ToEE Backstory and Greyhawk Info

I've attached a zip file with all of the text from my postings on the Atari ToEE forums related to ToEE and the World of Greyhawk (1st Edition). I saved in wordpad, so I hope that anyone who needs it for modifications will find it easy to use. Please reply to this thread for additional text requests or storyline input that you may desire of me. I'll be glad to put in my $.02...a figure which I'm sure is over inflated based on the work that others here have done. As a player and a fan, I appreciate "all y'alls" hard work for our benefit.

Note: The sudden shift to southern dialect is strictly so that gaear knows it's the real Lord_Spike.

*Gulps liquor and fires gun at junk car*

 

As a test, I'd like to try presenting a text box to the player upon first visit to Hommlett, and add one book with background information to the game. I'll then float that out for feedback before putting in more.

Spike, could you please take two passages from the text (some on Hommlett, and some on random backstory to be presented as a "book" in the game), and slice them out, and let me know what they are? I'll then try to insert them into the game and create a beta-test for people to try out.

-- dul

 

2 slices...

..one part is the History of Hommlet; the other part is a poem which gives hints and clues as to the adventure ahead.

 

Wow, do we want that much about Hammlett right up front? At the very least, I think I'll chop that last paragraph, since that's constantly hinted at by all the "small talk" of the villagers.

I'll give these a shot, and see how they turn out. What do you want me to try to name the book? I might go for parchment, actually. We'll see.

-- dulcaoin

 

Yeah, that's a lot...

...of history. Chop as you see fit. I wonder...can pieces be added to the dialogue options as the PC's meet key personalities? Burne, Jaroo,Terjon, Brother Smyth and Ostler Gundigoot ought to know as much as is written there. Just a thought...

dialogue option: "So, what can you tell me about this place?"
answer: "well, [insert text]"

The opening window can contain enough info to get the ball rolling.


The poem could be on a scrap of parchment found in a book squirreled away on some unlikely bookshelf, perhaps on one modded into Nulb someplace? Or picked out of some NPC adventurer's pocket in a tavern there, like they found a clue to exploit...heck, maybe it should come with the map that the female (I forget her name...) has in the waterside hostel? It should be somewhere easily found by parties that are well on their way to or in the upper levels of the Temple itself, I should think...not by fledgling groups still struggling to finish off Lareth. In the module, it could be given out once the PC's returned to the Church or the Grove in Hommlet after entering any level of the Temple.

As for titles, I think you should choose since you're doing all the real work. They don't have any names that I am aware of...

 

ok here are the original intros for Hommlet and the moathouse. there are also short simple discriptions of each building in Hommlet. if we want those it wont take long to have them up. have to head to work now but ill post the discriptions for Nulb and the Temple tonite

 

ok here are the intro discriptions for Nulb and the temple. i also put in the interlude from the game, that one i scanned in cause it was so long. souldnt be any problems downloading them and opening them. if you want more on any building or npc let me know.

i also found how much of this module i had forgotten about. like all the lesser versions of Fragarach and the infamous wand of a wonder

 

how hard would it be to just put in a text window before the intro movies, something thats been fixed up a bit.

its to bad they dont have the intro movies for the moathouse and Nulb as they are major points in the adventure.

 

Actually, the "easy" way to do this would be a text box upon arrival at a place. So, you end up standing at Hommlett, there's a box. you click ok. You move on. you show up in Nulb, there's a box. You click OK, continue playing.

The scroll with the poem will be a bit more trouble, and would best be left for later until the .MOB file format is better deciphered, so we can stick it on a bookshelf somewhere.

As for how we stand, I must apologize. I started in to do the work, and became anxious over how painful it is to edit protos.tab using existing tools, and started again to do "just a bit" to my editor. A weekend later, and my tool is in much better shape (though far from completed), and I haven't done anything with the text.

Ironically, the text box issue is a simple one, at least for Hommlett, and I suspect for Nulb. Part of my approach was actually to wait for Livonya's changes so I don't make changes that conflict... Still, I should whip something up. I basically had the tutorial info popping up for me in Hommlett, which means I just have to make a new "help file" entry with the Hommlett text, and change the tag in that approach, and Hommlett's done. Nulb, I have to make sure that "all ways to Nulb" pass through the same portal (as the ones to Hommlett do), and if they don't, FIX IT so they do, and then that solution becomes as simple. I will endeavor to get SOMETHING up and going before too long. It's just that protos.tab tool beckons...

-- dulcaoin

 

An Update

I worked on this last night.

The good news:

I was able to change text, add hyperlinks (and they work), and have the Hommlet text show up upon first-arrival to Hommlet. The text can be REALLY long if wanted, and the scrollbar works fine.

The bad news:

* The way topics are handled is very hard coded.
* I have to co-opt the tutorial text in order to make this work (they're "hard-coded" when it comes to the command to display them; so we'd lose the tutorial in order to do this in this way.
* there are fewer than 39 available "slots" to co-opt
* When I added my own hot-linked topics (which don't count as part of the 39, luckily), clicking on them goes to the full help window, including forward, backward, home, etc. buttons; which would be confusing to a new player (Plus, s/he might read about places s/he hasn't been yet by clicking on those; all making the hot-links solution less-than-perfect).
* Some topics are hard-coded to show two-in-a-row. There's no way to avoid this. So we can't just grab random entries and use them, it has to be carefully planned (for example, in the tutorial, the room-1 overview is automatically connected to the 'select characters' topic -- so I took the Hommlet text and broke it into two; this actually looks like I designed something cool on purpose )
* The Hommlet description text doesn't flow as well, now that the vignettes exist. I start the Neutral-Good starting, end up in Hommlet with story about why, and then read about how I have nothing in my pockets but a few coins and that I'm simply there for high-adventure... the narrative is broken by this.

Still, it's really cool to see, and with tweaks, the issues could be minimized. I REALLY wish there were a way to not lose the tutorial, though

-- dulcaoin