Castle Paradox

[chronoboy]

How's this proposal:

A HamsterSpeak engine built into CUSTOM.EXE, but not for the purpose of testing gameplay plotscripts, and not even gameplay related actually.

With this ability, people could develop plugins for CUSTOM.EXE such as a random tree generator for the map editor. Imagine, in the map editor, pressing 'S' or using a menu option and selecting 'Tree generation', and choosing a tileset range full of trees and a tile # to replace. For example, you would want trees to randomize on grassy tiles, not roads. The plugin is basically a plotscript with a bunch of write map block commands using the script parameters the user choose.

Unlike using this type of script in GAME.EXE, it will be permanent on the map. I use a tree generation script currently for my games(I admit, I'm too lazy to manually place a huge vast forest of 200 trees), however, the more trees I add, the slower it will take for the map to load for the player. Also, when doing it during gameplay, you cannot verify if that door is blocked by accident for example. It also makes the world a tad strange, as everytime the player enters the forest, the trees have oddly moved...

I can think of other plugins people may create, such as a map import/export scripts. The HamsterSpeak engine in CUSTOM.EXE should be-able to access a file browser and access file system objects. Plugins could also be used in other sections of the editor in this way to manipulate other data.

How difficult would it be to copy the HamsterSpeak engine into CUSTOM for use of plugins and automatations for creating games?
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Current project: Chronoboy Adventures

Website: http://www.chronoboy.com/

[TMC]

Wow, this old thread

Funny, this has been suggested a few times.

Adding a script interpreter to Custom would be very messy/a tonne of work because the script commands would have to be duplicated and each modified or rewritten. Custom only loads the data that it's currently editing, so equivalents to the global variables that contain all the data in Game simply do not exist.

But if you want to do map generation, I have a counter suggestion: give you the ability to export map and other data from Game to Custom.

Surprise! You can already do this manually. Set a map to save its tile state when you leave it. Then run game.exe, generate the map, and change map. Open the temporary directory (which under Windows XP, for example, is at "C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Temp\ohrrpgce<date>.<randomnumber>.tmp\") and look for the file map<mapnum>_t.tmp. This is a 'T' lump, and you can rename it and copy it into working.tmp while you have Custom open to import it. Remember to backup first!

I'm not sure whether there would be other significant uses for "script plug-ins"

Pepsi was recently had me try out his enormous Botsmire forest covering most of a 20,000 tile map. Horrifying stuff. Something needs to be done about this; it's about time to add a copy-paste/mark-clone tool.
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"It is so great it is insanely great."

[Pepsi Ranger]

[chronoboy]

What about adding a plotscript trigger for Heros for when they level up? At the moment it is possible with an after-battle plotscript, but this means that every map needs to set one and it also means you have to cycle through each hero to find out if any of them leveled. Having a trigger for each Hero for leveling would be great!
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Current project: Chronoboy Adventures

Website: http://www.chronoboy.com/

[Pepsi Ranger]

Among the many functional needs that shops could use like re-sorting items by alphabet or category (all potion types can be lumped together with weakest first, strongest last, etc.) when new items are added to old shops, or implementing fluctuating inventories and prices through plotscripting, I think shops could also use an "Exit" button so that ESC isn't the only way out, and a "shopkeepers window," which essentially shows a graphic of the shopkeeper with animations attached to waiting, customer loitering (if player is hanging out in a shop for too long without buying anything), entering, and exiting (wouldn't RPG shops be much nicer if the dang shopkeepers would wave and smile when we leave?).

I don't know how long it will be before shops start getting some love again, but these are a sample of things that they could use. Maybe soon? Maybe soon? Maybe sooner than later?
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The Adventures of Powerstick Man: Extended Edition

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Tightfloss Maiden

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