posted 07-09-11 23:59 ET (US)
EVENT TRIGGERING
The Game portion of Zeus/Poseidon actually supports non-quest/monster events triggering other events. However, the adventure editor doesn't allow you to do this unless you trick it. To do this:
1. Create an event.
2. Change the 'event type' of your event to Quest or Monster invasion.
3. Set the 'triggered event' to the event # of the event you want to trigger.
4. Change the 'event type' of the same event, this time to to that of the event you actually want.
5. Set the other values of the event as usual.
6. Also, create a target event to be triggered and set its occurance to 'Triggered only'.
This works because the editor doesn't clear the event's data when you change the event type. I guess this is so that if you change back, you don't have to set everything again. It turns out that most events actually check for an event to trigger, even though the editor doesn't allow you set the value except if you are working on a quest/monster event. But if you set the 'event to trigger' for a quest event, then change the type of the event, the 'event to trigger' value sticks around.
Other details:
- Although most events can serve as triggers, Gift and Disaster events don't seem able to trigger other events (although they can of course be triggered).
- In many cases the target event will be triggered, even if the triggering event doesn't go off, so for example, a 'rebellion over' event on an inactive, invisible colony will still set off its trigger target, even though there was no active city to stop rebelling and it wasn't rebelling in the first place. One exception that I know of is that a 'supply increase' won't trigger an event if the target city doesn't even have the item on its list of sale items.
- A Goods Request event will trigger its target _only_ if the player sends the goods _on time_. A late delivery or not sending the goods will not trigger the event. Probably military request is the same (but I'm not quite sure).
- The data structure for Goods request events actually has separate slots for different events to trigger if the goods are sent late, or if the player doesn't send them at all. However, these cannot be changed by tricking the adventure editor, they can only be changed by directly editing the .set file with a hex editor or some similar method. Military request actually has a total of 4 slots for events to trigger, but I'm not sure of the exact circumstance in which any of them would go off.
LIMITING COLONY OPTIONS
Any inactive colony assigned to a map will show up as a possible colony when the player has to choose a colony to found. The adventure editor requires you to have as many inactive colonies as you have 'colony next' episodes so the player will have a colony available for each of those possible colony trips. The first 4 colonies(those with the lowest city #) have maps assigned to them, but nothing says some of those can't start out active and invisible as long as there are enough inactive ones. Then,at the end of an episode, a 'city becomes visible' event, followed by a 'city becomes inactive' would add that colony to the list of possible sites for when the player next gets to found a colony. Note that the order of those events is important, because an inactive colony is immune to city status change events, including 'city becomes visible'. So, this allows a couple of branching options:
- An adventure with 2 colony visits, 2 possibles sites for the 1st visit and 1 or 2 additional sites available for the second colony episode.
- An adventure with 3 colony visits, 3 possible sites for the 1st visit and 1 extra added for the 2nd or 3rd visit.
If one has a hex editor, it is fairly simple to go beyond the above options to have up to 4 colony episodes, with only 1 colony available at a time or even jump directly from 1 colony episode to another without a parent episode between. However, explaining how to do this might not be quite so simple and is beyond the scope of this post.
I know of no way(even using a hex editor) to remove a colony from the list of potential sites, once it has become inactive and is thus available to colonize. That status change immunity means it can't be made active or invisible and other types of events tend to ignore inactive cities.
NEGATIVE NUMBER
I mentioned this in another thread, but thought I'd repeat it here. If you enter 32,768 into the number pad of the adventure editor, it becomes "-1", even though the number pad tries to only allow you to enter positive numbers. The most notable use for this is to create a 'military decline event' that actually raises the city's mil level to 6, making it become invulnerable. This cannot be done with the military buildup event because the mil buildup won't raise the level above 5 and will actually lower it to 5 if used on a level 6 city (military buildup on a level 5 city does nothing and displays no message). Of course, things like negative tributes can at least be amusing, though -30000 drachma is probably more fun than a miniscule -1 drachma. I have no idea what would happen if a vassal attempted to give you a negative tribute of some commodity.
HEX EDITING
There are a lot more things that can be done by editing the adventure files with a hex editor. Some were mentioned above, and if you want some simple examples of other possibilities, you might want to check out 'Sans Leonidas', the adventure I just submitted, which is built around the concept of the player receiving unsolicited reinforcments from their rivals. There's a good chance that I'll eventually end up posting at least some information on how to hex-edit zeus files, but I'm more likely to want to do so if someone out there didn't hide under the bed at the mention of the word "hex editor" and is actually interested in trying out what I post. It would also be nice to know that I was actually explaining things clearly and perhaps get an indication of what direction I should be focusing my efforts.
Okay, I'm done, y'all can come out from under the bed now.
The Game portion of Zeus/Poseidon actually supports non-quest/monster events triggering other events. However, the adventure editor doesn't allow you to do this unless you trick it. To do this:
1. Create an event.
2. Change the 'event type' of your event to Quest or Monster invasion.
3. Set the 'triggered event' to the event # of the event you want to trigger.
4. Change the 'event type' of the same event, this time to to that of the event you actually want.
5. Set the other values of the event as usual.
6. Also, create a target event to be triggered and set its occurance to 'Triggered only'.
This works because the editor doesn't clear the event's data when you change the event type. I guess this is so that if you change back, you don't have to set everything again. It turns out that most events actually check for an event to trigger, even though the editor doesn't allow you set the value except if you are working on a quest/monster event. But if you set the 'event to trigger' for a quest event, then change the type of the event, the 'event to trigger' value sticks around.
Other details:
- Although most events can serve as triggers, Gift and Disaster events don't seem able to trigger other events (although they can of course be triggered).
- In many cases the target event will be triggered, even if the triggering event doesn't go off, so for example, a 'rebellion over' event on an inactive, invisible colony will still set off its trigger target, even though there was no active city to stop rebelling and it wasn't rebelling in the first place. One exception that I know of is that a 'supply increase' won't trigger an event if the target city doesn't even have the item on its list of sale items.
- A Goods Request event will trigger its target _only_ if the player sends the goods _on time_. A late delivery or not sending the goods will not trigger the event. Probably military request is the same (but I'm not quite sure).
- The data structure for Goods request events actually has separate slots for different events to trigger if the goods are sent late, or if the player doesn't send them at all. However, these cannot be changed by tricking the adventure editor, they can only be changed by directly editing the .set file with a hex editor or some similar method. Military request actually has a total of 4 slots for events to trigger, but I'm not sure of the exact circumstance in which any of them would go off.
LIMITING COLONY OPTIONS
Any inactive colony assigned to a map will show up as a possible colony when the player has to choose a colony to found. The adventure editor requires you to have as many inactive colonies as you have 'colony next' episodes so the player will have a colony available for each of those possible colony trips. The first 4 colonies(those with the lowest city #) have maps assigned to them, but nothing says some of those can't start out active and invisible as long as there are enough inactive ones. Then,at the end of an episode, a 'city becomes visible' event, followed by a 'city becomes inactive' would add that colony to the list of possible sites for when the player next gets to found a colony. Note that the order of those events is important, because an inactive colony is immune to city status change events, including 'city becomes visible'. So, this allows a couple of branching options:
- An adventure with 2 colony visits, 2 possibles sites for the 1st visit and 1 or 2 additional sites available for the second colony episode.
- An adventure with 3 colony visits, 3 possible sites for the 1st visit and 1 extra added for the 2nd or 3rd visit.
If one has a hex editor, it is fairly simple to go beyond the above options to have up to 4 colony episodes, with only 1 colony available at a time or even jump directly from 1 colony episode to another without a parent episode between. However, explaining how to do this might not be quite so simple and is beyond the scope of this post.
I know of no way(even using a hex editor) to remove a colony from the list of potential sites, once it has become inactive and is thus available to colonize. That status change immunity means it can't be made active or invisible and other types of events tend to ignore inactive cities.
NEGATIVE NUMBER
I mentioned this in another thread, but thought I'd repeat it here. If you enter 32,768 into the number pad of the adventure editor, it becomes "-1", even though the number pad tries to only allow you to enter positive numbers. The most notable use for this is to create a 'military decline event' that actually raises the city's mil level to 6, making it become invulnerable. This cannot be done with the military buildup event because the mil buildup won't raise the level above 5 and will actually lower it to 5 if used on a level 6 city (military buildup on a level 5 city does nothing and displays no message). Of course, things like negative tributes can at least be amusing, though -30000 drachma is probably more fun than a miniscule -1 drachma. I have no idea what would happen if a vassal attempted to give you a negative tribute of some commodity.
HEX EDITING
There are a lot more things that can be done by editing the adventure files with a hex editor. Some were mentioned above, and if you want some simple examples of other possibilities, you might want to check out 'Sans Leonidas', the adventure I just submitted, which is built around the concept of the player receiving unsolicited reinforcments from their rivals. There's a good chance that I'll eventually end up posting at least some information on how to hex-edit zeus files, but I'm more likely to want to do so if someone out there didn't hide under the bed at the mention of the word "hex editor" and is actually interested in trying out what I post. It would also be nice to know that I was actually explaining things clearly and perhaps get an indication of what direction I should be focusing my efforts.
Okay, I'm done, y'all can come out from under the bed now.