uh-oh, I got an idea...

[Therakul]

Despite my protestations of not wanting to make a scenario, I found myself starting one after reading through several articles. Unfortunately, my scripting skills are lacking. I have no idea as to how long I will be working on it, but I will probably be asking for lots of help.

 

On to the first question:

 

I'm just a bit confused about setting up some special combat encounters. I want the party to meet up with a new type of beastie (ie an original monster) that will be challenging for higher level parties. Can anyone provide a few tips as to what kind of abilities I might try to throw in? I also need some way to alter the amount of time the party has left after the fight. Unfortunately the time limit on my scenario (as planned so far) is 2-3 days, so I need something that takes a few hours off.

 

Edit: I don't know if I'm just sadistic or something, but one of the beasties that I'm planning on putting in is a level 50 "Fission Dragon" that splits every time it's hit, is immune to most spells, and carries around a blade barrier (just to make sure it splits a lot). Does that sound like a bit much?

[Kelandon]

Drakey\'s advice

 

Your Fission Dragon is a bit much unless the party is supposed to be at least level 60. Playtest it yourself, and if you can't beat it, tone it down a bit. Splitters in particular are really tough monsters, and going with anything more powerful than a doomguard is only for really high level scenarios.

 

( My article on high level scenarios.)

 

As for changing time, well, look in the Appendices under "The Passage of Time." The set_ticks_forward call is probably the one you want.

 

EDIT: Also, the Lyceum\'s Designer\'s Forum has some articles you might want to check out. They are for BoE, but some of the principles remain the same.

[Toenail Returns]

I tried making a monster in the shape of a Drake Lord with maximum statis. I made it have guard as it's special ability and made it resistant to everything. And guess what? I beat it!

 

Okay so I lied. Sue me.

[*i]

Sounds like a repetative and ultimately anti-fun combat experience to me.

[Nasarius]

I agree; if you have to reload more than 2 or 3 times to kill it with an appropriate-level party, it's too hard.

[Therakul]

Ah yes, but who said anything about it being required combat? It's actually a punishment for players who pick the wrong route. Even if they do beat the thing (which I will probably tone down, just a bit) I'm going to advance the clock several hours. This scenario is supposed to punish explorers and reward runners. If and when I get this out, you'll understand after seeing the name.

[Morgan]

I'd disagree - the purpose of many fights is to make you rethink your strategies. Generally, I think that having to work out a fight's weakness adds to the fun, even if you do have to reload a few times.

[Donald Hebb]

Quote:

Originally written by Nasarius:
I agree; if you have to reload more than 2 or 3 times to kill it with an appropriate-level party, it's too hard.

I reloaded, like, 10 times to beat the rubies in RoR-BoA with a singleton.

And you should realize that I don't find the scenario to be overly difficult.

[Imban]

I've reloaded as many as 45+ times on a single fight in order to win a battle of attrition. *shrugs*

[Kelandon]

Quote:

It's actually a punishment for players who pick the wrong route.

Well, that's okay, then. I've seen scenarios (in BoE, forget which offhand, it's been three years) that have invulnerable monsters in the way if you choose the wrong path. You can assume that people are saving at every critical juncture.

[Toenail Returns]

on the Tower of Magi where you verse all those Mung Demons and Haaikas I have reloaded somewhere around 63 times.

 

Note, I didn't use the editor and everyone in my party was around level 27.

[Therakul]

Okay, before I even worry about anything else; how do I make it so that when the party leaves a town (like, oh say, the warrior's grove) they appear where I want them to on the out door map?

 

Every time I try to get a feel for actual travel time in the game, I just end up in a large black area with walls around it and nowhere that I can move to. The walls aren't stopping me, it's the lack of terrain, but I can't figure out where the party is when they get outside, or else I'd fix it.

 

Also, can you move/delete a town entrance once it's been placed?

[The Almighty Doer of Stuff]

Relocate Outdoors node. Don't use Warrior's Grove.

 

Yes, you can move a town once it's been placed.

[Lilith]

If I read him correctly, I don't think he needs Relocate Outdoors for what he's trying to do. He just needs to use Set Outdoor Starting Location to determine where the party ends up the first time they leave the starting town. To see visually where the party will end up, look for the little START icon that appears on one terrain space when editing the starting outdoor section.

[Nasarius]

Quote:

Originally written by Imban:
I've reloaded as many as 45+ times on a single fight in order to win a battle of attrition. *shrugs*

Okay, "2 or 3" was a bit low. Ten is okay on occasion. 45+ means it's just too difficult and you probably won by a lucky streak.

By the way, you're probably not using that term correctly in this case

[Therakul]

Okay, I figured out where I kept exiting the town to, but I still haven't figured out how to change where in the outdoor section my party ends up after exiting the town. I went under the outdoor pull-down menu and set the starting location at just outside of the town; but evey time I test it, the party appears in the middle of the section. Can anyone give me any tips on how to fix that?

[Lilith]

Are you using a party newly brought into the scenario or one that was saved in the scenario before you made the change? Try using a new party.

[Therakul]

Edit: Okay, that clears things up. I'll probably come up with some more questions over the next week or so.

[philstrek]

Try going into the town details section (the town you're exiting from into the outdoor section) and setting the exit town location to the outdoor location that you wish your party to end up at. For example, if the party leaves the town to the east, and you want them to end up at space 21,10 on the outdoor grid, set the exit town location for the right to be (x)21 (y)10 (ignore the special state box for now). I hope this helps!

[Therakul]

First off, where can I find information about adding a boat? Also, can I place a boat outside or set up a call to "create" a boat that the party has just found?

[Kelandon]

void create_boat(short which_boat,short which_town,short loc_x,short loc_y,short others_property) - This call should be made in the state START_SCEN_STATE. Initializes boat which_boat (which can be from 0 to 29). Places the boat in town which_town in space {loc_x,loc_y}. If others_property is 0, the party can enter the boat. If 1, the boat must be set as party property by a script before the party can use it.

 

Editor Appendices, under Scenario Initialization Calls

 

It looks as though you can't place a boat outside. I haven't tried this call at all, so I don't know if it works outside the START_SCEN_STATE.

[Drakefyre]

He does mean it correctly - if he can only hope to do a few damage per turn, then he should save basically after every turn, and then reload if he gets an unfavorable result.

[Therakul]

Thanks Kelandon. I'm not to sure what you're referencing Drakey, but if you're talking about the Fission Dragon, it's out. I'm too lazy to take the time to try scriping that all in. Instead I'm working on coming up with a new man sized monster that can actually challenge a higher level party.

 

In terms of balancing the treasure for a higher level party, would knowledge brews as an infrequent/rare drop from the aforementioned monster seem unbalanced?

[Imban]

Actually, I was. My opponent was an immobile priest, so I was sniping at it through a door and reloading any time it hit me hard enough that I'd spend so much SP fixing what it did that I would be unable to continue my attack.

 

Eventually, I wore it down and it died.

 

(This was caused by attempting to fight a 800-HP boss with a low-level party. It's not a good idea, all things considered.)

[Drakefyre]

Sorry, I was referring to the battle of attrition as well.

[Therakul]

Earlier, I asked about ways to move or delete a town entrance from the outdoor map (as I goof and put one somewhere I no longer wish it to be). Can anyone give me some instructions about how to do that? Please, remember, I'm a newbie designer, use small words and easy to understand instructions.

[Kelandon]

Edit the town entrance (to set it to leading to a different town number) and then hit cancel instead of entering a number.

[Therakul]

Ooh, okay, thanks! That did the trick.

[Therakul]

Okay, yes I double posted, but 's been a while since I came with another question. Does anyone know if it would be possible to make a creature carry around a field of darkness? If it is possible, I'd love to get help on it. I figured that would set the stage for a very interesting fight. I want to make it so that when the party encounters these things outside, all they see is a bunch of dark areas advancing on them. Then, whenever a character gets near one of the beasties, the beastie is only momentarily visible. Like I said, this would be really cool, but I haven't got a clue about how I'd go about making that happen.

[Gorvin]

Quote:

Originally written by Ragnarok Hellcaller:
Okay, yes I double posted, but 's been a while since I came with another question. Does anyone know if it would be possible to make a creature carry around a field of darkness? If it is possible, I'd love to get help on it. I figured that would set the stage for a very interesting fight. I want to make it so that when the party encounters these things outside, all they see is a bunch of dark areas advancing on them. Then, whenever a character gets near one of the beasties, the beastie is only momentarily visible. Like I said, this would be really cool, but I haven't got a clue about how I'd go about making that happen.

Hmm... you could probably do it if you used a black floor type set to block all view through it for the darkness. You'd just have to build it into the creature's script by making them change all the floor surrounding them into darkness whenever they take a step, and change the floor they just left back to what it was originally.

[Therakul]

Okay, more questions...

 

If a beastie is in a dark area, can it still use missile attacks?

 

If said beastie is in darkness, does its armor class improve?

 

Is it possible to change the lighting on the wandering monster encounter areas?

 

Finally, has anyone made any creature sheets for dwarves? You know, the short, bearded dudes with the subterranean home decor?

[Kelandon]

Quote:

If a beastie is in a dark area, can it still use missile attacks?

Yes.

Quote:

If said beastie is in darkness, does its armor class improve?

No.

Quote:

Is it possible to change the lighting on the wandering monster encounter areas?

I don't see a call to change lighting anywhere in the docs, although Jeff promised us it'd be there... right now I think the answer is no.

Quote:

Finally, has anyone made any creature sheets for dwarves? You know, the short, bearded dudes with the subterranean home decor?

Not that I know of. The place I'd look is the Louvre , and it doesn't have any dwarves that I saw.

[Therakul]

I'm trying to find where the icon adjustment info is in the docs, but I must be blind tonight, because I can't see it. Can anyone help out this poor, struggling designer?

[Linthar]

Icon ajustment is in Chapter 2.3 of the main docs starting at 48 and ending on page 49.