OBoE Suggestion List
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| Author | Topic: OBoE Suggestion List |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 7662
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written Wednesday, August 29 2007 02:18
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The Character Editor not only has no provision for custom items, it has quite a few errors in its listing of item characteristics. One key problem is found in the icons, a sapphire has the icon of a mug... Short of re - compiling the program, the only obvious solution is to use the Scenario Editor. Create a new blank town and leave the desired items lying around. Then the party enters the town and can pick up the required items. Also it could do with provision for setting sdfs and giving special items. Posts: 292 | Registered: Monday, November 13 2006 08:00 |
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Apprentice
Member # 9013
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written Wednesday, August 29 2007 11:35
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The chief use of the character editor, at least for me, is preventing myself from getting permanently screwed - for example, removing the party from a scenario when I've managed to get stuck with no way out, or replenishing my mages' SP if I've managed to save during a fight that I was losing badly. Those things can't be done with the scenario editor. (The PC editor is very buggy though. I've found other items that don't work properly, e.g. you can't give the party smokey crystals, at least on the Windows version, and the editor's version of Aescal's Ring apparently never runs out of charges.) Posts: 43 | Registered: Tuesday, June 19 2007 07:00 |
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Triad Mage
Member # 7
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written Wednesday, August 29 2007 11:54
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I'm not sure what you mean when you talk about outdoors time - 10 steps in town equal one step outdoors. -------------------- "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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...b10010b...
Member # 869
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written Wednesday, August 29 2007 16:15
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quote:The problem is that although this holds true for the passage of days, it doesn't hold true for scenario timers, so an event that's supposed to happen, say, twice a day will get out of sync with the day counter due to moving between town and outdoors. -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 7662
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written Wednesday, August 29 2007 17:26
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The list of items contains a few errors, it seems especially flawed in the area of item graphics. When the program is opened in the MS-Dos Edit command the list of items starts on line 4,910 column 51 and goes through to line 5,254 column 20. (This is based on the default line length of 70 characters.) When line length = 65, the lists start on line 5,288 column 26 and go through to line 5,658 column 25. Each entry starts in column 26 of the relevant line. The item records are contained in “Itemdata.h”, while lines 119 thru 127 of “Global.h” contain the definitions. (Here I am referring to the official Spiderweb source code.) One of the source files adds 20 to the picture number, for certain pictures. Not only does the Character Editor contain errors, it also uses different ways of storing item information, compared to the Scenario Editor. Now that the Editors are open source you can correct errors in the Edit command. Aescal's ring has 0 charges in the Character Editor for example. Posts: 292 | Registered: Monday, November 13 2006 08:00 |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 10488
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written Friday, September 14 2007 08:22
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quote:Raising the maximum SP is especially important if Ritual of Sanctification is required early in the game in a low-level scenario. In particular, it would allow you to "teach" RoS by raising the SP of a PC. quote:Well... I'm not exactly sure how this spell is supposed to work, but this what I remember from the few times I've used it: It only uncurses one item at a time.It only seems to work on equipped objects (for fairly obvious reasons). By this I mean you can't uncurse, say, a lodestone (I think). quote:This is a problem on the Mac version. quote:I've made a Strength Potion before. Maybe this is a Windows bug, or a bug from an early version that has already been fixed? quote:I also liked the Pacifist trait in E2 even though I would never give it to one of my characters. I would instead use it for one member of a prefab party. On the races, I generally see Orcs and Goblins as the same thing, and in any case Orcs don't fit into the worlds (as Crynsos & Thuryl said). If three new races were added, I would want Goblin, Ogre, and Vahnatai. Another candidates is Troglodyte, though I see no reason to make it a playable race. quote:Wonderful idea. On a related note, enlarge the record holding the details of scenarios in the scenario folder. At the moment you can only see the first 30 (I think) scenarios. This should be enlarged to, say, 1000, or even better, dynamically allocated based on how many scenarios are actually in the folder. quote:Only check for spells that actually trigger the targeting mode, of course. In particular, spells like Unlock, Move Mountains, Dispel Field, Dispel Barrier, etc. Also Fireball for those slime pools! And a few more ideas of my own: Allow complete editing of terrain types 63..90 at the very least. Even better to make all terrains editable, but that would be harder. In order to support this, add terrain properties for the roads and walkways.Make the variables for gold, food, day, level, etc unsigned so that a roll-over does not leave you in the negative (especially for gold).Make an option to disable the editor's automatic placement of terrains. This includes the conforming of cave wall, mountains, water, hills; placing hills around mountains; placing the second half of the 2-space rubbles. Especially when using custom graphics, the editor's conformation rules simply don't work very well in certain configurations.Two things that the BoA editor has already done: resizing the outdoors and importing an outdoor section.Possibly remove the limits of Item Ability Strength ≤ 10 and Monster Poison ≤ 8, because some default items and monsters break this rule (Exploding Missiles, Lightning Bolts, Talking Spider).A optional grid in the terrain editing screen so you can see where the edges of the spaces are.An optional target icon displayed over the central space so you know exactly which space is the central space before pressing num5. (although the previous suggestion might make this idea obsolete?)Please carbonize the Character Editor! Posts: 334 | Registered: Friday, September 14 2007 07:00 |
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Apprentice
Member # 9367
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written Friday, September 14 2007 16:54
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Another suggestion, this one concerning the item with class? Equip item with class? Item with calls (+take)? etc. special nodes. Currently they only check for if you have one character with one such item, it would increase flexability if the 2a and/or 2b fields were used to check either how many items or how many characters with items. (the first is probably more pratical and easier to program) -------------------- I came, I saw, I conquered Posts: 31 | Registered: Tuesday, July 17 2007 07:00 |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 7662
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written Friday, September 14 2007 16:58
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Customizing the first 91 terrain slots is already possible, but it has to be done by hex - editing. Back in January this year, I wrote a post on how to do this. http://www.ironycentral.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=7;t=001792 You can also use a hexadecimal editor like Hexplorer, here the terrain listings start at hexadecimal address 7A98 = 31,384. (Hex editing is basically okay for these purposes.) [ Friday, September 14, 2007 17:04: Message edited by: Ishad Nha ] Posts: 292 | Registered: Monday, November 13 2006 08:00 |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 10488
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written Saturday, September 15 2007 09:07
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Hex editing is infinitely more complicated than the dialogs in the scenario editor. It shouldn't be too hard to just remove the restriction on customizing these slots. Posts: 334 | Registered: Friday, September 14 2007 07:00 |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 7662
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written Sunday, September 16 2007 00:48
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Hex editing is quick, simple and fun when you get familiar with it; my description may make it sound harder than it really is. To remove the limitation on editing is a good idea, it does however require re – compiling the Scenario Editor, which I have not succeeded in doing. I am using the Ormus code on Bloodshed Dev-C++, so far the program does “compile”, it is however 300kb in size rather than the proper 735kb. It also does not actually work, like do anything. Posts: 292 | Registered: Monday, November 13 2006 08:00 |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 10488
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written Sunday, September 16 2007 16:12
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I just remembered something about the Mac OSX release. All the resource files (Sounds, Graphics, and the .rsrc files) are twice the size they need to be because every resource in the resource fork is duplicated in the data fork. Only the ones in the resource fork are used. Posts: 334 | Registered: Friday, September 14 2007 07:00 |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 10488
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written Sunday, September 23 2007 18:24
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This may have been mentioned before, but I recommend upgrading the game to C++. Also, for variable-length arrays, I recommend the STL. I would be willing to do this myself if I had time (by which I mean lots and lots of time!) and if I had any idea how to use the source repository system. This would of course also require a major overhaul of the file format, which may have already been started. On another point, here's a few bugs that need fixing: Make the waterfalls work in town. For some reason, they don't seem to work in town, at least in my version.When the party is split up, Affect PC special nodes should only affect the active PC. In particular, absent characters should not have their skills etc. improved!When an item is placed and the Amount/Charges field is filled in with a number other than -1, it has no effect (unless the item is food or gold)The Alien Beast graphic bug (mentioned recently I think)And could the labels for checkboxes be aligned right rather than left so that it is easier to see which label corresponds to which checkbox? (Sorry about this double post - I wanted the thread to be brought to the top of the list since it hasn't been posted to in several days. If this is not a good reason to double post, tell me now!) Posts: 334 | Registered: Friday, September 14 2007 07:00 |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 7662
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written Friday, October 5 2007 15:27
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While we are at it we can have Editor support for all 30 boats and 30 horses. Perusal of the source code shows that the scenario file has provision for 30 boats, 30 horses and 20 scenario timers, not just 24, 24 and 10. Here and now the six extra boats can be hex – edited into the game: Twenty-four supported entries: 440,53 through 444,12. Six unsupported entries: 444,13 thru 445,2. The format: location X,Y, four spaces, short town number, Boolean exists and the Boolean party property identifier. Edit Horses [30], unsupported entries: 448,33 thru 449,22. Scenario timers Number of moves is found from 507, 61 through 508,10. Ten unsupported entries: 508,11 through 508,30. Scenario state to be called is found from 508,31 through 508,50. Ten unsupported entries: 508,51 through 508,70. The same file, Global.h lines 312… also shows that there is provision for 3,100 Stuff Done Flags not 3,000. Posts: 292 | Registered: Monday, November 13 2006 08:00 |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 10488
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written Thursday, October 11 2007 02:38
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If you use the extra spaces, does the game recognize them? Really though, it's rather silly that everything in this game is limited to arbitrary numbers. If all these arrays were made variable-length (with malloc() / new, of course - or the STL vector) then there would be vastly more possibilities with the game. (I understand that this would be a major undertaking and require a rewrite of the scenario format. But I really think it would be worth it.) (EDIT: I'm not sure whether someone is doing this already.) [ Thursday, October 11, 2007 02:51: Message edited by: Celtic Minstrel ] Posts: 334 | Registered: Friday, September 14 2007 07:00 |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 7662
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written Thursday, October 11 2007 17:35
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Yes, the extra boats I was able to generate with hex - editing. Extra sdf won't be allowed by the scenario Editor. Posts: 292 | Registered: Monday, November 13 2006 08:00 |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 10488
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written Friday, October 12 2007 01:33
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... I never said anything about extra SDFs. [ Friday, October 12, 2007 12:23: Message edited by: Celtic Minstrel ] Posts: 334 | Registered: Friday, September 14 2007 07:00 |
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Apprentice
Member # 9367
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written Sunday, October 21 2007 09:39
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Another error that I have encountered, in reference to editing terrain, the call special when used option doesn't seem to work, when I tried to use it, I got a small message telling me that there is nothing to use. -------------------- I came, I saw, I conquered Posts: 31 | Registered: Tuesday, July 17 2007 07:00 |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 10488
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written Sunday, October 21 2007 13:37
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I'm pretty sure I've gotten that feature to work. What exactly did you do? Maybe you missed something important. :confused: Posts: 334 | Registered: Friday, September 14 2007 07:00 |
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Apprentice
Member # 2564
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written Tuesday, October 30 2007 07:57
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Um, I dont know what OBoE is, but if its what it SOUNDS like what I think it is... then what about my suggestion in the other thread entitled "Changing the size of the playing field"? The game shouldn't have to be restricted to the same old 7x7 (i believe?) grid when you've got a huge monitor to fill. How about a way to expand the number of tiles that can be seen at one time, and something to same the same effect with the minimap? -------------------- I'm a brainiac, with a veiny sack, resting on the brow, of Erika Eleniak! Posts: 5 | Registered: Saturday, February 1 2003 08:00 |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 10488
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written Tuesday, October 30 2007 17:48
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It's on the other list, #8 under Other Minor Changes. Posts: 334 | Registered: Friday, September 14 2007 07:00 |
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Apprentice
Member # 9367
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written Friday, November 16 2007 13:39
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quote:Sorry, after more testing I discovered that it will call the special (perhaps I had tested with a party already saved in the scenario or something), but it still displays the small message "nothing to use". I tried adding a small message to the chain to see if it overrode it, but it showed both my message and nothing to use. -------------------- I came, I saw, I conquered Posts: 31 | Registered: Tuesday, July 17 2007 07:00 |
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Apprentice
Member # 9367
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written Monday, November 19 2007 16:57
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Another minor change I'd like to see if it isn't too difficult. Add more free text space into the scenario texts. I have a tendency to like to write a lot, and if a town runs out of texts or special nodes, I use the scenario texts. Now I have to decide which nodes to leave text off when I want to add a new one. (one or two hundred more texts would be nice.) -------------------- I came, I saw, I conquered Posts: 31 | Registered: Tuesday, July 17 2007 07:00 |