Quests, towns, etc...

[Variaz]

I want to post this to encourage everyone to perhaps try to add some contribution to the game! Remember, the're 10000 cells in Portralis overworld, so there's plenty of room for quests, towns, etc...

So! It would be nice if some peoples would contribute to the making of quests, towns, some monsters too! That would greatly help me focusing on the main quest and the programming of the game, while some of you could create some other towns, dungeons, quests, monsters, artifacts, etc... With the current beta, you have plenty of stuff to make interesting quests, and the next beta will even allow the use of scripts!

Right now, that "Forge" section the board has been pretty quiet. It would be nice to put a little more life into it! Also, if you need help in making quests, towns, monsters and other stuff, feel free to ask me, and I will gladly answer you!

If everyone in this forum made their own town, even just one town... do you realize how interesting the next beta would be, even at beta stage?

[Lipa]

Indeed, that would be interesting!

I have some time on my hands, so I’ll try to fiddle with it a bit. However, there’s just one question I’d like to ask:

If I remember correctly, the *only* folder that affects the game world is the EDIT folder, right? We don’t have to check or alter any other files or folders of the game, right? Only EDIT is important?

Other than that, I’ve scanned a bit through the code in the EDIT folder, and it looks quite intuitive and simple. And it’s great that you commented all those templates with text and explanations - it's really easy to understand what all means.

[Variaz]

Note that the dialogues files are in the FILES directory. They are called dX.txt, where X is the dialog's number. And there's the file dtemplate.txt to help you, just like template_beta.txt for monsters!

[Lipa]

Heh heh, I was just searching through the EDIT folder, thinking - but where's all the text??? ;D

Thanks for the quick answer! I'll definitely try to do something.

Have fun!

[Lipa]

Oh, just two more short questions:

1.) I thought it would be easier to write if I “group” certain dialogues and events together. So perhaps dialogues named D2xx would belong to one quest, dialogues D3xx to another, etc. The beginning number (2, 3) would be the “ID” number of the quest, so to speak.

And so I was just wondering - are there any limitations in the game for numbers? I know that some programming systems are highly allergic to larger numbers (overflow). How does Portralis handle this?

I’m asking because I wouldn’t want to name the dialogues with too big numbers. I guess D1000000000000003 would be too much for Portralis, right?

2.) In the FILE folder, there are some files with a “~” sign attached to the end. I assume that these are only leftovers from the previous tests and not really important, but I may be wrong?

[Variaz]

Ignore the "~" files. You can even delete them, they are just backup files. Dialog numbers...hmm... most limits are around 30000 for numbers(they are 16b numbers). So, anything below 30000(well, probably 32768 I guess) would work fine.

[Lipa]

Another question.

How are shops defined? Is it enough to just put the number on the map of the town, or is there more to it? Because I created a little town with shops, but when I try to enter one, the game crashes...

[challtdow]

I wish I had the time to work on some towns or maybe other stuff, but I'm just overloaded at the moment. I've barely had any time to even play the newest beta. Maybe I'll get caught up in a week or two and can try my hand at monster making or something.

Chall T. Dow

[Jakobian]

As far as making monsters. My lvl 38 monster young gold dragon character was having some problems, still couldn't take out the lich, and STILL wasn't able to evolve to anything beyond stupid red wyvern. So i looked in r_info.txt. WHAT YOU SAY! no mature gold dragon? OH NOs!

N:189:Mature gold dragon
G:d:y
I:110:65d30:20:1500:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0
W:32:2:110000:1500
E:0:1:0:6:1:0
B:80:40:30:6:6:2
E:0:2:0:6:1:0
C:0:0
A:claw:!:1:8d16:15:0:0
A:bite:!:1:8d16:15:0:0
A:claw:Light Claw:1:8d16:6:0:0
A:bite:Light Bite:1:8d16:6:0:0
R:0:0:0:0:0:100:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0
F:DROP_CORPSE | DRAGON | FORCE_MAXHP | OPEN_DOOR | BASH_DOOR
M:25:1
S:breath:Shining Breath:2:60:6:4:0:0:10
D:A large dragon with scales of gleaming gold.

So i made one.... it might need to be nerfed a bit, cuz it quickly dealt with stupid lich king, but now i'm having trouble finding Aria's stupid sword, and i'm afraid i gave it to Walmus.

Hrmm... maybe if i killed him he would drop it?

[Variaz]

LOL, a breath with a power of 60, and 8d16 Light-elemental attacls!! ;D WAY too strong, my friend!(at least for a mature dragon... Great Wyrms of Light will probably be much tougher than that! ) No wonder why you killed that lich so easily! Don't worry, the real mature dragons will come in the next beta!

Also, don't call Aria's sword stupid! It's actually a pretty good sword! A sword with base damages 2d7, weight of 6.0, indestructible, eternal... and it can become even better if you complete the quest!

[Jakobian]

yes, but jordan shade doesn't have it. and i can't seem to find any other band of bandits. even sending Rkrrg on a killing spree through the town didn't help.

[Variaz]

If you gave the sword to Walmus, then, you basically failed the quest. Well... you get a ring of see invisible... which is probably, in fact, more useful to your dragon than the sword would be. There's no way to get it back if you give it to Walmus.

[Variaz]

In regards to Lipa's question, what is your town's number? If it exceeds the max number of town in misc.txt, it will crash. You will need to increase the town's number in misc.txt. (actually, try to use something below 1000 for your town!)

Shops, right now, are hard-coded, though they may become .lua scripts eventually. Or become customizable for every towns trough simple text files modding.... actually, the text file modding may be a better solution, and easier for the average user.