More (basic) editor questions

[DaveyJJ]

1. How do we set up where a player starts their adventure/scenario? A "player start" point.

2. Is it possible to set up teleports to be two-way? Or if not, more than one use at least so that we could set two up to move back and forth between two separate areas?

3. What 3D formats are the models in so that we could add things like stairs, pits, etc (as teleports) or is this possible?

4. I didn't see a grass texture yet ... but have seen dirt/mud with tiny bits of grass showing through ... is there one? And/or grass/field with flowres/weeds etc? How easy will it be to add new ones?

Thanks Steven so far for a fabulous game and editor!

[Shadow]

Originally Posted by DaveyJJ

1. How do we set up where a player starts their adventure/scenario? A "player start" point.

The player start is one of the things that is in the adventure/level database entry. It's just a line that looks like this:

StartPosition "128.0 1032.0"

These numbers match what you can see in the lower left in the editor. I think it is labelled tile position.

Originally Posted by DaveyJJ

2. Is it possible to set up teleports to be two-way? Or if not, more than one use at least so that we could set two up to move back and forth between two separate areas?

There aren't any 2 way teleports right now. I don't think you can do it directly right now, but I could be wrong.

You can functionally do it though, for example, by having a red teleporter go to the other area and a green teleporter coming back. We do this fairly often in the game.

Also, I believe that if you go down a level that you can reuse all of the teleporter types again.

Of course, you can always make as many new teleporters types as you want. We just use red, green, and blue for simplicity.

Originally Posted by DaveyJJ

3. What 3D formats are the models in so that we could add things like stairs, pits, etc (as teleports) or is this possible?

It's possible, but you would need to export a model from Max (3d modeling program).

Originally Posted by DaveyJJ

4. I didn't see a grass texture yet ... but have seen dirt/mud with tiny bits of grass showing through ... is there one? And/or grass/field with flowres/weeds etc? How easy will it be to add new ones?

We probably don't have much grass textures since everything is underground, but it should be easy to make your own. Just create a texture, make sure the width and height are both powers of two (the ones in the game are all 128x128), and save it as a tga file. The game will automatically convert it to the internal format.

[DaveyJJ]

Where do I find this "... adventure/level database entry"?

How do I add text for the adventure and get it to be seen by the game?

EDIT ... I've found the files that are all located in the two ZIPPED archives, and am roughly working through how to get things added etc. So, my questions now become:

Seeing as we're adding at a minimum text for the adventure $$lang$$/etc/etc and a name.gdb file that points to the various .ara files for the game, how do we actually go about adding these into the provided ZIP files? Or do we? Do we create our own in in the adventures folder or what? I guess I'm asking, how do we add our own files and post for others to play items that they seemingly have to install manually into ZIP files in the correct directories?

Yes, I am confused.

[Shadow]

As a modder, you wouldn't want to add anything to the zip files that shipped with the game. You would have all your separate files and then zip them up into a new zip file. If done correctly this new zip can be downloaded by others, put into the Assets directory directly, and just work.

Oh, and you don't need to add the adventure name into the localization files unless you plan on having multiple languages support.

BTW, I should be putting together an SDK sometime soon.

[McMurlock]

Is it possible to add simple script on map ?
for example :
- teleport me in X only if PC has got specifiq item (or killed uniq monster, or ...)
- spawn monster when attacking totem (one mission of Kivi)

Thanks

[Shadow]

There's no separate script running. However, you can do a lot with the objects.

Originally Posted by McMurlock

- teleport me in X only if PC has got specifiq item (or killed uniq monster, or ...)

You can do this by putting a locked door in front of the teleporter. The locked door can be unlocked by touching some trigger in the level, finding an item, or killing a specific monster.

Doors have a field in their database definition (Database/objects.gdb) called RequiresKey that specifies the key needed to unlock them.

Triggers can specify a TriggerName, items can specify a KeyName, and monsters can specify a TriggerOnDeath that corresponds to the door's RequiresKey field.

If you don't want this to be so obvious with a locked door, you can also do the same thing with a hidden door.

Originally Posted by McMurlock

- spawn monster when attacking totem (one mission of Kivi)

Basically yes. You can create a monster that has a spawn skill. This skill can spawn either any type of monster that is available in that adventure or you can specify a specific monster. You can also control how fast it spawns.

[torikamal]

I hope I'm not a complete idiot, but...where is the editor?

[torikamal]

I'm sorry, I just experienced an ID10T error. I'm think my server went down. Please ignore the last post.

[Kruztee]

Well, I'd like to...but I was wondering the same thing.

For all us idiots out there - where is it?

[Shadow]

There is a hidden button on the main menu which will pop up after you have beaten the game.

However, you can also turn on developer mode and it will appear. To do this just pop up the console with the ~ key, type in developer 1, and hit enter. You should now have an editor button in the upper right corner of the main menu screen.

Developer mode will also turn on a few more things like a timer in the game, the model editor, and better console support.