Overview Core Dump - Work In Progress Episode 48 November 4, 1997 : Plot talk linking Too many files? (Part II) I've put "the error" in the Blade Lords file version as a question on the MSX newsgroup. I got the answers. It wasn't my fault. (How could it? *grin*) As we all know, a root directory of a floppy disk can contain no more than 112 files. But what I was not aware of, is the trick Windows '95 uses for longer filenames/filenames with lowercase characters. It uses two directory entries for one file. So, unpacking the Blade Lords .zip file on your PC (56/57 files) results in all 112 entries to be used! The last file didn't fit onto the disk, and voila, it doesn't work. How to solve this problem? Well, one easy way is this: (but you've got to have MSX-DOS2 to use it!) create a subdirectory on your floppy disk. In subdirectories, there is no such thing as a 112 files limit. So you can safely unpack the archive in the subdirectory, and run it on your MSX. Another way (the Rob Hiep Method) is to unpack all files except "Blade.ldr", and run Blade Lords from MSX-DOS (1 or 2). Then you'll be just under the 112 files limit. Making the plot lines work Maarten ter Huurne brought to my attention that sometimes characters have two seperate things to say in the Core Dump promo. Obviously, I was well aware of that, but he found it a bit confusing. Well, that's true, but it is caused by the use of multiple plot lines. Now he suggested a solution. I could use little sentences to chain two conversations together. So, I went looking for "neutral little sentences that can be used to link any two conversations". I came up with: Storyteller: "But there was more." Is that all?? Yes it was. Ofcourse there are more ways, but this was the only thing that seemed to fit into my style. It turns out more difficult than I'd expected. Hmmm. Back to the drawing board. If anyone has suggestions for more sentences of this kind, I'd love to hear from you! There are more problems with this. Many characters say "useless" things. Obviously, after having said something important, it is not necessary to link that to a "useless" remark. So far so good. But in many cases, there is some conditional code, that decides whether or not a character will say something useful in a certain plot line phase. That makes deciding which texts to link that much harder, because there is no obvious priority to evaluation. I will have to think about this. Go on... Read the previous entry