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Re: Re Twitter

Posted: Sat Oct 07, 2017 5:10 pm
by Jay_H
No, don't worry about me ;) I just wanted to know if there was a functional difference between the two.

Re: Re Twitter

Posted: Sat Oct 07, 2017 10:48 pm
by Interkarma
No difference right now but I've been chewing over it in the back of my mind for a while. This is how the various "give item" / "get item" actions appear to operate behind the scenes.
  • "give pc anItem" - Offers player a reward and sets quest success flag. Used at end of quest only. Automatically marks item as permanent, even if script does not (observed from classic scripts).
  • "give pc nothing" - As above but without an item. Used to set quest success flag without any physical reward.
  • "give pc anItem notify 1234" - Give an item to player with a popup message. Does not set success flag. Might only operate outdoors, in towns, and during daytime hours. Used to deliver letters like the one from Brisienna.
  • "give pc anItem silently" - As above but without the popup.
  • "get anItem" - Just sticks an item into player's inventory. Used anywhere, anytime.
  • "give anItem to aResource" - Assigns an item to a foe inventory for player to pickup. Examples are the mummy wrapping quest and magic item in giant-killing quest. Script author must set item permanent if player is intended to keep it.
I've built this based on observation from how these actions are used in context of the scripts, and at what stage they are using during execution. As always, understanding continues to develop slowly. :)

Re: Re Twitter

Posted: Sat Oct 07, 2017 11:15 pm
by Jay_H
Excellent. I think that covers all the bases. If I think of something different in classic, I'll post again.

Re: Re Twitter

Posted: Sun Oct 08, 2017 9:11 am
by Interkarma
Jay, I've now implemented town and time limitations for "give pc anItem notify 1234" and "give pc anItem silently". These will now only fire when player is within a town, outside, and during daylight hours. I've also added a small random delay (currently between 4-60 seconds) before message arrives. This prevents multiple showing up at once the moment player enters a town during the day.

This means "give pc anItem silently" will now only trigger under above constraints, whereas "get anItem" runs immediately anywhere, anytime.

Re: Re Twitter

Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2017 12:13 am
by Jay_H
Interkarma wrote:It's actually taken me about a week to realise the worst of it is really over, and I realised I've been fighting self doubt the whole way.
Geez, now I feel like we've been pushing you to PTSD or something through the end of the quest system :lol: :(

Re: Re Twitter

Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2017 1:23 am
by Interkarma
Nah, don't worry about that. It's all self-inflicted. :)

Re: Re Twitter

Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2017 1:59 am
by mikeprichard
Interkarma - congrats on finishing the main quest - that's a huge milestone! As someone who knows nothing about coding/programming, I can only imagine from what you've shared over the past year+ how many hours and how much effort you put in to get to this point, but I'm really pleased you can see things getting relatively "easier" from now on given everything you and the rest of the contributors have built out so far. Just take your time and don't burn yourself out as you start in on the magic system - we appreciate everything you've already given to the community, and know there will be more great things to come!

Re: Re Twitter

Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2017 2:10 am
by Interkarma
Thank you Mike! It means a lot to me, hearing that others appreciate the time and work. :)

Re: Re Twitter

Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2017 2:11 am
by Jay_H
I'm happy to observe that magic is a much more sporadic and independent system than that of quests; quests, even more so than combat, are Daggerfall gameplay to a great degree. I feel and hope it'll lend itself more to fun and experimentation than pressure and grind :) Anyway, with all that the contributor gang are adding in, 1.0 isn't really far off. Housing's gonna be an issue, and then crime and guilds, but with those done that's beta territory already. And most of these already have major groundwork done :D

Re: Re Twitter

Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2017 2:46 am
by Interkarma
Yep, I'm planning to have fun with spells to begin with. And unlike the quest system which was practically invisible until it started working, spells have tons of visual stuff I can work on right away.

It's the effect system I have my heart set on to begin with. Effects are the building blocks of everything - they're atomic and physically do something inside the game. Just like a quest is built from many atomic actions, a spell is built from one or more effects. For example, a vampiric health spell might combine a health damage effect to Entity A (target) with a heal effect to Entity B (caster). That's just an example, it's probably easier just to make a vampiric effect that does both parts, but you get the idea.

What I want is for magic to be at least partially scriptable. Not to the extent of quest system, but enough that users can easily create new basic spells by combining multiple atomic effects. And then modders can inject new effects in the way they can inject new quest actions now. Wouldn't it be great if rival vampires could levitate after the player over rooftops? Or monsters could support each other with heals? Or ancient liches could summon skeletal minions and raise them back from the dead?

There's so much cool shit that can be done beyond just reimplementing Daggerfall's standard spells. And that's my real starting point - to create that effect potential. Then everything else (potions, magic items, spells, etc.) all build onto that framework.

And the potential for screenshots and GIFs is outrageous here. It's gonna be fun. :)