I have a few beginner questions regarding the capabilities of the engine.

[DosBuster]

I'll just cut right to the chase:
1. I want to create a similar dialogue system in terms of UI and functionality to Planescape Torment, is this possible? How much scripting would it require?

2.If I were to create an isometric map in Tiled and export it as an image, would it work normally without hacks/scripting?

3. Are there any plugins to integrate Chat Mapper with the editor?

4. How does the editor work with Git?

Thanks!

[Snarky]

1. Hmmm... Probably. There are a few challenges, having to do with poor built-in support for scrolling text windows and limits on text length in a window. These you can probably work around. It could also be a bit difficult to integrate the dialog selection with the text window, though I believe the most recent AGS builds have features that might make it easier. It will require some scripting, but unless there's some roadblock I'm forgetting it should be doable.

2. Probably not. Depends on exactly what you expect. You'll have to define the walkable areas and walkbehinds, obviously. And for a decent-size map the image would be pretty huge, so that you'd probably want to split it up into several rooms (both to cut down on loading time and memory use, and to simplify the scripting in each room).

3. No, I'm pretty sure there isn't. You might be able to convert one of the formats Chat Mapper outputs to something AGS can import, though. Otherwise there's an AGS Dialog Designer app that has some of the same basic features.

4. How do you mean? You can save a game project to source control, but certain resource files (the sprite cache in particular) are saved in a binary format, and if different people edit the game in parallel this can lead to unresolvable conflicts. There's no built-in git integration in the editor AFAIK.

The bottom line is that although it's technically possible to make an isometric RPG in AGS, it's not what the engine was designed for, and it's probably not the best tool for the job.

[Monsieur OUXX]

1. Hmmm... Probably.
2. Probably not.
3. No, I'm pretty sure there isn't.
4. How do you mean?

I agree with 80% of what was said by Snarky. But depending on what you're trying to achieve, the same answers could be more optimistic :

1. Custom dialog system: Start off with a custom dialogs module (e.g.this one, or that one, or that one). Then I'm sure you can easily twaek it to make it behave or even just look like you want.
2. Isometric maps : Snarky is right when he says that you'll only get an image and that you still need to set up the walkable areas and walkbehinds manually. But that's no big deal, many people have done that, it's actually quicker than scripting a whole isometric-game engine. The only deal-breaker is if your image is huge, it could slow down your game a lot.
3. Chat mapper : I don't know what specific feature of Chat Mapper you need. If you really need to design super complex dialogs, then no, there is nothing like that in AGS. If you just need some basic branched-dialogs system, then use Dialog Designer like Snarky suggested.
4. Git: Just like Snarky said : You can easily source-control all the scripts, including the rooms scripts. But you cannot source-control global things like sprites.
- If you're working on your own and just want to use source-control as some sort of backup device, then do it.
- If you're working as a team, then you'll be fine as long as you create all the global objects first, and only then make the team members work on them (separately) and source-control them. You cannot source control anything that's stored in the main .agf file.

[DosBuster]

Should of clarified that I'm not looking to create a cRPG in the traditional sense, the reason I want to go Isometric is so I can use a Tile map editor to create the environments. I do understand that I will have to lay out paths and such. Thanks for the help though anyways. Has anyone here ever tried to create an isometric-type game on this engine before, something I can look at?

[Adeel]

Has anyone here ever tried to create an isometric-type game on this engine before, something I can look at?

Secluded is the first AGS game which comes to mind. There may be more but I can't remember them.

You should directly PM the game desginer, btw, lest you want that game's thread to get locked.

[Snarky]

I'm sure there are, but I can't think of any with source available off the top of my head.

Further to your questions:

1. Not sure if Mr Ouxx is familiar with the Planescape dialog system, but I don't think those modules will prove very useful (certainly not the icon-based ones, and isn't KADS more or less superseded by the new built-in custom dialog system?). Having had another look I do think it's quite doable, but there's no denying it will take a bit of scripting.

2. The bit I thought would require extra coding is any "tile logic," i.e. if you want to make sure characters are always standing in the middle of a tile, can only move to adjacent tiles, if you have area effects (e.g. spells, explosions) or similar things that are measured in tiles, etc. All of that would be relevant in an RPG, but if you're just using a tile editor to create background graphics for a regular adventure game, it should probably be fine.

[Cassiebsg]

A Tainted Treat is also isometric.

EDIT:
Then there's this thread on the critics lounge about isometric characters: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=50515.msg636491001#msg636491001

[Mandle]

Has anyone here ever tried to create an isometric-type game on this engine before, something I can look at?

Secluded is the first AGS game which comes to mind. There may be more but I can't remember them.

You should directly PM the game desginer, btw, lest you want that game's thread to get locked.

Here's another one: Harry Potter RPG