i have a game in mind, but i am not sure if this engine is appropriate. Can you talk with NPCs, can these 'events' move characters across the map/area/whatever, and is this only a real time action one PC RPG maker, or can there be multiple PCs, that perhaps follow you around and attack enemies, if you can't control them. The game i have in mind is very story dependant, and it looks like this is the only stand alone game creator for mac. they said you could make this game into game they couldn't imagine, but this looks very limited from what i've seen........ : (

I have no where else to go!

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Question; Have you
ever sucked the jelly
out of a jelly donut, and
filled it with chocolate

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Originally posted by exilechamp1:
Can you talk with NPCs,

Yes,

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...can these 'events' move characters across the map/area/whatever,

Not sure I understand what you're asking - events can change the player's location, and with a little work, can change NPCs' location as well, so I think the answer is yes,

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...and is this only a real time action one PC RPG maker, or can there be multiple PCs, that perhaps follow you around and attack enemies, if you can't control them.

For all practical intents and purposes, it is indeed a real-time one-PC engine. There is no truly effective way at present to simulate NPCs which are allied to the PC, nor is there presently any party support. It has been rumored that it would be theoretically possible to add such functionality to the engine at some future date, but no promises have been made whatsoever.

Note that with careful event scripting, it would be possible to simulate multiple separate PCs - that is, instead of having them moving together as a party, you could have them act 100% independently of one another and let the player switch between them at appropriate times.

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The game i have in mind is very story dependant, and it looks like this is the only stand alone game creator for mac. they said you could make this game into game they couldn't imagine, but this looks very limited from what i've seen........ : (

Well, it is but a game engine - it's not 100% customizable, any more than any other engine I've seen or heard of. It is very flexible in the things that it does allow you to change, but if you feel that any game you make absolutely has to have turn-based combat, or PC parties, or (insert other non-feature here), then it may not be the engine for you.

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"I hate quotations." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Fist off, putting frowning emoticons in your posts won't change Coldstone into anything that it is not.

Second, Coldstone is not the ONLY stand alone game creator for Mac, but it is the most cost effective for what you get. (At least from what I've seen.) Other game engines cost thousands of dollars, or are essentially tools for creating multimedia hypercard-like stacks (Al Staffi's Game creator toolkit, for example.)

Thirdly, I would recommend playing The Cosmic Memory game and "Pillars" to see what has been done with Coldstone so far.
Building a game is time consuming, so its understandable that you would want to know as much as possible about it before you started using it.

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Grant me the Creativity to Code cool software, the peace to accept all that is not Open-Source, and the Wisdom to pay all applicable Shareware fees. (Oh! ....And gimmie a huge friggen bag of money...!)

(This message has been edited by chucky3000 (edited 05-08-2002).)

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Originally posted by chucky3000:
~snip~

Mr. Exilechamp1,

In addition to what Mr. Chucky3000 mentioned, I expect that you realize that Coldstone is a shareware program. What this means is that you can download Coldstone and try it out for 30 days to see if it is what you want before you purchase it. If it will do what you want it to do, then pay for it and register it. If it does not then do not pay for it and delete it from your hard drive.

I would also recommend that before you download Coldstone, with the questions that you have, that you download the documentation for it and spend a few days reading through it. This will answer the majority of your questions. Then with that information firmly in your head then you should download Coldstone and begin building your game. This should give you a good idea about what Coldstone can and what it can not do for you. Then you can make an informed decision about what you want to do, as far as purchasing a product goes.

I wish you the best of luck.

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Calvin: People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world.

Hobbes: Isn't your pants' zipper supposed to be in the front?

I agree with the other posts. Download it and try it for yourself.
Unfortunately, Coldstone does not support parties (yet). But I would not consider it limited. Perhaps the most limiting factor I've found is the statistic system, but that's just my opinion.
If you could describe your game more, then it would be easier to discover whether Coldstone will fit your needs. I would recommend posting a story in the Chronicles.

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Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.

(This message has been edited by spitfire (edited 05-08-2002).)