Monster Media 1994 #1

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Text File | 1994-03-03 | 25KB | 562 lines

Land Of Devastation Sysop Customization Manual ---------------------------------------------- By Scott M Baker Section 1: Purpose ------------------ This manual is intended for sysops who wish to modify their Land Of Devastation games from the default setup. Land Of Devastation allows the sysop (or Game Master) to change almost every aspect of the game. You can create your own maps, monsters, weapons & armor, etc. Section 2: Required files ------------------------- All of the files required for creating custom LOD games are contained in the archive LODxxxE.ARJ (with xxx representing the current LOD version number). Section 3: Programs included ---------------------------- LOD includes several utilities to help you customize the game. These are: CUSTOM.EXE - Customization editor. Used to edit some of the more complex fields of the game. COMPILE.EXE - Used to compile a new game data set for LOD. (What is a data set? Look below!) Section 4: Data Sets -------------------- To make things as easy as possible for both the customizer and the customizee (the poor guy who tries to run the customized version), LOD will "compile" most of the game data into a single "data set". This data set is contained in the file GAME.DEF. For most customized versions, the only file that needs to be changed is this GAME.DEF Basically, the data set (GAME.DEF) is a compiled package of the following text files: STRINGS.TXT - All of LOD's internal text strings MONSTER.TXT - Monster definitions COMBAT.TXT - Combat strings (i.e. "You poke x's eye with your sword") TALK.TXT - Conversations of characters in Tavern & wasteland TAVERN.TXT - Tells who is in what tavern TROYINFO.TXT- \ TRELLNOT.TXT- > Special purpose text files HISTORY.TXT - / OBJECT.TXT - Outlines the object of the game DATASET.TXT - Data Set identification & misc data The data set file (GAME.DEF) also includes the following binary files. These are NOT text files and may not be edited with a text editor. You must use the customization tool, CUSTOM.EXE to edit these files. MAIN.MAP - The main game map TERRAIN.BIN - Terrain definitions MISC.BIN - Miscellaneous stuff DEVICES.BIN - Main device library As mentioned above, COMPILE.EXE will take all of those files and spit out one big GAME.DEF file from them. Therefore, you need not distribute any of the above text files - just the completed GAME.DEF. Section 5: Locating the default text/binary files ------------------------------------------------- The default text and binary files are stored in the archive STANDARD.ARJ inside of LODxxxE.ARJ. Unarchive this file and it'll dump out strings.txt, monster.txt, combat.txt, main.map, devices.bin, and all of the other stuff. Then you can load these up and customize whatever you want according to section 6 below. Section 6: Customizing the Text files ------------------------------------- What follows is a description of how to customize the text files listed in section four above. To edit these files, use any plain text editor. STRINGS.TXT: The master string file ----------------------------------- Almost all of the text strings contained within LOD are taken from this file. Everything from "you enter the tavern" to "what do you wish to buy" to "there is new mail in the message system" is in here. In fact, if you wanted to translate LOD into another language, once you translated this one file, you would be about 80% done! Here's what to do: 1) Load up STRINGS.TXT using any plain-ascii text editor. You can now edit the strings and customize them as you wish. Please note, the strings are specified one string to each line - if you mess up this format, you could possibly shift all of the strings and really screw things up. Here is the format: - Each line is one string definition in the game; So DO NOT DELETE OR INSERT LINES. You'll really mess things up. - A tilde (~) has been placed at the end of each line as a simple indicator to the user of where the line ends. (i.e. Otherwise lines that ended with a trailing space would be indistinguishable from lines that didn't) - The ampersand (&) is used to indicate the Land Of Devastation should change colors at that position. The "&" sign is followed by a hexadecimal digit, "0"-"F" specifying the color to change to. &0 Black &6 Brown &C Light Red &1 Blue &7 Light Gray &D Light Magenta &2 Green &8 Dark Gray &E Yellow &3 Cyan &9 Light Blue &F White &4 Red &A Light Green &5 Magenta &B Light Cyan - The "|" sign is used to indicate a carriage return. - String may be up to 255 characters in length. (You could use one string entry with multiple "|"'s to specify multiple lines of text) 2) Remember, just editing the file won't have any effect by itself. You still need to run COMPILE.EXE to create a new GAME.DEF file. So what needs to be edited in strings.txt? In reality, not a whole lot. If you don't like the way something is said in the game (or, heaven-forbid, you catch one of my ten thousand misspelled words), you can change it. You'll find most of the fun work down in the monsters.txt below. MONSTER.TXT: All the bad guys ----------------------------- Here's where you will get a chance to have some fun. You can create any monster you want in here. You can put him in any zone, give him whatever weapons you want, and make up a nice description of him. All of the instructions for editing monsters.txt are contained at the top of the file. It's really pretty self explanatory - the best thing to do is take one of the default monsters, and copy him to another section of the file and make your changes to the copy. COMBAT.TXT: Combat strings -------------------------- In the wasteland, we have all kinds of neat phrases for what happens in combat. The combat.txt file is where it all is. Instructions for this file are contained up at the top (like in the monster.txt file). I'll leave it to you to look at the default stuff and figure out how the format works. TALK.TXT: Character Dialog -------------------------- No customized game is complete without a bunch of cool characters that the player can talk to. Here is where you can decide what they will say. You can make them say whatever you want and create your own "keywords" that their responses will match. NOTE: If you create any new characters and want them placed in a tavern, you will also have to edit the tavern.txt file below. TAVERN.TXT: People in Taverns ----------------------------- This rather simple file just tells which players are in what tavern. For example, say your create a character in the talk.txt file above named "weird joe". If you want wierd joe to be in the freedom city tavern, then you'll have to add an entry to this file to put him there. TROYINFO.TXT: Troy Hadley's info file ------------------------------------- One of the special quests ends up with the player receiving a special rom-disk for his laptop which contains some hints on locations, monsters, etc. This text file contains those hints. There's no real format to this file - it's just a flat text file. If you go moving towns around on the map, you'll probably have to change some of the hints in here. TRELLNOT.TXT: Sergeant Trell's note ----------------------------------- This is Sergeant Trell's note from the Tranlius Nuclear Facility. If you want, you can edit it and change the theme a bit. HISTORY.TXT: History of the War ------------------------------- There's a history rom that the players can get for their laptop. It tells about the history of the nuclear war. This is it. Edit it to your delight. OBJECT.TXT: Game Objectives --------------------------- This is a straight text file which should outline the object of the game. Information on the central quest, etc. It is displayed by the Game Objectives command in the documentation center of Sacre Base. DATASET.TXT: Data set file -------------------------- This contains some miscellanious "glue" information. Stuff that needs to hold the whole package together, but doesn't really fit in any of the other files above. Some minimal instructions are given inside the file - read them and make your changes. The one important thing in here is the NAME and AUTHOR fields. If you create a customized LOD data set, then you probably want to give it a name and put yourself down as the author. This is where you do it. The name/author information will appear on the WORLD menu at the documentation center. GENOBJ.TXT: Generic Object System --------------------------------- The Generic Object System is intended to allow you to create fairly complex objects. This system is fairly complicated and you should look to the "Technical Tools" and "Loki Summoner" as examples of GENOBJS. To Create a GENOBJ: 1) Create an item in the device editor with the devapp set to GenObj (40), and set its VAR1 to a unique number (tag) that will be used to link your object to the GENOBJ file. 2) Create an object definition in GENOBJ by using the "TAG x" field, with x being the number you used in VAR1 in step 1 above. GENOBJs will do the following: a) display all HEADER statements for which the IF's are true. b) display one RANDOM statement for which the IF's are true. c) display all FOOTER statements for which the IF's are true. d) process all CONVERT/REPLICATE/ADDITEM statements in order if their IF's are true. If any statement listed above has "modifiers" attached to it, then the modifier will be applied immediately after the action has been executed. For your GENOBJ to work, there must be one or more "ACTION" entries. These are things such as "HEADER", "FOOTER", "CONVERT x > y", etc. IF statements and modifiers are completely optional and only need to be used if you have a specified purpose for them. A Few notes about IFs (and MODIFIERS): - All IF's apply to the action statement that follows the IF's and ONLY that action statement. - If multiple action statements are present, then any (and all) action statements that have true IF's will be executed. For Example: IFTESTX 10 HEADER You are at X coordinate 10. IFTESTY 15 HEADER You are standing at Y coordinate 15 IFTESTX 10 IFTESTY 15 You are standing at x=10 and y=15. Suppose, that the user is standing at... X=10, Y=anything but 15: "You are at X coordinate 10" X=anything but 10, Y=15: "You are standing at Y coordinate 15" X=10, Y=15: "You are at X coordinate 10", / Yes, all "You are standing at X coordinate 15", < 3 are "You are standing at x=10 and y=15" \ output Section 7: Using CUSTOM.EXE --------------------------- The external editor, NEWLODED.EXE, includes a variety of external editors and tools to allow the sysop to customize and configure his/her version of Land of Devastation. I will discuss each of the editor options in order below: UTILITIES There are a few little utility features which will provide you with some information about the game. EDITORS Editors are included for device definitions, terrain, and the wasteland map. SETUP This section has options for configuring and setting up lod - what new players start with, how much bases cost, etc. The external editor has an extensive context-sensitive help system which can be of great use to you. Simply hit F1 at any time and a help window will pop up. NOTE #1: The external editor uses the TAB and SHIFT-TAB keys to move around in some areas. Sometimes people find this difficult to understand, but it is part of the design of the Turbo Vision tool kit which the editor was written with. Section 8: Editing Device Definitions ------------------------------------- To edit devices, you will need to use the Device Editor command under the Editors menu in CUSTOM.EXE. The following are a list of the various parameters that each device definition includes: NAME: The name of the device; Should not be longer than 15 chars USES: Number of uses LEFT on the device. Usually the same as MAXUSE MAXUSE: Maximum number of uses the device has. DEV USE: If "Y", then decrement the USES variable each time the device is used. VAR1: General purpose variable #1; varies from device to device. VAR2: General purpose variable #2; varies from device to device. APPLICAT: Code corresponding to what the device does. USABLE: "Y" if the device can be used with the U command. STORE: Code(s) corresponding to store at which device will be sold. COST: Price of device when sold at store. ANSI: 8 character string corresponding to attached ansi picture. EGA: Attached EGA graphics picture. Listing of APPLICAT codes: 0 Radio 9 AML (medline) 18 Death Badge 27 Rom Disk 1 Medical Kit 10 Rope 19 Warper 28 <Internal> 2 SR Weapon 11 Rations 20 Communicator 29 B-Teleporter 3 LR Weapon 12 Scanner 21 B-React 30 Recharger 4 Armor 13 Stealth 22 B-Comm 31 Pylon Key 5 <reserved> 14 G-Blaster 23 B-Defense 32 Energy Cell 6 B.A.D. 15 Unusable Armor 24 B-Moat 33 Unitran 7 LRScan 16 Grenade 25 B-Weapon 34 Mine 8 Ammunition 17 Cyclops Eye 26 Laptop 35 Boat 36 Mapper 37 Cryo-Unit 38 BaseGeneric 39 MapPack 40 Genobj Listing of store codes: 0 No Store 9 B-Weapon 18 Town #3 27 BaseScav 1 SR Weapons 10 Computer 19 Town #4 28 BaseEne 2 Armor 11 LR Weapons 20 Town #5 29 BaseMed 3 Supply 12 <internal> 21 Town #6 30 Acme Fort 4 Ammo 13 <internal> 22 Town #7 31 Acme Weapons 5 B-React 14 GSRZ Hort. 23 Town #8 32 Acme ROM 6 B-Comm 15 B-Teleporter 24 Town #9 7 B-Def 16 EEEE 25 Kill, Inc 8 B-Moat 17 Town #2 26 BasePack Note: A device may be present at more than one store. If this is the case, then list all of the store codes with SPACES inbetween them. If a device is not to be present at any store, then leave it's store line blank. Here are some of the definitions for the VAR1/VAR2 parameters for some of the various device types. Weapons: The VAR1 parameter is divided into three fields corresponding to the ammo type, minimum, and maximum damage. For example, consider the following: NAME: Rad-Axe . . VAR1: 03020030 . \/\:/\:/ . A Min Max The three fields are 3, 020, and 030. "3" is the ammo type; 020 is the minimum damage done and 030 is the maximum damage done. For weapons not requiring ammo, use a "0" for the ammo type. Always use three digit numbers (i.e. for a 4-6 damage weapon requiring power packs, use 03004006, NOT 0346) This includes SR Weapons (#2), LR Weapons (#3), Base Moats (#24), Base Weapons (#25), and Grenades (#16). Ammo: The VAR1 parameter is the ammo type and the VAR2 parameter is the number of shots. For example, NAME: Power Pack VAR1: 3 VAR2: 35 This is for a power pack - ammo type 3; 35 shots. Armor: The USELEFT parameter is the amount of damage the armor can absorb; The VAR2 is the percentage chance of the armor deflecting a hit. (i.e. VAR2=0 means the armor deflects nothing; VAR2=100 means the armor deflects everything) The VAR1 parameter holds some specialty flags. These flags are bit mapped. Right now, the flags are as follows: Bit 1: If set, then armor is rechargable. Stlth Field: The SFG (Stealth Field Generator) uses both variables. VAR1 is 0 if neutral, 1 if noisy, or 2 if quiet. This should normally be set to zero. VAR2 is the SFG's effectiveness. This is a percentage. The higher the percentage, the more powerful the SFG is. The default is 50. Mine: The VAR1 variable of the mine defines it's capabilities. Example: 03020035. The "03" indicates the mines capabilities, the 020 is the minimum damage, and the 035 is the maximum damage. example: var1: 611020035; :\/\:/\:/ :: Min Max :: :Features (Bits 1+2+8) : Robomine number (or empty for non-robomines) Mine Capabilities: This is setup as a bitmap. Bit #1 is for a smart mine, bit #2 is for a energy-drainer mine, and bit #3 is for a teleporter mine. Mine Uses: the Useleft parameter tells how many charges the mine contains. Note: If/when I bring out a newer version of LOD, it will include a replacement DEVICES.DEF file which will overwrite yours. For this reason, it will be necessary for you to re-type your custom device information back into device.def. Since I may also add devices to DEVICES.DEF in a future release, it may be wise for you to place your custom entries from the last position backwards to avoid conflicts with mine. Section 9: Editing Terrain -------------------------- To edit Terrain, you will need to use the Terrain Editor option in the CUSTOM.EXE program. The terrain editor has the following parameters: NAME: The name of the terrain type DANGER: Percentage chance of finding monster there. SYMBOL: 2 character symbol for ansi/ascii maps COLOR: Numeric color code for ascii/ansi PASSABLE: "Y" if you can walk through it. "N" if you can't. Use a "W" to indicate water. (requires miniraft to pass) NOTE: For compatability (and simplicity) reasons, I would suggest that you stick with the standard terrain classes if at all possible. We've tried to throw in just about every possible kind of terrain you might want. Section 10: Creating Trivia --------------------------- You can create your own trivia questions if you use the same format as in TSAMP1.TXT. Name your text file "TRIVIA.TXT" and run TRIVCOMP to compile it into TRIVIA.DEF. A complete 300 question library is provided in the default TRIVIA.DEF file, but to make sure users don't get a hold of the questions, I had to keep the non-encrypted text version here! Section 11: The GTSTRS.DEF file ------------------------------- Included with both GTERM and LOD, there is a GTSTRS.DEF file which defines the strings that will be used by the graphical interface. i.e. the help menus and screens inside the graphics window when using GAMEEGA or GTERM. Normally, there should be no reason to modify these strings. They were provided only for very extreme situations, such as the project to translate LOD into German. The format is very similar to LOD's strings.txt file, except that the color codes (&1, &2, ..., &F) are not allowed. You must have one string per line. You may not add or delete any lines. The "~" symbol is simply a marker for the end of each line - it is not actually displayed to the user. Both GAMEEGA and GTERM have seperate copies of this file. If you want remote users (with GTERM) to see the changes, then they will have to obtain their own copy of the file. Section 12: Packaging Considerations ------------------------------------ For the purpose in maintaining some kind of standardization in naming conventions, this is what I would suggest. None of the following is required, but it establishind a standard really helps everyone out. 1] Place your dataset (GAME.DEF, readme's, text files, whatever) into an archive (.ARJ, .ZIP, etc) to keep all of the files together. 2] For the name of your archive, use the following: a] First four letters identify your data set (i.e. STND for my LOD standard data set) b] Next three letters indicate the version of LOD you compiled the set for (i.e. 361) c] The last letter is a revision letter for your dataset (in case you made changes and re-released). Start with "a" every time you release for a new version of LOD, increment the indicator every time you re-release YOUR data set for that version of LOD. d] Of course, the extension would be .ZIP, .ARJ, .LZH, etc e] Examples: STND361a.ARJ - LOD standard data set, for version 3.61, revision "a". FUTR395f.ARJ - FUTURE data set, compiled for LOD version 3.95, revision "f". 3] Inside your archive, include the following files: README.TXT -=- Whatever you want in here - who you are, what the data set is about, special considerations, etc. GAME.DEF -=- The compiled dataset. The sysop just drops it in to use your data. ANSI.DEF -=- Optional. Only distribute if you modified some of the ansi screens. TRIVIA.DEF -=- Optional. Only distribute if you created some custom trivia. SOURCE.ARJ -=- The "source code" for your data set. All of your customized .TXT files (monster.txt, combat.txt, etc), your maps (MAIN.MAP), device definitions (devices.bin), etc. This is optional - only distribute it if you want other sysops to view/edit your data set.