I'm a complete novice when it comes to using the software, and I've tried sitting down to toy with it but I just can't seem to get it.

I know what I want, and I think I even have a general idea of how I want it to play out...the problem is I'm clueless as to what I need to do.

I'm wanting to create a deck of cards in which a player will issue the command play cards and I would like a random number issued with a description as to what happend.

Think of it like this:

Player A sees NPC A.
Player A types play cards
Two numbers are randomized. One for the NPC and one for Player. Let's say the player loses...then I want a message to be displayed.

You lost the hand, and NPC A tells you to remove your shirt.

Then...to keep the card game going I realize I'm going to have a counter in place that adds one...and let's say when the counter reaches 6 the player is unable to play against that NPC anymore.

If someone can point me in the general direction of where I need to go with this, I'd greatly appreciate it. I also plan on building on this card game by adding extra NPCs that the player can play against as well. Even perhaps to change them.

I don't want this to be a card game of skill, just a random type thing for the time being.

Any suggestions? Pretty please?

-Trin

Hi Trin

Any suggestions? Pretty please?

Well if you are just going for an ultra simplistic 'card game' in that you don't want to have the player see what actual cards he has and so on, then this is really easy to do. I'm assuming you are starting the game with the player and the NPC equal, say having $5 each (or 5 items whatever...)

All you need to do is set a numeric variable to 5 and then use a random number to decide if the player or NPC has won each hand. If the player wins you add one to the control variable, if the player loses you deduct one from the variable. (Printing messages as appropriate obviously).

When the numeric variable reaches 10, the player has won and it is game over, if instead the numeric variable hits 0 then the NPC has won and it is also game over.

This is simple in the extreme, if you want to replicate (say) playing some form of Poker you are going to have to do some serious code slinging. Things like monitoring the pack (there is only 1 Ace of Spades for instance - you can't just generate cards randomly) and implementing the hand scoring rules of the game would be a LOT of work.

If you want I will cobble up the 'simple' version as a demo for you - just post here (or e-mail me) if that will be helpful at all.

Al (MaDbRiT)

A simple version is exactly what I want. Seeing the card type would be a nice feature, but I really should take baby steps here. Again, I'm just looking for a way to essentially play war (let he who has the highest card win) here.

Thing I'm most concerned is how I could do this using QDK...if you rattle off code I'm afraid I'd be just as confused as I am now.

Hi again

Thing I'm most concerned is how I could do this using QDK...if you rattle off code I'm afraid I'd be just as confused as I am now.

The provision of non-standard interactivity like this is much easier to do with manual coding methods than it is with QDK, that is a fact of life - although I realise my saying that really doesn't help much if you aren't familiar with writing program code at all.

However it can be done through QDK, I was too busy to look at it yesterday, but I can probably do something in the way of a 'follow these steps' guide given the time. The real question is should I do it as just a list of steps to take to get the thing to work, do the same list but try and explain how it works too - or would a screen-cam tutorial movie of me doing the necessary be better?

Obviously the screen-cam idea would involve sending a rather big file, and if you don't have a good fast broadband connection, is a non-starter!

Cheers

Al (MaDbRiT)

Give me a week and I could probably knock off a flash file which would be much smaller and easier to zip around the web with.
Much better quality as well (at least *hopefully* better).

I might get up to that over the weekend or something.

I'm on DSL so bandwidth isn't an issue. Taking your time to sit down and make a walk-through using screen shots isn't neccesary, I don't have a problem following straight written directions. Thank you all so so so much for all your help!

I don't think either of us (Madbrit or I) meant to insult you in any way. I think it would personally be easier to show pictures and talk you through the reasons more than try and describe in words what to do - it would also be alot easier to understand I reckon.

Al - do you still live in dial-up land?

Hi again

I don't think either of us (Madbrit or I) meant to insult you in any way.

Indeed not - though you might just be a tad over-sensitive TrOn, I'm not sure the posting was meant to be read in that way

I think it would personally be easier to show pictures and talk you through the reasons more than try and describe in words what to do - it would also be alot easier to understand I reckon

.

As do I. I've done several Photoshop / other GFXl tutorials with screencam and generally find people prefer this as there can be no ambiguity as to what is being done. Admittedly these are essentially 'visual' packages - being able to see what is supposed to be happening is kind of vital

Al - do you still live in dial-up land?

Yes and no, My 'study room' PC is still on dial-up, but the 'family' PC has a 3Mb (soon 10Mb) broadband connection. I keep meaning to put in a wireless networking connection to share the BB connection but never quite seem to get around to it.

Interesting idea to use flash, As a tutorial for QDK is essentially going to be a sequence of static screenshots it might well make for a more compact presentation. File size isn't an issue to me normally and recording a screencam is just so much less hassle than making anything in Flash.

Anyone who says "why not use Powerpoint" at this point is to be banished to somewhere unmentionable...

Al (MaDbRiT)

But why not use powerpoint!1
Haha, I quite agree with that banishment.

I guess you have something which takes a sort of 'film' of your desktop?
I thought you meant an actual 'cam' which was pointed at the screen.

And flash isn't too bad, it'd be a couple of screens, simulated mouse pointers moving and words appearing in - with a simple button to move onto the next 'point'.

Hi TrOn

I guess you have something which takes a sort of 'film' of your desktop?
I thought you meant an actual 'cam' which was pointed at the screen.

The product is actually called 'Screencam' (made by LOTUS in the deep dark past) and basically it captures all (or selected areas) of the screen while allowing you to add narration on the fly (or afterwards) and then go back and add visual pointers etc . It outputs a relatively small file compared to any form of video capture.

It's dead simple to use too - which can't be bad.

It used to come bundled with Lotus Smartsuite / Lotus 123 which is where my copy comes from.

There was a pretty good freeware equivalent a while ago - but i think it has gone 'shareware' now - more is the pity.

Al (MaDbRiT)

E-gods!
It's been a while since I last used - or even heard the word - smartsuite.. Back when I did my stint in IBM (yes, it really was a jail sentance).

We use lotus notes here, so I really can't imagine anything by Lotus being good.

I suppose screencam is the way to go then ..

No, no, no, no, I wasn't offended at all! It's just that having everyone offer all this help kind of surprised me. Just because normally when you do ask for help in any other forums on the net you get at least 2 or 3 "Have you tried reading the manual?" style questions. Instead everyone's willing to help here and like I said...it's just surprising!

Hi TrOn

It's been a while since I last used - or even heard the word - smartsuite.. Back when I did my stint in IBM (yes, it really was a jail sentance).

We use lotus notes here, so I really can't imagine anything by Lotus being good.

I know where you are coming from with Notes... Interface from hell IMHO and about as counter-intuitive a product as I have ever had the misfortune to have to use.

That said, I still prefer Lotus 123 to MS Excel. I have sixteen plus year old Lotus spreadsheets (DOS version 3 and earlier) with complicated macros that still work fine under latest 123 (Windows) version 9.8. These require minimal upkeep and support. Complicated Excel spreadsheets seem to break horribly with each new release of the host package and need loads of attention.

Lotus 123 was THE application that put the PC on the map of course, it goes back that far.

Al (MaDbRiT)

Just checking to see if someone is still working on a presentation of sorts for me...if not could we just go with a simple description?

Hi again

Just checking to see if someone is still working on a presentation of sorts for me...if not could we just go with a simple description?

Oh dear

Must admit I got sidetracked into doing something else and completely forgot about the original point of this thread!

I'll have a go at putting something together sometime this week.

Al (MaDbRiT)

No worries at all, I would've post sooner but I didn't want to seem as if I was being too pushy.

Again, thank you greatly for your help.

I've given up on this aspect of the game and have decided to exclude it.

I appreciate all the assistance (or lack thereof) I've recieved in regards to this.