Maniac Patch: self-variables, scoped modes 5/6, BreakLoop fix, negative IDs in messages

[luadebug]

Summary

Four fixes for Maniac Patch behaviour, discovered while running SOLDIERS -DesireWing- (RPG Maker 2003 + Maniac Patch). The game uses all four features heavily in its Baton formation menu.

1. Self-variables (negative variable IDs -1..-64)

Maniac Patch defines variable IDs -1 through -64 as "self-variables" — per-context scratch storage separate from the global variable table. Adds a _self_vars[64] array to Game_Variables with Get() and SetOp() support for negative IDs, and suppresses spurious out-of-range warnings for valid negative IDs in ShouldWarn().

2. Scoped variable modes 5 and 6 in DecodeTargetEvaluationMode

Mode 5 (ScopedSingle) and mode 6 (ScopedRange) address self-variables by a 1-based positive index in com.parameters[1] that maps to a negative ID: params[1] = 1 → variable ID -1, etc. These modes were silently falling through to the default: branch (id_0 = 0).

3. BreakLoop — find actual enclosing loop by scanning backward

The previous Maniac Patch path used SkipToNextConditional({EndLoop}, indent - 1), which breaks when BreakLoop is nested inside conditionals within a loop. Example: BreakLoop at indent 3 (inside two levels of if inside an infinite loop at indent 0) was using indent - 1 = 2 to search for EndLoop, finding the wrong target.

Fix: scan backward from BreakLoop to find the innermost enclosing Loop command (tracking EndLoop/Loop pairs to skip already-closed nested loops), then scan forward to its EndLoop. The vanilla RPG_RT bug-emulation path is unchanged.

4. ParseParam: support \v[-N] negative variable IDs in message escape sequences

ParseParam() treated a leading - inside brackets as a non-digit, setting stop_parsing = true and returning 0. Adds an is_negative flag that consumes the - before the digit loop and negates the parsed value at the end. Affects all escape sequences that call ParseParam: \v[N], \t[N], \c[N], \s[N], \n[N].

References

• Maniac Patch official documentation: https://bingshan1024.github.io/steam2003_maniacs/
• EasyRPG Maniac Patch metabug (feature tracking): Support Maniac Patch (Metabug for all releases) #1818
• Prior Maniac loop/break-loop work: Maniac: Implement Loop and Break Loop enhancements #2649

Test case

Game: SOLDIERS -DesireWing- (RPG Maker 2003 + Maniac Patch)

• Baton formation menu (CE 219) uses \v[-1] in ShowStringPicture to display character SPD from self-variables → previously always showed 0
• Cancel key exit from the menu uses BreakLoop at indent 2 inside a ConditionalBranch at indent 1 inside an infinite loop at indent 0 → previously could not exit the menu

[Ghabry]

I will directly tell you that we will not accept a contribution of such a complex feature from an unknown "developer". Especially not one who sends us vibecoded stuff.

Your AI already made something up and wasted our time with the much simpler Set Game Option contribution.

Just looking for 1 minute at it this patch already makes no sense: The scoped variables are per event and not some "negative index global scratch buffer".

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I give you a warning because of spamming. Next AI slop contribution is a ban.