Welcome

20 Aug 2006

Sunjammer's Grand Theft Equine is a module idea that I have been toying with for few months. Now, with the recent release of Darkness Over Daggerford and the imminent release of both Wyvern Crown of Cormyr and Neverwinter Nights 2, I think it's about time I actually started developing it!

GTE was originally conceived as an ommage to Grand Theft Auto (one of my favourite games) but grew into a vehicle for showcasing rideable horses. Of course that was before talk of the TNO Tilesets and WCoC began to appear which I suspect might do a slightly better job of showcasing mounts than GTE.

Initially titled Grand Theft Equine: Underdark it was to be the story of a young Drow rogue called Karla just before she is to endure the Test of Lolth. Initially Karla is a lowly gang member but she has the opportunity to join a Guild, a House or a Cult and then bluff, bribe, betray, blackmail, burgle and backstab her way to the top of each. In the process she uncovers a sinister plot (not sure what as I still have to discover what upsets the Drow) which she can either oppose or assist.

Since then the concept has been fine-tuned to remove many of factors I saw limiting my original idea. While I found the idea of Karla being fundamentally evil interesting, it was just too restrictive for a first module. Similarly setting the module in the Underdark might have assisted with its popularity it would have made the equine elements rather contrived. In any event Karla is now only Half-drow trying to eke out a living as a young rogue in a surface town or city and I have a lot more creative freedom.

Talking of which I suppose I should stop writing about it and start writing it ...

See you in a couple of months!

03 Jul 2006

My TileMagic System has made it into the NW Vault Hall of Fame which is great in itself, however I'm particularly pleased with the style in which it was achieved. With BioWare's Georg Zoller and community veterans of the calibre of Knat and Primogenitor voting for my system it's hard not to be more than a little proud of the old girl.

Anyway I'd like to take the opportunity to extend my sincere thanks to everyone who has voted for, downloaded, used or even just asked questions about my TileMagic system. Without you guys the whole exercise would have been rather pointless.

10 Jun 2006

I've uploaded a new version of my Fog Library and a demo module to NW Vault.

The update fixes a wee bug and adds some brightness related functions so you can lighten or darken an area's fog colour without actually worrying about what colour it was to start with.

Writing the new functions required me to delve into the murky world of colour spaces and brush up my knowledge enough to distinguish between HSL and HSV and the various aliases (HSB and HSI) which are used rather indiscriminately. It threatened to drive me (more) insane at the time but looking back it just amuses me now.

03 Jun 2006

A few days ago I received an email from someone wanting some help with my TileMagic system. I promptly drafted a response but when I tried to send the email it bounced back as flagged as UCE (Unsolicited Commercial Email)! I tried to contact the guy through the BioBoards but I haven't had any response yet and since I know how frustrating it can be when a request for help is met with a stony silence I ask your indulgence while I answer it here:

bigdaddy037,

Firstly thank you for downloading the system and I am glad you're finding it useful.

Secondly I'm guessing you're currently using AutoTiles however to overcome this little issue we're going to play with some of the bigger and better TileMagic toys ...

Option A: Markers
=================

Markers are very similar to AutoTiles except that they need some external influence to make them convert into a TileMagic effect: either a Control object or a script. If we use the Control object (a placeable) Markers act exactly the same as AutoTile. However if we use scripting we stop being tied to the first heartbeat: we can convert the Markers instantly or never and anything in between!

If you haven't used Marker before you'll find them in the Waypoints > Custom > Special > Custom 3 palette. If you haven't downloaded the value packs you'll only have one "template" Marker. If that's the case you can either nip over to the Vault to download the new content or I can talk you through configuring a Marker from scratch (in which case just let me know).

I'm going to assume you have the value packs. You'll probably notice you now have 47 pre-configured AutoTiles and Markers. You'll also notice that the "Snow" ones have been renamed "Ice". Don't panic this is simply for consistency with the scripting constants: the effects are exactly the same as before.

To make get the effect you require (i.e. instant snow) we need to do two things. First we need to replace all the AutoTiles with corresponding Markers and once you've done that we have to add a script to the area's OnEnter event. Fortunately you don't need to worry about doing any scripting yourself because we'll be using a generic script that comes as part of the TileMagic system: sj_tilemagic_ent. Simply open up the Area's properties, navigate to the scripts/events page and type/select sj_tilemagic_ent as the OnEnter script. OK and Save everything then see how it looks in game.

The net effect of these changes is that as soon as the first creature spawns in or enters that area the TileMagic will instantly appear. No more waiting for 6 second.

Options B: Scripting
====================

If you like scripting or if even the Marker method is too slow for your PCs (unlikely) you can create a custom script for the module's OnModuleLoad event. I won't go into detail about that until you have had a chance to try Option A however I just wanted to let you know there was at least one more option available.

Also if you feel you need to go down this route and you don't feel up to scripting it I can probably rattle a script off for you given enough details about the area.

However before we get ahead of ourselves let me know how you get on with Option A.

Regards,
SJ

28 May 2006

Over the last 8 days I have been giving TileMagic some much needed TLC and accommodating most, if not all, of the request made over the last *cough* wee while.

The recent additions and updates are:

• TileMagic v2.03.
• The TileMagic Installation Guide: a PDF of the Installation Guide from this site.
• The TileMagic Tutorials for Novice TileMagicians: a PDF of tutorials 1-3 from this site.
• The TileMagic Cheat Sheet for Non-Scripters: a handy reference sheet containing various tables to make using AutoTiles and Markers really easy.
• The TileMagic Value Packs: two ERFs containing a variety of pre-configured AutoTiles and Markers.
• An Introduction to TileMagic: a viewlet doing exactly what it says on the tin produced in association with Maximus and NW Vault.

Despite all that there are a couple more things I want to do with the system which I am affectionately calling "Extreme TileMagic".

• The first is to add Serialize and Deserialize functions so that TileMagic can be persistent. Basically these functions will make it possible for a tile to be reduced to and recreated from a string. Although I haven't written the functions I refactored the code while producing v2.03 so the necessary elements are already in place.
• The other is to explore the discovery I made a couple of months ago regarding adding the GLOW and AURA visual effects to the TileMagic effects. It's great for a "river of blood" effects but I'm sure there are lots of other interesting combinations.

However, if no-one objects, I think I'll go and work on something else for a bit!

20 May 2006

After playing World of Warcraft for 5 weeks solid I've spent the last couple of weeks cleaning the cobwebs from the toolset and playing with 1.67. Time to get back to some serious scripting once again ...

27 Mar 2006

I squirreled myself away for most of the weekend so that I could finally publish my Footprint System. It's a fun wee system that grew out of a request on the BioBoards to find a more efficient way of creating some ghostly tracks. I don't think it's more efficient than the original request but that's because it's significantly more powerful, flexible and feature rich.

That said at the moment only the main library is available: I had intended to include some example creatures and triggers but when I was preparing them I came up with a neat little idea to reduce the number of objects and scripts required so I decided I should allow myself to design it properly.

I also tweaked the navigation on the site a little bit over the weekend so apologies if things seem a little temporary at the moment. Hopefully you can still find what you are looking for and it should make things more organised going forward.

20 Mar 2006

Ouch!

Two weeks and I still haven't been able to put the finishing touches to my Footprint System even though it is functionally complete. This has been because I have been spending a bunch of time working on system architecture stuff for the HCR and a new NWN2 scripting project I was asked to become involved with. I have to confess that after the disappointment of Dark Water's I am being quite cautious about committing myself to either at this stage.

Fortunately despite those project keeping me busy I did manage to find a few moments to publish a small include file that had been developing over the last couple of years. It started with a recent thread on the BioBoards which convinced me that it was high time to overhaul my Armor Function Library and published it on the Vault. It's hardly cutting edge or particularly technical but hopefully it will satisfy all those builder requiring access to things like an item's Base AC or a creature's ACP.

I think the plan is now is to finish off the Footprint System and then turn my attention to preparing SAGE for 1.67's release.

05 Mar 2006

Another busy weekend scripting draws to a close.

Having completed the Fog Function Library I turned my attention back to the Footprint System. Sir Elric (one the other HCR Developers) had been trying out an early version and suggesting additional features. Unfortunately I discovered on Friday that the original design was going to struggle to accommodate the new functionality: I decided to stop for the night and start refreshed on Saturday morning.

Of course, as is so often the case, 10 minutes after I had gone to bed I hit upon an elegant solution and it wasn't long before I was sitting in front of the toolset updating the core functions to the new paradigm. Nevertheless the rewrite meant I wasn't going to get the system finished this weekend as I had planned so I decided use Saturday to polish up the demo I had been working on and make it available as a teaser.

Hopefully people won't delve to deeply as the code still needs some work, a lot of polish and some documentation. But once that is done and I have added one last suggestion from SE it should be ready for the NW Vault too.

02 Mar 2006

I got a very nice surprise today when I logged on to NW Vault and discovered Georg Zoeller had awarded my Fog Function Library a perfect 10. Normally I don't put much stock in the NW Vault voting system but who am I to argue with one of BioWare's Lead Technical Designers?

Anyway thanks to Georg, to the others who have voted and everyone that has downloaded it.

01 Mar 2006

It seems I am in the middle of something of a scripting renaissance at the moment.

I am truly loving my coding again which, I was surprised to discover, hasn't been the case since as long ago as last summer. This weekend has been especially fun: it started with me discovering a new trick that can be applied to TileMagic; then I started a new Footprint System and then a new Fog Function Library. All of which resulted in me keeping some decidedly odd hours and not sleeping much.

I was keen to produce the Fog Function Library because it was a great excuse to develop a "fade fog" function I had intended to write over a year ago. Consequently I spent most of my time working on it and I am now enjoying the satisfaction that comes from having just completed it and uploaded it to the NW Vault.

11 Feb 2006

Another year has rolled round so it time to clean out the "news" and start working on some new stuff to write about.

I hope you find what you are looking for, but if you don't or if you have a comment to make then please get in touch: I would love to hear from you. I can be found floating around the BioWare forums or you can email me using the links below.

Thanks for visiting.

Sunjammer,
Code Monkey.