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define some variable in your global script to represent whether or not the required task to remove the fence is complete:

int task;
task=0;

at the end of your global script export the variable:

export task;

in your script header import the variable so your script for the room with the fence can see the task variable, as well as whatever room the actions to complete the task are in:

import task int;

when the tasks are complete set the task equal to 1 (I'm not sure which script would be the appropriate place for this):

task=1;

now in your room with fence script create an if statement to look at the task variable and determine if the walkable area should be on or off:

if(task==0){
RemoveWalkableArea(2);
}else{
RestoreWalkableArea(2);
}

where the 2nd walkable area is the one beyond the fence.

I think that should work perhaps with a little tweaking.

look up in the manual:

RemoveWalkableArea
RestoreWalkableArea

just use a second walkable area beyond the fence and disable that walkable area until the task is complete then restore it.

One consideration was to have the character stockpile items in a secret place  but I don't want to just route every dropped item automatically to his stockpile.  On 2nd thought that might work as I could just do a fade in/out to indicate the passage of time required to drop off/retrieve an item.  But perhaps then I'd just end up with the typical pick-up everything scenario.  I really think there has to be some inconvenience to the player for scavenging without plans.

Thanks for the translation and the google tip.

So "Weidersehen" is proper German then?

Thank you.

I need a couple of translations.

The first is for French.
A taxi drive asks the player character where to take him and it sounds something like: "Ou est tu voir allez?" but I'm not exactly sure.

The other is the common German fairwell that sounds something like:  "All vie dezane".

Fair enough.  Thanks.

How do you set up a conversation when there is no NPC present (ie Player Character talking on the phone)?

Currently I have created a phone character with a blank view but I thought there might be a simpler approach.

That can be funny but I don't really think it enriches the game much for the amount of effort it would take.  

Just spell it for me, Vel.  What about Kyrandia?  Does it have a unique inventory?

Eric:  I agree that I shouldn't let majority rule for every aspect of my game but I do want people to enjoy it so I take their feedback seriously.  

Peaceman:  Having multiple solutions is something that I'd like to include but of course is limited to whether I'm able to think of every possible solution any other player might think of.  Perhaps in the betatesting stage I  can accept suggestions from the testers additional solutions.

Nellie:  Yeah I've already started thinking about the graphical issues with dropping inventory anywhere.  Scaling and whatnot.  I guess I'll just have to play around.  As for the character requiring motivation to pick up an item, my problem with that is sometimes the player knows what to do before the character does.  If a player already knows how to make a compass from a pin and magnet why should the game not allow him to just because the character hasn't been told how yet?

Yes I'd definitely like to include multiple solutions to puzzles and walking dead is always something to avoid.  

As for it being dismotivating, thats a possiblity.  I'd hoped that it would have the opposite effect though and motivate the player to think about what he's carrying instead of just assuming that "If I can pick it up I must need it."  

With the shovel issue, I think he just picks it up when he needs it and not prior.  It means going back for tools instead of carrying every single thing that he thinks might come in handy eventually.

If the basic consensus is to not do this than I won't.

Well I can't argue with that.  You take away the visuals to a film and you got a radio play; you take away the visuals to an adventure game and you've got a text adventure.    But we're not making text adventures here (at least I don't think anybody is but I could be wrong about a few).  If we're going to make graphical point and click adventure games than some emphasis should be put on the graphics.

Because visuals are the main focus of films, while interactivity is the main focus of adventure games.

I think storytelling is the main focus of films and visuals merely play a role.  Interactivity is the main focus of games and again visuals play a role.  

Hey I'm just working on this myself.  You can create an interaction for the non-hotspot that changes the cursor back.

ie:

if (gethotspotat(mouse.x, mouse.y)==0){
SetDefaultCursor();
}

I'd like to make my game as realistic as possible but am wondering if some of what I have in mind might actually be seen as a detriment to the playability of the game.

I'm thinking in particular about the player's inventory.  Within the context of a cartoony game its perfectly acceptable for the player character to have a limitless capacity to carry ridiculously large inventory items. This is convenient for the player b/c he just picks up everything he can and generally most things will be used at some point during the game.  But I think that leads to trial and error.  When a player gets stuck on a particular puzzle he just resorts to trying everything in his inventory on the puzzle regardless of the logic behind it.  

The approach that I'm considering is to make virtually every item you come across pick-up-able but give the inventory limited capacity.   Possibly assign a mass to all objects so that a player can carry more small objects than large ones.  Many objects would never get used in the course of the game.    I hope that this would discourage systematic trial and error for puzzles but force the player to really think about what he needs to complete a task.  I could see it causing a lot more doubling back to rooms you've been in to retrieve items.  Also items could get lost if a player dropped them somewhere and forgot what room he was in.

Any thoughts on this approach?

Yeah I know Psycho pretty well.  But I'm not entirely certain of what you trying to illustrate with this example.  Do you mean the quiet creepiness of the mounted birds or the foreshadowing of the nature of mother?

Quote: "I've never seen an adventure game that utilises backgrounds to establish meaning in that way."

That may be true.  I've probably played fewer adventure games than most of the community here.  It's clear that you really appreciate the visual storytelling of films so why would you not support more visual meaning in games?  If few games are achieving it than there's all the more reason to promote it.

There was a jaw breaker in CMI.