Here's a map I did a while back, but never used. The spawn point for entering is (36,91). Feel free to name it whatever you like; I called it Goblin Manor, but I suppose it could end up as just about anything. I'd recommend linking it into one of the existing unused waypoints.
The original idea of the entry is to shoot the switches (which have dummy non-motile invisible enemies with one hp as a trigger) to open the gates. I was originally going to make an alternate entrance for melee characters.
It's pretty bare bones; only tile data is included, so you'll have to do enemies and plot and, well, basically everything. I bet you could do something like having it be a small dungeon with a good artifact locked in a chest you can't open without a key. That key could possibly be retrieved in the Averguard Keep with a scroll or something detailing the location of the artifact. Just an idea.
I'll keep looking around for more maps. I think I had a grasslands one lying around somewhere...
EDIT: Yeah, that grasslands map is pretty much too old to be compatible. We've seen some tileset changes since then and it's caused that map to basically be broken.
sudit, to answer your question: No, animated tiles aren't currently possible... without tricks. Theoretically (this has never been done) you could create a visual power effect and insert it in the map as a repeating event.
If you want to start mapping, you'll need Tiled (a great map editor that can export to Flare format). The best place to start is by messing around with the example .tmx files in the Flare data. Clint and I have been talking about doing a mapping tutorial for some time now.
Hmm, I'm not sure if the Averguard Keep needs any more quests, as it's pretty story-based already. The Ydrakka pass may need something, though; really, I think the levels after after the Averguard Keep preparing for the Cave of Living Bones are the hardest (requiring too much grinding). Perhaps there's something that can be done in between?
Clint once mentioned that maybe a book or scroll in the Averguard Library could be a good plot hook. Maybe it could direct you to the location of some artifact or other.
The Ydrakka pass is pretty tight to put in a bunch of side quests; maybe you'll want a new map? If so, I wouldn't mind putting something together for you to work on. I think I even have some old maps that ended up not getting used.
makrohn - Ooooohhhhh! Love the idea of tradeable items. Yeah, I must've missed that one because I ended up selling the shortsword, as I was a mage. Does she tell you that if you don't like the item, she'll trade you for a new one?
To add in extra tiles to the current outpost tileset would be a bit complicated, but feel free to try.
sudit, if you're enjoying Tiled, it would be pretty cool to get some new maps out there. There's plenty of warp points that are "stubbed out" just waiting for data to link into. Perhaps building out one of those would be easiest?
makrohn,
I didn't actually notice the ability to swap out things in the Gretel quest... maybe I'll have to pay closer attention. I did find the shaman quest though.
For vampiric swords, you can create a new power with an hp_steal (or mp_steal) attribute.
I think that your quests gave me enough to do to bring me up to level 4 in time for the Averguard Keep, with no grinding. Really great.
I'm hoping to see more of this in the future.
Now, to answer a few of your questions:
As far as I know, only quests.txt can "include" other files. You can't do that with items and powers, though that would be a cool feature for the future.
I have no idea why the rewards didn't work properly on the alchemist quest. I'll look into it when I have time and see what the issue is. Chances are you found a very old bug that's never exhibited itself before.
It should be easy to increase the upper limit of dialog actions. We've been doing this as needed. (I remember events originally only allowed 8 actions at a time, so a big mapmod event could be split into 5 or 6 individual events. :/ )
For my living bones mod, instead of creating original art (because I suck at that too) I simply recolored some of the art. You'll notice the 3 necromancer brothers are simply the hero, with the sprites differently colored. Perhaps this is something you could consider to add a little variety in your NPCs?
Lastly, I have a few ideas for content that you may be interested in using in the future. There's a couple of features we're currently not using but have programmed that may be good quest rewards or enemies. For instance: Vampiric Items (restore health or mana proportional to damage you do), Knockback Items (hit also knocks target back), and Summoner Enemies (enemies which spawn other enemies). Another thing you may be interested in is how to add traps to the maps.
Once again, this is a pretty awesome mod. Love to see the extra content in Flare.
makrohn, glad to see you're not stopping with one quest. :) I'm excited to see some more in the future.
To my knowledge there's not a different zombie sprite available, but if you can find one, great! My guess is that using a different sprite would be more trouble than it's worth.
To create a "clickable" event, you can use a line like the following: hotspot=-24,-32,48,48
I think the hotspot is measured from the center of the tile's base. (For a flat tile, that would be the exact center.) the first two values create the top-left point of the click rectangle and the second two define width and height of the rectangle. Naturally, the first two usually are negative, because the clickable area typically contains that centerpoint. It can take some fiddling around with to get right.
Use the following line to specify what the player reads when they hover over the hotspot: tooltip=Supplies
On a side note, in the latest version of Flare (github trunk), your Zombie Priest can move only one direction. This is because we changed one of the names of the attributes to make it clearer. Once the new version of Flare is released, you'll need to change "dir_favor" to "turn_delay" in your creature definition file.
It seemed to work flawlessly for me. (Though I didn't try to break it.) Three things I noticed that might make the quest a bit smoother or a bit better:
Make the tombstone clickable instead of just activating when you're next to it. I ran around for some time before I found what I was looking for. Also possibly consider using a different art piece for that tombstone, so it stands out?
I actually didn't notice when I was fighting the Zombie Priest. I fought through the zombies without paying attention, so I don't think I really noticed when I took him down.
The rewards are a bit high for this quest, especially when it's aimed for low-level characters. I'd consider reducing the cash reward and the value of the amulet. The power level of the amulet is perfect, though! Maybe make the amulet a green item instead of blue?
Things I absolutely loved:
The portrait. It added all the flavor I needed to see who Altea was!
The dialogue was written very well.
The quest logs were very helpful and flavorful.
Rewarding Altea's Amulet was awesome. It's not too overpowered for the quest level, but would be really helpful to a new adventurer.
All in all, I'd definitely recommend this little side quest. :)
Here's a map I did a while back, but never used. The spawn point for entering is (36,91). Feel free to name it whatever you like; I called it Goblin Manor, but I suppose it could end up as just about anything. I'd recommend linking it into one of the existing unused waypoints.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/23175651/goblin_manor.txt
The original idea of the entry is to shoot the switches (which have dummy non-motile invisible enemies with one hp as a trigger) to open the gates. I was originally going to make an alternate entrance for melee characters.
It's pretty bare bones; only tile data is included, so you'll have to do enemies and plot and, well, basically everything. I bet you could do something like having it be a small dungeon with a good artifact locked in a chest you can't open without a key. That key could possibly be retrieved in the Averguard Keep with a scroll or something detailing the location of the artifact. Just an idea.
I'll keep looking around for more maps. I think I had a grasslands one lying around somewhere...
EDIT: Yeah, that grasslands map is pretty much too old to be compatible. We've seen some tileset changes since then and it's caused that map to basically be broken.
sudit, to answer your question: No, animated tiles aren't currently possible... without tricks. Theoretically (this has never been done) you could create a visual power effect and insert it in the map as a repeating event.
If you want to start mapping, you'll need Tiled (a great map editor that can export to Flare format). The best place to start is by messing around with the example .tmx files in the Flare data. Clint and I have been talking about doing a mapping tutorial for some time now.
I won't be able to until tonight; don't have my laptop with me. :) But I'll get one or two to you asap.
Hmm, I'm not sure if the Averguard Keep needs any more quests, as it's pretty story-based already. The Ydrakka pass may need something, though; really, I think the levels after after the Averguard Keep preparing for the Cave of Living Bones are the hardest (requiring too much grinding). Perhaps there's something that can be done in between?
Clint once mentioned that maybe a book or scroll in the Averguard Library could be a good plot hook. Maybe it could direct you to the location of some artifact or other.
The Ydrakka pass is pretty tight to put in a bunch of side quests; maybe you'll want a new map? If so, I wouldn't mind putting something together for you to work on. I think I even have some old maps that ended up not getting used.
makrohn - Ooooohhhhh! Love the idea of tradeable items. Yeah, I must've missed that one because I ended up selling the shortsword, as I was a mage. Does she tell you that if you don't like the item, she'll trade you for a new one?
To add in extra tiles to the current outpost tileset would be a bit complicated, but feel free to try.
sudit, if you're enjoying Tiled, it would be pretty cool to get some new maps out there. There's plenty of warp points that are "stubbed out" just waiting for data to link into. Perhaps building out one of those would be easiest?
makrohn,
I didn't actually notice the ability to swap out things in the Gretel quest... maybe I'll have to pay closer attention. I did find the shaman quest though.
For vampiric swords, you can create a new power with an hp_steal (or mp_steal) attribute.
You can assign any power to an item like this: (use like a power) or like this (always active)
Creating a knockback effect would also work, with a power that uses this effect: knockback
If you have questions, please ask! :)
Makrohn,
All I can say is: Loved the update!
I think that your quests gave me enough to do to bring me up to level 4 in time for the Averguard Keep, with no grinding. Really great.
I'm hoping to see more of this in the future.
Now, to answer a few of your questions:
As far as I know, only quests.txt can "include" other files. You can't do that with items and powers, though that would be a cool feature for the future.
I have no idea why the rewards didn't work properly on the alchemist quest. I'll look into it when I have time and see what the issue is. Chances are you found a very old bug that's never exhibited itself before.
It should be easy to increase the upper limit of dialog actions. We've been doing this as needed. (I remember events originally only allowed 8 actions at a time, so a big mapmod event could be split into 5 or 6 individual events. :/ )
For my living bones mod, instead of creating original art (because I suck at that too) I simply recolored some of the art. You'll notice the 3 necromancer brothers are simply the hero, with the sprites differently colored. Perhaps this is something you could consider to add a little variety in your NPCs?
Lastly, I have a few ideas for content that you may be interested in using in the future. There's a couple of features we're currently not using but have programmed that may be good quest rewards or enemies. For instance: Vampiric Items (restore health or mana proportional to damage you do), Knockback Items (hit also knocks target back), and Summoner Enemies (enemies which spawn other enemies). Another thing you may be interested in is how to add traps to the maps.
Once again, this is a pretty awesome mod. Love to see the extra content in Flare.
makrohn, glad to see you're not stopping with one quest. :) I'm excited to see some more in the future.
To my knowledge there's not a different zombie sprite available, but if you can find one, great! My guess is that using a different sprite would be more trouble than it's worth.
To create a "clickable" event, you can use a line like the following:
hotspot=-24,-32,48,48
I think the hotspot is measured from the center of the tile's base. (For a flat tile, that would be the exact center.) the first two values create the top-left point of the click rectangle and the second two define width and height of the rectangle. Naturally, the first two usually are negative, because the clickable area typically contains that centerpoint. It can take some fiddling around with to get right.
Use the following line to specify what the player reads when they hover over the hotspot:
tooltip=Supplies
On a side note, in the latest version of Flare (github trunk), your Zombie Priest can move only one direction. This is because we changed one of the names of the attributes to make it clearer. Once the new version of Flare is released, you'll need to change "dir_favor" to "turn_delay" in your creature definition file.
makrohn, good job!
It seemed to work flawlessly for me. (Though I didn't try to break it.) Three things I noticed that might make the quest a bit smoother or a bit better:
Things I absolutely loved:
All in all, I'd definitely recommend this little side quest. :)
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