Difference between revisions of "A beginner's guide, lesson 7 - Using Scripts in Quests"

Factions are used in three ways by the game. Firstly they are used to establish a hierarchy or internal structure for organisations the PC can join. Secondly they are used to group NPC’s into teams with similar behaviours; these teams will act to protect each other when threatened. The final use of factions is to collect NPC’s together to allow grouped conditions statements.

To create a new faction opens up the faction box from the menu. In the column on the left is a list of all the existing factions. Rick click and select new. Give the Faction a unique name. Say BGRedRoseBrigade. Now, add a name to the top. Red Rose Brigade.  

The flag at the top which reads hide from player, basic controls whether or not a player can enter the faction or not. Leave this as hidden.

The central box controls the ranks and titles within the faction. Note the ranks are split to offer the choice of alternative titles based on gender. In the case of our faction these have no meaning at all. However, since this is only chance we will get to look at lets set up a simple three tier structure for practice.

The final box at the bottom is the most useful.

It controls the disposition of a group to other factions or groups. Again it’s the standard right click new to add a group from the existing list into the disposition modifier box. You need add a numerical modifier ranging from +100 to -100. This modifier is applied to all members of the group.  

The results are cumulative. Let’s say we decide that the Red Rose Brigade is closely affiliated with the various Bandits who occupy Tamriel. We can add a modifier of say (+) 70 to that group. Rick  click select new, scroll down and find Bandit faction. Select it. Now alter the modifier to 70. From now on every member of the Red Rose faction will add 70 to there disposition towards bandits. We can add as many groups as we like.  

We want the Red Rose member to be openly hostile to the PC. This is achieved because there is a faction called the PlayerFaction which has a solitary member, the PC. We can adjust the Red Rose disposition for this faction to -100. This means they will hate us and attack on site.

Create an NPC. I used the BanditMelee character as a base Template. This character already comes with leveled armour etc. Although the will appear to be naked in the render window.

I also popped in a chest, renamed it so I could alter it contents and add a few coins. The level of a NPC is controlled by the flags and boxes to the left of the character box.  

We can make two choices.

'''Level to a value''': In this option we select a pre ordained level for the NPC. The advantage is that we can control how tough a NPC is, and therefore the challenge set by that enemy. This is ideal if we have a particular reward which we feel should be earned by high ranking, or indeed low ranking PC’s. Suppose you design a one hit kill sword. This is a big reward. The player should have to earn this reward by defeating a big boss.  

Equally, perhaps the reward is a few coins. Then it may be appropriate to set a simple challenge.

The disadvantage is that if you set an NPC at level 40, only a small number of players will meet this challenge, and many may simple unplug your mod.  

'''Level against PC''': This is one of the more controversial developments in Oblivion. Many Morrowind veterans have been particularly vocal in their criticism of this technique. The advantage is that no matter what level your PC is at you will meet a decent challenge which will test your PC. It allows access to all PC’s and does not exclude any. However, it has disadvantages as well. This approach does mean that some times the risk does not match the reward.  

For this tutorial I have chosen to use the Level against PC method as this is the Oblivion norm. It is of course a matter for each designer to choose. I would suggest that what ever method you choose is consistent through out the mod. If you mix and match you could have the situation where the first goons is 10 levels above your boss, or a situation where after defeating a series of level 2 goons you suddenly encounter a level 30 boss.

We also want this first goon to be a little bit easier than those coming up so lets set the value to -2 levels. Using the offset box. The bandit already has a suitable leveled inventory.

The main central chamber will contain 3 NPC’s. Again add the Red Rose Faction to their faction list and delete the others. I used more bandits as a base for these.  

 

Finally I messed around with the lighting a bit. I wanted to give a stealthy player a chance. I remove the lighting from the linking corridor and close to the entrance.