Lancer

Quote: Originally written by Ephesos: I fear that I must respectfully disagree... at least in terms of A3's addictive nature. The plagues get tiring, and it's way too easy to get discouraged. That, and finding out that the vahnatai did it was a real downer... it all works out too neatly. EDIT: SPOILER ALERT A2 and A3! I must also respectfully disagree with you. The "plague" concept was a rather new plot hook in the trilogy up to that point. And come on.. The morally ambiguous plague between the giants and the troglodytes was priceless... I agree that the plague plot device eventually became repetitive but this did not happen until A4. And only because A4 had used the same plot hook that had been used in A3. It was a major letdown how in this way as well as others (i.e. Rentar returns yet again!) that A4 felt like a less inspired, more "hack and slash" heavy version of A3. I agree with Klintor that A3 had the most interesting plot out of the trilogy in several ways. It is the first time that you truly experience the surface. The vahnatai, although introduced and developed in A2, had been allies of the Avernites up to that point. A3 put a spin on the formerly cordial relations between the two races by making them dire enemies. The irony comes full circle when you find yourself fighting alongside the Empire instead. It was really satisfying by the end of A3, how that long bloody struggle between the Avernites and the Empire had finally come to an end. It really gave the player (at least me) a mighty sense of accomplishment. "Old enemies become friends and old friends become enemies." Very well done. Not to mention the unexpected death of the mighty Erika. That gave the game an extra touch of darkness to boot. A2, although a very excellent game in its own right, felt very similar to A1. It consisted mostly of the same gameworld and it suffered from being somewhat more linear than the original. Combat also wasn't balanced as well as the other games (only A4 was worse in that regard. much worse.).And despite outcrys to the contrary the truth is that the story here really wasn't any better than the others. The main thing that made A2 not feel like "old hat" was its introduction of the vahanatai race. Which was of course very well done.

Quote: Originally written by Waylander: Nope, and why should I? The scenarios that come with the game should be enjoyable. That's sort of expected. In defense of the included scenarios...A Small Rebellion was a very, very good scenario, BTW. And Diplomacy with the Dead was not bad either. In either case, it is unfair to judge BoA under the same criteria as the earlier Avernums, which were full-fledged games. The BoA mini-scenarios were not full-sized 100-hour+ adventuring epics and as such should not be judged in that light. The purpose of the included scenarios were solely to give a glimpse of the myriad possibilities of the BoA engine. The scenarios included only scratched the surface of all that is possible. It is then hoped after the player obtained familiarity with the BoA engine, that he/she can go off and make his/her own scenarios to his heart's content. Seen in this light, BoA is not so much of a game as it is more of a toolbox. A toolbox with much untapped potential. Only the sky is the limit. In this sense, the only thing that makes BoA an "abomination" is the lack of creativity of the designer himself.

Avernum 4 and Geneforge 3 not being very good is one thing... But BoA is certainly not in that boat. That game rocks!

Yes, certainly start with A1. The graphics/smaller sprites are the one thing that might take some getting used to. But once you do, expect a more rewarding experience.

Avernum 4 was definitely heavier on the hack and slash side than the previous games. This along with the clunky interface (too much reliance on both the mouse and keyboard), removal of skills/stats/spells,inability to rest outdoors, and the insipid storyline clearly makes this the worst in the series. The graphical improvements do not outweigh all the above negatives... Although it would have been nice not to have relied on Geneforge-esque graphics.

This thread is useful for newbies like me...

If the given context calls for a puzzle and it makes sense to do so (meaning it wouldn't be more logical just to have a clever trap or ward instead to serve the same purpose), then I have no problem with it. When puzzles and riddles are put into games randomly (just because..) is when I have a problem with it. In most cases riddles and the like feel like filler and out of context most of the time. The mirror puzzles in Avernum are actually a good example of what I am getting at. As you said they felt out of context for the fantasy setting for one. Secondly, moving those mirrors around while dodging those lasers to get them in their correct positions turned out to be quite tedious and frustrating..Anything but fun which defeats the purpose of a game anyways... Logically, it would make much more sense that there would be a control panel on the sources themselves that would allow the lasers to be turned off so that the mirrors could be moved around safely. After they are in position, the lasers can be turned on again. But it so happens conveniently you can't do that.. Thought it doesn't make much sense why you couldn't aside from thinking that it would make a "good" puzzle (although I didn't think so). I mean , does it make much sense that the vahnatai would be moving their own mirrors around in those precarious conditions? The problem with many puzzles in RPGs is that designers make them solely to give the player a challenge, with no consideration as to how reasonable the puzzle is given the context and setting. Who knows why? If more puzzles were made that would fulfill the dual-purpose of being believable as well as challenging then I wouldn't have as much problem with them.

Riddles/Puzzles only really belong in adventure games or board games anyway, not in RPGs. It is much more believable that an archmage would have powerful wards, traps and/or competent guardians to protect his possessions instead of relying on some silly floor puzzle or guessing game.

I am just hoping that Jeff fixes that Windows XP taskbar issue in the reworked version.

It is worth noting that what_day_of_year() always returns a value of 0 if used with force_start_day(). In other words, the value for what_day_of_year fails to increment with each passing day. The way around it is by using the what_day_of_scenario() call which works correctly in conjunction with force_start_day().

Quote: Originally written by United States of Tyranica: I think the best dialogue system would have questions and keywords. That would be more like real life, I believe. Having complete sentences (or comprehensible phrases) and responded in turn via complete sentences is more like real life.

Quote: Originally written by *i: As for the dialogue system, some people liked the keyword system where you could type in your own word. Of course, it can be annoying too. But it's a toss up either way.[/QB] I harbor an intense dislike of keyword dialogue systems after playing SNES Shadowrun. Plodding through endless lists of keywords one by one hoping to find the right one that would advance the conversation somehow, is not my idea of fun. They are just atrocious in terms of gameplay. The only reason one would have them is for nostalgic reasons.

Yes. I am definitely an advocate of change if that change means an improvement in gameplay.. With that said.. Ohh, so get rid of that antiquated keyword dialogue system!

Quote: Originally written by Spidweb: Man, I hope Fallout 3 actually becomes reality. - Jeff Vogel Jeff, same here. Same here. I haven't been keeping up with the latest on FO3 but from what I know it is still a go. I am not counting Bethesda out as some are.. I am genuinely interested in what their final product will be like. Another game I would desperately love to see is another Planescape game.. Or something else as brilliant.

Another way to deal with reputation is to have two types: A General Reputation which reflects what the world in general thinks about your PCs and a Town Reputation which mirrors how a given town in your world views your characters. These town reputations would differ from town to town since some side quests the PCs may go on may be only directly relevant to the town at hand and have no global or regional significance. Divvied up in this way, it is very possible to have a scenario in which one town may hate your guts whereas in another your PCs are beloved. The Fallouts (particularly 2, IIRC) which undoubtedly inspired many gameplay and character creation elements in the Avernum series, approached reputations in this way more or less.

So, the question that remains is the following: Is there any way to print the string "Month:Nuwmont" only on the first tick of the day called rather than after every tick?

I am somewhat confused about these two states in the scenario script. They are apparently both called once, at the very beginning ,although I am not too sure what the conceptual difference is between the two? And apparently, unless you want to print a string right at the very beginning of the scenario you wouldn't use these states to put in calls that are executed at some time greater than zero.

Thanks Lazarus, I just figured it out right before you posted!

Thanks Kelandon!!!! Along with the print_num(short num) debugging trick I learned (as you had said) that force_start_day keeps num at 0 if used along with the what_day_of_year_call... So, instead, I used the what_day_of_scenario call instead and it works! Thanks again. I am definitely going to make a note of that!

Quote: Originally written by Kelandon: Yes, but does it work if you eliminate the force_start_day? It's possible that using force_start_day(-1) screws up the call what_day_of_year and makes it always 0 or something. It just doesn't like me for some reason..lol. I did try eliminating the force_start_day call but it didn't seem to have any bearing on the what_day_of_year call. I still get the same problem. Is it possible that the "Passage of Time" calls just don't like if/while type statements for some reason? Or is there something syntactically fundamental that I've missed?

Eliminating the force_start_day(-1) call just brings back the standard calendar... The strange thing, Kelandon, is that if I were to use the following code, the print_str works just like I expect it to... beginstate START_STATE; print_str("Month:Nuwmont"); break; In this case, of course, the text string "Month:Nuwmont" is displayed every tick onto infinity... However, as soon as I put in that "if" statement, it stops doing what I want it to do. It doesn't like something about that if statement... It doesn't understand it or I don't know what.. beginstate START_STATE; if (what_day_of_year() == 2) print_str("Month:Nuwmont"); break;

Ok.. I've made some ammends and it is still not working.. Logically, I don't understand why: beginstate START_SCEN_STATE; force_start_day(-1); break; beginstate START_STATE; if (what_day_of_year() == 2) print_str("Month:Nuwmont"); break; Quote: Originally written by Kelandon: I don't know how you figure. The code says, "if (what_day_of_year() == 2)" — if the day of the year is 2, then it does the print_str. Note that this will print the string all during the second day. I just thought that since BoA nearly always starts with "zero" being the first in most circumstances, that what_day_of_year(0) would correspond to Day 1 and what_day_of_year(1) would be Day 2 so on...

Oooh... that documentation on bugs is helpful, Thank you! By Kelandon's suggestion I put the second half of the code in the START_SCEN_STATE. The following is exactly what I have: beginstate LOAD_SCEN_STATE; force_start_day(-1); what_day_of_year(); break; beginstate START_SCEN_STATE; if (what_day_of_year() == 2) print_str("Month:Nuwmont"); break; ----------------------------------------------- So, on "Day 3" there is supposed to be a text string that displays as "Month:Nuwmont.." Oddly, I am still not getting anything to show up on the text window. I am assuming that the program knows to display this as soon as it is Day 3, or on the first tick of Day 3?

Hello everyone. It seems like it would be real easy but I have had no luck in telling BoA to execute events on a given day.. For example, say I want on Day 30 for a message alert to appear saying "Month: Nuwmont." Day 30 would arrive and no message will appear on the text window. I have been writing statements such as: beginstate LOAD_SCEN_STATE; force_start_day(-1); what_day_of_year(); if (what_day_of_year() == 30) print_str("Month:Nuwmont"); break; The above and variations thereof have given me little success. On another unrelated note.. Is there something wrong with the "print_big_str_color" call? The other versions of print_str seem to work just fine for me, save for that one.

Will do. Gracias again.