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Thread: Branching (condition-dependent) map events | |
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Xfing
Adventuring Hero
I like Forge
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posted September 08, 2023 01:13 AM |
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Poll Question: Branching (condition-dependent) map events
Have you ever thought it'd be nice if Heroes 3 had branching events dependent on conditions? It's and idea that got into my head recently for some reason, and it just won't leave it.
It's basically just that - there is an event placed on the adventure map, but rather than always executing in the same fashion, it executes differently based on some conditions being met.
For example let's take an event where a black dragon appears. Normally the dragon is set to just say some stuff and always attack your party. But let's say there's a peasant in your party - in that case the dragon's dialogue changes, the event's effect changes from you being attacked to the dragon consuming one peasant (him just being subtracted from your army), and the dragon leaving you be (nothing further happening).
Let's take this one step further - imagine there are at least 10 peasants in your party - in that case the dragon not only leaves you be, but in fact happily joins your party after chowing down on 10 delicious, nutritious peasants. Meaning 3 completely different outcomes to a single map-placed event:
1) the dragon attacking you
2) the dragon removing 1 peasant and not attacking you
3) the dragon removing 10 peasants and joining you
Imagine the wealth of storytelling possibilities such a system would afford - the RPG and immersion aspect of Heroes would increase almost exponentially thanks to a function like this.
More than that though, it could also probably be used to a good effect in competition-based maps, given all the already existing event effects that are available to the mapper.
Has something like this ever been conceptualized? If some platform such as WoG or VCMI already allows this, are there any notable maps that make use of this feature?
Adding a poll to ask for your opinions about this whole idea.
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Might & Magic is science fantasy.
Science fiction and high fantasy can be successfully combined.
"Peasants contra Tanks" all the way bro
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Warmonger
Promising
Legendary Hero
fallen artist
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posted September 10, 2023 03:18 PM |
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Salamandre
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
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posted September 10, 2023 05:22 PM |
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Yes, scripts do way more than a black dragon eating 10 of your peasants to join. So not sure what maps you look for, but there are dozens of them out there with scripted events.
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Xfing
Adventuring Hero
I like Forge
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posted September 12, 2023 06:48 PM |
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Pretty sure h3maped never had map-placeable events that can realize in different ways depending on some conditions. You place an event on the map and it always executes in a single way.
Unless you're talking about some form of external scripting, in which case yeah, the point would be to be able to make stuff like that with just the map editor and no extra, obscure functions requiring advanced coding knowledge.
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Salamandre
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
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posted September 12, 2023 07:39 PM |
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Yes, you need WoG and Erm language.
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weilan
Known Hero
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posted September 26, 2023 10:02 AM |
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I don't know much about those.
What I know is WoG tried to add some scripts and due to the limitations of the game, the results weren't amazing, like changing map tiles. I think in the WoG tutorial there was such a script used as an example that changed a map tile in front of a Shipyard from ground to water so it makes it inaccessible and to prove a point, but the execution wasn't good, because it was just a single water tile, without the beach surrounding it and it looked cheap, ugly and not a very exciting prospect to have.
I think in HoMM4, the MapEd was greatly expanded and it allowed for much more map freedom, too bad HoMM4 is a failure through and through and these changes never amounted to anything.
If possible, it would be cool if the HoMM4 MapEd functionalities could be backported into HoMM3's MapEd, but that feels like such a daunting task, it might be easier to rewrite HoMM3 from scratch on a new engine and add those functionalities on top.
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NimoStar
Responsible
Legendary Hero
Modding the Unmoddable
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posted September 26, 2023 10:08 AM |
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Edited by NimoStar at 10:09, 26 Sep 2023.
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H4 isn't a failure...
In H3, ERM by WoG requires another scripting language, so it isn't graphical UI, but you can do everything you said here.
There is a map for example where you get the choice to embrace necromancy in a placeable tile event. If you say "yes", not only you learn necromancy, but all your army is converted to undead.
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Salamandre
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
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posted September 26, 2023 02:47 PM |
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weilan said: in the WoG tutorial there was such a script used as an example that changed a map tile in front of a Shipyard from ground to water so it makes it inaccessible and to prove a point, but the execution wasn't good, because it was just a single water tile, without the beach surrounding it and it looked cheap, ugly and not a very exciting prospect to have.
Tutorials give a path to start with and are mostly generic, as every map will require different scripts adjustments in order to look "good".
It is 100% possible to change any tile and make it look as natural.
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weilan
Known Hero
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posted September 27, 2023 09:34 PM |
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NimoStar said: H4 isn't a failure...
I kind of like the story and some of the graphics, but I don't really like the gameplay or the music. Something about HoMM4's music gives off feelings of sadness, depression, nostalgia, etc., whereas HoMM3's music is mysterious, uplifting and enticing.
I tried very hard to get into HoMM4, tried to understand the game... just can't. General opinion about it is that it's the beginning downfall of the series.
If you like it, that's OK, but for me HoMM3 was the first and HoMM4 felt like a acid nightmare.
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