Calls that we wish existed

[Kelandon]

Not sure what good it would do, but I thought it might be constructive/fun to mention all the calls that we wish that BoA had that it doesn't have. I personally want a force_start_year call to set the year (for historical or futuristic scenarios). It would be the companion of force_start_day, which does exist.

 

There's also a thread going about item descriptions, something like an it_description call.

 

Any more thoughts?

[Donald Hebb]

void set_year(short year);

 

I'd also like to see customizable scenario icons.

[*i]

I asked for something like this during beta and it was turned down. Fortunately you can turn of dates all together.

[Kelandon]

Was there any reason given for the call being turned down? Seems like such a simple thing to implement, code-wise....

[Drakefyre]

I asked for it during beta too

 

But turning them off is the best alternate solution.

[Donald Hebb]

My next question is, how? And another call...

 

void set_town_training(short can_train);

[Boots]

What's wrong with void turn_off_training(0)? (That's not a rhetorical question.)

[Donald Hebb]

Oh hey, you're right- I didn't see that node. Thanks.

[Drakefyre]

force_start_day(-1);

[Kelandon]

From Walker White's post:

 

short get_energy(short which_char)

[Walker White]

Oh dear Lord. Where do I begin? Okay, here is a list, some of which I have already sent to Jeff.

 

The Easy Ones (If Jeff did what I think he did)

• deduct_char_ap(short which_char, short amount) so items can manually deduct AP (and fix the 219 feature).
• equip_item_in_slot(short which_char, short which_item, short which_slot), so I can manually equip items in my creatures.
• set_char_memory_cell(short which_char, short which_cell). This would greatly improve message communication. We can already do this for terrain, why not characters?
• Missile animations for SFX. We can do booms and sparkles and effects. Why not missiles?
• A call to manually identify an item so that I am not forced to use shops.

]The Hard Ones (I am dreaming)

• Get calls for every item ability (what's its damage, type, etc...)
• Get calls for determining a creature's special attacks.
• Path finding calls: Is there a path on the ground from A to B?

  Compute this without actually moving a character.

• A dialog box for numeric input. Dear lord what I could do with this (I cast clairvoyance on square x=13, y =2).

There is also the issue of string handling (being able to glue strings together and then like for better print_str() output). I have made some suggestions to Jeff about this, and he is thinking about it. However, my suggestion on strings is a major overhaul and if we pressure him to do a lot of calls, it will not happen.

[Newtfeet]

There is a set_creature_memory_cell() call; page 25 of the appendices.

[Walker White]

Quote:

Originally written by Newtfeet:
There is a set_creature_memory_cell() call; page 25 of the appendices.

Well I'll be. Okay, that's one off the list. I swear, sometimes I cannot find these calls in the documentation (this is the second time this forum has shown me wrong). Does anyone else find the organization weird?

[Newtfeet]

Not really. Sometimes you just have to poke around a lot.

[Drakefyre]

Using Preview in 10.3, you can search through the PDFs easily to find calls. It's invaluable.

[Kelandon]

Quote:

Does anyone else find the organization weird?

Yes. Things that I think should be in the appendices are in the regular docs and vice-versa. Also it has taken quite a bit of getting used to the format just so that I can find calls, which I still often fail at doing. I do searches, but I don't always know what the call is, so I have to search by topic ("Hmm, is it in dialog, or advanced dialog, or cut scens, or..."), which is really difficult.

I am trying to learn by baby steps, one call at a time.

I agree that a numeric input would be great.

[Drakefyre]

For creature AI scripts - several calls that would be able to control where the creature moves, get the next move of the creature, tell it to acquire a next move randomly, etc.

 

It's possible now, but only with horrible, horrible workarounds.

 

Also, the ability to block a space only to one character or group.

[Walker White]

Quote:

Originally written by Drakefyre:
For creature AI scripts - several calls that would be able to control where the creature moves, get the next move of the creature, tell it to acquire a next move randomly, etc.

It's possible now, but only with horrible, horrible workarounds.

What are you asking for here? Are you wanting the creature script to be called in the middle of movement and tell you the next square in the path computed by the path-finding algorithm? Or is it something else? Because the former would be really expensive.

Quote:

Also, the ability to block a space only to one character or group.

That will almost certainly break the path-finding algorithms; badly. Yeah, it would be great, but I doubt we will ever see that.

[Drakefyre]

That's exactly what I want, and I know that it's likely that it will never happen.

[Walker White]

Thought of two more:

 

• item_uses_in_slot(short which_char, short which_slot); and item_uses_on_loc(short loc_x, short loc_y). Returns the number of charges of the requisite specific item (not an item type).
• alter_item_uses_in_slot(short which_char, short which_slot, short amount); and alter_item_uses_on_loc(short loc_x, short loc_y, short amount). Recharges or drains item.

EDIT: I just realized that there can be multiple items on a space. So only the item_uses_in_slot() [there can only be one wand in a slot] will work for these calls. The location ones are right out.

[spyderbytes]

has_item_of_variety(short which_variety, short take_item)

 

Just like has_item_of_class, but works with variety (food, armor, weapon, object, etc.).

 

-spyderbytes

[Walker White]

Yet another that just occurred to me:

 

crumble_terrain(short loc_x, short loc_y)

 

This is the analogue of flip_terrain() except that it uses the crumble counterpart instead of the swap counterpart.

 

I just figured how to make radio-detonated plastique and it might be nice to be able to blast walls as well as monsters with it.

[Kennedy]

I wish there was an option to set the color adjustment for floors and terrain in a particular town, Kind of like in Geneforge 2 where the Crystal mine was tinted. I also like the idea of being able to get how many charges an item has and being able to change the number of charges to your desire.

[Newtfeet]

You can already do the first thing. Just create a custom floor/terrain and set its tint. Just use it in that dungeon. And you can remove charges from an item; you just can't add or check how many. Actually, I think you can check how many...

[Drakefyre]

has_num_of_item(item) will return the number of charges.

[Walker White]

Quote:

Originally written by Drakefyre:
has_num_of_item(item) will return the number of charges.

If you have two wands of the same type, it will sum the charges. These are wand-only functions that I am thinking of. That function is great for potions and objects.

[Newtfeet]

Quote:

Originally written by Drakefyre:
has_num_of_item(item) will return the number of charges.

Yeah... that's what I thought.

So, it works as long as you don't use it for wands.

[Eldiran]

Wands combine anyway, no matter what the docs say. At least, they do in Valley of Dying Things. Not that this bug is bad. It saves a lot of space for my 1-PC parties.

[Walker White]

Quote:

Originally written by Eldiran:
Wands combine anyway, no matter what the docs say. At least, they do in Valley of Dying Things. Not that this bug is bad. It saves a lot of space for my 1-PC parties.

Now that's just bizarre. Can you elect to split the wand back up when you trade it between characters like you do with potions?

[Boots]

I've been trying to reproduce this, and I can't. Do you remember where precisely you got those wands? Presumably, you need wands with the same ability_str. Let's hope! Otherwise it's not a harmless bug.

 

EDIT: I take that back. From further tinkering, there seems to be at least one condition in which wands combine. Identical wands picked up in the same town will combine with each other, but not with identical wands from different towns/scenarios (which includes different play-throughs of a single scenario). Once combined, they cannot be split.

[Eldiran]

So far every wand in Valley of Dying Things that I acquired of the same type combined. Wands of Ice combined, Wands of Slow combined, and Wands of Bolts (Is that what it's called?) combined. I eventually had a Wand of Bolts with 15 charges. These were all from varying towns in the same scenario.

[Boots]

Crazy. VoDT is probably the more reliable test, but I've made a sample scenario with two towns, and I can't combine wands between them. I can however combine a wand with another that I pick up after leaving and re-entering the same town in which I acquired the first. Meanwhile, the inability to combine across scenarios seems pretty hard and fast. That all seems eccentric enough to need repairing in one direction or another.

[spyderbytes]

I'd like to see either:

 

A.) A "fade" parameter added to move_to_new_town(), so we could optionally make the screen fade to black before the move and fade from black in the new location; OR (better yet)

 

B.) fade_to_black() and fade_from_black() added to the cutscene calls.

 

It's the best way I know of to let the player quickly grasp the cutscene has changed the time and/or location. I can put up a dialog to "fill the gap", but it still feels rather odd to just suddenly be in the new town when you dismiss the dialog.

 

To "feel" right, in a (more ) perfect world, my cutscene needs to fade to black, put up a dialog with brief text about the transition to the new location, then fade back in with the party in the new town.

 

-spyderbytes

[Octavo]

Has this horse that follows already been beaten past death?

Party manipulation like I remember from Avernum 1. Storing, adding, etc.ing characters.

Among the reasons for this would be if you wanted to control the player's party level and type without just shipping with a party.

Also, if you wanted a game like - does anyone remember Final Fantasy 6? (3US) You started with one character, Terra. Later you met Locke, Edgar, and Sabin. Then Locke left to go spy on South Figaro, and his slot was filled by Banon. Etc.

Then in the second half of the game, you had more than 4 characters available, and they waited in your base of operations while you chose four to explore.

It would let the characters be more than 1 character-unit in the game, and instead be a personality apiece, nicely complementing cutscene ability.

If I read right this is not in BoA now at all.

[Lilith]

NPCs are in, but you can only have 2 of them at a time, and they're controlled by the AI.

[Octavo]

...ok. That's what I thought I had read.

Aaugh!

So they use slots 5 and 6, like in Nethergate. And they can only follow the main party, not be a part of it. They can't be the whole thing, and they can't be player controlled. And if I read right, you can't take them outdoors.

 

So at any one time, the party can only be 3 'characters' in the plot, 1 player controlled!

 

I hope to goodness this is fixable in the engine.

Just think of the greatness of plot possible if it'd run like FF6, or even FF5 (which used the same 4 for most of the game after the initial meeting-period, save at one point trading one character for his daughter).

[Donald Hebb]

Correction-

The characters in slots in 5 and 6 are part of the party, you don't control them, but they also join you in outdoors fights.

[Lilith]

Theoretically, you can use scripts to have as many NPCs as you like follow the party around. But they'll still be AI-controlled, and having too many at once will probably slow down the game pretty badly.

[spyderbytes]

Not really a call, but...

 

I'd like to see some sort of token we could put in strings that would expand to a given party member's name. E.g., something like %char0% would expand to whatever name the player gave the first character in the party.

 

-spyderbytes

[Kennedy]

I wish that there was a call that would cast a certain spell on a certain character. example

 

void cast_spell(short target_char,short mage_or_priest,short which_spell)

 

that would then cast the selected spell on the target character.

[spyderbytes]

You can "fake" it by applying the effects of the spell to a character, then using the appropriate sparkles and sound effects, as if the spell had been cast. More work than your requested call, but it works.

 

-spyderbytes

[Khoth]

Is it just my imagination, or is there no way to get a creature's memory cells outside of its own script?

[spyderbytes]

AFAIK, that's correct Khoth. You can set creature/terrain memory cells from outside their own script, but not get.

 

Bit of a kludge, but you could have the creature set a SDF to the same thing a particular memory cell contains (and make sure you keep it in synch if it changes), then you could get the SDF from anywhere.

 

-spyderbytes

[Vent]

add_char_to_party that works for more than 2 npc. I think numbers 5 to 9 and 0 are available so up to 5 or 6 npc.

 

And in order to keep compatibility :

set_max_char_in_party

A global call that set max number of npc in party the default is 2.

This call won't remove npc already in party but will not allow to add more npc than the max set after this call.

[spyderbytes]

0 is the first char in the party. When you start placing NPCs in a new town, the editor makes the first one char number 6. So 0-5 are really the only numbers that could be used for party members (and the ones that ARE used).

 

Jeff could (theoretically) change the starting number for NPCs placed in towns to add more potential party members, but it would break all existing (and half-written) scenarios--including Jeff's own scenarios that come with the game. IOW, not at all likely to happen at this point.

 

In my own experience, a party of more than 6 at any given time becomes quite unwieldy anyway. You spend more time futzing with party members than actually playing the game. YMMV, but it's a good limit IMO.

 

-spyderbytes

[Kelandon]

A call that would place a text bubble at the top middle of the screen, like the effect in the intro movie to A3.

[Drakefyre]

Just do what I did and use an invisible monster.

[Kelandon]

What you *did*? Have you released a scenario yet?

 

Seriously, though, this is a good idea. I'm not sure that it will exactly do what I want, but it's worth a shot.

[Vent]

Quote:

Originally written by Thuryl:
Theoretically, you can use scripts to have as many NPCs as you like follow the party around. But they'll still be AI-controlled, and having too many at once will probably slow down the game pretty badly.

Will they really follow the party when they leave the town?? Then in outdoor will they follow the party and it goes in town? Same question when a telporter is used, or when it's just from an area to another.

[Vent]

EDIT : I think you thought I wanted add new chars in the party itself not npc joining that party. That wans't my purpose, just the ability to add a bit more NPC in the party but they stay NPC.

 

Well, a row of 6 is already long and 8 will be even more long. But that would be a design choice. Also to match npc in party with numbers coud be a problem for the player when there are 4 instead of 2. But perhaps some solution not too tough could be applied like mention in the console the npc name for each number shortcut.

END EDIT.

 

Quote:

Originally written by spyderbytes:

...Jeff could (theoretically) change the starting number for NPCs

The starting number doesn't need to change. just the max number.

Quote:

Originally written by spyderbytes:

...but it would break all existing (and half-written) scenarios--including Jeff's own scenarios that come with the game. IOW, not at all likely to happen at this point.

I can't say for sure but I don't see why. The game should just manage a max default that will keep compatibility with older scenario. But will allow change that in a scenario through a call.

 

At least if the starting number doesn't need to change but I don't see why it needs.