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Celtic Minstrel

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Everything posted by Celtic Minstrel

  1. OBoE does not use SDL, GTK+, or wxWidgets, though there is a possibility that the Linux port would have to use GTK+ for menus and file dialogs (but I'd prefer Qt or wxWidgets if we absolutely have to; I've also been contemplating a custom menus implementation). What it does use for rendering is SFML. As far as I'm aware, the Linux branch is fully playable (unless there are game-breaking bugs that haven't been discovered). However, the lack of menus, combined with a bug in the "Save" function ("Save As" works, "Save" does not), means that it is impossible to save your game, so I wouldn't really recommend trying to complete a scenario on the latest linux branch build. The lack of menus also renders the scenario editor and party editor utterly useless.
  2. Oh right, you can remove spells of level 1-3 now, too. That's probably more reliable than removing mage/priest spell levels.
  3. Do you need to disable keystrokes to do that? Limiting magic can be done by changing the character's mage/priest spell levels, I would think (though it wouldn't be easy). Limiting the use of items should be possible by simply not giving any items, I think?
  4. None of this is possible currently, but bundling one or more "skins" with a scenario could indeed be a possibility in the future. (My reasoning for this is to create the possibility of an opening cutscene similar to Exile 3, where you have the terrain view and nothing else visible, though this could also be made possible without actually supporting custom skins.) However, disabling keystrokes? Why on earth would you want that?
  5. No, I mean it wasn't used at all in the original Mac version of Blades of Exile. Instead, talking used a font called Dungeon Bold. The Windows version of BoE has always used MadenWord, I think. Maybe he just couldn't find a version of Dungeon Bold that worked on Windows.
  6. What if you showed a mockup of how they look when collapsed? That might help people decide if it's good. I've never used those myself. I generally cast with the keyboard alone, which means 'm' + 'maybe space' + 'letter related to spell' + 'maybe shift + target party member' + 'enter'. Basically the same as what ADoS said, but with keys instead of clicks. Is this really the font that always shipped with BoE? My original Mac version uses a different font.
  7. I have no idea what those weird up/down arrow buttons are for. I don't really have any strong objections to any of ADoS's designs, but I don't plan to implement them myself, either; nor is the themability idea I mentioned earlier particularly high priority (though I do like the fact that it would allow a cutscene mode similar to Exile 3's opening cutscene, so I think there's a good chance I'll get to it at some point). If someone else implements designs like this, I'd probably be willing to offer them as an option for players. Currently I'm working towards a straight 2x scaling of the UI, which should hopefully address the concern of things being too small. It'll probably look a little pixelated especially on non-retina screens, mind you; but then, it's mainly intended for the retina screens anyway. EDIT: Oh, right. I'm not gonna implement a junk bag or quick-item slots, either. Quickspells are already available from the menus, as far as I'm concerned. (Or would be if they actually worked; I received a report that those were broken.)
  8. I just want to point out that, as I envisioned it, the only thing this framework would allow is literally rearranging the things that are already present - not adding new things such as disabled buttons, a junk bag, or a larger terrain view. Of course none of these things are impossible, but they take more effort and I'm not sure I want to do them.
  9. I figured you were going to say that. I'd much prefer not showing them at all when they're unavailable, though.
  10. The only thing I could suggest about the left column is that, to me, it makes more sense to put special items at the bottom and quest/journal at the top. The buttons are still a little questionable. I would suggest figuring out exactly what set of buttons will appear in each context - town, outdoors, and combat. The setup you have here may work for town and combat, with a few substitutions in both cases*, but it's utterly ridiculous for outdoors. *The potion, camp, use, and talk buttons make no sense in combat. The PC/All, parry, and arrow buttons make no sense in town. Oh right, and the save/load buttons are also currently useless in combat.
  11. While I'm still not in favour of redesigning the interface, I'm not opposed to allowing others to do so if they so choose. It might not be too difficult to make the interface somewhat customizable. Here's an example mockup of how that might be defined: <!-- Original (or at least current) theme --> <theme width="" height=""> <party-stats x-anchor="right" y-anchor="top" x="" y="" height=""> <number x-anchor="left" y-anchor="top" x="" y=""/> <name x-anchor="left" y-anchor="top" x="" y=""/> <status x-anchor="left" y-anchor="top" x="" y=""/> <button action="switch" icon="" x-anchor="right" y-anchor="top" x="" y=""/> <button action="info" icon="" x-anchor="right" y-anchor="top" x="" y=""/> <!-- Other possible actions are create, delete, rename, picture --> <text ref="sp" x-anchor="right" y-anchor="top" x="" y=""/> <text ref="hp" x-anchor="right" y-anchor="top" x="" y=""/> </party-stats> <inventory x-anchor="right" y-anchor="middle" x="" y="" height=""> <!-- The contents here describe a single row --> <number x-anchor="left" y-anchor="right" x="" y=""/> <small-icon x-anchor="left" y-anchor="right" x="" y=""/> <name x-anchor="left" y-anchor="right" x="" y="" show-charges="yes"/> <!-- Buttons would automatically show only when relevant --> <!-- Icon is a numeric index into some list --> <button action="info" icon="" x-anchor="right" y-anchor="top" x="" y=""/> <button action="drop" icon="" x-anchor="right" y-anchor="top" x="" y=""/> <button action="give" icon="" x-anchor="right" y-anchor="top" x="" y=""/> <button action="use" icon="" x-anchor="right" y-anchor="top" x="" y=""/> <button action="service" icon="" x-anchor="right" y-anchor="top" x="" y=""/> <text ref="service-price" x-anchor="right" y-anchor="top" x="" y=""/> </inventory> <transcript x-anchor="right" y-anchor="bottom" x="" y="" height=""/> <terrain x-anchor="left" y-anchor="top" x="" y=""/> <info-bar x-anchor="left" y-anchor="bottom" x="" y=""/> <button-strip x-anchor="left" y-anchor="right" x="" y=""> <!-- A button strip is a flow layout, so no need for anchors and x,y --> <!-- Icon here indexes a different list than above --> <button action="mage" icon="" show="always"/> <button action="priest" icon="" show="always"/> <button action="look" icon="" show="always"/> <button action="talk" icon="" show="town"/> <button action="get" icon="" show="town"/> <!-- Also size="quarter" may be allowed, given appropriate button backgrounds --> <button action="use" size="half" icon="" show="town"/> <button action="map" size="half" icon="" show="town"/> <button action="rest" icon="" show="outdoors"/> <button action="map" icon="" show="outdoors"/> <button action="save" icon="" show="outdoors"/> <button action="load" icon="" show="outdoors"/> <button action="parry" icon="" show="combat"/> <button action="get" icon="" show="combat"/> <button action="wait" size="half" icon="" show="combat"/> <button action="shoot" size="half" icon="" show="combat"/> <button action="peace" size="half" icon="" show="combat"/> <button action="solo" size="half" icon="" show="combat"/> <!-- Other possible actions might include: alchemy talk-notes enc-notes journal stats save-as Also, "rest" would work in town and mean "wait 100 moves" --> </button> <!-- This specifies where dialogue is shown in talk mode --> <dialogue x-anchor="left" y-anchor="top" x="" y=""/> </theme> <!-- Latest ADoS theme --> <theme width="" height=""> <party-stats x-anchor="left" y-anchor="top" x="" y=""> <number x-anchor="left" y-anchor="top" x="" y=""/> <name x-anchor="left" y-anchor="top" x="" y=""/> <status x-anchor="left" y-anchor="top" x="" y=""/> <button action="switch" icon="" x-anchor="right" y-anchor="top" x="" y=""/> <button action="info" icon="" x-anchor="right" y-anchor="top" x="" y=""/> <text ref="sp" x-anchor="right" y-anchor="top" x="" y=""/> <text ref="hp" x-anchor="right" y-anchor="top" x="" y=""/> </party-stats> <inventory x-anchor="right" y-anchor="middle" x="" y="" height=""> <number x-anchor="left" y-anchor="right" x="" y=""/> <small-icon x-anchor="left" y-anchor="right" x="" y=""/> <name x-anchor="left" y-anchor="right" x="" y="" show-charges="yes"/> <button action="info" icon="" x-anchor="right" y-anchor="top" x="" y=""/> <button action="drop" icon="" x-anchor="right" y-anchor="top" x="" y=""/> <button action="give" icon="" x-anchor="right" y-anchor="top" x="" y=""/> <button action="use" icon="" x-anchor="right" y-anchor="top" x="" y=""/> <button action="service" icon="" x-anchor="right" y-anchor="top" x="" y=""/> <text ref="service-price" x-anchor="right" y-anchor="top" x="" y=""/> </inventory> <terrain x-anchor="middle" y-anchor="top" x="" y=""/> <info-bar x-anchor="middle" y-anchor="bottom" x="" y=""/> <button-strip x-anchor="middle" y-anchor="right" x="" y=""> <button action="mage" icon="" show="always"/> <button action="priest" icon="" show="always"/> <button action="look" icon="" show="always"/> <button action="talk" icon="" show="town"/> <button action="get" icon="" show="town"/> <button action="use" icon="" show="town"/> <button action="rest" icon="" show="outdoors"/> <button action="save" icon="" show="outdoors"/> <button action="load" icon="" show="outdoors"/> <button action="parry" icon="" show="combat"/> <button action="get" icon="" show="combat"/> <button action="wait" size="half" icon="" show="combat"/> <button action="shoot" size="half" icon="" show="combat"/> <button action="peace" size="half" icon="" show="combat"/> <button action="solo" size="half" icon="" show="combat"/> </button> <dialogue x-anchor="middle" y-anchor="top" x="" y=""/> <map x-anchor="right" y-anchor="top" height="" width=""/> <transcript x-anchor="right" y-anchor="bottom" x="" y="" height="" width=""/> </theme>
  12. Whoa, that sounds complicated. It sounds like you're using states as functions, actually. Do you use a variable to determine the state to return to or something?
  13. Last I checked, which was admittedly some time ago, MediaFire was a pretty good place to upload files. There are quite a few other options as well. DropBox and Google Drive (and Microsoft's equivalent, OneDrive or something) seem to be popular these days, though those are a little different from straight file hosting. You could also try seeing if one of the other members here wants to host it on their own websites.
  14. I'll note that it's probably easier to run the Windows version in Win3.1 under DosBox (or, maybe, under WINE, though I recall having some problems with that) than it is to get SheepShaver to work.
  15. There was definitely something about special nodes being triggered in boats only in town or only outdoors. I don't know if it applied to all specials, or only to placed specials. Maybe you were using terrain specials, as I did for my unfinished scenario that didn't use an outdoors and linked towns together with edge nodes? (To clarify, by "terrain specials" here, I mean terrains with the "call special when stepped on" ability.)
  16. It should be possible in OBoE, but is untested. In legacy BoE, boats would only trigger specials while outdoors, so you probably wouldn't've even gotten the "can't use staircase" type message. In OBoE, they always trigger specials (unless you block them with a Boat Block, as I recall), and I think I extended stairway nodes to work in more situations.
  17. Yeah, the "go back" problem was already known, but I don't recall spotting the menu issue before, so that's helpful.
  18. I can't really give you an answer to that question, sorry. I haven't tried out a lot of custom scenarios, and frankly, I'm probably not going to do so until the main scenarios are entirely working. Regarding the blacked out squares, that could potentially happen if for any reason the game is unable to load a custom graphics sheet. In particular, if you didn't place the custom graphics sheet (a BMP file) in the same folder as the scenario, then any custom terrain graphics would likely appear as a black space.
  19. I wonder if you can really rely on something like this. I wouldn't be that surprised if it turns out that numbers in AvernumScript are 16-bit signed integers, which would mean that 2*30000 overflows. Is it known or documented what the size of AS integers is?
  20. I would say that it's the fact that it's now freeware that enables the possibility. Before it was freeware, the existence of such a tool likely would've allowed playing the full version without registering, since as I understand Exile relied on a flag in the preferences file to determine whether it was registered. (Sure, you could make the upgraded version read that flag, but that wouldn't stop anyone from making a modified build that ignores it.) In any case, this isn't something to even consider doing until OBoE is stable for running BoE scenarios.
  21. I'd love to port Exile III to the OBoE engine, and we've discussed this a few times in the past. However, I have no plans to do so, and in any case we'd need permission from Jeff before doing it. For playing E3 on modern computers, my suggestion would be to install Windows 3.x on DOSBox and then install E3 on that. EDIT: Oh, there is actually an option which wouldn't require Jeff's permission (though I still have no plans to do it) - enable OBoE to read the Exile III data files.
  22. Oh, that's what you were talking about. I don't really see any reason to expand the 9x9 for any scenarios, really.
  23. The point of scaling up is so that it appears around the same size on a modern screen as it would have appeared on an older screen, because modern screens have far higher resolution which makes the game interface appear far smaller. The active PC and the PC whose inventory you're viewing are separate, so you do need the two separate toggles. It especially matters in combat, where you can change the latter but not the former. For the record, without using a shader, I only have a choice between cubic and linear interpolation. Using no interpolation (as ADoS appears to have been assuming) is actually more work. I have a vague idea of how to 2x zoom the graphics, and when I do, linear or cubic interpolation is essentially free. I don't need to do any extra work for that. I dislike this idea. If there's going to be an option, I'm not planning to allow the scenario to force you into any particular interface. (The scenario can customize the look of the interface elements, but that's it.)
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