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Assigning Strings to Variables in Blades of Avernum Editor
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As far as I can tell, you can only assign a string in that way in the variables section. So for example

variables;
string test = "Test.";

Would be legitamate, but if you tried to write

test = "test";

Somewhere in the body of the script it returns an error. If you need to do this then I think you have to use get_buffer_text().

Edit: The problem isn't with Alint, I tried to assign a string in this way and got a missing semicolon error when I tested it in BOA (No, I wasn't missing a semicolon, I think its either the wrong format or just not a valid way to assign strings).

[ Tuesday, September 05, 2006 17:00: Message edited by: Lazarus. ]

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Posts: 900 | Registered: Monday, August 8 2005 07:00
Release Dates in Blades of Avernum
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I don't really have a release date in mind for TEV, it most likely won't be finished for the contest though. What? Don't give me that dirty look, I already have an entry.

quote:
Originally written by Dintiradan:

LoD1 needs a few dialog changes for a VTE
I can't fathom what this means, but I have the sudden urge to nod sagely. *nods*

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Beta Call for Echoes:Renegade in Blades of Avernum
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Windows testers: The Windows version of Echoes is experiencing some problems right now. TM is waiting to hear back from Jeff on how its possible to fix them. Windows testers should expect to receive ER whenever TM gets word from Jeff.

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Posts: 900 | Registered: Monday, August 8 2005 07:00
oooops i made a poll! sry im new 2 this forum! in Blades of Exile
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Double (or triple) posting is frowned upon, if you need to add something to a previous post you should use the edit button.

To get the full version of BOE you have to order it from Spidweb, it's $15.

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Posts: 900 | Registered: Monday, August 8 2005 07:00
Outdoor Assignment.... in Blades of Avernum Editor
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Profile Homepage #6
Here's a quick drawing (I love drawings) to illustrate my point. I'll use a 2x2 outdoors section, but it doesn't really matter about the size.

b1 d1 | b2 d2
a1 c1 | a2 c2

If A is the only outdoors you're changing, then make A2 the clean version of A1. Then move the party to A2, and notice that they are in a completely different "world" than the original outdoors. The party will never see the first four(the 1 series) of outdoors, only the 2 series.

The party can still go to the other outdoors sections, but when they are walking to what looks like the b1 outdoors, they are really in the b2 outdoors. The party won't know the difference, since they will be identical.

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Posts: 900 | Registered: Monday, August 8 2005 07:00
Anagrams in General
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Member # 6193
Profile Homepage #100
ADOS = soda

I'm too lazy to use ALL the letters :P

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Posts: 900 | Registered: Monday, August 8 2005 07:00
Outdoor Assignment.... in Blades of Avernum Editor
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Profile Homepage #4
Well my idea would assume that you would re-draw that second outdoor section as well (even if its only an exact import of the original). This way, once the party was moved to the new outdoors they would never see the original outdoors again.

If you decide to use rectangle calls then heres a few tips. If you're doing floors then I would have some sort of randomness to the floor assignment, that way the outdoors isn't one big bland area, and you can easily add some frills. If you're doing terrain then its more difficult, although you could have one terrain for the "debris" terrain, then just clear it and replace it with a random "clean" terrain (for example a tree or bush.) it would look something like
(if(get_terrain(locx,locy) == (debris terrain))
set_terrain(locx,locy,get_ran(1,(lowest number of clean terrain),(highest number of clean terrain))
This way the rectangle calls won't make your outdoors too plain, or draw over important things like roads or cities.
I'd still do it the way I suggested, unless you have more than 4 or so outdoor sections its really the easiest way.

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Posts: 900 | Registered: Monday, August 8 2005 07:00
Outdoor Assignment.... in Blades of Avernum Editor
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This is just an idea, there may be cleaner ways, I'm not sure.

Make two versions of your outdoors, one that's all messy, one nice and clean. Then you can just move the party to the clean one whenever they exit a town when they've completed the quest. This shouldn't be a problem since quests are usually completed in towns anyway. Use change_outdoor_location() when the party exits town and has completed the quest, so the party will show up in the clean outdoors. So long as the two outdoors never touch, it won't be a problem.

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Posts: 900 | Registered: Monday, August 8 2005 07:00
Randomness in Blades of Avernum Editor
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Profile Homepage #1
Use get_ran(x,y,z)
X- number of dice to be rolled. Probably just set this to 1.
y- smallest number each die can come up.
z - largest number each die can come up.

So put something like if(get_highest_skill(1) >= get_ran(1,1,20)). In this case, it is possible for it to occur even if your highest dexterity is only 1, but its only a 5% chance.

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Posts: 900 | Registered: Monday, August 8 2005 07:00
Using BoA to tell a story in Blades of Avernum Editor
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Member # 6193
Profile Homepage #17
Dintiradan's idea reminds me of a vague idea I had/have for a scenario. Basically it'd have have 4-8 stories, all of which touch upon each other a bit. Choices in one story would effect others etc. I've seen this done in movies / TV shows, but to my knowledge (which is limited to BOA) not in a scenario. The concept kind of reminds me of how Pulp Fiction's plot is presented, but with more storylines.

I put this idea aside because I couldn't come up with a good, detailed plot that tied all the stories together. Maybe sometime in the future.

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Posts: 900 | Registered: Monday, August 8 2005 07:00
Beta Call for Echoes:Renegade in Blades of Avernum
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Profile Homepage #19
TM's sending out a new .bas file. All testers should restart, as this is fixing a problem that makes the scenario unfinishable.

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Posts: 900 | Registered: Monday, August 8 2005 07:00
Message Calls Are The Devil in Blades of Avernum Editor
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Profile Homepage #9
Thanks for the help, I haven't tried the new version yet but I don't see why it shouldn't work.

I think I'll have to take a pass on the ogre getting whooped on. The first time the party encounters them will be outdoors, which eliminates putting the sequence there. By the time you reach the dungeon it will already have been established through message dialogs and Friendly NPC dialog that the ogres are mistreated. Throwing a sequence like that in the middle of a hack n' slash dungeon, while tempting, would probably just break up the atmosphere (plus I assume you mean the sparring script you wrote at the codex, in which case the party will just wind up killing the ogre and overseer before they realize what is going on :P )

Edit: Actually having an overseer beating up on ogres and miners alike would be kinda interesting. I'll put it in and see how it looks.

[ Thursday, August 31, 2006 16:22: Message edited by: Lazarus. ]

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Contest Discussion in Blades of Avernum Editor
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Profile Homepage #33
I like the idea of judging on a 1-10 scale in the preliminaries, then discussion to decide the final round. The only real problem I have with scoring on a 1-10 scale is that scenarios often seem to receive the same score as they had at the CSR. Which could suggests that judges just take the score they see at the CSR and modify it by half a point or so depending on their personal feelings. Or it could be because the judges are the only people rating it at the CSR, so the scores are just duplicated :P

quote:
Originally written by Jewels:

I've sent it to Spiderweb, but they haven't sent me a confirmation e-mail yet.
Spiderweb doesn't give confirmation e-mails, at least I never got one.

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Posts: 900 | Registered: Monday, August 8 2005 07:00
Please ! in Blades of Avernum
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Member # 6193
Profile Homepage #1
Rakshasi posted one in a recent thread, here. You should ask him if he's touched it up any, since he mentioned something about changing its attack pose.

In the future you can also use the Louvre, which has lots of good graphics although probably not a samurai.

Edit: Out of curiosity, what is this for?

[ Wednesday, August 30, 2006 14:22: Message edited by: Lazarus. ]

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Message Calls Are The Devil in Blades of Avernum Editor
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Member # 6193
Profile Homepage #7
Nothing to apologize for. Here's the scripts for both the slave and the overseer. The slave script is pretty much what I posted last time.

Slave:
begincreaturescript;

variables;

short i,target;
short check,message,nomess,new;
short best,status,targ

body;

beginstate INIT_STATE;
set_char_script_mode(ME,2);

nomess = 0;
new = 1;
if (get_memory_cell(0) == 2)
set_mobility(ME,0);
break;

beginstate DEAD_STATE;
// Set the appropriate stuff done flag for this character being dead
if ((get_memory_cell(1) != 0) || (get_memory_cell(2) != 0))
set_flag(get_memory_cell(1),get_memory_cell(2),1);
break;

beginstate START_STATE;
message = my_current_message();
if(message == 1){
nomess = -1;
set_attitude(ME,10);
}

if(message == -1){
if((tick_difference(nomess,get_current_tick()) >= 2) && (nomess > 0)){
if(get_flag(5,0) == 0){
message_dialog("Ogres are slow and dim witted, nevertheless it only takes this
one a short amount of time to realize that there are no overseers around, and thus no threat of whips and pain. It promptly
starts attacking anything in sight.","");
set_flag(5,0,1);
}
set_attitude(ME,11);
set_target(ME,-1);
}
if(nomess == -1)
nomess = get_current_tick();

}
if (target_ok()) {
if (dist_to_char(get_target()) <= 16)
else set_target(ME,-1);
}
// Look for a target, attack it if visible
if (select_target(ME,8,0)) {
do_attack();
}
// Have I been hit? Strike back!
if (who_hit_me() >= 0) {
set_target(ME,who_hit_me());
do_attack();
}
break;
Overseer:
begincreaturescript;

variables;

short i,target;

body;

beginstate INIT_STATE;
set_char_script_mode(ME,2);
if (get_memory_cell(0) == 2)
set_mobility(ME,0);
break;

beginstate DEAD_STATE;
// Set the appropriate stuff done flag for this character being dead
if ((get_memory_cell(1) != 0) || (get_memory_cell(2) != 0))
set_flag(get_memory_cell(1),get_memory_cell(2),1);
break;

beginstate START_STATE;
// if I have a target for some reason, go attack it

if (target_ok()) {
if (dist_to_char(get_target()) <= 16)
set_state(3);
else set_target(ME,-1);
}

// Look for a target, attack it if visible
if (select_target(ME,8,0)) {
do_attack();
set_state(3);
}

if (who_hit_me() >= 0) {
set_target(ME,who_hit_me());
do_attack();
set_state(3);
}


// Otherwise, just peacefully move around. Go back to start, if I'm too far
// from where I started.
if ((my_dist_from_start() >= 6) || ((my_dist_from_start() > 0) && (get_memory_cell(0) > 0))) {
if (get_ran(1,1,100) < 40)
return_to_start(ME,1);
}
else if (get_memory_cell(0) == 0) {
fidget(ME,25);
}

// if we're in combat and the above didn't give me anything to do, just
// stop now. Otherwise, game will keep running script, and that eats up CPU time.
if (am_i_doing_action() == FALSE)
end_combat_turn();
break;

beginstate 3; // attacking
print_str("Sent");
broadcast_char_message(15,1,0);
if (target_ok() == FALSE)
set_state(START_STATE);
do_attack();
end();
break;
It seems to be working fairly well like this, although I'm still a bit distrustful of it. I've seen it act goofy too many times in the past. Oh, and I think I'm going to edit it to run a town script when the creature dies, I'll decide when I'm done with the dungeon and know whether I'll need it.
Edit: That message dialog was WAY to long, broke it up a bit.

[ Wednesday, August 30, 2006 13:26: Message edited by: Lazarus. ]

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Posts: 900 | Registered: Monday, August 8 2005 07:00
Message Calls Are The Devil in Blades of Avernum Editor
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Member # 6193
Profile Homepage #5
The message dialog sucks because I wrote it in about 2 seconds, mostly for the purpose of alerting me when the ogre changed sides when testing the script.

As for the rest, I already had taken out state 3, but I've now added a set_target(ME,-1) to when the ogre switches sides. Also, whether the overseer acts first doesn't matter particularly much, since he has an extra turn to catch up to them. Example: Ogre doesn't get a message because it acts first, begins countdown, then next turn gets a message and doesn't revolt.

The real problem is that a slowed, forcecaged or paralyzed overseer's script doesn't get run, which means the ogres go nuts every other turn. Its not to much of a concern since I'm stripping all the default spells so this probably won't come up, but still. I'm making the overseers immune to those things just in case.

And the reason I'm not using SDF's is because I'll be using this in outdoor combats a couple of times. Since you can't set memory cells before hand in outdoor combats, or add creatures to groups, it would require making a different script for each one (Since number of overseers that have to die, etc. changes from situation to situation.) In a town I could get away with this by just using a memory cell to mark how many overseers a particular ogre should expect to have, and what flag that group would be using. In an outdoors it would take a whole new script.

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Posts: 900 | Registered: Monday, August 8 2005 07:00
Message Calls Are The Devil in Blades of Avernum Editor
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Member # 6193
Profile Homepage #2
Actually this was for real. I'm using it in my new scenario.

So anyway, I had to fix the code a little. Heres what the working version looked like.
message = my_current_message();
if(message == 1){
nomess = -1;
set_attitude(ME,10); // For the record, this is here in case an overseer comes back into range, so the ogre will straighten itself out.
}

if(message == -1){
if((tick_difference(nomess,get_current_tick()) >= 1) && (nomess != -1)){
message_dialog("The ogre, realizing that its tormentor is dead, promptly turns on its former masters.","");
set_attitude(ME,11);
}
nomess = get_current_tick();

}
if (target_ok()) {
if (dist_to_char(get_target()) <= 16)
else set_target(ME,-1);
}
// Look for a target, attack it if visible
if (select_target(ME,8,0)) {
do_attack();
}
// Have I been hit? Strike back!
if (who_hit_me() >= 0) {
set_target(ME,who_hit_me());
do_attack();
}
Your tick suggestion really put me on the right track. Thanks a bunch. By the way, what easier ways to do you mean? I'm always a fan of shortcuts, and I'd run through a lot of different ideas and couldn't come up with anything that would work for how I'm using this code.

Ok, slightly funny story, I made the changes above, and knew it should be working, but it wasn't. After slamming my head on the wall for about five minutes it hit me. Much to my chagrin, I was testing it in a town that I had frozen in time (doh).

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Posts: 900 | Registered: Monday, August 8 2005 07:00
Message Calls Are The Devil in Blades of Avernum Editor
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Member # 6193
Profile Homepage #0
I was writing my first script involving messaging today, (I've avoided it like the plague) and have encountered some difficulties.

The idea is fairly simple. One creature(the overseer) sends out a message of 1 to all nearby characters. Another script(the slave) turns to hostile B if it doesn't receive a message for two consecutive turns. Basically its Kel's "traitor" but with messages instead of SDFs.

The problem I've encountered is that the slave creature is constantly forgetting its message. I tried saving the message as a variable, but the script runs multiple times each turn and just winds up writing over it with a -1. See for yourself, here's the relevant part of the slave script.

beginstate START_STATE;
message = my_current_message();
if(message == 1){
nomess = 0;
set_attitude(ME,10);
}
if(message == -1){
if(nomess == 1){
message_dialog("The ogre, realizing that its tormentor is dead, promptly turns on its former masters.","");
set_attitude(ME,11);
}
if(nomess == 0)
nomess = 1;
}

if (target_ok()) {
if (dist_to_char(get_target()) <= 16)
else set_target(ME,-1);
}

// Look for a target, attack it if visible
if (select_target(ME,8,0)) {
do_attack();
}

// Have I been hit? Strike back!
if (who_hit_me() >= 0) {
set_target(ME,who_hit_me());
do_attack();
}
break;
I can get it to work if I replace the do_attack()'s with end_combat_turn, but obviously that makes it just sit there. The most frustrating thing is that the behavior seems fairly random, one slave will revolt while others remain hostile, and then several turns later they too will revolt. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

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Posts: 900 | Registered: Monday, August 8 2005 07:00
Using BoA to tell a story in Blades of Avernum Editor
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Member # 6193
Profile Homepage #7
Well Bain is involved, that pretty much rules out BOA.

Yet another reason why I should get around to ordering BOE. For now I'll curse you good naturedly. (Damn BOE designers, don't have to worry about heights or terrains. Think their sooooo cool because of all those talkport graphics. Makes me sick.)

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Posts: 900 | Registered: Monday, August 8 2005 07:00
BoA BUGS v6.0 in Blades of Avernum
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Member # 6193
Profile Homepage #22
A few ideas for why your beams might not be working, remember that you need to set the "Beam Type" field in Town Details to either 1 or 2, depending on what you want.

If not that, then I'd point out that in my experience, beams don't fire if there is an object in its path and one square away. For example,
Where (-) is a beam projector shooting east, and (x) is a blocked spot (0) is empty spot.
0-00X will fire
0-X00 Will not fire.

I feel obligated to report a bug here as well, but none come to mind. Does complaigning about the limit on dialog choices count? :D

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Posts: 900 | Registered: Monday, August 8 2005 07:00
Contest Discussion in Blades of Avernum Editor
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Member # 6193
Profile Homepage #8
Dilecia has 16 zones, so its a small, although since it'll be in Newcomer I don't suppose it matters.

On that note, is a scenario entered only in the Newcomer category? Or is it entered in both Newcomer and the appropriate category for its size?

[ Sunday, August 27, 2006 08:41: Message edited by: Lazarus. ]

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Beta Call for Echoes:Renegade in Blades of Avernum
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Member # 6193
Profile Homepage #13
Well TM said he'd send it out in 1-2 weeks, so I'm not obligated to start complaining until next Thursday. I am required to have a tantrum in the eventuality that I don't receive it by then, although it doesn't have to be spirited or rambunctious tantrum. It's part of the contract.

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current_out_section() in Blades of Avernum Editor
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Member # 6193
Profile Homepage #5
Actually I think its the other way around (x + (y * w)), so Drakey is right.

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current_out_section() in Blades of Avernum Editor
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Member # 6193
Profile Homepage #1
The first section (0,0) is number 0. (1,0) is number 1, (2,0) is 2 etc. Once its gone all through the (x,0) row, it starts with (x,1) row.

I hope that wasn't too confusing. Basically it starts with 0 in the NW corner. Then keeps adding one as it goes east, and restarts at the west each time. I tested this in every outdoor section of my 3x3 scenario.

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Blades of Avernum Chat in Blades of Avernum
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Profile Homepage #10
Weekends are fine for me, and it looks like that is the consensus. I''ve actually been motivated to work on my scenario recently, which will probably fade away by the time I start second town.

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Posts: 900 | Registered: Monday, August 8 2005 07:00

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