I think this was already figured out by Co8 modders of yore, but I recently re-discovered how to add area descriptions to various maps in ToEE like you see in the tutorial. This will be useful for providing module-esque descriptions of Hommlet, the Moathouse, the ToEE, etc, when you first arrive at those locations, and in fact a mod doing just that is already in the works and should hit store shelves pretty quickly. This is something that had been long pined for in days gone by, for those of you more modern-era members. The one drawback that goes along with this is that you won't be able to play the tutorial from within the Co8 mod, but you can still always play that via vanilla if you really want to. Should be very cool, and should significantly change the feel of the game - for the better. Everybody seemed to love that stuff in the tutorial and wondered why Troika scrapped such a neat idea for the full game itself.
This is pretty awesome, actually. I imagine those descriptions can be used to add a lot of atmosphere and exposition.
Yeah, the plan is to take the descriptive parts almost straight from the PnP module, for fidelity's sake. They'll have to be edited slightly to conform to whatever the conditions are in the CRPG, but the changes won't be that significant. In a few cases they'll have to be created from scratch though. Here's some more info: Worldmap locations which will have descriptions (they pop up when you first arrive): Hommlet, Nulb, Moathouse, ToEE, Emridy Meadows, Verbobonc (new), Hickory Branch (new), Welkwood Bog (new). Intra-map locations which will have descriptions (they pop up when you approach the area): Hommlet: Church of St. Cuthbert, Guard Tower, the Grove, Welcome Wench, Trading Post, Walled Manor House, castle construction site, Smithy. Nulb: Waterside Hostel, Boatmen's Tavern, Snakepit, Mother Screng's Herb Shop, Ah Fong's Emporium (new). Temple: Main Floor Vestibule, Earth Temple, Air Temple, Water Temple, Fire Temple, Greater Temple, Zuggtmoy's Lair ('Hall of Dread'). Nodes: Earth Node, Air Node, Water Node, Fire Node. That's 32 new area descriptions to enliven the game. They only popup once, btw.
What does the tutorial have to do with this? By this I mean, why does using those descriptive textboxes clash with the tutorial?
Because the only way to get them to work (that I know of) is to hijack them straight from the tutorial. You can edit the text of the tutorial messages (contained in help.tab), but you can't get newly added references to fire. Or at least I wasn't able to figure out how. Getting the existing ones to fire anywhere you want is the easy part.
*cough* http://www.co8.org/forum/showpost.php?p=70732&postcount=8 Added an 'executive summary' there just for you Gaear
Heh. I was intrigued when you wrote that about re-directing the notes, but I didn't make the connection with the tutorial pop-ups either, and I tried that a while back. EDIT: Tried to get tutorial-style pop-ups going, like Gaear has been trying, I mean. I never pulled it off either.
