from the "something 'bout a hex" thread.....
Ok....I'll respond. lol....
Let's start with the dreaded but inevitable review from davidw. I don't need to comment on every little detail but I feel the need to defend some of it. I think I need to start by saying that when I read reviews from you, mr. dw, it sounds like you are reviewing them to see if they are worth buying rather than worth playing. It sounds like you don't try to enjoy the game or let "annoyances" hinder you a little too much. I'll expound on that in a moment.
- The multi-colored text. I decided to use this idea for exchanging conversation between one character to another. For example, Graham would be red font (or blue, I forget) and Cedric or another character would be a different color. The rest of the non-speaking parts of the game are black font. If you do not care for it, that is your preference.
- Grammar problems? What can I say. If I (and beta-testers) missed them, sorry. Between us, we caught a handful of them throughout the game and I fixed them. Any others that remain were oversights. I don't recall the grammar in the intro being a problem the first time around so I left it alone.
- Side panel. I decided to put it to good use rather than do away with it. I added a score table that increments when you pick up or use an item (solving a puzzle). As far as hidden items and how they didn't show up in the side panel.....I assure you, there is nothing hidden that is relevant to the outcome of the game. It was simply for people who decide to examine everything they can, even if you don't really need to. Detail. What most games lack.
I haven't tried playing it while hiding the side panel. Most people don't so I have no idea if you can or cannot finish the game in this manner. I'll try that one out.
- Descriptions of locations. Of all the extra details/descriptions I added, I didn't add that. Again, it didn't occur to me and I'm pretty sure you're right about places not being able to be examined. I can see that if you did not have the side panel, that would pose a small problem.
- Cedric. He's an owl that follows you through the majority of the game beginning with the first room. If you had no side panel, you wouldn't know he was there. He's not necessarily essential to the game; the original KQ5 was designed that way. I was following along. Most of my effort with Cedric, however, was being sure that when you TALK to him, he says something different in each location. By the way, there are numerous times where Cedric pipes in and tells you that he does not want to go along with you (the town, the desert...) so that should be a hint that he is following you.
- The inn. I don't know why "Go to the inn" did not work. After the initial designing of the commands, I would test run the game with the shortcut commands that I fit in. So when I wanted to go into the inn, I simply typed "enter" and it worked. Actually for the inn, I have designed it to ask you if you want to enter the front door or the side door when you try to go in....but that's besides the point in question.
THE GAME ITSELF.... Before I respond on details of this section, I need to point out that I have converted the original 80's game of KQ5 into a text game. Other than limiting some of the ways you can die, I did not change much of the game. If you don't like the gameplay in that respect, argue with Roberta Williams and Sierra. haha
Now onward...
Inconsistency - I caught some of those third person issues and obviously there were some that I did not catch. Sorry for the jarringness.
Instant Deaths - As I mentioned above, the original game was riddled with them and I changed some of it. That's where the idea of adding a warning before certain doom came from.
Warning/Save - I know you didn't care for this feature but I and several others appreciate it so I left it in.
Timers & desert wandering - To begin this, I add the reminder once again that I was hugging close to the original game here. I did not wish to change it that much. In fact, I credit Tr0n in the game's credits as to helping me with the crazy program to make the desert work without adding a billion rooms. (and I remember you mentioning your dislikeness of the idea back over a year or so ago when i was asking for help on how to create it...) Let's talk about the desert though. No, you can't take water with you. Yes, you have to drink from the oasis or die. I remember as a 13 year old a looooong time ago when I played the original the first time and drawing a map of the desert. I SAVED my game before the desert even without a warning to save!....then I would wander the desert until I hit an oasis and save it there. Then wander even further dying several times but I eventually mapped it out. It was great! It may not be nowadays but *again*, it is based on the original.
Ok, so the timers. Are you talking about the desert temple? I don't know what timer you could be referring to. If you're referring to dying of thirst, that is not on a timer. That is based on how many rooms you travel. I think it's something like 4 rooms and you get a warning that you're thirsty, 2 more rooms and you die. Unless the last room is an oasis where I designed the thirst to be put on hold to give you a chance to drink. In other words, you won't die in an oasis room but you will die if you get to the oasis and continue on without drinking.
In fact, if you read the intro more carefully, you would see a hint about typing "desert" to pop up a map and step-by-step instructions on how to navigate through the desert. It even tells you to type "drink" at the oases.
Silver coin - I'll back up to mention this. The player is the only one with the "wherewithal" to pick up a silver coin lying on the street because that is exactly how the original was designed. That is all.
Buying things - there are only a couple things you can really "buy" but no, I did not use the buy command. It's more of a trade, therefore giving an item to someone will "buy" the item in question. Now that I think about it, I think I might have used the buy command one time in the cottage for the custard pie. *gasp* I spoiled a puzzle. not really.
The random silver coin is for the pie. You trade an item later on for the sled. There is a gold needle and a gold coin that you'll find later which I devised a way to use either item for its purpose. You can either trade a golden needle or use a gold coin to give to the clerk to get the cloak. OR You can use either item to give to the gypsy.In the end, don't get me wrong. I appreciate davidw reviewing the games. While I do take what he has to say into consideration, I don't always change things in my game to appease him nor does his reviews of other games stop me from playing those games.
If you enjoyed the game, great. If you didn't, I'm sorry.
I use Quest and all that it offers including the dreaded side panel. If I used a different software, the game would be designed differently most likely.
Alex wrote:It's worth pointing out that this game is written in Quest 3, not Quest 4, and as such doesn't feature things like the built-in additional verbs ("buy" etc.)
AND
That sort of thing was a slight pain in QDK 3, but if Steve had used QDK 4 he would just need to select "Male character" from the "type" drop-down for the object.
Yes, I spent over a year working on the game and it was basically done aside from error-fixing before Quest 4 was even offered as beta...
Freak wrote:Part of the problem with KQ5 is that it's a port of an old Sierra game (IIRC, their first all-mouse game); according to Wikipedia it's from 1990.
The problem? I think I know what you're saying. But I figured King's Quest being an adventure game, would be a fun project to convert to text. It was a chore at times sticking close to the game because text commands give many more options than the graphical KQ5 had.....hence, davidw's review.