Creating an NRaas project Creating new SP personalities (Witches) - a good group project for XML modders, Script modders, and the General Public

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daciasil
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Creating new SP personalities (Witches) - a good group project for XML modders, Script modders, and the General Public

Post by daciasil » January 9th, 2014, 10:34 pm

Hi Guys,

I was poking around inside the story progression personalities modules, and I found that creating a new personality type may be a good group project as it involves mostly XML, which is accessible to a lot of people.

The XMLs are pretty heavy stuff, but for the many who have a background in XML mods I think it's manageable. I was thinking why don't we first add a witch personality. I know that was something a lot of people were wanting, and I think it's doable.

XML Modders: First have a peak inside some of the personality modules, especially werewolves and fairies and have an idea how they work. There is an S3SA (dll) file in there, but it is just bootstrapping the module to the main mod. After that we can discuss about how to proceed.

Script Modders: If we want the mod to do something new that the other personalities don't already do, such as casting a spell etc, we're going to need some script modding. To really make this mod colorful script modders are needed :)

General Public: Can you offer some suggestions about what you would like to see in the mod? What are some things the witches should do?

I hope this is a fun group project :)

Matt_holland
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Post by Matt_holland » January 9th, 2014, 11:29 pm

maybe witch hunters

Acklelyte
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Post by Acklelyte » January 10th, 2014, 12:23 am

Another possibility for the witches: Crone, Mother, Maiden? - Also, the Marvel fan in me goes: Sorcerer Supreme! >.> Will brainstorm a bit more for this, but I always thought the witches should have some fun along with the werewolves, vamps, and fairies.

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Post by Matt_holland » January 10th, 2014, 12:33 am

Maybe Some Good Wicthes Figthing Evil Like The Charm Ones Figthing Demons Or A Group of Witches That wants To Wipe out All Evil in a Town

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Post by Chain_Reaction » January 10th, 2014, 4:19 am

I was going to post a thread about this shortly. I haven't had time to look at the DLL in the personalities package but I did notice those projects are missing from the projects Twallan provided. Are we sure those are just bootstrap DLLs? I assume the scoring functions are in the main mod then?

daciasil
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Post by daciasil » January 10th, 2014, 7:10 am

Right the scoring functions and the scenarios themselves are in the main mod. The personality mods are mostly xml, but that doesn't make them terribly easy and straightforward but perhaps easier to take on than the other mods (for people who can't write script mods like me ^_^)
Basically, our new personality would have to rely on scenarios already created, such as cohesion, derision, arson, etc without having to write a whole new script scenario. However a script modder could write a new scenario like 'cast spell' or something and add it to story progression, and that would add a lot to our new personality.

When you're thinking up how the personality should work, think about how a specific scenario should be, like should the witches have a feud with the vampires? Who should be the opposing clan? Lets start simply by creating only one kind of witch personality and call it "The Coven" or something and decide how it should behave and interact with the other personalities. What is their mission in the town? Try to be a little specific. Once we have the blue print about how the personality should behave we can get to trying to code it :D

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Post by Chain_Reaction » January 12th, 2014, 8:39 am

I was pondering this before going to sleep yesterday... like all programmers do. How about a coven of good witches that help the town out with their magic and can teach witchcraft to other townies. (convert them). And the opposing clan could be an evil witch who uses her powers to negatively affect the town folk and fight with the good witches. Thoughts?

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Post by daciasil » January 12th, 2014, 10:43 pm

That sounds good :)
So it sounds like we're going to use a couple of already established scenarios. I can kind of read C#, but not very well. Can you check these scenarios and see if they would work for our purpose:
cohesion (within a clan)
derision (between the good and bad clan)
educate (good witches teach skills. I'm getting the image of earthy, one-with-nature people. Maybe they can also teach gardening, music, and cooking or something)
familiar (cats for both clans)
learn (witches skill up in spell casting and alchemy)
create occult. (adding new witches. It says 'bite' in the code. Is that suitable for witches?)
trait assign (hanging out with the bad witches could add a bad trait)
shindig (for coven gatherings?)
<hr />
the good witches should the popular with the people, I'm not sure which scenario makes the people like them better. Visa versa for the bad witches.
As far as witch hunters the helsing clan is perfect for that. Maybe they should primarily be after the bad witches but very occasionally attack a good witch or something. That will add some drama.
<hr />
Witches cast spells. We can use some existing scenarios to simulate spell casting:
fixit (good witches use repair spell to fix things around town. They shouldn't take money for it)
arson (bad wtiches use fire spell to set things on fire. bad witches shouldn't be sent to jail though.)
smash (bad witches use ice spell to break things. bad witches don't go to jail.)
<hr />
As far as the other spells and alchemy effects, is there a way to apply a buff to a target sim like the ice buff, frog buff, zombie buff, sad clown buff, etc and then say a spell was cast? This might not be covered by current scenarios and may need to be written. Maybe one scenario of 'evil spell' that covers an array of bad buffs from alchemy and spell casting or others that are suitable, and a 'good spell' scenario that adds positive spell casting, alchemy, etc buffs, and a 'cure' scenario that removes buffs (possibly done by the helsing or slayer to cure the town of occult influence)
<hr />
what do you think? i'll ask in the general chat what sort of things people want to see in the witches

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Post by Chain_Reaction » January 13th, 2014, 5:40 am

Will get back to you when I have some free time but good brainstorming so far. :)

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Post by daciasil » January 25th, 2014, 7:06 am

Just a little update:
I'm slowly but steadily working on the personalities and scoring. I'm starting with the good witch personality because it seems a little easier. Yay progress :)

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