Reputation Modification in BG1 NPC

[berelinde]

I've figured out how to add an interjection for Gavin into the Lake poet dialog, but it's going to mean that Gavin should be installed after BG1 NPC in order to appear.

 

Grim Squeaker's IF_FILE_EXISTS will let me interject into the bard's dialog, once this gets up and running and the states have been identified (have numbers).

 

Edit: added a handful more interjections to the wiki to cover the first meeting of Lake Poet 2 in Nashkel. Having the NPCs comment after the first meeting is nice, but by then, the PC already knows what reputation adjusters are all about.

 

Edit2: Had a look at the temple of Umberlee in Baldur's Gate. There is currently no store associated with the temple. Its sole purpose seems to be quest related. State 1.3 of _PUMBERL.CRE (following state 1 paraphrased to "Why are you here?") is "We wish to pay our respects to the Queen of the Deeps." It would be possible to add a store to this response, but not something I am going to look into.

[jastey]

I thought it's enough to ask in this thread; if I start a poll I risk all passers by to vote, but I wanted to have a feedback from cmorgan, Domi, Kulyok, Andyr, berelinde, and the others that are actively contributing whether they agree to stick to "decrese only".

 

As far as I understood:

jastey: wants reduction tool only

berelinde: agrees to reduction tool only

cmorgan: could imagine both possibilities, although this was stated before my "please, please, pretty please" post.

 

In my opinion it is fruitless to aim at deadlines if we haven't decided the scope of the project yet. (Deadlines don't make sense with me and my RL anyway. Too much unexpected things blocking my free time again and again.)

 

Miloch: You have some very interesting ideas there (although they most definitely will find their place in an add-on).

[cmorgan]

Yep, my vote is a non-vote; I can see either, and will work out details of whatever we want.

 

I tossed the deadline to spark the conversation and work, and also to get stuff on "paper" for inclusion in Beta4 which I am trying to get finished up this month (in spite of not much time to work, and no time to test!!!). My hope originally was to be out of Beta status by Christmas, and then have the spring and summer to work with Plasmocat on the NPC portraits and begin pushing translation communities to get tra materials done by next anniversary. For Band Directors, most of November and December are booked solid so I am rapidly running out of coding time .

 

Jastey, if you and berelinde want more time on this, I can certainly wait. Perhaps if this idea is one you want to pursue, we should just wait for inclusion in next anniversary release?

 

berelinde, I would advise a separate J-file/BCS call based on having the encounter, rather than trying to ITC into the responses. You have more control over responses, and (like the Sirine's Call stuff) it is much more difficult to deal with install order stuff then it is just to lock in content with a separate conversation!

[Kulyok]

Yes, "decrease only" is fine.

 

And, folks, unless you directly ask me to write/code/test something, I am not a contributor - just passing by and tossing my opinion into the fray.

[berelinde]

I'm ok with a deadline. I can help.

 

Put up a to-do list. Sounds stupid, but it helps. For example, do you want the dialog tweaked more, more NPC interjections? You said you're OK with the cre files and the baf.

 

Rushed. Leaving work momentarily. More later.

[Grand_Dracolich]

I'm for decrease, if you wanted an increase, you wouldn't want to use a dishonest means of getting a good rep.

[berelinde]

OK. A little more breathing room.

 

What, specifically would you like?

 

We need:

 

1 CREs - 3

1.1 FAI, Belching Dragon, somewhere in Baldur's Gate (Blushing Mermaid?)

1.2 based on Lake Poets

1.2.1 Probably best if they aren't the actual Lake Poets - they already have a job

1.2.2 CREs separate from LPs allows us to use NumTimesTalkedTo()

1.2.3 Easier to troubleshoot if anything goes wrong

2 Area scripts - one for each - nothing fancy

3 Dialog - needs tweaking

3.1 More NPC interjections

3.1.1 Some NPCs with a definite bias will comment each and every time

3.1.2 Other NPCs who don't care much will comment once and let it drop

3.2 Consequences - NPCs react if service is used

4 Script to control spawning - cmorgan or someone else performs magic and berelinde gets to watch and wonder how they did it

5 tp2 to put it into the project - probably the current keeper of the master copy

6 traification - again keeper of master copy

 

I can probably manage items 1 through 3, unless someone else wants a crack at it.

 

What are the deadlines?

 

My recommendations:

1 Wednesday

2 Wednesday

3 Tonight or tomorrow (If it's me, it's going to be tomorrow)

4-5 ? you're going to want to playtest (quickly, but it won't take much-it will work, or it won't)

[jastey]

My son woke up being sick into his bed. As I said, no deadlines for me. berelinde, you rock! I will try to be of more assistance tomorrow.

I din't understand what point 4 "Script to control spawning" would be (in combination with point 2)?

[cmorgan]

Let's play this out together a little longer - I definitely will have some challenges to participation for the next few days!

 

1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.2.1 done; using existing LakePoets (now they have a *real* job, in Advertising, and just for Bards have a competition that you get to be a part of later on; no spoiler info provided in dialogue, so that Bards still have their "Easter Egg".

Area Scripts = spawn control + timered activate/deactivate (if we want players to have to go away for a few days before using the sevrices again).

 

1.2.2 remedied by creating two sets of same .cres, all "static", just like we do for the Romance Challenges and some Project cutscenes. Lakep1, 2, & 3 are created via various Area Scripts. They have two incarnations; ones in existence at Inns have dvs "lakep1rc" et al; originals have dvs "lakep1" et al. Dialogue files work the same way, so that NumTimesTalkedTo() works fine. The player sees only that Rob, Sam, etc. now have a competition, but will have seen them at thier "day job".

 

5, 6 - That's me

 

I can assist on the Wikki. How about we hit it as we can; I am not qualified for dialogue creation, but will continue tweaking code. I suggest we start by stabilizing LakePoet1's materials. That way we can cut and paste into Poet2 and Poet3 minus NPC reactions, then edit so they are all exactly the same "store", but with different "window dressing".

[berelinde]

Alright, it's dialog time on wiki tonight for me.

 

Good thing about the CRE's, and I'm so glad I don't have to think about the spawn timing.

 

It is funny how some people just have mental blocks about some things. I'm a chemist, so I made it through a fairly intense courseload in college, but I just can't get my head around certain concepts, like the international date line. Please, don't try to explain it. Since I get a headache if I try to think about it, I'm happier not knowing.

[berelinde]

Completely reworked LP1. It's up on the wiki, but it's darned near impossible to read because of cruddy formatting--wiki is no Crimson Editor.

 

cmorgan, let me know and I'll email you a clean copy, with all the carriage returns in the right places, and convenient bookmarks.

[jastey]

Did I already mention that you rock?

 

I am slightly confused by this WiKi thing. (I am always afraid two people might change the same text at the same time). Not that I had the time to work on anythig today.

I would suggest taking the structure of the new Poet 1 (which is really good, as far as I see, btw) for the other two poets, so "only" slightly different phrasings would have to be found.

If you feel let down by me and that I should take over a part please feel free to give me a kick in the a**. It's only that I am glad that I do not have to think tonight after a long day.

[cmorgan]

OK, after a good conversation with berelinde last night, I blasted some stuff up on the Wilkki (don't be afraid to use it - the chances of any of us in our multinational multi-timezone community actually hitting "save" at the same time are pretty remote, but you can always cut & paste from the wikki, then drop your samles there and I can act as facilitator ).

 

 

Here is what we have come up with: one big chain that is duplicated in each LakePoet that allows responses to change baszed on party member and usage. Three poste with identical structure, just slightly different wording. To help out, authors need only log into the Wikki or post here for berelinde; the code sections will look like this:

/* Safana */
== ~_BSAFAN~ IF ~InParty("safana") !StateCheck("safana",CD_STATE_NOTVALID) Global("X#SafanaRep","GLOBAL",0)~ THEN ~XXXXXXXXXXX~ DO ~IncrementGlobal("X#SafanaRep","GLOBAL",1)~
== ~_BSAFAN~ IF ~InParty("safana") !StateCheck("safana",CD_STATE_NOTVALID) Global("X#SafanaRep","GLOBAL",1)~ THEN ~XXXXXXXXXXXX~ DO ~IncrementGlobal("X#MontaronRep","GLOBAL",1)~
== ~_BSAFAN~ IF ~InParty("safana") !StateCheck("safana",CD_STATE_NOTVALID) Global("X#SafanaRep","GLOBAL",2)~ THEN ~XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX~ DO ~IncrementGlobal("X#MontaronRep","GLOBAL",1)~

All you need to do is "fill in the blanks"; replace the XXXXXs.

 

berelinde, I have blocked out the code for us on the wikki, so you don't have to reinvent the wheel. I probably will not be able to help again before Monday unless I am lucky, and then will be out of commission from Wednesday through Monday, but this gives everyone a solid basis to work with.

 

After berelide thinks LakePoet1 is strong enough, she will cut & paste into LakeP2 and LakeP3. berelinde is handling character changes between the lake poets, so she will adjust the wording for the other two (but probaby would appreciate some help ). Any bells and whistles need to be presented soon; goal is for Dec 1st test. I will post the area scripts, and tp2 work, and develop the tra when we are playtested and edited (Can we convene our awesome proofreading team again, please?)

[berelinde]

Ha! Too late!

 

I did it last night, but was too beat to put it up on the Wiki. No worries, tho. I'm sure it's going to be useful.

 

I got about half-way done last night before running out of steam. I'll finish up tonight, and post what I've got.

 

Edit: But what you have is way more useful, so I'm going to pinch it. Thanks!

 

BTW: I never work directly on the wiki, so I've got backups of everything, with time and date stamps to tell the most recent version. The really good jackal line has been restored to Faldorn locally, and I'll put it up on the Wiki tonight when I'm done..

 

Edit 2: put more stuff up. Too tired to go on. Will fiinish tomorrow.

[berelinde]

Version of Sam (Lake Poet 1)'s dialog up on the Wiki. It follows the NPC interjections. It is grouped in such a way that it will be easy to edit for other LPs. Also, changed the states to use X#Troubador1 instead of X#Troubador to avoid state duplication.

 

Edit 18Nov2006: Fixed a whole lot of ugly coding errors. This is why I save the bulk of mod work for weekends: I think better earlier in the day.