Save File Dark Sorcery

Hiya.

I would like to make more than one game. Preferably have them interconnect, with events of the first having repercussions in the sequels.

Like Mass Effect.

I want Mass Effect save file dark sorcery.

I remember reading about such a thing for IF once, but I can’t seem to locate that information anymore.

Any help?

Such thanks.

I7 can write information to external files, and read information from external files. It’s fairly specific about how that information has to be presented (it needs to be stored in a table, or else be a single text string), but it can be transferred between different games. See 23.11 in the manual.

if i have last name, first name, age, gender of a character, and a series of counters with values that each may have differing ranges, would that work?

and would someone be able to edit such a “save file” to cheat, and change their fate? or is that coded?

That seems like it should all be good. (The first name and last name look like they’d probably have to be written to a text file, but you can do that too.)

I think that Inform external files wind up in some kind of strange format that’s pretty much impossible to edit by hand. (But even if it doesn’t, you probably don’t need to worry that much about your players cheating.)

I CAN and I WILL.

And I’m gonna.

OH is it possible in Z-Machine? Because I see mentions of it being a GLULX thing.

Yes it’s Glulx only. You can see an example of how to use datafiles in this way in Kerkerkruip: github.com/i7/kerkerkruip/blob/ … 20Data.i7x

We use a data table with numerical keys and values:

[code]Table of Data Storage
key (number) value (number)


with 14 blank rows[/code]

If you want to store text as well then you can add another column with type text.

Inform’s way of writing tables is pretty user-editable. If you want the files to not be easy to edit then you’ll need to write your own system (some of which will need to use Inform 6 inclusions.)

Players can hack your save-data file. Players can disassemble your game file and look at the text. Players can stop playing your game halfway through and leave it a bad review anyway.

These are not issues you should spend a lot of time worrying about.

I didn’t really cry, uncle. I’m too busy playing Game Of Thrones Episode 4 by TellTale. I’m touched you care enough for me to give me the little boost, though.

how does one disassemble a game file once it’s made? I ask this for science.