I have played blades of avernum and I am now new to editor. Can anyone help in the new beginning?

[Warrior Mage]

No, no... I was not intending to ask something. I was just showing an instance where Blades of Avernum designing just casually converts itself into blades of disappointment and cast cloud of blades on me.

[Warrior Mage]

I have to give an item to the PC using the code characteristic. I tried reward_give but I receive a message telling that it is an unknown command. How to give an item to my party? Help appreciated.

Edited June 22, 2020 by Warrior Mage

[Kelandon]

9 hours ago, Warrior Mage said:

I have to give an item to the PC using the code characteristic. I tried reward_give but I receive a message telling that it is an unknown command. How to give an item to my party? Help appreciated.

The way you give an item to the party in dialogue is exactly how you're describing. Post the code if you want it debugged.

[Warrior Mage]

code =

reward_give (x);

break;

 

code =

reward_give (x, 5);

break;

 

I tried the above two. x is mentioned because I don't remember the item number right now. I tried 5 for the number of items.

[Kelandon]

If you want help, you really need to copy and paste the actual section of the script, not just something from memory.

 

Also, the command reward_give() takes one short. Anything in the form reward_give(x,5) will generate an error because it has a second number.

 

I don't know why the first version wouldn't work (assuming that the extra spaces are not the problem). You'd need to post more of the script (at a minimum, the entire node).

[Warrior Mage]

I just sent what was in my memory because I messaged just after finishing yesterday's session. But, I... deleted that part of the actual code after I found it not working. That's why I couldn't send the actual one. But, that was what I tried actually in the script. Sometimes, I am able to send the full code as I send during the session with forums open. However, I'll try it again and send the full node if it's not working again.

[Warrior Mage]

reward_give() call works fine right now. I don't why not the first time. Also, now the dialog boxes are working fine.

[Warrior Mage]

I want to rather not show the date and year in the scenario in the area decription box, like the thing happened in 'The Magic' and Echoes: Renegade. What should I do?

[Kelandon]

Use force_start_day(-1).

[Warrior Mage]

beginstate 19;
reset_dialog();

if (get_flag (0, 3) < 2) {
add_dialog_str (0, "You have not yet dealt with the problem affecting this place. But, you
could leave if you wished to in luxurious cart, leaving people die and you can run away with
shame. What do you wish to do?"" , 0);
add_dialog_choice (0, "Move on!");
add_dialog_choice (1, "No, let's help them.");
} else {
add_dialog_str (0, "Now you have dealt with the problem affecting this place, you could
leave this place luxuriously and proudly. Are you ready?" , 0);
add_dialog_choice (0, "Move on!");
add_dialog_choice (1, "Wait, please.");
}
choice = run_dialog (1);
if (choice == 1) {
if (get_flag (0, 3) < 2) {
message_dialog ("You move out of this place, shameful but with your life. You never ever
did adventuring due to your reputation. You started to work as a poor labourer in a smithy.
What a disappointment." , "THE END.");
end_scenario (0);
} else {
message_dialog ("You move on, to the nearest town, get some welcomes and treated as a
hero. You later on started working as dervishes to King Starrus later on. You took place in
the history. You become folklore heroes. " , "THE END.");
end_scenario (1);
}}

break;

 

This code is not working and the game tells me that unknown command 'move' has occurred. I haven't placed such command anywhere and I think it is showing the 'move' in the dialog choices but I don't know why it occurs and fails to load the entire outdoor script. Help appreciated.

Edited June 26, 2020 by Warrior Mage

[Kelandon]

3 hours ago, Warrior Mage said:

add_dialog_str (0, "You have not yet dealt with the problem affecting this place. But, you
could leave if you wished to in luxurious cart, leaving people die and you can run away with
shame. What do you wish to do?"" , 0);

Double end quotes.

[Warrior Mage]

Fine, thank you. That went well.

[Warrior Mage]

I want to create a cutscene. I want it to occur inside a closed door when I am outside of it. When I run it, I can't view the room any can view only blackness as it closed. How to make it visible? Help appreciated. And also, at the south end of my outdoor section, I see a blue area. I don't like it.

Edited June 30, 2020 by Warrior Mage

[Kelandon]

If you want to be able to see an area in a cut scene, you either need to put a character close enough that the party can see the area, or you need to use set_total_visibility(1). Remember to set it back to 0 when the cut scene is over.

 

As for the south end of your outdoor section, I don't know why you're seeing a blue area, but maybe put in a wall?

[Warrior Mage]

Thank you, but... it can't be done. The outdoor section is a section which was present in one of the spiderweb games and a wall was not supposed to be there. This happens every time you create a outdoor section (or atleast I think) the north and west edges get blue and I noticed it every time until I put up a wall. I tried to upload a screenshot in my website, but I couldn't for some reasons.

Edited June 30, 2020 by Warrior Mage

[Ess-Eschas]

If Blades of Avernum suffered from serious graphical glitches every time it produced an outdoor section, I suspect there would be far fewer scenarios, and far more aggravated players

 

I would politely point out that this problem is by no means a unique one in Blades of Avernum. There are scenarios that face exactly this sort of issue – that is, using portions of the Avernum maps from the various games of the two trilogies, but only allowing the player to explore so far. One example is 'A Visit to the Madhouse'. Another is 'Bahssikava'. Don't forget what I said at the beginning of this thread. There are very many examples of how designers deal with simple issues like these in the pre-existing scenarios. Don't be afraid to dive into them in the editor, or to play through them, and see how designers work around problems like these!

 

In other words, don't feel like you have to reinvent the wheel every time you encounter an issue that others will have grappled with before you! If car manufacturers did that, I don't image we'd have many cars on the roads these days ...

 

That ‘blue’ you talk about is water. Blades of Avernum, as with many games of this type, faces the typical problem of what to do when the end of the world is reached. The map inside the game is only so big, so what happens when the player gets to the edge? If the designer didn’t code in something, you’d get weird graphical anomalies at best, or more likely the engine would just crash entirely. So games like this need to put in some sort of information, something that tells the game what to do if the player sees off the edge of the world.

 

Some games put in blackness, some put in mountains, some put in generic empty space tiles. Blades of Avernum puts in ocean. It makes sense, if you think about it. The game needs to put in some sort of physical barrier to prevent the player from moving off the edge of the world – and one of the nice simple, big barriers provided by nature is a huge expanse of water, one so large that you can’t see its edges.

 

You are seeing this ‘blue’ because you’re letting the party see off the edge of the world. You need to make sure they can’t do that – and that’s easy! Just add additional outdoor sections onto the sides of the ones that border the edge of the world. You’ll need to partly decorate these sections to allow for the fact that the party can see into them – remember that Far Sight can extend much further than the party’s vision – and you’ll need to put in some form of script barrier to explain why the party can’t actually explore these dummy areas. Of course, you can’t do that at the fixed borders of the world on the north and west – you might need to shift your outdoor sections around to get the desired effect!

[Warrior Mage]

Hello guys, I found out a way to hide the pacific ocean to the south of my outdoor section. Put the blackness terrain in the south edge of your outdoor section and you are fine. That's what I did to block the party from reaching the northern outdoor section which should be reached in a different manner. The cutscene was too fine. Is there any way to test the dungeon scripts by playing it without fighting the monsters in the way? It is annoying.

[Kelandon]

You can change the starting location just for testing purposes or test with a god party. Or put in calls that you’ll later delete that move the party past the combat.

[Ess-Eschas]

Further to Kelandon’s answer, I'd suggest that you also look up ‘Debugging Mode’ in the documentation. It’s near the top of the section about testing, which makes me suspect that you might not have thought to look there. Remember that the documentation is your friend! :)

[Warrior Mage]

Hi guys, progress delaying. Currently boot problems in my PC for 3 days.

 

Edited July 5, 2020 by Warrior Mage

[Warrior Mage]

Progress ultimately delayed. There is a motherboard failure in my PC which makes my PC unable to turn on. I hope I would be able to solve this, but if not it may take 2 months to buy new motherboard and continue my progress. But, I saved all Avernum games including my scenario progress in my pendrive. Safe as it is. But don't think I would give up like those silly designers who give heroic dialogues and then give up in a moment. All the elements are about to get complete in my 1st outdoor section including the towns in it. There are 2 outdoors in my scenario. 

 

UPDATE: Few days more and I think I can start again by mid-August. I am having all the codes in my memory.

Edited July 26, 2020 by Warrior Mage

[Warrior Mage]

UPDATE: Most likely I would start my progress again by end of this week. But, please keep showing the same support!

[Warrior Mage]

Hi guys! I am back!

 

beginstate 12;
if (get_flag (2, 3) == 0) {
set_flag (2, 3, 1);
reset_dialog ();

add_dialog_str (0 ,"There bis a huge portal in front of you. It is still working! You have no idea where it would lead you,
but you could still step on it if you want. This should be the only way you can proceed on for your quest.", 0);
add_dialog_choice (0, "Back away.");
add_dialog_choice (1, "Step into the portal.");
choice = run_dialog (1);
if (choice == 1) {
block_entry (1);
} else {
teleport_party (23, 7, 0);
message_dialog ("You teleport in a pathway which is leading down and it is the only way you could move on as there is no
return portal. You should go to find the ongoings. How strange!" , "");
}
else {
message_dialog ("The portal is still here, bright and glowing. But, you back away as you have no work with it right now by
going into it. You back away." , "");
block_entry (1);
}
break;
 

I have typed in this code into the town script but unfortunately I am getting error telling that there is an unknown command 'choice' in it. Please help me solve this.

[Kelandon]

17 minutes ago, Warrior Mage said:

I have typed in this code into the town script but unfortunately I am getting error telling that there is an unknown command 'choice' in it. Please help me solve this.

At the beginning of the script, you need to declare variables. Right after your begintownscript, there should be:

variables;
short choice;

 

[Warrior Mage]

Oh, yeah. That was the thing exactly I didn't do. Thank you for notifying this.

[Warrior Mage]

Everything went fine yesterday, except some minor problems which I myself fixed. But I have some common uneasy feeling when designing because I can't think what random items should I place in boxes and chests and how should I put armors and kind? This is the biggest problem hurting me for days. And also I have a feeling that my towns are incomplete even though they are complete. I have many kinds of tiles, terrains but the feeling of towns of other scenarios is not at all coming to me in my own scenario! 

[Warrior Mage]

Today, I have a big problem. I have a town which is having two entrances i.e north and south. But the problem is the north and south are at exactly different locations. I marked both as entrances but the problem is when they exit from the north, they don't come to the exact point I marked. Similarly, when I enter from north entrance, I rather go to south part of the town. If you don't understand,... the entrances are expected to be like of the two entrances in the frost lizard lair in Exodus.

[Vox]

In the tool bar where you can create special encounters there is an option to select the exact entrance location for the different directions the player may enter the town. Is this what you mean? It's the icon of the arrow pointing down on a little crenellation.

[Warrior Mage]

Thank you Vox for the reply, but things aren't clear for me. Inside the town, though I marked my north and south entrances. But when I leave my town to the north, it goes to the north square of the terrain but not the north entrance I expected to be. If you're not sure, see this:

 

The particular case.  Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-dQAPVZgIk&list=PLotFkj6xXF6cxRj8dvwOyXQPpabpXSiWC&index=117

 

In the picture, you could see the frost lizard lair of Exodus where you can enter from the east as the blue spot in the east denotes, and exit to the west in a different location as the western blue spot denotes. But in my town, if I try to leave to the north, I get stuck in the exact north square after the town like being stuck in the red spot when you leave to the west. I hope you could understand it now. I am really in need of help to continue.

[Vox]

Ah I see!

If you go inside your editor to Town > Town Details You'll have a panel. At the bottom right you have 4 sets of coordinates you can enter for the outdoor locations you end up when you exit the town from different directions. That should do what you need

[Warrior Mage]

What I am actually trying to do is link two outdoor sections through a town. Its not a real physical link but... Yeah. I'll come in more detail.

 

The town is divided into two, north and south. The southern part of the town is inside the 1st outdoor section. The north part of the town connects it to the 2nd second outdoor section. You are supposed to be teleported by a portal from south to north. But, later I found out that it could not be possible. So, I created two towns separately and designed them in such a way that they are north and south part of the town. I set the entrances to the northern part in the 2nd outdoor section, but it doesn't work! I even used the Town>Town Details and edited the co-ordinates but lands me at the particular co-ordinates in the 1st outdoor section. I am not doing it for the stylishness but it's one of the keyplot of the scenario. Try to help me here. I have one more idea... but it would be better to get some assistance.

[The Almighty Doer of Stuff]

Sorry, I'm still unclear on this myself, I think. Nevermind this post.

Edited August 9, 2020 by The Almighty Doer of Stuff

[Warrior Mage]

Oh, OK.

[Kelandon]

I'm still a little unclear on what you're trying to do, but it sounds like you may need to use change_outdoor_location().

 

It's likely easy to make the teleportation effect work, too, if you want, but I'm very unsure about what you were trying to do and why it didn't work.

[Vox]

I think I understand...?

 

so let me try and clarify this.

you have two outdoor sections and two towns.

 

you want to enter one town from the first outdoor section, then inside that town you move to the second town and when you exit the second town you want it to be in the second outdoor section?

 

is that right?

[Warrior Mage]

VOX IS RIGHT!

[Kelandon]

1 hour ago, Warrior Mage said:

VOX IS RIGHT!

So yeah, you need to use change_outdoor_location(). Since you're doing this from different towns, you can just put it in each town's INIT_STATE (or anywhere else, but the INIT_STATE is probably easiest).

[Warrior Mage]

What will that call do exactly and please tell the shorts values for it? I couldn't find it within the documentation or references or in any scripts I saw.

Edited August 10, 2020 by Warrior Mage

[Kelandon]

7 minutes ago, Warrior Mage said:

What will that call do exactly and please tell the shorts values for it? I couldn't find it within the documentation or references or in any scripts I saw.

Copied from the appendix:

Quote

void change_outdoor_location(short what_section_x,short what_section_y,short loc_in_sector_x, short loc_in_sector_y) - Changes the party's location in the outdoors. It moves them to location {loc_in_sector_x,loc_in_sector_y} in section X = what_section_x, Y = what_section_x. It can only be used in a town script. It is used, for example, when the party enters a portal in a town that is meant to carry them to a town a long distance away.

 

[Warrior Mage]

Thank you! I will definitely try it but why should I put it for both the towns? My first town is directly connected to my first outdoor section.

Edited August 10, 2020 by Warrior Mage

[Vox]

1 hour ago, Warrior Mage said:

Thank you! I will definitely try it but why should I put it for both the towns? My first town is directly connected to my first outdoor section.

well If you swap between towns or decide to go back the other way.

So when you enter the town you always change the outdoor location to the place you want to exit. then if you go back to the other town it'll change it again to ensure when you exit the town you're currently in it always exits in the correct outdoor location

[Warrior Mage]

I think probably there is no need for it as my teleportation is one way and there is no same way around. Well, I try it for my second town alone for first and next try it for the first town. I think I am right.

[Warrior Mage]

I got the success! My party gets successfully in the location I wanted!!! Thank you so much for helping guys. But, now a new small bug.

 

begintownscript;
variables;
short choice;
body;

beginstate INIT_STATE;
change_outdoor_location (0,0,1,46);
if (get_flag (3,0) == 0) {
set_flag (3,0) == 1;
message_dialog("You teleport in a pathway which is leading down and it is the only way you could move on as there is no return portal. You should go to find the ongoings. How strange!" , "");
}
break;

beginstate START_STATE;
break;

beginstate EXIT_STATE;
break;

 

I get there is a missing semicolon and there are wrong parameters all in line 17. Everything works fine but that appears. Some quick assistance is appreciated.

[osnola]

The line "set_flag (3,0) == 1;" seems strange to me, ie. maybe, you can replace it by set_flag(3,0,1); ( at least, if http://spiderwebforums.ipbhost.com/topic/14167-stuff-done-help/?tab=comments#comment-176405 is correct).

 

[Vox]

yeah there are two things wrong with that 

set_flag (3,0) == 1;

firstly if you are changing a variable you use one equals.

for example:

if (number == 1) {
	number = 2;
}

but as Osnola mentioned above, to change flags you need to use set_flag as a method such as:

set_flag(3,0,1);

 

[Warrior Mage]

Egh... sorry for that, I know that the format should be like that, but I just didn't notice that mistake. I had stayed away from my PC for a few weeks and that made me forget some silly concepts.

Edited August 10, 2020 by Warrior Mage

[Warrior Mage]

Is there any call that would allow someone to identify your items outside dialogue mode? I have to use it in outdoors, that's why. Please mention it here.

[Kelandon]

39 minutes ago, Warrior Mage said:

Is there any call that would allow someone to identify your items outside dialogue mode? I have to use it in outdoors, that's why. Please mention it here.

Not that I'm aware of.

[Vox]

Perhaps, is there a way to increase the players item lore and another method to remove it? You could add like a hundred item lore and then remove it again the following turn. If that’s possible it could be a cheap and dirty way of getting what you want 

[Warrior Mage]

Well, I got rid of the previous thing, but now! My outdoor script is not loading. I had put everything in scripts, put special encounters but why it's not working? I also checked and the script name is too correct in outdoor details menu. I didn't get any error too.