Can a noob get some guidance?
 

Okay, so... LONG time FRUA and NWN designer... Not sure why the bug bit me again, but I ran across Dungeon Craft while seeking a place to get FRUA for the third time. (Bought it twice over the years and don't have either copy anymore...)

I've been toying with the DC designer and I must say it strikes me as far superior to the FRUA designer. Faster, easier to use for an engineering mind, not bogged down with a lot of wasted, "friendly" GUI crap.

My one rub at the moment is content. I've searched Google and found a few sites with some help, downloading quite a few portraits and icons and such.... A lot of wall sets also, but unfortunately none of the original FRUA walls and not really much suitable for towns, villages, harbors (thinking back to the sea-worn wood wallset from FRUA) at all. It's all dungeon content.

So... Can anyone point me in the correct direction for a few more content sites? Most of them I've found are defunct.

Also very interested in finding other people's modules. In all my searching, I have found exactly one very old and not very good existing module for DC. Surely there's a whole library of stuff the DC community has created and wants to share???

Thanks for anything you can offer guys. I promise I'll reciprocate once I get enough content to actually start building.

Re: Can a noob get some guidance?
 

I have a site... :D (Not much walls, though, mostly icons...)

Re: Can a noob get some guidance?
 

Hiya and welcome to DC. :)

All of the FRUA art has been DCized and is available at the Rosedragon repository.

Which design did you play/look at?

There are only 5 designs and 2 demos that I'm aware of...we're a small community with a lot of people stopping in long enough to see that we're not yet at version 1.0 and move on before finding out that we can do almost everything that FRUA could, plus a bunch of stuff that it couldn't, and that we're stable. :D

If you haven't seen my page yet, you can follow it through my sig. :)

Re: Can a noob get some guidance?
 

Yeah, Man, I couldn't get your site to work. All the download buttons take me to some kind of FAQ page. I haven't spent the time to find out exactly what's going on, just enough to find it wasn't intuitive and sorta move on. Could you check your links and let me know what I am doing wrong?

Well, I'll tell ya, I've played with the engine enough now to know that it's already everything FRUA was and more - once I get enough art together to actually make something fly. It's no NWN, but there's a simplicity I've been missing in my RPG's in general.... Been really enjoying getting back to a simpler time, with a simpler design engine... Good to know I can contribute significantly to the community just by putting out a couple modules, which I absolutely intend to do in short order.

I tried to play one called something like "Last Day of Autumn".... A sci-fi drama of sorts... I got about 10 minutes into it and gave up. Way too much dialog, then I couldn't make the map work properly, so I moved on to making my own little dungeon crawl just to put the engine through its paces.

I'll check the FRUA stuff on the site y'all posted and hopefully, combined with the stuff I got from Ironwork plus some art I've got from the publishing biz, have a little intro module out, complete with DC fansite, in a week or two.

Re: Can a noob get some guidance?
 

Hmm, Thieve's Run is working now. Dungeoneer will probably take me until tomorrow to get a good copy up. I'll pop a note in here when I do.

Aside from Ironworks, Uatu's Dungeon Craft site and my site, there is one other place that has more art than the three of us combined. If you're still looking for art, check out Steve McDonald's page.

One of the other designs and a demo are here. The design, Fury, is by the same guy who did The Last Days of Autumn and is the same style, starring the same main character.

The other design and demo are not currently hosted anywhere. I might be able to put the demo up, since it's only a couple of megs, but the design is 65 MBs or so and currently lacking a home. If I figure out a way to get it back online, I'll let everyone know.

Re: Can a noob get some guidance?
 

65 MBs?!?! Wow... I missed that one, I guess :D (I am already using about 12 MB or so on my xthost space, which means that space for my (future) mod will be limited to something like 15 MB or so... :(

Re: Can a noob get some guidance?
 

The module is by Sihram. It was up on the yahoo list for a month or so and caused our space to be a tad beyond maximum capacity, which meant they were sending me emails to rectify the problem, so I took it down. It's really big b/c of mp3s and bmps. The pics should all be pngs, and none of the non-used art was removed. He lft stuff in from early design decisions. If those get fixed it might be ablt to come in around 40 or so MBs in which case I'll put it back up.

Re: Can a noob get some guidance?
 

Hmm - seems a shame that it's down, as it seems to be one of the more complete modules available (well, at least by size)... But 40 MB is a lot, too...

Re: Can a noob get some guidance?
 

It's, um, interesting. English is Sihram second language (Finnish being his first) so there are some interesting phrases and spellings and grammar. :)

It's a very different art style than anything else - he and his friends do LARPS, so he got them to drees up as the various characters (or were they already dressed up and just begging to have their picture taken).

Re: Can a noob get some guidance?
 

So, this is slightly OT, but it's related to the FRUA art I downloaded... It's not clear to me how to use overlays; Is it simple enough to describe how to do it here?

Re: Can a noob get some guidance?
 

And... Thanks for the ideas and assistance, guys... I'm working on the mountainside refuge of Ironbane right now for "Ironbane: The Duchesne Chronicles #1". My plan is to make this one a fairly short intro adventure to get comfortable with the designer and get something out there to generate some enthusiasm for the series.

Oughta be fun... :)

Re: Can a noob get some guidance?
 

Wow, sounds like a very different module (the LARP pictures and all)!

Looking forward to seeing your module, ddggames! As far as I know, overlays basically "overlay" on top of walls - so you could use overlays as signs, windows, or even something less flat like treasure chests (if you are creative)...

Re: Can a noob get some guidance?
 

The other thing to note about overlays is that they have to be the same formate as the wall they overlay (and there must be a wall to overlay- if you only want the overlay, just plug it into the wall slot).

Re: Can a noob get some guidance?
 

Hmm - come to think of it, how many overlays can you overlay in the same spot?

Re: Can a noob get some guidance?
 

There are 3 layers to each spot - wall, door and overlay. The wall is necessary for and provides the format for the other two.

Re: Can a noob get some guidance?
 

Oh, okay, thanks :)

Re: Can a noob get some guidance?
 

Yeah, I guess I just haven't seen the mechanic for adding overlays yet, just walls, backdrops, and the other standard FRUA fare. I'll bang more on it today and see what I can come up with... I forgot my pen drive with the module I was working on and the art I was using, so today's just a "get comfortable with the toolset" day.

Re: Can a noob get some guidance?
 

Aha, I've got it... Overlay and door layers are added when you've configuring the wall tiles. I thought the Wall / Door / Overlay buttons were just there to pre-configure the behavior of the wall tile (whether it was blocked, etc...) but now I'm getting it.

Makes for some nice combinations, I'm getting excited again... I just hope you guys have a solution for the spells known / spells per day problem I talked about in the other thread I posted... Otherwise the engine's problems could undermine all of its benefits.

Re: Can a noob get some guidance?
 

The problem with the spells is caused by the incompleteness of the GDPL script integration. This is something that Tarlanon, our developer/programmer, has addressed. Tarlanon said that he was going to put some effort towards this in the next release, but until the GDPL scripts are completed it is hit-or-miss on whether the spells/magic effects work correctly.

ST

Re: Can a noob get some guidance?
 

ST, that's not the issue with this problem. The mages couldn't access higher level spells because there aren't any.

As for spells not working properly, the list of spells is sleep, strength and the cure spells. The cure spells still provide healing, but apparently aren't changing the PC status if they have fallen in combat. Actually, FRUA doesn't change the status in combat either, but changes it as the combat event ends, whereas DC isn't doing that automatically, but only if you 'rest'.

Re: Can a noob get some guidance?
 

Hmm - well, maybe that is how it is supposed to happen? In AD&D rules (following the optional "death's door" rule of merciful DMs), if a PC's hp falls to 0 or lower (but not lower than -10), he falls unconscious and subsequently loses 1 hp per round (due to blood loss, etc.). If the PC's wounds are bound, etc. (bandaged), the loss of hp stops and his condition is stabilized (but he is still unconscious - however he doesn't die). If the unlucky PC's hp goes down to -10, he dies (and requires raising, etc. to be active again).

If the PC is healed by any cure spell while hp are between -9 and 0, his hp becomes just 1, and he is barely conscious (cannot fight). He must rest for a full day before regaining full use of his body. (The heal spell, I think, fully healed character instantly (with full use of body), minus 1d4 hp.)

So, maybe this is how it is supposed to work? :) (The rules above are based on my (faulty) memory, but in general I should be correct...)

One actual problem in DC with the cure spells is that they only work in combat at present...

Re: Can a noob get some guidance?
 

I believe the way that it is supposed to work is that an unconscious character who has been healed or bandaged will not be able to participate in the rest of the combat, but after the combat will be listed as OK, even if they are only at 1 hp.

Re: Can a noob get some guidance?
 

Ah, I see. Well, I wonder what the intended specifications for this was...

Re: Can a noob get some guidance?
 

It was intended to work as I mentioned b/c that's the way FRUA works. I don't think he had any plans to make this changeable for designers.

Re: Can a noob get some guidance?
 

Oh, okay. :)

Re: Can a noob get some guidance?
 

Wow! My avatar just changed to Galvatron! Cool. :)

Of course, if someone wanted this to be done differently they could put in a feature request for Tarlanon. When he's fixing it it might be easy to change it (might not).

Personally, I'm fine with the FRUA way, though I thimk the AD&D way you outlined above would be fine too.