LWAX Update - Skarn

[outspaced]

Some coils of Rope also take up multiple Backpack spaces, as does a towel from the bathhouse in Shadow on the Sand, I think, so this would definitely be a welcome addition.

[Doomy]

skarnivorous said:

Well, I'm up to Shadow On the Sand after many deaths and replays...I think I know book one off by heart now.

My current Lone Wolf seems to be going ok but of course I have been noting things which arise which would make improvements over my current action chart.

1. Damage modifiers like double damage for undead battles with a magic weapon. - I should point out Doomy noted this first, and I now totally agree
2. How to handle when you lose backpack, but might find it again later
(I'm going to make it possible to 'save' backpacks and special items etc to a file.
3. For some reason I thought you can only carry 12 special items at once...is this true? If not I'll have to increase the 'storage' space for special items.
4. Battles need more feedback. Not just to show the RESULTS of the round, but actually the count of what was lost (for those 'who lost more in the first round' kind of battles. - again, Doomy.
5. Quick links to book pages rather then going through the contents page. I wanted to go straight to equipment / special items straight away a few times, and found clicking the Tome icon, then the equipment option was tedious even though its only one more click.
6. I wanted to keep modifiers 'non automatic' so you had to apply them yourself...well, it's a pain, I keep forgetting, even with the reference pages I added, what I have an havent applied. I'm thinking of a 'click to apply, click to unapply' style modifier list. - DOOMY! I humble myself to your advice.
7. The descriptions being saved and reloaded seemed to me like a cool idea. I was going to go through the books and copy/write descriptions for all the equipment etc. Then when you add one to your backpack, it auto loads a nice description for you. Unfortunately you have to type the name EXACTLY as I did. So my 'Map of Sommerlund' description would not appear if you put it in as 'Sommerlund - map'. - not sure of a good solution:-)

1. It would be immodest of me to say "told you so," wouldn't it?
2. This is definitely a good idea. I hope you can figure out a way to combine the "lost" inventory with items found during the period between losing the backpack/special items etc and finding them again (as per Shadow on the Sand)
3. I concur with previous posts.
4. Glad to help.
5. More good thinking.
6. Perhaps a checklist which allows for the creation of entries such as "Silver Helm: +2CS" or "Sommerswerd: +8CS" plus tickboxes to show whether this modifier should be implemented in the current situation is the way to go? This would allow you to have all (nearly) constant bonuses in effect (like the Helm, Bronin Vest etc) while allowing others such as Mindblast to be turned on or off as appropriate. You may want to have Mindblast and its bigger brothers built in to the software somehow as only one can be active at a time and the heavy-duty ones also cost ENDURANCE to use.
There are also weapons such as the Stormbringer knockoff Helshezag which are complicated because they grant a CS bonus but also drain ENDURANCE per round.
Note also that certain bonuses/penalties change: Being a sword the Sommerswerd grants proficiency bonuses which gradually increase while the penalty for unarmed combat is gradually eliminated as the books progress.
7. This is tricky. Maybe a solution would involve keyword searches of the file where the item attributes are stored? So, for instance, if I were to key in "Laumspur" as the name of a new item, the software could search through its database and show a shortlist of objects featuring the relevant word, everything from standard-issue potions to Meals of Laumspur and the odd variations which restore other quantities of Endurance.


Edit: Got interrupted earlier and had to post this before it was finished and the the last bit didn't make any sense. I have now updated it so hopefully it makes sense now.
Please note that I am not a programmer so have absolutely no idea how practical/impossible any of these suggestions actually are.

[Gazguz]

To my knowledge there is nothing in the books which influences random number picks in combat or the actual results as shown on the table- every modifier directly affects combat ratios or multiplies damage. Remember that some combats start with one side taking 0 damage though.

Just remembered that the Silver Bow of Duadon adds three to the random number picked when testing for a hit with an arrow at a target. Having the skills of Weaponmastery etc etc with the bow also effect the random number chosen too.

BTW I think the limit of 12 special items that LW can carry at any one time came in in book 6 and was not mentioned in previous books. It also deleted all the special items you possessed except for a few named items like the Sommerswerd and dagger of vashna and Kalte firesphere etc etc, so any brass keys for example would be lost.

Regarding the idea of built in special items wouldn't that detract from surprise when you can read a list of some of the items you might pick up on your adventures? Particularly if you can click on them and use them even if you haven't actually found them.
Perhaps the best solution is a fully interactive book with the action chart built in as part of the book that monitors your progress and gets names and stats directly from the book narrative. ie click on special item in text to actually pick it up. Drop a weapon in your hand slot to use it in a section which will automatically take you to the combat option etc etc.

Lots of work in that...

[Doomy]

gazguz said:

Just remembered that the Silver Bow of Duadon adds three to the random number picked when testing for a hit with an arrow at a target. Having the skills of Weaponmastery etc etc with the bow also effect the random number chosen too.

Well, if we're talking about stuff that modifies random number picks outside actual melee combat there are also several sections which give you bonuses for having Hunting/Huntmastery etc.

[skarnivorous]

mmmm lots to think about

[Doomy]

I'd like to offer more direct assistance but this is pretty much all the programming I know:

10 PRINT "BOOBIES!"
20 GOTO 10.

[outspaced]

Feh! Amateur. You should try something like:

10 PRINT "What is your name?"
20 INPUT A$
30 PRINT "Hello ";a$;"!"
40 GOTO 10

[Runeheart]

doomy said:

I'd like to offer more direct assistance but this is pretty much all the programming I know:

10 PRINT "BOOBIES!"
20 GOTO 10.

A man after my own heart, technically and figuritively (or just full bodied...)

[skarnivorous]

;D *ahem* Havn't had a thread hijacked onto this topic before...

I've made some changes.

Mainly to the combat module and the introduction of various modifier lists which can be custom added or are automatic for things like disciplines and special items.

The layout had to change a little to accomodate these things, and I'm not sure how effectivly they have been implemented. That's where you come in ;-)

Old character saves will be useless.

Description files are no longer used (theyve been combined with your character saves).


My next addition will be the equipment space checking and saving your backpack in case you find it again after losing it.

I could be mean and say you should use in the built in notepad (yes there is a NOTES module if you havnt found it yet)
to jot down what you have like it usually tells you in the book ;-) (you don't lose your equipment descriptions when items are deleted, so you could just re-add them all again from your notepad list).

And lastly, implementing combat EP modifiers from weapons etc (not sure if these exist which is why I left it out - Special Items which have permanent EP modifiers are supported in he EP modifiers list)

Enjoy, first post updated.
Skarn

[skarnivorous]

UPDATED - LWAC now is LWAX (just to make it 'special')

Sorry for the hiatus. Had to apply for work again.
I started an overhaul of the interface, then forgot about it, now spent the weekend trying to remember what the hell I was doing.

I'm useless at commenting my scripting.

I think this is releasable - unfortunatly the main difference is the interface change, and not really any functionality changes - but I'm pretty sure I've ironed out a few bugs.

The layout will make it easier to update for the remaining books too now.

Hope people still find a use for this :-)
Skarn

[skarnivorous]

No feedback about the new layout? Good, bad? if no comment, I'll assume it's fine and continue along this path :-D Grand Master stuff next.

[Doomy]

I've been meaning to look at the new version. I've also been meaning to look at Zipp's second "boss fight".
Time to kill two birds with one stone I guess, back in a bit...

[beowuuf]

Wow. I have been using the old windows like one from the Aon downloads for the last seven books. Just looked at the new one and am shocked by the difference!

The only thing I miss is the safekeeping/lost items as you mentioned . Love the descriptive interfaces, especially for modifiers and for the disciplines! Pictures are always pretty : )

Oh, I notice if you have no backpack items, and accidentally hit the 'remove backpack item' tab you get a huge white area to content with rather than a normal sized blank pulldown menu

Also, you can only choose gold crowns for money not anything else yet - didn't see it mentioned above (probably because I am blind)

I guess I should port my charater over manually and try it out properly but I don't imagine the graphical interface ruining gameplay - the heavy elements such as with discipline selection are between books.

Oh, the 800x600 window is good for the books themselves, but I notice is terrible for browsing Aon itself (well, not terrible, just looks messy)

But this is really great work! I'm embarrassed for having used the old version for so long now.

And as Doomy says, I have a helghast fight to check out aswell (took ages to print it out at work)

[Doomy]

As promised, I played through the first two books using LWAX. Here's some comments:

1. Would it be possible for the software to run in a window? At the moment it changes the resolution of the entire system, which causes some problems. For instance when I first ran the new version I sat for 5 minutes wondering why nothing was happening because I was unaware my firewall was blocking LWAX' internet access (the dialogue popup was overridden).
Pressing ALT-TAB to go back into Windows before opening the Disciplines or Combat menus causes some display glitches too.

2. I agree with Beowuuf that the resolution could be higher - surely everyone can display at least 1024x768 these days? This would improve visibility of upper row of icons. The text in the books themselves is also a little too "large print" for me just now.

3. Weapon cycling is a bit of a pain- how about a drop-down menu?

4. Maybe you could add a third button to the combat results screen which implements both EP deductions simultaneously?

5. I couldn't save. I could tell the program WHERE to save, but it didn't create any files. My bad?

6. Resolution aside, overall design is really good. The fonts are very nice, and I also like the sun logo.

7. I couldn't export the enemy stats direct into the combat module - my bad again?

8. Autoheal is a nice feature. However it currently increases EP after every section including those with combat. Similarly, it's a personal rule rather than a written one, but I also found myself having to reduce my EP at the start of sections because I don't use heal in sections where I take damage.

I also played through Zipp's Helghast encounter, but got lucky with a spear throw and won instantly. So I don't really feel qualified to review it.

[Zipp]

doomy said:

I also played through Zipp's Helghast encounter, but got lucky with a spear throw and won instantly. So I don't really feel qualified to review it.

Unless you had Weaponskill with the Spear, yes, you must've gotten lucky!

SPOILERS
I will grant you that someone with both Weaponskill in the spear and hunting (or a combat skill above 17) has a very good chance of nailing that throw (80%), but without either, you have to get an 8 (20%).

I may have given too much of a bonus for just having hunting, though. That would give you a 40% chance of hitting.

Of course, if you fail, it's pretty much death for you.