120 lines
6.3 KiB
HTML
120 lines
6.3 KiB
HTML
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<title>Advanced - BoE Scenario Editor Guide</title>
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<div class='content'>
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<h1>Section 9: Advanced Topics Introduction</h1>
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<p>As fun as making exciting dungeons filled with nasty monsters can be, often the
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scenario designers ambitions encompass larger goals. Many designers want to create a plot,
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with interesting characters and challenging special encounters. This section describes how
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to move on into these challenging and satisfying realms.</p>
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<p>Before progressing too far, it is best to read this chapter in its entirety. The basics
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here will be necessary to master, if you are to move on.</p>
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<h2>Counting and Coordinates</h2>
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<p>As described earlier, all counting begins with 0. The first town is town 0, and 2nd
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town is town 1, and so on. The coordinate system for Blades of Exile towns and dungeons
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starts with X = 0, Y = 0 (also written (0,0) ) in the upper left.</p>
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<h2 id="sdfs">Stuff Done Flags</h2>
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<p>The single most important concept to master in scenario design is the Stuff Done Flag.
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The Stuff Done Flags are numbers the game keeps track of, which are used by the game to
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remember what the party has done in the scenario so far.</p>
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<p>For example, suppose you have a treasure hidden somewhere, like, say, a shield. You
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only want the party to be able to get that shield once, so the game needs a way to
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remember that the party has gotten it.</p>
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<p>This is done with a Stuff Done Flag. It is a number that starts at 0, and is matched up
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with getting the shield. When the shield is reached, the game sees if the Stuff Done Flag
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is 0. If it is, the shield hasn't been taken yet, so the game gives the party the shield,
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and the Stuff Done Flag is set to 1. The Stuff Done Flag being 1 tells the game in the
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future that the shield has been taken.</p>
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<h2>Stuff Done Flags - the Specifics</h2>
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<p>But what are the Stuff Done Flags? Picture a grid of numbers, 350 tall and 50 wide, all
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of which start at 0. These 17500 numbers are your Stuff Done Flags, and they are all set
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to 0 when the party starts a scenario (and are saved in the save file, which is how the
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game remembers what you've done already when the save file is opened).</p>
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<p>Stuff Done Flag are described by coordinates. Unlike the coordinates of a
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spot of terrain (which are given by an X and Y value), SDF coordinates are given
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by an R and C value. The first coordinate of a Stuff Done Flag is the row it is
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in (a number from 0 to 349), and the second coordinate of a Stuff Done Flag is
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the column it is in (a number from 0 to 49). For example, the taking of a shield
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may be attached to Stuff Done Flag R = 112, C = 3, also written (112,3). Later
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chapters often refer to the two parts of a Stuff Done Flag (the R coordinate is
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the first part and the C coordinate is the second part). In the example, 112 is
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the first part, and 3 is the second part.</p>
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<p>All Stuff Done Flags start as 0 when the scenario is started. For every event or thing
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that must be remembered, you will need to assign a Stuff Done Flag to it. When the party
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completes some mission, you may decide that (91,9) will become 1, and when a demon is
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killed, (94,2) will become 1. Later, you can have special encounters check a Stuff Done
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Flag, and do different things depending on what the value of the Stuff Done Flag is. For
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this reason, you will want to keep careful notes on your scenario, to make sure that no
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two events are linked to the same Stuff Done Flag.</p>
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<h2>Keeping Notes</h2>
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<p>One thing all of the Exile games have had in common is that, when they were done,
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dozens of pages of careful, intricate notes had been taken about them. For example, in the
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first Blades of Exile scenario, Valley of Dying Things, when you take the opening stone in
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Avizo's shop, the Stuff Done Flag (1,2) is set to 250. Later, when the player tries to take
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the stone, the program will see that the Stuff Done Flag (1,2) is not 0, and will know
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that stone has been taken and should not be given again.</p>
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<p>In the same scenario, when you kill the evil spirit in Blinlock, Stuff Done Flag (2,3)
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is set to 1. Suppose, however, that the designer has made a mistake and made the Stuff
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Done Flag (1,2) set to 1 when the spirit was slain. In this case, if the party killed the
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spirit first (causing (1,2) to be set to 1), and then went to get the opening stone, it
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wouldn't be there! (because (1,2) has been set to 1, making the game think that the item
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has been taken, even if it hasn't) Then the party wouldn't be able to finish the game. This
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is bad. However, careful notes reminded the designer that the Stuff Done Flag (1,2) had
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already been used, and thus it wasn't used in Blinlock.</p>
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<p>One useful tip for making sure Stuff Done Flags don't get reused: in town 0, only use
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Stuff Done Flags with first part 0 ((0,0), (0,1), etc.). In town 1, only use Stuff Done
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Flags with first part 1, and so on. For outdoor sections, use the Stuff Done Flags with
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first part 200, 201, 202, and so on. This way, you can be sure when designing town 8, you
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won't use a Stuff Done Flag already needed for town 4.</p>
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<p>Of course, in some towns you will need to use more than 50 Stuff Done Flags. When this
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happens, you can consult your notes to find Stuff Done Flags that aren't being used for
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anything yet.</p>
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<h2>Text Length</h2>
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<p>When writing text messages or dialogue, you need to take care about the length of the
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messages. Although the scenario editor makes no restrictions on message length, there is
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only so much space in-game to display the messages, so if a message is too long, it will
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be cut off.</p>
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<h2>Editing Text</h2>
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<p>The scenario, each town, and each outdoor section has a list of text strings used for
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special encounters. Each town and each outdoor section has an additional list of text
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strings used for signs. To edit these text strings, select "Edit Text" or "Edit Signs"
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from the appropriate menu. To edit a string, click on it.</p>
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<p></p>
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<p>At this point, it's time to tackle the most complicated, most powerful thing in the
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Blades of Exile editor, the tool that makes the differences between a bland adventure and
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a masterpiece: special encounters.</p>
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