Isaac

Quote: Originally written by Garrison: I don't see what the big *practical* problem is. Blades of Avernum makes you lose if your party is split and the split off character dies. That needs to be circumvented.

Quote: Originally written by MikeS: would placing a check after each 'doattack()' call within the creature scripts be a better place to see if the split off character is in trouble? I don't think it's the only place needed, although it sounds like a good place. The PC can move away from the enemy, automatically causing an attack, or take damage from poison (if there's anything to cause poison).

Quote: Originally written by Thuryl: either Melee Weapons or Pole Weapons skill would have to contribute to hit rate and damage False. The contributing statistics are: 1) Strength increases damage 2) Dexterity increases chance to hit 3) Any stat of your choice increases both chance to hit and damage. This is normally Melee Weapons or Pole Weapons, but it doesn't have to be. (Morog's Sceptre, for example, depends on Mage Spells skill. It's a ranged weapon, but the same thing works for melee.) For a martial artist, there could be a (possibly cursed) "iron fist" weapon which might be improved by Strength, Dexterity, Luck, Pathfinder, or even Dread Curse, take your pick, in part 3 above. This is always cumulative with the bonuses in part 1 and 2. It might be possible to specify a high number which is not the number of any stat in order to make it not be improved by any, or if that doesn't work, picking a stat like Dread Curse (if you don't give it in the scenario) or Riposte (if the party isn't supposed to be too high-level). Remember, you can also choose damage per level. As a reference, bare hands do 1-3 damage per level. This is only levels of Strength that it is increased by, not any other stat (step 3 above is left out), as a special property of not wielding a weapon.

Hmm. Seems like your system is a bit more up to date than mine, although I have Xcode 1.5 too. Anyway, my compile of (hopefully) version 1.0 is uploaded (the connection kept breaking ). Tell me if it fails for you... I only know that it works for me, which means I *really* don't know what's going on, since I thought it wouldn't work that way.

Wait, let me get this straight - the only change you made was to revert that file, Bl A Editor.cpp? Then you built in Xcode following my instructions? Assuming that, I compiled a version with optimization turned on. It works for me. I'll upload it... this afternoon. I have to go to school now.

Luckily it works for me too. Ok, I know that was weird code. I changed it to stop it from, whenever I clicked, generating two clicks, which made the centering thing pretty useless. Also I only changed the code in Handle_One_Event in 0.12b2, so I have no idea what was causing problems before that. I'm having trouble figuring out why it works for everyone now. Oh well... I'll see if I can put together a version 1.0 tomorrow.

Whoops, I copied the "download" link but forgot to change what it downloads when clicked. Fixed.

Quote: Originally written by Tanabi: Cool, thanks! I've also noticed there's several functions that are in the scripts that come with the game, but aren't documented in the reference. Well it would help if you gave their names so that the knowledgeable people (likely me) know what to add.

And because of that I have uploaded an older version that from people's comments I believe works for them although the newer versions don't.

Nice, I just edited it to be more accurate.

Quote: Originally written by Calm Ichneumon: That's a lot of links. You a Wikipedia editor or something? No, although I've browsed it a lot lately. It has lots of interesting information. I put the links in like that because: I felt like I was giving up and wanted to make up for it by mentioning many of the good websites/games I've found I didn't want to them to be a list (don't know why not, though ) All the links are at least somewhat related to the word they're found on Some of them might help other programmers @Arenax: I'll email you.

Oh dear. I've been doing other things.... I wish I knew what was wrong, but I don't. I can't reproduce anything. Jeff's code is pretty bad; I don't really want to do more with it. I have looked at much of the code and the changes and can't find anything suspicious. Someone else could try compiling it themself, although that shouldn't make a difference. I have even lost most of my interest in Blades of Avernum for now; Battle for Wesnoth has 'cured' my interest in RPGs, and, being somewhat of a perfectionist , I am more a fan of strategy (which can be improved on a scale) than nonlinear plot (which there is no perfect, or even optimal, solution to). I feel I must leave the solution, if there is one, to another programmer who has experienced these problems. I have what I would consider a finished version, except that other people are having problems with it. If those problems were solved, I would be very happy to share the praise with him or her upon the release of a relatively bugless version, which could be justifably called 3D Editor 1.0 ( Mac ). Ideally, the entire editor should be rewritten with more power, extendability , and portability , but that is obviously a major task. Also hindering that is a perhaps poorly-designed , closed-source game engine, with many arbitrary limits and idiosyncrasies . Blades of Avernum is a good game , whose creator has wisdom in business, but it could have been designed much better (using C as the basis for the scripting language 's basic syntax was a bad idea, considering the kinds of problems people tend to have with it, but then, hindsight is always an advantage). I wish Jeff luck in his next "Blades" game; may it be as much better than BoA as BoA was better than BoE. As for me, I shall likely look into these forums occasionally, as I am doing now, but, barring unlikely events, I shall remain aloof. -- Isaac the Stumped Genius P.S. Hope the new directions help!

Quote: Originally written by demipomme: Quote: Originally written by Captain Obvious: While crude and inefficient programming at best, you could try putting it in the [sTART_STATE]. Why's it crude and inefficient? Scripts are somewhat slow, so a long script that occurs every move (whether implemented with START_STATE or some other way) may slow the player down noticably. Quote: Originally written by demipomme: If game is randomly removing fields after the START_STATE, is there some other call I could use to get the field created each turn? No, but if you're just placing quickfire, I don't think it gets randomly removed, it just spreads, unless a script explicitly destroys it. It seems to me that placing the script in the INIT_STATE should work, if it's quickfire. However, looking at your script, I see that it places antimagic fields. You DEFINATELY do not need the ifs. I think the problem is that antimagic fields decay after the town's START_STATE happens. You might want to try putting it in the START_STATE of a terrain script that you place nearby (you may need to put Quote: Originally written by demipomme: I though of using special encounters on every square in that area of the map, but what about if the party are in fight mode or they hit wait? If you want it to happen every turn everywhere in the town, use START_STATE. Besides, there is a maximum of about 60 specials you can place in a town (it depends on town size; I think that's for large towns). If there was some good reason to have one everywhere, you could make new floor types so that every floor in the area has the special ability to trigger a special encounter. It would trigger for each character that move, even out of combat, and trigger even in combat, but not in either case if the party stands still. You do not want to try this here.

Quote: Originally written by Dahak: If I place any terrain or floor, the same is also placed (but not removed) 11 squares westward. Latest version I have no problem with heights. Also, I move from section to section by scrolling, it asks if I want to save (with occasional crash ). I choose save. If I Nothing in the next section, but move onto another section, it will continue to ask "Do you want to SAVE/CANCEL/OPEN" until I actually save via menu or command-s I'm sorry, I have tried as hard as I can to figure out what's wrong. I can't reproduce any of your problems, and I have looked in the code and can't find anything suspicious. No one else seems to be having these problems. Do you know of anything unusual about your computer? That is all I can think of to ask; I have absolutely no idea whatsoever what could cause any of the problems you have mentioned. I suppose you could be lying or insane, or something like that, but that seems highly unlikely.

Quote: Originally written by Eric-Ihrno: Is there any way to place a new terrain script while the game is running? No. I wish it was possible.

I put in the 3D Editor the SHIFT-direction feature, easy scrolling between outdoor sectors, a way to change outdoor size, and hotkeys for changing what view you're using.

Thank you for your prompt responses. Version 0.12b2 is available. It slightly changes the colors of monster borders in 3D. In particular, the hidden-monster colors are different, and it is now possible to distinguish Hostile A and B. I also added another feature, after someone mentioned something they wanted to do in the editor on the forum, and I realized I wanted the same thing. Option-clicking on a space now centers on that space, and if you're zoomed out, it zooms in to that place. I also made it much easier for Mac developers (such as myself!) to test it while programming.

I have some questions for the users of this. (Don't forget you're still beta-testers!) Have you been inconvenienced by the multiple steps needed to get between 3D editing and zoomed-out mode? Do you even use zoomed out mode? Do you ever use normal 2D editing? How often? Have the TAB and OPTION-TAB keyboard shortcuts been useful? Do you use OPTION-TAB more than the other, so perhaps the keys to use them should be swapped?

Quote: Originally written by yes: say i'm in editor, in the nw corner of my screen and want to move to the se corner. is there a quicker easier way to do this than scrolling over? You mean, you're in the northwest corner of the town, and you want to go to the southeast? To do this, press CONTROL-3 (3 on the numeric keypad). Scrolling all the way across the map is a standard feature. Quote: Originally written by yes: also, when i've zoomed out and located the part of town i want to edit, is there a way to zoom in to that part? None that I've ever found, sorry. However that makes me think that I shall implement something in my 3D Editor: OPTION-CLICK on a location to center on that location, in any mode of zoom.

If you're using Appleworks (on a Mac), you need to move the graphic all the way to the top left of the window in Appleworks before copying it, with no space, 0 pixels, between it and the top, and it and the left. Otherwise the problem you described happens. I have no idea why; Jeff told me this while ago when I was having the same problem.

Quote: Originally written by CPeters: I'm not too sure if this makes sense without a drawn example. Sorry, it doesn't. Quote: Originally written by CPeters: Keep in mind, if this does not work on a Mac, then in the unlikely situation that your graphic would meet the obscure requirements needed to save space - enough to make stuffing around like this actually worth it - then the resulting graphic would only be useful on a PC. In the past I have experimented with Mac graphics, and also did some stuff with using graphics in the 3D Editor. There are no restrictions on its size, as long as any image you use is within its bounds. Why would there be such a restriction? It would seem pointless and wasteful. For example, if you only have 4 graphics, there's no point wasting space by making the image 10 units wide.

Quote: Originally written by Dahak: Drop the "No Crashes" part. It crashes. It crashes EVERYTIME I click on Open in the Open/Save/Cancel dialog outdoors while scrolling. I don't have any problems if I try to Load a new section without saving. If I save, no dialog, and thus no problems. I've also had the game crash when I click outside the current section (i.e. In the next section). I don't know what to say. You seem to be the only one having all these problems. And you say it's still quitting without bringing up anything saying anything was going wrong? (have you upgraded to 10.3 yet? that would make things simpler; I don't know so much about exactly how 10.2 works.)

Quote: Originally written by Dahak: New Version = No Crashes Very odd, I didn't think I changed anything related to that. Oh well, at least it's gone. Quote: Originally written by Dahak: I know the description is bad, but the editor acts like I'm clicking several times after just 1 short click on the SAVE/CANCEL/OPEN buttons for scrolling. Not my mouse by the by. I tried a different mouse also. Also, it always asks "Do you wish to Save/Cancel/Open" after I make a single change. I choose save, make NO changes in the next section, and it ALWAYS asks after that point. I guess you could say the editor is taking my clicking on the SAVE/CANEL/OPEN buttons as an edit to the floors/terrain also. That doesn't happen to me. I wonder if you could possibly have any kind of weird system preferences or anything? Or weird hardware (I know you switched the mouse)? Or weird reflexes - you just automatically click twice? Or is it some strange bug that will be gone next time? @Mortimer: I have a few final touches to make and apparently another problem of Dahak's to try to solve; I hope I'll be able to release 1.0 soon, which should be ready for porting (that is, it shouldn't change after that).

Quote: Originally written by Dahak: No more crashes! Yay! New bug however. If I have a terrain/floor/item/whatever selected when I scroll, the whatever I placed in the same spot as the SAVE/CANEL/OPEN button. I click, and BAM, new whatever. Do you know what was causing the crashes, or did they just stop? Can you explain yourself more on the new bug? I can't understand it. At least, I tried something that might match your description, and nothing happened wrong.

Quote: Originally written by Corporeus the Seer: Question- is there a way to CHANGE the amount of light that the perspective-party has? (That is, use that unused button to "raise/lower light".) I mean, it'd really be nifty... Thanks! No. I figured that if you're playing, you'd always have as much light as you can get. Of course this is not always true, especially outdoors, but how important is it? When outdoors, if you want a view of an area that's not lit up, move around a bit. Indoors, if you want to see how it looks when the party has no light, temporarily switch the lighting to Totally Dark (I know it's a clumsy mechanism). I don't think it's worth implementing (and using up a button). Quote: Originally written by Corporeus the Seer: Oh yeah- cliffs on solid stone look really weird, since while the "side" portions aren't drawn, the "middle" line portions are. Yes, I know they look weird (I'm not sure what you mean specifically though) but I don't think this is important either; I think it's more important to have them look like a bunch of darkness. Quote: Originally written by Corporeus the Seer: Also, could you have different halos/outlines for Hidden Hostile A and Hidden Hostile B? (Plus, Hidden Hostile and Hidden Neutral outlines look way too similar. I'd give Hidden Neutral a grey-like color.) The colors aren't my choice. I took them from how it displays in 2D. However I agree that they can be troublesome (although when are you using hidden creatures of all attitudes anyway?). I'll try to make them more distinct. Also, I'd like to hear any feedback about the Change Outdoor Size mechanism - if you've tried it and it works or not, even whether you like the interface. However I realize that it is not a feature that would be commonly used, so most of you are probably not using it at all.