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I miss when UI design was done by people who knew what they were doing. 

I agree with everything here and want to add that I also hate how modern games all seem to have decided that all UI need to be white Helvetica font on a darkened background.

Remember when mainstream game UI would be artworks in themselves; fun images with patterns and decorations?
A fantasy game could have text trying to emulate parchment scrolls, WW2 games had typewriter fonts, sci-fi games had text and numbers looking like futuristic tech, and game UIs in general had at least some attempt to stand out but also fit the rest of the game aesthetic.

I used to love it when games would put the ingame-lore on actual scrolls and books with a suitably fancy font, like on the Thief games for example. 

When I heard the news, the first thing that went through my head was how Americans really will vote for anyone except a woman.

I held off on my judgement the first time. But I think it's safe to say now that Trump is the second worst president America has ever had. (Number 1 still being Nixon in my opinion.)
I mean the guy clearly has a few too many screws loose. It's just a good thing that the president doesn't have nearly as much power as the conspiracy nutjobs will lead you to believe.

Ah well, I guess it's time to put up with another four years of American media complaining about "Trump's America" in the most on-the-nose way imaginable. Ugh. 

I don't know if this is the end of American democracy but it will be the end of many people's lives.

What democracy?
American's literally only have two choices. That is not a democracy. That is a thinly veiled dictatorship.
At least here in Britain, there's a chance that a party other than Labour or the Conservatives can get in power (it's unlikely, but it's possible). And even if your chosen party doesn't win, if they get enough votes, then they get a voice.
But America? Don't confuse that for a democracy.

As for this being the end of many people's lives though, that is definitely true. But nobody ever cares, even in these cases.
Sure, people sometimes pretend to care. But they don't really. 
But that's a discussion for another day.
In the meantime, I may as well say good luck to everyone. It looks like the rest of this decade is going to be pretty rough.

It grinds my gears that most AAA games now require you to hold a button in to perform simple contextual commands.

For example, you want to get into a car. You press the triangle button. Nothing happens. You press it a couple more times, still nothing happens. You realize a bar was partially filling up each time you pressed it. So you hold the triangle button in, now you enter the car.

You want to leave the car. You press the button. Nothing happens. You frantically press it a few more times, before you remember that you had to hold it in to go inside the car, so you probably have to hold it in to leave the car.

You see something you want to pick up. You walk towards it, the prompt appears and you press the X button. It doesn't work. You then sigh and hold the X button in to pick up the item.

This repeats for the next four hours.

You look in the options menu to see if there's a way to change this. You find an option to change combat from having to repeatedly press the attack button to just holding it in to repeatedly attack. You keep looking and find another option where instead of holding the button to climb over obsetacles while sprinting, you can just repeatedly tap it. You keep looking, but there's nothing for basic contextual prompts.


I completely understand using a hold button to distinguish from a press, when there are two possible actions that can occur. But that's never the case here. It's almost as though some idiot thought that it would be more "realistic" and "immersive" to hold the button in to do basic contextual actions, despite the obvious cost to usability! 
I miss when UI design was done by people who knew what they were doing. 

Now that you've made Baron's and Captain D's avatars, you need to add them to the sport's stand with Ponch and the Darlek, so they can all enjoy it together. 

This is so random, yet so entertaining.

Time for me to intentionally and annoyingly muddy the water by both agreeing with Khris and answering your questions from my point of view.  

But what is the objection to using a term in marketing when that term is accurate?

There is no objection. It's an accurate term, but it's also clearly being used as a marketing buzzword, the latter of which is annoying. So it sounds like we're in agreement. 

While I don't think ChatGPT has any plausible chance of meaningful awareness at the moment, I dislike this argument because we don't actually have a satisfactory explanation for what "consciousness" is or the mechanisms that produce it, so to firmly assert that it is "fundamentally impossible" strikes me as unwarranted dogmatism.

It's because of the way ChatGPT is implemented and functions that makes it fundamentally impossible to gain sentience (in much the same way as the creatures in Creatures are never going to gain sentience). It's not the concept of a machine gaining self-awareness that's fundamentally impossibly. So once again, it seems as though we're in agreement. 

Just because one word applies, that doesn't mean another one doesn't as well.

And just because two different words can mean similar (if not the same) things, doesn't mean that the concept of English being a living language, isn't a frustrating topic. "Literally" and "Figuratively" mean both the same AND the opposite thing. I can accept it. But it'll still always annoy me.
So once again, we're in agreement. 


Why have you brought up a bunch of Khris's points that you agree with, and then portrayed them as though you disagreed with them? 
Or have I completely misunderstood Khris? 

Hello.

What I'm suggesting here is a GetTimer() function, which simply returns the number of cycles left on a timer. My reason for this is twofold. Firstly, sometimes you'll want to be able to do something in the middle of a timer, without setting up another timer. Secondly, it would provide a way to see whether or not a timer is running, without incurring the IsTimerExpired()'s OFF state.

Basically with that second reason, what I'm suggesting, is a function similar to IsTimerExpired(), but where it never goes into an OFF state. It always returns true or false depending on whether it's counting down or not. In this case, it would be something along the lines of if(GetTimer(1) > 0).

This is because there have been numerous times that OFF state feature of IsTimerExpired() has caused me headaches, simply because I've either forgotten about it or it runs counter-productive to what I'm trying to accomplish. A quick look through the forums for problems that people have had with timers, and it seems as though I'm not the only one.

The thing is though, that OFF state is very useful. But it'd be nice if we had a function which didn't have it. And being able to get the exact time left on a timer, would do exactly that.
Alternatively, a IsTimerRunning() function, which returns true if the timer is above 0, or false if it's below 0, could also work. But that would be much more limiting.

I really hope this feature isn't something that's already in the editor. I've looked through the manual, and couldn't see any mention of it.
But none the less, thanks for hearing me out.


EDIT:
By the way, I know you can do this by simply implementing your own timers. But to me, it really seems like it's something that should be part of the editor itself.

I suppose we'll just have to agree to disagree. 

I prefer the way the vast majority of 2D games handle walk cycles.
And you prefer the way old PC games handled walk cycles.

We're both biased in our preferences. And if you believe otherwise, try showing the goodnonlinked and goodlinked gifs to any non-adventure game fan and simply ask which they prefer (without explaining what the difference is).
Heck, just show them the part of the gifs before the room starts scrolling, for maximum objectivity. I think you'll find this so-called "gliding" to be preferable to choppy animation for most people. But then again, I could be wrong. I can only attest to the opinion of the few people I've shown those gifs to.
But it does seem to me as though the false consensus effect is strong with regards to this. 

If you turn off "Movement linked to animation" you get a gliding effect when walking

Only when you set things up wrong.
But why take my word for it, when I can just provide a series of gifs.

This is what you get with MovementLinkedToAnimation is set to true, and it's set correctly:


This is what you get with MovementLinkedToAnimation is set to true, and it's set wrong:


This is what you get with MovementLinkedToAnimation is set to false, and it's set correctly:


This is what you get with MovementLinkedToAnimation is set to false, and it's set wrong:



As you can clearly see, setting it to false not only gives a much smoother scrolling effect and less choppy character movement, but when the character animation delay and speed are set correctly, it even removes the gliding effect that people like Snarky think MovementLinkedToAnimation is required to fix.

• Select the player character in the editor, and look at the list of options to the side.
• There should be one option that says "MovementLinkedToAnimation", set it to "False".
• Enjoy your smooth scrolling screen.

It's an option that's set to true by default because it makes walking animations look decent with zero effort on the part of the artist or programmer.
But the cost can be jerky movement that is enough to give someone motion sickness in my opinion.

Following tutorials is a good way to familiarize yourself with a new tool, so you'll know where to find everything when needed. But they're not a good way to learn how to use said tool.

A good way to learn for me personally (each person is different), is to follow a tutorial as a guide.
If the guy is showing you how to make a character pick up a key and use it to unlock a door. You instead make a character pick up a gem to open a portal which take you to a room where you find another gem which changes the portal to yet another room. It's the same lesson that the tutorial taught you, but your own take on it, expanded to kind of repeat itself.

As for learning to code, I find inspecting other people's code to be a great help.
I remember being confused about how to do certain things, but remembering seeing them done in a template. So I'd open up that template, look at how they did it, and then attempt to copy it over.

Lastly, make sure to look at this forum. Any question you want to ask, has probably been asked a dozen times already. So all the help is here if you're willing to look for it.
That being said, if you can't find an answer, don't hesitate to ask for help. 

Of course you'll need to start a project yourself, so you actually encounter the problems that you need to learn to overcome. A nice little goal to work towards is always a good start in learning something new.

I believe there's a module which does precisely same thing:
https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/modules-plugins-tools/module-gotthere-0-5/

maybe there are differences in how it handles secondary issues, like over-hotspot labels and such, but i never investigated that.

I literally downloaded that module and plopped it into the BASS template just before I uploaded this one, and it didn't work. (Not without some modifications.)
So I personally think my version is better in terms of adaptability.
Although with that all being said, there are some clear limitations that mine has, that I'm going to try and iron out if possible.

[bool move_player (int x, int y, WalkWhere walkableArea)]

This is a simple function that I use in all of my games, that allows you to easily cancel out of a walk.
I've tried to make it as generic as possible, so that it'll work in any project without any effort on your part. But it was originally adapted from code from a 9-Verb template, and I have mostly only used it in a BASS template, so you'll need to let me know if there are any issues. But from my tests, it seems to work just fine in the Sierra template.

It provides two functions: bool move_player (int x, int y, WalkWhere walkableArea) and bool walk_face(int x, int y, CharacterDirection faceDirection, WalkWhere walkableArea)
The walkableArea variable is completably optional, and is only there if you want the player character to walk over a non-walkable area. I can't think of a reason why you would want to, since if you cancelled out of it, you'd probably end up stopping in a non-walkable area. But it's there if you want it, and can be completely ignored if you don't want it.

Module supports AGS 3.3.0 and higher (might support lower, but I haven't tested it)

>>DOWNLOAD MODULE HERE<<
>>ALTERNATIVE MIRROR<<

USAGE:
Just use the new move_player function in a similar way to how you would the Walk function, but in an IF statement.

Code: ags

if(move_player(140, 140))
{
  player.Say("The door is locked.");
}

The new walk_face function is used in the same way, but you must also include the direction you want the character to face after reaching their destination.

If you want the OverHotspot functionality to work while in this cancellable state, there is one line of text "actionText = null;" in the game_start function which needs altering. You just need to replace null with the name of the gui element you use for said functionality.

If you have an animated wait cursor, then find waitModeView = -1  and replace -1 with the view number your wait cursor uses for its animation. If you don't have an animated wait cursor, this value can be safely ignored.

Limitations:
Animated cursors will not animate while in a cancellable state.
Requires all cursors that are used in the game, to have the same HotspotX and HotspotY as one another.



History:
1.0:
Initial release.

1.1:
Just fixed a minor bug involving the inventory icon messing up the cursor sprite. I accidentally introduced the bug while genericifying the code related to the cursor sprites, just before I released the module. Sorry about that.

1.2:
You no longer have to be at the pinpoint exact coordinates, which should fix any slight problems that might occur with the pathfinding. (The tolerance level can be set to whatever you want, by default it's at 2 pixels from the coordinates, but you can set it to 0 if you want exact coordinates only again.)
You also no longer have to set the interface to display normally during a pausing event in the global settings. You can have it be set to whatever you want now.
Only a single line of code (line 17 to be exact) now has to be altered to get the OverHotspot label working, as opposed to three lines in the previous release.
I also added an option to have the player walk over non-walkable ares if you want, as well as a new walk_face function, which walks to the location and then faces in the correct direction, just like the GotThere module.

1.3:
Firstly, I made the module compatible with AGS 3.3.0 and presumably older. You see the previous version broke compatibility with that new walk_face function, so I fixed that. I wouldn't recommend using such an old version of AGS, but if you are, you probably have your reasons, and there's no reason why this module shouldn't be compatible with the older versions. So that's why I fixed that.
Secondly, I fixed a problem where the module didn't work correctly if you had an animated wait cursor. Now it'll function as normal, although you will have to tell the module what view your animated wait cursor is using.
I probably won't be updating this again anytime soon, because I can't think of anything else that needs to or could be improved. So enjoy.

I still much prefer my solution.

Run a function which checks if you walked there or cancelled out.
If you walked there, run the interaction as normal. If you cancelled out, do nothing.

As for the function itself.
Issue a non-blocking WalkTo using the coordinates passed to the function.
While the playing is moving, just keep waiting a single frame. The game will appear to progress as normal.
If the player presses a mouse button, then return a variable saying it was cancelled.
Otherwise after the player has stopped moving, double check to make sure the player reached the correct coordinates, and return the fact that it ran successfully.

Throw in a change of the cursor's wait mode graphic so it doesn't disappear, along with a check for the mouse button being released, so only a new mouse down cancels, and there you go.

It's quick, simple, and easy to follow. Not only that, but it can be used in just about anything without much issue.
It doesn't even require custom properties or anything like that. To the user, it's as simple as using a normal walk to command, just nested in an IF statement instead.
Just slot it in, and let it do the work (I've not had any problems with it so far). I'll have to see about cleaning it up and making it into a module. 

[Escape From Forest]

I'm fairly sure I've seen this game in a Youtube video which talked about all of the 3DS eShop games, back when the online store closed down. But I don't have a couple of hours to find the exact video. So a quick glance around will hopefully have to suffice.

It it by any chance Escape From Forest?
Or maybe Dementium - The Ward?

A game within a game within a game, which has a game within a game, which just so happens to be the original game you're playing.
I can now proudly boast having made the only game with an infinite loop meta joke.

(And yes, I did go to the effort of making both a short text adventure and a short graphical adventure, just for this joke.)



Now for a quick update on the game's progress. Things have been going smoothly, albeit slowly.
What you see above is the last of the easter eggs that needed implementing (don't worry, it only took a couple of weeks to implement, I've not been spending all of my time on that). As such, I'm nearly onto the beta testing phase. That should be happening sometime next month (perhaps the month after that at the very latest).

I've also decided to add voice acting. And considering there are over 90,000 words in the script... and I plan to do all of the voice acting myself... this is going to be murder on my throat. But hey, I've come this far. I may as well go the full nine yards.

It grinds my gears that asking about music interests is a commonly accepted ice breaker. I mean how are you supposed to even respond to that?
"Oh, what kind of music are you into?"

Like serious, what are you supposed to say to that? It's a conversational dead end.
You can't just say "good music" because it's too vague. You can't say a specific band, because chances are they aren't going to have a clue what you're talking about (unless you're talking about the latest popular hit band I suppose, but chances neither of you are going to be into them enough for it to carry a conversation). You can't tell the absolute truth and say "A little bit of everything." which is true for just about everyone, because once again, it gives nothing to cling onto. You can't say something more specific to you such as game music or whatever, because their eyes will just glaze over. There is no acceptable response!

Yet it's a topic people always eventually gravitate towards.
I mean sure, I could put on the music I like and you could put on the music you like. But chances are our tastes aren't going to be similar enough where either of us will appreciate it, so why bother?

Movies are an interesting topic. So are TV shows, games, books, even comics to a certain extent. But music is not a suitable topic for discussion unless you're both really into music, and the people who bring it up are usually no more into music than you are.
So just don't ask about music!

Wait... isn't "least inelegant" just a roundabout way of saying "most elegant"? 

Probably a bot, but still an interesting topic.

Recently I've been reading The Saga of Tanya the Evil. I'm up to volume 12 (the latest one). A surprisingly easy read. It almost feels like I've read twice as many books this year as I have in the past ten years, thanks to how quickly I've been getting through them. And they are proper novels as well. The translator has done a good job with them.

I'm also late to the party, but I'm congratulating you all the same.
It's about time the text parser got a bit of love.