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A quesiton and a few more suggestions
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msw188




Joined: 02 Jul 2003
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 19, 2005 12:54 pm    Post subject: A quesiton and a few more suggestions Reply with quote

First, the question:

Does anyone remember a question asked by someone a while ago about empty spell menus? I searched the posts here using the search page, but it didn't work too well, and I really couldn't find the post. So I'm afraid I will have to risk re-asking a question: Shouldn't spell lists that are empty NOT appear in game.exe, until the hero learns a spell that goes there? If most people believe that this should be the case, I think we should enter this into the bugzilla bug list as a requested enhancement.
Unless anyone knows a way to accomplish this with the system as it is now, without a plotscripted battle engine.

Next, a few more suggestions for future updates:

1. In the map editor in custom, I think it would be nice to be able to type in an X, Y coordinate and have the cursor placed there (if it exists). This would be nice for big maps.

2. How about having an extra option in the "appearance" menu of the attack editor that allowed you to set the centering position of the attack? This would default to the target, but could be set to other positions, like the middle of the screen, or possible any X,Y pixel on the screen (so perhaps there would be two options, called 'attack graphic X' and 'attack graphic Y', that default to 'target X' and 'target Y' respectively). Is any part of this possible?

3. How about an attack bitset called 'record damage' (like the already existing "record target" bitset)? Then one of the options for "base stat" in the attack editor could be 'recorded damage'. I think that this could help a great deal with certain things, especially used in conjunction with the "show damage but do not inflict" bitset...

4. Consider a 'mute' status affliction which consists of a 'mute register', which works like the "stun register" (it is a measure of how long the effect lasts). Add an attack bitset called 'fails when muted' or something like that so that the creator can choose what attacks are lost when a character is 'muted'.
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Moogle1
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 19, 2005 1:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Good suggestions.

I agree with your question, too -- empty spellsets shouldn't show up in GAME.
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Joe Man




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PostPosted: Tue Jul 19, 2005 2:40 pm    Post subject: Re: A quesiton and a few more suggestions Reply with quote

msw188 wrote:
4. Consider a 'mute' status affliction which consists of a 'mute register', which works like the "stun register" (it is a measure of how long the effect lasts). Add an attack bitset called 'fails when muted' or something like that so that the creator can choose what attacks are lost when a character is 'muted'.

Perhaps several such bitsets for customizable purposes would be nice.
Ex: Fail when bound (as in by ropes)
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Last edited by Joe Man on Fri Dec 13, 1957 1:21 am; edited 2,892 time in total
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LeRoy_Leo
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 19, 2005 2:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

/me binds Joe man with ropes.
:flamedevil:
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Fernurion
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 19, 2005 3:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

These are all good ideas. Number 2 would make some spells, such as summoning spells, look much better. I would like to add 'Smooth chaining' to your list of suggestions. As it is, if you want to make a spell with a long animation, you need to chain two spells together. Betwen each part, the graphics for the spell disappear for about half a second, making the whole thing look a bit ugly. Smooth chaining would eliminate that gap. Probably not possible.
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Joe Man




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PostPosted: Tue Jul 19, 2005 3:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

LeRoy_Leo wrote:
/me binds Joe man with ropes.
:flamedevil:

Ooh, kinky!
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Last edited by Joe Man on Fri Dec 13, 1957 1:21 am; edited 2,892 time in total
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msw188




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PostPosted: Wed Jul 20, 2005 6:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Okay, I just remembered earlier today a further suggestion (I really would have liked to have this command a week ago):

5. A 'Get NPC frame (who)' plotscripting command that returns the frame (0 or 1) of the NPC referred to by the argument.

I was amazed when I found that this command does not exist, and I had to rewrite a bunch of code because I sort of assumed that it would exist. Moral: Don't assume that plotscripting commands exist!
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Charbile




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PostPosted: Wed Jul 20, 2005 11:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

There was a command that I assumed to exist too, but found out it didn't--during the last 48 hour contest of all days. I had thought the 'item menu' command would bring up the item menu and allow the player to select an item, to then return the number of the item they selected. It would have made things a lot easier!
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Soule X




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PostPosted: Thu Jul 21, 2005 10:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

That would be cool.
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msw188




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PostPosted: Thu Oct 27, 2005 4:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Now that we have Rusalka, or whatever it's called, I think there are some more suggestions in order:

6. Plotscripting commands to change global text strings, item names, etc., even if they would not be saved in the .sav file. In particular, I'm thinking of ways to have multiple currencies while still being able to use OHR shops and OHR battles.

7. In custom, the ability to copy and paste graphics throughout different graphics editors (for example, paste a medium enemy graphic into an attack graphic slot). The graphic could be pasted starting with the top corners matching up (or even better, the top corner of the copied graphic could be pasted onto the position of the cursor in the target graphic). If the copied graphic is too big, it simply gets cut off.

8. I can't remember if I ever posted this one before, but I think it would be very nice to have attacks trigger bitsets, if that were possible.
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FyreWulff
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 27, 2005 11:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

An option to hide undrop-able items while playing a game would be great
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Mike Caron
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 27, 2005 10:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

msw188 wrote:
Now that we have Rusalka, or whatever it's called, I think there are some more suggestions in order:

6. Plotscripting commands to change global text strings, item names, etc., even if they would not be saved in the .sav file. In particular, I'm thinking of ways to have multiple currencies while still being able to use OHR shops and OHR battles.


The global text strings... hmm, when I was adding in my string commands, I completely forgot about them. The main problem is idenfying them: "Hmm... the currency, was that the 42nd from the top or the 43rd?" I suppose we could have a bunch of constants like GTS:currency or something.

Other names... that would require some trickery. See, in most cases, the names are not in memory until they're needed. A prime example is the enemy names. Until the battle starts, and the formation is loaded, the enemy name is still on disk, in the temporary files that GAME creates for itself by unlumping the RPG.

"So, why don't you modify the lumps?" Because there's an insidious and nasty side effect: Game.exe reuses the same lumps for all the save games, until you quit or load another RPG.

"So?" Say you have an enemy ("Ralph"). Then, in an event in a game, all the Ralphs in the world are turned into Mikes. Ok, so a plotscript renames the Ralph enemy to Mike, changes the picture, blah blah blah. Then, you save, and load up another save. Oops, Ralph is still Mike.

But, it gets worse. Say you quit and reload the game. The temporary files are nuked, and recreated. Now, Ralph is Ralph again.

There is one such lump-modding command in the OHR now, but we've put a moritorium on new ones until we can get a satisfactory solution to this whole deal. (And, yes, the problem I described affects the current command)

msw188 wrote:
7. In custom, the ability to copy and paste graphics throughout different graphics editors (for example, paste a medium enemy graphic into an attack graphic slot). The graphic could be pasted starting with the top corners matching up (or even better, the top corner of the copied graphic could be pasted onto the position of the cursor in the target graphic). If the copied graphic is too big, it simply gets cut off.


As it stands, this won't happen for technical reasons. Here's why:

Imagine the pixels in your large enemy sprite are a series of beads (or any small, multicoloured object), arranged in the rows and columns of the sprite. Notice how each line of beads is the same width.

Now, move each line of beads into a big line (you'll need a long table Happy ). That's how pixels are stored in memory. The OHR knows how big a given sprite is, so it can make the rows up again.

But, if you want to take that sprite, and fit it into a different sized sprite, you have a problem. You make rows of the new size, but each new row will be too small (or too large, perhaps), causing pixels to overflow into the next row, and so forth. The result is a warped and distorted image.

Copying and pasting between two of the same sprites is possible since the rows are the same size. But, it's not possible between two different sized sprites.

msw188 wrote:
8. I can't remember if I ever posted this one before, but I think it would be very nice to have attacks trigger bitsets, if that were possible.


That's not a bad idea. Not a bad idea at all. It would make some things (like Blue Mages) easier/possible. I may do this (some time).

FyreWulff wrote:
An option to hide undrop-able items while playing a game would be great


Explain.
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NeoTA
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 5:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Re copy/pasting from different sizes:
AFAIK this just needs an additional 'linepitch' variable, and a routine which takes into account that variable when pasting. The only reason I can see for it not working would be if the pasting was done via assembly routines.
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 8:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Isn't it? I believe it is.
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 10:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Then we need a wrapper which hacks around it. Probably in a similar kind of way to my idea for calculating correct custom menu colors (see the bugreport for new master palette).
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