Mods

origen · Post by **origen** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 4:55 am

On a few occasions, zI started using it, but quickly scrapped them because the system was so cumbersome.

origen · Post by **origen** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 7:34 pm

Well, I defeated Manger, and have also fought (almost) all of the monsters, so I programmed all of their stats (except once again for their skills/spells/items), and created a new monsters.dat file. I will be using this to test my Jail Cell mod, which I am working on now. Of course, all of the monsters (for this very moment) will all do the same thing, whish is not that much, but I can begin actually working on the mod instead of playing Bard's Tale to get a feel for the monsters.

Growler · Post by **Growler** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 9:03 pm

So...like any other God, you first create someone (say, Mangar) & then you go & kill him--your semi-own creation!
Now that's

Just downloaded your BT1 mod--looking forward to trying it out!

Could you describe howhy the BT Construction Set was cumbersome?
(wonder if any of the patches--up 1.3 for PC--would've made any dif?)

Hoping to eventually figure out how to (help?) make the DW mod-toolkit much easier...my great Grandma, bless her Adventuring soul, refuses to tangle with any Python!

A programmer friend who knows some C+/++ & is learning Python might be willing to take a stab at setting up some sort of GUI/interface for modding...but I'll need to know lots more about the existing process in order to smooth the way for him. And sure we'd need to somehow coordinate with the devs..

HGamer · Post by **HGamer** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 5:15 pm

I didn't do any development with BTCS, but I had to disassemble "The Bard's Lore" (TBL) and TBL2 with it to see what made them tick to have something to work with for making them into DW mods. Actually, for when the software was released (or a few years before that) it's not bad. I wonder how many iterations it was removed from the actual tools used for making any of the 3 BT games. BTCS certainly had some limitations, but thankfully DW doesn't have those space or graphics limits.

Growler · Post by **Growler** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 7:08 pm

Since BTCS was developed about 15 years ago (& released '91), reckon would be severe limitations re: space & graphics... Hard drives were just starting to come out (& only 5, 10, 20 meggers) & PC graphics were still CGA/EGA back then??

But how about the BTCS interface? And the feedback system?

If you selected a pic, could you then see it?
Or better yet, simply pick from a selection of relevant pics (whether dungeon, monster, etc)?

How 'bout for audio?
Could ya hear the beeps, twirps, & sketchy Bard's Songs to select from?

HGamer · Post by **HGamer** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 7:56 pm

I was able to dump out the dungeon maps, event scripts, spells and items very easily as text files (ANSI display for the maps). The only trouble that I had was with the pictures, since they're just specified in BTCS as numbers. So those, I had to display individually and write down what was what. Turns out that I needed relatively few new monsters, and I left out the p0r^ images supplied by the original adventure developer. Some of the stuff that's described only in text, I got images for, and vice versa.
Don't remember about the sounds and music, sorry.

Post by **Admin** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 9:32 pm

Good grief.... Time to start making more ranks. Growler is half way up the chain now.

Growler · Post by **Growler** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 1:33 am

Hey, blame Origen for the ballistic (stellar?) rise up the forum-rank chain..

Until he went all soft..

..uh, soft as in, nice...he's being nicely helpful re: sharing his mod-wisdom..

But less to the point & more:
Anyone figure out how to view the pics outside the game?
Monsters & such are listed as .pic files, & Walls are in .dat format, but can't find any way to display them...even Irfanview can't read either format.. (generally .pic files--as in PC Paint bitmap, Lotus picture, or Macintosh PICT--are viewable--just not these)

found these in the mod toolkit..
Read thru the 'HumanM.cfg' file to no avail (mostly about creating &/or defining pic-info for the gamengine), but thinking either the 'listPics.exe' or 'picMake.exe' might somehow help?? (but 'picMake.exe' appears to only digest an existing (say) jpeg image & presumably output it as a proprietary (thus unviewable 'cept in the game) .pic..

starting to suspect we're not supposed to view any DW pics outside the game..

Post by **Admin** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 7:08 am

<h3>Here are the 2 ways to view the pics:</h3>

<b>100% Certainty :</b>
IF you have the toolset, you can "RUN" preview. Follow the parameter prompts.
It will list all the file names of format *.pic and then you can just type
" preview ogre.pic " or whatever file you choose.

A new window will open playing the file

<b>NOT So Sure Method:</b>
If you really have a need to view the dat outside the game contact me. I know of a lofi method, but it could also be seen as an exploit.

Growler · Post by **Growler** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 8:18 am

Thanks--just might need that LoFi exploit after all 8)
Forgot to mention it, but had tried the 'preview' program--but couldn't get it to work due to missing elements. Tried again (realized it couldn't access various .dll files since I'd installed the mod in a sub-directory of a secondary installation of DW, so copied all the .dll's along with toolset's source folder into main DW folder), but even tho' it'll now list all the pic files, when I try typing in--among others: preview tree.pic -it'll show a preview window, but then several secs later I get an error message just before, presumably, the image is to display..

Win-style error message: "Preview has caused an error in PREVIEW.EXE - Preview will now close" then [CLOSE] is only option.

Get this whether I'm working in a MS-DOS window, or if, in 'regular' Windows, I drag a .pic file on top of Preview.exe to launch it with that image file..

Not sure if it's relevant, but I'm running 1280x1024 @ 16-bit.
{just tried it in 32-bit color mode & got the same thing}

Not imperative, but it'd be very helpful to have quick access to the pics for modding purposes. Part of the rapidev(tm) feedback loopy

HGamer · Post by **HGamer** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 9:27 pm

I'd like to hear about this "exploit" method too, but there are at least 2 other alternatives as well.
1. I wrote a LONNNNNGGGG script that shows the individual monster and location graphics. Had to split it up into sub-menus because of a crash that I kept getting if you displayed more than 49 or so images within a single script. Advantage: tells you what you're looking at. Disadvantage: too long to post in a message here, and must be edited for new graphics.
2. "Ramne" wrote a much shorter script, which I will include here:

Code: Select all

# programmed by Ramne






from eventAPI import stringInput, showPicture
from APIUtils import showMessage
from SDLKeys import *

def fireEvent&#40;e&#41;&#58; 
    view1 = stringInput&#40;e, &#91;"Pic nickname part1&#58;"&#93;&#41;
    view2 = stringInput&#40;e, &#91;"Pic nickname part2&#58;"&#93;&#41;
    view3 = stringInput&#40;e, &#91;"Pic nickname part3&#58;"&#93;&#41;
    picView = view1
    if &#40;view2 != "NULL"&#41;&#58;
        picView = picView + "_" + view2
    if &#40;view3 != "NULL"&#41;&#58;
        picView = picView + "_" + view3
    showPicture&#40;e, picView&#41;
    showMessage&#40;e, &#91;picView&#93;&#41;
    return 0

You should save that as something like RamnePicViewer.py.
Then, you'll either have to figure out how to invoke that script, or wait until Origen gets to explaining that part of designing a mod.

HGamer · Post by **HGamer** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 9:30 pm

I think I figured out what Growler was doing wrong. Well, at least one thing, anyway. When you get that long list of nicknames and filenames from running preview with no options, you want to use those nicknames. So type "preview Zealot" or "preview Casino", with no folder names or ".dat" or ".pic" at the end.

Growler · Post by **Growler** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 10:48 pm

Cool...thanks. Got Ramne's script saved in a .py file ready for 'invoking' soon as enlightenment (aka, Origenius) strikes

Finally got the preview prog to work at least sometimes using your 'nickname only' suggestion...didn't work until I started using capitals for the pic's nickname's 1st letter

(noticed you used a cap for "Zealot" & "Casino")

Seemed kinda odd since the actual files names are all lowercase...but reckon the program internally uses the 'nickname' as you suggest--which is capp'd.

Still get same error message for some of the pics...but mostly work!
(edit: seems I was getting error messages By using 1st letter cap when some nicknames apparently start with lowercase! ~trial & error unless you have the nickname list--which may be (partially) available in one of the monster .txt files; not that I was just checking out the chick-pics, but use cap for Taireninaugh & lowercase for both rose & vampiress)

note for others trying this:
When you're ready to close the pic-window, makes sure it's got 'focus' (high-lighted, selected), then hit the Pause/Break key (upper right of keybd). Then you can type in another name in your MS-DOS window..

origen · Post by **origen** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 5:18 am

To see a list if the monster nicknames, you need to run the listpics program. Make sure the listpics is in your data folder, along with a file called picindex. Then type

Code: Select all

listpics picindex.dat

in your command prompt (making sure you are in the correct directory first)

I am not sure why HGamer had a problem with his script, since my long script worked for all of the pictures, without having to splitting them up.

Growler · Post by **Growler** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 7:16 am

Hey, that works great for out-putting all the monstrous nicknames!

Only prob is that they fly by at the approximate rate of 17,000 per pico-second..

At least the last 40 or so are right there & willing...
& the 'Pause' key almost kinda works to randomly pause either too soon or late...Gonna have to really pick my hinderbrain for some ancient DOS command (such as /p ~which doesn't seem to pause a-thing) to output to printer or otherwise capture the 3 billion names of these monsters.

But I'm happy cuz my crew's whuppin' BT1 monster-butt in Origen's MODesto!

[is a lev-1 crew supposed to be able to take out a Guardian Stature (Samurai guy on Rakhir Ave) ? or is that just pleading fer trouble

?]