81 replies to this topic

[Michael]

Hello again,
I am working on an area that I can play with to get some experience with modding. However, I don't want to add it to the map... so, the work-around that I was going to use is to have an spell that the player casts, which has a cool cutscene effect (already wrote most of the .baf), then teleports the party to the area I am editing. However, I want to do something like the Pocket Plane does, where it stores the party's x.y coordinates so when I cast the spell again, it teleports the party back to where they were.

I'm not sure exactly how to do this... What I have so far is something like:

IF

		   Global("w#inplayground",0)

	   THEN

		   RESPONSE #100

			   CutSceneId(Player1)

			  // Code for getting and storing players' X and Y values should go here!

			   CreateVisualEffectObject("SPDIMNDR",Player1)

			   CreateVisualEffectObject("SPDIMNDR",Player2)

			   CreateVisualEffectObject("SPDIMNDR",Player3)

			   CreateVisualEffectObject("SPDIMNDR",Player4)

			   CreateVisualEffectObject("SPDIMNDR",Player5)

			   CreateVisualEffectObject("SPDIMNDR",Player6)

			   Wait(4)

			   FadeToColor([20.0],0)

			   Wait(2)

				 ActionOverride(Player1,LeaveAreaLUA("ARxxxx","",[x.y],z))

				 ActionOverride(Player2,LeaveAreaLUA("ARxxxx","",[x.y],z))

			   ActionOverride(Player3,LeaveAreaLUA("ARxxxx","",[x.y],z))

			   ActionOverride(Player4,LeaveAreaLUA("ARxxxx","",[x.y],z))

			   ActionOverride(Player5,LeaveAreaLUA("ARxxxx","",[x.y],z))

			   ActionOverride(Player6,LeaveAreaLUA("ARxxxx","",[x.y],z))

			   MultiPlayerSync()

			   Wait(1)

			   FadeFromColor([20.0],0)

			   CreateVisualEffectObject("SPDIMNDR",Myself)

				 ActionOverride(Player1,CreateVisualEffectObject("SPDIMNDR",Myself))

				 ActionOverride(Player2,CreateVisualEffectObject("SPDIMNDR",Myself))

			   ActionOverride(Player3,CreateVisualEffectObject("SPDIMNDR",Myself))

			   ActionOverride(Player4,CreateVisualEffectObject("SPDIMNDR",Myself))

			   ActionOverride(Player5,CreateVisualEffectObject("SPDIMNDR",Myself))

			   ActionOverride(Player6,CreateVisualEffectObject("SPDIMNDR",Myself))

			   Wait(3)

			   EndCutSceneMode()

	   END

After which, the spell gets replaced by one that runs:

IF

		   Global("w#inplayground",1)

	   THEN

		   RESPONSE #100

			   CutSceneId(Player1)

			   CreateVisualEffectObject("SPDIMNDR",Player1)

			   CreateVisualEffectObject("SPDIMNDR",Player2)

			   CreateVisualEffectObject("SPDIMNDR",Player3)

			   CreateVisualEffectObject("SPDIMNDR",Player4)

			   CreateVisualEffectObject("SPDIMNDR",Player5)

			   CreateVisualEffectObject("SPDIMNDR",Player6)

			   Wait(4)

			   FadeToColor([20.0],0)

			   Wait(2)

				 ActionOverride(Player1,LeaveAreaLUA(VAR1a,"",[VAR1b.VAR3c],0))

				   ActionOverride(Player2,LeaveAreaLUA(VAR1a,"",[VAR2b.VAR3c],0))

				   ActionOverride(Player3,LeaveAreaLUA(VAR1a,"",[VAR2b.VAR3c],0))

				   ActionOverride(Player4,LeaveAreaLUA(VAR1a,"",[VAR2b.VAR3c],0))

				   ActionOverride(Player5,LeaveAreaLUA(VAR1a,"",[VAR2b.VAR3c],0))

				   ActionOverride(Player6,LeaveAreaLUA(VAR1a,"",[VAR2b.VAR3c],0))

			   MultiPlayerSync()

			   Wait(1)

			   FadeFromColor([20.0],0)

			   CreateVisualEffectObject("SPDIMNDR",Myself)

				 ActionOverride(Player1,CreateVisualEffectObject("SPDIMNDR",Myself))

				 ActionOverride(Player2,CreateVisualEffectObject("SPDIMNDR",Myself))

			   ActionOverride(Player3,CreateVisualEffectObject("SPDIMNDR",Myself))

			   ActionOverride(Player4,CreateVisualEffectObject("SPDIMNDR",Myself))

			   ActionOverride(Player5,CreateVisualEffectObject("SPDIMNDR",Myself))

			   ActionOverride(Player6,CreateVisualEffectObject("SPDIMNDR",Myself))

			   Wait(3)

			   EndCutSceneMode()

	   END

So basically... what I want to know is, can a global be used as a paramater? So can I have something like DoSomething(Global("w#myvar"))?
Also, can I store an area into a variable so I know which one to return to?

Most of the code was taken for learning purposes from Razfallow (razfallow@sigil.cz).

Thanks for your time!
~Michael

Edited by Michael, 11 September 2008 - 06:16 PM.

[Kulyok]

StorePartyLocations()

RestorePartyLocations()

[Michael]

Well, that's ridiculously easy...

I'm used to program languages like C++, PHP/MySQL, RoR, Javascript, etc, so sorry if I ask a lot of questions. This language just feels so weird.

[minotaur_in_maze]

Well, that's ridiculously easy...

I'm used to program languages like C++, PHP/MySQL, RoR, Javascript, etc, so sorry if I ask a lot of questions. This language just feels so weird.

I wrote something here - then edited it out when better judgement kicked in.

Hope it works for ya. Is this for a mod, or???

MiM - Jealous

[Michael]

Well, it may turn out to be a mod... I always was disappointed with the strongholds in BG, so I am making my own. It's not filled with any epic quests or anything... I'm mostly using it to see how much I like modding Baldur's Gate.

Anyway, what I'm slowly working towards is a completely customizable stronghold for the player. I'll be using a pocket-plane so I don't have to mess with the world map. You'll start out with a main foyer that has a lot of different exits. I'll have a contractor NPC that you can have build seperate areas, meaning that a Global Timer will be set, which when it expires will make one of the various exits move to another place. Each place can have various features, that I have yet to plan. Realistically, I doubt it will ever be done, but the dynamics of it means I can try new things to mod at any stage to get better at modding the game.

[minotaur_in_maze]

Anyway, what I'm slowly working towards is a completely customizable stronghold for the player. I'll be using a pocket-plane so I don't have to mess with the world map. You'll start out with a main foyer that has a lot of different exits. I'll have a contractor NPC that you can have build seperate areas, meaning that a Global Timer will be set, which when it expires will make one of the various exits move to another place. Each place can have various features, that I have yet to plan. Realistically, I doubt it will ever be done, but the dynamics of it means I can try new things to mod at any stage to get better at modding the game.

MOAN!

Please Do!

[Michael]

I'm having a problem with DLTCEP. Whenever I am editing an map, it saves my changes to the override folder. However, I would rather it saved the files in the development folder, so I can patch them through manually or patch them through with my setup file.

Is this possible?

MOAN!

Please Do!

I highly doubt this will be completed. It all depends on if Warcraft 3 modding eats up more of my time.

Edited by Michael, 27 June 2007 - 07:09 AM.

[igi]

I believe there is an option in the settings section of DLTCEP; something like "don't save to default folder". With that set (or unset, depending on how it's worded) DLTCEP should remember your last save directory.

Alternatively, you could edit your places bar in the open dialog to contain your project directory, then you'd have rapid access to it, from all applications. You'd need to hack the registry to do this though (or use Tweak UI etc).

[Michael]

Wen back to modding BG2, and could not find the setting.

Any experienced modders willing to share how they started out? What mod is best to start on?

A romance intrigues me, and seems like it would be fun, but I'm not one for writing dialog. Coming up with, and coding features is fun though...
A house/guild mod mostly interests me, but would be far to complex at my current experience.


Any suggestions?

[Sticz]

Not sure where you are wanting to start, what difficulty of NPC you want. For starters I would go with one of the 'One a Day' NPCs, they have pretty straightforward dialog trees and are typically pretty easy to re-write. Bear in mind that the older the NPC, the more complicated their dialog styles are, so they can be hard to follow.

If you are looking for areas and the like, not many add just one area to the map itself, but it is pretty easy, you just need to search for the quick tutorial I wrote a long time ago on adding them to the XNEWAREA.2da.

I personally used Alassa, one a day NPC for my first mimic, then I began to refine it using other mods as templates. If you want to add romance, there are alot of tutorials out there that work MUCH better than trying to figure out some of the already written ones. Many people add multiple variables (Fade comes to mind) and you have to meet all the variables for a dialog to fire and this can be confusing when you are trying to learn the basics. Once you have a good idea from the tutorials, you can go back and see how they did theirs.

Aside from that, you are looking at quests, which are pretty easy if you remember to add all of your points for the dialogs: Initial meeting, being assigned the task, refuseing the task and comming back to get it, assigned the task but not completed, completed the task, and finally failed the task. There have been many times I forget a point and have to re-install my massive personal mod just to get a quest to continue properly.

As far as a guild, I made one for my Blackguard, though it basically was the Radiant Heart temple after I whiped them out. The quests were more geared to keeping the stronghold (multiple tasks and several battles with paladins) rather than attaining it. If you are up to adding a new area to your map, there are many zones you can pilfer from BG1 to make as strongholds.


Good luck,


Sticz

[Michael]

Well, it's been a long, long while. But, I want to get back into trying to mod BG2. Scripts seem a lot easier after my time away, but I'm having some trouble with areas.

I had planned to use Durlag's Tower as a base and mod from there. So, what I want to get done is a copy of all of the areas (ARD000 - ARD012), with all the spawns, containers, and actors removed.

Naturally, I'm having quite the trouble. My first attempt was to copy the files, rename them to ARDA00-12, then tweak them in DLTCEP.

Didn't work.

So, I looked around for more tutorials, and found one here on SHS using IETME. So, I downloaded it and installed it. Punched it up, but still having issues getting it to work.

I've seen tutorials on making areas from scratch and such, but I've not yet found what I'm doing wrong (or rather, what I need to do right) to simply use the graphics from another map to start my own.

Thanks in advance for any help. I'm, unfortunately, the type of person that will work hard at a project until I feel I've learned what I can from modding the game, and gotten the satisfactions of playing game-God. I tend to leave projects at a roughly 60% completion, and don't tend to release projects that I complete.

(PS: Sorry for resurrecting my own thread. Thought it would be better then starting a new thread with every question: I could just ask any questions I ever have, separated by indefinite amounts of time.)

(PPS: Of course, moments after I post this I get a map working... figures. Still, comments would be welcome. Why reinvent the wheel when you can have other people provide their glorious insight? ;P)

Edited by Michael, 17 March 2008 - 05:54 PM.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Of course, moments after I post this I get a map working... figures. Still, comments would be welcome. Why reinvent the wheel when you can have other people provide their glorious insight?

Now, give us a tutorial.

[Michael]

You know, I think I'll do that when I get home. =P

Just a simple one with how to take bif'd areas, change the properties, resave them, then remove all the actors/traps. Once you have all of them exported and ready for use, I'll write how to organize the regions/entrances and map all the areas together.

We'll see here in another few hours.

EDIT:
http://www.shsforums...showtopic=32344

Edited by Michael, 18 March 2008 - 05:16 PM.

[Michael]

Is there an easy way to check what component numbers are used in a mod?

For example, open up Setup-xyz.tp2, look through, and find out that A is component 1, B is component 2, C1 is component 31, C2 is component 32, etc.

Thanks.

~Michael

[SConrad]

Logically, the first component is 0, the next is 1, and the one after that is 2, all the way down to n. There are ways to mess around with this, however, by using the component flag DESIGNATED (which was introduced so that components would have the same number in later versions of a mod, even if other components were included or removed). The component flag DEPRECATED also influences the component numbering system. If the second component is marked as DEPRECATED, it won't show up but still occupy the component number 1, and the second visible component will be number 2.

If there are no DESIGNATED or DEPRECATED flags in the tp2, though, it follows the standard naming scheme. You can always install the mod and check your WeiDU.log if unsure.

[Michael]

Thanks for the info, SConrad.

[Michael]

Kinda off-topic, but I've chosen to work on something a bit... well, [different].

EDIT: IEMI: http://iem.rp-addict.com

I've been lovin' the SMM Auto-DL / Auto-Installer (GUI), and the idea of its XML file. So, I've been thinking of how I can contribute to the modding community. And, I came up with this:

A web-based application where you can select not only what mods to install, but exactly what components you want to install. I've (lifelessly) gone through the mod list at the Pocket Plane Group, and cataloged all the mods listed. In the case of the many broken links, I've gone to find the mods, and I've gotten as many versions of as many mods I can downloaded to my external (500GB) hard drive. I've now started installing them to list all the components, and putting those into a MySQL database (as shown above).

So, what does this mean?

Well, assuming I stick with the project, there is interest in the idea, and everything works fine... well, you should be able to select what mods you want to install, and what components of each mod you want. Then, from what the community says around the forums, it will look through compatibility lists that I'll write into the database, and tell you which mods don't work with each other so you can see what you can do to get the most stable game you can. When that is done, it will write an XML file for you to use. You save it over the normal SMM XML file, open up the Auto-Installer, and it will give you a file that you plug into the download manager to start the download of the mods you need.

I'm really likeing the idea, as a mod-user, and it shouldn't take too long to develop. There are also many, many things I can do with this in the future.

So, is there any interest in this? I've spent the last few days playing with mods, and have 367 components, from 312 mods, divideded into 11 groups so far. In a day or two, I can have all the components put into database, then can work on the PHP scripts.

Anywho...

Let me know what you think, if you're interested. Desired features would be nice to know, too.

EDIT: I sent a PM to SMM's creator, and if he doesn't like this project using his tools, I'll drop this.

Edited by Michael, 26 March 2008 - 08:35 AM.

[SConrad]

Sounds pretty cool--although it seems like a very tedious job. I'm racking my brain as to how this can me made easier (I now understand why you asked the question about components). Are you using any form of automated processing, or are you manually checking .tp2s and copy-paste component names and numbers?

Maybe you could ask for some sort of WeiDU cmdline feature, like --list-components, which automatically creates a text file (or .csv, etc) with component names and numbers.

Also, if you want/need some webspace for the project, I'm sure we can arrange something.

[Michael]

So far it has been a very tedious job. My method thus far is installing each component to get the component number. I'm just going through every mod on Pocket Plane, downloading the mod, installing it, and putting the components one by one into my database.

This seems to be working fine, except for mods that I simply can't find anymore, or mods with complex numberings. In example, the Level 1 NPCs mod, which didn't seem to match the normal pattern, so I'll have to run that later and make sure I document each component number.

I did think of simpler ways to do this... but I figured it would take more time to read through the WeiDU source code, make the necessary changes, and think of a better way then it would to just do it the hard way. Besides, it doesn't bother me to do the work - you'll notice my listening to tech news/podcasts in the background.

The request for a list feature would come in handy, but again... by the time it is released, I may already be done doing it my way. Still, if you have any recommendations, I'd love to hear them.

Anywho, webspace. I currently own a few domains, and I had planned on putting it up at something like bg2.rp-addict.com, or perhaps at my personal website. But, once the project is done, and Spellhold Studios wants to take the project in, that may be better. No need for people to have yet another BG2 site to look at - or at least that is my way of thinking. I have little care for where it is hosted, but if Spellhold would like to be its host when it's all said and done, I'd love to have it on their servers.

But for now, just waiting for a response from bigmoshi as to if it is alright with him or not if I can design this to be in use with his tools. Well, and doing the data entry/programming that is.

-----

One feature I plan on having is with each mod a list of download links. Something that wont take too much space... such as a SHS, G3, etc. link in the form of an image (favico), and a link to the project home. That way, it could be a mod links page as well... but, perhaps that should be a separate project (can use the same database, though, since all that info is already being cataloged by me).

-----

EDIT: You know... I also have a little less than 300 GB of free space on my server, and I never come remotely close to my 3,000 GB monthly bandwidth... if there is any way I can help the modding community with this, let me know. The connection isn't the best, but surely all that space and bandwidth shouldn't go to waste.

Edited by Michael, 23 March 2008 - 07:31 PM.

[SConrad]

So far it has been a very tedious job. My method thus far is installing each component to get the component number. I'm just going through every mod on Pocket Plane, downloading the mod, installing it, and putting the components one by one into my database.

This seems to be working fine, except for mods that I simply can't find anymore, or mods with complex numberings. In example, the Level 1 NPCs mod, which didn't seem to match the normal pattern, so I'll have to run that later and make sure I document each component number.

I did think of simpler ways to do this... but I figured it would take more time to read through the WeiDU source code, make the necessary changes, and think of a better way then it would to just do it the hard way. Besides, it doesn't bother me to do the work - you'll notice my listening to tech news/podcasts in the background.

Ugh. I would have gone crazy after about three mods. I admire your stamina.

The request for a list feature would come in handy, but again... by the time it is released, I may already be done doing it my way. Still, if you have any recommendations, I'd love to hear them.

I'll send a PM to bigg with a link to this topic. Maybe he'll be able to gen something up for the next version. If not, well... it was a good thought, anyway.

Anywho, webspace. I currently own a few domains, and I had planned on putting it up at something like bg2.rp-addict.com, or perhaps at my personal website. But, once the project is done, and Spellhold Studios wants to take the project in, that may be better. No need for people to have yet another BG2 site to look at - or at least that is my way of thinking. I have little care for where it is hosted, but if Spellhold would like to be its host when it's all said and done, I'd love to have it on their servers.

It's up to you, of course--however you want to do. Just letting you know that we'd be able to help provide you with space/dbs/bandwidth/etc, in case you'd be interested.

One feature I plan on having is with each mod a list of download links. Something that wont take too much space... such as a SHS, G3, etc. link in the form of an image (favico), and a link to the project home. That way, it could be a mod links page as well... but, perhaps that should be a separate project (can use the same database, though, since all that info is already being cataloged by me).

Ambitious--that's a lot of work, too... The main problem would be that links sometimes change from one version to another. Keeping them all up-to-date would be a major PITA. In that sense, the PPG modlist approach seems more sensible with static links that don't change, and then direct download links from the page the modlist directs you to.

EDIT: You know... I also have a little less than 300 GB of free space on my server, and I never come remotely close to my 3,000 GB monthly bandwidth... if there is any way I can help the modding community with this, let me know. The connection isn't the best, but surely all that space and bandwidth shouldn't go to waste.

Thanks for the offer. For SHS' part, however, we've got enough to cover our needs for now (but can't speak for anyone else, of course). Above all else, though, the most valuable assistance is devoting time and energy (and skill) to help the community. And you seem to be doing a lot of that already.