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Not that I have been much help anymore to this.. but your doing a bang up job!

I will be hosting these files in a week or so on my site. I will share the link with everyone. It goes from AC editor all the way till now. I kept most files I ever downloaded of AGS.

I actually think that these are minor suggestions easy to implement. Most are not necessary (But the idea of it WILL be implemented in my game one way or the other), but would help with having cleaner code, faster development and more convenience. Hope they are feasible. As I work on my Simpsons game and add more features to it and the template, these little things stand out to me.

My suggestions are:

1) Having an option for changing a character View when the mouse is over him/her without scripting it. --Its not essential, I can use getscreenatxy, but for less complicating code, an option like this would be nice. I want my character to interact with the mouse for a better user experience. And I think an animation of when the mouse is over my character would be far more fun.

2) GUI Preview window. I use mouseover images on the gui and I would like to be able to see what it looks like when the mouse is over the GUI without having to test the game. Can this be done?

3)Choosing Random idle/Blink/Thinking view. Instead of having it scripted, can we just specify multiple idle views that are comma seperated and the idle view will play one randomly?

4) Instead of having to code how long it takes to play the idle/Blink/Think views, can we just have an option where we can put it in?

5) Can we also have an option where the Blink view can have an option where its displayed at all times not just during speech?

6)Views-- Can we just have an option to copy one loop to the next? Most of the time my Right loop is a copy of the left loop just flipped. So rather than have to put in all the frames, can we just have a copy function?

7) Can we have an option for a character that allows his eyes to follow the mouse? I know, its stupid, but I feel it adds better user interactivity and makes it more fun. Basically an option called "UsersEyesFollowMouseCursor?" with a true or false option. And then you just create a view as normal. Then when you move your mouse to a certain part of the screen, the characters animation will play accordingly. Basically its just to draw the loops where the characters eyes follow the mouse.

8) I always make this suggestion as it would simplify room area editing: Point Plotting. You click one spot, then you click another and a line is drawn from one point to the other and you continue until the last point meets the first and then fills in the area within the points. Gimp 2 has an option like this called "Paths Tools" only its for creating selections. Basically I want that concept, but to draw and fill in area's in the rooms.

9) This is another of my suggestions I always ask for: Regarding dialogues, can there be an option when you add a dialog option that says "show on all dialogs"?  In other words, we have a "say" option and a "show" option in the editor. But this option would allow that line to be displayed on all dialogs at the bottom. Is that possible?

10) I dont know if this is possible at all, but it is a nice feature to have. Instead of just assigning an image to an inventory object, can we also assign a view to it so we can have inventory that animates? Good for carrying cell phones that ring, etc...

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SUGGESTIONS FROM OTHER USERS THAT I LIKE:

Vince Twelves suggestion: I would like an IsWalkableAreaEnabled function.  I just came upon a place where I wanted to do this and was surprised that it wasn't in there.  Not sure about a work around yet...

RickJ's Suggestion: When the editor opens a game made with an older version it would be nice if the message say what the older version actually is instead of having to guess.I would be even better if the user was asked if he would like to open the selected game in that older version or at least asked if he would like launch that older version (provided the older version was installed)

ProgZMax: I think I suggested this a long time ago, but I think it would be highly useful for most people if there was a property for characters that let you specify their own speech font number, which AGS would internally switch to during the say functions.

NickyDude: Sorry if this has been asked, but an extra perimeter to the .Say command to specify the time the text is displayed on screen

F1ak3R: Seeing as you can now use ordinary code in the dialogue editor, and that code can have errors in it, which are reported in the usual way, I think it would be nice if the dialogue editor had numbered lines like the script editor does.
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SUGGESTIONS OVER TIME TO BE IMPLEMENTED(in fact I am not even expecting this to be implemented at all, but they would make life easier for ALL of us, I'm sure):

1) Patching system-- If I created a template or game, and I update it several times, I hate to have to upload it each time, or even to have to have my users download it again. If a file is about 100 megs to download, its a pain. Especially like games we saw recently updated like "Kings Quest 1". So this is an all around good feature for the developers as well as the gamers.

2) This would be very useful to me, but at the same time I can see this being a pain in the butt to code. None-the-less, I am putting it out there as a suggestion at some point. Object and character scaling that is not specific to a region or hotspot. Perhaps in the character and object editor itself add an option to enter a scale size. Even a script that will change the scale size. Helpful to use rather than editing an image and shrinking it and useful to do a Sam and Max effect where they are in a house where they keep shrinking down and enlarging and so forth.

3) GUI transitions: Similar to the rooms transition, only applied to how the GUI Shows up. A particular transition would be a SLIDE in from Top/left/bottom/right to X Y (Mouse coordinates valid too).

4) New screen transition: SLIDE IN (Much like the IPhone). Screen slides in from left/Right/Top/Bottom.

5) Inventory Categories: Where the inventory window can only show items that belong to a certain category. Useful if some items are considered something like spells, or weapons. Basically, multiple inventories of different types. It would be an interesting feature to have, and one that I have been wanting to use for a while now.
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VERY VERY UNLIKELY TO HAPPEN, BUT THROWING IT OUT THERE ANYWAY:

1) Importing and using 3D Character and object files.
2) Continued development on the Linux and MAC port.
3) Development for Pocket PC.-- Not holding my breath for this until some decent programming libraries are released for this OS. If you need a solution, you can find it here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=445396 it lists all the libraries and tips and stuff for Pocket PC Development. A good thing to is that VS now has a mobile emulator so you can develop apps on it. DirectX on Pocket PC: http://www.monocube.com/forums/about28.html
4) A basic version of the interaction editor re-implemented.

Once again, thanks for listening to my ramblings. And Chris, Thanks once again for all the hard work you put into making AGS the engine of my (And MANY MANY OTHERS) choice. And sorry once again for my suggestions...    

Chris, its been a while since I used AGS and my PC crapped out so I am using this version of AGS for my game. I am having an issue with my simpsons game. I have an idle view for homer. I exported a sprite from the sprite folder. I then edited it and imported it and set it to an idle view.

In the room he is in, the walkable area is set to 63 on the scaling(The game is 640x400 and the sprite is 62x152). And the character uses room scaling. But when the idle animation kicks in, the character shrinks considerably. I cant get the setting right on this. Is this a bug or am I doing something wrong? Or do idle views ignore scaling?

EDIT: Nevermind. I am an idiot. I just had to change the resolution of the new sprite. Sorry. Thanks for all the hard work!

I would come to a site like this to find games to play. That means that anything that helps me find games would be a feature that keeps me coming back. That primarily means a lot of categorizing (windows/mac/linux, freeware/paid, remake/original, and any game should be able to belong to multiple genres). Some ideas that came to mind are a feature that "if you liked this game, you'll probably also like X, Y and Z". Home of the Underdogs used that to great effect. It would also be nice, when you click on a user profile, that you get a list of the top five or ten favorite games of that user (other than stuff he wrote himself). And tag clouds. Actually I don't like tag clouds myself, but they are a common enough web feature that you should probably consider them.

One thing that would be very useful is a "report error" button, primarily to let users point out broken links. Of course, don't bother implementing that unless you have somebody watching the results every few days.

Sorry to keep posting about this. I have been updating the site A LOT!!!! Free hosting and other stuff is a lot of work. And I am trying to keep this thread alive as to receive feedback about this site. I just finished off the Download section. The downloads will consist of many resources and games. But Radiant, I took your suggestions to heart and completely finished the downloads system. So here goes:

You have the usual Title, Email, website, author and description fields. You can choose which OS's your download will work on, Requirements for the software, Instructions, What Genre (If applicable), If its free or commercial and how much. You also have a section where you can add links as to where you can buy the software. There is a field to show if its abandonware or not. A field to choose what type of software it is, two links to two youtube video's (If applicable), The Engine used or is for (If applicable), A you will also like these field, Official Forum link, Two download mirrors, Logo, File Icon, Meta Keywords and Meta description. In addition to that you can also add images (Which will be converted to thumbnails as well) and if you dont have a youtube video, you can upload video with the download.

I also included a field if its a game to ask how big the game is in the sense of is it medium sized, small, large, grand adventure, demo, etc...

And the best part about it is that most of the fields are searchable and sortable so that you can find what your looking for easily. Or you can optionally look in a category and find it there.

In addition to that, the downloads will also have a feature to report a bad link and to be able to have user reviews and voting.

So, all this is already available in the system. Of course file size will also be displayed. And when uploading your files, you can also specify a license if you choose.

So quite a lot has been done on this end. Is anything else missing as far as downloads go?

I agree on a team of core writers.

I think the best thing to do is keep the continuity of the series, allow others to continue the RON town story. But maybe instead of a reboot, we just create a new town and start a series on that. Its all in the same universe as RON, but geographically located elsewhere and characters and such can make Cameo's within the town. Eventually someone can make a game where you can travel to both towns.

Other than that, I do not suggest a reboot. Perhaps an organization project can be started to better organize whats there already.

Hey guys. I have updated the site some more. But I wanted to ask you guys regarding the Build a Team feature on the site.

The interface is nearly complete. How it works is that it has Main categories and then some sub-categories. I have a music category. For you musicians, what type of sub-categories would you like in this main category?

As far as advertising to recruit a team member, these are the fields it will ask for:
1) Category to post in
2) OS (s) being developed for
3) Which engine(s) being used
4) What specific help you looking for
5) Languages of the project
6) Requirements
7) Email to contact you at
8) Project title
9) Project description
10) Number of applicants
11) Website of project

Any other fields you think would be necessary?

Just an update on the progress of the site...

I added a chat capability to the site. It uses phpfreechat but works like IRC and contains seperate channels and such and also contains IRC commands.

Also, user profile pages contain a list of favorite games you like.

Just an update.

The site is geared towards all types of adventures... Commercial, Indie, etc... But as far as anything non indie, it will be strictly to Interviews, Reviews and previews and possibly a store in which you can buy those games. But thats just a small part of the site and will be used just for the sake of having a complete Adventure game site.

I really liked the way the Crows Nest functioned. It truly had many features that I was looking for in an adventure game site. Some of the other sites such as just adventure or adventuregamers is not what I look for in an adventure site.

Also , I plan on putting in an Adventure Game Hall of Fame section to the site. If anyone wants to post idea's on how that should work, please go ahead and say so.

Dudeman: I will do my best to add a feature like that one. Its very insightful.

SSH: :p 

Radiant: Wow, thanks for your input. Very insightful.

Just to answer some of your questions on the matter:

Interface: I am using Joomla for my site. I am sure you heard of it, but if not... Its a Content Management System for websites. Sort of like Mambo or PHPNuke. Very useful. Very powerful. Very Automated. Makes my life very easy. You can categorize sections, add articles and such. Its very easy to use and setup. Joomla is a big reason why my site has been making the progress its been making. Sure, its not my own coding, but I am not looking for my own originality in site design. Not just yet anyway. Once I get stuff done, I may create my own site template. But for now, the design is attractive and neat.

Games/Finding games: I agree. Ease of finding some games is the most important thing. This is how the downloads will be categorized in the remository:

Windows-
          ---Engines
                   ----Freeware
                   ----Commercial
                   ----Defunct
                   ----Open Source
                                 ----Each category will have subdirectories for templates/plugins etc...
           ----Games
                   -----Freeware
                          ----Ags
                          ----Agast
                          ----Sludge
                          ----Wintermute
                          ----MAD
                          ----Etc...
                                       Each directory will also contain these subsections: Open Source games, Remakes, Fan-Games, Short games, medium sized games, large games, Misc, etc..
                    -----Commercial
                             ----Same structure as freeware
As far as getting a you will also like feature... I will work on that as soon as I can. I might need to custom code it myself. But the rest of the downloads are all set as far as categories go. I might add Genre's in the near future as well.

Tag Clouds: I absolutely hate tag clouds. I think they are a mess in my opinion. Everytime I go to a website to look for something and I have to use tag clouds, I get irritated. I really dont know why people like them, but I am not fond of them myself.

User Profile: Yes, good idea. Adding that to a user profile will definitely make it more of an adventure community. I was thinking of adding a section that mentions games he's worked on, Projects he was involved in and top ten favorite adventure games in order. Another feature I wanted to add was the feature that we have here on these forums, which is to have a section that demonstrates what talents a user has that he may want to contribute as far as a game goes.

Report Error Button: If I am not mistaken, I think Joomla has something like that. But if not, I will implement this. Its a good idea.

Categorization: Its going to be a site strictly based on Point and Click adventure games (Either first person or third person). If anything is made with an adventure engine, but is not an adventure will just be categorized as misc.

Download details: Just for your info... When looking at a download, you will see the following: Filename, date added, Size, Between 1 and 6 thumbnails, File Title, Description, Short description, File Author, homepage URL, License info and option to agree to a license, File version and an icon to assign to it. Also the remository will allow you to search for a file as well.

Flash/Java games: The only type of games I will host is only adventure games. Nothing else. And not many have been made like this. I think Lassie is the only engine to create Flash games. Also, in case anyone has ever made a game in indyjava, that will be posted here as well. And lastly, I think I might host Maniac Mansion NES version to be playable online through a java applet.

Active Community: Yes, I agree. I think having everything conveniently located in one site with plenty of forums and accessibility will allow for a large community. Hosting projects and even adding user features will also help. But this is why I am asking for opinions in what will get everyone to visit the site. If I have these features put in, I am certain that more will visit the site and contribute to it.

The thing I am most concentrating on is the user aspect of the site. I want to give users the option of being able to communicate to the maximum and work on projects in a very productive way. Thats the first task I am undertaking in this. And to be honest, pretty much every feature I wanted to implement is already there.

The content of the site will come little by little. If you remember the old Crows nest site, I am trying to add features like that to this site. You know, a list of engines, a list of games, if they are freeware, remakes, shareware, fan-games, and what engines they were made with etc.. I already got a partial working remository for that. But it needs a bit more tweaking and customization.

Hopefully with Help and opinions I can make this be a site that everyone will enjoy.

I'm alone on the design and implementation. I have already put many uploads on the site. I am nearly done organizing the forum. The features I mentioned are already implemented.

But I do need help, thats why I posted here. This site may not come online for a few months if I dont get much help. But a lot is already done. It will be a reality. When is a different question.

Ok, so I am working on an adventure site. I am trying to make it a one stop area for all your adventure needs. It is supposed to contain fanart/fiction, game resources, art programs and tutorials, forums, articles, walkthroughs, news, reviews, previews, etc... and more. I am keeping the name a secret until this actually gets made. I wanted to mention a few features of the site already. It does contain older engines on the site with documentation and such. For instance you will find:

Agast
Edpack (Spanish)
Maker r1 (German)
on the site. You will also have an archive of older versions of AGS and AC_editor.
I am planning on mirroring games and demo's and plugins/modules/templates for every engine I can find.

The site also contains some SCUMM, SCI, AGI tools.

I have a fairly large forum that is being set up. For instance there is a section for all the active engines I can find. Each engine has sub-forums to discuss released games, WIP's, cheats, etc...

There is a general forum which will also contain critics and critiques, new engine releases, etc... A general feature I am putting in here is the Team sections. Basically I just want to allow an area where anyone looking for help or offering help on a project/game can post individual threads for each requirement and not in a single thread. Eventually I want to create a component for the site to do this.

Some of my more prouder features which are incorporated already are:
A links library where you can submit links for approvals.
A users "MySpace" type page.
A Blog for each user.
Uploading files for users.
A Cafepress and lulu store.

And the biggest feature which is already incorporated and ready to go is the Projects page for the users. Think Sourceforge, just a little more conservative (if you choose). Basically you start up a project. You create a project. You can define a deadline if you want, add a description, a name and if the project is accepting new members and if its public.

Once the info is submitted, an administrator will need to accept or deny the project. Now, in the project screen itself, you have tons of features available to you to use that will help in the development of your project/game:

You can edit your projects profiles.
You can edit users and assign access levels
You can accept join requests or invite a user to a project.
You can add and assign groups
Each project has its own personal Board for posting discussions and such.
Each project has a calendar to add an event to a project.
You can assign tasks to a user.
You have a file manager to upload files for a project.

Basically its a great tool for teams to create an engine or a game. It keeps things organized and such.

My question to you all now is, what other features should I add to this site that would be useful to an adventure game developer? What feature would be good for an adventure game fan?

What would personally have you come to the site on a regular basis? What would you like to see on it?

For individual users, are the features I mentioned above enough? Or would you like more?

What kind of content would you like on the site? Interviews? Flash games ? etc...

What would help you to be able to develop games that the site could host?

What would it take to host your projects/games/engines/sites on this new adventure site? Yes, I will allow for sites to be hosted on my site. I just wanted to know what it is that I must do to get that to happen.

Now for the help part of it. I need some help in regards to board moderators. People who will be examplarary and uphold the rules of the board.

I also need others to help accept and deny projects that get submitted as well as make sure that they are not dead projects. This person must be honest and trustworthy and must keep all secrecy on all projects. I might not allow for anyone at the moment to take this job as I might be able to handle it personally.

I need someone to provide me with art for the site and for smilies on the board.

Anyone who wants to review and preview games/products or conduct interviews or write articles on the site is more than welcome to join as a writer.

Anyone who wants to host a project on my site or test out the group project site can send me a PM and I will send them a private link to where the page is located.

If there is anyone who does not want their game/module/plugin/template/files posted on the site, please say so here as well.

Thanks for all your feedback in advance. Let the insight begin...

I am looking for a c++ pathfinding library that is supported on atleast windows, mac and linux. Is there any out there that can work just by loading an image as a mask and making that be a pathfinding area? Basically the way any other engine works, just as a c++ library.

Yeah I could. I might do so to webcitation as well. I just gotta figure out how.

EDIT: I also just found Maker R1. Now I need R2 and the SAGE engines.

Well, I got some good news. I was able to download Agast Morningstar and Agast 1.08h from the agast site. Dont ask me why I spent 8 hours trying, but I did.

Now I only need Mastertons Maker R1 and R2 and some builds of Sage Classic.

If anyone is interested, I was able to find some older engines such as Edpack, Troiacs and indyjava as well. These will be posted on my new site when its released. If anyone wants Agast for vintage purposes, here are the links:

http://www.allitis.com/agast/downloads/AGAST_1_08h_Setup.exe
http://www.allitis.com/agast/downloads/AGAST_Morningstar_1_1b.exe

Thanks M0ds. I e-mailed him as well as Todd himself by doing a whois lookup on the agast site.

Mastertons Maker R2 seems to be really lost unless I can find Titus miloli who is the original creator of the engine. It was being used for the original Zak 2 game and there was an Indy game he used as a demo to show how it works. Agast would be easier to get my hands on, but as far as Maker R1 or R2, I highly doubt it.

Also, along these lines, I am looking for Sage Classic as well if anyone has any of the versions of Thomas Mayer's engine.

I even tried the archive.org site to get the files with no success. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks and thanks M0ds.

Does anyone have a copy of several versions of Agast along with the tools and morningstar? Also, if anyone remembers Mastertons adventure engine called Maker R2 and R1, does anyone have any of those engines that they can upload or help me find?

Reason: I am creating an adventure resource page and want to include these engines just for the sake of it. Thanks in advance.

Sad to hear all around.

Thanks for all your hard work. Hopefully someone will pick up the source and work on it again.

Neat! I like them. Keep it up!

Anyone using 3d graphics can easily render images in that resolution and it would visibly improve the game, more so than it would on a lower resolution.

It would also invite more users to this engine because most people DO want to create games in 1064x768.

I cant help but wonder if the Runaway games, or Zak 2 would have been made in AGS with more cooler enhancements and features if AGS would have supported those resolutions.