NPCs

To fresh up your game you might want to add a bunch of NPCs (Non Player Charakter). Placing single characters into some rooms is not a big deal. But when you add more you also might want them to interact with each other on their own. Maybe 2 guys having a conversation.

To make sure that there are no conflicts between those conversations and the players actions you can use the on (loop2) Scriptevent in a roomscript. This scriptpart will automaticly stop when a cutscene or a textscene starts and when you try to interact with another character. Here is an example for talking NPCs :

on (loop2)
{
if_num (talkcounter ; 1)
{
speech (npc1 ; Hey whats up?)
speech (npc2 ; Yeah, not much.)
setnum (talkcounter ; 2)
wait (30)
}
if_num (talkcounter ; 2)
{
speech (npc1 ; Nice weather.)
speech (npc2 ; I like it raining.)
setnum (talkcounter ; 3)
wait (30)
}
if_num (talkcounter ; 3)
{
speech (npc1 ; Yo Mama is so fat she does not fit into the characterwindow.)
speech (npc2 ; That might even be true.)
setnum (talkcounter ; 1)
wait (300)
}
}

Now thats happening. The conversation has 3 parts. The number "talkcounter" keeps track of the position. This makes sure that the conversation wont start from the beginning after each interruption. The last Wait command is to prevent the conversations from repeating too fast. You can also set "talkcounter" to a higher value if you do not want to repeat the conversation.

A partner :

Games like Sam n Max had partners which you did not control directly but they would follow your main character and you could make use of them. Again the loop2 script event can help you to give your buddy more life. He can walk around the room, check out things or just make some nonsense. When you leave a room you have to make sure that your buddy leaves it too and that he does not stand in your way.