Wrong Action File Being Loaded

[Mick]

Just a follow-up here.

I'm still having problems with actions coming up that are not checked for the ones we land on while playing the game. I have all of the actions we have written in a separate file, and I have saved the BasicActions file as a duplicate named MyBasicActions and unchecked all the ones that we don't want to use. In the past, I thought that re-installing the game helped for a time, but I just re-installed it the other day and copied the Actions folder to another location until the re-install was complete. I then copied the Actions folder back into the game. I also deleted the Profiles folder prior to re-installing the game. What was interesting was that, even though the Profiles folder had been deleted and replaced by the install, when I started the game, it still knew what our names were. When I went into 'edit profile', however, there were no names there.

How does the game keep track of which actions have recently been played in previous games? Is that done in the Actions folder in some way?

When an inappropriate action comes up, I look at it in 'edit current action' to verify that it is inappropriate. I also am very sure that other appropriate actions are available. It seems to me that the game is somehow keeping track of actions played and that data is stored for some time, and it is interfering with using those actions in a current game. I don't believe that it is in the Profiles folder, as I went through that and completely re-did it. It might be somewhere in the Actions folder, since I copy the modified actions back into the Bliss folder after re-installing the game. If this is the case, I suggest that any memory of actions played in previous games be deleted after each game played.

Even with the problems, Don, Bliss is a great game!

[Don]

Mick,

Actually, the game does not keep track of recently played actions at all. At the beginning of each game, all actions are used equally. Keeping track of actions used in previous games is a feature we want to add in a future release.

As far as playing the wrong actions goes, What do you mean when you say "unchecked all the ones you don't want to use". Could you be more specific about what you mean by unchecking them.

It is also possible that there might be an override bug in 1.5.7 (I assume that is what you are running). You might want to put in a request to join the 1.6 Beta Test group and see if it does any better for you.

Thanks

Don

[Mick]

I loaded the BasicActions and saved it as MyBasicActions. Since it is higher priority, I unchecked all the actions in MyBasicActions that I did not wish to use during the game. In the case of some situations, like the Art Studio, I unchecked almost all of the actions except a few lower level ones. Then I created another file called OtherActions where I wrote all new actions, being very careful to cover all levels of play, including removing clothes, etc. I am absolutely sure that when an incorrect action comes up during a game, there are actions that are appropriate in the OtherActions file. The game, however, will ignore them often and use one that is not checked for the Art Studio. My programming experience is only with Fortran, which I taught myself to program in 1968, but I am confident that I am using the Action Editor correctly. (g)

My experience is that when I first wrote the actions, they seemed to play good. In subsequent games, however, the errors became worse and worse. That is why I thought the game was remembering which actions had been played. Prior to this last time we played the game, I re-installed the game and re-did the profiles even, and then copied the action files I had saved to another folder back into Bliss. As I said, prior to re-doing the profiles, I was surprised that the game remembered our names, even though I had removed the actions files and deleted the profiles prior to re-installing Bliss.

I can't figure out what is going on. (I have to admit that the game has more surprises this way . . . (g))

[Karkhan]

Mick,
What do you mean by unchecking? Do you mean that you did not check the situation as Art Studio? If the action is still in the file and it has no situation checked for it, it will come up randomly in ANY situation. It is not "classified" as ONLY coming up in the given situation. If the ACTION is still in the file it WILL be used at some point. IF you do not want this action to appear at all you need to delete it. Not giving it a situatioon does not remove it from the game.

Here is a little trick I learned. I place all my action files into one folder, then using the action editor I read through them, looked at the stats and grouped them into sub folders. Whenever we play a new game I swap out the folder we played with last and place a new folder in the action folder. This way none of my actions will be repeaded from the last game unless the actions are actually duplicated in other files. I tried to make sure that did not happen as well. Make sense? If this is too confusing message me or pm me and I will explain in detail exactly what I did.

Hope this helps!

[Mick]

I'm traveling right now, so I'll get back to you soon.

I thought, however, that unchecking actions for the Art Studio would cause them to not play in the Art Studio or anywhere else if they have no checks at all. Are you sure I'm mistaken about this?

Thanks.

[Karkhan]

Absolutely positive. Any action that does not have a category will show up randomly. It is considered to be in all categorys. You can easily prove this by starting a game with 1 action in every category and you will notice that those not in categories will still show up. This is exactly why I delete the ones I don't want and try to put the actions in a category and leave NONE that have no category.

I also try and make the actions gender specific and in only one category. Think of it like this... ever what the lotto drawing or something like it? All the actions are placed like balls in the situations and randomly drawn. If you have an action that has more than one category or more than one gender it is placed in every situation it can be places in. This can cause a single action to appear in a single game many times.

[Mick]

OK, I was talking about situations and not categories. You said categories, and I agree. I uncheck the situations that I do not want played, like the Art Studio.

[Mick]

Mick,

Actually, the game does not keep track of recently played actions at all. At the beginning of each game, all actions are used equally. Keeping track of actions used in previous games is a feature we want to add in a future release.

As far as playing the wrong actions goes, What do you mean when you say "unchecked all the ones you don't want to use". Could you be more specific about what you mean by unchecking them.

It is also possible that there might be an override bug in 1.5.7 (I assume that is what you are running). You might want to put in a request to join the 1.6 Beta Test group and see if it does any better for you.

Thanks

Don

Just a suggestion - keeping track of actions used in previous games would be ok, but maybe you could offer it as an option under preferences so that it could be turned on and off.

I understand that there are rules for when clothing can be removed, and that might be part of my problem. I did change the level of that to 5 in the profiles, and I made an actions that required all clothes be removed in the Art Studio, and those are the only actions when clothing is still worn. All the other actions in the Art Studio are for everything bare. This was to ensure that clothing would not be remaining at, say, level 6 or so. (If we reach a point where we do not want clothing remaining, we choose the Art Studio and all remaining clothing is removed.) This could conflict with the games existing rules, I suppose, but this should be an option when using the Action Editor, IMHO. But this is not the only time when actions are incorrectly chosen. When it happens, I have opened up the "edit current action" and seen that the action was not checked for the Art Studio, but it was for some other situation.

I'd love to test 1.6, but right now I am going to be so busy for a couple of months, I'll have to decline the invitation. Thanks for suggesting it, however.

[Karkhan]

Absolutely positive. Any action that does not have a category will show up randomly. It is considered to be in all categorys. You can easily prove this by starting a game with 1 action in every category and you will notice that those not in categories will still show up. This is exactly why I delete the ones I don't want and try to put the actions in a category and leave NONE that have no category.

I also try and make the actions gender specific and in only one category. Think of it like this... ever what the lotto drawing or something like it? All the actions are placed like balls in the situations and randomly drawn. If you have an action that has more than one category or more than one gender it is placed in every situation it can be places in. This can cause a single action to appear in a single game many times.

So I have the verbage wrong here. ANY action that does not have a situation will show up randomly in ANY situation if it is not given one. My analagy stands. If it doesn't have a situation to lock it into it is given every situation as default. It can be used anywhere. Sorry if this was confusing. To show this is correct, open an action file and add in actions without giving them situations to stay in. It will pull them up for any space you land on.

[Mick]

So I have the verbage wrong here. ANY action that does not have a situation will show up randomly in ANY situation if it is not given one. My analagy stands. If it doesn't have a situation to lock it into it is given every situation as default. It can be used anywhere. Sorry if this was confusing. To show this is correct, open an action file and add in actions without giving them situations to stay in. It will pull them up for any space you land on.

Maybe this is a question for Don, then. This is from the Action Editor manual:

"When two action files have actions with the same name, the game looks at the priority of each action file. If one file has a higher priority than the other, than the one with the higher priority will replace the one with the lower priority. For example, suppose that BasicActions.bdf, which has a priority of 0 and MyActions.bdf which has a priority of 1 both have an action named “Backwards Kiss”. In that case, the version of the action from MyActions
7
will be used and the other will not. This allows users to “override” actions that are in the main action files. To eliminate an action from the main action file, override it in another file, but don’t check any situations, then the action will never play."

[Don]

Hi,

Mick is right. An action that has no Situations checked should never play at all. An action that has no Categories checked will be treated is a very low level start of game action since there is nothing to push it to higher passion levels.

If this is not what you are seeing, there is a serious bug involved.

Don