Orb of thralni

[KernelKnowledge12]

Quote:

Originally written by Marvin, the paranoid android:

Quote:

Originally written by The Almighty Doer of Stuff:
remove screen stretching plz

I'd love to, but I don't know how to.

Your post with the script has some very long strings. Get rid of them.

[Thralni]

OK, its short again. thanks for saying how.

 

There are some strange things in the dialogs I created. You'd have a node like this:

 

Code:

 	begintalknode 4;	state = 3;	personality = 29;	nextstate = -1;	condition = get_flag(5,0) == 0;	question = "Well of course!";	text1 = "_answer._";	code = 		set_flag(5,0,1);		toggle_quest(1,1);	break; 

followed by an other node:

 

(These node are seperated from each other by about six other nodes)

 

Code:

 begintalknode 10;	state = 3;	personality = 29;	nextstate = -1;	condition = get_flag(5,0) == 0;	question = "No.";	text1 = "_answer._"; 

Now the thing is, if you talk to the person here, he gives you a quest. You can accept it or not.No matter what you click, you'll alway get the second option. (so if you clicked yes, you'll always get no and vice versa).

 

In the mean time I changed the condition of the second node displayed here to (5,11) and a set_flag(5,11,1) call in the first node displayed. I was just wondering what caused this to happen.

 

EDIT:

I've a problem with special items. The game says I got a special item, but it isn't listed in the special item menu. How come?

 

EDIT 2:

Don't mind that last problem with the special items, i solved it already.

 

EDIT 3:

When fighting against my custom made creatures, I saw that the priests and mages can't cast spelle. I saw in the editor doc's, that if I put cr_what_stat_adjust in the creature definition thing in the scenario data script, its should cast spells. So were exactly do i put it in the creature definition script? Any place I want, or is there a particulair order?

Then an other thing, the doc's said this works for mage's. Also for priests?

[Kelandon]

You can put it anywhere in the creature definition.

 

I strongly recommend that you try out some things before asking questions. I mean, you could just try it and see if it works.

 

The dialogue thing is a little hard to understand, but is it working now that you've changed things?

[Thralni]

Everything I wrote about I did try out. the dialogue thing works. but the problem with the creature script doesn't. The game simply doesn't understand it. It could be that I didn't understand the call and simply didn't give it the right parameters. Since I registered BoA I try to figure out every problem the game encounters myself first, and then I ask it here.

 

Bu you can use the call cr_what_stat_adjust also for priests? How do i know the game really gives ONLY mage spells or priest spells and not priest AND mage spells?

 

Now I think of it, in the doc's, they mentioned an other call to go with this call. I can't remember it at the moment, put it was in the same paragraph. With the custum creature scripts. Do I need to use this call and what does it do? that may be the problem the game encountered. I'll give it a try and EDIT this post when I got the results (unless somebody already gives them).

[Lilith]

Quote:

Originally written by Marvin, the paranoid android:
Bu you can use the call cr_what_stat_adjust also for priests? How do i know the game really gives ONLY mage spells or priest spells and not priest AND mage spells?

What you have to do is give it Mage Spells skill if it's a mage, or Priest Spells skill if it's a priest. For example, to make a mage which can cast all mage spells up to level 8, include the following lines:

Code:

cr_what_stat_adjust 1 = 11;cr_amount_stat_adjust 1 = 8;

The reason for the number 11 is that Mage Spells is skill number 11. You can find this out from the Appendices.

To make a priest that can cast all priest spells up to level 15, include the following lines:

Code:

cr_what_stat_adjust 1 = 12;cr_amount_stat_adjust 1 = 15;

Again, the 12 is because Priest Spells is skill number 12.

Now, if you want to make a monster that can cast mage spells up to level 8 *and* priest spells up to level 15, you can use two different stat adjusts, like so:

Code:

cr_what_stat_adjust 1 = 11;cr_amount_stat_adjust 1 = 8;cr_what_stat_adjust 2 = 12;cr_amount_stat_adjust 2 = 15;

Each monster can have up to 4 different statistics adjusted in this way, by the way. Just follow the pattern above, with cr_what_stat_adjust 3 and so on.

[Thralni]

Many thanks thuryl. i already was wondering I probably had to include the cr_amount_stat_adjust. I forgot that. or actually, i just didn't understand what the doc's meant.

 

Thanks.

[Thralni]

Hello again,

 

I've encountered a rather strange problem. The game claims I everytime I come near a custom made graphic (stairs) that it doesn't exist. i've looked about a hudred times, and the graphic really is there. i've also looked at the scenario data script, and all seems right. What can the problem be?

 

An other thing I was wondering about, were the text baloons that appear over peoples heads in towns. how do i get them there? I put in the townscript in the appropiate place these calls, but Only one of the two I gave per person appears. Then I saw in the townscript of VoDT, that there are these "if" sentences that Jeff placed before every single add_(something) call. I did that to in my script, but now the balloons don't appear all together.

[Kelandon]

About the custom objects script: make sure you've defined both te_which_sheet and te_which_icon. If you haven't, define them both. Also, if you're on Windows, make sure the graphic has the right name: G500.bmp or whatever the number is, or on Mac, that you have a properly formatted cmg file.

 

About the text bubbles: you need to clear a text bubble before you can display a new one, and you need to refresh the screen in order for any change to show up. Also you need to pause so that someone can read the bubble. That means that putting a single text bubble on the screen usually looks like this:

 

Code:

     text_bubble_on_char(7,"");     text_bubble_on_char(7,"What is it, Talas?");     force_instant_terrain_redraw();     pause(15);

[Thralni]

Quote:

Originally written by Kelandon:
About the custom objects script: make sure you've defined both te_which_sheet and te_which_icon. If you haven't, define them both. Also, if you're on Windows, make sure the graphic has the right name: G500.bmp or whatever the number is, or on Mac, that you have a properly formatted cmg file.

About the text bubbles: you need to clear a text bubble before you can display a new one, and you need to refresh the screen in order for any change to show up. Also you need to pause so that someone can read the bubble. That means that putting a single text bubble on the screen usually looks like this:

Code:

     text_bubble_on_char(7,"");     text_bubble_on_char(7,"What is it, Talas?");     force_instant_terrain_redraw();     pause(15);

About the custom graphics: Apparently its only the graphics of these stairs that don't work. All other graphics (creatures, beds, chairs) do work. That's why I don't understand this. I'm on a mac. Previously, it all worked, so I find this really strange. I defind both the sheet and icon.

About the txet bubbles. What, you showed me, is that also for use when NOT in a cutscene? For example: take the Sweetgrove.txt (or something) file out of VoDT, and this is what it says:

Code:

 beginstate START_STATE;	if (get_flag(1,9) == 0) {		if (get_ran(1,0,100) < 7)			text_bubble_on_char(34,"Must escape.");		if (get_ran(1,0,100) < 7)			text_bubble_on_char(11,"Too much work.");		if (get_ran(1,0,100) < 7)			text_bubble_on_char(11,"How can we be safe?");		}		if (get_ran(1,0,100) < 7)			text_bubble_on_char(17,"Cough.");		if (get_ran(1,0,100) < 7)			text_bubble_on_char(16,"Adventurers!");		if (get_ran(1,0,100) < 7)			text_bubble_on_char(16,"Wow!"); 

It may be so, that I simply don't understand what's happening in this piece of the scipt, and Therefor easily can make mistakes.

[Kelandon]

Jeff was making some bubbles appear randomly above people's heads when you walk around. I guess I missed that you were trying to do that also.

 

Since the bubbles get cleared every turn, you don't have to insert the extra line to clear them, and since stepping updates the screen, you don't need the force_instant_terrain_redraw, and since they already stay on the screen for a reasonable amount of time, you don't need the pause.

 

Do you understand the get_ran and get_flag calls? You don't want a get_flag call in your own town's START_STATE, probably, but you do want a get_ran unless you want the bubbles to appear every turn.

[Thralni]

Quote:

Originally written by Kelandon:
Do you understand the get_ran and get_flag calls? You don't want a get_flag call in your own town's START_STATE, probably, but you do want a get_ran unless you want the bubbles to appear every turn.

I think that was probably the point. I didn't understand a thing of what they were for. Can you explain to me in some way what this bit of code does, and what you eventually see in the game?

[Thralni]

Never mind, I solved it already. could you, however, still show me how it works?

 

EDIT:

How many shops can you exactly have in your scenario? I'm now at shop 16, that's 17 shops. but from about shop 10, it doesn't do anything anymore. You get into shop mode, and there is nothing to buy, although I put the shops in the scenario script and added all kinds of items. What do you think is the fault here?

[Lilith]

A scenario can have up to 130 shops. Are you sure the shops you're calling are the same shop numbers as the shops you've added items to? Double-check.

[Thralni]

STUPID ME!!

 

OK. i found the problem. All the shops and the numbers and so on were fine, OK, nothing wrong. It crossed my mind not long ago, that I maybe should create a new party, enter the scenario again, and see what happens, and indeed. All the problems were solved when I entered shop mode. I could purchase things.

 

anyway Thuryl, thanks for telling me the amount of shops I can have, but I think I should test it first better. That's probably the problem when making a slightly different .bas file and instering it in the scenario folder: the saved games get all messed up.

[Thralni]

This problem isn't urgent, because I already solved it in some way.

 

I made this castle entrance gate between to walls of mountains. when you set the direction of entrance with these small arrows in the editor, You come in in the gate at th wrong side. So say, you come from the north. when you enter, you appear on the south side, even though the arrows are placed correctly.

However, when you come from the south side, you enter in the town in the south side. i already solved this by changing the positions of the arrows, but I still wonder how this could happen.

[Kelandon]

Sometimes, you just need to read the docs. For town entrance stuff, open the docs, find section 1.7, and read the stuff under the heading "Enter Town Starting Position." The gist of it is that the direction you enter the town from can be counterintuitive.

 

As far as the text bubble stuff, you should look up the get_flag and get_ran calls in the Appendices. After you read that, what's going on in the START_STATE should be fairly obvious. If you want to know what it looks like in the game, enter VoDT with a party and walk around in the first town for a little bit. You should see text bubbles.

 

If any of this still doesn't make sense, I can explain it.

[Thralni]

I looked at the doc's already before I posted the post, and still I don't understand what it exactly does in the start_state script.

 

As for the entries, maybe you don't exactly understand the problem. I've probably written it to vague. In the editor (the normal one) you have a flat view on the world. The gate is a road, going from north to south. I placed the entry arrows as they would make sense. All the arrows pointing in the direction of the closed gates. Now, when I enter the castle from the north, the party appears on the south side, which, of course, certainly isn't what I want it to do. when you enter from the south however, I appear on the south, as it should be.

 

To solve this, I swapped the north and south arrows. now, when you enter from the north, You enter on the north side, but the party looks in exactly the opposite direction. I fear, hoever, that if i would enter on the south side, i would appear on the north side. I didn't test this though, as I can't go through the gates yet.

 

is this maybe clearer?

[Kelandon]

I'm not sure how that explanation is any different from the explanation that you gave before. Regardless, I think the problem is that you're misunderstanding either which part of the castle you're entering from or which arrow means which direction. I have no idea what else could be the problem.

 

As far as the START_STATE thing, what part don't you understand? The game picks a random number from 1 to 100 for each of those text bubbles, and if the number is below 7, the text bubble pops up. This has the effect of making the bubbles appear occasionally over the characters' heads. If the flag (1,7) is set, some bubbles don't get displayed.

[Thralni]

Thanks, I do understand the START_STATE thing now better. i simply didn't understand how it all functioned. Now i do understand.

 

what do you think? Shall I wait until more answers come about the castle entry thing, or should I just email jeff about it?

[Lilith]

An outdoor town entrance rectangle *must* be at least 3x3 in size for the game to process town entry points correctly. The way you're describing it, it sounds like you've just made your town entry a single space.

[Thralni]

Ooooooh. OK Thanks Thuryl, its indeed 1x1. I'll chnage it now. I'll post soon about if it works.

 

EDIT:

OK Thuryl. Thanks very much. You were right. An other crisis solved...

[Thralni]

Is it possible to use cutscene calls like put_boom_on_spot in the outdoors? i want to try to simulate some sort of an attack on a city, but seen from outside. if its not possible, its also no drama, cause I didn't plan to do this in the first place.

[Kelandon]

Quote:

Originally written in the BoA docs:
Animation and SFX Functions

There are a variety of special effects that can be put on characters and terrain spots. Once the effects are placed, to actually display the animation, call run_animation or run_animation_sound. All of the available effects, explosions, and sparkles are listed in the appendices.
None of these calls have any effect outdoors.

[Drakefyre]

You can do this by making a town that simulates the outdoors.

[Kelandon]

As you can see demonstrated in, for example, town 5 in Bahssikava (in the northwest corner).

[Thralni]

Okay, thanks. i'll look at town 5 then. I think I'm understanding what you guys mean, but I'll take a look anyway.

[Thralni]

This is a rather irritaing problem I have here, and it deals with entering and leaving towns. When you leave a town and enter it again, all thing are as they should be when you enetr it for the first time. Now I have this problem too. when you leave a certain town, everything changes again and becomes as it once was when you didn't enter the town. now how can I make sure, that if i enter that town a second time after leaving it, there are absolutely no changes to terrain and certain creatures? All i could come up with, is a special node you step on when entering the town, which sets all the things you once already had set, to how it was before you left town. Are there any other suggetions, or is this the only way of doing it.

 

EDIT:

I almost forgot to thank you two, kelandon and drakefyre, for the "outdoor simulation." I understood it and immedtialy made something similair. now I can make that big cutscnene fight, to give the scenario some more pep.

[Kelandon]

I have little idea what you're talking about, but I'll take a stab at it. Every time an area (town or outdoor section) is loaded, the floors and terrain are reloaded from what you see in the editor, so anything done by set_terrain reverts to the original.

 

If you want to make a permanent change, you have to set a flag and check that flag in the town's INIT_STATE, and if the flag is set, run through the same set_terrain changes as before. (You can see a somewhat complicated example of this in the Deeps and in the Catacombs in Bahssikava.)

 

Killed creatures stay dead, but creatures that have moved around, appeared or disappeared, or other things lings that also reset, so you have to do the same thing.

[Thralni]

For somebody who has little idea what I'm talking about, you gave an excellent solution I'd probably never come up with. Again, thanks.

[Thralni]

i did what you suggested, and it all works fine now. Everything I wanted to happen, happend after I put it all in that INIT_STATE, so again, Thanks very much.

[Thralni]

There is this strange thing with my custom made graphics: When in the game, you can wlk strait trough them. How can I solve this?

[ef]

What type of graphics (creature, terrain, item, etc.) and how did you define it in its script?

[Lilith]

The graphic itself isn't the problem. You need to check your custom objects script and make sure your custom terrain has the correct te_move_block properties, or that you're importing from a terrain that does.

[Thralni]

I suspected the script being the problem. There was probably something I missed when defining the terrain. I'll llok at this te_block thing. Anyway, Thanks.

[Thralni]

I've a problem with a curscene I juyst made. The moment the cutscene begins, the playing screen (not the hole screen, only the small field where you can see what happens) turns black, and the game freezes.

i thought it maybe had to do with the first calls:

 

Code:

 force_view_center(45,34);		force_instant_terrain_redraw();		pause(10);		text_bubble_on_char(7,"Today...");		force_instant_terrain_redraw();		pause(15);				text_bubble_on_char(7,"");		text_bubble_on_char(7,"is the day...");		force_instant_terrain_redraw();		pause(20);				text_bubble_on_char(7,"");		text_bubble_on_char(7,"the Empire shall pay,");		force_instant_terrain_redraw();		pause(20);				text_bubble_on_char(7,"");		text_bubble_on_char(7,"for ruining Riverrod...");		force_instant_terrain_redraw();		pause(20);				text_bubble_on_char(7,"");		text_bubble_on_char(7,"and banning me.");		force_instant_terrain_redraw();		pause(20); 

The cutscene is about ten times longer and still isn't finished. maybe somebody can figure out what's the problem? My othr cutscene i made does work, so this is not the first one.

 

EDIT:

I discovered that the force_view_center is the call that makes the screen go black. i suppose that you can't do anything (the gamne freezes) becuase of a running cutscene, right? How he hell do i solve this! I'm getting VERY irritated!

[Niemand]

Are you sure about the location that you have told it to center the view on is really the one you want? You aren't doing this in a 32 x 32 town or something are you?

 

And yes, the game should ignore all input while the cutscene runs, but the cutscene should end after a while and the game should go back to normal. I note that you have some very long pauses there (compared to what I normally use), maybe for testing at least you'll want some shorter ones. Also if the scenario is going to have lots of use of cutscenes, a set cutscene speed ability like Kelandon and TM have used would really come in handy to you and the player.

 

A note: if the screen is staying black, how about some print_num() calls put in the cutscene code, so that you know how far it has gotten?

[Thralni]

I'm doing this in a 64 x 64 town, and I chcked several times if the view indeed isn't in black space.

 

What is that what TM and kelandon are using? i never heard of it. What you suggested may be a good thng to do, with the print string things. I'll see if I use it.

 

this small piece I showed you, is only a very small piece. Only the talking which that bit a the beginning is about 3 times longer. then there comes another long part and.... I wouldn't tell you how long it is, simply because its very long.

 

Do you have any idea what might be the problem? I indeed noticed that the force_vie_center call is the problem that makes everything black, but I don't understand why it does that. Do you?

 

EDIT:

You remark about the pauses: Some are rather long indeed, but that's because creatures talk here. When walking the pauses are about 3 - 5.

[Niemand]

What TM and Kelandon have done is to give the party members a special ability that allow the user to regulate the length of the pauses used in cutscenes. Basically the cutscenes derive the pause length from the value stored in an SDF and the custom ability can change that SDF so that the player can set the cutscenes to go faster or slower as desired.

 

The whole reason for the print_num() calls is so that you can tell how far the cutscene has progressed even if your not able to see anything meaningful on the screen.

I really have no idea what the problem is; I've just told you how I would try to debug it.

[Thralni]

I think I'll indeed insert these pint_num things you mentioned, so i indeed can see how far the cutscene is. Maybe that way i can also see when the blackness disappears.

 

I'll post later on to tell what happend.

[Thralni]

That didn't help me much. I noticed though, that everything that happens before the force_view_center, runs fine and as it should be (I made a small conversation between the party members to see what will happen). Everything after the force_view_center freezes. How do i know it freezes? it doesn't even print any nimber in the text area! i have to quit the program with command-option-shift-esc in order to get something going again. Last time my hole computer just got stuck. I really don't know what's happening. I think I'll leave the hole thing out if it isn't going to work soon.

[Kelandon]

In all likelihood, you're setting the view center outside what the party can view at the moment, so you need to use the call set_total_visibility to allow them to see it.

 

The game isn't freezing — if you waited long enough, the cut scene would end.

[Thralni]

So what you mean is, that i shouldn't use the call force_view_center, because that ONLY displays what's in their field of view at THAT moment? So the other call would do the trick I understand.

 

the strange thing was, though, that although I added almost everywhere tye calls print_num, and nowhere numbers where sisplayed. or didn't I understand it correctly?

 

EDIT:

I feel so bloody stupid. I guess others also had such problems, and I'm not the only one. Kelandon, if you weren't here, I don't know if I would have finished this scenario. thanks very much. The cutscene looks good (or at least what I made untill now. Its certainly not yet finished).

[Drakefyre]

You need to do both.

[Thralni]

Is it possible to enter a town in an outdoor section and to leave a town in an other outdoor section?

 

By the way, I was making a terrainscript, by which if you pull a lever, a cave wall will dissappear. the game says something about a bad term in expression in line 64. Does somebody know what's wrong?

 

Code:

 beginstate STEP_INTO_SPOT_STATE;	reset_dialog();	add_dialog_str(0,"This lever stands here next to the tunnel entrance. You really don't see something it could open or something. Try anyway?",0);	add_dialog_choice(0,"Leave it");	add_dialog_choice(1,"Pull and see what happens");	choice = run_dialog(0);	if (choice == 1)		end();		flip_terrain(my_loc_x(),my_loc_y());	play_sound(106);	play_sound(99);	print_str_color("You hear the sounds of chains and grinding gears.",2);	if ((get_memory_cell(0) > 0) || (get_memory_cell(1) > 0 || (get_memory_cell(2) > 0)) 		set_terrain(get_memory_cell(0),get_memory_cell(1),get_memory_cell(2));	if ((get_memory_cell(3) > 0) || (get_memory_cell(4) > 0) || (get_memory_cell(5) > 0)) 		set_terrain(get_memory_cell(3),get_memory_cell(4),get_memory_cell(5));	if ((get_memory_cell(6) > 0) || (get_memory_cell(7) > 0)) {		if (get_flag(get_memory_cell(6),get_memory_cell(7)) == 0)			set_flag(get_memory_cell(6),get_memory_cell(7),1);			else set_flag(get_memory_cell(6),get_memory_cell(7),0);		}break; 

(Line 64 is at the first set_terrain call) I really hope you're not going to tell me that doing this is impossible.

[Kelandon]

Quote:

Originally written by Marvin, the paranoid android:
Is it possible to enter a town in an outdoor section and to leave a town in an other outdoor section?

Yes. Use change_outdoor_location.

The offending line is this one:

Code:

	if ((get_memory_cell(0) > 0) || (get_memory_cell(1) > 0 || (get_memory_cell(2) > 0))  

If you look closely, you'll notice you're missing an end parenthesis.

[Thralni]

OK, thanks. Again I learned something new.

 

EDIT: i forgot to ask, where do i put the end(); call exactly? (I know, stupid question. But I couldn't find an end(); call in the orinial doorlever.txt terrainscript.)

[Kelandon]

As far as I can tell, the end call is good where it is.

[Thralni]

Ah, the end parenthesis . i read to hasty again. When I saw end, I immediatly thought the end call. No, I get it now. Thanks very much. In the menatime, while waiting for your reply, I came across it myself. Anyway, thanks.

[Thralni]

So I got everything to work, accept one thing. Its in the same cave that lever stands with which the problem was.

 

*** WARING: potential spoiler ***

 

its not that bad this spoiler, because by the time this scenario is finished it will be already forgotten. Still, you where warned.

 

In that same cave, there is a wall that dissappears. On one side there is the lever, on the other side a special node. When you step on the special node and have a nephil in your party, the wall slides open, revealing the other side. The strange thing is, that the wall is aleady open when entering the cave. How can this be? A special node is activated when you step on the special rectangle, yes? I've put nothing in the INIT or START states.

[Lilith]

Did you make sure that you actually remembered to place the wall in the town in the first place? Assuming you did, post your entire town script for that town so we can take a look at what might be going on.