Messages

Ahh, I'd forgotten about handling inventory clicks in the script. I've set that to "true" now, but you're right - now the character tries to walk to where the inventory is.

Now that you mention it, I can see how it arrives at "walk", but how is interacting with inventory different in the script to interacting with things in the room? The player will still use things in the room, just not the inventory. Is it something to do with

         if(GUIControl.GetAtScreenXY(mouse.x, mouse.y)==InvNewInventory){}

to tell it to notice the new inventory underneath it?

Since I've had a lot of people complaining about the inventory in the last couple of episodes of Technobabylon, I've decided to try and change it to a more BaSS flavour. Currently, I've got a GUI at the bottom that slides out when the mouse is over it, and I've now placed an inventory box into it. The problem now is that every click on objects in the custom window causes it to "Look at" the object, even though the custom mouse clicking script is supposed to cause "left click interact, right click look".

This only happens in the new, custom inventory though. The old one has absolutely no problem reacting seperately to the left and right clicks. Is there something I've missed when making this new inventory?

This bit's for the mouse clicking:

Code: ags

function on_mouse_click(MouseButton button) {
  // called when a mouse button is clicked. button is either LEFT or RIGHT
   if (button == eMouseLeft || button == eMouseLeftInv) {
  if(mouse.Mode==eModeTalkto){ProcessClick(mouse.x, mouse.y, eModeTalkto);}
  else {
       if (GetLocationType(mouse.x, mouse.y) == eLocationNothing) ProcessClick(mouse.x, mouse.y, eModeWalkto);
      else {
        if (player.ActiveInventory != null) ProcessClick(mouse.x, mouse.y, eModeUseinv);
        else ProcessClick(mouse.x, mouse.y, eModeInteract);
      }
  
  }
  }
  else if (button == eMouseRight || button == eMouseRightInv){
    // right-click 
           if(mouse.Mode==eModeTalkto){mouse.Mode=6;return;}
        if(player.ActiveInventory!=null){player.ActiveInventory=null;mouse.Mode=6;return;}
        ProcessClick(mouse.x, mouse.y, eModeLookat);
  }

}

[TECHNOBABYLON: PART III]

It's a little depressing to me that this prison cell is both bigger and cleaner than my apartment...was...




After having her apartment destroyed by persons unknown, Latha Sesame finds herself in the custody of CEL, apparently for her own protection (at least, according to the nervous agent who interviewed her). Compelled by her addiction to reconnect to the Trance, she finds herself warned that her attacker may be closer than she thinks - and must escape, or risk them trying to finish the job.

It's the safest city in the world to live in. Or at least, that's what they say. It's
TECHNOBABYLON: PART III



The third part in the ongoing adventure series, this will be a brief return to the "one-room escape" theme, which I can hopefully continue to breathe a bit of originality into. Plus, more insight into everyone's favourite reclusive Trance-addict.



At the rate it's going, it's likely to end up finished by the end of March. Or at least, in a testable state by then. Speaking of which, anyone fancy joining in for the testing phase? There are certainly a few who've already volunteered, or provided extremely useful input in part 2!

See you in the future...

Well, my apologies for not being able to attend, but I'm very pleased that Operation: FORKLIFT managed to do so well! Now I just need to get people to play the damned thing!

And congratulations to all the other winners as well!

Since I'm wont to come up with peculiar ideas to make non-adventures out of AGS, another concept leapt into my mind and started making a mess. Well, first it started with how implement it, which is frankly the easy part. The other bit of my brain thought "how about making it with a crossover of AGS/adventure characters?" After all, that seems to be the big thing these days (Star Wars characters in Soul Calibur, Spartan in Dead or Alive, Snake in Smash Bros., Capcom vs. Everybody, etc).

So, what characters do you reckon would go into a fighting game? I'm sure Cheffie the Chef, with an array of utensils for armaments, could make mincemeat out of anybody (and probably risotto, too).

Oceanspirit Dennis would be a must-have, too.

Well, I suppose I can't really call it black and white anymore now, can I? Anyhow, here's my next image, done in a style attempting to ape Ilyich's limited-palette.



What say you? An improvement? Conveying the right atmosphere?

4. Masturbate to extremely erotic porn.

Good luck little man!

Does "participate in" count instead?

Hello! I was hoping to get a hint as to what to do next. This is a great game and I am utterly stuck! I'd love a little help.

I'm currently in the apartment (the first one apparently), and I have:

Spoiler

the gun, the hand, the pic, the fishing rod (as well as my other things from the first part of the game), and I have turned on the maid and spoken with her and the bartender and the Cheffie. None of them will tell me anything I cannot search the terminal effectively because I don't know what to look for.

[close]

As I said, any help would be appreciated! I just need a little push in the right direction! Thanks!

Have you examined the maid to see who made her? They might be worth talking to, they could get her to be more cooperative.

I totally forgot to tell, that this woman looks very interesting to me (although she is nice). I'd love to know her story and like the style chosen!

Well, she's Latha from the first episode of Technobabylon, an emaciated, agoraphobic, internet-addicted young-adult who's just had her apartment blown up, and is now trying to give a statement about it to the authorities. At the beginning of part 3, you're in the role of said authority, interviewing her.

And then I noticed that it's not really black and white, but black and very light purple, which reminded me of Paul Pope's comic book "Heavy Liquid", where he uses a very limited palette to evoke a dark dystopian sci-fi atmosphere(very similar to Technobabylon's, btw), whilst keeping the b/w aesthetic. So I "borrowed" this palette, and applied it here:

Wow, I'm going to have to steal that limited palette idea! I had been experimenting with using a few colours, but hadn't managed to get it quite right, so had resigned myself to sticking with monochrome.

The style I've been trying to mimick in particular is from the graphic novel version of the Forever War, here's an example.

I've been practicing mimicking a style of comic that's been a perennial favourite of mine, and was wondering how well you people thought it's coming out.



The shape of the arms is what's bothering me the most, personally.

Technocrat, thank you so much. For many things. For bringing back sweet oldschool (love the "quit to dos" menu item!) spirit reminiscent of Beneath a steel sky. Finally someone did that. For two really good, well thought-out well-written, pleasant to play and inspiring games. My hat is off to you, I respect people who do games like that. I haven't played everything and I don't how the voting will go, but if you ask me - TB2 is pretty much the best ags game of 2010. And really curious about what you'll do with the part three. Good luck with it, I wish your creativity stays with us and flourishes.
And Pablo's theme was really nice, I'm kinda surprised you used it only in the first game. So each part will have unique main theme?

Well, I'm certainly glad that you liked it! I can always improve it though, especially the graphics. I think something like Beneath a Steel Sky meets Ghost in the Shell is my kind of goal!

Spoiler

In the transit station scene, when your partner is climbing the tower for backup, you can hit F5 to bring up the Save GUI.  When it cuts back to Regis talking to the bomber, the GUI stays up, but greys out the controls.  You can continue dialog for a few seconds, then the game stops.  I know not a lot of people may try this, but I did because I was worried I'd make the wrong choice and die, so I wanted to save.

Also, during the opening title of the game, you can TAB open your inventory and select the pocketknife.

[close]

Goes to show that playtesting can never be too thorough! Since part 3's going to be shorter, it should hopefully be easier to spot this kind of thing before it causes a problem!

Oh AWESOME! If Technobabylon doesn't win something I'm going to be pretty miffed, what with all those categories!

If it's on a weekend, I can probably join in any time. And if not...uhm...11am-6pm GMT?

As I said before, that's bloody awesome! I have to say, my draft *sucked* (see below).  Monsieur OUXX's captures the "bright and sterile" feel that I was hoping for in this, I think!

But the whole end scene was kind of weird cause the message kept saying not to disturb stuff "so people don't know I was there", but in the end

Spoiler

what was the point when it all got blown up? 

[close]

It's the future, they'd probably be able to find your DNA if you go around touching too much!

Well, once again I'm taking a shot at making this character, as a break from the bleak dystopia of Technobabylon. I think she's looking better than my previous attempts have been able to achieve, but if anyone can give me some pointers on how to improve pixel art, I'd be obliged! Frankly, I'm not happy with the 3/4 standing view.

[Operation: FORKLIFT]

Have a gander at this effort, then.

(For your consideration...)

Operation: FORKLIFT

AGS's premiere Advance Wars knockoff turn-based strategy game.




What you are ordered to vote for it in:
   - Best non-adventure (after all, it's very definitely *not* an adventure)
   - Best programming (turning a system for adventures into a strategy, and building a working combat and AI system? Hellz yeah)

Go on, have another go of it. Battle the forces of stereotyped communism!

Spoiler

I need an item to show maid (whose personality is modified) in order to remind her the crime.

[close]

Hm...since it's a murder, maybe showing her the murder weapon would do it?

The AGS3D plugin is indeed awesome, I just have no idea what game to make out of it. Using sprites does work btw. If you're getting a crash, then that made two of us and I know how to fix it.

I also never managed to make it work with recent versions of AGS
So please do tell me what you did, cause I literally tried pretty much everything.
EDIT: Also well, you already know it I presume, it's smooth as fuck. I'd suggest a reduce of the walkspeed though just slightly, trust me it will be for the best.  

I can put the sprites *in*, they just invariably come out looking like:

whether they're on a surface, or even just an object. The only time I had a crash was when I tried to put thousands of textured objects in just to see  what it would do, so I think I brought that one upon myself.

I didn't find making it work in the latest version too difficult - there were a couple of times I botched it because I skipped ahead on instructions, but when I followed every single step (and made sure that pretty much every folder had the components for 3D in) it managed to work in the end. Here's the entirety of what I've got for my AGS files thus far, working in 3.1.2 - see if it works in yours, too!

Works fine and looks great.

Not to toot my own horn too much but if you're looking for many more polygons and true texture mapping, special effects via shaders, much, much better performance and so on, check out my Razerblade 3D plugin. Requires you to run with the D3D9 graphics mode tho.

I remember watching the video for your 3d plugin too - unfortunately, the laptop I'm building this on is absolute crap, so using yours would have to wait for a later episode when I've finally got a shinier machine! Quick question, can yours handle transparencies as well? I think that's a big downer I've got at the moment, especially since I'm trying to make the whole 1980s style "what cyberspace will look like" ambience.

Always keen to try new gimmicks gameplay challenges, I've decided to see about incuding one or two short 3d segments representing the protagonist's interaction with cyberspace. Here, have a few pictures.






With the AGS3d plugin (which is awesome, I must say), I've been testing out building a world of primitives. For whatever reason, using sprites in here doesn't work (I'm guessing it's because of the newer version of AGS), so I'm resorting to monocolour surfaces on my primitives. I'm pretty sure I can make this work, but I wanted your opinion on the colour scheme/style I'm building cyberspace out of here. Thus far, I can make things rotate, as well!

I've decided to go for this kind of style as deliberately "spartan". The protagonist is fishing around inside the systems of a government agency (ergo, a body who are unwilling to spend more than necessary on UI decor)

But don't just take my word pictures for it, have a go of it yourself. Just interact with the panel by the bed or door to enter the environment. I figured I should check that it at least works on a decent proportion of computers before I decide whether it should be an integral component of the game! Right-click jumps in cyberspace, by the way.

DOWNLOAD HERE

So am I the only one who can't save in this game?

Other than that so far (I left the game some days ago to the point you make cheffie happy =P) the game is really really good in my opinion. The graphics and music are good, the dialogues very nice, and the whole feel of the world makes me want to play this again and hope for more. Well done

I thought I'd managed to get the save-issue sorted in this episode, it seems to work on mine! What error is it giving, or just not showing up in the list? Glad you've enjoyed it, there'll definitely be at least a third part, but that certainly won't be the conclusion to the story.

Can I at least keep switching between Technobabylon and Teknobabylon?

I don't want to have to start making this a crossover with William Shatner's Tekwar, though the two settings may share superficial similarities!