Bt Builder

Discussions and help for the Bard's Tale Construction Set
Methuselas
Posts: 352
Joined: Tue Apr 28, 2009 11:03 pm

Re: Bt Builder

Post by Methuselas »

caars wrote:

Love it! Definitely got a place for him...

Got a werebear and the skaven (wererat) image for you too. I could post them, but honestly, I'd be releasing like 6 or 7 images. If you want to save yourself the trouble, edit your image-tag xml and pad to 392. 392 is the werewolf image. Then, update all your mobs to use that image. Hopefully it won't crash the engine, since the image isn't there. ;P
"Using No Way as Way; Having No Limitation As Limitation". - Bruce Lee.

BTBuilder Stuff - https://drive.google.com/folderview?id= ... sp=sharing
caars
Posts: 145
Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 10:01 pm

Re: Bt Builder

Post by caars »

Methuselas wrote:
caars wrote:

Love it! Definitely got a place for him...

Got a werebear and the skaven (wererat) image for you too. I could post them, but honestly, I'd be releasing like 6 or 7 images. If you want to save yourself the trouble, edit your image-tag xml and pad to 392. 392 is the werewolf image. Then, update all your mobs to use that image. Hopefully it won't crash the engine, since the image isn't there. ;P
It won't. It'll just display a blank (black) square. Same as with all of those empty 'Custom' slots...
Modules for BT Builder (still very much works in progress):
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id= ... sp=sharing
Methuselas
Posts: 352
Joined: Tue Apr 28, 2009 11:03 pm

Re: Bt Builder

Post by Methuselas »

Image


Gonna be updating the magic user images soon. Been wanting this for a while.
"Using No Way as Way; Having No Limitation As Limitation". - Bruce Lee.

BTBuilder Stuff - https://drive.google.com/folderview?id= ... sp=sharing
dulsi
Posts: 242
Joined: Thu Mar 22, 2007 7:15 pm

Re: Bt Builder

Post by dulsi »

caars wrote:Here goes: if you press an arrow key while the game displays your rewards for beating a combat encounter, the game actually immediately goes back to the "you are facing monsters, do you want to fight or run" screen - with no monsters present. In other words it looks kind of like:

You are facing
Do you wish to
Fight
Run
Interesting. I haven't been able to reproduce it yet. Neither Linux nor ReactOS exhibits the behavior. I'll try real windows when I get a chance.

I tried your module. I didn't see your note about saving frequently but have done well after the first try. It fun to play something I don't know.

BTW it was pointed out to me that BTCS didn't allow to hit bonuses on armor. Or rather they didn't have any effect. It is mentioned in the manual. I didn't realize that and don't intend to limit btbuilder that way.
caars
Posts: 145
Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 10:01 pm

Re: Bt Builder

Post by caars »

Incidentally, the module you've been playing is really just kind of a plain "epic" dungeon crawl without much overarching story (at least by my standards). In fact, more than anything, it's just a test of concept for my random dungeon generator (and how easy it is to "throw together something for a bunch of characters to do" if you can quickly generate a few random dungeon levels to explore). So I'm actually quite happy people seem to be enjoying the "story" (as it was) - the city itself is pretty decent in terms of there being a narrative, but once you get into the dungeons there's not much there. Well --- there's *plenty* to do, fight, map out, etc, just not much of a story. It's basically just a good old hack-and-slash dungeon crawl. About 13 levels of it.

Right now I'm working on something that is far more story oriented. I think you guys will like it. It's designed to have a much more "pen and paper" D&D feel. I've been heavily testing it, and I'll probably do some more today. I'll make a point to re-test to see if I'm still seeing that combat bug. Meaning I'll post a follow up a bit later.
Modules for BT Builder (still very much works in progress):
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id= ... sp=sharing
caars
Posts: 145
Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 10:01 pm

Re: Bt Builder

Post by caars »

Update: Yep ... I still get the issue. While the rewards screen is displayed, if I hit any key (I think I tested it by hitting one of the arrow keys) it instantly starts a fight with nothing.

One other thing ... when casting spells, I occasionally get a "result" that looks like the name of the targeted monster followed by a space and a period. It always comes after the "spell is being cast" message, and is in place of where the damage dealt or effect inflicted would be. For example, instead of:

Larsus casts Energy Bolt.
A bolt of arcane energy strikes Thug.

Thug takes 4 points of damage and is poisoned.

You get:

Larsus casts Energy Bolt.
A bolt of arcane energy strikes Thug.

Thug .

I suspect that is a result of the target making a save and reducing the damage to 0 (i.e. only 1 damage was rolled)? The spell doesn't have to have to inflict a condition to show this bug - spells that deal straight up damage also show it. It's also not a specific monster resistance thing (e.g. some monsters always show the glitch others don't): I've had a single monster targeted by the same spell multiple times over the combat show the "full effect" message most rounds, but then show the bug in a single round.
Modules for BT Builder (still very much works in progress):
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id= ... sp=sharing
dulsi
Posts: 242
Joined: Thu Mar 22, 2007 7:15 pm

Re: Bt Builder

Post by dulsi »

Put out a new release of btbuilder. It probably has the same bugs. The main reason for the release is fedora 28. btbuilder started failing in rawhide, the development build for fedora 28. It should have all the new images. Let me know if I missed any. (I started refactoring monsters to have more attacks but that work isn't done and not in the release.) The release also has a new "good possession" to allow you to implement Animate Dead. It's not right yet. You need to pair it with resurrect to get the effect but the target can current save against "good possession" and avoid that part of the spell. (I forgot to do even minimal windows testing hopefully it works.)
caars
Posts: 145
Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 10:01 pm

Re: Bt Builder

Post by caars »

dulsi wrote:Put out a new release of btbuilder. It probably has the same bugs. The main reason for the release is fedora 28. btbuilder started failing in rawhide, the development build for fedora 28. It should have all the new images. Let me know if I missed any. (I started refactoring monsters to have more attacks but that work isn't done and not in the release.) The release also has a new "good possession" to allow you to implement Animate Dead. It's not right yet. You need to pair it with resurrect to get the effect but the target can current save against "good possession" and avoid that part of the spell. (I forgot to do even minimal windows testing hopefully it works.)
Looking forward to testing it out - but let me ask an obvious question about the Animate Dead function (that is, ironically, related to the main problem I had when I tried to replicate it with "Bad Possession")... what happens if you were to cast the "paired" effect on a character that is already alive?

Why, you ask? Well, my version (from before this update) used the following effects (in order):

Resurrect
Save Penalty: -100*
Possession
Save Bonus: +100*

*Incidentally, this is how I got around the ability to save against possession - and even how I simulate different "saving throws" ... if I want something to be totally unable to save against an affect, I just assign a HUGE save penalty (you've still got the natural 20 effect, but better than nothing), and then cancel it with the bonus once the effect is applied. Or, conversely, if I want the effect to be "easier to resist than just the standard save", I give a save bonus, followed by the effect, and then remove the save bonus with a save penalty. Seems to work pretty well, although I can never be sure it's doing exactly what I think it is.

It's messy, but (like I said) it seems to work.

BUT, that's not my real question. The problem with my "old" version of animate dead is that if you cast it on a character that was still alive it didn't just "fail" (the way it should) - it acted as a possession spell (since the resurrect effect was just ignored if applied to a living character, and then the possession effect hit). The only thing the resurrect actually did was allow the possession effect to work on the dead character. Seems like the "good possession" you're mentioning will have the same problem - it'll work on a living character too - unless you've got it rigged to only trigger on a currently dead character (which would be important to know, since that would make the order of the effects in the spell vital - you'd have to make sure "Good Possess" is listed before "Resurrect").

Still - looking forward to testing it out! :)
Modules for BT Builder (still very much works in progress):
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id= ... sp=sharing
caars
Posts: 145
Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 10:01 pm

Re: Bt Builder

Post by caars »

Hey Dulsi,

Haven't downloaded the new version just yet (trying to keep the versions - and the bugs I find - "straight" while I'm working on my modules). Soon, though...

I HAVE found a new bug, and this one's kind of big!

Apparently the "Save Game" feature does NOT save "special members" (i.e. monsters that have joined the party) into the party. I have NOT checked to see if you can actually save them off in the Guild and reload them, but when you "resume your last saved game" the "special" member is just gone.

That has all kinds of potential to break quest specials (not to mention plenty of other wackiness)...

Here are the details... (in case it is something more subtle than just "there's just no code for saving a special party member")

At the moment the vanishing "special" member is "monster" class and is named Selenia. She's literally the last monster on the module's monster list (at least at the moment). She's set to "false" for random encounters (since she's a flavor/plot NPC and I don't want parties randomly running across packs of "Selenias" to kill). This particular module uses a custom job.xml file with some differences between the module's version of the PC classes and "vanilla" BTCS. However, other than their saving throw values/progression being changed, the "monster" and "illusion" classes are basically untouched, and in the exact same location in the list they'd normally be (i.e. they're job number 10 and 11, IIRC). That's all of the detail I can think of right now...
Modules for BT Builder (still very much works in progress):
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id= ... sp=sharing
dulsi
Posts: 242
Joined: Thu Mar 22, 2007 7:15 pm

Re: Bt Builder

Post by dulsi »

I did see your bug. I believe I know why the save game doesn't restore the monster. I just haven't gotten to it yet.
caars
Posts: 145
Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 10:01 pm

Re: Bt Builder

Post by caars »

dulsi wrote:I did see your bug. I believe I know why the save game doesn't restore the monster. I just haven't gotten to it yet.
Excellent! Obviously all of us have been busy with other stuff, so no rush. I know on my end this is the same "second half of the spring semester" issue as last year: I'm reasonably active right as a school semester starts, at parts of the summer, and a bit in the winter as my teaching schedule permits.

Actually, workarounds for bugs in my modules if anything have made me get a bit more clever with programming the specials... the monster is "plot important" but like all NPCs in Bard's Tale (sort of giving them absurdly powerful stats the way I did with Garth's brief appearance in the party) can die, so having the monster vanish certainly prompted me to make sure I had all of my other ducks in a row (special-wise) to keep the plot going even if the "plot" monster was lost unexpectedly along the way...
Modules for BT Builder (still very much works in progress):
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id= ... sp=sharing
Methuselas
Posts: 352
Joined: Tue Apr 28, 2009 11:03 pm

Re: Bt Builder

Post by Methuselas »

The executable is missing from the 0.5.16 version on the windows build.
"Using No Way as Way; Having No Limitation As Limitation". - Bruce Lee.

BTBuilder Stuff - https://drive.google.com/folderview?id= ... sp=sharing
Methuselas
Posts: 352
Joined: Tue Apr 28, 2009 11:03 pm

Re: Bt Builder

Post by Methuselas »

One more thing: The 0.5.15 version crashes when trying to create a new map.
"Using No Way as Way; Having No Limitation As Limitation". - Bruce Lee.

BTBuilder Stuff - https://drive.google.com/folderview?id= ... sp=sharing
Methuselas
Posts: 352
Joined: Tue Apr 28, 2009 11:03 pm

Re: Bt Builder

Post by Methuselas »

Manual has been updated to 0.09. I added some of the stuff I was missing, like itemType.xml editing, fixed a few typos and added some more text. Still needs a few more re-writes, mainly on the conditionals/actions, before it can be released with the engine.
"Using No Way as Way; Having No Limitation As Limitation". - Bruce Lee.

BTBuilder Stuff - https://drive.google.com/folderview?id= ... sp=sharing
dulsi
Posts: 242
Joined: Thu Mar 22, 2007 7:15 pm

Re: Bt Builder

Post by dulsi »

Methuselas wrote:The executable is missing from the 0.5.16 version on the windows build.
Gah! That's what I get for rushing out a release. Apparently this was the first release after my hard drive crashed. I didn't reinstall the cross-compiler for windows. I've updated the release. It should work now.

I believe the new map crashing is fixed. It worked for me in testing. (I can't find the exact commit that fixed it but I believe I did add a change for that.)
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