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A Few Questions


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I've played blades of avernum for a fairly long time, and I figured it was time to try making a small scenario of my own. However, I have a few questions after looking around warrior's grove:

 

1: Is there any way to scroll around the map slower? Scrolling by clicking the edges is not only inconvenient, it's bad for precise moving due to the speed it moves.

 

2: What is used to open the blades of avernum docs? It seems to have defaulted to wordpad, but that's not working at all. I'm downloading adobe reader, but I'm not sure...

 

3: When I clicked one of the scroll things on the same square of a door, it gave me a list of these things called "Memory Cells". Memory Cell 0 seems to equal 0 for two of the doors in the inn, but another door has Memory Cell 0 equal to 5. Since that's the only door with an item behind it, I'm guessing a value of 5 for Memory Cell 0 means the door is locked. But on the the point: where do I learn more about Memory Cells, and are there memory cells for things other than doors?

 

4: Is it okay to use a self-edited version of warrior's grove in one of my scenarios?

 

That's all the questions I have for now. Also, so I can introduce myself, I just joined the forums, and I've played every spiderweb game at some point except avernum 5 and the exile games.

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In answer to 1: the arrow keys and/or NumPad are what I use.

 

In answer to 2: iirc there's a .doc version and a .pdf version of the docs. OpenOffice and Acrobat are what I would suggest, respectively.

 

In answer to 3: Usually, looking at the script referenced by the door/etc will show you what's going on.

 

In answer to 4: Probably, but I wouldn't recommend it. More fun to build from scratch anyways, right?

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From your first question I assume that you're using the editor downloaded from Spiderweb. If I'm correct about this, you should seriously consider using the newer 3D editor (which is a modified version of the original editor, created by the community). You can find it on this page.

 

To address your questions:

Quote:
1: Is there any way to scroll around the map slower? Scrolling by clicking the edges is not only inconvenient, it's bad for precise moving due to the speed it moves.

Not in the Spiderweb editor, no. In the 3D editor, in 3D mode scrolling is a bit less frenetic, and in the Mac version the arrow keys are now used to scroll in either all modes (Option+arrow keys is then used to move the selected object).

 

EDIT: Does the Windows version now scroll with the arrow keys? I either missed when that change went in or I've forgotten.

 

Quote:
2: What is used to open the blades of avernum docs? It seems to have defaulted to wordpad, but that's not working at all. I'm downloading adobe reader, but I'm not sure...

I think that the Spiderweb docs are distributed in two forms, PDF and MS Word. The former can be opened with any PDF viewer, while the latter may only display correctly in Word itself, although other word processors may manage to display it. I'm guessing that you're problems are with Wordpad failing to handle advanced formatting in the Word version.

 

EDIT: I should mention that the portions of the Spiderweb supplied documentation which describe the editor interface are becoming increasingly out-of-date with regard to the 3D editor, since those of us who work on it keep adding and changing things. An effort was underway to make a properly updated version of the documentation, but I sort of dropped the ball on moving it along a few months ago. Oops. frown Hopefully we can make some more progress on that from this summer.

 

Quote:
3: When I clicked one of the scroll things on the same square of a door, it gave me a list of these things called "Memory Cells". Memory Cell 0 seems to equal 0 for two of the doors in the inn, but another door has Memory Cell 0 equal to 5. Since that's the only door with an item behind it, I'm guessing a value of 5 for Memory Cell 0 means the door is locked. But on the the point: where do I learn more about Memory Cells, and are there memory cells for things other than doors?

Once you're able to view the documentation you'll be able to learn more about this, but here's a quick overview: In BoA doors are implemented as terrain scripts. Both terrain scripts and creatures have memory cells which are just integer variables whose initial values you can set in the editor. What those variables mean depends on the script in question; for doors this is usually door.txt, and it's customary for each script which uses memory cells to contain a header comment detailing what it uses them for.

 

In the case of door.txt the value of cell 0 defines how difficult a lock the door has (with a value of zero implying that the door is not locked), the value of cell 1 is the special item number which is to be treated as a key which unlocks the door, and cells 2 and 3 are used to give the coordinates of a Stuff Done Flag to be set when the door is unlocked, so that it can remember and unlock automatically the next time the party enters the town.

 

Quote:
4: Is it okay to use a self-edited version of warrior's grove in one of my scenarios?

The answer boils down to 'yes'. Jeff put Warrior's Grove in for people to tinker with, and I highly doubt Jeff would care even if you did claim to have created that one town entirely from scratch. If you feel that your conscience won't rest without giving proper credit just put a note in your scenario's Readme file along with credits for any other resources you use.

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There's a problem with the Windows download link. I'm clicking on download for windows, but it brings me back to the download page. The mac download, when I move the cursor over it, seems to bring me to a link where I can actually download it. Can you please fix this, since it looks like a very good upgrade from the original?

 

Edit: Now it says something about it not being able to find or load graphic 4919. What is graphic 4919?

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I see what you mean; there is something funny about that link. Unfortunately I can't do anything about it, as it's pointing to a file on another website, which is where I assume the oddity has to be (since there's no other difference on my end between that link and the Mac version one, which works normally). It does work for me if I right click on the link and choose the equivalent of 'Save As', otherwise you can find another link to the same file on Ishad Nha's website, which is where it is actually located. Sorry about the confusion.

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"There's a problem with the Windows download link. I'm clicking on download for windows, but it brings me back to the download page."

That is a problem I have long had, simply make the address bar active, hit Alt + D, then press Enter. This should fix the problem.

That problem in the Town Entrance thread was fixed by making it a proper email link.

"Edit: Now it says something about it not being able to find or load graphic 4919. What is graphic 4919?"

That sounds like one of my two versions, just make a copy of some other graphic and rename it 4919.

Edit:

New version uploaded to both links, the version of the Editor now matches the documentation.

Blasted link in the Town Entrance thread had to be entered manually this time!

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Originally Posted By: Niemand
Once you're able to view the documentation you'll be able to learn more about this, but here's a quick overview: In BoA doors are implemented as terrain scripts. Both terrain scripts and creatures have memory cells which are just integer variables whose initial values you can set in the editor. What those variables mean depends on the script in question; for doors this is usually door.txt, and it's customary for each script which uses memory cells to contain a header comment detailing what it uses them for.

In the case of door.txt the value of cell 0 defines how difficult a lock the door has (with a value of zero implying that the door is not locked), the value of cell 1 is the special item number which is to be treated as a key which unlocks the door, and cells 2 and 3 are used to give the coordinates of a Stuff Done Flag to be set when the door is unlocked, so that it can remember and unlock automatically the next time the party enters the town.
While reading this post I suddenly came up with what I thought was a wonderful idea. Many creature/terrain scripts already document the meaning of their memory cells in a comment at the top of the file. Would it be too much work to get the editor to parse such comments and replace the meaningless "Memory cell 0", etc labels with actual descriptive labels from the comments? Might require standardizing a format for the comments, but it seems like it would be a very, very useful thing to do.
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Quote:
Would it be too much work to get the editor to parse such comments and replace the meaningless "Memory cell 0", etc labels with actual descriptive labels from the comments? Might require standardizing a format for the comments, but it seems like it would be a very, very useful thing to do.

It could be done, and I'm not sure it would require much more format standardization than we already have, at least to reproduce the notes already included. I've noted one minor formatting issue which would have to be worked out, and something would have to be added to support short descriptive names which would fit in the editor UI, but it seems like a reasonable thing to attempt. I'll get my ideas in order, hopefully, and make a new thread about it.
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Yes. It requires defining (or modifying) a creature type and setting its cr_special_abil attribute to 29. According to the docs:

Quote:
Divides in two when struck. New creatures use the default script for the creature, don’t drop treasure, and don’t give experience. Creatures with this ability don’t regenerate health.

You can find all of the creature abilities listed in section 2.6 of the editor documentation.

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I know this is going to be a big question, but how do I make a town? I know extremely little about the editor, and I don't know where to put scripts, what each type of code does, or if it's okay to type code with word wrap on. Actually, nevermind that last part - if you couldn't type code with word wrap on, I'm guessing there wouldn't be a Blades of Avernum Editor forum.

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Welcome, fellow-traveler. smile

 

Where to put scripts (from the Editor docs):

 

Quote:
All of the scripts for a scenario must be in the same folder as the scenario (not in any subfolders). The game will only be able to find the scripts if they are in the same folder as the actual scenario file.

As always, the best way to learn scripting is to look at examples. Explore freely the folders containing the scenarios that come with Blades of Avernum.

 

Were you able to get a look at the documentation? Chapter 1.1 section VI takes you step-by-step through the initial process of creating a town in the editor.

 

A town doesn't necessarily have to have a script, but if you want one you have to create it with some kind of text editor. Give it a name ending in .txt and put it into your scenario folder. Then in the Editor, select "Town Details" from the Town menu, and enter the name of your town script in the upper right field, without the .txt extension. So if your script is named "t2boomtown.txt", you would enter "t2boomtown" in the script field.

 

Then, if you're going to have dialogue in your town, you will also need a script of the same name with "dlg" added, so: "t2boomtowndlg.txt".

 

To see how they're formatted, take a look at t0wargrove.txt and t0wargrovedlg.txt.

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Originally Posted By: Niemand
Not so, they are stuck with whatever is set as their cr_default_script, which is normally basicnpc, but can be changed.

Are you getting that from the documentation or from personal experience? I swear I've tested this before, but I don't really feel like setting up an experiment to confirm it right now.
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