Messages

I'd have to agree with Cofee Lady. The cat's that I grew up with, we declawed their front paws. Because they don't really need claws if they sit around in your house all day and eat from a bowl. If you have an outside cat...that may be a different story. We kept the back claws on, though, in case they got outside they would have some form of protection.

They still scratch things occasionally using their back claws, but it's a significant decrease. If your dead set on keeping their claws, though, then it's up to your cat if he/she wants to use it.

-MillsJROSS

What's the point in this thread?

I was under the understanding that everyone in the AGS community was gay.

-MillsJROSS

I don't really think it's necessary to disable it. Only because, there are some geniune times when it helps to quote an image. I have a fast connection, so it doesn't really bother me at all, though. Perhaps there could be a way to make it so those who do care can have some way of disabling it, I don't know.

I agree with squinky, though...too tempting.

-MillsJROSS

What's interesting to think about is that it's quite possible that many of us (in the U.S.) have touched the money in that picture. This emphasizes that you never know where your money has been so it's always a good idea to wash your hands. You can thank me, for keeping your sanitary needs on my mind.

-MillsJROSS

It all depends on what we define "childish" as...I suppose. Is it a term intended purely to encompass children and their ignorance, and thus the environment will lend to a more instructive tone. Or by "childish" do we mean sophmoric, where ignorance isn't really an issue, but the level of maturity is low.

I don't think Kings Quest really follows into either of the two options above. It isn't sophmoric and it's not really instructive. Kids can enjoy it, yes...but so can adults. Although, I can't say that I can actively play this game and enjoy it because I'm an adult now, because I might be biased towards it. But I'm fairly certain my parents, who were adults when the game was released, don't share that bias.

Early Sierra made games to be family oriented. Kings Quest is one of these...LSL is probably not one of these (of course I say this while having played it when I was about ten, and I was able to enjoy it then, although I'm sure many jokes went way over my head). But for most of their games, there was an emphasis on a family game, rather than appealing to one group over the other.

But to each their own.

-MillsJROSS

Sierra was number one in my heart for years. With Kings Quest, Space Quest, Leisure Suit Larry, Mixed up Mother Goose, Doctor Brain games, and many more. These were many of them my childhood games. Space Quest especially. I didn't even look at another company until after Sierra started going down hill, about six or seven years ago.

Then came Lucas...which didn't beat sierra, but CMI impressed me a lot. I was completely sucked into the game, as my sisters and I played together. And then even better, Grim Fandango.

There have been other companies to make great advenure games, too. But Sierra is still probably looked at more fondly in my mind than any other company. Lucas Arts comes to a close second. When all is said and done, though. I think it's what you grew up with that you'll probably enjoy the most.

-MillsJROSS

Someone posted a link a while ago, I'm not going to search for it, though. I also think it was mentioned in The Inventory, though it seems everything I'm happy with, their not, and visa versa. I've played roughly about half of the game. This game capitilized on the wintermute engine. And so far, through playing, I have experienced pros and cons, as with most games.

The graphics, to me, are well above average and consistent, and they fit well into the fantasy genre this game seems to fit into. The music, to me, is also well orchestrated, it's a bit sappy, but the story lends itself to sappiness, so no problems there. The GUI is pretty much the same as CMI's, and is easy to use. Their are animations aplenty, and it is evident that the designer(s) put a lot of effort into this game.

The cons. I find the story is weak, and while not unimaginative, it does follow a very well used generic fantasy story line. Reminder, this is all based on about half the game, so maybe there will be  deviation from the expected. The dialog, to me, is also a weakness. While the grammar/spelling is well above average, as said previously this is a sappy game. And  a lot of sappiness oozes from the dialog itself. Sometimes it's just too much for me to handle. Also, while the designer(s) did put a lot of effort into it, sometimes when a problem presents itself, you can talk to anyone about a problem. For example. You have to bring together people who could potentially love each other, but your character tells everyone, even if it's evident that that certain character probably wouldn't care. We then have the puzzles, which so far seem to be a lot of "fetch me" puzzles.

All that said...I'm probably going to finish the game, and while I wasn't as impressed with it, as a lot of people, it's free and very much so, above average. So if you like midevil/fantasy adventures with a bit o' sap, this game might be right up your alley.

-MillsJROSS

See if you can find "Meet the Fleebles", Dave. It's by Peter Jackson and essentially equates to muppets with drugs, sex scandals, and the sort. That may give you some ideas. Expect a very strange movie, if you have a video store that has it.

-MillsJROSS

However, Pirate Fry is not adandonware...it's freeware.  I'm not too certain on the legalities of it, but I'm fairly certain that if Squinky didn't want his game on this list, they would take it down. Can't say for sure, though. They might be assholes.

-MillsJROSS

Sylpher, I feel you, I got into a wreck this last wednsday and my car is probably going to viewed as totalled, since it's so old. It was my fault...but not due to reckless driving. I was going to school in the morning and on the way there, there's a bad spot where the sun shined right into your eyes, so I was blinded, slowed down, but by the time I could see again, there was a car in front of me.

Turns out it was an off duty police officer. Which is actually good news, because he knew I wasn't driving recklessly, So when we called a cop over to make a report, he knew the guy, and I luckily did not get a ticket. My insurance still has to pay for the damages, but there is no document  that says directly that it was my fault.

I actually didn't hit the guy hard, my airbags did not deploy. But cars now are built to crunch to absorb the impact, so had I been in an older car, it would have been a simple fended bender. But since it's not, I'll probably have to say bye to my car. His car only needed a new bumper. My engine isn't ruined, but I'd estimate 3,000 dollars worth of damage to the outside of the car, alone.

The only thing that really sucks about it, is I just got it's axil repaired two weeks ago. On a lighter side, though. My roomate made fun of me, and said he'd never been in an accident, so the next day someone rams into his car. He ate those words.

Of course, when all is said and done, as long as you survive, there's really not too much to complain about.

-MillsJROSS

I found the games enjoyable. I mean it didn't take planning, because for the most part it was just clicking things. But I liked the art, and I liked the solutions to the "problems" at hand. You couldn't make a long game out of something like this, but it was the perfect lenght, and I would love to see more.

-MillsJROSS

Yay, I'm not alienated!

Great stuff, net, Enjoyed it. Especially the mittens line. Can't beat writing like that.
But I did find a bug...if I was over 105 years old, I couldn't play this game.

-MillsJROSS

I think if your going to have to have a dead area, it's going to have fill some purpose. Like if you think there will be a better atmosphere by "opening" the game up, that's fine. However, I prefer the, there's something to do in every room/almost every room. I don't honestly see why taking from a well established media, such as movies, would affect adventure games in the negative. Sure their different...but the concept remains the same. As Garage said, "don't waste my time." I'm the type of gamer that clicks on everything I can find and selects every possible dialog. This isn't to say that there can't be dead areas, movies use dead areas too, they just limit them. Like you might see the main character walk into a shop from outside, but not necessarily see the car ride over there.

The trouble, Helm,  with using old sierra games as an example, is that with the text parser system it was generally very easy to find out if there was something important in the room. And even afterwards, the games weren't hotspot heavy. So it was easy to navigate in a room, type look, find out anything important, if there wasn't anything, move on. Where as todays games are so graphically intensive, that it's hard to pick out what's important in a game. You might have fifteen hotspots to a room, now, versus four or five before.

I don't really care for dead areas...and I'm not so sure it's a design flaw to take out something I don't like.

-MillsJROSS

In the end, it's kind of hard to think of how something like this would work effectively, and keep people playing. The thing about adventure games, versus an RPG, is an RPG is based a lot on how many things you do. Where an adventure game, there is usually a linear or near enough, puzzle arrangment, and it doesn't matter if you wait a week to solve a puzzle or a minute. I'm sure all of us have experienced moment, where we were away from our game, and suddenly we thought of a solution, even though we were no where close to our computer.  RPG's however, if you need to take down someone, you play and hone your skills or explore.

If an adventure game were this big, it would be daunting. And I'm afraid, many people would be scared off. The real question is, how would allowing other people to play an adventure game at the same time really help an adventure game? There would have to be some big twist or ingenious idea that would captivate our interests, and make it so we must either rely or be against those playing with us.

In making something like this, one would wonder, let's say there is a puzzle, if I solve it, does the puzzle reset itself and allow other people to play? Or is it just solved by me, and by me only. If the first one is true, than what's the point in having more than one person? If the second one is true, then making that many puzzles would not only be dautning to the gamer, but also the creater.

We also have to consider what the point is in an adventure game, and that is mostly that it's plot driven. And with all good plots, you have a beginning where we set up some conflict and get to know the world/characters, the middle where we do things as the conflict usually builds, and the end where we resolve said conflict. How would we use this structure, which is what most adventure games use, to make a game? Because I wouldn't want to play an adventure game that had no end.  The obvious answer would be to make many short mini-adventures that encompass a complete plot, and give everyone playing some sense of completeness. Which also allows for expansions, as already mentioned.

When you get down to it though, the real basic question is how do you interact with several other people in an adventure game? Is one game open to everyone, or do you play with three other people at a time, and play different characters. If this is so, are your puzzles dependant on all characters? It's not really plausably that they are, because everyone plays at a different pace, and to be waiting for one person to solve some puzzle would slow down game play considerably. Yet, you need in some way make it clear that you need to interact with other people.  Because this is the sole reason for making this game. There has to be some benefit about playing an adventure game with other people, otherwise, what's the point? The only thing I can think of at the time, is that it might be similar to an RPG in that you can kill people, but you must kill people with puzzle logic. Whether this would work or not, who know? It would be hell to plan, though.

Allright, I'm done rambling.

-MillsJROSS

One question, would be, whether your changing rooms constantly. Because if you're staying one room for the most part, a GlobalInt isn't really needed, unless you want to transfer how many bullets you have to the next room. Using GlobalInts is fine, but I try to avoid typing GetGlobalInt, SetGlobalInt, when I can make a local integer which is easier to type with. If you're switching rooms, constantly, though, GlobalInts are the way to go. You're going to need at least one to keep track of how many bullets you have at the change in a room.

The only reason I bring this up, is I think, although I can't test right not to be sure, that using local variables, should process faster than using GlobalInts. I can't attest to the correctness of the statement, but it's generally easier for the system to keep track of local variables over Global ones.

-MillsJROSS

My suggestions, look in your script and see if you've had DisplayMessage(XX) more than once. If this isn't the case, it would be nice to see the code you are using in this room, as it's hard to help you if we have nothing to go on.

The best way to go about doing this originally, would be using the message editor, and clicking "include next message" or something similar (I don't have access to AGS at my current locale), except the last one. Then in your script just have it DisplayMessage(FirstMessage); and then a NewRoom command, and it all should work, without problems.

Also, sometime it's better to start from scratch, so if you're really having trouble, make a new room and save it over the room you're having problems with.

-MillsJROSS

I love the old Doctor Who's for their campiness. I hope I'll get a chance to see the new episodes.

As far as Red Dwarf is concenred in America. You probably won't find that the majority of people here will even know anything about the show, as for the most part it's played on either bbc america or pbs. Neither of which get too much of an audience. The problem with BBC America is they have comercials, so a half hour episode takes fourty-five minutes. PBS shows all british show's fully, but they mostly show british shows on saturday, which isn't a day that yields a lot of tv watching, that is, if the local pbs shows it at all. However, Red Dwarf, apparently, has enough fan base for them to sell the DVD's here. And it's gaining more and more popularity, as I've seen it in several DVD stores. I also make it a point to show almost everyone I know Red Dwarf. And I find, that while some people can't get into it, the people who do enjoy it, mostly, are big scifi fans. And there are a lot of those.

-MillsJROSS

It was okay, better than I expected. But the acting was only so-so. The ending, was interesting, but not mind-blowing. While I probably would never have guessed the killer, in a way I found it was far too unbelievable. It was a very fakish movie to me, which granted it was a horror film, but there just seemed too many inconsistencies with real life.

Spoiler

for instance, the killer let that hospital guy do some of his work. The question I have to ask, is why the guy didn't just go to the police? There were many other things I could complain about, but I accepted it for what it was.  A movie...not bad, but I never would have the need to see it again.

[close]

-MillsJROSS

I think if your going to all the work to make a decent game, and your not talented in one area, that you should try to get someone to help. Which there are plenty of people who probably would be willing to do so. I like all things to be original for a serious attempt. Somehow I just have trouble getting into something with ripped images, and copied game music.

-MillsJROSS

Finished the game. It was much better than I anticipated from looking at the screenshots. The strongest point in this game was the dialog. It held the most humor, and the most enjoyment. Second to that, were the well made cutscenes. The puzzles were okay, the one with the plank was probably the most ingenious.

The only problem have already been mentioned, and I downloaded the more buggy version, so I'm not about to complain about what you may have fixed.

It was a fun game. Congradulations.

-MillsJROSS