Basternae.org

Working on a zone always results in editor improvements, so here’s what we get this release:

* Changed the error window shown for “Check Area” to a scrollable list so all errors can be seen.
* When items in the list of errors found by “Check Area” are double-clicked, the object, room, or mob will open in the edit window so you can change whatever the area check complained about.
* The map window is now refreshed when “apply” is clicked in the room editor so we see the room change color when the terrain type changes.
* The map window is now cleared if there was an area loaded when File –> New is used to create a new area.
* Added a “New” button to the exit edit dialog so new empty rooms with reciprocal exits can be created from the exit editor.  This will be easier than creating both rooms and manually creating an exit in each room pointing to the other.
* Added more content to the help file.

I have the general layout of the Grey Elf hometown finished now. There’s a lot of work still to do — room descriptions, shops, mobs, objects, etc., but the layout is done and the repopulation points have been set.

Here’s what it looks like:

I spent a little while working on the Grey Elf hometown today. That sort of thing always results in editor changes. Version 0.55 was released today with these two changes:

* Added the “Check Area” command to the tools menu. Right now it only checks for missing descriptions on rooms, objects, and mobs.
* Added instrument type selection for the edit values screen when editing instrument objects.

I used the Microsoft XSD.exe tool to generate an XML schema file from the zone classes. That probably means nothing to most readers of this blog, but here’s the .XSD for the Basternae 3 zone format:

Basternae 3 Zone Format XSD

No reason really, just in case someone might be an XML tinkerer and wants to try running it through some of their tools, or if some masochist wants to browse it. I’m pretty sure there are some tools out there that will generate a data editor based on an XSD file format, but I’ve never had my hands on one. I have heard that Java and Eclipse have some pretty good XML tools.

These zones have been attached to the world map:

L’ristrizzen (Drow Elf HT)
Ixxillian (Enslaver HT)
Malch’hor Ganl (Goblin HT)
Autumnglen (Centaur HT)
Plateau of the Temple
Court of the Muse

Using the editor has inspired a fresh new batch of improvements. Here they are:

Mob Editing

* New mobs now default to having memory.
* Fixed a navigation bug with creating new mobs.
* Fixed a problem that would prevent setting mob sex.
* Added a clone button for ease of creating similar mobs.

Room Editing

* Added the ability to delete room exits from the exit editing screen.
* Increased the size of the title and description text boxes on the room edit dialog.
* Added a clone button for ease of creating similar rooms. This does not clone exit data because things could get confusing very quickly if it did.

Object Editing

* Added a clone button for ease of creating similar objects.
* Added a language selector for objects of type note in the value editing screen.
* Added a flag editor for container flags on objects of type quiver or container in the value editing screen.

Map View

* Added ’shift map’ buttons to move the location of the room graphi in the map view north, south, east, or west in case it doesn’t all fit on the screen. Since the map view starts at the first room found, puts it in the middle of the screen, and draws the rest of the rooms from there, it may be necessary to shift the map to see what you are looking for.
* Now resizes properly when you click the ‘maximize’ button on the main window.

Walkthrough Mode

* Added ‘look <mob>’ command that shows you the description and any items equipped or carryied by a mob in the current room.
* Added ‘look <object>’ command that shows you the description of an object in the current room.
* Text input and output controls now resize properly when you click the ‘maximize’ button on the main window.
* Text output control now resizes properly when you drag the window size larger or smaller.
* Added the equip command in walkthrough mode. It lets you load an object and equip it on a mob in the current room. This generates an “equip” reset so the object will be loaded and equipped at boot time.
* Added the give command in walkthrough mode that lets you load an object and give to to a mob in the current room. This adds a “give” reset so the mob will be given the object at boot time.

Other

* Added word wrap to the description preview in the extra description edit window.
* Removed the “not implemented yet” message from the renumber command. It worked, but would still display that message, wrongly giving the impression that it didn’t work.

You can get it here.

Nauraki was actually the first one to give zone permissions when the Basternae 3 project started, but the converter wasn’t working well enough to convert them way back then. These zones by Nauraki have been converted:

The Plateau of the Temple
Court of the Muse
L’Ristrizzen (Drow Elf HT)
Phiadnae Flats

The Village of Shadowfall by Zaeru has also been converted.

I’ve started connecting zones to the surface and underground maps. Here’s what’s connected so far:

Village of Stoneward
Cavern of the Worms
Ice Tunnel Shaft
Thannik’Tzil (Thri-Kreen HT)
Kobold Village (Kobold HT)
The Minotaur Stronghold
Sarmiz’Duul
The Buffalo Tribe (Barbarian HT)
Kragthor (Ogre HT)
Phiadnae Flats (Minotaur HT)

That leaves a little over two dozen more that are approved and converted that need to be connected.

None of these zones have zone markers on the map. I’m not sure whether I want to place zone markers — it might be more fun to leave them off and force exploration. The number/strength of reasons for and against zone markers are about even, so that’s something to be decided later. My guess is that hometowns will be marked and other zones won’t.

None of the hometowns have player spawn points set yet, so everyone still starts in the Kobold village. Once all of the zones we have area attached I’ll worry about adding repops.

In Bast1 and Bast2, when a zone was added, one had to edit both zones, adding an exit to each room. When a zone was moved or connected in a different direction, the old exits had to be deleted and replaced with exits in the new direction.

This wasn’t too bad, but I always found it annoying having to edit *two* files. Worse yet, if you weren’t very familiar with a zone it could result in poking around a bit before you found what exit connected where.

This could also create “hanging” exit data when one zone was unload or disconnected from another without deleting both exits. Many of the Bast2 zones have exits pointing to the old map even though those room numbers don’t exist. This doesn’t break anything, but it’s ugly data.

Well, the “old way” of connecting zones still works on Basternae3, but I’ve also added a very simple way of connecting zones. It’s a ZoneConnections text file in the area directory that gets loaded. It has nothing more complex than:

First Zone’s Room Number, Exit Direction, Second Zone’s Room Number.

So, for example, one line reads
“200,south,1200″

This means that when the MUD boots and it loads that line of the file, it creates an exit leading from room 200 south to room 1200, and also creates an exit in the opposite direction, leading north from room 1200 to room 200.

If either of those two zones does not exist or is not loaded, the exit is not created.

This is a fun little solution that makes it way easier to connect zones to the world map, so you’ll see zones on the map pretty soon.

This editor update is mainly about making it easier to edit load commands and object values.

Here are the changes:

Reset Editing

* Object, room, mob, equipment slot, door state, and direction selector buttons have been added to the reset editing screen to make it easier to choose values.

Object Editing

* Added select buttons for weapon damage kind and weapon type to the object value screen for weapon.
* Added totem type (sphere) selector to values screen for totems.
* Added target room selector to values screen for teleports.
* Added liquid type selector to values screen for drink containers.
* Added room and exit direction selectro to values screen for switches.

Walkthrough Mode
* The purge command has been implemented in walkthrough mode (clears objects and mobs from the room).
* The load command has been implemented in walkthrough mode (lets you load an object or mob into the room).

Other
* Added more info to the help file.

As always, save early and often if you’re working on a serious zone project, and let me know any glitches or suggestions for improvement.

You can download the new version of the editor here.

This update adds worldmap support.

Here are some examples:

Plains between the southeastern swamp and the blast crater.

On the road in the western forest.

Underground near the river crossing.

East of the mountains where the desert runs north into tundra and then glacier.

As a reference image, here’s the first map location in WinTin.Net

I guess the first three aren’t too bad aside from some tile banding and edge mismatches, but the fourth one looks like hell. I could do better if I spent more time on creating the tiles, but there’s probably a pretty solid limit to what I can do. If you’d like to try your hand at replacing some of the uglier tiles, you’re certainly welcome to.

If you download and install the client, there’s a “tiles” directory that contains the graphics for the map tiles, the equipment screen background, and the health/move meters. They’re loaded at startup, so if you replace any of the images with those of the same name and dimensions, they’ll be used instead.

This doesn’t do much good yet since no zones are attached to the map yet, but they will be soon.

You can download it here.

EDIT: I tried the client on Fedora 12 and it gave some library mismatch errors, so I created a static build. The new Linux build was created on Ubuntu 9 and ran fine for me on a clean install of Fedora 12. Let me know your results if you try it.