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Betatesters for 3D Blades of Avernum Editor! in Blades of Avernum Editor
Isaac
Warrior
Member # 4202
 written Thursday, July 15 2004 10:21 Profile Homepage #17
quote:
Originally written by Eldiran:

The awesomeness of this application cannot be expressed using words.

Yeah.
It's that awesome.

BUT like the little whiner I am I want to suggest a few more features.

- If you could figure out the whole tints thing, it would be incredibly useful.

- A mode of the 3D editor where the central point is the point of view and all things out of line of sight are blacked out would be awesome. Cave of No Return, for example, has two sets of tree terrains for the forest: trees that block sight and ones that don't. I can't distinguish between the two, which made it very difficult to get it right (which I didn't do) so seeing what the line of sight would be like would be very useful.

I don't have any more recommendations for features, and you're welcome to not add any at all. I'd still use your editor.

One more thing: THANK YOU SO MUCH!
Both of those things should be possible, but I'm not going to think about them any time soon. I'm tired of working on this. The only significant feature I'm likely to add soon is the "tiny rectangles", although if someone could tell me what functions to use for the tints in Carbon, I could implement that. Hmmm... Maybe I'll email Jeff to ask about that. He would know exactly what the parameters were, if any.

--------------------
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
Betatesters for 3D Blades of Avernum Editor! in Blades of Avernum
Isaac
Warrior
Member # 4202
 written Thursday, July 15 2004 10:21 Profile Homepage #17
quote:
Originally written by Eldiran:

The awesomeness of this application cannot be expressed using words.

Yeah.
It's that awesome.

BUT like the little whiner I am I want to suggest a few more features.

- If you could figure out the whole tints thing, it would be incredibly useful.

- A mode of the 3D editor where the central point is the point of view and all things out of line of sight are blacked out would be awesome. Cave of No Return, for example, has two sets of tree terrains for the forest: trees that block sight and ones that don't. I can't distinguish between the two, which made it very difficult to get it right (which I didn't do) so seeing what the line of sight would be like would be very useful.

I don't have any more recommendations for features, and you're welcome to not add any at all. I'd still use your editor.

One more thing: THANK YOU SO MUCH!
Both of those things should be possible, but I'm not going to think about them any time soon. I'm tired of working on this. The only significant feature I'm likely to add soon is the "tiny rectangles", although if someone could tell me what functions to use for the tints in Carbon, I could implement that. Hmmm... Maybe I'll email Jeff to ask about that. He would know exactly what the parameters were, if any.

--------------------
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
Betatesters for 3D Blades of Avernum Editor! in Blades of Avernum Editor
Isaac
Warrior
Member # 4202
 written Thursday, July 15 2004 07:51 Profile Homepage #13
quote:
Originally written by Morgan:

Excellent. The aesthetics were my first major gripe about the BoA editor (I've since moved on to other things), and now I can bear to look at the map editor.

One small gripe, however. Just from looking at Babysitting in the new editor, the dungeon entrance is obscured by the size of the trees. I appreciate that not much can be done about this (apart from rotating camera view - a major work), but it is annoying. It would be nice to switch between 2D and 3D, however nasty the 2D version is.
There is a way to switch between 2D and 3D.

Also, I'd say this is half good. Pay attention to this. If you can't see it, neither can the player. When playing Babysitting, the dungeon entrance is a little hard to find because of the tall trees. If they're in the way (and you're actually creating a scenario, not just looking at one), take the problem tree out!

quote:
Originally written by GIFTSare2happy:

So... you want to have to scroll a lot?
As opposed to tiny icons, yes ;)
I have not noticed any vertical squish in the icons.
The 3D pictures are 46 pixels wide and 55 pixels tall. The way the small 3D pictures were displayed, they were 16 by 16. The picture has to be shrunk a little more vertically than horizontally to fit that. It is not very noticable, especially since they're so tiny.

I've changed the small 3D pictures' heights to be 19 pixels, a little bigger than before. I hope this helps... I don't have much of a problem with the tiny icons (which are tiny in 2D as well; do you have a problem with that too?). You can download the new version from the same place, which is now in my signature. (it also has a couple bugfixes)

[ Thursday, July 15, 2004 08:06: 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
Betatesters for 3D Blades of Avernum Editor! in Blades of Avernum
Isaac
Warrior
Member # 4202
 written Thursday, July 15 2004 07:51 Profile Homepage #13
quote:
Originally written by Morgan:

Excellent. The aesthetics were my first major gripe about the BoA editor (I've since moved on to other things), and now I can bear to look at the map editor.

One small gripe, however. Just from looking at Babysitting in the new editor, the dungeon entrance is obscured by the size of the trees. I appreciate that not much can be done about this (apart from rotating camera view - a major work), but it is annoying. It would be nice to switch between 2D and 3D, however nasty the 2D version is.
There is a way to switch between 2D and 3D.

Also, I'd say this is half good. Pay attention to this. If you can't see it, neither can the player. When playing Babysitting, the dungeon entrance is a little hard to find because of the tall trees. If they're in the way (and you're actually creating a scenario, not just looking at one), take the problem tree out!

quote:
Originally written by GIFTSare2happy:

So... you want to have to scroll a lot?
As opposed to tiny icons, yes ;)
I have not noticed any vertical squish in the icons.
The 3D pictures are 46 pixels wide and 55 pixels tall. The way the small 3D pictures were displayed, they were 16 by 16. The picture has to be shrunk a little more vertically than horizontally to fit that. It is not very noticable, especially since they're so tiny.

I've changed the small 3D pictures' heights to be 19 pixels, a little bigger than before. I hope this helps... I don't have much of a problem with the tiny icons (which are tiny in 2D as well; do you have a problem with that too?). You can download the new version from the same place, which is now in my signature. (it also has a couple bugfixes)

[ Thursday, July 15, 2004 08:06: 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
Betatesters for 3D Blades of Avernum Editor! in Blades of Avernum Editor
Isaac
Warrior
Member # 4202
 written Thursday, July 15 2004 00:10 Profile Homepage #9
quote:
Originally written by Sathoj:

Awesome! My only complaint is that you don't factor in "tints" made to graphics, but that's minor.
Yeah, I couldn't figure out how to do that.

quote:
Originally written by Crunchy Frog:

In a word: Schweeeeet!

Now someone just needs to port it to Windows.

*glances around*

Hey, don't look at me, guys. I only have four days of holiday left! I mean, c'mon! :P

Edit: By the way, if you want PC users to be able to download the source code, you may want to package it as a zip. Stuffit files can *theoretically* be unstuffed using free software on the PC, but in practice I ran into all sorts of problems the only time I ever tried. And I tried about ten different programs. :(
OK, I'll make a zip version of the source available for PC. However, I wouldn't advise porting it yet, since it isn't quite finished. :P

quote:
Originally written by GIFTSare2cute:

As for beta testing, I am having trouble with secret walls locations in the 3D mode. But still, very great work! Begone are the sweets of me having to make editor graphics specificaly for the editor for my custom terrains and objs...
Be warned, the editor graphics are also used, scaled down, on the Automap in the game.
quote:
The icons are kinda small in the window where you choose terrain or floors. I suggest lessening the amount of terrain and floors on the scrolling thing so you can increase their size.
EDIT 2: So... you want to have to scroll a lot? Then again it wouldn't be so bad, it gives me a bit of visual overload trying to find the terrain I want among all those (tiny) images. I'll try making it at least not distorted (currently they're squished vertically), and then see how it looks.
quote:
EDIT 2: 3D Editing does not allow Setting Item atributes(charges and drawing shifts and the like) nor does it allow changing of creature atributes during 3D Mode. And as of the 2d wandering monster and script terrain icons, just use the icons from the 2d editor in the 3d mode. put them on the side of the terrain. So the scroll, B, Red Circle, Spawn locations, all those icons appear in a 3d way on terrain. Change the perspective of the icon(ex:Scroll for terrain script) so it looks like it is slanted.
I'll look into these things.

EDIT: Not being able to change item/creature attributes looks like a bug. However, I can't seem to reproduce any problems with secret walls. Can you give me more details? (or find out what you're doing wrong, so I don't have to fix it ;) )

[ Thursday, July 15, 2004 00:59: 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
Betatesters for 3D Blades of Avernum Editor! in Blades of Avernum
Isaac
Warrior
Member # 4202
 written Thursday, July 15 2004 00:10 Profile Homepage #9
quote:
Originally written by Sathoj:

Awesome! My only complaint is that you don't factor in "tints" made to graphics, but that's minor.
Yeah, I couldn't figure out how to do that.

quote:
Originally written by Crunchy Frog:

In a word: Schweeeeet!

Now someone just needs to port it to Windows.

*glances around*

Hey, don't look at me, guys. I only have four days of holiday left! I mean, c'mon! :P

Edit: By the way, if you want PC users to be able to download the source code, you may want to package it as a zip. Stuffit files can *theoretically* be unstuffed using free software on the PC, but in practice I ran into all sorts of problems the only time I ever tried. And I tried about ten different programs. :(
OK, I'll make a zip version of the source available for PC. However, I wouldn't advise porting it yet, since it isn't quite finished. :P

quote:
Originally written by GIFTSare2cute:

As for beta testing, I am having trouble with secret walls locations in the 3D mode. But still, very great work! Begone are the sweets of me having to make editor graphics specificaly for the editor for my custom terrains and objs...
Be warned, the editor graphics are also used, scaled down, on the Automap in the game.
quote:
The icons are kinda small in the window where you choose terrain or floors. I suggest lessening the amount of terrain and floors on the scrolling thing so you can increase their size.
EDIT 2: So... you want to have to scroll a lot? Then again it wouldn't be so bad, it gives me a bit of visual overload trying to find the terrain I want among all those (tiny) images. I'll try making it at least not distorted (currently they're squished vertically), and then see how it looks.
quote:
EDIT 2: 3D Editing does not allow Setting Item atributes(charges and drawing shifts and the like) nor does it allow changing of creature atributes during 3D Mode. And as of the 2d wandering monster and script terrain icons, just use the icons from the 2d editor in the 3d mode. put them on the side of the terrain. So the scroll, B, Red Circle, Spawn locations, all those icons appear in a 3d way on terrain. Change the perspective of the icon(ex:Scroll for terrain script) so it looks like it is slanted.
I'll look into these things.

EDIT: Not being able to change item/creature attributes looks like a bug. However, I can't seem to reproduce any problems with secret walls. Can you give me more details? (or find out what you're doing wrong, so I don't have to fix it ;) )

[ Thursday, July 15, 2004 00:59: 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
Betatesters for 3D Blades of Avernum Editor! in Blades of Avernum Editor
Isaac
Warrior
Member # 4202
 written Wednesday, July 14 2004 13:32 Profile Homepage #0
I am finally ready for the first release of my 3D Blades of Avernum Editor, version 0.8b1. Don't be scared off by the "beta" marking; I think I've removed most of the bugs.

Get it here. There is also a screenshot on that page.

I want feedback. Bug reports, of course. And especially, suggestions on one thing. In 2D, you can see terrain scripts, north/south/east/west town entrances, wandering monster creation points, damaging floor, etc. Currently, my 3D view does not display those. Should I keep it that way, or does anyone have suggestions on how to display those in a good way?

--------------------
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
Betatesters for 3D Blades of Avernum Editor! in Blades of Avernum
Isaac
Warrior
Member # 4202
 written Wednesday, July 14 2004 13:32 Profile Homepage #0
I am finally ready for the first release of my 3D Blades of Avernum Editor, version 0.8b1. Don't be scared off by the "beta" marking; I think I've removed most of the bugs.

Get it here. There is also a screenshot on that page.

I want feedback. Bug reports, of course. And especially, suggestions on one thing. In 2D, you can see terrain scripts, north/south/east/west town entrances, wandering monster creation points, damaging floor, etc. Currently, my 3D view does not display those. Should I keep it that way, or does anyone have suggestions on how to display those in a good way?

--------------------
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
Help: ASR: Taking out Jaen in Blades of Avernum
Isaac
Warrior
Member # 4202
 written Tuesday, July 13 2004 01:37 Profile Homepage #4
Have you gotten the mission from Stalker yet? If not, you can't get in.

--------------------
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
Babysitting: Translocation of Wands in Blades of Avernum
Isaac
Warrior
Member # 4202
 written Sunday, July 11 2004 09:30 Profile Homepage #14
They start with 65 skill points (assuming Custom). Where did they get these skill points? Townspeople would be much more powerful if they had them. I think your party has been training to be adventurers, or something like that.

--------------------
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
Ending a scenario in Blades of Avernum Editor
Isaac
Warrior
Member # 4202
 written Sunday, July 11 2004 08:59 Profile Homepage #13
block_entry(1);

--------------------
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
Ending a scenario in Blades of Avernum
Isaac
Warrior
Member # 4202
 written Sunday, July 11 2004 08:59 Profile Homepage #13
block_entry(1);

--------------------
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
Ending a scenario in Blades of Avernum Editor
Isaac
Warrior
Member # 4202
 written Sunday, July 11 2004 08:49 Profile Homepage #11
quote:
Originally written by Just Call Me Kel:

Archimage Micael (which is not much of an improvement over "archmagi," by the way -- there's no I in archmage)
My dictionary includes "Archimage" but not "Archmage". "Archimage" is quite correct; however, considering the way Spiderweb Software spells it, "Archmage" would be a better choice. Not that it matters. :P

--------------------
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
Ending a scenario in Blades of Avernum
Isaac
Warrior
Member # 4202
 written Sunday, July 11 2004 08:49 Profile Homepage #11
quote:
Originally written by Just Call Me Kel:

Archimage Micael (which is not much of an improvement over "archmagi," by the way -- there's no I in archmage)
My dictionary includes "Archimage" but not "Archmage". "Archimage" is quite correct; however, considering the way Spiderweb Software spells it, "Archmage" would be a better choice. Not that it matters. :P

--------------------
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
A3--Vahkohs, I thought he was dead? in The Avernum Trilogy
Isaac
Warrior
Member # 4202
 written Sunday, July 4 2004 02:25 Profile Homepage #7
Perhaps another undead learned Vahkohs's techniques, but was more ambitious and powerful that him. Then he named himself after Vahkohs.

--------------------
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
Graphics Problem in Blades of Avernum Editor
Isaac
Warrior
Member # 4202
 written Saturday, July 3 2004 00:35 Profile Homepage #4
On mac, GraphicConverter lets you do that.
Although it is a little hard to find:
Picture menu -> Colors -> Grayscale -> 16 Grays
(although there are other options for number of grays, I believe this is the best for this situation)

Then:
Picture menu -> Colors -> Grayscale to Red Channel

--------------------
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
Graphics Problem in Blades of Avernum
Isaac
Warrior
Member # 4202
 written Saturday, July 3 2004 00:35 Profile Homepage #4
On mac, GraphicConverter lets you do that.
Although it is a little hard to find:
Picture menu -> Colors -> Grayscale -> 16 Grays
(although there are other options for number of grays, I believe this is the best for this situation)

Then:
Picture menu -> Colors -> Grayscale to Red Channel

--------------------
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
KWP Update in Blades of Avernum
Isaac
Warrior
Member # 4202
 written Friday, July 2 2004 01:15 Profile Homepage #4
Given how complex (or rather, cumbersome) the system for what level you want already is in the script, why don't you let the player type in a level and then check individually whether it's "1","2","3"..."99","100". I'm sure you can do something about GOD. Either let them type that in too (text matching isn't case sensitive), or give it as an option in the first dialog.

--------------------
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
Ideas for security mechanisms. in Blades of Avernum Editor
Isaac
Warrior
Member # 4202
 written Friday, July 2 2004 01:05 Profile Homepage #13
quote:
Originally written by GIFTSare2nice:

Good punishment for players using that end combat to pass special encounters....
Use blocked spaces, they're foolproof. Unless of course you are intentionally trying to catch people trying to use that cheat. ;)

--------------------
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
Ideas for security mechanisms. in Blades of Avernum
Isaac
Warrior
Member # 4202
 written Friday, July 2 2004 01:05 Profile Homepage #13
quote:
Originally written by GIFTSare2nice:

Good punishment for players using that end combat to pass special encounters....
Use blocked spaces, they're foolproof. Unless of course you are intentionally trying to catch people trying to use that cheat. ;)

--------------------
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
Technical save-file question in Blades of Avernum
Isaac
Warrior
Member # 4202
 written Thursday, July 1 2004 00:40 Profile Homepage #1
The Blades of Avernum Editor source code (on Mac) has a "flip_short" (2 byte) function that it seems to use for all its porting scenarios from Windows to Mac. While this is not exactly what you want, I hope it helps.

Also, BoA scripts use shorts. However, all 9000 stuff done flags are single bytes. Both of these are definitely stored in the savefile.

[ Thursday, July 01, 2004 00:41: 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
Ideas for security mechanisms. in Blades of Avernum Editor
Isaac
Warrior
Member # 4202
 written Thursday, July 1 2004 00:19 Profile Homepage #9
...but if the designer was evil the devices could not be activated in combat (like standard wheels used to open gates)...

--------------------
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
Ideas for security mechanisms. in Blades of Avernum
Isaac
Warrior
Member # 4202
 written Thursday, July 1 2004 00:19 Profile Homepage #9
...but if the designer was evil the devices could not be activated in combat (like standard wheels used to open gates)...

--------------------
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
Betatesters wanted for BetterEditor in Blades of Avernum Editor
Isaac
Warrior
Member # 4202
 written Tuesday, June 29 2004 00:22 Profile Homepage #20
quote:
HTML is not enabled.


--------------------
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
Betatesters wanted for BetterEditor in Blades of Avernum
Isaac
Warrior
Member # 4202
 written Tuesday, June 29 2004 00:22 Profile Homepage #20
quote:
HTML is not enabled.


--------------------
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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