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I am a beginner with the latest version of AGS (3.2.1) but not new to AGS itself. I am a quick learner but it has been around 10 years since I've used it myself, so I did turn to the documentation to help me get going. With that in mind, there are a few things I thought I'd mention that either could be documented better (unless my skimming missed them) or that I thought could use some basic improvements in the editor that would be useful.

I can see it seems to be a tricky time for AGS with Chris no longer involved in development (?), critical | discussions (have you considered inviting some of the large groups that use AGS - Himalaya, Infamous Quests, Wadjet Eye, etc. - to a symposium to discuss these types of ideas?), and multiple | dev branches (?), which can't be good for the community in the long run, can they?

Onto my points:

1) I had forgotten that the AGS coordinate system starts at 0,0, which is fine if it is clearly explained in the scripting tutorial so that beginners understand it (although I didn't notice this, including the rationale and the scope - does it apply to Rooms only? to GUIs? to sprites? etc), but it is contrary to the idea that the top left pixel is 1,1 as per Photoshop for example and probably the rest of the world.

2) The ability to zoom in while working on GUIs in the Editor, just like with Rooms. This is critical, as monitors keep getting larger and GUIs and especially GUI elements can be small.

3) Centre GUIs vertically and horizontally in the Editor while working on them, as this makes it much easier to work on the edges. Or, at the very least, offset the GUI slightly from the edges of adjacent elements in the Editor.

4) A point of confusion for myself - how do those GUI handles work? The outer edge of the handle seems to be aligned to the outer edge of the GUI object, but in that case my objects (same height as my GUI) weren't fitting on the GUI like they should. I was working with transparent edges on my objects so that was also making it tricky. A corner piece (1 pixel line sitting on top of the outer edge of the object extending down both sides from the corner) would be possibly easier to understand than the pixel blocks currently used, in my opinion.

5) "Duplicate" function - duplicate GUI, duplicate Room, etc. This would be a nice and fast way to copy something, rather than the extra steps of exporting and importing, or the extra step of creating a template Room for example if it's not something you really need to template, if you only need 1 copy.

I think that's it for now!

I recently re-installed Win 98 SE (I know, I know, it's old), and from the beginning in my dos prompt and hence in any dos program instead of slashes when I type them in I get the french a and e with accents over them, same for a few other characters such as < and >. This is obviously crucial to fix as I cannot change save game directories when I'm playing an old Sierra game because I cannot type in the slashes. Help?

There are some places you can specify a color #, such as in different spots for GUIs like foreground color, background color, highlight color, etc.

If I have a color in Photoshop, how can I find out the # to give AGS? AGS uses 31 RGB slots instead of 255 so I can't just type in the RGB value from Photoshop, unless I do math with fractions, which means I won't get the exact same color.

[EDIT]

Hi, I'm brand new here, wow this is a great place!

It's the summer time and what inevitably happens is that I do nothing but sit at the computer all day at work and surf so I decided to drop back in again.

My question is, I see lots of seemingly-great plugins scattering around, it's cool that AGS has that functionality now, so will CJ add a section to the website to officially endorse or at least make a nice place for plugins to be distributed from? I think that would be very useful. Or if there is already a plugin website, it should be mentioned more prominently on the AGS main site.

Hahaha!

EDIT: Oops, I should have searched more. I found it. My bad! That's why I'm in the beginner's technical forum : But it doesn't list all the ones I've seen around. So maybe more people should get their plugins in the list!

2.6 SP1 of course. Export GUI. Import GUI. I get the message that GUI import is successful. Then, a second later, it just crashes. It does this every time.

We're sorry, the AGS editor has encountered a serious error...

(Exception 0xC0000005 at EIP=0x005D973C, AGSE v2.60.454)

When copying BG to clipboard, does it go into the clipboard as the original background file with all the colors, or does it lose colors / color depth / quality?

(just in case you missed it elsewhere)

As most of you know, I've been on vacation recently. Let me give you a word of advice: never trust a vacation-package sales agent who actually has enough fingers to count how many buckazoids he'll charge you for the slimy way he's about to rip you off. You see, I couldn't read the vacation-package waver form, because I had recently forgotten my glasses (an ancient Earth accessory for sight correction) on the dashboard of my timepod, which my estranged cousin stole... but that's another story. Anyway, the sales agent assured me that the space cruise destinations included such getaway hotspots as Estros, the famed Galaxy Galleria, and Risa. Needless to say, after signing away most of my life savings in buckazoids, I was shocked to find myself deposited on such inhospitable hellholes as Phleebhut, Polysorbate LX, and lastly, Kerona.

So there I was, sitting in a dingy bar in Ulence Flats, wearing my glasses (my disturbed cousin made a few mistakes while time travelling, and the glasses re-materialized in my pocket) and trying to read the indecipherably small fine-print on my copy of the vacation-package waver form, when a practically-mauled Keronian stumbled into the bar. I recoiled in shock as he focused a wild, furtive, desperate stare, and then his stumbling lurches, in my direction. Falling at my feet, he thrust a dirty pamphlet into my hand. As he breathed his last, he managed to choke out: "Run."

Only later, when watching the vidnews in the comfort of my own home (having narrowly escaped from Kerona after a vicious firefight), did I hear the story of how this Keronian had been pursued halfway across Kerona, fighting off hordes of hungry Grell, to find someone, anyone, who would take that pamphlet and make it known to the universe. So here it is - the portrait of a wanted man. It seems that the Galactic Port Authority is even more vindictive than the Gippazoid Novelty Company, and they don't want anyone, especially someone who might try to save this man, to get in their way.

For a larger version of this pamphlet, and more of the story behind it, visit SpaceQuest.net.

I've been absent but I wanted to finish a few things, including working on DQII and eventually making my RON game.  Coming up next will be my weird one-hour game.  But first, this MAGS month was a good one, you'll see how I did completely my own thing while keeping to the rules.

So here it is.  Please download from the AGS games page so that I can see the count.  Don't everyone overwhelm Sylpher's server all at once.  Lastly, please read the readme PDF before you play the game, if possible (you'll need a relatively new version of Acrobat Reader).

http://www.agsforums.com/games.php?action=detail&id=181

I will of course appreciate any comments you post in this thread.