Messages

[> Allow the guards to swap with fresh guards, then SUMMON the Jester and Hirschel, ask if either know of any rich gold deposits within our kingdom borders, and if Hirschel could explore around for more possible mining sites or if Jester knows of anyone in town who's more appropriate for the task]

> Allow the guards to swap with fresh guards, then SUMMON the Jester and Hirschel, ask if either know of any rich gold deposits within our kingdom borders, and if Hirschel could explore around for more possible mining sites or if Jester knows of anyone in town who's more appropriate for the task

+1

[two characters ask the same riddle]

Edit: Okay, I managed to get everyone else but those two, so I can get the Eye.

Well done!

Is it normal that two characters ask the same riddle?

Yes, it is.

Our website at http://crystalshard.net should have a Tweet and Google+ button in the lower left corner. Could someone who frequently uses these sites please inform me if they work properly? They seem to work for me but I am not all that much familiar with tweets or G+. Thank you!

We've received the following bug report for Heroine's Quest,

"I have performance issues with this game (I have a fairly powerful computer that runs modern AAA titles easily).

Basically my CPU sounds like it's chugging away the entire time the game is playing. When I'm going around on the normal screens it's MOSTLY fine. Where performance really takes a hit is during dialog. When I have to select my next line of dialog, the mouse gets very unresponsive and it's difficult to aim at a given option.

I have Vista x64 and a GeForce GTX 260 (if I remember correctly)."

I'm happy to hear that we're getting recommended by the Coles themselves, wow!

Small things that feel weird in this game with otherwise great immersion. They break the suspension of disbelief, and are utterly easy to fix:

That's one of the reasons why we're working on v1.1, yes. In particular, Aurvandel not responding to the Haugbui quest is a bug; there is actually a recorded line for him that doesn't turn on properly in v1.0.

It's interesting how one player comments that an ice pick should be usable as an ice axe, whereas another player comments that it doesn't make sense that a battle axe can be used as a tree chopping axe. Well, we have to make choices somewhere. Sorry, but it just gets too complicated for players if certain kinds of food can only be eaten if you're hungry enough; earlier beta versions had different types of food provide a different amount of satiety, and it turned out that was confusing for some of our test players.

There I was, in front of someone who looks like he's almost dead but not completely, incapacitated by a magical spell (the walkyrie lying in the circle of fire). I look at the eitur, and it says exactly: "it's meant for reviving someone who is incapacitated by magical effects, provided they're not dead yet". But not that someone. It's for another someone, who doesn't look like a someone.

Brynhild is merely asleep; the trick is getting past the flames. That's easily fixed with another message, of course.

I found the Flame Aura's effect to be a little inconsistent: sometimes it acts as a source of heat (as in protecting the player from cold, or in heating or burning objects), but in at least one case it somehow protects the player from heat.

If it didn't protect you, it would harm you whenever you cast it

MAGS and OROW should be separate fields. When I search for "Short Game" I want to get all short games and I don't care if they were MAGS or not. It is nice to see the information (like "commercial game") but IMHO it has nothing to do with game length.

I agree with that. There are also several games that are both OROW and MAGS, for example. It would be nice if there was also a flag for "MAGS winner" and "OROW winner", in my opinion.

> Thank the man and let him leave.

I loved the visual cameos ... was more confused by the ones I didn't understand and could only guess were cameos, like the interdimensional bard, that... person... with the fishnet stockings, or the Imp.

Most of those are from earlier Crystal Shard games   and fishnet guy is the winner of a contest we ran.

I would have liked an option to discard items

This was intentionally left out, because many of the items have an important purpose later on. So if there was a "discard" button, it would either have to not work on the majority of items, or it would cause walking dead situations.

why can I freeze that ghost's food in Skrymir's challenge yet I could't burn it or put a caltrop in it or other stuff?

Spoiler

Because your eating contest is against the personification of fire. Regin can tell you this if asked.

[close]

PS/ Is it just me? Or was Mojo jojo from PPG an inspiration for Arunvadel?

Believe it or not, Aurvandel was based on a former colleague of mine...! I may have exaggerated him a bit though

Note to self, in the future we should always have Lancelot, or Chuckles, or someone else trustworthy present whenever meeting obtuse strangers like these.

> Accept the gift and thank him.

I may be inclined to allow paint-overs if the source is freely available to the public, as the rule is for audio - provided it's done sparingly (not constituting the majority of the game) and transparently. Even so, it's not worth making much of a comment on as this is the first time it's happened afaik.

Good point. I think the key here is honesty. If a game maker submits a MAGS entry and openly states "well, I took <this sound> or <that graphic> from <some source>" then the voters can take that into account, and if they think it is too much they can discuss it in the thread and/or vote for someone else. Allowing this may well lower the barrier for entry (as people can use e.g. RON materials) and we'll get more MAGS games, which is always a good thing.

What happened to the Best Tutorial or Documentation award? According to the AGS wiki, there was going to be one; if it hadn't been there, I would have suggested in this thread that we should still have that.

We're working on a v1.1, which (among other things) will allow you to redefine combat keys. Available soon!

Nom nom nom!

Moving setup to script is something beyond my understanding... unless someone elaborates on that.

Give me a few days to think about it and I'll write a ticket about it (for 3.4) in the ticket database; that seems the best place to work it out further.

Regarding moving controls... I guess it's possible, if no one objects. Winsetup is an ugly WinAPI code, that I hope will be rewritten from scratch (or completely moved out of AGS and use some modern GUI library), but moving these controls around window should be easy.

Thanks. Well there's a few people up in the thread that appear to agree, at least. The experiment with including no winsetup with HQ shows that the primary options people are looking for are fullscreen, filter, and language; leading to a straightforward setup like this, with everything else appearing under 'advanced' for the AGS regulars. I think this is a fair tradeoff that gives new users a clear list of common options, and still allows the advanced users to find what they need after just one more click.

> Before accepting the gift, ask him to tell about the 'others' who sent him, and what the gift is and does.

Dear CW, could you please comment on the winsetup matter? I understand that moving everything to script functions, as one poster suggests, is best left for 3.4, but it might be possible to move some of the advanced setup options onto the 'advanced' tab for 3.3? Personally I would consider it a bug to have advanced option (as in, "the average player won't need this and doesn't understand what it means") visible on the main setup screen. In my opinion it's important to have a setup tool that is easily understandable even to players who are not familiar with AGS yet.

A player of HQ reports getting the following error when trying to start the game,

"An internal error has occured. Please note down the following information. If the problem persists, post the details on the AGS Technical Forum. (ACI version 3.3.0.1148)
Error: GetFrontBufferData failed"

What does that mean though?

> Practice juggling.

[Draconis]

Draconis

Offering last July's MAGS winner for your consideration as Best Non-Adventure Game. This cunning action/puzzle game in the spirit of Boulder Dash has Smaug's official sign of approval!

The game puts you in the role of Drakesworth the dragon, who is oppressed by the knasty Knights of Knuisance who have stolen his precious gems. To prove he can stand up for himself and make a name as a flying flaming terror (like any dragon should), he has to recover the gems, and set some knights on fire while doing so. Also, this game has a function for custom playing field; you can edit the customlevel.txt file in any text editor to create your own levels, gaining eternal fame and recognition from dragonkind for doing so (a sequel is under consideration with more game elements, scrolling screens, and a true level editor). Enjoy!

Download here.

Is he the very model of a modern major general?