Well, one of them has seen the light of day, and we�re all very excited about what's happening as a result.
Ladies and not-so-gentlemen, I give you: The Babble-On Scripting System v1.0.
Babble, from the Tower of Babel: (Genesis 11:1-11) a tower built by Noah's descendants (probably in Babylon) who intended it to reach up to heaven; God foiled them by confusing their language so they could no longer understand one another.
The scripting language is an English-like interpreted command/argument style language which supports variable assignment and substitution. The Babble-on Script Engine is a linear parsing engine which interprets the scripts and executes them.
Scripts, while static in their command structure, support dynamic arguments through variable substitution.
What does this geek speak mean? It means people can write an "English-like story", a sequence of steps and actions, to make someone see or do something.
It�s very powerful because it means that people who don�t know how to code and still construct linear sequences of events where everything can be added dynamically at run time. This means the script can be used on anyone and it will look like it was customized for them.
It�s changing and simplifying how we code just about everything, and allowing us to really put the power of �interaction� in the hands of the non-coder.
As powerful as this is, it is but a mere a building block in the grand scheme of this. The scripting language supports the concept of extending the language in a very easy and powerful manner.
It�s so easy to write Babble-on scripts, that we are considering giving the players the ability to write scripts for GM integration for the purpose of enriching the MOO. An example might be a few different brief �shower� scripts, or �response� scripts for the npcs or things like this.
Please note that we are not saying that we are doing this, so please don�t start submitting scripts. We will release the language specification when and if we do.
The sky�s the limit on what�s possible with these for GM�s. GM�s are able to manipulate the underlying workings using English like commands, giving them the ability to really do amazing things with this.
I�m now beginning work on �The Lip-Sync Conversation Engine�. This is a higher level Engine for tying together Babble-On scripts into intelligent conversations (think how Afterthoughts works). I estimate this will take me a bit longer, but will be well worth the wait, as GM�s will then have the ability to construct entire non-linear conversations for NPC's through a very simple and powerful menu driven �Conversation Editor�.
I welcome your comments on this. Would anyone be interested in writing scripts to help the MOO (not your character)? What kinds of scripts would you like to write? How could you see this working?
Looking forward to your comments!
-Kevlar
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Back like a super villan!