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Get help from the experts on variables, scripts, items, and other scary things.

I need help with options. Desperately.

one year ago

I want to give my players options, like where to live, what their name will be, their gender, etc.

The only issue is, I don't know how to make these last. I assume I use variables, but I really don't know at all. This is my first storygame and I'm pretty sure I'm jumping in way over my head, but I need it to be perfect.

The story I'm working on is a really long project, that will take players through their whole life. Starting with character birth in 1908 and taking them through till possible death of old age in the early 2000s. Though, as with anything, there's going to be many ways to die before then, and I really want to just know what I'm doing.

I may be doing something way too advanced for me, but that's because I want this to be every storygame that I know I'd like to play.

Mizal

I need help with options. Desperately.

one year ago

Hey, welcome! Your game idea sounds extremely ambitious, you may decide that a small project is best while you experiment with more advanced options and learn the editor.

The things you're asking about aren't especially difficult, you're right that it's mostly a matter of storing options in variables. There's also a method called on page scripting, to have the game change just a word or line that reflects the player's choices, without actually needing a new page when most of the rest of the text will be the same.

I would suggest first of all just going to the Help and Info section though and browsing the articles on the advanced editor and scripting, that should cover everything you need to know and more. Then if you're still wondering anything specific, it'll be easier to help you once we're all on the same page. I

f all you need to do is store variables and have the game check them though, that's the first thing anyone messing with the editor will learn.

EyeballTree1424

I need help with options. Desperately.

one year ago

I understand that it is very ambitious! I know this will take me months if not years to complete, so I will be writing other things in the meantime, both as a way to help me figure out adding stuff, and as a way to work on my writing and see what I could improve on, as I haven't had to write characters for any format other than a roleplay in about 4 years.

I figured it was variables, but the instructions given by the site are hard to follow.

Mizal

I need help with options. Desperately.

one year ago

It may not be strictly needed, but in storygame features, first of all go and set everything to advanced to enable global scripting and more freedom with IF THEN ELSE type stuff in case it does become necessary for what you want to do. I'd also recommend getting the extension from BradinDvorak's profile for dark mode and some other features you can set from your profile. (It makes some changes good for testing this kind of game, since you'll be able to keep multiple quicksaves and alter variables on the fly from within the game itself.) But for the most basic explanation: Make a variable called GENDER. On the page where you have the player choose this, have those links set GENDER to 1 for male and 2 for female. Everything the character's gender affects will from that point on be checking what number GENDER is toggled to. Something like: %%GENDER%=%1%You are born a healthy baby boy!%% %%GENDER%=%2%A pretty baby girl is born; that's you!%% added directly in with the story text would change a single line. Expect to do this a lot for he/she type sentences. (And I separate the lines for readability, you're free to mush them together once you confirm they're working so the extra spaces won't effect the formatting.) If a choice has a bigger effect and you want a completely separate page, you'd use a link script like this: IF %GENDER = 1 THEN $DEST := @P14 IF %GENDER = 2 THEN $DEST := @P15 (Or whatever the page numbers are.) The link script processes before the new page loads, the system variable $DEST will check if the variable matches and if so hijack the player to a new page rather than the one the link is pointing to. This is useful for all kinds of things dealing with delayed consequences to earlier choices and even people afraid of scripts should learn this command. Remember though, lots of moving parts and game like elements can be a cool addition, but they can't carry a story. At the end of the day, how well it's received is going to come mostly down to the quality and entertainment value of the actual writing.

EyeballTree1424

I need help with options. Desperately.

one year ago

Thank you so much! I am forever grateful to you for this help, as the command explanation in the forums was very overwhelming for a newer user.

Gryphon

I need help with options. Desperately.

one year ago

Hello! Welcome to the site!

As this is your first storygame, I'm going to repeat the most useful writing advice I've ever received: when you're starting out writing, don't write about your character's entire lifetime or career--just write about a single day in their life and make a game out of that. You'll learn the ropes, and you can build from there. This advice was the tipping point in me finally finishing my first project. (Here's the article I got that advice from.)

As far as character customization: It's certainly doable, but in allowing each player to customize their character, you sacrifice your ability to tell certain specific and engaging stories. On CYS, the general attitude is that people prefer stories with distinctive and well-developed protagonists than customizable ones.

Here's the article home page. This should teach you everything you'll need about variables and scripting, if you're confused you can ask for clarification in the advanced editor forum (but most things you can figure out just by troubleshooting a little).

Good luck!

EyeballTree1424

I need help with options. Desperately.

one year ago

I understand that I've been ambitious, so I will be writing other stories before releasing what I really want.

Ogre11

I need help with options. Desperately.

one year ago

Options are good. Options are nice. Options are fun.

Will the options selected have any bearing on the story at all? In other words, if you're allowing the reader to choose the color of their house, will that ever appear again in the story? If not, no worries, just give the reader the illusion of choice and move along!

If you're just looking for some small flavor options, like the color of their house that you want to mention in a later page, you can just use in-page variables and keep things simple. If the choices are going to affect choices and pages later on, well, I just hope you've done a lot of planning because there's going to be a lot of pages. In that case, sure, use regular variables.

EyeballTree1424

I need help with options. Desperately.

one year ago

Some of them will. for example, gender and hometown will affect your experiences growing up. As the story takes place between a large space of time, location will matter! the womens rights movements will affect characters, as well as if you choose to live in say, texas, the dust bowl will affect it.

While I know I could do what most stories do and choose name,gender, and location for my players, the more personalized it will have to be. The names aren't so necessary, I suppose. That could easily be changed.