Source:Eamon Dungeon Designer 6.0 differences
| This page is a verbatim reproduction of original source material and should not be edited except for maintenance. | |
| Description |
Notes from version 6 of the Eamon Dungeon Designer explaining differences from the previous version. |
|---|---|
| Source |
The text file |
| Date |
c. late 1980s |
| Author | |
| License |
The use of this item is permitted on the grounds that it's free or in the public domain. |
New features
The Newest version of the Eamon Dungeon Design System has the following new features:
- New types of artifacts are available. The old versions had only treasures (of fixed value and variable value) and weapons. (Standard and odd.) The new version allows all sorts of new types of artifacts with the code already installed to handle them. In addition, you may create your own types of artifacts.
- The Dungeon Edit program has been completely re-written to allow easier entry of data. The new program now allows default data for all fields for rooms, artifacts and monsters. This makes it faster to key in data when you want most fields to be the default. You can also change the defaults within the program. A list of improvements is given here:
- Defaults for fields
- Defaults can be changed
- Field labels may be changed
- New fields may be added to rooms, artifacts or monster definitions.
- Fields definitions may be saved to and reloaded from disk
- New types of artifacts may be added dynamically
- Artifact formats may be defined or redefined
- The dungeon list program has been modified to accept version 6.0 data and describe it during the list process.
- The base program has been enhanced to allow the new artifact types including the commands to activate the new artifacts. Some previous bugs have been corrected.
- The base program has had a read effects routine added that can be performed by the designer to read and print effects.
- Embedded artifacts have been installed. Embedded artifacts are those that are not listed as being in the room, although they can be acted upon by the adventurer. For example you could code the description of a room to describe a large statue in the room and then create an artifact for the statue. The description of the statue will not be listed when the adventurer enters the room. This makes it easier to hide things from the adventurer.
- Locked doors and gates may be set up with no special programming. Simply put the door or gate in the room and set up the data for it. The gates or doors will automatically block the way until they are unlocked or broken down. (yes, they can be attacked and broken with sufficient power.)
- Bound monsters can be simulated automatically. The programming required is already set up. Simply code the data required.
- Secret Passages are handled automatically.
On the following pages are some additional details regarding these new features and how to use them.
Artifacts
The new types of artifacts that have been added are listed below:
| Old | New | Format Ptr | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Gold | 0 | Gold | 0 |
| 1 | Treasure | 1 | Treasure | 0 |
| 2 | Weapon | 2 | Weapon | 1 |
| 3 | Odd Weapon | 3 | Magic Weapon | 1 |
| 4 | Container | 2 | ||
| 5 | Light | 3 | ||
| 6 | Healing | 4 | ||
| 7 | Readable | 5 | ||
| 8 | Door/Gate | 6 | ||
| 9 | Key | 7 | ||
| 10 | Bound Monster | 8 | ||
Because these new artifact types must supply the base program with additional information, the designer will have to code this additional information when setting up the adventure. To assis the designer in this task, there have been groups of labels and default data set up for each general purpose. These are called formats. There are eight different formats available as the standard ones. In addition, the designer may set up his own formats using functions in the dungeon edit program. Each artifact type has a format pointer that tells the program which format will be used for fields 5 thru 8. The format pointers for a particular artifact type may also be changed by the designer, although this is probably not ever necessary. The formats available are:
Format 1 Format 2 Format 3
Fld 5 = Weap. Type Fld 5 = Key # Fld 5 = Counter Fld 6 = Compl. Fld 6 = Strength Fld 7 = Dice Fld 8 = Sides
Format 4 Format 5 Format 6
Fld 5 = Chances Fld 5 = 1st Eff. Fld 5 = Room# Fld 6 = Heal Amt Fld 6 = #Eff. Fld 6 = Key# Fld 7 = Nbr Uses Fld 7 = Read Flag Fld 7 = Strength
Format 7 Format 8
none Fld 5 = Monster#
Fld 6 = Key#
Fld 7 = Guard#
Fld 8 = Att.Flag
The new artifacts are explained in some detail below:
Magic Weapons - These weapons are locally magical. That is, they are magic weapons within the scope of the current adventure. If they are taken out of the adventure, they will revert to standard weapons. While they are magic, they cannot break except by magical means. This is the extent of their natural magic power. If you want other magic effects, you will have to program them.
Container - This type of artifact can contain other artifacts. The artifact may be opened at which time, the program searches the artifact table looking for any artifact having a room number of 100 plus the number of the arifact being opened. Any artifact meeting this criteria is moved into the room by the program and the message YOU FOUND SOMETHING. is printed.
Light - When rooms are coded in version 6.0, a code for light is included. If the room is too dark to see in without artificial light, you code a 0. If there is a normal amount of light, a 1 is coded. A light artifact is lit using the LIGHT command. This will activate the light so that all rooms entered are lit up. A light will expire after awhile. There is a field coded to indicate how long a light will last. When this number is exceeded, the light will go out never to work again. (There is currently no way to reactivate a light without special programming.)
Healing - This type of artifact will heal the user by the amount specified at the time the artifact was set up. It may be used only a limited number of times before being exhausted.
Readable - This type of artifact will allow the user to read it. The program will automatically read the effects from the effects portion of the EAMON.DESC file. These effects must be added by the designer and the pointers established according to the prompts given by the readable artifact format.
Door - A door has a 'room into' and a strength factor. The 'room into' code is very important, since it takes the place of a room connect code where the door is located. The strength factor is how strong the door is. Doors may be broken down by beating on them.
Key - A key artifact is used for opening containers, doors or freeing bound monsters. The artifacts they are used on will indicate which key works on it, so no additional data is needed currently. Keys point to format 7 which contains no useful prompts. This may be changed if you wish, however.
Bound Monster - This type of artifact is used to simulate a bound monster. The key number needed to free the bound person, the monster guarding the bound monster and a pointer to the monster being bound makes up the data fields of this artifact type.
Location of Artifacts
Version 6.0 also allows artifacts to be in special places. Artifacts are normally coded with room numbers ranging from 1 to the number of rooms in a dungeon. There are now additional codes recognized by the program.
+100 .... Inside a container artifact
+200 .... Embedded in a room description
+300 .... Hidden in a room
For example, if you want to place an artifact inside artifact #9, code it's room code as 109. If you want an artifact to be in room number 17, but not be listed as a separate artifact, code it's room code as 217. If you want an artifact to be hidden in room number 25 (so you have to look to find it), code it's room code as 325.
The dungeon edit program will also allow you to build your own artifact types, or modify existing artifact types, formats, or even monster or room data. This was done to prevent the need for a custom edit program when special fields are needed by an adventure.
Rooms
The Eamon.Rooms file contains the rooms that you can move into. This file now has the ability to contain new codes that permit the ability to have automatic secret passages, and locked doors. Before this was installed, you had to program these manually for every adventure you wrote.
Room numbers from 1 to 99 are normal.
Room number -99 means exit to the Main Hall.
Room numbers less than 0 and greater than -99 are secret passages. The absolute value of the number is used for the pointer to the room when the passage is discovered. Passages are discovered by using the LOOK command. If you want them discovered by other means, you will still have to program it.
Room numbers greater than 100 are locked doors. The difference between 100 and the room code is used to point to an artifact. This artifact must then be a door or gate. The artifact will specify the room to be moved into, the key number, the strength of the door necessary to enter the room.
Monsters
Monsters have not changed from previous versions of Eamon, but the ability to add fields or modify field labels has been added. This allows you to more easily put special programming into your base program when this programming may require additional data to be on the Monsters file.
Additional artifact types
Additional artifact types may be added, using the functions in the dungeon edit, but these additional artifacts will have to be supported via changes you must make to the base program.
Customized fields added or changed from the standard may be difficult to remember and duplicate when you go back to edit a dungeon a second or third time. For this reason, the ability to be able to save and restore these parameters to disk has been installed. The data that is saved off for parameters is listed below.
You should decide before starting your adventure what changes will be made (if any) to the standard layouts, since these changes must be made before any fields are defined. If this is not done, you will end up with monsters or artifacts with the incorrect layyout. If you are not adding any fields, it will not make any difference, but if you are the program could bomb while trying to read data from the disk that does not exist.
The file that stores the parameters is sequential and contains the following data.
AF - # fields in an artifact (not counting last 4 variable fields) Field Name 1 Field Name 2 ... af
Default 1 Default 2 ... af
NF - # of Formats Format Label $ (F,1) Format Label $ (F,2) Format Label $ (F,3) Format Label $ (F,4) Default (F,1) Default (F,2) ...
MF - #monster fields Monster Label 1 ... mf
Default Monster 1 ... mf
---End of Parameters File---