Spidweb

I read the script. That's pretty damn cool. - Jeff

"Would there be any way to tie one monster's effectiveness to another monster? Say you've got this huge, beefed-up magical bodyguard critter that protects a physically frail spellcaster. Would there be any way to suddenly cripple such bodyguard creature(s) if the spellcaster is killed before they are? (the spellcaster is the source of their power- would be explained in plot/dialogue)" Absolutely. For an example of this, look at the room with the 10 golems in it in Khoth's fortress in Za-Khazi run. The demon golem heals itself constantly until all of its golems are dead.

Excellent article. A few suggestions I would add. Even the strongest creature is weak if it's by itself. The best way to spice up an encounter or make it more challenging is to add friends. If a creature isn't doing enough damage to affect players, increase the strength or melee weapons skill. The damage from innate attacks (like clawing and biting) is increased by melee weapons skill. Finally, an advanced trick. You can give a creature special abilities or defenses by giving it an item. If you don't want the get that item, you can erase it by using the destroy_char_item call in the DEAD_STATE state. (Note there is a bug with this call. You can't use ME for which_char. Get the creature's number using my_number.)

Sometimes I look at how I did something, shake my head sadly, and say "What was I thinking?" This is one of those cases. Having floor with a powerful effect have almost no chance of inflicting it? What? In all versions of BoA after Mac v1.0, swamp and disease terrain will have a straight up 50% chance of inflicting their effect. The strength of the ability is the number of levels of poison/disease that are given.

This modification is unlikely. However, you can achieve the same effect by giving the creature high resistance to everything but cold. Then adjust the monster's hit points as desired.

Floors have these four properties: fl_is_water, fl_is_floor, fl_is_ground and fl_is_rough. Am I right in assuming that a floor can only have one of these? None of them stack, right? A floor can have any or all of these properties. Also, what do the docs mean when they say "other terrain types will conform to it when painting terrain in the editor" about the fl_is_water, fl_is_floor and fl_is_rough properties? I don't understand that sentance... If you draw some water in the editor, the editor will automatically adjust it so the shore lines up. That's what is meant by conforming. And last (hopefully), can floors combine animation and shimmering? Try it. It should work.

There are many things I wanted to do, but I couldn't, becaused the engine was built a certain way and it would have taken a bit of work. This is number one on the list. :-( There are ways around this. 1. Make the creature with spawn_creature. 2. Make the creature type you are making with place_monster have a default script made by you, and make that default script do what you want it to do.

"In other words, if my_current_message <> 0, I can be sure this is the second time this script has been called this turn (unless the script is on a 8-turn cycle)." Not necessarily. There are a number of things that can cause a script to be called in a turn. A ritual of sanctification, or someone walking on it, or its blocking someone's movement can cause it to be called. Also, in a combat turn, scripts are called every time someone moves (so if someone moves 5 spaces, the terrain scripts are called 5 times). Your scripts need to be robust enough to work properly no matter how many times in a turn they are called. "So, I can only count on variables staying the same in a single state (and any other states I call in that state)?" A variable in a script is only visible in that script, but anywhere in that script. (So it can be accessed in multiple states.) When the script is unloaded (for example, a town script when you leave that town), that variable's value is forgotten. Any value you want the game to remember should be stored in a Stuff Done Flag.

Stuffit Expander for Windows is a teeny program. You only need to download the editor, not the whole demo. And both documentation formats are easily Windows readable. Of course, some intrepid user could take the documentation out and make it available as a single download, I suppose.

"Not distributing the editor with the demo version would be a foolish thing to do anyway." Heh. You don't get to pay our bandwidth fees.

Go to the Blades of Avernum page, and click on the Scenario Workshop link below. Editor there. http://www.spidweb.com/avernum/blades/scen_workshop.html

Geneforge 2 Save Game Problem on Macintosh OS X A very small number of users have had a problem saving the game on OS X. When they try to save a game over a old saved game, several telescoping windows appear on the screen and the game freezes until they hit Return. The text area says "Game Saved", but it hasn't been. We are working on resolving this problem. Anyone who encounters it is urged to contact us so we can troubleshoot the problem. In the meantime, there is a workaround. If you open the folder Geneforge 2 Files, you will find folders called Save0, Save1, Save2, etc. If you open up one of those folders and throw away its contents, the saved game slot will be empty and you can save in it normally. - Jeff Vogel Spiderweb Software http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com

This is not a bug I have gotten any reports of. I suspect that it is a graphics or sounds driver issue. Very frequently, reinstalling these fixes weird crashes like this. Obviously, if this was a problem which numerous people were getting and I thought there was any chance it was a fixable bug, I'd have fixed it by now. :-) - Jeff Vogel Spiderweb Software http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com