The first post: A breakthrough
Started work on my module - currently entitled "Behind the Lines" - a few weeks ago, with only a rudimentary knowledge of the toolset and no idea how to do scripting. So of course, I decided to start with a cutscene. This is like trying to learn how to use Microsoft Office without knowing how to use Windows. Needless to say, I got frustrated very quickly, and realized that A) I needed to learn more about module building and B) Needed to learn scripting. There's no lack of resources for either, it was just a matter of picking the right one. I ended up going with The Hermit's Chalice, a tutorial that walked me through every step of building a fairly simple module, covering almost all of the basic stuff.
Once I was done, I went back to my module, and back to work on the cutscene, using the Gestalt Cutscene Scripting System. However, I couldn't quite get the cutscene to work right. The cutscene was supposed to show an army of humans and an army of orcs fighting with each other (I started with one of each). After 30 seconds, the human soldier was supposed to sound a retreat, and then run off with the orc hot on his heels. At first the problem was that the soldier and orc wouldn't do anything except fight. I fixed that with the help of John "Gestalt" Bye, the guy who wrote the system, but then the next problem was that he'd say his line, but not run off. I fixed that, but then hit a new problem: the two would fight, and then the soldier would say his line and then... sometimes he'd run off, sometimes he'd just stand there, and sometimes he'd run partway but then stop and turn around. Same thing with the orc. This left me baffled.
My three biggest obstacles when it comes to learning how to build are impatience, frustration, and inundation. When I want to know something, I want to know it now - I hate having to sift through tons of stuff to find out what I need to know. When something doesn't work, I get easily frustrated. The more I learn, the less this is a problem, but there were times this weekend when I just wanted to quit. And finally, just trying to find the right information can be overwhelming; not because there's too little, but because there's too much. There are dozens of tutorials, guides, FAQ's, and resources online. Trying to dig through them all is a pain. I spent much of Saturday looking at this stuff, only to discover at the end of the day that someone had compiled most of it into one document.
On the other hand, when I get the info I need to do what I want to do - or better yet, when I figure it out myself - I feel elated. For instance, I spent a lot of Saturday trying to figure out how to make NPC's randomly say something (from a list of possible sayings) without having anyone initiate a conversation. Someone in the forum posted a script which handled it, but by then, I had changed my plans: now I wanted the NPCs to randomly say something when they were hit by an enemy. I did some research, learned how to create user-defined events, adapted the script, and was able to figure out how to make this happen. I also found out how to put certain items in a PC's inventory when the game starts, and I figured out how to make him equip those items in the first area. Relatively minor stuff, but considering I didn't know a thing about scripting a week or two ago, it felt like a triumph. I've been slowly reading Celowin's Scripting Tutorial, and while I don't quite have a good handle yet on how to write my own scripts, at least I can now look at simpler scripts and understand what's going on in them. Sometimes.
And tonight, I made a breakthrough on the cutscene: after appealing to the community for help, Roybos, the author of Red Moon Rising - a great module that makes fantastic use of cutscenes - looked at my script and fixed it up. However, although it worked for him, when I tried it, my two combatants would simply stare at each other for 30 seconds before running off. I finally figured out the problem: my game was set on normal difficulty, and the two combatants were set to be part of the same faction. Normal rules don't allow player vs. player, so even though the script was telling them to fight, the game's restrictions were overriding it. Once I set my difficult to hardcore, the script worked the way it was supposed to. It feels really good to finally get past this.
Next up: populating the cutscene with my armies, and amending the script to handle all the NPCs. Also: figuring out how to destroy items on a PC, figuring out how to set the camera, figuring out how to have a PC receive an XP award based on the number of NPCs left alive in a scene, and figuring out how to make most of them leave the area once the award has been given.
Once I was done, I went back to my module, and back to work on the cutscene, using the Gestalt Cutscene Scripting System. However, I couldn't quite get the cutscene to work right. The cutscene was supposed to show an army of humans and an army of orcs fighting with each other (I started with one of each). After 30 seconds, the human soldier was supposed to sound a retreat, and then run off with the orc hot on his heels. At first the problem was that the soldier and orc wouldn't do anything except fight. I fixed that with the help of John "Gestalt" Bye, the guy who wrote the system, but then the next problem was that he'd say his line, but not run off. I fixed that, but then hit a new problem: the two would fight, and then the soldier would say his line and then... sometimes he'd run off, sometimes he'd just stand there, and sometimes he'd run partway but then stop and turn around. Same thing with the orc. This left me baffled.
My three biggest obstacles when it comes to learning how to build are impatience, frustration, and inundation. When I want to know something, I want to know it now - I hate having to sift through tons of stuff to find out what I need to know. When something doesn't work, I get easily frustrated. The more I learn, the less this is a problem, but there were times this weekend when I just wanted to quit. And finally, just trying to find the right information can be overwhelming; not because there's too little, but because there's too much. There are dozens of tutorials, guides, FAQ's, and resources online. Trying to dig through them all is a pain. I spent much of Saturday looking at this stuff, only to discover at the end of the day that someone had compiled most of it into one document.
On the other hand, when I get the info I need to do what I want to do - or better yet, when I figure it out myself - I feel elated. For instance, I spent a lot of Saturday trying to figure out how to make NPC's randomly say something (from a list of possible sayings) without having anyone initiate a conversation. Someone in the forum posted a script which handled it, but by then, I had changed my plans: now I wanted the NPCs to randomly say something when they were hit by an enemy. I did some research, learned how to create user-defined events, adapted the script, and was able to figure out how to make this happen. I also found out how to put certain items in a PC's inventory when the game starts, and I figured out how to make him equip those items in the first area. Relatively minor stuff, but considering I didn't know a thing about scripting a week or two ago, it felt like a triumph. I've been slowly reading Celowin's Scripting Tutorial, and while I don't quite have a good handle yet on how to write my own scripts, at least I can now look at simpler scripts and understand what's going on in them. Sometimes.
And tonight, I made a breakthrough on the cutscene: after appealing to the community for help, Roybos, the author of Red Moon Rising - a great module that makes fantastic use of cutscenes - looked at my script and fixed it up. However, although it worked for him, when I tried it, my two combatants would simply stare at each other for 30 seconds before running off. I finally figured out the problem: my game was set on normal difficulty, and the two combatants were set to be part of the same faction. Normal rules don't allow player vs. player, so even though the script was telling them to fight, the game's restrictions were overriding it. Once I set my difficult to hardcore, the script worked the way it was supposed to. It feels really good to finally get past this.
Next up: populating the cutscene with my armies, and amending the script to handle all the NPCs. Also: figuring out how to destroy items on a PC, figuring out how to set the camera, figuring out how to have a PC receive an XP award based on the number of NPCs left alive in a scene, and figuring out how to make most of them leave the area once the award has been given.
posted by Razide | 10:21 PM
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