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Aye, no problem! :3

So far, there have been 3 Mario RPGs - the already mentioned Super Mario RPG, Paper Mario for the N64 and Super Star Saga for the GBA. They're all really sweet games, too.

I tried your code, and it seems to work fine for me.

Hmm... is your GUI a popup modal (or blocking) one? If it is, try Repeatedly_Execute_Always.

Thanks! About the GUI - I've been working on a new design for it:

However, I see where you're coming from so I think when the time comes, I'll have it as an option and not make the variable read-only.

Great, thanks!
By the way, in the recent beta, when using DisplayThought on a character not in the current room, the text box won't be centered and appears to the left.

Can't really tell... my progress on it varies too much to even make a rough estimation.

Haha, okay.
Should you still happen to need it before CJ gets around to implement it, let me know.

Ah... that's a bit tougher. I thought you only needed only one line at once. :3

Well, I'd create a custom function with integers for character number, x and y positions and display time, for convenience.
Then I'd use an array to keep track of overlay IDs in reference to the character number, and a second one as timer array, from which I'd subtract 1 from every slot each loop, and remove the overlay when it's down to 0. This involves a buncha while loops and so on.
If nobody else comes up with a better solution, I'll make that script for you tomorrow or so. The reason for this is that I'm sure there's a better, more efficient way to script this than my messy solution.

This bit from the manual give me that idea:

int over1;
over1=CreateTextOverlay (50,80,120,2,15,"This is a text overlay");
Wait(200);
RemoveOverlay(over1);

That gives me an idea for a simple solution... when you display a text with CreateTextOverlay, also set a Global Value to, for example, 200 (would make the text appear for 4 seconds at 50 FPS). In Repeatedly Execute, check if the global value is bigger than 0, and if it is, keep subtracting 1. Compare if that global value is 1, if it is, remove the text overlay. That way, you can display the text for a custom amount of time and have the overlay automatically removed.

It seems that DisplayBackgroundSpeechAt is already on CJ's list, anyway.

I'm pretty sure that it's possible to code a custom function for what you need, though... maybe some kind soul will post a script like that for you later.

CreateTextOverlay lets you position the text, but you'll have to remove it by yourself. If you don't want to do that, you could use an invisible character and let it background talk. Just set the X/Y coords for it each time before it's gonna say something.

Thanks for fixing the Bubble GUI!

About the character[].inv[] variable possibly becoming read only... I've found accessing the item count directly very useful - especially for RPGs. For example, it could be used to keep track of NPC character stats, and so on. In my current game, I'm using inventory items to store certain character positions for later retrieval.

If you make that variable read only, AGS may become slightly less customizable and less handy for different kinds of games, and we'd have to use features that aren't officially supported (arrays) instead. Please reconsider.

Thanks for the comment but... sorry, it's too late. I'd have to redo the backgrounds in a different size, and I don't really want to do that. I've been thinking about making completely new GUI graphics for the current one - not sure about that yet, though.

Haha, sure is! Another very useful hidden feature, thanks!

Thanks, they're gonna be very useful!
So, what's a struct do?

Great, thanks! This works very well indeed!

Thanks to you, I finally found out how to do arrays in AGS, I've been trying to do that all day.
Strange that I couldn't find anything about them in the manual. Either I didn't look thoroughly enough, or they're just not covered in it.

Anyway, you'll now be mentioned in my games' credits. Hooray for you! ^^


EDIT - A small question, should be simple:

In repeatedly execute, I want a while loop that subtracts 1 from an inventory item from every character every loop.
I've done this, assuming there's 100 characters:

int i=0;
while (i<100) {character.inv[11]=character.inv[11]-1;i++;}

But it doesn't seem to work right. Any ideas?

EDIT 2 - Nevermind, got it to work

Is there a way to determine if a certain character is currently background talking, or is it possible to track it with variables somehow?

Thanks in advance~

Have you played Kyrandia 3? In that game, the GUI scrolled up when you moved your arrow down to the bottom of the screen. Apprentice 1 had something like this, too.

You could also do it the way Lucas Arts did it in Sam and Max, with a small icon at the top of the screen that brings up the inventory.

Do any of those suggestions appeal to you?

It goes into the global script. You can just copy and paste this code into it for convenience:

function unhandled_event (int what, int type) {

if (what ==1) {if (type ==1) {DisplaySpeech(GetPlayerCharacter(),"That's not really interesting.");}}
if (what ==1) {if (type ==2) {DisplaySpeech(GetPlayerCharacter(),"I'm not going to touch that.");}}
if (what ==1) {if (type ==3) {DisplaySpeech(GetPlayerCharacter(),"Yikes!");}}

}

I removed the lockout code (explained in 1st post) to reproduce and confine the bug in a single room demo, but it seems to be gone now. I've changed a lot of code since the bugs' last appereance, must have done something that made it go away. Well, either that or I'm going insane.

All keypresses had both an IsInterfaceEnabled and the lockout code, only like that it worked reliably back then. I'll just work without the lockout code for now and see if I come across it again. Sorry for the trouble.