2011-03-29 20:38:55

Hmm, quick questions. While ultimately user-friendly and supremely customizable is what we should aim for, I'm worried about how much a single cookie can hold, so I'm wondering if there isn't a good estimate as to the maximum number of stats a single character is likely to have. Just to make it easier to organize how things are saved.

I'll try to look at Dark's sample for a simple battle script and see if I can come up with something based on that. smile

看過來!
"If you want utopia but reality gives you Lovecraft, you don't give up, you carve your utopia out of the corpses of dead gods."
MaxAngor wrote:
    George... Don't do that.

2011-03-29 20:45:52

Hmm, I suppose we'll have to wait for an answer from someone more experienced with game books.  I, for one, would have no idea what to expect in terms of stat amounts.

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
Aprone's software

2011-03-29 22:56:24

The problem with a question like that related to gamebooks is that gamebooks were originally books, and even now with very few exceptions stil function on the basis that the player is left to the stat calculations and random number generation.

this means that they tend to use bog standard D6 for rolling (though Lone wolf had a 10 digit action chart you dropped a pensil on to effectively roll a D10), and also limit the amount of stats to the player needs to record.

Generally only at most four stats, eg, strength, staminer, luck and faith sometimes as few as two, (the bog the standard fighting fantasy system which the ffproject books are based on used four).

Occasionally these would be combined, ---- for instance strength pluss skill together equaling a characters combat value which was tested against enemies, but generally there were few core stats.

That being said, one technique often employed by gamebooks is the use of tables and modifyers which can sometimes involve more numbers.



In Lone wolf for instance, you take the difference betwene your combat value and your opponents', roll a D10 (or drop a pencil onto the action chart), and look up the result on the combat table which tells you how  many endurance points you and your opponent both lose, so there are quite a few numbers.

the new advanced combat rules on the chronicles of arborell take this even further and give you lots of things to play with like maneuvers and targits, all controlled by tables (something I'd stil like to see automated if at all possible).

Also remember though, all this applies only to gamebooks in the past which were reliant upon the user.

Have an inbuilt calculator and stats system and your almost inviting people to do more interesting things with it.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2011-05-17 22:48:43

DarkGrue version 1.9 is posted.  I've added in better screen reader support, better sapi, and the ability to use custom music at different points in the story.

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
Aprone's software

2011-05-18 14:14:10

Hi,
Excellent update...I haven't had too much experience with using music in a gamebook yet but this ought to open up some interesting possibilities.

Best Regards,
Hayden

2011-05-18 14:18:25

I've actually used this as something of a flowchart program for mapping out branching storylines in something that won't be a gamebook, as what I had going was really hard to keep track of without it. (I really need to get working on that if I want the demo out this year... yikes ).

看過來!
"If you want utopia but reality gives you Lovecraft, you don't give up, you carve your utopia out of the corpses of dead gods."
MaxAngor wrote:
    George... Don't do that.

2011-05-18 19:06:06

CAE_Jones, I'm glad to hear this was useful, even on something that isn't a game book lol.

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
Aprone's software

2011-05-19 01:55:50

How easy would it be for me to write a spanish game book?

skype name: techluver
Feel free to add me.

2011-05-19 04:26:32

Very, very easy.  Well, I'm assuming you speak Spanish, otherwise it will be very very hard.  rofl!  DarkGrue just organizes everything, so you could write your book in any language you wish.

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
Aprone's software

2011-05-20 15:15:28

I speak spanish smile. What I meant was regarding the accent marks. Will they throw off the engine?

skype name: techluver
Feel free to add me.

2011-05-20 15:47:47

Hi,
They shouldn't. All the game does is take what you've written and convert it to HTML. So it should be a direct translation.

Best Regards,
Hayden

2011-05-20 15:57:05

I might worry about how the associated textfiles are encoded, but most accented characters will work in an ansi-encoded text file, so there shouldn't be any problems.

看過來!
"If you want utopia but reality gives you Lovecraft, you don't give up, you carve your utopia out of the corpses of dead gods."
MaxAngor wrote:
    George... Don't do that.

2011-05-20 17:30:39

Hm, I have a project that it's telling me has 3 pages without story content. I've gone ahead and put it into HTML form so it's easier to search the whole thing, and couldn't find those mysterious empty pages. (To be fair, it does say that they "seem" to have no story content. ^^ ).

For complex projects, it would be nice if there were a way to quickly locate empty pages, especially if you have several pages and only a couple are missing story content.

看過來!
"If you want utopia but reality gives you Lovecraft, you don't give up, you carve your utopia out of the corpses of dead gods."
MaxAngor wrote:
    George... Don't do that.

2011-05-20 21:17:57 (edited by Aprone 2011-05-20 21:19:18)

Cae_jones, I actually thought there already was some feature to locate empty pages.  I'll check since it has been a while and I might be mistaken.
ADDED:

Press 8 to cycle through sections which do not appear to have story written in their text file yet.

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
Aprone's software

2011-05-20 21:19:54

There could be, and I'm not using the newest version. :-/
I'll see if I missed it somewhere.

看過來!
"If you want utopia but reality gives you Lovecraft, you don't give up, you carve your utopia out of the corpses of dead gods."
MaxAngor wrote:
    George... Don't do that.

2011-06-18 07:43:37

I'm already getting ideas! Thanks Aprone!

2011-10-22 21:48:18

Hi! I have a question. Can I create my audiobooks in my own languages from my friends from my country?

Ja volim samo kafu sa Rakijom.

2011-10-22 22:58:11

Yes sir, as you write the individual text files for each section, you can use whichever language you wish.  The program loads files as ANSI so that might affect certain languages that can only be written using Unicode format.  I suppose the only way to know for certain would be to write a test page in your own language just to find out.

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
Aprone's software

2011-10-22 23:32:07

Oh, those ninja empty pages I mentioned before were apparently junk pages that were created, but the means of reaching them were removed. An examination of the .ini file led me to it, and revealed that I couldn't really do anything to remove it without ruining the whole thing.
... So I think it could use a defragmenter. tongue

看過來!
"If you want utopia but reality gives you Lovecraft, you don't give up, you carve your utopia out of the corpses of dead gods."
MaxAngor wrote:
    George... Don't do that.

2011-10-22 23:56:14

lol, that's not a bad idea at all.  Oh crap CAE!  I just remembered that I forgot all about your image converter program AGAIN!  Arg!  Sorry about that man!

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
Aprone's software

2011-10-23 00:00:05

To be fair, I kinda did as well. smile

看過來!
"If you want utopia but reality gives you Lovecraft, you don't give up, you carve your utopia out of the corpses of dead gods."
MaxAngor wrote:
    George... Don't do that.

2012-04-17 16:41:29

It finally works! Woohoo! The only thing is that the program doesn't like the letters Æ/æ, Ø/ø, and Å/å... which are used quite often in danish... big_smile But still a great tool, I'll have to make something with it.

To see a world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wild flower.
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour.
William Blake - Auguries of Innocence, line 1 to 4

2012-04-18 12:38:12

Aprone, may I suggest ... if you're still working on this ... that the file 1111.html shall be called 1000.html... Then it will be the first file in the folder, as it is now you can get files with lower numbers than the starting file, I for example have made a book with a file named 1107, which is a little (just a little) irritating... smile If you aren't gonna change it it's fine, 'twas just a suggestion.

To see a world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wild flower.
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour.
William Blake - Auguries of Innocence, line 1 to 4

2012-04-18 17:00:59

The file numbers are pretty irrelevant, so there's not really much point taking note of them, just go through the action choices in the program to find the bit of the story you want to work on, and then write in that file whatever it is called.

I suspect renaming the files would take a massive effort in rejiggering the code anyway, and personally it never bothered me what they were called, ----- afterall a person only needs to start with the index file to play through the game book.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2012-04-18 18:49:46

Ah, yeah, that's right... Don't know why I'm starting with 1111.html, when Index should do the same... Maybe I just don't like frames... Lol!

To see a world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wild flower.
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour.
William Blake - Auguries of Innocence, line 1 to 4