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[> USE S.BAY KEYCARD ON S.BAY DOOR]

> USE S.BAY KEYCARD ON S.BAY DOOR

You realize your mistake and pull out the S.BAY KEYCARD from you pocket and swipe it at the green panel next to the door. The panel flashes green and lets out an audible beep. You feel a vibration emanating from the door. The bald man, who was just about to raise his weapon, quickly tucks the pistol into his pocket (he can do that as he doesn't have a holster for it) and rushes to pull the heavy metal door open.

It's fairly dark inside, but you think you can just make out the outline of a corridor behind the door. The bald man hurriedly motions for you to enter first.

[keycards]

You apply all three keycards

Oh fuck, did I type that? I did, didn't I...

Just in case, I'm pulling an audible:
>USE S.BAY KEYCARD ON S.BAY DOOR

Well spotted Eric, you just saved our dear hero a huge fuss, as shit was about to hit the fan on the human relations front once more.
Also: GOD DAMNIT I LOVED SEAQUEST DSV AS A KID!!! You have no idea how much nostalgia you just brought to surface and how I just realized this basically IS a SeaQuest DSV fangame! I'll fix the "brandish" typo just to make this thread a little less confusing for future viewers.

Just this once I will give you guys a hint, if you want it:

Spoiler

Read the last two pages REALLY CAREFULLY. Especially Tabata's last command and the game's response to it. It might just save you quite a bit of time.

[close]

[> Say "Okay then - together we can make it! Let's leave this unpleasant place and start with entering the S.BAY!"]

> Say "Okay then - together we can make it! Let's leave this unpleasant place and start with entering the S.BAY!"
> Go down and open door to S.BAY by using id-card(s)

You: "Okay then - together we can make it! Let's leave this unpleasant place and start with entering the S.BAY!"

The bald man appears confused. He obviously cannot make out your words over the alarms going off around you.

Oblivious to the fact that the mans can't hear you, you brandiss your set of three (3) ID-cards and rush to the large door at the bottom floor. You apply all three ID-cards one by one at the reader panel, but none seem to get any kind of response from the reader. You are pretty sure you've tried this before. The bald man looks at you, shaking his head in desperation, his eyes darting around, apparently trying to find something or figure something out.

[> Say "Hello again, buddy. Heck of a day, huh? Good to see you're still alive. Wanna join me and my trusty pool cue as we escape this death trap?"]

> Say "Hello again, buddy. Heck of a day, huh? Good to see you're still alive. Wanna join me and my trusty pool cue as we escape this death trap?"

You eye the man and speak up despite the loud alarm currently going off around you.

You: "Hello again, buddy"

The bald man nods cautiously, then shakes his head sternly.

You: "Heck of a day, huh?"

The bald man shakes his head more, and shrugs, pointing a finger at his ear.

You: "Good to see you're still alive. Wanna join me and my trusty pool cue as we escape this death trap?"

The bald man facepalms and then quickly tries to gesture a card-swiping motion and points furiously at the stairs leading down.

[> Leave room]

Two votes for "LEAVE" and one for "REST". "LEAVE" wins.

-----

> Leave room

You think about taking a nap or something, but the images of ghostly fish haunt you and you would hate to repeat past events. Instead, you decide to follow the orders of the automated message and take your leave of the room. You arrive back in the staircase and as you begin to step onto the stairs you can see a familiar face exiting the storage area.

Bald man: "Oh hell, it's you again... Don't freak out on me, I've got a gun and... and I'm not afraid to... -to use it!"

I'm starting to see a pattern emerging in Ghost's commands! 

No worries, I'm appending the first post with instructions for new players. As long as the player bothers to read the last few pages, anyone is welcome to play, and I will prune any incredibly stupid and suicidal entries automatically. Notice Icey's post about high potions, for example! This game is QUITE flexible!

No worries. I originally hoped to keep up enough interest to get 1 post per day moving on but I guess I was overestimating myself a bit.
Carry on.

[> USE "EVACUATION ALARM"]

-----

> USE "EVACUATION ALARM"

You move up to the monitor and poke your finger at the button labelled "EVACUATION ALARM". The button changes colour.
There is a few seconds of delay before the shrill beeping sound, combined with a more distant klaxon, begin to fill the air. After a distinct alarm the sound stops for a moment and you can hear what you believe to be an automated system speaking up in a calm female voice.

Voice: "Green sector - Dome - Evacuation alarm issued - Please remain calm and move to your designated evacuation zone for immediate relocation - For more instructions, contact your shift manager.
Current shift manager is..."

The voice halts for a second.

Voice: "Please use the tramway headed for the main facility. If the tramway is inoperable, please enter the submersible bay immediately, and board the emergency submersible.
Please, remain calm."

As the voice falls silent once more, the alarms begin to repeat the cycle.

>PUSH EVACUATION ALARM, LEAVE, DOWN, USE KEYCARD WITH S.BAY, (ENTER?)

As per my original intention of having only one simple daily action, I will probably shorten this to just "> PUSH EVACUATION ALARM". The trouble with these multi-part commands is that you can't react to something an earlier command might do, or if something unexpected happens along the way.

I hope this is okay with you Eric, you can change the command if you want, I'll post an update in a few hours from now. I should probably add some "rule" clarifications too to make playing easier. I guess most people are not going to read the first post anymore

I wish he had a bad habit of undoing dead women's tops.

Well, this IS a freeform adventure game. If you REALLY want to see pixellated boobies, feel free to spend a turn on that. Besides, doing THAT is better than doing NOTHING, which will result in another missed turn soon, people. If there isn't any discussion about new actions and no new commands get posted, I will eventually do a timeskip and the game will end one way or the other, so we can get this story to it's end.

Haven't check this in awhile. This guy is still alive? He should be a cripple by now!

Oh he's a resilient little fellow, although he has had a bad habit of discharging his stomach contents regularly... But for that I blame you players!

[I can provide beta testing for games in real time.]

I can provide beta testing for games in real time.

What this means is that, if we can arrange a schedule and I am interested in your project, I can play a test version of your game while you are watching me do it and we can communicate via Skype as I play. This would allow you to actually SEE how I as a player respond to events in your game, you can get direct and instant feedback and suggestions and you can get an idea of how a player will interact with your game. I also have some experience as an AGS game developer myself, so I can give you some AGS related feedback as well, if you want.

I am offering this as a service as I have noticed that many developers (myself included) end up quite surprised with how players react to their games, and this sort of direct feedback might help many developers get more concrete feedback instead of nonpersonal written bug reports.

To get an idea of what sort of service this might be, check out my youtube channel where I have been playing some AGS games with the developers viewing the gameplay live. While these are not testing situations per-se, they should give you an idea of how this might work.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1110C8238BA65D7F&feature=plcp

If you are interested, feel free to contact me either via PM or e-mail at wham@whamgames.com

My services are free for non-commercial AGS games, and with commercial projects we can discuss a small fee and/or other possible deals if you are interested.

Seeing that you were involved in both game projects, I think you were in a win-win situation anyway!
No worries, I have an idea of the people involved. Certain nazi-haters come to mind. Or maybe it was just some bot that mistook the MAGS vote poll for a "should Justin Bieber die" -poll.

All roguelikes (a subgenre of computer RPGs) have a system almost like this. More specifically, you only have one save slot per started game, and the game quits upon saving. The savegame file is then deleted after loading it.

Surely not! What if the game crashes?

Not an issue, as the games also autosave after every single move.

[> Examine monitor]

-----

> Examine monitor

You snap back to wakefulness and examine the only active monitor in sight again.
The large monitor, that also appears to function as a touch screen judging by the stylus strapped to its side, is displaying the following:

"EMERGENCY SYSTEM ENGAGED
BATTERY POWER ACTIVATED - CHARGE LEFT: 29~ minutes (ESTIMATED)
PLEASE SELECT ACTION:"

Below are three large buttons labelled:
"GENERAL ALARM"
"EVACUATION ALARM"
"SEAL CONNECT. TRAMWAY"

Below the third button is a slider which is set to "no delay". The other end reads "19 minute delay". It seems you can set the delay at one minute increments.

-----

You doze off for a bit, as nothing much seems to be happening. It's not like there are life and death decisions to be made any time soon...
Perhaps you are dreaming of having a bitchin' ponytail?

I think you should ignore all feedback and answer the question yourself. If YOU were playing this game and it was made by someone else, what would be the highest difficulty level you would feel comfortable and fair with, while remaining challenged and engaged?

I think games nowadays make a huge mistake in asking the players what they want, as everyone wants a different thing and pleasing everyone is impossible. If you start taking feedback on matters like this, you will most likely end up going with the views of the "loud minority" and alienating a lot more potential players than you might have otherwise.

Hope you find this helpful in some way.

(Oh, and I am an "iron man" -mode player all the way myself! )

Silly WHAM, of course there are, the goal is to woo one!

Now I know what to do over the weekend...