Ambrosia Garden Archive
    • just wondering...


      I wonder a few things if someone could help me... 😮 I would be glaad:

      •Can I have people to choose the level they want to play when they select new game or can I only have one adventure?

      • Can I make an animated main menu?

      • If the hero character animation dont have any "defend" or "attack" animation, wont he/she then be able to attack or defend?

      • Can I make rollover images?

      • a) Can I change the mouse pointer?
      🆒 Can I make the mouse pointer change when it comes over a thing that you can use?

      • Can I have subtitles in the game?

      • Can I change the font/size in dialoges?

      • Can I make a "standing still animation" ? Wich means, an animation that plays when the character is standing still and not doing anything.

      • This may be a dumb question, but I need to know.. Can I make a plugin to change an event or a location? If yes, then how does the engine know wich one of them to choose?

      Well, thats about everything I wanted to ask by now:-o Maybe I will bomb you with more questions later.. Please response to any of this questions if you know the answer?

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      (This message has been edited by Ledorax (edited 07-07-2003).)

    • Here ya go.

      Quote

      •Can I have people to choose the level they want to play when they select new game or can I only have one adventure?

      Yes. Make each level a different map. When all goals are done for one level, have a "Teleport" event take the player to the next map/level. If you want a choose level, set up an ask event linked to a "Teleport" to take the player to that level/map.

      Quote

      • Can I make an animated main menu?

      I've heard of people doing this before, but I'm not sure how it's done. Search the topics for "animated main menu" to find topics relating to this issue

      Quote

      • If the hero character animation dont have any "defend" or "attack" animation, wont he/she then be able to attack or defend?

      If you don't have all four animations, you can't set that as a player animation

      Quote

      • Can I make rollover images?

      No.

      Quote

      • a) Can I change the mouse pointer?
      🆒 Can I make the mouse pointer change when it comes over a thing that you can use?

      No.

      Quote

      • Can I have subtitles in the game?

      What?

      Quote

      • Can I change the font/size in dialoges?

      No.

      Quote

      • Can I make a "standing still animation" ? Wich means, an animation that plays when the character is standing still and not doing anything.

      No. Coldstone defaults to the first frame of the walking animation.

      Quote

      • This may be a dumb question, but I need to know.. Can I make a plugin to change an event or a location? If yes, then how does the engine know wich one of them to choose?

      Not sure. I don't make plugins. Someone who does probably knows.

      ------------------
      [http://www.evula.org/hardkor_games](http://www.evula.org/<br />
      hardkor_games) HardKOR Games, my Coldstone
      Game Site!

      (This message has been edited by Bandit_Keith (edited 07-07-2003).)

    • •Can I have people to choose the level they want to play when they select new game or can I only have one adventure?
      "ask entry" for the events might work

      • If the hero character animation dont have any "defend" or "attack" animation, wont he/she then be able to attack or defend?
      Yes

      • Can I make a "standing still animation" ? Wich means, an animation that plays when the character is standing still and not doing anything.
      I don't think so, (the stand still is from the first frame in walking)
      Sorry I couldn't answer them all!

      Welcome to the board, except I havn't been here long myself!

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    • Quote

      Originally posted by Ledorax:
      I wonder a few things if someone could help me... 😮 I would be glaad:

      I'll try to. If I'm incorrect, someone will correct me. 😄

      Quote

      •Can I have people to choose the level they want to play when they select new game or can I only have one adventure?

      No. You can start the character a specific set of skills that can change from Job to job (i.e. Apprentice, novice, ect.)

      Quote

      • Can I make an animated main menu?

      Yes, but not if it's a 'main' location (see other posts last ten days).

      Quote

      • If the hero character animation dont have any "defend" or "attack" animation, wont he/she then be able to attack or defend?

      The player determines if the the PC defends (hardcoded) and attacks are (default) just running into something with stamina. This will happen whether there is an animation or not.

      Quote

      • Can I make rollover images?

      Someone else will have to help you here. (I don't understand what you mean.)

      Quote

      • a) Can I change the mouse pointer?

      Not to my knowledge.

      Quote

      🆒 Can I make the mouse pointer change when it comes over a thing that you can use?

      again, not to my knowledge.

      Quote

      • Can I have subtitles in the game?

      If you mean on-screen , no! But if you want to have the text in several languges, that could be put in the same dialog box, maybe.

      Quote

      • Can I change the font/size in dialoges?

      Not to my knowledge.

      Quote

      • Can I make a "standing still animation" ? Wich means, an animation that plays when the character is standing still and not doing anything.

      No. BUT you can have a timer that checks the status of the PC and if it's not doing something you can change the animation files to play a bouncing foot. Or jumping worm-rope.

      Quote

      • This may be a dumb question, but I need to know.. Can I make a plugin to change an event or a location? If yes, then how does the engine know wich one of them to choose?

      Ok, this is a hard question to answer fully. Yes, you can make a plug-in. Yes, the plug-in can change an event ( or location). No, the plug-in has to be loaded (by the player) in order for it to work. And if loaded, the plug-in is in charge! (hardcoded) unless you have a dialog that lets the player choose the route (I think that's right??!)

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      -Albadar-
      - - - - - - - - - -
      Just trying...

    • Thanks for the help 🙂

      By the way:P A rollover image is an image wich changes on mouseover / on click 😄

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    • Quote

      Originally posted by Ledorax:
      **Thanks for the help 🙂

      By the way:P A rollover image is an image wich changes on mouseover / on click 😄

      **

      I depends on where you want the rollover image. You can have them ingame with an item on the ground.

      ------------------
      Thanks,
      GrahamVH
      graham@warcraftcentral.com
      Coldstone Developer (url="http://"http://www.warcraftcentral.net/legends/main.html")http://www.warcraftc...gends/main.html(/url)

    • I've been here the longest, and I have detailed files.

      ------
      animated start screen, yes.
      If you have a set main character, IE FF series...no customization, then go for it.
      Instead of teleporting to a splash screen with event links to immediately start your game do the following.
      in your startgame event
      teleport to a main location, use it as a company logo banner page, like 'capcom', 'konami', 'sega' etc..
      then a wait item.
      then a new game event. leave it blank.
      then in you're main event, teleport to you're map which will act as your animated sstart screen.
      the map can be whatever you want it to be, however you still need a way to start the game.
      simple, let's say you're game has the options;
      new game
      quit

      new game and quit would both be passive NPCs(0 stamina, 0 map movement range) with a player contact event. when you connect, they teleport you to the new game where you begin you're journey. this start screen map, should have a initialization event to change you're appearance to that of a cursor( a hand, an arrow, etc.) the real game level would need to change you to that of the main character.

      Now i said this is for a set character, yeah it is, but in most games you still are afforded the option of naming the player, just use aa global entry dialog to change the player's name.
      -------
      level select, yes. relates to the animated screen, or something stranger.

      it's basically the exact same as the animated start screen. instead the passives teleport you to other maps. It goes like so, animated start screen:
      the player selects new game.
      you teleport them to the level select location. (this could ideally be a main location as they'll just have to click to select a level) or you could set it up the same as the start screen, with them as a cursor.

      ------

      i believe you can attack and defend without the actual animations, you just dont have a visual indicator that its occuring.

      -------
      rollovers, yes and no.

      In a non combat situation it is advisable. (the no)
      but ahem, it can be done .(the yes.)
      similar to the animated screen, change the player appearance to that of a cursor.
      In CGE when you step on an event tile you can cause actions to occur.
      we just need a stamp control,conditionals, and 2 events.

      we'll work by adding and deleting the neutral(mouse out)
      over top, to expose the active graphic below (mouse over)

      the 1st event changes the graphic/button back to its neutral state,
      conditional: if mouseover=0 end event
      else
      stamp control add neutral_gfx.pict
      change global, mouseover set to 0
      end event

      second event, removes the neutral cover to reveal the hot button.
      change global, mouseover set to 1
      conditional: if mouseover = 1 stamp control, delete stamp neutral_gfx.pict
      else
      end event

      place your neutral graphics on a layer above the hot layer, but below the player layer.

      now how can you use thison an actual map during a real game in the heat of battle, as an actual menu, with selectable options ???
      easy, unaturally inaccessable areas. (read the section n the user manual about access/visiblity).
      what you do is create an area that you can't walk to and can only be manually moved to with a map position action.
      let's say the player presses, m, for menu:
      engine call. freeze characters. (halts NPC action)
      change global. set xcalc = playerx
      change global. set ycalc = playery, record previous position.
      fade to black.
      player map position, move to the menu area.
      player map icon, change appearance to cursor.
      fade from black.

      the rest relates to the animated start screen section, use the contact events to bring up the different interface layouts...spell selection, inventory, item screen..etc.
      no load times.
      -------
      mouse pointer, no.
      just no.
      -------

      subtitles yes.
      there is absolutely no reason to have dialog boxes in your game. Outside of situational choices, but then again you can always have the player actually physically make choices/perform actions with buttons instead...ie.
      "So You came here to fight me did you?"
      ">Prepare yourself simpleton.

      Uhm, no, i was looking for the john"
      you could just have them attack or walk away. BUT i personally don't like having to constantly chomp through 28 dialog boxes during a in game cutscene.

      you know the &&Name; variable that you can place into the main/map interfaces.
      position in a useful place and use the Attribute Wizard action to change the text.
      Even still, let's say your characters are doing a cutscene, discussing whatnot and moving about, using uncommon animations...well within the special animations, simply use a launch event flag, to fire off events with the attribute wizard action. This is provides an automated transcript without the needless button pressing.
      --------
      standing still animation, not really, it can be done.
      But in order to have it occur naturally you need to devise a way to tel when the player has stopped moving.
      If you were to incorporate it as a mode for the player, fine. IE a regenerative state (Namco's Tekken Series: Yoshimitsu's meditation pose). But you need to have a good reason to simply leave them like this.

      It is possible to begin a countdown, with a looping animation, ie this would time after 1 revolution if the player is not moving then switch to the stand still state. It's bulky and if your game is complex i wouldn't go for it. The system would require about 4 animations, launching in succession.
      --------
      plugins ask RubberDucky, Stark, Chaos(yah,sp),StrayToaster...etc.
      --------
      Font/size, no.
      --------

      ------------------

      ... I'm like Imhotep but don't flaunt it.

    • Quote

      Originally posted by Ledorax:
      **I wonder a few things if someone could help me... 😮 I would be glaad:

      •Can I have people to choose the level they want to play when they select new game or can I only have one adventure?

      • Can I make an animated main menu?

      • If the hero character animation dont have any "defend" or "attack" animation, wont he/she then be able to attack or defend?

      • Can I make rollover images?

      • a) Can I change the mouse pointer?
      🆒 Can I make the mouse pointer change when it comes over a thing that you can use?

      • Can I have subtitles in the game?

      • Can I change the font/size in dialoges?

      • Can I make a "standing still animation" ? Wich means, an animation that plays when the character is standing still and not doing anything.

      • This may be a dumb question, but I need to know.. Can I make a plugin to change an event or a location? If yes, then how does the engine know wich one of them to choose?

      Well, thats about everything I wanted to ask by now:-o Maybe I will bomb you with more questions later.. Please response to any of this questions if you know the answer?

      **

      Well Once again the amount of misinformation abounds.

      eLL' post has the most truth (and he always makes me think)

      BK and Albadar got a few wrong. (you need to adjust your paradiem)

      as for your questions below is what I beleave to be true (in order of asking) and I ve tortured the poor CGE with a Slurry of poorly written events and scripting.

      1. if your asking if you can have players choose what MAP to start on. The answer is YES. or if your asking if you could have them choose what exp. level they start at the answer is also YES (can control this by having the player have a few choices on your starup screen or if you want them to be able to play a level only after they completed that level you could generate a random password that they could enter in a "ask entry' event linked to the start up screen.

      2. yes and an animated high score table etc. etc. etc.

      3. As eLL' aluded to the 'X' attack and the 'Z' defend are hardwire to the engine ( i havent been able to disable them with scripting (this was important to our game so i thought of another workaround and quit looking for a solution) but it may be possible)

      4 As GrahamVH and eLL' pointed out YES.

      5 Not the actual mouse pointer but if you game switched to a first person view during action events you can change the on screen player animation to anything (I use a crosshairs in debuging mode) OR you could add a 'search' button to your interface that would disable the player_NPC ( ie have him mill about in the center of the room or if you get fancy have the 'fake player_NPC' follow the player_NPC that is now a crosshairs or a hand or whatever) and then have the items you click on change if its a useable item so the second part is a qualified YES

      6 subtitle are no problem just use a "add stamp' event whenever or wherever you want them.

      7 NO but you can just not use dialog events instead when you want to display dialog teleport your player to the side of your map and display your own text with events on the map as the chioces or for a high score screen you can have the player pick his name from static images ie your font and store the letter as globals and display them as you please

      8 Yes conditioned on what eLL' said and also what your trying to accomplish

      9 Yes the CGE is Magic. Actually theres these things called plugin load calls and it check those and then does some Magic. The plugin are loaded in order the last load is the one it listens to.

      Oh the possiblities. i encouged you to write an event or two then make something simple like a dice game or something but not an RPG this will help you see how things that youd like to do can be done or at least look at the code of "Cosmic Memory" or play it or PoG which woulda answered a few of your questions and gave you a few new ones.

      namaste

      Stray

      {edit} just to keep Glenn guessing

      ------------------
      Coldstone_Dev Resource: (url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/straytoaster/")Coldstone_Dev Resource(/url)

      See Coldstone_Tips at: (url="http://"http://coldroom.150m.com/CGE_Stuff/CGE_Tips.html")CGE_Tips(/url)

      (This message has been edited by straytoaster (edited 07-10-2003).)

    • Quote

      Originally posted by straytoaster:
      4 As Glenn pointed out YES.

      Beg pardon?

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      'You can either be on the stage, just a performer, just going through the lines...or you can be outside it, and know how the script works, where the scenery hangs, and where the trapdoors are. Isn't that better?'
      -- T. Pratchett