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Post by jdb1984 on Dec 10, 2008 5:43:25 GMT
Will the Seventh sense versions be able to tell whether you did things in a previous adventure that may influence happenings in a later one?
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Post by Dave on Dec 10, 2008 6:17:18 GMT
Not really sure on that one... Could you be any more specific? It can show you the history of the choices you made, but I'm not sure if that's enough information. When you start Magnakai series, you'll be able to still see which Kai disciplines you chose... Is that anything along the lines of what you're asking? Sorry to be thick-headed!
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Post by outspaced on Dec 10, 2008 11:41:06 GMT
I think we're talking about things like: "Have you ever visited the Isle of Ghosts in a previous Lone Wolf adventure?" If Seventh Sense could remember such information that would be helpful to those with short memories.
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Post by Dave on Dec 10, 2008 14:28:12 GMT
Oh yes, it definitely remembers that sort of thing. All I have to do is tell it which book(s) and/or section(s) the player must have visited in order for it to count that as a "visited xxx". And with the latest system (most recent version of the program), it can all be applied retroactively - so it'll know you visited the Isle of Ghosts, even though it won't be keeping track of such information explicitly.
(In the previous version, I had to explicitly tell the game at the time you visited the Isle of Ghosts that you had done it. This new way will simply "remember" that you did it - based on the journal history.)
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Post by alderaine on Dec 10, 2008 14:32:40 GMT
That is one of the things that would need to eventually be included in the core XML - it was on the "to-do" list to mark key events/locations Kind of like an ongoing item list.
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Post by alderaine on Dec 10, 2008 14:50:07 GMT
On that note, and off-topic... that is one of the most annoying things with the books! Say I'm on book 15, and the place in question was back in book 6 (probably a bad example but you get the idea) - as a reader, it could have been years since I did book 6! I don't know if it could have been done any better, but definitely one of the things we can improve. My only concern is how do you future-proof it? I guess we could log *all* locations, etc...?
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Post by Dave on Dec 10, 2008 15:44:29 GMT
That's the only real solution that I can see, which was part of what inspired the whole "Journal entries" thread. Since I would be tracking every section visited by Lone Wolf, it made sense to make that available to the player, and then it was only natural to want to be able to display some information as to what happened, instead of just a section number.
Really, though, once we have firmly established exactly which sections/books are associated with which "have visited/have fought" sections, Each of those can be assigned concrete numbers, and playing software would then only need to keep track of having visited a section if the xml says to do so. But, since we have no such thing yet, we'll go with my way for now, and that should help to lay the base for future projects.
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Post by jdb1984 on Dec 13, 2008 16:29:25 GMT
And what about things such as puzzles that require you to go to "the same page as your answer"? How are you going to do that?
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Post by Dave on Dec 13, 2008 17:53:27 GMT
That was worked out long ago. You'll click a button which brings up a dialogue box that you type your answer into. If it's the right answer, it'll take you there. If not, you'll have to try again (or if the text instructs you to go to another section, you'll go there.) I have been trying to plan ahead for the many contingencies which crop up in the books - that's part of why it's taking so long to write - Joe was very creative in his design!
Already started on converting book 2 with the editor last night. I absolutely love my "Auto" button in the editor - it saves me *tons* of work!
Battle history is working fantastically - you can see all of the battles you've had for the book, with details such as what stats (CS / EP) you and the enemy start with (as well as for multiple enemies), and the Combat Ratio and which Random number you picked on each round. You can also review any past battles from previous books you've completed.
Now I just have to grade that huge stack of final exams that I gave last week... I don't know what I was thinking. >_<
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Post by mckinstry on Dec 13, 2008 23:24:14 GMT
Wow, can't wait to try out all the new features your incorporating into the new release. The journal entries will add a really nice touch.
I feel your pain about marking exams but I had to get through one exam and three coursework deadlines all in one week! Still got a lot to do over Christmas, although its more enjoyable website and graphical work.
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Post by outspaced on Jan 31, 2009 15:20:40 GMT
Hi Dave Here's something we've hit in Book 19 that you can deal with immediately in Seventh Sense without having to go back and re-code Books 1 and 5. In Section 182 of Wolf's Bane you're asked if you have ever visited the Graveyard of the Ancients. But what the question really seems to mean is: Have you ever met Crypt Spawn before? So if you put a tag in Books 1 and 5 for whenever a player meets Crypt Spawn, you're future-proofing the software for when you work on Book 19!
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Post by Dave on Feb 1, 2009 7:46:21 GMT
Thanks for looking out for me! I actually realized the possibility of such a situation while rewriting the software for Seventh Sense. In the original version, I had to explicitly tell the game that the player had visited the Graveyard of the ancients, so it would keep track of that. But now the game simply keeps track of everywhere that LW goes, so if I discover that in book 16, I needed to keep track of something from book 3, it's already taken care of. All I have to do is add a small line of code specifying which section(s) for which books LW could have visited to fulfill the condition specified in the text, e.g. visited the Graveyard, fought a cryptspawn, etc. So, that particular angle is future-proofed already! The only hassle is looking back in the books to find out exactly *where* LW had to go, as in which actual section(s), to make it count!
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Post by outspaced on Feb 1, 2009 9:42:16 GMT
Sorted!
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Post by Dave on Apr 14, 2009 22:00:12 GMT
I'm locking this thread, as it is mostly obsolete.
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