Messages

It looks very basic as for now, and i think it should stay that way until you have drawn all "roughs" for your game.
Looking at Thimbleweed Parks blog forexample. Wireframes until the end of the game when they got the real art and replaced it, and considering how easy it is too replace images in AGS, i would suggest you do the same! I finalised one art "almost" but it took like a day or two to make it so good. Its time consuming. At the same time i really dont know what you are aiming for as end goal for your "artstyle"?
Im gonna jump into the land of "scrolling huge bakgrounds" soon myself!  .

All this makes me want to continue the series even more.

You should! Just started using AGS and your videos made me get the basics very fast, otherwise i probably would have gave up. Some features i would like to have in your upcoming videos. How to stop and sync sounds. Forexample when hitting a button the sound should quit instantly, it doesnt for me, its still there and blends in with other sounds that comes after it. In otherwords how to cancel sounds if you "push buttons" to skip. What "statements" you can use in "if and if else" or "int" or such. Im not a programmer so im clueless when it comes to those things. The manual just says "statements". Kinda hard to figure! Forexample if you talk to a character perhaps that characters wants you to have three items, to be able to get one item from him. What would you do then? Just some ideas. Thanks so much for the videos, very helpful indeed!

[programming concepts]

Unfortunately there's not really a single good entry point to learning the programming skills you need to use AGS. You'll need to a basic grounding in (imperative) programming concepts, and you'll also need basic knowledge of some of the common programming terms, constructs and syntax used by AGS script.

AGS Script belongs to a family of programming languages that are all written in pretty much the same way, with many of the same conventions and keywords: C-like languages. Popular C-like languages include C, C++, Java, C#, Objective-C, and PHP (JavaScript is a language that borrows a lot of the "look and feel" of C-like languages but actually behaves quite differently). If you learn how to read and use any of these languages, you should be able to understand almost any AGS code.

The language that AGS Script most closely resembles for everyday use is probably C, but it also borrows some things from Java and C# (notably the way Strings work is more like those languages; and also the fact that a lot of the AGS code is event-driven). So I would recommend that you find some good "intro to programming C" tutorial to help you get your bearings.

Thanks Snarky, you have been very helpful!
You can forget about those other questions. I was just feeling a little bit of frustration. I had similar issues with the bakgrounds in the beginning. Just because the resolution is 320/200 doesn't mean the image is to be drawn that size, i learnt that "the hard way", you have Gui's and maybe other things in the way. I see it the same way with the object. Next time i'll draw the object in the exact little size for it to be clickable and not any bigger then needed for it to work, so the character won't need to cross it's pixels in any way.

You clicked "quote" by accident. Clicking "modify" leads to a textarea containing just the post, without [quote] tags around it, and has a "Save" button below, instead of "Post".

Ah, yeah makes sense. I have to get used to it. Since my programming knowledge is lacking a aweful lot. I don't know if you have read any of my wall of texts so far, but i actually did ask about advice on where to learn "basic coding" since i just like you pointed out feels like ags manual expects you to "know" programming beforehand, which i don't. But it's funny when it starts to work, and you guys are a HUGE help. I also read things wrong cause of my english reading ability isn't up to par. 

As for the manual's
bool Object.Solid

This means that each Object has a .Solid property of type bool, which means you can set it to either true or false.

When you used  bool oAbmachine  AGS thought you wanted to declare a bool variable called oAbmachine, and informed you that this variable already exists.

Ahh, that clarifies that situation!

As for "events after or before entering the room", please read what it actually says.
The events are called "Enters room after fade-in" and "Enters room before fade-in".
"before fade-in" is where you set up room-specific stuff while the screen is still black (like positioning characters for a cutscene); "after fade-in" is where you put stuff that's supposed to happen as soon as the room is fully visible (like making them walk somewhere).

Yes, yes ofc i get that. I was just getting frustrated when none of the options seems to do anything. But it was because i "read wrong". Walk through a path is different then "walking thru an object". Which my mind was reading. Probably cause English is not my native language, again................

In general, if you have difficulty understanding the manual, keep in mind that you are learning how to program and how AGS's API works at the same time. The manual assumes basic scripting knowledge, so can be difficult for a beginner programmer to make sense of. That's not the manual's fault though.

If you could be so kindly please direct me to some  webpage where i can learn more about such basic concepts. Because i don't want to be a pain in here. I already feel like guys in here get annoyed cause i keep asking "stupid questions". Even tho it's a beginners forum. I did solve a lot of things myself which i clearly showed in various examples. But it would be good to know what i should "look for". What's relevant programming basics for AGS.

Am i pushing wrong all the time? I pushed MODIFY not Quote. Still i get a new post once again. Sorry. Just have Modify, Quoting should be inside the text editing (i think) OR on someone elses text. I hope admin don't mind taking that change into consideration.
I think on other forums there is not an option for Quote so i accidently click it everytime i should edit my post 

Where are you seeing that? That doesn't really make sense.

from the Manual (Again, remember i am Swedish, maybe i am just reading this "wrong"):

MANUAL : "Solid property (object)
bool Object.Solid

Gets/sets whether the object can be walked through by characters.
If this is set to true, then the object is solid and will block the path of solid characters. If this is set to false, then the object can be walked through by characters.

NOTE: solid objects only block characters, they don't block other objects from moving through them.

Example:

oSmallrock.Solid = true;

will mean that the Smallrock object blocks the path of characters."


I have used forexample with the computer screen similar actions with success. hScreen.Enabled = false; or oOffscreen.Visible = false;
But most likely those commands would not work. I cannot make the object disappear then the function's that you helped me with will not function probably cause the object is not visible by then (i think?). I could easily solve this in the future by just making the object smaller, it's the entire machine, i could just crop the image to only be around the blinking light, that would solve things, so if there is no "easy way out" i will have to do so, i suppose.

my code was this,

Code: ags

function room_Load()
{
oAbmachine.Solid = false; //Shouldn't this make the player be able to just walk over the object without "dissapearing"? That's the command i'm looking for!
}

EDIT: AAAAAAAAH!! I get it now. Walkthrough in this case just means being able to walk onto it. That has nothing to do with weither the character/objects appearance.

EDIT: A picture says more then 1000 words. Perhaps there is some kind of "layer function" similar to photoshop where i can choose the character to go over all the other objects?
[imgzoom]https://i.imgur.com/f21mILa.png[/imgzoom]

Good to know!  I'm beginning to get beyond frustrated by the Manual tbh. I'm again just sitting here and guessing what "might work", and obviously it don't. My programming career would have ended long ago, if it wasn't for your help, Snarky! V E R Y Thankful. It seems like the character now disappears slightly when walking by the Machine, so what i immediately think about, is that the object probably is like characters set to "solid".
Searching in the manual and looking at "object.solid"  it should indeed be available for objects aswell. So i pick "events after or before entering the room" (Again, just guessing, nowhere to be found in the manual which events tab i should choose for the object other then "common sense". Makes more sense that the object is solid = false; before the actual "interaction" starts, right?! so i added myobject.solid = false;

And ofc, the command seems to run thru but it doesn't do anything, character still get's invisible when passing thru parts of the object. Then in the manual it says before anything it looks like i should have typed an "bool machine.Solid" command? So i try that in the script beginning what happens then.
Well then i get this failure "oAbmachine is already imported". Which also doesn't make sense to me. I used the "oAbmachine" many times in the script. There is a bool set but it's not called oAbmachine. Why won't AGS let me? 

Was up till 4am this night trying to get it to work, my copy-paste failed leaving one bracket out. What i meant to say was that the code was "working" (the one i pasted) but the end result still wasn't that the machine "turned on/off" so to speak.

With your modifications and great explanations it now works.
It works perfectly fine now! God, i thought i've learn't how to format the code. I need to look more closely at your examples again.
Thanks so much again!

Code: ags

function oAbmachine_Interact()
{
player.Walk (210, 130, eBlock); 
player.Say ("bla bla bla!");
oAbmachine.SetView(9);
oAbmachine.Animate(0, 2, eRepeat, eNoBlock);
}

Edit: My last attempt for tonight/early morning going to bed now. Still not working.

Code: ags

function oAbmachine_Interact()
{if (Verbs.UsedAction(eGA_Use))

{
player.Walk (210, 130, eBlock); 
player.Say ("Yeah, let's try that!");
oAbmachine.SetView(9);
oAbmachine.Animate(0, 2, eRepeat, eBlock);
}

else if(Verbs.UsedAction(eGA_Use))
{  
ifabmachineisinuse = true; 
oAbmachine.StopAnimating();
}

I'm not sure you understand what i'm trying to do. It should be an endless loop of light until i sorta like a radio or a tv that can be turned on and off when clicked on it (so the animation obviously should stop, or change to another animation)?
I added the stopanimating(); line but it didn't help, in fact it made the animation not work at all. I'm thinking perhaps i'm doing this in the wrong events tab?
This is so common in point and click games would be surprised if it's really difficult to do! 

I'm clicking on the object/interact with object, or should one create a hotspot for this? I'm a bit confused when to use a hotspot and when not to.

Well, i rage quited (not really more like too lazy to try more stuff). To find out i couldn't fill the water with the cup i used. Saw on youtube that *spoiler alert*. There was another item to use for that task. Damn it
Kinda stupid puzzle tho, just let the player use whatever that can fill water in that case, i'd say. 
But other then that, it was really cool! Loved the atmosphere and the choice of Denmark of all places 

Hello again! This time i have a question about a sorta like a "on off" thing going on when using the Use button or any interaction button i guess for that matter, push, pull etc, twice on an object animation. I've been looking in the manual again ofc. But it's not clear as for what to use i think for a certain objects animation. I have this machine that is lighten up, but now i want to turn it off when pushing the use button again so the animation should obviously stop, but at a specific frame.  But since it's 16 frames of animation, i can't just type "object.stopanimation();", it needs to stop on the right frame (i believe for it too look "smooth" or more nice.)
How would i accomplish that with code?

Perhaps it works with the "if bla bla, or else turn off the animation?) type of commands. Still haven't gotten my head around those type of commands. I just copy paste the thumbleweed preset in the script starts
Thanks again guys for your help so far, hopefully soon a playable demo should be available, if anyone wants to play! 

Hi, i think Carceiero B and A looks really cool both, maybe a combination of those.
About  Mercader i think he needs to be re-worked completely, don't  think any of them are any good.
Sorry, i'm not a bad person, i'm an honest person. Art is time, and sometimes you've got to spend a lot of time before you find a drawing that you like, but from own experience i can tell that you "know" when it's good. You never need to ask, usually when something is good.

You have some nice characters going i think, but your anatomy is a bit off.
Just like the guy previously pointed out, the left arm looks like popeye, versus the right looks more like a girls arm.
When you draw characters do yourself a favour and have some reference photos up, it helps a great deal!
Or download this app called pose tool 3d by alientthink, it's great if you want to do a specific pose, you can change body type from fat to thin skinny muscular, women/man, etc.

But you have a lovely drawing style otherwise, you just need to get that anatomy right! What you also need to get right (i'm just guessing here).
But are you using a drawing tablet cintiq or something of that nature? I think it  or the screens you are using needs calibration in your graphic cards drivers. Cause it seems like you are not seeing the colors correctly on the first drawing of the "black woman". If you use windows there is Color calibration in screen settings where you go thru alot of tests to find the right settings. It can help A GREAT DEAL in matchning darker colors. Otherwise you draw blindly, in worst case! I did, for several weeks, until i realised it was the screen itself that was not calibrated correctly. Obviously there are many forms of calibration, and getting the colours/light right on the screen is essential!

Good Luck!

Olleh19

testing, 


Edit: Ahh, got it right! had to leave out your old quote it seems

Here we get to one of my often-insisted-on topics: code formatting.

The compiler doesn't really care how you format your code, but for humans it's important in order to make it readable. Newbies often underestimate how important this is. If your code is badly formatted, you can easily confuse yourself about what it does. So let's take your snippet above and format it "correctly" (meaning, according to common convention)...

Code: ags

function cmdbox_OnActivate(GUIControl *control)
{
  cmdbox.Visible = false;

  Wait(1);
  Parser.ParseText(cmdbox.Text);
  String badword = Parser.SaidUnknownWord();
  if (badword !=null)
    player.Say("'%s'. Wrong password", badword);
  player.Changeroom(10);
  else if (Parser.Said("theonlywordihaveintextparser"))
    player.Say("Bra jobbat!");
  player.ChangeRoom(2);
  // ... More code here? Without the closing bracket, the function seems incomplete
}

You see that some things become immediately apparent with this formatting â€" notably, that the "if" and "else" conditions only apply to the next following statement. You can't make it apply to multiple statements just by putting them on the same line (like I said, the compiler doesn't care about the formatting). If you want to make multiple lines all conditional on one statement, you have to use curly brackets { }:

Code: ags

function cmdbox_OnActivate(GUIControl *control)
{
  cmdbox.Visible = false;

  Wait(1);
  Parser.ParseText(cmdbox.Text);
  String badword = Parser.SaidUnknownWord();
  if (badword !=null)
  {
    player.Say("'%s'. Wrong password", badword);
    player.Changeroom(10);
  }
  else if (Parser.Said("theonlywordihaveintextparser"))
  {
    player.Say("Bra jobbat!");
    player.ChangeRoom(2);
  }
  // ...
}

The basic rules for code formatting you should follow include:
-One statement per line
-Curly brackets { } on a separate line
-We indent one tab-level (=two spaces) when we're inside a "block of code" (typically: between curly brackets), or a single line after an if-condition or similar
-No space between the function name and the parenthesis, so "Parser.ParseText(cmdbox.Text)", not "Parser.ParseText  (cmdbox.Text)"

(You will see some people who put a single statement after an if-condition on the same line and some other variations, but I don't recommend it for newbies. This way is clearer and more consistent.)

Exactly what i needed to understand, thanks ever so much!
I have experimented with ( ) and (") but i have managed to forget the curly brackets for the different lines  Makes more sense now.
Can't believe the puzzle actually works right now, so cool!

Code: ags

function cmdbox_OnActivate(GUIControl *control)
{cmdbox.Visible = false;

Wait(1);
Parser.ParseText  (cmdbox.Text);
String badword = Parser.SaidUnknownWord();
if (badword !=null) player.Say ("'%s'. Wrong password", badword); player.Changeroom(10);

else if (Parser.Said("theonlywordihaveintextparser")) player.Say("Bra jobbat!"); player.ChangeRoom (2);

I hope you guys understand what it is i am trying to achieve. If "right" password is typed he should go to another room, but if wrong password, back to the room where the screen is in. But unfortunaly it does not work that way (it seems).

Matti, i am a complete beginner at this. I made it work with my "diy" solution. There are most likely more efficient ways.

Why i changed between three pictures was because the player was going to say and interact different things on each and everyone and they were at the exact same spot (a computerscreen).
Which by the way also made the hotspots flip out, if i was browsing the last sprite that i added, it changed to the first sprite (hotspot id) that was placed at the same place, what i did is basically stack a layer on top of eachother and made them enabled/ or disabled. Again, most likely i'm doing it "wrong" why the program worked against me, but i solved it by manually typing in x/y of the other pictures that i layered on top.

Edit: Managed to get it to change  room when right password is typed but i still want the message to be displayed "yes, thats the right password", or when answering wrong  password, wrong and = back to the computerroom.

Yeah, try, experiment, read the manual, search the forum for your doubt... and if all else fail, ask!
We love to help... but we also like to see that people at least tried to solve the problem first on ones own. 

Believe me, i'm hitting that search button like crazy!

Edit: Amateurs like me. If you type something and it doesn't work hit that f1 button. HUGE help! Mark the word or have the mousepointer by in a word you dont understand and it goes directly to that section in the manual. HUGE help. Helped me a lot so far. Forexample in less then half a minute i've learned how to turn off the main Gui.controls momentarly for my computer error puzzle, so good!

Edit again: Got crazy, it isn't as simple as just "switch to another hotspot", if hotspots are at the same place in the same room one will get erased. So instead you have to use a object. Forexample in my case, i had three different objects i think it was for the damn screen to turn on (not working but on), turn off (say something "ohh its off now)" and on (ohh now it works *goes onto login page*)". Hopefully n00bs can catch that.
Probably is somewhere in the manual, but ofc i missed that part.

Just take your time, don't rush, keep things simple...

It will fall into place as you progress through reading the help file, searching the forums and your dedication...

And never worry about asking questions.... a question at a time..

I'm not so sure about that, but it's nice to hear someone believing! 
At least i've got the how to toogle images on/off going on now comfortably, so i feel pretty comfortable with the "basic" stuff.
It's when it get's into these type of things "if" and "if else", global variables that i struggle. Well well, i probably have some weeks on me to figure this stuff out, the friend is sick so he won't show up in a while, but it will be a fun surprise even if i don't make it on time, for sure.
Have some funny dialogs since we both are in the game. He get's to hang in my entire apartment "in game", open the toilette, working on making it flush:able for shit on the floor in the entrance, and open the washing machine

But don't worry. It's a little bit of a joke now, but i will probably try to make this more serious later. Cause it's so much fun! 

Ofc, but it's a little bit embarassing to have to ask for code 75% of the time! 

I'm on my way now tho! 

Thanks again! I think i will Pm you after i've "bruteforced" my way thru something semi-working.
Cause i doubt i will get a multipuzzle working with this little knowledge.