Cream of the Crop 22/Cream of the Crop 22.iso/bbs/kogs150.zip/STORYLN.DOC

Text File | 1996-11-08 | 15KB | 327 lines

               -----------Storyline Doc-----------

       This documentation is an explanation of how to use Storyline, the
       program that let's you make up your own story for "Knights of the
       Golden Sword" (KOGS).

       It also tells you how you can make $25!

       It is suggested that you print out this doc and use it for a guide
       while going through the examples.

       In order to create a new storyline there are some files that you
       need. You will need to copy them to another directory or to a disk.

       Let's say that you have the KOGS program on your hard drive, which is
       usually called C, in a directory called Kogs150.

       Make a directory in this directory (or in another directory in C).
       You can call this directory anything you like such as temp. But maybe
       a better description would be Story.

       There are three batch files for storyline:
       storya.bat (This will copy the needed files to Drive A.)
       storyb.bat (This will copy the needed files to Drive B.)
       storyp.bat (This will copy all your files and make a directory
       named "story" off your KOGS directory.)

       So your directory would look something like this:
       C:\kogs150\story>when you are in the story directory. Now you can
       copy the three files from kogs150 to your story directory.

       The three files needed are:
       storyln.exe
       storyln.dat
       kogs.cfg

       You would copy these files from your kogs150 directory like this:

       c:\kogs150>copy storyln.exe c:\kogs150\story

       Copy the other two files in the same way.

       You can copy the three files to a disk if you like and can do that
       without having subdirectories. For example:

       c:\kogs150>copy storyln.exe B:\ (or to A)

       Copy the other two files in the same way. At the end of this
       doc file I will show you what to do to put your new story in the
       game.

       Now you are ready to use Storyline.

       You can change the characters that appear when you "Look For Jewel"
       and the story for those characters.

       You can have them tell that they want certain items.

       You can change the names of the stores where those items are found
       and you can change the name of the item that is found there.

       You start "Storyline" by typing in Storyln at the prompt.

       The prompt in our example on C would be:

       c:\kogs150\story>

       On floppy drives they would simply be:

       A>

       or

       B>

       You will get a Menu that starts with Record 0. You can press the
       right arrow key to take you to the next record, press it again and it
       takes you to the next. Press the left arrow key to get back to the
       records you have passed.

       Let's go through an example.

       We suggest that you do not change Record 0. It is the one that deals
       with the grenades in the Army-Navy Store.

       So go to Record 1. With your up-down arrow keys select Read Record.
       What you see on the screen is the different parts of the record that
       make up the "story." You might want to print this out to use as a
       guide in changing the records. You can probably do this with a Print
       Screen.

       Let's say that you want to change the story for Record 1. Press
       escape and that will bring you back to the Menu for Record 1.

       Now with the up and down arrow keys, select Change Record.

       You now have a second Menu. To operate this Menu simply press the key
       that is in the parentheses.

       The first line says (P)lace name. This will be the name of the store
       or place in the 20th century. Here is where we put in Dollar Store in
       our original KOGS as you can see.

       When you press the (P) an editing window drops down. It shows what is
       in there at present and asks if you want to edit it. If you say no,
       you will go back to the Menu. If you say yes it will give you a place
       to write your selection. If you wanted to change this you could type
       in Drug Store or Dry Goods Store or what have you.

       The next line is (S)tory line of place. When you press the (S) the
       current story is shown. It is the story of what happens when the
       person enters the Drug Store or what ever store you want to make it.
       It has a limit of 5 lines. But you don't have to use the limit.

       Be careful at the end of the lines. They DO NOT wrap. If you go too
       far at the end of a line, it might skip a line. When it does this
       keep on pressing enter to get back to the Menu, select S again and
       when it asks if you want to edit say Yes.

       This will let you start all over again. If you are typing on a line
       and make an error you can backspace, but once you go to the next line
       you can not go back to the previous so you should read each line
       carefully before entering.

       But if you do have mistakes you can always press enter until you get
       back to the Menu and select S again and edit again. This holds true
       for editing all the other parts. You can always edit again!

       When you are putting in the storyline of the store or place and you
       are putting in something like "the price marked is" or "the clerk
       tells you the price is" just put in a $ sign without any price. The
       program will put in the price automatically. You can see this in the
       sample. The dollar sign must be the last thing in the story without a
       period! Leave enough room at the end of a line so that the price can
       be put in automatically after the $ sign. As you have seen in some of
       the stories the price can be rather large like $200,000 for a key. As
       you can see that takes seven characters after the dollar sign so you
       want enough space at the end of the line to accommodate what has to
       go in there.

       The next line is (I)tem there.

       This is the item in the store or place. This is the item the player
       buys to take back to the "person." In our example here which is in
       the original program the item is a coat which was found in the Dollar
       Store.

       The next line is the (N)ame of person to bring item to.

       In our example the name is Old Man.

       The next line in the Menu is the story line of the person to (B)ring
       item to. The letter (B) brings up this information. In our example
       you can see that we wrote a little story about going by a cave and
       asking directions to the jewel and the old man says he will help you
       if you bring him something to keep warm with.

       Like the story line of place, you are limited to 5 lines, but don't
       have to use all five lines. What applied to story line of place such
       as non-wrapping, starting over in the editing, etc. also applies
       here.

       The next line in the menu is (A)nswer to your question when you bring
       item. Here you are allowed only two lines. Your character can make a
       little comment on the item and then say to take a path, road, field,
       stream or anything other thing you want to make up as the way to the
       jewel.

       You should ignore the other two lines on the menu. They are:

       Amount (O)f item there
       (C)ost of item there.

       These two lines are preset to the math used in the program and should
       not be used. If you do use them, it is at your own risk of not having
       a very workable program.

       The last line in the Menu is to enter Q to quit, which you can do at
       any time which will bring you back to the records Menu.

       There are four story lines in each level. Every fourth record is the
       record for the "key" so why don't you now go to record 4 and select
       Read Record. Do a printout of what is on the screen so you can follow
       it along.

       Then press ESC and then select change record which brings you back to
       the Menu where you do your editing.

       Choose (P). Again this is the store or place where the user finds an
       item, the item this time being a key.

       For editing just say no for now.

       Choose (S). This will be the story of the store or place where the
       key is found. In our example it is Locksmith Shop.

       For editing just say no for now.

       Choose (I). The item is key.

       For editing just say no for now.
       Choose (N). Normally this is name of person, but here we say Golden
       Gate, because the key is used to unlock the Golden Gate and this
       should not be changed.

       For editing just say no for now.

       Choose (B). This is the story line about seeing the Golden Gate and
       the jewel inside. YOU SHOULD NOT CHANGE THE STORY HERE! Because in
       the game you have to choose between certain keys and the keys are to
       unlock the Golden Gate.

       For editing just say no for now.

       Choose (A). Instead of having a character tell you where to go to
       find the jewel, this is where you put in the story line about
       inserting the key in the lock and getting the jewel. YOU SHOULD NOT
       CHANGE THIS EITHER.

       Again ignore the next two lines in the menu (O) and (C).

       The above information will give you the idea about how to write your
       own stories. Just remember that each fourth record is the key, so
       record 4, 8, 12, 16, etc. are records for the keys.

       You do not have to worry about where the stores or places or located
       as far as the cities are concerned. The program puts them there
       automatically. You can have more than one store of the same name in
       one city. You might have two drug stores in one city, but the items
       in each will be different as you probably have already seen in our
       original storylines.

       The best way to use Storyline is just to experiment with it. You
       might want to make a backup disk of the original KOGS game and then
       use a disk for experimenting.

       At the beginning of this doc I told you I would show you how to put
       your stories in the game.

       The storyline program put your new storyline into a file named
       storyln.dat. In order for that not to overwrite the storyln.dat
       already in the KOGS program. It must be renamed. So what do you
       rename it? The best way of doing that is to check what other "item
       dats" are already in the KOGS program. The could look through the
       whole program through your file manager.

       Or your could do it by going to the KOGS150 directory and then typing
       in: dir item_??.dat like this:

       c:\kogs150>dir item_??.doc

       And your screen will give you something like:
       storyln.dat
       item_01.dat
       item_02.dat

       So you would want to rename your storyln.dat to item_03.dat.
       And later when you want to write another 12 levels and put that it
       the game, you would name that file item_04.dat, etc.

       Ordinarily you would not not see your new story until you go through
       two sessions of 12 levels which are in item_01.dat and item_02.dat.

       But you can look at your new storyline to check it out. To check out
       the story line in item_03.dat go to Kogscfg.exe which brings up the
       config file and then select Configure User. Make sure that "Games
       Won" shows 2 (that's done with the toggle). Set Level to Level 12.
       Toggle the Sword from false to true. Then give yourself lots of
       experience. Then go back and play the game. Go see the king. If the
       king says you do not have enough experience, he will tell you how
       much you need and you may have to go back to the Configure User again
       and give yourself some more experience. When the king's ball is over,
       you will be in the third session of the game with storyline showing
       from item_003.dat.



       Speaking of the kings ball, you will have to to write one for
       your new storyline.

       You can bring up our king's ball in an editor (kingb_01.txt
       or kingb_02.txt) and print it out and study it. NOTE: Be sure and
       not edit the story and save it. That will ruin the story. Just
       bring it up and print it out for study.

       We suggest that you go through the first two sessions of the game
       (each session has 12 levels) and then see how the king's balls for
       those two were put together using the characters in the game.
       Note: your king's ball text should be kept to less than
       4,500 bytes or you will run into End of File problems. Around 3,500
       bytes would probably be best.

       You can write your king's ball in a regular text editor and then name
       it kingb_03.txt and copy it to your KOGS directory. Make sure that
       your king's ball number is the same as your item dat. For example
       if your item.dat number is item_03.dat then your king's ball number
       would be kingb_03.txt.

       You will notice that in the story the person being knighted
       is automatically put in the story. You can do this by putting in
       a special code character anywhere in the story you want the name to
       appear.

       You simply hold down the Alternate key while typing in 142
       from the "keypad" or "numberpad" and then lift up. Do not use the
       numbers at the top of your keyboard. They will not work!

       The character you will see is this: Ä

       For example your story line could look something like this.

       The king looks across the room and sees you. He says, "Look
       everyone, Ä is here."

       Then when it comes up in the game it will look like this:

       The king looks across the room and sees you. He says, "Look
       everyone, Blackknight is here."

       We mentioned at the beginning that this doc was also about making
       $25. Send us your best storyline session on disk. If we incorporate
       it into our next version, we will send you $25!

       Good luck and good story making!