Just started a game, having problems

[Greg]

    Hey people I downloaded AGS the other day and began working on a game. I have drawn the first room out and have done all the walkable and walk-behind areas, but I am having problems with two issues. When I create hotspots and go to look at hotspot and than do Game-Display Message or whatever I put down a message than I go to Test it and when I look at it, it kicks me out....problem is I cannot tell you what it says because NOW I can't even get into the test because when I try and get in it is saying "The starting room that you have specified (room-1.crm) Does not appear to exist. Your game may not be able to start up. Continue Anyway? Well I click ok and I get kicked out of the test and the error says make sure the room is saved to the games sub folder or something like that...however just five minutes ago I was able to test continuously so I don't know why it suddenly does not work. Please help me with both these problems!!

[strazer]

Room files have to be named "roomX.crm", not "room-X.crm" (X being the number of the room). So first, rename "room-1.crm" to "room1.crm".

The reason it worked before is because when you start a game, by default ego's starting room is "-1", meaning NO room. In your case the room number "-1" existed, so it worked fine.
You probably changed ego's starting room to "1" recently. Now it searches for "room1.crm", that's why you get kicked out.

After the renaming you should be able to post the error message of your first problem.

[Greg]

Yeah what happened was I was saving the room to my own folder, instead of the subfolder. Now my problem is the hotspot issue. Here is the message I get when I say make a hotspot(a bed) and put it so when you look at it, it should say like "this is my bed" blah blah blah..however this is the error I receive...(word for word)

An error has occured. Please contact the game author for support, as this is likely to be a scripting error and not a bug in AGS.(ACI version 2.60.698)

(global script line 50)
Error:Display Message:Invalid Message Number to Display

Help me please.

[strazer]

Ok, so open up the global script (menu "Script" / "Edit global script...") and copy line 50 (see left side of window) here.

[Greg]

lol WOW, I am totally new and have noooo idea what you just said. Can you repeat that liek you were speaking to yourself when you first started AGS? Thanks

[strazer]

Ok, the error message is:

(global script line 50)
Error:Display Message:Invalid Message Number to Display)

Notice it says there is an error in your script, line 50. I need to take a look at that line, so you have to post it here.

Here are the steps:

- Open the AGS editor
- Open your game
- Click on Script at the top of the editor window
- Click Edit global script...
- In the newly opened window, scroll down until you see line 50 (all lines are numbered on the left side)
- Highlight the entire line 50 with your mouse
- Press [CTRL]+[C] on your keyboard
- Come back here and compose your message
- Press [CTRL]+[V] to paste the copied line into your message
- Post reply

[Greg]

I got it, problem was when you put in display message you have to press new message in the edit box, so I got it. Now I have a few just questions. Number one I notice when you see display messages its black letters in a white box....kind of boring. How do you have like blue or orange or diffrent colorr text displays with no box in the background. Also how do you have continuous text messages, so like it would say thats my bed (end) Dont wanna sleep now (end)??

[strazer]

Number one I notice when you see display messages its black letters in a white box....kind of boring. How do you have like blue or orange or diffrent colorr text displays with no box in the background.

You have to create a new GUI which you can use as the text window.
Open the editor, on the left side select "GUIs", press button "Create New GUI". Activate the new GUI's "Text Window" checkbox.

Now select "General settings" on the left. Check "Text windows use GUI [  ]" and enter the number of the GUI you have created.
You can now format the GUI to your liking.

Also how do you have continuous text messages, so like it would say thats my bed (end) Dont wanna sleep now (end)??

Add more actions in the interaction editor?
Right-click "Look at hotspot" for example, then select "New action...".

[Greg]

You said when you click on general settings and go to text windows GUI []
and put in a number of a gui u created...I havent created a GUI and have no idea how. How can I just have diffrent color texts for diffrent people and objects with no box around the text. Thats all I want really.

[strazer]

I havent created a GUI and have no idea how.

As I've written before: Open the editor, on the left side select "GUIs", press button "Create New GUI"

How can I just have diffrent color texts for diffrent people and objects with no box around the text. Thats all I want really.

I don't know if this is available in the interaction editor but with script, you would use the DisplaySpeech function.
Just select "Run script" in the interaction editor and write

DisplaySpeech(EGO,"That's my bed.");
DisplaySpeech(EGO,"Don't wanna sleep now.");

in there.
You can set each character's talking color in the "Character" section of the editor.

[Greg]

Well I have no idea how to do that, Im still confused so let me just ask ALL my questions now.

1)How do I have it so you can go to say a closet and when u interact the closet door opens, when your done looking in it(nothing in it) the door closes...I understand I am going to have to go to the original room drawing and draw the open door, but how would I edit in the open closet room drawing for just that one interaction, than put it back to the regular room drawing with the door closed?

2)How do I remove an object from a table and put it into the inventory, than again have the object gone from the table.

3)Finally, how do I draw sprites of characters and put them in, I kind of want to do it on AGS but have NO idea how. please help me.

*remember please state the answers as simply as possible, please dont make it complicated for me to understand because I am very new.

[strazer]

I don't think my answers will be of much use to you right now.

I suggest you read this, then read all sticky threads in the beginner's forum and check out the manual.

[Ginny]

If you want the text displayed as speech simply use DisplaySpeech(EGO,"The bed."); this will make EGO say this text. This is of course assuming you havn't changed the script name for the main character, if you have, use the new name. You can select a colour number from the pallette (or colour selector for hi-color games) and use it for the talking color of the main character. You can have a different color for every character, LEC style.
As for custom text windows, there's really no point in making one that will look just like speech, rather if you want speech to stay on until you click, there's an option like that in the general tab.

edit: whoa, major lateness..

[greg]

I understand your trying to help but I really have no idea what your saying. Can you just first try and answer the three questions I asked before, thats what I really need to know how to do. Please use n00b terms and speak like you would to a child. Remember this is like my second day on the job.

[ElectricMonk]

You said when you click on general settings and go to text windows GUI []
and put in a number of a gui you created...I havent created a GUI and have no idea how. How can I just have diffrent color texts for diffrent people and objects with no box around the text. Thats all I want really.

For starters, when you tell the game to display a message and it lets you type your message, you have a selection box under your text window that says "Display message as", with a choice of "Normal text" or "ROGER".
Select ROGER and see what it changes...

I really suggest working through the tutorials, btw. It cleared up a lot of stuff for me, and I'm only working with AGS for about 2 weeks now.

[Greg]

I read the tutorial already.

[ElectricMonk]

Well I have no idea how to do that, Im still confused so let me just ask ALL my questions now.

1)How do I have it so you can go to say a closet and when you interact the closet door opens, when your done looking in it(nothing in it) the door closes...I understand I am going to have to go to the original room drawing and draw the open door, but how would I edit in the open closet room drawing for just that one interaction, than put it back to the regular room drawing with the door closed?

- Create a small graphic that features just the open door.
- Import it via the Sprite Manager (one of the tabs on the left of the AGS screen).
-Go to the Room Editor, select "New Object", place the blue cup icon anywhere and then double-click on it to select a new graphic for it. Select your previously imported open cupboard door and align the object with the mouse on top of your background so it blends in with your cupboard graphic.
- Make sure to un-check "Object is initially visible".

The interaction for "look at hotspot" should look something like this:
- Object - Switch object back on (select the number of your "open door" object)
- Game - Display a message  (the message you want your character to say)
- Object - Remove an object from the room (again, your open door object)

This way, it will seem like the door opens, when in fact a graphic of an open door is placed above the background.

2)How do I remove an object from a table and put it into the inventory, than again have the object gone from the table.

You have to distinguish between OBJECTS and ITEMS.

OBJECTS are only in the Room Menu and can only be dealt with when the player is in that room.

ITEMS are in the inventory and can be dealt with in every room.

The tricky bit is this.

Say you have a bread on the table that you want the player to take.

You have to create TWO things.

ONE: a bread OBJECT that's lying on the table in the room

TWO: a bread ITEM that can be put into the inventory.

When the player takes the bread, instruct the game to...
-  Remove the bread OBJECT from the room (i.e. make the graphic invisible and non-interactable)
- give the player the bread inventory ITEM.

When you create the bread ITEM in the inventory, make sure that the option "player starts with this item" is unchecked.

3)Finally, how do I draw sprites of characters and put them in, I kind of want to do it on AGS but have NO idea how. please help me.

That's a tough one. You need to know your way around a graphics program like Photoshop or Gimp or something. It can't be done in AGS. AGS can only import the finished graphics. The tutorial tells you how.

[Greg]

Electricmonk for part II, I got my first object down and everything, and I am able to get the object and put it in my inventory however. When I put it in my inventory all I see is a little blue cup (I also drew a bigger picture of the smaller object for the inventory picture as well). Also I want to have it so when you get the object you can walk over to it and get it, not just put ur hand on ti and u get it from across the room. How do i go about correcting both these issues?

[ElectricMonk]

Electricmonk for part II, I got my first object down and everything, and I am able to get the object and put it in my inventory however. When I put it in my inventory all I see is a little blue cup (I also drew a bigger picture of the smaller object for the inventory picture as well).

Did you go to the inventory menu and click on "change image" and select your new image for the item? Any new item and object will automatically get the blue cup image if no image is selected.

Also I want to have it so when you get the object you can walk over to it and get it, not just put your hand on ti and you get it from across the room.

Move your mouse over the background and note the x and y coordinates for where your object is (roughly, about the middle of the object). Then in the interaction menu, before you do anything else like remove the object, or display the "you take the blablablah" message, insert a "move character" command and select those coordinates. Make sure the "wait for move to finish" box is checked.

[Ginny]

I'm not too adept with the inetraction editor, as I don't use it, but use a Character - walk to coordinates command before adding the inventory (something like that), and put in the (x,y) coordinates of the place you want the char to walk to (you can get these by going to the general room settings and hovering your mouse over the spot you want. the coordinates appear above the background, x is first, y second.

As for your other question, make sure you've created the inventory item for the object you want to pick up, and changed the graphic (sometimes a new graphic is created for items, but you can probably use the one you have for the object).
Also, about the closet, it may be better to use an object for the whole closet, removing it from the background image, and possibly making an animation of the object. This keeps things a bit more organised, but it's more complicated to do, so you can just leave it like that (I never would've thought up ElectricMonk's solution ).

I recommend you start taking a look at doing some of the actions you use the inetractions editor for with scripting, after you've gotten the engine basics down and understand how things work.

edit: Am I a slow writer today or what?