berelinde's comments

[berelinde]

Well, I've played through the Bishop Romance, and I thoroughly enjoyed the quality of the writing.

 

And that statement begs a "but." There is one, of course.

 

I always play good-aligned characters, if I can help it. Keeping that in mind will make sense of what I'm about to say.

 

Throughout the whole thing, from the first hello to the final resolution, my poor Shard-Bearer felt like Frodo. On the one hand, faithful Sam, played by Casavir, always ready to back me up, but definitely not the most interesting of my conpanions. Never any question of where his loyalties lie. He doesn't make a fuss, doesn't call any attention to himself at all, really. He's just there. And on the other hand, I've got Gollum... well, if Gollum were pretty and wore ranger leathers. No way is Bishop some shrunken proto-hobbit. But the similarities are uncanny. Like Gollum, he's my guide. He flatters me, he threatens me, he makes me want to help him. I know that his heart is evil, and that he's dangerous, but I don't want to be parted from him, either. I have to believe I can help him. I have to believe he can be saved. And by helping Gollum, I drive my Sam further and further from me. In fact, sensing the threat posed by Sam, Gollum forces me to distance myself from Sam. Gollum calls Sam's motives into question ("He wants it for himself!"). But in the end, well... spoilers, and all...

 

The funny thing was that I enjoyed both characters more on my run with a female PC than I did with a male PC. But even more surprising was that I came to appreciate Sam... er... Casavir more on account of the Bishop romance, too. Every time Bishop slapped him down, I rallied. "Oi! That's my paladin you're slanderin'!"

 

So, did the mod make me love Bisohp? Well, yeah. Did it change my good opinion of Casavir? Hells, no. So, all in all, an enjoyable experience.

 

Now, for the tech talk. I had a hard time keeping the Bishop romance going. Mostly because I play good-aligned characters. I kept screwing up. If I went all "goodness and light," Bishop didn't want anything to do with me. If I went all "dark Willow," I killed it just as quick. I found myself saving after every successful lovetalk, just to have a restore-point in case I screwed it up *again*. But that's my fault, I'm sure, for the same reason I had trouble with the Shar-Teel romance: I can't spot the landmines.

 

So, now I want a proper romance for Casavir...

[Domi]

Thank you. You know, I think I always tend to write the romances in such a way as if more than one option is available, so you don't have to stick with one. I, of course, do not want to alienate a PC from Casavir. My goal is to make it interesting to chose between the two (or three for that matter, or four.)

[berelinde]

I noticed something, though while navigating the flirt menu. You said you added one dummy flirt to the end of random choices, but the random choice thing might be fixed for 1.012. A lot of times, when I was flirting with him, the conversation just ended, no acknowledgment from Bishop.

[Domi]

The random choice will be actually words, "Bishop ignores you", if the conversation just quits, that's an old problem I am not sure how to deal with. I will comb the dialogues again at some point to make sure that every Bishop's option has the PC 'END' on it, but I am uncertain that's that what causes the problem.Somebody told me that dummy is unnecessary, I will be testing thta when I get the FP going.

[spondeethis]

berelinde,

 

The reason that flirting with Bishop sometimes led to the conversation ending completely is b/c of the way Domi put in the scripts for each randomized option. I can't explain exactly how it's done, and I'm being a little inaccurate, but basically the script ensures that each of Bishop's responses has a 50% chance of being chosen or passed over. So let's say the PC flirts and Bishop has four responses possible.

 

PC: (Flirt.)

 

Bishop possible response 1: [i'm insecure.]

Bishop PR 2: [i'm angry.]

Bishop PR 3: [i'm misogynist.]

Bishop PR 4: [i'm somewhat receptive.]

 

The game checks PR 1 first, like flipping a coin. If it comes up "heads", Bishop says [i'm insecure] and all the other PRs don't even get checked, b/c they don't need to be. If the check comes up "tails", though, then PR 1 is passed over and PR 2 is checked in the same manner.

 

This continues to happen until all options are exhausted. Problem is, if this heads/tails check is placed on the final PR as well, then there's a possibility that PR4 check will come back "tails" and the conversation will just end.

 

The fix is very simple. We just need to delete the checking script from PR 4 (or whatever the last PR is for each flirt). By doing so, we ensure that even if PRs 1, 2, and 3 come back "tails", PR 4 will fire 100% of the time.

 

Domi, if you'd like I can make the fix to the most recent version of Bishop's Romance and post it on the Vault.

 

-spondeethis, i.e. indifferent_honest's alter ego

[berelinde]

Hey, thanks for the very useful information! I'm going to be needing it soon...

[Domi]

When I deleted scripts from the last option it resulted in only one option coming back for every flirt 100% of the time in my testing. I will need to see that it is working correctly without the last check if I am to implement it.