Devlin Opera for the 65742th time

[Grey Roger]

Cayman_sea_battle_won adds a quest book entry and sets the next win condition for you to return to the beach. I'll make sure to add that line.

It's probably not that important if you're just adding a questbook entry and a trigger. What messed things up was when the battle against the two smaller Satanist ships triggered a teleport to Bridgetown tavern, and when the battle against Silehard's fleet triggered a teleport to Bridgetown port. Those crashed reliably if you finished the battle by capturing a ship, and until the secondary "SeaEnter" trigger was added to the Satanist battle, both ships were set to be unboardable to prevent the crash. By comparison, the battle against Mefisto has no such secondary trigger and doesn't crash. So if all you're doing is setting a questbook entry and a trigger, you probably don't need it, and it's then just a matter of choice of style - do you want the questbook to trigger right after you kill or capture Godefroi Bonamy, or when you've finished ransacking the ship and returned to sailing mode?

I know what it looks like, I've spent enough time in there, trying to get that ladder out from under the bridge. It's a bit simpler in terms of textures and has no hole in the roof, but offers more space and options. But what I want to do with it exactly, I can't say yet. Is it still supposed to be the "Tunnel of Love" from the folk legend about two lovers?

You won't need to worry about the ladder here. The main aim is to replace the Speightstown dungeon lookalike with a more natural looking cave which works better as an Arawak burial ground - there won't be anything about the folk legend in general gameplay, or any detailed description at all. If you want to incorporate the folk legend about the two lovers into the storyline, go ahead! It's also your choice as to whether you want to add in the bit about pirate treasure - if not, I'll remove the chests.

 

[Jack Rackham]

I've spent enough time in there, trying to get that ladder out from under the bridge.

 

[BathtubPirate]

@Grey Roger okay, I can't find my enemy ship anywhere now and neither sail to nor the world map work, even though I have commentedout the respective code. It seems like I can't even moor. Sea battles don't seem to be my strongest suit... This is the current state of the quest case:

            Pchar.quest.Cayman_sea_battle_begins3.over = "yes";
            //bQuestDisableMapEnter = true;

            Group_CreateGroup("Bonamy_ship");
            Group_AddCharacter("Bonamy_ship", "Godefroi Bonamy");
            Group_SetGroupCommander("Bonamy_ship", "Godefroi Bonamy");
                        characters[GetCharacterIndex("Godefroi Bonamy")].Ship.Stopped = true;
            Group_SetAddress("Bonamy_ship", "Cayman", "Quest_ships", "quest_ship_4");
                        Group_SetTaskNone("Bonamy_ship");
                        Group_LockTask("Bonamy_ship");
            Sea_LoginGroupNow("Bonamy_ship");
            characters[GetCharacterIndex("Godefroi Bonamy")].nosurrender = 1;
            SetCharacterRelationBoth(GetCharacterIndex("Godefroi Bonamy"),GetMainCharacterIndex(),RELATION_ENEMY);
                        characters[GetCharacterIndex("Godefroi Bonamy")].recognized = true;
            Character_SetAbordageEnable(characterFromID("Godefroi Bonamy"), true);

            pchar.quest.Cayman_sea_battle_won.win_condition.l1 = "NPC_Death";
            pchar.quest.Cayman_sea_battle_won.win_condition.l1.character = "Godefroi Bonamy";
            pchar.quest.Cayman_sea_battle_won.win_condition = "Cayman_sea_battle_won";

                        pchar.quest.Cayman_sea_battle_won.win_condition.l2 = "SeaEnter";
        break;

And this is what error.log tells me a million times:

RUNTIME ERROR - file: CCCdirectsail.c; line: 58

 

[Grey Roger]

That code for the battle looks alright. Can you upload the whole "quests_reaction.c" file, along with whichever file contains the definition for Godefroi Bonamy? And possibly a savegame from a couple of steps before the battle - something from before whatever triggers case "Cayman_sea_battle_begins3".

Meanwhile, I've put "CavernMedium" onto Aruba, replacing "Dungeon_1" and setting it to type "inca_temple" so that it plays the same sound effects as Cozumel temple and populates it with the same masked Indians. Next job: play around with the lighting. But a first walk through the cave shows it to be a massive improvement over "Cavern" - literally, it's bigger as well as better, with plenty of paths and chambers to explore, and something I didn't spot when examining it with GM Viewer. There's a sort of stone bridge and a sneaky path down the side so that you can walk under it to find another hidden chamber. You're going to have fun with this place...

 

[Jack Rackham]

There's a sort of stone bridge and a sneaky path down the side so that you can walk under it to find another hidden chamber. You're going to have fun with this place...

Yes, that's what happens in the GoldBug.

 

[BathtubPirate]

That code for the battle looks alright. Can you upload the whole "quests_reaction.c" file, along with whichever file contains the definition for Godefroi Bonamy? And possibly a savegame from a couple of steps before the battle - something from before whatever triggers case "Cayman_sea_battle_begins3".

Like an idiot I noticed errors in both the preceding and the following quest case and fixed them. For now, "Cayman_sea_battle_begins3" works but I'm also using an alternative version of the case right now, copied from the Mefisto battle, so it does spawn directly next to me. This makes it easier for testing (including all the quest stuff that comes after sinking or capturing the ship) since I also switched some character definitions. I guess it should also work when I switch back to my original "Cayman_sea_battle_begins3". If not, I'll upload the files during the weekend sometimes, since I assume you're not that active here over the weekend anyway.

But perhaps you know this: How can I visually look at the sea locators around an island in TOOL? I just picked a locator for the enemy ship without knowing where it really is.

There's a sort of stone bridge and a sneaky path down the side so that you can walk under it to find another hidden chamber.

Someone hasn't played the Gold Bug, eh? That's really a cool feature of the cavern. How many exits does the cavern have again? Two or three? Maybe if we add some location stuff for Devlin Opera, certain places could be reached by going through the cavern.

 

[Grey Roger]

There's a feature in TOOL which allows you to write the locators to a text file, and also to read that file. So you could open "Cayman_locators.gm" and write the locators to a text file - perhaps call it "Cayman_locators.txt". Then you can load the island model file "Cayman.gm", read the text file, and save the result to a new file such as "Cayman_with_locators.gm". GM Viewer can then read that file and show the locators. That is, assuming TOOL can read "Cayman.gm" - it sometimes refuses to read a model file, in which case this obviously won't work. When it does work, it's very useful, and not just on islands - I've done it with towns as well. And most recently, also to "CavernMedium".

I've tried to play "GoldBug" and got stuck both times. Not stuck as in couldn't solve puzzles - stuck as in it would not proceed. The first time, I got as far as the point where you're supposed to pick up a big fish, and it wouldn't pick up. I checked "compile.log" to verify that I'd done what was necessary and the game should indeed have been expecting me to get the fish, I just couldn't take it. I can't remember where I got stuck the second time - somewhere in Charlestown, if I remember correctly. Certainly I never got as far as the cavern.

There are two "reload" locators in "CavernMedium". One of them is a passage. The other is a rope leading to the surface - I was considering removing both the rope and the reload. For general use, I still might, but we'll probably want a different locator file for "Devlin Opera" anyway, so if you want to be able to go up the rope to somewhere special, have it link to "Aruba_Dungeon", locator "reload2".

 

[BathtubPirate]

I distinctly remember an entrance in Gold Bug and an exit on the other side, plus the rope. But I don't remember if you actually ever open the other door (at least at first it is closed) or always use the rope and ladder. So it might be that there are only two reload locators, but another entrance/exit without a locator. One could be added to use it normally as a passage.

 

[Grey Roger]

GoldBug has its own locator files so it may very well have more exits than the normal cavern. This one is supposed to be a native burial chamber so it won't have extra doors and ladders. Apart from the shamans conducting the burial rituals, people who go in there aren't supposed to come out again, and the natives don't want multiple entrances for potential grave robbers, nor potential exits for restless spirits! However, for the storyline, if you need another exit, it could be added easily enough to the storyline's own locator file.

 

[Jack Rackham]

As I remember it the GoldBug cavern has three doors and one rope exit.
Don't know what could have happened with the big fish - I've never got stuck there. But I do everything "right", that's the problem.

 

[BathtubPirate]

I have searched through VCO a little bit, which as mentioned, is a bit of a pain. In GM viewer, you always have to find the right sub-folder of textures corresponding to the location (in VCO it's called "scene") folder, to see the location textured. Many sub-folders in "scene" seem to be missing in "textures" and vice versa, and they're all just named as numbers. And when you found a promisign location, you often have to zoom in for minutes to actually see something!

But I found a location that looks very promising for use on an Arawak-inhabited Aruba in DO: A forest valley with four cave entrances in all directions and a few indian-looking huts. One of the caves could be the cavern @Grey Roger has been working on, so you can reach the after somehow "solving" the cavern to make it usable as a passage. This could be killing pirates or evil warriors hiding in there, releasing the spirits of the lovers that were trapped inside or something else.

 

[Bartolomeu o Portugues]

At least change the description for "Map (Marcel Jauri)" - if it shows five places then the description should not say that it shows three.

About an alternative island: one possibility would be Isla Mona. The beach/port location currently assigned is intended for the "Assassin" storyline and is a copy of the Barbados lighthouse location, with a small tower and a warehouse added. But you could define your own beach as a quest location, then in "StartStoryline.c" it should be possible to change Isla Mona's reload to point at your beach instead of the regular one. Or there's Petit Tabac, though if you use that, it could conflict with the "Silver Train" sidequest.

Or perhaps you could use @Bartolomeu o Portugues' new beach on Camahogne/Grenada. That's intended for his "Family Story" FreePlay quest but could be used here, though the reload away from the beach would either need to be disabled or redirected to a new quest location - they lead to the ruins of a mansion which would not exist in the 16th century and which is definitely just for "Family Story". @Bartolomeu o Portugues: any objection to using Linda Praia for this, on condition that the player is not allowed access to "Bartolomeu_Mansion"?

As a last resort, there's always Cozumel, though again you might want to play with reloads unless you want the player to find the temple which is the endpoint to "Tales of a Sea Hawk".


Is this ship supposed to attack the player, or does the player need to go looking for it? If the Pastenague is the one doing the attacking then it's trivially easy. If you send a ship to a locator which does not exist, it will spawn next to the player's ship, so all you need to do is give it a nonsense locator.

Yes, the player is not allowed to access the Bartolomeu_Mansion location

 

[Grey Roger]

But I found a location that looks very promising for use on an Arawak-inhabited Aruba in DO: A forest valley with four cave entrances in all directions and a few indian-looking huts. One of the caves could be the cavern @Grey Roger has been working on, so you can reach the after somehow "solving" the cavern to make it usable as a passage. This could be killing pirates or evil warriors hiding in there, releasing the spirits of the lovers that were trapped inside or something else.

The main snag there is that you'll need to do something with the other three cave entrances. Of course, if you have four mini-quests on Aruba, you could have one in each cave.

Meanwhile, I've been making progress with the Arawak Burial Ground. In particular, I've been having fun with LocLighter. All sources of lighting apart from torches are disabled - sun, sky, and in particular ambient. The torches are brighter and have longer range than normal. The effect is that most of the cave is lit to some extent though there are still patches of total darkness. And I added a "candle" locator near the entrance, which is a long tunnel that goes round a corner, though you'll never get to that corner because the exit reload is before it. So the "candle" locator is out of sight and it's been set a lot brighter, whiter and longer range than any normal candle, the effect being a source of light near the exit so you have a visible clue to find your way out.

This opens up a possibility for your story, should you wish it. It would now be easy to make a new locator file with all the torches removed, making the cave completely dark apart from the exit light. The player would need to complete one of your other quests, then an Arawak could tell the player that a shaman has been to the cave and lit the torches. For amusement, if the player goes into the dark cave before then, you could have an on-screen message "It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue." And then see if anyone gets the reference.

 

[BathtubPirate]

The main snag there is that you'll need to do something with the other three cave entrances

I've already got an idea for that.

A few impressions from GM viewer:

This just screams for some sort of sacred forest (trees are in a separate GM file)

On closer inspection, the caves look like monsters

But they're perfect to use as entrances for the caverns and caves we already have

There are also a few of those huts

"It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue." And then see if anyone gets the reference.

I already didn't. But then again, I'm the one who puts super-obscure references to Shoe of Manitou in his storyline.

 

[Grey Roger]

Here's the new Arawak burial ground. I think it should contain all the necessary files. Ideally you should start a new game to have it properly installed on Aruba, but in case you want to continue an existing game, the zip includes a "console.c" which copies the entire new location definition. Put that into place, press F12, then see what awaits you in the cavern... If you want to get out again, turn round and head for the bright light.

The three chests are still there and I haven't done much with them, apart from move the locator for "box2" a little to centre it on the box, and then enlarged the locator so you can reach the chest. You can put quest items in them if you want, otherwise they'll have the usual random stuff.

There's also a new locator file for "Shore_4", which is Rocky Cove on Aruba and Leviathan Rock on Camahogne. Until now, when you leave the cave at either place, your officers spawn on top of you because there are no "officer" locators to place them. The new locator file adds those locators.

"Reload2" is still where it has always been in "CavernMedium", inside the cave with a rope dangling from the ceiling. You could link it to one of the four caves in your new location - does any of them appear to have a hole in the ground which looks as though you could climb down? Beyond that, that new VCO location does look good, and a perfect place from where to start your various quests on Aruba.

The quote about the grue is from an old adventure game - very old! But I've added my own share of film references, some more obscure than others. More such references are good.

 

[BathtubPirate]

Thanks a lot, I'll look into it! But there doesn't seem to be a locator file for "Shore_4", just the text file that I think still needs to be converted through TOOL (I haven't done locators in quite some time).

I don't know yet if I have any use for the rope (hmm, but if it's there already...). I roughly planned that the ending of the chapter would lead you into a dark cave to meet someone and thought it could be the small cave from Leviathan Rock (even though it's quite bright during daylight, maybe not mysterious enough). Then when I saw the VCO forest I thought there could be three of them, and depending on the one you enter the meeting and thus the ending could go differently. The fourth one would be the burialground cavern.

Meanwhile, the quest "Hermit and the Frogs" is finished for the most part. Even the walkthrough is updated. I'm going to do some minor adjustements, then I'll see if I could brush up the Santo Domingo part that leads you to the jungle tavern. This might be a good chance to re-learn my locator skills. I'll also have two weeks off soon and planned to get a new computer. From time to time it gets a bit annoying on this old potato I have here.

And because "Hermit and the Frogs" maybe wasn't silly enough, the next chapter already got a name: "Bless the rains down in Aruba".

 

[Grey Roger]

Thanks a lot, I'll look into it! But there doesn't seem to be a locator file for "Shore_4", just the text file that I think still needs to be converted through TOOL (I haven't done locators in quite some time).

Oops! I've remade and re-uploaded the zip file - try again.

I don't know yet if I have any use for the rope (hmm, but if it's there already...). I roughly planned that the ending of the chapter would lead you into a dark cave to meet someone and thought it could be the small cave from Leviathan Rock (even though it's quite bright during daylight, maybe not mysterious enough). Then when I saw the VCO forest I thought there could be three of them, and depending on the one you enter the meeting and thus the ending could go differently. The fourth one would be the burialground cavern.

The point is that "reload1" from the cavern leads to the shore. "Reload2" is in the cavern next to the rope. If you plan an alternative route into the cavern, that's where it will go, unless you want to try looking for somewhere else to put another reload locator.

If you don't like the lighting, make a copy of "locations\Inside\Grot", rename it, and use that for your location. Then try your hand with LocLighter - find "RESOURCE\INI\loclighter.ini", make a copy of it, then edit it and change "loading" to 1. Then enter your location and press numeric keypad 0 to activate it. If the lighting gets completely messed up as a result, you can always copy all the .col files back from the original "Grot" folder.

Meanwhile, the quest "Hermit and the Frogs" is finished for the most part. Even the walkthrough is updated. I'm going to do some minor adjustements, then I'll see if I could brush up the Santo Domingo part that leads you to the jungle tavern. This might be a good chance to re-learn my locator skills. I'll also have two weeks off soon and planned to get a new computer. From time to time it gets a bit annoying on this old potato I have here.

Can you upload "Hermit and the Frogs"? Then I'll try it out. As many a quest writer has found - including me - testing it yourself is fine, but the problem is that you know how it's supposed to be played and you'll play it accordingly. I don't, so I'm more likely to take a wrong turn, say the wrong thing, generally break the quest without trying.

And because "Hermit and the Frogs" maybe wasn't silly enough, the next chapter already got a name: "Bless the rains down in Aruba".

From the Wikipedia article on Aruba:

Rainfall is scarce, only 500 millimetres or 20 inches per year; in particular, rainy season is drier than it normally is in tropical climates; during the dry season, it almost never rains.

Which is probably why, when the rain does arrive, it is blessed.

 

[BathtubPirate]

Can you upload "Hermit and the Frogs"?

I can. As usual, I just hope I didn't forget anything outside of the two"Storyline" folders (in PROGRAM and the one with the texts in RESOURCE).

I tested it quite a lot and think it eventualities are already been thought-out much better than at the beginning of my modding career. But it never hurts if more people test it, and even less if people play it. It currently ends on an empty quest case when you switch back to Beatrice.

A few things that I already know of:
1. The governor gets a separate dialog file for the duration of the action, but it weirdly mixes with his original dialog when you re-approach him after the first conversation. I didn't have the opportunity to look into this yet.
2. In case "Fake_Bea_removes", there's a reload to a locator which is not "reload", so you lose your temporary officer until you go to the next location.
3. Perhaps I should set nosurrender = 1; to nosurrender = 2; after all when the win condition is NPC_Death. Because if he surrenders during boarding and you spare him, I don't know if that counts.
4. NPC Blaze gets the pirate captain's sword at the end, even though there is one variation in the quest where he never obtained it, namely if you just sink the enemy ship. But I still think it's nice to let him have it.

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[Grey Roger]

A few things that I already know of:
1. The governor gets a separate dialog file for the duration of the action, but it weirdly mixes with his original dialog when you re-approach him after the first conversation. I didn't have the opportunity to look into this yet.
2. In case "Fake_Bea_removes", there's a reload to a locator which is not "reload", so you lose your temporary officer until you go to the next location.
3. Perhaps I should set nosurrender = 1; to nosurrender = 2; after all when the win condition is NPC_Death. Because if he surrenders during boarding and you spare him, I don't know if that counts.
4. NPC Blaze gets the pirate captain's sword at the end, even though there is one variation in the quest where he never obtained it, namely if you just sink the enemy ship. But I still think it's nice to let him have it.

1: Some of the original dialog will be from files used by all governors for common tasks - "PROGRAM\DIALOGS\governor.c" and "PROGRAM\DIALOGS\ENGLISH\governor.h". If he's saying things about letters of marque, for example, it will be from those files.
2: Yes, I've been caught by that as well. Either live with it or say something to one of the officers about how they can go on ahead and scout a bit, or make some other excuse for their temporary absence.
3: Yes, it counts. There's a mechanism to make sure it counts. When you take hin prisoner, he dies anyway and is replaced by a clone, and it's that clone whom you find in the hold as a prisoner. I had to do some dirty hacking to allow you to present Silehard as a prisoner to John Clifford Brin at the end of "Tales of a Sea Hawk" because real Silehard dies when you capture and clone him.

And dialog file "Cabinfight_dialog.c" contains code to prevent you from simply letting a defeated captain go if he has the "questchar" attribute. There used to be a bug because the code to release a captain in exchange for unlocking a perk didn't check this, but that was fixed some time ago. Provided the captain has that "questchar" attribute, he can surrender and you can take him prisoner, but you can't simply release him.

Captains with the "questchar" attribute can't normally be hired as officers either. You can ransom them. If you want to be able to hire him (or any future quest captain you may fight), add 'ch.canhire = true;' to his character definition.

4: Tough luck Blaze, says I - if he chose poorly, he doesn't get the shiny prize. Me, if I can capture a ship then I will, not that I know I'm getting a nice sword out of it but because that ship is going to get me a lot of money at the next pirate shipyard. Also, compare to "Tales of a Sea Hawk", in which Barbossa has a Dragon's Head sword, a very nice sword which you only get if you board the Black Pearl. (And, of course, you only get the Black Pearl if you board it rather than sink it, but that's not the point here. )

 

[BathtubPirate]

1. Can I avoid that? The other dialog doesn't really fit with him offering letters of marque. And he gets his full governor dialog back as soon as you switch back to Beatrice.
2. Or I can just use a reload locator with corresponding officer locators of course. It just looks a bit weird when your character finishes a conversation in the middle of the beach, the scenery reloads to make the ship disappear and now you're swimming around the boat locator or standing further up at the jungle path for no reason. Then again, the same thing (reloading from the middle of the beach to a nearby reload locator) happens later even at the exact same spot.
3. Sounds good. He didn't even have the "questchar" attribute. I had previously removed it from the pirates, because they respawned after I killed them.
4. Can I check if I sunk or captured the ship? Then I could add a check which only gives the sword to him if he has encountered the captain.