Slowdive's Little Daily Blog

[slowdive]

These are lots of little changes I would love to be able to make use of in the game I'm working on. If I continue plugging away on the desktop version, will it then be much hassle to convert it to IBBasic to take advantage of these features, or is it like building the game again from the ground up?

Most likely, any of the features that I am adding to IBbasic, that make sense for IB, will be added to IB at some point when Karl has the time.

As far as converting from IB to IBbasic, I have made tools in the past that converted IB modules to IBmini and early versions of IBbasic for example. I will be doing the same again and it should work very well if you adhere to a few rules:
1) IBbasic does not use height maps, weather system, lighting system, animations outside combat, etc.
2) IBbasic does not use single area images, only tiles. Area and combat maps using tiles and only using layers 1-3 will convert well.
3) Area triggers only use events 1-3. No combat triggers.
4) IBbasic uses 48x48 images for normal tokens (96x96 for large/wide/tall tokens), props, items, etc.
5) Conversations will convert very well. The conversation system is pretty much the same for IB and IBbasic.
6) Containers, Journals, Stores should all convert directly.
7) Creatures and Items should transfer well.
8) Props are not used in IBbasic. Instead, triggers have an image option so they act like props.
9) Player Classes, Races, Effects, Spells, and Traits should come over with a few tweaks possibly needed here or there. IBbasic has a data editor available on PC to customize these.

I mostly used the tools in the past to import all the modules that are currently available for IBbasic. They were all originally created for IB and I converted them to IBbasic and then made any additional edits as needed. Most of the work in the conversion is done by the tool which I'll probably have as part of the IBbasic Data Editor app for PC.

[cartons]

Thanks for the detailed response.

I've been using single area images, but could make the switch to tiles if I needed to. Props would be the greater loss perhaps. I'm just starting to see their potential.

Something to consider...

[slowdive]

Thanks for the detailed response.

I've been using single area images, but could make the switch to tiles if I needed to. Props would be the greater loss perhaps. I'm just starting to see their potential.

Something to consider...

The IB -> IBbasic tool converts Props into Triggers with the image. The main loss is that Triggers do not move easily and Props can move around on each round. Props are really cool and, when used with Karl's project living world system, can even have varying schedules. It was just too much overhead and complex systems for what IBbasic is all about. IBbasic is supposed to be basic and IB is the more flexible and complex app (aka larger learning curve).

[slowdive]

Finished first playthrough of BG3. It doesn't take too long as it is just the first chapter that is available, I just have a slow play style. I didn't find any of the companions too interesting so I had two of my own made PCs. I ended up using Gale and Wyll. My two PCs were a female human BattleMaster and a female wood elf Thief. I don't think I found everything though. I'll probably do another playthrough with a completely custom party (not use any of the companions) and do a little more exploring.

For IBbasic, I'll be focusing on the combat mechanics and new effect types next.

[slowdive]

I added an AC bonus for the number of adjacent friends next to a PC or Creature. You get a +1 for each friend. In the below screenshot, you can see that the cultist (it is the cultist one square below the text since the text floats about one square above the highlighted creature) has a +3 bonus to their AC because they have three adjacent friends. This creates an additional layer of strategy for keeping your party together for the extra AC bonus, but exposing the party to AoE attacks. You also might want to have the worst AC PC in the middle to maximize the number of adjacents.

IBbasic05.PNG (163.88 KiB) Viewed 7816 times

[Pongo]

Nice addition!

[slowdive]

Nice addition!

Thanks Pongo, I think it will make tactical positioning a little more interesting in combat. Once I add in square modifiers for attack/damage (think higher ground advantage), defense (think cover), and movement (think mud or sand or snow), that should also add some additional tactics to combat.

I started working on the attack from behind system. It now should work properly for large and normal size targets. I also added a new effect that can be from a passive trait, item, or spell that increases the width of the attack from behind. So instead of triggering an attack from behind from just one square, it can be triggered from three squares (of course different on large creatures). I figure this could be used in a trait like improved attack from behind (probably a thief trait and useful for their backstab) or a ring of improved attack from behind. I have the code in place, now I need to create a trait to test the code out.

[slowdive]

Today I added the code for a mirror image type effect and for a stone skin type effect. So far they are accounted for in creature and PC attacks, but I still need to add the code for when spells or other attacks hit them. I also still need to create the actual spells that use the effects.

[slowdive]

I created a "Proving Grounds" module for testing all the new combat features. First I created a new trait for the improved attack from behind range. I athen created two new spells: stone skin and mirror image. I started testing them and the attack from behind range worked first try, but the mirror image and stone skin still need some work. Plus, I need to add a fx image for mirror image that shows multiple smaller images of the PC surrounding the token.

[slowdive]

I have stone skin and mirror image working properly now. Below is showing six mirror images (just for show to see the positions of mini images, he really only has one left at this point) and the "hold" effect is a placeholder for the stone skin effect fx image. It will only show the actual number of mini images based on how many images you still have left (6 max). The spells will be mirror image (3 images) and improved mirror image (6 images).

IBbasic06.PNG (95.22 KiB) Viewed 7759 times

Here is a screen shot of the fx screen which shows how many images are truly left and how many absorption points are left for the stone skin.

IBbasic07.PNG (88.55 KiB) Viewed 7759 times