Another mod idea involving text

I haven't actually done this, but I am almost positive I can do it. I have looked at how it was done in the tutorial, and I believe it can be replicated.

The hard part would be doing the writing.

- Livonya

 

The exact thing mentioned (text over movie) probably is NOT doable through scripting, but something more "Baldur's Gate" style probably is, in the way that Liv is thinking of.

The text that shows below the films now is EASILY changeable, but there's no way to add a lot of text and then pause anything to make sure it's readable.

Better to give the user control as in the tutorial.

BTW, there seems to be subtitles for the opening film, though I've never seen them played over it. They help explain the plot a little better. A shame.

-- dulcaoin

 

Ugh, I guess I didn't read the first post well enough.

Yeah, scrolling text would be way out of my league, but adding text boxes as in the tutorial would be possible.

The original conversation on the Atari boards was about adding text boxes as in the tutorial (as I remember) so that is what I assume you were talking about.

- Livonya

 

Potential Spoilers?

Not a whole lot, they just explain (in 3 lines) what's going on in the video.

Check out the third line. Brings it all home, doesn't it folks?

{0}{Ten years ago, in the year 569, the dark forces of the Temple of Elemental Evil rose up to face the united armies of Veluna and Furyondy.}

{1}{At Emridy Meadows, the tide of evil was opposed by the forces of good. The northern armies fought bravely under the direction of the valiant Prince Thrommel, but the forces of evil seemed too great.}

{2}{When at last it seemed that evil would triumph, that the Demoness Zuggtmoy would destroy the armies of good, a new hope arrived, the Circle of Eight.}

Actually, what we're talking about would be more along the lines of a large "dialog" box in the middle of your view as you arrive at Hommlet (to take on one of your examples). It would consist of a set of text that the user can read and perhaps scroll through (if long enough), and it would be dismissed with a mouse click, after which you'd continue to play. At relevant spots in the story, this box would show up just before gameplay commences. It would have the current view of the party in the background, rather than a still.

I apologize for throwing off expectations by mentioning Baldur's Gate, which did feature a bitmap, scrolling text, a voice-over, and even a button to replay what had been said.

Start up the tutorial to see what's being talked about [though, I'm currently having difficulty figuring out if we can do what we want -- the tags for the text are currently hard-coded, and I've yet to find the .mes file that links tags to text, let alone allows one to create new tags]; sit through the opening movie, and then see the (two-in-a-row) text boxes that appear.

Edit: Oops, I see in your followup that this became clearer for you.

-- dulcaoin

 

Ah, dangit.

I KNOW I scanned the help.tab for this information, but didn't (apparently) see it the first time.

Anyway, the tutorial dialogs are just using the help system (complete with hyperlinks -- wicked cool), so this project is completely doable, in a very VERY fancy and cool way (IMHO). It won't even be hard to code, I don't think (the actual calls will be easy, it's triggering them appropriately that matters.

Basically, imagine reading the cliff notes version of Hommlet, which will be fine for most people, but the really curious ones will see hyperlinks, and click those. Linked in could be character histories, rumors, hints, whatever was deemed appropriate. It'd be REALLY cool if we could "enable" certain sets of detail info dependent on game variables that get set as quests are completed. Then we could always flesh out just the appropriate subject matter without spoiling anything.

-- dulcaoin

 

Did someone say Gygax? Well, the Circle was not at the battle, because they were busy with something else...

Anyway, if you want flavor text (story) that is very easy to do - maybe though it would be better to borrow from Return to TOEE than from TOEE PnP module?

 

if you need any info from the original i have the entire mod series that the temple comes from and can easily post any part of it that you want.

 

I've got this covered. Had whatever text I wanted to create pop up upon first arrival at Hommlet.

I'd prefer that someone else manage the "writing" portion of this, since I've barely scratched the surface of the game (found my first spelling error, dug in to fix it, haven't looked back from modding since). Figure out the major transition areas (or NPCs) you'd want to attach these text views to, provide me with the text and direction, and I'll mod it up.

For a start, a good set of text on the town of Hommlet be a good starting point.

-- dulcaoin

 

ok ill dust off the mods and have them ready to look into. though i imagine that H1 and T1-T4 will be the only ones we need for awhile. just let me know what you all need

 

I'd love...

...to help with this in some way. The text is easily cut and pasted on the forums, and I've typed a lot of it there already. My thoughts on this subject included books that could be placed at various locations around Hommlet. Each would contain pertinent information on various topics...just like the books in BG with the "History of the Drow", etc. I am more than willing to type out such histories to include realms that lie beyond the neighboring states; or whatever information is desired by the modders to add flavor to the game. A more detailed type of book would be like Lareth's diary, and would require the player to click to read further rather than just fill up a window with a lot of boring (to some anyway...) text.

Gaear, thanks for the invite!