Well-Actually War Trall Spidweb Posted August 1, 2004 Share Posted August 1, 2004 One unfortunate oversight in the engine is the inability to directly affect the party's action points. The call deduct_ap only affects the creature whose script is being called. Since PCs don't have scripts, it won't work. (Actually, in the scenario script, it works on PC 0, an undocumented, accidental feature.) This is mainly an issue for custom abilities. To "fix" it, I was going to make custom abilities like spells and deduct 5 APs automatically. Would this more or less work? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Easygoing Eyebeast *i Posted August 1, 2004 Share Posted August 1, 2004 I think that would be fine. Also, you should look a few posts down: we have some thoughts by members on the community on a few new calls that would improve BoA design features. BoA Design Suggestions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall demonslay3r Posted August 1, 2004 Share Posted August 1, 2004 I like the idea. I think it would work like a charm. Well, for my purposes at least. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall Fort Posted August 1, 2004 Share Posted August 1, 2004 Would it be possible to add another call that can deduct AP from a given creature, including PCs? EDIT: Since you are paying attention to this topic, I might as well say this here. It might be easier in future games to use a call like ME() instead of hard-coding -1 to refer to the active creature, and to replace the lengthy my_number() call. Second of all, are strings still constants? They can be changed with the get_buffer_text() call now and all... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Donald Hebb Posted August 1, 2004 Share Posted August 1, 2004 As long as we're talking about the type of abilities you get from Divinely Touched, Elite Warrior, etc... Yeah. Although don't apply it to items, since deduct_ap(); actually does work with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall Fort Posted August 1, 2004 Share Posted August 1, 2004 Oh dear, that doesn't strike me as too good because the main attraction of those abilities is that they don't take up AP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Kelandon Posted August 1, 2004 Share Posted August 1, 2004 NO NO NO NO NO NO NO Add a call, deduct_char_ap or something like that. Give that one a second parameter. If given a choice between changing something fundamental to the engine and adding a new call to improve functionality, always add the new call. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall Spidweb Posted August 2, 2004 Author Share Posted August 2, 2004 Came up with a much more elegant solution. As it is, deduct_ap is not meant to be used except in creature scripts. In new releases, when called in non-creature scripts, it will deduct ap from the active/selected character (who is always the one using abilities). Adding a new call means creating a new scenario format, which means forcing everyone who wants to try custom scenarios to upgrade, which is a pain in the ass and eats up a pile of bandwidth. Not saying it won't happen, but it's a high hurdle to overcome. - Jeff Vogel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall Fort Posted August 3, 2004 Share Posted August 3, 2004 Well, you might want to add a bunch of the other calls we want in a slow, but sure, fashion. Then you could release SF3 and the upgrade would be worth it. Remember, you said you wanted to give greater support for BoA and listen to us more. Why do you need to change the Scenario Format to add a call? If players don't use it in their scripts, it shouldn't matter. And if your games are flexible and modular enough, you could just release a patch that is just full of differences. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Kelandon Posted August 3, 2004 Share Posted August 3, 2004 Quote: Originally written by Spidweb:Adding a new call means creating a new scenario format, which means forcing everyone who wants to try custom scenarios to upgrade, which is a pain in the ass and eats up a pile of bandwidth. Not saying it won't happen, but it's a high hurdle to overcome. Just for the record, Jeff, this is the reasoning that made BoE designers hate you. This is it, much more than anything else. As a layman, I don't quite understand what the difference is between downloading a new custom scen and downloading a patch to BoA, other than (I guess) the impact on your bandwidth, which would have a one-time spike as people download the new patch. After that, anyone new will download the new version anyway, so it's just a one-time spike and then you're done. It's NOT an inconvenience to customers and that's an absurd thing to say: how is downloading a patch more onerous than downloading a custom scenario? I do recognize that bandwidth is expensive, so I don't expect you to patch frequently, but not doing it at all is another thing entirely. And on the bright side, if you continue to patch BoA every now and again with bug fixes and even new features, BoA designers will speak glowingly of you on these boards, instead of showering you with the invective that BoE designers have over the years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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