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Hey, I made a small demo game that shows how to connect a GUI, a module and a room.

OMG! Thank you! This is amazingly helpful! I'm now off to fiddle with this to help figure out how this all works and how to implement everything!   

Thank you so much for all your help and suggestions! I'll start there and work things out one by one from there! Thanks!

[far]

So, I've spent a few days looking around the forums and everything I look at regarding battle systems is far too complicated for what I wanted. My initial conception would look like a combat window, but as I think about it the actual "structure" of the combat is more like a simple math puzzle.

From what I understand of coding/scripting, these are the variables I need to be able to set into a template:
- Define each boss's current HP
- Define each boss's "success" HP
- Create buttons for the options the player can use
- Duplicate/modify buttons for each round of each fight
- Script each button to either add or subtract from the boss's HP
- Script Team Up button to only be usable once per puzzle
- Define a variable for whether the boss is "complete"
- Script to make dialogue system to lead into each puzzle
- Script the dialogue option to initiate combat to disappear if boss is "complete"

Trick is: everything I can find on making a "combat system" includes large sections about weapons, mana, or any of dozens of other variables I don't need... This makes it quite difficult for me to tease out the definitions/scripting/etc that I actually need to do to make this simple +/- score based puzzle combat. I'd be happy to follow a scripting tutorial or even just educate myself from scratch on how to do this without breaking the code (which I've already done a few times since I started this endeavor). I just can't find the info I need without getting lost in a muddy swamp like QfG4. Any suggestions on where I start looking? If I even had a series to follow through the help files would be awesome! As it is, I'm finding myself battling analysis paralysis and just staring blankly at my screen in confusion. ^_^;

Also, I now find myself confused... The "Battle Screen" collection of buttons and sprites... Should I build a room to overlay with button templates? Or build a pop up window over the screen? Or try to build a full GUI overlay for the room that only appears for combat? Would one work better than the others?

 

Between the two, my first instinct is "whichever is easiest to implement, so I don't get overwhelmed too much."

And BTW, having watched some reviews of Monkey Island games for her sake, I have never played any of them. Though increasingly I think I should... ^_^;

That said, valid point. I didn't mention those things and I only didn't because I thought my post was probably already too long...  ^_^

The dialog options are not quite static, but they aren't (currently) planned to be necessarily "reactive" from round to round.

In short:
- I am envisioning this as an alternate "quiz game" kind of thing.
- I had planned to keep "normal" dialog with all characters, but some select ones the "normal" dialogue ends with an option of either "Enter Combat" (or whatever I end up calling it) or "Leave Dialogue". The latter leads back to the room and you can always come back to initiate the Combat when you feel better prepared.
- I plan to write a premade set of options in each round (i.e. Round 2 of this fight will always have the same 2 options for Char 1: (Friendly: Handshake, Aggro: say "Nice cue ball baldie") regardless of what options are chosen in round 1. The next round the options change, but always to the same options.)
- Trick is, some NPCs like blunt/aggro responses and give positive HP for rudeness, while others are deeply offended by harsh words/gestures.
- The Team Up option is ALWAYS a positive HP gain
- I honestly hadn't considered an "unlock" process, either inventory or otherwise. I like this idea though, either by replacing the default options (like the +5 option becomes a +10 or something) or showing up as a "third option" under the character's default 2. Even better if it could be tied to (normal) dialogue options selected. Like, if you ask them a question and they tell you, you can use that to boost your chances! If this adds too much complexity though, I would skip it for my simpler version.
- You always choose 1 from two pools of options (character 1 has 2 options and so does Character 2, you choose two options: one from each char's options). So you pick two (one from each) or the team up (which cancels out the two sets of options, and can only be used once in all 5 rounds.
- No random component in the computer sense. Some characters like randomness in their responses from the player, but nothing scripted as random.
- And I was envisioning all this as a window that pops up over or otherwise masks over the room enough to make sure focus is on the "fight."

All of this is pretty flexible on my end. If making it more random would be beneficial without muddying up the concept of learning the characters and what they like, then I'm always down with more choices and permutations. I just don't want to create something that feels random to the player if they take the time to explore and discover other information. Like, if you figure out the NPC is a belligerent alcoholic, then choosing your options will be easier than if you had skipped straight to the "combat" screen.

Edited to add a link to a quick sketch of what I'm thinking: https://i.imgur.com/lT5Wh94.png

[Short version: How would I make a "combat system" wherein I have two characters each choosing a phrase to say (so two statements then the NPC takes a "turn" to respond based on what was said). There will hopefully have an option for both to "skip a turn" and use their "team up" power (which can only be used once per "fight"). Then a point value is calculated by using (hidden) values from each character's response For example: Character1Option1 is worth -5 and Character2Option1 is worth 10, so the overall score is 5pts added to the overall "HP" of the "Boss" in the "fight". Then Round 2 starts and the "enemy" "HP" is at +5. The player chooses to use their team-up power to automatically getting +10. Round 3 starts and the opponent is at +15. Then in Round 3 the player chooses two options and gets an overall -10. If there are 3 rounds (I'm debating 3v5), and now at the end of Round 3 the NPC is at positive 5, the game would then check the "win condition" and in this case the requirement is "at least +10." This means the character ends the "boss fight" with 5 out of a needed 10 points and so they get a game over screen (or just a "try again?" Y/N screen). If they had hit the goal, then the player would "win the fight" and the NPC will perform whatever plot action is needed (giving an item, telling an honest truth they asked about, allowing entry to a room, etc). I'm currently thinking of creating a GUI for each "boss round," creating GUI buttons (one for each option, including the team up if it hasn't been used yet), then somehow assigning the point values to the chosen option and then calculating the plus or minus the player achieved each round. Trick is, I don't really know how to do that. I haven't done much coding beyond HTML since HS.Any thoughts?]

First a disclaimer:
I am 100% noob, both here on the forum and to AGS at all. I mean this wholeheartedly, as I didn't know AGS existed two months ago... So I'm sorry if I commit any faux pas or otherwise make a fool of myself. I'm not intending any offense at any point in this thread or from here on out if I stick around...


Short version: How would I make a "combat system" wherein I have two characters each choosing a phrase to say (so two statements then the NPC takes a "turn" to respond based on what was said). There will hopefully have an option for both to "skip a turn" and use their "team up" power (which can only be used once per "fight"). Then a point value is calculated by using (hidden) values from each character's response

For example: Character1Option1 is worth -5 and Character2Option1 is worth 10, so the overall score is 5pts added to the overall "HP" of the "Boss" in the "fight". Then Round 2 starts and the "enemy" "HP" is at +5. The player chooses to use their team-up power to automatically getting +10. Round 3 starts and the opponent is at +15. Then in Round 3 the player chooses two options and gets an overall -10. If there are 3 rounds (I'm debating 3v5), and now at the end of Round 3 the NPC is at positive 5, the game would then check the "win condition" and in this case the requirement is "at least +10." This means the character ends the "boss fight" with 5 out of a needed 10 points and so they get a game over screen (or just a "try again?" Y/N screen).

If they had hit the goal, then the player would "win the fight" and the NPC will perform whatever plot action is needed (giving an item, telling an honest truth they asked about, allowing entry to a room, etc). I'm currently thinking of creating a GUI for each "boss round," creating GUI buttons (one for each option, including the team up if it hasn't been used yet), then somehow assigning the point values to the chosen option and then calculating the plus or minus the player achieved each round. Trick is, I don't really know how to do that. I haven't done much coding beyond HTML since HS.

Any thoughts?





Bonus "Longer Game Theory Version" Round -

Hookay. So, the quick backstory.

I have spent much of the last 15 years slowly creating an in-depth game setting for our TTRPG sessions. It started based on system lore with some tweaks, but each game drove it deeper in its own direction until it became something I think is truly unique. Sadly, my RP friends have drifted in the last few years and the pandemic finally just killed our ongoing game. Since then, I've been itching to preserve this world in some way and while I started out with the idea of writing a series of books based on the setting and some of the lore points we mentioned in the setting, but never actually played through. I even wrote about 6 chapters of said book, but I kept feeling like there was something missing... In this case, it was missing player input. My spouse is an artist and has been itching to find a big project (and indeed, as a co-creator of the setting, had found similar frustration in an attempt to make a comic). We were nostalgia bombing different channels on youtube and eventually hit a mini-binge-athon of modern reviews of our favorite adventure games of our childhoods. I'm not sure which of us first suggest we revive our ideas for sharing our universe as an adventure game, but we both have since dived in. I am writing the dialogue and designing scenarios whilst she hand draws images to use as "sprites" and backgrounds, I've also volunteered to spearhead the majority of the actual game design.

I've been playing around with AGS for a little over a month now and I think I'm kinda getting a vibe for how the default stuff in this program works. And I'm loving it. I'm already understanding most of the basics so far, especially the emphasis on this project is the artistry of its design and the storytelling combining to tell a great tale. So, for the most part, the default "vibes" are totally fine with a bit of a graphic swap. That brings me to the issue at hand. See, the primary way we were thinking of engaging the player and helping them forge their own twist on the story through the game. Since we started out with this world in the TTRPG realm, I still kinda want to keep the general feel of that RPG-ness while still being easy to navigate.

We chose not to bother with trying to include combat for two main reasons: First, it didn't fit the characters being children and most NPCs being adults. Second, it felt like the wrong kind of RPG for this. If/when we make a sequel continuing the story, I'm thinking of using RPGMaker to borrow the feeling of JRPGs since that fits the character that game would follow. But this one, it didn't feel right to take it in the direction of QfG, but instead wanted to lean closer to Gabriel Knight approach. But we wanted to retain the idea of "bosses" in some fashion. Each chapter would have only one "combat" sequence against that "boss" (plus a shorter and simpler one as a tutorial at the start of the game). Talking their way and manipulating adults felt like the best approach, thus where the concept of this "dialogue combat" came from in the first place. We wanted each of the main characters to take an action (mostly talking, but this could also include gestures or physical actions to achieve a similar effect), then the "Boss HP" is altered by those actions to result in a final score which is compared to a "win condition" to determine if they "beat the boss" to progress the story. Basically, this is why I come to the fine folks of this forum: Can this system concept even work? Even if it can, would it be impossibly complicated for a coding dinosaur who hasn't coded anything other than HTML since High School when she was taught BASIC and C++?

I really am more a writer than a coder, but AGS makes me feel like 90% of my concepts will be super easy to implement and tweak. This little bit, which I feel is super important for the right vibe to come across, is tripping me up. I simply don't want to write out all the dialogue and such assuming I can somehow get this "combat system" working, then find out I can't and have to wholly rewrite the parts using a concept that won't work as envisioned. So... What do y'all think?