A guide for the Text-Based Role-Playing Game, Furcadia on the PC.
By -- Ploo21
Hello, I'll be your guide to lead you through making completely
interactive worlds. In the game furcadia, you can create your own
place. What do I mean by place? Well, anything! A house, a bar, a
garden, an anything! Whatever you want, you can create. In Furcadia,
they are called 'Dreams'.
When I began to play Furcadia in 2000, I didn't get much. I didn't
know what roleplaying was, I made a small dream that had nothing
interactive; you only walked to see things, not to make things happen,
and it was crammed full with things.
A friend and I had seen all of the dreams where you teleported through
doors, walked up stairs, listened to music while you were walking
through, exploring the dream.
We struggled hard, and one day, he figured it out. We got our first
two lines of Dragon Speak (DS). Now, in my Tavern, you could walk
through a door, and appear at the main attraction: the bar.
We were overjoyed. Slowly, I began experimenting, getting help from
more experienced friends I met, and getting better at DS, until I
arrived a few years later at what I am today.
I've decided to make this guide to help the newbies at dream-making
so they don't have to go through the rather annoying struggles I did.
So I hope I help! ^_^
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^2 What is DS? 2^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Dragon Speak, or DS for short, is a sort of 'script' so you can control
things in your Dream, to make it absolutely perfect. To make it what
you want. To make it your dream-Dream!
There are all sorts of kinds of DS! DS can teleport you, play music,
summon items, ban furres, and so much more. Some DS things are simple,
and some are not. But you'll learn it quickly.
So DS is the recipe to make things happen in your dream. When people
visit dreams, they want to see interactive things, and creative ideas.
Dragon Speak will do that!
When you have the Furcadia Dream Editor up, look at near the top. There
are some drop-down option buttons. Click the one that reads 'Dragon
Speak', then from the drop-down list, click 'Run DS editor'.
Another window will pop-up. At the bottom, you'll notice some tabs
reading 'Causes', 'Additional conditions', 'Areas', 'Filters', and
'Effects'. Every tab has a different set of large parts of sentences.
(Note: If you don't see words when you click the tabs 'Additional
conditions', 'Areas', and 'Filters', then click the + sign button near
the bottom right corner until the box near it reads 'Expert
variables')
If you double click any of the parts of sentences, they'll appear at
the top of the larger box above. Now, I'll explain each tab.
Causes:
The words here will tell you 'When someone does this'. In any DS line,
you have to have a Cause, because if you don't, the program won't know
when to do the thing you specified.
Additional conditions: This is another sort of cause. This makes it,
'If someone does this, and they're also...' so it helps to narrow
things down. This can only be used if there is a Cause before it.
Areas: This tells where something will happen. This makes it 'If
someone does this, and they're also doing this, then in this space...'.
Get it?
Filters: Filters aren't used so much, but this helps tell where the
effect will happen, or not happen. This makes it 'If someone does this,
and they're also doing, then in this space, only where this is
happening...'.
Effects: Along with a Cause, Effects must be used in any DS line. This
tells what will happen. This completes the DS line, making it 'If
someone does this, and they're also doing this, then in this space,
only where this is happening, do this.' Effects are everything.
So! Now you understand the types of DS. But you'd like some examples,
I'm sure. So, let's say you want it when you walk into a pile of
sticks, they catch on fire. What you would do is get the first line:
(0:3) When somebody moves into object type #,
So know you need to know what item number, #, the pile of logs is. So
you would go to your Dream Editor window, and look through the items,
until you found the correct item. In the box where it shows the item,
just above it reads 'Current Object:' in this case it would say
'Current Object: 79'. So you would do this
(0:3) When somebody moves into object type 79,
This says, 'When someone bumps into any pile of logs,'. Well, now we
want to say what it will do. So we go into the 'Effect' tab, and find
the line:
(5:5) change object type # to type #.
So now, once again, we fill in the first number with the item number.
(5:5) change object type 79 to type #.
Now, we look to find what the pile of logs with the fire's numer is.
We find out it is 407, so we fill that in to the line, so it now reads:
(0:3) When somebody moves into object type 79,
(5:5) change object type 79 to type 407.
Now! Let's try out your new DS section. At the top, press 'File' then
'Save'. Then, you can go to the Imaginarium, or any of the other
sections in Furcadia, and face the spot you want your Dream Portal to
be in. Press Ctrl+T, and your dream will take a few seconds to upload.
Once it's in front of you, walk into it, and you will be transported
into your dream.
Find a regular stick of logs, and walk into it, and... whoa! All of the
sticks in the dream changed to fire, didn't they? But we only wanted
the one we ran into to! So we need areas! Insert this line in between
the other two we used earlier:
(3:6) where the triggering furre moved into,
There is nothing to insert, so try your dream again. Now, only the
sticks you ran into caught flame.
So there's a simple example for you. Here's some good beginner DS:
(0:9) When a furre arrives in the dream,
(1:70) and their name is {...},
(5:78) eject the triggering furre.
1. This one's good, because if there's someone bothering you, just
erase the ... and put in their name, and once they come in your dream,
they'll be sent out immediately!
(0:7) When somebody moves into position (#,#),
(5:15) move the triggering furre to (#,#), or to someplace nearby if
it's occupied.
2. This one is useful for teleporting. If someone walks into a certain
place, they'll appear somewhere else! All you have to do is fill in the
co-ordinates! To do that, go to your Dream Editor, and highlight the
space you want with the white lines, and look to the box to the side.
See how it says 'Current X:' and 'Current Y:' and some numbers after?
Fill in the numbers in the #,# in the DS line! (Remember to do the X
before the Y! Always!)
(0:9) When a furre arrives in the dream,
(5:15) move the triggering furre to (#,#), or to someplace nearby if
it's occupied.
3. This tells where to place the furres when they enter your dream!
-------------------------4 Sounds and Music 4----------------------
Have you ever heard music play when you enter someone elses dream? Or
little sounds when you do something in their dream? Well, it's really
easy to do!
To make sounds happen is a little easier, so I'll do that first.
If you look at your Dragon Speak Editor window, at the top, you'll see
a tab labeled 'Special'. Click it, then click 'Sound Preview...'. A new
box will appear with numbers, and sounds. Select a sound, and press
'Play' and it will play. Now, let's find a good one.
Hmm, 35 looks good: Water. Now, let's put it to use! Let's say, you
want the sound of water to play whenever you walk into a sink. What you
would do is use the following DS:
(0:3) When somebody moves into object type #,
(5:8) play sound # to whoever set off the trigger.
This says 'Whenever someone bumps into a certain object, play a certain
sound to that person.' So, we'll fill in the first # for the sink
number.
0:3) When somebody moves into object type 192,
(5:8) play sound # to whoever set off the trigger.
Now, just fill in the second # with the number of the water sound.
0:3) When somebody moves into object type 192,
(5:8) play sound 35 to whoever set off the trigger.
Tada! There's your sound!
Now: for music. Actual music (mp3's) are a lot harder to play in dream,
and require a lot longer upload, so I recommend putting a midi in your
dream. A midi is a technological song. It may sound like a real song,
but without the singing. So let's say you have a song labeled
Music.mid. What you need to do, is put it in a certain file, and call
it M1.mid. This means this is your first midi. Now, look at your Dream
Editor.
Near the end at the top, there's a button that says 'Patches'. Click
it, then click Dream Settings, to make a new window pop up. Look at
the last three circles. Click the circle in the middle. The one that
says next to it 'I want to use files from this directory with my dream.
In the box, you'll want it to say the directory you put the midi in.
So, click 'Browse'. At the bottom drop down select thing, it will say
'c:/'. Even though it already says C, select C again from the drop down
list. Then, from the long list, find 'My Documents' and double click
it. From there, find the folder you put the midi in, and click it. Once
there, click [.], then select 'Ok'.
Now, for the DS! Let's say you want this midi to play when someone
arrives in your dream. So get the DS:
(0:9) When a furre arrives in the dream,
(5:30) play midi # to whoever set off the trigger.
Now, since this is Midi 1 (m1.mid), erase the # and put 1 there. There
you go! Now you have music! Everything works the same way the next
time with another midi, but you'll have to label it m2.mid.
*************************5 Finale 5************************
Well! There's your beginners guide to Dragon Speak. I hope all of this
helped you! This guide was a lot of fun to make, and I just hope it
helps some of the confused little furres, and brings them into the
light of creative dream-making.
So! What are you waiting for? Go out there and make legendary dreams!
And make sure you have fun! ^_^ That's what this game is all about.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~6 Copyright and Credits 6~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Copyright 2006 Grant Jones
This may be not be reproduced under any circumstances
except for personal, private use. It may not be placed
on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without
advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other
web site or as a part of any public display is strictly
prohibited, and a violation of copyright.
You can contact me at: Coolgab1219@yahoo.com. Please
make the subject line say Dragon Speak Guide in it,
or I might accidentally delete it.
Thanks to--
www.gamefaqs.com- for posting this faq.
www.neoseeker.com- for posting this faq.
Dragons Eye Productions- For making this wonderful game!
My friend Andrew- For exploring the world of Furcadia, and helping me
every step of the way.
This guide is only authorized to by on Gamefaqs.com and Neoseeker.com
