Dungeon Editor Progress

[Curunir]

Basically... what Gambit said

[Teto]

Am I imagining this the correct way: First, in the map editor, I draw a room surrounded with walls and one hallway out. I place a door in the hallway, and a stepping stone in the middle of the room. Then in Lua, I write a code that whenever the party or an object is placed upon the stepping stone, the door opens?

Yep, that's the plan.

As for the rest of your questions, we haven't really planned that far yet. But frankly that level of modding support would require lots of changes to the game engine. Let's first see how the modding community takes off before making any decisions or promises.

I've just bought the game after watching a small walk-through and see "how it works". I think I'll like. But that's right, modding will be a high valuable thing for your game. Allowing modding deeply the game (but not too much, I agree) will allow to your game to be a new standard for this type of game.

Consider this :

Am I imagining this the correct way: First, in the map editor, I draw a room surrounded with walls and one hallway out. I place a door in the hallway, and a stepping stone in the middle of the room. Then in Lua, I write a code that whenever the party or an object is placed upon the stepping stone, the door opens?

What about "Friendly" monsters, like the Dwarves in EoB1? Could Monster behavior be handled by Lua? Could monsters be made to attack each other?

What about stat changes? For example, some RPGs used to give XP for entering secret rooms. In other rooms your food might be set to zero instantly or constantly, to create a starvation room.

Can we create our own container types? Can we make items like the Mortar and Pestle for other stuff? Like making a device to create additional bombs?

Would it be possible to create prompts, where people can click "Yes" or "No", which would then have an effect on the game?

Would it be possible to remove or add characters from the party? Would it be possible to create custom characters to be included in the party?

Would it be possible to change/add classes? Would it be possible to change/add skill trees?

Is there a limit to the size of each level? Is there a limit to the number of levels? Is there a way to enable or disable automapping through Lua?

I can't explain better what you should allow / do for the editor :
- Unlimited maps.
- Possibility to import new assets / textures / shader.
- Maybe, for this, create a plug-in for Blender (not for 3DSmax or Maya, pleeeease ) to help poor/unprofessional modders . And create a package where modder could find all volumes allowed for the elements (walls, pillar and so on).
- Open a database with libraries where modders can share their creations or find good assets for their dungeons. We could find assets, monsters, textures, different kind of walls, styles, scripts, mechanisms and so on.
- I know that for the moment, styles for a level are limited, you can just have a few number of different walls, mechanisms, traps, ... but allowing more variety would be great.

I know that your engine is quite limited. And I'm not sure that you expected this success. But in my country, France (and I'm sure it's the same thing in other countries), there are many people who want old-school games like that. So even if it won't be possible to implement all the stuff wanted by modders, maybe, for the next one ("Return in Gimrock" ), if you think about it, or after a big patch, an addon... I think it's the best you can do if you want this success continues, imho.

Anyway, have a great week-end.

[5th party player]

- Possibility to import new assets / textures / shader.
- Maybe, for this, create a plug-in for Blender (not for 3DSmax or Maya, pleeeease ) to help poor/unprofessional modders . And create a package where modder could find all volumes allowed for the elements (walls, pillar and so on).
- Open a database with libraries where modders can share their creations or find good assets for their dungeons. We could find assets, monsters, textures, different kind of walls, styles, scripts, mechanisms and so on.

Sounds like warcraft worldeditor.
But definitely I really would like an editor like this. Made a tons of maps with that...

[petri]

The Dungeon Editor needs to be as usable and accessible as possible, if you want to make sure that most people can create dungeons. It shouldn't be a requirement to have to write Lua to be able to create a basic dungeon. So from that point of view, the dungeon editor needs to have a full visual GUI, which is capable of creating everything that we see in the basic game. Yes, this is a big deal and a lot of work -- but will pay off in the long run.

Creating complex puzzles with a graphical system would be a huge mess and you would be ultimately limited to the logical building blocks we provide (e.g. timers, delays, counters and whatnot). Once you can place the walls and dungeon objects with a GUI, you only need a very limited amount of Lua code to implement the remaining logic for puzzles. It's not hard for even a non-programmer and I'm sure the kind people here are willing to help each other

E.g. opening a door should be as simple as writing:
treasuryDoor:open()

[Jack Dandy]

Maybe you can release a little helpfile with the editor, explaining basic (editor-related) Lua functions?

But then again, maybe a wiki will solve these kind of problems.
I know it helped with Dwarf Fortress.

[Curunir]

It's not hard for even a non-programmer and I'm sure the kind people here are willing to help each other

Ok, I'll stop whining now This is consolation enough.

[limner]

The Dungeon Editor needs to be as usable and accessible as possible, if you want to make sure that most people can create dungeons. It shouldn't be a requirement to have to write Lua to be able to create a basic dungeon. So from that point of view, the dungeon editor needs to have a full visual GUI, which is capable of creating everything that we see in the basic game. Yes, this is a big deal and a lot of work -- but will pay off in the long run.

Creating complex puzzles with a graphical system would be a huge mess and you would be ultimately limited to the logical building blocks we provide (e.g. timers, delays, counters and whatnot). Once you can place the walls and dungeon objects with a GUI, you only need a very limited amount of Lua code to implement the remaining logic for puzzles. It's not hard for even a non-programmer and I'm sure the kind people here are willing to help each other

E.g. opening a door should be as simple as writing:
treasuryDoor:open()

That's ok...if it is possible to implement program code to the editor this will be more that enough, also because in this way there will be no limit to the kind of puzzle.
But i have a question then....if someone can add program lines, there will not be hard coded parts?

[petri]

That's ok...if it is possible to implement program code to the editor this will be more that enough, also because in this way there will be no limit to the kind of puzzle.
But i have a question then....if someone can add program lines, there will not be hard coded parts?

What do you mean by hardcoded parts?

[Curunir]

Default engine behavior VS scripted in Lua, I imagine.

[Crashbanito]

I think he's asking whether or not all factors, as far as objects go, can be modified or will they be hard-coded and unchangeable.