Progress report Options

[Salk]

Hello people!

Some small news about the Mod progress then...

In this period real life is keeping our hero aigleborgne away from developing his Mod. On top of that, comes the recent change of computers which caused some distress in his home ...

The project is then at the moment on halt but will be resumed hopefully very soon. Since the latest Alpha release many big steps ahead have been made but not enough to justify a present Beta release.

Thanks!

[SimDing0]

I have been thinking that this Mod would adapt itself marvellously to BGT-WeiDu. Much more so than TuTu, in my opinon.

I contend the opposite. To produce an improved creatures mod for BGT, you are also forced to go through all the BG2 creatures to prevent the scenario where, say, BG1 ghouls behave completely differently to those in the BG2 section. Meanwhile, with Tutu you only have the BG1 creatures to contend with.
(This is, incidentally, another reason why merging BG1 and BG2 is a bad idea. Virtue is an excellent example of the "continuity" actually limiting the mods you can use.)

[Salk]

SimDing0,

you're right about what you say under that point of view. But I meant to say that BGT will offer a better environment because of the potential collaboration with other Mods that will take care of improving the AI of creatures that belong to the BG2/ToB part of the game plus with partial benefit for the same Enhanced Creatures mod.

Personally I would aim to ensure compatibility with Big Picture so that the challenge level and AI refinement might engage a player from beginning to end although it's true that it's not easy to keep a balanced game whatsoever...

I think our opinion here differs meaning I wish to experience BG1 and BG2 as a single adventure and I'd work in order to make it as good as possible.

Many creatures that are present in BG2 are the same that we can find in BG1 with some small variations anyway. It's true that will not be easy to uniform the challenge all throughout the game but that's not impossible. Just a lot of work...

We will soon convert this Mod to BGT thanks to Ascension64's help and continue development as soon as aigleborgne will be available again.

P.S. Virtue is a great Mod and I am sure it could work marvellously on BGT-WeiDu covering the BG1 part of the game too...

This post has been edited by Salk: Mar 23 2006, 04:55 PM

[SimDing0]

I will not be developing Virtue for BGT-WeiDU. I have made some small progress on Virtue for Tutu recently.

[Ascension64]

In the long run, it is better to develop the mods for Tutu because
1) the merger project will use mostly the Tutu naming conventions
2) it is really difficult to convert BGT-WeiDU naming conventions to Tutu ones in an automated fashion

[Salk]

Ascension64,

I see your point here...It might be a good idea to work parallely on the two different port then: TuTu and BGT.

It all depends on aigleborgne's will of working on both of them. I believe that it'd be good to share a little more details about how techincally the TuTu2BGT software works. Is there anything that a modder must be aware of when developing a TuTu mod that later should be converted to BGT ?

[Ascension64]

The difficulty is only in the way that resource references are converted from Tutu to BGT-WeiDU. Most of the time, the '_' prefix is simply removed, but there are catches with 8-character filenames as well as super-confusing ones like _13_MTOB.CRE. It is possible to go BGT-WeiDU->Tutu, but that would require creating a dictionary of every single filename conversion...not to mention the actual process would be as slow as a snail as well, since dictionary checking is sequential.

There is no need to 'work on both of them' per se. In other words, the ease of conversion to BGT-WeiDU does not depend on how the original Tutu version is written. Rather, it depends on how well the Tutu2BGT program is written, as well as how far one is willing to go to test every piece of content. Hence, no special considerations are required if someone wants to make a mod for Tutu, which will later be converted to BGT-WeiDU.

[Salk]

That sounds great, Ascension64! I have already informed aigleborgne...We might be releasing a Beta version of the Mod within a month...

[Salk]

New update: after speaking with the author, I have confirmation that he will resume his work on the Mod in a matter of few days.

Just to make it clear, the development platform will be Easy TuTu. A BGT version might see the day of the light at a later stage.

I hope I will have aigleborgne come here sometime and bring his own news. Thanks!

[aigleborgne]

Hi,

I was confident to resume my work this month, but it hasn't been possible.
I am seriously looking for a job and this is my top priority.

Anyway, I hope to resume my modding activity in june. Maybe, a final version will be available in september so.

I still have to play through all the trilogy, and I won't do it without my mod. So, don't worry, I will finish it.

Keep faith

[melkor_morgoth75]

I still have to play through all the trilogy, and I won't do it without my mod. So, don't worry, I will finish it.

Keep faith

EHEHEH, i know that feeling Nice to know, i look forward to test your "full work"

mm75

[aigleborgne]

Hello,

I took time to work on it, but I finally put my hands into the code and I resume coding today.

Now invisible detection by script is working. It is a great step! Because I was blocked on this for a long time. Now Kirin (the succubus) fights well and is a tough opponent (previously, she wasn't more difficult that a dryad, a shame for a succubus!)

Monsters will be finished soon, and I will upload an alpha version for those who want to try out all those monsters.
Some like ogre-mage share the same script than mage. So it's a good way to try out my enhanced AI.

[aigleborgne]

I have finished the monsters module.
Now I will work on NPC. It shouldn't be that long because I have gathered all necessary informations previously.

I guess I will need 1 month to finish it, then maybe 1 month of testing.

[melkor_morgoth75]

We look forward to test it for you

Thanks for your work Respect,

mm75

[aigleborgne]

Hi,

I have worked all day on tp2 and did many things

Starting with code optimization for better view and faster installation. it was important because even if it was working, it wasn't really good in term of programming and thus, I wasn't proud of it.

Doing that, I found some bugs that were corrected.

Then, I have worked on thac0 and saving throws code. 2 parts made by Ascension64 when I was learning the weidu langage. There were some bugs into his code. Well, that wasn't really bugs but engine misconceptions.

It was in fact the problem of dual classes, to understand how the engine attribute first and second level to which classes. Well, it wasn't working and I have made extensive tests to understand exactly how the engine works.
I managed to do it, of course

The only flaw in the code is that it doesn't support inactive dual classes. But... it shouldn't happen. What's the point to put a dual classed enemy with an inactive class?

I will work on maximum hit point code (made by another person), because it has the same bugs with dual classed char.

After this, I think everything will be ready and I'll continue to work on npc (enemies).

[Salk]

Very nice report here, aigleborgne! We're all looking forward to having more news coming from you! Thanks!

[Salk]

So it's time for some updating:

- I was given the honour (thanks Aigleborgne) to give NPCs (non joinable) a Kit and this is going to take quite some time as it is a long job (there are more or less 400 .CRE to take care of)

- At my specific request Aigleborgne, once back from the summer holyday, will work on coding the Monk "kit" as well (which is the only one missing at the moment together with the Diviner)

- My intention is to make NPCs as legit as possible and tone down the amount of the most common magical items (weapons and armours) that they use (and that the party would obtain upon defeating them) in order to avoid the overrepresentation of magical items in the game and give a meaning to spells/immunities to normal weapons

- I will be using a proprietary system ™ in order to create a partially constant and partially randomized NPC environment

Thanks for your interest!

This post has been edited by Salk: Aug 5 2006, 09:15 AM

[Baronius]

This is really good news, Salk!

[aigleborgne]

Hi,

I will be back next week, and I will find some time to work again on the mod. Salk is now in the staff team. We will be able to produce a beta version very soon, probably in end september.

The diviner kit won't be coded because it is not a fighting kit and I won't waste my time in it. Maybe for the few diviner in the game... maybe.

[Salk]

Hi everybody!

Just wanted to inform that the author, thanks to a very positive real life change (new job - congratulations,) will not be coding for some time.

The progress made has taken EC closer to a Beta release but there is still quite much to do. To give a new ETA is difficult. When I know something more about it, I will post a new message!

Thanks!

This post has been edited by Salk: Sep 10 2006, 06:22 AM