Castle Paradox

[Kizul Emeraldfire]

Was just thinking about the first version Dragon Quest II for the Famicom, and how it used passwords instead of a save battery. Then I was thinking, “How would you be able to emulate that in Plotscripting?”

So, I came up with this: basically, the password would be made up of:

• Current EXP.
  
• Current HP
  
• Current MP
  
• Atk
  
• Aim
  
• Def
  
• Dog
  
• Mag
  
• Wil
  
• Spd
  
• Ctr
  
• MP~
  
• Hits
  
• Equipment item numbers
  
• X coordinate
  
• Y coordinate
  
• Map number
  
• Current Gold
  
• Items
  
• Quantity of each item

Basically, it would take the values of all of the above and create a password made of it. It would look like a completely random password. You would then input the numbers and letters and things in the password into a little input screen thing where it would set your stats/items/screen coordinates/gold to the values you inputted.

Optionally, there would be a limit of 10 for each item in your inventory — just to keep things neat and tidy.

The only drawback to this is, it would be very easy to crack if you noticed what changed and what didn't, unless it was in hexadecimal or something… :(

So, what do you all think? >.> Good idea? Bad idea? Mediocre? Somewhere inbetween one of those?

[The Wobbler]

[Rinku]

Agreed with PHC. Notice how no game uses passwords anymore (no game that I've seen since 1990 anyway). Passwords were a cumbersome way of getting around the inability to save data directly.

Additionally, the way passwords worked wasn't a direct "A = 1 herb, B = 2 herb" way; it was encrypted, so as to prevent hacking (as you mentioned).
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Tower Defense Game

[Moogle1]

Experience can be set directly now, I believe (or at least in Ubersetzung). Passwords should always be encrypted, as Rinku mentioned, and should have failsafes -- for example, for every correct password, there should be many invalid password combinations.

One way of doing this is making some or all of the information redundant, like putting the value for current GP in there twice, then making sure both values agree when decrypting.

I agree with Rinku and PHC, though, and prefer saves to cumbersome passwords.

EDIT: also, unless you have stat-boosting items, you can just use player level instead of all the individual stats.
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Slime Salad :: Independent Game Design

[msw188]

You are also (I believe) forgetting to account for many things. Most importantly tags (and there are potentially a lot of these). Plenty of other things as well, like what heroes are in the party, and in what order, heroes in the reserve, days hrs mins secs of the game (in case this is needed for something in the game), well, that's all that I can think of right now. But there could very well be more.

If you are interested in encryption, the simplest thing to do that I am aware of is to take an invertible linear transformation of the data to make the password, and then use the inverse transformation on an entered password. If you are interested in doing this, and you don't know what I am talking about, I can try to assist you.
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My first completed OHR game, Tales of the New World:
http://castleparadox.com/gamelist-display.php?game=161

This website link is for my funk/rock band, Euphonic Brew:
www.euphonicbrew.com

[Bob the Hamster]

The last game(s) I remember that used passwords were the Gameboy Color Zelda games, Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons.

They used passwords to transfer information from one game to the other. They could be played in any order, but the only way to get to the final boss was to play both, transfering your character via password from the first to the second game.

[Kizul Emeraldfire]