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Character Maker 4.2 Concepts
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Authoring Although Character Maker is writen in Java and should run any web browser that supports Java, we have had the most success with Internet Explorer on the Macintosh. The Run Character Maker page should present you with a login screen that looks like this:
Enter your name and password in the provided fields and press the
OK button. If you are a new user then the system will create an
account for you with the name and password specified. If you are
a returning user then the system should bring you into your exisiting
account. If nothing happens when you press OK, then the Character Maker server is probably down. Basic Character Properties To set a character's name, introductory line, or media, push the button at the bottom left of the display called "Character Info." Naming your character is important, since characters are saved and loaded by name. Topics and Keywords The topic pop up menu at the top of the display allows you to select which topic you are editing. To delete the current topic push the "Delete topic" button. To create one or more topics push the "Create" button. Pushing "Create" brings up a window which prompts you for topics. You can enter more than one topic on multiple lines, each topic on its own line. Every topic has a default keyword called "Dummy Keyword." If no keywords are found in the user's sentence, then the "Dummy Keyword" is triggered. Adding and deleting keywords is similar to adding and deleting topics. You use the "Create" and "Delete" buttons next to the keyword pop up menu. The synonyms text box lets you specify additional, equivalent keywords for each keyword. If, for example, you create a keyword called "cat" and wanted the words "dog" and "fish" to trigger exactly the same responses, then the additional keywords should be added to the synonyms box for "cat." Every synonym should appear on its own line in the synonyms text box. Responses Every keyword has a list of possible responses which are listed in the "Responses" window pane. To create and delete responses use the "New response" and "Delete response" buttons. When a new response is created Character Maker will prompt you for the response's text. It is possible to edit the text of a response by double clicking on a response in the list or selecting a response and clicking the "Full text" button. The "Links" panel is where you specify which topic the character should go to after giving a response. Every response must link to a topic, but it can be the same topic. The list shows you all of the character's topics. If you double click on a topic in the list then you toggle the presence of the '@' character. If a link has the '@' before its name then the response links to that topic. If you have more than one response for a keyword, then the character will give the responses in the order they appear, returning to the first one when it has reached the end of the list. For more information on managing multiple responses see the Advanced Features section. Conversing with your character To converse with the current character push the "Test" button at the bottom of the display. A new window will appear allowing you to converse with the character. Note that it is possible to edit the character while holding a conversation with it by switching back and forth between the windows. To save a dialog select all the text in the conversation and drag and drop it to the desktop. Note that if you have media associated with a response then the media will appear in an additional web browser window. Loading and Saving Your Work |
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