AGS 3.2 Final 5 - Recession-busting edition

[subspark]

Of course you would have to change speech skip to mouseclick or timer only (or using game.skip_speech_specific_key ) so the keypress wouldn't automatically cause the text to disappear.

Or you could manually set up all your skip speech keys in code to get around this. Adding a couple of variables would allow you to toggle different functions for any given key. That might see this part done!

Cheers,
Sparky.

[Crimson Wizard]

Well, TerranRich's note about timed puzzles were enough to show me that my idea was wrong.

I must excuse for repeatedly suggesting things that are either possible mess-makers or can be implemented by other means. Looks like I am too fast to make conclusions  

[GarageGothic]

Thanks for updating your post to actually let me understand it, subspark. Apart from using game.skip_speech_specific_key I don't see how you would do that though, since there's no SkipSpeech() function to call when catching the keypress.

[subspark]

Ahh too right you are! We'll thats me for ideas.

Sparky.

[Pumaman]

I have this small suggestion - to completely pause the game when Pause/Break is pressed (and unpause by any other key).
Reason is quite uncommon: this will make it easier to do proofreading when testing a game, because you won't worry of speech text dissapear too early 

The easiest way to do this is to run the game in a window, and then simply press Alt+Tab or click outside the window when you want to pause the game -- that way the game window will still be visible but will be paused.

[Crimson Wizard]

I have this small suggestion - to completely pause the game when Pause/Break is pressed (and unpause by any other key).
Reason is quite uncommon: this will make it easier to do proofreading when testing a game, because you won't worry of speech text dissapear too early  

The easiest way to do this is to run the game in a window, and then simply press Alt+Tab or click outside the window when you want to pause the game -- that way the game window will still be visible but will be paused.

Heh, yeah, but in this case I wont see the text I am going to proofread  
EDIT: oh, wait. Perhaps I can switch focus to some other window, but leave game not minimized.

[subspark]

Is it possible to execute code just before the window loses focus? Like having a sprite display on-screen indicating the game is paused as soon as you click outside the window and vice-versa?

Sparky.

[TerranRich]

Is it possible to execute code just before the window loses focus? Like having a sprite display on-screen indicating the game is paused as soon as you click outside the window and vice-versa?

Sparky.

This would prevent the aforementioned cheating.

There should be a Window object for the sole purpose of window events like minimizing, focus/blur, etc. Dunno how feasible that is.

[monkey0506]

I've just discovered that the engine crashes if you try to call Character.PlaceOnWalkableArea from game_start. Makes sense seeing as no room is loaded yet, but the error message isn't very friendly.

[RickJ]

Now here is the strange part, the 11th parameter was eliminated and I expected to get the same results as before - no errors with 10 parameters.  But to my surprise the same error persisted, this time supplying this text in the error message: 'BluBox::Init^10'.
I am also using previous AGS release (AGS Editor .NET (Build 3.1.2.82) v3.1.2 SP1, February 2009).

This was a bug in AGS 3.1.x but should already be fixed in the latest 3.2 RC 2. Could you try it out and confirm that this fixes the problem for you?

Verified.  Upgraded to  latest RC and error no longer appears..  Thanks!

[Pumaman]

Heh, yeah, but in this case I wont see the text I am going to proofread 
EDIT: oh, wait. Perhaps I can switch focus to some other window, but leave game not minimized.

Clicking on an empty bit of the Windows taskbar is the easiest thing to do -- since it's always there and activating it won't put any windows on top of the game window.

I've just discovered that the engine crashes if you try to call Character.PlaceOnWalkableArea from game_start. Makes sense seeing as no room is loaded yet, but the error message isn't very friendly

Heh, I'll take a look at it. There are various ways of crashing AGS by doing room-specific stuff in game_start, I'll continue to address them one by one as they come up 

Verified.  Upgraded to  latest RC and error no longer appears..  Thanks!

Glad to hear it!

[monkey0506]

Heh, I'll take a look at it. There are various ways of crashing AGS by doing room-specific stuff in game_start, I'll continue to address them one by one as they come up 

Yeah, I just forget sometimes that what I'm doing is room-specific and there's no rooms loaded yet in game_start. Thanks Chris.

[Ryan Timothy B]

I have a question to whomever can answer this.
When you declare a new variable/function/etc, is there a quick key to add any script adjustment to the typing assistant? 

One way I know, is to click on another opened document within AGS (a script, or the sprite manager, etc), and go back to the script you were working on.  Is there a quick key to do this (semicolon would be the most logical)?

[TerranRich]

Do you mean adding the variable/function to the list that comes up when you start typing? For functions, I believe it's when you import it into the global header, but for variables, it should be whenever you declare it. That's been my experience anyway.

[Ryan Timothy B]

Nope.  It doesn't add itself to the quick-list the moment you declare it.  Give it a shot.
The only way I know, is to do what I said above. 
It doesn't even add it to the quick-list if you run the game.

[monkey0506]

AFAIK the autocomplete cache should be updated any time you switch tabs, compile, or run the game. I could be wrong though.

Making it update when typing a semi-colon could maybe be useful, but might be impacting to the editor's performance.

[TerranRich]

Nope.  It doesn't add itself to the quick-list the moment you declare it.  Give it a shot.
The only way I know, is to do what I said above. 
It doesn't even add it to the quick-list if you run the game.

Something's wrong then, because I just tried it and it worked right after declaring it.

I typed in "int iJokerBlah = 1;", hit enter, and typed in "ijo", and there was my variable.

[Ryan Timothy B]

Are you using AGS 3.2 (or even this RC 2 beta, like I am)?
Because no matter what I do for declaring a variable, it doesn't update the autocomplete list without switching tabs.  Curious, why would it work for you and not I?
I even tried it in a room script, and it still doesn't work without switching tabs.

[Khris]

Same here. IIRC, updating the auto-complete list after a tab switch was introduced only quite recently.
For me, not even saving the game does it, much less typing enter.

[TerranRich]

Whoops, I'm using 3.1. I forgot I installed 3.2 separately and ran the wrong one.  

Checking now...

It still works as I specified above. So yes, in 3.2 RC 2, I can declare a variable on one line and it's in the auto-complete on the next line. Dunno if it matters, but I'm doing it from within a function. I can confirm that this doesn't work outside of functions.

What I had to do was declare it at the top of the global script, save. Import it at the bottom of the script header, save. Then it was accessible from the global script again.