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New to designing - advise and help, please.


Lokiron

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Hello everyone.

 

I've just registered BoA and I want to try to make some scenarios myself.

But I have no experience except for an invader game I made in 8. grade..

So I was wondering if anyone could take the time to give me some advise about every aspect of designing.

Which applications should I download, what should I read, and so on.

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Firstly, well done!! The community loves designers.

 

It really depends if you are using Mac or PC with regards to applications, but all you really need are the BoA editor and a text editor. I would recommend the 3D editor though - it certainly helps.

 

Also, reading the BoA docs is a MUST. The first chapter in particular will be invalubale.

 

Also, START SMALL. Seriously. Download and play "Settlers" by TM to see what I mean here - this scenario also has a quick guide to creating scenarios that even new designers can follow.

 

And finally, don;t be afraid to ask questions - WE ARE HERE TO HELP YOU.

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Okay, now let me see...

 

Firstly, get the 3Deditor , as Morricone suggested. It is a very good program and an absolute must for a designer. If you use a Mac, I recommend to you Textwrangel , which is a free, powerfull text editor. I recommend it to all designers. I also recommend Alint, which is a script-checking program. It can check your scripts for any mistakes before you load it into BoA to test your scenario, and that way saves you loads of time. Get it here .

 

So far for programs which I really recommend. There are others, but I don't think they will be very usefull for a new designer.

 

Now for the scripting (the 3DEditor you will have to figure out for yourself, I'm afraid, but don't be afraid to ask if you don't understand something.):

 

First things first: With the normal editor you can get from the Blades of Avernum Editor site at SW: scenario workshop , comes a very handy manual, written by Jeff, listing all calls in BoA. if you want to see if a certain call exists. You can also look at the script reference . I also recommend Erik Westra's Cookbook , which explains how to code basic stuff. It is really very handy and it helped me a lot when I started WtRM.

 

There are a couple of handy articles for designers at the Lyceum , Kelandon\'s page , and, not to forget, the relevant SW page .

 

So, I hope that's enough to get you started. If you have any questions, we will be only to pleased to answer them.

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Quote:
Originally written by Lokiron:
I am on a regular, mundane WindowsXP PC.
Ah, that's a shame... I can't recommend you any text editor for that, I'm afraid...

other programs will work, though I don't think there is any updated Windows 3DEditor yet. I think you will have to use either the old one, or the 2D thing by Jeff.
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Sweet, another scenario designer. When I first started creating my scenario (which isn't finished), it proved useful to compare to the scripts of other scenarios. Scripts need to be free of typos (or the computer rejects it), but using the "go to line" feature of some text editors help.

 

Drakefyre has some good advice at his website: http://www.sitemouse.com/users/drakefyre/boa.html

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Quote:
Originally written by Calphrexo:
Quote:
Originally written by Lokiron:
I am on a regular, mundane WindowsXP PC.

Thralni, I can't find the 3D Editor for windows on the page you linked.
It's not where he linked. It can be found for Windows at its Sourceforge site.
Yeah, I sort of almost assumed you used Mac, and the Windows editor is not the editor improved by niemand, so there.
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You can find the link for Crimson Editor (and EditPad Lite) at SpidWeb's Scenario Workshop . Like Nioca, I use PN2. I should look at creating an AvernumScript .scheme file for it one day... the lack of docs makes it difficult.

 

--------------------

George is a radio announcer, and when he walks under a bridge you can't hear him talk.

- Steven Wright

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Alint is really good but it is not perfect, there a few things wrong with it. But in between it and the error messages coming from the game itself, you should be well placed to spot errors.

 

It fails to detect some errors, illegal numbers for items&. Then it refuses to accept the sanctification state for some weird reason.

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