Profile for Vent
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Displayed name | Vent |
| Member number | 4186 |
| Title | Warrior |
| Postcount | 175 |
| Homepage | |
| Registered | Friday, April 2 2004 08:00 |
Recent posts
Pages
| Author | Recent posts |
|---|---|
| "Articles' Reviews" and "Article - Writting an Article" in Blades of Avernum | |
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Warrior
Member # 4186
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written Sunday, May 23 2004 15:54
Profile
Why not? :D Some suggestions: * Article's Article - Your first Article * Article's Article - The 10 Dread Diseases * Article's Article - High Level Articles * Article's Article - Don't Draw Focus! * Article's Article - Filler * Article's Article - Designing Quality Articles * Article's Article - Basic but Vital Tips Sounds interesting? :P [ Sunday, May 23, 2004 16:07: Message edited by: Vent ] Posts: 175 | Registered: Friday, April 2 2004 08:00 |
| Article - The Moral of the Story in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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Warrior
Member # 4186
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written Sunday, May 23 2004 15:35
Profile
Using VoDT as an example in this article is a bad idea, in my opinion! I note two reproaches which are still due vis-a-vis to contradiction: 1. VoDT doesn’t treat pollution according to a contemporary angle. 2. One reproaches him a coherence problem of the story, and NOT a problem of treatment of morals. The reproach is this question, “Why the deposit of waste had not been destroyed?”. 1 - Concerning item 1, indeed, this type of pollution is out of our current main concern. The contemporary concern is to be unable to control a global degradation of planet. However, the type of pollution, which VoDT shows, is a pollution that is much localised on the scale of the planet. Blow, in our eyes, this aspect can appear out of the contemporary subject. For the defence of VoDT, there are three aspects: * Initially, the scenario occurs 100 years later from what will be the cause of pollution. It’s not specified when really pollution starts, however, its devastator effect will take place in 100 years later, but the polluted area is very limited. It’s true that that can seem a minor problem of pollution in comparison with the contemporary problems in the center of the debates. However, pollution is a vast problem, and this type of pollution remains completely current. This scenario doesn’t cover a subject on the spot of the lights, but it points out an aspect of the pollution, which is forgotten a little. I think that it’s not justified to reproach it this choice. * Obviously, when one speaks about warehouses of waste, one thinks of those of radioactive waste. In this direction, the scenario covers the subject rather well. * Concerning the moral approach, the major design choice of the scenario, 100 years later, leaves little place to an effective debate. It’s difficult to present the reasons justifying the choices involving this catastrophic situation. That can even pose a serious problem of morals by giving the impression to justify murders of children. On this subject, I repeat myself, it is an interesting choice to present and develop two aspects of morals, the white and the black. Advising it systematically is an error. The trap is to justify the unjustifiable one, at least, for certain players. Moreover, for certain subjects, that can be very delicate and it is preferable to be a Master writer to do this type of treatment. 2 - Concerning item 2, this question has nothing to do with the morals of the scenario. The moral problem is linked to those who wanted to hide the potential problem. It’s not linked to know why those who feared the future danger did not act. This last point is purely a possible coherence problem of the story. To answer this point I am not yet ready to make an interpretation. I played only once VoDT BoA. In this moment, I play VoDT BoE. I already noted differences, but I did not finish this version yet. It will be necessary then that I play VoDT BoA again because I am not certain to point out some of the indices well to me. [ Sunday, May 23, 2004 15:42: Message edited by: Vent ] Posts: 175 | Registered: Friday, April 2 2004 08:00 |
| Article - The Moral of the Story in Blades of Avernum | |
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Warrior
Member # 4186
|
written Sunday, May 23 2004 15:35
Profile
Using VoDT as an example in this article is a bad idea, in my opinion! I note two reproaches which are still due vis-a-vis to contradiction: 1. VoDT doesn’t treat pollution according to a contemporary angle. 2. One reproaches him a coherence problem of the story, and NOT a problem of treatment of morals. The reproach is this question, “Why the deposit of waste had not been destroyed?”. 1 - Concerning item 1, indeed, this type of pollution is out of our current main concern. The contemporary concern is to be unable to control a global degradation of planet. However, the type of pollution, which VoDT shows, is a pollution that is much localised on the scale of the planet. Blow, in our eyes, this aspect can appear out of the contemporary subject. For the defence of VoDT, there are three aspects: * Initially, the scenario occurs 100 years later from what will be the cause of pollution. It’s not specified when really pollution starts, however, its devastator effect will take place in 100 years later, but the polluted area is very limited. It’s true that that can seem a minor problem of pollution in comparison with the contemporary problems in the center of the debates. However, pollution is a vast problem, and this type of pollution remains completely current. This scenario doesn’t cover a subject on the spot of the lights, but it points out an aspect of the pollution, which is forgotten a little. I think that it’s not justified to reproach it this choice. * Obviously, when one speaks about warehouses of waste, one thinks of those of radioactive waste. In this direction, the scenario covers the subject rather well. * Concerning the moral approach, the major design choice of the scenario, 100 years later, leaves little place to an effective debate. It’s difficult to present the reasons justifying the choices involving this catastrophic situation. That can even pose a serious problem of morals by giving the impression to justify murders of children. On this subject, I repeat myself, it is an interesting choice to present and develop two aspects of morals, the white and the black. Advising it systematically is an error. The trap is to justify the unjustifiable one, at least, for certain players. Moreover, for certain subjects, that can be very delicate and it is preferable to be a Master writer to do this type of treatment. 2 - Concerning item 2, this question has nothing to do with the morals of the scenario. The moral problem is linked to those who wanted to hide the potential problem. It’s not linked to know why those who feared the future danger did not act. This last point is purely a possible coherence problem of the story. To answer this point I am not yet ready to make an interpretation. I played only once VoDT BoA. In this moment, I play VoDT BoE. I already noted differences, but I did not finish this version yet. It will be necessary then that I play VoDT BoA again because I am not certain to point out some of the indices well to me. [ Sunday, May 23, 2004 15:42: Message edited by: Vent ] Posts: 175 | Registered: Friday, April 2 2004 08:00 |
| A game programmer's point of view in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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Warrior
Member # 4186
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written Sunday, May 23 2004 15:22
Profile
quote:You mean that there was internal functions with the same usage than NPC scripts? Certainly but they where written by Jeff and in C. The script language isn't only an additional step like: At the load of the scenario, the program read the scripts transform them in C functions and function calls, compile them, and go on. Be agree that all these steps are additional: - Read the script files and translate them in C. - Compile the resuting C code (in fact I doubt Jeff do that but there's an additional step anyway). But the core of the problem was certainly to externalize the programmation of these scripts. This require that the engine is rock solid agaisnt any (most) attempt that can do the scenario authors by using the scripts. Unlike when he was doing Avernum, Jeff couldn't be here to fix the engine or the "script" if there's a problem. This design in two parts: 1 - The engine. 2 - Possible calls (and data definitions) to program different NPC behaviors. That was certainly done for Avernum, but: Probably not at the same level of quality and testing. That's more particularely true because Jeff was doing it alone. What was possible to program in C functions various NPC behaviors, was a definition for Jeff who is a programmer and who knows the engine. Scenario authors are completely different users. They don't know the engine, they aren't necessary pure C programmers and they know nothing of the engine. This is a very different requirement: - The documentation needs to be written in detail instead of being inside Jeff head. - The documentation need to be fully right. If something was not possible for Avernum, Jeff was fixing it or was doing it differently. If something like that happens with a script you could get an unhappy user. - The documentation needs to be enough simple. The scenario authors should not need to have to understand how the engine works. The definition of each function needs to be sample All of that could have consequences, it's not just some written documentation. For example, this could require to change somehow the design of the engine in order to be able to define a script language or calls that have a definition enough simple. I'm not sure that will help, but I tried. :P [ Sunday, May 23, 2004 15:25: Message edited by: Vent ] Posts: 175 | Registered: Friday, April 2 2004 08:00 |
| A game programmer's point of view in Blades of Avernum | |
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Warrior
Member # 4186
|
written Sunday, May 23 2004 15:22
Profile
quote:You mean that there was internal functions with the same usage than NPC scripts? Certainly but they where written by Jeff and in C. The script language isn't only an additional step like: At the load of the scenario, the program read the scripts transform them in C functions and function calls, compile them, and go on. Be agree that all these steps are additional: - Read the script files and translate them in C. - Compile the resuting C code (in fact I doubt Jeff do that but there's an additional step anyway). But the core of the problem was certainly to externalize the programmation of these scripts. This require that the engine is rock solid agaisnt any (most) attempt that can do the scenario authors by using the scripts. Unlike when he was doing Avernum, Jeff couldn't be here to fix the engine or the "script" if there's a problem. This design in two parts: 1 - The engine. 2 - Possible calls (and data definitions) to program different NPC behaviors. That was certainly done for Avernum, but: Probably not at the same level of quality and testing. That's more particularely true because Jeff was doing it alone. What was possible to program in C functions various NPC behaviors, was a definition for Jeff who is a programmer and who knows the engine. Scenario authors are completely different users. They don't know the engine, they aren't necessary pure C programmers and they know nothing of the engine. This is a very different requirement: - The documentation needs to be written in detail instead of being inside Jeff head. - The documentation need to be fully right. If something was not possible for Avernum, Jeff was fixing it or was doing it differently. If something like that happens with a script you could get an unhappy user. - The documentation needs to be enough simple. The scenario authors should not need to have to understand how the engine works. The definition of each function needs to be sample All of that could have consequences, it's not just some written documentation. For example, this could require to change somehow the design of the engine in order to be able to define a script language or calls that have a definition enough simple. I'm not sure that will help, but I tried. :P [ Sunday, May 23, 2004 15:25: Message edited by: Vent ] Posts: 175 | Registered: Friday, April 2 2004 08:00 |
| Party Makers in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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Warrior
Member # 4186
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written Tuesday, May 18 2004 04:19
Profile
Drakefyre, I don’t know for the party maker you did but I know that I used a lot a similar scenario utility for neverwinter. In fact, I’m not surprised that not a lot of people used your tool because you hide it pretty well. I searched throughout all your (cool) site and in few other sites and didn’t succeed to put my hand on it. At least I didn’t felt on your tricky traps set all around the net with false url like the trap where dragongirl felt in. Kelandon, your post was initially made for authors not for players, perhaps there's not such a demand from authors. If you provide a tool that only allows setting the level you want, that will be already great from a player point of view in order to manage better the skills points available. Therefore, if you prefer to release it with only base features and see later when there are scenario for higher-level parties, go on, stop chit chat, go back work, finish it and release it. :P I agree that until there isn’t any higher-level scenario, the urgency of a more sophisticated tool is very low. That said, from an idealistic point of view and from the professional grumbler that I am, that doesn't solve all the problems: - As you explain, getting items is now very boring with BoA character editor (with BoE character editor it’s much more cool), you can only get a limited set of very powerful items. That’s why few shops with items available in the original game would be very useful. - Allows the player to get the amount of gold he wants is just to let him buy the items and saw the regular prices without to quit the scenario. - For a player, when creating a party, the problem is always what items, spells, alchemy and gold a party of this level should reasonably has. That’s why I suggested two sorts of merchants, one set with any items and another with items level roughly adapted to the party level. You could also add a standard amount of gold available that roughly depends on the party level. For levels 1 to 32, the BoA bundled scenario could be used to determine roughly what items at which level. After that level, it’s just a suggestion, in fact that could be also a suggestion to authors that want create higher-level scenario. - From other similar tools that I saw like one for neverwinter, some other features could be useful: * Having sort of dumies of different levels to test if you can hit them or not and at what rate. * Having arena with various set of monsters and different proposal depending of the party level. * Having some locked door of different level, in fact not very useful for lock picking but could be useful to see the effect of the unlock spell. [ Tuesday, May 18, 2004 04:21: Message edited by: Vent ] Posts: 175 | Registered: Friday, April 2 2004 08:00 |
| Party Makers in Blades of Avernum | |
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Warrior
Member # 4186
|
written Tuesday, May 18 2004 04:19
Profile
Drakefyre, I don’t know for the party maker you did but I know that I used a lot a similar scenario utility for neverwinter. In fact, I’m not surprised that not a lot of people used your tool because you hide it pretty well. I searched throughout all your (cool) site and in few other sites and didn’t succeed to put my hand on it. At least I didn’t felt on your tricky traps set all around the net with false url like the trap where dragongirl felt in. Kelandon, your post was initially made for authors not for players, perhaps there's not such a demand from authors. If you provide a tool that only allows setting the level you want, that will be already great from a player point of view in order to manage better the skills points available. Therefore, if you prefer to release it with only base features and see later when there are scenario for higher-level parties, go on, stop chit chat, go back work, finish it and release it. :P I agree that until there isn’t any higher-level scenario, the urgency of a more sophisticated tool is very low. That said, from an idealistic point of view and from the professional grumbler that I am, that doesn't solve all the problems: - As you explain, getting items is now very boring with BoA character editor (with BoE character editor it’s much more cool), you can only get a limited set of very powerful items. That’s why few shops with items available in the original game would be very useful. - Allows the player to get the amount of gold he wants is just to let him buy the items and saw the regular prices without to quit the scenario. - For a player, when creating a party, the problem is always what items, spells, alchemy and gold a party of this level should reasonably has. That’s why I suggested two sorts of merchants, one set with any items and another with items level roughly adapted to the party level. You could also add a standard amount of gold available that roughly depends on the party level. For levels 1 to 32, the BoA bundled scenario could be used to determine roughly what items at which level. After that level, it’s just a suggestion, in fact that could be also a suggestion to authors that want create higher-level scenario. - From other similar tools that I saw like one for neverwinter, some other features could be useful: * Having sort of dumies of different levels to test if you can hit them or not and at what rate. * Having arena with various set of monsters and different proposal depending of the party level. * Having some locked door of different level, in fact not very useful for lock picking but could be useful to see the effect of the unlock spell. [ Tuesday, May 18, 2004 04:21: Message edited by: Vent ] Posts: 175 | Registered: Friday, April 2 2004 08:00 |
| Article - The Moral of the Story in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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Warrior
Member # 4186
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written Monday, May 17 2004 22:18
Profile
I disagree and I'm tired to try to explain, :P there's a pollution morale in this scenario that's all I mean. And I also disagree that it's a good example of a wrong use of morale. That's also a great scenario. :D Posts: 175 | Registered: Friday, April 2 2004 08:00 |
| Article - The Moral of the Story in Blades of Avernum | |
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Warrior
Member # 4186
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written Monday, May 17 2004 22:18
Profile
I disagree and I'm tired to try to explain, :P there's a pollution morale in this scenario that's all I mean. And I also disagree that it's a good example of a wrong use of morale. That's also a great scenario. :D Posts: 175 | Registered: Friday, April 2 2004 08:00 |
| semi-article: Attach your document in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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Warrior
Member # 4186
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written Monday, May 17 2004 22:14
Profile
Ok guys, I agree I haven't saw yet enough BoE examples of readme to have a general judgment. :D Drakefyre, I agree, the hints or walkthrough is much better in a separate file(s) but as a part of a package and not through an url that could have disapeared or an email to contact that could not exist. So yes technically it must be in a separate faile but it should be like an annexe of the readme. About that, when a package include more than one file, it's good to provide a list of the files in the package with a short description for each file. Posts: 175 | Registered: Friday, April 2 2004 08:00 |
| semi-article: Attach your document in Blades of Avernum | |
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Warrior
Member # 4186
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written Monday, May 17 2004 22:14
Profile
Ok guys, I agree I haven't saw yet enough BoE examples of readme to have a general judgment. :D Drakefyre, I agree, the hints or walkthrough is much better in a separate file(s) but as a part of a package and not through an url that could have disapeared or an email to contact that could not exist. So yes technically it must be in a separate faile but it should be like an annexe of the readme. About that, when a package include more than one file, it's good to provide a list of the files in the package with a short description for each file. Posts: 175 | Registered: Friday, April 2 2004 08:00 |
| A game programmer's point of view in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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Warrior
Member # 4186
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written Monday, May 17 2004 22:06
Profile
quote:As you can reuse a script, you can reuse a "subprogram" or more exactly in C language, a function. You just don't need to design a script language and only the set of data are really dynamic and non dependent of the code. Just imagine that the scripts are in fact directely written in C and can't be call directely by any authors with a perverse imagination and fantasy. :D In fact it's a bit more complicate because two points: * The engine itself will probably need to be reorganized arround the use of scripts. * In a team with separate scenario makers, it's mostly required to design an engine arround scripts. [ Monday, May 17, 2004 22:07: Message edited by: Vent ] Posts: 175 | Registered: Friday, April 2 2004 08:00 |
| A game programmer's point of view in Blades of Avernum | |
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Warrior
Member # 4186
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written Monday, May 17 2004 22:06
Profile
quote:As you can reuse a script, you can reuse a "subprogram" or more exactly in C language, a function. You just don't need to design a script language and only the set of data are really dynamic and non dependent of the code. Just imagine that the scripts are in fact directely written in C and can't be call directely by any authors with a perverse imagination and fantasy. :D In fact it's a bit more complicate because two points: * The engine itself will probably need to be reorganized arround the use of scripts. * In a team with separate scenario makers, it's mostly required to design an engine arround scripts. [ Monday, May 17, 2004 22:07: Message edited by: Vent ] Posts: 175 | Registered: Friday, April 2 2004 08:00 |
| Things that work in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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Warrior
Member # 4186
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written Saturday, May 15 2004 16:04
Profile
It's always dangerous to exploit non documented features, it could not work at next release. Posts: 175 | Registered: Friday, April 2 2004 08:00 |
| Things that work in Blades of Avernum | |
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Warrior
Member # 4186
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written Saturday, May 15 2004 16:04
Profile
It's always dangerous to exploit non documented features, it could not work at next release. Posts: 175 | Registered: Friday, April 2 2004 08:00 |
| Numbers of dialog nodes in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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Warrior
Member # 4186
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written Saturday, May 15 2004 16:02
Profile
Ok, but for doing some specific stuff like variants without to use duplicate towns or for some special idea, 200 isn't so much. It's possible to merge different dialog trees in one compatible with them in order to save nodes but that's more easy to have more nodes available. If 200 was ok but at the limit then for general use 400 would be probably a good bet. Posts: 175 | Registered: Friday, April 2 2004 08:00 |
| Numbers of dialog nodes in Blades of Avernum | |
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Warrior
Member # 4186
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written Saturday, May 15 2004 16:02
Profile
Ok, but for doing some specific stuff like variants without to use duplicate towns or for some special idea, 200 isn't so much. It's possible to merge different dialog trees in one compatible with them in order to save nodes but that's more easy to have more nodes available. If 200 was ok but at the limit then for general use 400 would be probably a good bet. Posts: 175 | Registered: Friday, April 2 2004 08:00 |
| Party Makers in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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Warrior
Member # 4186
|
written Saturday, May 15 2004 15:54
Profile
What would be great would be great for players would be a general party maker that allows : - To build any party level requirement; - and provides shops adapted to various categories level; - and allows get approximate amount of gold adapted to various categories level; - and that allows to get any gold or items you want without to need to use the char editor which is boring about items. [ Saturday, May 15, 2004 15:57: Message edited by: Vent ] Posts: 175 | Registered: Friday, April 2 2004 08:00 |
| Party Makers in Blades of Avernum | |
|
Warrior
Member # 4186
|
written Saturday, May 15 2004 15:54
Profile
What would be great would be great for players would be a general party maker that allows : - To build any party level requirement; - and provides shops adapted to various categories level; - and allows get approximate amount of gold adapted to various categories level; - and that allows to get any gold or items you want without to need to use the char editor which is boring about items. [ Saturday, May 15, 2004 15:57: Message edited by: Vent ] Posts: 175 | Registered: Friday, April 2 2004 08:00 |
| BoA Editor Cookbook Version 0.3 in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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Warrior
Member # 4186
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written Saturday, May 15 2004 15:50
Profile
I love your cookbook but how about add the following (more technical) sections: - A complete list of all the limits (number of dialogs, number of towns, and so on). - A sort of database of functions available that can be selected/sort on varous theme, like those usable in outdoor, and so on). The lists will be only the function name and parameters, a click could give its comments/details. That's not related to cookbook? Not sure, getting lost in functions is a newbie problem. Ok that hardly fit in a standard doc. Posts: 175 | Registered: Friday, April 2 2004 08:00 |
| BoA Editor Cookbook Version 0.3 in Blades of Avernum | |
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Warrior
Member # 4186
|
written Saturday, May 15 2004 15:50
Profile
I love your cookbook but how about add the following (more technical) sections: - A complete list of all the limits (number of dialogs, number of towns, and so on). - A sort of database of functions available that can be selected/sort on varous theme, like those usable in outdoor, and so on). The lists will be only the function name and parameters, a click could give its comments/details. That's not related to cookbook? Not sure, getting lost in functions is a newbie problem. Ok that hardly fit in a standard doc. Posts: 175 | Registered: Friday, April 2 2004 08:00 |
| Article - 10 Dread Diseases in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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Warrior
Member # 4186
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written Saturday, May 15 2004 15:43
Profile
Never said never, and look in the future for the long series of movies with a big evil like what you advise to avoid and that will anyway have a bug success. That said, be original is much better if not a necessity but, I'm sure it's still possible even with a classical big evil. I agree that we need fairy tales, at least some. Posts: 175 | Registered: Friday, April 2 2004 08:00 |
| Article - 10 Dread Diseases in Blades of Avernum | |
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Warrior
Member # 4186
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written Saturday, May 15 2004 15:43
Profile
Never said never, and look in the future for the long series of movies with a big evil like what you advise to avoid and that will anyway have a bug success. That said, be original is much better if not a necessity but, I'm sure it's still possible even with a classical big evil. I agree that we need fairy tales, at least some. Posts: 175 | Registered: Friday, April 2 2004 08:00 |
| Article - Your First Scenario in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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Warrior
Member # 4186
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written Saturday, May 15 2004 15:30
Profile
Ooops, Tatterdemalion isn't a first scenario. But I think I see what you mean. Someone have some great idea and put them all in their first or second scenario and after either quit the scene or just don't come back with more good idea. There and there I saw master first scenario but when the author did another, the technical improvements was enough to counterballance less good idea. Furthermore, as previous scenario database increase first scenario quality increase and there are more master first scenario. The problem is more related to Jeff advice, too many first scenario was never released because they was too ambitious. So it's a better bet to do a small first try. Otherwise if you start with a top class scenario that's just great and that's possible. [ Saturday, May 15, 2004 15:38: Message edited by: Vent ] Posts: 175 | Registered: Friday, April 2 2004 08:00 |
| Article - Your First Scenario in Blades of Avernum | |
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Warrior
Member # 4186
|
written Saturday, May 15 2004 15:30
Profile
Ooops, Tatterdemalion isn't a first scenario. But I think I see what you mean. Someone have some great idea and put them all in their first or second scenario and after either quit the scene or just don't come back with more good idea. There and there I saw master first scenario but when the author did another, the technical improvements was enough to counterballance less good idea. Furthermore, as previous scenario database increase first scenario quality increase and there are more master first scenario. The problem is more related to Jeff advice, too many first scenario was never released because they was too ambitious. So it's a better bet to do a small first try. Otherwise if you start with a top class scenario that's just great and that's possible. [ Saturday, May 15, 2004 15:38: Message edited by: Vent ] Posts: 175 | Registered: Friday, April 2 2004 08:00 |