2018-12-28 21:25:14

Aprone wrote:

Oh, so when it is run in Dynamic Deck where it reads from cards.txt the music plays, but when the game is compiled it does not play?

Yeah, that's It. It works with DD software, not with compilled game.
I have tried It also with switching a language from Slovak to English in windows settings, but nothing was changed.

Ja volim samo kafu sa Rakijom.

2018-12-28 22:24:10

Firefly, while I was out of the house today I was thinking to myself about how I had made a mistake with that last post.  Now that I've read your post as well, I think I was far too hasty sticking to the 2 choice limitation.  It may be my view that restrictions help push creativity and more enjoyable games, but frankly it's not a good enough reason for me to shackle everyone else with those same restrictions.  If people feel they have a need for more than 2 choices per card, I really shouldn't stop them!  smile

I'm going to look into this music issue Giovani, and also when I do the next engine update I'll allow more than 2 choices to be put on each card.  I'm not sure how many I'll allow, but I'm guessing it'll be several.

- Aprone
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2018-12-28 22:38:29

ok, game has been succesfully run, thanks Aprone.

ice, fire, water, thunder.

2018-12-28 23:25:55

I didn't have time to add in a saving and loading feature, but I've posted a new version.

It turns out the compiling feature was having some conflicts with the newer way variables were done.  It was still looking for the old "good" and "bad" system, which was causing some bugs.  That's why the music wasn't working, so I'm Very glad that was mentioned here.

I didn't update the readme, but you can now use Action3= and Option3=, all the way up to Action7= and Option7= if you want to have upto 7 options on a card!

I highly suggest recompiling any games you had previously compiled, just because this new version fixes bugs that may have compiled into your past projects.

- Aprone
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2018-12-29 05:12:18

Welp I was getting ready for work and realized a typo I put in the code (at the last minute before uploading) has messed up the new ability to have 3 or more choices on a card.  I'm feeling pretty stupid!  ROFL!

I'll correct that mistake and reupload when I get home.  Sorry guys.

- Aprone
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2018-12-29 08:30:50 (edited by Chris 2018-12-29 08:44:44)

This is a great idea, and the language is extremely simple to grasp. I agree with the life simulator idea. I may try to create one if I can come up with enough ideas. smile Aprone, keep up the great work. you're one of the best audio game developers we have.

Grab my Adventure at C: stages Right here.

2018-12-29 09:09:48

@Aprone: HAHAHAHAHA! No problem. Thats the destiny of all programmers i think, HAHA!
So great! When i was deleting the old version my last thought was: "HMM, maybe i should have kept it", HAHAHAHA
And thank you for raising up the number of available choices!
I absolutely will keep your idea of two choices in mind cause i agree with your thinkingstyle about this as a fact of creativity.

For now i am a little busi so i only have a little time for making some first designs of cards. But next week i will try to put all pieces together.

2018-12-29 10:44:25

Okay I've posted another update, and this one does have an updated readme.

In addition to being able to have up to 7 choices on a card, I've added in a new feature called free-floating scripts, using the "RunIf" command.  It lets you run a set of scripts based on the value of a variable, similar to how the "When" command automatically adds cards to the deck based on variable values.

This will let you keep a variable's value within a specific range, make things happen when a player's health runs out (for example), and probably a whole lot of stuff I haven't even thought of yet.

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

2018-12-29 10:49:33

Omer I almost forgot to say I tried out your game!  Not bad, at all.  Do you have plans to expand it into more endings?

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
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2018-12-29 11:31:34 (edited by firefly82 2018-12-29 11:59:06)

Thank you! Thats so great! Exactly what i needed!

I got one little question: Can you expand the variables so i can use words and not only letters? HAHA, its not cause i want moren than 26 variables! Realy not! But in some cases the naming of the variables can get a little confusing.

2018-12-29 13:45:19

aprone,
i'M out of ideas right now
maybe this doggy can join a gang or something
or work in narkotic department?
or maybe he can create his own doggy gang and terrorise the city
if i get ideas maybe
but  love the concept

2018-12-29 13:55:46

Hello folks! This is growing insanely fast big_smile So, I have another small suggestion that may end up being a life saver. Is there a way for us to write commentaries? That would solve the variables issue of having to remember everything.
Best regards, Haramir.

The true blind is the one who refuses to see.

2018-12-29 17:23:05

Just another suggestion from me. Maybe you can add an ingame downloader for additional games for this engine, so people haven't to search the forum all the time but can download other games for it immediately if they want. The games this way could have a central place and could be downloaded from within the program. And maybe an update checker would be good as well.

2018-12-29 23:32:03

Hmm, some good ideas I see.

For variable names, I was able to more rapidly write the variable support into the engine by going with a specific length, so that the engine can parse the scripts based on character position.  I Could rewrite it to handle names for variables, but it might be more work than it's worth.  I'll have to look at the code next time I get a chance, and see what that would involve.

Comments are indeed a good idea, and I just need to figure out a good way to do it.  Actually you can already sort of do comments as long as they are on their own line.  This isn't an official comment system (since there isn't one yet), but if you just type out a message to yourself on it's own line, the game engine will just ignore it since it doesn't make any sense.  You may have noticed there aren't any errors or anything that pop up when you mess up, and that's because it is designed to ignore errors and move on, rather than crash and announce them to you (or the player).  You know what, I'm wrong... you can do comments at the end of even your script lines as long as they aren't within brackets.  It should be ignored as just garbage at the end of the script, which the engine should ignore completely.  I haven't tested any of these methods for doing comments, haha, but if I'm correctly picturing how the code would run, they should work.

As for an auto downloader, I think I'll have to give that some thought.  It would seem to be pretty wasteful having it download actual compiled Exes for games if it was some sort of official system.  Perhaps it could download just the scripts (all the stuff we type into cards.txt) and feed it directly into the engine since that would be incredibly small and fast.  I'll brainstorm this a bit.

Sadly there's always a chance that this could be built to host games, auto download them, and have 50 more features added... and then only like 3 people will ever make anything with it.  Haha, so there is at least that risk I have to consider before dumping too much time into it.  That isn't necessarily a reason Not to expand it though, so I will mull this around in the back of my mind while I'm out of the house for the day.

At work last night it was bugging me a bit that I still have the old "When" command, even though the new "RunIf" one can do the same thing plus a whole lot more.  It's really a lot like when I had the old "good" and "bad" variables that were later replaced with a better system.  I guess it's okay to have 2 ways of accomplishing the same thing, but it's just a little nagging feeling in my brain, Haha!

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

2018-12-29 23:54:30

would it be possible for someone to make the yugioh card game with this?

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2018-12-29 23:57:10

Wow, this thing is so fun.
I can now probably write a combat sim thing with this, complete with a store where you can buy things!
Here are some things that would be nice
Longer named variables, keeping track of what A does, what B does and what C can do is hard.
Forced drawing, this script forces the player to draw a specific card weather or not they have it.
Good for where you *must* have something happen at a given point.
Being able to set a variable to a random value.
Maybe removing options from the menu if there is at least one other option, and if these options can't be used anyway. Or allow a custom message when the [OnlyIf] script stops it from activating.

Card success message, plays the text when the player chooses an option.

These are ideas I just thought up, which would make things more interesting!

2018-12-30 00:17:32

Keithwipf1, you've hit on a few things I was also thinking would be nice.  A custom message for the [OnlyIf] script, and also a way to display a custom message when the player chooses one of the options.  Those shouldn't be too hard to add, with the OnlyIf one being a bit harder than the other.

As for forcing a specific card to be drawn, would it work to give that card a unique "Type", then use [NextCard] to ensure it is drawn next?

I forget that people may have trouble with the single letter variable names, because that's how I've been doing a lot of my own code since the 90s.  Lol!  Even to this day, many of my variables will end up being just a single letter of the alphabet, and I'm so accustomed to remembering what they stand for that it's completely second-nature.  I intend to look at the code to see how much work it would be to redesign it to handle longer variable names.

I was thinking about a store method while at work, and I wanted to share it just in case it inspires anyone else.  For a store, I imagined something like a shop that lets you spend some money to increase your health by 5 (so healing potions I suppose).  Normally you'd get to pick that option, gain 5 health, and then have to hope another store shows up soon.  Of the 2 options on the store card, the second one would be to just leave.  The first would charge you money, raise your health, but then add another store card to the deck.  The store card has a unique "Type", and the final script uses [NextCard=store] to ensure the store comes right back up next.  This would let the player buy as many potions as they needed to be fully healed, or to stop anywhere along the way, and then leave when they wanted.  It would work for stores selling ammo, food, or even large complex stores that have several options.  The player could buy 4 of the 7 products, if they wished, instead of needing to pick the 1 they want most and hoping another store comes along so they could buy the next.

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

2018-12-30 00:37:20

If the auto downloader wouldn't be so good, especially with games that involve sounds and such, then an alternative could be a web site or a part of a web site, where you can download all the games if you wish or select wich you want. Or a dropbox folder for the games.

2018-12-30 01:31:03 (edited by keithwipf1 2018-12-30 01:43:19)

Hmm, I'd use next card, but doesn't it require you to have at least one of that card in you're deck?
Sometimes I'd just want absolute control over what card is drawn next.
Edit: Also, can you add the option to add and remove cards based on the type?
For example in the Swamp campaign, there are some starvation cards at least 1.
You could set multiple comma separated types in the types line for each card, then put these types in to a add, remove, or remove all scripts like this.
[add=resupply][add="supplies"]
You could enclose the types in quotes or something.
What do you think?

2018-12-30 06:03:57

I got another little question:
Can i somehow specify how many of a certain card i want to add by giving a number?
Or do i have to write: [Add=Crash][Add=Crash][Add=Crash]

2018-12-30 06:51:43

Yes it does require at least 1 of that card to already be in the player's deck, but you can always add one before using the NextCard script.

When it comes to adding cards by type (I suspect it would randomly pick one of the cards of that type), that's something I'm open to adding.  I'll keep it in mind  next time I sit down at the code.

Firefly, for now you'd have to just repeat the add command like you did in your post.  There's no way to specify a number.

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

2018-12-30 07:02:39

OK, i see.
Would it be possible to add this number-thing to the syntax? It would help keeping the lines a little bit shorter and also a little bit more clearly
But it is realy OK for now.

2018-12-31 16:54:22

Would you add a default script?
It is a set of scripts that can be set on a card by card basis, and it can be set when a certain action is picked.
For example, a large complex store, would have at most 6 options that just plunk you back in the store again.
It would be easier to set up one script that does this, at least for me, and then just say that it handles actions 1,2,3,4,5,6.
This probably isn't worth it, but OK

2018-12-31 17:29:36

Oh, thats not necessary. Simply add the specific store-card and use the NextCard-option to pick it again.
But dont do this with your leave-store-choice, HAHA!

2018-12-31 20:54:02

I still haven't added in several of the suggested things, but I had a few minutes to crank out one of the easiest ones.  I might as well upload since one of the new commands [Say], may be quite useful to some of you guys.

Even though firefly is correct that you can repeat cards with 2 steps and a unique Type on the card, I did add in a [Repeat] script to make that smoother for people who want to use it instead of the longer method.

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