Letting players choose their own character....

[SadisticWonderland]

Yeah, this one is actually a second plan for the project I'm working on right now. If it's not possible; I'm going to stick with my first plan. My project is about school's library organization; with dictator president and his err...slaves...It's based on my own unpublished (yet) novel.

My protagonist in the novel I wrote is shy and soft. But I'm thinking to make two protagonist in this project (more reason for me to sit here in front of computer without moving ). One is a tomboyish active girl while another is the shy one I used in the book. So my question is;

1. Is it possible to make players choose between these two; because I'm thinking to make each of them has their own advantages--especially in handling the dictator president.
My friend says it's annoying to see my protagonist being bullied by the dictator every time she read my book. She wants to see a more out-loud character that can actually stands up against him. *shrugs*

2. If it's possible; how can I do it? I mean where can I get the code. I didn't see this in the cookbook.

Please and thank you.

[Tokzu]

Well, you can do this with the help of persistent data. first you can show a selection screen with the help of a imagemap (like this):



Depending on the selected character the user jumps to a label specific and then make use of variables to see which character was chosen:

In the main menu, instead of starting the game, you can show the selection screen

Code: Select all

screen charselection:
    imagemap:
        auto "imagemap_%s.jpg"

        hotspot (111,121,208,46) action Start("charactera")
        hotspot (99,201,232,46) action Start("characterb")

And then in your script.rpy:

Code: Select all

label charactera:
    $ischara=True
    jump continue

label characterb:
    $ischara=False
    jump continue

label continue:
    #The story of your chosen character continues here

This is broadly explained, it depends on you the details on whether it will be the same story for both (of course, but adapted to the character) or if it will be different.

Sorry if I did not explain well, I'm not very good at writing in English but if you speak Spanish you could explain it better.

[SadisticWonderland]

In the main menu, instead of starting the game, you can show the selection screen

Code: Select all

screen charselection:
    imagemap:
        auto "imagemap_%s.jpg"

        hotspot (111,121,208,46) action Start("charactera")
        hotspot (99,201,232,46) action Start("characterb")

Where actually do I put this code? In the screens.rpy?

And then in your script.rpy:

Code: Select all

label charactera:
    $ischara=True
    jump continue

label characterb:
    $ischara=False
    jump continue

label continue:
    #The story of your chosen character continues here

Do I have to put this under the 'label start' or above it? Do I have to define the character like usual?

I tried it. I put the first you gave to me into screens.rpy and the second one in scripts.rpy. Nothing happens. And where can I get the imagemap_%s.jpg?

hotspot (111,121,208,46) action Start("charactera") <--- What does this do actually? Especially the numbers.

Sorry for the questions. I'm confused.

[Milkymalk]

The numbers represent x1, y1, x2, y2 of a rectangle that is the clickable area of the imagemap; top-left and lower-right corner.

You can put screen code anywhere. Screens.rpy is just where all the predefined screens were placed, it actually doesn't matter whether you put your own screens there, in script.rpy or in a newly created rpy file (all rpy in the game directory are automatically loaded). The same goes for labels: Put them in any file in any order. BUT: If you dont "jump" or "return" from a label, the script just continues to execute and will follow any statements that are below. Think of labels as the numbers in a "Choose your own Adventure" book: When you are not told to go somewhere else, you just read on

[MioSegami]

Code: Select all

screen charselection:
    imagemap:
        auto "imagemap_%s.jpg"

        hotspot (111,121,208,46) action Start("charactera")
        hotspot (99,201,232,46) action Start("characterb")

Code: Select all

label charactera:
    $ischara=True
    jump continue

hotspot (111,121,208,46) action Start("charactera") <--- What does this do actually? Especially the numbers.

Sorry for the questions. I'm confused. [/quote]

Well the first part goes under screens.rpy, scroll down into you see the text that says main menu

Code: Select all

##############################################################################
# Main Menu 
#
# Screen that's used to display the main menu, when Ren'Py first starts
# http://www.renpy.org/doc/html/screen_special.html#main-menu

screen main_menu:

something like that. The numbers are hotspots on the screen, where the position of the clickable area. The "charcactera" is just the name you can change however you want. While on the other half "imagemap_%s.jpg" Is the image that you put in the screen for ex. your characters that you are making it selectable. The "imagemap_%s.jpg" is just used as an example. Hope this helped

[SadisticWonderland]

While on the other half "imagemap_%s.jpg" Is the image that you put in the screen for ex. your characters that you are making it selectable. The "imagemap_%s.jpg" is just used as an example.

So that means while I'm drawing my characters; I can use some random pics for it? Gee, thank you very much! This clears things up a bit.

[MioSegami]

While on the other half "imagemap_%s.jpg" Is the image that you put in the screen for ex. your characters that you are making it selectable. The "imagemap_%s.jpg" is just used as an example.

So that means while I'm drawing my characters; I can use some random pics for it? Gee, thank you very much! This clears things up a bit.

Well basically yes, you're drawing your characters. You could use a random pic for it It all depends on you and you're welcome

[SadisticWonderland]

Well basically yes, you're drawing your characters. You could use a random pic for it It all depends on you and you're welcome

I guess I have to draw everything first before doing this,right? Oh, god...That's a lot of work to do. >.<

Umm, I'm planning to make each characters to have different stats value. So far, I'm doing the 'try and error' method right now; trying anything I manage to found but keep failing. Any idea how to make each character to have their own stats? So that player can experience different personalities and abilities depending on their choice of characters? ^^;

Please and thank you.

[Milkymalk]

You can make a list of stats like this:

Code: Select all

init python:
    stats = [[1,4,3,6],[3,7,2,4],[2,5,1,3]]

This would make three sets of four stats each.
stats[0][3] would return the value 6 (always start counting with 0, so there are characters 0-2 and stats 0-3), for example. If you store the character the player chose in pchar, you could do:

Code: Select all

if stats[pchar][1] > 4:
    (do stuff)

to check if a given stat of the chosen character has a certain value and branch accordingly.

[SadisticWonderland]

You can make a list of stats like this:

Code: Select all

init python:
    stats = [[1,4,3,6],[3,7,2,4],[2,5,1,3]]

This would make three sets of four stats each.
stats[0][3] would return the value 6 (always start counting with 0, so there are characters 0-2 and stats 0-3), for example. If you store the character the player chose in pchar, you could do:

Code: Select all

if stats[pchar][1] > 4:
    (do stuff)

to check if a given stat of the chosen character has a certain value and branch accordingly.

Okay....This one is quite tricky. I'll try some more try and errors...But do I still have to do this in my script?;

Code: Select all

init python:
    register_stat("Strength", "strength", 10, 180)
    register_stat("Intelligence", "intelligence", 15, 180)
    register_stat("Confidence", "confidence", 10,180)

[Tokzu]

Yes, like this:

Code: Select all

init python:
    register_stat("Strength", "strength", 10, 180)
    register_stat("Intelligence", "intelligence", 15, 180)
    register_stat("Confidence", "confidence", 10,180)

label start:
    # Something else

[SadisticWonderland]

You can make a list of stats like this:

Code: Select all

init python:
    stats = [[1,4,3,6],[3,7,2,4],[2,5,1,3]]

This would make three sets of four stats each.
stats[0][3] would return the value 6 (always start counting with 0, so there are characters 0-2 and stats 0-3), for example. If you store the character the player chose in pchar, you could do:

Code: Select all

if stats[pchar][1] > 4:
    (do stuff)

to check if a given stat of the chosen character has a certain value and branch accordingly.

I tried it but there are errors. Can you explain more? And what actually those number do? Sorry...I'm a bit numerically challenged.