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I'm playing with the FAO template designed by Proskrito, and I can't seem to locate any documentation on it.  I found two versions online:


This FOA link seemed to be down:
http://www.americangirlscouts.org/agsresources/Templates.html

But editing the link, I found it in this directory, and it seems to be from a 2006 version of the template:
http://www.americangirlscouts.org/agsresources/AGS%20resources/Modules/



Then there's the version on this page which is from 2004:
http://www.freewebs.com/skimbleshanks/templatesandmodules.htm


They both say "v2.0c" but the 2006 version says it's good for AGS 2.71 (I'm assuming that's Disruption's modified version)

The problem is, they both claim that there is a word format .doc file included explaining all the special functions, but neither of them do.  Upon unzipping, they both contain only the .agt file.  So does anyone have any idea where to find this .doc file?

The first oddity I've run into is that when you click on a character in "Talk" mode, the "Talk to Character" text flights up, but it does not run the dialogue code.

Thanks!
-s


Thanks!


(sorry, should have put this in the LucasArts thread)

Looks like this was a special GoToCharacter function in the global script, so I got around it by placing the code inside a simple:

if (playerSitting == false) {

}

I've noticed another issue though, when I click on the character sitting across from the player, or talk to him, it automatically moves the player a few pixels toward him.  And it doesn't do it with traditional movement, because the code doesn't even detect it, so he remains in his sitting view as he slides toward the other character.

This was the only reference I could find to this in the manual:


* Walk to hotspot in Look mode - controls whether the player will walk to "walk-to" spots when the player looks at the hotspot. ***Normally he only walks on use, speak and use-inv.***


Is there a way to toggle automatic movement of the player on use, speak and use-inv?  The player also seems to do this even when just clicking on another character with the walk mode cursor.

BTW, I am using a Lucasarts style template.

Thanks!
-s

That's what I thought, but I stuck it in while debugging in an attempt to strong arm the pause, but I think doing all the checking within the one WalkOn function is what finally stabilized it.  So I'm sure that line was indeed redundant.

-s

I cut it down to two functions (only using Stands On, because Walks To was a little unreliable).  I also added some extra checks with a new global boolian "playerSitting" for added safety.  Works even better now.



function PlayerStand()
{
if (playerSitting == true) {
  player.UnlockView();
  player.Walk(270, 116, eBlock, eAnywhere);
  while (player.Moving) Wait(1);
  playerSitting = false;
  }
}

function hCantinaBooth_WalkOn()
{
if (playerSitting == false) {
  player.Walk(hCantinaBooth.WalkToX, hCantinaBooth.WalkToY, eBlock, eWalkableAreas);
  while (player.Moving) Wait(1);
  player.LockView(3);
  playerSitting = true;
  }

if(player.Moving) {
  PlayerStand();
  }
}

OK, that definitely shed enough light on the subject for me to find a fairly elegant way (I think) to get it handled.  Thanks for the help!

Here's what I finally settled on.  I first wrote a small function that unlocks the view and moves him to an appropriate position in front of the chair, so he can continue to move around freely.  Next, I added a player.Moving check with a call for that function into the "Stands on Hotspot" function (the chair being the hotspot): if(player.Moving) PlayerStand();

Here's the whole piece of code, including the code that gets him sitting to begin with.  Works beautifully.




// "Walk To Hotspot" moves player to chair, locks view to sitting mode

function CantinaBooth_Mode9()
{
player.Walk(hCantinaBooth.WalkToX, hCantinaBooth.WalkToY, eBlock, eWalkableAreas);
player.LockView(3);
}


// Special "stand up" function to unlock view to normal mode, and move player to a position just in front of the chair and well off the chair's hotspot.

function PlayerStand()
{
player.UnlockView();
player.Walk(270, 116, eBlock, eWalkableAreas);
}


// "Stands On Hotspot" will automatically repeatedly execute a check to see if player has started to move again. If so, PlayerStand() is called.

function hCantinaBooth_WalkOn()
{
if(player.Moving) PlayerStand();
}

Surprisingly, I haven't found anything that really deals directly with this issue in the manual or on the site.

I need my player to walk to a table and sit down in a chair, staying in that "sitting" view until he walks again.  As soon as the walk icon is clicked on a walkable area and he begins to walk again, he should go back to the normal view.

So far, I have a hotspot, and when you walk to it, I use a WalkToPoint to get him into the right position, and a LockView to lock him into the sitting view.  That part seemed simple enough.  I'm just not sure how best to sense he's moving again and unlock the view.

I half expected to see this sort of functionality built-in, but it looks like I'll have to code it up myself.  I thought about writing some sort of loop while he's sitting to check if he's moving again, but I figured I should throw the question out there and see if anyone already has a bulletproof method before I overcomplicate it too much.

Thanks!

Just my $0.02 on platformers, I have looked pretty deeply into GameMaker, and honestly unless you're just a kid wanting to get your hands dirty with some simple game design, it is very nearly useless.  The games all have issues with getting stuck, weird jumping bugs, and overall glitchy movement. 

There are a handful of Castlevania clones on the GameMaker site, and none of them come anywhere near the play control of the original.  Play control may not seem as important to people who are not fans of the thumb-candy genres, but believe me when I say it is every bit as important as any major element of an adventure game like the quality of dialogue and puzzles.  If you opened up a new adventure game today, expecting a late SCI or SCUMM experience, and you got a text parser, a movement system without pathfinding, or a keyboard-only movement system, you would most likely toss it out as totally behind the times.

The minutiae of the gameplay controls is what makes a platformer fun and unique,  and without it you really don't have anything at all.

While I agree AGS clearly wasn't made for platformers, and using it to design one would be a hefty task, it wouldn't surprise me if you'd have better luck with overall quality than with GameMaker.

That being said, platformer enthusiasts should probably check out Torque Game Builder (TBG) and the Platformer genre kit available for it.  There's also an isometric adventure kit (truly, it's more for RPGs). 

-s

Did you resolve this in the end? Have you checked that the room edges are set correctly?

I began reading this post because I was having the same issue.  Low and behold, I read about the edges, checked my room, and sure enough the edges were set WAY off, so that essentially none of the walking area ended up within the boundaries of the edges.  After fixing them, I have not been able to repeat the bug, so that's a good sign.  I only got stuck on that room occasionally, so time will tell if it truly worked or not, but I have a very good feeling that was the problem all along.

Thanks!