SUGGESTIONs: Object.IgnoreWalkBehind, -resize and two more

Joseph DiPerla · Sat 23/12/2006 05:34:27

Just four small suggestions. And these are not just some random suggestions I am throwing in there just for the heck of it.I started working on my two Simpsons games again and my template. And playing around with the editor I noticed that there are some features needed that can make the editing life much faster and easier. In fact, I am almost begging for these features...

1) Do you think in the room editor, when editing an object, could there be a checkbox that says "Ignore Walk Behind"? rather than having to script it? I have 2.72 and cant seem to see this anywhere on the editor. Could offer some more clean coding and less scripting as well as making it visually easier for the user. What do you guys think? I would really like it personally.

2) I noticed that the "use walkable area scaling" option either doesn't work or is not what I thought it was... Is there anyway that in the objects editor we can have a resize option? In other words, Can we have it so there is a button that says "Resize Object on Screen now" and what this does is create a box around the image and you drag the corners and resize the image right then and there?

3) I found a workaround for the Simpsons game character image sizes. I copy the image to the clipboard and then import it at 640 res. But, I need to still make some fixes and I need to keep testing the game constantly to do this and it is annoying. Each room has different sizes to it, so the player needs to be tested in every room to make sure the size fits (I mean character scaling).

What I was thinking was to add a "Test Character in Room" Button. What this does is sizes out the character and puts him on the screen right then and there. Depending where you drag him, it changes size due to the scaling of the room. This would be beneficial becouse then we can change the scaling size right there, rather than changing the scaling, saving the game, testing and teleporting to that room only to find out that you are going to have to rechange the scaling.

4) This is not as important as the above suggestions, but it would be a load off a lazy guys hands. I suggested this years ago and would love to see it implemented. What I wanted for the editor for walkable areas, walkbehinds and hotspots is a new drawing tool. Plotpointing. It could have two options, 3 point plotpointing and 4 point plot pointing. Basically, you click on the screen and a point is made. Then you click again and a line is drawn from the first point to the next point. When you click your last point, the first point draws a line to the last point. This makes it faster to draw on screen. I know there is a line tool, but rather than dragging the line carefully, this could be abetter and faster system.

The other option to this is that rather than using 3 or 4 points, you could have unlimited points. And when your done drawing, you could hit something like CTRL-P and the first and last point connect. This is not such a rush of a suggestion, but it is something I have always wanted.

I hope others find these suggestions useful...

strazer · Sat 23/12/2006 13:35:25

1) I agree, essential things like this and Object.Clickable should be selectable from the editor, just like it is with characters.

2) Automatically resizing an object will always look ugly. If you draw the object in the correct size from the beginning, you shouldn't need this.
The "Use walkable area scaling" works just like it does with characters, it resizes the object according to the scaling setting of the walkable areas it's currently on. You may need this if the object is not stationary but moves around the room.

Maybe it didn't work for you because the base of the object is the lower-left corner, not lower-middle like characters. Make sure this point is actually on the walkable area.

3) Makes sense to me. Maybe the room editor could just superpose the player character automatically for the game maker to drag around.

4) Yeah, the highest benefit is see here is if you could drag the points around after they have connected so you can adjust the area/region without having to manually edit or draw it again.

Ali · Sat 23/12/2006 13:50:06

Along similar lines to (3), I would find it extremely useful to see objects scale depending upon the walkable area they're sitting on. I guess this should be optional, but I'd find it handy.

SSH · Sat 23/12/2006 16:25:19

Ali, they do, and you can turn it off...

strazer · Sat 23/12/2006 16:29:23

I think he meant in the editor. AFAIK they only show up scaled at run-time.

Ali · Sat 23/12/2006 17:05:26

I did mean in the editor, sorry I wasn't clear!

The reason I'd have found it useful is that I have a crowd scene at the end of my game, using objects for some of the figures in the crowd. I found it very time consuming to compile the game and skip to the final cutscene just to check the composition of the objects.

Joseph DiPerla · Sat 23/12/2006 20:13:17

Quote from: strazer on Sat 23/12/2006 13:35:25
2) Automatically resizing an object will always look ugly. If you draw the object in the correct size from the beginning, you shouldn't need this.
The "Use walkable area scaling" works just like it does with characters, it resizes the object according to the scaling setting of the walkable areas it's currently on. You may need this if the object is not stationary but moves around the room.

Maybe it didn't work for you because the base of the object is the lower-left corner, not lower-middle like characters. Make sure this point is actually on the walkable area.

Nope, checked it out. I put it in every which way possible. I spent 38 minutes retesting it. It doesn't work. Atleast not for me. I could just be dense though. I do appear to be slow at times. But a resize feature would be nice either way.

I am glad to see that many of you feel that my suggestions are useful. I really do feel it would speed time up considerably.

----------EDIT-------

PLEASE dont kill me for making this question or request.

But I think I need one more function. CurrentChar.Say function.

Right now if I have to specify which character says something. But I would love for there to be a script option and something in the editor which would allow to let the current character say a line. I have 3 playable characters and I would need that. Some times they say different lines, other times they dont. So rather than doing an "if playercharacter is" type thing, is there a function to do this for me?
I thought there was, but I could be wrong...

Rui 'Trovatore' Pires · Sat 23/12/2006 21:59:38

Surely, you can use the newest AGS versions to simply do player.Say?

Joseph DiPerla · Sun 24/12/2006 03:47:26

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHH!!! Thanks Rui. I looked up the manual and I searched and searched. For some reason I only got the Display and Character[Ego].say etc... Thanks!!!

strazer · Sun 24/12/2006 10:35:42

Quote from: Joseph DiPerla on Sat 23/12/2006 20:13:17Nope, checked it out. I put it in every which way possible. I spent 38 minutes retesting it. It doesn't work. Atleast not for me.

Have you actually tested it in-game? As I said, I think the resizing doesn't show up in the editor, only at run-time.

Joseph DiPerla · Sun 24/12/2006 13:42:07

Yeah, I did. Still didn't work right. Thats why it took me so long to test.

RowdyAdventurer · Tue 26/12/2006 14:19:33

one is good but doable without that function
two is not something i need
three and four are good suggestions. I would most absolutely use those functions.

Edit by strazer: No need to quote the whole post!

strazer · Thu 04/01/2007 03:15:34

Tracker'd by some unknown force:

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/tracker.php?action=detail&id=601
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/tracker.php?action=detail&id=602
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/tracker.php?action=detail&id=603

Joseph DiPerla · Thu 04/01/2007 23:10:03

Its been listed by me, But thats the original ones I posted last week...