pauses for different events.

Tip: You can also set the timer to a value of "1" to make the frame not appear at all, but still run any actions you set on it.

e. Section 5
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This is where we get to the actual gameplay of Ace Attorney.

To start, the "delete" button is easily understood - it removes the frame entirely. "Frame presets" let you set a frame as a preset that you can reuse later. Setting a frame as a preset stores all of its information, so you can essentially copy & paste it as many times as you wish. Next, there's the "Insert event block" button, which allows you insert cross-examination blocks and investigation blocks. See Section IV and V respectively for a guide on how to use these.

Then comes the set action tool.... this one is probably going to need its own section.
SECTION III. Actions and how to use them
Spoiler : :
Actions
Actions are a fundamental part of using AAO6. You cannot make a case (in the AA style or not) without them. I'm going to cover every single action you can use in AAO6, as well as a short segment about its use. So click on the "set action" button, and let's get started!

Manage the court records

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Display evidence on screen will display a piece of evidence at one of the corners of the screen.

Hide elements from the Court Records will, as stated, make it so the player cannot see a piece of evidence in their Court Record.

Reveal elements from the Court Records does the opposite - it reveals it so the player can see it in their Court Record.


Edit the game flow

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Set the "Game Over" redirection will allow you to change which frame the player is redirected to when they run out of health. Use this for your "Guilty" verdict ending.'

Proceed to another frame is an important action. This makes it so the player will wait a certain amount of milliseconds (set in the "wait for" section of the frame) and then automatically switch to the chosen frame without the player's input.

Tip: You don't have to set this if the frame is merely proceeding to the next one in order. If I have an "Objection!" frame and then Phoenix pointing in the next, I don't need to set the "Proceed to another frame" action. However, if the "Objection!" frame continues to a frame that is not in sequential order, that's when you use this action.

Hide a frame from the game flow will, as stated, make a frame so it does not appear in the game.

Reveal a hidden frame does the opposite - it makes a previously hidden frame appear in the game.

End the game ends the game, ceasing the player from continuing. Use this after the trial is over, either from a good or bad ending.


Edit the game environment

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Hide an object in a place will hide an object that you have added to a place - remember the backgrounds and foregrounds from the place editor? That's what this does.

Reveal an object in a place does the opposite - it reveals it.

Hide a scene hides an investigation location.

Reveal a scene reveals an investigation location.

Hide an introduction conversation makes it so a conversation at the beginning of an investigation scene does not appear.

Reveal an introduction conversation makes it so a conversation at the beginning of an investigation scene does appear.

Hide a talk topic makes it so the selected talk topic does not appear in the "talk" section of the investigation scene.

Reveal a talk topic makes it so the selected talk topic does appear in the "talk" section of the investigation scene.

Hide psyche locks button makes it impossible to access the psyche locks sequence in an investigation scene.

Reveal psyche locks button makes it possible to access the psyche locks sequence in an investigation scene.


Manage player's health

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Set player's health points allows you to make set changes to the players health. If you want to refill the player's health bar to max, this would be how to do it.

Reduce player's health points will remove a selected amount of health from the player.

Tip: The filled health bar is 120. 24 is the standard penalty in an AA game. 12 is the standard penalty in an AAI game.

Set flashing health points makes the health bar flash a certain amount of points. Use this when the player could get a health penalty if they present the wrong answer, but have yet to do so. Set this to "0" to stop the life bar from flashing.

Increase player's health points allows you to increase a player's life points by a certain amount.

v5 veteran tip: This is a new action. You now no longer have to decrease the player's health by a negative number to increase their health.


Ask for player's input

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Ask player to select an answer makes the player choose between several different choices. You can add up as many as you want, but the AA games never use more than four options.

Ask the player for evidence provides a prompt to the player to present a piece of evidence.

Ask player to point an area prompts the player to choose a certain part of an image. You can decide the area they must select.

Next you have a section on variables, which I'm not going to cover. Check out Enthalpy's v6 Variable Guide for a general guide on how to use variables.

And that's all the actions that are currently available. You can do a lot with all of these actions, and I've only given you a brief overview of what each does.
SECTION IV. Investigation Blocks
Spoiler : :
Remember that section called "insert event block"? You use that to add either a cross-examination segment, or an investigation segment. Each of these has their own, separate UI, so I'm going to cover them separately. I'll be starting with the investigation block.

Click on "insert event block" and add an investigation segment.

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This'll be what pops up in place of a normal frame. As you can see, there's a lot of different sections you can go to there.

v5 veteran tip: The investigation block has been reorganized into a collection of tabs, in order to minimize the amount on your screen at a time.

Firstly, you can title your investigation scene - under "investigation scene #1" is where you type in the name. This is important for both organizational purposes, as well as for displaying the name when the player moves between investigation locations. On the far right of the screen is where you can delete the investigation segment.

Then, you have four different tabs. We'll go through each.

I. Settings
I'm not even going to provide a picture of this one, because it's simple. There's only one option, after all! The checkbox for "hide at the start" allows you to make it so the investigation location is not visible at the start, and can only be made visible if the "reveal scene" action is used. This is used in order to hide and subsequently reveal locations to the player. Once they've collected all the evidence at one scene, you can then reveal the next one.

II. Dialogue
This is where you can customize the conversations that occur in the investigation segment. When you click on it, you'll see a button that will let you open more options.

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Here, there are a whole new selection of tabs.

a. Settings
Here, you can customize the visuals at the scene. "Main frame screen editor" will allow you to select the background of the scene as well as the character that appears there by default. You can also add a psyche-locks conversation, as well as music that plays by default at the scene. If you click on "add psyche-locks conversation," it will add a new tab.

b. Introduction Conversation
The introduction conversation is the first conversation that occurs when the player arrives at the investigation scene. If you click the "open" button here, you'll be back to the frame editor and you can write to your heart's content. This, as the name implies, is how you introduce an investigation scene to your player.

c. Talk
This is where you set all the different things the player can talk about with the person at the scene. You can add a new topic here.

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This screen is rather straightforward. If you want the topic to be hidden at the start until it's been revealed, check the "hide topic at start" box. You can also add a "topic title", which is what will appear on the button in the scene. You can also click "open" to open up the frame editor for the conversation or delete it altogether.

d. Psyche-Locks Conversation
Assuming you've clicked on "add psyche-locks conversation", you also have the psyche-locks tab. If you click on it, you can open up the frame editor. There's a short tutorial on how to do psyche-locks and which actions you use. E.D. Revolution wrote a guide on how to do psyche-locks here! Check it out; it covers everything you'll ever need to know for the basics of psyche-locks.

e. Present
This is where you go if you want to write the conversations that occur with the player presents a piece of evidence. Once you've added a piece of evidence, you'll have this:
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The "presenting other evidence" is for the conversation that occurs when a piece of evidence that doesn't have its own conversation is presented. The "presenting" is for when you present a specific piece of evidence - you choose it from the drop down menu.

III. Location

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This tab is simple relative to the last. There's only two different options available.

Settings only has one option, so I'm not going to provide a picture. It provides you with a dropdown box that has a list of places. This is where you select the place that the player will examine - usually the background of the investigation location.

Next, we have examine. This is somewhat more complicated.

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Under "examining something else" is where you can set the conversation that happens when the player investigates something irrelevant. Then, you have the "examining" section that you can add by clicking on the blue button. Click on "set".

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This will be the screen that pop up, albeit with whatever different location you have chosen. From here, you can choose the area the player has to click on to access the specific examine conversation. You have three options - you have polygon, which allows you to create a specific shape around an object. Like this:

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As you can see, I've drawn a perfect little polygon around the ever-faithful bailiff.

v5 veteran tip: You can now draw with polygons instead of relying solely on rectangles..

You also have "rectangle", which allows you to draw a box around an item you want to examine.

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Finally, you have circle, which allows you to draw a circle. The first click defines the center of the circle, while the second is a point on the edge. The distance between the two mouse clicks is the radius of the circle.

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And that's it for the location section.

IV. Move
In order to utilize this section, you're going to need another investigation location, so quickly add one using "insert event block" if you're following along with the guide. Then, open up the "move" tab.

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This is fairly simple. From the dropdown, you select the move target you want to go to, and then click on the brown "add to move targets" to add it.

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Over on the right is where your added move target will appear. If you wish, you can change its name by clicking on the white box and typing in the new name - for example, "???" is a valid name if you don't want to the player to know the name of the location.

v5 veteran tip: This is a new feature. In v5, there was no way to add a custom name to a move target.
SECTION V. Cross-Examination Blocks
Spoiler : :
The last section remaining in order to understand the basics of the editor are cross-examination blocks. These, as the name might suggest, are how you add cross-examinations to your AA trials. They're a core feature of the gameplay of any Ace Attorney game.

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Cross-examination blocks are made the same way as investigation ones; you click the purple "add event block" and select cross-examination.

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Just like the investigation block, the cross-examination block is now handled under three tabs - statements, cocounsel conversation, and failure conversation.

v5 veteran tip: No more “extra options." Everything is organized into three convenient tabs.

The default tab, as seen above, is statements, and that’s where you’re going to be spending most of your time. To add a new statement to your cross-examination, click on the blue “Insert a new statement here” button.

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It’s fairly simple. You have two main buttons - if you want to add text, click on open. To get rid of the statement altogether, click on delete. You can also add new statements before and after the current statement.

To view your statement, select open.

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Statements are created using the frame editor - the same one as discussed in Section II of this tutorial. This is the exact same, except you cannot add actions to CE statements.

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However, we do have one new friend here, that allows you to set a statement to be contradictory. If this statement is the one that requires the player to present evidence on, this is where you’ll set it. To do so, click the brown button that says “add a contradiction”.
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The bar now includes three new things. The first is where you select the contradictory evidence that the player presents to get past the cross-examination. This functions via dropdown, like this:

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As you can see, I only have the one piece of evidence and the one profile I created earlier. In your case, this will be a list of all of the evidence and profiles you’ve created in your trial. Selecting one will make it the evidence or profile the player must present at that statement to continue.

The second thing I’ve labeled is the redirection frame. When the player presents this contradiction, you need to specify what happens. In 99% of your cross-examinations, this is going to be to a frame that contains the classic “objection” frame, and then the conversation that occurs afterwards.

In any event, you type in the number of the frame you want to redirect to. Typically, for AAO trials, you redirect to the very first frame after the cross-examination block. However, this frame can be placed anywhere.

v5 veteran tip: You can make it direct straight to the “objection!” frame now, as you can add both a sound effect and a stop music effect on the same frame.

The final new button is the brown “delete contradiction” button. If you’ve accidentally added a contradiction that is unwanted, or if you’re like me and are changing your script at the last minute, this is how you remove it.

Editor's Note: I've removed much of my old-fashioned humor but the "changing your script at the last minute" remains true to this day.

Of course, presenting evidence is not everything in a cross-examination! You can also add a press conversation.

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Use the add a pressing conversation button to do so. I’d provide a screenshot, but all this does is open up the frame editor for you. Then, you can make a pressing conversation to your heart’s content. Typically, these start with the "Hold It!" pop-up, but you're within your power to do whatever.

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Remember that you can add as many statements as you want!

v5 veteran tip: All of your statements are now conveniently laid out for you here.

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Now, there’s two other buttons you can mess around with here. The cocounsel conversation button will take you to a place where you can open the frame editor. This conversation will play everytime the player fully cycles through the available statement. Despite the name, this does not necessarily have to involve the player's cocounsel.

The failure conversation button allows you to edit what happens if the player presents the wrong evidence and/or on the wrong statement. This is typically where you add the penalty to the player's health bar.

Tip: The filled health bar is 120. 24 is the standard penalty in an AA game. 12 is the standard penalty in an AAI game.

As with the cocounsel conversation, this will allow you to open the frame editor, where you can edit to your heart’s content as usual.

That concludes this section on the basics of cross-examinations. If you’d like to learn more about how to design cross-examinations, check out E.D.Revolution’s tutorial, “Tricks to a Cross-Examination: V6 Edition.” It has a detailed guide as to how to design different types of CEs in AAO, such as “press-all-to-continue” cross-examinations.
SECTION VI. Helpful Tips
Spoiler : :
Here are a few helpful tips for trialmaking. Feel free to submit your own.

Tip 1 - drvonkitty
Pauses are a great tool for improving upon the presentation of your trial. While you can use any values you want, the ones I used are adapated from a guide by an old moderator on AAO, with a few of my own additions.
Meph wrote: Different pauses are used after different types of punctuation. This is the general rule:-
  • [#50] - Used for stuttering, such as H-[#50]Huh?
  • [#100] - Used for punctuation that represent very small pauses, such as commas (,) and colons (:).
  • [#150] - Used for pauses mid-sentence. For example, a character saying "And[#150] that's[#150] the[#150] game."
  • [#200] - Used for punctuation that represent standard pauses, such as full stops (.).
  • [#500] - Used for punctuation that represent large pauses, such as ellipsis (...).
Tip 2 - drvonkitty
Another presentation tip is to add line breaks to your trial. While the editor will automatically cycle onto the next line, it will begin typing a word on the wrong line, and move it to the next line when it runs out of room. By pressing the enter key before this word in the editor, the word will automatically be put on the next line.
Here's a brief trial tutorial on how to use line breaks.

Tip 3 - drvonkitty/Enthalpy
AAO6 is smart enough not to require certain inputs - it will remember your previous inputs and continue to use them until told otherwise. This is known as an "implicit definition." Once you put in a background, for example, you don't have to continue to define the background. The player will simply display that background for every frame until a new background is defined. This can save you a lot of hassle, and is worth doing. Check here for a guide by Enthalpy on all the different implicit definitions in AAO6

Tip 4 - drvonkitty
I get about 20 PMs a day (at least, it feels like it!) about how to get the courtroom backgrounds, such as the defense bench. In the editor, look for the pre-defined place "Courtroom benches" of the "PW" or "AJ" variety. This has the defense and prosecution benches, as well as the witness stand. You use the "Screen position" feature to select which one (left-aligned is defense, etc.)

Tip 5 - drvonkitty
There's standard timing for different pop-ups, events, and other such events in the Ace Attorney games. Something like the classic "Objection!" frame automatically proceeds to the next frame after a certain amount of time has passed. But what timers should be used for these different events? Well, here's the ones I use:
Timers wrote:
  • Speech bubbles - the speech bubbles (objection, hold it, take that, etc) should use a standard timer of 1500 ms. This can be extended to be longer for a longer pause, such as a dramatic objection to save the defense's case.
  • Judge's gavel - the judge hitting his gavel once should use a standard timer of 1000 ms. The judge hitting his gavel three times should use a timer of 1500 ms. These can also be extended for more dramatic flair.
  • Testimony graphics - the "witness testimony" and "cross-examination" graphics should be on a timer of 2750 ms if you're using a single sound effect.
  • Verdict graphics - the "guilty" and "not guilty" graphics should be on a timer of 3000 ms.
  • Game over - the game over doors should be on a timer of 3000 ms, proceeded by an "End the game" action or a prompt to try again.
  • Crowd speaking/victory - the gallery speaking should be on a timer of 3000 ms. The victory (when confetti is raining down after a not guilty verdict) should be on a timer of 4500 ms.
Tip 6 - drvonkitty
The AAO editor will allow you to write frames that include more than three lines of dialogue. However, doing so is greatly frowned upon, and should only be done in rare circumstances; it should never be done in an AA-style trial! You should always contain your frames down to three lines maximum. To write longer sentences, you can use ellipses to connect multiple lines of dialogue that span more than one frame.

Tip 7 - drvonkitty/Enthalpy
Presentation is an important element of trials on AAO that many new authors neglect. Enthalpy has a guide regarding the elements of the Ace Attorney style here, and it's worth checking out if you plan on creating an AA-style trial.l

Tip 8 - drvonkitty
Frame presets are incredibly useful tools to speed up your trial making. You can create default presets for the courtroom that include the defense, witness, and prosecutor. The editor will remember their locations automatically, so all you have to do is change the talking character in the frame editor. An example trial can be found here.

Tip 9 - drvonkitty
Merged frames are one of the most under-utilized features on AAO, but they're easy (if a bit time-consuming) to use. You can use a merged frame to make a character change poses mid-frame, play sound or music mid-frame, or even fade out the screen in the middle of a frame. You can string multiple merged frames together to create some complex interactions. For example, you can use the "display evidence on screen" action on multiple merged frames to have multiple pieces of evidence on screen in one frame: for example, if an attorney is listing pieces of evidence.

Tip 10 - drvonkitty
Fades were added to AAO a few years ago, and they can greatly enhance the presentation of your trial. While you can use fades in any way you'd like, here's the standard way I do it:
Fades wrote:
  • 0 ms - Used to keep the background faded out across multiple frames. This can be useful when fading a background with foreground objects.
  • 300 ms - Used for a very rapid transition.
  • 600 ms - Used for a transition in the middle of a scene. For example, during a cross-examination, or a rapid-fire evidence presentation argument.
  • 1000 ms - Used for scene transitions. For example, the end of a cross-examination.
  • 2000+ ms - Used for dramatic fades. Use these sparingly, as they can get annoying.
The aforementioned fade lengths are the length for each fade. I typically double the frame timer per fade, meaning a 1000ms fade is set to a 2000ms timer.
Tip 11 - ???
Submit your own tips! I will include them if they're helpful!
ADDENDUM. Recommended Reading
Spoiler : :
Here's a list of other tutorials on AAO that you may find useful. This is not an exhaustive list—just the ones I find particularly useful. Those in red are my favorites.
Gameplay Presentation Writing Miscellaneous
That's the conclusion of this guide. This has only been an introduction to the basics of AAO, so please browse the tutorial forums to get some more in-depth information, or check out the above addendum for my recommendations. If you have more in-depth questions about editor functionality, don't be afraid to ask on the help and support forums, and my PMs are always open to any who need help. Most of all:
Good luck, and happy trial making! :pearlhappy:
Last edited by drvonkitty on Wed Apr 28, 2021 10:31 pm, edited 40 times in total.
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Re: Getting Started with AAO V6

Post by mercurialSK »

From the perspective of someone who's only poked around the editor about twice for nothing at all, this was very clear and helpful.
drvonkitty wrote:Hide a frame from the game flow will, as stated, make a frame so it does appear when in the player.
Oops, half-asleep? :yogi:
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Backlog: v6 Perceive generator, Apollo, everything else (My thread)
Someday, on AAO™: Chris Tenson: Ace Attorney & A Turnabout Called Justice (pt 2)
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Re: Getting Started with AAO V6

Post by drvonkitty »

Glad to know that it's helped you! And whoops, my mistake. I've fixed it now, though. :oops:
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Re: Getting Started with AAO V6

Post by TheDoctor »

Very helpful guide. Looks like I'll be making Shattered Glass case 2 in the V6 editor whenever I get around to it.
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Re: Getting Started with AAO V6

Post by drvonkitty »

I'm glad it's going to help you with your next case! I'm looking forward to it. :D

In other news, I've added a new section on investigation blocks. The cross-examination section will be added later once I finish it.
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Re: Getting Started with AAO V6

Post by Phantom »

Very nice drvon
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Re: Getting Started with AAO V6

Post by soyperkid64 »

Please help me.I am trying to move to the detention center but it does nto work!!! i want when i press it to show the text i want and then show everything but it just shows the office!the place i first started! Please respond so i can countine making my case
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Re: Getting Started with AAO V6

Post by drvonkitty »

soyperkid64 wrote:Please help me.I am trying to move to the detention center but it does nto work!!! i want when i press it to show the text i want and then show everything but it just shows the office!the place i first started! Please respond so i can countine making my case
Have you made a new investigation block that has the location set to be the detention center? And have you set it up so that the office has access to the detention center? If you've done both of those steps, then you should be fine. When you press "it" I assume you mean the move button, and then the button to go the detention center, which will only appear if you've done both those steps. Then, to make the text you want appear, you have to set a "start-up conversation" or whatever it's called.
Last edited by drvonkitty on Tue Jun 10, 2014 10:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Getting Started with AAO V6

Post by Ediebee »

Hey I'm so sorry if this is an obvious ass question but how to I make a frame proceed to the next one WITH the player's input? as in, they click the arrow and the next dialogue appears? I literally just joined this community and wanna make a trial but I haven't found the way to do this simple thing?
thank you in advance and sorry for infecting you with my stupid
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Re: Getting Started with AAO V6

Post by OrderOfTheNick »

That's the normal behavior. If you don't set it otherwise, it will display the arrow for the player to click.
I made Turnabout in the Two Towers, the winner of the Method in the Madness case competition.
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Re: Getting Started with AAO V6

Post by Ediebee »

I've been setting the action for each frame as 'proceed to another frame', but I've learned that it's incorrect. What action do I need?
If you mean I should just leave the action as 'none', I tried that and it did the same thing. Edit* Looks like there's a bug that made my existing frames proceed directly to another frame even when i switched it back to 'none'. I made some new frames, left them on 'none' and they worked. Thanks!
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Re: Getting Started with AAO V6

Post by drvonkitty »

Updated with a tutorial on cross-examinations!
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Re: Getting Started with AAO V6 (Complete!)

Post by E.D.Revolution »

In section IV, you may want to add a link to my psyche locks guide.
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Re: Getting Started with AAO V6 (Complete!)

Post by drvonkitty »

E.D.Revolution wrote:In section IV, you may want to add a link to my psyche locks guide.
Oh, good idea! Not sure why I didn't think of that... I'll get on that right now
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Re: Getting Started with AAO V6 (Complete!)

Post by Phantom »

Hey drvon, to ensure speedy viewing of the page, can you...revamp your intro? It took me a minute to load the page due to the sprite images that had to be displayed. I want to get straight into the content you know?
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