Can't seem to stack events within events?

StoryNexus
1

Hi all,

I’m trying to write my first StoryNexus game and already I’m hitting a snag with the way events and branches are set up. What I’m trying to do is this:

Issue 1: I’m trying to have it so that which branch you choose eventually leads you to the same event, but the choice you make determines what kind of branches you get down the track. e.g.

Event: Busk!
|–Branches: Type of Busking (Circus/Dance/Magic) - they all lead to the same event, Set Up Pitch, but later as you &quotperform&quot your choices will be different (&quotthrow clubs!&quot vs &quotbreakdance!&quot etc)

There isn’t really a success condition, more like a &quotnoted, your current type of show is X&quot situation. I guess you could do this by having a quality like Current Show = X? But that’s not really numerical. Or Currently Circusing is 1?

Issue 2: I’m trying to do a thing where it’s kinda like events within events. e.g.

Event: Setting up pitch
|–Sub-Event: The Cops Are Here!
–|–Branches: Charm Them, Show Permit, Run Away, Fight Them
|
|–Sub-Event: It’s Raining/Your Pitch Sucks
–|–Branches: Proceed, Fix It Somehow, Move
|
|–Sub-Event: Turf War!
–|–Branches: Fight, Flee, Charm, Show Affiliation
|
|–Sub-Event: No Problems Here - Advance to Next Event

It seems though that I can’t do sub-events like this, only Event and Branches. Or is it possible and I just don’t know how?

Eventually I want the Busk thing to be a Mega-Event with multiple steps (I guess like the Investigations in Fallen London?) but I want it so that once you’ve entered the Busk! Storylet you see it through to its conclusion. Is this possible?

Issue 3: Sorta related to Issue 2: I don’t want all the above sub-events to always be triggered when you play the Busk! event. Like, you’re not always running from the cops - sometimes they don’t show up. And Your Pitch Sucks & No Problems Here are kind of mutually exclusive. (Hell now that I think about it I think there should only really be one problem you deal with in your pitch at any one time) I know it’s possible to trigger particular branches given certain qualities, though I don’t want it to be &quotif you have X amount of Y Quality you will ALWAYS be chased down by the cops&quot - I want this to be more random. Maybe mediated in part by your other stats, but mostly random. Is this possible?

Thanks!

Tiara
edited by creatrixtiara on 1/17/2017

2

Hey,

For point #1. you need to use a quality – no other way around it. But you can set the quality to be a circumstance (or another one that doesn’t show the number) and then allocate a human readable description using the level descriptions.

For points #2 & #3, there is simply no way to create a tree of events – but that’s fine, because there is a simpler way. You can create your list of branches as a flat structure and loop them all back into the same storylet using the link event thing, in effect creating a closed scene (although obviously you need a way for the player to get out of it when the time comes). The different branches can then be locked or unlocked depending on the qualities they have – you’ll probably want a timer and a randomiser for that, plus branches locked to the player’s previous choice (i.e. in #1).

For example, I have a chase scene in my game with about 50 branches on it. The player only sees two or three at a time though, depending on a randomiser (which is rerolled whenever they play a branch), how far they are in the lead and some other factors.