If you want your info moved, send @dashingdon a message and let him know your user name and what you want moved (if it’s just your user account or if you have games as well). This applies to everyone.
He can back up your info and send it to me, and I can restore it to the new server. The sooner you let him know, the better.
Once the domain is transferred to me, I will set it up to forward to the new site that @Mr_Stan shared.
Edited to add:
If you have an account on moody.ink and were locked out of it, but still want your account and data, go ahead and ask Don to back it up. The new site gives you the ability to reset your password, so you should be able to do that once your account info is moved over.
@dashingdon has sent me a few user accounts and games to restore. That has been done. He also transferred the domain name (moody.ink) to me. I set up a permanent redirect to the new site (https://cogdemos.ink), so if you go to moody.ink, you will end up at the site.
If you already have moody open, you’ll need to clear your cache or you’ll keep getting the “Moody is moving” message on Don’s server.
Everything appears to be working now, though I’m not sure everything is showing up in the WIP page that should show up. If you notice your game not showing up there when it should, please let me know.
As for code changes: I have someone working on changing the save system to include the ability to name your saves. I also asked him to look into temp browser saves for anonymous users (not everyone wants to set up an account to play, I get that). He should get back to me sometime next week on how much that will cost. If I have time, I will take a look at it myself and see if I can get it working.
If you want other changes to the way the site handles games, please let me know and I’ll add it to the to-do list.
I’m away from my computer at the moment so can’t check, but wanted to ask while I remember - is the current version of Moody compatible with *save_checkpoint and *restore_checkpoint, and does it autosave if you close a tab and open it again (without refreshing)?
No, it doesn’t autosave like that. I can add that to the list.
I’m not sure. I’ll have to load a game that has that in it and see if it works. Offhand, I’d guess it doesn’t, unless it worked on Moody before. If it worked before, it should work now, unless there is some setting of which I am unaware.
The version of ChoiceScript that Moody uses did not support the new checkpoint save system. Dashingdon did say that he intended to update the CS to a newer version, but the transition to your hands began before any upgrading was done (to my knowledge).
I know Don’s busy, but maybe he’d be willing to help out now and then with the coding, since he doesn’t have to worry about the server. In the meantime, I’ll see what I can do to get it working.
The #1 feature that i would like to see available for devs is a working save import feature. Having looked at the demos for the next Evertree, Z:E, Fallen Hero, and Golden Rose, that functionality is critical for testing, pacing, narrative tweaks, and balancing. Having to develop sequels and chapters wjthout it makes things more complicated than it needs to be.
I played an indie game in a different engine (couldn’t tell you what it was off the top of my head) last year that is still WIP, and what they did was let you download a text file of the save data. You could then paste the code within to a new version of the game, and it would flag all the choices/variables/unlocks so you could play the next iteration with your progress. There might be bizdev reasons for not including this kind of functionality in the 1.0 release version, but for a WIP (and perhaps specific to the testing site), this feels doable. It’s certainly necessary. If developers need to have a degree of public testing for their games, then multi-game developers should have the testing functionality to put their works through its paces as thoroughly as possible. Likewise, if players know they can import their save to test, they’re more likely to participate and provide better feedback.
I agree with everything you say, but the support infrastructure for Hosted authors is not built to support this, and that is the bottom-line that I feel needs to be addressed first.
Chani is a volunteer, as was Don before her and there is nothing but donations to help them defray costs.
Perhaps a subscription fee would offset expenses, but then you create further division between those that can afford to do and those that can’t.
Then there is the time Chani, her husband and any free-lance hire she makes will need to start and keep going (through support etc) this needed feature.
Any sustainable changes to the testing regime, I fear, will not only need HG passive support, but I think active continuous involvement as well.
If it’s within the Choice of Games terms, I’d suggest creating a Patreon account. You can use any proceeds beyond server costs to hire hourly developers to make updates like naming save slots and exporting/importing saves (both of which are feasible with CJW’s code).
I’m not looking to volunteer anyone’s time, and of course I appreciate all the volunteer work that’s been done. What I’m saying now (and have said previously) is that multi-part works are among the best-selling and most well-received titles (and with the most active communities) across all the CS brands so COG itself should consider better testing functionality for those games a worthwhile investment. Without it, some of the best devs in this format are working with one hand tied behind their back.
If COG or Chani or whomever want to do a single time gofundme or a Patreon or a sale with the profits from it targeted for that development or whatever, this seems like the time for it with Don moving on from updating and moody.ink becoming more of a thing. My expectation would be that a one-time investment in a programmer (per Don above) gets you the core architecture and then it’s covered as part of the general ChoiceScript maintenance that is done. The code cut/paste is non-online functionality they should be able to enable during development and then take out/deactivate when COG receives the gold master from the dev and gets the game ready for release (if that functionality isn’t something they want in a commercial version).
Does anyone know how to either log in or create a new account on Moody? It keeps telling me my login credentials are invalid. I promised I would do a beta read for a friend, but it’s too long to read in one sitting and I don’t want to start it until I’m able to save my progress.
To get a save import feature to work at the demo site, we’d first need a save export feature on the published games, which isn’t likely, unless someone can make a plugin to do it. It’d probably have to be similar to what @alecto did with the Firefox plugin, only allow the user to choose where to save it.
If we got the export function working, we could then look at a way to import it into the demo site.
On topic, does anyone here have experience with java and ajax calls? I have named saves working on my dev site, but once you save the name, I can’t get it to replace the name when you overwrite the save. I know next to nothing about java and am stumbling through this blind, so if anyone can lend a hand, I would appreciate it.
Here’s how the save dropdown is looking (excuse the Wayhaven stuff… I’m using a personal project as a test):
The weird part is that it is overwriting the save state, so when I load the save, it goes to the right place. But the save name won’t change. It’s driving me batshit crazy. I’ve even written a function to delete the save first, but the delete isn’t working either. If no one knows java or wants to help, I’ll just keep hammering at it until I figure it out. That’s what I did to get the named saves working in the first place, because the programmer I had contacted is ghosting me.
I’d never make cogdemos.ink a subscription site. It’s free for all game authors, even if they’re just playing around. Donations would be accepted, though. I suppose I should set up a kofi or something. I want to get this damned save system working right first, though.
