Well I've hit the 1231 mark for strings in my rpg that is far from completion and I am assuming that the abundance of strings is the reason my SCMdraft likes to crash randomly.

Any tips on what I can do to free up some strings? I removed the comments I had in the trigs since I heard they aren't a great idea for big maps.

Locations, Units and Switches, when you name them eat Strings too.
Maybe you can give some Units the same Unit Names like Enemy or something like that...
For the Comments, i use a blank Comment for all my Triggers, and than i use a 5 Line blank comment every 10/20/x Triggers, that belong together,
to make some spacing and find the Triggers i am searching for later better. That is 2 Strings and makes Triggers look ok. Well spend :-)
Also you wanna look here maybe wiki:strings

What I would do if I were you is to Keep locations to their default names after you're done using them. That way, you can organize your names of locations easily, and you don't eat up strings.
A way to save strigs with comments is to group your triggers together.
(Say, if there was a system for Light Switches, you would have the first trigger in the group of triggers for light switches, you would comment that one "Light Switches". The rest you leave blank.

Thanks a bunch man got the answers I needed. Too much characters in text triggers and such..

Well, guess I have to make everything short and sweet

You should be aware that the actual Staredit string limit is 1024 strings- Scmdraft, however, allows you to exceed that limit, making the only string limit that you need to worry about the string byte limit (a percentage used is shown on the strings page in scmdraft).

Personally, I tier my triggers into sections, make headers for the sections and leave each trigger within the section or subsection with a blank comment as shown here:

Because Scmdraft recycles strings the only strings used are the section headers, which are short and simple. The triggers are then easy to peruse and go through in classic trigger mode.

i took the time and looked on your map.
What you can do is:
Give the Numbers 1-30 ( or whatever you need) a String.

Than you change things like this:
Display text:You found a wolf paw! 5 to go!
into this
Display text:You found a wolf paw!
Display text:5!
so you can use the "text String" 5 (or how many wolfs you have) Times, and you use the "Number String" (5) later again.

And things like this
Display text:You have reached Level 15
into this
Display text:You have reached the next Level
Display Text:15!

The same you do for Stamina,Agility, Strength and so on. That will save you a lot of Strings.

i did this once with Numbers from 1-50, using them everywhere.

You can even think of somekind of mathematical thing too, just give out the numbers 1-10, and +,-,*,:.
If a Player gets 300 experience you say:

Display text:You got experience
Display text:10
Display text:*
Display text:10
Display text:*
Display text:3
Set Ressources Add 300 Gas (if this is Experience) for Player

If you put some kind of logic behind it, that you explain the Player, even if it doesnt exist , the Player will be happy.
It can be somekind of Event, for example you kill a Monster and see what Experience you get. You put them in different Triggers use Death Counts and Display 1 Value after the other, with a short pause beetween them.
Like 10 is basic Factor, second depends on the monster (10=big MOnster), and third is random or anything.

Post has been edited 3 time(s), last time on Jul 12 2009, 6:17 pm by r00k.

Locations use a string as soon as you create them.

Related to what Kaias said, sometimes for a subsection of similar triggers I just leave the first one without even a null comment so I can look at the trigger and see what it is doing. Personally, that is more helpful to me than reading a phrase I wrote like last month (I don't usually comment at all unless I have a really long and complicated system).

aha !
and do they use 2 when i rename them ? Hmm i guess not, would be stupid, someone should fix that in the wiki btw.
wiki:stringswiki:strings fixed!
Oh i can do it myself, i never knew that.
ok thx, learned something, i can go to bed :-)

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Jul 12 2009, 6:33 pm by r00k.

If you rename something it just edits the string it already has. Renaming locations does not use any more strings than leaving them with the name Location #.

So does this mean that SCMDraft has stopped crashing for you?

yep, everything is working great and my map is back on track! more updates within the next few days

I strongly recommend you to look just like 30 seconds at the map "Deep Blue" from qPirateKing.
His way of organizing triggers with comments is just awesome and so explicit.

One other thing.
You know about the string limit, that is the actual limit to the number of strings.
There is also another related limit, the Str Capacity limit
It is 65,555 characters or near that total.
Every letter or number or space or symbol you enter in strings counts against this.
So when naming your locations and comments, its best to keep it short.
I find it handy to keep an excel worksheet open at the same time with all your reference items listed on it.