problem when making a new game

whenever i start a new game, it says i don't have "startgame.cet". how do i get this?

Hi wonofdaweefolk, welcome to the boards.

You have to create an event (file -> new-> event) which places the playing character on your first map. The event will be a list of actions something like the following:

1. Teleport to Firstmap
2. Map Position (enter X, Y co-ordinates)
3. NPC Control (who shows up there with the player?) This may already be done if you have placed the NPCs on the map.
4. Play Music (if you have music in the music folder)
5. Change Globals (if you want to set a game-sequence global at the start.)

Once the player is on your first map, the game will be started. Good luck with it. ~RD

How do i set the picture of what the main character is going to look like and how to put in the animations when he moves? Do I need to specify who the main character is or does the game figure out who it needs to place at the beginning all by itself?

For information about animation, have a look at page 62 of the manual. It's within the docs folder in the coldstone folder. To change the PC's look, go to the game prefs. Last panel.

wonofdaweefolk, on Oct 12 2005, 07:32 PM, said:

. . . does the game figure out who it needs to place at the beginning all by itself?
View Post

The game doesn't "figure out" anything "all by itself." The game engine does some things automatically but you have to give it directions concerning what to do.

All your graphics and animations have to be in your game's "Pictures" folder. Once there, you can select which picture or animation to use when you are in an editor for an NPC, item, stamp, etc.

In the "Docs" folder which Ledorax mentioned, you will also find a Game Tutorial which you should read through carefully. Take the time to build the tutorial game. It will teach you a lot about how to put things together. If the Tutorial raises questions you cannot solve, we will try to help you out here. You will probably need to refer to the Coldstone Manual frequently when you are first getting started.

Good luck with your game. ~RD

Aww crap. i wish i had $50. i only have the demo, so i don't have the tutorial.

The Demo should have everything with it that you need. There are just limits on how many events you can have, etc. Look for a folder called "Docs." The manual and tutorial are in there.

By the way, $50 won't get you any further right now. Coldstone is not for sale until the update is released. ASW has indicated an update is being worked on. There's a long history about that which I'd rather not go back into right now. Search the older threads here if you want to know the background. The biggest problem is that Coldstone will not function with later versions of OS X.

i'm new to this as well, i made a map, a starting character picture and an event to start the game off, which teleports to the main map and sets the map location. all i get is a black screen. what am i doing wrong?

i'm having trouble with the manual as it doesnt give step by step instructions

Hi tehexile, Welcome to the boards.

What OS are you using on your computer? The black screen sounds like something 10.4 would do. I'm assuming your map looks right in the Map Editor but not in the game.

It's a really good idea to create a medieval game (does this come with the demo?). When you do that, you then have all the events etc. you need to start going. I, too, plodded on through the manual and the tutorial, which is helpful. But you have to give yourself a lot of patience to learn it. Took me three months. Good luck! (Listen to Ducky though, as he knows all sorts of things!) (Sorry, RD... too much NCIS....)

Just to add a few things, tehexile, in case you haven't managed to skim the board and find them yet - if you are running MacOSX 10.3 or 10.4, then your games won't be able to run in the Carbon layer of OSX. You can, I believe, still run them in Classic (if someone can confirm?) by getting info (cmd-i) on the application you've built, and selecting the "run in Classic Environment" box.

The editor itself should run for you in OSX, with a few... shall we say, problems. But at any rate, good luck! And if you aren't running OSX but are rather in an 8.6-9.x.x flavour of the MacOS, I'd advise doing as RD & Debra have mentioned, and build a game based off the Medieval template, rather than starting from scratch. In fact, that's always a good idea anyway.

-Andiyar

i'm using 10.2.8 and yes it looks fine on the map

i'll try in classic

Perhaps your map interface doesn't have any "game area"? That's all I can think of...

Ledorax, on Oct 18 2005, 06:14 PM, said:

Perhaps your map interface doesn't have any "game area"? That's all I can think of...
View Post

how do you check whether it has or not?

dam' thing... its started quitting as soon as i open it now...

does it have trouble with any file formats? i use gifs made on futurepaint for pictures and midis for music

This post has been edited by tehexile : 19 October 2005 - 06:33 PM

tehexile, on Oct 19 2005, 07:30 PM, said:

its started quitting as soon as i open it now...

Thats probably because you are running the OS X version. Although you said you are running 10.2.8....... I've only ever had that problem in OS X. Try Running in OS 9 (there should be a Coldstone that is just called Coldstone instead of Coldstone(X) but if there isn't, get info on coldstone, and select start up in Classic Environment). See if that helps.

tehexile, on Oct 19 2005, 07:30 PM, said:

does it have trouble with any file formats? i use gifs made on futurepaint for pictures and midis for music

I'm pretty sure that u could put any file in a coldstone folder heirarchy and Coldstone its self would run... However the game might not run and might have problems when compiling.

My best advice would be to try running it in OS 9.

Good Luck!

tehexile, on Oct 19 2005, 07:30 PM, said:

does it have trouble with any file formats? i use gifs . . .
View Post

From page 87 of the Coldstone Users Manual, Coldstone prefers PIC or PNG. JPG will work too but it has some problems with whites. The same page gives format information for movies and music.

I do not believe Coldstone can recognize your graphics if they are done as GIF. I expect that's why you have a black screen.

Rubber Ducky, on Oct 19 2005, 11:33 PM, said:

From page 87 of the Coldstone Users Manual, Coldstone prefers PIC or PNG. JPG will work too but it has some problems with whites. The same page gives format information for movies and music.

Really? Thats strange, I use bmps for everything.. It works fine though. I've never tried GIFs however so I wouldn't know.

Pixor, on Oct 20 2005, 04:49 PM, said:

Really? Thats strange, I use bmps for everything..
View Post

The Coldstone manual has this to say about BMPs:

Quote

Not recommended since it uses a lot of disk space. You should use PCT or PNG for a non-distructive format instead.

BMPs will work, but at a price. GIFs are not mentioned in the manual at all.

Ledorax, on Oct 18 2005, 06:14 PM, said:

Perhaps your map interface doesn't have any "game area"? That's all I can think of...
View Post

i have amap now and a background tune, but no character sprite. how do i get a sprite up there?

You didn't have to post it five times, you know. I'm not quite sure I understand the question, though. Do you need a sprite or are you asking how to select one? If the latter, simply go to game options and select a sprite in the rightmost panel.