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Lloyd_B Offline OP
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I hope this is ok in this forum. I am in need of someone to make a script for me since I don't have the knowledge to do so and to be honest I don't have the patience.

I need a trivia game script that handles multiple choice answers. I already have a trivia game that handles answers that are spelled out. However I'm getting requests for a different method for answering the questions. The trivia data would obviously have to be interchangeable with additional trivia data files. I'm guessing that the data files could be in CSV format.

If anyone is interested in doing this please let me know. Also, if you need additional information I would happy to give whatever information about this project that you need.


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Hoopy frood
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I guess the most important information is: how much are you willing to pay?

Given that you have no intention of scripting this yourself or learning about scripting, you must have some way to reimburse other people for the time they'll be spending doing work for you...

If not, you should read this thread for a hint about how people here look at requests like these. If you just need small modifications, see the Scripts and Popups section to get some help. But realize this: these forums are meant for people who are interested in doing some legwork. Sometimes people get a few gifts, but nobody gets a free lunch. If you seriously think you can come here and ask people to completely invest their time in your problem for free, you probably weren't raised well... especially if you also have the audacity to imply that you don't have the "patience" to put effort in your own problems and instead your solution is to get others to do your work for you.


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Lloyd_B Offline OP
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Well, I was going to offer money but after reading what people think of this kind of request I think I'd be better off just scripting it myself at some point.

I am learning scripting, I already do some of my own. I just don't have the experience and knowledge to do that kind of script at the current time.

By the way, the way you put your reply, it's a bit offensive. You're making some assumptions about me I didn't appreciate. I won't post here again seeing how people get treated here.

Last edited by Lloyd_B; 24/10/09 02:15 AM.

Lloyd
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Hoopy frood
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Dont ever look at Argvo's comments and think everyone thinks like that. laugh

So trivia is too tough for your room and they want multiple choice questions. The only issue I see with that is a lot of text. For every question you have to come up with 3 similar answers.

Yeah its doable. How detailed do you want it? How customizable do you want it?

Making a script like this shouldn't be too difficult if you don't mind not having a dialog to adjust everything.

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Lloyd_B Offline OP
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Well, he's very discouraging with that kind of attitude.

I do some of my own scripting but I just haven't gotten to the point where I can script complex stuff and games. I'm able to do some modifications myself too. I hope I can eventually do very complex scripts but getting to that point doesn't happen overnight.

Anyway, the multiple choice issue came up when another one of my moderators told me he has some trivia game info but it included multiple choice answers. Personally, I'm happy with the trivia game we have now but I guess being more diversified won't be bad.

I wouldn't mind a dialog for setting things. The trivia game we have now has one for setting basic stuff.

How detailed and customizable should it be is a good question. I think it would be easier to just show you what we're using now. The game we use now is from here: http://www.geocities.com/teamtriviabot/

I made some small changes to adjust colors to be more compatible with a black background which our chat uses.

Similar, but not the same, commands would be fine. Generally, I'd like it to work like that game, but just have the ability to use multiple choice answers. I just need it different enough so the games have their own command syntax because both will be enabled at the same time. The current game usually runs on the channel bot I created and programmed. The only things I didn't program myself is the "seen" script and the trivia game.

Last edited by Lloyd_B; 25/10/09 05:32 AM.

Lloyd
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The main issue I see is the amount of data you would have to store for multiple choice questions. The best idea I can think of is to have text files based on category.

You need a bunch of random nouns. Names, Places, Things. Then in the question file you would have the answer. The script would need to know what category to choose from.

Do you understand why it's a pain in the butt?

Can anyone think of a better way?

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Lloyd_B Offline OP
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Yeah, it's a major pain in the butt. The existing game has data files that I can switch and the data format is fairly simple. It's got the question and the answer separated by the pipe character. Basically a CSV format. So, it's actually simple for current game we use.

A multiple choice type game would probably double or triple the amount of data that has to be parsed. I'd hate to have to code it. I just don't have the knowledge to do it without spending a lot of time examining other scripts to figure things out. That's how I learned to script to begin with.

As for the script being able to switch catagories isn't needed. I currently just swap trivia data files when we switch to a different topic or theme. I scripted my own data file switcher for it, that was easy.

I think I'm going to scratch out having this game made. I'll just take the 'right answer' of the choices and make it the answer people have to figure out. That would make all the new data compatible with the existing game. That will also reduce the amount of data involved.

I do appreciate your replies and discussing it though.

Last edited by Lloyd_B; 26/10/09 05:57 AM.

Lloyd
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Maybe you can adjust the hints to make it easier. Or change up the games every couple of rounds.

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Lloyd_B Offline OP
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Yeah, we change the data files when we need something new. The hints are somewhat changeable. I'll make due with it. I think what we need is just new trivia info. I'm working on that already though.

Hopefully, I will be able to script my own games down the road. I enjoy making my own stuff, especially when it works. smile


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Don't make the mistake of thinking that we're just arrogant know-it-alls who just happen to know something. I myself have dealt with alot of college/uni students who assume they know it all, only to realise that my suggestions were useful after putting them off for so long.

I can see argv0s justification for making said "assumptions", and I don't see his comments as offensive or discouraging. He offered good advice in that thread, and I offered advice that would get you well on your way to producing a solution for practically any problems you had/have. If he thought he could improve on the advice provided, I believe he would take the time to do so.

In summary, here's a snippet of the useful advice that argv0 provided in that thread:
Quote:
If you *are* interested in learning, you can start by typing /help ON TEXT in mIRC to learn about ON TEXT events and how to use them.


And here's my advice:
Quote:
In addition to argv0's initial response, read these in this order:
/help aliases
/help variables
/help if then else
/help while loops
/help events (and select remote)

some other things you might need:
/help hash tables
/help $eval
/help $read
/help /timer

Please understand, many of us get this sort of request on a regular basis. If we were going to spend days writing a script for someone, we'd do it for someone we chat to often enough to have established a platonic e-rapport with (and many of them already know how to script). Since we get alot of these requests, as a result, we probably wouldn't be here to tell you (and others like you) where to start learning.

Last edited by s00p; 14/11/09 11:07 AM.
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Hoopy frood
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I know I'm late replying and you may not even look here again, but I think I'd recommend considering some other way to do trivia rather than using multiple choice just due to having to basically quadruple the amount of data you have to store for every question's answer (assuming you have 4 choices, which is standard for multiple choice) and having to display all of that.

We run a VERY heavily modified Trivbot script (it really isn't even Trivbot anymore because so much has been changed) and we offer normal questions/answers like you always see, but we also offer questions that have multiple correct answers and award points for every correct answer given (no hints on those). We also have true false questions that only take the first answer a person gives (you can't just type T then F to get it right). And we offer year questions that allow a maximum of 4 guesses to avoid spamming years. These are just some ways you can change trivia around to offer variety. You can also work on theming the questions to your channel. We run ours in a channel focusing on old computer and arcade games (games that started the industry), so all questions are related to that. It means that our trivia is very unique compared to everyone else's. We also have built in a method for users to submit their own questions and answers, which the Ops can verify and approve... granted, we get so many submissions that we have a backlog of hundreds, but we also have around 10,000 questions all about old games, which is quite an achievement for such a relatively narrow category.

So anyhow, the best advice I can offer is to consider how you can improve it without resorting to really difficult and problematic types of formats like multiple choice.

Overall, though... better than anything you can do to improve your trivia format, increasing the variety of questions and making the questions interesting (such as focusing on stuff related to your channel's purpose or users) can have a much bigger impact on keeping people interested. You could even have your trivia use multiple "themes" to keep it interesting. For example, running Christmas themed questions in December. It means more time coming up with questions for all of your themes, but the more themes you come up with and can switch out between throughout the year, the more people will be interested in playing because they'll be seeing new questions with each theme change.


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