88 replies to this topic

[Phobia]

I finished little bits of writing here and there. I'm surprised I managed to get some work done, as there are several RL issues that need to be taken care of. These coming weeks are going to be busy ones. I've started to visit the gym, I have a few live shows planned (starting tonight, so I have the jitters. Don't you just love new nearly-unpracticed material? ), and I have a household to run. Whoever said housewives don't have a job? Luckily the girls don't make too big of a mess. BUT I'll squeeze Zeke in where I can. God that sounds perverted...and kinda sexy.

Okay, time to walk away for now.

Edited by Phobia, 26 February 2010 - 06:22 AM.

[berelinde]

This doesn't have an awful lot of relevance to Zeke, but it has some. Kelemvor, the FR god of the dead, was once a mortal man afflicted with lycanthropy that changed him into a panther. He was able to return to human form only after killing an innocent.

Like I said, this isn't really information that Zeke needs to have, but if he's aware of Kelemvor's past, it might make for richer character development.

[Phobia]

Phew! I'm beat! and I'm not done yet.

I say, that's a bit of interesting information. I had no idea Kelemvor had that kind of past. Perhaps I should put that in some conversations between Zeke and Keldorn. He seems like the right man for that talk.

Thank you!

Saves link

Edited by Phobia, 02 March 2010 - 07:16 AM.

[Phobia]

Hooboy... I have a few things to take care of this week, but I think I will have some time this friday, and part of saturday. I know no one's nagging about progress, but I like keeping people posted! Whether they care or not. Anyway, it means some good old weekendly writing. Next week will be more relaxed, but the week after that (come the 15th) I have a visitor over for a few days.


Alright, here's some information on progress so far!

Written:

Join/Kickout dialogue (human form)

2 Banter with Cernd (obviously!)
2 Banters with Edwin
Banter with Minsc
Banter with Viconia
Banter with Aerie
2 Banters with Keldorn

2 LoveTalks

Replaying the vanilla game to come up with ideas for interjections. Several interjections already written.

Edit:

Aaaaand I have a question. In leopard form, Zeke can't speak human tongue. Would it be possible to still include something like a flirtpack for when he is in leopard form? If the PC can love Zeke no matter what, some petting and such would make sense.

And a second question...which I kind of already know, but I'll ask anyway. Is it possible to change his soundset for when he morphs into human and back? Edwin's change into female proves it's possible, I hope...though I can't remember if that was in the vanilla game or Edwin Romance mod? Portrait change was Edwin Romance Mod content. I remember that. Anyway, it just wouldn't make sense to hear him go "Yes, of course, right away, I'll do that" while walking around as a kitty.

Edited by Phobia, 03 March 2010 - 03:36 AM.

[berelinde]

If you're using a variable to determine whether he's in human form or leopard form, the player-initiated dialogue is easy. Chances are good that your dialogue won't suck as badly as this. I'm just throwing some nonsense up here to illustrate a couple examples of trigger usage.

##Leopard: physical form
0 = human form
1 = change to leopard initiated
2 = leopard
3 = change to human initiated

So your PID trigger would be

IF ~Global("##Leopard","GLOBAL",2)~ THEN BEGIN lpid0
SAY ~(Zeke looks at you with alert amber eyes, waiting to see what you will do.)
++ ~(You pet him.)~ + lpid1
++ ~Can you wait here a moment? I have to go talk to some people, and I'm afraid you might frighten them.~ + lpid2
++ ~Don't look at me like that, Zeke. You aren't getting any more catnip.~ + lpid3
+ ~AreaType(CITY)~ + ~Here's our inn, Zeke. I'm not getting up in the middle of the night to let you out, so if you've got to go, find yourself a good spot or hold it until morning.~ + lpid4
END

IF ~~ lpid1
SAY ~(Zeke arches his back appreciatively.)~
IF ~~ THEN EXIT
END

IF ~~ lpid2
SAY ~(Zeke glares at you, but settles onto his haunches, anyway... until some squirrels draw his attention. He leaps after them.)~
IF ~~ THEN EXIT
END

IF ~~ lpid3
SAY ~(Zeke just looks at you, reproach in his eyes.)~
IF ~~ THEN EXIT
END

IF ~~ lpid4
SAY ~(Zeke looks indignant, but soon trots off, only to return a short time later.)~
IF ~~ THEN EXIT
END

IF ~Global("##Leopard","GLOBAL",0)~ THEN BEGIN hpid0
SAY ~Yes?~
++ ~I noticed you scratching, before. Do you have fleas?~ + hpid1
+ ~Global("##ZekeRomanceActive","GLOBAL",1) RandomNum(2,1)~ + ~(You hug Zeke.)~ + hpid2
+ ~Global("##ZekeRomanceActive","GLOBAL",1) RandomNum(2,2)~ + ~(You hug Zeke.)~ + hpid3
++ ~I've been meaning to ask you something. When you change, what happens to your clothing?~ + hpid4
END

IF ~~ hpid1
SAY ~No, just itchy skin.~
IF ~~ THEN EXIT
END

IF ~~ hpid2
SAY ~(Zeke freezes for a moment, as if unsure what to make of the sudden contact, then relaxes and returns you embrace.)~
IF ~~ THEN EXIT
END

IF ~~ hpid3
SAY ~(As if forgetting he's got hands instead of paws, Zeke throws his arms around you, rubbing the side of his head against your hair.)~
IF ~~ THEN EXIT
END

IF ~~ hpid4
SAY ~I have often wondered that very same thing.~
IF ~~ THEN EXIT
END

[Phobia]

If you're using a variable to determine whether he's in human form or leopard form, the player-initiated dialogue is easy. Chances are good that your dialogue won't suck as badly as this. I'm just throwing some nonsense up here to illustrate a couple examples of trigger usage.

I like nonsense, though. Kamsahamnida! Thank you for the example. I'll be sure to put that to good use.

Soundset change was in the vanilla game, I believe.

Ahh, I wasn't sure. Thank you!

[Phobia]

The busy days have passed, and the visitor isn't coming, so now I have a few weeks to relax some and work on Zeke. I feel happy this morning, so I wrote some more banters. They seem to be the easiest bits of dialogue, especially since you don't have to think of the player responses. That said, player dialogues are fun to write, too.

[Phobia]

I'm making attempts to code some of the things I've written. It's...disastrous, to say the least. Are there any relatively bug-free untranslated mods out there that a beginner could look at for coding? I was thinking something like Viconia Friendship for LoveTalk related coding.

The more I read my own dialogue, the more I feel like rewriting them. I don't think I've captured the true essence of the characters yet. I might post a few snippets to get some feedback. I'm a perfectionist, so I want to get things right. I know I can write better things than I have so far, although forcing myself probably isn't a good idea.

[berelinde]

I wouldn't use the Viconia Friendship because it's got at least one stutter bug in it.

Must it be untranslated? Because I've always found that it was easier for me to understand the code without all the dialogue in the way.

[Phobia]

Crap. Well there goes my easy solution.

Yes, I'd prefer it being untranslated. I have little to no experience with any code. I don't even know HTML, PHP, MySQL or anything else.

I can understand little bits of that whole IF_THEN_ELSE system, although it's not easy. But mods with translations just look confusing. All I see is "The following action @ 45868" or something like that. I don't know what that means. How does one easily browse such a mod for the desired IF_THEN_ELSE coding? If it even has any, that is.

Edited by Phobia, 11 March 2010 - 12:05 AM.

[Kaeloree]

The Viconia friendship should be fine in its current version; it was updated over Christmas, and I'm relatively sure I caught everything mentioned in the forums.

If there is a stutter bug I'd be happy to fix it.

Liam

[Jarno Mikkola]

All I see is "The following action @ 45868" or something like that. I don't know what that means. How does one easily browse such a mod for the desired IF_THEN_ELSE coding? If it even has any, that is.

The @number is the number reference in the .tra file(also open-able it with Notepad)... if you open the .tp2 file, it has a AUTO_TRA and language options... that give the .tra files location etc.
That should lead to the understanding, eventually.

[Phobia]

The Viconia friendship should be fine in its current version; it was updated over Christmas, and I'm relatively sure I caught everything mentioned in the forums.

If there is a stutter bug I'd be happy to fix it.

Liam

That's excellent! It seemed like the easiest way of understanding timed NPC talks with the PC, much like romances work.

The @number is the number reference in the .tra file(also open-able it with Notepad)... if you open the .tp2 file, it has a AUTO_TRA and language options... that give the .tra files location etc.
That should lead to the understanding, eventually.

So the IF_THEN_ELSE coding things are in the .tra files? I'll have a lookie.

Edited by Phobia, 11 March 2010 - 02:16 AM.

[Jarno Mikkola]

So the IF_THEN_ELSE coding things are in the .tra files? I'll have a lookie.

No, just the dialog words... this is done so that the words can easily be translated to another language, and so the install can be multi-language based, so you don't have to code everything the 20th time.

[Kaeloree]

In the dialogue (say the file is named dialogue.d), you'll have:

IF ~~ THEN statename
  SAY @204
  IF ~~ + statename2
END

What this means to WeiDU, is go to dialogue.tra in the /tra/ or /language/ folder, and replace @204 with the appropriate line of dialogue from the TRA. We use TRAs because they help translators with their work, as it centralises the dialogue, like Jarno has said.

TRAification is something that happens after you've finished the mod, usually, so your states will look like:

IF ~~ THEN statename
  SAY ~Hello, I'm a line of dialogue!~
  IF ~~ + statename2
END

[Phobia]

Oohhhh! Code without dialogue lines!! Now I get it! I swear, I'm such a ditz. Anyway, that makes the whole code-peeking a whole lot easier. I'm getting an idea now.. but that's a secret.

Edited by Phobia, 11 March 2010 - 10:53 PM.

[Phobia]

It's been a while, hasn't it? Don't worry, both the mod and myself are very much breathing. Things have been quite busy, but I did squeeze in a banter here and there, along with some stray coding. The idea I mentioned earlier was just that, an idea. It's probably not going to happen. It's no big deal. I checked my portrait request thing and I'm very very very happy with the leopard portrait! I mean, wow! I'm very much looking forward to the human one. I'll bet Zeke will turn out so cute and handsome.

[Phobia]

I'm not dead! I have just been überbusy. It has been crazy, I tell you! I did work more on this here mod, writing tons of banters and lovetalks. It's cute, funny, and rather sexy at times.

[AE-Shadow-Huntress]

Glad to hear the mod is still going. Just wanted to chime in and say I'm looking forward to it.

Edited by AE-Shadow-Huntress, 20 May 2010 - 12:41 PM.