I want to write a trilogy of games using Quest where the player's choices carry over from one game to the next. Would it be possible for a game to create a final save that could then be loaded into a new game to set variables?

Also, I want to display the serial comma in lists. Meaning, I want: "You can see a couch, table, television, and a phone" rather than not having the final comma: "You can see a couch, table, television and a phone". How would I go about making Quest do this?

Thanks!

Are you creating a gamebook or text adventure?

I'm using Quest, but using hyperlinks and hiding the command bar. I intend to write them as if I were writing an Infocom-eqsue text adventure inspired by Bioware style storytelling and choices that carry over between games, but there will be no typing of commands. At least that's the plan currently.

I always thought that the easiest way to carry information over to the next was by giving the player a specific password at the end of the previous one that they would type in at the start of the next one. It all depends on what you want to start with/carry over from the previous game though. It would be fairly easy if there were just four or five outcome-based "things" you want to transfer. If you are talking about character trait values... that's a whole different story. You could still conceivably generate code for giving starting values for things like strength, agility, charm, intelligence, player name, etc, but it is far more complex. This has been mentioned before and I never thought it was really worth it to transfer THAT MUCH data over. I think players are more intrigued by the story and elements within than "picking up" where they left off statistically.

As for your comma issue... I could be wrong but comma or no comma, it is not grammatically incorrect either way. Most choose to ignore the comma having "and" or "or" take its place, but I looked on a couple sites and found that neither is incorrect. Personally, I think the comma is unnecessary because "and" or "or" indicate a pause/separation of items. To change it, you would need to go into the built-in stuff already provided by Quest by clicking on Filter at the bottom of the 'Tree of Stuff'. I think. Plus, I have no idea where to go from there. DO NOT tinker with the built-in stuff unless you absolutely know what you are doing though. You could change some things in there and break your game. FYI.

Good Luck.

XanMag wrote:I always thought that the easiest way to carry information over to the next was by giving the player a specific password....

<snip>

That's an intereseting idea - anyone know how to implement this? Is there another, possibly better, way?

XanMag wrote:As for your comma issue... I could be wrong but comma or no comma, it is not grammatically incorrect either way....

<snip>

It's simply a personal preference rather than a grammatical nitpick. I think the serial comma allows text, especially long lists, to read better and be more clear. It aggravates me when others don't use it, and I won't use Quest if there isn't some way for me to properly implement it. I actually have it working, somewhat, by editing the AND, as well as the OR, English templates, but the engine prints an extra space prior to the serial comma and I'm having trouble figuring out how to prevent that.

Thanks!

You can override these two functions (if using the off-line editor):

FormatObjectList
FormatExitList

The Pixie wrote:You can override these two functions (if using the off-line editor):

FormatObjectList
FormatExitList

Thank you. I was able to copy both into my game and modify the line to:

if (count = listLength - 1) {
          result = result + ", " + preFinal + " "
        }

in both to display the serial comma.

Now I'm still wondering if it would be possible to carry over choices from one game to the next. Anyone have any further thoughts on that, or how to implement the passcode option mentioned earlier?

Thanks!

See here:
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=6404&p=43506#p43506

Thank you, Pixie. I think I'm slowly figuring it out....