If I didn't know your old-school preferences and influences, Dorateen, that would sound like you were building mechanics around the assumption that the player can just respawn if they die! Having played Edinmoor, I'm pretty sure you go for a "tough but fair" situation. If there were a fight that required unlimited respawning to beat it, it would just be tedious, and in cases like that, I'd rather just have a "skip combat" button, though my real preference would be to be able to fight things fairly.
On death systems in general, as convenient as it was in the NWN2 OC and Dragon Age: Origins for the whole party to get up off the ground after combat ends, I must say I prefer death to have some actual weight and disadvantage to it, so as to encourage me to do whatever I can to avoid it. I think BG and IWD handled it very nicely, that for a party with no cleric of at least level 7, death meant having to use a costly raise dead scroll, or hike back to town to pay a cleric to raise them. And even with a 7th level cleric, you might not keep that spell prepared, or you might have already used it recently, so you'd have to rest and risk your weary party getting attacked by wandering monsters. I like the challenge of that, and how it makes dungeon crawling an actual risky task that could result in some good stories to tell afterward, rather than an in-and-out loot grab.
Today I did some more work in the town placing some of the quest NPC spawn points in the world, and putting their placeables around them. Also implemented another of my side quests, and imported the necessary resources to do so (which one is a surprise), as well as creating an NPC to give it out. I had already written a good deal of her dialogue, but I had to flesh it out.
Aside from putting the things in place for the quest, testing and more walkmeshing, I had some overhauling to do with the imported resources and their scripts. It needed a lot more feedback, animation, sound effects, and interactivity, and also needed to be faster and more productive. I also switched it to use tag-based item scripts instead of the module script it was using before.
I haven't tested it yet, but I tried using some combat animation with the wildcard in the front, but with a specific weapon type specified for the proper effect. What was confusing was that the animation is called "ATTACK01" in the animation viewer, but everywhere I see people mention it, they call it "1ATTACK01" instead. I'm trying it with the 1 in front.
And since I'm doing everything in directory mode, it will be easy for you to change the scripts, though I of course can't warrant that something else won't break if you do.
./quote]
Now you've scared me I've never used directory mode ! I'd imagine it's all pretty much the same anyway and I will survive the "Scourge" even if I just have to console in some healing instead.
What I can do presently, without including a classic "cursed" system at this point, would be to have items like what you describe, Mokah, and are just lacking the property that makes them impossible to remove without a "remove curse" spell. Items like the Backbiter Spear, which is a +3 spear that also inflicts 1d6 points of damage to the wielder on every hit still might be worth equipping for some players at certain levels, if there's nothing better available and they have enough hit points to take the damage. In IWD, it just had the additional property of not being able to be unequipped.
I wrote a little system and I can pull it out of my campaign and put it to together for other buildrers. It is a nice little curse system. It is run by an include script. Each cursed item has a dummy blueprint and a cursed blueprint. The system is run by the aquire, equip and unequip
The player finds an unidentified or identified item, dummy blueprint. On aquire it will do a lore check with three results fail, something isn't right or this is a cursed item. This is seperate from the identify check the system does. If the curse is discovered the dummy item is destroyed and the cursed item is given to the player. Generally there is no negative effect carrying a cursed item, only using it.
On equip the dummy item is destroyed and the cursed item is equiped. The cursed flag is set to true and any scripted effects are applied. When trying to remove the item it will check the curse flag. If it is true the the item is requiped and depending on the item if may nor may not fire off it's equip script.
The remove curse spell has been modified to remove the curse flag from items when cast on them so they can be uneqipped. I still need to modify the identify spell to ID an item as cursed.
Each item has their DC based how evil I feel they are. If you are interested I can get this up in the next couple of days.
I've got no idea what I just did and that came out weird.
I know exactly what you did. You highlighted and cut/deleted a bunch of text so you could post a partial quote. That ALWAYS will select the front bracket - [ - and delete it, leaving "/quote]". Not just here, either. Every internet forum I've seen does this. You have to be vigilent.
Tsongo: Just make sure the front bracket is always there, and you'll be fine. I do partial quoting all the time, for clarity and brevity. Certain browsers may handle selections differently, like I've noticed certain Microsoft products like to include nearby punctuation when I'm trying to select just a word, and the script editor in the Toolset here has some very strange selection behaviour that makes me prefer to write and edit code in my external text editor.
Shaughn: I read through that post, and I really like what I see there, with not just the cursed items, but the monsters that can dissolve weapons and armour. I can't remember which games I've played that included that kind of thing, but it forced me to take a different strategy than a simple tank-and-spank. Likewise with slimes that split into two fully-healthed copies if they're hit with the wrong kind of attacks.
And of course, I'm strongly in favour of items with both advantages and disadvantages. I note that I've seen at least one item like that in the SoZ campaign, that being the Mephit Guano item. Very colourful description and a charisma penalty for obvious reasons, but you can cast Stinking Cloud with it.
In my opinion, adding disadvantages to an item is a good way to balance adding powerful advantages.
What I can do presently, without including a classic "cursed" system at this point, would be to have items like what you describe, Mokah, and are just lacking the property that makes them impossible to remove without a "remove curse" spell. Items like the Backbiter Spear, which is a +3 spear that also inflicts 1d6 points of damage to the wielder on every hit still might be worth equipping for some players at certain levels, if there's nothing better available and they have enough hit points to take the damage. In IWD, it just had the additional property of not being able to be unequipped.
I wrote a little system and I can pull it out of my campaign and put it to together for other buildrers. It is a nice little curse system. It is run by an include script. Each cursed item has a dummy blueprint and a cursed blueprint. The system is run by the aquire, equip and unequip
The player finds an unidentified or identified item, dummy blueprint. On aquire it will do a lore check with three results fail, something isn't right or this is a cursed item. This is seperate from the identify check the system does. If the curse is discovered the dummy item is destroyed and the cursed item is given to the player. Generally there is no negative effect carrying a cursed item, only using it.
On equip the dummy item is destroyed and the cursed item is equiped. The cursed flag is set to true and any scripted effects are applied. When trying to remove the item it will check the curse flag. If it is true the the item is requiped and depending on the item if may nor may not fire off it's equip script.
The remove curse spell has been modified to remove the curse flag from items when cast on them so they can be uneqipped. I still need to modify the identify spell to ID an item as cursed.
Each item has their DC based how evil I feel they are. If you are interested I can get this up in the next couple of days.
This sound very similar to the system I'm developing now, except that I'm only using tag-based scripts.
The item's OnSpellCastAt script takes care of the de-cursing when Remove Curse is cast on the item. However I'm not using blueprints or dummy items. The faux-unidentified item you pick up has no properties to begin with, but the OnEquip script changes the name and adds the properties based on an arcane system of code strings stored on the item. I've got a faux-identify routine based on a DC lore check in the OnAcquire script, and another in the OnSpellCastAt script if you use an Identify spell on it.
Some of the properties will link in with a tag-based OnHit script to make beserker weapons (EffectInsane), or weapons that do damage to the wielder as well as the target.
I didn't want people to think I've been slacking, so I was preparing a video demonstrating the latest work, but it took a while to get the footage I needed due to the element of randomness in the system. I got what I needed, but it's going to take a little while to process and convert the footage and get it uploaded to Youtube, so I'll just post it tomorrow. I'll hold off on the explanation of what I did, as well, because I think it needs the visual aid.
In the meantime, I was looking for a suitable treasure chest on the Vault, because there really aren't enough chests available in the toolset. None of them are tintable, and only one of them looks weathered. I have some treasure to place in an outdoor location, that's supposed to have been there for a long time, and most of the chests look brand new. I don't really like the weathered chest that exists, but it'll have to do unless there are any better ones out there. I wasn't able to find any by searching for "chest".
There are a fairly wide variety of crates, but I think there are more than enough crates in the module already.
I'll just add tint maps to the existing chests, which will help a little.
One of the chests is tintable (the one with the ovoid curved lid). I often use it for old outdoor chests, making the metal bands rusty and the wood a green-brown colour. It's a pity more of them aren't tintable though.
The really annoying thing about the weathered chest blueprint is that the lid is set to open as the default state (although that doesn't show up in the preview window in the toolset).
I noticed that open state in my first test of it. It's safely closed now.
You're talking about the chest called "Chest {Estate 01 (X1)}"? That was the only one I hadn't checked for tinting, because its shape wasn't what I had in mind. ;
The good news is that 3 of the chests use the same texture map, so I can make 3 chests tintable in one stroke. It looks like the Mimic creature hak includes a tint map for the reddish wood chest, but I think it'll be faster to tint it myself than to dig through someone else's files. I'll include my tintable chests in the placeable pack I'll release after this is done.
Edit: Never mind about the estate chest. I found the one you're talking about. It's called Trunk!
After making the tint maps for the chests, and cloning them to new objects with MDB cloner, I made some blueprints for them in the toolset, and found that they were missing their lids. Something to do with the fact that chests are animated placeables, perhaps? MDB cloner is missing something that attaches a moving piece?
I created a replacer version of the chests with the same names as the originals instead of my renamed ones. This time the lids appeared, but untinted. So the lids must be separate models somewhere. I looked in the data files again, and saw what I had overlooked the first time, which were additional files with the same name, but with an extra "_01" appended. So I made clones of those, too, and attached them as they were attached in the 2DA.
That got the lid in there, but it wasn't attached properly. So just stuck with the replacers, which work, but have the problem that any of these chests that are already placed in the world will be black, because the tints are set to black by default.
It occurred to me later that maybe the name really needed to be _01 instead of the _lid I used in my clone, so I recloned the lid with the _01 instead to try it out, but it still didn't work. All of the replacers work fine, though, and I created new blueprints for them which are pre-tinted as normal chests. These are the tinted ones, which are completely monochromed in their base, so the colour can be anything you want. The blueprint looks like this.
I also noticed more chests that I had missed because I had been just filtering the list for the word "chest" instead of looking through the categories. Silly me. There was "footlocker", "lockbox", and "trunk". The lockbox is a rectangular chest, and it's a bit weathered, but not completely trashed like that one chest. I ended up using that one for my outdoor area. I also created new blueprints of those three, renaming them as "chests" for easy reference.
About yesterday's work: The video here shows what I've done with Heed's Angler Pack.
My changes were largely to make fishing more enjoyable and rewarding, and less of a chore. The original system was a little laconic, in that it wasn't always clear there was anything going on while you were fishing, due to the long casting time and the lack of any kind of progress bar. What I've done here is added the casting animation (the swing of the arm, not the projectile), the sound effect of the fishing pole reeling out, the progress bar so you can see exactly how much longer the fishing will take, and changed the flavour-text feedback messages to appear over the head rather than in the chat window.
I also added in a hook (ha ha) to execute a separate script to check what you catch and update the quest journal if you're on a quest and you've fulfilled the requirements. I have several side quests that involve fishing. Ah, and I also changed the icons.
My implementation also greatly reduces the length of each cast, and increases the chance of catching a fish, and adds goodies besides fish that you have a chance of fishing up.
I wanted to have a better pose during the fishing, but there was no pose with a prop held out in front aside from the torch, and that was a left-handed one-hander.
The drawback here is that you can still move while you're fishing, and the progress bar will continue to its completion even if you run away from the fishing spot. I had originally made the player non-commandable during the cast, but this seemed to prevent certain important script events from firing (ones that assign commands to the PC).
In other areas, I used a placeable sign in the forest pointing back to town, to use as the means of returning (if the player doesn't want to use a hearthstone), rather than the glowing blue circle on the ground. I had trouble with this, though, because the Crystal Violet sign piece wasn't functioning like the other placeables that I've used with conversations. I had it set as usable, non-static, plot, and able to speak to non-owned characters just in case, and used the same "speak to placeable" script as I've used before, but clicking on it did nothing. I tested things by placing a random placeable down alongside it, with the same settings, and that worked, so I don't know what was preventing it. I worked around it by taking the working placeable and changing its appearance to that of the sign I wanted to use, and that worked. Now I just need to get the town area to load without crashing again do I can place the teleport waypoint.
I also had some mysterious changed music in two of my locations. Both the Temple of Sune and one of my taverns had different music than I had set previously when I visited them recently. My guess is that it may have been something to do with my recent reinstallation of SoZ. Possibly some of my music had been replaced by some mod here or there, and this reinstallation restored them to normal. In any case, I made new selections for them.
After getting the town area to load, the rest of my time today was spent placing more waypoints and map notes, and activating more doors. I'm sad to say that I'm also having to cut out the second tavern and second inn I had planned, for time reasons.
kamal.. Eureka ! Not only do you have a superior avatar but that has just saved me a lot of hassle in the future and explained previous hassles too ! I will not forget.
kamal.. Eureka ! Not only do you have a superior avatar but that has just saved me a lot of hassle in the future and explained previous hassles too ! I will not forget.
heh, I was considering an avatar change to the other yeti to remove the duplicate avatars. I'm going to change for a bit and see how I like the other guy.
Even though it was a gaming day, I did manage to get some work done. As usual, I ran into problems and stumbling blocks, and these usually revolve around walkmeshes. This is the sort of thing I typically see, and it's fighting with things like this that occupies so much of my time that could be better spent decorating or writing dialogue or scripting for quests. This is the beginning of one of the levels of the lighthouse interior, currently without decoration or partitions.
Of course, part of it is due to my stubbornness in not wanting to have square rooms when the building outside is round, and that I want to have interior spaces that at least reasonably resemble the dimensions of the exterior. And that I tend to edit and tweak or completely overhaul everything I import. If I'd just go ahead and use prefabs as-is, I might have been done by now. I can also see now why so often modules have open-air marketplaces instead of having all the vendors in their own shops with their own interiors. I regret that it seems I cannot deliver on both timeliness and an accurate adherence to the ideals I outlined near the beginning. I'm pretty close to the end, but I don't believe I can do it in 3 more days.
I got the walkmesh under control for now, though I dread re-baking after I add doors, partitions, and furniture.
Some notes on what I'm doing here. I imported Crystal Violet's invisible tile so that I could build the interior space entirely from BCK placeables, in order to have the round lighthouse space the module requires. The tile includes a floor walkmesh, though it has those strange white lines in it when baked. Oddly enough, they don't seem to actually stop my character from walking over them. The visible floor is from BCK, and they're all set to environmental, so as not to interfere. The walls, both inner and outer, are also from BCK. The outer is a placeable, while the inner is environmental, with an invisible sphere in the middle set to static, to create its collision. The inner wall is where the stairwell is, based on the lighthouse map I'm using. There's currently no ceiling, and I'm not sure if I'll have one or not. I need something that'll fade out if you go above it, and I'm not sure if the floor tiles are set to do that or not.
I also spent some time on a custom texture for the floor, but the UVs for the BCK floor prop don't use the entire area of the texture map, and instead have a border all around the sides for the "sides" of the prop. Would be nice if I wanted to use it to make stairs, but it already includes stair props, and this only makes it difficult to align the repeating texture on the top! The files come with a texture with a box around the area indicating where the top texture should be, but the box is made using a 4-pixel-wide line, making it unclear exactly where it should end. It didn't come with a UV map template. I made my texture end at exactly the inside edge of the line, and that wasn't correct, so my texture had ugly seams. I abandoned it at that point and went with the default wood texture it came with.
P.S.: I have RWS Tower Rooms installed as well, just so you know. I plan to use one of the tiles for one of the rooms, but they were mostly too small for my needs. Nice ceilings and stairwell, though. Just too bad the stairwell was on the outside in one case and occupying a whole tile in another.
Alignment shifts: I don't like them. In most cases it amounts to the assertion that making a comment can change a person's fundamental nature. In general, I thought SoZ handled this in a much superior manner -- a character is given the option to make a particular kind of comment if they already are of a certain alignment, with the idea that "this is the sort of thing that such a person might say." I like that way much better, because in a diverse party, you probably don't have to worry about not getting that option with at least one of your party members. (There was at least one conversation in SoZ that included alignment shifts, but it seems to be an anomaly, perhaps made early on, or by someone who wasn't yet familiar with the direction of that expansion).) At any rate, I follow this method, and do not include alignment changes in my work.
Short day today, but here's the current work on the lighthouse interior.
Alignment shifts: I don't like them. In most cases it amounts to the assertion that making a comment can change a person's fundamental nature.
I've taken the view that if a chaotic makes a chaotic remark, no change. But when the Paladin tells his guildmaster to GFH, well there's a problem. And the further one is from the option chosen, the more the aln will shift ...
This way if someone *wants* their PC to shift, "make it so"
At any rate, I follow this method, and do not include alignment changes in my work.
Retour en haut
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