Question: i just finished diplomacy with the dead, i download the scen editor open the manual and fall apart by 1.4 WHAT THE HECK it is EXTREMELY hard to understand that damn guide! i didnt understand A_N_Y_T_H_I_N_G...anyone wanna clarify? Answer: I suggest going beck to section 1.1, rereading it, and going through all the steps in it. Scenario design is not easy, not at all. It's a complicated system. But it is possible, with not much work, to make simple scenarios. Go back to the step by step guide in 1.1 and work through it. Make simple scenarios and play through them yourself for fun for a little while. Only then, when you're comfortable with the basics, move to the scary stuff beyond. Question: Is there any way to get the character number of something created with the place_monster call? It would be nice if the call returned the chracter number of the newly created creature so designers could then do something to the newly spawned creature. Answer: There are many things I wanted to do, but I couldn't, becaused the engine was built a certain way and it would have taken a bit of work. This is number one on the list. :-( There are ways around this. 1. Make the creature with spawn_creature. 2. Make the creature type you are making with place_monster have a default script made by you, and make that default script do what you want it to do. Question: When a script receives a message, the script is called right away and my_current_message will return something non-zero. If my_current_message <> 0, I can be sure this is the second time this script has been called this turn (unless the script is on a 8-turn cycle)? Answer: Not necessarily. There are a number of things that can cause a script to be called in a turn. A ritual of sanctification, or someone walking on it, or its blocking someone's movement can cause it to be called. Also, in a combat turn, scripts are called every time someone moves (so if someone moves 5 spaces, the terrain scripts are called 5 times). Your scripts need to be robust enough to work properly no matter how many times in a turn they are called. Question: Can I only count on variables staying the same in a single script (and any other states I call in that script)? In other words, if I change the value of variable "monster_count" in one script, will it affect the value of a variable of the same name in a different script? Is it possible for that variable to be seen in a diferent script? Answer: A variable in a script is only visible in that script, but anywhere in that script. (So it can be accessed in multiple states.) When the script is unloaded (for example, a town script when you leave that town), that variable's value is forgotten. Any value you want the game to remember should be stored in a Stuff Done Flag. Question: Floors have these four properties: fl_is_water, fl_is_floor, fl_is_ground and fl_is_rough. Am I right in assuming that a floor can only have one of these? None of them stack, right? Answer: A floor can have any or all of these properties. Question: Also, what do the docs mean when they say "other terrain types will conform to it when painting terrain in the editor" about the fl_is_water, fl_is_floor and fl_is_rough properties? I don't understand that sentance... Answer: If you draw some water in the editor, the editor will automatically adjust it so the shore lines up. That's what is meant by conforming. Question: Could the game be modified to allow negative values for immunities? One way to do this would be to set the formula for damge recieved from an attack to damage-(immunity*damage)/100 so for example the ice monster has a fire immunity value of -100 then it would recieve double damage from fire attacks. Answer: This modification is unlikely. However, you can achieve the same effect by giving the creature high resistance to everything but cold. Then adjust the monster's hit points as desired. Question: Am I right in that a strength of 11 for a posion/disease special property on a floor will have a 5 percent chance of inflicting one 11-sided die of damage? In other words, 1-11 damage? The docs say there's a base 60% chance of dealing damage, minus 5% per point of strength, and inflict a single die of damage with as many sides as the strength. That doesn't seem like a lot... Answer: Sometimes I look at how I did something, shake my head sadly, and say "What was I thinking?" This is one of those cases. Having floor with a powerful effect have almost no chance of inflicting it? What? In all versions of BoA after Mac v1.0, swamp and disease terrain will have a straight up 50% chance of inflicting their effect. The strength of the ability is the number of levels of poison/disease that are given. Question: Would there be any way to tie one monster's effectiveness to another monster? Say you've got this huge, beefed-up magical bodyguard critter that protects a physically frail spellcaster. Would there be any way to suddenly cripple such bodyguard creature(s) if the spellcaster is killed before they are? (the spellcaster is the source of their power- would be explained in plot/dialogue) Answer: Absolutely. For an example of this, look at the room with the 10 golems in it in Khoth's fortress in Za-Khazi run. The demon golem heals itself constantly until all of its little golems are dead. Question: What's the recommended way of making changes to, say, a town, and being able to quickly test out those changes? The BoA editor manual says (page 109): Answer: Just to play it safe, it is generally best to, after making a change, load a save file outside the town and enter the town. If the ONLY thing you change is a town script, reloading a save file will reload all the scripts in the town. If you chance a scenario script (or scenario data script), loading a save file in that scenario will cause those changes to be loaded. Question: Is there any way to make them disappear 100% of the time when used. Like say, for instance, I want to make an exploding dart. I don't want anyone to be able to pick it up and use it again. Answer: In Mac BoA v1.0, all missiles have a chance of appearing on the floor. There's a 50% of a missile that misses landing. A missile fired by a PC that hits has a 60% chance of appearing on the floor. A missile fired by an NPC that hits has a 10% chance. In all later versions of BoA, only non-magical missiles will appear on the floor. They will only appear in the case of a miss, 50% of the time. Question: We all know you can have scripts check to see if you have a slith or a nephil in your party, but can you have it cjeck to see if you have a human in your party? Answer: Yes. Humans are species 0. Question: I have a guard who I want to stay put. How can I do this? Answer: First, check the description at the top of the script. Frequently, there is a value you can give to a memory cell to make the monster immobile. For example, in the guard.txt script, setting memory cell 0 to 1 or 2 gives various flavors of immobility. Second, the set_mobility call can stop any monster in its tracks permanently. Third, you can make any monster never move by never giving it any calls that might make it move. This includes do_attack, by the way. If you want the monster to use regular attacks, you'll need to use set_mobility. Question: I wonder... does BoA allow custom items to be used across scenarios? Answer: Yes, as long as they don't use custom graphics or try to call states in the scenario script when used. Question: Right, so I'm trying to learn Avernumscript... Could someone explain how I would make a creature turn neutral/ friendly after it has lost one quarter (1/4) of its life? May be stupid but I want to know how it is done. Have to start somewhere. Answer: Look at the script t9griffon.txt in Diplomacy of the Dead. I think this is along the lines of what you're looking for. The main risk is that the party will do so much damage in a round that the monster will die before it gets a chance to become friendly. If you really, really want this creature to live, you might want to have scripts watch for the creature being killed and respawn it if it dies before it has a chance to become friendly. Question: 553 is the icon of a Scen Icon pic I want to be the label of my scenario. I insert 553 into the field for "Set Label Icon", but the game refuses to recognize it. Can one customize scenario icons, or are we all relatively screwed in that regard? Answer: You can't use custom scenario icons. I tried to compensate by putting in a lot of them, but I appreciate it's not a great substitute. Sorry. :-( Question: Does anyone else think this is kind of wacky? In order to set the response options for dialogues using add_dialog_choice, we refer to numbers 0-2, but in the number we get back from run_dialog we get 1-3. That is, if we say add_dialog_choice(0,"Yes") and the player chooses it, then run_dialog gives us back 1. Likewise, for add_dialog_choice(1,"No"), we'd get back 2, and for the third, it's 2 and 3. Answer: Wacky is a kind word for it. It is something scenario designers should watch out for when debugging. I'm not likely to change it now, though, because of the need to make everyone go back and rewrite everything. Question: I want to call a state IMMEDIATELY after a monster dies, not at the end of the turn (using state 2). Is there any way that a creature's death can cause a node to be called instantaneously post-mortem? Thanks. Answer: Give the creature its own script. Write what you want in the state DEAD_STATE. Question: I'm trying to send a message from a town state to a terrain script. I can't find a way to do so; I need an example of how it's done. I can't find anywhere in the built-in scenarios where such messages were used. The game claims never to have heard of the "broadcast_message_from_loc" call. The "give_ter_script_message" call wants only two arguments, despite needing three. So neither work. Answer: There are two errors here, both on my part. There are errors in the docs. The call "broadcast_message_from_loc" should actually be called "broadcast_message_from_x_y", and the description of give_ter_script_message should read void give_ter_script_message(short which_ter_script,short what_message) - This gives message what_message to terrain script which_ter_script. You can find out the number of a terrain script by selecting it in the editor. Question: I made a set of custom graphics (black fences). When I tried them in Blades of Avernum, they looked OK except each one had a vertical black line near or on it. The custom graphics sheet is the right size. What can I do to fix this? Answer: I think I can answer this one. Some graphics programs (AppleWorks/ClarisWorks, for example) can set the PICT's bounding rectangle in a weird way when the graphic is copied out of the application. This can cause this behavior. To fix it, in your graphics program, shift the icon so it is at the far upper left corner before you copy-paste it into the resource file. (In other words, move it to it's as far up and elft as it can go without shifting off the edge.) Question: There is a bad documentation bug. There are two functions, each of which is poorly documented: char_on_spot() and char_on_loc(). The function char_on_spot() is NPC only. You are clearly checking for player characters here. Change it to char_on_loc(). Answer: Yep. Very bad call naming and describing on my part. When these issues are caught, they are described at http://www.avernum.com/blades/workshop/editortechsupp.html Question: Maybe I'm just being blind, but I can't for the life of me find a script command to make the party leave the current town. The manual says that it can be done, but I can't figure it out. Any ideas? Answer: There is no call to actually instantly boot the party out of a town. The best you can do is teleport them to a location at which they are then forced to walk out. - Jeff Vogel Spiderweb Software, Inc. http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com