Just starting in TE4 module work... very confusing...

[andar_b]

I'm trying to start a module but wow, it's not easy to just jump in. I make a change in one file and all the others need changes too. I kinda figured out I can look in te4_log for any errors, but the text there is pretty unhelpful. Is there any other way to find out what's keeping my mod from loading?

I'm having trouble figuring out what I can pare out of the Example mod; what I need and what I don't, what I have to add in to get the functionality that I want. I took a look at Grey's mods - Rogue Rage and Broken Bottle in particular - but since he runs a unique mechanic in each of his games, I don't want to commingle that into a big mess.

Is there a quick way to fix the Lua error that occurs in the example mod, when opening the (c)haracter sheet? I tried copying in the CharacterSheet file from another mod, but that didn't seem to work.

I'lllllllll try to drop in on the IRC. :p

[Grazz]

Hi,

Welcome to the fun of module creation. For the character sheet there is a page on the wiki which should help with that:

http://te4.org/wiki/t4modules-character-sheet

The first part of the page talks about the players display on-screen but then there's a bit on making a character sheet.

Grazz

[Grey]

There is a lot of trial and error involved - in particular changing things, having a failed run, finding a lua error code in the error log file, digging out the file and line that it's on, fixing that, running again, finding more errors, etc.

A big source of errors is dependencies. Make sure your module has the right "require x" lines at the top of the file for what you want to use.

The IRC channel is a good place to find immediate help. Also feel free to post links to zips and stuff too.

If you want a basic module that's a bit fuller than the example then you might want to check this:

http://gamesofgrey.com/games/basicmodule.zip

It's essentially Rogue Rage but stripped of all Rogue Rage - specific code, leaving a basic working module in place.

[andar_b]

Thanks. That basic module may be just the ticket. I'm going to be persistent. I tried to start my own engine from scratch in C++ with SDL but I was in over my head, having never done much more than a simple database in a console. Why on earth do C++ classes even START there anymore?

Anyway, the basics I'm working on will be:

Health - Very limited healing available, character can hide in a defensible position (locked room) to care for his wounds, clean them if there's a clean pool or he's carrying water, and rest for a short time. Otherwise, damage mitigation is paramount. Very low rate of regeneration naturally. May be disturbed while resting by creatures who can bash doors.

Exhaustion - Stands in place of Mana, Stamina, and supplies a 'will to live' for the character. When completely exhausted, the character will not heal and cannot use magic, lowers movement speed.

Mind/Body/Heart - These are the main player stats. The ratios of these will determine things like spellcasting ability, endurance, resistance and power.

No 'level up' or experience as such. Player will occasionally gain additional stat points but not in the traditional "DING!" sort of way. I may end up judging content difficulty based on the highest defeated enemy level or something. In addition, there may be a very few rare skill trainers (I'm thinking like 1-3 per character per game, randomly placed, somewhat like the skills you can get from escort missions) but for the most part any special abilities will be granted by equipment, not learned or purchased. IRL we don't suddenly learn new abilities at predetermined levels of experience.

Not permadeath, but a small supply of lives. The player has the choice to retreat while still living and survive with his loot - or take the chance on opening that next room and losing everything he's collected thus far. Whether he dies or retreats, one 'journey' is expended. When all are used, the final battle begins.

I'd like to include FAR better traps than ToME - make them deadlier but less annoying. I don't believe in killing the player outright unless they choose to ignore the information at their disposal. Maybe give the char a 'spidey sense' of something being amiss and it's up to the player to search for traps, listen, etc. Maybe base that upon Mind, if the player chooses to run a char with very little mind and high body/heart (a Berserk) he bets his character's fortitude against the traps since he won't have a good chance of detecting them. Of course, he'd have a better chance to survive them anyway.

Still trying to decide how I want to structure the maps. I originally wanted to build a virtually limitless dungeon - a la Minecraft's world gen - but that might have to wait for a future version. I'm also considering a tree-like map, where a main highway leads deeper into the dungeon with branches to assorted dungeons and the occasional vault or cave intersecting it.

[andar_b]

I must thank you Grey for your contribution, that template helped immensely. There are still a few bits in it that are not being used (map tilesets since you define a static map), but it works just fine and got me headed in the right direction finally. I'm taking TINY nibbles out of the project but I have a custom character glyph now, changing the fonts to something I fancy, and so on.

One problem I ran into is the name on the dialog box. If I am not mistaken, it should be using the referenced font for the 'headline' but it's not.

Code: Select all

self.font = core.display.newFont("/data/font/FSEX300.ttf", 32)
Dialog.init(self, "Character Sheet: "..self.actor.name, math.max(game.w * 0.7, 950), 500, nil, nil, nil, font)

The rest of the code works fine, but nothing I do to this bit seems to make it use the FSEX300 font for the title.

Will work on something else for now.

[andar_b]

I never did figure that title thing out, but it doesn't matter because I can fake it with a text field that matches the rest of the text in the dialog anyway.

I spent most of my play time today tweaking the dialogs, getting the interface reasonably tolerable. The main thing that's left to torque is the minimap, and deciding whether to put a NPC visible list or a hotbar, or both.

It would be very nice if I could figure out how to make the map look a little nicer. I'm liking Fixedsys for the map and such (grew up with MSDOS and QBASIC, Fixedsys is like home ) but it does look a little fuzzy due to how AA works in ToME. It would be really cool if I could scale individual glyphs independently for scenery - use line-drawing glyphs, for example, to stand for pillars and such, and make them stretch to the full tile size. Not counting on getting that figured out though.

I'll probably start adding actual content pretty soon. I'm getting tired of fighting purple jams from Grey's module I used as a template! Not sure how I'm going to handle game balance and make enough creatures/enemies/obstacles to make the game interesting. I'm also pondering how to do artifacts and loot. I know I want a variety of quality stuff, as well as plain old junk on up to very valuable but virtually immovable objects (Granite Sofa of Superior Fortune anyone? lol) But for the most part, the plan is to make it a hard choice whether to keep an item for personal use, lug it around (and risk losing it), or take it back to 'base'.

I'm also tempted to include a currency SOLELY for the purpose of allowing the player to pick up piles of gold coins. Or not. I recall one instance in an MMO I used to play, where you had to literally run over piles of gold coins, but you couldn't pick them up. If your currency in a game is 'gold', you better explain why there are MILLIONS of coins sitting around in piles and players can't collect them. It could be simple as "This gold seems to be cursed, when you try to pick it up it slips through your fingers like silt." I think there was one in a NWN module where you could open a 'container' in the shape of gold coins, and it would be empty. WTF? o.O

Now that I think of it, I'll probably either ignore encumbrance altogether or make bags of holding ubiquitous enough that it doesn't matter. I think the latter would allow for better inventory management but idk. We shall see.