Messages

I've had good luck using Graphics Gale to manipulate palettes, in case you haven't tried this one.  There is a free version at the above link.   It's a contemporary program as well and let's you drag and drop single or multiple colors from one palette to another.   I don't know it does all the things you are wishing for but it met my needs.   If you have tried it already sorry for wasting your time but perhaps some others will find the above useful.   

Re: Sound and Music file names

Yeah, after all, all the multimedia functions would have to be changed to accept file names instead of numbers which is a lot of work for relatively little gain in my opinion.  What I do is set up enums in the main script header ...

Would be neat if these could be created and included in the header automatically.   We wouldn't need to copy sound and music files to SoundNN or MusicNN files.   

On another and vaguely related topic, it would also be nice if the sprite import mechanism would retain the file name so that it could be displayed along with the other sprite properties or so that it could be used as the default export file name.

1. Performance
2. File size

CJ, I can appreciate your first point about peformance but I disagree with you about file size.   Although what you say is true for typical adventure game situations it is not necessarily true for game projects that are not typical adventure games.   For example, file size would hardly be a consideration and would be of benefit in one or two room games, in non-adventure type games such as puzzles or in non-games such as my EventTimer. 

So if you ever see your way clear of the performance issue (and since you say that it's not a technical problem for you) then by all means please allows us the flexibility.   As always I trust your good sense in this matter. 

oDoor.Animate(0,6,eOnce,eBlock,eForwards);// and then run the animation

oDoor is the script-o-name of the object which is actually a struct variable that represents the object.  So in this case you don't need to specify the object's id number.   

Also note that DemoQuest is a community effort and that CJ may or may not be familiar with ur specifics.

Congratulations!  I sincerely wish you both all the happines in  the world.   

Isn't it amazing what happens when a woman tells a man what she actually wants instead of complaining about  the man not caring enough to  guess correctly.   

The module you create would consist of a struct definition containing all the variables and or functions you will need for each character.   The result is a custom data type such as bsRpg that you would use to declare global variables for each character.   For example...

// Global Script
bsRpg  MainChar;
export MainChar;

// Scirpt Header
import bsRpg  MainChar;

// Any Script
MainChar.Health = 200;  // Assuming that a health variable
                                        // is defined in the bsRpg struct

MainChar.Attack(int CharId, int Weapon);

Here is a link to my first module and some standards documentation.   If the module you make won't ever be released then it's not necessary to follow the standards.  However, you may wish to do so anyway in case you change your mind at some point in time.   If you need some help getting started just ask.

Module: IniFile

Is there an upward limit on imports into the script header before the game will start to slow down?

I don't know that there is a hard limit.  If there is it's quite high as I have never encountered it.   In any case it won't have any afect on game speed unless you consume too much memory, cpu, and/other other resources at run time.

Reason being that I am working on an RPG and I have already set aside all 500 global ints ... I may be importing several hundred ints to the script header--is this going to be a problem, and if so, is there an easier way?

If it were me I would make a script module to do this.  It's easier and cleaner.

Also, I am going to have a group inventory which will allow characters to hold a maximum of 99 of each item...

From what you describe it sounds like you are going to have 99 seperate inventory items for each article such as a helmet or whatever.    Each inventory item a character can carry is represented by an int variable which can be set to whatever value you wish.  See "Character.InventoryQuantity" in the manual. 

A girl proposed to me once.  She couldn't afford a ring though, because she was only three years old at the time .   

There is nothing new about it being the woman's idea to get maried; it's ben that way  for a long long time.   The traditional way it's done is that the woman coreces the man into asking.    IMHO, the "woman asking" method, is more straight forward and honest than the "corecoing the man" method. 

I'm also a diabetic for about 10 years now and get along just fine.   AGA is right about  the "you can't eat sugar" thing.  It's all about carbohydrate intake.   

When I first found out I read a lot and measured my blood sugar very often.  One of the work things I do is design closed loop control systems for industrial processes, so naturally, I came to understand what was going on in terms of a closed loop control system.   So perhaps my explanation will put your wife's mind at ease. 

First of all there are four ways glucose is removed from the blood stream.  It can be converted to fat via insulin, stored in the body tissues  as glycogen, burned during exercise, or dumped to the urine.  Most type-2 diabeties results form over consumption of carbs.  The body tissues become glycogen saturated and so the body begins producing insulin to store the excess glucose as fat.  At some point the body stops storing fat and dumps the excess into the urine.  There are variations in glycogen capacity, fat storing capacity, etc between individuals.  That's why some people can get to weigh 800 or more lbs couldn't get that fat no matter how much they ate.    It's my understaning, for example, that Austrailian aborigines almost always develop diabetes within 6 months of moving from the countryside to the city and it dissapears completely in a similar time frame when they move back. 

As I mentioned earlier I measured quite often, sometimes hourly so I could see what was going on.   I noticed that there seemed to be two control loops involved.   One with a short time constant (a few minutes) and one with a long time constant (an hour or so).   From my reading I surmise that the shorter time constant is related to the glycogen mechanism and the longer time constant is releated to the insulin mechanism.   I also noticed that potatoes are bad, very bad, and that steaks are good.   

Most doctors don't have an explaination of why a diabetic's blood sugar levels are higher in the morning than at night before going to bed (with no meals during sleep of course).    My hypothesisis is  that this is the result of the body trying to rid the body tissues of glycogen.   What I do now is measure twice a day, just before bed and first thing in the morning.   When my sugar is under good control the readings are lower in the morning than at night.  If it gets higher or closer to equal then it means I have to back off the carbs for awhile.   I don't take insulin and probably never will.   

I find your comments about your wife consuming carbs surprising.  I suppose she is doing that because of the pregnancy but it is surely aggravating her diabetes.   If it were me I would ask the doctor about it.   Maybe she could not eat potatoes and rice?    I walked out of the "diabetic" class my doctor sent me to because the nurse was contridicting herself.  She was telling us that we should reduce our carb intake and at the same time showed us the food pyrmid that says one should eat mostly potatoes, pasta, bread, rice, etc.   I asked her to explain and she couldn't or wouldn't.  When she wouldn't acknowledge the contradiction in her presentation I walked out.   Tell your wife to not woryy about diabetes.  If she gets it permantly she will have to look forward to eating steaks.   Hope this is helpful.

I would like to offer my condolences and prayers for all our friends in the UK.   

Yeah, that what I did this afternoon.  Fortunately, there aren't many like that.   Hopefully I will be able to recover/extract all the room backgrounds to  srandard graphics files.  Anyway thanks for your help. 

... since it's useful only in case like yours, when you lost your original files.

Well, I have on numerous occasions asked who created the original DemoQuest artwork and where  the original files can be found.  The answer I always get is that the originators and the original files are pretty much lost to posterity.   

The same argument applies equally to sprites yet there is the ability to export single or multiple sprites to files.   I  don't think it is unreasonable to ask that the same be done for graphics contained in CRM files.   The current "save to clipboard" feature is inadequate because it only gives acces to the first background frame.

*** Edit ***

I suppose I could write a script that selects each background frame and creates a screen shot of each ...

It turns out this doesn't work for me either as the room size is 500x200 making it a scrolling room as Gilbot already points out.    The  screen shot only saves the visible portin of each frame. 

I have  a roomXX.crm file with a main image and several background frames.  I need to adjust the palette for these images but I don't have the original graphic file.  As far as I can tell the "copy to clipboard" function only grabs the main image.  How can one get copies of the other images?   

And yes, I suppose I could write a script that selects each background frame and creates a screen shot of each but what way ro un a railroad.    If this is the best answer then perhaps this should be a request to implement a proper "room graphic export" function?   

... I would be very happy to work with you all. ...

Great, I really like your art so I'm really looking forward to it Pablo. 

Have you played Pester Quest? ...

I just tried it, so now I understand.  Yes, any resources you wish to contribute will be recieved with enthuasism.  We will do our best to include whatever  material you give us. 

Thanks Alun, I fixed the link and I hope you like it.

Ok Beta-2 is up along with the source code for all the mini games.   See the top of this post for the links.   The AgsCycle game has been redone so that levels can be added easily.  So if anyone wants to try adding a level, have a go at it.  Let me know if you need any help or if you come up with something you would like to include in the official release.   Cheers.

So, Rick, did you ever get those posts I sent you? And the pics of the beman? I hope you did because I don't think I have them anymore. I never got the animations ready (I noticed that I really can't do walkcycles, especially for that big characters, sorry Sad ) and now I've formatted my hard drive, and I can't find the standing pics anywhere else.

Pablo, I must appologize for not getting back to you right away.  The amount of scripting work I had before me was quite overwhelming.  I however, should have made the time to thank you for your efforts which I greatly appreciate.   When you let me know that you wouldn't be able to complete the animations I just went ahead and finished the scripting work.       

As far as the character you  did, I like him very much.  He is not lost as I have downloaded him to my hard drive and he is still online where you uploaded him here. 

I will try to recruit a new development team (including any of the current team that wish to continue) to contine the project in the nrear future.  I would like to invite you to work with us if you wish.  In any case your current effort is greatly appreciated.     Thanks.

1) You are able to walk behind the desk, where Roger is, in the Games Factory entrance.

2) Should "Press F1 for help" pop up everytime you enter the Bar/road area? Even when you leave the doorway of the Bar?

3) Holding down the arrow keys in order to walk gives funny results, but gets you no where. I didn't know it was set for 'push once to continue walking in that direction'.

4) In the Hall of GUI's, if you look at the Verb Coin door, it says "Mokey Island" instead of Monkey Island.

5)In the LEC gui room, if you
open window -> look at window -> display"It's Closed"... there needs to be a check to see if its open or not.
Also, I would add a display message for someone who tries to use the key with hut door.

1,2,3,4. Fixed

5. Fixed - I was checking the Visible property of the object but for some reason it was not being returning the correct value.   I had to create static variables to hold the object's state which was set to the same value as the property at the same times.   This is a possible bug in AGS that I need to research a bit more and report to CJ.  (explanation is mostly a reminder to self)

6) Where's Petteri when you enter the AGS Games Factory, and wheres the AGS Bar?!?!!? This is an outrage! Pester Quest Lives!!

I could send you the char files if you'd like. Czar is supposedly recreating a bar background. Maybe we could use the room to "get to know the agsers... but then again, there are so many of us. Maybe just CJ.

What do you mean "Where's Petteri...".  Is he supposed to be a character in the games factory or are y9ou asking about his song?   

Chapter 2 will begin when the player enters the bar.  There needs to be more characters created for the bar scene which are not complete at thsi time.   If you have some cha files you think would be useful then by all means do so. 

Rick, would you be happy for this Beta 1 version to be listed on the AGS website as the demo game, or do you want to do more work to it before that happens?

Beta-2 is half the size and more complete.  Sorry for taking so long to get back to you. 

Wow! Thanks for doing this!

Thanks for the compliment.

Blake, you mat be interested in MAME.  It is my understanding that if you own the circuit board containing the ROM then it is perfectly legal to use it.   Anyway here is a releveant FAQ  from the MAME site.

http://www.mame.net/mamefaq.html#r06

string name;

Try moving the baseline down towards the bottomn of the screen one or more pixels.

There are two ways to insert characters into a string...

• Common Mehtod
  string buf;
  StrFormat(buf,"Insert it here, %c, and not here",16);
  
  
• Alternative method
  char buf[200];
  StrCopy(buf,"Insert it here,  , and not here");
  buf[15] = 16;