14 réponses à ce sujet

[Daeltaja]

Hey everyone,

I'm pretty much brand-new to the toolset. However I have spent the last week going through many video tutorials, reading wiki and much more. I now have a solid but basic understanding of how to build a room, fill it with objects, lights etc, as well as how to build a basic terrain and export both for testing in-game. Ran into some issues along the way of course, but all in all, quite happy with the progress.

With that out of the way, my end-goal is to create a small, 30min~ standalone mod, featuring a haunting story, chilling atmostphere, which will focus less on combat, but more on exploration/puzzle solving. I'm very much in the planning stage and I'm gradually learning the tools. However, I have limited to none, scripting skills. For now, I have a few questions that I would greatly appreciate some help on. Some of which might be hitting me right in the face, but nonetheless have me stumped.

1. Creating a creature character.. I've followed the tutorials on this and saved the finished NPC. I added him into my level file and when posted it to local and loaded the level into the AREA, everything BUT the NPC is present. On Wiki, it states that you simply make your NPC, then save it. Then you go into AREA and the model should be listed under "creatures"? It says you can simply drag them from there, onto the level. Nothing is appearing for me under "creature" however and trying to bring it in through a saved level is clearly not the right way either.. so how do I do this? Also, I added a conversation tree to him, is there anything else that has to be done in order to have him interactable ingame? 

2. I built a simple terrain level with a building and some tree's. Pathfinding/Lighting worked fine and it seemed to post fine too, but there was no tree's present when I ran the module in DA. Whats the cause?

3. With limited scripting knowledge, is it possible to have conversations with NPC's, recieve/complete quests (collect X, investigate Y etc), open chests, inspect items that show floating text, trigger simple events and cutscenes, with any sort of ease? Are there preset scripts I can simply use/modify?

I'm looking at a 3 month cycle to complete this project, I will of course be updating you all of my progress!

I'm sure there will be many, many more questions from me, but a big thanks in advance and I look forward to getting to know some of you. 

Cheers.

[CID-78]

1) a Creature is put down in a area or by spawning it with a script. make sure you have exported everything or things will "disappear" in game.



2) there is a few extra steps when exporting levels with trees, they should be in the tutorials and on the wiki.



3) well you can do alot but i would suggest that you atleast learn basic scripting so you can manage the small but vital ties between events and plot. as a scripter i am biased but i couldn't imagine making a module without some special events. but in other hand a module is better with a poor scripter then for example a module with a poor level designer or writer.

[Proleric]

3) CID-78 is right. Scripting is like learning the language in a new country - you can probably get by without it for a while, but with a little effort you can do so much more.

As it happens, you don't need scripts to have conversations with NPC's, receive/complete quests or open chests.

You can also make descriptions for items and pop-up text for placeables without writing any code.

We don't have a big library of pre-made scripts yet. The toolset has some generic conditions and actions. Some of the wiki articles include script examples, too, such as how to launch a cutscene.

If you decide to have a go at scripting, don't be afraid to ask basic questions in the scripting forum - you'll find that we're all still learning.

[Daeltaja]

Thanks for the help guys, appreciated. Currently I'm trying to spawn NPCs in an area, complete with dialog tree's. Out of the tutorials I've read, none of them point to how I actually add them to the "creatures" list in my area using a script. I suspect it's something rather simple, but it's eluding me!



Thanks again.

[CID-78]

you use CreateObject() so yeah it's a basic component.

[Proleric]

If you're making a standalone module, you can just open the area, open the creature palette, then drag creatures and place them in the area. Same goes for placeables etc.

Bear in mind that a lot of tutorials use scripting because they're trying to modify existing areas in the official campaign, which isn't always quite so easy.

By and large, the wiki tutorials tell you how to make a standalone campaign.

Of course, if you're creating creatures conditionally - in response to some dialogue, for example - then CreateObject() is one way to go.

You can also place the creatures (as explained above) then flag the instances as Active=False in the Object Inspector. That way, they're invisible until you need them. If there are a lot of them, this technique, combined with UT_TeamAppears(), is probably easier, and puts less strain on the engine.

Modifié par Proleric1, 29 mars 2010 - 02:59 .

[DavidSims]

When trying to place the creatures, are you looking in the level/layout editor, or the area editor? These are seperate tools. You make terrain in the level editor, but you place creatures in the area editor. The level editor will let you place some humanoid models to give you a sense of scale, but actual creatures have to be placed in the area editor.

[Daeltaja]

DavidSims wrote...

When trying to place the creatures, are you looking in the level/layout editor, or the area editor? These are seperate tools. You make terrain in the level editor, but you place creatures in the area editor. The level editor will let you place some humanoid models to give you a sense of scale, but actual creatures have to be placed in the area editor.

Originally I added them  via the level editor, its sorted now though, such a simple thing.. Had to just use the creature pallet in the area editor, as pointed out above! After adding in my NPC, he is appearning black when real lighting is turned on. Seems to be a bit on this throughout the forums so thats on the menu now.

Cheers!

Modifié par Daeltaja, 29 mars 2010 - 06:14 .

[Proleric]

Yeah, it's a rite of passage which we all had to go through.

We enter in darkness, and leave in the light.

Welcome to the community...

[Nissa_Red]

Welcome to the community...

I was told that too one day, on the NWN Bioware boards.

Seems like such messages should hold a little bit more to them than they actually do in these parts of the Bio/EA-boards

PS : This is not aimed at you at all, Proleric, just a general observation about how Bioware now seems to handle their "community" (see sig.). Sending you my best greetings

[Proleric]

[Hides head in sand]

Modifié par Proleric1, 30 mars 2010 - 09:27 .

[pizzapicante]

Im having the same problem, I put a creature in the area editor and then I export EVERYTHING I select all and the put export selected, AND then I put Do All Local Posts, but when I move to the Level Editor the terrain is there but the placeables and the creatures are gone (Im macking an outdoor level) can someone help me? what Im I doing wrong?

By the way Im consulting this page: http://social.biowar...or_Level_Manual, any ideas?

[CID-78]

your level is a resource used by the area. You won't see anything you do in the area editor in the leveleditor. because a level is just the base piece of a Area and they are not in any other way connected to each other.

[pizzapicante]

So the creatures will appear automatically when I finish the area and I play the module?

[pizzapicante]

Oops sorry, I just had to drag them from the menu, DUH!