The Adventurers' Guild

Dulsi,

Will the <common>, <success> and <failure> text of skills in the skill.xml trigger with a Special call? I noticed that only the "Run" skill has it, but I am curious if you do a skill test call using a special, if the engine will use the skill's default text or is it something we'll have to do with IF THEN/ELSE commands.

Also, if the above does work, will <Name /> work in the text section of a skill?


[EDIT] - Confirmed. None of the skill texts will fire during a special skill test.

Dulsi,

In working on making more skills, I've come across a problem. I need the following conditionals:


Each PC passes $K check of $H

Selected PC passes $K check of $H

and

Answer to " " is Selected PC (1-7)

The first would be used to check each PC for the skill check. For example, I have a Swimming skill. Rather than have a blanket party check, I want to check each PC and if a PC fails, THAT PC will be damaged due to "drowning." I also have a Climbing skill that works the same way. Neither one will work the way I intended, due to engine limitations. Is this possible?

The second one is for selecting a specific PC for a skill check. I've created a Lockpicking skill and have several Crafting skills that would require the player to select a specific PC to complete the task. Using the Lockpicking skill as an example, this is how I was interpreting it.

"The Door is locked!"

"Who will open?" (1-7)

In theory, doing it like this, I can make a door, block it using the special and the "blocked wall" effect. After the skill check is completed, if passed, use the special to "move one space forward", correct? Currently, there's no way to create a door that's locked and once unlocked, you can enter and exit it all you want. This is my work around.

As for crafting, using a set of PC tags, I can create "recipes", if you will. If the PC has the recipe tag, it can create an item, if it finds the required special location.

"You are standing in an Alchemy lab. Do you want to use it?"

"Who will attempt to craft a potion?" (1-7)

"Which Potion:"
(list is created, based off PC tags)

If anyone is interested, here's my test bed for the new skills I have been working on. This is really for proof of concept and not what I would consider a final product, but I'm using these currently in my module. You have 4 new xml files, so I would suggest creating a new module and putting these in the data folder, if you want to look at them, as they replace core xml files.

The 4 new xml files are as follows:

Job.xml - Uses all the original classes, but adds new skills to the jobs.

Guild.xml - Uses the Alignment settings.

Skill.xml - Adds over 30 new skills to use with specials. These are passive skills and use the D20 system for skills. Some, such has "Sneak Attack" and "Hide In Shadows" were renamed. There is also a KO skill, that works like a critical, but paralyzes instead.

Status.xml - Works similar to how BTIII's status screen works, but adds a separate window for spells and skills.


If you have any questions, let me know.

[EDIT] - I realized I wasn't clear. The new files can be found in the "Skills" folder on my shared drive.

Dulsi,

I was just curious, but how come you didn't add the Effect Only to Block Spells? It seems like it would have been a good thing to add, since we now have Damage spells that can affect only tags. Come to think of it, how come there's no Reflect Spells?

Working on some new images. Let me know when you're nearing a release, so I can get them to you.

I've worked a little on Methuselas's requests. I have the ability to select a pc from the special scripts. It still needs more commands before it is useful. Right now it allows you to press escape to avoid picking anyone. But you have no ability to determine if they chose a person or hit escape.

I've been thinking about items. Specifically the bard sword and mage staff. For charges on an items you currently have a number or 255 for unlimited uses. I've been considering making 256 special as well. 256 would be continuous.So a mage staff would have a conitnuous Regenerate Spell Points effect. Right now Regenerate Spell Points activate every round so that would need to be changed to have a delay. Bard sword could be continuous Regenerate Bard Songs. I haven't tested how the bard sword works in previous BT. The implementation I'm considering would mean that you could recharge your bard songs and then switch weapons which probably doesn't happen in older BT games.

dulsi wrote:I've worked a little on Methuselas's requests. I have the ability to select a pc from the special scripts. It still needs more commands before it is useful. Right now it allows you to press escape to avoid picking anyone. But you have no ability to determine if they chose a person or hit escape.

Awesome!

I've been thinking about items. Specifically the bard sword and mage staff. For charges on an items you currently have a number or 255 for unlimited uses. I've been considering making 256 special as well. 256 would be continuous.So a mage staff would have a conitnuous Regenerate Spell Points effect. Right now Regenerate Spell Points activate every round so that would need to be changed to have a delay. Bard sword could be continuous Regenerate Bard Songs. I haven't tested how the bard sword works in previous BT. The implementation I'm considering would mean that you could recharge your bard songs and then switch weapons which probably doesn't happen in older BT games.

In the original games, the Bardsword gave you unlimited songs, in that you always had at least one. As soon as you removed it, though, it would use the limited charges, based on level. If your bard was down to zero and you equipped a bardsword, you could still play songs, but on the Amiga version, if you unequipped it, your bard was still at zero, until you recharged them through drinks.

I like the idea of a 256 continuous effect, but what I have noticed is that in BTBuilder, time changes with each "step", so if you don't move, time doesn't move. Originally, you could sit in the same spot, but time would change. (I found out the hard way with 1st level characters I left sitting out in front of the AG, 'cos I had to go eat and help my Dad mow the lawn, when I was a kid.) I don't know if you've changed the "time step" functions.

Sorry I've been quiet lately. Kiddo started Cub Scouts and I'm his Den Leader, as they didn't have one. I have ZERO free time now. :/

Methuselas wrote:In the original games, the Bardsword gave you unlimited songs, in that you always had at least one. As soon as you removed it, though, it would use the limited charges, based on level.

I was originally going to implement it differently but decided against it. Instead I've added an unlimited use option for regenerate skill spell. If it is set to unlimited, as long as the spell is running you will be able to use the skill. That allows you to implement a bard sword which doesn't actually regenerate skill but allows you to use it.

Methuselas wrote:I like the idea of a 256 continuous effect, but what I have noticed is that in BTBuilder, time changes with each "step", so if you don't move, time doesn't move.

Time should pass. It did at one point but haven't checked recently. I'll check when I can.

I plan on putting out a new release this month. It should have continuous effects for items.

Methuselas wrote:Sorry I've been quiet lately. Kiddo started Cub Scouts and I'm his Den Leader, as they didn't have one. I have ZERO free time now. :/

That's ok. I'm the committee chair for my son's cub scout pack so I understand the problem.

Dulsi,


New animation file for the Nomad (slot27) in my shared folder. I've tested it in game and it works. Thought you might want to add it to the release you're working on. It looks really good.

Happy Holidays, all.

I had planned to do this earlier in the month but didn't finish it up to my satisfaction. I decided to make the sample games diverge. I plan to make Builder City 2 take place after Builder City.

Bt Builder 0.5.6 released. Golem and dwarf/normad image animated. Added special command to select a PC. Added special conditionals to see if a PC is selected, if selected PC passes a skill check and if everyone passes a skill check. Added unlimited use option to regen skill effect. Added delay option to regen mana. Fix the check class special. Added continuous effect items. To use them set the # of uses to 256. You probably want to make the source of the spell to be item instead of magic so that antimagic fields don't end the effect. Fixed bug that allowed dead monsters to attack. Modified Builder City 2 game to have mage staff and bardsword. Removed btbuilder only map from Builder City game so that it can run in BTCS.

Doh!

I have bad timing.....


Horned Warrior (Slot 6) now has animated male and female images. I have the Bard (Slot 33) done as well, for both male and female, but I'm not happy with the Male animations, so I want to redo them. I'm going to try and start cranking out at least one a week, starting with as many of the humanoid ones as possible. Keep in mind that I'm hand animating these, by keyframes, rather than using IK/FK, so there's going to be limited movement.

Female Rogue (Slot11) and Male Rogue (Slot32) are done, as well.


Merry Christmas!

Well..... the new Nvidia driver trashed my windows drive and now most of my graphics apps just crash on opening. Tried rolling the driver back, to no avail. Gonna start reinstalling everything tomorrow.

On another subject, I lost all my BTBuilder stuff, as it was on my desktop. Is there a simple way to create a completely blank map? I'd like to start over, from scratch on all my maps, but every time I modded the small.xml, it wouldn't display the map tilesets correctly in the preferences.

1. I hate how flat the tileset images are in game.

2. I hate that there's no way for module builders to create their own tilesets.

So......


Here's a preview of the Modular Dungeon Set. When finished, it will allow you to create your own tilesets, by building your own walls and using your own textures. In addition, you'll also be able to create your own horizon maps. Currently, you can create rough dungeon walls and smooth dungeon walls. There are 2 modeled doors and one plane door, for use with textures, if you have a specific image you wish to use.

Now, this is for maya, but I've kept it as simple as possible, so when released, the FBX files will import into Blender and the lights and animations will work, so you'll be able to render your own tileset files.




If you have any questions, let me know.

Cheers!


[EDIT] - Oh, Dulsi, it's been ages, so I don't know for sure, but can linux use a bat file to rename files? In order to name the images correctly, I use a simple bat file. I'm not sure if linux can use it or not.

Dulsi,

I know 1280x800 isn't supported, but we can still brute force 960x600, using the display settings, correct?

I've got version 5.6 up and running, but I've run into an odd problem ... I can't seem to set random encounters for the maps any more. No matter what I do, I get "0% chance of 1 group" for a particular map. Highlighting it and hitting return to change the settings doesn't do anything at all (i.e. it literally just stays highlighted and nothing happens).

Interestingly, if you go into the .xml file and try to change the encounter chance that way, it *still* displays as "0% chance of 1 group" even if the .xml file has a different setting. I'll play around with it and post if I find something different...

EDIT: Okay, I did have the base module file pointing to the wrong content folder... it does now read a manually (i.e. in the xml file) set encounter chance, but it still can't be set in the editor.