Guardian of Eternity

Hey, Kel, thank you a lot, even if this doesn't function quite correctly, yet. Between you and Dahak, I trust things will get worked out, eventually. Incidentally, I feel kind of bad bugging other people to write code for me. I got the templates for custom items and creatures from other posts on this site, and I figure I can take a crack at some graphics, if I have to... So I've tried somewhat to make sure I'm not getting people to do *everything* for me. The real question: Am I cheating, asking other people to do code for me?

Hate to keep doing this, perhaps my last bump was too quickly overwritten... I'd really appreciate it if someone took another crack at the code from Dahak... I'm picking apart his version now, but my understanding of the calls isn't superb... I'm still figuring out how to use the tick_difference commands to stand in for SDFs. If anyone can help, I, uh... encourage it? (Please help a struggling programmer.)

Hmm... I've been doing just about what you recommended, Eldiran... I've got my variable (restchoice) declared, and I've got my if statements set up... I haven't got the brackets (though I know how they work; just haven't used them in this instance), and I've got an "end();" statement at the end of each if statement... Hmm. Wonder if that's giving me trouble. Probably, eh?

- Getting different choices in dialog boxes to do different things. I have a simple "Do you want to rest?" dialog set up, and both choices do the same thing. I'm not getting something, here. - Getting dialog boxes to pop up when *looking* at things (indoors), i.e. getting special items out of chests. I'm not getting something, here. - Getting dialog boxes to pop up outdoors when walking through an area. Wow. I can't believe I haven't figured this out, yet. I'm not getting something, here. Does anyone notice a trend in my ignorance? The point is... I feel dwarfed by this. I've looked through the documentation (good stuff, just not what I need to know, all the time) and the appendices (invaluable for people who want to do real scripting). I'm still not certain if I'm just complaining here, or looking for some kind of commiseration... Let's go with that second one. This is the self-declared "it's confusing" thread. Feel free to post things that have confounded/are still confounding you, or post some nice little tutorial advice to confused people, like myself.

That's right... I'm bumping this back up to the top of the list, after it's been dead for a while... But in my scenario, I've finished the first town, and now have need for the outdoor water draining code to be used. I've seen people pick on Dahak's code and such, but if you can do better, please post the revised code, or direct me to a page where it's been posted. I hate to make other people program for me, but in this instance, I'd rather see the pros demonstrate the code, and I can pick it apart to understand it when I fit it into my scenario. A note: If possible, I'd like to have the water flasks be special items. I know that the weight business isn't realistic, but considering Dahak's trouble, (being unable to return an "empty flask" item, as there may be no more inventory room) and the fact that I'd like the discovery of more "empty flasks" to be the limiter on game progress (i.e. adventurers can't just skip across the desert to my final dungeon just after leaving the first town), I'll settle for "flasks" being special items. Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me.

I'm attempting to program a miscellany shop, and it isn't going well. I got up to the point where the add_item commands look like this: add_item_to_shop(3,(get_ran(1,min,max)),(get_ran(1,1,5))); I thought this was pretty nifty on my part... until I actually tried to make the shopkeeper sell me stuff more than one time. I need a way to *completely* re-initialize a miscellany shop every time I call it, and I can't figure out how to do it. Any ideas, tips, discussion on this?

I don't think that another double-quote would be the trouble... Come to think of it, I *could* actually use a link or something to find some of these neat text editor programs other people have got. I heard that BBEdit lite might be a good choice, as it correctly identifies line numbers in the text. I don't know. I'll look at the script, but I don't think that's the problem. Thank you for helping, though. EDIT : Bloody genius! Thank you! I solved my problem... What happened was that on a previous dialogue line, instead of a close quotation (*"), I hit a parenthesis, thus making one continuous command string. Thanks again!

I'm getting an unknown command error in one of my town dialogue scripts. The unknown command is the word "could." I know that the problem is in two new talknodes (besides which, I've only used that word four times in my entire town dialogue script, so it wasn't hard to narrow it down). The problem is, I have quotation marks around this piece of dialogue. I have deleted and completely retyped both nodes in question. I can post the script (and will, probably, as soon as the first person to reply says, "I don't know, post the script"). My *real* question is... what's wrong, here? Had I *missed* some quotation marks, a semicolon, anything, I'd just slap my forehead and conclude that I was being stupid. But this... it mystifies me.

Fantastic! I was so wound up looking for missing quotation marks and semicolons at the end of lines that I missed that in the beginning. I must have hit that little key when I punched the TAB key to indent. Thanks to everyone. I mean that!

I'm going nuts trying to catch my mistake, here. I tried to script all the dialogue for one character in one fell swoop, and now I can't figure out where the error is. BoA gives me error message "Invalid character in" what, upon checking, is the very last line. (That reminds me, can anybody tell me how BoA numbers the lines in the text? The lines seem to be very high numbers, compared to the total document length) I 've gone over the whole thing, looking for parts where I maybe punched the wrong key, to no avail. Here's an abbreviated version of my code: begintalknode 22; state = -1; personality = 10; nextstate = 7; question = "Ssev"; text1 = "Text."; text2 = "_Character talking._"; text5 = "Text."; action = INTRO; begintalknode 23; state = 7; personality = 10; nextstate = -1; condition = get_flag(0,3) == 0; question = "Text."; begintalknode 24; state = 7; personality = 10; nextstate = -1; condition = get_flag(0,3) > 0; question = "Question?"; text1 = "_Dialogue._"; text2 = "More dialogue!"; text3 = "_Yet more dialogue._"; begintalknode 25; state = 7; personality = 10; nextstate = 8; condition = get_flag(0,3) > 0; question = "Question?"; text1 = "_Dialogue._"; text2 = "_More dialogue._"; begintalknode 26; state = 8; personality = 10; nextstate = -1; question = "Question?"; ` text1 = "_Dialogue._"; text2 = "_La-dee-da_..."; text3 = "More dialogue."; begintalknode 27; state = 8; personality = 10; nextstate = -1; question = "Question?"; text1 = "Dialogue."; begintalknode 28; state = 7; personality = 10; nextstate = 9; condition = get_flag(0,3) > 0; question = "Question?"; text1 = "_Dialogue._"; begintalknode 29; state = 9; personality = 10; nextstate = 10; question = "Question?"; text1 = "Dialogue."; begintalknode 30; state = 10; personality = 10; nextstate = -1; question = "Question?"; text1 = "_Dialogue._"; text2 = "_Dialogue._"; begintalknode 31; state = 10; personality = 10; nextstate = -1; question = "Question?"; text1 = "_Dialogue._"; text2 = "_More Dialogue._"; text3 = "_Dialogue again._"; begintalknode 32; state = 10; personality = 10; nextstate = -1; question = "Question?"; text1 = "_Dialogue._"; In abbrieviating this for posting, I tried my best not to modify anything outside of the quotation marks at the ends of each line of question/dialogue piece.

Hmm... plenty to say. In the bandit hideout, most people here are right: The setup doesn't make it tough to get to (most of) the good treasure. As for the slime cave, I agree about blocked spaces and expanding the dungeon. Two secret passages was not enough. In general, in both places, I'd recommend more "scene-setting," i.e. make places look more lived-in, even if they're lived in by monsters. Little stuff counts, you know?

Er... forget about this topic. I didn't notice the similar topic a few slots away. Apologies.

Not to stop anyone from debating, here, but I think I've got my plot troubles hammered out. Surface sliths it is. Probably descendants of a *part* of the group exiled to Avernum. Their ancestors just... took a wrong turn, or something. Or were exiled to the harsh, unforgiving desert of my scenario. Which brings me to what I've figured out to make it plausible that the Empire hasn't cleansed them. The desert sliths are the only ones who know how to survive in the desert, to get to valuable resources without dying of dehydration, or monsters, or what have you. Anyhow, thanks for the information, and I'll probably use a lot of this stuff, to weave into my plot.

Hmm... I knew most of that stuff, but I appreciate you saying so. I did ask for all of it. Plus I need to start small. I've got a lot of sliths in my in-progress scenario... surface sliths. I'm working on backstory and things.

I really hate doing this... as a prospective scenario designer, I feel like I've already given too much of my inner thinking away for my scenario to be fresh and surprising... And secondly, I'm aware that my posts are *slightly* er... unfit for this category. But I figure that most of the people who have gotten to the point where they're itching to design their own scenarios probably knows something about the Avernum games in general. So, on to my all-important question... What do we know about the sliths, so far? If you can direct me to information about them, or tell me in this thread, that's what I'm looking for, please. I know a lot of this stuff. I've researched, and played all three Avernum games. But I want all my ducks in a row, here, so if you'd all be so kind...

*Actually*... I was thinking about having water consumed *only* when resting... Although I'll admit that that's not very realistic. I'm in talks with another member on this board, named Dahak. I don't know if he's made any posts that you could read... I'll have to check on that. Anyhow, he and I have a mutual interest in desert-type scenarios, right now. We've talked a bit about having a special item called a "flask"... the party can obtain "empty flasks" in dungeons/from NPC encounters, et cetera... And can fill the "empty flasks" at certain water holes. This makes it an interesting necessity to do some snooping around the beginning of the scenario to collect "empty flasks." Eventually someone will pound out a script piece that times consumption by movement outdoors, to be edited depending on the distances between watering holes in different scenarios. I know that since special items have no weight, *that* aspect isn't realistic. But if the "full flask"/"empty flask" thing could be done with regular items, I guess that's acceptable. Being able to refill makes it feasible to have a weighty set of items, since a party doesn't have to carry a whole lot of them to get anywhere... so long as they plan wisely and refill at key points.

All right... this is completely foreign to me... this probably screws around with the game engine itself... I've had suggestions about water depletion in a desert scenario. Is it possible to tie an item, *any* item, besides food, into the requirements for rest?

Thanks for putting up with this... I should have realized I had the Starting Location for the outdoors in the (x=0,y=0) outdoor chunk, thus forcing my party to start there. Thanks again.

I have a total of twenty-five outdoor chunks, arranged in a five by five square. I placed my starting town in (x=0,y=3) chunk (west edge, north of center). Whenever my party exits the town (in tests), I cannot see the terrain stuff I put up to signify this town on the outdoor map. I have the sinking suspicion that I'm exiting in the (x=0,y=0) chunk of my total outdoor area. I know I can go to the town details in the editor and tell the program where I want my party to exit, but what's the coordinate adjustment for the(x=0,y=3) chunk of outdoors? When I look at any outdoor chunk in the editor, the center is always 24,24, in all of them... I suspect I've stopped making much sense, but if anyone can tell me how I've screwed up, I'd appreciate it.

See... I had the slith idea, too!! Hah, if only I could figure out a way for some vahnatai to be hiding out there. Maybe some caves would work. Anyhow... since this has turned into a great sounding board for these ideas, and since you mentioned lots of non-humans, I thought about having some of the regular, Empire-imported residents being non-humans, i.e. some kind of work-release (more work and less release) from Empire research centers, et cetera. I'm sure that if the Empire was hard up for regular settlers, and wanted some... beings who would be able to survive well in the deserts, keeping an eye on things... They might send in some non-humans. Is this a good idea, or not? I don't intend for *everybody* to be non-human, but perhaps more of a non-human showing than in typical Empire lands.

I'm out of scenarios to play... so I might as well put up my e-mail, if you're still sending this... guardian_of_eternity@hotmail.com. Please include a nice, flashy title line. My junk filter is intense.

All right, here's the deal for all you inquiring minds. I'd like the terrain to shift every time the outdoor section is re-initialized, i.e. when adventurers emerge from a town/dungeon. It would only be certain sections; I want to keep some sections... er... stable, for dungeon entrances, et cetera. This is going to take plenty of experimenting. I'm gearing up for making the overworld of my scenario... besides this terrain business, I'm looking to absorb plenty of information about wandering monsters, and a night/day cycle for my desert setting.

Is it possible to randomly change the height of outdoor floors (to create a shifting landscape)? For cosmetic purposes, I wouldn't want to do it to *every* floor tile outdoors, but key ones with autohills on when the outdoor sections initialize might get the right effect... Question: is it possible?

All right... looks like some of the big-hitters of this forum category have chimed in... which, by the way, I appreciate. You guys seem like real pros, and I'm probably going to need plenty more help once I really fire up with making my scenario. Now, to wrap up all the replies I've gotten, so far... I'll end up setting this on a "conquered" continent, pretty much postulating that the Empire passed over this region for some as yet (for me) undiscovered reason. I had not thought of the "natives" idea... that's not a bad one, not at all. I may have to steal it. I did some thinking of my own about this, and I came up with the "gold rush" kind of idea, myself. I have a really wacky idea... I'm not sure if I want to post it, here. You guys have mentioned magical research... but what if said magical research was on such a large *scale* that it changed the desert in some way. Not really "Geneforge 2" of terraforming, but just lowering the temperature... Icy dungeons in a desert just sound intriguing to me. Anyhow... In general, the "gold rush" thing does jive with my current subtheme of my prospective scenario... Wild West, sort of. If you think about it, plenty of the traditional Avernum stuff fits just fine. Horses, rats, wolves, rope (item), hitching posts and wooden walls (terrain)... the list goes on.

Unlike my last few posts, this one is more storyline/scenario stuff than code. In the Avernum storyline of which I know, Valorim was the last "uncivilized" continent, and it has been "tamed" by now. Plus, A3 was set there, so I can't really put my scenario there. I want to set my scenario in a desert which is being colonized. I want your ideas about a) why the Empire *wouldn't* colonize this desert area, and why they would *start* to colonize this desert. I can think this stuff up for myself, (in fact I have some ideas already) but I thought I could poll some people, too. So... have at it, already.