Lead-In #1: In "Locked Code", when you input a new character name and then click "Create Character," you’re immediately deposited into an area containing a card. In order to see the contents of that card, you have to click the actual card icon. In "City of Phire", when you input a new character name and then click "Create Character", you’re immediately deposited ON a card containing choices (Female, Male, Androgynous). It’s as if the user already clicked the card. These differences can really affect the mood/narrative of a story.
Question #1: What specific storylet settings determines if a card defaults to "closed" (must be clicked) or "open" (user imediately sees descriptive text and choices)? I guess this question only pertains to what a character sees immediately after they click the "Create Character" button.
Lead-In #2: In Annwyn Simulation 1985, when a user logs on to a computer, they have to click a "log on" card. That card transfers them to a new setting, where they have cards and decks representing actions they can take while logged on. In order to log off, the user must click a "log off" card, which transfers them back to a different setting.
Question #2: Is there a way to do something similar using only cards? For instance, "Log On" is a choice on a card that redirects you to a new card titled "Logged On", which contains choices such as "Browse the internet", "Check E-mail," etc.?
Thanks ahead of time. I apologize if these are simple questions, but I’ve been unable to find the answers or figure out on my own how to accomplish this for a few days now. edited by Misty S. Boyer on 6/29/2013
I believe I might have found the answer to the first question: A card with the “Urgency” setting “MUST” seems to show up as soon as you finish creating your character. In order to manage a series of cards that must be played, a quality might be useful for tracking them.
In other words, if you want a character to go through an introductory customization where they choose gender, personality type, and more, make each customization card a MUST card, create a quality that gets incremented when each MUST card is complete, and make sure that each progressive card has a requirement that your tracking quality is at a certain level.
You’re absolutely correct on #1 - with the small addition that it only shows up if the "Qualities required" in the "Root event Opportunity", at the top of the storylet-editing page, are met. So if there are no "Qualities required" it will indeed show up immediately after you create a character, but that’s a special case.
For #2, what you’re looking for are "linked events". Find this setting in "Advanced options", under the default or success result. You can read more about how to use them in the manual, though confusingly it refers to them as "linked storylets" rather than "linked events" - so search for "linked storylets" to find the details.
One slight hitch with linked storylets - you almost need to write them in reverse order…or write them all before linking as you won’t be able to link forward to a card that hasn’t been created yet.
You’re absolutely correct on #1 - with the small addition that it only shows up if the "Qualities required" in the "Root event Opportunity", at the top of the storylet-editing page, are met. So if there are no "Qualities required" it will indeed show up immediately after you create a character, but that’s a special case.[/quote]
Addendum: be very careful with MUST storylets. I would never have a MUST storylet that didn’t require a quality to trigger, just because that quality becomes a method of controlling the storylet. (You might wind up changing things later so that the a "no requirements" MUST storylet fires when you don’t expect it, but if it looks for a quality, it won’t show up until that quality gets set.)
My preferred technique is to use a quality that increments with your passage through the character creation process; this can also double as a "story progress" quality that regulates certain plot events.
[quote]For #2, what you’re looking for are "linked events". Find this setting in "Advanced options", under the default or success result. You can read more about how to use them in the manual, though confusingly it refers to them as "linked storylets" rather than "linked events" - so search for "linked storylets" to find the details.
[/quote]
Interestingly, you could also use the MUST urgency here. Have a "Logged On" quality that triggers the storylet, then have the "Log On" option change the quality’s value to 1 instead of 0.[li]
This has the advantage of looping back around when you choose an option. So you perform an activity, the card goes away, but then it comes back because the MUST condition triggers again. The appearance is that you go and do the activity, and then come back to the menu of choices again. This works if you expect the user to be able to take multiple actions while logged on. A linked storylet would (I’m fairly certain) only let you take one action.
Just don’t forget to include a "Log Out" action that sets the quality back to 0.[/li][li] edited by Playersideblog on 7/2/2013