TEMPLATE: Tumbleweed Verbs 1.4

[abstauber]

This is the long overdue overhaul of the classic 9 Verbs template:
Tumbleweed Verbs!

Here are a few highlights:

Thimbleweed(tm) mode


A new save&load system


...while offering the classic SCUMM experience


And it still speaks your local language... sort of


A more complete feature list:

• cancelable interactions, no need to wait until the character reaches the object/hotspot etc
• doubleclick to exit locations
• all new template graphics
• contains a scrollable dialog gui
• running with a double click
• contains a nice door script in case you have lots of those
• customizable: invent your own verbs, remove a few or add even more
• helps with unhandled events
• player follows the cursor while running (if the mouse button is pressed)
• complete code cleanup: all functions are in structs
• all settings can be reached and modified anytime
• all settings are conveniently grouped in a separate script file
• translations available for Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, Italian and Dutch
• includes two demo rooms to get you started
• it comes with a manual

Code
https://github.com/dkrey/ags_tumbleweed

Download
https://github.com/dkrey/ags_tumbleweed/releases

Documentation
https://github.com/adventuregamestudio/ags-manual/wiki/Tumbleweed

For historic reasons, here's an outdated version of the manual
http://shatten.sonores.de/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/tumbeweed_doc.zip

[Mehrdad]

Great!!!. It's really useful . Nice job!!

[selmiak]

nice! Can you integrate this into the normal LA template?

[CaptainD]

This looks great!  Thanks for all the hard work that's going into it.

[Calin Leafshade]

Forgive my ignorance but what is the "Thimbleweed mode"?

It looks the same to me.

[Snarky]

It just means the verb and hotspot name follow the mouse cursor instead of showing up in a dedicated "action bar"

[abstauber]

@Calin & Snarky:
It is a tad more than just a label following the mouse cursor, although it is true that it isn't actually visible on the screenshot.
The "action label" also show the default action for the location and switches to the chosen action upon mouse click.
It stays that way until:
- you cancel the action
- the action is executed and done
- you move the mouse away from the location

The SCUMM mode always displays the chosen action until you click something or the action is done. It is a bit hard to explain - just try it and you will see

@Selmiak: Do you have a particular feature in mind?
As long as the "normal" template is being used, I will maintain it. But the purpose of this template is to replace the older one.
I might integrate the running stuff in the 9Verbs MI-Style template at some point. Done

@CaptainD & Mehrdad: Thanks

[LostTrainDude]

Rounds of applause abstauber! This looks great!

[Danvzare]

Awesome, who knew Thimbleweed Park would have spurred abstauber to update this old template so much.

[abstauber]

A question for you native speakers:

How should the label for the GUI style be called? (It is a slider where you switch between classic SCUMM mode and the 'modern' thimbleweed mode.

Currently it is slider called GUI style with the options classic and modern
In German I called the slider 'Bedienung' which can be translated to Mode of operation.

But how could it be called in English? 'GUI style' sounds a bit too technical.

[CaptainD]

Hmm... I think "Layout" or possibly just "Style" would be reasonable words to use.  I'd probably favour "Layout" myself.

[abstauber]

Alright, thanks! I'll stick with layout then.

Btw. I've uploaded a new beta. For better testing the second room is now scrolling.
Thanks to arj0n, we have a new translation: dutch.
Also thanks to Bicilotti, Monsieur Ouxx and Cireja for helping me with the existing translation.

[abstauber]

Here's a new beta and I finally managed to create a repository for this template.

Changes:
The "cog" button is now on the same GUI as the action label.
Slight changes to what happens if you "talk to" nothing.
Code cleanup and small bugfixes

Did actually anyone already give this a go?

[abstauber]

Lo and behold, I received a bug report
Beta4 is up. The running mode now waits for certain distance between player character and cursor. Also the running isn't blocking anymore.

edit: We have reached Beta5. You can now "run" on hotspots with an exit extention to change rooms.

[abstauber]

I finally managed to update the documentation and I also added a new chapter about the changes and differences to the 9verbs MI-style template.
I guess waiting for further bug reports at this point might be a bit useless, so I call this a release candidate

[daniel]

this looks awesome abstauber!

noob question:
how do i go about updating my game from the 9-verb template? i can't seem to figure out how i can import this template into my existing game:D
i already have custom UI graphics, colors, fonts etc. in place. i suppose this is going to be a bit of a pain?

p.s. i noticed in both your templates, when you look at something you can click the mouse to skip a line of text. however in lucasarts games when you look at stuff you can still move while the text keeps displaying. i feel this really helps the "flow" of the gameplay. would it be possible to achieve this in AGS as well?

[abstauber]

how do i go about updating my game from the 9-verb template?

Currently both templates share the same features, except the save/load handling. You can export the save/load GUIs from the template and import them to your game. Also you need to export the optiongui module.
Actually migrating your game completely from one template to another might indeed be quite a pain I'd rather say: create a new game from Tumbleweed template and import your rooms into it. Afterwards apply your other changes, fonts colors and graphics.

however in lucasarts games when you look at stuff you can still move while the text keeps displaying

Unfortunately displaying speech is usually blocking in AGS. You could use BackgroundSpeech, but that way you would loose the talking animations with "lucas style speech".

[daniel]

thanks abstauber,

i guess i'll just continue with the "old" template for now and maybe migrate at a later point...
actually the one thing that i like most from the new template is that the action/info is displayed over the cursor instead of an action bar.
is this possible in the 9-verb template somehow?

[abstauber]

Sure, that is actually not a big deal. First you need to resize the gAction GUI to your game's screen resolution (eg 320x200)
Now you need to copy over this adjusted  AdjustActionBarPosition function to your template and make sure it is called in repeatedly_execute_always

Code: ags

void AdjustActionBarPosition() 
{
  int actionLabelWidth = GetTextWidth(ActionLine.Text, eFontTextOut) + 4;
  int actionLabelHalf = actionLabelWidth / 2;
  int xpos = mouse.x - actionLabelHalf ;
  int ypos = mouse.y - Game.SpriteHeight[mouse.GetModeGraphic(mouse.Mode)] - 4;
  
  if (xpos + actionLabelWidth >= System.ScreenWidth) xpos = System.ScreenWidth - actionLabelWidth;
  else if (xpos < 0) xpos = 0;
  
  if (ypos < 0 ) ypos = 0;
  
  ActionLine.X = xpos;
  ActionLine.Y = ypos;
  ActionLine.Width = actionLabelWidth;
}

[Jigen Daisuke]

Hi Abstauber!

Is it possible to use your save/load GUI (with screenshot/date/hour mode) on other templates?
I'd like to use it in a game I'm currently developing!