The Loquacious Lord Grimm

You're a talentless hack, Nick. And by saying that, I mean, "Oh, that I only had as much evident talent as Nikki." -------------------- The Silent Assassin observes that you do not yet have your weapon drawn. Therefore, to make this a fair fight, he will resort to pies. Although I personally do not count that as fair.

BLASPHEMER!!! (let's see how UBB takes that one) -------------------- The Silent Assassin believes that this scenario is a perfect example of why everyone should stop using computers and start blowing cows up with molotov cocktails.

Quote: Originally written by Ephesos: Quote: Originally written by Lenar: If I remember correctly, the last time I tried to use this graphic, it was full of white noise... very annoying. Yeah... Nikki, if that does have a noise problem, I think I have a cleaned-up version that I can e-mail you. -------------------- The Silent Assassin makes no noise. Except for the ruckus of falling pots and pans as he probably breaks something in the kitchen. Better go find out what happened...

EDITS: Curse you, UBB! --------------------

There is indeed a complete list of the requirements: It's in the documentation! But just in case you didn't read the documentation: Quote: Graphics intended for different purposes need to be arranged in the sheet in different ways (more on this later), but your graphics have to have these qualities: They need to be at 72 dpi. They need to be either 8 bit (a 256 color palette) or 16 bit. Once your sheet is made (with new terrain icons, item icons, or whatever), you put it into the game. You can create up to 100 custom sheets. They can be numbered 500 to 599. How they are put into the game depends on whether you are using a Macintosh or Windows. ... All large terrain icons are 46 pixels wide and 55 pixels high. They are arranged in sheets in rows of 10, with a black frame around each icon. Floor tiles need to be drawn with exactly the same diamond shape and positioned as far down as possible in the frame. See sheet 700 for the shape and positioning. For terrain types like pillars, table, etc., you may need to shift the icon around in the frame a bit to get it positioned exactly. All small terrain icons are 16 pixels wide and 16 pixels high. They are arranged in sheets in rows of 10, with a black frame around each icon. In the editor, the icon is drawn as-is. In the automap, the automap draws a 4x4 graphic for each space. It gets that graphic by taking every fourth pixel from the small graphic, starting at the upper left. So the upper left pixel of the 4x4 automap icon is the upper left pixel of the small graphic, the next pixel to the right on the automap is the pixel 4 to the right in the 16 x 16 icon, and so on. ... Look in Item Graphics to see a wide assortment of sample item graphic sheets. All items graphics are 28 x 28, arranged in the sheet in rows of 10, with a black frame around them. Each item has two graphics: first, the small icon for an item on the ground in the terrain area. Second, the large icon that appears in the getting, store, and inventory area. Both icons for any given item have to be in the same sheet. ... Look in Character Graphics to see many sample sheets of creature graphics. For sheets with creature graphics, the icons are 46 pixels wide and 55 pixels high (like terrain). The icons are arranged in rows of four, with frames around them The graphics in each row represent some pose or action for the creature. There are two sizes of sheet for creatures: The Small Sheet First Row - Creature just standing there. Second Row - Creature attacking. Third Row - Death animation. Fourth Row - Four tiny (11 x 16) views of the creature facing in the four cardinal directions, used when drawing it outdoors. For examples, look at sheets 1450 and 1452. The Large Sheet First Row - Creature just standing there. Second Row - Creature with weapon out. Third Row - Creature attacking. Third Row - Creature sitting in chair. Fifth Row - Death animation. Sixth Row - Four tiny (11 x 16) views of the creature facing in the four cardinal directions, used when drawing it outdoors. For examples, look at sheets 1500 and 1513. To tell the game whether a creature uses the large or small sort of sheet, use cr_small_or_large_template. -------------------- The Silent Assassin wonders how long it will take before I realize that he is in the room. I hope this answers his question.

I believe that if you talk to the right people in Sharamik (the mayor and staff in particular), you will eventually be asked to run a sort of courier quest. The Troglos will be kind enough to take you captive after that. -------------------- The Silent Assassin likes to take walks on the beach and dance in the rain. He also likes overusing whoopee cushions at inapprorpiate times and planting weak explosives in dinner entrees, as well.

-------------------- The Silent Assassin has created the next evolution in potato guns. Behold, the potato sniper rifle!

Why E- I mean, A2, of course. A plot based in hope and desperation, the novelty of going off into the unknown to save the the world, the chance to trade insults with everyone's favorite witch, and listen to her peers grumble about her behind her back... But what I think I like the most is that A2 is a story about a bunch of nobodies who take a risk and end up being heroes. You just can't beat a fulfilling underdog story. -------------------- The Silent Assassin is tired of playing the role of Juliet, and would like to get off of the balcony now, thank you.

Quote: Originally written by Enraged Slith: Before I knew how to script, I had an endless supply of ideas. Now that I know how to script, I get no ideas. Quoted for truth. Blake, you're making a scenario? Do tell us about it.

The Official Argument For Vahnatai Creationism -------------------- The Silent Assassin is off serving a pepperoni-and-dynamite pizza. Talk about celebrating your birthday with a bang.

Useable items are your friends. Heroic brews can do wonders to influence battles, when used properly. If used in conjunction with potions of protection, energy elixirs, and certain scrolls, you can effectively take out any size force with a suitably trained party. There is a trick technique involving line-of-sight that you may also be able to use. This involves getting your party along a wall near a corner, so that you can't see the enemy that you expect to be there, and they can't see you. Casting spells like Beast Ceremony, Battle Frenzy (bless), Haste L3, Arcane Shield, Divine Warrior, etc, becomes a breeze, as your enemy does not know you are there. Once you finish your casting, go into combat (if you haven't done so already) and wait a full round (that's wait, not parry) before rushing the enemy. In my experience, even Grah-Hoth and his minions can't respond fast enough to that. Yes, you will lose a lot of MP, so keep those potions handy and those casters going. Your priest with Dispel Spirit L3 is indespensable in keeping the lesser demons away from your melee fighters. Worst comes to worst, lightning is an effective demonic deterrent. -------------------- The Silent Assassin has gone off to admire the snow. Finally, some peace and quiet.

Quote: Originally written by Upon a fallen pillar walking: Jeff has to put food on his family somehow. Quoted for posterity. There is simply too much of an audience for Exile and Avernum for Jeff to let any of them go yet. -------------------- The Silent Assassin throws porcupines in your general direction. He says it's what you get for putting ketchup on your pretzels.

You will also know when it is time to return because you will be all but outright sent. So don't worry about missing the cue or anything. EDIT: yeah... it's what I get for changing my mind over what to say during the middle of saying it. Take luck, all. -------------------- The Silent Assassin has gone off to seek a higher calling: He's standing on the roof, trying to get better cellular reception.

Quote: Originally written by Niemand: Also, I've gotten the Windows editor running using Dev-C++, so I'm beginning the process of catching it up with the Mac version. -------------------- The Silent Assassin is having trouble getting a part-time job as cover for his latest job. I believe that this is partially due to the fact that he will not remove "blowing stuff up" from his list of major skills.

The only one that immediately comes to my mind (granted, in the grand-high scheme of things, that doesn't amount to much) is the Encyclopedia Ermariana. Kel's and Drakey's sites may have some information as well. -------------------- The Silent Assassin just discovered how to create a warp field... That's the last time I let him drive my car.

You know, I think some terms need to be defined here. Importing is the automated process of converting an .exs file to a .bas file plus scripts. This is done when you click the "Import a Blades of Exile Scenario" option. Porting is the manual tailoring of an imported scenario by a designer so that the scenario is compatable with and functional within the BoA script system, world engine, and isolinear aesthetic. -------------------- The Silent Assassin got into a car accident. He accidentally locked himself in my t-bird's trunk. Yeah. I'm waiting for the explaination on this one.

It's a little relieving to know that you've at least done your background work on the theory behind porting. The question becomes, however, if the changes that you say need to be made can be done in a timely and practical fashion. And then, once said changes are made, if the porting process is still practical. What we've all been trying to tell you is that in our experience, porting was more hassle than having the ported scenario was worth: one might as well start bulding the ported scenario from a fresh file, with all of the time and effort that it takes to turn the port into something functional, let alone aesthetically pleasing. As things currently stand, we might as well make our own original scenarios. However. As progress is seldom made without getting outside of the box, I'd like to encourage you to look at practical applications of what you've come up with. And then, try to apply them. People tend to be a bit more receptive if you have a working prototype; so find someone (I'm afraid that I would not know who to ask) who would be willing to make the program adjustments, and then do a port. Figure out what went wrong and what could be done better, and then do it again. If you can make the process practical and demonstrate it to the community as such, you may be able to change our outlook on porting. If not, well, you can either give up, decide that porting is ineffective, or try a new approach. Welcome to Spiderweb. Leave your sanity at the door, if you've not done so already. And get cracking, because right now, you may be the only one who believes in this cause. -------------------- The Silent Assassin has gone out to rent a dunk tank, so that he may reverse engineer it. I do hope that he will not be trying to prank the local church fair again this spring... the gatorade in the water gun arena was bad enough.

Quote: Originally written by Immanuel Velikovsky: Also, if my wang were made of solid gold, I would be a rich man. But it ain't gonna happen. You illustrate the point quite vividly. -------------------- The Silent Assassin is constructing some sort cluster bomb upstairs in the kitchen. I am quite curious as to how this relates to the eight gallons of whipped cream that he brought in earlier.

Thuryl makes a great point. I'm sure that if everyone who ever attempted to start a BoA scenario could complete it within a month, and bring it to its full potential, BoA would possibly be the most popular shareware RPG scenario engine in existence. As it is, Ishad Nha, scripting takes halfway to forever, and porting requires a huge amount of effort in map redesign alone, let alone converting the special nodes into script states. Kel, how long did it take you to port 9 Variations on Point B? -------------------- The Silent Assassin is outside, doing his civic duty by protecting our community from an evil menace. You know, with the way he describes it, you'd think he'd go squirrel hunting more often.

Eph: Every year, the students in the Advanced Video course are required to submit their final projects into a nationwide film festival. This festival only accepts works that were submitted for credit in a college class. So for the last three weeks, I've spent a large chunk of time working on the final project for the course. It's due Thursday. I hope to have it posted online before the end of the week. -------------------- The Silent Assassin just walked past my office carrying my dress robes. If this has anything to do with the fire upstairs...

I am still far from hard at work on The Vitoba Monastary Seige, though I'm hoping (against all reason and past experience) that I can get some intense work in once crunch time ends late this week. Yay for procrastinating on my intro scenario. Fie upon schoolwork for getting in the way of my gaming! Okay, I confess, I am quite excied about submitting a film to a national competition, but aside from that... -------------------- The Silent Assassin is still working on teh uber- epic. In other news, the moon is falling.

I always got the impression that Rentar-Ihrno was merely a tolerated presence put into good use by the Council, and that she only rose to power in the vacuum that would have occurred after Glantris-Bok died. Hmm... Boats = Elevation = No wall bumping = Would it be too much to ask for an expansion to the spell library? I mean, it's a little underwhelming when you end the game with powerful arch-wizards and fighter-priests who only know twenty spells apiece. And while discussing spells, what's wrong with a few novelty spells? Who doesn't like using Sticks to Snakes just because they can? Let's see... as for actual speculation.... A4 brought back area of effect spells. Now... will A5 bring back field and wall spells? -------------------- The Silent Assassin wonders if there will poison again. Specifically, rat poison; as one of his food grenades misfired in the lab last night and has brought the neighborhood's rodent population to our back door.

Quote: Originally written by Nioca: I'll do that in a little bit. Rebooting for me is a slow and arduous process, that I prefer to avoid. I have to ask... why? -------------------- The Silent Assassin has pointed out that evenly spaced random explosions are never truly random. This does not quite explain the large pile of hoodies in the living room... but he is right.

Well, you could go with the theory that dragons are simultaneously male and female and can fertilize their own eggs... Clive Barker's Abarat uses that principle. -------------------- The Silent Assassin not presents the following for your consideration: Biscotti

I don't suppose anyone has asked Jeff to release a series of patches that would clear said matters up? There are corrections between printings of books... why not take a little time and correct continuity? -------------------- The Silent Assassin does not volunteer. Typical.