Most wanted module system additions

The following two operations:

a conditional, (main_party_has_initiative)

The game checks for this at every party encounter; I'd like access to it.

(trigger_party_template_dialog,<party template ID>)

for simpler encounter dialogs from menus and other places.

These two would open the encounters up to a lot of variation and keep them simple to code. It seems like a logical extension to the simple triggers in .75x.

How could I forget it before:

- Ability to tell what troop_id an agent_no is
- Ability to compare strings

Also it would be great if some functions were placed in an external dll for us to redefine.

One more I thought of:

The ability to define new item types. Looking at the header_item file, we're only up to hex 12 or 13, and there's room for 255

Or, add the following item types:

itp_type_clothes (to separate clothes from armor)
itp_type_food (different from itp_food)

The ability to NAME PASSAGES.

Frustratedly,
Winter

Winter said:

The ability to NAME PASSAGES.

Frustratedly,
Winter

Click to expand...

or simply that passages took up the name of their related menu option. Or stayed as passage if they move to an entry point.

Now, what i'd like is an animation editor, just like with the sound files. Here, take this example;

animations = [

#These animations can be edited in skeletons.brf

#Humanoid animations

1h_sword_slash_left = frame 1 t/m frame 5 ["human_skeleton.smd"]
1h_sword_slash_right = frame 6 t/m frame 10 ["human_skeleton.smd"]
1h_sword_stab    = frame 11 t/m frame 15 ["human_skeleton.smd"]
1h_sword_slash_down    = frame 16 t/m frame 20 ["human_skeleton.smd"]
man_die1 = frame.....
man_die2 = frame.....

#Custom humanoid animations *Add these at the end of the list of keyframes*

man_push_catapult = frame 21 t/m frame 25, ["human_skeleton.smd"]
man_fire_catapult = frame 26 t/m frame 30, ["human_skeleton.smd"]
man_reload_catapult    = frame 31 t/m frame 35, ["human_skeleton.smd"]
man_die3 = frame...
man_die4 = frame...

#Weapon animations *add these all to seperate .smd files*
lance_break = frame 1 t/m 10, ["lance.smd"]
flail_swing_left = frame 1 t/m 5, ["flail.smd"]
flail_swing_right = frame 6 t/m 10, ["flail.smd"]
flail_swing_down = frame 11 t/m 15, ["flail.smd"]
flail_swing_up = frame 16 t/m 20, ["flail.smd"]
catapult_fire = frame 1 t/m 15, ["catapult.smd"]

man_animations = [
("man_walk", ["an_man_walk"]),
("man_die", ["an_man_die1","an_man_die2","an_man_die3","an_man_die4"]),
]

This way you could easily add in your own custom animations for your own weapons and such. Here's an example how I would have added 2 more die animations in then. The custom weapon animations operate on the weapon mesh only, and would have a different identifier, like "wan_catapult_shoot". This would be the animation set on that catapult then. You'd also have to set the man animation for the weapon, wich has the "an" identifier, wich operates on the man_skeleton.
With this you could add in siege weapons with proper animations, make lances break, add in easy support for flais and other weapons etc.
I really don't know how much work it would be for Armagan (sounds like ALOT), but it would be a breakthrough for the modding community I think. So, what do you think of my idea? Comments/additions would be appreciated .

Yoshiboy said:

or simply that passages took up the name of their related menu option. Or stayed as passage if they move to an entry point.

Click to expand...

I'd rather be able to name them independently of the menu option names, in order to keep certain menu options unclickable (because their name is an underscore) that are only meant for access by passages. I do this quite a bit in Craftmod. If I had to name them, those menu options would show up in the menu, and that would suck for me.

Governmentally,
Winter

Winter said:

The ability to NAME PASSAGES.

Frustratedly,
Winter

Click to expand...

Seconded.

A suicidal setting for troop aggressiveness.

Manitas said:

- To make global variables moddable (armor penalty for blunt/piercing damage, headshot bonus etc..)

Click to expand...

Oh, I want that. After Forgotten Glory I want to a fantasy mod, which I think will be different to other ones, but to do one part that I really want I'll need a shield impervious to a certain type of damage, but normally resistant to everything else. The damage I want it to be immune to in this case is Magic.

- On that note, the ability to add in new damage types
- Support for flail-type weapon and flag animations

Would be possible with my animation system, if such an user friendly system is possible at all..

Raz said:

Would be possible with my animation system, if such an user friendly system is possible at all..

Click to expand...

You've done it! I love you!

Oh, wait, just noticed the second part...

It'd be nice to have two following additions to the agents' scripted movement:

- an operation to have the agent stop after he reaches a waypoint

- an ability to tell the agent to walk instead of running, etc

Janus said:

This becomes more of an issue for the Age of Ash mod with the change to Leadership. I'd like is the ability to change the scale of what each skill point does. Being able to add and remove other skills would be a bonus as well; we plan to have secondary skill for Age of Ash using the troop slot system, but it would be even better if we could make them regular skills.

We plan to have only small parties with tougher units and pretty much only NPC heroes recruitable by the player. With the removal of party slot limits from the leadership skill, the player could recruit a lot of heroes.
So, if the values of each skill were changeable, that would allow us to get just the right number of units available for each skill level of leadership. We were wanting to have a fair number of heroes available to pick from.

Click to expand...

Couldn't you just make a global variable heroes_in_party, and add a condition to all your hero recruitment scripts?

-A way to decompile a module into python scripts.
-The ability to change the standing position for units.  It's hard to have "small and meek" come across in the text when the character starts the scene with a shout and a punch, and then stands there imperiously with his arms crossed.

- different sounds for each weapon and each weapon actions (now swinging sword sounds as swinging fist or club)
- many flying missile styles and colors
- different animations for horses

My experience with Python is limited, so someone please tell me if these are already doable:

1) The ability to place ambient sounds in scenes, with custom settings for radius, volume, pitch, etc.

2) The ability to set a custom background (like bg2.dds) for different menus.  Eg, you enter a particular city and a picture of it appears behind the menu options.

3) The ability to change more text strings in the game that seem to be at present hardcoded - for example "denars" - you can't change for historical mods.

4) This is a bug I think - but Muskets/Pistols don't show up in merchants even if tagged as Merchandise.

Don't know if this has been covered.

-Possibility to add more inventory slots
-Or (2-3) ammo slots different from weapon slots. Having three rifle clips should not prevent you from having a knife along with your gun.

-Ability to assign ammo to specific weapon types and create new weapon types (itp_type_whatever) (seconded)

-the ability to specify if a helmet model turns off hair
- ability to set animated meshes (SMD) as weapon models (so we could have a sword that had a sheath model attatched to the hip when it's equipped or somthing along those lines.

-script to change worldmaps ("travel")

It would greatly increase my modding efficiency, if I didn't have to reboot my machine every time I leave m&b.

I mean, yeah, quality of service stuff is so meaningless and stuff, but i would not mind if the issue was adressed somewhere in between.