Devlin Opera for the 65742th time

[Jack Rackham]

If the y = -0.71 at the end of the walking area your sidestepping character and any new charcter on a locator just outside will move to y = 0.

If possible try a place where y = 0 in the walking area near any edge.

 

[Grey Roger]

This is odd. In my experience, if you sidestep off the path, you stay at the height of the last place where you were on the path. For example:
Screenshots thread

The last time I used sidestep to move off the path and was then sent to a different height was when I was working with a new location imported by @Bartolomeu o Portugues. I didn't so much sidestep off the path as sidestep onto a different piece of path. The location has a piece of cave leading into a temple and there's a break in the patch file, so you can just about walk from the cave into the temple but you can't go very far in except by sidestepping past the break.

See if you can find a place in the forest where you can sidestep and don't drop or rise to the patch file's idea of ground level.

 

[BathtubPirate]

Here are the loading screen and lighting files for "Sacred Forest".

Thanks, it looks all very good. A bit darker and foggier in the morning, and I haven't seen it mid-day yet because of how the the quest actrion sets the time.

The location can easily be in the general file. As far as I'm concerned, the offering room doesn't even need to be removed, but you decide. The offering room isn't even very important to my quest, and mostly there so that all the caves are connected to somewhere. And since it was already in the files, but as far as I know not used in the game in this original state (the Gold-Bug quest uses a modified version). I haven't even figured the whole quest out and make stuff up as I go along, but so far it's a location you enter briefly once or twice, but not much is happening in there.

If possible try a place where y = 0 in the walking area near any edge.

See if you can find a place in the forest where you can sidestep and don't drop or rise to the patch file's idea of ground level.

I'm afraid this isn't really an option, because there is exactly one such cage in the entire location. If I won't use it because it looks a bit off, then it makes much more sense to have the captive "tied" to a totem pole (like Clement is "tied" to a pole in the standard story, just standing or sitting right in front of it). There are enough such totem poles in the walking area, so if I don't use that cage, I won't be needing another locator outside of the walking area at all.

 

[Grey Roger]

The only thing in the forest which I can find that looks like that is this:

That doesn't look like a cage, more like a lookout post. On the other hand, there are a few of these around the forest:

Those are at ground level. You can walk in and out. You'd probably want to put an Indian near the open entrance, the idea being that if the prisoner tries to run away then he gets an axe in the face, and if he tries to run the other way between the bars then he gets an arrow in the back.

Otherwise, if you want to tie a prisoner to something, how about these big totems?


Incidentally, I was right about sidestepping completely off the path. You stay at the height of the point where you left the path:


But there are a few places where the path breaks and you can sidestep onto an area with more path, such as the big circle in the middle of the forest. Or, for that matter, the steps leading up the small hills with the skull totems and, on one of them, the link to the Arawak Burial Ground.

I don't know who put these there but it probably wasn't the Indians:

I wonder if it would be possible for "Also Sprach Zarathustra" to play whenever you get near one.

 

[BathtubPirate]

Otherwise, if you want to tie a prisoner to something, how about these big totems?

That's where I changed all locators from my previous screenshot to last night. The spike circle things don't look too well suited to contain anyone.

As for the previous cage / lookout post, it would be interesting to know if anybody could be placed on top of it, but I doubt it, since the character height has been strictly on top of those bushes inside / beneath it so far.

But there are a few places where the path breaks and you can sidestep onto an area with more path, such as the big circle in the middle of the forest.

I noticed that too. At certain points you can enter the outer circle (the lowest step) but none of the other steps. You can however walk freely on it. So the circle will serve as an arena for some fighting action, the characters including player just will have to be moved on top via quest case.

I wonder if it would be possible for "Also Sprach Zarathustra" to play whenever you get near one.

That would be brillant. And there should be monkeys who learned to use the bones that are lying around as hunting tools.

 

[BathtubPirate]

@Jack Rackham any objection if the Captain Kidd model makes a small appearance in my quest? If you want it exclusively for the Gold-Bug, I'll use a more standard pirate skeleton model instead.

@Grey Roger once suggested that pirates could have hidden their treasure in the new Aruba cave, and I have an idea that involves one of them still guarding what was hidden...

 

[Jack Rackham]

@BathtubPirate feel free to use Captain Kidd if you like him. If you check his dialog file you can use his scary "greeting sounds" as well.

 

[BathtubPirate]

Splendid!

Name suggestions are welcome for a greedy, decaying pirate who died in the cave where he stashed his treasure and is still somehow guarding it.

Also suggestions for a suitable sword. Blaze takes a French Nobility Sword from Captain Bonamy in the Corsair quest, so it would be suitable for Bonnie to take a cool weapon from the (un)dead pirate in the Arawak quest. Perhaps somebody knows a suggestion before I start searching for a suitable sword that's available in Early Explorers.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Name suggestions are welcome for a greedy, decaying pirate who died in the cave where he stashed his treasure and is still somehow guarding it.

Deceased Devil Dave.

 

[Grey Roger]

Splendid!

Name suggestions are welcome for a greedy, decaying pirate who died in the cave where he stashed his treasure and is still somehow guarding it.

Peter Tork. He was a friend of Davy Jones.

Also suggestions for a suitable sword. Blaze takes a French Nobility Sword from Captain Bonamy in the Corsair quest, so it would be suitable for Bonnie to take a cool weapon from the (un)dead pirate in the Arawak quest. Perhaps somebody knows a suggestion before I start searching for a suitable sword that's available in Early Explorers.

Perhaps get some more value from "blade308", alias "Sword of the Earth":


I was originally asked to make up a texture for this by someone who wanted it for a different game, then I added it to PoTC by hiding it in a dungeon on Cayman. The description is "Designed for the fantasies of an eccentric nobleman, this longsword with its unusual crossguard is nevertheless an effective weapon". Apart from the one on Cayman, it's not used for anything in the game. (Of course, anyone playing "Devlin Opera" might already have one, given that you have a chapter on Cayman. )

 

[BathtubPirate]

Here he is, equipped with blade308, I took another look at the file and didn't find any other weapon I liked.

He will make a different appearance depending on a decision you make much, much earlier - at least it feels much, much earlier because I have written a billion quest cases since then.

Right now, Captain Tork is a one-hit kill. A bit earlier, I had two characters which put up quite a good fight, about 200HP which was at least quite tough for Bonnie with her cutlass, coming straight there through the jumpstart. When the two characters resurrected and walked around shipwreck cove, I added ch.questchar = true; and it made them much easier to fight. How are these things regulated? Is it simply the rank in the character definition?

EDIT: Peter Tork does have ch.questchar = true; and he respawns. When I go back to the cavern after killing him. I'm confused.

 

[Grey Roger]

Normally the character's rank is used by the levelling system to try to make a balanced character. It often gets things wrong for special characters such as this.

ch.questchar = true prevents the levelling system from changing the character's stats. You can assign his "Fencing" skill to be 10 in his definition and that's what it will be in the game. Similarly, Amerigo Vieira, supposedly the finest swordsman in the Caribbean, has ch.skill.Fencing = "10"; in his definition but used to be a plain average guy with plain average skills until he got the 'questchar' line.

However, even 'questchar' does not prevent the levelling system from overwriting a character's perks. If you want to toughen him up even more, add this somewhere in quest code before he shows up:

Characters[GetCharacterIndex("Peter Tork")].perks.list.BasicDefence = true;
Characters[GetCharacterIndex("Peter Tork")].perks.list.AdvancedDefence = true;
Characters[GetCharacterIndex("Peter Tork")].perks.list.SwordplayProfessional = true;
Characters[GetCharacterIndex("Peter Tork")].perks.list.CriticalHit = true;

That should give him all the melee abilities. That plus skill level 10 should make him a more challenging opponent!

To prevent him from respawning, add this to his definition:

LAi_NoRebirthEnable(ch);

Incidentally, you previously had a bit of fun with some beetles. Now you have the chance to do it with some monkeys.

 

[BathtubPirate]

LAi_NoRebirthEnable(ch);

Ah, so it's a completely different line of code and has nothing to do with questchar. Got it

Incidentally, you previously had a bit of fun with some beetles. Now you have the chance to do it with some monkeys.

The difference being that I am a huge beetles fan but never had anything to do with any monkeys. For the game, this doesn't make any difference of course.

The rest of Aruba should just be writing a lot more code and figuring out one more interesting thing to do. Basically it is:

1) Introduction and instructions
2) Some exploring and interaction with one choice at the shipwreck
3) Make your way to the forest
4) More interaction
5) Night search at the forest
6) Three different paths depending on the earlier choice and a new one, two of them involve some fighting, two or three of them involve a side-reward
7) Something more, which I'm thinking about
8) A choice with three slightly different outcomes
9) Wrapping everything up and bye bye Aruba

I'm currently at 6)

 

[BathtubPirate]

@Jack Rackham I'm adding locators to the general locator file of TempleRoundInside. This shouldn't concern The Gold-Bug because it seems to have its own sulphur locator file which of course I won't touch. I don't think the location has ever been used at all except for the sulphur part. Still, I though I let you know just to be safe.

 

[Jack Rackham]

To be sure not to mess anything up you could rename your changed locatorfile and use that one instead. That's the way I use to do.
Also I 've got a bunch of box locators that you don't want there. With a new locatorfile you can delete them.

 

[BathtubPirate]

The box locators are in the sulphur locator file. The standard locator has not been changed since 2007, according to the file date. I've added a single quest locator that shouldn't mess up anything. I don't think the normal locator file has ever been used anywhere.

Perhaps you can help me with this: In one of the standard side quests, your character can be "hit by lightning" when cursing in the church. I've copied that since I want something similar, but the opposite: The character should be blessed in a way. So I copied those two lines and wanted to try out various of these "ParticleSystem" that I've seen in other quest codes, to find an effect that suits. I started with "stars_short", just to see how it looks.

        case "Atabey_likes":
            PlayStereoSound("AMBIENT\Teno_inside\teleporter.wav");
            //GetCharacterPos(PChar, &locx, &locy, &locz);
            //CreateParticleSystemX("stars_short", locx, locy, locz, locx, locy, locz,0);
            LAi_QuestDelay("Atabey_likes2", 2.0);
        break;

But this quest case breaks my quests_reaction (that's why I // the two lines).

What could be causing the error here and which sorts of effects are there anyway? Dust, splinters and those hovering "clouds" come to mind.

 

[Jack Rackham]

The box locators are in the sulphur locator file. The standard locator has not been changed since 2007, according to the file date.

Ok, I didn't remeber it existed two locatorfiles.

Some particles use CreateParticleSystemX and others use CreateParticleSystem
I see that "stars_short" should have CreateParticleSystem.

 

[Grey Roger]

Perhaps you can help me with this: In one of the standard side quests, your character can be "hit by lightning" when cursing in the church. I've copied that since I want something similar, but the opposite: The character should be blessed in a way. So I copied those two lines and wanted to try out various of these "ParticleSystem" that I've seen in other quest codes, to find an effect that suits. I started with "stars_short", just to see how it looks.

        case "Atabey_likes":
            PlayStereoSound("AMBIENT\Teno_inside\teleporter.wav");
            //GetCharacterPos(PChar, &locx, &locy, &locz);
            //CreateParticleSystemX("stars_short", locx, locy, locz, locx, locy, locz,0);
            LAi_QuestDelay("Atabey_likes2", 2.0);
        break;

But this quest case breaks my quests_reaction (that's why I // the two lines).

What could be causing the error here and which sorts of effects are there anyway? Dust, splinters and those hovering "clouds" come to mind.

In what way does it break the quest? Do the particles never disappear, or does the quest stop entirely? I've used exactly that code, apart from different case names and particle system, in "Ardent", specifically the part of chapter "Imperial Escort" in which you throw an ether bottle:

        case "imperial_escort_throw_etherbomb3":
            LAi_SetPlayerType(PChar);
            PlaySound("OBJECTS\SHIPCHARGE\ship_bow.wav");
            TakeItemFromCharacter(Pchar, "pistolgas");
            CreateParticleSystem("cancloud" , 10.0, -1.25, -15.58, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1);    // Based on "reload1_back"
            LAi_QuestDelay("imperial_escort_throw_etherbomb4", 1.0);

That cloud stays there forever unless it's actively removed, which is why case "imperial_escort_throw_etherbomb4" triggers a dialog - to Lucia/Edmundo if present, otherwise a self-dialog - which in turn triggers:

        case "imperial_escort_clear_cloud":
            LAi_SetPlayerType(PChar);
            if(IsOfficer(romance)) LAi_SetOfficerType(romance);
            LAi_Fade("", "");
            WaitDate("", 0, 0, 0, 0, 2);
            DeleteParticles();
        break;

That gets rid of the cloud.

 

[BathtubPirate]

In what way does it break the quest?

Screen message "unable to load quests_reaction", no quest cases can be triggered, error log on line 4475 (the file is getting long...), which is the first of two lines. When I // that the last time, error log moved on to 4476.

@Jack Rackham suggested to remove the X, which did nothing so far. So I copied the two lines again the exact same way they are in both Woodes Rogers and Hoist the Colours, but same result - "unable to load quests_reaction".

        case "Atabey_likes":
            PlayStereoSound("AMBIENT\Teno_inside\teleporter.wav");
            GetCharacterPos(Pchar, &u, &v, &w);
            CreateParticleSystem("stars_short" , u, v+1, w, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, sti(20) );
            LAi_QuestDelay("Atabey_likes2", 2.0);
        break;

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Screen message "unable to load quests_reaction", no quest cases can be triggered, error log on line 4475 (the file is getting long...), which is the first of two lines. When I // that the last time, error log moved on to 4476.

@Jack Rackham suggested to remove the X, which did nothing so far. So I copied the two lines again the exact same way they are in both Woodes Rogers and Hoist the Colours, but same result - "unable to load quests_reaction".

        case "Atabey_likes":
            PlayStereoSound("AMBIENT\Teno_inside\teleporter.wav");
            GetCharacterPos(Pchar, &u, &v, &w);
            CreateParticleSystem("stars_short" , u, v+1, w, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, sti(20) );
            LAi_QuestDelay("Atabey_likes2", 2.0);
        break;

Are those u,v,w coordinates defined as floats elsewhere in the file?
If for
Not, that'll break things.

Also, shouldn't error.log contain a clue on what's wrong?