Messages

Yeah, um, basically I love you for that link. In a totally non-weird way. But it'll take some work to adapt it.

And yeah, I've got structs going for my items as well, but that's a great way to do the players, thank you!

I'm getting the GUIs out of the way right now, setting up functions and such for the keyboard navigation (especially in the menus), finding ways for it to read arrays into listboxes, etc, etc, and then I'm going to do the fight engine. I'll post again if I have problems...I have a feeling I can do the actual battle-ness pretty well, though. Correct my logic, but I feel like I should have one room designated as the battle room, and just have alternating backgrounds for it, and all the code for that should be in the room script?

-DD

Ah, fantastic! Honestly, besides the unfortunate problem of having to export and import many, many separate variables, I would much rather use variables of my own naming than having to GetGlobalInt blah blah etc.

But yeah, I guess I'll just see what happens with my own math...ah well.

Hmmm...it sounds like good fun. Let's see if I can finally get around to entering a goddamn MAGS.

Okay, to bring this topic back to questions about RPG-ness....

I've started what will probably be a long-term off/on project to make an old-style NES/SNES RPG. I've started coding my GUIs, getting keyboard control, etc, etc...but I have a few questions about problems I can see down the road.

There's a hell of a lot of math involved in an RPG. I can imagine that if you do the math wrong, the game could be too easy, too hard, etc. Leveling up and exp. for instance. Usually in RPGs, you get less experience for defeating a given enemy the higher your own level is. That would require a formula...it's things like this that I worry about. Not because I couldn't implement them - because I don't know what RPGs usually DO. What math governs how fast someone gains a level? How do the different attributes come into play? How would your enemy's Hit percentage interact with your own Evade percentage?

I doubt there's a resource anywhere that could help me with this....is there?

And then...supposedly there's only 300 GlobalInts and 50 GlobalStrings. Correct? Or something? I'm still FAIRLY new to the AGS language (but I've been coding for quite a while)....is there some way to expand this number? Or to, say, call a variable used in your global script from a room script, do something to it, and then return it with its new value? Otherwise, I see problems arising. I don't want to copy enemy code into every room they might pop up in.


-DD

Now the real question is, why isn't anyone using the host *I* use? It's completely awesome.

www.fuitadnet.com


3 gigs of space, 25gigs of bandwidth, PHP4, MySQL, CGI, a ton of e-mail and ftp accounts, a nice Cpanel interface, and pretty much anything else you could possibly ask for......

5$ a month.

-DD

I don't understand why people are angry at the skeleton doors in MI2....It was really obvious that the "bone" song was a set of instructions.....

Then again, "obvious" is different for each person.

FAVORITE PUZZLES:
1) I'm not sure why, but I really enjoyed spying on all the conversations in Colonel's Bequest...
2) Pretty much all of the puzzle design in KQ6, my absolute favorite game in that series.

LEAST FAVORITE PUZZLES:
1) ANY ANY ANY ANY puzzle that you have to have the user's manual to solve....
2) It's been mentioned, but trying to solve all the danged puzzles in 7days while the welder kept showing up around every corner.

-DD

Okay, tell me this isn't the coolest thing in the universe......

I was looking at random peoples' submissions with the "view another" button, and I came across this one....


http://www.thekeymaster.net/starrynight.jpg



I didn't realize such famous, and yet dead, people used Artpad.....

-DD

We-ell, it's simple. Put "return" at the end of each option. Like....

@2
PETE: "More specifically, do you have any books on ghost hunting?"
LIBRARIAN: "Ghost... hunting, did you say? I'm not too sure, but you could try the second floor, adult fiction, listed under \"G\"."
return


EDIT: Also, I can't remember if you can do this.....try putting the librarian's opening line right after @S. As in...

@S
LIBRARIAN: "Blahblahblah"
return

@1
continue on with code.


It's been a while since I did any dialog coding.


-DD

http://artpad.art.com/gallery/?igjzeq1ae1u4

That was way too much fun. Seriously.

-DD

You're going to need to give a bit more information on what you want help with.

1) Some very hard-working people may have created .cha files for old MI characters, but I've never looked into it, so I don't know. We only have DOS executables for those, and we can't exactly open them in AGS and fiddle around with them.

2) Most of the work there is going to be animation. I'm not sure what you need help coding...do you need help with the inventory item aspect, or in the cutscene aspect? Either way, I'm sure reading the manual would help.

-DD

* fix the crappy shading on cupboard/drawer-thing. It's "feet" are shaded like they were cylindrical. Yet, they very strangely blend into cupboard and farther ones look like they are not even round, but just flat like paper.

No need for insults thrown at a beginner, methinks, though that's good advice. Maybe they're supposed to be cylindrical. If you want the legs to be cylindrical, get rid of the bottom corner pixels of each leg to help it. Also, try not just having the closer legs blend into the side of the cupboard, but actually draw a border there and move the legs themselves a pixel or two inwards, like the legs aren't flush with the side, but actually start slightly underneath it. Does that make sense?

EDIT: Pah. I didn't like my description, so here's what I mean:




Also....while editing that, it came to my attention that the back legs are significantly thinner than the front ones. I don't think the perspective would shrink them that much.

EDIT2:

So....I changed them. Hehe...

-DD

Well, the lines from your vanishing point are spot on, but the door frame looks rather strange at the top. From this perspective you wouldn't be able to see that much of the underside of the top of the frame. Try something like this. I whipped it up really quickly, so the perspective line might be a teensy bit off:



It makes it look a bit more realistic. I didn't do any shading on the walls, but just try to think about where your light source is, and that light travels in a straight path. Where it wouldn't be able to reach, it should be in darker tones. Places where the light will reach less should be darker, like the underside of the door frame that I just messed with. Just try fiddling around with it, and if it helps, try looking at rooms in real life for lighting inspiration.

-DD

I think a little less swing would be good...and I don't know if you want to fix all the frames, but to make it look a little better IMO, the arms should be longer. They're a little short. Most peoples' fingertips go down just past the crotch.

-DD

What looks strange to me about that animation is the sudden increase in detail of the undershirt when he pulls back the jacket. Other than that, it's superb.

-DD

yes.

Yeah, I came around Squidi.net about the time his "crusade" was happening....but I still like the comic. I stuck with it. I also came around Kid Radd pretty early, around the 200th comic, and I've been reading 8-bit Theater for a while too. But those are pretty much it, except for Ctrl+Alt+Del once in a while.

-DD

Haha....this didn't happen to me, but to my dad.

So one day, long time ago, Led Zeppelin was in town, and my dad and his friend really wanted to go, and bought tickets, but somehow they got lost. So they were really bummed out, and went to this greek place/bar and lo and behold, there were Jimmy Paige and Robert Plant, sitting in the bar. So they introduced themselves, they talked, and then they got free tickets, only a few rows back from the front.

Hehe.

-DD

No, I think it's the weird liquid stuff in your eyeballs.....

-DD

Did you get that with RealMyst? That's very neat.

I need to stop replying to everyone.

-DD

That's just awesome. Friggin' awesome.

-DD