NPC Skald

[Guest erik]

Does he improvise mocking verses about his enemies, by any chance?

 

I'm getting curious.

[EiriktheScald]

How about battle cries? He might improvise some prose after the major battles.

[Guest erik]

I grew up reading Heimskringla and the saga of Egil Skallagrimsson in norwegian. Great entertainment.

 

So of course I get some mental pictures when reading about your skald

 

Any dream interpretations?

[Miloch]

Doubtful; skaldic verse differs from rune poems. Besides, according to published DnD materials, the runethanes practice rune divination.

What is doubtful? (You're quoting two people so it's not clear). Also Eirik is a skald, right? Not a runethane, unless you plan on doing a custom kit (and last we discussed this, I think it was just a custom skald not a different kit like runethane).

Why would Eirik carry around books of poems, traveling so great a distance?

Why not? That wouldn't be at all unusual for a bard, if he knew how to write. Besides, he might not be simply "carrying around poems," he might be composing them on the fly. But the point was, for your longer verses, it makes more sense to put them in book form than flood the screen. Once Norsemen did learn how to write, they produced sagas and eddas like nobody's business, even while (perhaps especially while) traveling.

I would think he is more apt to recite the third type of prose, which will fit in the display area.

"Fitting in the display area" unfortunately does not mean the PC will read it, especially one buying potions, equipping weapons, what have you. And there's no going back easily - other text (be it BG1 NPC, Bioware or the PC's own actions) can push yours out very quickly. A book on the other hand can be reread.

[EiriktheScald]

Clarification: He's not a runethane, although he might have knowledge of runes, so it's unlikely he would write rune poems.

 

It seems funny to me that PC is too busy to read the display, but will take time to read a book. Of all the volumes of books in the game, I think I read a total of three! I was engrossed in the adventuring.

 

@erik: The saga of Egil is a favorite .

[Miloch]

It seems funny to me that PC is too busy to read the display, but will take time to read a book. Of all the volumes of books in the game, I think I read a total of three! I was engrossed in the adventuring.

Admittedly, I didn't read many either. I started to, then I realised I didn't really give a flying gibberling's bollock about FR history. A lot of it seems somewhat contrived, and doesn't really concern actions or items in the game directly.

 

Skald Eirik's Saga would be different though, since it concerns or was written by a party member. The PC's own journal would be comparable (I guess we have to assume the PC at least can read and write ).

 

Ever read King Harald's Saga, retold by Poul Andersen as War of the Gods? A great, compelling story with a rather bizarre twist at the end.

[EiriktheScald]

Ever read King Harald's Saga, retold by Poul Andersen as War of the Gods? A great, compelling story with a rather bizarre twist at the end.

 

I picked up a Hardbound ed. for $1.65 at amazon. It sounds interesting.

[EiriktheScald]

One thing about Poetry and IE is that -in my opinion only!- long verses and IE do not mix. With all my singing-poetry writing NPCs I try to either stick with 8-liners only or "dilute" the song with the interactive options. It is not that easy and interesting to read off even the most beautiful poetry off the screen if its 8 or more lines, even if you use multi-say.

 

What is multi-say? Suppose I have this in my dialog file (Eirik joins party):

 

IF ~~ THEN BEGIN ESPC1.7
SAY ~Indeed? Then we should definitely travel as one, your company would be most welcome! 
Far from home on a long road, 
And wary of the way: 
Rich I felt when I found another; 
Enjoying the company, 
A kind word need not cost much, 
The price of praise may be cheap: 
With nary a coin and an empty cup
I found myself a friend.~ DO ~SetGlobal("EirikJoined","LOCALS",1)
JoinParty()~ EXIT 
END

 

Obviously this is more than eight lines. But I don't want to interrupt Eirik with PC interaction. How would I use multi-say in this case?

[berelinde]

Like this:

 

IF ~~ THEN BEGIN ESPC1.7
SAY ~Indeed? Then we should definitely travel as one, your company would be most welcome! ~
= ~Far from home on a long road, 
And wary of the way: 
Rich I felt when I found another; 
Enjoying the company, 
A kind word need not cost much, 
The price of praise may be cheap: 
With nary a coin and an empty cup
I found myself a friend.~ DO ~SetGlobal("EirikJoined","LOCALS",1)
JoinParty()~ EXIT 
END

 

Initial line, then 8 lines of poetry to follow.

 

Multisay just means starting a new paragraph, or refreshing the text in a dialog window. The PC would see "Indeed? Then we should definitely travel as one, your company would be most welcome!" in the first window. Coincidentally, one of those commas should be a semi-colon.

 

The second window would have the poem.

[EiriktheScald]

Thanks. BTW his .CRE file is done. I'm putting together a tp2 file with his join dialog, wolf.cre and howl.wav; just to try it out. I'll post a screenshot (of course you won't be able to hear the "howling in the distance" .

[berelinde]

Way cool! Can't wait to see it!

[berelinde]

Just please do me a favor:

 

I may want to play with Eirik in my party some day, to romance Branwen to his heart's content (I'll be romancing either Gavin or Xan). Please, I beg of you, do not force the PC to recite poetry. Ever.

 

Also: many people don't read the words to a long poem. There's nothing you can do about that. It's just life. I'm one of them. I read v-e-r-y slowly, and get lost in any sentence more than 25 words long, or in any poem of more than 4 lines. I'm sorry, it's just the way I am. I have a feeling that I am not unique.

 

It makes sense for Eirik to be a poet. I'm not arguing that. All I'm saying is that he should come to the point in the first line or two, not on line 87.

[EiriktheScald]

Not to worry. As in the last bit of dialog I posted (meeting Branwen in the meade hall), I will have PC interaction inserted between stanzas with an option to escape, should you so desire. . Although most of what I have posted has included prose, the majority of dialog will not.

[EiriktheScald]

Oh, as for the wolf attack, I had the idea of killing the wolf much the same way they did with Gorion in the cut scene. Would this be hard to do?

[BigRob]

I shouldn't think so. I think it's done on script, so if you look at the scripting for that cutscene, you should be able to lift how it was done wholesale.