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Backwater Calls submitted. in Blades of Avernum
-silver-
Cartographer
Member # 995
 written Friday, March 11 2005 23:13 Profile #57
Given sufficient time (about a day per 100 words, given that I have other games, my job, my life, and developing scenarios to which I must attend) I can go through text and help with spelling and grammar. I prefer text without code, but can work either way.
Posts: 206 | Registered: Thursday, April 18 2002 07:00
Monster/Puzzle/Item Thread in Blades of Avernum
-silver-
Cartographer
Member # 995
 written Thursday, March 10 2005 13:38 Profile #27
can't ye set the base to, say, 80-160, then set the adder to "1-1 per level" giving a gross 100-180 for non-cheatz0r parties with a strong melee char, or a 180-260 for character editor abusers?

I mean, I think he meant base of 100-300 anyway. even a steel longsword becomes 100-800 for abusers of the character editor, no?

--

by the way, I'm intrigued by yer workaround for "can't target squares"... what do the lines above yer sample code look like? (the bits where ye get the input)

[ Thursday, March 10, 2005 13:42: Message edited by: silver harloe ]
Posts: 206 | Registered: Thursday, April 18 2002 07:00
Monster/Puzzle/Item Thread in Blades of Avernum
-silver-
Cartographer
Member # 995
 written Wednesday, March 9 2005 23:28 Profile #22
anti-mage axe: basically just an iron axe (i.e. not impressive damage) but surrounds you and the squares around you in an anti-magic field. cursed. and sorry if yer melee dude keeps standing too near yer own mages. might be good in tight spaces. might be too powerful out of 'em.
Posts: 206 | Registered: Thursday, April 18 2002 07:00
what am I doing wrong? in Blades of Avernum Editor
-silver-
Cartographer
Member # 995
 written Saturday, March 5 2005 15:38 Profile #9
hrm, I think your word processor is making your quotes too fancy in ways the scripting engine hates. compare:

text1 = “how are you?”;

text1 = "how are you?";

Thuryl, posting while I was typing. you're fast :)

[ Saturday, March 05, 2005 15:39: Message edited by: silver harloe ]
Posts: 206 | Registered: Thursday, April 18 2002 07:00
what am I doing wrong? in Blades of Avernum
-silver-
Cartographer
Member # 995
 written Saturday, March 5 2005 15:38 Profile #9
hrm, I think your word processor is making your quotes too fancy in ways the scripting engine hates. compare:

text1 = “how are you?”;

text1 = "how are you?";

Thuryl, posting while I was typing. you're fast :)

[ Saturday, March 05, 2005 15:39: Message edited by: silver harloe ]
Posts: 206 | Registered: Thursday, April 18 2002 07:00
Concentrated Linearity Debate (New Voices Welcome to Participate and Vote) in Blades of Avernum
-silver-
Cartographer
Member # 995
 written Saturday, March 5 2005 15:13 Profile #1
Remember when quoting, that I racked up three of what the CoC calls "minor infractions" over the past 24 hours, but quoting them repeatedly is still an infraction itself and someone has racked up more than I did just by repeatedly quoting me.

also, calling people moron or stupid is "belittling" them and a _major_ infraction.
Posts: 206 | Registered: Thursday, April 18 2002 07:00
Linear Scenarios v. Non-Linear Scenarios: The doctrine of time = money in Blades of Avernum
-silver-
Cartographer
Member # 995
 written Saturday, March 5 2005 10:21 Profile #18
Yes, well, CoC gives me 2 minor infractions for it:

"+ Using vulgarity in any language (whether it's in the open, masked, or abbreviated)"

So it should be locked and burned. and certainly not replied to.

but I didn't go around calling people morons. and certainly not specific people. that would be a major CoC infraction. I just expressed a "get off our backs" attitude in way too loud of terms.

[ Saturday, March 05, 2005 10:23: Message edited by: silver harloe ]
Posts: 206 | Registered: Thursday, April 18 2002 07:00
Nature Of The Beast: Why Game-Style Nonlinearity Just Doesn't Work In Blades in Blades of Avernum
-silver-
Cartographer
Member # 995
 written Saturday, March 5 2005 10:18 Profile #1
That's what I would have said if I had posted while sober. Except you wrote it better than I would have. Thanks.
Posts: 206 | Registered: Thursday, April 18 2002 07:00
Linear Scenarios v. Non-Linear Scenarios: The doctrine of time = money in Blades of Avernum
-silver-
Cartographer
Member # 995
 written Saturday, March 5 2005 07:56 Profile #9
I'd be happy to listen to suggestions on how to improve scenarios from people who have tried to do it. just like if I went to american idol, I'd be judged by singers. until you've tried to do something, you don't know the limitations of the medium, and asking for blood from a stone isn't going to help. the suggestion "make more stuff to do" isn't helpful. the suggestion, "what if you offered XYZ option at point ABC" is helpful.

yah, I was ranting. I was drunk. but I had just read the 540th post saying how awful it was that people were writing one story instead twenty, and it bugs me that people make such demands on other people's time. without really suggesting ways to improve it besides "add more".

[ Saturday, March 05, 2005 08:00: Message edited by: silver harloe ]
Posts: 206 | Registered: Thursday, April 18 2002 07:00
Display partie's location in Blades of Avernum Editor
-silver-
Cartographer
Member # 995
 written Saturday, March 5 2005 02:47 Profile #6
okiedokie. that makes sense.
Posts: 206 | Registered: Thursday, April 18 2002 07:00
Display partie's location in Blades of Avernum
-silver-
Cartographer
Member # 995
 written Saturday, March 5 2005 02:47 Profile #6
okiedokie. that makes sense.
Posts: 206 | Registered: Thursday, April 18 2002 07:00
Linear Scenarios v. Non-Linear Scenarios: The doctrine of time = money in Blades of Avernum
-silver-
Cartographer
Member # 995
 written Friday, March 4 2005 22:19 Profile #0
If you're a novelist, once you have published some short stories in magazines, have an agent and a manuscript (or at least a good outline) and get lucky - you get paid to develop one - count 'em: one - story.

If you're developing a BoA scenario, Jeff has forbidden you from finding any way to make money off of it, ever.

If you're a game developer, you're either on a small group developing shareware for 20$ a pop, or a big group developing a game which might go for 60$ a pop (but most of the money in the latter group goes to the publisher)...

If you're developing a BoA scenario, you're devoting you're free time to helping the BoA people have something more to do than see how much Fine Crafted Plate they can get by repeatedly beating Diplomacy with the Dead.

So - no income and you're expected (by the vocal minority, it seems) of forum posters to provide for every contingency and every direction the party might make. Or barely a subsitance income to provide one story in the form of a novel or a game?

**** OFF.

Until you're sending me money to develop your world, or until you're providing "non-linear" scenarios and giving free advice how to handle all the choices without making what is already a couple months of free labor into That Much More work, I just don't want to hear how you're unhappy that I only wrote "one" story and didn't have all the different stories it would take if you decided on a different route.

I can count all the BoA scenarios released or about to be released without taking off my socks. And, you know what? You're lucky those are happening because NO ONE IS GETTING JACK **** FOR WRITING THEM.

I tried, for a while, to clone even Avernum1 into the BoA editor (and with all my detailed maps and info, I was in a position to do it), and you know what? Can't happen. The editor is (purposefully) limited in various arrays to prevent it. So I can't provide a full game in the Avernum universe. I can provide a scenario. Think about what the word "scenario" means. Think a lot. It's like a part of a game. A story within a game. Assassinating the emperor was one of three "big" scenarios Avernum1 provided. Avernum1 also provided many lesser scenarios. But it had the space to provide all that because it was a full game, not a single scenario.

When you evaluate scenarios, remember that you're not rating it against Avernum1, you're rating it against, say, any of the three major scenarios within Avernum1. And you're not required to provide all the sidequests and minor scenarios because it's not a full game - players don't have to go from scratch to solving your world's problems. They just have your world's one problem to solve. Leveling up and non-linearity are accomplished through the fact that multiple scenarios exist.

If you haven't developed a scenario yourself, or at least tried to (and a lot of people will start scenarios they will never finish because it's a LONG LONG process with LOTS AND LOTS of work which you are getting NOTHING for doing), ask yourself if you're really in a position to be telling the people who are devoting non-paid time for your entertainment that they needed to devote a hundred hours more before writing self-interested "articles" about "how to develop scenarios".

Either that or pay me for a while (and it will take some months to see results) for a "full fledged make all your own choices" game. I only need about 3500$/month.

[ Friday, March 04, 2005 22:23: Message edited by: silver harloe ]
Posts: 206 | Registered: Thursday, April 18 2002 07:00
how to put on the head in Blades of Avernum
-silver-
Cartographer
Member # 995
 written Friday, March 4 2005 21:36 Profile #8
I must say, that's a nice graphic. a lot of the pictures are "optional" for NPC characters, though - you have developed so much graphic it could be used a player character...

but then the whole party would seem weird, including that one badass that everyone wants to be with a bunch of wimps :)

[ Friday, March 04, 2005 21:56: Message edited by: silver harloe ]
Posts: 206 | Registered: Thursday, April 18 2002 07:00
Article -- Non-Linearity: The Doctrine of Causality in Blades of Avernum
-silver-
Cartographer
Member # 995
 written Friday, March 4 2005 21:27 Profile #7
hrm. I'm developing a scenario, but basically, you can leave it any time and it gives a sort of rating from "well, you didn't really even attempt the goal of the scenario, but that's your choice. goodbye" to "congratulations, you achieved all the scenario goals" to having in between things like "it seems you did some exploration but didn't get into the plot of the scenario at all" and "you discovered the point of the scenario, but left without fixing any problems you found"...

is that "non-linear" enough? given the limitations of the editor, are we really expected to cover every decision? I mean, we're developing scenarios with editor-built-in MAJOR limitations. not full games. how many twisting subplots and variant endings do you think we can provide? for that matter, isn't it hard enough to provide ONE plot, nevermend 20 per scenario? have any of the people *****ing about "lack of choice" even tried to make a scenario with one story (nevermind all the branching stories if you choose different paths?)

[ Friday, March 04, 2005 21:30: Message edited by: silver harloe ]
Posts: 206 | Registered: Thursday, April 18 2002 07:00
Display partie's location in Blades of Avernum Editor
-silver-
Cartographer
Member # 995
 written Friday, March 4 2005 21:21 Profile #4
Personally, I've seen special abilities used twice. Once in practice, once in theory.

In practice, Kel provided a special ability when Phaedra is in your party to identify items.

In theory, Kel is providing a special ability for an "interface improvement" later.

50% may be a lot, but the sample size is so small that I wonder why you're using the word "mostly"
Posts: 206 | Registered: Thursday, April 18 2002 07:00
Display partie's location in Blades of Avernum
-silver-
Cartographer
Member # 995
 written Friday, March 4 2005 21:21 Profile #4
Personally, I've seen special abilities used twice. Once in practice, once in theory.

In practice, Kel provided a special ability when Phaedra is in your party to identify items.

In theory, Kel is providing a special ability for an "interface improvement" later.

50% may be a lot, but the sample size is so small that I wonder why you're using the word "mostly"
Posts: 206 | Registered: Thursday, April 18 2002 07:00
Stuck in Bahssikava in Blades of Avernum
-silver-
Cartographer
Member # 995
 written Friday, March 4 2005 14:04 Profile #4
or leave the scripts alone, take your last save, use the character editor on it, click "use advanced features" "give a special item" "1" and "6"
Posts: 206 | Registered: Thursday, April 18 2002 07:00
Canopy v1.0.3 in Blades of Avernum
-silver-
Cartographer
Member # 995
 written Saturday, February 26 2005 10:45 Profile #8
Does it fix that Cloud of Blades was NOT, in fact, restored to my priest at the end of the scenario? (I played through until the final thing - didn't use the "leave scenario" spell)

[ Saturday, February 26, 2005 10:46: Message edited by: silver harloe ]
Posts: 206 | Registered: Thursday, April 18 2002 07:00
Article - Party vs. Designer in Blades of Avernum
-silver-
Cartographer
Member # 995
 written Saturday, February 26 2005 10:18 Profile #24
quote:
Originally written by Kelandon:

I just had an interesting discussion with someone over e-mail about Bahs, someone who really disliked the scenario and felt that I was dictating too much to the player.
Basically, your scenario consisted of 3 dungeons. One forked to the other two. Or didn't fork, because you had to do west/south before north. The question in my mind vis a vis this this article, then, is: would it really have hurt to allow the player to go either south or north once they got to the guardpost?
perhaps a scout who went south/west (sneaking through magical routes like ithik and phaedra did up north) tells the players there's a demon threat to the south/west... so if they clear the north side first you can say "well, you could go on to the slith city, but there's demons coming up behind you unless you finish them off".

now it's "less linear". not that I found linearity a problem in your scenario - it was one quest, afterall. complaint that your quest is linear is like complaining that any of the 3 end-quests to Avernum was linear once you started down them. you just had a third of the number of end-quests and no long "build your party up" section before hand.
Posts: 206 | Registered: Thursday, April 18 2002 07:00
Article - Karma, Dharma and Somesuch in Blades of Avernum
-silver-
Cartographer
Member # 995
 written Friday, February 25 2005 12:57 Profile #11
At least now I understand the engine a LOT better. I actually thought the only persistent memory I had to deal with a bunch of flags (because they were named, uh, flags) and was wondering how 30 bits was enough for scenario design :)
Posts: 206 | Registered: Thursday, April 18 2002 07:00
Article - Karma, Dharma and Somesuch in Blades of Avernum
-silver-
Cartographer
Member # 995
 written Thursday, February 24 2005 13:24 Profile #6
quote:
Originally written by KernelKnowledge12:

quote:
Originally written by silver harloe:

but a "flag" is a bit. 0 or 1.
Only in computer engineering. In computer programming, "flag" means any variable that relates to a boolean value (although most programmers extend the meaning of the variable). This variable may be a bit, or even a 64 bit integer (though this would be stupid).
I'm aware you can waste space storing flags. I meant in terms of range of value, not in terms of how it is stored. a long long to store a flag might not be such a bad thing if you have, say, 64 flags. but for compiler/cross-platform compatibility I'd stick with 32 flags per int.

too bad BoA Editor is misusing the term, though. more and more bad knowledge being spread around :(
Posts: 206 | Registered: Thursday, April 18 2002 07:00
Article - Karma, Dharma and Somesuch in Blades of Avernum
-silver-
Cartographer
Member # 995
 written Thursday, February 24 2005 10:58 Profile #3
minor programmer's quibble: a variable has a range of values (0-100), but a "flag" is a bit. 0 or 1. of course, it's possible the BoA editor is misuing the term, in which case the article should for consistency as well. but that would be sad.

[ Thursday, February 24, 2005 10:59: Message edited by: silver harloe ]
Posts: 206 | Registered: Thursday, April 18 2002 07:00
Mages in BoA - How do I make them work?! in Blades of Avernum
-silver-
Cartographer
Member # 995
 written Saturday, February 12 2005 04:53 Profile #23
haste.
and haste.
and haste.

'nuff said.
Posts: 206 | Registered: Thursday, April 18 2002 07:00
What are the Forum Ranks? in General
-silver-
Cartographer
Member # 995
 written Friday, July 2 2004 18:36 Profile #16
quote:
Originally written by Kitty Imban:

EDIT: Oh, and Cartographer is a special title, given to Riibu and Rache(?), I believe, for their sexay walkthrough sites.
apparently, someone still remembers my old (now pretty much dead) site as well. hrm.
Posts: 206 | Registered: Thursday, April 18 2002 07:00
special skills (in case you were wondering...) in Blades of Avernum
-silver-
Cartographer
Member # 995
 written Friday, July 2 2004 18:14 Profile #11
my apologies as well - I searched the forums to see if the same info had been posted already, but only by topic scanning and looking at the top post of a few promising sounding messages.
Posts: 206 | Registered: Thursday, April 18 2002 07:00

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