Episode 16: Running Away!

It's been a mixed bag of goings on with the campaign over the last couple of weeks. From adding more content, to fixing bugs and more testing! Unfortunately, I made an annoying discovery while testing some encounters with a party without the Companion Protector feat. The "hard core" death system had another bug in it, which is now patched in the current latest v2.92. It came to light as I tried to run away from an encounter that was too tough for my test party ... This weeks screenshot shows the GUI that was not quite doing what it was meant to do and highlighted the issue.

TIDYING CODE

Tracing the issue I discovered back to its origin, I believe it was introduced when I did a fairly large rewrite of the core transition code, which I did last summer. The problem is, with much of my own testing (and I suspect the same with most players), I tend to employ the Companion Protector feat during testing (or playing), which means I do not see the hard-core death system come into play that often. I only noticed it this time because I was testing an encounter which turned out to tough for me, and some of my party died (leaving tombstones) due to playing in a hard-core death system mode.

Basically, the idea is that should a player have an encounter which they deem to be too tough for their party, then if they are able to have a PC run away from the combat and reach the transition point before being killed themselves, then they will be given the option to end the encounter and respawn their party with an XP penalty (negated if they have another specific feat). See screenshot below.

On testing, the GUI ended the encounter, but failed to respawn the dead PCs! This was because these dead PCs were "dead" in a different way to the "normal" way. Closer inspection of the code also highlighted that the same check would have prevented a player from being able to transition their party while carrying dead companions. My heart sank at this discovery, as it meant any player playing The Scroll this way would have had a real difficulty. It had made the system just a little too hard-core, as I had never meant for a player not to be able to carry their dead companions back to Orechin (the priest) to be able to have them raised if they had the gold.

ENCOUNTER FLEEING

Anyway, I believe I have fixed those transitions for a party carrying dead companions now, and furthermore, an encounter that is fled should now raise fallen companions regardless of the death system used. I admit that I have not fully tested this yet, but the testing I have done appears to indicate all is well. However, this is the kind of thing that other players could help test in the field. Therefore, if anybody is playing The Scroll (without the Companion Protector feat), then please let me know how the death system is working for you.

Note: Module one does not have specific overland encounters of the type I mention above, but does still require feedback with respect to general usage, especially when carrying fallen companions back across areas.

CONTINUED WRITING

As for new content for module two, I have been continuing to write the conversations. These can be quite difficult for me, as depending upon my concentration for the day, I may write more or less. The problem is also compounded by the need to keep track of the variables where conversations relate to one another.

So far, however, I have written two more rather lengthy conversations, and have reached a point where I can add to them without having to recall what came before. i.e. The conversations are not fully completed for the NPCs in question, but at least one stage of them is.

CONTINUED SCRIPTING

Not only have I been writing conversations, but I have also been putting together various scripts to work as a whole event. This required some tidying of some more older scripts, but less seriously than the transition ones, and related to resting instead. The problem I am finding now is that some of the older scripts are not as well written as I would like and so I am put in a position where I am tidying them (and improving them) to work with the newer material. I am keeping any alterations to a minimum, but if I see something that is just plain wrong, it is being updated. I am also adding more comments to the scripts where I believe they were lacking from before.

PLAY TESTERS

This may be a strange request ... well perhaps not after this report, but I am looking for somebody (or more) who may like to consider playing The Scroll module one without the Companion Protector feat. The game would be a lot harder, but I am hoping it would also give me some feedback with respect to the latest updates as well as this way of playing. Any play tester would also have priority feedback and help from me if they needed it. Let me know if you are interested.

Abandoning An Encounter Choice To Continue Onwards!