chapter locked via password

[Gambio]

Greetings

I wonder if its possible to lock chapters via password.

The Idea behind is that the Reader would have to find the Password in a specific chapter and then put it in to unlock another chapter.

I tried fiddling around with Game Mode, but didn't really find anything useful.

Thanks for your help!

 

[RicoLouis]

Not in the way you are probably thinking were you need to type it in but you could set a condition to the chapter that you need the password to proceed past that point kind of like needing a key before getting past a door.

 

[gene.sis]

There would also be ways to enter a word character by character.
To keep it easy, the order of the characters shouldn't matter. (e.g. the user could choose "word", "dorw", "rodw", and so on)
This would need about 3 variables.
The word should also be not too long. Otherwise, it might be annoying for the reader.
Only offering grouped letters (like shown on phone buttons) might make it easier for the reader. (So if the reader chooses "ABC" it means either "A", "B", or "C")

 

[Gambio]

alright, so that would basically mean the reader would have the read another Chapter first. So read Chapter B to unlock Chapter D, right?

 

[Gambio]

There would also be ways to enter a word character by character.
To keep it easy, the order of the characters shouldn't matter. (e.g. the user could choose "word", "dorw", "rodw", and so on)
This would need about 3 variables.
The word should also be not too long. Otherwise, it might be annoying for the reader.
Only offering grouped letters (like shown on phone buttons) might make it easier for the reader. (So if the reader chooses "ABC" it means either "A", "B", or "C")

I see. That would work, i guess i need to play around with this a bit more before i get it.

Actually, one more question, the reader has to click on start game, or all of this doesn't work right?

I mean, he could technically access the locked chapter as long as he isn't in "game mode"

 

[gene.sis]

I see. That would work, i guess i need to play around with this a bit more before i get it.

Well, I can explain how it would work if you offer more details. It just doesn't make sense to do it for all possibilities.
(There is also a way where the order of the letters would mostly matter.)

Actually, one more question, the reader has to click on start game, or all of this doesn't work right?

I mean, he could technically access the locked chapter as long as he isn't in "game mode"

There are ways to hide the content from the average reader, no matter if they have started game mode or not.

 

[Almax]

(just to help ya out, here's how to do the stuff that people are talking about)

LOCKING A CHAPTER FOR GAME MODE
In the chapter you get the password, go into the edit page. At the bottom, under the chapter text entry, tick "changes to the score" and add a variable of the type you want. If it's only a password, then using a boolean (check mark/cross) would work, but you might wanna do a number just in case you want to add more options later (like passwords from different places unlock the door to different rooms by magic or something, where you can use a bunch of different numbers). Give it a name you'll remember, set it to the value you'll remember (I'd recommend check mark or "1" for the "You've got the password" state). If you'd like, you can also set it to the opposite option earlier on/in the introduction, but if you only want to have the chapter appear then it's not necessary, that'd just let you give specific options for if they DON'T have the password (if the variable is "0" or a cross, using my recommended values).

Then, in the chapter you need a password for, go into the edit page again. Just above "changes to the score" should be "requirements to view this chapter" -- set it to what you'd like the player to need to read it, and you're golden!



HIDING A CHAPTER OUT OF GAME MODE
Readers outside of Game Mode will always be able to view every chapter, but you can effect what they see there (if you do this, I'd recommend a disclaimer in the Introduction, and I'd also recommend considering if you definitely for sure want to hide stuff -- are you making a video game, or a story, and do you really want to bar off readers from seeing that chapter unless they click through a bunch of links every time?).

They way you do this is with the use of curly brackets; {}. There's a buncha cool stuff you can do here, but here's an example of one:

{if Password == 1} Here goes all of the text you want in the chapter -- hitting enter to make multiple paragraphs is fine and doesn't break the code, so don't worry about that, it'll keep existing until you type the following: {endif}

You can put multiple "if"s inside of each other, but make sure to give them each their own "endif". You can also use only one = inside the brackets if you like, but I prefer using two for no real reason (p sure it doesn't work with more than two, though). If you put this code in your chapter, it would display all of the chapter text if the person was in Game Mode and had Password = 1 (which they now need to even view the chapter), and to anybody outside of Game Mode the chapter would be blank. Instead, I think it's better to give a disclaimer, so that people outside of Game Mode know what's going on and don't think it's a glitch or empty chapter (again, assuming you really do want this chapter to be a hidden reward and consider it worth it). Here's how to do that:

{if Password == 1} Once again, all of the chapter text goes here. To people outside of Game Mode, it will always show the "else" case if one exists, otherwise it will show nothing. So.... {else} Now this part is where you can put a disclaimer, or whatever you want to be read outside of Game Mode. Of course, you can use "else"s for a ton of other stuff, but this is a perfectly valid use too, especially when it's impossible to view the chapter with the else-case being possible. Make sure to put the else BEFORE the endif. {endif}

(You also don't need those spaces between the commands, and it's actually better to not use them because the spaces will show up in chapter, I'm just formatting it like that for ease of reading)

Another cool thing is the use of the @ sign after the command. It basically says "use this case for people outside of Game Mode", and works just fine with variables that don't even exist in the Game (which is nice in some cases). Here's an example:

{if@ Armour == 1} Here, you can put text dependant on the armour being the first of however many cases, and it will show up as the "default" outside of Game Mode {elseif Armour == 2} yes, elseif is something that exists -- it basically saves you from having to do "else" and "if" separately, and counts as the same command just like a regular else, so you only need one "endif" at the end of it. {elseif Armour == 3} And you can do it as many times as you want. Three cases exist here, but again, only the first will show up thanks to that @ sign. Yes, you can also do "elseif@", and if you don't use any @ signs at all then it will just take the "else" case (if one exists -- otherwise it'll be blank). {endif}



I also like to do stuff like {if@ Gammod == False}, because Gammod isn't a variable that's ever defined and it makes me smile more than typing out Game Mode and it lets me have set text for people reading out of Game Mode so that they don't get confused when chapters have multiple cases for different visits. It can also let you do tons of cool stuff, and there's a million more things I've learned how to do and tips I can give, but I don't wanna flood anybody too much and that's basically all you need to know for your question. Make sure to include the {endif}s, and remember, you can always Ctrl+f search for "{" after publishing or saving as draft to make sure you've not made any mistakes!

I hope that helped you out, and good luck with your story!

 

[gene.sis]

(just to help ya out, here's how to do the stuff that people are talking about)

LOCKING A CHAPTER FOR GAME MODE
In the chapter you get the password, go into the edit page. At the bottom, under the chapter text entry, tick "changes to the score" and add a variable of the type you want. If it's only a password, then using a boolean (check mark/cross) would work, but you might wanna do a number just in case you want to add more options later (like passwords from different places unlock the door to different rooms by magic or something, where you can use a bunch of different numbers). Give it a name you'll remember, set it to the value you'll remember (I'd recommend check mark or "1" for the "You've got the password" state). If you'd like, you can also set it to the opposite option earlier on/in the introduction, but if you only want to have the chapter appear then it's not necessary, that'd just let you give specific options for if they DON'T have the password (if the variable is "0" or a cross, using my recommended values).

Then, in the chapter you need a password for, go into the edit page again. Just above "changes to the score" should be "requirements to view this chapter" -- set it to what you'd like the player to need to read it, and you're golden!

That's actually not what I was talking about ^^

I have the impression that the thread creator wants the reader to guess a specific detail from the story without offering a bunch of choices.
E.g.
During a date with a girl, he learns a lot about her. (There is no branching, so every reader will have the same score at the end.)
A few days later, he walks into her room and catches a glimpse of what he thinks was a nude image on her computer screen. But she locked the computer too fast for him to be sure.
She looks somewhat embarrassed and after a short hug, she tells him that she takes a quick shower.
After she has left, he has now the chance to guess the password and unlock the computer.

As there are no different branches, there is no way to set the variable password. So the reader would need to guess based on the hints of the previous chapters.

If you would have several options, you could just try out all of them. If you have a password, you would really need the hint to get it right.

 

[Almax]

That's actually not what I was talking about ^^

I have the impression that the thread creator wants the reader to guess a specific detail from the story without offering a bunch of choices.
E.g.
During a date with a girl, he learns a lot about her. (There is no branching, so every reader will have the same score at the end.)
A few days later, he walks into her room and catches a glimpse of what he thinks was a nude image on her computer screen. But she locked the computer too fast for him to be sure.
She looks somewhat embarrassed and after a short hug, she tells him that she takes a quick shower.
After she has left, he has now the chance to guess the password and unlock the computer.

As there are no different branches, there is no way to set the variable password. So the reader would need to guess based on the hints of the previous chapters.

If you would have several options, you could just try out all of them. If you have a password, you would really need the hint to get it right.

Oh, yeah, you're probably right about what they were asking for there! In that case there probably isn't any better way to do it than having the digits 0-9 as choices. Say it was a four-digit code, you'd have a variable "Attempt" set to 0 earlier, and from the password entry page you have digits 0-9 which all link back to the password entry page again, adding 1 to Attempt (or you could just have that page auto-add one to Attempt, but then the passcode is finished at 5 instead of 4 because opening it would add one before choosing any digits.). Each digit link chapter would also have the requirement of "Attempt < 4", or "Attempt < 5" if Attempt was added in the entry chapter and not the digit links.

Say the code was "1182", you'd have two links for the digit 1, with one requiring Attempt == 1, one requiring Attempt == 2, and one requiring Attempt > 2 (again, adding 1 to all of those if it's added by the entry page). You'd also have three links for the digit 8, one for Attempt < 3, one for Attempt == 3, and one for Attempt > 3, and then two for the digit 2 at Attempt < 4 and Attempt == 4. Each correct linking digit which appears only in its correct attempt slot would add one to a variable "Correct", and then at the end if Correct == 4, you're in. If it's less than 4, you failed, and can try again with "Attempt" and "Correct" both reset.

It might sound sort of complicated if you've not done something like it before, but it's the best way I can think of, and I think if you read it closely a few times you'll get the swing of it p quick. I think it's the easiest way to do it with existing systems. If you're wanting words instead of numbers, that would work too, the exact same way (although with more linking chapters). Otherwise, if you want to make it a bit easier, you could just simply have whole words as options from the password entry chapter, but that'd probably take some of the fun out of what you're looking to create. Good luck again, hopefully this one was a bit more helpful!

 

[Gambio]

Hey, thanks for all the replies!

I generally agree that hiding stuff from the reader is not the best way to go with. As a reasonably long lurker here, i'm well aware that sometimes you just want to get to the good stuff and not get trough some longwinding buildup first.

The things i want to hide is stuff, you really won't understand until you actually read the story in order.

I contemplated it for a bit, and i think i will go with a different approach after all. Instead of "forcing" readers to play a game, i will invite them to. I think thats works better for my idea.

Regardless, i much appreciate the help!

 

[gene.sis]

Oh, yeah, you're probably right about what they were asking for there!

Well, I was wrong ^^

In that case there probably isn't any better way to do it than having the digits 0-9 as choices.

It could also be done with letters.
So an example with grouped letters like they are on a telephone keyboard. (That would be 8 options.)
So you would need the options
- ABC
- DEF
- GHI
- JKL
- MNO
- PQRS
- TUV
- WXYZ
- Confirm choice (wrong choice)
- Confirm choice (correct choice)

In the setup you use one (or two) variables and set them to 0 (or -100,000)
Each letter option adds a number to one of the variables.
These numbers would be 2^n with n = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, ..., 15]
1; 2; 4; 8; 16; 32; 64; 128; 256; 512; 1024; ...; 32768
If no option is chosen twice, this gives you an almost unique number. (binary)

To allow options to be chosen two or three times without having false guesses, you could use every second number
1; 4; 16; 64; 128; 512; 2048; 8192; 32768

To allow options to be chosen up to 15 times, you could use every fourth number. (Then you have to split the set of options into two sets and use a variable for each of them.)
1; 16; 256; 4096; 32768

You would then show the respective "confirm choice" chapter depending on if the value is right or not. (With two variables, you might need more of them.)

This would force the reader to choose the correct number of each option but it doesn't need to be in the correct order. (Actually, you would need to restrict the number of choices to a certain number as well.)

To enforce a non-random order as well, you could use two sets of option chapters. (Both with the same structure as described above, though you with switched value-option pairs. E.g. level 1 uses 1=ABC and level 2 uses 256=ABC)
If the reader chooses an option, it adds the value and then redirects them either to the current choice chapter or the other choice chapter.
This way, it might still be possible to use the wrong order and maybe even the wrong options, though it should be quite unlikely.

 

[Sune's Kiss]

The Idea behind is that the Reader would have to find the Password in a specific chapter and then put it in to unlock another chapter.

Not in the way you are probably thinking were you need to type it in but you could set a condition to the chapter that you need the password to proceed past that point kind of like needing a key before getting past a door.

That's the way I'd see it working. To use the example that gene.sis posted, I'd have a branch where maybe your protagonist gets to check out the dates Facebook while she's in the bathroom or something, and have time to check two out of the three posts.

If the date had a childhood pet named Benji (and that's the password), then you make a boolean variable like "know_benji" true when they read it. Then during the shower section make the "Enter 'Benji' as the Password" only visible if they have the know_benji variable as true.

I think if you were going to do this you'd need to put some kind of clue in that the dogs name would be the password, and more than one opportunity to learn the dogs name.