Slowdive's Little Daily Blog

[slowdive]

I think I have the audio system figured out for IBbasic and I will also use it for IB as well. It seems to be more robust and should fix some of our inconsistencies with audio failing to play at times. I am also going to add the option for a titleMusic property so you can select music for the title screen and character creation. I am also looking to create a pop-up screen for adjusting music and soundFX volume levels as well.

[slowdive]

YEAH! Now I can hear the wonderful music from The Raventhal again (main map and combat) in IBbasic

And here is the Sound Setting Screen for IBbasic:

IBbasic28.png (72.13 KiB) Viewed 7987 times

I still need to code the part that updates the sound player's volume level when changed, but that should be simple.

[slowdive]

All audio features are now working.

I have two more tasks to complete before v1.0.09 (which may actually be 1.1.09, the official release) is ready. Summoning and Creature AI improvements. I am going to start with summoning and I may do it a little different than what is used in IB, I'm not fully decided just yet. I want a system that works for spells like summon creature, summon animal, animate dead, etc. Plus, I want it to work for things like animal companions and familiars. So the summon would need to be able to last even outside of combat (so a trait with a once per day use could call an animal companion that lasts almost the whole day). The system would be able to handle calling multiple random creatures from a list of options with one spell (like monster summoning calling 3 goblins or 2 beetles, etc.). Animal companions would grow with users level. Maybe there would be a trait L1 for each type of companion and a trait L2 for higher versions of that companion type so that you could choose to have lots of L1 types or focus your trait selections to growing one companion type (bear, wolf, boar, badger, panther, etc.) The animal companions would be associated with one PC and the author could limit the number of allowed companions at one time from one PC.

Thoughts or other ideas?

[cartons]

I like the idea of beefing up the Summoning system. The module I'm working on is essentially 'Medieval Pokémon', and I've been going back and forth between having the creatures summonable via Spell or Rechargeable items. In both cases the creatures are static, and don't grow with the player, which isn't my preference.

One thing to consider is how the AI would respond to the mechanics of Monster Summon I,II,III-types spells being in the game. I can see a lot of enemy builds being cheesed out by just flooding the map with friendly Hobgoblins and the like. Maybe having an AI-build that deliberately targets summoners, or one that deprioritizes summoned creatures, or something weirdly specific like that?

[slowdive]

Definitely will need to have a function to unsummmon any summons tied to a PC that goes down and have creature AI target those summoners depending on their AI type. We could also have a module setting that limits the number of summoned allies at one time in the party.

[slowdive]

Deep into the summon system for IBbasic at the moment, still a lot of work to do, but it is starting to come together.

[slowdive]

notes to self:
druid: boarL1(1)/L2(4)/L3(7), wolfL1/L2/L3, bearL1/L2/L3 summon animal 1(3)(wind)(1-2 wolf,direrat), summon animal 2(5)(disease)(1-2 wolf,snake), summon animal 3(7)(1-2 bear,snake)
ranger: wolfL1(4)/L2(7), pantherL1/L2, bearL1/L2
wizard: summon monster 1(3)(vocalize)(1-2 kobold,goblin), summon monster 2(5)(slow)(1-2 wolf,gnoll), summon monster 3(7)(none)(1-2 ghouls,bugbear)
cleric: animate dead (5)(silence, move disease to 3)(2-3 skeletons)

I have the beginning of the animal companion and summoning system working (in and out of combat). It is part of an Effect so can be used from Traits, Spells, or Items. It only works for PCs now so creatures can't summon other creatures yet.

[Dorateen]

This looks and sounds great, slowdive. Just wanted to make sure, the new system would not interfere with existing scripts and effects used in the PC version to summon creatures? It was a bit limited, and I would probably switch over at some point to the new way you are setting up summons. But for now, it does work, allowing the player to summon a pre-made creature in the PC editor, or enemies casting a spell that will summon a specific creature blueprint.

[slowdive]

This looks and sounds great, slowdive. Just wanted to make sure, the new system would not interfere with existing scripts and effects used in the PC version to summon creatures? It was a bit limited, and I would probably switch over at some point to the new way you are setting up summons. But for now, it does work, allowing the player to summon a pre-made creature in the PC editor, or enemies casting a spell that will summon a specific creature blueprint.

I'm only working on a system for IBbasic (which didn't have any summoning system before), not IB. I won't change the IB system as it is working fine for how IB is setup. I could add features to IB summoning system later, but I won't change the way the existing system works. The way I am setting up IBbasic summoning system is very similar to the way IB works anyway so no worries there.

EDIT: I have animal companion mostly working for IBbasic. So far I can summon the animal companion from the use Trait screen in both combat and on the main map screen. The companion will disappear when its time allowed has passed. The animal companion is a "Player" and uses a "Player" type file just like how IB works.

[slowdive]

Here is a screenshot after summoning 3 bears to join the party. I set the animal companion summon (a once per day Trait) to summon 3 bears just to test multiple summons (normally it will be one companion and they will stay for the whole day). You can see the bear images on the portrait of the person who summoned them and a number for how many rounds (seconds divided by number of seconds per round based on the module's settings) left before they disappear. I need to work on how best to show this, but I tried this idea of showing them on the portrait and the number counts down on each map move.

Option 1 (image and text on top of portrait):

IBbasic29.png (627.43 KiB) Viewed 7883 times

Option 2 (image only and below portrait):

IBbasic30.png (169.91 KiB) Viewed 7880 times

Thoughts?


And here is what it looks like when casting animal companion during combat. I have it set up where if you are summoning more then one ally, the first ally will get the targeted square if it is open and then all subsequent allies will get a random square one square away (or two or three if other closer squares are not empty) from the target square. When you enter combat with existing summoned allies, the summoned allies will look for random squares near the person who summoned them.

IBbasic31.png (174.9 KiB) Viewed 7877 times