146 Antworten in diesem Thema

[ColorsFade]

Tchos, 

 

I'm in the middle of playing your mod (raving comments to come later when I finish, but I'll say this: you are an excellent area designer sir). 

 

Anyway, platitudes aside, I really like this touch on the doors, and was wondering how you did it? 

 

 

I opened your mod up in the toolset to see if I could find anything obvious that makes that floating text appear over the door, but I couldn't. I notice you use some CSL scripts. Are they doing this? I love this touch and would like to add it to my campaign. 

[Tchos]

My appreciation for the compliment, and I'm glad to hear you want to add that kind of detail to your module.  It's simply a matter of changing the name of the object.  That is what will be displayed when you hover the mouse over it.  Other matters, such as the descriptions of what you see, hear, or perhaps smell about the place you're about to enter are in the signs as their object descriptions, and I also encourage the adding of useful descriptions to any object that can be touched or used in some way, so that the player has some reasonable idea of what might happen if they touch it.  (I've played more than one module where "using" a usable object was assumed to mean using it in such a way that it caused some major damage.)

 

I consider the naming of the doors to be important, because it tells the player which doors lead to an area transition, rather than a simple door that opens and closes in the same area.

[GCoyote]

Well said. It can be a bit off putting to click on some horrendously sinister looking item only to be told, "there is nothing special about this object."  Really? Because most doors do not continually emit glowing vapors. 

[kevL]

"there is nothing special about this object."

i removed that line from the .Tlk -- just blanked it. best mod evar.

[ColorsFade]

Thanks Tchos. I kept fiddling with the Description thinking that was what did it. Just adjusted a door Name and bingo, it worked. I really like that, especially when wandering around a new town I'm unfamiliar with. Of course one can always figure out where they're going with the overhead map, but I prefer, at times, to just walk, and mouse-over the doors as I go by. 

 

Item description... yeah, working on that. First time I'd really seen it used a lot was in Harp & Chrysanthemum. I opened up his areas as well, and figured out that you had to set an object's default interaction to "Examine" in order to get it to work. I really liked his use of that quite a bit, and intend to add that as well where appropriate. 

 

And yeah, I agree on the latter point... Descriptions are good. 

I've tried, as much as possible in the prologue, to warn the player ahead of time if I thought something was going to be an issue. But I didn't understand the examine/description mechanism at the time. I'll be going through the prologue areas and adding some in. The prologue has to be re-touched anyway, since I've figured out a bunch of better ways to handle certain things, like CreateIPSpeaker... 

 

Very cool. Thanks again. 

[Tchos]

i removed that line from the .Tlk -- just blanked it. best mod evar.

 

I suppose that's more productive than my usual action, which is to mutter "Yes, there bloody well is!"

 

I opened up his areas as well, and figured out that you had to set an object's default interaction to "Examine" in order to get it to work. I really liked his use of that quite a bit, and intend to add that as well where appropriate. 

 

You don't have to set the default to Examine, as the player can right-click and choose Examine from the context menu (as you would in the case I mentioned above when it's a usable item that you're meant to manipulate, but you want to check the description to see what it does before committing to that action), but I appreciate when modders do set the default to Examine, when examining it is the only thing you can do with it.

 

There's a fight in the module that has stumped a few people as to how they're supposed to beat it, and my answer to them is always to look around for usable objects, and read their descriptions.

[ColorsFade]

Yeah, I've seen that from comments on the Nexus. I had to ping someone to make sure I wasn't missing anything. I wasn't, but I had other difficulties. 

 

I like encounters like that, where there are usable objects that influence the fight. 

 

Spoiler

Vampire encounter, right? The four usable objects weren't what got me, but his regen. I had him down to what I thought was zero, and kept pounding and nothing happened. He wouldn't die. I thought there was something else to the fight I was missing. Gave it a rest for a couple days and came back to it. Made sure to have my bard sing defense, time some buffs a bit different, and then had my cleric go balls to the wall on healing spells against him at the end. Just overcoming the regen was the hard part. the cleric healing him (thus harming him) was the biggest key.

[Tchos]

Spoiler

Vampire encounter, right? The four usable objects weren't what got me, but his regen.

 

[spoiler regarding an encounter in the module]

Spoiler

Yes, that's the one.  But it's just the standard vampiric regeneration that all vampires have, part of the stock vampire blueprint.  He is a vampire ancient, though, not a plain vampire, so he has more HP than usual.

[PJ156]

Something I toyed with in my last mod and will do with this one is to use this naming method for people, I copy the description of the person, or a precy thereof, to the name section of the blueprint then use the change name script on the first line of dialog. When the payer hover the mouse over the npc they will see "This odd looking man stands on the corner picking his nose". After he/she first speaks to the man the name changes to Bob (no offence to any Bobs out there )

 

I like but it does not work for monsters as the name change never happens and the screen gets cluttered with descriptions during combat.

 

PJ

[Tchos]

I prefer to put information like that in the dialogue itself, personally, like in Planescape: Torment, where the first dialogue node was a description of the person and what they're doing before you actually begin the interaction, giving you a chance to change your mind about talking to them.  I like the idea of having the name change after you interact with them, but I'd prefer something briefer than a description of what the man is doing.

[GCoyote]

Well not a full description but I find it more natural and immersive for the initial description to capture 'what stands out.' Why would I choose to speak with this npc vs interrupting some random passersby? If I spot a single person in full plate amidst a group of normally dressed citizens, not much else needs to be added. A skill check isn't always appropriate but I like to reward the player for actually looking at the scene and identifying "which of these things is not like the others."

[PJ156]

I keep the description brief. I think it is useful to make an npc stand out to be spoken to?

 

PJ

[Tchos]

Yes, of course.  There are many valid ways of approaching that particular issue of signaling to the player which NPCs have something important to say.  I eschewed immersion and chose a more game-like approach with the floating iconic graphical indicators, as is my own preference.

[PJ156]

That's a really good way to do it i.m.o. It was only laziness that stopped me following that lead in Salt and lose ends.

 

I managed to script myself a method that used red green and yellow ball vfx to show quest status. No I think of it I will use it to show there is a new quest on the notice board in Leilon. I think you posted your vfx did you not?

 

PJ 

[Tchos]

Not separately, but it's a folder in the campaign folder that can be copied fairly easily.  Outside of that folder, there are a few custom include files that contain useful functions to activate and change the indicators, as well as a few conversation ga_ scripts I wrote to support them.  I wrote 3 or 4 different approaches for the system over the course of development, but I made sure not to break any of the earlier versions when I wrote new ones, so they all work and can be used as the situation warrants.  Look them over, and if you have any questions about their use, let me know.  They're documented in detail.

[Tchos]

Also, all of the quest template systems I wrote (gathering quests, kill quests, object activation quests, etc.) have built-in support for my quest indicators.  My goal was to write systems that made it as effortless as possible to implement any of the recognised categories of quests, with all the bells and whistles like causing effects, actions, delays, and text and sound feedback updates in the process.  I have most of them working in the campaign.  Others (like "activate an inventory item targeting an object" and "activate an inventory item within a certain range of a marker) are working but I don't think they're yet in the latest release.

[GCoyote]

Downloaded and installed this mod last night. Got almost no playing done. Spent at least a half hour marveling at the attention to detail and beautifully done areas. 

[ColorsFade]

Downloaded and installed this mod last night. Got almost no playing done. Spent at least a half hour marveling at the attention to detail and beautifully done areas. 

 

Tchos made some great areas. 

 

I spent the first hour making my party... 

[GCoyote]

Finished this last night (well, 2 am   ).

 

Great fun, no bugs. Got lots of ideas while playing. 

 

[Tchos]

LOL.  Glad to have inspired something. 

[ColorsFade]

LOL.  Glad to have inspired something. 

 

Yep, same here. I'm close to being finished with TBSOCC. Every time I load it up to play, I leave with new ideas. 

 

Your docks area really inspired me to fix the blandness of the Scornubel docks in my campaign; something I'd never been happy with, but after yesterday's building session, man... so much happier. I'll be posting screens. I particularly liked your use of a "lower" dock area with ladders to get down. That was crafty and helped break the area up. I'm a big fan of vertical diversity. 

[Tchos]

It seemed to me that a sensible town wouldn't have built its actual town area right down onto the water level, considering the much higher rise of water caused by occasional storm surge, far beyond normal tides.  At the real harbours and docks I've visited, there have always been multiple levels, with ramps and ladders to get to them.  I was happy with the way the ladders worked, though I could have made it so that only one side would be usable at any time -- the side you're closest to.  I think I decided against it because it might have gotten stuck on the wrong side if the player teleported off of the docks after using the ladder to get down there, but I could have put in a proximity sensor as a failsafe.  The stairs down to the dock, for certain, would not have needed to be a usable object if I were doing it today.  It would have simply been a walkable ramp.  It was an early area, and when I got the walkmesh working well enough, I left it alone from then on, though eventually I was forced to anyway, since I could no longer open the area and ended up making all future changes to it by script.

 

There should be more interesting ideas in my next release.  I'm working on a procedural generation system, for one thing, and I'll have a more "puzzles, tricks, & traps" orientation for later dungeons, along with the same kind of spectacle and detail I try to work into them to satisfy the sense of exploration.