Some Other Things About BoA
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| Author | Topic: Some Other Things About BoA |
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Board Administrator
Member # 1
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written Tuesday, January 7 2003 16:06
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Sometimes I even outsmart myself. Since the BoA scripting engine is fairly versatile, some behaviors that were requested but I didn't want to implement are in anyway. Suppose, for example, you don't want anyone in the scenario to have the Unlock Doors spell or Blademaster and Gymnastics skill, and want to have all of the monsters in the scenario only take 10% damage from fire and 70% damage from melee weapons. You can, when a party enters the scenario, remove the offending skills and spells and then restore them to the party when they quit the scenario. You can also customize monster vulnerability to damage to a great extent. This would, of course, be terrible design. But you can do it. Finally, someone suggested a great way to introduce custom abilites, so the game will have custom abilities. Also, you can make items with custom abilities. - Jeff Vogel SpiderwebSoftware, Inc. http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com [ Tuesday, January 07, 2003 16:10: Message edited by: Spidweb ] Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
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Senile Reptile
Member # 547
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written Tuesday, January 7 2003 17:04
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Is there anything the scripting system can't do? I am not asking that rhetorically - it seems that any specific functions can just be accomplished with scripting, aside from changing the core code of the game. Oh, and I'm still awaiting the day when you take pre-orders. ;) -------------------- Polaris Posts: 1614 | Registered: Wednesday, January 23 2002 08:00 |
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Guardian
Member # 2238
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written Tuesday, January 7 2003 17:33
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I don't think you can thr-... wait yea you can :D . I'm not sure if there is anything you can't do. And if there is, you can give the effect that it DID happen! Also, Jeff, when you talk about custom abilities on items... does that mean that you can make, say: A tunic that makes the wearer invulnerable? Or would you have to go and say 'immune to....' stuff, and do it immune to every kind of damage? And YEAH! Pre-orders would be great! Let us get it out of our hair and put it into yours! Wait... -------------------- DEMON PLAY, DEMON OUT! Posts: 1582 | Registered: Wednesday, November 13 2002 08:00 |
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Board Administrator
Member # 1
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written Tuesday, January 7 2003 18:28
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I'm sure there will be things the engine can't do, a fair number of them. And I'll only know what they are after the game has been out for a while and people realize what they want. You could (shudder) make a tunic of invulnerability. However, when I mean custom abilities, I mean items that actually do something when used, not custom innate abilities that are always active (like resistances). - Jeff Vogel SpiderwebSoftware, Inc. http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
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Triad Mage
Member # 7
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written Wednesday, January 8 2003 02:06
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Will we be able to create mind crystals easily with the new abilities, or will we have to use scripting to create the effect? -------------------- "At times discretion should be thrown aside, and with the foolish we should play the fool." - Menander ==== Drakefyre's Demesne - Happy Happy Joy Joy Encyclopedia Ermariana - Trapped in the Closet ==== You can take my Mac when you pry my cold, dead fingers off the mouse! Posts: 9436 | Registered: Wednesday, September 19 2001 07:00 |
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Shaper
Member # 73
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written Wednesday, January 8 2003 05:44
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Will the scripts be attached directly to the items so they could be carried to other scenarios, or will they be removed when the party leaves? -------------------- My Myspace, with some of my audial and visual art The Lyceum - The Headquarters of the Blades designing community The Louvre - The Blades of Avernum graphics database Alexandria - The Blades of Exile Scenario database BoE Webring - Self explanatory Polaris - Free porn here Odd Todd - Fun for the unemployed (and everyone else too) They Might Be Giants - Four websites for one of the greatest bands in existance -------------------- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Posts: 2957 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00 |
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Infiltrator
Member # 1823
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written Wednesday, January 8 2003 06:07
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I don't suppose that the scripting system is so versatile that it happens to be able to somehow make joinable NPC (says in hope), like a "create new character" command? Will scripts be able to call a timer every part turn of combat as well (like, step, *call script*, step *call script*, attack, *call script*), cos I can think of lots of uses of this (well, at least one). -------------------- Riot Shields Voodoo Economics It's just business Cattle prods And the IMF I trust I can rely on your vote Posts: 530 | Registered: Sunday, September 1 2002 07:00 |
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Infiltrator
Member # 737
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written Wednesday, January 8 2003 09:24
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Hi Jeff, something that I very much would like to see in BoA is some kind of item filtration when you pick up items. I really disliked it in the previous Avernum games when I had just won a fight with many similar enemies and had to 'point' with the cursor on every item to know if it was just another waveblade or if it could be a fine waveblade that I was looking for. Sure, it was funny in small fights but in large fights it got a bit boring. Would it be possible to make a filtration system that makes all the 'filtrated items' invisible in the 'Get...' window that pops up? If this could be possible I think that it would greatly improve the game engine. -------------------- Who was born in a house full of pain Who was trained not to spit in the fan Who was told what to do by the man Who was broken by trained personnel Who was fitted with collar and chain Who was given a pat on the back Who was breaking away from the pack Who was only a stranger at home Who was ground down in the end Who was found dead on the phone Who was dragged down by the stone Posts: 595 | Registered: Tuesday, March 12 2002 08:00 |
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Guardian
Member # 2238
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written Wednesday, January 8 2003 12:02
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Ok this sounds good. Yea I wasn't actually planning on making a Tunic of Invulnerbility, I was just wondering with an example. Also we'll be able to make items similar to the Xian Skull right? Like... a text box opens randomly. Or will we have to use them darned scripts to make that possible? -------------------- DEMON PLAY, DEMON OUT! Posts: 1582 | Registered: Wednesday, November 13 2002 08:00 |
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Shaper
Member # 73
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written Wednesday, January 8 2003 13:10
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Oh, and will we be able to drop items on adjecent spaces and put them in containers? I can't stand having all my stuff lying around on the floor of the storage room in A3, but I don't have much of a choice. -------------------- My Myspace, with some of my audial and visual art The Lyceum - The Headquarters of the Blades designing community The Louvre - The Blades of Avernum graphics database Alexandria - The Blades of Exile Scenario database BoE Webring - Self explanatory Polaris - Free porn here Odd Todd - Fun for the unemployed (and everyone else too) They Might Be Giants - Four websites for one of the greatest bands in existance -------------------- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Posts: 2957 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00 |
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Board Administrator
Member # 1
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written Wednesday, January 8 2003 15:16
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"Will we be able to create mind crystals easily with the new abilities, or will we have to use scripting to create the effect?" Both. You use scripts, but it's easy. "Will the scripts be attached directly to the items so they could be carried to other scenarios, or will they be removed when the party leaves?" The latter. "I don't suppose that the scripting system is so versatile that it happens to be able to somehow make joinable NPC (says in hope), like a "create new character" command?" It will be an exquisite pain in the ass, but yes. You can have 2 NPCs which follow the party around. "something that I very much would like to see in BoA is some kind of item filtration when you pick up items. " This would be an improvement. We'll see. I bet i can do something. "Also we'll be able to make items similar to the Xian Skull right? Like... a text box opens randomly. Or will we have to use them darned scripts to make that possible?" Yes. And yes, it will take scripts. Like everything special. Believe me, if you can handle the BoE editor, you can handle scripting. "If you have time, can you see the topic "Concerning Custom Graphics and Macs"? It addresses a problem that will likely be a big one for OS X users." Workaround: ResEdit runs just fine on emulation, as I understand it. it's annoying, but blame Apple. I do. They never should have abandoned ResEdit. "Oh, and will we be able to drop items on adjecent spaces and put them in containers?" No. "Will scripts be able to call a timer every part turn of combat as well (like, step, *call script*, step *call script*, attack, *call script*), cos I can think of lots of uses of this (well, at least one)." No. Scripts can be CPU intensive if called too often. - Jeff Vogel SpiderwebSoftware, Inc. http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
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Guardian
Member # 2238
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written Wednesday, January 8 2003 15:22
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"Believe me, if you can handle the BoE editor, you can handle scripting." Three words... 'sweet' and 'thank god'. -------------------- DEMON PLAY, DEMON OUT! Posts: 1582 | Registered: Wednesday, November 13 2002 08:00 |
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Shaper
Member # 73
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written Wednesday, January 8 2003 15:26
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Oh, come on! Would it really be that hard to program adjecent item dropping? It would make the game a lot better, and not having it really messes up some ideas. Please? -------------------- My Myspace, with some of my audial and visual art The Lyceum - The Headquarters of the Blades designing community The Louvre - The Blades of Avernum graphics database Alexandria - The Blades of Exile Scenario database BoE Webring - Self explanatory Polaris - Free porn here Odd Todd - Fun for the unemployed (and everyone else too) They Might Be Giants - Four websites for one of the greatest bands in existance -------------------- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Posts: 2957 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00 |
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Senile Reptile
Member # 547
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written Wednesday, January 8 2003 18:10
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The only advantage to this would be dropping items in crates, and then pushing crates into water. Even with the BoE system, there are plenty of variants on this theme that work without dropping items in crates. There isn't any other use for dropping items around you instead of underneath you, besides a little bit of asthetic pleasure, which comes as a low priority when creating a game such as BoA. And besides, programming this wouldn't be so simple. Not nearly simple enough to justify putting such an insignificant extra in the game. As for the shortening item list idea, that sounds great! It is quite a hassle to scroll through many items. Thanks for mentioning it, Boeing. -------------------- Polaris Posts: 1614 | Registered: Wednesday, January 23 2002 08:00 |
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Board Administrator
Member # 1
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written Thursday, January 9 2003 01:04
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"There isn't any other use for dropping items around you instead of underneath you, besides a little bit of asthetic pleasure, which comes as a low priority when creating a game such as BoA. And besides, programming this wouldn't be so simple. Not nearly simple enough to justify putting such an insignificant extra in the game." It would be easy to program. In fact, Nethergate worked like this. I just feel that the advantages of specific location placement doesn't justify the extra click when dropping any item in any scenario. And anyway, there can be special stuff involving items being on specific spaces. Avernum 3 has a ton of this. "As for the shortening item list idea, that sounds great! It is quite a hassle to scroll through many items. Thanks for mentioning it, Boeing." What I will most likely do is include a clear visual cue in the window for unidentified or magical/good items. - Jeff Vogel SpiderwebSoftware, Inc. http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
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BoE Posse
Member # 15
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written Thursday, January 9 2003 06:39
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Jeff - The new Macs may come with OSX ONLY - no emulation mode. Another mistake by Apple, if they really do this. So, ResEdit will not be an option for these users. The real workaround is GraphicsConvertor for OSX. It has a built-in graphics editor, allows you save to a resource fork (and specify the RES#), and save multiple images. I'm curious why you are sticking to using the Resource Fork on Macs. Why not do what you do on the PC, and keep the graphics in data files? It would make developers in BoA using custom graphics happier, IMO. -------------------- All that we see, or seem, is but a dream within a dream. Visit the Louvre, the BoA Graphics Database at http://www.personal.psu.edu/bxb11/boa/louvre/ Visit Alexandria, the BoE Scenario Database at http://www.personal.psu.edu/bxb11/boe/alexandriajs/ Posts: 653 | Registered: Thursday, September 27 2001 07:00 |
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Shaper
Member # 73
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written Thursday, January 9 2003 08:21
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quote:Well, that was the point. That way, you can put something on an alter or something. I guess it's not too big of a deal, as long as you include the ability to have the scenario move items, like the Move Item node in BoE. [ Thursday, January 09, 2003 08:21: Message edited by: The Almighty Do-er of Stuff ] -------------------- My Myspace, with some of my audial and visual art The Lyceum - The Headquarters of the Blades designing community The Louvre - The Blades of Avernum graphics database Alexandria - The Blades of Exile Scenario database BoE Webring - Self explanatory Polaris - Free porn here Odd Todd - Fun for the unemployed (and everyone else too) They Might Be Giants - Four websites for one of the greatest bands in existance -------------------- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Posts: 2957 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00 |
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Board Administrator
Member # 1
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written Thursday, January 9 2003 15:10
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As I understand it, you CAN still run classic emulation in Mac OS X. You just can't boot to OS 9. (Here's my source for this: http://www.macopinion.com/columns/tangible/02/09/12/) I'll do some homework to see about resource editing on OS X. I think Apple provides a new application for this in the Dev. tools (which are free to everyone), but I'll have to look into it. "That way, you can put something on an alter or something. I guess it's not too big of a deal, as long as you include the ability to have the scenario move items, like the Move Item node in BoE." Yes, there will be script commands that move items around. - Jeff Vogel SpiderwebSoftware, Inc. http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
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BoE Posse
Member # 15
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written Friday, January 10 2003 04:38
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I did find something called Resourcer for OSX, at http://www.mathemaesthetics.com/ResorcererInfo.html but it is a demo only. Still, it does the job of placing the image in the correct res# in the file. GraphicsConvertor for OSX seems the better of the two. -------------------- All that we see, or seem, is but a dream within a dream. Visit the Louvre, the BoA Graphics Database at http://www.personal.psu.edu/bxb11/boa/louvre/ Visit Alexandria, the BoE Scenario Database at http://www.personal.psu.edu/bxb11/boe/alexandriajs/ Posts: 653 | Registered: Thursday, September 27 2001 07:00 |
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Guardian
Member # 2238
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written Friday, January 10 2003 16:46
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Jeff, you said that someone thought of "a great idea for making custom graphics". What is that? I know it doesn't really matter but hey, I'm curious. -------------------- DEMON PLAY, DEMON OUT! Posts: 1582 | Registered: Wednesday, November 13 2002 08:00 |
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Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
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written Saturday, January 11 2003 13:14
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quote:Would it be possible to make a different background color for such items' squares? In other words, regular/identified items would have the usual white background, special/unidentified items have a, say, gray background. Edit: Anther idea -- maybe have the gray items grouped together at the top of the, er, look-at/pick-up collection-of-item-squares thingie. You know what I mean? That pop-up selection thing that appears when you hit 'g.' I'm not well versed in RPG terminology; I'm sure there's a proper name for it. [ Saturday, January 11, 2003 13:21: Message edited by: Icshi ] Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00 |
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Infiltrator
Member # 737
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written Sunday, January 12 2003 02:22
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Another idea: If there is, let's say, 5 Crude Daggers on the ground nearby, only one would be visible and it would have a little '5' on it. in the 'get' window. You could, for example, click on it once to pick up one dagger and double-click to pick up all daggers. It could look like this: D = picture of a dagger L = picture of a leater armor P = picture of a potion R = picture of a rock MD = picture of a magical dagger In the above example there was on the ground: 5 daggers 2 leater armors 1 potion 10 rocks 1 magical dagger Do you understand how I mean? I'm not that good in English so it's a little bit hard to explain it in a good way. Edit: It's hard to draw 'get' windows on a message board. :) [ Sunday, January 12, 2003 07:30: Message edited by: AIRPLANE ] -------------------- Who was born in a house full of pain Who was trained not to spit in the fan Who was told what to do by the man Who was broken by trained personnel Who was fitted with collar and chain Who was given a pat on the back Who was breaking away from the pack Who was only a stranger at home Who was ground down in the end Who was found dead on the phone Who was dragged down by the stone Posts: 595 | Registered: Tuesday, March 12 2002 08:00 |
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Triad Mage
Member # 7
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written Sunday, January 12 2003 03:10
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You know, you could use the "code" UBB tag to make it appear right. -------------------- "At times discretion should be thrown aside, and with the foolish we should play the fool." - Menander ==== Drakefyre's Demesne - Happy Happy Joy Joy Encyclopedia Ermariana - Trapped in the Closet ==== You can take my Mac when you pry my cold, dead fingers off the mouse! Posts: 9436 | Registered: Wednesday, September 19 2001 07:00 |
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Infiltrator
Member # 737
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written Sunday, January 12 2003 07:31
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Thanks, Drakey. It looks a little bit better now. -------------------- Who was born in a house full of pain Who was trained not to spit in the fan Who was told what to do by the man Who was broken by trained personnel Who was fitted with collar and chain Who was given a pat on the back Who was breaking away from the pack Who was only a stranger at home Who was ground down in the end Who was found dead on the phone Who was dragged down by the stone Posts: 595 | Registered: Tuesday, March 12 2002 08:00 |
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Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
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written Sunday, January 12 2003 16:10
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quote:That's a very good idea. Your English is quite good -- don't worry about it! Ah, I see that it's called "get" window. Now I know... Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00 |