AGS 3.3 Wishlist

[Gribbler]

Is there any chance to include nice and perfectly working LucasArts GUI in upcoming release?

[ThreeOhFour]

I would very much like to be able to alter the Name property of objects and hotspots at run-time, much like can be done with characters and such.

[Ryan Timothy B]

I realize this is probably an obscure random 'wish'..
Editing walk-behinds in game (using DrawingSurface), would be very sweet.

Obviously it'd be more handy with arcade games / non-adventure games, but I know I'd use it.

[subspark]

Is there any chance to include nice and perfectly working LucasArts GUI in upcoming release?

Not this release but Scummbuddy, a few others and I have been working on a LucasArts template and wanted to have it finished and out the door with an iMuse implementation for AGS 3.0.1.
After a few setbacks, I've resumed work on it and it should be ready within the next couple of versions. Of course provided that those whom originally offered to help keep their promise.

Sorry if this has been asked, but an extra perimeter to the .Say command to specify the time the text is displayed on screen:

cCharacter.Say("Stay on for 3 game cycles",120)

I second that.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

I was thinking about how LoseInventory works and I was wondering if you could add an optional boolean after the inventory item, false by default, that would allow you to clear out the entire inventory of a character?  I've found it necessary on several occasions to remove all inventory items, and this would be particularly useful for restarting a game without physically restarting it.  Granted, it wouldn't be difficult at all to make an extender function for Character that does a while loop to remove all the inventory, but not everyone is script-savvy .

[subspark]

Sorry if this has already been suggested before, but it would be lovely to be able to display text at specific coordinates for text-based effects like a character snickering (imagine like in DOTT "SNICKER!" being displayed upward diagonally 3 times, one after the other. Additionally I would also like to see text effects extended to the screen rather than just for characters using the character's font and color. To have "CRASH!" and "BOOM!" display at any coords whithin the screen as dynamic text would be really handy rather than creating bitmap replicas of the fonts and styles. Perhaps I've missed an important memo and this functionality is already very possible.

Cheers,
Sparx.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Well, the SayAt function could certainly be used to do everything you describe (in combination with speechfont/color changes).  One thing that might work is if CJ added some special commands (like the line break command) for Say that would allow you to indent text by x amount, giving you that staggered snickering effect.  You can do it manually right now with something like:

Code: ags

cEgo.Say("          SNICK![      SNAK![SNORUM!");

Also, there is this:

Code: ags

static Overlay* Overlay.CreateTextual(int x, int y, int width,
                                      FontType font, int color, string text)

[Laukku]

I'd like to know if it would be possible to get PCX support back. That would save me from having to convert PCX files to something else (or using an older AGS version).

[Gribbler]

Subspark that's fantastic news!! I can't wait! When you'll be posting this template in any form please do it with CAPS so I would not miss it;)

[marajin]

I find it hard to believe this hasn't been mentioned before, but a quick searching showed no obvious results. Feel free to redirect me if it has. One thing I'd quite like is a 75% or 50% downscaler for the entire game...

Let me clarify the what and why.

I've been tinkering with using the 1024x768 mode for some high res goodliness. It works nicely and all thanks for this ability but I've been saddled with a problem. My laptop/tablet is actually a mini thing and uses the standard netbook resolution of screen (1024x600). Granted some things give you a scaled 1024x768 mock mode to get around anything that can't deal with the 600 cut but as it happens mine does not and I suspect it's not the only one. The other problem is that approach looks rather hideous.

So... What I'd like is an ability to design the game at 1024x768, a respectable resolution that most could enjoy but with the engine able to shrink that where relevant so the game would function well on netbooks.

I do foresee a problem herein and I respect this may not be an entirely practical thing to impliment. The problem I forsee is that despite it being downright easy to scale the graphics, this may play with co-ordinates a little since they'd need to be scaled too. It should be possible to get them within 1 pixel of accurate without fuss though so hopefully easy to do with a minimum of fuss if there's some convienient central point to scale co-ordinates (I imagine there is for the sake of the upscaling already available?). 75% original or so should be ideal for netbook viewing in a window but scaling it to a standard resolution, a la 800x600 sounds good too.

Again feel free to set me right on any existing discussion on the topic or any additional problems in doing it.

Edit:

Just as I shut the browser window it occurred to me, can completely forget downscaling if it was simply possible to render at 1024x600 with the bottom 168 cropped off though this would likely break any bottom aligned GUIness. I can design around it and do not mind doing so. Really the whole problem is just that DX/DD will fail to create 1024x768 viewports since the max res is 1024x600. But what would be cooler for netbooks/ultra portables than high resolution AGS games?

[monkey0506]

Sorry if this has been asked, but an extra perimeter to the .Say command to specify the time the text is displayed on screen:

cCharacter.Say("Stay on for 3 game cycles",120)

I second that.

P.S. The PersistentSpeech module v3.0 is now up!

Of course built-in is always greater than modularized...but it does provide what you asked.

[Nickydude]

Using Game.MinimumTextDisplayTime and the Wait() command has provided me with exactly what I wanted, thanks though M0506. 

[Nickydude]

The ability to start a brand new game from within AGS without having to close it down first, or is that possible?

[monkey0506]

Look up RunAGSGame, however note that the game has to be at the same resolution and color depth for this to work.

[GarageGothic]

Seeing as many of the latest improvements were in dialog customization, I think it would be lovely to carry this through by allowing Pamela lip sync for LucasArts style speech also.

[Nickydude]

I don't mean from within a game, I meant if I was creating one and I wanted a fresh start, like choosing 'New' from the drop down file menu and starting right back at the welcome wizard.

[Nickydude]

The ability to name walkable areas, walk-behinds and regions. So instead of

Walk-behind area ID 1
Walk-behind area ID 2
Walk-behind area ID 3
Walk-behind area ID 4
Walk-behind area ID 5
Walk-behind area ID 5
...
...

You can have something like:

Walk-behind (ID 1): Flowerpot
Walk-behind (ID 2): Open Door
Walk-behind (ID 3): Left Arch Piece
Walk-behind (ID 4): Right Arch Piece
Walk-behind (ID 5): Low Wall

And so on.

[Gilbert]

I don't mean from within a game, I meant if I was creating one and I wanted a fresh start, like choosing 'New' from the drop down file menu and starting right back at the welcome wizard.

Have you checked this?

[Ryan Timothy B]

Have you checked this?

Gilbet, I think he Literally means... to start a new game from within the editor.  File --> New.
As it is now, you have to close AGS and reopen it to start a new game (with the game wizard).

I honestly don't see this as a problem.  How often do you need to start a new game, closing and reopening shouldn't be too much of a hassle?

[F1ak3r]

Mine's a fairly trivial wish:

Seeing as you can now use ordinary code in the dialogue editor, and that code can have errors in it, which are reported in the usual way, I think it would be nice if the dialogue editor had numbered lines like the script editor does.