Kelandon

You could do something based off the Arabian desert, basically that they couldn't colonize this area before because it was impassable to anyone but natives, but now they've enlisted the help of the natives somehow. Deserts (depending on location) can be incredibly harsh environments. Water is hard to find, and unless you know exactly where to look, you can die within a couple of days. That's why locals have a huge advantage over explorers: they know where the oasises... oases... whatever... are. Towns would, of course, be built near the larger oases. It'd be pretty neat to do some things to indicate this water shortage somehow, like requiring the party to carry a custom item (water flasks or something) in the outdoors and reducing it by a certain amount every x number of turns to simulate drinking.

Keep's suggestions, spelled out in this way, sound good to me. The call add_shop_mode has to be changed one way or another (because it has a bug right now anyway), so making it able to handle negative numbers and giving us a way of checking values seems better than just fixing the bug so that it works as described in the docs. One more that I just remembered: void set_char_presence_status(short which_char,short which_status) To serve as a way to set the status checked in char_status (whether the character is dead, not present, etc), as opposed to the status checked in get_char_status (whether the character is blessed, hasted, etc) which is already settable. One could do neat things with splitting up the party this way. EDIT: Calculating ticks forward would be nice, but that's an engine change, and it seems unlikely. What I meant with set_year and force_start_day is that force_start_day(-1) right now removes the months and years from the game, but the days still show up. If we got set_year, we could make set_year do what force_start_day(-1) does right now and make force_start_day(-1) take out displaying even the days themselves. That would be much more extreme, I imagine, because the player wouldn't know when special abilities regenerated, but the designer could figure something out, I'm sure. Or we could not. It doesn't really matter that much. The set_year call would be cool, though.

I can confirm that. It does increment, rather than set (to use SDF terminology). It increases by that amount.

That's probably the best way to do it. The other way that comes to mind is to use relocate_character, but then you may have trouble with the character thinking that its starting location is elsewhere and trying to return to it. You'd have to give it a special script in order for that to work, so your best bet is probably exactly what you described. EDIT: Bah, the call is relocate_character, not relocate_char.

In reference to add_item_to_shop again, it appears that one feature is broken. From the docs: "Note that, in all cases, you will want to put a number above 0 for how_many. If you don't, the item will disappear from the store." I never tested this, but when Isaac said it didn't work, I did, and I second this: it doesn't work. This is a bug. Quote: Originally written by Keep: I'm aware that the add item to shop call exists, but it doesn't work relatively, and since there is no way to check the inventory, the only good way to increment or decrement shop items is to use a new call to specifically change them. I'm not quite sure what you're saying here. The call add_item_to_shop ONLY works relatively, which is to say that it increments rather than sets, to use SDF terminology. As a correction to my post above: when you increment the amount of a particular item the shops sells, the item goes in the BOTTOM of the shop's inventory, not the top, I think. It still can mess up the shop's order, though.

Perhaps Spiderweb's site needs to stress more that scenarios are completely cross-platform except for the graphics files, which are easily converted using virtually any paint program. We get an awful lot of people who don't know that. Anyone else think so?

If we got set_year, then we could shift over the effect of force_start_day(-1) to set_year(-1), and then force_start_day(-1) could take out dates altogether instead of just taking out the year. Given that that no scenario would use force_start_day more than once, I don't think it would be that big of a deal even if it weren't backwards-compatible.

change_item_quantity_in_shop(short which_shop,short which_item,short amount_to_adjust) This can already be done. The normal add_item_to_shop will do this. If you do... Code: add_item_to_shop(10,244,2); // Scroll - Bolt of Fireadd_item_to_shop(10,244,4); // Scroll - Bolt of Fire then shop 10 will have 6 of Scroll - Bolt of Fire in it: 2 from the first call, and 4 from the second. You can use these calls anywhere, even though the docs say to use them in the START_SCEN_STATE. (I use them in state 10 in the scenario script in the HLPM, because I'm using the state as a function, not as a One-Shot.) If you want to reduce the number of an item, you can use add_item_to_shop also -- just reset the shop to zero using how_many as zero. Of course, you may have to keep track of how many items are in the store, but you can do this using SDFs. The one downside to all of this is that the item will move to the top of the store's list, which is really annoying. Originally the shops in the HLPM incremented, rather than setting up each level specifically (ie going from level 20 to 25 I would add two more Iron Longswords or something like that), but the lists got too disorganized. But still, if you need to do this, it can be done. EDIT: And the other one of Keep's suggestions sounds an awful lot like what's already done with begin_shop_mode. I don't quite get the difference. And void*, if you don't like ugly workarounds, you shouldn't be programming for Blades. That's the nature of the game around here. If it's already possible, don't worry about how you're doing it, just do it. I suppose item descriptions are probably not tremendously practical, come to think of it. Oh well. If we get the top five currently on Stareye's list right now, I'll be satisfied. I'd really like some sort of is_beam_on_space kind of call or some way to define other reactions to a reaction to a beam than just crumbling when hit by one -- for instance, sources turning off when they aren't being powered. However, I seriously doubt we'll get anything like this, so meh.

I have some pretty thorough methods for checking party composition in the HLPM. Check them out if you're interested. The code is all commented, so it should be relatively easy to follow. From my older versions of this topic, item descriptions. They would probably have to go in the custom objects script and look like: it_description = "This is a flibbity-jibbity. It is much like a doohickey except that its thingamajig is connected to its whatsit rather than its whosit."; Also, they might be able to go in the scenario script beside other initializing things, like quests.

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO Add a call, deduct_char_ap or something like that. Give that one a second parameter. If given a choice between changing something fundamental to the engine and adding a new call to improve functionality, always add the new call.

I volunteer to judge. I just judged the Lyceum's Shark contest, so I have a bit of experience. Before a whole slew of n00bs volunteer, bear in mind that judging is difficult and thankless, and it gives you no benefits: the scenarios will presumably be publicly available at the same time as the judges get them.

Small point: I believe this is an app issue, not an editor issue, so only Jeff can do anything about this. But god, would this be neat. Yeah, if we wanted to pull together a petition, I'd definitely be in on it. He does still have to fix a few things, anyway.

Minor, as I said, usually placing the walls the way that I recommended is best, but not always. You can, of course, mix and match, depending on what you want in the room. I used to be annoyed by the limitations on wall hangings and what one can do with terrains, but the more I play with the editor, the less I care. Having a painting right next to a bed is almost exactly the same as having it above the bed, for instance.

Skeleton. I though these two Nethergate riddles were lame (this and the Celtic equivalent). I knew the answer to this one pretty quickly, but I really want it to be "bones" or some sort of internal organ.

Some quick, unasked for advice: Dungeon Crawl: don't do this one. Your time would be better spent on the other ideas, which sound pretty neat. The World of Teradoth: standard warning about epics. The vast majority that are started aren't ever finished. If you're designing for your own fun, though, definitely go for it. The Portal: check out the successes and failings of Alcritas's scenario Kalloskagathos, which made significant use of the Random node, too. He wrote an article on it called A Random Article , too.

Skribbane doesn't make you stoned, though. It's not like pot, which wouldn't give the steroid effect that skribbane does. Skribbane is more like speed or cocaine, or really, angel dust (PCP). It is a massive stimulant, probably with mild hallucinogenic properties -- note the blurry haze that many people in Gale are perpetually in. PCP or ecstasy are probably the two real-world analogies. EDIT: Although, come to think of it, you wouldn't really want to be jacked up on angel dust when you talked with Prazac, either.

No, they don't have to be consecutive, in either use of the term for this case. That is, you can put node 35 between nodes 14 and 15 -- although this is an easy way to get confused and probably should be avoided -- or you can have personality 10 use node 10-15 and node 20.

I think at this stage of BoA's development, it's more likely to get played but rated a 2 at CSR than not to get played at all.

Speaking of intoxicating substanaces, I was tempted to get totally jacked up on skribbane right before going into the fight with Rentar-Ihrno, but something about that just didn't sit well with me.

As for the first, I believe the items dropped relate to the items given in the creature's object script (either in corescendata or in the scenario's custom object script -- ie sliths will drop slith spears because they are given slith spears in corescendata). For the second, the editor only reads the custom objects script. BoA will react to the scenario script, but the editor doesn't read it at all. If you want the levels to show up in the editor, use cr_level in your custom objects script.

I have in one instance hidden a cut scene (literally thousands of lines of code) in a town's START_STATE, which I'd think would make a noticeable difference. Meh, now I really do have to try it. I'll report back shortly. EDIT: Amazingly enough, it makes no noticeable difference. The two formats perform identically, even with 500 lines of code in a START_STATE. I will modify this article appropriately. Evidently I just imagined this effect....

Er, literally straight out of the docs, 2.14: Creating Dialogue: "INTRO: If party has already talked to a character with this personality number (or a personality number is not given), shows only text5, text6, text7, and text8. Otherwise, shows text1, text2, text3, and text4." Basically, you use it on the first node that a character says. Write an initial description (what the party sees when they first look at the character) in text1. Write something else (usually something like "_What else do you want to know?_ he asks.") in text5, and that will show up when the party initiates conversation again or runs out of dialogue options and chooses to start the conversation over.

Do you not have a copy of the docs or something? The call give_recipe(short which_recipe) will give a recipe. The parameters on the call change_spell_level are: change_spell_level(short which_char,short mage_or_priest,short which_spell,short amt_to_change). Literally straight out of the Appendices, page 23: "Changes the [level] character which_char knows spell which_spell by amt_to_change (which can be negative). If mage_or_priest is 0, changes mage spell. If 1, changes priest spell." And basically the character's mage or priest spells skill has to be high enough to learn the spell in the first place. Not that it's change spell level, not set spell level, meaning that it increments. If amt_to_change is 1, and if the character already knows the spell at level 3, then the character will know the spell at level 4 after this call. You can use get_spell_level to get around this.

Shall we turn this into a "How I found out about Spiderweb" topic? If so, here's my story: I had no money and was searching on the Internet for shareware games for the Mac. I got SW right off, and I downloaded Avernum. This was '99 or '00, I think, whatever would be right after A1 was first released. Then I played A1, waited around for A2, tried to play E3 because I couldn't stand waiting for A3, found the graphics too old and outdated and the whole system too unfamiliar, and ended up waiting around for A3 anyway. In early '01 (I think) I briefly explored BoE, which is the reason that NK0P exists. I couldn't get into it because I couldn't beat a single scenario (my fault for trying Doom Moon II first, probably ). These were the dark days between the collapse of Malkeera and the advent of these boards, as far as I can tell, because I posted over at the Lyceum asking for beta testers for NK0P -- although it was so long ago that I don't think you can find this message anymore, which is sad, because I have looked. (Djur and Flamefiend were my beta testers, which I find hilarious, for some reason. As far as I can tell, Flamefiend hasn't beta tested anything since. ) Eventually, after failing to beat several more scenarios, including Redemption and (sadly) Riddle of the Spheres, I quit and left it behind for a while. I kept playing the new games, GF1 and GF2 as they came out, and then on one fateful day in February '04 (the 28th), I decided to register an account to get involved in a historical discussion (my first post! Check it out!) and haven't managed to leave since then. YAY4LIFESTORY!

In which game? Erika's tower is critical in all three Avernums.