Sunday, February 6, 2011

Working On Big Update

Getting ready to sit down and do a large update to chapter 1.

I decided to do a few play through of chapter 1 again for two reasons. First is I am starting to test different plot areas that are mostly complete. It is easier to use a character that has completed the game and has the items, bonuses and consumables opposed to trying to levelup and equip a new character.
The second reason for the play through is I have reached a dialog heavy part of design. I need to start working on all the dialog for the monastery as well as the second new base of operations. These will fill the player in with the plot and direction while starting to answer the questions from the conclusion of chapter 1. I found it more helpful to read the conversations of the companions and the NPCs in game opposed to opening the toolset and reading them there.

I was surprised how many little things weren't working quite right that were during playtesting. Fortunately I only found one large issue that has already been uploaded in the patch.hak. So I have a list of things to go and add or modify. While I am going through those items I have also gone and created two new scripts that need to be added throughout the campaign. The party will now receive experience for disarming traps. I have gone through all the base traps and created a CR based on damage, number of targets or radius effect, magical effects and saves. That CR is further modified by the traps DC to detect and disarm. The script will also check for a local variable so custom traps or the dart and arrow traps can be given a set CR since they do not use a trap_base_type. This is also the first scripts that I have written that pulls information out of a 2da.  I am using the experience 2da, by finding the character level and the trap CR I pull out the appropriate experience to be awarded. The second script will give a single character experience for picking a lock. The experience is based on the difference of the lock DC verse the characters open lock skill rank including all bonuses. In regards to experience I have also modified the sneak script. I have discovered it is only giving the character who is player controlled the experience for sneaking past encounters. This throws off the experience levels, as the party would gain the experience for fighting the encounter so they should gain the experience for avoiding it.

With this update I am also looking at adding Lance's For of War. http://worldofalthea.blogspot.com/2011/02/area-map-fog-of-war.html
I am still deciding whether to use the original or the passive system. I like the original, but know that most of the feedback on the bioware forum and vault prefer the passive system. But for now I can set the waypoint for maps not effect by the fog. The only area that will likely take advantage of the map unavailable will be lost in the mountains, as I designed the area in a way that made the area map mostly useless.

So I am off to the toolset to find all the traps and locks.

7 comments:

Lance Botelle (Bard of Althéa) said...

Hi Shaughn,

Great to hear you are considering updating your mod with the FoW system. Please be sure to test the performance to area size for me and let me know what was the best update rate you used (the default of 0.5 or anything else?).

The code is in its early stages, and I have not even had time to give it a thorough test myself, so I would be sure to make sure it does work for your mod as you hope. I would be more than happy to try to iron out any issues you encounter along the way.

Lance.

Lance Botelle (Bard of Althéa) said...

Hi Shaughn,

I have just added this to the Vault description, which may affect other builders, including yourself:

“Strict Interior/Exterior observing: The code also makes adjustments depending on whether the area is an exterior or interior and checks this with the GetIsAreaInterior function. If you have set this differently to the tiles expected, then results will be out.”

Lance.

Shaughn said...

Once I have the first module setup I will give it a try to check performance. 2 areas will be using the waypoint for no fog. I have a medium size forest that will use the fog and 2 interior kobold caves that will also use the fog. Give me a chance to fully try out the trap script as well.

I am using the active/passive system and having a feat to switch between the two. Is there a set description you are looking at for that feat? Also I am considering adding a small spot or survival rank requirement for the feat. The main reason is to prevent a new character from picking up the feat right off the bat. This way they would need to advance to at least level 3 and invest in some mapping relating skills before the feat was avaliable.

Lance Botelle (Bard of Althéa) said...

Hi Shaughn,

Just a quick note before I get off to bed. A bug was discovered in the code. I have updated the version to v1.01b, so be sure to have downloaded and use the latest versions. Be sure to change/use all scripts as some will have been recompiled with the new amended include file. Basically, just swap all the scripts and hak for the new version.

You also have to add another script to the area on exit now. The script that holds theglobal variables also changed I believe.

Let me know how you get on.

Cheers.

Lance.

Lance Botelle (Bard of Althéa) said...

P.S. I like the idea for your feat advancement. I do not yet have a description for it yet. It may differ from module to module I suppose. As a name, I think "Expert Mapper" works well and all I ask is the integer used for it is as I have it in the code.

Lance.

Kamal said...

Doing a content update after release is certainly unusual for a mod.

Shaughn said...

Kamal The driving force to the update in content is I want the second chapter to include it. It took a little bit of time to go back and add it in, and now retetsing, but I think it would be a bit off if stuff was included in the second chapter but not thew first.