FATAL ERROR: Expected > in look <
FATAL ERROR: Too many > in There are paths branching off in almost all directions.>
INIT: Unable to open file

I notice that most of the time this happens, it's when I've changed something in a room description. I've gotten smart and started saving under multiple filenames as I progress. I once started writing a rather lengthy game and it crashed on me like this, then I couldn't even open it in the editor.

Anybody have an idea why this happens?

Granted, I don't know much about C, but hopefully this helps.

That > is missing from your game file... There was probably an error in QDK's storage of the game so it saved a bit on the wrong side...

I haven't encountered this bug alot, I haven't used QDK/Quest alot : ( , but "it's only human nature after all!".

quote:

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All I'm trying to do is have an object become accessible when a player looks at an object in the room. I can't get it to work.. any suggestions?

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Not entirely sure what you mean by the above, but I assume you want "Object B" to appear and be takeable by the player, when the player looks at (or examines) 'Object A"

That being the case, I offer the following little 'demo'. In this code looking at a book (Object A) will cause a �50 note (Object B) to appear and be available to the player, the code also incorporates a test so that it only works once :-)

quote:

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define game <Appearing Objects Demo>

asl-version <311>

game version <1.0>
game author <DaMaDbRiT>
game copyright <� 01 Nov 2002>
game info <Just a demo>

start <library>

end define

define room <library>

look <From the racks it is obvious this is a library, __
but there is only 1 book - suprising eh?>
prefix <the>

define object <book>
action <look> {
msg <it's a big thick book, written in a language you do not understand>
if not exists <money> then {
show <money>
msg <Something drops from the book as you look at it.>
}
}
end define

define object <money>
look <it is a �50 note.>
hidden
take <>
end define

end define

define text <intro>
Enter intro text here
end define

define text <win>
Enter win text here
end define

define text <lose>
Enter lose text here
end define

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A note to Alex here though (I mentioned this on the forum a while back) trying to run a script with the 'look' tag throws errors, I've worked around the problem by writing this example as an 'action', but it is something that needs fixing really.

I'm aware of the issue where look and examine tags with script commands other than "msg" don't work properly - I've fixed this for Quest 3.12.

quote:

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Lately it seems the error messages are getting more and more frequent. I like quest but it's enough to make you want to quit in frustration at times.

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How long did you leave QDK before killing it with Ctrl+Alt+Delete? If you have a slow computer and a fairly big game, QDK might take a while to save the game - so I don't recommend terminating the process unless you're sure it has crashed.

Hate to say it, but it could be WinME that's the problem here. It doesn't matter how much memory and hard disk space you have, WinME doesn't do memory management very well. Try loading a text file bigger than 64K in NotePad! WinME just can't cope - The NT-based operating systems (WinNT, Win2k, WinXP) are much more reliable.

Probably the code (And you are not to blame, since VB is a front-end for C++ I think) creates too many objects, filling the memory with garbage.

VB is not a front-end for C++.

There are probably ways around any problems you are experiencing with a large game - if you send me your .asl file, I can see what problems occur (and I can test it specifically on WinME to see if that is a problem), and I can see what I can do to sort them out.

Or it is that I was running musicmatch jukebox while working.