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Dec 29, 2000, 3:47pm

Maybe the error is in WName:

WName := aw_string(AW_WORLDLIST_NAME);

An aw_string is a C-string; you should always convert this to a Delphi string:

WName := string(aw_string(AW_WORLDLIST_NAME));

Then it can be used in any Delphi string operation, like concatenation:

WName := '[Pu] ' + WName;

[View Quote] > I'm using the Delphi AwAPI, and I am trying my hand at getting the
> universe world list.
>
> Well, this procedure gives me errors. Here's code paste.
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> // AwSDK -- World list
> procedure AwWorldInfo;
> var
> WName: String;
> WStat: Integer;
> WUsers: Integer;
> begin
> WName := aw_string(AW_WORLDLIST_NAME);
> WStat := aw_int(AW_WORLDLIST_STATUS);
> WUsers := aw_int(AW_WORLDLIST_USERS);
> if WStat = AW_WORLDSTATUS_PUBLIC then WName := '[Pu] ' + WName;
> if WStat = AW_WORLDSTATUS_PRIVATE then WName := '[Pr] ' + WName;
> if WStat = AW_WORLDSTATUS_UNKNOWN then WName := '[??] ' + WName;
> Form8.TreeView.Items.Add(nil, WName);
> Form8.ListBox.Items.Add(aw_string(AW_WORLDLIST_NAME) + ': ' +
> IntToStr(WUsers) + ' users');
> end;
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> Now, according to Delphi the error is in the three 'if' statements.
> Error messages pasted below.
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> [Error] Unit2.pas(338): Incompatible types
> [Error] Unit2.pas(339): Incompatible types
> [Error] Unit2.pas(340): Incompatible types
> -----------------------------------------------------------
>
> What do I do?
>
> --
> - Tony56 (chandler56 at mail.com)
> "Freedom: That's What The Government Wants You To Believe!"
> ____________________________________________________________
>
>

Dec 29, 2000, 6:58pm

Try making sure that the Boolean expression is the one intended:

if (WStat = AW_WORLDSTATUS_PUBLIC)
If that doesn't help, set a breakpoint & use a debug window to examine
the local variables & see what's going on there.

[View Quote] > No, I am still getting the same three errors in the 'if' statements.
>
> --
> - Tony56 (chandler56 at mail.com)
> "Freedom: That's What The Government Wants You To Believe!"
> ____________________________________________________________
[View Quote]

Dec 29, 2000, 7:08pm

You could also be having problems because of the way that Delphi
converts C strings to Delphi strings, in particular because you tried to
concatenate to the converted string. Try specifically allocating a long
Delphi string to WName before you do any concatenation to it:
SetLength(WName, 260);

[View Quote] > Try making sure that the Boolean expression is the one intended:
>
> if (WStat = AW_WORLDSTATUS_PUBLIC)
> If that doesn't help, set a breakpoint & use a debug window to examine
> the local variables & see what's going on there.
>
[View Quote]

Feb 14, 2001, 7:00pm

The SDK download page (http://www.activeworlds.com/sdk/download.htm) says
that Build 19 is only for those users who are in the 3.1 Beta. Is this a
webpage error? or is the 3.1 SDK not yet ready for download?

Feb 16, 2001, 11:58pm

Thanks to whoever fixed the page. (Now it makes Build 19 available to
everyone.)

[View Quote]

Feb 21, 2001, 3:44pm

The API Attributes reference for the new world attribute AW_WORLD_SIZE sends
you to AW_WORLD_MAX_USERS instead. (To get the real information on
AW_WORLD_SIZE, just substitute "size" for "max_users" in the html address.)

Feb 21, 2001, 7:56pm

The Delphi version of Build 19 of the ActiveWorlds API is available at
http://www.canopus.org/delphi/delphi.html. Also included are Delphi versions
of the sample programs and the Reason Codes.

Apr 4, 2001, 9:45pm

The Delphi version of Build 20 of the SDK has been posted at
http://www.canopus.org/delphi/delphi.html.

Nov 26, 2000, 4:16pm

You can find a TourGuide Bot among the Role-Playing Bots located at
http://www.canopus.org/performance/performance.html.

[View Quote]

Jan 5, 2001, 10:52pm

Sounds a lot like the ShowBot from last year. Check out this page:

http://www.canopus.org/construction/bots/staging.html

[View Quote] > ok here it is: I think this is a prety complete description.
>
>
>
> Bot: Stagehand (don't much care what it's called)
>
> Built in commands (minimum):
>
> LoadScript <filesname>
>
> Exit terminates bot
>
> Build <object> <coords> places <object> and the specified <coords>
>
> Move <object> <current coords> <destination coords> self
> explanatory I hope.
>
> Rotate <object> <coords> <L or R # of key clicks or degrees, whatever
> required to work>
>
> Action <object> <coords> <action fields commands> insert action
> cammand in to action field.
>
> { other useful command if you think of any }
>
> Wait <time delay> (optional auto exec mode script command)
>
> specifies a delay in auto execute mode.
>
> Continue (optional auto exec mode script command)
>
> continue to the next user command in
> the script file and run it.
>
>
>
> NOTE: I realize that specifying coordinates for the object is a real
> problem since one doesn't know the REAL COMPLETE cordinates of the
> objects aka 1.25n 2.3e 0.05a, etc. The only solution I have for
> that is to use BuildBot to load the objects in an area so one can get
> the exact coords for the object to be manipulated (or use StageBot
> Build command to palce the objects in known positions). So the bot
> should be able to report errors of objects not found at the given
> coords so the user can troubleshoot the object placement and not
> crash. Also, destination coords should be limited (maybe to within 40
> meters) of/and checked against the current coords of the object
> affected so people don't send objects to hell and gone, and 'out of
> bounds' coords reported.
>
> =========================================================
>
> Script file:
>
> A script file is a list of User defined Action commands (not action
> field).
>
> A user defined command might be:
>
>
>
> (opencurtain)
>
> Move <curtain.rwx> <1.0N 1.0E 0.0A>> <1.0N 2.0E 0.0A>
>
>
>
> There may be multiple user commands per script file and and multiple
> Bot commands per User command.
>
>
>
> Bot operation: Bot works in a combination of 2 modes.
>
> (1) Whispers to bot to LoadScript <filename>. Bot loads the script
> file.
>
> (2) Whispers to bot of <User commands> in the script file (bot finds
> the user command and executes it up to the next User command and stops
> and waits for further commands (unless the last built in command was
> Continue in which case the bot executes the next User command, etc., etc.
>
> Note: it's not necessarily my intention that the bot execute Built in
> commands (except LoadScript and Exit) from whispers, but that would be
> a cool option. Also, the bot should only respond to the Bot owner or
> someone with the owners privs.
>
> ======================================================================
>
> #Sample Script file
>
> (opencurtains)
>
> Move curt1.rwx 1.0n 1.0e 0.0a 1.0n 2.0e 0.0a
>
> Move curt1.rwx 1.0n 1.0w 0.0a 1.0n 2.0w 0.0a
>
>
>
> (closecurtains)
>
> Move curt1.rwx 1.0n 2.0e 0.0a 1.0n 1.0e 0.0a
>
> Move curt1.rwx 1.0n 2.0w 0.0a 1.0n 1.0w 0.0a
>
>
>
> (lightson)
>
> action stlight.rwx 0.5n 0.5e 0.4a "create visible on"
>
> action stlight.rwx 0.5n 0.5w 0.4a "create visible on"
>
>
>
> (lightsoff)
>
> action stlight.rwx 0.5n 0.5e 0.4a "create visible no"
>
> action stlight.rwx 0.5n 0.5w 0.4a "create visible no"
>
>
>
> (movehorse1)
>
> Rotate horse.rwx 1.5n .5e .2a L90 # L=left R=right
>
> Wait 4000 # 4 seconds
>
> Move horse.rwx 1.5n .5e .2a 3.5n .5e .2a
>
> Action horse.rwx 3.5n .5e .2a "create noise horsewhinney.wav"
>
> Wait 4000
>
> Continue # execute next command
>
>
>
> (turnhorse1left) # this cmd can be run from prior command or by a
> whisper
>
> Rotate horse.rwx 1.5n .5e .2a L180 # L=left R=right
>
> # pauses here
>
>
>
> { more command or end of file NOTE: end of file does nothing. user
> commands can be whispered to the bot over and over until (a) a new
> LoadScript command is issued or Exit to terminate the bot }
>
>
>
> # End of script
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> "paul" <p-barrow at NOSPAMhome.com <mailto:p-barrow at NOSPAMhome.com>>
[View Quote]

Jan 12, 2001, 4:01am

There is a TouristSurveyor Bot that records only tourist-built
property in a selected area, producing a *.svy file. Rename that file as
a *.dml file, & a Demolition Bot can demolish the property listed in it
for you. (See http://www.canopus.org/construction/bots/bots.html.) I
don't know if there is a bot that will do the whole job at once, though.

[View Quote] > Is there such a thing? (Bot that goes around the world deleting tourist
> property)
>
> --
> - Tony56 (Tony M.) [chandler56 at mail.com]
> "Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Pizza Pie!"
> ____________________________________________________________
>
>

Sep 26, 2001, 4:33pm

A Delphi version of Build 22 of the SDK is available at
http://www.canopus.org/delphi/delphi.html .

Nov 7, 2001, 6:53pm

Shouldn't it be saying something about aw_enter, rather than aw_login (as
you suggest it should)?

[View Quote]

Nov 9, 1998, 2:30pm

There is a kind of in-world stuff that AW citizens might want to pay for--bots. Virtual money
could be used to rent or buy bots from bot agencies or bot makers. You'll ask, why rent a bot
when you can write or d/l a bot program? The problem is that AW worlds are rapidly being closed
to all SDK bots except those belonging to the world-proprietors and the few names that the
world-proprietors put on their AW_WORLD_BOTS_RIGHT lists. If you're an ordinary citizen without
the RW money and leisure to buy and maintain a VR world, you may be able to write or get bot
programs, but you won't be able to use them anywhere (except maybe Beta).
The world-proprietors have a reason to exclude all but a few bots from their worlds. The SDK
is an extremely powerful tool, and can be used to program wonderful, friendly bots or obnoxious,
hateful bots. The obnoxious bots fall into two classes, as far as I can see: obnoxious avatars
and obnoxious builders. You can program deer avatars that wander about your forested land and
flee approaching hikers; or you can program demon avatars that station themselves on some
victim's land and do or say rude things to anyone who happens to pass by. You can program mover
bots that help people extricate themselves from a site that turns out to be too small by moving
an entire building and landscape from there to a larger site, or you can program a paver bot
that covers vast tracts of open land with raw concrete. Obnoxious avatars can be obnoxious
anywhere; obnoxious builders need land open to building.
The only solution that I can think of is to have world-owners license bot-owners. A bot owner
that operates obnoxious bots loses the bot-license. If you want deer on your VR estate, you get
a license or you rent them from a bot agency, that has built up a reputation for clever and
non-obnoxious bots and so has a bot-license. If you want to build a under a dome on Mars, you
get a license for a builder bot from the owner of Mars, or you go to a contractor that has a
builder-bot license for Mars construction, and select a dome from the domes on the contractor's
Module Yard (you give the contractor a privilege password so that you end up owning the dome).
The contractor wants the VR money because
it can be used to rent deer bots from a bot agency. A VR economy, backed up by a VR legal
system.

[View Quote] > An interesting concept, not your dead body, but the idea of making money non financial. I
> guess I would have to ask why because I can't see any in-world stuff that I would want to
> purchase with it. Unless you wanted to start a poker league maybe.
>
> Edward Sumerfield
>
[View Quote]

Apr 24, 2003, 10:21pm

Next week, Linden Labs will open a public beta of Second Life. Check the
announcement at http://secondlife.com/newsletter/ on the Second Life
website. You can find out a lot about it there, too--basically, Second Life
sounds like Active Worlds--but also updated and enriched, with in-depth
support for user creativity (building, games, roleplaying).

Apr 25, 2003, 12:44pm

My Username in Second Life is Canopus Wu.

[View Quote]

Jun 18, 2003, 9:51pm

Second Life has a lot of things not available in AW (even 3.4), like online
creation of objects/avatars and a physics engine. On the other hand, it is
more expensive (there is no tourist category), and land is purposely scarce
(you must contribute to the community to get more).

If you sign up now for Open Beta, you can get Beta reductions on the regular
monthly subscription. (You'll need a visa card, though.)

[View Quote]

Jun 19, 2003, 1:17pm

"visa card" = Visa, Mastercard, etc.

[View Quote]

Jun 19, 2003, 10:06pm

Linden Labs used the credit card number for Beta identification purposes
only. (It was hashed into a unique number & kept that way.) They never
charged me for Beta testing. And when I sign up for the official game on
June 23, I will be able to use a credit card or other form of payment.

Anyone who is as creative as you are, imagine, should at least be tempted by
the ease of creating new objects and avatars online, in the game. Plus the
most creative players, who are good at design and texturing, make the most
Second Life dollars, and can afford to buy the most land (or gamble it away
in the casinos, etc.). Check out the website at secondlife.com.

[View Quote]

Jun 20, 2003, 11:30pm

LOL. No, in SL my last name is Wu. In AW I don't have a last name, and I
used to be the Mars correspondent for the AW Newsletter. I still spend a lot
of time in Philae, the Ancient Egyptian world I built, and in Midnight Bay,
the city I made in COFMeta. I wonder whether the Lindens think I am an AW
spy; I was interviewed by one of them, and I spent a lot of time talking
about the good things in AW. :o)

[View Quote]

Dec 16, 1999, 7:30pm

If you're an astronomy buff or a would-be star voyager, check out the
new displays of the brightest stars within 1000 parsecs of the Sun, on
COFMeta at 888s 888w. It's educational (each star has its name on it &
its position was derived from the new Hipparcos Probe data). It shows
yet another way a BuilderBot can be used. And it's just plain fun
sailing through the darkness of space with stars flying by.

Dec 23, 1999, 9:12pm

Thanks, Lexxus. Actually, the stars are graded by Absolute Magnitude,
so that in the 1000-parsec display, -8 & below AbsMag (the brightest)
are the biggest, -7 & -6 are next biggest, -5 are merely big, -4 are
small, -3 are smaller yet, and -2 are the smallest. In the 100-parsec
display, -5 & below are the biggest, -4 & -3 are next biggest, -2 & -1
are merely big, 0 AbsMag stars are small, +1 & +2 are smaller yet, stars
+3 & above are the smallest (the last class includes the Sun).
I used the 3 Blink textures to make the Blink & Helper1 objects seem
to be different sizes (or intensities), as well to look round from all
sides.
If the stars could be in color, that'd be way cool, yes! (I couldn't
think of a way to do both the textures and the colors, but I sure would
like to know of one.)

[View Quote]

Dec 25, 1999, 12:09am

Maybe AW is like a Mercator projection of a sphere, so that the Polar
regions spread out into the available rectangular space.

To get the effect of wrapping around, you should claim land on
opposite sides of an AW world, & use construction bots to copy your
buildings on the west edge onto the east edge at the same latitude. Then
you could put in a line of invisible & nonsolid panes, which would warp
people approaching the west edge over to the eastern buildings, facing
west (& vice versa). (Near the north pole, you pop visitors over to an
opposite longitude equally near to the north pole.)

On Mars, some people have followed this Mercator projection idea, &
settlements are labelled as 'near the Pole' or 'tropical' (the hot
part--hot for Mars, anyway). For instance, the giant volcanic peak of
Mt. Pavonis happens to be on the equator on real Mars & on Activeworlds
Mars. (The terminus for the Tharsis Railway from Valles Marineris is on
the north edge of the crater at 39n 490e 17.4a. The Space Elevator
described in Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy is on the south edge of
the crater.)

[View Quote]

Jan 5, 2000, 1:13am

Renderware (AW's graphics engine) has posted 6 demos of RW3 for the PC
on its website--http://www.renderware.com/rwgames/index.html. Choose
"PC" & Demos" from the menu on that page, & download the Zip files. RW3
for the PC is being released this month. The demos look good (you have
to have a D3D or DFX system). Kinda hope AW 3.0 will be using all these
cool effects.

Jun 9, 2000, 2:44am

The new generation of Role Playing Games, such as *Vampire*, which came
out yesterday, & *Neverwinter Nights*, include editors that seem to be
capable of online building that is as good as or better than AW 3.0 can
do. (See the screenshots & movies at http://www.neverwinternights.com &
similar sites.) It's true that they aren't multiuser level-editors, but
they can script automated bot avatars (Non-Playing Characters), do
runtime events, handle weather, compute the shadows from torches carried
by characters, etc., in ways that are far beyond AW. The editors come
with the regular game, but can be used to create your own worlds and the
characters and legends to fill them. (In my opinion, the biggest thing
missing from AW worlds is inhabitants: even the established generation
of RPG, like Ultima Online & Everquest, have cities and wildernesses
that are full of animal and human life, only you can't really build your
own worlds for your own adventures.)

Both *Vampire* & *Neverwinter Nights* will let you create a world & its
people & quests, & run your world using their game engine on your
computer (peer-to-peer, having your friends or visitors link up to you
over the internet). You can portal to your friends' worlds & their
creatures & struggles, without going to any centralized server or paying
fees for storing your world & inhabiting your own fantasy. The user
interface is very sophisticated, & you can adjust it to fit your
preferences; on the other hand, the beautiful 3-D effects, like armor
that reflects light or swords that blur when they go fast, come at the
expense of AW's 1st-person-view & visible sky (the moonlight comes and
goes, or the sunlight changes from pink to orange, but you can't see
moon or the two suns).

I personally think the idea of a network of worlds, each created & run &
filled with creatures & events by individual owners, is so powerful & so
convincing that it will be a serious challenge to AW, unless AW quickly
finishes 3.0 & begins doing a lot of the things mentioned.

[View Quote]

Jun 12, 2000, 6:40pm

AW allows runtime building (people can watch each other build); these
RPG allow designtime building (you build in private). AW does not have a
separate class of objects that anyone can pick up & move; many games
have "items" that are built at designtime for anybody to find & "use" at
runtime.

We have lots of beermugs in AW, but visitors can't carry them
from the counter to their tables. Sure, we can fake this with expensive
bump-sequences (lots of invisible objects, beware the BI), but even
then, *only you* see the beermug seem to move--everybody else on the
site sees the beermug still sitting on the counter. In these games, as
Eep's chart shows, runtime building of items is possible--& everybody on
the site sees you carrying a beermug to your table.

I've posted a ShowBot that can fake this--& everybody would see the
beermug being moved--but it has to be done by the beermug-owner's bot,
on the beermug-owner's property. Plus we are only allowed 3 bots per
citizen, so it's a sacrifice of 1 bot just to assist casual visitors to
your bar. These games have a special subclass of owned objects that can
be designated for nonowners to move (build) at runtime. AW badly needs
such a class to stay competitive.

It's not hard to script an AW PatrolBot, one that wanders around your
site following a set of safe (no-collision) paths, giving the impression
that this is a place with busy inhabitants, as well as visitors. But
again, we are only allowed 3 bots per citizen, & it requires stationing
1 bot per site just to detect visitors. In the new generation of RPG's,
the server automatically detects visitors to a site, triggering NPC's
(bots) that patrol, or work, or attack, or whatever, & each site can
have 100 or more (bot) inhabitants, not 3 altogether, as in AW.


[View Quote]

Jul 3, 2000, 11:47pm

Activeworlds just published a new list of World Server prices. But AW
still seems to be going with its traditional "rent a browser, rent a
server" model. I reported last month that the new generation of
role-playing games are becoming more and more competitive with AW.
Vampire is out now--it looks as good as or better than AW 3.0, has lots
of cool Nonplayer Characters, & an involving storyline, with options for
online multi-player and gamemaster story-involvement. Lots of items
(objects) can be picked up & moved & used in the horror gameplay. (There
are problems with the save system & the AI.)

Vampire has delivered (free) a set of world-editing and world-scripting
tools, & I thought some people would be interested in some first
impressions, since this is the part that would be in competition with
AW. The editors do have the ability to design worlds as fascinating as
Vampire's medieval Prague & modern Vienna, & you can quickly recompile &
test out what you did, using the Vampire installation on your hard disk.
But to use the same tools that Nihilistic used, you need patience to
read lots of instructions & willingness to become sort of a computer
artist/designer. For $34.99 & a free download, you have everything you
need to make your own worlds, but it's not easy to do.

Likewise, the scripting tools let you do almost anything you want
within the animation capabilities of the game engine, but you need to
understand the Java programming language, or some other modern language
like it, such as Object Pascal (Delphi) or C++. Not only are these tools
free for the download, Nihilistic is making its own scripted maps of its
game world available for free. On the minus side, if your friends (or
anyone else that can dial you up over the internet) wants to visit your
new world & play one of the characters in the plot you have created,
they have to download your modified version of Vampire, & reinstall key
files. Still, they get a new world, & everybody only pays $34.99 once,
because from then on, all the new worlds are free to make & free to
visit directly over the net.

Next year Neverwinter Nights should be ready. It promises to be much
more serious competition for AW. Bioware, the makers of Baldur's Gate,
are doing it, & have been unusually forthcoming about its development.
Even though nine months is a long time, you can see from the preview
(http://www.dailyradar.com/features/game_feature_page_856_1.html) why so
many people are excited about it. NWN will give users free tools for
editing their own worlds, but as you can see on the preview movie, these
will be easy to use. (Like Worldcraft/Starcraft, you paint down scenery
or buildings--'artifacts' in the AW sense--but these are 3-D objects,
not just 2-D objects.) NWN will not only have a C-like scripting
language for manipulating the NPC's, monsters, movable items, status
points, etc. that constitute your world story, but it will also have
scripting Wizards that will do the C-like hard part for you. (Bioware
expects that 90% of users will work through the scripting wizards, & the
other 10% will want to get down & script with the C-like language.)

NWN is going to have a full story of its own, but the story has been
designed from the start as a model for game-buyers to use, after they
play the game & begin to build their own worlds and storylines. Bioware
will make money after it sells the gamebox by selling new objects, new
monsters, new textures, new items, etc. But once you've bought the game
($49.99?), from then on, even ordinary folks can design worlds & invite
people to come visit over the internet--for free. (8-64 people at a
time, depending on your internet connection, modem-cable.) You won't be
able to build while people watch; but you will be able to have dozens of
Non-Player Characters, move furniture & beermugs & dragonsteeth around,
& above all, involve your friends in a story that you composed yourself.

I wonder if AW will be able to match this kind of competition. Course
it might turn out not to be what it sounds like. But: if we can run
worlds off our own home computers for the cost of a single game, if we
can have as many bots as we want, with built-in AI facilities that we
can script ourselves, if we can have doors that move & gold coins that
we can carry, all for free, why should we pay to rent one of AW's new
world servers? What I think I see is still a cloud, small as a man's
hand, on the horizon. I hope by the time it gets here, AW will be ready.

Jul 9, 2000, 6:39pm

Yeah, I am talking about one of these companies taking their
technology & making a browser based on the idea of using a set of
objects & avatars with NWN graphics, namely the company that is working
on NWN. You're in game development, you know that if you can stage
realtime battles over the internet, you can use the same technology to
stage soccer games or classical ballet. If you can buy a set of 200
avatars & hundreds of objects in a box, & a browser/server engine that
allows you to create as many P-30 worlds as you want for free, why
continue to rent your browser & your server, AW-style?

Nobody who builds these P-30 worlds has to roleplay. But if you can
have hundreds of bots that you script to fill your P-30 worlds with
background characters, why not? Particularly if the browser/server
engine has an AI that pathfinds for the bots, organizes their behavior,
etc. It's up to you what you have the bots do: some people might want
hacking & slashing; other people might want buying & selling, or dancing
& making love. AW gives us the ability to build things: why not add an
ability to build characters? That's what 'game technology' can do.

In AW, if you own land, you can put objects on it & move them around.
Someone at AW once designed a great browser/server system for object
ownership, & it still is the best. The next logical step is to allow
owners to designate objects that visitors can move around. That's what
NWN is promising: owners can tag swords or chairs or gold coins for
visitor movement. Maybe NWN's developers have in mind a web of beautiful
goblin-infested, action-oriented worlds. But the toolsets in the NWN box
can be used to build any kind of world. Just look around AW & you'll see
how innovative people can be, if you only give them the technical means.

[View Quote]

Jul 3, 2000, 11:47pm

Activeworlds just published a new list of World Server prices. But AW
still seems to be going with its traditional "rent a browser, rent a
server" model. I reported last month that the new generation of
role-playing games are becoming more and more competitive with AW.
Vampire is out now--it looks as good as or better than AW 3.0, has lots
of cool Nonplayer Characters, & an involving storyline, with options for
online multi-player and gamemaster story-involvement. Lots of items
(objects) can be picked up & moved & used in the horror gameplay. (There
are problems with the save system & the AI.)

Vampire has delivered (free) a set of world-editing and world-scripting
tools, & I thought some people would be interested in some first
impressions, since this is the part that would be in competition with
AW. The editors do have the ability to design worlds as fascinating as
Vampire's medieval Prague & modern Vienna, & you can quickly recompile &
test out what you did, using the Vampire installation on your hard disk.
But to use the same tools that Nihilistic used, you need patience to
read lots of instructions & willingness to become sort of a computer
artist/designer. For $34.99 & a free download, you have everything you
need to make your own worlds, but it's not easy to do.

Likewise, the scripting tools let you do almost anything you want
within the animation capabilities of the game engine, but you need to
understand the Java programming language, or some other modern language
like it, such as Object Pascal (Delphi) or C++. Not only are these tools
free for the download, Nihilistic is making its own scripted maps of its
game world available for free. On the minus side, if your friends (or
anyone else that can dial you up over the internet) wants to visit your
new world & play one of the characters in the plot you have created,
they have to download your modified version of Vampire, & reinstall key
files. Still, they get a new world, & everybody only pays $34.99 once,
because from then on, all the new worlds are free to make & free to
visit directly over the net.

Next year Neverwinter Nights should be ready. It promises to be much
more serious competition for AW. Bioware, the makers of Baldur's Gate,
are doing it, & have been unusually forthcoming about its development.
Even though nine months is a long time, you can see from the preview
(http://www.dailyradar.com/features/game_feature_page_856_1.html) why so
many people are excited about it. NWN will give users free tools for
editing their own worlds, but as you can see on the preview movie, these
will be easy to use. (Like Worldcraft/Starcraft, you paint down scenery
or buildings--'artifacts' in the AW sense--but these are 3-D objects,
not just 2-D objects.) NWN will not only have a C-like scripting
language for manipulating the NPC's, monsters, movable items, status
points, etc. that constitute your world story, but it will also have
scripting Wizards that will do the C-like hard part for you. (Bioware
expects that 90% of users will work through the scripting wizards, & the
other 10% will want to get down & script with the C-like language.)

NWN is going to have a full story of its own, but the story has been
designed from the start as a model for game-buyers to use, after they
play the game & begin to build their own worlds and storylines. Bioware
will make money after it sells the gamebox by selling new objects, new
monsters, new textures, new items, etc. But once you've bought the game
($49.99?), from then on, even ordinary folks can design worlds & invite
people to come visit over the internet--for free. (8-64 people at a
time, depending on your internet connection, modem-cable.) You won't be
able to build while people watch; but you will be able to have dozens of
Non-Player Characters, move furniture & beermugs & dragonsteeth around,
& above all, involve your friends in a story that you composed yourself.

I wonder if AW will be able to match this kind of competition. Course
it might turn out not to be what it sounds like. But: if we can run
worlds off our own home computers for the cost of a single game, if we
can have as many bots as we want, with built-in AI facilities that we
can script ourselves, if we can have doors that move & gold coins that
we can carry, all for free, why should we pay to rent one of AW's new
world servers? What I think I see is still a cloud, small as a man's
hand, on the horizon. I hope by the time it gets here, AW will be ready.

Oct 22, 2000, 11:49pm

The developers of Dawn, an online role-playing game, intend to include
game-time building as a regular activity for their players. Not only can
you build buildings but also you can alter terrain, as you develop your
part of an enormous world, by yourself or with other players. The game
is scheduled for completion in Quarter 1, 2002. (Kind of a deadline for
AW?) Read about it on the fansite http://dawn.stratics.com.

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