Plot Wizard?

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.neverwinter-nights (More info?)

Do any of you who build modules use the Plot Wizard? It seems very
basic, and it also seems like you still have to use the other features
like the conversation editor or journal editor. Even without the plot
wizard, you don't necessarily have to write script, do you? I'm not sure
I see the real advantage of using it, since after I followed the first
tutorial, I saw how to manually create blueprints and edit them myself,
so I know exactly what was happening, unlike with the plot wizard.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.neverwinter-nights (More info?)

> Do any of you who build modules use the Plot Wizard?

Don't touch it with a 10' pole with rubber handle : )

I tried plot wizards and script generator programs and they are ok with the
basics and very simple scripts but when it comes to the more difficult
scripts / plots that the generators can't handle you are left high and dry
without the knowledge or experience to implement a creative solution.

I do everything the hard way, create items, write conversations and scripts
to tie all plots together.

I'm sure some will disagree with me but learning to write basic scripts and
plots made doing the much harder plots easier.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.neverwinter-nights (More info?)

Alistair Davis wrote:
>>Do any of you who build modules use the Plot Wizard?
>
>
> Don't touch it with a 10' pole with rubber handle : )
>
> I tried plot wizards and script generator programs and they are ok with the
> basics and very simple scripts but when it comes to the more difficult
> scripts / plots that the generators can't handle you are left high and dry
> without the knowledge or experience to implement a creative solution.
>
> I do everything the hard way, create items, write conversations and scripts
> to tie all plots together.
>
> I'm sure some will disagree with me but learning to write basic scripts and
> plots made doing the much harder plots easier.
>
>

Well, I definitely want to learn how to do all the stuff the 'hard way',
because it always helps to know exactly how things work. I was just
wondering if maybe people used the plot wizard to do some things, and
then filled in around it using other features. One thing I noticed was
that tutorial only created a simple plot that had about four lines of
dialogue for each step, and there didn't seem to be a way to create a
more expansive conversation with it, so it seemed almost useless.

Can you recommend a good tutorial for script writing? The part of the
Bioware tutorial didn't really explain anything, it just showed you what
to type. Luckily I had a class in C++ a long time ago, so the format of
the scripting language looks somewhat familiar, at least. I understand
what it means to declare a variable and all that easy stuff, I just
don't know all the code to use yet.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.neverwinter-nights (More info?)

John Salerno wrote:
> Do any of you who build modules use the Plot Wizard? It seems very
> basic, and it also seems like you still have to use the other
> features like the conversation editor or journal editor. Even
> without the plot wizard, you don't necessarily have to write script,
> do you? I'm not sure I see the real advantage of using it, since
> after I followed the first tutorial, I saw how to manually create
> blueprints and edit them myself, so I know exactly what was
> happening, unlike with the plot wizard.

I looked at the plot wizard when it first came out (it wasn't included
from the beginnig). IMHO it isn't a great help - it will only handle
basic things like simple fedex quests, but the essential work like
writing proper dialogues is still to be done manually. My
recommendation is to read as many tutorials as possible and to
study existing modules - the Prelude of the OC is short enough
to not make you confused in the beginning. And for scripting
the NWNLexicon is absolutely necessary.

Hans

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.neverwinter-nights (More info?)

> Can you recommend a good tutorial for script writing?

OK.

NWVault scripting tutorials:
http://nwvault.ign.com/dm/scripting/course/

Scripting forum, very quiet but still usefull:
http://cgi.nwvault.ign.com/yabb/YaBB.cgi

I normally recommend books on C but you're probably not going to need those.

> Luckily I had a class in C++ a long time ago, so the format of the
> scripting language looks somewhat familiar, at least. I understand what it
> means to declare a variable and all that easy stuff, I just don't know all
> the code to use yet.

If you know the structure and implementation of C then your 75% of the way
there.

Scripting just uses the structure of C everything else is functions that are
pre written by bioware. Each function is "explained" in the script editor.

Theres a new type of variable "object" that stores a specific object such as
the PC a door, NPC etc etc. Functions must be given certain parameters as
defined in the function definition in the script editor and some functions
give results.

eg.

object oPC;
// Create object variable.
oPC = GetEnteringObject();
// script must be attached to area/module/trigger and "gets" the entering
object.
int x;
// Create an integer (whole number) variable.
x = GetMaxHitPoints(oPC);
// Stores HP of oPC (the entering object) in the integer variable you
created.
// etc. etc. etc.

If you want to learn to script can I suggest starting with the easiest
scripts and not trying to write a huge complcated script as your first one.
This sounds obvious but its amazing how many people try to start with
interesting but very difficult scripts (as seen on above link to message
board).

I can probably help with any queries you may have.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.neverwinter-nights (More info?)

Alistair Davis wrote:

> If you want to learn to script can I suggest starting with the easiest
> scripts and not trying to write a huge complcated script as your first one.
> This sounds obvious but its amazing how many people try to start with
> interesting but very difficult scripts (as seen on above link to message
> board).

Well, my first official attempt at making a quest is turning out to be a
little complicated. So far I haven't written any scripts, I'm just using
the script editor from the conversation editor. I check the scripts
after they are written to see how they work, but so far it's just
setting variables and then checking for them later in the conversation.
Hopefully that's simple enough, even though it's not quite working yet!

Thanks for the other recommendations, I'll check those out too.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.neverwinter-nights (More info?)

On Thu, 23 Dec 2004 15:11:16 -0600, John Salerno <johnjsal@NOSPAMgmail.com>
wrote:

>Do any of you who build modules use the Plot Wizard? It seems very
>basic, and it also seems like you still have to use the other features
>like the conversation editor or journal editor. Even without the plot
>wizard, you don't necessarily have to write script, do you? I'm not sure
>I see the real advantage of using it, since after I followed the first
>tutorial, I saw how to manually create blueprints and edit them myself,
>so I know exactly what was happening, unlike with the plot wizard.

This thread reminds me that Plot Wizard sounds like it could be a pretty
kickass prestige class, if only I knew what it did.


--
Hong Ooi | "COUNTERSRTIKE IS AN REAL-TIME
hong@zipworld.com.au | STRATEGY GAME!!!"
http://www.zipworld.com.au/~hong/dnd/ | -- RR
Sydney, Australia |

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.neverwinter-nights (More info?)

John Salerno wrote:
> Do any of you who build modules use the Plot Wizard? It seems very
> basic, and it also seems like you still have to use the other features
> like the conversation editor or journal editor. Even without the plot
> wizard, you don't necessarily have to write script, do you? I'm not sure
> I see the real advantage of using it, since after I followed the first
> tutorial, I saw how to manually create blueprints and edit them myself,
> so I know exactly what was happening, unlike with the plot wizard.


The most commons problems asked about on the Bioboards seem to come from
people using the Plot Wizard or one of the two script generators (no
offense meant to the people who wrote those generators). Anything beyond
simple set/get variables is beyond those tools. I recommend using the
NWN Lexicon:

http://www.nwnlexicon.com/

In addition to a complete reference of all functions in the scripting
language, it includes a large number of tutorials. There's a
downloadable .chm (Windows Help) file available on NWVault:

http://nwvault.ign.com/Files/other/data/1027899441708.shtml

I always have it open when I'm "working"
--
Barry Scott Will
Pyric RPG Publications
http://www.pyric.com/