Lazarus.

To continue on what Thralni said, there are three types of outdoor encounters. Special, preset, and wandering. For this situation you want preset. Wandering are for-- well wandering monsters, like plagues in A3. Preset and special seem fairly similar, but preset cannot be created from a script, whereas specials MUST be created from a script. If you're ambushing a player or something where you want the group to come out of nowhere, use specials. Technically you could still use your special encounter the same way you would a preset, you just have to place it via script first: use place_out_spec_enc() in the init_state.

Brilliant! I can think of literally hundreds of uses for this graphic......... Actually I can only think of one, but it's cool regardless

My artistic interpretation of what I am henceforth calling Muffin-Gate: Six men are gathered in a Victorian style garden. They are gathered around a plate of muffins. Nik: These are probably the worst muffins I've ever tasted, is this bran? Who the hell made these? Kel: Just shutup and eat them. Nik: Whatever happened to good old bannana nut? I think mine must have fallen in the toilet or something, that one over there looks promising. Nioca *Around crumbs in his mouth*: MMff. *Nikki reaches across table for a new muffin. *Kel smacks his hand.* Kel: You'll eat what you're given! Nik: Geeze..... Laz: This is pretty much the Arby's of muffin platters. Thuryl: Mmmmmmm, muffins. Laz: I think mine has a hair on it, I'm sending it bac-- wait a second, is that a blueberry? Thuryl: Mmmmmmm, blueberries. Nik: Blueberries? *Ephesos enters* Eph: I've received complaints about unruliness and anti-muffin activities. This brunch is over! Kel: Relax, we're just trying to enjoy our early morning meal in a peaceful fashion. Laz: They have blueberries! -- although Nikki's might have fallen in the toilet..... Eph: Blue.... berries...? Nioca: Yeah, that's right. Eph: I-- I was too hasty, I think I owe you gentlemen an apology. Laz: Shutup and eat a muf-- Some Guy: Would you stop blathering already and fix the window? Eph: We're in a garden, there are no windows. There's a gate right over there..... Some Guy: Talk to ma' hand. -Exeunt- Edit: I'll be signing autographed copies tomorrow.

Quote: Originally written by Thuryl: The very existence of such scenarios is entertaining in its own way, though. Execrating a truly terrible scenario can be more fun than playing a merely bad one. True, but I don't think urging young designers to make god-awful scenarios so that we can mock them is what is meant when we say "You can always ask for help."

Quote: Originally written by Kelandon: By all means, make a scenario that's bizarre and different. If it comes out bad, well, it's no worse than making a totally bland, normal first scenario, and at least it's different. I agree to some extent-- Blades is meant to be a way to be creative and tell the stories you want to. Nobody is chained to the advice we offer, but if someone makes a scenario where the author himself is wandering through hell smiting muffins, he really shouldn't expect us to care. It's important to note that just because it's novel doesn't mean it's good or worthwhile. A Little Girl was a novel scenario, it was also one of the most terrible scenarios ever made, so bad that the author himself would apparently like to forget he ever made it. Keep this in mind-- and then do whatever the hell you want to.

New bug: This one drove me nuts for two days when I was working on FB. It is known that joined NPC's don't run their default scripts properly, and that only their dead state is ever called. What isn't known (or at least what I didn't know) is that they don't run ANY script until they exit and reenter town. This means that if you add an NPC in town 0 with a unique dead state, he better not die while still in town 0 or nothing will happen. Suggestion: accompany any joined NPCs with a move_to_new_town() call, even if it's just re-entering the same town you're already in. Otherwise you might get burned.

That sounds promising. I'm just disappointed I'll have to wait for the first installment of the "Food in Hell" series.

Ephesos: No, you can't. Mechanism difficulty is set in the init_state, so changing the memory cell won't have an effect. To make it work you have to add code to the start_state that will reset the mechanism difficulty (like the code I posted above)

You would still need waypoints to tell the creature to approach the door. By the way, you CAN change a door's lock difficulty, but not with the standard door script. You can use messaging calls, and move the lock setting code to the start_state: Code: if(my_curent_message() > 0) { i_am_locked = 1; set_mechanism_difficulty(my_current_message()); set_physical_strength(my_current_message()); if (i_am_open == 1) { flip_terrain(my_loc_x(),my_loc_y()); i_am_open = 0; }}if(my_current_message() == 0){ i_am_locked = 0; set_mechanism_difficulty(0); set_physical_strength(0);} Theoretically that should work.

There is a 200 node limit for each town.

Just a state numbered 1000, but it should work anyhow....... OK, we're talking about BoA here, so it's quite likely it has some arbitrary limit on number of states. I don't have the patience to copy and paste 1000 states.

Yeah, and basically the creature won't know the door is passable, so you'd have to tell it to walk to the door, then walk to the next destination. I think the most likely solution would be to make a fake door that's passable, and ring it in special rectangles so that the party can't cross through it without opening the 'door' first. Or you could just use curtains.

Giving a character 0 mobility makes a character completely immobile, even if it's called in a town state, even if it's used on PC's and joined NPCs (that's right). They cannot move. End of story. However, you can put a set_mobility() call in the town state so the character can start moving, and then take away her mobility when she gets to the spot. I would handle this by hidden groups, because NPCs can't open doors. Basically you'd have to have either no door, a curtain, or multiple waypoints, one in front of the door, that would flip the terrain open when she gets there (Not fun at all) Edit: Setting the merchant's memory cell to 1 should fix the mobility problem, although the doors will still mess her up.

The limit on states is much higher than 90. I was just testing it, and got it to call state 1000. I'm not sure what the real limit is; I stopped testing when I decided that running out of states is about impossible.

Apparently I'll never see this program, but I'll weigh in anyhow. When you asked what features would be nice, the first thing I started thinking about were pieces of code that I often copy and paste while I'm writing a script. What I came up with are. -force_instant_terrain_redraw() / pause(): which is used in about every frame of a cutscene, so could be nice. -dialog boxes: especially add_dialog_choice("OK") and choice = run_dialog(1), but an entire box with empty strings would be even better. -You said basic loops, how about a basic rectangle call? You could ask what variable you want for x and y, and the limits of x and y, then insert the appropriate loops. I'm going to start scripting right now, I'll get back to you if anything else hits me.

It's two handed, so getting three of them isn't really useful. I mean the most you'd have is three warriors, and that's assuming one of the three doubles as something else. At least one would use pole, so that one gets the Black Halberd. That leaves you with one or two warriors, and I'm pretty sure there was a better sword than the mithral sword.

(Speculations about Celtic romantic leanings) Bad Lazarus.

Like was mentioned earlier, use your most powerful melee weapons and hope you get good rolls. I also like using wound so that my spell casters have something to do-- I seem to remember that doomguards are resistant to most things, and wound is an easy 15-20 damage per cast.

Mithral broadswords were awesome in E3, but I remember being somewhat disappointed by them in A3. You can get at least one by just finding the lumps (don't have to sacrifice a quest reward), and one of the two quests that needs metal lumps has a pretty crappy reward, so you can get a second one there.

I would ditch the set_state_continue() calls as well, since they're the only difference I see between your script and Ephesos'. And check for typos as well, because it definitely shouldn't start trashing your outdoors like that.

Remove the flag checks and put a print_str() in each of the item checks, just to see what the problem is. It looks like it should work, perhaps the flags are just messed up.

Turn the difficulty down to easy and see if you can get past them. You can change it back once you're done.

Yes, I did. I hadn't known about it until I realised that all the intros in FB were screwed up. I'd set them in Dilecia, but I don't know why I'd bothered since I thought they had no purpose.

The docs say that personality is purely cosmetic, but actually it does serve a purpose. In windows BoA (my version at least) intro texts depend on the character's personality. So every character who uses an intro needs to have it's own personality (even different towns can't have the same one.) Apparently this isn't an issue on Macs, but you still should set personalitys so that windows players don't have this problem (Or at least so I don't have this problem. )

You're completely ignorant. I did mean the town, and yes you can put them outside the town boundaries. Obviously it can only be one space outside, but so long as the player can't step outside the boundaries without triggering the special you're fine.