Modding

origen · Post by **origen** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 8:06 am

Have any of my fellow modders continued to work on their projects, or has everyone lost their momentum? I know that I have been waiting on the patch, and then the site went down, so I haven't had any inspiration at all. I had thought that when the site came up, that would change, but so far not. Perhaps once the patch is released (if it is still going to be released) it will help.

I am still interested in the possibilities of modding, but it seems like when I try to do something cool, it doesn't work, either because of some limitations, or because of some other unknown reason I can't figure out.

HGamer · Post by **HGamer** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 11:36 am

Ditto, mostly.
I had a lot of work in front of me to enter in the trees and stuff for a large wilderness area, and then started noticing problems with scripts not firing off when they were supposed to during my testing. "The Bard's Lore" is also constrained by the original source material; there's not enough to keep a party busy all the way up through the levels needed to match the tough monsters at the end. I was thinking about folding in "The Bard's Lore 2" somehow, but even the original author didn't intend them to mesh together.

The Wombat · Post by **The Wombat** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 2:16 am

At the risk of all the Old Forum modders rolling their collective eyes, can you guys start an on-line guide on how to write your own source-code scripts from a non-programmers point-of-view?

Even though the rest of us will be rather slow and klutzy, the more people who are encouraged to "give it a go" the better for the whole modding community!

HGamer · Post by **HGamer** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 1:49 pm

I suggest looking through the PDF documentation that comes with the modder toolkit (don't know if you can download it again, yet), then reading the shorter .py files used as scripts for the game. When that makes your head spin, visit www.python.org and start learning about Python (version 2.2.x is what's used in DW unless it gets changed in a patch).
If you can design a RPG campaign, you can mod.

origen · Post by **origen** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 8:59 am

Basically, that is what I did. Except that I didn't read anything on python. Just good old trial and error, and posting questions here when I get stumptededed... stumpered... stumerred...

have trouble. It is pretty easy to do without any programming experience.

The Wombat · Post by **The Wombat** » Sun Feb 27, 2005 12:34 am

Very good.

However, I don't know that too much modding will happen until after the Admin unlocks the uber-secret Modders section to the select few.

Growler · Post by **Growler** » Sun Feb 27, 2005 1:39 am

If anyone wants the Modders ToolKit for Windows v1.1 (assuming ya can't download it from the official SSS site) & IF I have permission from SSS, let me know & I'll post it for download at my site. It's nearly 9 megs, btw.

I haven't used it, so all I could offer is access to the download (again, assuming permission).

The Wombat · Post by **The Wombat** » Sun Feb 27, 2005 3:37 am

Oh, I gots the the Big Tool (kit, that is), I just meant that inhabitants of Earth usually repond to other's sample code wi' some o' their own. Y'know, cross-fertilization of ideas an' all that.

(Although on a personal note, I'd just say right here and now that anyone tries to dump a pound of pollen on me gets a Dwarven Cleaver right in the loin-cloth!)

HGamer · Post by **HGamer** » Sun Feb 27, 2005 10:48 am

There's some disturbing mental images.

You can learn a lot from reading the existing .py files, but bear in mind that there were apparently multiple authors and some different coding approaches. The scripts that use tag values to handle different stages of quests seem to be the largest, although in practice they're just ifs & elseifs.

IF the Modder forum ever gets unlocked, maybe we can share in there. But for now, it has to stay out here where everyone can see and go off-topic on it.

origen · Post by **origen** » Sun Feb 27, 2005 7:07 pm

The best bet is to look at the DW scripts, look at my BT scripts, and when he releases it, look at HGamer's scripts. From there, you should be able to piece together what you need, even if you don't understand it. If you actually want to understand it, then look at some scripts and try to analyze exactly what is being done. Everything is mostly logical, and then post questions on anything that isn't.

The Wombat · Post by **The Wombat** » Sun Feb 27, 2005 9:33 pm

Can't help thinking how much easier/faster to create new scenarios if there were things like a pick-n-place map generator like the civmaps utility in the original Civilization game.

HGamer · Post by **HGamer** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 6:45 am

Tell us (& SSS) about it...
Origen & I have found it helpful to draw the maps in a spreadsheet like Excel, though exactly how it gets you to the text .cfg file is hard to fathom.

origen · Post by **origen** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 12:55 pm

Actually, what I did was have the map on graph paper, and number the map, with the lower left corner labeled 10, 10.

Then, I made a spreadsheet with every possible coordinate, and just filled in what I see, such as "WallN", "DoorNWallE", etc.

If Growler is willing, perhaps he can post a sample of the sheet I used so you can see what I'm talking about.

Growler · Post by **Growler** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 1:56 pm

Sure, be glad to...send her on over.
(hey, eYe ain't All whizz'n'vino)