Jun 4, 2011

Concepts introduced for the Adventure Episode



Here is a quick video and breakdown of systems I put in that will hopefully be used in any future campaigns I make. For sure they will debut in this 1 month adventure episode.

I recommend using 720p on youtube and make the screen full to see what is actually going on.

The video

Things to see in the video:
  • Infinity style floating text descriptions on ALL click placeables that have descriptions
  • Custom parka hood (hehe not that big of a deal)
  • Non standard room sizes - check out the inn carefully. Rooms and halls are tight, small and in rectangular, cube, or whatever size and shape I want.
  • Temporary black roof vfxs: note how despite using placeables for non standard room sizes, I can still conceal the contents of the room until the door opens using a black vfx and a destroy nearest black vfx on the room's door scripts. The engine will only hide the contents of the standard rooms.
I find these systems go a great deal toward the more artistic and immersive infinity style that I like. Text descriptions don't open in a window which blocks everything and generally forces you to stop and read rather than read while you continue to observe/play. Also having interiors that don't as much resemble lego land has been great. Being able to tuck little rooms into narrow dark halls seems much more realistic and cluttered. As in real life.


I included pics of the early morning view of parts of the town. I really like how the sun hits it at this time of day, almost gives it a Dragon Age style of realism, with lower res but I think the snow hides it well.

7 comments:

  1. Are you doing the floaty placeable text via the talk_object script and a barkstring?

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  2. Nice touches.

    The floaty text caught my eye, and while I know something similar can be done using a barkstring - to be able to do it without the name or []: appearing in front is quite interesting.

    Curious myself now .... did you write a new XML script to display the text or something different? It could save some time for those of us who are contemplating something similar.

    Furthermore, I am guessing there is a ClearAllActions involved to ensure the PC does not approach the object clicked.

    Systems are always a good appraoch in my opinion and I am always interersted in good ones.

    Lance.

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  3. Actually, I am guessing you did it this way: Using an invisible creature (InvisibleMan) with a single line customtoken conversation, using a script similar to the following?:-

    void main()
    {
    object oPC = GetPlaceableLastClickedBy();
    AssignCommand(oPC, ClearAllActions(TRUE));
    object oNull = CreateObject(OBJECT_TYPE_CREATURE, "alb_invis", GetLocation(OBJECT_SELF));
    string sDescription = GetDescription(OBJECT_SELF);
    SetCustomToken(2000, sDescription);
    DelayCommand(0.2, AssignCommand(oNull, ActionStartConversation(oPC, "", FALSE, FALSE, TRUE)));
    DestroyObject(oNull, 0.3);

    }

    The conversation has a single as its only line of conversation.

    Was this similar to your own method of achieving the floaty text result or did you approach it another way?

    Lance.

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  4. Nope. Destroying the invisible man never worked no matter what i did. It was quite stupid really the refusal for it to work. I simple paint him down once in the area, and he instanly warps to wherever he was needed. He had some faction trouble for a bit and my companions would go nuts trying to kill invisible annoyances.

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  5. So, are you saying you have an "invisble man" constantly within the area that jumps to the placeable and is used to speak the lines when required?

    Or are you saying you have a different methid still ... if so, do tell. ;)

    Lance.

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  6. Ill post up the script next post. It will be used in the tarasque project anyway if people are still interested in it as a system.

    The man jumps around because killing him was simply not working no matter what I did. The only issue presently (which can be worked around) is if you try to place a description placeable in a really tight space that the man cant fit in, he will read the description from the PC instead. Really not an issue though because you can just adjust the placeables or shrink the man accordingly.

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  7. Looks good, I like the concept of going to karmaticly imbalanced locations in an episode based adventure.

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