Profile for Spidweb
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Displayed name | Spidweb |
| Member number | 1 |
| Title | Board Administrator |
| Postcount | 960 |
| Homepage | http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com |
| Registered | Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
Recent posts
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| Author | Recent posts |
|---|---|
| General Editor Question in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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Board Administrator
Member # 1
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written Monday, April 12 2004 12:28
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Blades of Avernum is designed so any player can take any party into any scenario. The tools given to scenario designers to circumvent this are very limited. There is currently no way to determine the gender of a character. - Jeff -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| General Editor Question in Blades of Avernum | |
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Board Administrator
Member # 1
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written Monday, April 12 2004 12:28
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Homepage
Blades of Avernum is designed so any player can take any party into any scenario. The tools given to scenario designers to circumvent this are very limited. There is currently no way to determine the gender of a character. - Jeff -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| BoA beta patch available. in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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Board Administrator
Member # 1
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written Friday, April 9 2004 13:05
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I've been chasing down annoying graphics glitches in Panther. I have a beta v1.0.1 patch available. Before I made it a big public patch, I wanted to see how it interacted with new scenarios. if you'd like to try out the advance v1.0.1, it's in ftp://ftp.spiderwebsoftware.com/temp/ If you try it, I've really appreciate it if you dropped me a line at spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com. Feel free to write even if it works fine. Knowing it works for people is important. Have a nice weekend. We have babysitting and are fleeing to Norwescon, a science fiction convention near Seattle. -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| BoA beta patch available. in Blades of Avernum | |
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Board Administrator
Member # 1
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written Friday, April 9 2004 13:05
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I've been chasing down annoying graphics glitches in Panther. I have a beta v1.0.1 patch available. Before I made it a big public patch, I wanted to see how it interacted with new scenarios. if you'd like to try out the advance v1.0.1, it's in ftp://ftp.spiderwebsoftware.com/temp/ If you try it, I've really appreciate it if you dropped me a line at spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com. Feel free to write even if it works fine. Knowing it works for people is important. Have a nice weekend. We have babysitting and are fleeing to Norwescon, a science fiction convention near Seattle. -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Monsters dropping items... in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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Board Administrator
Member # 1
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written Wednesday, April 7 2004 13:48
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Another in a long list of things I should have documented but forgot to. When a monster is killed, any item in its inventory that has a value of less than 100 coins and is not magic has a 40% chance of disappearing instead of dropping on the ground. This was put in to keep the town's item buffer from being swamped by useless items (and keeping the player from having to sort through lots of trash). If you want the party to find an item for sure, make it magic or high value, place it with put_item_on_spot when the creature dies, or place in in the town, not on a character. - Jeff -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Monsters dropping items... in Blades of Avernum | |
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Board Administrator
Member # 1
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written Wednesday, April 7 2004 13:48
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Another in a long list of things I should have documented but forgot to. When a monster is killed, any item in its inventory that has a value of less than 100 coins and is not magic has a 40% chance of disappearing instead of dropping on the ground. This was put in to keep the town's item buffer from being swamped by useless items (and keeping the player from having to sort through lots of trash). If you want the party to find an item for sure, make it magic or high value, place it with put_item_on_spot when the creature dies, or place in in the town, not on a character. - Jeff -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Aggravating Bug in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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Board Administrator
Member # 1
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written Tuesday, April 6 2004 13:19
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DEAD_STATE Not Always Called What a character's character id is -1 (which happens, among other times, when a creature is in an outdoor combat or made by a splitting monster), its DEAD_STATE is not called when it died. DEAD_STATE is called normally for normal creatures. This will definitely be fixed when the Blades scenario format is upgraded in May or June. When this happens, other suggested changes will be made (including, for example, addition of a get_energy call). -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Aggravating Bug in Blades of Avernum | |
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Board Administrator
Member # 1
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written Tuesday, April 6 2004 13:19
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DEAD_STATE Not Always Called What a character's character id is -1 (which happens, among other times, when a creature is in an outdoor combat or made by a splitting monster), its DEAD_STATE is not called when it died. DEAD_STATE is called normally for normal creatures. This will definitely be fixed when the Blades scenario format is upgraded in May or June. When this happens, other suggested changes will be made (including, for example, addition of a get_energy call). -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| BoA Update 4-5-04 in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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Board Administrator
Member # 1
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written Monday, April 5 2004 15:47
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Will try to put out 1.0.1 of the editor soon. I will fix broken outdoor section importing, add some minor fixes, and give improved documentation. Windows editor is ported. Windows game porting is well along. Hopefully, the Windows version will be out in 2-3 months. -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| BoA Update 4-5-04 in Blades of Avernum | |
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Board Administrator
Member # 1
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written Monday, April 5 2004 15:47
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Homepage
Will try to put out 1.0.1 of the editor soon. I will fix broken outdoor section importing, add some minor fixes, and give improved documentation. Windows editor is ported. Windows game porting is well along. Hopefully, the Windows version will be out in 2-3 months. -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Article - Why? in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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Board Administrator
Member # 1
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written Monday, April 5 2004 15:39
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Actually, I will add this. "If I were you, I would make strides to alienate your designer community a LOT less -- there's a HUGE amount of discontent with your attitude among the best designers and they do NOT grow on trees." Hrmm. Looking back at my posts, it strikes me that my disagreements are very mild and I was very complimentary of Drakefyre's post ("excellent article" were the words I used). I do not see what I have said in this thread to justify anger, alienation, or any reaction more strong than "Hmm. I disagree with his opinion. Oh well." Don't be so mad at me all the time. I'm just a guy sitting in his basement. You'd like me if you met me. :) -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Article - Why? in Blades of Avernum | |
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Board Administrator
Member # 1
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written Monday, April 5 2004 15:39
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Actually, I will add this. "If I were you, I would make strides to alienate your designer community a LOT less -- there's a HUGE amount of discontent with your attitude among the best designers and they do NOT grow on trees." Hrmm. Looking back at my posts, it strikes me that my disagreements are very mild and I was very complimentary of Drakefyre's post ("excellent article" were the words I used). I do not see what I have said in this thread to justify anger, alienation, or any reaction more strong than "Hmm. I disagree with his opinion. Oh well." Don't be so mad at me all the time. I'm just a guy sitting in his basement. You'd like me if you met me. :) -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Article - Why? in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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Board Administrator
Member # 1
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written Monday, April 5 2004 15:31
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"Further evidence that Jeff Vogel doesn't have any idea what the Blades audience is." The Blades audience is people who sent me a credit card number. :) Look. The only really good way to write a really good scenario is to write what you want to play. If you are only comfortable writing plot-heavy stuff, rock on. The only point I am making (and I feel it is a very mild point and I'm on pretty safe ground making it) is that a large portion of your potential Blades-playing audience mainly gets off on hitting things. Trust me. I read their fan mail. That's all I have to way on the age-old Plot Versus Carnage rpg debate. Back to porting. - Jeff -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Article - Why? in Blades of Avernum | |
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Board Administrator
Member # 1
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written Monday, April 5 2004 15:31
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"Further evidence that Jeff Vogel doesn't have any idea what the Blades audience is." The Blades audience is people who sent me a credit card number. :) Look. The only really good way to write a really good scenario is to write what you want to play. If you are only comfortable writing plot-heavy stuff, rock on. The only point I am making (and I feel it is a very mild point and I'm on pretty safe ground making it) is that a large portion of your potential Blades-playing audience mainly gets off on hitting things. Trust me. I read their fan mail. That's all I have to way on the age-old Plot Versus Carnage rpg debate. Back to porting. - Jeff -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Article - Why? in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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written Monday, April 5 2004 15:07
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"The purpose of Blades is to tell a story FIRST and make a fun game to play SECOND" Heh. This quote is going up on my wall. The idea that anyone writing a game would purposefully put fun second is, I admit, alien to me. You will have to remember that any advice I give is tinted by the community I write for. Consider Geneforge. That game has as elaborate and detailed a plot as anything I have ever done. But a huge portion of the player base is mainly excited by the ability to have a bunch of pet dinosaurs and burn everything to the ground. That is why I was very careful to make sure that the plot does not get overmuch in the way of the people who have no interest in it. It's been quite a success. Or, to put it another way, a considerably part of my income comes from parents on behalf of their eight year olds. Sometimes, I get ideas for really plot heavy, intricate story games. I tend to discard them, as writing too many games like that would cause me to end up losing my house. And, while ratings of scenarios are interesting, it is important to remember what any statistician can tell you: self-selecting samples are invalid. The people most likely to enjoy carnage-rich scenarios are arguably the people least likely to get into message board discussions about them. But one person's opinion (mine or yours) won't make any difference. Just write what you want to play, and then hope that the audience is there. - Jeff -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Article - Why? in Blades of Avernum | |
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Board Administrator
Member # 1
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written Monday, April 5 2004 15:07
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"The purpose of Blades is to tell a story FIRST and make a fun game to play SECOND" Heh. This quote is going up on my wall. The idea that anyone writing a game would purposefully put fun second is, I admit, alien to me. You will have to remember that any advice I give is tinted by the community I write for. Consider Geneforge. That game has as elaborate and detailed a plot as anything I have ever done. But a huge portion of the player base is mainly excited by the ability to have a bunch of pet dinosaurs and burn everything to the ground. That is why I was very careful to make sure that the plot does not get overmuch in the way of the people who have no interest in it. It's been quite a success. Or, to put it another way, a considerably part of my income comes from parents on behalf of their eight year olds. Sometimes, I get ideas for really plot heavy, intricate story games. I tend to discard them, as writing too many games like that would cause me to end up losing my house. And, while ratings of scenarios are interesting, it is important to remember what any statistician can tell you: self-selecting samples are invalid. The people most likely to enjoy carnage-rich scenarios are arguably the people least likely to get into message board discussions about them. But one person's opinion (mine or yours) won't make any difference. Just write what you want to play, and then hope that the audience is there. - Jeff -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Article - Why? in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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Board Administrator
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written Monday, April 5 2004 12:49
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Another excellent article. When I am stuck designing an area or making the plot of a game, I always find ideas by returning to basics. "Who is here? What do they want? How are they going about getting it? Where do they live? What do they do from day to day?" In answering these questions, I always get ideas. I would only warn people not to let the tail wag the dog. Most people play Blades to beat up monsters and get phat lewtz. You need to come up with a reason why the Evil Monsters are in such and such an area, but don't feel the need to come up with something completely rational and bulletproof. My all purpose excuse is the "Area on the edge of the Empire." It is better to have lots of fun and action in an irrational setting than a scrupulously designed and plotted storyline that is on the dull side. Heck, the Roman Empire controlled more of the civilized world more totally than practically any empire ever, and there were still plenty of wild areas far from the core that needed the occasional pacifying. But Drakefyre is still 100% right here. Plotting and asying "Why?" are a marvelous tool and an opportunity. Thinking along the lines above will make designing a good scenario much easier. - Jeff -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Article - Why? in Blades of Avernum | |
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Board Administrator
Member # 1
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written Monday, April 5 2004 12:49
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Another excellent article. When I am stuck designing an area or making the plot of a game, I always find ideas by returning to basics. "Who is here? What do they want? How are they going about getting it? Where do they live? What do they do from day to day?" In answering these questions, I always get ideas. I would only warn people not to let the tail wag the dog. Most people play Blades to beat up monsters and get phat lewtz. You need to come up with a reason why the Evil Monsters are in such and such an area, but don't feel the need to come up with something completely rational and bulletproof. My all purpose excuse is the "Area on the edge of the Empire." It is better to have lots of fun and action in an irrational setting than a scrupulously designed and plotted storyline that is on the dull side. Heck, the Roman Empire controlled more of the civilized world more totally than practically any empire ever, and there were still plenty of wild areas far from the core that needed the occasional pacifying. But Drakefyre is still 100% right here. Plotting and asying "Why?" are a marvelous tool and an opportunity. Thinking along the lines above will make designing a good scenario much easier. - Jeff -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Special Encounter to Leave Town? in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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written Monday, April 5 2004 12:40
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There is no call to actually instantly boot the party out of a town. The best you can do is teleport them to a location at which they are then forced to walk out. - Jeff -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Special Encounter to Leave Town? in Blades of Avernum | |
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written Monday, April 5 2004 12:40
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There is no call to actually instantly boot the party out of a town. The best you can do is teleport them to a location at which they are then forced to walk out. - Jeff -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Unwanted lines in custom graphics in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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written Monday, April 5 2004 12:33
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I think I can answer this one. Some graphics programs (AppleWorks/ClarisWorks, for example) can set the PICT's bounding rectangle in a weird way when the graphic is copied out of the application. This can cause this behavior. To fix it, in your graphics program, shift the icon so it is at the far upper left corner before you copy-paste it into the resource file. (In other words, move it to it's as far up and left as it can go without shifting off the edge.) - Jeff -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Unwanted lines in custom graphics in Blades of Avernum | |
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Board Administrator
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written Monday, April 5 2004 12:33
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I think I can answer this one. Some graphics programs (AppleWorks/ClarisWorks, for example) can set the PICT's bounding rectangle in a weird way when the graphic is copied out of the application. This can cause this behavior. To fix it, in your graphics program, shift the icon so it is at the far upper left corner before you copy-paste it into the resource file. (In other words, move it to it's as far up and left as it can go without shifting off the edge.) - Jeff -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Za-Khazi (overpowered creatures) in Blades of Avernum | |
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written Thursday, April 1 2004 11:50
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I just wanted to chime in that the nastiest fights are generally avoidable. For example, you don't have to fight that Haakai at all. That's why I put those dire warnings outside his room. - Jeff Vogel Spiderweb Software http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Screen Freeze Problem in Blades of Avernum | |
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written Tuesday, March 30 2004 01:33
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Blades of Avernum has a very annoying bug/software incompatability I am having no luck tracking down. Sometimes, the screen freezes. The graphics won't update anymore, shoudl you can still command-s and command-q to save and quit. Hitting shift-R will correct the problem, but this is a crude workaround. I would like to rack down the problem. If you are having the problem and would like to help me fix it, contect me at spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com. I can make up new versions of BoA for you to see if they fix the problem. Also, if you could tell me what is going on on the screen when the freeze happens, it would be a big help. I beleive the problem has to do with dialog boxes closing, but I'm not sure. Thanks! -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| what the heck? in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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written Monday, March 29 2004 12:27
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I suggest going beck to section 1.1, rereading it, and going through all the steps in it. Scenario design is not easy, not at all. It's a complicated system. But it is possible, with not much work, to make simple scenarios. Go back to the step by step guide in 1.1 and work through it. Make simple scenarios and play through them yourself for fun for a little while. Only then, when you're comfortable with the basics, move to the scary stuff beyond. -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |