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What you're really talking about here is being able to set default paths for different resources.   Fonts for example are generally kept in their own sub-directory tree so it would be convienient to configure AGS to have a default path to this directory when trying to import fonts.  The same could be said for templates, modules, plugins' etc.   

There would need to be a method of specifying absolute paths and paths relative to the game directory and to the AGS executable directory.

So, yeah, I would be in favor of something like this.   Anyone else have any thoughts about this or of what might be required?

You raise a number of issues that I will try to answer for you. 

• Call/Return via RunAGSGame - I am writting a module to make this much easier.  There is a version for AGS 2.70 in this version of DemoQuest..  I have a new version of the module nearly ready for use with the current beta version of AGS 2.72.   If you want to work with that one let me know and I'll let you know when it's finished.
  
  
• music.vox - This file is shared by all games called via RunAGSGame().    I believe that speech.vox and the save game files are also shared.  This should probably be brought up in the technical forum to discuss how AGS might be changed to avoid this problem.  Perhaps the file names could be made unique by appending or prepending the game name or by allowing RunAGSGame() to use path+filename as it's parameter.
  
  
• workarounds - Here are a couple of workaround you could try until AGS provides additional support for this.
  
  1. Use all the music in all the games and then use a shared music.vox file.  Actualy you wouldn't need to play() each music file in each game but you would need to have the same musicxx files in each game's Music directory. 
  
  2. Use midi music and everything will be in the exe or ags file.
  
  3. Speech.vox - I don't know what you could do aboutthis one??

You may find the DemoQuest 3 Technical Specification useful.   Scummbuddy is right about scaling down the characters rather than scaling them up.  So it's best to pick a size that will be scaled down most (if not all) of the time.  In DemoQuest3, the most recent version a scaling of 20 pixels/foot was chosen.  So a character that's 6ft tall would be 20*6 or 120 pixels tall.   Scummbuddy is also right that everyone arbituarily chooses a scaling, however, IMHO, it would be better if people used similar scalings for things.  Most of the time it wouldn't make much difference but it would make it easier to donate unneeded or abandoned characters and other sprites to the community.   

So for me I have chosen 20 pixels/ft for games done in 320x200 resolution and 40 pixels/ft for games done in 640x400 or higher resolutions.   If AGS were to ever support 1280x800 resolution then I guess I would use a scaling of 80 pixels/foot.

There are also other documents here that may be of use.

Perhaps not but it would accomplish what I would like to do and would allow more stuff to be done in the module itself rather than requiring additional code outside the module.   

I just had another thought about this.  By experiment I found that  CallRoomScript() can be called from a module script to activate the on_call() event handler in the current room.

Anyway this got me to wondering if something like a CallGlobalScript() thing could be easily done, that would allow modules to trigger events in the global script?  Perhaps this is a more practical sapproach and a bit easier to implement than virtual functions, function pointers, etc.

In the case where a number of sprites come from the same file, each sprite would have an instance number autoimatically generated (i.e. 0=first sprite taken from file, 1=second sprite taken from file, etc).   

Perhaps a better or easier solution would be to retain the filename (and possibily the path) from which it was imported and display that info in the properties window?

A game engine, even a free one such as AGS, was clearly against the rules he made for himeself.   

He gives quite a testimonial to the Python programming language.   I have used it before professionally and have always liked it.  I once had the pleasure of meeting Guido van Rossum, Python's inventor and I had a nice long discussion about it.   He is an interesting fellow and I enjoyed the discussion we had. 

Although these aren't buringing issues I, never the less, thought that they would be handy features to have when working with fonts and worth a mention.

• Display Character's numeric value - Either mouse-over or right click on a character in the font preview window to display it's numeric value. 
  
  
• Display font's filename - Retain and/or display the filename from which the font was imported so that it can be identified.  In the case of TTF, I guess you would want to also capture the point size at which it was imported.

As an afterthought, I should probably add that several of my friends accuse me of having Paranoia Schizophrenia.  I disagree.

They're all out to get you eh!!    :

Hi Raggit,

IMHO, If you reduce Christianity down to it's essence, Jesus pretty much said that we should be kind, charitable, forgiving, and just in our dealings with other people, that we should obey the law and pay our taxes, and that we should thank God for our blessings.      I don't think he was much more specific than that.

You may find some of Father George Coyne's lectures about cosmology etc interesting an perhaps conforting.  I grew up near Pittsburgh Pensylvania where it's mostly Catholic mill workers and coal miners.  The people around there would all claim to be Christians but you would find them nothing like what you have described.  For the most part they are a very practical lot and don't abide by any nonsense.  When I was 4 years old my father was on strike and not working.  A new priest came by to visit and told my father that God wanted him to have more children.   My father explained that it was hard enough to get by with twol, especially being out of work the way he was.  The priest told him it matter and that God wanted him to have more children.   My father got upset and told the priest that when God put food on the table and helped feed the kids he would think about having more and then told the priest to leave. 

Take a look at my comments in the "Paranormal" thread on page #4.

Hope this is helpful to you in some way.


Cheers.

Hey Squinky,

I think our individual take on this stuff is not very different.  When you say the following two examples come to mind.   

While this is true, many times science is used to disprove a persons spiritual beliefs. So, it works both ways, eh?

The first example that came to mind, and likely what you were thinking also. would be like some scientist fellow saying "Well, there was this big bang thing and that's what created the universe, etc etc, so that proves that God doesn't exist yadayadade...".   In this instance I would agree that this is bullshit because spirtual beliefs such as the existance of God is supposed to be something that is neither proveable nor disproveable;  Belief in the existance of God requires faith .  As I said earlier the provence of science is the material universe, it's objective observation, and description in mathematicaly concise terms. 

The second example that comes to mind is the head/prominent Saudi cleric who believed that the world was flat.  He was finally disuaded from this notion when one of the Saudi princes told him that he went up in the space shuttle and saw that it was in fact spherical.  In this case the shape of the earth has very little to do with spirutality except that the ancient Greek view of things used to be around for quite a while and was apparently incorporated in to Islam to bolster it's claim to legitmacy.   The Catholic church did the same thing with Galeio and "the earth is the center of the universe" thing.   These are the cases to which I refer when I muse about people knowing when to quit.   

Years ago, science told us that eating lots of carbs was good for us, now they say carbs are bad. They are currently letting people go from prisons because new dna science disproves the old science, that apparently was good enough to lock people up before....

You put your finger on excatly how the friction between science and religion occur.   Religious instutions or prominent leaders incorporate accepted scientific facts into their belief system to bolster it's legitmacy.  For example it is extremely comforting for me to contemplate the similarities between Genisis and the Big Bank Theory.  Now suppose the pope or some other influential religious leader went around preaching about how these similarities are proof that the Bible is true.  Now suppose that this notion gains popularity and over the next 500 years or so becomes part of Christian dogma.    What do you suppose happens when a new scientific theory emerges that says the Big Bang wasn't the beginning after all? 

The problem is that religious dogma is absolute and not supposed to change or be challenged.  It's supposed to be God's word after all.  I suppose that's why it's called dogma .  However, as you point out, scienctific theories are constantly challenged and are subject to change all the time.  If you can prove an accepted theory wrong you will become rich and famous, so there are a lot of people out there taking shots all the time.   The one thing you can be certain about a Scientific Theory is that over time it will change, sometimes completly disproven but most often refined, improved, evolved, or shown to be incomplete.   

Father Coyne's lectur titled "When the Sacred Cows of Science and Religion Meet" has a lot of sensible things to say about this.

So, can I base my decisions on my belief on scientific findings? Certainly, but in doing so I must remember that Science has its flaws too. It isn't the trump card in this debate.

I also feel that no human endevour, be it scientific research or religious research, is without influences. Many Scientific findings are tainted by what the person wants to achieve, even though aren't supposed to be.

I agree with these two statements whole heartedly.

I'll close by saying that with regard to Science and Religion, one shouldn't have anything to do with the other.   If someone claimed that they have scientifically proven or disproven the existance of God I would be suspuicious of their motives and skeptical of their methods and results.   I am equally suspicious of religious beliefs that stray from the realm of spirutaulity and philosphy into the physical or material world.   I don't think God cares what kind of car I drive or what my favorite flavor of ice cream is. 

My advice:  If your religious leader tells you that God wants you to cut off your balls and kill yourself so he can pickup up in his spaceship that's sailing along in the tal of a comet, you might want to consider going to anohter church.

Don't laugh, it actually happened, ... in California of course, where anything can happen..

The friction between between religion and scienc has always been one of my pet peevs.   Science concers itself exclussively with the physical world, the objective observation of how it works, and the reduction of those observations to a mathimatical or similarily concise description devoid of emotional, cutural, or other immaterial considerations.   Religion concerns itself (or ought to) with the spiritual well being of the individuals who practice it, by providing a philosophical and ethical foundation upon which practicioners can build their lives. 

I for one don't/can't see what one has to do wtih the other, except that some religious believers do not have faith in their own beliefs and so require proof.     

Given the long and colorful history in which time after time after time science, when challenged by religious beilefs, has prevailed, you would think that religious people and institutions would realize the futility of it and just quit.

Father George Coyne, a Catholic priest and Vatican astronmer has this to say about ID:

I would essentially like to share with you two convictions in this presentation: (1) that the Intelligent Design (ID) movement, while evoking a God of power and might, a designer God, actually belittles God, makes her/him too small and paltry; (2) that our scientific understanding of the universe, untainted by religious considerations, provides for those who believe in God a marvelous opportunity to reflect upon their beliefs. Please note carefully that I distinguish, and will continue to do so in this presentation, that science and religion are totally separate human pursuits. Science is completely neutral with respect to theistic or atheistic implications which may be drawn from scientific results.

I saw a couple of his lectures on TV and thought they were very interesting.   He has some really refreshing and inspirational views about this topic.  I did a google on his name and found some quotations and videos.

If the  jack is mono then it will have two conductors and if it's stereo it will have three.   Probably Radio has an adapter that will connect the mono input to both chanels, otherwise get out your pliers and soldering iron and make one yourself.   

I like fovmester's idea best and would add have it return a bool if AGS allows it? 

Code: ags

bool attack_success(int chance_of_hit) {
  return Random(99)<chance_of_hit;
}

I am not clear as to what you are trying to do.  A listbox doesnt have a "value"; it has a list of items.  If you are trying to add a new item then you would do something like this:

pureprofit.AddItem("The item string");

It almost sounds like you want a bar graph of some sort.  This can be done using a slider or a button.  To use the slider you would do something like the following:

pureprofit.Max = 30000;
pureprofit.Min = 0;
pureprofit.Value = pureprofit.Value+250;


To use a button for this you need to import a big sprite In this case one that is 100 pixels wide into the button's normal graphic and then do somethng like this.

int profit=10000;

pureprofit.Enabled = false;
pureprofit.ClipImage = true;

profit = Profit +250;

// For a horizontal bar that is a maximum of 100 pixels wide.
// For a bar of different max a little more math is required
pureprofit.Width = (profit*100)/30000;

Hope this helps.

It locked up my frickin machine.  Thanks a bunch for posting that link, idiot!! Yeah, and idiot me for clicking on it as well I guess.   

Ok, Fair enough..

In the character editor there is a check box named "Solid".  You may need to check this box for both characters.  I don't if this helps or not?

Or better yet ...

Code: ags

bool attack_success = (Random (99) <5);

IMHO, this makes it clearer what the %success is and easier to adjust, just replace 5 with the desired success rate.