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I far prefer pubs to clubs. I like to talk to people, not just rub up against them in the darkness.

Then you'd love the Wreckers Street Bar at the Beat. That's what it is. Just a great place (free entry ALL night) with cheap beer, not-too-loud music and other straight people who aren't going to frisk you every 2 minutes.

I seem to be getting more and more determined with every post, no? Maybe I should just go and get it out of my system...

I think Antiquity is an excellent piece. Its rhythm and its message are both beautiful. You've captured a very real, raw thing here. The only thing I didn't quite get was the line "Cackles like dice." Maybe I'm missing something here - a reference to some other sort of dice, maybe(?), I've just never seen typical rolling dice cackle. Nitpicky perhaps, but it distracted me sufficiently to include here...

Ratternberg has a lot of pretty imagery in it. Especially the last 3 lines. I can totally picture that. Unfortunately it just didn't meant a lot to me, personally, since I've never heard of this place before, nor seen pictures, nor met people from it. Well, at least, not that I know about. But for pure imagery it did the job very well.

One-shot is probably very clever, however it freaked me out just a little too much, so I'll shut up. I've seen some pretty graphic things happen to my friends, and that poem's uncomfortably real. A fantastic shock to the system.

Also, in some clubs they only have warm water in the bathrooms for washing your hands

Hadn't thought of that - but I may as well address it. The Beat has COLD water, so if you buy a bottle, then you CAN just go refill it at the basin. And yes, they ARE sanitary. Completely seperate from the toilets and exposed to the bar and dance floor, just to make sure people don't 'experiment' with them...
They also have pool tables.

And the club has a distinct 'straight' area. Gay people wander through to get from one part to another, of course, but they've got the "Wrecker's Street Bar" which is mostly used by straight people who play pool, drink cheap beer, and want to have a crack at the break-dance floor.

And then there's Crystal's - an off-shoot building from The Beat (same premises and everything, it's about a five meter walk from one room to the other) for the more...um...guess you'd say "non-personal" people. The lighting there is a bit darker, it's a little smaller, and is usually not as busy as the main Beat dancefloor. Good for if you want to have a dance with someone, but don't really want them to be able to see your face.

okay, well, basic spirits are $3 normally (up until 11pm, where it, goes up to $4.50, I think?) which I know isn't SUPER cheap, but it's not bad. However they have $1 shots on Thursday nights. And with FREE entry 7 nights a week (before 10.30), that does work out pretty good, really. Water's only $1.50, and I think soft drinks are about the same (I've never bought soft drink there, though) so if you're not up for drinking big, then you can still have a fun night and stay cheap.

[Edit] I might head out one Monday night soon, play a game of bingo and try to win one of their $50 bar tabs. THAT'S a good prize

Titters clubbing? Hmm... you COULD get all that The Beat. Endless girl on girl action, there. Okay, maybe not endless...

Yeah, I'm totally happy to go wandering to straight clubs. I was simply warning you that at SOME point, i AM going to walk past the beat and say "shut up and go in!"

Free entry before 10:30 pm, super-cheap drinks 'til 11. Still-really-cheap-drinks after. Awesome music and good clothes! What more could you want?

I'm in Brisbane! Can go... TO BRISBANE! Yay! To travel any further for me would jeapordize my work, which I'd rather not do at this point in time.

I could take you all out on a fabulous night clubbing in The Valley. Of course, at some point I'd end up dragging you all along to a gay club (The Beat, most likely)... They're not bad, though. Not like what you see on Queer as Folk. In all honesty, if you were to walk into The Beat, you'd think we homosexuals were actual normal people with actual normal souls. None of these pole dancing queers. Just good dancing, good music and good alcohol. The scariest part is probably the one or two drag queens that show up. Why am I talking about this like it's already been decided?

Of course, if the clubbing scene is overrated then I'm up for most anything else. Except 'bloke' stuff. I refuse to go to the motor show for fun. Theme parks, bars/pubs, arcades, all that stuff is fine. Just don't make me look at an engine

very VERY drunk. I wish I had a nicer photo to show for myself, but alas, none of those are suitable for a family forum...

As for the watermark, I don't know. Nearly every school/uni/club I know of puts their logo somewhere in the background, so I think that if it's supposed to look official, then leave it in (as long as that really is the logo. Otherwise scrap it.).

Just maybe less obvious?

And definitely re-arrange the boxes at the top. The displacement is really disturbing (for me at aleast).

And yes, a border of some sorts.

A nice looking page, though.

there's no image there at all, at least not as far as my right mouse button will find. Right clicking will achieve nothing. You can, however, check out the source code. The image is at:

http://www.freewebs.com/landofatlantica/backgroundbook.jpg

I'd put it on 2dadventre, but I'm lazy...

The image itself I quite like. Reminds me of flipping through Atrus' journal in Myst III. But I'm not sure about this 'cursive' font you wish to use. Things like Lucidia Handwrite (or whatever it's called) really frustrate me - I refuse to read anything if it's written in that font, unless it is absolutely vital (ie - Atrus' journal - it was the only way to solve some puzzles). If - for some odd reason - you really do love it, at least include an option to switch to something standard like Times New Roman. It might look odd against such an antique book background, but I'd prefer it a million times over to some fake font that looks nothing like my handwriting at all.

Anyway, ranting about the font is done. The concept is nice. Obviously if you were to redraw the book yourself, it'd be nice to have a less photoshopped feel around the "save" buttons and whatnot. And I'd also increase the book size. If I'm writing a diary entry, I really have no need for all that black space around the edge.

Good luck with your project, though. It seems like a novel use for AGS, and I'm mightily interested to see how it would turn out.

Love the midi. Don't change it. It's of outstanding quality for such a small file size.

As soon as I saw the image I was determined to say "convert it to mp3 - midi sounds crap and won't suit a pseudo-photo-realisitc background", but you've proven me wrong. The very very beginning bugs me a little, but once it kicks in with the drums, it's a masterpiece.

This is literally a 30 second gig, so don't you even THINK about using this as a template (not that you would, I know), but it's just to give you something to think about. The shading is pretty wrong, but you can see how much it alters the atmosphere. I put smoke in because I could.

Oh, and the green thing isn't actually part of my edit. It's just to point out something that may be the result of a bmp-jpeg conversion? You've got these little light blue lines forming boxes here and there. That's what I tried to circle

I thought the dot bar indicated it was already unlocked. No?

It should also be suited for family viewing

Quite perceptive. And spot on. My first thought had nothing to do with shyness...

a 3D-like look???

I suppose that's a way of putting it, yes. Just simply put a ship has a deck (I could guess maybe 7 or 8 meters wide?) - and it's odd that we don't even see a fraction of it.

If I did lots of that kind of stuff wouldn't others backgrounds need a lot of work like that too  Tongue i am a lazy person

I understand completely - however, if you're going to post in the crit lounge, make a BIG announcement for each screenie that you DELIBERATELY are using this particular style (ie - no reflections etc). Otherwise you'll be inundated with requests for shadows and lens flares and whatnot.]

Also, you don't HAVE to work with a lightsource. It'd look great, for sure, but it's not the sort of thing you get right first shot. It takes a bit of practice - and if your intent is to release a game soon-ish, then you probably won't care to do lightsource work. Learn it in your spare time so you can use it with future projects

Well I like it :p

It actually took me a minute to realise what the difference was. At first I thought you'd just reversed the image, and then it hit me. I have no idea how I missed it in the first place...

It looks like the forest keeps going deeper and deeper now, which I like. It makes it look more mysterious and haunting. Unless, of course, this is set on the edge of a beach or something.

Oh, and you're totally right about all the interactions. But it seems to be getting towards the trend of "if there's not a big box sitting in the middle of the floor, there's no need for interactions...". Well, at least from what I've noticed, and I'm talking much broader than just the AGS community... Lovely to see you're taking advantage of the 'natural' opportunities...

Large and crappy, but it sort of kills two birds with one stone, yes?

NEXT: "And THIS is why my green pants were down and my red undies were exposed in the first place!"

Goél raises an interesting point - does this scene serve a practical purpose, or is it just a 'filler' bg the character has to cross in order to get somewhere else?

It would certainly look lovely as a filler bg - sierra used them in the kings quest series nicely, but for such a beautiful scene (which it is!) I'd love to see it be taken full advantage of.

I do prefer the original contrast of your picture, as do I like the simplicity of the 'green clouds with fruit' It's very atmospheric. But I do agree with the others about the water. I imagine this scene is taking place at the BOTTOM of a hill, where the ground has levelled out, there's a pond, and the hill rises off beside you. But at the moment, the ground doesn't seem to have a level. It just seems to keep sloping down, in which case there would be no water there. It would all have run down to the bottom.

If everyone just STOPPED HAVING SEX, we wouldn't have these kind of problems.
Who's with me?!

No harm done, HillBilly. It made me smile [somewhat wryly..], although thanks to Helm and Ish for standing up for me, too.

Iqu - I am still tossing up the idea of paying for a test. I guess I overlooked saying that in my original post because I was getting a little riled up.
But I probably won't go for it. I know this will probably niggle at my brain until i DO finally get the '6 month test' done, but I've already thought hard about how I'll deal with it if I come out positive. And  in all honesty, I think the waiting would be a thousand times LESS stressful than the awkwardness and confusion I've been feeling with these endless screw ups. Of course I'm going to have to be extra-cautious in the meantime, but I'm not the sort to let it ruin my life, and anyone who needs to know will know.

But, who knows. I may still go for it if the stress gets out of hand...

Obviously, you need to shag someone who works at the testing lab... that gives them a vested interest in getting your result done properly!

Aaah, SSH, you always have a way to make me smile

I'm actually not as angry as you might think. I get a bit riled up when I actually go through the whole story in my head, or if I write the whole thing down (like I did here), but from moment to moment, I'm dealing with it pretty well.

I've been extremely careful ever since my initial scare. No blood orgies or anything, as fun as it might be...

This is all rather strange, y'know? I mean, I see those girls on tv who say "we only had unprotected sex once - I never thought i could get pregnant the first time!" and I think "you poor, mislead girl. What makes you think the first time is any different to the 100th time?" And now here I am in pretty much the same shoes, thinking "this is not something I thought would happen to me."

I don't know how double-standard-ish that is... Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Looking back, I'd have given myself a crapload of warnings and told myself not to be so stupid. But here I am now, regretting what may have come to pass, wishing I hadn't been so naive.

Yeah, I could still be clean. That's what I'm hoping for.
But it would be nice if - ONCE IN A WHILE - the medical profession got it right. For a change.

Right about now the Australian Health Care system is beginning to really displease me.

I found out a little while ago, but I just didn't mention it because I was so confused. And now I'm over the confusion and just damn pissed off.

Got a phone call (whenever it was) asking me to come back to the clinic where I had the original blood sample drawn from, where I had a "no obligation" meeting with the head doctor. First off he asked me how I'd been, if I'd been feeling ill at all, if I'd had any side-effects to possible medication I might have been taken? "Good, no and no".

He then apologizes for the original screw up where they somehow contaminated my blood sample, and so had to do a redraw. "Yeah, that's fine. But I've got my result now - that's all I'm worried about." He gave me that sort of look a five year old might give you that says "Please don't hit me for being a bad boy. I really didn't mean to spill all that chocolate sauce down my mouth, and flush the car keys down the toilet - although it was a great hoot, you must agree."

I said "Wassup" (not quite like that), to which he replies,
"We may have given you some misleading and/or confusing results."
"Wtf?"
"The results we gave you for your blood sample weren't actually yours. It appears your sample was somewhat delayed, but your processing number did not, and so it got attached to the incorrect sample. We've just found the right sample, and the results have come back to say INCONCLUSIVE."

"What does that mean."
"It may mean you have HIV and our machine just can't pick it up at this point, or it could be just a false reading. We'd like to do another redraw to be on the safe side."
"What if it's another inconclusive result?"
"Then we'll take another sample later. And keep on doing so until we get a conclusive reading."

At this point I'm about to fall off my chair - not out of terror or anything, just because this stupid system is so screwed up, and I'm thinking CRAP CRAP CRAP - could I have passed it on to someone else in the meantime? I keep remembering every single time I've cut my finger recently, trying to figure out if anyone could have been in contact with my blood - crap like that. Crap I wouldn't have to think about if things hadn't got effed up this badly.

I've decided to wait until the six-month mark before I do another blood sample. By that stage, there's a 99.99% probability that I will get a definitive result one way or the other. I just don't want to keep giving blood only to get an inconclusive result.

And so in the meantime I'm trying to not kill any person affiliated with our health system.
I feel like I'm being quite generous...