Orb of thralni

[Kelandon]

I guess the obvious question is, have you checked to make sure that G503 is there? Have you closed the editor and re-opened after you checked?

 

If you mail it to me within the next fifteen minutes, I can get it back to you immediately. Or ef can do it. Either way.

[Thralni]

Well, i don't know when you sent the message, Kelandon, but what I do know, is that I checked six times if it was there, I opened and reopened it a few times, and still nothing changed. I also copied the files a second time into the scenario folder, thinking that maybe the files were corupted, but that also didn't help.

[ef]

What folder? Thralni, let's get this right. There is the Blades of Avernum directory that contains three folders: 1)BoA Editor, 2)BoA scenarios, 3)Data.

The second (BoA scenarios) contains subfolders with all scenarios that either came with the game or you downloaded or created yourself. It is this second folder that your pics should go into: you should place them into the subfolder you created for your game.

[Thralni]

So now I have the following structure of folders:

 

-> BoA editor folder

main BoA directorie -> Data

-> BoA scenario's folder ->My scanario, containing the pictures.

 

This is the structure it should be according to ef. Did I got this straight?

If yes, the editor still doesn't recognize the graphics. If not, How should it be?

 

the way these things are handeled is totally different on my Mac. there they go in the data folder.

[ef]

You are right that, while you are still working with the editor, there's a subfolder within you 'Data folder' that contains your scen. And you save your images into that subfolder.

In order to play your game this subfolder has to be copied (or drawn) into the 'BoA scenario folder'.

[Thralni]

OK. That is one thing understood. Now I DON'T want to play the scenario as yet, but I'm still in the designing fase of the process. Maybe I shouldn't bother with the graphics, but do that at the end of the process. I'll simply work on the Mac when I need the custom graphics to show up. I will stay curious about the cause of the problem.

[ef]

I'm curious too. If you trust me not to steal your graphs I'll try to make it work.

[Thralni]

ONLY if you promise me NOT TO STEAL them, I maybe will send them. Do you haev a Mac and PC?

[ef]

I promise faithfully.

No, I don't have a Mac, I have a PC. What I can cover (hopefully) is the PC part of the problem.

[Thralni]

So we probably have a small problem here. I used Appleworks to make the graphics. If I send you the Appleworks document, you wouldn't be able to open it. So before I send anything, I maybe should ask what to send. I have converted the four graphics that I made into bmp format. So should I send you that? (Do I also have to send you my scenario?)

[ef]

Send me the .bmp files. I'll put them in a testscen I have lying around and see if I can load them into both editor and game application. If not, I'll try to find out why.

[Thralni]

Send a reply when you got them! (By the way, the files all together, are rather big. So if you haven't got a ISDN or DSL connection, prepare for a long waiting!)

[ef]

Sorry, I was busy for a while and didn't respond. Got the files and opened them in a picture viewer. If what I got is what you tried to put into your game, I can tell you why the game can't find them. The engine is looking for a 'G500.BMP', and you offer it a 'G500.BMP.bmp'. That won't work. Change the endings to simple .BMP and everything's fine.

[Thralni]

Thanks very much. I knew it would be some stupid mistake. So know the game recognizes them. But they still don't show up. This problem I also had om ny Mac. There is to much "white" alnog the borderlines of the graphic. The only think I want to know now, is which program I can use to cut the white from the rest of the picture. Paint doesn't work, and I don't wan to mess around with it. Can windows viewer be of any help?

[ef]

Yes, there's more to it than just wrong endings. I can load your pics, but they are invisible. I put one of them in my testscen as replacement for a creature that moved and had a text bubble over it. So what I see now is a moving text bubble, but no creature.

Give me some time. This is a graphics problem. I'll post when I've solved it.

[Thralni]

I solved it already myself: simply drag the graphics to the upper left corner of the document. Thanks really much for the advices and esting of the graphics. I learned again a bit more about custom graphics.

[ef]

*bump*

Just to cheer you up, problem solved. I adjust the other two pics and send everything back to you with explanations.

 

Just read your post. Congrats. So I'll delete what you sent me.

[Thralni]

Now this graphics crisis is over, can someone explain how to make chairs, were people actually sit on if they have a graphic which alows them to do that?

[Kelandon]

You basically don't. Characters only have one sitting graphic, and it's with the default set of chairs, so if you make another set of chairs, when the characters sit in them, they'll switch back to the default set.

[Thralni]

So characters can only sit on one sort of chair. That's a pity.

 

The former problem with that the graphics were invisible (you probably read it yourself already), wasn't such a big problem. In Appleworks I moved the graphics to the upper-left corner of the document. Then I converted them to the bmp format. This same problem I had on my macintosh, so I new how to solve it. I'm very curious to see what you did though. I haven't got the email yet, so I will have to wait. Pity.

[ef]

Oh, sorry, mail sent. I thought you didn't need it anymore, because you solved the riddle.

[Thralni]

O. That's also a pity. Well, doesn't matter. Again, thanks for the support. (Did you delete all the graphics. I know, I'm very suspicious).

[ef]

Don't worry, Thralni. The only one that was not yet deleted was the one I attached to my e-mail. That was the one I had put in my testscene to see what went wrong. But that's gone now, too.

[Thralni]

I'm really glad to see you had sent the email. i thought you hadn't sent it. Although I hadn't download it as yet, i will probably do it later. Thanks for sugesting it. i will try it.

[Thralni]

Can you delete an other town then the last one you made? I have chosen to have warriors grove, but I want it out. Can delete the hole town and make an ther town 0, or do I have to delete the town entrance and make a town 12 (That would probably be far more simple to do, wouldn't it)?

[Thralni]

Um... guys? I don't know if someone noticed it or not, but I have a question here? look at my previous post.

[Lilith]

Well, the short answer is "no".

 

There's a way to bring about the same effect, though. Make the new town you want to replace the old town with, import it over the old one using the Import Town feature, and then delete the duplicate.

[Thralni]

Were should I make the message when a scenario starts, to say were exactly you are and what is happening? i don't mean the introductury text. What I mean is the moment the scenario starts, but ONLY when you begin it, and not every time you come to the place were you begun.

[Lilith]

There are a couple of ways to handle that, but the simplest way is to put it in the START_SCEN_STATE of your scenario script.

[Thralni]

That's what I thought too, but as I didn't find it in the scenario script of the valley of dying things, i thought I maybe was mistaken. Thanks.

[Thralni]

I've reached a point in the making of my scenario, were I lack ideas for quests. So what I wanted to ask: Does anybody have an idea for a quest? If yes, I'm really curious to know what. I know making a scenario should be of the makers fantasy, but I really don't know what to do.

[Dolphin]

Think about scenarios you like and the kind of quests they used, or even the quests from the trilogy and modify them to fit your story.

[Archmagus Micael]

Quote:

Originally written by Thralni:
I've reached a point in the making of my scenario, were I lack ideas for quests. So what I wanted to ask: Does anybody have an idea for a quest? If yes, I'm really curious to know what. I know making a scenario should be of the makers fantasy, but I really don't know what to do.

Well, if you're in a dangerous place, there's always some distraught family member who wants revenge or something.

The Local Alchemist always wants some hard-to-get herbs.

There's always a few bandits that need to be killed, which a local mayor would be more than happy to hire adventurers for.

And then there's a whole host of other simple ones like this. As Dolphin said - what do you normally find in scenarios?

- Archmagi Micael

[ef]

Or relate it to the main story line. Is there anything that's needed: an information that is hard to come by, keys that noone knows where to find, things like that.

[Thralni]

Quote:

Originally written by ef:
Or relate it to the main story line. Is there anything that's needed: an information that is hard to come by, keys that noone knows where to find, things like that.

That's actually exactly what I want. An old man gives you a quest to see if you are "the chosen ones" and inreturn gives you important information. I only need to get an idea for some quest. (bandits and monster quest i already have, so i don't want to make everything to boring. I thought maybe a test like in avernum 2.

[ef]

What qualities would one need to be 'the chosen ones'? What is the old man looking for or tries to find out about you? Choose a quest that will test those qualities.

[Thralni]

the things the old man wants to know, aren't really qualities as in avernum 2. that's were the problem actually plays a big role. he wants to know if you can be trusted with the information. i thought the best way to test this, maybe is to bring him something valuable or something like that. i can't come up with something better at the moment.

[ef]

So the question is: will they use or abuse what they are given? Maybe he could offer them something of lesser value and then wait and observe their actions.

[Thralni]

Thanks to you i got a very good idea for a new quest for the old man to give. Thanks very very VERY much!

[Thralni]

maybe these are lame questions, but i wonder about them anyway.

 

1) did somebody make himself, or does somebody know ere i can find a good working script for teleporting aparty to an other town? And i mean not only teleporting them, but also that there is a flash and sound. i made one myself, but i'd like to see somebody else's. If somebody posts the one he made himself, may I use it?

 

2) This is a really stupid question, but are the tabs you make in the script really necesarry? i have the feeling I'm doing it all wrong. one tab to much there, one to less there. So is it really necesarry for the computer to understand it?

 

That was all. I'm going on the 8th of july to the US for three weeks, so I really appreciate it if you you can post quickly. Thanks in advance.

[Kelandon]

1) I'd do something like this, although I haven't tested it to see if it looks right:

Code:

 reset_dialog_preset_options(3);if (run_dialog(1) == 1)	end();	teleport_party(x1,y1,0); // x1 and y1 should be out of sightmove_to_new_town(town,x2,y2); // wherever you want to send them 

2. No. Proper spacing and tabs are just to make the script readable. They have no effect. Well, little effect: you need some white space between calls, but it could be spaces, tabs, or retuns, and the sort of formatting you're talking about doesn't matter.

[Thralni]

First of all, thanks for responding so quickly. second, thanks for showing me the code. so there is now need in letting the game check if there are four characters. thanks.

 

The teleport part call should be in a place where the party normally can't get right? like solid stone or something, behind a wall? if yes, does it matter if its out of town boundries? (because what space alse there is to be chosen from in a cave?)

[Drakefyre]

What I would do:

Code:

short i;i = 0;	while (i < party_size())	{			put_boom_on_char(i,2,short random_shift);			relocate_character(i,short x,short y); //make this off-screen			i = i + 1;	}move_to_new_town(town,x2,y2);

This creates a one-by-one teleportation effect. If the boom doesn't play the right sound, you can add a play sound call.

[Thralni]

Thanks very much, i'll think about which works out best for me. While getting these replies, i was busy creating a cutscene. It worked fine, thanks to kelandon's turorial (thanks Keladon! ). What i didn't get though, was the { and } sings. i saw in the VoDT in t1sweetgrove.txt, that they should be put, but were do i put them? I know { goes at the beginning and } at the end, but at an empty space, or after a call, ar maybe in front of a call, i don't know. (Everyone who has an idea for the previous question may still post if he wants!)

 

EDIT:

now I look at Drakefyre's way of doing the teleportation, I have the feeling my own way wasn't as bad as I thought it was... Well, I'll stille use one of the two already posted.

 

EDIT 2:

There was an other thing I wanted to ask, but i forgot. That making new creature calls stuff, in a cutscene. i want to get this straight.

i started with this call:

 

i = 29;//29 is the highest char number in the town

while (char_ok(i))

{i = i + 1 }

 

After this the creature is created:

 

put_straight_zap(56,42,9,38,4);

put_boom_on_space(9,38,2,0);

place_monster(9,38,138,0);

set_character_facing(i,4);

set_character_pose(i,0);

run_animation_sound(54);

force_instant_terrain_redraw();

 

Is made here right, or do i have to change it in some places. I made while using kelamdon's cutscene tutorial.

[Thralni]

Hello again,

I don't know why i say this, because I said it already, but tomorrow at about 11 a.m. (Europe time, probably about 5 a.m. in NY) I'm leaving home with my family. direction Schiphol, one of the biggest airports in Europe, located in Holland. i'm going on vaction to the US. I'll be back in three weeks, and I'm hoping to see lots of replies on my question en the previous post (although I doubt that now I said this). Well, see you back in three weeks!

 

Although i like america!

[Archmagus Micael]

Quote:

Originally written by Thralni:
Hello again,
I don't know why i say this, because I said it already, but tomorrow at about 11 a.m. (Europe time, probably about 5 a.m. in NY) I'm leaving home with my family. direction Schiphol, one of the biggest airports in Europe, located in Holland. i'm going on vaction to the US. I'll be back in three weeks, and I'm hoping to see lots of replies on my question en the previous post (although I doubt that now I said this). Well, see you back in three weeks!

Although i like america!

Happy holiday!

Anyway, I don't have my teleport call availiable at the moment, so I can't post it.

Sorry.

- Archmagus Micael

[Dolphin]

Since the spacing/tabbing was mentioned…

 

My scripts will not work if I use tabs. I get "invalid symbol in line X". If I take out the tabs everything works fine. Leaving lines separating each call, but having everything touching the left margin works as it's supposed to. Existing scripts work with the spaces/tabs, but my scripts will not allow it.

 

Any thoughts why this may be?

I'm using Simpletext, if that has something to do with it.

[Archmagus Micael]

Dolphin:

 

If you're on windows, try using Crimson Editor. I haven't had any problems like that with Crimson. It's actually really good with Avernumscript.

 

- Archmagus Micael

[Drakefyre]

Dolphin - I'd imagine it is an issue with SimpleText and tabbing, and I'd try to download BBEdit Lite and see if that helps.

[Thralni]

since I haven't left yet, this is my advice.

Since you said you use simpletext, you use Mac. Am I right? Of course. there is no simpletext for Windows. I stopt using simpletext because I found tabs not very clear. I'm now using BBEdit. There is a free version: version 6.1.2. I highly recommend this program over simpletext. Click on the link below, And on the left side somewhere of the screen that will hopefully pop up, You'll see an option to download. try, it. its free!

 

(and don't forget to fill this topic up while I'm not here! See you guys!)

 

Macupdate: BBEdit lite 6.1.2

 

EDIT:

I see Drakey got in before me. Well, doesn't matter.