Profile for Erik Westra
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Displayed name | Erik Westra |
| Member number | 385 |
| Title | Apprentice |
| Postcount | 33 |
| Homepage | |
| Registered | Thursday, December 13 2001 08:00 |
Recent posts
Pages
| Author | Recent posts |
|---|---|
| New Scenario: Death at Chapman's in Blades of Avernum | |
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Apprentice
Member # 385
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written Wednesday, August 18 2004 20:50
Profile
Hi Everyone, Firstly, thanks for all the comments and feedback about the scenario. I see that some of you have encountered errors and problems getting things to work -- could you possibly let me know whether you're running the Mac or Windows version of BoA? I developed the scenario under Windows, and didn't notice any scripting problems, but did notice one critical thing not working when I tested it on my wife's Mac (it doesn't stop you completing, but there might well be other problems as well). Since I don't have regular access to a Mac, I wonder if there are indeed differences between the two versions of the game which are causing problems. Of course, I could also have mucked up the scenario when I converted it across to the Mac, so it might be my fault anyway. If those of you who posted problems could let me know which platform you're running on, I'd be most grateful. Secondly, I forgot to mention something very important: there's a help file included with the scenario (a file named "HINTS.html") which you can double-click on to get hints on how to play the game. Several of you have been stuck on how to complete the scenario -- the hints file should help with that. If we can isolate the script problems down, I'll look at making some fixes and get an update out in the next day or two. Thanks! - Erik. Posts: 33 | Registered: Thursday, December 13 2001 08:00 |
| New Scenario: Death at Chapman's in Blades of Avernum | |
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Apprentice
Member # 385
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written Wednesday, August 18 2004 00:11
Profile
Hi all, I've just completed a short scenario which is now ready for people to play. It's called "Death at Chapman's", and is designed for first level parties. You can grab it (in either Mac and Windows format) from my BoA web page: http://dnet.com/erik/BoA I'd love to know how people find the scenario, as it's the first one I've ever written. It's not huge, and the focus isn't so much on combat as on solving a mystery, but hopefully you'll enjoy it. Cheers, - Erik. PS: Thanks to ButteredToast for his short scenario competition. It was his competition which prompted me to get the scenario written. Posts: 33 | Registered: Thursday, December 13 2001 08:00 |
| Suggestion for scenario design contest. in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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Apprentice
Member # 385
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written Tuesday, August 17 2004 16:44
Profile
Hi Overwhelming, In about an hour, the limit time is over (in my country. A few more hours over there). Actually, I'm in New Zealand, so the competition closed over here yesterday :rolleyes: I guess tomorrow would be ok to announce your scenario, Erik. Righto, thanks -- so long as ButteredToast is okay with it, I'll post a message to the main BoA forum tomorrow, then. And it would be nice if you could let me know, to announce (and host) it in my site too I see you've already done that -- thanks! Oh, and I think I still owe you a reply to a message you sent out to my old E-Mail address about the BoA Editor Cookbook. You're more than welcome to host a copy of the Cookbook there, and to include a link to it from your site -- just do whatever you think is best. Sorry -- I've changed to using gmail, and I haven't been checking my old E-Mail address all that often. Cheers, - Erik. Posts: 33 | Registered: Thursday, December 13 2001 08:00 |
| Suggestion for scenario design contest. in Blades of Avernum | |
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Apprentice
Member # 385
|
written Tuesday, August 17 2004 16:44
Profile
Hi Overwhelming, In about an hour, the limit time is over (in my country. A few more hours over there). Actually, I'm in New Zealand, so the competition closed over here yesterday :rolleyes: I guess tomorrow would be ok to announce your scenario, Erik. Righto, thanks -- so long as ButteredToast is okay with it, I'll post a message to the main BoA forum tomorrow, then. And it would be nice if you could let me know, to announce (and host) it in my site too I see you've already done that -- thanks! Oh, and I think I still owe you a reply to a message you sent out to my old E-Mail address about the BoA Editor Cookbook. You're more than welcome to host a copy of the Cookbook there, and to include a link to it from your site -- just do whatever you think is best. Sorry -- I've changed to using gmail, and I haven't been checking my old E-Mail address all that often. Cheers, - Erik. Posts: 33 | Registered: Thursday, December 13 2001 08:00 |
| Suggestion for scenario design contest. in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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Apprentice
Member # 385
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written Tuesday, August 17 2004 12:25
Profile
Just to clarify: quote:The scenario is actually called "Death at Chapman's" -- there's no "in the morning" in the title. Question: should I wait until after the competition has closed and judging is complete before letting others have a go at my scenario, or should I announce it now? It makes no difference either way as far as the competition goes (since it closes today), but I don't want to announce it if that'd annoy the competition judge(s)... Thanks, - Erik. PS: I deliberately didn't ask for beta testers, as I didn't think that'd be allowable for a competition entry. Hopefully there aren't too many bugs in it! Posts: 33 | Registered: Thursday, December 13 2001 08:00 |
| Suggestion for scenario design contest. in Blades of Avernum | |
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Apprentice
Member # 385
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written Tuesday, August 17 2004 12:25
Profile
Just to clarify: quote:The scenario is actually called "Death at Chapman's" -- there's no "in the morning" in the title. Question: should I wait until after the competition has closed and judging is complete before letting others have a go at my scenario, or should I announce it now? It makes no difference either way as far as the competition goes (since it closes today), but I don't want to announce it if that'd annoy the competition judge(s)... Thanks, - Erik. PS: I deliberately didn't ask for beta testers, as I didn't think that'd be allowable for a competition entry. Hopefully there aren't too many bugs in it! Posts: 33 | Registered: Thursday, December 13 2001 08:00 |
| BoA Editor Cookbook Version 0.3 in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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Apprentice
Member # 385
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written Tuesday, May 11 2004 00:48
Profile
Thanks, everyone, for the kind comments. And thanks to Eldiran for pointing out that mistake in the dialog node -- if you (or anyway else) notice anything else, please let me know and I'll fix it in the next version. Ideas for new recipes, etc, would also be most welcome. Thanks again, - Erik. Posts: 33 | Registered: Thursday, December 13 2001 08:00 |
| BoA Editor Cookbook Version 0.3 in Blades of Avernum | |
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Apprentice
Member # 385
|
written Tuesday, May 11 2004 00:48
Profile
Thanks, everyone, for the kind comments. And thanks to Eldiran for pointing out that mistake in the dialog node -- if you (or anyway else) notice anything else, please let me know and I'll fix it in the next version. Ideas for new recipes, etc, would also be most welcome. Thanks again, - Erik. Posts: 33 | Registered: Thursday, December 13 2001 08:00 |
| BoA Editor Cookbook Version 0.3 in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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Apprentice
Member # 385
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written Friday, April 30 2004 21:12
Profile
Hi guys, I've finally finished a major new edition of the BoA editor cookbook. Here's a summary of what's changed: 1. Added a table showing the default floor types and how they appear in the game. 2. Added a table showing all the standard items available in the BoA game. 3. Added a list of all creatures (NPCs and monsters) available in the BoA game. The creatures are grouped by level number, and a separate table lists the creatures graphically. Each creature is colour-coded according to whether it is friendly, neutral, or hostile. 4. Added a chapter on quickfire. 5. Added a section on using custom creature scripts to have something special happen when a creature is killed. 6. Added information about creating a custom backdrop for an outdoor encounter by creating a "fight town". 7. Wrote an extensive chapter on "hills and heights". I think this covers everything that people asked for -- if I've missed anything, please let me know. Unfortunately, the "neat links" page on the Spiderweb Software web site still has the wrong address for the cookbook -- as always, the cookbook can be obtained (in MS Word, PDF and online) from: http://dnet.com/erik/BoA Please let me know if you find any mistakes, or have any suggestions for new recipes to add to the cookbook, or anything else I can do to make it more useful for you scenario-designers. Posts: 33 | Registered: Thursday, December 13 2001 08:00 |
| BoA Editor Cookbook Version 0.3 in Blades of Avernum | |
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Apprentice
Member # 385
|
written Friday, April 30 2004 21:12
Profile
Hi guys, I've finally finished a major new edition of the BoA editor cookbook. Here's a summary of what's changed: 1. Added a table showing the default floor types and how they appear in the game. 2. Added a table showing all the standard items available in the BoA game. 3. Added a list of all creatures (NPCs and monsters) available in the BoA game. The creatures are grouped by level number, and a separate table lists the creatures graphically. Each creature is colour-coded according to whether it is friendly, neutral, or hostile. 4. Added a chapter on quickfire. 5. Added a section on using custom creature scripts to have something special happen when a creature is killed. 6. Added information about creating a custom backdrop for an outdoor encounter by creating a "fight town". 7. Wrote an extensive chapter on "hills and heights". I think this covers everything that people asked for -- if I've missed anything, please let me know. Unfortunately, the "neat links" page on the Spiderweb Software web site still has the wrong address for the cookbook -- as always, the cookbook can be obtained (in MS Word, PDF and online) from: http://dnet.com/erik/BoA Please let me know if you find any mistakes, or have any suggestions for new recipes to add to the cookbook, or anything else I can do to make it more useful for you scenario-designers. Posts: 33 | Registered: Thursday, December 13 2001 08:00 |
| Does fl_blocked work? in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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Apprentice
Member # 385
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written Friday, April 23 2004 00:40
Profile
Another quick question: I want to prevent the party from walking on an area within a town. According to the docs, any terrain with fl_blocked set to 1 should make the terrain impassable. According to the corescendata.txt file, both terrain types 23 (water) and 71 (pit) have their fl_blocked flag set to 1 -- so to my way of thinking I should be able to use these terrain types to prevent the party from walking on the areas of town I don't want them entering. Alas, I can't get this going. I've placed both water and pit terrain in this area of town, but the party can still enter it. So how are you supposed to prevent the party from being able to walk on an area of town? The only way I've been able to figure this out is to create a special encounter and use the block_party() call -- but surely this is overkill. Is this a bug in the game, perhaps? The docs clearly state that any terrain with fl_blocked set to 1 will be impassable, and characters won't be able to walk over it. Clues, anyone? Again, thanks in advance... PS: I'm partly asking this because I want to be able to include the answers in the next revision of the BoA editor cookbook...so rather than just kludge together a solution, I want to know how to do it "right". Posts: 33 | Registered: Thursday, December 13 2001 08:00 |
| Does fl_blocked work? in Blades of Avernum | |
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Apprentice
Member # 385
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written Friday, April 23 2004 00:40
Profile
Another quick question: I want to prevent the party from walking on an area within a town. According to the docs, any terrain with fl_blocked set to 1 should make the terrain impassable. According to the corescendata.txt file, both terrain types 23 (water) and 71 (pit) have their fl_blocked flag set to 1 -- so to my way of thinking I should be able to use these terrain types to prevent the party from walking on the areas of town I don't want them entering. Alas, I can't get this going. I've placed both water and pit terrain in this area of town, but the party can still enter it. So how are you supposed to prevent the party from being able to walk on an area of town? The only way I've been able to figure this out is to create a special encounter and use the block_party() call -- but surely this is overkill. Is this a bug in the game, perhaps? The docs clearly state that any terrain with fl_blocked set to 1 will be impassable, and characters won't be able to walk over it. Clues, anyone? Again, thanks in advance... PS: I'm partly asking this because I want to be able to include the answers in the next revision of the BoA editor cookbook...so rather than just kludge together a solution, I want to know how to do it "right". Posts: 33 | Registered: Thursday, December 13 2001 08:00 |
| Items not showing up when testing? in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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Apprentice
Member # 385
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written Friday, April 23 2004 00:30
Profile
A question for you guys... When you add items to a town and then try to test out that town by loading a saved game, the newly-added items don't appear. The only way I can get the new items to appear is to start the entire scenario over again, rather than use the "load saved game -> enter town" trick. I've tried using the character editor to reset the towns, but that still doesn't cause the newly-added items to show up. So how are you supposed to get newly-added items to appear in your towns when testing? Surely you don't have to restart the entire scenario again from scratch every time... Any ideas? Thanks in advance! Posts: 33 | Registered: Thursday, December 13 2001 08:00 |
| Items not showing up when testing? in Blades of Avernum | |
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Apprentice
Member # 385
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written Friday, April 23 2004 00:30
Profile
A question for you guys... When you add items to a town and then try to test out that town by loading a saved game, the newly-added items don't appear. The only way I can get the new items to appear is to start the entire scenario over again, rather than use the "load saved game -> enter town" trick. I've tried using the character editor to reset the towns, but that still doesn't cause the newly-added items to show up. So how are you supposed to get newly-added items to appear in your towns when testing? Surely you don't have to restart the entire scenario again from scratch every time... Any ideas? Thanks in advance! Posts: 33 | Registered: Thursday, December 13 2001 08:00 |
| Experience in Blades of Avernum | |
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Apprentice
Member # 385
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written Thursday, April 15 2004 10:48
Profile
Thanks for the replies, guys. So, to clarify: Races and traits don't modify the amount of experience gained; they only modify the experience required to gain a level. Experience is, however, modified by your current experience level (the higher your level, the less you get). Ah -- so this is why you can start out with a brand new party, have them all fight in the same encounters together, and all end up with different XP totals after they've gone up a few levels. They all start out with zero experience points, and start gaining it at the same rate -- but because they need different amounts of experience to go up a level, they'll reach level 2 at different times. From then on, the amount of experience they gain from an encounter will differ, because they're at different levels. And so, after a few more levels, they can have quite different XP amounts, even though they've all been through the same encounters together. Mystery solved! Alorael (among others) mentioned that the XP is split equally among the characters. That means if you play a party with two characters, each of them get the double XP compared to a party with four characters - which will make a two character party almost as good as one with four characters! Simply replacing quantity with quality, as the two characters will level up at double speed. Wow -- that makes playing with two-character parties really tempting. I must try it... Posts: 33 | Registered: Thursday, December 13 2001 08:00 |
| BoA Editor Cookbook -- what do you want? in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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Apprentice
Member # 385
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written Thursday, April 15 2004 10:38
Profile
Hi Magpie, Sorry if this is too basic. That's not too basic at all! You're perfectly right: heights are not explained very well in the docs, which makes them confusing -- and a perfect candidate for a recipe in the cookbook. Thanks! Posts: 33 | Registered: Thursday, December 13 2001 08:00 |
| BoA Editor Cookbook -- what do you want? in Blades of Avernum | |
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Apprentice
Member # 385
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written Thursday, April 15 2004 10:38
Profile
Hi Magpie, Sorry if this is too basic. That's not too basic at all! You're perfectly right: heights are not explained very well in the docs, which makes them confusing -- and a perfect candidate for a recipe in the cookbook. Thanks! Posts: 33 | Registered: Thursday, December 13 2001 08:00 |
| BoA Editor Cookbook -- what do you want? in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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Apprentice
Member # 385
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written Wednesday, April 14 2004 22:16
Profile
Gidday, Agent. Thanks -- that's exactly the type of thing I'm looking for: common tasks which I don't have a recipe for. I'll put that on my list -- and if you can think of anything else, please do let me know. Posts: 33 | Registered: Thursday, December 13 2001 08:00 |
| BoA Editor Cookbook -- what do you want? in Blades of Avernum | |
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Apprentice
Member # 385
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written Wednesday, April 14 2004 22:16
Profile
Gidday, Agent. Thanks -- that's exactly the type of thing I'm looking for: common tasks which I don't have a recipe for. I'll put that on my list -- and if you can think of anything else, please do let me know. Posts: 33 | Registered: Thursday, December 13 2001 08:00 |
| Experience in Blades of Avernum | |
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Apprentice
Member # 385
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written Wednesday, April 14 2004 11:01
Profile
At the risk of asking a dumb question, I've been wondering how BoA gives experience to your party for killing a monster. I can't find an exact description of this anywhere in the BoA manuals, so I thought I'd ask this here. When a party of, say, four players kills a monster, do all four party members get the same experience points (adjusted upwards or downwards according to their experience point penalties, if any), or do only those players who actually took part in the attack get experience? I'm asking because I get the impression that for a magic user to get XP, they need to actually cause damage to the monsters. If they just sit back and hide, or maybe cast a few haste and bless spells, do they actually receive anything from the encounter? My fighters seem to increase in XP faster than my magic users, so I'm curious if I need to use more offensive spells when playing... Posts: 33 | Registered: Thursday, December 13 2001 08:00 |
| Item List? in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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Apprentice
Member # 385
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written Wednesday, April 14 2004 10:54
Profile
Hi Magpie, It sounds to me like you've just made a request for the cookbook! That's a great idea -- I'll add it to the cookbook when I get the chance. By the way, you *can* get a list of the standard items by looking in the "I1", etc, menus within the BoA editor. The number of each item is sitting beside the name. I agree, though, that this isn't the most obvious or easiest way to find the number for an item, so I'll add it to the cookbook as well. Posts: 33 | Registered: Thursday, December 13 2001 08:00 |
| Item List? in Blades of Avernum | |
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Apprentice
Member # 385
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written Wednesday, April 14 2004 10:54
Profile
Hi Magpie, It sounds to me like you've just made a request for the cookbook! That's a great idea -- I'll add it to the cookbook when I get the chance. By the way, you *can* get a list of the standard items by looking in the "I1", etc, menus within the BoA editor. The number of each item is sitting beside the name. I agree, though, that this isn't the most obvious or easiest way to find the number for an item, so I'll add it to the cookbook as well. Posts: 33 | Registered: Thursday, December 13 2001 08:00 |
| BoA Editor Cookbook -- what do you want? in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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Apprentice
Member # 385
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written Wednesday, April 14 2004 10:52
Profile
Hi guys, I'm planning to start work on a new version of the BoA Editor Cookbook. If anyone has any suggestions for new "recipes" which they'd like to see added to the cookbook, please let me know. I'm sure I've missed lots of common tasks which people want to do with the BoA editor, so now is the time to put in your requests. I can't guarantee to put in everything that you ask for, but I'm very open to suggestions and ideas... Oh, I'm currently changing the URL used to access the cookbook. Instead of just having it available as a PDF file, I'm now making it available in PDF and MS Word format, as well as having it available online as an HTML page. Hopefully that'll keep everyone happy. The latest copy of the cookbook (in all three formats, and with the corrections people have pointed out so far) is now available at: http://dnet.com/erik/BoA This will be the "official" home of the BoA Editor Cookbook from now on. Cheers, - Erik. Posts: 33 | Registered: Thursday, December 13 2001 08:00 |
| BoA Editor Cookbook -- what do you want? in Blades of Avernum | |
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Apprentice
Member # 385
|
written Wednesday, April 14 2004 10:52
Profile
Hi guys, I'm planning to start work on a new version of the BoA Editor Cookbook. If anyone has any suggestions for new "recipes" which they'd like to see added to the cookbook, please let me know. I'm sure I've missed lots of common tasks which people want to do with the BoA editor, so now is the time to put in your requests. I can't guarantee to put in everything that you ask for, but I'm very open to suggestions and ideas... Oh, I'm currently changing the URL used to access the cookbook. Instead of just having it available as a PDF file, I'm now making it available in PDF and MS Word format, as well as having it available online as an HTML page. Hopefully that'll keep everyone happy. The latest copy of the cookbook (in all three formats, and with the corrections people have pointed out so far) is now available at: http://dnet.com/erik/BoA This will be the "official" home of the BoA Editor Cookbook from now on. Cheers, - Erik. Posts: 33 | Registered: Thursday, December 13 2001 08:00 |
| BoA Editor Cookbook in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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Apprentice
Member # 385
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written Thursday, April 8 2004 15:25
Profile
First of all, :) to everyone for the kind words. Now in response to various people's comments: It's usually spelled 'dialogue'. Dialog boxes are boxes that pop up with options for you to choose. Good point. I'll fix that -- thanks! I can write some stuff if you want, probably about moving the party between towns, creating monsters, etc. Thanks, Drakefyre, that'd be great. The first task is to figure out what sorts of recipes people want, and then write them -- we don't need everything, just the most common sorts of things people want to know when creating scenarios. By the way, haven't I've already mentioned moving the party between towns in the section called "Entering and Leaving Towns"? Creating monsters, though, would be a great idea. What other topics would people like to see? A major error in the file that I noticed: "Create the dialog script, and place the following at the start of the file: begindialogscript; " It should be begintalkscript (unless I am very much mistaken). Oops! I'll fix that in the next version of the cookbook... I absolutely hate PDF whatever the contents...Learn HTML or something. It'll make it 75% more accessable. Actually, I do know HTML (as well as Latex and about half a dozen other markup languages). I chose PDF because, as others have pointed out, it's possible to print out the resulting file. The original document is actually written using MS Word (I decided to keep it simple so that other can edit the file if they want), and I then generate the PDF file from the word document. I'm more than happy to make the original ".doc" file available, if people want that, and of course you can export MS Word documents to HTML, so that's possible as well. My only problem is that I'm using my company's web site to host the cookbook, and they don't have much spare space as they're using a hosted web site. If anyone wants to host the cookbook, please let me know and I'll pass it on. I actually considered making the cookbook a "wiki" (a collaborative web site) so that lots of people can contribute, but figured it'd be easier for people to have a file to download and refer to when creating their scenarios. All suggestions, though, are most welcome. Happy Easter! Posts: 33 | Registered: Thursday, December 13 2001 08:00 |