*i

I concur with Niemand. Memory usage is trivial on modern machines. I was working on code that would load all towns and outdoors into memory, but it was a bit tricky with preserving compatibility.

As I think about this more, this is behavior that has been used to great effect, (cutscenes) so it should not be changed.

For some reason, I seem to recall things continuing in the town you call. I would verify this, however.

A stairway node immediately places you in a new town. This transfers control of the nodes over to the new town and any nodes in the current town will not be called thereafter.

I would look at it, but I would like to hear a description first. Tell me what you are trying to do, how you are doing it, how you think it should work, and what is actually happening.

Ackrovan, please watch your language. That is inappropriate.

Quote: To (potentially) take this even further, maybe we should scrap all the map graphics and simply redo them...And of course I'd like people to be able to provide their own map graphics for custom terrains. Generally speaking, I prefer the automap in BoE, but it is a small quibble. What I would advise against is requiring designers to create their own map graphics. Leave whatever feature exists now as a default.

As far as I know, Inner Gazaki-Uss is only for non-Ghaldring factions.

Just to expand, you may want to go through the graphics and see which ones have been used a lot. Those that have should probably become default. Really, the point of much of this is to make things easier for scenario designers.

Quote: But what's the point of the default scenarios having custom graphics files if those graphics are also in the default graphic set? Instructive reasons. I guess you do not need to take every graphic from the Vogel scenarios, but I do think a few of them are prolific enough that they may as well be in the default graphics.

Quote: First, I don't want to add the custom graphics for the basic scenarios. The three default scenarios serve as an example of how to do custom graphics; if their graphics were added to the main set and they no longer needed custom graphics, then there would no longer be such an example. So they're excluded on purpose. I don't see why you can't keep both the pedagogical reasons AND put the specific graphics in the default files. You just don't change the scenario files and still have them pull the equivalent graphics from the external files instead. This serves as a good example, and gives the designer easy access to these graphics. Now that we have source code and download speeds are fast compared to in 1997, we can drastically expand the number of default graphics. This also helps preserve these valuable things which are too often lost in the cyber-ether.

Sorry for not being clear. What I was getting at is to make item abilities such that we can have items that can do extra damage to or reduce damage from any given race, or cause any status effect.

Quote: There are a few abilities I want to get rid of: Invisible, Mindless, and Guard. Oh, and Invulnerable I guess. I'd also like to add some abilities: Keep invisible. Many scenarios (including my own) make use of this ability. What is the alternative to preserve compatibility? I don't particularly like switching the graphic to some other blank placeholder. Fix petrification touch again. It's broken and needs to work. If you are going to change things so radically, I would just restructure the way abilities are done altogether. There are a few major types: 1) Touches 2) Rays 3) Missile 4) Defensive Like before, user gets to pick one of these and then specify the type. All status effects and damage types would be possible for touches and rays. For missile, allow a type and then to specify a damage amount in n dice of k sides. For defensive, may just need to do something special (permanent martyr's shield). Also, the code I worked on calls specials in monster abilities. I think the best place for that one is with the summoning and field abilities. I tested it and it works quite well. If you are drastically changing resistances, may as well just make it be a number between 0 and 100 percent. It's a tricky change, but should not be impossible. Also, one thing to consider is allowing us to modify the death noise and stain. With species, just open up a bunch of blank spaces for custom types. This gives the designer maximum control. Might be nice to structure items in such a way that we can link a protect/damage to any arbitrary type. Custom types would need to lose their ability upon leaving the scenario.

Quote: I have only seen ONE drakon in the entire dera reaches. You clearly have no idea what you are talking about and should replay the game. Shaper Spddin, let's try to keep our discussions cordial here. In other words, please choose language that is a bit softer and less personal. Thanks!

All right, this is the draft for the final form of the rules for game 6. I'm sure I've missed something. Please look them over and offer comments. Thanks!

I see your point. Perhaps make the Anama Priest a target of the Darkside Loyalists? The added win condition for joining will be the same as Micklebur's: Anama Priest wins OR if he is dead, number of Anama must outnumber the number of mages. I'll work on Shanker a bit. My gut tells me the scenario where only the Alchemist and Shanker are alive would count as a loss. I'll have to finesse the rules a bit. Suggestions are appreciated.

I believe the rules say that any item used offensively counts as an action. I clarified which items these are.

More specifically, the mode of destruction of the town's only barrel at the only place for it to be destroyed triggers a series of nodes that assumes a certain spatial location of the party. If the party is not there, the dungeon becomes impossible to compete. I agree with your conclusion.

At least in At the Gallows, I put a couple puzzle dungeons that would seriously be broken if that item was used. I made an assumption about things when I did the scripting that would be violated. I do think anything new that potentially perturbs the behavior of if-then tests for nodes should be non-transferrable.

Just a comment with adding item abilities. Several scenarios were designed with certain assumptions in mind. One thing to avoid is the create/destroy barrel use because it can break existing scenarios. The alternative is to make certain items with certain abilities non-transferrable between scenarios.

The artifacts are as follows. Note that all artifacts have a value of 40 coins. Crystal Spire: Target an item or artifact. Will learn a role that has that item or artifact. Does NOT count as an ability use, but can only be used once per day. Flaming Sword: If you have a physical attack type, you can specify to use this with your attack. Your attack then becomes magic. Fury Crossbow: When you attack someone with this, your skill is treated as power and your attack is physical. Holy Symbol: When used, it has an effect depending on your role. You may only use it once except to break Gladwell's geas. Also, if you are under Gladwell's geas and he is dead, the Holy Symbol will break your geas instead of its normal ability. The effects are given below. The holder cannot be harmed by Vahkos' spirits. Ring of Magery: When held by a magic user, in any attack your opponent will be inflicted with the vulnerable status (remove any immunities for 24 hours). Adventurer: Reveals identity of one of your targets (random). Aimee: Not applicable. Alchemist: Grants you two free different potions of your choice into your shop. Limit on Knowledge Brew applies. Anama Hunter: All Anama members are cursed for 24 hours. Anama Priest: Gives a bonus Anama member toward your victory condition. Bound Servant: If Gladwell dead, removes your geas. Craftmaster Strine: Can make one additional item when its energy is used. Darkside Blademaster: Grants you resistance for 24 hours. Darkside Mage: Grants you protection for 24 hours. Dionicio: Reveals the target list of the Darkside Loyalists. Domont: Reveals identity of one of your targets (random). Empire Spy: Reveals identity of one of your targets (random). Fae: No effect. Gladwell: Identifies all players who may join you. Infiltrator: Reveals identity of one of your targets (random). Machrone: Decreases the number of questions you must answer by one. Micklebur: Indicates all players who may join the Anama. Nephil Activist: Get a free item (not an artifact) of your choice from the moderator shop. Oliver: Gives a +10 coin bonus for your victory condition. Pure Spirit: Revive a target from the dead. Ronaldo: Reveals identity of one of your targets (random). Sacred Item Cultist: Gives the roles of everyone who possesses an artifact, but not which ones. Shanker: Everyone is warded for 24 hours. Trickster: Switch the immunity and attack type of one player with another for the next 24 hours. Must specify both players with the use. Vahkos: Not applicable. The items are as follows. The value of the item is listed in parentheses after the item. Antidote: (10) Cures poison. If you are hit with a poison attack and would have died, you will recover from the attack. The battle proceeds normally otherwise. Box of Traps: (30) In place of one of your other abilities, you may target an individual. You place traps that last 24 hours around this person's house. Anyone who targets that individual is killed independent of skill, immunities, or any other kinds of protection. Chitrach Eggs: (40) When used, anyone who attacks in the next 24 hours (except you) has a 50% chance of being attacked by a chitrach instead. Has standard skill, poison attack, and normally gets the first strike. Clover Boots: (10) Item is not used. If you are attacked and die, you have a 25% chance of recovering. The boots lose their power after this. Disruption Crystal: (20) Target an individual in place of one of our abilities. Any action that person does in the next 24 hours will fail. Focusing Orb: (20) When used by a magic user, that magic user will get always get the first strike for the next 24 hours. Heroic Brew: (30) For 24 hours, your skill becomes power. Does NOT count as an ability use. Infiltrator Cloak: (20) Steal a random item (not an artifact) from a target. Cloak's power fades after one use. Ironskin Balm: (30) If you apply this, changes your immunity to physical for the next 24 hours. Does NOT count as an ability use. Ivory Skull: (10) Item is not used. If someone targets you with their ability, you will be made aware and that person is cursed. The skull loses its power after this. Killer Poison: (20) You may attack someone with this item. When you do, your attack is poison. Normal battle rules apply. Knowledge Brew: (30) If you drink this, one random person's role will be revealed to you. Does NOT count as an ability use. Mystic Symbol: (10) When used by a magic user, that magic user gains the protected status for the next 24 hours. Null Bug: (30) Target is surrounded by antimagic for the next 24 hours. Any magic attack, status effect except poison, or ability by a magic user will fail. Poison Potion: (30) Target is poisoned and will die in 24 hours if not cured. Razordisk: (20) If used on an enemy, has a 50% chance of hitting the target with a physical, standard skill attack. The person attacked will not know who attacked them, but will know they were attacked. If used on a non-enemy, will always miss. Resistance Elixir: (20) If you drink this, changes your immunity to magic for 24 hours. Does NOT count as an ability use. Rod of Alacrity: (30) Use this while doing another action. This action does not count towards the 24 hour waiting period, so you may do another. Smoky Crystal: (30) Can be used only by a magic user in conjunction with an offensive attack. Automatically kills any non magic user target with a powerful mental attack unless the target has the protected status. Using it on another magic user will cause the death of the user. Skribbane: (10) May only use on yourself. For the next 24 hours, your skill becomes power and you will always get the first strike. Thereafter, any action you do will have a 50% failure rate due to withdrawal unless you have taken Skribbane in the last 24 hours. The Skibbane Addict is immune to withdrawal. Does NOT count as an ability use. Tinker's Gloves: (10) If you use an action on someone who is trapped, you will disarm the traps. Gone after one use. Vulnerability Scroll: (20) In place of one of your other abilities, you may target an individual. The target loses any immunities for the next 24 hours. Wand of Death: (40) In place of one of your other abilities, you may target an individual. The individual is killed independent of skill, immunities, or any other kinds of protection. Warding Crystal: (20) You may target an individual, including yourself. The target is immune to being attacked for 24 hours. Does NOT count as an ability use. Items that count as offensive use are: Box of Traps, Disruption Crystal, Infiltrator Cloak, Poison Potion, Razordisk, Smoky Crystal, Vulnerability Scroll, Wand of Death. The following items/artifacts may be used defensively: Flaming Sword, Ironskin Balm, Heroic Brew, Killer Poison, and Resistance Elixir.

Not especially. That is part of the reason why I was suggesting a keyword/argument way of doing things. Read a line, find the keyword that indicates what the line is, go to the relevant section of code, read the arguments, and place it in the relevant arrays/structures. This makes the format more extensible because it would be mostly independent of record order, array sizes, or contents. If later someone decides to switch things around, the parser would not care about the order. Sure, it's kind of a pain now, but doing this will pay off in the long run. Sure, the file would be written out in a specific order; however, the input would inherently not care about anything except for the first few tokens which give some fundamental information about the version of the file. Also, to save space for large things like the SDF array, you might want to pick some common sense defaults (zero in this case). Only write things to the save file if they differ. Most scenarios only use a small fraction of the SDF array, so there is no need to write out a bunch of zeros. There would be a pain if someone were to modify the fundamental definition of something (say someone for some weird reason decides to make 3D SDFs). The best way around this would be to invent a new keyword for it and just have the new format be a superset of the old one.

Babelfish has gotten a lot better in the last decade. Nonetheless, it is by no means going to be as accurate as if you are fairly proficient in the language you are writing. And like CM said, it is okay for some languages.

Abhi, I hate to say this, but it is very difficult for many of us to read any of your posts, let alone the large volume of them. I appreciate English may not be your first language, but it would help us out a lot if you put a little more effort into organizing your sentences into paragraphs, using full words as opposed to txtspeak, and using complete sentences. This really helps us help you. Again, we don't expect perfection, but the more effort you put in with writing your posts so everyone else can easily read them, the more effort we can put in to helping you. Bluntly, I don't even bother reading your posts because I am busy and I do not have time to try and decipher them. I can tell you with absolute certainty that I am not alone. Also, our members try to be helpful, but we are unable to be all knowing about every other member. Please be patient when people are not aware of every post that you have made on this board. *i Board Admin

It's not an issue of carriage returns versus any other delimiter. There are plenty of STL C++ functions that make reading in string data rather simple. The issue is deciding whether to use an ASCII (readable text) or a binary (machine code) format and how to best organize/parse it.