Just finished wrecking havoc im my game plan and came across a situation that Im really unsure about.

In the game I require the player to find and use a small boat. The boat cannot be carried to heavy (thats easy to do) but technically the boat is a container (player can put things in it) and its a location as well (player can get in it)

I guess Ill need some additonal descriptors in one of the script areas whcih will basically describe a location as though the player is floating through it - the play WILL be able to row

Has anyone done anything like this in the past?

Gareth

Hi Gareth,
I seem to recall something like that being done in an old CAT game - but can't easily remember which one I'm afraid...

Anyhow one way might be to set a particular flag when the player boards/enters/gets in the boat. Unset the same flag when the player leaves/disembarks/gets out of the boat. Those entries could be made in Response...

Then also in Response you could build some custom movement entries for when the player "moves" in the boat by checking the flag value to see if the player is IN the boat. These entries would need to be placed BEFORE the normal standard player movement entries eg:

[start]go east/row east#room=X#flagXX=1[acts]cmessYou row east.#room=XXX#objlocX=XXX#desc[end]

X is the room number where the player currently is (inside the boat)

XX is the flagnumber whose value has been set to 1 to indicate the player is inside the boat.

XXX is the new room number where the player goes by moving east - and the boat object is moved there also - so the player has access to the contents of the boat...

"desc" describes the new room (you will obviously need to add some new location descriptions and exit connections between them specially for these 'floating on water' rooms)

You probably would need several of these movement entries made logically so the player could row backwards and forwards thru them; these new "on water" locations would only be used/described and available when the player was inside the boat and moving between them.

Hope this helps you in some way to figure out a solution.

Regards,
catventure.

Thats Great Phil Thank you

Funnily enough I too remember something in CAT about vehicle transport

Ill go though the stages quietly and see what I can get - If it works (I hope ) Ill drop something in an example - Just dont hold ya breath lol


Gareth

Hi Gareth,

How things going with this puzzle?

Phil.

Hi Phil

Right . what I decided to do was to make a 10 location mini game.

Taht s done as far as the locations - I used what I would in my main game so I didnt waste anything.

Ive started to look at some of the examples in the tutorials and to see how condidtions are best made up - As Im still a novice I make quite a few command errors - An example of that would have been NOT putting the boats movemnts before the default onces in the Response table - didnt enter my head that it would cause an issue until you said.

Ive looked at some flag example and found that where ive sequential onces used like in door commands the flags didt reset ie when you open and close a door I set flags to zero (closed) but still able to walk in from a differnet direct -

So Im using even numbers to stop that - seems to work.

Next up - probabley this week endish Ill set a boat and flag system up that If I have it I travel to next location once Ive done that using "connetto"
Ill step up the complexity a little

Ill let you know asap how that goes.

OK. Sounds good. Don't hesitate to use this forum to post any questions or elaborations on building your game or to notify any TAB coding structure queries you need clarifying etc.

Cheers,
Phil

Just to let you know. This topic remains active but is continuing via private email correspondence...

Regards,
Phil.

I Hope Im in order here, I thought I'd just place an update for those interested...

Ive posted a rough version of a 5 location game to Phill for some expert input. He been kind enough to make an adjustment to requiremenst to have a boat with the player and to allow the player to jump in to the stream where I allowed the play to get in the stream. (the scene takes place in an underground river purely for the building of the examplar) He has also

Phil adjusted the location connection to actualy have the direction the player may go so that TAB tells the player "there exit east and west" etc. This is an option for the author so that they may TELL the play of routes available or allow the player to find out for themselves - either is of course accepted dependding what mood your in .....

Ive added a TIMEOUT command to allow the player to enter the strem to collect an object but of course its a tight time limit and can allow the author to kill off at this stage - the object of course can be a red herring if required again mood dictates ....

Oars are supplied with the boat but they are fixed to it - I had to decide if it were allowed to be a formal container as this would have been , in my humble opinion a large bit of code and made it difficult to control the player "riding" in the boat.

With these changes Im looking at options

Ive said that if this game works to an acceptable standard Im happy for phil to put it in somewhere as an example if people want to look at it.

Gareth