Messages

Finally done! I think it's totally bug-free now:
http://membres.lycos.fr/will373/VerbBox%20v.1.2.agt

...whew!  8)

Major change: inventory clicks are now handled in script. (5k larger, nooooo!) but now items won't do silly things! I've used the "Day of the Tentacle" parameters by default for actions... still easy to change!

Finally, I don't think I'll do a default room. It's already too much job just to write the code!

Sorry folks, just when I taught I had finished I discovered a bug from v.1.1: RIGHT-CLICKING ON AN ITEM DOESN'T START ITS DEFAULT INTERACTION!!!

Sooo... it will probably take another day to finish.

Sorry, I didn't work on my project here for a while...

...look, I've just started school, and I must learn 4 programming languages in 3 months: PHP / mySQL, C, Java and Visual Basic. Add AGS to that, geez...

Soooo... I'll try to work on it for tomorrow.

mmm... 3 things:
1- You cant 'walk to' inventory items in MI2 (or any lucas game)(it switch automatically to 'look at' in MI2 and FOA and to 'use' in DOTT, just if you want to implemet that )
2- Even if you could, you probably wouldnt want to, it makes no sense, does it?
3- Try it in a hotspot/object/character (where you would want to use it), and for me, it just walks there. I think its because 'any click' isnt triggered by mode walk.

...you're right. Geee, you're smart.

...
...
...
...
Ok, the "Any click on" doesn't work. However, you can always use regions for that. For example, if we were doing a gap at the middle of the screen and do a "Walk to" at the other side, the caracter will go all the way to the pit and stop there. If we use a 1-pixel region at the border, we would be able to stop him with a message. I don't see any other use of a "walk to" overlap. I'll try to change that again the simplest way possible.

And for the "walk on item" thing to remove...
...
...
...
...
argh...
...
...
...guess I'll have to improve my code again.  

Q. Can actions be assigned to the 'Walk to' mode as in MI2?
A. Yes. Select "Any click on", create a script and write "if (IsAction("Walk"==1) {...}".

It doesnt work to me

That's odd... I've tried it and it works. (at least in v.1.1)
Here's what I've done: I've tried to go interaction editor on the key item, create a "run script" event in the other click section and wrote "if (IsAction("Walk"==1) Display("It's already in my pocket!");", and a normal click worked on it. (walk to key-already-in-inventory, hehe) However, since the key background is transparent, the click does a pixel-perfect detection.

Yeah, it is, but as there are users who do not realize this every time they are about to delete something, it caused problems.

I once screwed up my spriteset (don't remember how...), AGS crashed every time I tried to see a view which used sprites, that didn't exists, as I had place the default spriteset (from a blank game) on the game folder. Even after I had re-imported my sprites to the game, AGS crashed, because I didn't have all the sprite numbers that the views used. Thus, sometimes, if I selected a view that had used the sprites that didn't exist, I got a load of warnings, and eventually the crash. This way I was able to replace the frame sprites with the proper ones. Also, my GUIs looked really wierd, as for ex. the text window had one of the main char's walking frames as a border image.... that looked fun... but after I got the sprites back in order, AGS and my game ran normally. After that I have been careful about messing with the game data files in other programs.........

To avoid that I always do backups of my projects once in a while. These are useful every time there's a programming thing to do... as long as you don't delete the correct version and keep the backup as your final work!

(I can't believe my first newbie post and question has actually made all that debate!)

Well, I've tried something and it worked...

... so version 1.1 is already there!!!
http://membres.lycos.fr/will373/VerbBox%20v.1.1.agt

I've listened to Proskrito's suggestions and now it's now easy to customize it to do a "spit" action, change GUI buttons, or translate it.

Major changes are that I've put all my things in functions so it's more easy to understand and change the code, and I've totally removed numeric values for actions.

There's still no unhandled_event thingy, but I've discovered it's very easy to create one if desired: just start the unhandled_event function manually (or maybe not in some cases) and add lines like:
"if ((IsAction("Pick up")==1) Display("Yeah, right.");"

Room 1 is just a plain walkable area for debug purpose.

Maybe in my spare time I'll do an example with it...

Lol! You were the last person that I expected to receive a comment... but you're probably also the best person to do one for me!

Ok, maybe not "ridiculously difficult to understand"... let's say "not intuitive"... or "holy cow what all that code means I'm just a newbie" ... or... whatever. No offence, I'm a newb with AGS.

"- Partially compatible with the AGS Interaction Editor
i dont know very well what it means"
Only that it's not always obligatory to create a script. I'll erase that line.  

"- Not any part of script needed to copy-paste everywhere!
I dont know what it means..."
There's no need to use Windows' clipboard to put a part of script in it and paste it in every new object, item or character. Saves time.

You were right for the ActionIs import... so if you want to try it now everyone go to the script header and change it to IsAction... or wait 24h so I can upload v.1.1!

Thanks to your comment, I've corrected the IsAction import and now DVerbBox is a string, so more simple to use for v.1.1!

Here's your answers:

Q. What about the unhandled event?
A. No unhandled event for now. I don't really like using it so I didn't think about it, but I will add it in v.1.1.

Q. What if you want to use any other mode? (like 'sail to' or 'spit to' in mi2)
A. It's not implemented, but it is easy to create an "if" in the repeatedly_execute that overlaps a part of the code and maybe disable GUI buttons and move the inventory out of the screen in those conditions. It shouldn't be too hard to also do some kind of video like the fight in Marley's mansion in MI1.

Q. Can actions be assigned to the 'Walk to' mode as in MI2?
A. Yes. Select "Any click on", create a script and write "if (IsAction("Walk"==1) {...}".

Q. Would it be easy to translate?
A. Since the dialog system is the same one as the implemented in AGS, there shouldn't be any problem. The sprites on the GUI aren't too. Finally, for the status bar, there's only the words written at the beginning of the main code (currently line 27 to 56) to change to whatever you want, or add more complexity to it. (In other words: I didn't put a translate function, but not that important)

Q. Does it behaves pretty much like MI2? (strange things with the default command and the inventory)
A. No cancel thing when an action is executed with a click. The use of the word "with" when an item is selected. "Use key with". In MI2, sometimes it would be something like "Use key on". Otherwise, I don't think so. (2 points for you! Am I not a good guy?  )

Q. What about variable default actions? (like a door)
A. That the point of the DVerbBox property. However, the number representation was not a good idea, and I wanted to correct it but forgot. Putting it in the inventory name was too weird for me!   Also an advantage was to be able to change that property in the script (when you open a door, change DVerbBox to "Close" instead)

However, I agree with: "Have also in mind that my template is a SCUMM template with MI2 theme, not a MI2 template, so its aimed to be able to recreate interfaces also from maniac mansion 1, indy 3..." I didn't want to to create a MI2 theme, just an interface like MI. (In that case everyone get Proskrito's template.  ) It's not hard to add more buttons and new actions, but it's not easy to find out every place you need to change, so there's something to change here too. I'll try something...

I DO think your template is more powerful than mine, but it's also meant for experimenced users (unlike me). Your code is so coded that it's very hard to understand anything that's written (oh yeah that's at the beginning of the page, oops that's not an AGS function, etc.). I'll try to make mine simpler each day.

Thanks for your help! Since I've been typing that for an hour I'll get a small break and work on 1.1 later!  

After trying Proskrito's MI2 template, I found it to be ridiculously difficult to use compared to the original AGS, so I've done one myself! There's no pause, load, save or "Are you sure you want to win?" screen, but who needs them anyway when there are already those from AGS?

Based on the demo game, several changes has been made to be more accurate to LucasArts' games - and without bugs! So simple, you'd be surprised! Place your own sprites (or keep current ones) and have fun!!!

Features:
- VerbBox GUI similar to MI or DotT!
- Partially compatible with the AGS Interaction Editor
- Right click for default action:
 - Create a default custom command for every object
 - Returns to walk mode in any other mode
 - Default action highlighted when over an object!
- Can make classic 320x200 VGA or 800x600 SVGA games!!! (Just change the GUI X-Position and Y-Position)
- Almost no stored variables:
 - 1 string (Action)
 - 1 integer (VerbBox)
 - 1 integer property per object (DVerbBox)
- Not any part of script needed to copy-paste everywhere!
- IsAction function added: one is enough!!!
- Simple to use and understand for any AGS user!

All details in the script header:
http://membres.lycos.fr/will373/VerbBox%20v.1.0.agt

Tell me what you think of it. Would you use it and why? Any suggestions to make it better?

However, I'm generally very cautious about adding Delete functionality - when it was added for sprites it has caused several problems since with people deleting things that they were still using.

That's the USER's problem! As long there's no accidental deleting possibility, the problem you mentionned should not be a problem for an attentive user.

Thanks! I would have never imagined it was called a graphical variable! That would help for creating my template!

...but sadly what I really need is a SetGraphicalVariable function, or something that will do the same thing. Since nothing of that name exists, I now highly doubt I can do it. Am I wrong again?

I think that there is three types of global integer variables you can create:

- In the interaction editor (there's "Global 1" already there)
- The SetGlobalInt and GetGlobalInt functions
- An int variable in the script header

I have absolutely no problem to communicate my integers declared in the header and GlobalInts functions, but I'm only able to access them in the script. Also, I'm only able to access the global variables from the interaction editor with the interaction editor.

Am I wrong? Is there a way to change an integer variable with "Game - Set variable value" and check it in a script, or change an integer in the script and check it in a "Conditional - If a variable is set to an certain value"?

You cannot delete those things. You can get rid of fonts by resetting them. CJ has said (if I remember right)  that if he'd include the possibilty to delete character, views, dialog topics, someone would ofcource mess their game, and come here asking "what is the problem when I try to run my game but ít crashes all I did was deleted rogers view???"

So you just can't. Atleast not yet.

Wh-wh-wh-WHAT? Geez... now that's not cool at all, but I understand. (Thanks for the font tip!)

Oh well, guess I'll do with it. Hey, it's free!!!

Ok, so this is my first post. I've played with AGS since last month and just encountered a really annoying problem.

Ok, well, this sounds stupid, but I was trying to develop a template and I'm not able to delete some things I manually added:

- Inventory items
- Dialogs
- Views
- Characters
- Cursors
- Fonts

If that was not enough, I'm not able to delete some global variables created with the interaction editor. There's also that "Global 1" variable that I absolutely don't know if AGS uses it for something and if its safe to remove it... once I find HOW to remove it.

I'm sure all those are really easy to erase... when you know it. I won't even be surprised if I say "This is so easy, why didn't I think of it?" or something like that, but I've tried many things, searched in the help file and on the forums, and found nothing except "How to CREATE dialogs, cursors, characters, etc."

I'm using ver. 2.60

BTW I suppose it's possible to use more than 10 cursors in AGS in the scripts even if in the interaction editor there's only Usermode1 and Usermode2?