Miscellaneous questions and clarifications

[JonnieR]

How big can areas be, the largest I have see are only 15x15 tiles?
In looking at what Iceblink refers to as traits I looked at several that were already in the program, but they did not make sense to me. A back stab causes extra damage depending on the thief's level. I did not see where there was any additional damage. A dodge skill normally acts like +1 AC for the person with dodge. Therefore the AC should be adjusted, it wasn't adjusted as far as I could see. Were these traits unfinished? Is there a key defining the trait attributes?

[slowdive]

-Areas can be any size, but I wouldn't go larger than 32x32 squares (DX memory issues may occur). Transitioning from area to area is very fast so I use smaller 16x16 areas.

-sounds like back stab and dodge may be buggy as they should be doing what you mentioned. I just finished a play through of The Exile and dodge was giving me a +1 bonus to AC. The latest build v4 does have an issue with Max Dexterity Bonus, see here:
http://www.iceblinkengine.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=305&start=30#p3287

-I'm not sure what you mean by a "key" for defining trait attributes. You can look at them in the toolset under the traits editor from the "wizards/editors" menu.

I'm sending out Beta Build v5 shortly with some bug fixes.

[JonnieR]

I wasn't very clear. Using the trait editor I could not see where backstab caused extra damage nor could I see where dodge granted +1AC bonus. Now this was purely in build 4, I did not look traits up in the editor in  any of the modules I downloaded. I was confused by this  and I wanted to clarify how traits are developed and stored before I go building a large database of traits.

[slowdive]

I wasn't very clear. Using the trait editor I could not see where backstab caused extra damage nor could I see where dodge granted +1AC bonus. Now this was purely in build 4, I did not look traits up in the editor in  any of the modules I downloaded. I was confused by this  and I wanted to clarify how traits are developed and stored before I go building a large database of traits.

I see. Dodge uses the Property "ACModifier" which is set to "1" to modify the AC. It is found in the Trait Editor and under the Effect category. Backstab and Cleave are actually dealt with in the dsAttackPC.cs script which is the script that deals with all the PC combat stuff (fully customizable by the author). All the "ds..." scripts are found in the scripts folder in the root/scripts or in your module's script folder. Scripts in the module folder override the ones in the root/scripts folder. Spells and Traits can also have a script that is called when they are used (like a spell in combat or on the adventure maps). Look at any of the spells to see the scripts attached to them. For example, Minor Healing calls the spHealMinor.cs script. So at this point, spells and traits often need some scripting or modifying existing scripts to implement.

[JonnieR]

I understand. I looked and found dsAttackPC,cs script. For instance, if you added weapon focus as a trait, and specifically had a PC with the Long sword weapon focus trait it would seem you have know what weapon the PC is using and then, providing it is a long sword, grant him +1 to hit an+1 attack damage. So as I understand it you have modify the above script to achieve that trait.

How do you read the cs files? Can you modify them in the tool kit?

[slowdive]

I understand. I looked and found dsAttackPC,cs script. For instance, if you added weapon focus as a trait, and specifically had a PC with the Long sword weapon focus trait it would seem you have know what weapon the PC is using and then, providing it is a long sword, grant him +1 to hit an+1 attack damage. So as I understand it you have modify the above script to achieve that trait.

How do you read the cs files? Can you modify them in the tool kit?

Modifying the dsAttackPC.cs script is one way. We may need to come up with a better way though. Reading the .cs file can be done with any text editor (like notepad). ".cs" files are C Sharp (C#) code files. The best way to create or edit them though would be to use Visual Studio or SharpDevelop or other. Here is a tutorial I did for setting up VS 2010 Express for IceBlink scripting:
http://www.iceblinkengine.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=260