AGS 3.01 wishlist

[SSH]

How about:

Being able to have two tabs side-by side in the editor, in case you are referring back and forth between them

Having a context menu option in the editor to pick a Sprite (or View or Character) from that pane and insert its number into the script, kinda like when you select a s[prite in the view editor.

[Elessar]

Being able to have two tabs side-by side in the editor, in case you are referring back and forth between them

You mean, having the option to split the screen, with the tabs in both parts?

[Rulaman]

What about

- multiple speech.vox (or music.vox)
i.e. speech.en, speech.de, speech.es (or german.spf english.spf, ...)

- sprite-en.pack ( contains some sprites, shown in-game that was translated )
i.e. in-game a sign shows "Le Bakery" and in the translated version "Bäckerei" [graphical translation]

[Radiant]

- sprite-en.pack ( contains some sprites, shown in-game that was translated )
i.e. in-game a sign shows "Le Bakery" and in the translated version "Bäckerei" [graphical translation]

You can already do that, you just need to check which language is selected in the room script, and do SetObjectGraphic() based on that.

[Joseph DiPerla]

I agree, an easy option to change languages for sprites, and for voices (just like for text) would be sweet. But all of this can actually be done by some extra work and scripting. You can actually even have an option where it all changes in game if someone wanted to by scripting it. Use variables:

Speechlang(speechlangnumber)
TextLang(Textlangnumber)
SpriteLang(Spritelangnumber)

Then do if's for every piece of dialog, sign and voice file (Forgive me, I havent touched the scripting in AGS for a few months) that would look like this or somewhat similar:

if textlang = 1 'English then displaymessage ("I speak English!")
elseif textlang = 2 'Italian then displaymessage("Io parlo Italiano!")
end if

Catch what I am saying? It can be done, its just more tedious and annoying.
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I have a wishlist of 1 item though... In addition to the templates included with AGS can each template, including the newgame template include certain AGSeditor plugins, such as the music one? And can it include certain modules such as the Flashlight module, Lake Module, Particle Engine Module, Panaroma Module, Character Control Module if they were updated to work with AGS 3.0? I think these functions and modules are a dream come true!!!!! Best idea AGS ever had implemented.

[subspark]

I agree. I think hot swapable vox files are a smart way to accomodate different launguages for Talkie games.
Would it be reasonable to suggest that the translations manager manage not only text but graphics and speech too?

Cheers,
Paul.

[Khris]

It's a piece of very cheap cake to translate sprites, as Radiant explained.
And what's the point of implementing multiple voice pack support in the engine? All you have to do as author/player is to offer multiple packs for download/put the correct speech.vox in the game's dir. I got bashed for it in the other thread, but I'll say it again: don't request features for the sake of requesting features.
Request stuff that isn't possible yet.

In AGS 3.01, I'd like to have a native, optimized pixel-perfect collision detection.
Maybe a built-in x-dimensional vector class.
I'd love to be able to use custom structs as members of custom structs. I've read about the difficulties concerning save-games, though.

[Ghost]

I would love to see, somewhere in the future, an intuitive way to create branching dialogues. 3.0 is already superior to 2.72 because you can see your dialogue lines and the script at the same time; what I would like to have now is some sort of visual editor- dragging your dialogue options into a tree-view-like structure at will.

Wouldn't dream to request this for 3.1, though; I think it's a major implementation, and so far I'm getting accustomed to 3.0.

[Recluse]

I'd like to see an abstraction of the entire dialogue GUI interface. To make it more manageable as far as the code is concerned, without hassling with creating your own GUI/dialogue engine.

That's even more than what Ghost wished for. But, hey, I like to think big.

I would also like to see some more OO paradigms make their way into the code. Namely, direct access to the standard AGS classes, as far as custom variables are concerned. And polymorphism. I've heard CJ mention that both would make it much more difficult to implement saved games. Perhaps if that was also abstracted out. Of course, it wouldn't be used much of the time, but it would be available.

Anyway, keep dreaming big, if we ask for big stuff, we're more likely to get something simpler, which is always a step in the right direction.

[RickJ]

1.  Drag-drop to move sprites and views from one folder to another.

2.  New Room and New Script create from user selectable template files.

3.  In the GUI editor, when editing properties have ability to move focus from field to field and from control to control using hot keys.   Some functionality is already there but not quite enought to accomplish this.

4.  In the GUI editor hav the ability to lock the position of the controls via a check box or other means.

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I think the ability to load alternative sprite and vox files at runtime is probably a good idea at some point.  The method Joseph speaks of is not really scalable and is not realistic for  games that are large or that are translated to many languages.   I wouldn't reject it out of hand but rather just give it the appropriate priority.  There are likely many other things that ought to come first, so let the cards fall where they may.

[Groogokk]

I would love to see, somewhere in the future, an intuitive way to create branching dialogues. 3.0 is already superior to 2.72 because you can see your dialogue lines and the script at the same time; what I would like to have now is some sort of visual editor- dragging your dialogue options into a tree-view-like structure at will.

Wouldn't dream to request this for 3.1, though; I think it's a major implementation, and so far I'm getting accustomed to 3.0.

I wholeheartedly second this.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Wonder if CJ'll have a heart attack when he sees all this, with the new editor, remade from scratch, not even fully completed yet...

[Joseph DiPerla]

subspark, your on to something here with the vox file thing. Maybe you can put VOX files in the directory that the Language is spoken in. EG. Voice.vox in Italian directory for Italian...

Anyway, Since this is a wishlist, maybe this might be one of few times I wont be in trouble for saying something...

1) Higher resolutions

2) Use of 3d files, particularly halflife/quake 3d files for characters. Those things are a dream...

3) point plotting in the AGS room editor. The Gimp has an idea of what I am talking about.

[Ghost]

Wonder if CJ'll have a heart attack when he sees all this, with the new editor, remade from scratch, not even fully completed yet...

Not untrue, but: Reach for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars 

Then again, let's face it, 3.0 will be a pretty large step, if I read the signs right. People will love it it, hate it, and will say so. It's also been long in the making, and now that it is clear that there will be no new features taken abord, a new future wishlist has been started. It's just a collection of all the little wishes that *always* turn up here.

I hope CJ looks down to us with nothing but benevolent patience, as we toil around taking his toys apart.

[LimpingFish]

Oh, I haven't said this in a while...

Dynamic TrueType Font support!

And, let's see...

Maybe an intergrated video playback...thingy. To negate the need for WMP, and such...

Y'know...using an open source codec, or something.

...

I'm no good with the technical stuff.

[Joseph DiPerla]

The other thing is that some of these things might actually be on the bug tracker: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/tracker.php

We ought to give Chris a lot of credit for the crap we asked him to implement... Each your heart out SCRAMM and GLUMOL!!!!

[Ghost]

I am ready to SCRAMM as much as possible but refuse to GLUMOL because I do not know how to do that.

I also wish to have the Make My Game button back, but this time working.

Are we getting greedy? It's always easier to recieve than to give, sure, but I think that there is a sort of teamwork here. CJ provides an engine, and it is a skillfully put togehter program for sure, but I like to entertain the idea that the community provides the testing, the training wheels, and if there is, in a hundred reedy demands for Feature x, one that makes sense, real sense, that surely is a help.

It's all a matter of Sensillen, actually.

[Scavenger]

I don't know whether it's been added or not since I last used AGS, but:

- Better palette handling for sprites. Too many times I've lined up the colours in a sprite I want to use certain palette slots and AGS rearranges them, making my palette tweaking pointless.

OR

- Minipalettes, with 16 color palettes for sprites that we can edit, similar to OHRRPGCE, or even the SCUMM engine! It would make tinting a breeze.

[RickJ]

Document Editor
Since the new editor can now supports multiple files via tabs and since SSH has asked for a future ability to have side by side panes, how about having the ability to edit text document files.

The document files could be kept in a "Document" sub-directory.  In the project tree there could be a document node that when expanded would list all the document files in that directory.  The same editor component used for the script editor could be used for this.   I believe the ediitor component has the ability to highlight HTML and XML syntax.  If so HTML files could also appear in the Document directory as an added bonus. 

Paths Configuration
Currently there is only one import path.  It doesn't matter what is being imported the same default path is used.   This was also true in previous versions but they at least remembered from where the most recent import was made and use that as the default the next time.  The new version just switches you back to the same directory no matter what.   

I would like to have different default paths for different things;  one for sprites, one for fonts, one for modules, etc.  I would also like to have an option for each of these paths to use the most recently used path as the default which would override the one set by the user.   It would also be nice if these could be set on a per game basis.   I don't think there are many people left in the world who put every file they own in one big directory anymore.  :

[edit]
corrected spelling

[subspark]

I would like to have different default paths for different things

This is something I have put forward to Chris before. I agree. It would unclutter the main directory and keep things organised within a team environment.

don't request features for the sake of requesting features

Your right Khris. Sorry; old habits in combination with overexcitement for this new editor.

I truly wish for a revised dialog editor with support for non-blocking functionality.
This is something I've requested for before in another thread but this thread sure seems appropriate.

Thanks, 
Paul.