About the tool set/custom adventure creator

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geishaboy
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About the tool set/custom adventure creator

Post by geishaboy »

I am probably looking forward to this more than Book III itself, just the thought of being able to create my own modules/adventures with the Eschalon engine gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside. If implemented right, we could be looking at a very active modding community. Hell, it could even reach the Neverwinter Nights level (well maybe). At any rate, it sounds totally awesome and I can't wait to have a play with it.

A few wish list items

:arrow: Importing and exporting characters. This would mean that one could keep a character they have been playing as in one adventure and move straight on to the next. It would also mean that small mods or "mini adventures" would be plausible, as well as mods designed for higher level characters. And because of that...

:arrow: Make the limit level higher. Or make the level limit selectable within the tool set itself. I understand the inherent problem with that may be that if someone had a level 20 character, they wouldn't be able to play a custom made adventure with a level limit below that, but whatever, just roll it around in your head

:arrow: Customizable items, spells, maps, food, ect. I know nothing about the inner workings of the engine itself, but making the tool set as customizable as possible would be a huge plus, however...

:arrow: User friendliness. So -anyone- could pick it up and make something simple. Personally, I actually wouldn't mind a trade off from functionality to usability, but that might just be me. The point here is not to frighten off anyone who would like to have a go at making something

:arrow: Last but not least MAKE SURE IT CAN BE TRANSLATED, INCLUDING INTO EAST ASIAN LANGUAGES! この鮭をはやく食べないと、動物園で踊れないよ (That's Japanese for "If I don't finish eating this salmon now I won't be able to dance at the zoo!"). The tool set (and book III for that matter) could enjoy some popularity in Asia if you give it a chance. I have already come across Japanese blogs about Book I & II and they have given it good reviews, despite the fact that the bloggers don't fully understand what is gong on.

That's it for now, I really just wanted to get the discussion for the tool set open. Any and all comments welcome.
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IJBall
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Re: About the tool set/custom adventure creator

Post by IJBall »

What I'm most interested in for the eventual editor is no limits on numbers and types of NPCs that can be created, and easy to set up dialogue options for them.

(This is currently the thing that is not covered by the community created 'map editors' - they are able to alter and create Book I & II maps (and they can even edit your character's stats), but it sounds like they are not able to do much on the NPC end...)

What'll make or break the community-authored scenarios, AFAIAC, will be the novel and imaginative use of NPCs (and the towns they are created to inhabit).

Without robust NPC tools, the best most of us will be able to come up with is a bunch of 'dungeon crawls'...

After NPCs, the next most important thing will be monster/mob creation tools, IMO.
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BasiliskWrangler
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Re: About the tool set/custom adventure creator

Post by BasiliskWrangler »

IJBall wrote:What I'm most interested in for the eventual editor is no limits on numbers and types of NPCs that can be created, and easy to set up dialogue options for them.

(This is currently the thing that is not covered by the community created 'map editors' - they are able to alter and create Book I & II maps (and they can even edit your character's stats), but it sounds like they are not able to do much on the NPC end...)

What'll make or break the community-authored scenarios, AFAIAC, will be the novel and imaginative use of NPCs (and the towns they are created to inhabit).

Without robust NPC tools, the best most of us will be able to come up with is a bunch of 'dungeon crawls'...

After NPCs, the next most important thing will be monster/mob creation tools, IMO.
I do plan on making tools for NPC creation. Right now NPCs are made by filling in a row of data on a spreadsheet. Dialog is linked to the NPC via their name (hence, you cannot have 2 NPCs with the same name) and is stored in a separate file.

I will release our dialog editor as well. It is not very robust- the original concept for dialog in Eschalon was going to be far simpler, such as what you get in the early Might & Magic or Ultima games. Since fans wanted more I expanded the ability of the dialog, but it is still a limited and inefficient system compared to others that I have since researched. But, you've all seen what it can do and generally, if you are clever, you'll be able to get it to do what you want.
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