I've a couple questions about the game engine that I do not recall being adressed in the detail I'm looking for. I'm assuming with this post that parties will eventually be supported, so if you don't know the answer, just reply that you don't.

The first deals with chatting it up with the townfolk and such. Will we be able to have scripted dialogue, as seen in traditional console RPGs? I saw nothing of that sort in the POG movie, which is why I'm inquiring. If so, can it be branched with "if" statements, such as "if character is in group (supposing multiple characters are supported, which if not, then I need not worry anyway), then that character or other character say/do this." The same may also be done for special items and events, no?

Next is Battles. Will we have all control over battle animations, such as making a character swing his sword and causing a translucent light to pierce the enemies? Also, can we script combo attacks, whereas two or more characters work together (again assuming) to deal the damage?

Finally, I know that the topic of changing weapon appearance was brought up in the past, in which locals replied that this can be achieved with sprite changing. Since this will simply not do for it's complicated nature, could you have it where sprites are rendered with hotspots in which to hold the weapon, and weapons rendered seperately, to acheive the effect or replacing the hotspot with the selected weapon?

Saphfire

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I have heard/researched the following(I can't seem to hit 'o' before 'l' when typing that word, d**nit!):
There are no translucent effects. Only b&w; masking.
The engine only supports one player, and as far as I know, there will be no change on that(you can have tons of NPCs, though).
I'm sure you can control the animation effects of battles, bet there will be no translucent effects unless someone(most likely not Ambrosia) makes an addition/plug-in for the engine.

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Mouse's law: If you try to make a topic to spam in, you lose karma.

I'm pretty sure you can create a translucent effect with transparencies.

Saphfire

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Originally posted by saphfire:
**I'm pretty sure you can create a translucent effect with transparencies.
**

Nope, I've been told either by a beta testor or andrew that you can only get b&w; masking. There ARE no translucents.

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Mouse's law: If you try to make a topic to spam in, you lose karma.

and ain't it a DAMN shame too? man...

anyway - yes, you can have scripted dialog, just like in the old console games. as a matter of fact, that's the only kind I've seen. branching statements are a.o.k.

a lot of the ideas you're suggesting are traditionaly from meter or turn based systems. I doubt that you'll be able to do something as complex as a multiple-PC special attack with realtime combat, especialy from what I've seen of this engine.

as for the hotspots for weapon position, I'm not sure. I do know, however, that it won't look very good (at least as the engine stands now). just trust me on that one.

oh well. we'll find out soon enough.

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Do not follow me for I may not lead. Do not lead for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me, either. Just leave me the hell alone.
-Jedi

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Originally posted by Mouse:
**Nope, I've been told either by a beta testor or andrew that you can only get b &w; masking. There ARE no translucents.

**

Wrong.. :rolleyes:

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(This message has been edited by the Necromicon (edited 04-01-2001).)

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Originally posted by saphfire:
Next is Battles. Will we have all control over battle animations, such as making a character swing his sword and causing a translucent light to pierce the enemies? Also, can we script combo attacks, whereas two or more characters work together (again assuming) to deal the damage?

This should be possible by using keydown events. ie. When the user presses the 'a' key, an animation is executed that deals X ammount of damage. This animation could be anything you wanted it to be, in your example, a combo.

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Ladies and Gentlemen, as you know we have something special for you at
Birdland this evening. A recording for Blue Note Records...
Let's take it back to the concrete streets, original beats and real live MC's...
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Quote

Originally posted by the Necromicon:
**This should be possible by using keydown events. ie. When the user presses the 'a' key, an animation is executed that deals X ammount of damage. This animation could be anything you wanted it to be, in your example, a combo.

**

Hey, that's great! Thanks

Saphfire

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It occurs to me that a sufficiently creative and masochistic person could probably create parties (sort of) even if the engine doesn't support them: just change the character graphic to show a group of characters. There are some definite problems, but I'm sure something could be worked out...

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(Insert Signature Here)

There are some real definite problems with that. Essentially, you'd be representing what the engine thinks of as one person with four people. When you attack, everybody would attack. When you get hit, everybody would get hit.

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People who claim the sky is falling obviously aren't aware the earth is falling, too.

Quote

Originally posted by sanehatter:
**There are some real definite problems with that. Essentially, you'd be representing what the engine thinks of as one person with four people. When you attack, everybody would attack. When you get hit, everybody would get hit.
**

Which is why you'd have to be both creative and masochistic to get it to work. You'd have to make separate attack sequences for each character in the party, for every possible combination of characters in the party, and you'd have to come up with some way to deal with the hp problem you mentioned - I'm sure somebody could come up with a vaguely convincing excuse to have only one hp meter for the party.

Yes, there are problems. No, it's not something I want to do. But it is almost certainly possible.

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(Insert Signature Here)

Of course it's possible. Reasonable, I think not. No one even mentioned the problem of pathfinding. Sure, you could probably make a feeble first person shooter with Coldstone, but who would want to. There is no substitute for the real thing, and I will accept nothing but the real thing. (Sorry if that sounds like a threat, it's not. Merely me stating my need for party development)

Saphfire

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Originally posted by the Necromicon:
**Wrong..:rolleyes:

**

So, I guess Coldstone will support, translucent and opaque images? How about screens, multiples, or scale by image appearance, 100% being fully visible, 0% being totally invisible, and 50% being semi-transparent?

Saphfire

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Quote

Originally posted by saphfire:
**So, I guess Coldstone will support, translucent and opaque images? How about screens, multiples, or scale by image appearance, 100% being fully visible, 0% being totally invisible, and 50% being semi-transparent?

Saphfire
**

::a vicious laugh rings out,the apparition materializes::

...excellent, now I'll be able to do a proper cameo in my game, with the transperencies and all, Basically I can create ghosts and translucent gems, correct??

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-4,-3,-2,
am I becoming a good guy???

Which also brings up my next question, which comes in the form of two parts. First, will we be able to create a static interface layer, that moves with the player? Next, will we be able to make that layer semi-transparent.

Also, can we have variable positions for graphics and animations, such as a small help diagram hotkeyed to pop-up next to the character to display actions or an animation that starts from one or more player positions and targets an enemy's variable position. (i.e. red slash combo: character a and character b team up to dash towards enemy a, with only one (or a few) animation(s) controlling their actions, no matter where they or the enemy is located). Answer these two seperately as well.

Saphfire

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my answer is that some people are using big words that I don't understand.. or well I don't get the meaning. Like for the thing that moves with the player.. An Aura of light that lights up the space around you constantly and moves with you? hmm

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"Silence, Dog! Your only purpose is to die by my hand."

Hey, that is actually a nice idea that I hadn't thought of. What I was referring to however, is an anchored interface, displaying stat info, that overlays the actual map, with perhaps transparency effects.

Saphfire

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Quote

Originally posted by saphfire:
**What I was referring to however, is an anchored interface, displaying stat info, that overlays the actual map, with perhaps transparency effects.

**

I shouldn't image it would be impossible, or even hard, sicne if you look in various screen shots, the player's HP and MP float above him in a box, when selected.

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Originally posted by the Necromicon:
**There are no masks, if you leave white space on your sprites, CGE automatically knows what to mask out.
**

This would seem to indicate that there are no translucency effects...

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Originally posted by ben1cohen:
**This would seem to indicate that there are no translucency effects...
**

This would be true, except that Necro already said that there would be translucents.

-Andrew

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