Newbie questions

Hello, I've read the forums for a while and now that I'm working with Coldstone I have a few basic questions that I'm unclear about:

Is it possible to slow down the speed of the game, such as the speed that players travel across the screen?

Is it possible to make an NPC move to a certain location and stay at that location?

Should I try to make the entire game in one "pass through" or should I make the basic events from beginning to end and then go back and add detailed events? I've been using Coldstone not for long and I've noticed that there aren't many options to organize all the items and events in the library.

thanks in advance for any help!

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Hi

welcome to the forum!

Yes players onscreen speed is related to the seconadry statistic Speed. it represents the number of pixals the charater will move each frame (RTM pg 20)

Yes. NPC can be be moved toward a target and made to trigger an event when they reach it. make the event one that kills the first NPC and replaces it with a stationary NPC. (RTM pg 43 & 55)

I beleave the best thing to do is read the manual first, then open the medevil templete game and mod it either via the tutorial or your own mucking around, then you could attempt to build your own game.

stray

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See Coldstone_Tips at: (url="http://"http://coldroom.150m.com/CGE_Stuff/CGE_Tips.html")CGE_Tips(/url)

hahahhahah

Sonoma Co. Prison

thats funny.

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Morvera ner Morden

Quote

Originally posted by Frosty fu:
Should I try to make the entire game in one "pass through" or should I make the basic events from beginning to end and then go back and add detailed events? I've been using Coldstone not for long and I've noticed that there aren't many options to organize all the items and events in the library.

Welcome Frosty fu. Your game will probably be built from smaller elements and you will find yourself doing a bit at a time and then checking it to see if it works the way you want. You might do the maps first, or create the NPCs, it doesn't matter.

What does matter is organization (the second part of your question) and that has to come from within you. Let's say you have a bunch of items in one part of the game and another set somewhere else. Since items, NPCs, and events are listed alphabeticaly, you might want to use a naming plan which will make it easy to locate the element you want such as:

Items
Pt1 A tool, Pt1 B food, Pt1 C weapon, etc.
Pt2 A gizmo, Pt2 B thing, Pt2 C doodad.

Do the same kind of thing for events, they might be listed by the map in which they occur. Make it easy for yourself to find what you need when you need to change it.

Good luck with your game. ~RD

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My Doctor said I was having too much wine, women, and song - so I gave up singing because 2 out of 3 is not so bad.
The (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/rduck/")Kingdom of Garendall(/url) sectional map is easily printed from gif format pages.
Find those areas you missed the first time around. You'll want to explore those hidden areas now made accessible with Spells Expander.

For my own sanity, I've written a main story line and plan to go through and place that in first, making sure that things happen in order. I have four offshoots of the main story line that I'll need to order in one at a time. And I have several small stories that can be random. And then I have several "tasks" that the Player can choose or not. But I'll probably need to place them in the above order.

I'm now making my maps before I place the stories, etc.

Anyway, this is what works for me.

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-- Debra
Danillitphil Productions

for events in the game i made a definite begining and end to the story and i have a idea of the pacing inbetween. i had never done anything like this before so i just went with what came naturally which was to address each part as it came up instead of pre planning everything inbetween. so far its worked as i concept each level it almost seems like i can taylor the story more to each section i make. i guess from my standpoint its extremely flexible so you can bend with anything that comes your way instead of trying to fit what may not naturally work. i dont know if any method of story forming/plot is better pre or post maybe as long as you have a strong begining and end and good knowledge of how to get there.

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Morvera ner Morden

I haven't started a project yet so kudos to you. As to winging the creation order of your project, it would probably work fine as long as you find a natural way of organizing EVERYTHING and stick to it. You will most likly find that you will have to run back and forth in the project to fix this or that and to insert things quite often so good organization is your friend. Keep that in mind and you can do things whenever because they will all eventually end up in the same order as if you kept a strict order.
As an aside to my ramblings, I find that in any project, it is always a good idea to keep a notebook of unorganized ideas, toss aways, and crud work, and that even if you do have one, sticking to a strick creation order of THIS, then THIS, then THIS, etc.... well you may forget an idea or not even understand what you were thinking about.
Anyway, what im getting at is this: do things natrually and when you feel like doing it, but keep whats done and beinging worked on organized in some fastion so you can find it later to fix/add/remove/fiddle with/etc.
Sorry I ramble every one, hope it helps.

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irc: Draco/Dracon

(This message has been edited by DeathWalker (edited 05-02-2003).)

good point deathW, to keep a good record of everything you do even just ooddball notes etc. after a maniacal search i ended up using a older version of notepad deluxe (http://www.ibrium.se/npdmain.html) and so far it meets my every need. i also make a nightly backup upon shutdown with lacies free backup software (silverkeeper (url="http://"http://www.silverkeeper.com/")http://www.silverkeeper.com/(/url) ) on another hard drive and i also use it to backup any game work i do to another hard drive.

anytime i get a idea i have multiple pages for game im working on, different games, just cool ideas, properties to develop etc. i cannot stress this enough, if you think of something good write it down pronto or else its gone! i even have a pad of paper by my bed as ive been known to fall asleep thinking bout game designs..... just keep it organized, if its on computer make sure you have some fail safe to keep it doubly safe in case of accidental deletion or corruption. ive been know to delete a few important things since im a demon with cmmd delete - cmmd shift delete.

snaps of me notes (url="http://"http://www.redknightentertainment.com/rkewerks/sitphiles/mynotes.gif")http://www.redknight...les/mynotes.gif(/url)

(This message has been edited by DJ (edited 05-02-2003).)