Player Dev Team

[Steve-Law]

Do we still have one?

[DM_Kev]

There hasn't been a noticeable organised effort for some time, though there has been some individual contributions.

[Steve-Law]

I'd love to take a look at horses (specifically the scripting/tidying up). Would that be something worth looking at?

[InVinoVeritas]

Great idea I'd like to take a look too as I mentioned in this post:
http://forums.wireplay.co.uk/showthread.php?t=317249

Is there a way to get the horse-hak or / and erfs ?

[Steve-Law]

I'm really just thinking about how the interaction works for now. i.e. the "broken" horses, juggling three items to use them.

e.g. it should be possible to do all horse management through one item.

Use horse item first time, summon horse.
Click on/talk to horse to mount.
Use horse item while mounted will dismount (and then "find horse" automatically)
Use horse item while horse summoned but not mounted will unsummon.

(off the top of my head :) )

[InVinoVeritas]

Great idea Steve Law! I could work on the *horse training* side of it / skins / dex checks/ perhaps even randomly -area specific- generated names.

[int19h]

If there is a need of help in getting the present alchemy/herbology crafting system finished (craftable kits for evil areas, making all ingredients available one way or another, making the potion studying and crafting system actually work, and perhaps even gatherable plants?), I would be glad to help.

[InVinoVeritas]

I was just informed byt *int* that a lot will change - in terms of horses - with the oncomin' updated 1.69. In that case it might be a waste of time to implement changes atm.

[InVinoVeritas]

I'm posting this for those of you who don't use Irc. Here are some of my banners / and the latest presentation on banners giving small enhancements in combat.

Originally I was going to use my own custom scripting but that would mean - placing the script in >onheartbeat< which could possibly slow things a bit down - so instead I used the nwn item properties. Follow the storyline and open the pictures.

The website where you can find these wares is in my signature - sometimes you need to reload a few times 'cause it's only a free webhost so it's kinda slow. Enjoy!!! TO BATTLE!

Items would be obviously - Dm awarded to prevent them from becoming too common even though they have only low level magic properties. They have rascial requirements too. Elven battlestandards useble by elves and only (good aligned characters) etc etc. Banners with higher lvl buffs like Aura of vitality for instance (1use / day) could be given to Silverswords and Melkors Chosen Guildmasters, and to other guildmasters too - only I haven't done all the flags yet.

Flags would be used mainly for rp purposes / diplomatic missions / and in fighting too (then held by the commander or combatant with the highest AC). Droppin' the flag to the ground is perceived as disgraceful / frustrating / demoralizing.

[DM_Kev]

While its a different and good idea, im not terribly keen on adding more bonuses to characters working in very efficient units already.

Typically and most appropriately, morale bonuses are gained from having a bard in the party and I think that's how it should continue.

That said I think the banners will make a great visual contribution to the game and work as a great rp prop.

[Steve-Law]

Okay, I've had a dabble with horses. I used Barry_1066's scripts as that appears to be what we are using (or started with).

I have altered it (using the Brown Horse only for testing for now, as I don't know our Refs etc.) to do this:

(By "horse item" here I mean the item that we currently use to summon the horse, so one for each type of horse.)


Use the horse item the first time to summon the horse.

Talk to the horse to mount.

Use (any) horse item again and one of two things will happen:
a) If you are mounted, you will dismount (the advantage of this is you can have "dismount" quick slotted without the item being removed every time)
b) If you have a horse and you are not mounted, the horse will be unsummoned (removed).


This also means that you can never summon more than one horse. While I suppose that there may be (rare) RP occasions you will want more than one horse, you can only have 1 henchman at a time anyway, so any horses after the first will be "broken" anyway.

Also, I made another change to the way it works.

When you mount the horse, it is removed. When you dismount it is re-summoned afresh. This means, in theory, and testing locally, that you should never have a "lost" or "broken" horse after you dismount.

I need to arrange some multiplayer testing and also think about some checks for logging in and out and crashes. Currently I am thinking of keeping the dismount tool as created when you mount, to act as a "universal dismounter" without re-summoning the horse (if you find yourself inside on a horse after a crash and without the local variables to manage the horse item script, for example).

There are other things I could do (like forcing a dismount/unsummon when entering a building, but that would require a script on every appropriate area transition or some universal script e.g. heartbeat (with the odd exception for valid stables)). But that's all besides the point.

So, thoughts?

[Dakota Strider]

Sounds like a big improvement. Unintentional summoning can easily occur with current system. Will your system also assure, that when you dismount, the horse appears beside you, and not halfway across Arda?

[Steve-Law]

Yes, that's the point of unsummon/resummon. As it is (I think, without seeing the "live" scripts) the horse remains somehow, but "invisible" while you are mounted. Something like that.

The way I have it, it works the same as summoning the first horse (which is actually what it *is*).

[Steve-Law]

(Oh, I've also potentially cut down the scripts used from one for each horse type, plus mount, find, stable, to 2 in total - depending how they are set up on the mod - well it also depends if you want each action confirmed via a convo, which adds extra scripts, but still a lot fewer.)

[Steve-Law]

Well I tired to host it so we could have a play, but this new router doesn't seem to like the routing rule. Until I figure it out (if ever, its Sky) here it is for download.

http://rapidshare.com/files/47399800/Horsing_Around.zip.html

(138kb)

(It's very basic, with one horse and one pony to try over three areas.)

Obviously it will need hosting for a proper multiplayer test, maybe someone else can do it? Let me know so I can have a play too :)

[InVinoVeritas]

And something from me as well - banner shields - with a special dedication to DM Yavanna who didn't like the previous Imladris flag.

http://nwnpublishing.atspace.com

PS Keep up good work Steve.

[InVinoVeritas]

The modified horse system works perfect Steve. Unbugged and ready to go mate. I haven't been able to test it for loggin' in and out issues but the rest if fine! Simpler and quicker. Well done again.

[Steve-Law]

Thanks. Anyone else? (Anyone managed to break it?)

[Steve-Law]

I've just remembered there are one or two quests in the mod involving henchmen which might potentially break a horse (not that they are appropriate places for horses anyway!) so I'll pop in a couple of lines to check for that tonight.

[Steve-Law]

Here we are, added a henchman to the test and henchman checks on the horse scripts.

http://rapidshare.com/files/47800541/Horsing_Around.zip.html

I've commented everything fully.

Scripts to look at:

_on_activate (what to put in your OnActivateItem script)
horses_main
horses_include
horse_mount
horse_dismount
horse_remove

and conversations:

horse_dismount
horse_remove

(These are simple yes/no confirmations, scripts commented on how to use without, thus cutting out two scripts and two convos)

It should all make sense anyway :)