Game Editor "looking-forward-to-list"

[BasiliskWrangler]

Does the above make sense of what I would like?

Makes perfect sense!

See, the biggest problem we have is this: Eschalon was originally going to have a "dialog" system like the Might & Might games. For those of you who don't know, Might & Magic has essentially no dialog system. When you speak to an NPC, there is no real interaction- mostly just them giving you a quest.

So, Eschalon started this way and when it became clear that players wanted a dialog system with a bit more interaction, we expanded what we had already done. That means our dialog system is very limited- not nearly as flexible or dynamic as many modern RPG dialog systems are. But that's okay- we still manage to make it work.

So, you are right Prismatic: Korren, as a virtual character, does not really travel from the secret guild to Talushorn. There are two versions of him, and his dialog file is called up by his name (hence the need for a slight name variation). However, with enough clever scripting tricks, we probably could have used the same Korren NPC with the same dialog file- it just would have been a lot more work than the way we did it.

And as for the record, we are making no changes to the dialog system for Book III. It will be the same as it was for Book II- so much so that the dialog files for Book II still load fine into the Book III dialog editor.

[silverkitty]

There are two versions of him, and his dialog file is called up by his name (hence the need for a slight name variation).

Indexing data by an index with semantic meaning? (As opposed to an arbitrary piece of metadata), icky. (I say, as if I never violate any coding good practices, and never let any hacks become production code. so, yes, I understand )

[SpottedShroom]

It's not just two different dialog files, either. The game breakers among us may remember that the second Korren has substantially boosted combat abilities! Having two different NPCs for this use case makes perfect sense to me.

If the slightly-different names thing really bothers people, there's already a unique numeric ID in the entities CSV file. You could refer to NPCs in the code by number rather than by name, and then you could have two Korrens with different dialog and stats.

[Thynar]

A few people have emailed us asking what kind of tools we will be releasing. After Book 3 is finished, we are planning on releasing our own Map Editor so that people can design their own maps & dungeons. Initially you'll be able to make new maps that will "hook on to" Book 3's world. As long as Book 3 continues to sell, we'll keep updating the tools and game engine to allow for more complete modding. We're looking forward to playing some fan created adventures!

Looks like I'll be waiting for the updates. I really hope Book III sells well.

I can't wait to go on a casual stroll around the whole eastern continent in a couple months.

Edit: well, I haven't actually played around in the editor yet, but that's my current estimate of how long it would take to flesh out the remaining portions of the world, if there will be.

[BasiliskWrangler]

The eventual goal for the editor tools is to allow people to create their own adventures and not just add a few new maps and characters? If the final game sells well will we be able to create our own cinematics (like the one after the character creation screen) or will there be inevitable limitations?

Probably not. Those cinematics are hard-coded. There would be no easy way to change them.

However, you could use a script to insert some cinematic images into the game. Trigger the script when a character enters your new maps; that would be a good way to introduce the character to your custom storyline.

[BasiliskWrangler]

I don't expect an answer for this one but I'm going to guess that there isn't or will be a "Load Mod" on the main menu? If this is the case that means whatever happens after the character creation screen (cinematic and/or flashback) will happen regardless of us editing the original map files?

It probably won't be included with the first release of the tools, but certainly I think it would be a good idea to add a Load Mod option on the front menu as the mod tools mature.

As I've said before (many times): I will continue to make updates to the game and the mod tools as long as the game sells. I does not make sense (from a financial point-of-view) to spend time (and thus money) on developing these tools if only a dozen of you hard-core fans use them. But if we grow a whole new customer base off of the ability to mod the game, then I'll make sure the tools continue to improve.