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Check out the stickied links at the top of the critics lounge, specifically here and here for lots of tutorials on lots of different areas. There's lots of ways to go about shading, you could colour it one colour and lighten or darken it, you could just go with blocks of different colour, you could block it out into different colours then blur the edges... Its all about a lot of practice and finding your own style.

Looking for a personal tutor would probably be the best idea. Learning one on one with someone who knows and can teach their stuff. I'm not sure how you'd go about finding one, but maybe asking your teachers? Other than that there's quite a few websites that will explain stuff to you, (howstuffworks.com for instance) but you generally need to search for something specific. Get some revision guides that cover your course, and perhaps stuff lower down - when I went through GCSEs I more or less never went back to my own notes but learned everything from the guides. Is your teacher the sort of person you can approach after class to go over things with? If they're understanding you can explain your situation to them and they might be able to bring you up to speed on the background of what they just taught. Don't use Wikipedia - it tends to cover PHD and beyond stuff and I'll probably be far too detailed information. As a last resort I guess you could ask questions here and hope some people know what they're talking about.

It sounds like you've got a lot of work ahead, good luck!

Next: So THAT'S where I left the keys

Hmm, that's a shame. There must be something different with version 2.73 then. Sorry we couldn't sort it for you, I know it works in AGS 3.0 and I'm fairly sure it can be done in 2.73. Maybe you could come back to it later or something. Ah well, you could always make a new animation for Jasper where the blood being removed is included and just remove the object then play that

Hmm... ok...
1) What version of AGS are you using?
2) When you setup the room_AfterFadeIn and cJasper_UseInv() functions, you're not just typing them into the script, are you? You have been using the room events and character events to set them up first, right?
3) Watch the difference between views and loops. In the on_call function you're animating Jasper with view 5 and loop 0, but in the room_afterFadeIn function you're animating him with loop 5 of whatever his current view is.
4) I'm starting to run out of ideas, anyone else got any?

[before]

ProgZ, as long as you run the non-blocking animation before the blocking one, won't they both play? This would mean you could set the blood animation to blocking and get rid of the wait.

Code: ags

oBlood.SetView(BLOODPOOL);  
cJasper.LockView(JASPERMOP);
cJasper.Animate(0, 5, eRepeat, eNoBlock);
oBlood.Animate(0, 20, eOnce, eBlock);
cJasper.UnlockView();
//continue

That's how I understand it anyway. But you know, whatever works.

By the way, this is all the relevant code I have in my mock up, and as far as I understand what you're trying to do, it works fine (AGS 3.0)...

Code: ags

//In the global script

function cJasper_UseInv()
{
  if(player.ActiveInventory==iKey){  //when the correct item is used, call the room script
    CallRoomScript(1);
  }
}

Code: ags

//in the room script

function on_call (int value){
  if (value==1){
    oBlood.SetView(2);  //set blood to the disappearing view
    cJasper.LockView(1);  //lock Jasper's view to mopping
    cJasper.Animate(0, 3, eRepeat, eNoBlock, eForwards);  //animate mopping
    oBlood.Animate(0, 5, eOnce, eBlock, eForwards);  //animate disappearing
    cJasper.UnlockView();
    cJasper.Walk(35, 135, eBlock, eWalkableAreas);  //move after the disappearing has finished
  }
}

function room_AfterFadeIn()
{
  cJasper.Animate(2, 3, eRepeat, eNoBlock, eForwards);  //start mopping after fade-in
}

Obviously it depends on what your items are called and what views your animations are on, but that's the gist of it. ProgZmax's solution is just an extension of the on_call room script using with locking views, but I didn't go that far in my test. I'm wondering if any problems you have are the result of trying to combine several different methods...

...so Jasper is waiting for it to change views...

...my method doesn't use anything to do with waiting for the correct view, or other suggestions people have put forward, its completely stand alone.

[Edit:]

That's alright. How exactly is it not working? What version of AGS are you using?

Edit: Just a thought, but how about replacing the inventory[6] bit with the script name of your inventory like iCloth or something?

Another Edit: I've had a go at building this myself and I've got it working. One other problem is that the CallRoomScript() function runs after the cJasper_UseInv() finishes, so they way I wrote it will cause Jasper to walk before the blood animates. You can fix this by putting the cJasper.Walk line into the on_call function. If you need to do anything more global than just moving a character after the animation, the CallRoomScript sets a game variable called game.roomscript_finished to 1 when it's finished running, so you can put a check for that in your global repeatedly_execute function.

Ah, yeah, sorry. Ok, the way around this is to use the function CallRoomScript(). In your global script replace your animation functions with CallRoomScript(1); as below:

Code: ags

function cJasper_UseInv()
{
  if (player.ActiveInventory == inventory[6]) {
    CallRoomScript(1);
    cJasper.Walk(35, 135, eBlock);
  }
}

Then in your room script make a new function as follows:

Code: ags

function on_call (int value) {
  if (value == 1) {
    oBlood.SetView(20);
    oBlood.Animate(0, 40, eOnce, eBlock, eForwards);
  }
}

That's because you're running the if function in the 'player enters room' script, so when your player enters the room it checks to see if their active inventory is item 6 then runs the blood animation bit if it is. What you want to do is move that if function into something like player uses inventory on character.

The code you're looking for is
oObject.Move(x, y, speed, blocking, eAnywhere);
which works the same as the character's walk functions. eAnywhere (as opposed to eWalkableAreas) will move your character whether they are on a walkable area or not. Then as Radiant has already said you need to set the object's x and y position in the room's Before Fade-In function, something like:

Code: ags

function room_Load()
{
   oObject.X=340;
   oObject.Y=60;
}

Ok, what you want is to run the blood animation on blocking, which means the rest of the script will wait until the animation has finished before running. I don't know what setup you have, but something like this should do it:

Code: ags

oBlood.SetView(view); //assign the view you used to animate the blood to the object
oBlood.Animate(loop, delay, eOnce, eBlock, eForwards);  //animate the blood being removed
//important parameter here is eBlock which halts the script until the animation is finished
cNPC.Walk(x, y, eBlock);  //continue the script

Look up the functions in the manual if you need more information about what each parameter does.

Well, getting back to the original problem, how about doing some kind of brainstorming session for Lif? I don't know how much of a back story you have already, but try and fill in the key moments of Lif's life, things that have made him into the giant lizard he is today. How did he meet each of these issues? What effects have they had on him?

For example; maybe the kids back at school used to step on Lif's tail and this made him always keep looking over his shoulder and be wary about what was going on around him. Perhaps he used to be really popular in school as the only guy who stood up to the bullies, and that gave him confidence and made him a little arrogant, but one day he was mugged and this seriously damaged his self esteem. He no longer stood up to people, knowing that in a fight he wouldn't win, and this lost him most of his 'friends'. Ask yourself quesions about him. What is his stance on authority and why? Has he had problems with the law? How many friends has he had? What about girlfriends? Has he ever been let down? What does he like to do most? What about his family and upbringing? What are his favourite foods? What are his memories?

It doesn't matter how much of this actually comes into the game or is ever mentioned, the point is to build up an idea of where Lif has come from and then you know how he will respond to the situations you throw at him. The more background you build up, the more you flesh out his character, but the real trick is putting situations, conversations and responses into your game that bring out the different areas.

Grammar can come later

Good luck!

And personally, I didn't think you were off to too bad a start, or you are at least heading in the right direction. Dialogue between two characters is a good way to show who they are, but you haven't really said anything about Lif in it. You don't answer the waitress' question, apart from hinting it has to do with him being a talking lizard, and so neither the waitress or your audience learn much. Taking this kind of approach means you have to be very careful with how the rest of Lif's lines sound, as they are all we have to go on for personality.

I just set up a new blank game and it would seem that the default cursor is the walk to cursor, and that it works immediately without cycling, so I don't know what's going on there. I'd suggest changing your walk mouse cursor graphic to something different to the rest to see which mode comes up first. If it isn't walk, there's a function in the global script called game_start(), and you can write mouse.Mode=eModeWalkto; in there.

It would help if you posted exactly what error/problem you were getting, but I'm guessing that whatever inventory item you use the player will get in. You need a check to find out what inventory item was used, and a way to do this is add an if function to your code...

Code: ags

function cEgo1_UseInv()
{
  if (player.ActiveInventory==iTicket)
  {
    cEgo.Walk(110,  165,  eBlock);
    player.LoseInventory(inventory[4]);
    DisplayMessage(17);
    DisplayMessage(21);
    DisplayMessage(22);
    DisplayMessage(23);
    player.ChangeRoom(3, 78, 70);
  }else{
    cEgo1.Say("I'm sorry, I can't let you in with that");
  }
}

The ActiveInventory property holds the currently used inventory item of the player, so you can use this to check which item they just used. Personally I'd name the other character something other than Ego1, as Ego is a recognised way of referring to the player character. Up to you though.

Congrats Woodban! (And also FSI )

HI..WHERE IS WT ??

Leon made one here

[Edit:]

Edit: Sorry, I'm being really stupid. I'm tired. Ignore me.

...which leads on to the question, is the real reason that any of us do a good deed because we expect to be thanked for it, and being thanked makes us feel good -- thus the motivation for doing the deed in the first place?

In other words the only time you can do something purely for someone else is by sacrificing your life for them so that you don't have time to feel good about it, and even then you'd have to believe that there's no life after death so you're not heading for some kind of reward.

But is it a really bad thing? Say I give up my seat on a bus to an old lady (not something I've actually done... yet ). She gets a seat, I go against the stereotype of the 'youth of today', she's happy and I feel good for helping someone. Its all win-win, and what's wrong with that? I *would* say that it depends on what my reason for helping her was, but can anyone honestly say they didn't do it for the good feeling or because of their upbringing, or their desire to feel needed?

I'll offer the opinion that under normal circumstances there is nothing wrong with doing a 'good deed' for your own sake, because only good comes out of it. The point at which it becomes a bad idea is when you deliberately do something or fail to do something just so that someone will then need your help and you can go and help them. Or deliberately doing something in front of lots of people when you didn't have to do it then. Or bragging about your good deeds to others. You know, using the deed to increase other people's opinions of yourself, or in some other way that benefits yourself other than internally.

Which leads on to the question , what is the point of this thread/why are you posting or not posting in it? I'm not knocking your thread Andail, I think there are a few good reasons to have it, for instance if you're trying to inspire others to do good deeds. But if you're posting purely to say "look at how good I am" (and I haven't got that feeling from any of the examples so far) then maybe you should think twice.

My small divisions of currency

(And if you want a good deed from me, I picked up 1 out of the 3 handouts I offered to get for a friend from my uni course who was away. Ah well, try again tomorrow)

Is it legal?

Well, no, not without their permission. Whether anyone actually cares or not is another matter...

Personally I try not to use commercial stuff. If you look carefully there are a few good sites, for example http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/, or sites using the Creative Commons licence. I've also got a couple of royalty free sound effects and midi music tracks lying around on my hard drive from other game makers which are useful. I'm not really sure of any specific sites for sound effects, but I'm sure they exist.

Getting fellow AGSers to help you out is also a good idea. Frankly I like boosting my credits with contributions from others, and I don't have any musical skill (or programs) myself.

Interesting, though I suspect most of the helpful advice will come much later when you can look back on what you've done and see what was useful and what wasn't, and what you think you should have done instead. I'm not sure how much you'll be able to blog about a day-to-day course... anyway, good luck with ending up where you want to be

I have two friends on that Teeside course...