Unflappable Drayk Nicothodes Posted August 16, 2004 Share Posted August 16, 2004 Okay, this is embarassing(sp?). Where do you write the code for things like dialouge, monsters, terrain, cut scenes, etc. on a Mac? Okay, now feel free to scream at me/pat the silly newbie on the head/mock me/ rate me evil priest for my stupidity/help me, reluctantly or not. Thanks to anyone who answers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Easygoing Eyebeast Enraged Slith Posted August 16, 2004 Share Posted August 16, 2004 Notepad, wordpad, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Articulate Vlish Churl Posted August 16, 2004 Share Posted August 16, 2004 As Degarne Htils said, you can create BoA script files in just about any text editor, as long as it allows you to save files as unformatted text. From the manual, section 2.1: "On a Macintosh, scripts can be edited using SimpleText, BBEdit, or any other text editor. On Windows, scripts can be edited using NotePad or WordPad. Make sure the script is saved as regular text (not, say, in Microsoft Word format) or Blades of Avernum won’t be able to understand it." In case you were wondering where to save the script files, they should go in the directory that contains the scenario file you're working on. Again, from the manual: "All of the scripts for a scenario must be in the same folder as the scenario (not in any subfolders). The game will only be able to find the scripts if they are in the same folder as the actual scenario file." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garrulous Glaahk bigblue Posted August 16, 2004 Share Posted August 16, 2004 simple text will do. if the files don't get too long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Kelandon Posted August 16, 2004 Share Posted August 16, 2004 Don't use TextEdit, though. You'll be bashing your head against the wall trying to debug it. Use BBEdit Lite. Look at VoDT for examples of what the scripts should be titled. For example, each town has a different one, and it's standard to put the town number and part of the town name as part of the town script's title. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Drakefyre Posted August 16, 2004 Share Posted August 16, 2004 What's wrong with TextEdit? I write my scripts there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Kelandon Posted August 16, 2004 Share Posted August 16, 2004 Can you get it to count line numbers? I never figured out how. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Drakefyre Posted August 16, 2004 Share Posted August 16, 2004 If you don't have errors in your scripts, that problem never comes up! Seriously, though, the line numbers that BoA gives are useless anyway, and error-checking the whole script will turn up things you would have missed otherwise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Kelandon Posted August 16, 2004 Share Posted August 16, 2004 You must be far better at reading over your code than I am. I rely on the BoA compiler a great deal. And the line numbers are meaningful once you know how to use them, although it can take some practice. All I know is that my debugging time cut in half or even less once I started using BBEdit Lite. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall Fort Posted August 17, 2004 Share Posted August 17, 2004 HHHHHWWWHHAT?? Did someone change their name or is this some different Nicoth*des? Didn't you release a scenario already or something? I thought you used Windows. Anyone, read the manual. It tells you all the basic stuff, and there should be many examples of code in your scenarios/[VoDT|aSR|ZKR|DwtD] folder. Use the editor in conjunction with the scripts and learn how to format your scripts intelligibly. Don't make make stilly mistakes like forgetting semicolons(";") declarations of variables in the right spot, initialization of strings, mismatched braces and parenthesis, unpaired quotes, missing parenthesis and accompanying braces around if and while controllers, blah blah blah. EDIT: Forgot my paid endorsement. With a mature development headed by Slava Pestov, JEdit is a full featured text (not word) editor. It runs through a Java Runtime Environment, and as such, it will run on any platform with the correct JRE. It has been developing for 4 (maybe 5, can't remember) and is completely open source and modularity. Macros can be coded in and there are many extensions available. It supports BeanShell, a simple scripting system for text matches and such, kind of useful in place of regular expressions. Download it now from Sourceforge! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unflappable Drayk Nicothodes Posted August 17, 2004 Author Share Posted August 17, 2004 Quote: HHHHHWWWHHAT?? Did someone change their name or is this some different Nicoth*des? Didn't you release a scenario already or something? I thought you used Windows. I assume you're talking about a different Nicothodes, because I've never made a scenario with a plot in my life(though I've finally found a plot idea) in my life, and I can't stand Windows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chittering Clawbug Linthar Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 I use BBEdit 6.5. Its indispensable for writing scripts. It has line numbers and they match up almost every time with the error messages the main program gives. I also find the soft wrap text useful, as it tends to make the points where I have lengthy dialog obvious, and this makes it easier to go through and proofread your text at a later date then when you write it. Of course its a good idea to proofread when you write, but something will slip by, and going back will usually catch some mistakes. What I also find useful is a blank word processing document to either write text in or copy from the script to check spellings and more importantly check to make sure you aren't over the character limit for that particular chunk (word count features makes this a lot easier). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Kelandon Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 Oh yeah, that's the other thing I like about BBEdit Lite in place of TextEdit: BBEdit Lite does word counts of selections, so I can quickly check whether my strings are more than 256 characters. As I tend to be rather long-winded, this is VERY useful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall Fort Posted August 19, 2004 Share Posted August 19, 2004 254 What is your suggestion for a good font for these kinds of tasks? Mine would be either Proggy Clean or Lucida Console. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Kelandon Posted August 19, 2004 Share Posted August 19, 2004 256, Keep. I just include the quotes in my character count. Although, come to think of it, I try to stay away from the exact limit altogether and avoid anything over 250 or so. I use the default font, whatever that is. Eh, Courier New, apparently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall Fort Posted August 19, 2004 Share Posted August 19, 2004 The quotes aren't displayed, so I don't count them. I haven't a clue how Jeff stores the strings we put in the scripts. Maybe the delimiters are actually quotes, which is why you can't escape the quotes, though you could use underscores. But that explanation now makes sense, now that I think about it. I was wondering why the game needed 2 marker characters... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garrulous Glaahk Crunchy Frog Posted August 20, 2004 Share Posted August 20, 2004 The limit is a standard 255 characters, but the terminating null character (that C uses to mark the end of a string) is included in that. So the maximum number of characters you can enter is only 254. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Articulate Vlish Churl Posted August 20, 2004 Share Posted August 20, 2004 I really like TextPad for Windows; others swear by UltraEdit . EDIT: Both are commercial products. (I know that the original question was about Mac-based text editors, but I just thought I'd throw out a few more names for the Windows crowd.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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