9 réponses à ce sujet

[El Condoro]

I was testing a module and a conversation was all wrong. I saved the game and opened the Toolset to correct the conversation. Then I opened the save game but the conversation was in its pre-fixed condition. This raised a few questions for me.

- can a module or campaign be fixed on the fly? For example, you forget to provide a key to a door behind which is the only way to continue the story line.
- I assume this would be OK in a PW where files are downloaded by the ADL.
- what information is stored in a save game and can it be edited/modified?

Thanks.

[kamalpoe]

El Condoro wrote...

I was testing a module and a conversation was all wrong. I saved the game and opened the Toolset to correct the conversation. Then I opened the save game but the conversation was in its pre-fixed condition. This raised a few questions for me.

- can a module or campaign be fixed on the fly? For example, you forget to provide a key to a door behind which is the only way to continue the story line.
- I assume this would be OK in a PW where files are downloaded by the ADL.
- what information is stored in a save game and can it be edited/modified?

Thanks.

Module level conversations can not be fixed on the fly except by overwriting them with a conversation with the same name in the campaign or hak. Once the module loads, it saves the state of the module resources.

[El Condoro]

I just assumed the save games kept info on player stats, local variables, PC location and any other local data. The environment would be stored separately and could be modified (areas, placeables, convos, scripts etc). I seem to be wrong. Seems a bit scary, though - you really need to test _every_ aspect of a module before it's released.

Edit: I just had a look in a save game folder. There is a file called [module/campaign name].Z and it is about 5 Mb. There are a lot of smaller files (1-50Kb). Can these be manipulated somehow?

Modifié par El Condoro, 05 janvier 2011 - 10:27 .

[MokahTGS]

Test test test...and then test again.

[kamalpoe]

El Condoro wrote...
Seems a bit scary, though - you really need to test _every_ aspect of a module before it's released.

Yes, as much as possible. You also need someone other than yourself to test if you can get them, because you know the "correct" "how things should be" way of doing things and so you can miss logical problems. It's not so fun like building, but it's necessary.

[PJ156]

kamalpoe wrote...

It's not so fun like building, but it's necessary.

Ahh it's fun, I knew there was a reason I put myself through this  

On topic (sort of), I would add to the last two posts, Test in small lumps if it is not too late. Do a bit then test it, fix it up then move on. Add a test dummy in game to update journals and integers through a convo or use debug mode ( I prefer the former).

Testing in small sections breaks the task down. In my first mod I wrote whole heaps of mods then went in to test. The to do list got very depressing.

PJ

[M. Rieder]

I second PJ. Anytime I write a script, or do a section of an area, I test it. Before my mods go to playtesting, they have already been tested several times. Another thing I wish I had done with my first mod was have several playtesters. I only had myself and one other person. There were bugs that would have been caught before release if I'd had 2-3 more playtesters. Fresh eyes catch more bugs.

[Kaldor Silverwand]

You can add or replace blueprints, conversations, and scripts in the campaign folder and they will be applied in saved games. The best method is to make sure that your modules always have a on-client-enter script, even if that script initially does nothing. Then if you need to do something that affects a saved game (like deleting an NPC in an area) you can change the client-enter-script to do that and put the new script in the campaign folder. It won't let you do everything, but it provides some flexibility.



Regards

[The Fred]

Presumably, you can also add a new script to the campaign or override folder, and then run it from the debug console?

[Kaldor Silverwand]

The Fred wrote...

Presumably, you can also add a new script to the campaign or override folder, and then run it from the debug console?

You can, but there are a couple of toolset oddities to be aware of when working with campaigns.  If you like to keep the toolset open and test a module by launching the module from within the toolset, then one time-saving trick that works is that you can use toggle back to the toolset, modify the module, toggle back to the module, and then use the options menu to reload the main menu and the module will be reloaded with your changes.  This trick does not work if you modify objects in the campaign f older though, because for some reason campaign content is not reloaded. Since I work entirely within campaigns I no longer use this trick even though it costs me time.

Second oddity is that while you compile a campaign script or update a campaign conversation in the toolset and they are saved immediately, if you modify or create any campaign blueprints they will not be saved until you save the module.

Regards