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This seems to be the most appropriate forum for this question, although it is about the forums themselves rather than AGS or adventure games.

I have a banner in my signature but I never see it in my postings. Klaus says he can see it. Here is the (deliberately broken) BBC for it:

[ center][ url=http://www.freewebs.com/paoloags/][ img]http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/452/bannerfh1.gif[ /img][ /url][ /center]

and the code without the spaces after the open square brackets works correctly if I put it in this post and then preview it, but not when I actually post it.

So what do I need to do to make it show up for me? Can anyone else see it at the bottom of this posting?

Thanks, and apologies for the noise.

I'm still using an oldish version (2.71) and would like to upgrade. Version 3.x has some very nice features (the script editor looks a lot nicer) but the thread on the lastest version suggests that it is not yet stable. I could just upgrade to v2.72 (if it is available - is there a download link for it?) for safety's sake, but then of course I don't get as many of the new and improved features as I would with version 3.

So what would people recommend? I'm just wary of downloading version 3 and then having problems with upgrading existing games or losing data. I'd prefer not to wade through all 23 pages of the thread on version 3.0 before I come to a decision, so I'm hoping someone can give me an answer based on how that thread is currently panning out.

Thanks.

Unless I've overlooked it or the title is misspelled, I'm a bit surprised there is no hints and tips thread for Washed Ashore, especially as it was August's MAGS winner. Or maybe everyone found it really easy and didn't need any help?

Anyway, I'm stuck... any help would be appreciated.

Spoiler

I have four metal plates stuck together but need at least one more to make a bridge. One of these plates I got out of the stream with the makeshift fishing rod. As well as the four plates and the fishing rod, I have a sharp piece of steel, a handful of bolts, some rags and the communication thing.

The rags are fireproof, apparently, but I can't use them on the hot metal.

[close]

Any ideas? Thanks.

[* Read the README file]

This is the official Hints and Tips thread for Trance-Pacific.

Please be nice to others:

* by using spoiler tags around hints, like this: [ hide]your hint goes here[ /hide] but WITHOUT the spaces before the "hide" and the "/hide". This gives:

Spoiler

your hint goes here

[close]

* by NOT posting solutions or walkthroughs.

The most valuable hints I can give you are the following:

* Read the README file
* Pay attention to the characters' conversation in the bar in the intro - there are clues that will help you later
* Talk to Eve or Nick when you get stuck - often they will have a good idea or will get things moving again
* Look in your inventory for something you can use
* Try using the Memo on the other characters in the room

Thank you for playing, and enjoy the game!

[TRANCE-PACIFIC]

Yay, our (my and Ben304's) very first fully-fledged AGS game is now ready to download!

It's an entry to the September 2007 MAGS competition.

TRANCE-PACIFIC

Vince is a stage hypnotist, and is close friends with Eve, a magician, and Nick, her assistant. They have just completed a long season and are now going on a long cruise to relax. They soon discover something underhand is going on aboard ship. It's not just the ocean that smells fishy, and the cruise is going to be anything but relaxing...



Featuring:

* Eight characters
* Five rooms
* Six customised GUIs, including an innovative one
* Puzzles that should take a while to crack
* Main non-player characters give hints when you speak to them
* Plenty of humour
* A peppering of authentic Australianisms (with a glossary in the README file)
* Sly references to classic adventure game situations

Download the game from:
http://www.freewebs.com/paoloags/Trance-Pacific_v1.02.zip
or:
http://www.victorygames.info/free/Trance-Pacific_v1.02.zip

Don't forget to vote for the game on the MAGS website if you like it (go to http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/aclinks.htm, click on "MAGS" and then the "voting" button).

I don't know if this one's been answered before (searching for "pace" or "pacing" gives too many false positives containing "space" or "spacing") but it might well have been, as I'm sure others have wanted to do the same thing.

I have a cutscene which I want to end with a non-player character continuously pacing up and down, occasionally saying things, and continues to do so even while the user has control (until they do the right thing that will stop the character from doing this).

There are two aspects to this:

* How can I get the character to walk up and down even after control has returned to the user? I could write something like:

while (true)
{
  cMyChar.Walk(x1, y1);
  cMayChar.Walk(x2, y2);
}

but this is blocking and would never return control to the user.

I tried

  cMyChar.Walk(x1, y1, eNoBlock);
  cMayChar.Walk(x2, y2, eNoBlock);

but the character didn't move at all - maybe control was returned immediately, or possibly my character wasn't on a walkable area, but I'm fairly sure she is.

(EDIT: Of course, the above are equivalent: eNoBlock is the default value.)

I think I need to use something like repeatedly_execute() or repeatedly_execute_always(), but the pacing is not something I need to be done every game cycle.

* The second problem is having my character say things (phrases taken at random from a list, and at random times) as she is pacing. I can code up the random selection of phrases easily enough, but again am wondering how I can get this to happen while the user has control of the game. This exact thing has been done before by Cinfa in his game Roccio's Quest, so maybe I should PM him to find out how he did it. His character did not pace but followed another, but the talking aspect would be the same.

Thanks for any help.

I want to be able to manipulate a room object in the current room from the global script.

Currently I'm using on_call() and CallRoomScript(), as follows:

In my global script (note the diagnostic messages)

Display("About to call on_call()");
CallRoomScript(1);
Display("Returned from on_call()");

In the script for the room that is current when CallRoomScript() is called:

function on_call(int value)
{
  Display("In on_call(); value == %d", value);
  //blah
}


When I run my script, the messages displayed are:

About to call on_call()
Returned from on_call()

which shows that the function wasn't called.

What am I doing wrong? Incidentally, I wrote on_call at the end of my room script just by opening the whole room script in the editor (rather than just a section of it). Is it meant to be in a section (with grey start and end lines)? There doesn't seem to be a menu option for on_call anywhere.

Alternatively, is there a way of directly accessing and manipulating room objects from the global script? Something like the following:

room[n].objects[m].SetPosition(x, y);

Thanks.

I am using Tint() to dim a character. However, I can't find suitable values for the parameters. The character always seems to become desaturated (black and white).

I want the character to get dimmer (because he is standing in a darkened area) but to retain some colour.

Currently, I am using this:

cMyCharacter.Tint(0, 0, 0, 100, 50);

According to the manual, this means "apply (0, 0, 0) (ie, black) at maximum strength to the character and dim him to 50%". This is not what I want, because obviously it makes cMyCharacter become black and white.

I could (and should) change the zeros to something else, but I don't want to change his colour. I just want to make him dimmer but keep him the colour he is (dimmed colours, of course). Is there a simple way to do this? Lowering the saturation would do this, of course, but what RGB values should I use?

Thanks.


Mod Edit: You have to edit the title of the FIRST post, to have the change show in the forum listing.

Apologies if this has already been asked and solved somewhere else, but I haven't found it in this forum if it has.

One edge of one of my rooms is intended to be a dead end, except it doesn't look like it in the background image. So, when the player walks off that edge, I want to make him say that it's a dead end and then walk back again.

What I have coded up isn't quite right, as it seems as though only the first two frames of the walk cycle are played as the character comes back, giving him a juddering, skipping movement.

My script for "Walk off right screen edge":

   cMyCharacter.SayBackground(Game.GlobalMessages[504]);
   cMyCharacter.Walk(141, 146);

Game.GlobalMessages[504] says "It's a dead end" (it's a global message because I'm using it in more than one place) and (141, 146) is definitely within the walkable area and is back inside all edges of the screen.

I want to use SayBackground so that the character comes straight back without the user having to click or press a key to make him do it.

Thanks.

EDIT: Is the problem that, while the character is walking back to the edge, he is still over the edge and so this script keeps getting called again and again, meaning that only the beginning of the walkcycle is played? If so, what is the correct way of doing what I want to do?

I'm using the code Scorpiorus wrote way back for scrolling the viewport (updating it for my version of AGS).

What I want to do is scroll the screen to the right to show something and then scroll it back to the original position.

Here are my function calls to his script:

int distance_to_scroll = 40;

//scroll right
MoveViewportBlocking(distance_to_scroll, GetViewportY(), 1, 0);

//do what I want to do here

//scroll back to left
MoveViewportBlocking(-distance_to_scroll, GetViewportY(), 1, 0);
ReleaseViewport();


Now, the scroll to the right works fine (the viewport being initially aligned with the left edge of the room), but not the scroll back to the left. The call to scroll to the left does nothing, and then the ReleaseViewport() makes the viewport snap back to where it was to start with.

I've tried various values for the first parameter in the second call to MoveViewportBlocking (including 0 and -system.viewport_width / 2) but the result is always the same.

For reference, here is my revised version of Scorpiorus's code. Note in particular that I've taken the !! out before the antiglide parameter in the call to SetGameOption(), as this would not compile, and not not X == X in any case. Or did that mean something else?

function MoveViewportBlocking(int x, int y, int speed, int antiglide)
{
   int dummy = NR;   //my narrator character

   character[dummy].ChangeRoom(cVince.Room);
   character[dummy].x = GetViewportX() + system.viewport_width / 2;
   character[dummy].y = GetViewportY() + system.viewport_height / 2;
   character[dummy].SetAsPlayer();
   character[dummy].SetWalkSpeed(speed, speed);

   antiglide = SetGameOption(OPT_ANTIGLIDE, antiglide);

   character[dummy].Walk(x + system.viewport_width / 2, y + system.viewport_height / 2, eBlock, eAnywhere);
   
   cVince.SetAsPlayer();
   SetViewport(GetViewportX(), GetViewportY());
   SetGameOption(OPT_ANTIGLIDE, antiglide);
}

Can anyone help, please?

I've got another problem now...

I have two non-player characters characters in a room with my player character. I walked my player character up to one of them, and he's got stuck. Looking at the walkable area with Ctrl+A, I see that the NPCs have small black rectangles around their feet - presumably this is to prevent the player character from walking into them. Is it possible that somehow I have walked on to one of these rectangles? My NPCs do not move yet, by the way (which is correct for the time being).

Thanks.

OK, I'm romping ahead with the game I am working on (my first ) and making good progress.

I have a GUI on screen that triggers dialogs. I am making the conversation options cause characters to say things. However, because the GUI is modal, it remains on screen while the conversation is running, meaning that the characters' text is sometimes partially obscured by the GUI, which is in the centre of the screen (where I want it to be).

Now, I can't make the GUI go away because it is modal (setting the Visible property to false doesn't work), so I'm looking at using SayAt instead of Say so that I can position the characters' text and control the width, ensuring it doesn't go behind the GUI.

However, this width will depend on the window size - at 640 x 400, there is twice as much space available widthwise, and I'd like to be able to use it rather than using one width for both resolutions, which will look too skinny at the higher resolution.

So my question is - how can you query the window resolution at runtime? Subsidiary question: what does any such function return if the game is being run full-screen?

Alternatively, is there some other way to resolve this issue of text being obscured by the GUI?

Thanks for any help.

<sigh> I always feel like such a n00b when I get stuck on something basic and have to post here. Anyway, let me swallow my pride...

I've set up one room and one character in my game. The player starts in room 3 (note that there is no room 1 yet as it isn't ready to go in yet).

When I run the game, there is no pointer cursor. I can guess where I am and click in various parts of the walkable area, and the character walks around OK, but I have no idea where the cursor is. It doesn't even come up when I press Ctrl+Q. Fortunately, I can exit the game by pressing Enter as the "Quit" button is highlighted (or I could just close the game window).

If I look at Cursors, I see that "Standard cursor mode" is checked for cursors 0 to 3, but is greyed out and unchecked for cursors 4, 6 and 7 (cursor 6 being the pointer cursor) and just unchecked for the other cursors. Furthermore, the cursor images consist of just a dot for the hotspot position. This is probably what is wrong, but why aren't the cursors there? Where have they gone? I don't think I've done anything to delete them.

Thanks for any help.

I'm about to start developing a GUI for basic controls (walk, save, open inventory, etc) and am looking at the help file (selecting "GUI" from the Index tab in help, giving me the page "Editing the GUIs").

This page says "In the GUI Editor, you will see several buttons..." but I don't see any of the buttons mentioned. What I do see (having clicked on GUIs in the game editor menu) is buttons for adding controls to a GUI, an "Edit script" button, a couple of check boxes (Clickable, Text Window) and a magenta rectangle. There is also a floating window (GUI 0) with a list of attributes in it.

Am I looking in the wrong place?

What I want to be able to do is import an image and use that as my GUI - how can I do this?

Thanks for any help.

What's the best way of challenging the content advisory of a game if you think it is incorrect? Who sets these - the game's author or someone else?

I ask because I'm playing Infinity String. Someone said in the reviews (which might therefore be the answer to my first question) that the violence rating should be increased from "mild" to "strong", and it looks like this has been done. However, the sex/nudity rating is "none", but I've just seen some -

Spoiler

in the cutscene where you teleport from the ice station to the jungle.

[close]

It's hardly explicit, but it might not be appropriate for work or for children.

So should I raise this in my review of the game, contact the author, or do it some other way?

No doubt this has been asked 101 times before, but where can people nominate Picks of the Month? There's nothing on it in this thread: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=15411.20

There's a nice long list of past Picks of the Month but it would be great if there was a link to a page where future picks could be nominated. Or does someone on high decide which game is the next one, with no input from us mere mortals?

Thanks.

I put a Debug line my global script allowing me to jump to a room when the game starts.

When the program runs, it says "Enter new room: (in room -10)" (or sometimes "... (in room -12)". On entering a room number, the game crashes with:

---------------------------
Illegal exception
---------------------------
An exception 0xC0000005 occured in ACWIN.EXE at EIP = 0x00447F39 ; program pointer is -42, ACI version 2.71.894, gtags (2039,36)

AGS cannot continue, this exception was fatal. Please note down the numbers above, remember what you were doing at the time and notify CJ on the Tech forum.



Most versions of Windows allow you to press Ctrl+C now to copy this entire message to the clipboard for easy reporting.
---------------------------
OK   
---------------------------


I take it I get a negative number because the room number has not been set at the point I am calling Debug, and that something is being done by AGS that uses that negative room number.

Here's my code from the global script that causes the crash:

function game_start() {
  // called when the game starts, before the first room is loaded
//TEMPORARY
Debug(3, 0);   //prompt for "skip to room..."
}


As this is clearly not the place to put a Debug command, where should I put it? If I put it in the "Player enters room (before fade-in)" section of the first room, typing the number of the first room will cause the Debug command to be run again, meaning I can't actually preview the game from the first room while that Debug command is there.

I have two characters who are having a conversation. The talk loops are working fine, and when the characters are silent, the first frame of the "down" loop of their respective normal views is used for each. This is fine for one character, because he's facing forwards, but the other character is looking to the right while talking. How can I select the first frame of the "right" loop to be the frame used while he is not talking, instead of the first frame of the "down" loop being used? "Run animation loop" doesn't seem to do it.

I have separate views for the talk animations, by the way. Do I need to set up separate loops within the talk views for the "silent" mode?

Thanks.

In the intro to the game I am working on, I scroll the room from right to left (which is working fine) to reveal a ship on the left, in which a conversation is going on. The user has to click to progress the conversation (although I could change that easily enough).

What I would like to be able to do is for the ship to move gradually as the conversation is going on (and as it comes into view when the viewport scrolls across to reveal it).

I think this should go under "Repeatedly execute" in the interactions list - correct me if I'm wrong. Anyway, I'm running the following script from "Repeatedly execute":

object[SHIP].Move(object[SHIP].X + 1, object[SHIP].Y, 1);
Wait(1);

but the ship does not move at all. The following did not work either:

object[SHIP].X++;
Wait(1);

For the record, my object is named "Ship" and has script name "SHIP". It is also set to be initially visible.

I think I must be missing something obvious here.

Thanks (and I did a search for this topic but didn't find anything, by the way).

I hope this is not too off topic.

Does anyone have any advice on version control when two or more people in different geographic locations are working on a game at the same time?

In the game I am helping someone with at the moment, he makes his changes to his copy and sends the file to me, and then I make mine and send it back. This is fine, but it would make things quicker if we could develop the game in parallel.

To do this, I'm suggesting that at any one time, one of us (say A) has the master version and the other (B) makes changes to his copy of the master, but keeps a record of what he does. When B receives the master version, he makes the changes to it that he recorded, and then continues to work on it. Meanwhile, A continues to work on the version of the file that he sent and keeps a note of what he changes, until B sends the master version back to him. The file ping-pongs back and forth in this way.

This works fine provided there is no overlap in the changes. This is unlikely if one person works on the art and the other on the scripting (as is the case in the game I am working on).

Does anyone else who has worked on a game this way have any tips on managing version control?

Thanks for any feedback.