NPC Functions

SnowyThing · Post by **SnowyThing** » Sun Jul 07, 2002 6:50 pm

I recall seeing Mages and Sages and people of the likes in Ultima 7 and Serpent Isle mixing potions in cauldrons. I've always wondered why I could never do this. I've tried and tried and tried, but nothing.

Similar 'wannabe' fuctions that I want the avatar to take advantage of is while baking. I see the Baker in Britain making all sorts for pastries and cakes while I can only bake bland bread.

Maybe there's something I'm overlooking? But knowing how much fun baking bread in Ultima VII is and how you told Cantra (option) that you used to bake bread... (or was it the gate guard in Monitor).. baking is an ammenity.

What I'm trying to say, is that maybe Exult can cause a small 'popup' ingame to ask what you'd like to make once you pop the doughball in the fireplace?

Just a thought.

~Snowy

farina00 · Post by **farina00** » Sun Jul 07, 2002 11:06 pm

Forget the cauldron, and prepare to bake bread:

just use flour on a table.
Then drop a bucket of water on the flour to obtain uncooked bread.
Take that and put it into an owen.
Done!
Sometimes you'll be lucky and instead of bread you'll get pastry.

You can also be a tailor: take wool and use it on the spinner. You'll
obtain cloth. Then take cloth, use it on a...uhm... I can't remember the name, well, a tailoring machine, and ta-daa: a dress! Or pants! Who
knows?

IgnitusDragonn · Post by **IgnitusDragonn** » Mon Jul 08, 2002 6:37 am

Well i think he was saying you should be able to do those things, as an option instead of randomly getting pastries or whichever. I agree.
Basicly its like, usecode showing options for what bread you can make then determining after you pick a selection whether you have the right ingrediants. example would be(in pseudo code)

If avatar has flour then the main ingrediant(for bread, cake, pastries) is fulfilled, now move on to the next ingrediant, water, if the avatar has dough then flour and water are skipped, if you wanted to make it easier on yourself to put it in, you could fix it where it'd just look for dough. You need eggs for cake, and fruit for pastries, as far as sugar is concerned...er...well we don't have sugar.
Anyway, when you have the ingredients, you bake, you get cake.

Now, about the cauldron, have a certain mixture of reagents which make a certain potion(you could use the same reagents for the sleep spell as for a sleep potion, and likewise, for a health potion or invisibility, the awake potion would have to use the same reagent as "awaken all" since the awake spell does not use reagents), mix the reagents w/ a flask of water, double click the cauldron and you're set.

The tailoring goes the same way as the baking really, we should be able to make whatever we want.

Post by **artaxerxes** » Mon Jul 08, 2002 7:08 am

this might not work for the potions, since some spells share the exact same ingredients.

Artaxerxes

IgnitusDragonn · Post by **IgnitusDragonn** » Mon Jul 08, 2002 11:09 am

Awaken - Ginseng, Garlic
Cure - Ginseng, Garlic
Light - Sulfurous Ash
Poison - Nightshade, Blood Moss, Black Pearl
Sleep - Nighshade, Sulfurous Ash, Black pearl
Invisibility - Nighshade, Blood Moss
Heal - Ginseng, Garlic, Sulfurous Ash

Thats all the potions right? You could fix the problem by casting a spell on a cauldron with water in it.

raven566 · Post by **raven566** » Mon Jul 08, 2002 2:41 pm

You can MAKE your own potions using cauldrons? I've been playing Ultima 7 for years and I thought I knew everything about it. How exactly do you make potions using cauldrons and reagents??

IgnitusDragonn · Post by **IgnitusDragonn** » Mon Jul 08, 2002 4:34 pm

You can't unless you set your schedule w/ the cheat menu.
We're just talking about possibilities.

Herben · Post by **Herben** » Mon Jul 08, 2002 5:33 pm

Sounds to me like this wouldn't necessarily be an addition to exult, but rather an addition to the game data files. Could be interresting.

SnowyThing · Post by **SnowyThing** » Mon Jul 08, 2002 6:36 pm

It could be, but ever since 1994 or so... I can't remember when, but I played Ultima VII when it was relatively new... and I always wondered why I couldn't bake anything other than bread... and why I couldn't use the shears like the tailor in Britain could (you know how it looks like she is attacking with them, a la Avatar). But, for the players that do enjoy the little extras in the games, well, this would be pure gold.

Too bad that bloody butter churn never worked. (makes you wonder how they even got butter in the game. Apparently it's a meal on it's own, as I've seen in the Blue Boar Inn or Tavern in Britain)

Best of luck!

~Snowy

Feel free to add me to MSN or email me at SnowyThing@hotmail.com
Talk about Ultima is fun.

Ciao

SB-X · Post by **SB-X** » Mon Jul 08, 2002 9:09 pm

The Butter churn in Ultima VI worked fine (tons of other items did too).

SnowyThing · Post by **SnowyThing** » Mon Jul 08, 2002 11:36 pm

Same goes for chairs and other things in Ultima VIII. Things get changed, often not for the best. I guess they didn't want to add three hundred more frames for the avatar so he could sit down. I would have sacrificed walking and attacking animations for more interactivity with objects anyways.

It sounds like it doesn't make sense, but the meaning is there.

~Snowy

IgnitusDragonn · Post by **IgnitusDragonn** » Tue Jul 09, 2002 7:57 am

I'd rather see the Avatar's avatar impacted by the clothing hes wearing instead of how fancy he can fall on his fat arse when trampled by a Torax.
I'm with you SnowyThing, give me complete object utilization or give me death.

P.S This was an idea for a game-data patch, I don't know exactly how it'd come about in being but I think its a good idea.

SnowyThing · Post by **SnowyThing** » Tue Jul 09, 2002 10:09 am

Now as a game-data patch... it draws me to another question.
Can anything else be added to the Ultima VII usecode and graphics?
Such as... fifty more frames of new Avatar animation and object animation without having to rehaul the usecode?
Or is it more than that?

~Snowy teh cat

P.S. DrCode's name reminds me of Dr.Cat :X)

SB-X · Post by **SB-X** » Tue Jul 09, 2002 10:35 am

Aah glad I'm not the only one who thought that about DrCode.

Post by **wjp** » Tue Jul 09, 2002 10:52 am

Dr.Cat? Who?

Post by **Colourless** » Tue Jul 09, 2002 10:54 am

To add more frames of animation to the characters in Ultima VII you would have to overhaul the entire engine. It would not be an easy thing to change.

-Colourless Dragon

IgnitusDragonn · Post by **IgnitusDragonn** » Tue Jul 09, 2002 11:48 am

Colourless, I think you stressed your point a little too much, It would be difficult, but you've got to admit its not impossible, and you wouldn't have to change the entire engine.

Post by **drcode** » Tue Jul 09, 2002 11:49 am

Dr. Cat worked on earlier Ultimas. I believe U6 was one of them, and he's definitely the author of the Gameboy Ultima (Knights of Virtue). He's written an online game called Furcadia, but it seems to be more of a hobby than a business.

IgnitusDragonn · Post by **IgnitusDragonn** » Tue Jul 09, 2002 12:02 pm

Furcadia doesn't seem that great, is it pay to play? I saw some shitty sounding introduction to it, so I didnt go in...

Post by **Darke** » Tue Jul 09, 2002 2:15 pm

Free last time I checked, though I haven't been there in years. (I'm not
much a fan of muds/mucks/moos.) Unfortunately the client is windows
only, although it seems to run using wine. I'd love to get my paws on
the source though to try and make a linux client for it though. *grin*

Darke
(Who should stop daydreaming and get back to work on this
'pentagram' thing. *grin*)

SnowyThing · Post by **SnowyThing** » Tue Jul 09, 2002 3:59 pm

Actually, I'm an avid Furcadia player. Hence the Dr. Cat remark. Though, he goes by Felorin in-game. Ect. He'll be at the AnthroCon in person in Philidelphia these coming days.

Him and 'Manda Dee work on Furcadia (owners) and Furcadia is their project. Their business is 'Dragon's Eye Productions'.

Hmm... Furcadia is 'Forever Free' so you don't have to pay to play. The client is vaguely similar to that of Ultima VI (go figure).

For running under Linux, a player developed a low-graphics intensive version of it. Though you have to look at colored alphanumerical characters as the graphics.

I really suggest you try it out. (Blatant plug, sorry) http://www.furcadia.com

But eventually after several several several several (did I say several) server crashes, you'll realize why it's still in Alpha, even though they started in 1996.

~snowy

MV · Post by MV » Tue Jul 09, 2002 7:58 pm

Baking bread?

Am I the only one that does it the fast and dodgy way?

All I do is empty some flour onto the table then I shift that straight to the oven. Just wait and the plain flour becomes a loaf of bread.

Going to the well for buckets of water is for saps.

Anyone else also notice in exult in the castle kitchen, they bake like crazy?

The table is LOADED with cake, bread, etc. They just keep baking and it keeps piling up. Never did that in the original.

SnowyThing · Post by **SnowyThing** » Wed Jul 10, 2002 1:59 am

Mmm... bread. Is it just me, or does tossing flour in an open fire sound a little dodgy for making bread?

SB-X · Post by **SB-X** » Wed Jul 10, 2002 3:13 am

Hmm. When I thought of Dr.Cat I thought of his best-ultima-character-ever in Ultima VI. I guess it's the same as a few of you who, upon hearing "Lord British", probably think of that royal-like-guy with the purple robes in that big castle building, instead of Richard Garriot.

MV · Post by MV » Wed Jul 10, 2002 4:01 am

Hey, it works. Why waste time with water?

Post by **artaxerxes** » Wed Jul 10, 2002 4:31 am

because in real life, you'd know that lighting flour produce an explosion.

Of course, you need to have the flour flying in a container with a high density but it still works.

I remember in my home land there was a silo that exploded just for that reason.

Artaxerxes

SnowyThing · Post by **SnowyThing** » Wed Jul 10, 2002 5:36 am

Yeah. Compressed grain or wheat dust is highly flammable. Just one spark and Boom! I guess we need to dim Spark's pants down a bit otherwise the next time you're baking..... KA BOOM!

*snickers.*

~snowy

IgnitusDragonn · Post by **IgnitusDragonn** » Wed Jul 10, 2002 6:58 am

Someone should change that bread making bug, I think it's more realistic to only be able to use dough to bake bread.
That would mean making a new item though(I think).
Damn...
Anyway, flour isnt flammable, the alcohol produced when yeast rises is flammable.
If moisture got into the silo and there was yeast in the flour, then yes it would most likely be flammable.
*twixes*

SnowyThing · Post by **SnowyThing** » Wed Jul 10, 2002 7:01 am

But I saw on a show that the dust that grain and stuff makes is indeed flammable. Let's try it in the Flourmill in Paws. (ever wonder why that town is so poor?) Probably after years and years of rebuilding due to explosions.
Hence the cripples. They were former employees of the Flourmill.

IgnitusDragonn · Post by **IgnitusDragonn** » Wed Jul 10, 2002 7:15 am

The town is poor because of the high tax rates and the fact that its between two major cities which takes away from its net monatary gain, it is a middle-town so to speak, it started small and thus has not became bigger because more attention was focused on Trinsic and Britain.
Is it just me, or do these towns have personalities?
Cove...warm...cove-sy, cosy even with a tint of magic.
Trinsic...regal, just...balanced...
Paws...poor(doh)...dirty...amish almost(except those bastards are rich)
Moonglow...poor, but more suburbia than Paws, spread out...a little desolate but beautiful with a creamy feeling(or filling).
Yew...wow...makes me feel like im in Nottingham Forest, homey, a little lonely but really interesting and magical.

SnowyThing · Post by **SnowyThing** » Wed Jul 10, 2002 7:20 am

What about Vesper? More like Arizona-ey or something. Sorta like the Wild West, I suppose. Maybe someone should make a Will Smith NPC to pop in there.

IgnitusDragonn · Post by **IgnitusDragonn** » Wed Jul 10, 2002 7:29 am

Vesper...yeah...arizona-ish.
Then you've got the beach, like Miami, in the north of Vesper.

SnowyThing · Post by **SnowyThing** » Wed Jul 10, 2002 7:36 am

Then in Minoc you've got the drug smuggling scene in the mountains.

Post by **Colourless** » Wed Jul 10, 2002 7:46 am

IgnitusDragonn: Impossible no, but it would still be rather difficult none the less. All over the engine there are a number of assumptions. These are there are never more than 32 frames per shape, and that frames 32 to 63 are frames 0 to 31 mirrored. A number of the data files also make this assumption, and chances are the usecode does too.

-Colourless Dragon

IgnitusDragonn · Post by **IgnitusDragonn** » Wed Jul 10, 2002 8:29 am

Are they mirrored to provide a smooth animation?

Post by **wjp** » Wed Jul 10, 2002 8:33 am

They most likely did that to save space.

Post by **Colourless** » Wed Jul 10, 2002 8:34 am

They are mirrored so the shapes will face all directions. Frames 0 to 31 only face North or South. Frames 32 to 63 mirror the other frames so they face East or West.

SnowyThing · Post by **SnowyThing** » Wed Jul 10, 2002 8:36 am

Smooth like beer. In fact... there should be more alchoholic beverages in U7.

SnowyThing · Post by **SnowyThing** » Wed Jul 10, 2002 12:13 pm

I was just thinking... another NPC function that I want the Avatar to use is 'Dancing'. I think he'd be good at it. Impress the ladies too, I might add.
Frigidazzi, anyone?

IgnitusDragonn · Post by **IgnitusDragonn** » Wed Jul 10, 2002 12:20 pm

The Avatar can dance, only through cheating though

SnowyThing · Post by **SnowyThing** » Wed Jul 10, 2002 12:25 pm

Yeah, by editing his schedual. I mean like... click the middle mouse button or something.. and a menu pops up, and asks you what you'd like the Avatar would like to do today.
Too bad there aren't mushrooms in U7 like there are in U8. Handy-dandy psychosomatic effects there, I'll tell you what.

MV · Post by MV » Wed Jul 10, 2002 1:59 pm

I doubt that the flour->bread can be fixed. Was in the original you could do that too.

IgnitusDragonn · Post by **IgnitusDragonn** » Wed Jul 10, 2002 2:35 pm

Colourless, by "mirror" I thought you mean't copied. I presumed that you mean't each frame had a direct copy of itself, being that you are one of the omnipotent and godly, I didn't judge what you said, but I'd never seen but one copy of each frame. Anyway, if there WAS a copy of each frame, it wouldn't go smoother but slower, if there was a slight change in each copy it would go smoother.
I realize now that you mean they were flipped instead of re-drawn, if they were re-drawn it'd have taken more time.

Neutronium Dragon · Post by **Neutronium Dragon** » Wed Jul 10, 2002 5:18 pm

Hmm. Only one place I can think of where the Avatar himself might dance for a moment is playing that 'Dragon's Flight' theme on the jukebox in Sleeping Bull. Everyone else in the room goes crazy for a moment, but I don't remember if the Avatar does as well.

Neutronium Dragon

MV · Post by MV » Thu Jul 11, 2002 3:09 am

The avatar does some disco moves pretty well when he's fetching the bucket from the well.

Ah ah ah ah, stayin' alive, stayin' alive.........

Post by **wjp** » Thu Jul 11, 2002 3:17 am

Hm, how about creating a clone of yourself and casting the Dance spell on him/her?

Speaking of which, can you cast Dance on yourself?

SnowyThing · Post by **SnowyThing** » Thu Jul 11, 2002 4:29 am

Why would I want a clone of myself? It's bad enough that I have a 'clone' computer.

Actually, clones are better than genuine IBM and whatnot. Systems you buy pre-loaded could be full of crap you don't need and don't often come with the physical software that is installed on your PC. Format, and POW, go out and buy a new copy of WinXP... or whatever. Good luck getting all the no-name brand drivers, or better yet... Compaq.

Oh, also, watch out for those Custom Bios chips by Sony and whatnot. Those get you everytime.

IgnitusDragonn · Post by **IgnitusDragonn** » Thu Jul 11, 2002 7:03 am

God-forbid you be smart enough to realize how to uninstall that junk.

SnowyThing · Post by **SnowyThing** » Thu Jul 11, 2002 7:29 am

Not when you're like... old... like.... DrCode.

j/k

Sorry.

Post by **drcode** » Sun Jul 14, 2002 10:25 am

Old? Define 'old'!