Show of hands, who thought this was abandoned? We put text in a few days ago. The text engine is somewhat complex since it uses ascii characters as tags for certain colors. In the image you see green, red, and blue text. What you don't see is the way the text is actually typed in a script.ini file:
{Link} is gone. The Dark Lord [Ganon} will rise again. ]Hyrule} will suffer as [we} suffered!
{ = green text flag
} = white text flag
[ = red text flag
] = blue text flag
These four characters will never be used in any game we create, so we decided to use them as flags. Of course, we will be writing a guide to the text engine so anyone can choose their own characters to use as flags.
So far, the plan is to call text from a script.ini file. Here's an example:
[Marin]
1=Link! You're awake! I found you passed out on the beach, and...oh, I couldn't bear to watch you be hurt again! ;
Line1=0 ;
2=What? How is it possible that I exist? I've always existed, silly! But you know, my memory has been fuzzy lately. ;
[Tarin]
1=Link, m'boy! This peace is what all true warriors strive for! I feel like I've seen that somewhere before. ;
[Owl]
1=Hoot! {Link}, the hero. You must be surprised to be on the shores of ]Koholint} again. Allow me to explain. ;
In the .mfa file, when Link encounters an NPC, the engine will search that NPC for it's name (stored in an alterable string). It will then load all possible text the NPC can say into a string object, in multiple 'paragraphs'. When Link speaks to the NPC, a fastloop will occur which can figure out which paragraph the NPC will say at that time. For example, suppose the game opens with Marin speaking to Link. In the .ini, the variable "Line1" is changed to 1 (a boolean) to show that Marin has said this one-time text. Then, after player is given control, he speaks to Marin again. Now when the fastloop is run, the game checks for if Line1=1, and if it does, select paragraph 2 as the text to be shown.
We won't be releasing a new engine version soon though, since there is a lot to be done besides the text. We hope to have plenty of new goodies for everyone! If you've ever doubted the power of MMF2, hopefully now you can see just how strong it can be.
Advertisement
Jeod 
Favourite