Free Roam Map Questions...

[cmdrkoenig67]

This is hopefully the correct place to ask (I hope), as this has to do with Free Roam mod maps? Or should I have asked in Scripting? I wasn't sure. If not, perhaps, this can be moved to the appropriate forum by one of the mods (thank you so much, folks)? I'm curious about what can be done within the Free Roam mod setting:

Anyway, my questions...

1. With free roam maps, how do you get the maps to tell which "doors" or "gateways" lineup with the correct maps back and forth (and not mistakenly go to an incorrect map)?

2. Is it possible to have enemies respawn in the same spot, after they've been defeated (after a certain time span or a variable time)? Or perhaps even have a different enemy spawn in that spot?

3. Is it possible to change the weather, via scripting (I know you can change the lighting of the maps through EZScript, but can you add effects, like lightning, wind, rain, snow, etc...?)?

I do know there is a lightning EZScript code, but I didn't know if there is a way to have it activate occasionally with a rain FX? Like when you enter the map sometimes it will be sunny, other times there might be a thunderstorm with rain?

4. Is it possible to have wandering encounters on these maps?

5. Is it possible to have quests set up on the maps in different locations that can be undertaken by the player? Just short little quest, where they have to retrieve an object, stop a robber, kill a monster, save a kidnapped farmer's daughter, etc, etc...? Player could do the quest once and it would be done and unavailable for a certain amount of time? IDK?

That's it for the moment, I might have a couple more questions come up as I'm working on my mod (which is underway).

Thank you for any assistance,

Dana

[Randomdays]

Lots of questions Dana. Probably cant help you much since its been a couple of years since I tried working with my amusement park map.

I remember looking at the ezscript choices and being disappointed with what you could do with it. I think you could set up a mission point that had alternates to it, so you could be sent to either new goal A or new goal B

I don't think you can do respawns.

So I think no on #2 but yes on #5

I think most everything you want can be answered here though. Free Roam is near the bottom. I think the closest you can get with what you want is with anthologies.

https://ffx.freedomforce4ever.com/manual.htm

I saved it off just in case it ever vanishes.

[SickAlice]

Never the expert on maps (still trying to figure out portal/door) but right away when you say weather I think Fog Of War where "weather" is just a map object more or less that's preloaded and then "summoned" into play at a chosen time/after trigger event. I would think any other weather event would work the same way.

[cmdrkoenig67]

Thank you for the pointers and the link, RD.

Thank you, SA...I'm just not sure if I can get the weather to work on the maps at random (as opposed to all the time, which I don't want...it might be good for certain maps, though).

Best,

Dana

[SickAlice]

Code is always my lacking area but I read pretty much everything you all say since before it was even this site and I spend a lot of time taking apart and studying files from nif games. What I understand in  at least is there is no proper weather Event implemented at all. It's all an optical illusion like much is.

And the reason I say a map object that's directing by your script is because of the random element. Random is fake too. A game level as you know is loaded into the cache and then you play it. So anything that was not already loaded will not show up. Like the issue I seen with "summon" (private army? I don't recall rn). People would make a mod and couldn't summon Character X. The reason was because the character wasn't loaded and can't be sideloaded in this game engine. The solution that I know of is to put that summon character in the map. I put them inside a wall where they can't move or be seen. Then when the player "summons" them they will suddenly appear.

So I know there is a way but I don't know the coding. You have your element preloaded, whether you are using it or not. It is not visible to start with. Then using a Timer or Trigger (pardon the terminology, my education was pretty school) you establish that the "weather" only appears at "this time interval". However this is done in Script, I don't use Script (I know, I should just sit down and use ez script some day). So you have the event that triggers it "appearing", summoned if you want, but the interval itself is random (dice logic).

If I was making a game myself with an engine whether 2d or 3d this is how I would go about it. Unless it was a modern enough engine that actually has true weather physics of course. These two engines are sadly pretty limited or retrograded if you will. Kicking myself for not taking those classes a decade ago and just learning Netimmerse all together. The obvious way would just to code an entire module or hack. Laughing to myself here because an old teacher was just scolding me online for not having kept up with scripting. Well? I like making models and textures more, what can I say?

Hope that helps. Speaking of maps back to researching "portals" (I don't know why I'm having such a hard time with this) and custom light sources (I'm finding out a lot, I'll share when I have it all documented). Though I do think since I studied from you enough about maps if anyone cracks the code here it's going to be you first. You know and one day I'll actually release the maps I started making ten years ago.

[cmdrkoenig67]

SickAlice, Unko Man got really good at custom light sources for maps (I need to go back and look at my notes on how he did it), actually. Thank you for the suggestions.

Dana

[SickAlice]

I would love a tutorial on that and TY. Else, yeah, I've been taking apart every type of nif with it's own light in the game. The lamps, the lanterns, so on. There seems to be a lot of options though I'm having understanding how to reproduce and more control the effect. Same issue I have with the fine details of particles like the length and making them static and such.

And no problem, probably not all that helpful actually. I don't know enough about scripting from this game. But from my learnings in making games at "least" I know it has to be preloaded so in the map somewhere already and then it has to have some sort of trigger event to enact it. Whatever is used for triggers in Freedom Force I don't know, whoever does scripting here would though I'm sure. I learned 3d gaming back when the first Unreal Tournament came out so it wasn't all that advanced yet. I "should" as always just sit down and learn the Freedom Force stuff someday. Again though I think you'll figure it out anyways since your good at this stuff.

Side note: I searched a bit and Morrowind has weather and they learned how to customize it. I don't know if engine limitations would prevent but maybe worth reading into. I searched "morrowind nif weather" and there is some stuff over at Nexus Mods, OpenMW and such that could check into.

[Randomdays]

Looking over the ezscript manual a bit more;

For portal/door, all I saw was Teleport. This is a cutscene command. You could probably make the cutscene very short if needed. The cutscene can be triggered when the player approaches a point on the map

Teleports To

    Character1 teleports to Character2

Character1 will be instantly moved near Character2.  There is no delay in the cut scene.  Use this to move heroes near villains for cut scenes, or villains near heroes for ambushes.

A cutscene can also change the map lighting.

For encounters I found that you can have a random encounter start after finishing one;

Encounter: Save the Scientist
...
Next: If Allies Saved: Choose 1 from Capture the Ice Queen, Fight Ice Troopers
Next: If Allies Lost: End

Or have an encounter repeat over and over again, looping back. I don't know if you can have a series of encounters and loop back to the first one to repeat the sequence.

Encounter: Fight Ice Troopers
Next: Fight Ice Troopers

You can set a final encounter to happen only if a set list of previous encounters have been completed;

Encounter: Big Boss Fight
Type: Fight
Villains: nuclear_winter, frozen_giant
Starts when: Ice Queen at End, Ice Troopers at End, Snow Men at End

You can set up a campaign to freeroam to one map or different maps and give you the choice of which mission you wanted to do from a list and called  "Anthology";

Anthology:
cold_snap
subterranians
freeroam_random_encounters

With all these, except for the looping, I think you can have encounters that you set up happen randomly, but each will only happen once. I also don't see any way to have an encounter happen only if a particular hero is present (which would be hard to do) or even a particular hero "power level"

So you can make a pretty complicated campaign where you can freeroam over one or maps, but when it ends, it ends, except for looping encounters. An if you start a looping mission, will it ever end? I don't know on that.

For weather; In custom encounters under weather, you can set ;Earthquake, Fire, Hurricane, Ice Storm, Meteor Storm, Sandstorm, Thunderstorm and Tornado.

[SickAlice]

Do you know if there is a teleport to specific spot on the map? Or object would do since I could just use one as a marker. Rather than to character. I have a few ideas that could work with a script like that.

[Randomdays]

I'd have to look some more and maybe try to do a demo or something. According to the site it says "Character", but somewhere else it says for a different script you could substitute something like "police station" for a character.

[SickAlice]

No rush. Sitting down with EZScript and working maps is a ways off for me. Still doing character stuff. But I have inquired here about portals a lot. I don't want the appearance of a portal. I just want characters to be able to move from one point on a map to another without crossing the distance. I have a theory we could "enter" buildings this way. Have the inside of the building location somewhere that is otherwise inaccessible and can't be seen. So yeah, say building or a door looking object that has the trait and than the point B door looking object or front of the room and the character is suddenly there. Another old 2d game trick, Legend Of Zelda utilized that for caves I think. The cave was actually was just somewhere else on the map.

Side note, this weather from the West Coast is some wicked stuff.

[Randomdays]

i think from what I saw the only way you could move from one spot to another is by cutscene. How brief can it be? Can you have a cutscene so brief that you don't even notice it?

So, reading some more, start the encounter ( the portal move at a particular spot on the map;

Marker: - you can give a marker name if you want the encounter to start at a specific place on the map.  Of course, the marker you specify has to actually exist on the map, or the encounter will never start.  See the section on maps for more details.

From another spot in the manual;

All encounters have the following parameters, unless otherwise noted.

Villains: - these are enemies the player will face.  Each villain will be spawned once.

Minions: - these are also enemies the player will face.  EZ script can spawn each minion multiple times to increase the level of difficulty.

Allies: - these are friendly to the player

Objects: - static objects (found in the FFEdit templates tab) that don't move or fight, but are there simply as window dressing

You can use enemies that the player has selected via the rumble room, by adding the word Random in Villains or Minions.

Marker: - you can give a marker name if you want the encounter to start at a specific place on the map.  Of course, the marker you specify has to actually exist on the map, or the encounter will never start.  See the section on maps for more details.

So, maybe "batman to marker1" might work as an example