Dragon Engine Beta 1.0 Documentation 1.0 Copyright 2000 by Litmus Paper Productions ---- 00. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1a. INTRODUCTION 1b. THE LEGAL BIT 2. INSTALLATION 3. THE BASICS 3a. MENUS 3b. BRIEF SUMMARY 4. PLAYING A GAME 4b. HINTS ON THE EXAMPLE GAME 5. CREATING A GAME 5b. THE MAIN MENU 5c. THE EDIT MENU 5e. EDITING MAPS 5f. GLOBALS 5g. ITEMS EDITOR 5h. SPELL EDITOR 5i. CLASS EDITOR 5j. CREATURE EDITOR 5k. ROOM EDITOR 5l. TILE GROUPINGS 5m. TITLE ANIMATIONS 5n. TILE EDITOR (TILE ATTRIBUTES) 6. APPENDICES 6a. MAP LAYERS 6b. QUESTS 6c. INTRO1.TXT, INTRO2.TXT, ENDING1.TXT, ENDING2.TXT 6d. HOW DO I? QUESTIONS 7. TROUBLESHOOTING 7a. THE PROGRAM CRASHES MY SYSTEM ... 7b. EVERYTHING IS MOVING TOO FAST/TOO SLOW 7c. THE CONTROLS ARE TOO TOUCHY/SLUGGISH 7d. THE MIDI MUSIC SOUNDS TERRIBLE/ISN'T FINDING MY WAVETABLE CARD 7e. SOMETIMES WHEN A MIDI FINISHES PLAYING AND THEN STARTS OVER (IN THE GAME), THE MIDI PLAYBACK GETS SCREWED UP. ---- 1a. INTRODUCTION What is Dragon Engine? Dragon Engine is a program that allows the creation of tile-based RPGs. These RPGs are heavily influenced by 1980s tile-based RPGs and as such play very much like a game from that era. There are however several modern features in this program which were impossible during the technological dark ages, such as the ability to include full motion video into your games, wavetable soundcard support, and neat-o looking lighting effects. 1b. THE LEGAL BIT Dragon Engine Beta 1 is freely distributable in it's current form. You may put it up for download on the web, you can send it to your friends and housepets, you can make a million copies and throw them from the top of the empire state building. You may not charge money for Dragon Engine. Dragon Engine 1.0 will be released once all the bugs have been worked out of the current beta version. I'm not sure wether this version will be freeware, shareware, or what. Most likely I will leave it freeware and have an enhanced version (high res, perhaps) that is available for a small amount of money. More on this later. 2. INSTALLATION a. Unzip all zip files to the same directory. b. Open the file dengine.cfg in either notepad or EDIT.EXE and specify your hardware configuration. If you are using a standard VGA adapter and have no wavetable card, you can probably skip this step. If you are using a wavetable card, this step is especially recommended. c. If you are not running from windows, you will also need to download a program called CWSDPMI and unzip it to the same directory before Dragon Engine will run. d. You are ready to run Dragon Engine. 3. THE BASICS If this is your first time using Dragon Engine, it is recommended that you first play the example game for a while to get a feel for the engine and the possibilitys therein. 3a. MENUS Most menus in Dragon Engine work in the same way. You have three ways that you can make a selection: a. By left-clicking on it with the mouse cursor b. By moving the pointer using the arrow keys, then pressing space c. By typing the first letter of the selection 3b. SUMMARY Here's a basic, basic summary of things. These are discussed in more detail in sections 4-5. PLAYGAME.EXE is the playgame executable. To play the example game, run this. For a list of commands in the example game, press F1. EDITGAME.EXE is the editgame executable. This is menu driven, has mouse support, and is fairly straightforward. More of the editor can be found under section 5. 4. TO PLAY A GAME Run the executable "PLAYGAME.EXE". You will arrive at the title screen. Enjoy the title animation for a while, if you wish. You can create up to 5 of these for your game. Select "View Introduction". This will give you a small welcome message, followed by a full motion video bit, then another small welcome message. Select "Start New Game". Beta 1 comes with an example game. You will first have to create a party of 6 adventurers. Select an empty slot and you will be prompted with onscreen instruction for creating your party. Here is a summary of the classes in the example game 1.0: Uridium: Can cast any spell, use any weapon. Requires 200 xp for level 2. Recieves normal MP. Bard: Can cast blue and red mage spells, but only up to level 4. Can use most weapons and armor but not heavy weapons and armor. Requires 100 xp for level 2. Recieves normal MP. Red Mage: Cast cast any red mage spell. Can only use light armor and staff, rods, or slings as weapons. Requires 100 xp for level 2. Recieves double MP. Fighter: Can use any weapon or armor, but cannot cast spells. Requires 100 xp for level 2. Rogue: Can use most weapons and only light armor. Cannot cast spells. Recieves +1/DEX automatically at trainers. Requires 80 xp for level 2. Blue Mage: Can cast any blue mage spell. Can only use light armor, staffs, rods, and slings as weapons. Requires 100 xp for level 2. Recieves double MP. Spellsword: Can use almost any weapon or armor. Can cast any red mage spell up to level 6. Requires 100 xp for level 2. Recieves normal MP. Paladin: Can use almost any weapon or armor. Can cast any blue mage spell up to level 6. Requires 100 xp for level 2. Recieves normal MP. Wizard: Can cast any blue or red mage spell up to level 6. Can only use light armor and staffs, rods, or slings as weapons. Requires 100 xp for level 2. Recieves double MP. Monk: Cannot equip any weapons. Can use most armors, but not shields. Is skilled in unarmed combat. Amount of damage dealt goes up by level. Requires 100 xp for level 2. Cannot cast spells. Barbarian: Can use most weapons and armor but cannot cast spells. Recieves +1/STR automatically at trainers. Requires 100 xp for level 2. Healer: Can cast any blue mage spell. Can only use staffs, slings, rods, and light armor. Casts heal spells at double efficiency. Requires 125 xp for level 2. Recieves double MP. Arch Mage: Can cast any red mage spell. Can only use staffs, slings, rods, and light armor. Casts damage spells at double efficiency. Requires 125 xp for level 2. Recieves double MP. Fighting classes should be given high dexterity and strength, spellcasting classes high intelligence. Classes with both skills should have a more or less even distribution. Once you have created 6 party members, select "Begin Game". You will appear on the map. Move using the arrow keys. Just about every key on the keyboard does something. F1 will bring up the list of commands. Move about and explore. There is a town near where you started. A castle is to the west. Make gaining equipment for your party and buying spells for your mages your first priority. Note that your mages will be mostly helpless until you buy spells for them. Spells also require gems. Gems are hidden in several places, they are also available for sale in towns. 4b. HINTS ON THE EXAMPLE GAME 1. Before spending your starting gold go west to the castle. Search the castle carefully. There is a lot of of useful equipment hidden there. 2. Carry torches or have light-granting spells before going into the caves. 3. Towers have a wide variety of enemys, and don't require torches to explore (as long as it's daytime while you are in there). They are good places to gain XP and equipment. 5. CREATING A GAME Run the executable "EDITGAME.EXE". Note that if you do not want to distribute editgame.exe with your game, you don't have to. A password protection function will be added for extra security in the near future. This will prevent anyone from looking at your game until they have completed it, and been given the password. 5b. THE MAIN MENU Edit Game This will take you to the edit menu, where the actual creation of the game takes place (covered in section 5c). Init Game/Maps This takes you to a submenu from which you can create blank maps, or erase any or all of the game data. Quit to DOS Exits the program 5c. THE EDIT MENU Map Editor The map editor is covered under section 5e. Globals Editor Takes you to a submenu where you can specify many variables which affect the rest of your game, including the starting party parameters and game introduction, etc. This is covered in section 5f. Items Editor This is covered in section 5g. Spells Editor Section 5h. PC/Classes Editor Section 5i. Creature Editor Section 5j. Room Editor Rooms are single screenfulls of tiles joined togethor in a number of ways. Used for towers, caves, and more. Covered under section 5k. Tile Groupings This allows you to make neat groupings of tiles which are used while editing maps and rooms. Covered under section 5l. Title Animation Lets you create up to 5 different title screen animations which are displayed at the title screen of your game. Covered under section 5m. Quit to Main Returns you to the main menu, section 5b. 5c. EDITING MAPS (THE MAP EDITOR) Maps in Dragon Engine can be up to 255x255 tiles. This is a VERY large map. The overworld in the example game is 50x50 tiles. You can have a virtually unlimited number of maps and join them togethor in a number of ways. 5c.01 THE MOUSE Most things in the map editor can be done using only the mouse. Your mouse starts out as a pen. While the mouse is a pen, left clicking on the map will add the selected object into the location you have clicked on. Right clicking on the mouse changes the mouse shape and function. Right click once, and the mouse turns into four arrows. While the mouse is four arrows, left clicking on the map will move you in the direction of the mouse cursor. Right click again, and the mouse turns into an eraser. While the mouse is an eraser, left clicking on the map will erase an object of the type currently being edited from the square you have selected. What sort of objects these clicks are affecting depends on what layer you are editing. Layers are covered under section 6a. You will also notice that there is a row of small icons at the bottom of the map display portion of the screen. The fucntion of these icons is as follows (going from left to right): Tree: Edit the Ground layer * Glowing E: Edit the Portals/Events Layer * Glowing Gem: Edit the Items layer * Human: Edit the NPC layer * Goblin: Edit the Roaming Monster layer * House: Edit the roofs layer * M: Edit the NPC Walkmap X/Y: Teleport to a specified X/Y coordinate on your map Hourglass: Timewarp to a given hour. Enter this in military format (1-24). P: Jump to the editing map menu (section 5c.03) * layers are explained under section 6a If you are editing the ground layer, you will be presented with a group of icons in the lower right hand corner. Clicking the up/down arrows next to these groupings will toggle you through the different tile groups. Clicking on a tile in the group will select it. You can change these groupings in the tile groupings editor (section 5l). The items layer also uses this lower-right hand area for selecting items. 5c.02 THE KEYBOARD A summary of keyboard commands: The arrow keys can be used to move. [SPACE] Adds the selected object to the current square. [C]hange Layer (layers covered under 6a) [F]ill Screen with Selected Tile (Ground layer only)_ [F]ind NPC, homes in on an NPCs location. (NPC layer only) [G]ame Starts Here (move game start location, denoted by a blue square onmap) [J]ump to X/Y coordinates [L] Re-load Map [M]Add several of the selected item to the current square. Only works if editing items. [S]ave Map [T]ile Editor. Covered under section 5n. [V]iew. Jumps to an overhead view of the map from a great height. [Z]ap Menu. This menu allows you to delete all objects of a chosen type from the map. [PageUp] Go to the next map [PageDown] Go to the previous map [F10] Screen dump (saved as dumpx.pcx). [ESC] Map Properties (below) 5c.03 EDITING MAP MENU Edit Tiles Jump to tile editor. Covered under section 5n. Change Layer Change to another map layer. Layers explained under 6a. Map Properties A submenu containing information about the map. See section 5c.04. Jump to Map Jump to another map. Load Map Reload the current map Save Map Save the current map Fill Map Fills the entire map with the selected tile. You will be prompted for confirmation. This only works when editing the ground layer. Find/Replace Lets you replace all tiles of one type with another tile. This works for just the current screen, or the entire map (your choice). 5c.04 MAP PROPERTIES X/Size Y/Size The size of the map. X is number of tiles across, Y is number of tiles down. Maps should not be smaller than 20x20 in size or you may encounter problems. Maps cannot be bigger than 255x255. Outmap OutmapX OutmapY This either set to wraparound, or to another map. This repesents what happens when the player moves out of bounds on the map. If this is set to wraparound, he will emerge on the other side of the map. If it is set to a map, he will emerge onto map outmap at outmap x, outmap y. MapMusic Change the music played while on the map. The program dosn't know how many midi files are in the music\ directory. Any value will be accepted but entering a nonexistant midi file may cause problems. StairUp StairDown Taking a stairway up or down will take you to these maps. If you have no stairs on your map, this setting is not used. Change Out of Bounds Tile Lets you change the tile that is displayed outside of the map boundary, if the map is not a wraparound map. Toggle Wraparound Toggles between wraparound and specifying an outmap. Z/Mapname Specifies the map's name Lighting This is either Open or Closed. Open maps are lit during the day by the sun and dark at night. In closed maps or open maps at night, light either comes from items with a light radius, or must be brought in by the player in some form or another. [ESCAPE] Exits this menu 5c.05 ADDING EVENTS Events can do any number of things in your game. Display text, change the music, increase an ability, or jump to the endgame sequence and just a few possibilitys. When editing the events layer, map squares which have an event in them are marked with a yellow square. If you move onto a yellow square, you will see more information about what this event is on the right side of the screen. 5c.06 ADD/EDIT EVENT MENU Type Lets you chang betweem the 5 different event types. Each of these is very different from each other so they have their own sections below. 5c.06.a PORTAL/MAP This is a portal that leads from this map to another map. Map(To) Specifies which map this leads to, and where on the map it leads. Behaves This is always castle, dungeon, teleport, or town. If this is set to teleport, the player will automatically appear on the destination map when he moves onto this square. If it is set to castle, dungeon, or town, the player enters in the usual way (by moving onto the square then pressing [E]nter). Here all the time/Here when You can create a portal which is only active during a specific hour of the day. Select this option to do this. Alt Tile Only used if the portal is only active during one hour of the day. When the portal is active, this tile is displayed instead of the tile that is normally displayed at this location. Quest Req You can specify a quest requirement before the player can enter this portal. More about quests in section 6b. Item Req You can specify an item requirement before the player can enter this portal. Requirement Not Met Text If the player does not meet the quest and/or item requirements, this message will be displayed. 5c.06.b MONSTER GENERATOR Monster generators automatically produce a group of wandering monsters after a specific amount of time has passed on the map. Quest NOT Required Quest Required If a quest not required is specified, then this monster generator will only function so long as that quest has not been completed. As soon as that quest is completed, it will stop functioning. If a quest required is specified, the generator will not function unless this quest has been completed. Either or both can be used. View/Change Combat Location Specifys what combat location the party is taken to when attacked by this group of monsters. Not that you will need to go to this room in the room editor and populate it with the monsters that you would like to have in this combat encounter. Change Picture Changes the picture displayed for this roaming group of monsters. Movement Either land only, water (L1) only, or flying. If set to land only, can only move on standard open type tiles. If set to water only, will only be able to move around on barrier type tiles, for example water. If flying, can move over anything that is not a blocked tile. Generates Specify how often this group of monsters is generator. Options are 3, 6, 12, or 24 hours. Only time spent on this map counts towards this total. 5c.06.c LOOK/DISPLAYS TEXT A simple event that will display a textfile when the player [L]ooks at it. To create this textfile, you must use a text editor, for example notpad in windows 95 or EDIT.EXE in DOS. Type up to 2048 characters. Do not hit enter until you are finished. Now save the result in the "TEXT\" subdirectory of Dragon Engine, and name is "Text1.txt" or "Text2.txt", anything in that series. There are examples included in the archive. Specifying a # in this event pointing to a file that does not exist will probably cause problems. 5c.06.d PORTAL/ROOM Leads from the current map into a room. Note that everything in rooms is repopulated each time the player leaves and comes back in. Monsters, items, everything. Room Specify which room this leads to Behaves Dungeon, castle, tower or cave. This only affects what is displayed when the player moves onto this square and presses [E]nter. Lighting Open/Closed. If open, sunlight penetrates and the rooms will be light during the day. If closed, the rooms will get no sunlight and will require artificial sources of light provided by the player or by items placed in the room. Quest Req You can specify a quest be completed before this room can be entered. More about quests in 6b. Item Req You can specify an item requirement before this room can be entered Not Met Text View/edit the message which is displayed if the requirements to enter this room are not met. 5c.06.d SPECIAL This flexible event is used to play music, to display images, to jump to the endgame sequence, and for a number of other things. Activates Change what activates this event. Special events may be activated in one of four ways. Either by being walked on, looked at, pushed, or having a specific item dropped here. Effect Specifies the effect produced when this event is activated. Can be strength, dexterity, or intelligence +1 (the player will be prompted for which player to grant this to), completes a quest, jumps to the endgame sequence, play a specified music, display an image, or generate an item. Some important notes on how these work differently: If this event is used to increase an ability, and there is an item requirement (see below), that item will be destroyed when the ability is increased. For all other effects, you can specify an item requirement but the item will NOT be destroyed. If this is used to play a music, you will be prompted for the song number, which will play in the background of this menu. In the game, this will play until the player leaves the map or until another music event is called. If display image is selected, you will be prompted for an image #. The proper format is 320x200, 256 colors, pcx format, any palette may be used. These should be stored in the images\ subdirectory and be named 001.pcx, 002.pcx, etc, as many as you like. Specifying an image# that does not exist will most likely cause problems (the program dosn't know how many images are there). If generate item is selected, the item will be added to the map at the x/y coordinate of the event. Requires Item Can specify an item that is required before this event activates Requires Quest Can specify a quest# be completed before this can be used (see section 6b for more on quests) View/Change Look Text This text is displayed when the event is [L]ooked at. View/Change Failed Req Text This text is displayed if the player attempts to activate this event, but does not meet the item and or quest requirements. 5c.07 NPCs You can have up to 50 npcs on each map. Adding or editing an NPC will take you to the Add/Edit an NPC menu. 5c.07.a ADD/EDIT AN NPC MENU Name The NPCs Name Class Can be any of the 16 configurable classes, or one of two NPC only classes, peasant and guard. Peasants can be equipped with whatever you want to equip them with (actually, any NPC can be be equipped with anything) but they are very poor fighters and only get 20 HP per level of experience. Guards are good fighters, get 30 HP per level, and serve a special purpose in the game. If the player attacks an NPC (any NPC), and kills that NPC, every NPC of this class will seek him out and attempt to destroy him in retribution. Also, when attacked by a guard, the party will be confronted with duplicates of this NPC, based on the NPCs level. For example, if you create a level 8 guard, and this guard attacks the party, the party will be facing 8 guards in combat, all clones of each other. If a player manages to escape town, he can return and the guards will not attack him. However the NPC he had killed will have recovered as well. Level NPC's experience level Align Good, neutral, or evil. A summary of the NPCs morality. Dosn't affect anything in the game at this point. Str Dex Int NPCs abilitys Edit Items/Equipment Select this to specify the NPCs equipment View/Edit Greeting This is the message which is first displayed when the player [T]alks to this NPC View/Edit Farewell This is the message which is displayed when conversation is ended View/Edit Keywords Takes you to the NPC keywords submenu. Documented furthur under 5c.07.b. Change Picture Change the picture used for this NPC. Change NPC Location/This Hour Allows you to specify where the NPC should be at this hour. NPCs can be placed in a different location at each hour of the day. They will move from location to location, following the schedule that you have set up. Note that it is important to setup an NPC walkmap as well so that they dont get lost (see section ). To elaborate on NPC schedules, you would use this command in conjunction with the [W] (timewarp) function in order to setup a daily schedule for your NPC. [W]arp to 9am, [F]ind your NPC, press space, Select this option, move him to where he should be. [W]arp to the next hour, [F]ind your NPC, move him, etc, for each hour. Behavior/This Hour Is either fixed/normal, sleeping, merchant/offwork. A fixed/normal NPC responds to keywords normally. A sleeping NPC cannot be talked to (he's sleeping). A merchant/offwork NPC will not offer any of his services (he's not at work right now). 5c.07.b NPC KEYWORDS Interaction with NPCs in Dragon Engine is keyword based. This means that you type in a keyword relating to what you would like to talk about, and the NPC responds (as long as it's a keyword that the NPC understands). Generally the keywords "name" and "job" are understood by all NPCs. This isn't a given, though, you can input any keywords you like. But for the sake of the player being able to figure out what else to ask about, it's a good idea to always have name and job as keywords. To make thing easier for the player, keywords which the NPC understands are always highlighted in yellow within his responses. 5c.07.b.1 NPC KEYWORD EDITOR Press ] and [, or N and P to cycle through the 20 possible keywords that an NPC can have. Press K to type the keyword. Press R to enter the response. Press [E] to attach an event to this keyword. This event occurrs when the keyword is type and happens in addition to the response text. This will only happen if the requirements are met (more on that in a bit). Here are the keyword events: None Default. Does nothing but display the response text. Joins the Party NPC will offer to join the player's adventuring party. Sells Items NPC offers items for sale to the player. Which items are for sale, and at what price, can be changed by pressing [I] from the keyword editor. Buys Items NPC offers to buy items from the player. He will offer whatever amount of gold is specified as the item's value. This is changed within the item editor (section 5g). Offers a Room (Is an Innkeeper) Offers the player a room for his party. Note that unless you specify a requirement, typing this keyword will jump directly to the "You have a good night's sleep" script. Will restore all HP and MP for the party and will skip ahead to dawn of the next day. Completes a Quest Completes a quest#. More info on quests in section 6b. Trains Party Member Will offer to train a party member. You will be prompted for the the attributes to increase and the amount that they should be increased by. Heals Party Member Completely restores a party member's hitpoints. Cures Party Member Cures poison from a party member. Resurrects Party Member Revives a party memeber who is at 0 HP. Display Text File Displays a text file. The format for storing these in is elaborated on in section 5c.06.c. Sells Spells NPC offers to sell spells to the player. Modify which spells and for how much by pressing [I] from the keyword editor. Give Item/Completes Quest A double event which gives an item and (optionally) can also complete a quest. The reason for the tacked on "completes quest" is that if this were not present, the player could continually type this command and recieve duplicates of the item. By requiring that a specific quest not be completed, and have it be completed when this item is given, you can prevent this. Yes/No Question Player recieves a "Yes/No" prompt at the end of the response to this keyword. To specify what happens for each of these, go forward one keyword (this will say "Answered Yes" instead of Keyword:), and forward two keywords (this is where "Answered No" will be). Press [R] to specify a requirement to this keyword. If the player types this keyword and fails to meet the requirements, he will see the requirement not met text instead of the actual response. You can edit this by pressing [O]. Options for requirements are: Nothing The default. Nothing required. Gold You will be prompted for the amount. Player will be prompted with "This will cost (x amount) of gold. Pay (Y/N)?". Level Is Above Player's level must be above a specified number. Level Is Below Player's level must be below a certain number. Quest is Completed A quest # must be completed (more info on quests under section 6b). Party Has Item Checks to see if a certain item is in the group inventory. Does not destroy that item. Item/Payment Checks to see if a specified item is in the group inventory. Then destroys that item and triggers the event. Quest is Not Completed Only triggers an event if a quest has not been completed (Quests 6b). 5c.07.c ROOFS The roof layer is a layer of simple tiles which are displayed on top of the party icon if the party walks underneath them. Userful for an overhanging portcullis. These tiles do not animate. 5c.07.d ROAMING MONSTERS Roaming monsters are icons which attempt to reach the party. Once this happens, the party will be transported to a room to do combat with a group of monsters. After combat has been completed (the party has won or ran away), the party will be transported back to the original map and this icon will be destroyed. 5c.07.d.1 ADD/EDIT ROAMING MONSTER MENU Change Picture Select this to change the graphic used for this roaming band of monsters. View/Edit Combat Location Select this to specify which room the party will be teleported to for it's combat encounter. Movement Is either Land Only, Water, or Flying. If Land Only, this roaming monster cannot move over barriers but can move over open areas. If water, the monster can only move on barrier tiles which are level 1 barriers. If flying, this monster can roam over any open or barrier tile. 5c.07.e NPC WALKMAP The NPC walkmap is used by NPCs to find their way from one location to another. You don't need to define this unless you decide to give your NPC's schedules; that is, if you decide to have them be in different places during the day. Simply connect all NPC locations by drawing pathways in the NPC walkmap layer. NPCs will walk on the walkmap and no-where else. Note that you can draw the walkmap over impassable objects and the NPC will be able to walk over these objects, but the player will not. 5f. GLOBALS These are values which affect the game's starting parameteres, introduction and endgame sequences, as well as several global game variables. 5f.01 GAME PROPERTIES MENU (GLOBALS) Page 1 Press ] and [ to cycle between pages 1 and 2 Game Name A name for your game. Number of Maps The number of map files that your game is using. When you create new maps from the init game menu, you will need to change this value to reflect how many maps you are now using, otherwise the game does not recognize the new maps. Start Time When a new game is started the hour will be this (1-24) Start Food The amount of food the player begins with Start Gold The amount of gold the player begins with Start Level What level the player's party members begin at Edit Chest Type Lets you specify the chest types, used by chests and search/chest type items. Covered under more detail in section 5f.02 Set Default Door Tile By default, when you create a door in the Tile Editor (section 5n), the "reverts to" value will default to whatever you set the default door value to. I.E., when a door is unlocked and reverts to a not- locked door, this is the default door that it will revert to. Set Default Fill Tile By default, when new map is created, it will be filled with whatever tile that you specify here. Mage1 Name Mage2 Name Dragon Engine support two branches of magic. You can name these whatever you like. In the example game we have red and blue magic, in traditional RPGs it's usually mage and cleric. Classes can use one, both, or none of these. Nightfall/Daybreak In 24 hour format, nightfall is the hour at which night begins, and daybreak is the hour at which day begins. Starting Items At present isn't supported Page 2 Starting Party Is either custom or 1 PC/Class 1. If this is custom, after beginning a new game the player gets to generate an party of adventuring characters. If set to 1 PC/Class 1, the player begins with only one player character whose class will be whatever you have defined the first class to be (in the class editor). If beginning with only one PC, it is assumed that you will provide the player with NPCs who will offer to join his party. Party/Num Is not used if beginning with only 1 pc. This specifys how many characters the player will be able to generate at the beginning of the game. Any number between 1 and 6. Statistics Are Stat/Base or Stat Minimum Stat/Bonus or Stat Maximum This is always "Fixed" or "Rolled". If statistics are fixed, each new character that the player creates has "Stat/Base" in each ability, and "Stats/Bonus" as bonus points to to distribute among the three abilitys. If statistics are rolled, each new character that the player creates begins with a random value in each of the statistics, the highest possible value begin "stat maximum" and the lowest possible value being "stat minimum". The player can re-roll these as many times as he likes. Intro Text 1 Intro Animation Intro Text 2 This affects what is displayed when "View Introduction" is selected from the play game menu. These can all be toggled on and off (Yes or No). If intro text 1 is yes, the textfile intro1.txt from the text\ subdirectory is displayed at the beginning of the introduction. If intro animation is yes, the file intro.fli from the main game directory will be played. If intro text 2 is yes, the file intro2.txt from the text\ subdirectory will be displayed after the animation is played. Any of all of these can be used. Support for displaying full screen graphics as part of the intro is forthcoming. The format of intro1.txt and intro2.txt are elaborated on in section 6c. Title Animation Is either no, if no title animations have been designed, or is Yes followed by a number (1-5). You may create up to five title screen animations in the title screen animation editor (section 5m). A random title screen animation will be loaded when the game starts. Win Game Text 1 Win Game Animation Win Game Text 2 This affects what is displayed when the endgame event is called from within the game (player has won the game). These can all be toggled on and off (Yes or No). If win game text 1 is yes, the textfile ending1.txt from the text\ subdirectory is displayed at the beginning of the end game sequence. If win game animation is yes, the file ending.fli from the main game directory will be played. If win game text 2 is yes, the file ending2.txt from the text\ subdirectory will be displayed after the animation is played. Any of all of these can be used. The format of ending1.txt and ending2.txt is elaborated on under section 6c. 5f.02 EDITING CHEST TYPES MENU Chest Type Which chest type you are editing. Dragon Engine supports 100 different kinds of chest types. Locked Several options are available here: No, Yes, Pick, Yes-Key 1, Yes-Key 2, Yes-Key 3, Yes-Key 4, Yes-Magical. No means the chest is not locked. Yes-Pick means that the chest can be opened with a lockpick. Yes-Key1-4 means that the chest may only be opened by a key of the corresponding type. Note that while up to 255 different kinds of keys are possible in Dragon Engine, only doors support all 255. Chests may only be unlocked by the first four types. Yes-Magical means that the chest has been locked by a magical spell. It may only be opened by a magical "open" spell. Slot1- Slot10 10 slots in which an item and a percentage change that this item will appear may be specified. Each chest can have 10 possible items in it, with a percentage chance (1-100) that this item will actually appear when a chest of this type is opened. For each item, you must also specify the number of that item that appears (between x and x). ]/Next Chest [/Previous Chest Select these to move forward one chest type or back one chest type Quit to Main Returns you to the globals menu 5g ITEMS Items are a wide category of objects. At the ground layer of the map sit the tiles, a collection of largely uninteractive objects which provide the backdrop for the more complicated layers above them. On the ground layer sit trees, grass, the floors and walls of rooms, doors. On top of these sit complex objects like furniture, weapons, chests, rings, scrolls, magical fields, frigates. These are all items and reside in the items layer. 5g.01 ITEMS MENU (ITEM EDITOR) Item Displayed the item number and item name. If you selection this, you can jump to an item by #. Type Item 1 is always the currency used by the game. For every other item, this can be any of the following: Basic, Usable, Weapon, 2Hnd Weapon, Helmet, Shield, Armor (Body), Necklace, Ring, Transport, Furnitue/Fields/Etc, Food. Basic items can be picked up, but cannot be used or equipped. Usable items can be used in some way. Their effect depends on their Function (see function below). Weapons can be equipped for use as a weapon. A shield may also be equipped. 2Hnd Weapons (two handed weapons) can be equipped as a weapon. A shield may not be equipped with a two handed weapon. Helmets may be equipped in the helmet slot (and increase defence). Shields may be equipped in the shield slot (and increase defence). Armor (Body) can be equipped in the body armor slot (increase def). Necklaces can be equipped in the necklace slot, and can preform a wide variety of functions (depends on function, see function below) Rings can be equipped in the ring slot and serve some kind of function (depends on function, see function below). Transports cannot be picked up, but they can be boarded. They grant the ability to pass over barriers. What kind of barriers depends on this item's power (see power below). Furniture/Fields/Etc is a kind of "catch-all" for items that cannot be picked up. These may or may not serve a function (see function below). Food items will add to the party's total food when picked up. The amount of food they add is determined by the power of the item (see power below for more). Value The value, in currency, of the item. This is only used in the game for NPCs who buy items from players. (NPCs who buy items will offer whatever is specified under value for that item). Class Restrictions This allows you to specify which classes can equip this item and which cannot. Only used by equippable items. C/Function What exactly the item does. If the item is basic, a weapon, or armor, this is not used. If the item is Usable, this can be set to any of the following: heal, cure, view, pick, key, tells time, acts as spell, grants light, or displays image. Heal restores HP on a single party member. The amount if specified under power. Cure removes poison from a single party member. View displays a view of the current map from far above the player's current location. Pick defines the item as a lockpick. The player can use this item to unlock chests and doors of the type "locked, pick". Key type items are used to unlock doors that require a specific key type. The type of the key is a number between 1 and 255 and is set under P/Key. Tells time will display the current time when the object is used. Acts as spell will trigger the effect of a spell when the item is used. This is defined under P/Spell (you must enter the spell #). Grants light will create a light radius around the party icon, or around a single party member if the party is currently in a room. The duration of the light (in minutes) is defined under P/Durtn, and Range defines how big the light radius is (between 1 and 6). Displays image will display a full screen graphic from the images\ directory when the item is used. Good for a map, scroll, or picture type object. Files in this directory should be 320x200, 256 colors, in any palette, and named 001.pcx, 002.pcx, etc. The picture is specified by number under P/Image. If the item is a ring or necklace, the function can be normal, protection, regeneration, spell/immune 1. Normal rings/necklaces have no effect when worn. Protection grants a bonus to defence (defined under power). Regeneration heals back 1 HP per round while they are worn. Spell/Immune 1 gives the wearer immunity to all level 1 attack spells (this does not currently work, as monsters and NPCs do not cast spells at the party yet). For transports, function is either "Behaves/Ship" or "Free Moving". A behaves/ship transport may only move onto other barrier squares. For example, a ship should only be able to move around on the water, and not sails around on land. On the other hand, free moving transports can move over barriers and over open areas. For example, a flying machine or hot air balloon. If the type is Fields/Furniture/Etc, the function can be: None, Look/Clock, Mirror, Chair/Bed, Chest/Container, Search/Chest Items, Move/Damage, Move/Poison. If set to none the object serves no special function. Look/Clock objects display the time when [L]ooked at Mirror objects display a reflection of the party icon when you stand near them. In the tileset this is referenced as the next tile up. In other words, when you are one square from a mirror object, the next tile in sequence is displayed instead. Mirrors only work on maps (not in rooms). Chair/Bed objects display the next tile in sequence when the party or an NPC occupies the same location on the map. Chest/Container type items will produce items when they are opened. The items produced is based on a chest type and is picked when the item is added to the map or room. You can define the various chest types in the globals menu (see section 5f.02). Search/Chest Items objects work the same way that chest/container objects do, except the items are produced when the player searches this item, instead of opening it. Move/Damage type items will damage the player's party if he moves onto them. The amount of damage dealt is specified under Power. Move/Poison type items will poison the player's party if he moves onto them. Pushable For furniture/fields/etc, this defines wether or not the [P]ush command works on this item. [P]ush allows the player to move items around rooms. Power For weapons and armor, determines the effectiveness of the weapon and or armor in terms of damage for weapons and prevention of damage for armor. A shield with a power of 1 will absorb 1 point of damage. A sword with a power of 5 will do 5 points of damage, although damage is random, is lessened by the target's defence value, and is furthur increased by strength. This is also used by items with functions, although this use is covered under "Function" above. In the case of transports, this specifys what kind of barriers the transport is able to cross. For instance, if you designate all water as barrier level 1, and create a ship that can cross level 1 barriers, the ship will be able to cross the water. Note that a transport with a power of 2 can cross level 1 and level 2 barriers. R/Light Radius For some objects, you are able to specify a light radius. The object will radiate light out to whatever distance you specify here. Range This is used by weapons to specify how many squares away this weapon can reach a target. Melee weapons should generally have a range of 1, missle weapons a range of 3 or higher. R/Seperate Tiles for N/S/E/W R/1 Tile Regardless/Direction Used by transports to specify wether the graphic for that transport changes depending on what direction it is facing. In the example game, the frigate has a seperate graphic for each direction of movement (N/S/E/W). These should all be on the same line in tiles.pcx or tiles2.pcx, and should be in the order west, north, east, south (see tiles.pcx for an example of this). You do not need to have a seperate graphic for each direction of movement, however. U/Blocks Travel For furniture/fields/etc, this defines wether or not the player is able to move into the same square as this item. If it blocks travel, he is not. Uses Item In the case of usable items or weapons, you can define an item requirement before this item may be used. For example, a bow has the item requirement of 1 arrow. You will be prompted for wether or not this item should be destroyed in the process. In the case of a bow, the arrow is destroyed by being fired from the bow, hence you would want to answer yes in this case. Another example of where you would want to use this is with a healing potion. The healing potion requires itself to be used, and destroys itself in the process of being drunk. Maximum# You can specify a maximum number of these that the party may carry at a given time. Useful for quest type items that the party should only own one of at any given time. Also useful to limit the amount of ammunition carried for a particularly powerful weapon. ]/Next Item [/Previous Item Select these to move forward one item, or back one item. X/Change Picture Select this to change this item's graphic Animated All items have the option of being animated. There are five options available in this field: None, 2 frames, 4 frames, 4 frames/pulsate, 4 frames/pulsate/fast. None means the item is not animated. 2 frames means the item has two frames of animation which cycle back and forth from each other. 4 frames will display a 4 frame animation from the tile's starting point, which repeats itself. (Frame 1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4) 4 frames/pulsate displays a 4 frames animation which bounces back and forth between the first and last frame. To clarify, the frame order would be 1-2-3-4-3-2-1-2-3-4-3-2-1. 4 frames/pulsate/fast is the same as the above but animates faster. Z/Rename Select this to rename the item Sound Items may be assigned a sound. For weapons and armor this has no effect. For furnitue type items, you may assign an ambient sound which will be played when the player is within the ambient radius. As the player approaches the object, the sound will be played at an increased volume. As he moves away, the volume decreases. Usable items may be assigned a sound that plays when they are used. Sounds are stored in in the sounds\ subdirectory and should be named sound1.wav, sound2.wav, in sequence. Sounds are specified by number within the program. After picking a sound, it is played back to you in the item editor. Quit Returns you to the edit menu 5h SPELLS Spells are bought from NPCs and cast by the spellcasters in the player's party. 5h.01 SPELL EDITOR Spell Lists the number of the spell you are editing and it's name. Select this to jump to a specific spell #. Type There are several kinds of effects that spells can generate. They are: Heal, Cure, Unlock Magic, Damage, View, Create Item, Grants Light, Destroys Item. Heal spells increase the hitpoints of one party member or the entire party. Cure spells cure poison from one party member or the entire party. Unlock Magic will open a magical door or chest. Damage spells deal damage to one or more monsters. View spells display the current area from far above. May not be used in rooms. Create Item spells generate an item and place it directly into the group inventory. Grants Light spells bestow a light radius onto the caster. Destroys Item spells will destroy a specific item type. Must be cast in a square directly adjacent to that item. An example of this spell would be a negate field spell, which destroys an item called "Poison Field". Amount In the case of healing or damage type spells, the minimum and maximum amount of healding or damage that this spell will cause. This is modified by the caster's intelligence (may be slightly higher). Radius In a grants light spell, defines the light radius produced by the spell. Range In the case of heal or cure spells, may be one of three things: One PC, All PCs, or caster only. One PCs will affect any PC in the party (player's choice). All PCs will affect the entire party. Caster only will benefit the cast himself only (can't be targetted). In the case of damage spells, is either: one enemy, all enemys, or damage/radius. One enemy will affect one enemy targetted by the caster. A range is also specified (number of squares away the target can be). All enemys will affect every enemy in the current combat. Damage/Radius spells affect all enemys within a specified radius. An enemy in the square will be damage, and so will all enemys with x squares of the original enemy. Radius spells need not be targetted directly at a creature. They can be targetted at an empty square and any creatures within the damage radius will still suffer damage. A range is also specified (how many squares away the primary target can be). Class Is either mage1 or mage2. The names of the mage1 and mage2 classes of magic is determined in the globals menu. Note that it is possible to create classes that can cast either kind of magic, both kinds of magic, or no magic at all. Sound Select this to assign a sound to this spell. This sound will play when the spell is cast. Sounds are stored in the sounds\ directory. They should be named sound1.wav, sound2.wav, in sequence. Specify the sound you would like to use by it's number. The sound will then be played within the editor for confirmation. Cost (MP) The amount of magic points consumed by this spell Cost (Item1-Item3) In addition to requiring magic points, spells can require up to three items in order to be cast. These items will be consumed by the casting of the spell. Special Does not yet do anything. Spell Level What experience level is required in order to learn this spell. NPCs will refuse to teach spells to underqualified spellcasters. ]/Next Spell [/Previous Spell Select these to move forward one spell, or back one spell. Quit to Main Return to the Edit Menu 5i CLASSES You can design up to 16 different character classes. Note that the item editor allows you to limit the use of any weapon or armor to any combination of classes that you like. Character classes are professions chosen by PCs or NPCs which determine their skills in certain areas. 5i.01 CLASS EDITOR Str (Base) Dex (Base) Int (Base) Represents the lowest scores that a PC/NPC should have in each of the three stats in order to be a member of this class. Is not used by the game at the present time. XP/Level2 How many experience points are required for this class to reach level 2. This determines experience required for each level after that, as well. If this class requires 200 xp for level 2, he will requires 400 for level 3, 800 for level 4, 1600 for level 5, etc. Note that level 8 is the maximum level in the current version of Dragon Engine. HP/Level1 How many hitpoints this class has at it's first level. Hit points determiend how much damage this character can withstand before dying. Each level earned will increase the amount of hitpoints by this same amount (30 at level 1, 60 at level 2, 90 at level 3, etc). Bonus Classes can be given a bonus. Options are: None, Hand Combat, +1 STR/Trainers, +1/DEX/Trainers, +1/INT/Trainers, 2x Heal Spells, 2x Damage Spells. If none then the class gets no special bonus. Hand Combat allows this class to deal an large amount of damage in unarmed combat. The amount of damage dealt will go up as level increases, eventually reaching the equivalent of a weapon with a power of approximately 20 (at level 8). +1/STR ... INT/Trainers allows you to give this class an automatic bonus when they visit and trainer and increase in level. Trainers increase ability in addition to promoting a PC to the next level. This bonus will be added onto whatever bonus is granted by the trainers at each training session. 2x Heal Spells gives the class double effectiveness with healing spells (the amount values for these spells will be doubled). A very powerful ability. 2x Damage Spells gives the class double effectiveness with damage spells (the amount of damage dealt by these spells is doubled). A very powerful ability, use with caution. Limit None means that the class has no special limit. Must Train/Same Class requires that this class may only be trained by members of the same class. Spells Here you may specify wether this class may learn no magic, mage 1 type magic, mage 2 type magic, or both kinds of magic. Spell Level Max Here you can put a limit to the maximum level of spells that this class is able to learn. For example, if a class is able to cast both kinds of magic, but has a spell level max of 6, this class has a wide variety of spells but cannot cast any 7th or 8th level spells. MP This is the base amount of magical points that this class will recieve. If the class cannot cast spells, this will always be NA. Other options are INT, 1/2 INT, and 2x INT. Magic points are derived from intelligence. If this is set to INT, this class's magic points will be equal to it's intelligence. If 1/2, it is only half of the intelligence value, and if 2x, it is twice the intelligence value. Magic points are required to cast spells. ]/Next Class [/Previous Class Select this to go forward or back one class Rename Select this to rename the current class Quit to Main Returns you to the edit menu 5j CREATURES You can create up to 200 different kinds of creatures to populate your world. 5j.01 EDITING CREATURE MENU (EDIT CREATURES) Name Select this to change the creature's name. Change Picture Select this to pick a new picture for the monster. HP The number of hitpoints that the creature has. MP The number of magic points that the creature has (not yet used). DEF Creatures defence value. Damage dealt to this creature is subtracted first by the DEF before it is dealt. The higher this value, the less damage will be dealt to it by attacks. Abilities/Limitations Takes you to a subscreen with several toggles. Each of these values affects the strengths and weakness of this creature. Flight: If the creature has flight, it will be able to move over any open area and any barriers (water, low mountains, etc). Poison: The creature either is not poisonous, poisons randomly, or always poisons when it successfully hits a party member. Poison will cause hitpoints to drop steadily until a cure spell or potion is used, or a healer reached. Random poisoning has a fairly low success rate. Divides/Hit: Dividing creatures will split into two creatures when struck by a weapon. This can be set to not divide, divide at random, or always divide when hit. Intelligence: A general intelligence rating for the creature. Does not currently affect the game. Movement: Is either normal (moves 1 square per turn), 2x normal (moves two squares a turn), or can't move (cannot move at all). Phys/Dmg: Lets you specify how much damage is dealt to this creature by physical attacks (weapons). Normals means just that (full damage dealt), 2x normally gives the monsters an achilless heel againts weapons, and if no effect is selected, the monster will not be damaged by weapons at all. Magc/Dmg: Works exactly like Phys/Dmg above, but pretains to the amount of damage the creature recieves from magical spells. Barrier Roamer: A barrier roamer can only walk onto squares which are barriers of some kind. An example of this would be a sea serpent. He can only move around on level 1 barriers (water tiles). This is either No (not a barrier roamer), Yes/Own Type (the sea serpent example) or Yes/Any Type (the be used in special situations, this creature can walk onto any square which is a barrier of some kind, even if it is a higher or lower level than the barrier he is currently on). Damage The amount of damage dealt by this creature's physical attacks. Has a minimum and maximum value (creature deals a random value between these two numbers, minus whatever defence value the target has). Range The number of square away this create can attack a target Chance to Hit A percentage chance, between 1 and 100, that the creature's attack will strike it's target. If the target has a high dexterity, the creature suffers a penalty to this value. O/Sound You may assign a sound for this creature. This sound will be played whenever the creature attacks. Sounds are stored in the sounds\ directory. They should be named sound1.wav, sound2.wav, in sequence. Specify the sound you would like to use by it's number. The sound will then be played within the editor for confirmation. View/Edit Spells Assign up to three spells that this creature is able to cast. Isn't used in the game yet. I/View/Edit Items You may assign up to three items that this creature is carrying. If you pick a chest, you can choose the chest type. XP Value The amount of experience points earned by a player when destroying this creature. Player character only earn XP if they are the one who stuck the fatal blow. Jump to Creature # Allows you to specify a creature # and jump directly to that creature. ]/Next Creature [/Previous Creature Select this to move forward one creature or back one creature Quit to Edit Menu Returns to the Edit Menu 5k ROOMS Rooms are single screens containing tiles, items, and creatures. They can be linked togethor in several ways (by stairs, by connecting them directly togethor, by linking to them from maps, etc). Rooms are used primarily for combat, maps are used for interactivity and detail. If you create a series of rooms that is accessible from the map (for instance, the dungons and towers in the example game) you have set up a good place for the player to earn experience points and equipment. While a player is exploring a series of rooms, the monsters do not reappear when he leaves a room and goes back into it. However, if he leaves the series of rooms and returns later, all of the monsters will have reappeared, and he can fight them again. This is also good for setting up a challenging set of rooms that must be crossed before some sort of goal can be achieved. If the player gives up half way through and leaves, when he returns all of the monsters will have respawned. Note that visual blocking (line of sight) does not work in rooms. Lighting effects do, however. All rooms are layed out in a grid of 10x by 50y rooms. That's a total of 500 possible rooms. At present this is not configurable. Also, when walking out of boundaries within a room, the party is taken either to another room or to a map. This is specified in the room properties (more on that in section 5k.02). Note that this does NOT apply, if the party was whisked into this room through a roaming monster combat event. In this case, walking out of bounds will return the party to the location at which they encountered the roaming monster. 5k.01 THE ROOM EDITOR Notice that in the upper right-hand area of the screen, you will always see the currently selected object, as well as three values: I (the number of items), E (the number of events, not currently used), and M (the number of creatures). You are limited to 30 items and 20 monsters (creatures) in a single room. 5k.01.a THE MOUSE Note that the mouse functions almost exactly as it does in the map editor within the room editor. See section 5c.01 THE MOUSE for information on the function of the left and right mouse buttons and the various mouse cursors. Also note that tile groupings work the same way, also described in this same section (5c.01). Also note that there is a row of icons at the bottom of the map display. These function slightly differently than the ones in the map editor. From left to right, here are their functions: Tree: Edit the ground layer * Glowing E: Edit the events layer (no events in room yet, not used) * Glowing Gem: Edit the Items layer * Goblin: Add creatures/edit the creature layer * L: Reload this room S: Save this room R: Go to another room T: Jump to the tile editor (section 5n) P: Room properties (section 5k.02) Q: Return to the edit menu * layers are explained under section 6a 5k.01.b THE KEYBOARD Use the arrow keys to move. [SPACE] adds the selected object to the current square. [C]hange layer (edit a different layer) * [L] Reload Room [P]roperties Menu (section 5k.02) [Q]uit to the Edit Menu [R] switch to a different room [S]ave Room [T] jumps to the tile editor (section 5n) 5k.01.c A WORD ON EDITING ROOMS Rooms are very straightforwad and uncomplicated. Add items, and creatures, do the ground layer in the usual fashion. The only important thing to learn about them that is different than maps is the properties screen and how it links rooms to rooms, and rooms to maps (see next section). 5k.02 ROOM PROPERTIES North South East West Select these to specify where the party will end up if they walk out of bounds in any of these directions. This will always lead them to the room in that direction, or to map. If you do not want the party walking out of bounds and into an inappropriate room (something used for a different purpose), be sure to wall up your room and make passage in that direction impossible. Stairup Stairdown When moving onto a stairup or stairdown type tile, and pressing [K]limb, the party will exit to whatever location you specify here. This can be a room, or a map. Battle Music The song played while the party is fighting creatures in this room. Entered as a number. Music in Dragon Engine reside in the music\ subdirectory, and are named music1.mid, music2.mid, etc. Room Music The song played when there are no monsters to fight in this room. As soon as battle has ended, this music will play. Or, if there were never any monsters to begin with. Done Return to the room editor 5l TILE GROUPINGS Tile groupings are used to make editing the ground layer of maps easier. With a total possible 1024 tiles, select tiles through the tile editor became tedious. This editor allows you to create custom palettes of tiles. You may create up to 30 groupings of tiles. 51.01 TILE GROUPINGS EDITOR Click the mouse on any slot in the tile grouping, and you will be prompted to pick which tile you would like to occupy that slot. Pressing N allows you to rename the tile groupig. Press ]/[ to move forward and back through the different groupings. Press Escape to return to the edit menu 5m TITLE SCREEN ANIMATIONS Title screen animations add flavor to your game. They serve as an "attract mode", ideally they should get the viewer excited about the prospect of playing your game. They can also be used to tell parts of the game story that might otherwise be difficult. You can create up to 5 title screen animations. The fisrt one is always loaded when playgame.exe is run. Everytime you return to the title screen after that, a random one will be loaded. Note that if you want to increase the number of title screen animations, you must go into the globals menu and increase the number listed there. Each title screen animation has a maximum of 200 frames. 5m.01 TITLE SCREEN ANIMATION EDITOR In the center of the screen is the current frame of the animation. Click on the tile surrounded by a box on the right hand side to select a new tile. You can choose from any of the three graphical sets, tiles, monsters, or NPCs/PCs. Once you have selected a tile, draw using the mouse into the current frame. Simple as that. Keep in mind that this is a simple graphics cut and paste job, visual blocking, etc, is not supported here, so if you want to simulate it (as I did in the three animations in the example game), you will have to fake it by drawing onto certain areas with a blank tile. Press F to fill the entire frame with the selected tile. Once you have a frame done, you can copy it to the other frames. Press N to copy the current frame to the next frame in sequence. Press C to copy the current frame to all remaining frames. Press ]/[ to go forward and backward through the frames of animation. Once the animation seems done, Press S to set the current frame as the final frame. Press Q when done to return to the editor menu. 5n. TILE EDITOR 5n.01 TILE SELECT SCREEN This screen displays 128 of the 1024 possible tiles at a tile. [S]elects a tile. You can also click on a tile to select it. If you are in the room or map editor, and editing the ground layer, this will return you to the editor. [N]ext screen proceeds to the next screenful of tiles [ESC] aborts [A]ttributes takes you to the attributes screen. This is where you define the attributes for ground-layer tiles. This affects how they behave and how the player can interact with them (see next section). 5n.02 TILE ATTRIBUTES SCREEN This particular screen does not recognize the mouse. [N]ame Lets you name this tile. Keep in mind this is what is displayed when the player [L]ooks at this tile. Animated All tiles can be animated. There are several options for animation: No: tile is not animated 2 Frames: A 2 frame repeating animation (1-2-1-2-1-2-1-2). 4 Frames: A 4 frame repeating animation (1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4). Scrolling: Used for the water in the example game. The tile will scroll pixel by pixel and warp around itself. 2 Frames/Fast: 2 frame repeating, only faster. 4 Frames/Fast: 4 frame repeating, faster. 4 Frames/Fastest: 4 frame repeating, fastest. 4 Frames/Pulsate: 4 frame pulsating, order (1-2-3-4-3-2-1-2-3-4-3-2-1). 4 Frames/Pulsate/Fast: As above but faster Page/Up Page/Down Changes the Animation used by this tile [B]locked Toggles wether or not this tile blocks travel. A tile that blocks travel cannot be passed by any means. [S]low Toggles wether or not this tile causes "slow progress". It takes more time and, eventually, more food to move over slow progress type tiles. [O]paque Toggles wether or not this tile obstructs vision. If toggles, the player cannot see objects on the other side of this object. [T]ype Affects how this tile behaves. Values are: None: This tile does not except for being a tile Door: When the payer moves over this type, plays the opening door sound, and says "Opened!" Door-Locked,Pick: A locked door that requires a lockpick to be opened Door-Locked,Magical: A locked door which can be opened with an "open" type spell. Door-Locked,Key: A locked door which requires a specific key type to be opened. Key type is specified under [M]od. Door-Secret: A wall or similar object which turns into a door when the player [S]earches this tile. Stair Up: Act as a stairway leading up. If the player moves onto this tile and presses [K]limb, he will be taken to same x/y location on the "StairUp" map specified under map properties. Stair Down: As above, except the player will be taken to the "StairDown" map. Barrier: Barriers can only be crossed by a player who has found a transport. The level of the barrier is specified under [M]od. A level 1 transport cannot cross level 2 barriers, but a level 2 transport can cross level 1 barriers and level 2 barriers. Damage: Deals damage to the player's party if he moves onto this square. The amount is entered under [M]od. Also, you can specify that it be prevented if a quest has not been completed (also set under mod). Poison: Poisons the player's party if he moves onto this square. Cannot be prevented. [M]od Affects eevents of certain types. See [T]ype above. [L]ight Radius Use this to assign a light radius to this tile. The value you want to enter here is radius of the light (the number of square out from the tile that the light should extend. [Z]ound (sound) Assign a sound to this tile. How it works depends on sound radius, below. [R]/Sound Radius If set to 0, this sound will be played when the player walks onto this square. For instance, a squishing sound would be good for a swamp square. If set to a higher value, this sound will play as an ambient sound when the player approaches this tile. As he approaches, the sound will get louder. As he retreats, the sound gets quieter. ]/[: Next/Prev Tile Select this to go foward/back in the tile list [ESC] (escape) Select this to return to the tile select screen 6. APPENDICES Here are various relevant pieces of information that don't have anything to do with 6a. LAYERS Maps are composed of layers. Each layer contains a different kind of object. When dealing with maps ... The bottom layer is called the Ground layer. This layer contains background objects which can sometimes be interacted with but cannot be picked up. Ground layer objects are called tiles. They comprise the background over which everything else is placed. The second layer is the events layer. Event cannot be seen by the player. They are used to assign special properties to ordinary looking squares. You can have up to 50 events per map. Events are used to create portals to other maps and as monster generators, among other things. The third layer is the items layer. Items are objects which can be picked up, pushed, or other interacted with in ways that tiles cannot. The fourth layer is the NPC layer. NPCs are non-player characters, the intelligent inhabitants of your game world. Townspeople, guards, shopkeepers, potential party members. You may have up to 50 NPCs per map. The fifth layer is the roof layer. Only used in a few circumstances, this is a layer of tiles which is displayed above the previous four layers, and above the party icon. For example, a roof tile could be a open portcullis. When the party walks into this square, they will walk under the portcullis, giving an illusion of three dimensions. Roof objects are not animated. The sixth layer is the roaming monster layer. Roaming monsters are probably better thought of as roaming encounters, they are events which will attempt to track down the party. If they reach the party, they will be whisked to a specified combat event. If they win the combat (or escape), they will be returned to the map, and the roaming monster will vanish. The NPC Walkmap is an important layer if you want your NPCs to be in different locations at different times of the day. NPCs aren't very smart when it comes to moving from one location to another, they need a path to follow. Using the walkmap layer, you should connect all NPC locations to another by drawing paths between them. When dealing with rooms ... There are only four layers. Ground layer, portals/events layer, items, and monster layer. These behave exactly as the map counterparts behave, except that the monsters within rooms are actual creatures, and not combat events. 6b. QUESTS Simply put, quests are a set of 100 flags which are all set to FALSE when the game begins. A FALSE quest represents an uncompleted task. Throughout the game, various events or NPC interactions can "complete" quests, that is, set their value to TRUE. In addition, you can have certain other events or NPC interactions which will not occur unless a specified quest # has been completed. Unfortunatly I havn't figured out an easy way to keep track of what each of these quests represents within the program, so I would advice you to keep a piece of paper (or perhaps a textfile) and keep track of what you are using each of these 100 variables for. 6c. INTRO1.TXT, ENDING1.TXT, etc These files should be in the following format. Create a text file in notepad (windows) or EDIT.EXE (dos). Now begin typing the text. Do not go past the 40th column (no more than 40 characters on each line). At the end of each line, hit enter. At the end of the file, type "END" in capital letters. Save the file as either intro1.txt, intro2.txt, ending1.txt, ending2.txt, depending on where you are wanting this to appear (refer back to introduction or endgame furthur up in this document). 6d. HOW DO I? QUESTIONS 6d.01 HOW DO I CHANGE THE GRAPHICS IN MY GAME? You will need to edit the files tiles.pcx, tiles2.pcx, chars.pcx, and monsters.pcx in a paint program. Each of these files has a different purpose: tiles.pcx & tiles2.pcx These contain the 1024 tiles which are used for items and ground layer tiles. chars.pcx Contains the graphics used for NPCs and player characters monsters.pcx Contains the creature graphics If you don't have a paint program, try Neopaint! It's available for DOS and windows, and is very well suited to this kind of graphics editing. Whats more, it's shareware. Neopaint can be found at http://www.neosoftware.com You can also change the animated border which is displayed during playgame. This is contained in the files back1.pcx, back2.pcx, back3.pcx, and back4.pcx. 6d.02 WHERE CAN I FIND THE LATEST VERSIONS? At the Dragon Engine Homepage: http://www4.50megs.com/litmus/de.html 6d.03 CAN I WORK ON MY GAME NOW, OR SHOULD I WAIT UNTIL THE FINAL VERSION IS RELEASED? At this point, the format that the game is saved in is final. Anything that you create using this version of Dragon Engine will work with all future version of Dragon Engine. So by all means, please make something. 6d.04 I'VE FOUND A BUG Great! Email it to debugreport@mailcity.com 6d.04 I'VE GOT OTHER QUESTIONS ... or WHERE CAN I REACH YOU? Email me at litmusdragon@mailcity.com My ICQ # is 32709223 7. TROUBLESHOOTING 7a. THE PROGRAM CRASHES ON MY SYSTEM Please email your system specs to debugreport@mailcity.com with as much description as possible, particularly if the program is crashing at a certain time, or if it is crashing as soon as it is launched, if an error message is reported, etc. 7b. EVERYTHING IS MOVING TOO FAST/TOO SLOW This is probably related to a value in dengine.cfg called delay. This affects how long pauses in the game will be. This affects everything from animation to the interface. For my celeron 433 system, I have the delay set at 150 and this works well. For a lower end system, this should be a smaller value. Find a text editor (for windows this would be notepad, for DOS it would be EDIT) and open Dengine.CFG in that text editor. Look for the following line: delay =150 Now, change this value. If animation is too fast and the controls are jerky, increase this value. If animation is slow and controls sluggish, decrease it. 100 is a ballpark figure for a pentium 200, 200 is an educated guess for a 800 mhz athalon. 7c. THE CONTROLS ARE TOO TOUCHY/SLUGGISH This is probably related to the delay setting (see above, 7b). 7d. THE MIDI MUSIC SOUNDS TERRIBLE/ISN'T USING MY WAVETABLE If this is the case and you have a wavetable soundcard, the program is not detecting your soundcard properly. The same thing happened to me originally. Here is what fixed it. Open dengine.cfg in a text editor (this would be notepad.exe in windows, EDIT in MS-DOS). Look for this line: midi_card = Now, change this line to ... midi_card = MPU ... and save the file. Most wavetable cards support this protocol. This is definatly worth a try. 7e. SOMETIMES WHEN A MIDI FINISHES PLAYING AND THEN STARTS OVER (IN THE GAME), THE MIDI PLAYBACK GETS SCREWED UP. I've seen this bug. There is a quick fix. Press Q as if you were going to save the game. Then answer No to both questions. The midi will start over, and playback correctly. I'd love to fix this but it's a problem with the library that I am using for midi playback and all of my graphics routines, so it is unlikely to be fixed soon (would require a major code overhaul). This only seems to happen with certain midis, oddly enough. If any midi experts in the audience can tell me what is different about these midis, is it a certain format that causes this, please get back to me with this information. ---- END /_itmus /)ragon (c)2000 Litmus Paper Productions ICQ#32709223 litmusdragon@mailcity.com