Creating a Scenario Clock and Towns That Alternate Between Day and Night

A BoE Programming Sequence by Chris Risberg

PURPOSE

The purpose of this sequence is to create a reliable scenario clock that the designer can use to 
track time in his or her scenario, and show day and night passing by having the party enter 
different versions of towns, using Variable Town Entry.  This was first extensively used in my 
scenario Shadow Of The Stranger, and inspired by the scenario Election, by Nick Jones, where a 
simpler (but still effective) version of day/night was used.

NOTES

In this implementation, "time" only passes outdoors.  This is done to avoid the intricacies of a
day/night transition inside a town, which is rather difficult to do with the current Blades 
engine.  I chose to enter this version into the contest because of its simplicity and the fact 
that it can be used or customized relatively easily by most developers.

This code borrows the use of SDF (291,0) which was first used in Stareye's Spy's Quest, and is a part
of Skyle's Alternative Bladbase v1.3.  This flag is used to create pseudo-random outdoor and cave 
sounds, which I further enhanced to create different surface sounds, based on the time of day.
This is well documented in Skyle's Bladbase release, and is not repeated here.

GLOBAL SPECIALS AND TIMERS

BoE documentation states that a day in engine time is approximately 3700 moves.  Therefore, the 
clock timer should be called every 370 moves, effectively splitting the day into 10 pieces.
This was done in an attempt to keep day and night synchronized with the BoE engine Day counter,
but it has been reported this is not always the case.  The designer should NOT assume that the
IF DAY REACHED? Special Node will always be consistent with this counter.

SDF (200,0) is used as increment clock, and time of day or night check.

SDF (200,1) is used as day/night flag, and for Variable Town Entry, 
(200,1) = 0, day.
(200,1) = 1, night.

SDF (291,0) is set based on the type of outdoors,
(291,0) = 1, surface - time messages.
(291,0) = 2, caves - no time messages.
(291,0) >= 2, elsewhere - no time messages.

Day time is defined as (200,0) = 0 to 5, night time is 6 to 9.  When (200,0) is incremented to 10,
it is immediately reset to 0.  This is of course adjustable.

Set Scenario Event Timer, 370 moves, call Global Special 0

0 Town Block (Can Enter), if not blocked GOTO 2   // Time does NOT pass in towns.

2 Increment (200,0) by 1 GOTO 3
3 IF (200,0) >= 7 THEN GOTO 5; if < 6 THEN STOP, ELSE GOTO 4
4 FLIP (200,1) GOTO 7
5 IF (200,0) >= 10 THEN GOTO 6; IF < 10 THEN STOP
6 SET (200,0) = 0 GOTO 4
7 IF (200,2) >= 1 THEN STOP; IF < 1 THEN GOTO 8   // Transition messages can be turned off by setting (200,2) = 1
8 IF (291,0) >= 2 THEN STOP; IF < 1 THEN STOP, ELSE GOTO 9
9 IF (200,1) >= 1 THEN GOTO 10; IF < 1 THEN GOTO 11
10 DISPLAY SM MSG "The sun sets.  It's now dark outside."
11 DISPLAY SM MSG "The sun rises.  Another day is here."

TOWNS

Any town that has day and night versions should use (200,1) as its Variable Town Entry Flag.
Plan carefully, as there are only ten slots available for this!

The night version of the town must immediately proceed the day version.  If town 11 is Warrior's
Grove during the day, then town 12 must be Warrior's Grove at night.  In the example that comes
with this entry, Bobling (day) is town 1, and Bobling (night) is town 2.

SPECIAL ITEMS

You can also make a Special Item that allows the player to check the time, if the party is in a 
location that would allow them to do so.

Name Of Special Item = "What Time Is It?"
Special Item Description = "When you use this special item, you will be told what time of day or night it is."
When Used, call Global Special 16

16 IF (291,0) >= 3 THEN GOTO 65; IF < 2 THEN GOTO 18, ELSE GOTO 17
17 DISPLAY SM MSG "You have no way to know what time it is here."
18 IF (200,0) >= 4 THEN GOTO 21; IF < 2 THEN GOTO 19, ELSE GOTO 20
19 DISPLAY SM MSG "It's early in the morning."
20 DISPLAY SM MSG "The sun is high in the sky."
21 IF (200,0) >= 8 THEN GOTO 23; IF < 6 THEN GOTO 22, ELSE GOTO 24
22 DISPLAY SM MSG "It's late in the day."
23 DISPLAY SM MSG "It's the middle of the night."
24 DISPLAY SM MSG "It's early in the evening."

65 // Any further time messages, perhaps specific to location, can be determined and displayed here.

EXAMPLE

See towns 1 and 2 in the .exs file.  You enter town one during the day, and if you leave and wait
long enough, night will come.  Then re-enter the town, and the party will enter a different town,
requiring Light spells or torches, with new personalities, sleeping people, locked doors, or 
however the designer wishes to change the town.

As a tip for designers, I have found that, to minimize repeated town design, it is best to 
finish the town drawing first, and any Special Node sequences that are required both during the
day and night.  Then copy the town, so that the day and night versions look identical.  At this
point it is easy to make customizations to the day or night without affecting the other, and 
you won't have to draw the same building twice!