Brotherhood of Light - Multiplayer RPG Scenario

Discussion of all aspects of multiplayer development: unit balancing, map development, server development, and so forth.

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zookeeper
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Re: Brotherhood of Light - Multiplayer RPG Scenario (0.6.2)

Post by zookeeper »

Ok, so, I've applied your changes with only one exception, the gold giving menu item. I just feel that the original is more convenient because you 1) get to see everyone's gold and 2) you can cancel before you enter the value inputting dialog, where you can only cancel by inputting 0. The bane/capture variable initialization thing was actually also unnecessary because the relevant [remove_item] wasn't needed in the first place; I just removed the [remove_item] instead.

I also kept the version number at 0.7.0 since that's going to be the number when publishing, and condensed the changelog back to player-visible changes only; please check if there's anything I forgot or messed up there.
Bob_The_Mighty wrote:Things that need fixing

1. There is a huge lag at the start of every player's turn. Could it be related to all the code dealing with side turn stuff?
I'm not sure yet, but I'd think it's probably due to something else, as the turn events there are aren't that heavy. I'll try to diagnose it.
Bob_The_Mighty wrote:2. The info shown under the magic 'trait' doesn't update properly (i.e. where it lists your mana, recovery and spell levels). I've tried firing the event "update_mana" in the post advance event and ADVANCEMENT_SPELL_OPTION macro, but putting in the latter doesn't seem to work. Would this be because the update_mana event doesn't store the unit, only unstore it? When we've worked out what's going on, we'll have to add it to every place where players might gain new spells and mana items.
Looks like just a mistake in the advance menu item code; I think it's fixed now. Most places already update the trait when you receive bonus mana or such, but I think shops don't yet. Will be an easy fix.
Bob_The_Mighty wrote:Things we could improve

3. On turn 1, could we use [end_turn] once the character design is done? If so, we could get rid of the "end turn" mission objectives.
Sure. I don't recall if there were OOS concerns with using it in MP, will have to check.
Bob_The_Mighty wrote:5. I noticed several todo and fixme notes in the code. Do you have any ideas/plans for these?
Not yet. Maybe once everything's stable and non-buggy again...
Bob_The_Mighty wrote:6. At the start of a player's turn there are often lots of floating messages, often overlapping and impossible to read. I suggesting removing the ones that notify players of mana recovery.
Fair enough, although I think I'll first check if it's possible to interlace them by just using multi-line messages.
Bob_The_Mighty wrote:7. I couldn't work out what the variable 'bol_advancements' is used for. It is set to 0 at the start and increased by 1 on level up, but doesn't seem to be used anywhere else.
Yep, it's just a leftover of some kind, it's not used.
Bob_The_Mighty wrote:8. Is there any difference with underscores in the names of events? I noticed we had "post_advance" and "post advance", but both seem to work fine.
No difference, spaces and underscores are interchangeable in event names.
Bob_The_Mighty wrote:9. Should "data/campaigns/Brotherhood_of_Light/translations" be changed to "~add-ons/Brotherhood_of_Light/translations"?
Yeah, "data/add-ons/Brotherhood_of_Light/translations"; fixed.
Bob_The_Mighty wrote:10. I've added a colour mark-up for the basic perk names to appear in the perk 'trait' mouse-over. I'd like to add these to items and spells as well, providing it doesn't cause problems. I'm guessing it might mess up the possibility of translations.
No problems with that. And the chances of translations are rather negligible anyway.
Bob_The_Mighty wrote:Further features

11. Could we add custom story images or icons for the individual spells and items? If so, would the use of custom images cause problems for players who have not downloaded the add-on? I'd like to keep it as it is in terms of only the host needing the add-on. Would a missing image cause the game to report an error?
It would. Anyway, I think there's been quite a few new icons added to the game since 1.6 so I wouldn't worry about those.
Bob_The_Mighty wrote:12. Maybe the magic trait should also show how many misc spells a mage knows?
Agreed.
Bob_The_Mighty wrote:13. Could we randomise the location of things like the yeti, trolls and wolves, and perhaps all the tulips? Something for future editions.
Certainly.
Bob_The_Mighty wrote:14. Could we allow players a choice of gender, as per usual? Would this cause problems for your tinted portraits?
I've pondered about that a bit, and there's not really any technical difficulty with that. The problem is mainly how the players are referred to as "brothers" in about a hundred places... :whistle:
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zookeeper
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Re: Brotherhood of Light - Multiplayer RPG Scenario (0.6.2)

Post by zookeeper »

So, no major problems with the version in the previous post? If not, then I'll upload that one as 0.7.0 on the 1.10 server.
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Re: Brotherhood of Light - Multiplayer RPG Scenario (0.6.2)

Post by Bob_The_Mighty »

Sorry, I've not had a chance to test it yet. I see it's been downloaded a few times and there's been no reports (but I guess that doesn't necessarily mean anything). Have you tried starting a game of it? The start-of-turn lag I mentioned is severe enough for me to consider it a bug (unless it's just on my computer).
My current projects:
MP pirate campaign: The Altaz Mariners
RPG sequel: Return to Trent
MP stealth campaign: Den of Thieves
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zookeeper
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Re: Brotherhood of Light - Multiplayer RPG Scenario (0.6.2)

Post by zookeeper »

Okay, I found the cause of the lag. It's just one single radius-based location filter in a side turn event that's causing it. :o I'll fix that tomorrow and put it on the server if no one reports any issues before that.
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Re: Brotherhood of Light - Multiplayer RPG Scenario (0.6.2)

Post by zookeeper »

Aaand it's up.

Now, we could start doing some of the non-bugfixing stuff that's been discussed! First of all though, I'd like to suggest something that's been on my mind for a while: making the players remain White Mages rather than changing to Mages of Light on their first levelup. Firstly, there's the thematic idea of them being acolytes so being unable to "really" levelup would sort of emphasize that (kind of a minor point really), and secondly, when everyone has illuminates it makes ToD more irrelevant (you're never at -25%, chaotic enemies are never at +25%). If the players remained as White Mages, then illuminates could be turned into a spell and items, levelup options or training could be added to boost your magic and staff damage and maybe some other things would be easier to do too because you wouldn't need to handle the players being of potentially one of two different unit types or changing unit type.
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Re: Brotherhood of Light - Multiplayer RPG Scenario (0.6.2)

Post by Bob_The_Mighty »

Nice work. Well done on locating the source of the lag, I'm pretty sure I've got the same problem in other add-ons.

I also think your idea makes a lot of sense. In fact, I would be tempted to take it further. A lot of tactical decisions are removed when your character has illuminates, heals and magical by default. It would also make things more interesting if all four units didn't have exactly the same stats. What about stripping the units of all these abilities? (Perhaps allowing one of the three to be chosen at the start?)

Presumably we can tweak the stats/abilities without using custom units? If so, could we use a custom AMLA to give the level-up/learn spell options?
My current projects:
MP pirate campaign: The Altaz Mariners
RPG sequel: Return to Trent
MP stealth campaign: Den of Thieves
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Re: Brotherhood of Light - Multiplayer RPG Scenario (0.6.2)

Post by zookeeper »

Bob_The_Mighty wrote:Nice work. Well done on locating the source of the lag, I'm pretty sure I've got the same problem in other add-ons.

I also think your idea makes a lot of sense. In fact, I would be tempted to take it further. A lot of tactical decisions are removed when your character has illuminates, heals and magical by default. It would also make things more interesting if all four units didn't have exactly the same stats. What about stripping the units of all these abilities? (Perhaps allowing one of the three to be chosen at the start?)
It could work, although in case of healing we'd need to buff the healing spells quite a bit; the healing ability is overall the most useful form of healing you can get, so how to make it a viable choice to not take it? Maybe everyone could get +4 heals initially, and able to increase that by +1 on levelup, also affecting how much the revive spell heals you?

Illuminates I'd just make a regular spell. Maybe a new "light magic" school, with dazzle and blind moved to it too?

Magical I'd actually rather keep, because it's pretty much the only way of dealing proper damage in the beginning. I don't think combat should be such a struggle, and if you can't levelup to a MoL anymore, you're stuck with whatever stats you start with (currently 6-2 and 6-3) and those aren't very good to begin with.
Bob_The_Mighty wrote:Presumably we can tweak the stats/abilities without using custom units? If so, could we use a custom AMLA to give the level-up/learn spell options?
I think that should be possible, but most of the levelup code would need to be rewritten, whereas just adding new options as it is should be very easy. I'll give it a look, though.
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Re: Brotherhood of Light - Multiplayer RPG Scenario (0.7.0)

Post by zookeeper »

There was a bug with an advancement being lost if you happened to levelup due to XP from a good deed; the unit leveled up or AMLAd as usual, but it didn't give you the unit advancement menu option. I uploaded a new version to fix that.
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Re: Brotherhood of Light - Multiplayer RPG Scenario (0.7.1)

Post by AlexVSharp »

I'm not sure whether or not these are bugs or if we're just doing something wrong, but during out multiplayer play-through:
1) We could not meet the herbalist 'Morridon' at all. He never appeared under any circumstances,
2) We did not get any options with the goblins north of Borol. There was some dialogue, but no options anywhere.
3) After selecting to etch 'Nothing' into the elven tree now we cannot do it again as the menu doesn't appear anymore.
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Re: Brotherhood of Light - Multiplayer RPG Scenario (0.7.1)

Post by zookeeper »

AlexVSharp wrote:I'm not sure whether or not these are bugs or if we're just doing something wrong, but during out multiplayer play-through:
1) We could not meet the herbalist 'Morridon' at all. He never appeared under any circumstances,
Looks like Morridon will only talk to you if you either 1) haven't had anything to do with Pocko and his goblins yet or 2) have concluded the quest in a way other than Gerridan massacring them. Is that the case? I guess it can be a bit confusing and he should always say something when visited. Fixed.
AlexVSharp wrote:2) We did not get any options with the goblins north of Borol. There was some dialogue, but no options anywhere.
I'm guessing they sounded like they were going to attack, but they didn't actually turn hostile? If so, then yes, that was a bug, it's fixed now.
AlexVSharp wrote:3) After selecting to etch 'Nothing' into the elven tree now we cannot do it again as the menu doesn't appear anymore.
My bad, for some reason I had made that event trigger only once, it's now fixed. If you want to continue your play-through, you can post your savefile and I can easily apply the fix to it as well; all it requires is first_time_only="no" to be added to the [event] which contains the "The leafless tree is adorned with numerous etchings" message.

EDIT: Uploaded a new version with the above fixes.
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Re: Brotherhood of Light - Multiplayer RPG Scenario (0.7.2)

Post by sreesreearul »

I couldn't locate the elvish castle no point in the forest triggered formation of castle or anything similiar.
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Re: Brotherhood of Light - Multiplayer RPG Scenario (0.7.2)

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sreesreearul wrote:I couldn't locate the elvish castle no point in the forest triggered formation of castle or anything similiar.
You have to first find Paulos' journal (start in the library...), after which the tree at 96,42 is where you want to go.
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Re: Brotherhood of Light - Multiplayer RPG Scenario (0.7.2)

Post by sreesreearul »

Did that went to the tree, etched everything on the tree. Killed three shammans twice. But nothing happened. Went around the whole map came bak nothng happened.
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Re: Brotherhood of Light - Multiplayer RPG Scenario (0.7.2)

Post by zookeeper »

sreesreearul wrote:Did that went to the tree, etched everything on the tree. Killed three shammans twice. But nothing happened. Went around the whole map came bak nothng happened.
I can't tell off the top of my head what might be wrong there, but if you post your savefile I'll take a look.
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Re: Brotherhood of Light - Multiplayer RPG Scenario (0.7.2)

Post by sreesreearul »

zookeeper wrote:
sreesreearul wrote:Did that went to the tree, etched everything on the tree. Killed three shammans twice. But nothing happened. Went around the whole map came bak nothng happened.
I can't tell off the top of my head what might be wrong there, but if you post your savefile I'll take a look.
Here is the file. The latest autosave
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