Howdy everyone. I have a quick question: Is there a dedicated thread for authors to include updates and announcements of their WIP? It seems a bit odd if I include updates as comments to my own thread (not to mention the traffic is very low on my thread and Patreon page). Feel free to reach out!
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I’ve definitely said it before elsewhere in relation to working in both Twine and Ink (both of which are more fully featured, but lack automated testing systems).
I suspect the reason why those formats don’t have automated testing systems is because they’re more fully-featured, with its more open-ended configurability making rapid repeated tests more difficult to run reliably - if at all.
So, this might be as much another advantage to Choicescript’s relatively constrained featureset (at least, compared to say, Twine).
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Just post updates on your WIP thread as a comment, or edit your most recent comment if yours is the last on the thread. It’s neater that way and reduces duplicate information.
@Cataphrak on King of the Castle, our programmers made an amazing automated testing system with ink and Unity because there were such huge variations possible and we needed to simulate very large playthroughs, but it was a ton of effort. (I miss that project…)
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On Burden of Command, we mostly just beat our heads against the wall, playing the same scenario over and over again to try to replicate the problem.
Your way sounds much nicer - but I wonder how well it would have played with a system that combined IF and tactical hex-based combat.
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Automated testing and version control are good. Highly recommend both.
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Mmk. So then make that clear. You seem to attempt to be obtuse and then duck with me and I’m over it, buddy. I’m not a prop for your weird white knighting escapades
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You’re gonna have to run that by me again.
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I think you’re 100% misreading the tone here, man. Paul was riffing on your comment, not criticizing it or whiteknighting anybody. Taking it personally is a category error.
I’m with him and Harris that QT and RT are easily taken for granted. They’re relatively rarely cited as big advantages of the CoG developer ecosystem in discussions even on this forum, let alone reddit or IF forums where “What is ChoiceScript good for?” threads periodically get raised. I recall Paul publicly appreciating the autotesters before, but not often.
All of that is a separate issue from people not knowing about the tests. The need to pass the tests to get a HG published can be common knowledge, but would-be authors can still take them for granted or treat them as an annoying hurdle. The fact that most IF scripting languages don’t have any equivalent is relatively little-known and little-talked-about.
Now, maybe I’m wrong in that perception. But even if I’m missing a whole lot of paeans to RT, and thus inadvertently just “stating common knowledge”… the right response when someone’s restating common knowledge is to shrug and let them, not to jump down their throats for not having figured it out earlier. We all figure things out at our own pace.
Maybe if they’re offering common knowledge as a criticism of you, some snark might be justified. (Though I don’t think Epictetus would think so.) But honestly: Paul wasn’t criticizing you, or shoving anything down your throat specifically, or being obtuse. Step back a step, and I think you might see that better.
And kicking that discussion off with examples would be way more constructive than acting as if praising RT/QT is a personal attack.
PS – after all that, if you want to critique me for white-knighting, you’ve got just cause. 
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I’m a little more lenient with strangers and friends, than people who I as an autistic person think are taking advantage of me, but I take your point. Generally speaking, I may have assumed that most WIP writers knew of the automated tests rather than just HG authors and WIP authors who were experienced or close to publication.
I am smart and self aware enough to take the publicly unpopular opinion proudly all the time if I believe it’s correct or right. You probably know this about me. So I’m sticking to my guns with Cataphrak rather than letting him keep doing this to me. He can defend himself instead of depending on his good reputation and my not as good one to fend for themselves. I know what’s going on in the world and with others and with myself and can’t be told I’m wrong and be made to not believe myself. I’m kind of publishing a book about it this month called Strange Things Happen Here
I just adjust my view based on others valid feedback. So combining my views, Epictetus’, and your comments, I would be cool with sticking up for myself, cool with stating my views articulately, but not so cool with getting miffed at his statements in a way that he would look good and I would look bad. You certainly can’t use my philosophy against me as a crutch: it’s my shield, not yours and you can’t just take it out of my hands and wave it at me whenever it’s convenient to you
As far as you white knighting, well, you’re actually a white knight
You should be objective. At best, I’m a fraction misreading his smarmy comments. But not 100% by any stretch of the imagination. I believe there’s a term for that, which starts with gas and ends with the main character’s name from Death Note
I think I’ll bow out as I said everything I wanted to say. And, I’m predicting Cataphrak will reconsider how he thinks of talking to me in the future which was my goal
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I genuinely have no idea what you’re talking about here.
All I said was that having an automated testing testing system come packaged with something like Choicescript was rare and a really nice thing to have.
I really don’t understand why you seem to be wanting to pick a fight with me over this.
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I can confirm I’ve been around for a strangely long time (significantly longer than my current account’s age, do not be fooled) to have no idea what QT or RT are yet and not have seen them brought up as a positive of CS specifically, if anyone would happen to feel like expanding on either. Right now, I just painstakingly play my game and can only get away with that because it’s the prologue alone. Though being fair, I’m new to coding and am probably a poor representative, lol.
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I’m not an expert, but for Twine, I think it is possible to use Selenium for autotesting. I haven’t tried it before, but there’s some discussion about it on intfiction.
For Ren’py, there isn’t really a bugtester in the style of quicktest and randomtest, but it has a feature in lint to check the code for errors.
Anyway, QT and RT has its uses. I mainly picked Choicescript for the community and not really the platform in itself.
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I was considering between Choicescript and Ren’Py. The two big things that pushed me to choicescript:
- Ren’Py would involve creating a lot of art assets. Very annoying.
- Ren’Py pushes you towards having a low amount of words on each page.
- Choicescript handles marketing and distribution for you, which is absolutely huge
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A total of 17K words now. Writing one of the possible three paths for Chapter 1. This is gonna be a loooong journey it seems.
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I don’t think I’ll be writing for a while - I have a plethora of paper- and housework I need to get done now that I got my Master’s, and I finally bought the Dragoon saga (waiting still for having time to dig in).
I’ll be cheering you all on, though.
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have we stop sharing about company status, revenue of last year titles, what’s popular genres and themes based on sales, what competitors are up to, and similar stuffs like that?
I know most of us in this forum are taking this as a hobby, but hey it doesn’t hurt to know what’s the current status of the company 
and I also know some people could be triggered and be more productive after knowing revenue of last year titles, and that’s a form of support for writers too, because I’m one of them 
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I think all three of those points kind of feed into each other, if that makes sense.
By being a more visual system, Ren’Py allows graphics to take the place of textual description, which means fewer words are needed, while simultaneously allowing for prettier screenshots including ones of visually appealing characters, which go far in generating marketing buzz.
Of course, there are inherent disadvantages to anymore visual medium from a logistical point of view. Someone has to make all that appealing art, and artists do not (or should not) work for free.
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Now that I’ve solved my bugs of the day/night/in my head until they were fixed because they drove me nuts…
Every item in The Frontier will have an easily accessible item details page, which provides both lore, stats (if applicable), and potential interactions.
This is accessible both through the Stats page and outside of it, with a key caveat.
To prevent players from making changes that would not be saved due to Stats page limitations, I have ensured that any interaction functions, such as equipping or using an item can only be accessed if a specific variable is active, which only turns on when being accessed from a main hub or area such as combat.
This ensures that while you can view your inventory in the Stats page, you can’t interact with it and cause damage/confusion as nothing is saved.
Anyways, I’m working on hashing out descriptors for weapons! This will be the first weapon ever acquired within the current WiP build of The Frontier.
Super hyped to see the inventory woes are finally past me. I’ve built out a detailed item database within Google Sheets and a production tracking pipeline for implementation, and the first pass of the housing/apartment system is almost completed!
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Could I get some eyes on this? I have a feeling I’ve been a bit too long-winded exposition-dumper, what do you think?
See here
It is high noon when Sparkgap rides into town, the clip-clop of tetracorn’s cloven hooves announcing the momentous occasion.
Not that seeing a tetracorn walking down the main street is unusual, as of itself. Quite the contrary. Cars are great for transferring large amounts of (or just large, period) equipment, but they’re useless off-road, expensive to maintain, and require plenty of armed guards due to how much they attract demons, not to mention how hard they are to come by, after the Ashfall. Horses don’t need roads and can be fast, but only over short distances on relatively even terrain, and they tend to get sick when they eat wild plants, so using them as travel mounts would require carrying plenty of hay on top of everything else you need to be carrying with you; while some rich people still own them (your family included), they are mostly used for galloping competitions. Tetracorns are surefooted, commonly available, and, being only partially domesticated, with two pairs of dragon-like horns (or, like a four-horned Jacob sheep), can fend for themselves when not in use.
No, it is not seeing a tetracorn that makes the occasion momentous, even if Sparkgap’s is a finer breed than most, with its proud stance and its great size resembling those of a war horse of old, its four large horns beautifully curved. Nor is it seeing Sparkgap riding into town; that happens often enough as well, swarms of hi-tech drones flanking his armored form, sending people scurrying in panic from the mere sight of them.
Not so today.
You look out of your window, forbidden from leaving your room (for safety, your father said, although you have to wonder whose), watching Sparkgap ride along the street, the inky black tetracorn leaving wisps of smoke behind. There’s no drones now, and no armor either - he’s wearing a weirdly formal attire instead, a white skinsuit with golden accents and black accessories - the only technology visible the respirator mask no one in their right mind travels the ashlands without, the dim lights on his wrist computer and the stock of the rifle strapped on the saddle, peeking out from under the one-shoulder cape, and, as he rides closer to your window, the cybernetic implants around his left eye, trailing the edge of the ugly burn scar running from the corner of said eye to under the respirator. With his pale skin (looking like it rarely gets any sunlight) and long red hair (tied back in an elaborate French braid), he looks every bit the vampire he’s rumoured to be.
In front of the town hall he stops, dismounts with a dramatic flourish, and walks inside.
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I do agree that there’s quite a bit of unnecessary exposition. Personally speaking, while I don’t know the context of when this is introduced, an editor would cut this out in a heartbeat for the majority of what I quoted, as it just feels like something self-explanatory, especially the beginning of the quoted area.
The rest is a lot more okay and not excessive, but I would shorten that quoted area or cut it mostly outright.
I suppose on a second look (EDIT) that the demon mention part is a necessity since that’s fantastical, but otherwise I stick by most of what I said.
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