Single/limited character choice?

[Sergio Lazuli]

If I wanted to make a game that works best with only one or two PCs, is there a way I could script it so the player can choose only one or two of his characters to enter the scenario, and leave the others in limbo?

[Kelandon]

Look at the BoA Appendices under the heading, "Splitting Up the Party Calls." The call split_off_one_char will split off one character, although I'm not sure how well it works for the length of an entire scenario.

[Aluion]

Assuming you are familiar with the ins-and-outs of Avernum's scripting language..

 

You could (and this is a somewhat vile solution) check the amount of characters in group 0 (which is the group that contains the PCs).

 

If it is greater than 2 (or one, if you want a singleton), then popup a window telling them to delete some characters and then end the scenario or block the space until they do.

 

If it is less than 3 (2 for singleton), then do nothing.

 

This is quite simple to do via a special node or terrain script. I have some code which does this (though mine inflicts a Dread Curse on players rather than making them delete their party members. It's easily adapted to do either.). The benefit of this is that you do not use pre-fabricated characters, and therefore it allows the player much more freedom in character creation.

 

By the way, the split party calls only work in the current town, as far as I recall (it was that way in Blades of Exile, at least). Therefore, it would not last for the duration of an entire scenario, unless the scenario consisted only of one town, of course.

 

A little warning: If you do this, make sure you do not have any towns in which you can create characters, as then they could simply create a new party member after they passed the special node. Of course, some clever players may come up with ways to bypass this limitation, but no technique is flawless.

 

Also note that this forces their characters to be deleted. It doesn't leave them in Limbo. All of their items will/should be dropped on the ground when they are deleted, but the characters themselves can not be recovered at the end of the scenario.

 

Players who have more characters than the set limit would have to make a new save file, or they would lose their party members eternally. They could not take their party into other scenarios once they completed yours, as they would not have their full party, and all the experience gained in your scenario would be for naught if they use their other party (the one with all their members) in other scenarios.

[Lilith]

The split party calls technically *worked* if you took the party out of the town in BoE, but could potentially lead to bad things like permanent loss of the party's items. If you used two Split Party nodes in a row without a Reunite Party node between them, the party would be split with no way of EVER reuniting them. Don't know how well it works in BoA, but treating it with caution would be advisable.

[Aluion]

I've just tested it out in Blades of Avernum. Anytime a player leaves the current town with the party split, an error occurs and the party is reunited automagically with the split character.

 

It does not seem to matter how the character left the current town, whether through a special node or by crossing the town's boundaries.

[*i]

Quote:

Originally written by Aluion:
I've just tested it out in Blades of Avernum. Anytime a player leaves the current town with the party split, an error occurs and the party is reunited automagically with the split character.

It does not seem to matter how the character left the current town, whether through a special node or by crossing the town's boundaries.

I believe it says in the docs not to allow the character to leave.

[Aluion]

Quote:

Originally written by *i:
I believe it says in the docs not to allow the character to leave.

I'm quite certain it says that in the docs. In fact, I'm looking at it in the appendix right now. I just like testing things to check for and absolve possible workarounds.

Plus, I have no work today, and I have nothing better to do with my energy or time.

[*i]

The workaround is quickly reuniting the party, transporting them to a new town, and breaking them up again.

[Kelandon]

What about outdoors, though?

[*i]

You can't go outdoors unfortunately. You can, however, go in between towns.

[Sticky]

You could kill the other characters, and disable the revive spell.

[Solodric]

Actually, I've been thinking on this exact topic myself, and I have a question for you. Whats the level of your scenario? If its a level 1 scenario, you want them to make new characters anyway, so theres no real problem with forcing them to delete thier characters.

 

Meanwhile if its above level 1, you want them to be bringing in pre-used characters, so quite naturally they wont want to delete. M's suggestion is one I thought over, and it would work, but of course, no technique is infallible against the stupid Character Editor. So if a player is really determined, they can get past that.

 

But if they do and the scenario's no good for them, it's thier own damned fault isn't it? And it's because of that that simply saying "This is made for 1-2 characters, any more will ruin the scenario" actually will probably be sufficient.

 

Regardless of that, M's suggestion has another flaw - it requires you take away the revive spell, hence weakening clerics. Not a problem in Singleton, but if theres 2 players in the party, it's still a problem. If you want a two-person party, the best suggestion available is to notify the player that the scenario only works if they have two people, and simply not let them into the scenario until thier party is at 1-2.

 

Make them start on a tiny island with a portal, and the portal wont teleport them until they have 2 or less chars. Thats my only suggestion for 2 party members, that are above level 1.

[Sticky]

There are the calls that are run at the start of each turn. You could check how many characters are in the party/How many characters are alive and then if there were more alive than you wanted kill them. This would be extremly irritating to deal with using the editor as it would have to be used every turn. Using this you could keep the revive spell even- They would have to use it every turn to keep the character(s) alive. If the player was willing to play the game the way that it was intended, they wouldn't have to lose their party to do so.