BioWare Infinity Engine

I'm working on a project that replicates the functionality of Bioware's Infinity Engine (from games like Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale).

It uses multiboards displayed on the screen for the menus and it has a full inventory system (similar to DT4:A but not using the item slots to move things around)

Currently all it has is the ability to put items into the inventory, but they don't affect the unit in any way (shortly to be remedied)
The Spell system is in progress as well as the character generation process.

If you can get something like this and playable.... holy shit, I wouldn't be able to express my thanks in words.

I can't help you out, but I just wanna wish you luck, so..

Luck!

`s

for the item effects DT4's bonusmod will do for max mana, max life, damage, armor and maybe some others.

For the rest (regeneration rates and other stuff) I'm using custom upgrades having like 50000 levels.

The problem with using upgrades, as all of you most likely know....is that it's non-reversable......so, are you gonna use negative updates then? not a good idea :/, simply due to the fact that it has a limit. If you equip and unequip your item often enough (even if you have 5000 levels per upgrade), it may eventually meet it's limit...and be horribly buggy from there....sure it only happens to messy bastards who do it, but...it's still a serious limitation.

Cubasis

Well, I know that one could reach that limit but I personally reset the levels when handing over my heros with game cache for example.

Fex. if it has +5000 and -4000 on the two upgrades, then after that I'll give it +1000...

Current Progress:
- Each multiboard uses a selector that you can move with the arrow keys
(it shows up as a golden hues over the white text)
- When setting up the board one of the things you have to do is tell the
board whether you want the slot (multiboard item) whether you want the
selector to be able to use that slot
Q- > Say you start at position (column 1, row 2) and you hit the right key
A- > The selector checks to see if the next slot to the right (2,2)
is available for the selector
- > Well, slot (2,2) is a divider (" |") as slot that I don't want the selector
to move to, so it checks to false
- > Since it's false then It moves to the next column (3,2) and sees
if it can move there.
- > Well, slot (3,2) is an active slot that I DO want the selector
to move to, so it checks to true
- > it UNhighlights slot (1,2) then highlights (3,2)
Which is the basics of how this works, left to right, right to left, up to down, down to up, It all works the same.
Q- > What if it's the far right column and I hit the right key, does it try to
highlight an invisible column?
A- > NOPE, the system checks to see how many columns are in the multiboard
- > If moving to the right goes past that it sets the next column choice to
be 1, looks to see if it's valid, and moves in the afformentioned manner.
Q- > What if it's in column that has no allowable slot (namely a divider row, or
a title row)
A- > System checks all the way around that column in that row, if none
allowable, goes to next row and checks all columns, then the next,etc.
until a valid row is found or back at the start point.

If you have Baldur's Gate (I or II) or Icewind Dale (I or II) then investigate all the different menus, character generations systems, etc. and you'll get a fell for how this works. If I can I'll attach a picture of the InventoryBoard in all it's current glory.
Dammit, the thing isn't loading in the browser, I'll try again later.

If you have anything you would like to add (such as code) send me a *.txt file or a mapfile and I'll give it a good look, ot if you would like to get a copy of the map at it's current progress level, send a request to :
[email protected]

To answer some simple questions,
No, i will not be using upgrades for the atk/def stuff. The only upgrades I will be using will be for things like feats, and spell availablity, and in character generation (different upgrades specify the type of Unit) it won't be long after patch 1.15 comes out that I will be able to change unit names.

You can't change unit names, you can just get thier current propper name.
Another question it seems you just trying to make a less user friendly DT4a, what advantages do you propose this new system has?
Also your infinity engine seems limited in its current form.

What limitations are you refering to, weaaddar? Perhaps I can clarify them and aleviate your concerns.

I won't actually be changing the unit's proper name, just all references TO the name.
The hero will be displayed with the Proper name as thier profession and the name as thier class.

The process is to be made a simple one. In the current DT4:A you have to jump in and out of menus and pages and delve deep into submenus to find what you are looking for. This will display all of what your character is carrying at once in a full screen inventory, simple use of the arrow keys allow you to move around a selector and use the "Esc" key to interact with specific elements on the screen. The more I learn about how this works the easier it will be.
For example. the unit picks up a Short Bow +1, it is immediatley deposited in the Inventory in an empty space (currently does not auto equip, will be added in a week or so) You open the board by clicking the "Open Inventory" item in your hero's 6-slot inventory.Your screen goes to cinematic/letterbox view, fades to black and displays the multiboard titled Inventory. The Selector is in it's default starting positiona at the upper left. press the down key unitl it's over the Shortbow +1, press "Esc" and every space taht the object can be placed will be higlighted in Green (this is determined by type-checks and whether the slots that it would be allowed in currently have an item in them). if you move to a still white space and hit "Esc" it will give an error and ask you to select a green space. If you move to a green space it will place the item there. If the green space is an active slot (such as your Right hand) the hero will state where they have placed the object. Upon exiting the menu (minimizing the board) a new ability list will run to determine the effects of the object's changes to your hero.
The current effects are:
(0=damage)
(1=armor)
(2=hitpoints)
(3=manapoints)
(4=manaregen)
(5=atk speed)
(6=mov speed)
(7=critical strike)
(8=evade)
(9=health regen)
And that goes a little farther than DT4:A. I would also like to send you a copy of a more cleanly coded version of DT4:A to see if maybe you might want to use it. My version just cleans up the loop structures, and replaces the Bubble Sort with a Selection Sort (more accurate and faster runthrough period).

Please feel free to give any suggestions comments or concerns on this forum. That's what it's here for. No-one shall be judged for posting here. EVER. I want your EXACT thoughts on me, the project, or an aspect of how a part of the project should be done.

Dt4a is old, and by best guesses dead. Its never getting an update. Its current only hope is assimilation into the drag and drop project I'm currently running.

I already have a version of DT4a that uses quick sort, but its a meager optimization and in most cases not even such, as DT4a runs the sort to move one misplaced elem. A more complete idea would have been instead of using sort as my do everything when somethings out of place I should have made propper methods of insertion and removal like those found in the Drag and Drop project.

As far as what loop structures need cleaning I'm always a fan of seeing people do optimizations for me.

Dt4a was built for perfect integration with war3 current item API (read: Crap). So corners were cut, but I think it comes off as very presentable, and there should never be menu overload. When you do pick up a new rare item it should have a higher priorty so it would probably be the first thing in the appropriate slot.
So you really are looking at clicking once to open your currently equiped screen, clicking again on the type of the item, and clicking once more on the item itself. Thats 3 clicks, four if you have to hit cancel to get back to your normal item screen. I doubt that would be burdensome to anyone. But if and when I add propper insertion methods you can alwayus be looking at your paging inventory as it'll update depending on the indice of the new item.

Well, that does clear that up, thank you.
At the moment I just moved everthing out of the trigger editor and into an altered blizzard.j file. (I know it won't load in battle.net, but that's just the way it's gonna be for a little while.)
In DT4:A there seems to be a difference in the pickup item verses the use item, I was wondering why not just use the same item? Less duplication, coding, arrayspace, etc.
Was there a specific call that NEEDED it or what (cause I may have removed that call in all the confusion of utilization)

yes there really is a need for two versions of every item. Unfortuantly, there is no way to flag off cunsumed when picked up, so I needed two version of every item one for pick up and one for inventory. Its quite intricate and a very well pulled off trick I do, so damn well that most people can't tell that there is a change in items.

It seems that recently there is no more problem with having Blizzard.j in a map. At least when I tried it the Blizzard.j was loaded fine even if it was the first map to be played (there used to be a problem with that).

The wierd thing is, if you forget to parse the JASS in the blizzard.j by accident (it's happened a few times to my distaste) Then the editor will give the errors and show the lines form the war3map.j and make you think there's a problem with the map coding.
I also found that using the altered b.j in the import editor will let you save once, then after that the WE uses the new b.j instead of BLIZZARD's, which is nice because you can access your custmom functions in the "Custom Script" command.

i am now officially a part of orin's BiFrost team. My focus will shift to tweaking the BioMimic Engine (as I have named it) to siut his needs. It will do everything that I want it to and it will give me a more direct goal to target. (Which means faster progress)
I found the ammosystem created by BattleBotv8.2 and will try to incorporate it in since it will be exactly what I need to count arrows, bolts, and other usable munitions. It's actually not that bad of a system. I'm just gonna tweak so it seams more realistic (like using clips instead of the rifle itself having the charges.)