Teleportation memory.

[jockmo42]

Okay, as an example, say I wanted to have a Special Item that takes the players party to a secluded town, Perhaps the item is the town but magically shrunken. The problem, how will the town that the players have been in be remembered when they return? This probably wouldn't work at all, considering that even if I did mark the entrance to every town in a stuff done flag, whats to stop them from gating back into a wall? I suppose it could be told that this is a risk of the magic item, but that'd be kinda cheap...

Any ideas?

[Zeviz]

I can't think of any way to be able to get back to a random position in a random town, so here are some possible alternatives:

 

1. Allow the item to be used only in specific places of specific towns. (Make it triggered by a special on the ground, rather than item use.) Use an SDF to store the number of location where the item is used, and use that value to figure out where to send player when returning. (If 1, send to (21,20) in town 3; if 2, send to (12,31) in town 1; etc.) This is the easiest to explain to the player: amulet is activated at an altar, or something like that.

 

2. Allow the item to be used anywhere, but always send the player to specific spot in town of origin when he comes back. (If returning to town 1, send to (14,23); if going to town 2, send to (29,5); etc.) This will be much harder to explain to the player. In fact, I can't think of a plausible explanation.

 

3. The easiest thing to do is just let the player exit new town normally, which would put him outdoors, next to the last town he entered. However, this is the hardest to explain to the player.

 

4. If your entire scenario consists of very few small towns and your extra town is also small, you can use large towns for your scenario towns and hide a copy of extra town in the opposite corner of the map for each town where the item can be used. Then use Split Party to send one of the characters into your town and Reunite Party to send him back.

[Sullust]

There is a random number generator; however, you'd have to use up several nodes to even place a party randomly in a small section of a town.

[Lilith]

You'll also have to think very carefully about how to make the special item take the party to another town in the first place; the only way to directly send a party to another town is a Stairway node, and you can't call a Stairway node with a special item.

 

One way is to use the Word of Recall/Variable Town Entry method used in Shadow of the Stranger, but doing it this way means the item can only be used outdoors and requires a party member with 7th-level priest spells. On the bright side, making it usable only outdoors eliminates the problem of sending the party back to the correct place in the town they came from.

[Grain of Salt]

Quote:

Originally written by Thuryl:
You'll also have to think very carefully about how to make the special item take the party to another town in the first place; the only way to directly send a party to another town is a Stairway node, and you can't call a Stairway node with a special item.

Not to boast or anything, but see here .

[Lilith]

Ah, I remember that topic now that you've brought it to my attention. Thanks for the link. It seems like a neat idea, but ugly to implement in practice for most scenarios.

 

(Then again, most of the best ideas are ugly to implement in practice for most scenarios. The trick is to have an idea good enough that it's worth building a scenario to accommodate it.)

[jockmo42]

Hmm... all these methods sound kinda iffy. Though some of them are rather ingenious. Meh, it was just a cool thing my scenario would have. Not really crucial. Thanks for the fast replies though. Perhaps there are other ways...

[Lilith]

Quote:

Originally written by jockmo42:
Hmm... all these methods sound kinda iffy. Though some of them are rather ingenious.

Yeah, the limitations of BoE mean that doing anything really neat with it tends to involve bending the system almost to breaking point. Usually a few cracks still show in places despite our best efforts to paper over them.

[jockmo42]

Hey, Thuryl, could you further explain that variable town entry node? To obtain such a powerful item, the party may have to be high-level anyway.

[Lilith]

Okay.

 

Word of Recall takes you back to the town you started the scenario in, which is normally town 0.

 

Variable Town Entry (an advanced option in the Scenario menu) allows you to change what town a party enters based on the value of an SDF.

 

Therefore, Variable Town Entry allows you to set an SDF that will change what town Word of Recall takes you.

 

The details of it are explained at the following links:

 

http://members.aol.com/risberg/blades/Design/vte.html

 

http://p080.ezboard.com/fthelyceumfrm1.showMessage?topicID=728.topic

[jockmo42]

My god we need the source code for this editor! lol