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Field	Value
Displayed name	Isaac
Member number	4202
Title	Warrior
Postcount	192
Homepage	http://webpages.charter.net/theswamp/isaac/
Registered	Sunday, April 4 2004 08:00

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Who triggered this script? in Blades of Avernum
Isaac Warrior Member # 4202	written Wednesday, June 2 2004 00:28 Profile Homepage #0 Is there any way I can find out, when the party is in combat and one of the party members steps on a special rectangle, which person did it? [ Wednesday, June 02, 2004 00:30: Message edited by: Isaac ] -------------------- Creator of the 3D Blades of Avernum Editor for Mac. Get it at Ingenious Isaac's Illusion, my web page. Better yet, get Battle for Wesnoth, a wonderful free TBS game. Posts: 192 \| Registered: Sunday, April 4 2004 08:00
Divinedly touched in Blades of Avernum
Isaac Warrior Member # 4202	written Saturday, May 15 2004 02:40 Profile Homepage #10 Divinely Touched also increases Strength, Intelligence, and Dexterity based on level. That is how this effect works: quote: In addition to all that, Divinely Touched makes a character slightly better at just about everything. -------------------- Creator of the 3D Blades of Avernum Editor for Mac. Get it at Ingenious Isaac's Illusion, my web page. Better yet, get Battle for Wesnoth, a wonderful free TBS game. Posts: 192 \| Registered: Sunday, April 4 2004 08:00
Resource - Custom Creature Template in Blades of Avernum Editor
Isaac Warrior Member # 4202	written Tuesday, April 13 2004 02:22 Profile Homepage #1 The ".txt" shouldn't be there. Instead of `cr_default_script = "basicnpc.txt";` it should be `cr_default_script = "basicnpc";` -------------------- Creator of the 3D Blades of Avernum Editor for Mac. Get it at Ingenious Isaac's Illusion, my web page. Better yet, get Battle for Wesnoth, a wonderful free TBS game. Posts: 192 \| Registered: Sunday, April 4 2004 08:00
Resource - Custom Creature Template in Blades of Avernum
Isaac Warrior Member # 4202	written Tuesday, April 13 2004 02:22 Profile Homepage #1 The ".txt" shouldn't be there. Instead of `cr_default_script = "basicnpc.txt";` it should be `cr_default_script = "basicnpc";` -------------------- Creator of the 3D Blades of Avernum Editor for Mac. Get it at Ingenious Isaac's Illusion, my web page. Better yet, get Battle for Wesnoth, a wonderful free TBS game. Posts: 192 \| Registered: Sunday, April 4 2004 08:00
With friends like these who needs enemies? in Blades of Avernum
Isaac Warrior Member # 4202	written Monday, April 12 2004 12:05 Profile Homepage #3 Curing at skill 3 also cures dumbfounding. -------------------- Creator of the 3D Blades of Avernum Editor for Mac. Get it at Ingenious Isaac's Illusion, my web page. Better yet, get Battle for Wesnoth, a wonderful free TBS game. Posts: 192 \| Registered: Sunday, April 4 2004 08:00
Really Minor Bugs in Blades of Avernum
Isaac Warrior Member # 4202	written Monday, April 12 2004 11:27 Profile Homepage #2 Also, if you go into combat mode, explore a town, and leave the town by a stairway without leaving combat, the area you explored in combat will not be explored on the automap when you re-enter the town. -------------------- Creator of the 3D Blades of Avernum Editor for Mac. Get it at Ingenious Isaac's Illusion, my web page. Better yet, get Battle for Wesnoth, a wonderful free TBS game. Posts: 192 \| Registered: Sunday, April 4 2004 08:00
creature memory cells? in Blades of Avernum Editor
Isaac Warrior Member # 4202	written Sunday, April 11 2004 06:51 Profile Homepage #2 Why not use a variable? They last as long as you stay in the town, and can hold values up to 32767. -------------------- Creator of the 3D Blades of Avernum Editor for Mac. Get it at Ingenious Isaac's Illusion, my web page. Better yet, get Battle for Wesnoth, a wonderful free TBS game. Posts: 192 \| Registered: Sunday, April 4 2004 08:00
creature memory cells? in Blades of Avernum
Isaac Warrior Member # 4202	written Sunday, April 11 2004 06:51 Profile Homepage #2 Why not use a variable? They last as long as you stay in the town, and can hold values up to 32767. -------------------- Creator of the 3D Blades of Avernum Editor for Mac. Get it at Ingenious Isaac's Illusion, my web page. Better yet, get Battle for Wesnoth, a wonderful free TBS game. Posts: 192 \| Registered: Sunday, April 4 2004 08:00
move_to_new_town limitation in Blades of Avernum Editor
Isaac Warrior Member # 4202	written Saturday, April 10 2004 13:34 Profile Homepage #0 move_to_new_town appears to only work when the party enters one of those blue special rectangles placed in the editor. I tried using it in a terrain script and the START_STATE of a town script. In those cases that fail, it seems to block the party's movement and end the script, without taking them to the other town.. -------------------- Creator of the 3D Blades of Avernum Editor for Mac. Get it at Ingenious Isaac's Illusion, my web page. Better yet, get Battle for Wesnoth, a wonderful free TBS game. Posts: 192 \| Registered: Sunday, April 4 2004 08:00
move_to_new_town limitation in Blades of Avernum
Isaac Warrior Member # 4202	written Saturday, April 10 2004 13:34 Profile Homepage #0 move_to_new_town appears to only work when the party enters one of those blue special rectangles placed in the editor. I tried using it in a terrain script and the START_STATE of a town script. In those cases that fail, it seems to block the party's movement and end the script, without taking them to the other town.. -------------------- Creator of the 3D Blades of Avernum Editor for Mac. Get it at Ingenious Isaac's Illusion, my web page. Better yet, get Battle for Wesnoth, a wonderful free TBS game. Posts: 192 \| Registered: Sunday, April 4 2004 08:00
destroy_char_item only destroys equipped items? in Blades of Avernum Editor
Isaac Warrior Member # 4202	written Saturday, April 10 2004 12:47 Profile Homepage #2 I tried putting in a check for that, but it still doesn't work: -------------------- Creator of the 3D Blades of Avernum Editor for Mac. Get it at Ingenious Isaac's Illusion, my web page. Better yet, get Battle for Wesnoth, a wonderful free TBS game. Posts: 192 \| Registered: Sunday, April 4 2004 08:00
destroy_char_item only destroys equipped items? in Blades of Avernum
Isaac Warrior Member # 4202	written Saturday, April 10 2004 12:47 Profile Homepage #2 I tried putting in a check for that, but it still doesn't work: -------------------- Creator of the 3D Blades of Avernum Editor for Mac. Get it at Ingenious Isaac's Illusion, my web page. Better yet, get Battle for Wesnoth, a wonderful free TBS game. Posts: 192 \| Registered: Sunday, April 4 2004 08:00
print_big_str_color doesn't exist in Blades of Avernum Editor
Isaac Warrior Member # 4202	written Saturday, April 10 2004 10:43 Profile Homepage #0 "t1dungeon error: unknown command print_big_str_color in line 52." -------------------- Creator of the 3D Blades of Avernum Editor for Mac. Get it at Ingenious Isaac's Illusion, my web page. Better yet, get Battle for Wesnoth, a wonderful free TBS game. Posts: 192 \| Registered: Sunday, April 4 2004 08:00
print_big_str_color doesn't exist in Blades of Avernum
Isaac Warrior Member # 4202	written Saturday, April 10 2004 10:43 Profile Homepage #0 "t1dungeon error: unknown command print_big_str_color in line 52." -------------------- Creator of the 3D Blades of Avernum Editor for Mac. Get it at Ingenious Isaac's Illusion, my web page. Better yet, get Battle for Wesnoth, a wonderful free TBS game. Posts: 192 \| Registered: Sunday, April 4 2004 08:00
Post yer monster scripts here in Blades of Avernum Editor
Isaac Warrior Member # 4202	written Saturday, April 10 2004 06:20 Profile Homepage #33 quote: Originally written by Walker White: True. I was thinking that you cannot do it in unary instances such as !char_ok(x), but I guess in all those cases you just do (char_ok(x) == FALSE). So maybe that's not too bad. It would be nice, however, to have !x available for making x = 1 if 0 and 0 if anything else. Right now that requires an if-branch. No, just do what you said: (x == FALSE) You don't need to put that in an if-branch. It's equivalent to (!x), if that did what you want it to. -------------------- Creator of the 3D Blades of Avernum Editor for Mac. Get it at Ingenious Isaac's Illusion, my web page. Better yet, get Battle for Wesnoth, a wonderful free TBS game. Posts: 192 \| Registered: Sunday, April 4 2004 08:00
Post yer monster scripts here in Blades of Avernum
Isaac Warrior Member # 4202	written Saturday, April 10 2004 06:20 Profile Homepage #33 quote: Originally written by Walker White: True. I was thinking that you cannot do it in unary instances such as !char_ok(x), but I guess in all those cases you just do (char_ok(x) == FALSE). So maybe that's not too bad. It would be nice, however, to have !x available for making x = 1 if 0 and 0 if anything else. Right now that requires an if-branch. No, just do what you said: (x == FALSE) You don't need to put that in an if-branch. It's equivalent to (!x), if that did what you want it to. -------------------- Creator of the 3D Blades of Avernum Editor for Mac. Get it at Ingenious Isaac's Illusion, my web page. Better yet, get Battle for Wesnoth, a wonderful free TBS game. Posts: 192 \| Registered: Sunday, April 4 2004 08:00
destroy_char_item only destroys equipped items? in Blades of Avernum Editor
Isaac Warrior Member # 4202	written Saturday, April 10 2004 06:14 Profile Homepage #0 I wouldn't do this in a normal scenario, but here's my troublesome code. It's supposed to destroy all of the party's items, equipped or in their pack. It seems to only destroy equipped items. -------------------- Creator of the 3D Blades of Avernum Editor for Mac. Get it at Ingenious Isaac's Illusion, my web page. Better yet, get Battle for Wesnoth, a wonderful free TBS game. Posts: 192 \| Registered: Sunday, April 4 2004 08:00
destroy_char_item only destroys equipped items? in Blades of Avernum
Isaac Warrior Member # 4202	written Saturday, April 10 2004 06:14 Profile Homepage #0 I wouldn't do this in a normal scenario, but here's my troublesome code. It's supposed to destroy all of the party's items, equipped or in their pack. It seems to only destroy equipped items. -------------------- Creator of the 3D Blades of Avernum Editor for Mac. Get it at Ingenious Isaac's Illusion, my web page. Better yet, get Battle for Wesnoth, a wonderful free TBS game. Posts: 192 \| Registered: Sunday, April 4 2004 08:00
Article - Useful Dialogue Tips in Blades of Avernum Editor
Isaac Warrior Member # 4202	written Saturday, April 10 2004 01:47 Profile Homepage #2 You're right. Probably I shouldn't list their relative importance. I'll edit it and take out the part about "from most to least important", and fighting monsters "all the time". However, fighting monsters is the most important part of BoA. Sure, there could be a scenario without monsters, but the engine is designed mainly for combat. Also, while plot is certainly necessary, it doesn't have to be in dialogue. You could find out everything in the enemy's lair, for example. For reference, it said: quote: Talking is an essential part of Blades of Avernum. It serves several roles, from most to least important: 1) Shops 2) Advance the plot 3) Give the player hints 4) Add realism 5) Give the player a break from fighting monsters all the time (some people like having conversations, too) now: quote: Talking is an essential part of Blades of Avernum. It serves several roles: • Shops • Advance the plot • Give the player hints • Add realism • Give the player a break from fighting monsters (some people like having conversations, too) [ Saturday, April 10, 2004 01:55: Message edited by: Isaac ] -------------------- Creator of the 3D Blades of Avernum Editor for Mac. Get it at Ingenious Isaac's Illusion, my web page. Better yet, get Battle for Wesnoth, a wonderful free TBS game. Posts: 192 \| Registered: Sunday, April 4 2004 08:00
Article - Useful Dialogue Tips in Blades of Avernum
Isaac Warrior Member # 4202	written Saturday, April 10 2004 01:47 Profile Homepage #2 You're right. Probably I shouldn't list their relative importance. I'll edit it and take out the part about "from most to least important", and fighting monsters "all the time". However, fighting monsters is the most important part of BoA. Sure, there could be a scenario without monsters, but the engine is designed mainly for combat. Also, while plot is certainly necessary, it doesn't have to be in dialogue. You could find out everything in the enemy's lair, for example. For reference, it said: quote: Talking is an essential part of Blades of Avernum. It serves several roles, from most to least important: 1) Shops 2) Advance the plot 3) Give the player hints 4) Add realism 5) Give the player a break from fighting monsters all the time (some people like having conversations, too) now: quote: Talking is an essential part of Blades of Avernum. It serves several roles: • Shops • Advance the plot • Give the player hints • Add realism • Give the player a break from fighting monsters (some people like having conversations, too) [ Saturday, April 10, 2004 01:55: Message edited by: Isaac ] -------------------- Creator of the 3D Blades of Avernum Editor for Mac. Get it at Ingenious Isaac's Illusion, my web page. Better yet, get Battle for Wesnoth, a wonderful free TBS game. Posts: 192 \| Registered: Sunday, April 4 2004 08:00
Article - Useful Dialogue Tips in Blades of Avernum Editor
Isaac Warrior Member # 4202	written Saturday, April 10 2004 00:59 Profile Homepage #0 Useful Dialogue Tips Talking is an essential part of Blades of Avernum. It serves several roles: • Shops • Advance the plot • Give the player hints • Add realism • Give the player a break from fighting monsters (some people like having conversations, too) Shops are essential to a BoA scenario. Most important is someone to identify your items and someone to sell stuff to. Preferably, they should be in the starting town so the player doesn't have to look around for them. Without these, the party will have their inventories full of unidentified items and items they want to sell. They can leave them lying in any town, but it will be wasted treasure. As a player, I find this very annoying. Also, shops that sell consumable items are important. Archers need javelins/arrows/bolts and non-mages need lights (candles, torches, and lamps). You never know if that kind of party might enter your scenario; don't assume they have a mage, for example. You should put in a healer somewhere, too. Other types of shops sell lights, food, tools, weapons, armor, bows/arrows, priest spells, mage spells, skills, alchemy recipes, alchemy ingredients, potions, scrolls, etc. You can even make your own random item shops using the calls get_ran and add_item_to_shop (although it is probably a better idea to decide what items you want in the shop instead of choosing randomly). Make sure the shops sell items at the right power level; in a scenario for starting parties, don't sell Iron Plate Mail. The party should be able to sell items to almost any shop that isn't a spell/recipe/skill shop. Almost all shops should have the same prices to sell to. This way the player won't have to bother going to the shop with the best prices all the time. Theoretically, it is also an economically sound decision for the merchants, at least within a single town. Using characters to advance the plot is a good decision. It gives them something interesting to say, and makes the plot feel more connected between people and monsters. The party is usually adventuring to save people from monsters. The people in danger ought to have something to say about it! They can say things relevant to the plot that have no actual effect, such as "The curse is making the crops die. People are starving." They can give quests, either side quests or part of the main plot. A quest should usually have a reward from the person who gave it. Characters can also give information. Beware, though: some players will not want to talk to everyone. Avoid putting information essential to completing the scenario in some random person's conversation. It is all right if he/she is an important person, such as Mayor Crouch in Valley of Dying Things, but you have to make sure there is a reference to lead the player to him/her. For example, in VoDT, as soon as you leave your room, you find a note telling you to see Commander Terrance, who gives you a quest to talk with Mayor Crouch. These also give decent directions to find the person — when you tell the player to find someone, make sure you give directions (for example, "Down the corridor to the south" or "In Sweetgrove"). Dialogue can be used in hostile towns either talking with prisoners, people that are hiding, or even important enemies. This is often part of the scenario's plot. The player can free prisoners for a quest, or learn about secret passages from a friend there, or perhaps do diplomacy with your enemies (or at least get to know them better). Characters can be used to give the player hints. If a certain thing is important, lots of people can say something about it. This way you can give important (non-secret) information to the player subtly. For example, everyone can talk about the monsters that appeared out of nowhere and their guesses about its origin. Or in VoDT, you can ask half the people about the School of Magery, which hints that it's important. Realism is important to keep your scenario believable. If people are farmers, they should talk about farming, and someone nearby might sell the food they produce. Also, some players like to talk. Give your characters more depth than "I sell armor." If the land is being ravaged by monsters and the towns are under attack, wouldn't people have something to say about it? Most characters in friendly towns have something to say or are at least willing to talk. Those that won't talk often have 'conversations' that are something like "I'm busy. Go away." To keep conversation interesting and realistic, give your characters varied personalities. (For more details about how to design characters' personalities, see the article Creating Compelling Characters.) Creating good dialogue can be very time-consuming. There are ways to reduce the amount you have to make. Less important people can have less to say. A crowd of people that are the same, like serfs or guards, can be very simple and all have the same dialogue in the same town. Talk to any guard in the scenarios that come with BoA to see what I mean. Don't put in more towns than you need, either, if they don't help the scenario in any way. -Isaac [ Saturday, April 10, 2004 01:52: Message edited by: Isaac ] -------------------- Creator of the 3D Blades of Avernum Editor for Mac. Get it at Ingenious Isaac's Illusion, my web page. Better yet, get Battle for Wesnoth, a wonderful free TBS game. Posts: 192 \| Registered: Sunday, April 4 2004 08:00
Article - Useful Dialogue Tips in Blades of Avernum
Isaac Warrior Member # 4202	written Saturday, April 10 2004 00:59 Profile Homepage #0 Useful Dialogue Tips Talking is an essential part of Blades of Avernum. It serves several roles: • Shops • Advance the plot • Give the player hints • Add realism • Give the player a break from fighting monsters (some people like having conversations, too) Shops are essential to a BoA scenario. Most important is someone to identify your items and someone to sell stuff to. Preferably, they should be in the starting town so the player doesn't have to look around for them. Without these, the party will have their inventories full of unidentified items and items they want to sell. They can leave them lying in any town, but it will be wasted treasure. As a player, I find this very annoying. Also, shops that sell consumable items are important. Archers need javelins/arrows/bolts and non-mages need lights (candles, torches, and lamps). You never know if that kind of party might enter your scenario; don't assume they have a mage, for example. You should put in a healer somewhere, too. Other types of shops sell lights, food, tools, weapons, armor, bows/arrows, priest spells, mage spells, skills, alchemy recipes, alchemy ingredients, potions, scrolls, etc. You can even make your own random item shops using the calls get_ran and add_item_to_shop (although it is probably a better idea to decide what items you want in the shop instead of choosing randomly). Make sure the shops sell items at the right power level; in a scenario for starting parties, don't sell Iron Plate Mail. The party should be able to sell items to almost any shop that isn't a spell/recipe/skill shop. Almost all shops should have the same prices to sell to. This way the player won't have to bother going to the shop with the best prices all the time. Theoretically, it is also an economically sound decision for the merchants, at least within a single town. Using characters to advance the plot is a good decision. It gives them something interesting to say, and makes the plot feel more connected between people and monsters. The party is usually adventuring to save people from monsters. The people in danger ought to have something to say about it! They can say things relevant to the plot that have no actual effect, such as "The curse is making the crops die. People are starving." They can give quests, either side quests or part of the main plot. A quest should usually have a reward from the person who gave it. Characters can also give information. Beware, though: some players will not want to talk to everyone. Avoid putting information essential to completing the scenario in some random person's conversation. It is all right if he/she is an important person, such as Mayor Crouch in Valley of Dying Things, but you have to make sure there is a reference to lead the player to him/her. For example, in VoDT, as soon as you leave your room, you find a note telling you to see Commander Terrance, who gives you a quest to talk with Mayor Crouch. These also give decent directions to find the person — when you tell the player to find someone, make sure you give directions (for example, "Down the corridor to the south" or "In Sweetgrove"). Dialogue can be used in hostile towns either talking with prisoners, people that are hiding, or even important enemies. This is often part of the scenario's plot. The player can free prisoners for a quest, or learn about secret passages from a friend there, or perhaps do diplomacy with your enemies (or at least get to know them better). Characters can be used to give the player hints. If a certain thing is important, lots of people can say something about it. This way you can give important (non-secret) information to the player subtly. For example, everyone can talk about the monsters that appeared out of nowhere and their guesses about its origin. Or in VoDT, you can ask half the people about the School of Magery, which hints that it's important. Realism is important to keep your scenario believable. If people are farmers, they should talk about farming, and someone nearby might sell the food they produce. Also, some players like to talk. Give your characters more depth than "I sell armor." If the land is being ravaged by monsters and the towns are under attack, wouldn't people have something to say about it? Most characters in friendly towns have something to say or are at least willing to talk. Those that won't talk often have 'conversations' that are something like "I'm busy. Go away." To keep conversation interesting and realistic, give your characters varied personalities. (For more details about how to design characters' personalities, see the article Creating Compelling Characters.) Creating good dialogue can be very time-consuming. There are ways to reduce the amount you have to make. Less important people can have less to say. A crowd of people that are the same, like serfs or guards, can be very simple and all have the same dialogue in the same town. Talk to any guard in the scenarios that come with BoA to see what I mean. Don't put in more towns than you need, either, if they don't help the scenario in any way. -Isaac [ Saturday, April 10, 2004 01:52: Message edited by: Isaac ] -------------------- Creator of the 3D Blades of Avernum Editor for Mac. Get it at Ingenious Isaac's Illusion, my web page. Better yet, get Battle for Wesnoth, a wonderful free TBS game. Posts: 192 \| Registered: Sunday, April 4 2004 08:00
Cause of the Curse in Blades of Avernum
Isaac Warrior Member # 4202	written Thursday, April 8 2004 06:45 Profile Homepage #3 Maybe I was mistaken about which door you meant. If you've gotten to the Library, then you need to get past the glowing doors and deliver an undestroyed textbook to the golem in the northeast. -------------------- Creator of the 3D Blades of Avernum Editor for Mac. Get it at Ingenious Isaac's Illusion, my web page. Better yet, get Battle for Wesnoth, a wonderful free TBS game. Posts: 192 \| Registered: Sunday, April 4 2004 08:00
Really Minor Bugs in Blades of Avernum
Isaac Warrior Member # 4202	written Thursday, April 8 2004 01:23 Profile Homepage #0 I've noticed a few cosmetic problems in Blades of Avernum v1.0: 1) When picking locks without a lockpick, it can say a pick breaks. 2) Hidden towns are displayed as visible on the automap. 3) This may or may not be a bug, but hidden towns that have buildings that block you still do even if they're hidden. This would either confuse the player or make them realize there's a hidden town there. -------------------- Creator of the 3D Blades of Avernum Editor for Mac. Get it at Ingenious Isaac's Illusion, my web page. Better yet, get Battle for Wesnoth, a wonderful free TBS game. Posts: 192 \| Registered: Sunday, April 4 2004 08:00
Really Major Bug in Blades of Avernum
Isaac Warrior Member # 4202	written Thursday, April 8 2004 01:04 Profile Homepage #3 No, if I attack O'Grady hand to hand the town does go hostile. -------------------- Creator of the 3D Blades of Avernum Editor for Mac. Get it at Ingenious Isaac's Illusion, my web page. Better yet, get Battle for Wesnoth, a wonderful free TBS game. Posts: 192 \| Registered: Sunday, April 4 2004 08:00

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