I'm working on a new story/game that's racking up a ton of variables, and it occurs to me that while I can keep track of them all on a separate list, it's kind of a pain to enter them manually for each chapter with a corresponding score change—and if it's, say, a numerical variable, God forbid I accidentally click the "percent" or "boolean" symbols. Obviously it's not hard to just delete that variable, but it can be just as easy to overlook if you're not paying attention. My suggestion: When you write a chapter that's going to change a score, in addition to the option to create a new variable, have a dropdown list of all previously established variables—maybe even sorted alphabetically, under categories like "Boolean," "Numerical," and "Percentage"—so you can just select them as needed, rather than repeatedly typing them in. This would also take a little pressure off of any other writers who might want to contribute to otherwise complicated game narratives (though in my specific case, I plan to do my best to encourage people to just write and let me worry about the coding); it would be a lot easier to just have the list at your command than it would be to commit a handful of phrases to memory or write them on a separate sheet of paper / notepad document.
Not sure about this... if implemented, I think it would be good to have all variables which are introduced in any chapter of the story. This would allow you to use loops and links without missing variables of parallel branches or a character creation process. Also not sure about implementation... I think it would be easier if the variables have to be predefined at the edit story page. I think that is the best practice.
Well, thanks for fixing it and not getting pissy about it like a lot of people I know in the real world.
You're saying we should just have them all laid out regardless if you're adding a new chapter to the story that changes variables. I can definitely live with that. That's also a much better idea. I can see how that might make things a little harder for incoming authors who want to create new variables for existing game stories, but I can't imagine there are enough of those to matter. Of course, it's also worth considering what happens (if anything) should the OP decides to delete an in-use variable after the story's published (for whatever crazy reason). Anyway, if you decide you're willing to implement this, can I throw in one more suggestion? Add another column in the variable entry field so the OP can explain to contributors what each variable is for. This way anybody willing to write in their own variable changes won't have to spend much time trying to figure out what each one does and if it affects them. (That might have merited a different thread, but I figure it doesn't have much of a point if you keep things on the old system.) Thanks a lot for indulging me!
Depending on the structure of the story, it may be the best choice if one person handles all variables to keep the game balanced. (btw I usually just state my opinion on suggestions as Friedman decides which suggestions are going to be implemented. )
This would save me so much time and effort, and would prevent having to keep up with a separate spreadsheet/text file. Also, it would be nice to see what each varibable could potentially be at by that point in the story, like if I had a "Jenny's Horniness" meter, I could quickly see what the maximum possible % that is at that chapter's depth.
That's "not" possible as you can create loops and jump into other branches. It's basically the same issue as counting how many chapters you can read for each available story option.
