Dungeon Construction Set The DCS is a editing program that allows the creation of 'dungeons', that is, data files that comprise a unique adventure game when played with the HERO_II game player. It is a complex program with a somewhat difficult interface, but it allows great freedoms in the design of unique games. Section I. Expanding the files. You should have two files on your release disk: DCS.LZH and the PD unlzh program UNLZH16.TOS . Follow normal procedures to UNLZH the files onto your system. When expanded, you should have the files DCS.PRG, DCS.TXT and DCS.SPT . DCS.PRG is the Construction Set and DCS.SPT is a support data file. DCS.TXT is this document. The file DCS.SPT must be in the same directory as DCS.PRG . The DCS can run from any disk setup, from the root or from within any folder ( except the AUTO folder ). ----------------------------------------------------------------- Section II. Configuration. The DCS creates dungeons in two forms. One is an editable form that is used during the creation and editing of the dungeon, and the second is an extracted form playable by the HERO_II game player. While editing, the DCS stores the dungeon information in the following file names : INFO.DCS - Contains various editing information as well as the dungeon name. ARCANA.DCS - Contains the spell information for the dungeon. MONSTER.SPT - Contains the 255 creature images for the dungeon. MONSTER.DCS - Contains the creature info for the dungeon. ITEMS.SPT - Contains the 255 item images for the dungeon. ITEMS.DCS - Contains the item definition info for the dungeon. LX.DCS - Contains the data for level X of the dungeon. For instance, the file L0.DCS would contain the info for level 0 of the dungeon. PANELS.DCS - Contains the text panels for the dungeon. WIN.DCS - Contains the defined 'win' info for the dungeon. All dungeons use these file names identically, so if you are storing your dungeons in the same location, you will only be able to edit one dungeon at a time. To have more than one dungeon in progress at one time, my suggestion is that you either store each dungeon on its own floppy disk, or, if you have a hard disk, store each dungeon in its own descriptively named folder. Once the program is loaded, you can remove the load disk as no access will be required to it. Once you have completed your dungeon ( or want to test it ) the CREATE GAME command will extract your dungeon into a playable form, consisting of the following files : STATIC.DAT - All information about the dungeon that will not change during game play. This file is loaded once by HERO_II and will not be accessed afterwards. Text panels, item and creature info and item and creature images are part of this file. DYNAMIC.DAT - All information about the dungeon that could be changed during game play. Shop and chest contents are in this file, as is win control. HEROES.DAT - This is an empty storage file for characters. LEVELX.DAT - This file holds the info for level X. You may extract these files to any destination. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Section III. Main Menu. Double click on the file DCS.PRG to start your session. After a brief load, you will see a copyright message, which will shortly fade into the main menu. The menu options are presented as square buttons with a descriptive title next to each, in blue. The main menu provides access to the six editing functions, as well as to a utilities sub-menu, and save and exit functions. To select a menu option, click the left mouse button on the brown portion of the menu button. You should see the button depress and the option will be performed. Main Menu commands : Edit Images - this invokes the images editor. See Section IV. Edit Items - this invokes the item editor. See Section V. Edit Spells - this invokes the spell editor. See Section VI. Edit Levels - this invokes the levels editor. See Section VII. Edit Creatures - this invokes the creature editor. See Section VIII. Edit Win - this invokes the win editor. See Section IX. Utilities - this invokes the utilities submenu. See Section X. Save Work - this saves ALL of the information current for the dungeon. Quite a bit of IO. Quit - this exits you back to the desktop. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Section IV. Image Editor. The DCS image editor allows the editing of two separate sets of images, each 255 images in length. The images are 16 color, 16x16 pixel squares. One set of images is assigned to the items in the dungeons, the other is assigned to the creatures. The menu options are displayed in two lines across the top. To select a menu option, left-click with the pointer inside the box containing the command you desire. Other screen areas: Drawing Grid : There will be a large, 16x16 grid to the right top of the screen. Each small square in this area represents one pixel of the currently selected image. To color the image, move the pointer into this area and press the left button. The square you are pointing in will fill with the currently selected left-button color, and you will see a pixel appear in the corresponding location of the image in the horizontal image strip. Pressing the right mouse button will color with the currently selected right-button color. Image Strip : This horizontal series of nine boxes is on the left half of the screen. It acts as a nine-image 'window' into the larger image file of 255 images. The small left and right arrows below this area allow scrolling through the entire image file. Left click on the arrows to move through the file. Hold down the button to scroll rapidly through the file. The current image is indicated by a line underneath its image. You select an image to work with in the menu strip by left-clicking on its image. This image will now appear in the drawing grid, and can be edited. The number of the currently selected image will appear in a small box beneath the arrows. Palette Strip : This row of sixteen color boxes is on the bottom left of the screen. The current left-button color is shown by an arrow on the top of the row, and the current right-button color is shown by an arrow on the bottom of the row. To choose a button color, point to the color desired, and press the button you want to be assigned that color. The arrows will move to indicate your choice. RGB Mixer : This is the three boxes immediately to the right of the palette strip, and shows the red, green, and blue components of the currently selected LEFT BUTTON color. To change a color component, left click on the component you want to increase, or right-click on the component you want to decrease. This only affects the current selected left-button color. The first seven colors are protected from change, but the remaining nine can be mixed as you wish. Animation Window : To the right of the RGB mixer is a large box, the Animation Window. The results of the ANIM or CYCLE command will appear here. See the ANIM command. Image Scroll Panel : These four arrows are to the right of the Animation Window, and are used to scroll the currently selected image in a direction, The scroll is performed with wrap, that is, the part scrolled off the edge will re-appear on the opposite side. Commands : ITEMS : This will switch in the item image file for editing. MONST : This will switch in the creature image file for editing. BLANK : This blanks the currently selected image. COPY : This allows the copying of images that are 9 or less images apart. Select the image to copy, select the copy command, and then select the image to be copied to. The first image selected will be copied to the second image selected. The copy may be aborted by clicking outside of the image strip. FILL : This fills the current image with the current left-button color. ROTATE : This rotates the current image one quarter turn. JUMP : This allows the rapid movement to a specific location in the image file. You will be prompted for the image number to jump to. You may not jump to a location that would cause the display of an image outside of the 255 range. QUIT : Exits back to the main menu. ANIM : Animation is accomplished using contiguous sets of images. The ANIM command cannot work with image sets longer than nine, although the creature editor will allow you specify longer animation strips. Animations MUST consist of contiguous images. The anim command will prompt you for a series of nine numbers. Each number represents which of the nine images in the image strip you wish to be presented in which order. For instance, entering 012345678 specifies that you want the first image in the image strip to be shown in the Animation Window first, then the second, then the third, and so on. Entering 234 would present the second image in the image strip first then the third and then the fourth. Notice that the numbers entered here are NOT the image numbers themselves, but rather the place they occupy in the nine image strip. You will initially be presented with a field of 12345678, as this is the most common pattern. You may edit this field with standard editing keys before you hit return. You will also be asked to enter a speed for the animation. Enter number from 1 to 10, with 1 being the fastest. CYCLE : Once you have defined an ANIM sequence, you may select CYCLE to repeatedly play the animation until you hit the right mouse button. MOVE : Move can be used to move groups of images around within the image file. You will be prompted for a starting image number, a destination image number, and a length. MASK and DRAW - These two functions are for future use and are currently disabled. SAVE : This allows you to save your work. Only the image file you're currently working on will be saved, not both. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Section V. Item Editor. You may define up to two hundred unique items with the Item editor. Items may be one of 30 different types, with two types left over for future expansion. Most items have parameters that can be set to change the behavior of the item. The screen : At the top left the item number, item image number, type, and name are shown. At the top right a menu panel is shown. To activate a menu command, place the pointer in the box next to the desired command and press the left mouse button. In the bottom right, a panel of item type selections is displayed, and to the right of this is the parameter display area, where any parameters the current item may have are displayed. Commands : NEXT : displays the next item. PREV : displayes the previous item. IMAGE : Brings up an image selection panel. Any images you have defined for items in the image editor will appear, and the pointer will change into a box. Place the box over the image you desire the item to have, and press the left button. To abort without changing the image assigned to the current item, press the right mouse button. As there are more images than can fit on a single display page, there are actually two pages of item image display. Use the arrows at the bottom of the item selection screen to flip to the other page. NAME : This allows you to assign a name to the item. Be creative. For instance, you don't have to name all jewelry 'rings' as I did in the demonstration dungeon. You could easily create a necklace by drawing and assigning a picture that looked like a necklace, and giving it a name like 'ruby necklace' or 'ruby amulet'. When the player LOOKs at it, they'll see a necklace or amulet. SAVE : Saves the current item info. Be sure to SAVE when leaving any of the editors, or always use the SAVE WORK command from the main menu before exiting to the desktop, or else data may be lost. QUIT : Exits you back to the main menu. Setting an item type : To set an item type, left click on the desired type in the TYPES box to the left on the screen. You will be prompted to confirm the change. Setting item parameters: To set item parameters, left click on the parameter you wish to change. You will be prompted at the bottom right of the screen, usually with some explanatory information to help guide you. The only editing key functional is the backspace key. Alternatively, depending on the parameter you may be presented with an image, item, or creature selection screen, or the text panels editor. The item types and parameters are : NOTHING : Thats just what it is. Use this to delete an item. SWORD : This is the primary weapon type in HERO_II. Parameters : Attack damage - This is the number of six sided dice to roll to determine the number of life points to subtract from a creature that has been hit with this sword. A 2 in this parameter would cause the simulated rolling of two six-sided dice each time this item successfully hit a creature, causing the possible damage done to vary from 2 to 12 points, with the average around six points. To hit adjust : This is the amount of HVPF0 adjustment the weapon will provide to the character using it. Each increment in this number will change the player's HVPF0 by 5%. This number can be negative or positive, negative decreasing the HVPF0 and positive increasing it. Spec damage and Against : these options are for future implementation. Price : This is the base price that will be asked by a shopkeeper for the item. SCROLL : This item contains a spell that can be either cast or learned by a player. Parameters : Spell - This is the spell contained on the scroll. Price - As above. POTION - This is a bottle containing a fluid that can have a wide variety of effects on a player. Parameters : Effect - This is the effect of the spell. See section XV on effects for definitions. ( The following params are dependent on the effect chosen ) Amount - This is the amount of change that will be applied to whatever the effect chosen has to do with. For example, if your effect is effect #1, affect attribute, then this is the amount to lower or raise the attribute you have chosen. Attr - If your chosen effect is #1, effect attr, then this is the attribute that will be affected. If your chosen effect is not #1, then this field has no meaning. Duration - This field is the time in minutes that the effect lasts. A time of zero indicates a permanent effect. Spell - If your chosen effect is effect #12, spell effect, then this field reflects the spell that will be cast when the potion is used. Price - As above. FOOD : This is what the player must USE when they are hungry. Parameters: Food value - This is amount that the hunger bar will lower when it is consumed. The bar spans a total of thirteen points. Price - As above. DRINK : This is what the player must USE when they are thirsty. Parameters: Food value - This is amount that the thirst bar will lower when it is consumed. The bar spans a total of thirteen points. Price - As above. ARMOR : This item affords protection when worn. Parameters: PF Adjust - This is the number of PF points to add or remove when a player wears this armour. Negative values help the player, positive values hinder. Spec Adjust and Against - Not implemented yet. Price - As above. WAND - This item will cast a specific spell when used as a weapon, for a specific number of charges. When it runs out of charges, it disappears. Parameters: Spell - Spell that will be cast. Charges - Number of times the wand can be used. Price - As above. STAFF - Like a wand, but with up to four 'functions' (spells) and it never runs out of charges. Parameters: Spells - number different spells the staff can cast. Spell 1 through Spell 4 - the spell cast by using that function of the staff. Price - As above. KEY : Can be USED to open locked chests and doors. Parameters: Open Item # - Number of the item it opens. 0 means it will open anything. ( skeleton key ) Price - As above. TORCH : Not implemented yet. CROSSBOW : This weapon shoots arrows from a readied quiver. Parameters: Reload rate - how rapidly the player can shoot. 0 is fastest, 3 is slowest. Price - As above. QUIVER : This holds arrows. It dissapears when the arrows are all gone. Parameters: Arrows - The number of arrows in the quiver. Damage - The number of d6 (six sided dice) to roll for damage. See sword, above. To Hit Adjust - Affects the HVPF0 of the player. See sword, above. FIELD : This item is a force field. It can either impede progress of inflict damage, and can only be cleared with a DISPELL spell. Parameters: Type - This is the type of the field, force or damage. 0 is a force field, 1 is a damage field. Damage dice - This is the number of dice to roll for a damage field. Dice sides - This is the sides of the damage dice. For instance, a type 1 field ( damage ) with a damage dice of 2 and a dice sides of 10 would do from 2-20 LP's of damage to any player stepping in it ( a roll of two ten-sided dice ). MISSILE : This weapon is either explosive or not. Both varieties inflict damage, but the explosive kind has a range of squares around it that it inflicts the damage on. Parameters: Damage dice - as above in FIELD. Dice sides - ditto. Damage range - This is the number of squares (radius) around the impact point that the damage will be applied to. PROJECTILE : Similar to missile, but it is used strictly for traps and as a weapon for monsters. Parameters: Damage Dice, Dice sides, To hit adjust - Same as above. Projectile images - Projectiles require a contiguous strip of four images. The reason for this is that as they can be used by monsters as arrows, rocks, etc., and monsters can face up to four different directions, an image must be supplied for each direction. With arrows it makes a difference which direction they are going as to how they look. With things like rocks it doesn't matter, but you still must supply four images, even if they are all identical. Wasteful, but thats the way it is. WALL BLOCK : You guessed it, this is a wall block. Build your walls and countertops out of these. DOOR : This is something that dissapears when opened. Can be locked or hidden with the SET function of the room editor. TRANSPORTER : When stepped into, this transports the player to the place specified. Parameters: To Level - This is the level to which the player will be transported. Make sure you have the level that you specify. This can be the same level as the transporter is on. To Room - Room to transport to. Room X and Room Y - This is the exact spot in the room that the player will appear in. If the spot is occupied, the player will appear at the closest free spot. PIT : A lot like TRANSPORTER, but the To Level cannot be the same or less than the level the pit is on. Players will take an amount of damage proportional to the number of levels they fall. Parameters: Same as above, except as noted. TRAPS : These are wall blocks that shoot stuff at the player. They can either be a beam trap ( laser, etc ), or a projectile trap ( shoots arrows or rocks, etc. ). Parameters: Trap Type - 0 is a beam trap, 1 is a projectile trap. For Beam Trap: Trap Damage - Number of six sided damage dice the trap does. Trap DX and DY - Movement increments for beam. Delta's can be either -1, 0, or 1, and they specify the number of squares that the beam will travel in the x or y component across the screen. X is the horizontal movement, Y is the vertical movement. So, if you wanted a beam to travel straight right to left across the screen, you'd specify a DELTA X of 1 ( move right ), and a DELTA Y of 0 ( no vertical motion ). Similarly, for a left to right beam a DX of -1 ( left movement ) and a DY of 0 would be used. For straight up or down, a DX of 0 and a DY of -1 or 1 would be used. A DX of 1 and a DY of 1 would produce a beam that traveled diagonally towards the bottom right of the screen, and so on. Trap Trig - trap trigger. 0 is random firing, 1 means constant fire whenever a player ( or anything else ) is in a specific spot in the room. For Random trigger : Speed - 1 to 10. 1 is fastest. For Spot trigger : Trigger X and Y - Specifies the trigger spot in the room. X is the left to right axis, and Y is the up and down axis. Beam Image - This is the image of the beam. For Projectile Trap : Trap Projectile - This is the projectile that will be shot by the trap. All other parameters are the same as for a beam trap. CHEST : These hold up to seven items, and can be stocked, locked and hidden using the SET function of the room editor. Parameters: Open image - The image of the chest when opened. Opened by key - Allows you to specify a key that will open it if locked, or leave 0 for openable by any key. Trapped - This toggles the trapped status of the chest. A trapped chest will inflict a ( usually ) minor amount of damage on an unlucky player. SHIELD : This item, when worn, will lower the PF of a player by a certain amount. Parameters: PF Adjust - as Armor, above. Price - As above. TREASURE : This item will add to the wealth and experience of the player GETting it. Parameters: Gold piece value and Experience value - the amounts to increase by. OBJECT : An object can have a spell or not, and can be permanent or one use only. Parameters: Has Spell - This toggles whether the object has a spell or not. For Spell objects : Spell - Spell that will be cast when the object is USEd. Object is - This toggles the permanence of the object. An object that is ONE USE ONLY dissapears after the first use. Price - As above. SIGN : This object can be READ, but not gotten. Parameters: Edit Panels - This provides access to the panel editor. See Section XIV for more info. NOTE : Exactly like a SIGN, but can be gotten as well. Parameters: (same as for sign) SWITCH : This is the most complicated item. It has four basic functions. 0 - Replace an item with something else. 1 - Swap an item back and forth with an empty spot. 2 - Create a monster in a specific spot 3 - Activate another switch. A switch can be 'active' or 'inactive'. When a switch is inactive, the player can FLIP it but nothing happens. When a switch is active, when the player FLIPs it it performs its function. Use switches to set up puzzles. For instance, you could have a door appear when a switch is flipped, and also require that three other switches all be flipped in the correct order for the fourth one to work. The first switch would activate the second, the second the third, and the third the fourth. These switches could be in widely separated places, too. Theres a lot of room for setting up puzzles and such using combinations of switches, pits, traps, and doors. Parameters: Switch Type - This corresponds to the four functions above. (for Item Replace) Item - This brings up the item selection panel. Choose the item that you want to appear when the switch is flipped. The item will replace whatever is currently in the spot it appears in. (for Item Toggle) Item - Same as above, except the area the item appears in must be empty. When the switch is opened, the item will appear, and when it is closed, it will disappear. (for Monster Appears) Creature - Works basically the same as Item Replace, except that the selection panel is the creature selection panel.- Choose the creature that you want to appear when the switch is flipped. (for all three above) In Room - What room you would like the item or creature to appear in. At X - The X coordinate of the desired spot in the room. At Y - The Y coordinate of the desired spot in the room. (for Activates other Switch) Switch affected - The item number of the switch you want to be activated when this switch is flipped. (for all types) Switch Status - This toggles the switch status between active and inactive. STAIRS : Stairs are really a specialized form of transporter. They allow travel between two levels, not necessarily adjacent. Parameters: To Level - This is the destination level of the stairs. To Room - Destination room of the stairs. To X - X spot in room that the player appears in. To Y - Y spot in the room that the player appears in. JEWELRY : Jewelry function identically as do potions, but the effect jewelry has does not have a specified duration. It begins when the jewelry is worn and ends when it is removed. Jewelry, unlike potions, cannot have a spell effect. Parameters: Same as for potions, except as noted above. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Section VI. Spell Editor. There are 43 pre-designed spells, and slots for 57 user designed spells. You may not alter the pre-designed spells, which are termed 'canned spells'. These spells are : Spell # Name Function 0 None No function, this is a placeholder. 1 Heal Causes a partial regain of Life Points. 2 Protect Raises the ABSOR level of the player to 2. (only functional if the ABSOR is 0) 3 Magic Missile Shoots a ball of flame. Minor damage. 4 Read Magic Described in the HERO_II documentation. 5 Charm Person Calms down neutral creatures that you have annoyed. 6 Feather Fall Lets players fall down pits without damage. 7 Turn Undead Can scare off UNDEAD monsters, if the players' level is high enough. 8 Sleep Makes creatures go to sleep. Easy to kill when they're snoozing. 9 Reveal Unhides hidden things. 10 Detect Invisi Not functional yet. 11 Invisibility Removes the player from the creatures view. 12 Knock Blasts open locked things. 13 Weakness Affects the LP damage that creatures in the room do. 14 Fear Works like TURN UNDEAD, but on regular creatures. 15 Freeze Stops creatures permanently in their tracks. 16 Lightning Neat spell, causes a bolt of lightning to shoot a round the room. Gives damage EACH time it hits something, and it can hit multiple times if it bounces around. You can hurt the other player with this, but not yourself. 17 Dispell Removes any FIELDS in the room. 18 Fireball A higher powered MAGIC MISSILE. 19 Haste Temporarily gives an AGILITY of 30. 20 Stun Causes damage, and can FREEZE creatures temporarily. 21 Down Send the player down 1 level. 22 Curse Lowers the HVPF0 of attacking creatures. 23 Bless Raises the HVPF0 of the player. 24 Thunderbolt A more powerful LIGHTNING. 25 Confusion Causes monsters to attack each other. 26 Invulnerability Adds 12 to the current ABSOR. 27 Up Send the player up one level. 28 Slow Poison Slows the damage down by poison. 29 Slow Disease Ditto for disease. 30 Transport This spell allows the player to move in a certain direction for a certain distance. The screen clears, and a box representing the current level appears. A red line can be moved by the joystick. This line repre- -sents the direction and distance to teleport. Upon pressing the joystick button, if there is a room there, and the spot is clear, the player will tele- -port there. 31 Levitate Allows the player to pass over pits without falling. 32 Anti-magic Shell Protects the player from ALL magic, including his own. 33 Kill This spell does great damage to all LIVING monsters. 34 Know Item This spell displays an items' parameters. 35 Cure Disease Thats what it does. 36 View Level This spell puts up a map of the current level. The red dots are monsters, the blue and green dots are player 1 and player 2, respectively. 37 Rescue This transports the casting player to room 0, level 0, which should always be a safe haven. 38 Prayer Can have various effects, depending on the luck on the player. HEAL, CURE DISEASE, CURE POISON,RESCUE and TRANSPORT can all be effects of a successful PRAYER spell. 39 Cure Poison Does what it says. 40 Firestorm Creates a wall of flame around the player, with a radius proportional to the players' level. Great offensive spell. 41 Drain Magician If the player is fighting monsters that cast spells, this spell can drain them of their spell casting ability. 42 Resurrect This spell can resurrect players from the grave. 43 Timestop Temporarily stops time; all motion ceases except for the casting player. 44-100 User spells These are spell slots that can be defined by the user. Defining Spells : A designed spell can be one of 8 different types : Spell Effect : 0 No effect 1 Canned Spell A designed spell cannot be this, obviously. Non-selectable and can't be changed. 2 Create Item This causes an item to appear next to the casting player. 3 Destroy Item This destroys a specific item if the player is facing it. 4 Transmute Item This changes a specific item into another item. 5 Affect Player The spell has an effect as a potion does. 6 Damage Creatures The spell does damage to a specific creature(s). 7 Destroy Creatures The spell destroys specific creatures. 8 Create Creatures This spell creates a specific creature. 9 Create Missile This spell creates a specific missile (and launches it) To define a spell, use the NEXT and PREV commands to choose a unoccupied spell slot. them left click on the words SPELL TYPE. You will be presented with a selection page listing the available spell types. Left click on the type you desire, and select DONE from the command box. Then left click on the word NAME and you will be able to enter a name for the spell. Then in a similar manner, fill in the rest of the spell parameters, which are as follows : Spell Level- This is the minimum level required to be able to learn this spell ( successfully cast READ MAGIC ). Spell Drain- This is the amount of Magic Points that this spell will drain from the casting player. Spell Duration- This is the length of time ( in minutes ) that the effect the spell has will last. A 0 means a permanent effect. Following these, spells can have a couple of parameters unique to their spell type. For instance, a spell of type 8, create creatures, has fields marked CREATURE CREATED and MAX COUNT. Left click on the words CREATURE CREATED and you will see the standard creature selection panel. Left click on MAX COUNT and you will be able to enter the maximum count of creatures to be created, or leave it 0, which means that the count rises as the casting players' level. Most of these parameters should be easy to figure out. Left click on them to change them. Look at the example spells to see how they were done, and dont forget to SAVE before you exit. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Section VII. Level Editor. With the level editor you may create and destroy rooms, as well as reposition and edit existing rooms. The commands are expressed as a series of labeled square buttons on the left side of the screen. Left-clicking in the brown portion of the button will activate the command. In most cases, some explanatory comments will appear in brown on the last few lines of the screen. If there is an error, a red message will appear there. Screen Areas : There are three main areas - the command box on the left, the error window along the bottom of the screen, and a large square taking up most of the screen. This large square is the LEVEL MAP, and it is where you will place your rooms. Rooms are related to each other as their position on the screen indicates. It is like a large flat board upon which you can re-arrange the rooms to your desire. There is a small information display on the bottom right in the command box that shows you the current level, current # of rooms on the level, and the current room x and room y positions when positioning rooms. Commands : New Room - This commands adds a room to the level. The button will depress, and remain so until the command is terminated. Move the pointer onto the level map, and you will see a white box being dragged about on the screen. The left button will deposit the box ( room ) in its current position, and the right button will exit the command without doing anything. You may have only 32 rooms per level. If you select this command and you have 32 rooms already, the command will not function. You may not drop a room so that it overlaps another room. Move - This commands waits for you to left click on a room on the level map, and then it begins dragging the room around behind the cursor as in New Room. Left click drops the room at its current location, right aborts and returns the room to its original position. Delete - Deletes the room you left click on. Edit Room - Takes you to the Room Editor with the room you left click on as the current room. Clear - Deletes every room in the level. Level + - Selects the next level for editing, and loads its information file. If the level does not exist yet, you will be prompted as to whether you want to create it. Level - - Select the previous level for editing. Save - Saves the current level. Quit - Exits you back to the main menu. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Section VIII. Room Editing. The room editor allows you to place, delete, hide, lock and perform various other operations on the contents of a specific room. Screen Areas : There are four screen areas - the command box, the item palette, the info line and the room itself. The command box is to the upper right, and commands are give by left clicking in the small box next to the desired command. The item palette is just below this, and can hold up to 10 items for quick access. The info line is the last line of the screen and shows the current mode as well as the x and y of the cursor in the room and the room #. The room display is the large unbordered area at the top left of command box and above the info line. The Item Palette : This is a set of ten items. The current item is shown by a small arrow pointing to it. This is the item that will be placed in the room when the mouse is left-clicked within the room display. This item will appear at the current cursor position in the room. To select a new item, make sure you are in Item mode ( see Info Line below ) and left click on the items' place in the item palette. To set a new item into a palette slot, left click on the slot you wish to change and then select the command SELECT. You will see the item selection page, and the item you select will be placed into the current item palette slot, available for placing in the room. The Info Line : This line shows the current mode. The are three modes - Item, Monsters, and Identify. These modes affect what happens when the mouse is left clicked within the area of the room display. In Item mode, the current item is placed at the current mouse position. In Monsters mode, the current creature is placed in the room at the current mouse position. In Identify mode, the item info of the item that is left-clicked upon in the room display is displayed. This last is useful, as it prevents slow trips to the item editor to check something's parameters, and also if you have several items that look alike in the same room and you need to know which is which. Placing items in the room : To place an item in the room, ensure you are in item mode and that the item you wish is in the item palette with the arrow pointing to it. Move the pointer to the place in the room that you wish the item to appear at, and press the left button. The item will appear, and by moving the pointer still with the left button pressed you may draw continuous lines. To erase an item in the room, place the pointer over the item to be erased and press the right button. As with the left, you may continuously erase by moving the pointer with the right button held down. Placing creatures in the room: To place a creature in the room, ensure you are in the MONSTERS mode. Then, select the SELECT command and choose your creature. Then place the pointer in the room at the spot that you want the creature to appear at and press the left button. To erase a monster, point at it and press the right mouse button. To change the orientation of a creature, point to it and press the left mouse button. If it is a FACED creature, it will make a quarter turn each time you click on it. If it is a CYCLED creature, each click will advance the creature one frame in its animation cycle. Use this to arrange special traps, or to prevent a group of cycled creatures from being in animation lockstep, which looks fake. Commands : SELECT : ( in ITEM mode ) This brings up the item selector. The item chosen will be entered into the current item palette slot. ( in MONSTERS mode ) This brings up the creature selector. The creature selected will then be the monster placed in the room at a left click. It will not show up in the item palette. ( in IDENTIFY mode ) functions same as MONSTERS mode. MODE : This commands toggles the MODE through its three positions. ERASE : This command erases the entire room. FILL : This command fills the room with the current item. BORDER : This command will cause the walls of the current rooms to match the walls of the rooms it borders. This allows the quick and error free connection of rooms, as it places openings in the walls of the current room in the exact same spots as those in the walls of the rooms it borders. SET : This takes you to the Set Item editor. After this command is chosen, the words "SELECT ITEM TO SET" will appear in the info line. Left click upon the item whose settings you wish to change, or press the right button to abort the command. SAVE : This saves the data for the current room. GOTO : This allows you to select a new room as if you had selected EDIT ROOM from the level editor. QUIT : this exits you back to the main menu. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Section IX. The Set Item editor. This editor allows the manipulation of some special control bits in items. Items may be : Hidden - Item appears as some other item. Closed - For doors and chests only. Has no effect on other item types. Locked - Also for doors and chests only. These bits may be toggled back and forth using the editing commands. A special command, STOCK, only appears if a chest is being set. This command allows you to place items in the chest. The display : You will see a standard command box in the upper right, and a type name and item name display in the top left. Below this are two lines showing the items' current image and actual image. For items that have been hidden, the current image is different than the actual image. The current image shows how the item will appear to the players. To the bottom right is a status box showing the current setting of the hide, lock and close bits. When setting chests, two other display items appear. Below the images lines, a contents pointer is displayed. This line can be ignored as it has no relevance to editing functions. It is there for diagnostic purposes. At the bottom left, the display of the items that are in the chest appears. Commands : HIDE : You will be presented with the item image selection screen. Left click on the image to select or right click to abort. If you select and image, this image will appear as the current image, and the HIDDEN status bit will be turned on. When a player LOOKs at a hidden item, they will be told that they 'are having trouble seeing it'. The player can, through sheer persistence or with magical help (REVEAL), eventually discover the true nature of the item. UNHIDE : Reverses the effect of HIDE. LOCK : Only applicable to chests and doors. You may set the locked bit on other item types, but it will have no effect on game play. For chests and doors, this will LOCK the item so that only a successful PICK command, a KNOCK spell, or the USE of the correct key type will allow the item to be opened. UNLOCK : Reverses the effect of the LOCK command. OPEN : Normally, doors and chest are open. An open door dissapears, so do not use this with doors. Chests may be opened. As LOCK above, this bit is only applicable to doors and chests. CLOSE : Reverses the effect of OPEN. (The next only appears when setting chests) STOCK : You will be presented with the item selection page. The item you select will be placed into the first empty slot of the chest being set. REMOVE : Select this command, then left-click upon the item in the contents display you wish to remove. The item will be taken out of the chest. To abort command, right click. QUIT : Returns you to the Room Editor. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Section X. The Creature Editor. The creature editor allows you to define up to 100 creatures with unique names, appearances, abilities, behaviors and text panels. There are five creature types : Monster : These are usually the main fighting creatures of the dungeon. They are normally either evil or neutral. You may create a good monster, but you are better served in that case to make it a NPC instead. Monsters can have a variety of attack modes, and can cast spells, but they cannot have text panels. Priest: These provide the healing services required for the players. They can call for help when attacked. Shopkeeper: These are the sources of buyable items for the game players. Each come with its own fully stockable shop. Generator: These are static creatures that spew out other creatures, a la gauntlet. Ant nests, Mummy Coffins, etc. NPC: These are the 'good guys' ( usually ) and can be instructed to actively fight for and follow the players, as well as tell interesting ( and hint-filled? ) text panels. Screen areas : There are four main screen areas. To the top right is a standard command box. To the left is a large area showing the current parameters for the creature. Just below the command box is a line identifying the creature number, and below that the status bit settings will be displayed, if any. At the bottom is the image strip, showing the defined sequence of images for the creature. The parameters for the creature are changed by left clicking on the parameter to change. An input box will appear in the lower right above the image strip, and you will be prompted to enter the new value for the parameter. Often a short explanation and a indication of allowable ranges is presented also. The only editing key function when entering the value is the backspace key. A blank return will abort the change. The following section on commands is broken up into sub-sections by creature type. ************************************************************** TYPE 1 : MONSTERS. Parameters: CREATURE CLASS : Clicking on this parameter allows you to choose one of the five creature types. NAME : this allows you to enter a name. Less than 20 chars, please. ANIMATION TYPE : As you may have noticed from playing the game, there are three main animation types. The first is STATIC, that is, not moving and not animated. The image strip for static creatures consists of 1 image only. The second type is FACED. FACED creatures have four faces, one for each direction they can turn. There is an up image, a left image, a down image, and a right image. There are also four attack faces that show the creature leaning in the direction of attack, and often with an extended part of the sword, arm, claw or whatever cut off at the edge of the image. Then there are four images showing the extended sword or arm or claw or whatever. These last images will be overlayed upon the attacked player, so as to seem to 'pierce' the player. THESE IMAGES MUST BE CONTIGUOUS, AND IN THIS ORDER : four normal faces, four attack faces, and four thrust tip faces. For monsters that attack with projectiles, ensure that the four thrust tip images are blank. So, thats a total of 12 contiguous images in that order; you MUST set them up this way with the image editor. Study the orcs and the giant ants in the example dungeon. Be creative, you can do anything you want as long as you remember that the image order is up,right,left,down and that the first four images will be the normal appearance, the next four will be the attack image, and the next four will be superimposed on the victim. CYCLED : These monsters do not 'face' any particular direction, but instead are a continuous strip of images that get cycled through whether the creature has moved or not. You can have up to 17 images in a strip, and all the images must be contiguous. The medusas and the green slimes in the demonstration dungeon are a good example of cycled creatures. ATTACK TYPE : There are four attack types. PROXIMITY attacks are caused by being next to the creature. This is best used with cycled or static monsters. THRUST/SWING attacks are the standard attacks, and should be used with faced creatures. The creature will appear to thrust, swing or bite ( if the image strip is set up right, see FACED above ). THROW/SHOOT : This is for faced monsters as well, although the other types can use it too. ( I think! ). The specified projectile will be launched at the players. PSYCHIC/MAGICAL : This is sort of non-functional, because if you have turned on the CASTS SPELLS control bit ( see below ), the creature will attack with magic anyway, no matter what its attack type is set to. This attack type is useful for preventing the use of any other attacks besides magical, though. If you want a creature using ONLY magic attacks, then turn the CASTS SPELLS bit on and set the attack type to psychic/magical. ATTACK DICE : This is the number of dice that will be rolled when the creature successfully attacks to determine damage done. ATTACK DICE SIDES : This is the number of sides that the dice that will be rolled for an attack have. Works with ATTACK DICE above. So, if you had set ATTACK DICE to 5 and ATTACK DICE SIDES to 10, then each successful attack by this creature would simulate the rolling of five ten-sided dice to determine the damage done. So, from 5 to 50 LP's of damage could be done, with an average around 22. MOVE SPEED : This number controls the rate of motion, and varies from one to 10, with 1 being the fastest. A speed 1 monster can easily keep up with the fastest of characters, and can only be outrun by magical means. INTELLIGENCE : Currently not implemented. EXPERIENCE POINTS : This is the number of experience points a player will receive for killing this monster. It is expressed in units of 10, that is, a 10 in this field means 100 experience points. The max is 255, or 2550 experience points. ALIGNMENT : This is not fully implemented. As of release 1.1, this controls the aggressive behavior of the creature. An evil creature (3) will always attack immediately. A Good or Neutral creature will ignore the players unless they kill one of them, in which case they become aggressive and stay that way unless calmed down with a CHARM PERSON spell. REGENERATION : Not implemented yet. GOLD CARRIED : This works just like EXPERIENCE POINTS except that its the gold the player gets. PROTECTION FACT : This is the same PF that the players use, but from the monsters point of view. Low PF's are hard to hit, high ones are easy. Good ranges are : 7 and above - super easy to hit. 4 to 0 - mild to slightly tough. 0 to -4 - hard. -7 and below - very very hard to hit. SPELL LIST : For those creatures whose CASTS SPELLS bit is set on, this allows you to specify which spells they will cast. You will be presented with a screen listing all of the available monster spells and the current yes/no status of each spell. No means that the monster will not cast that spell, yes means he will. Left click of the desired spell name to toggle it on and off. Use the command box DONE or CANCEL commands to exit. HIT DICE and HIT DICE SIDES : This works as does ATTACK DICE and ATTACK DICE SIDES, except it is for the LP's that the monster has. In addition, the HIT DICE number also determines the 'level' of the monster. A monster with a lot of hit dice, no matter how many sides they have, is a high level monster. This monster level number is used along with the player's level to determine the success or failure of magical attacks. A monster with fifty hit dice, for instance, will be extremely resistant to all but the spells of the most advanced characters. CYCLE START : This is the image number of the start of the image strip. Click on this, and you will be presented with the monster image selection page. Select the desired starting point. For FACED or STATIC monsters, the CYCLE END will be automatically calculated. CYCLE END : This is the image number of the last image in the image strip. For CYCLED monsters, click on this line to set the ending image for your animation strip. CONTROL BITS : You may toggle these its off and on by left clicking them. UNDEAD : This controls whether or not a creature is affected by the TURN UNDEAD spell or the FEAR spell, and whether it will be killed by a KILL spell. Undead creatures cant be killed with a KILL spell, and they are affected by the TURN UNDEAD spell and not the FEAR spell. CASTS SPELLS : This turns on the spell casting ability of the monster. Each time a spell is cast, the monster stands a certain chance of 'running out of MP's' and losing the spell casting ability. The higher the level of the monster ( see HIT DICE ) the longer in general the spell casting will last. When this bit is set, the monster will, along with normal attacks, periodically select at random a spell from its allowed spells ( see SPELL LIST ) and cast it at the players. DISEASED : The monster has a chance with each successful attack to DISEASE the player. POISONOUS : Same as above, except for poison. GUARD MODE : The monster will not move or attack until an attack takes place in the room. UNIQUE : This specifies that this creature is not to be generated or created in any way by any spell, priest or generator. Ensures that only ONE of these is present per dungeon. This is good for win scenarios that specify the killing of a specific creature. You can't have more than one of the target creatures running around or the scenario won't make sense. *************************************************************** TYPE 2 : PRIEST Parameters: (I will only discuss those that are different from the monster parameters. ) IMAGE START : Same as CYCLE START for monsters, except that priests can only be FACED and their image strip is only 4 images long as they never attack. DIETY NAME : Used in the welcome greeting. 'WELCOME TO THE CHURCH OF '. MOVE AREA : Priests and shopkeepers need to stay generally in the same place, and they cannot leave rooms. This is the number of squares around that your priest will wander away from his original spot. Dont make it larger than ten or so, I would suggest. Five is a good number. 0 makes them not move at all. ALIGNMENT : Doesn't do much as of yet. MONSTER GATED : This brings up the creature selection panel. Select the creature you want the priest to call upon when attacked. If the priest is attacked, he will cause several of the selected creatures to appear in the room. MONSTER COUNT : How many will appear. Dont make it more than 13. HOLY WORD : NFY. ( Not Functional Yet ) CONTROL BITS : None. **************************************************************** TYPE 2 : SHOPKEEPER Parameters: (I will only discuss those that are different from the monster parameters. ) SHOP NAME : This is the name of the shop. MOVE AREA : Same as for priests. SHOP # : Diagnostic info only. STOCK SHOP : This allows you to stock the shop. You will be presented with a special selection routine that will allow you to page back and forth through the list of items, both defined and undefined. NEXT advances the page, PREV goes back. To add an item to a shop, use NEXT and PREV until the name of the item is on the screen. Then, left click on the name and the COUNT will increment by one for each click. To decrement the count, right click on the item name. Each shop may have up to 255 of every defined item. CONTROL BITS : None. *************************************************************** TYPE 3 : GENERATOR. Parameters: (I will only discuss those that are different from the monster parameters. ) MONSTER CREATED : This is the monster that the generator will generate as fast as it can in the squares directly around it. Uses the standard creature selection panel. CONTROL BITS : None. **************************************************************** TYPE 4 : NPC. Parameters: (I will only discuss those that are different from the monster parameters. ) EDIT STORY PANELS : If the TELLS STORY bit is on, this will appear and allow you to enter the Panels editor and assign a text panel to this creature. They will tell their story when TALKed to. You may have to use NEXT and PREV to redisplay the parameters when initially turning this bit on. See Section XIV on the text panel editor. CONTROL BITS : FOLLOWS PLAYER : This causes the NPC to follow the player around from room to room and level to level. If two rooms are crossed before the NPC can catch up they get lost. MOVES must be on for this to be functional. TELLS STORY : Activates a text panel for the creature. MOVES : Enables movement for the creature. FIGHTS : The player will attack any evil creature it meets. MOVE must be on. IS WIN : This bit must be on for any creature that is specified as the receiver or rewarder in a win scenario in order for the scenario to work properly. UNIQUE must also be on. UNIQUE : Same as for monsters. --------------------------------------------------------------- Section XI. The Win Editor. Each dungeon can have up to four separate 'win' scenarios, that is, quests or tasks to be accomplished, each with its own reward. these quests must be undertaken in the order specified. Scenario Types : NO SCENARIO SET : This means a un-defined scenario. RETRIEVE SPECIFIC ITEM : A specified item must be GIVEn to the reciving creature. KILL SPECIFIC CREATURE : The specified creature must be killed and the rewarder TALKed to afterwards. RETRIEVE SPECIFIC PERSON : A specific creature ( make sure its a NPC with UNIQUE and FOLLOWS PLAYER turned on! ) must be brought back to the rewarder's room and the rewarder TALKed to. PLACE ITEM IN SPECIFIC LOCATION : 'Place the wondrous Gem of Evenstar in the Room of the Seven Winds...' that kind of thing. A specific item must be dropped on a specific square in a specific room, and then the rewarder TALKed to. Screen Areas : There is a button style command strip on the right, and a display on the left showing the current win condition and the current scene. Flow of Win Control : When the game starts up a dungeon for the first time, win condition #0 will be active. The player must locate the rewarder or receiver ( the 'win creature' ) and TALK to it. The player will then see the BEFORE STORY ( B Story ) , a set of up to four text panels describing the task, giving hints, etc. When the task is completed, the player must TALK to the win creature again and they will see the AFTER STORY ( A Story ), describing the effects of the feat and congratulating, and perhaps giving a lead-in to the next task. The player will then be given the reward, and the game will switch to win condition #1 if it is defined. After WC #1 is done, WC #2 becomes active, and so on. As soon as the game encounters an undefined WC or WC #3 is completed, no more win activity will take place, although the game itself will not stop. Commands : NEXT : Moves to the next Win Condition. PREV : Moves to the previous Win Condition. SCENE : Steps through the five possible scenario types. B STORY : Takes you to the Panels Editor to edit the BEFORE STORY panels. A STORY : Takes you to the Panel Editor to edit the AFTER STORY panels. SAVE : Saves Win Control info. QUIT : Takes you back to the Main Menu. Parameters : As usual, you change a parameter by left clicking on it. You will be prompted at the bottom to enter a value, or you will be presented the appropriate selection screen. For RETRIEVE SPECIFIC ITEM : ITEM : This is the item you want to be retrieved. You will be presented with the standard item selection panel. This item must be GIVEn to the receiver by the players. RECEIVER : This is the 'win creature' for this scenario. ENSURE that it is a NPC with WIN PERSON and UNIQUE on, and TELLS STORY off. When TALKed to, this creature will relate the before or after story ( depending on whether the task is completed yet ) and give the reward. REWARD GOLD : The amount of GP's to be awarded. REWARD EXPERIENCE : Ditto for EP's. For KILL SPECIFIC CREATURE : TARGET : Select the creature that is to be killed. Ensure that UNIQUE is on. REWARDER : Same as RECEIVER above. ( other parameters are the same as above ) For RETRIEVE SPECIFIC PERSON : PERSON : This is the creature that must be brought back to the room that the rewarder is in, and the rewarder TALKed to. ENSURE that it is a NPC with UNIQUE, FOLLOWS PLAYER, and MOVES on. If this creature gets killed, the game will be stuck at this point, so you might want to provide a spell to re-create the creature. Or, then again, you might not! ( other parameters are the same as above ) For PLACE ITEM IN SPECIFIC LOCATION : ITEM : This is the item that must be placed in a specific x y location in a specific room on a specific level. The player must return and TALK to the rewarder in order to get the reward. LEVEL, ROOM, ROOM X, ROOM Y : These specify the position that the item is TO BE PLACED IN, not where it starts out at. ( other parameters are same as above ) ---------------------------------------------------------------- Section XII. Utilities. There are two utilities so far, CREATE DUNGEON and CREATE GAME. CREATE DUNGEON is used to start editing a brand new dungeon. CREATE game is used to extract a dungeon into a form playable by the HERO_II program. CREATE GAME : You will see a standard button style command box, two information lines, and some instructions at the bottom. The name button will allow you to enter a name for the dungeon, and the path button allows you to select the path. The path selection is through the file selector. It does not matter what file name you do or do not click on, the only thing that matters is what path you are pointing to when you hit OK. So, once you are pointing to the path you want you may either double click on any file name or just hit OK, both will work the same. The path is stripped from the file selector return and becomes the location where the DCS will store all the data files for the new dungeon. For hard disk users, I recommend that you store each dungeon in its own folder because all dungeons use the same file names and the DCS will overwrite files in the path that have the same name. For floppy disk owners, I recommend that you store each dungeon on its own disk. For dungeons that are larger than one disk, the DCS should prompt you to insert the disks containing the file it needs. Make sure you label your disks correctly, because all data disks look the same to the DCS. Once you have selected the path, given a name, and made sure the correct disk is inserted, use the CREATE button to make the set of data files. It will take a while, even on a HD. CREATE GAME : This takes you to a more complex routine: The CREATE GAME function takes all of the edited information for your dungeon, checks it for internal consistency, and then extracts it into a form playable by the HERO_II program. Screen Areas : Again, you will see a button style command box to the right, and an informational display to the left. Commands : PREP : This starts the dungeon extraction process with the parameters shown to the left. LOG : This toggles the printer log function. Make sure your printer is online if you set this to yes. TO PATH : Sets the output path in the same manner as CREATE DUNGEON above. For single floppy systems, you will be prompted to insert the correct disks. FROM PATH : This normally will be set correctly, but if for some reason you want to change the input path, you can use this button. QUIT : This returns you to the Utilities menu. CREATE GAME error messages : Some internal inconsistencies are possible in your data. Here is a list of the messages you may receive during the dungeon prep operation : Too many monsters in room : You may only have a maximum of 16 creatures in a single room. No rooms in level : This means that you have not defined any rooms for the level that is being processed. The prep will not fail, but the extracted data may not be playable, depending on how you have things set up. You may want to skip a level intentionally, but I cant think of why. Item image mismatch : This can occur when you change the image associated with an item that has already been placed in a room. The item definition points to an image, and each occurrence of an item in a room points to an image. Normally, they point to the same image because the item definition image pointer is copied into the room item pointer when the item is placed in the room. But, if the item image pointer is then changed, it will no longer point to the same image as the actual room occurrence does. You either have to manually erase and replace each occurrence of the item in question in all the rooms, or you can let prep fix it for you. This message indicates that the PREP command has noticed ( and fixed ) the problem, so that your output dungeon will be correct. It did not change the input file, however, so you will continue to get this message until you change the item image pointer back or you replace the items in the rooms. Deleted item replaced by nothing : Not a problem, really. You deleted an item type and did not delete all of its occurrences from your rooms. Again, as above, PREP will fix it for you as far as your output dungeon is concerned. Duplicate of unique monster deleted : This means that you had a creature with the UNIQUE control bit on in more than one place in the dungeon. The first one is ok, but subsequent occurrences are deleted from the output dungeon. Undefined monster deleted : You had deleted a creature and did not delete all of its occurrences from the dungeon. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Section XIII. Other Main Menu commands. LOAD DUNGEON : This brings up the file selector. You do not need to click any particular file. Just ensure that you are pointing to right path when you exit the file selector. The DCS will attempt to load a set of dungeon files from this path. You will be notified if files are missing. SAVE WORK : This is a complete save. It saves every file in the dungeon, and can take a while. Its for ensuring that you saved every change after a long editing session. QUIT : Well, you guessed it, this returns you to the desktop. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Section XIV. The Text Panels editor. There are 30 text panels, each with 23 lines of 56 characters. An item or creature can have up to 4 panels of text to be presented to the players when read or talked to. Screen Areas : On the right you will see a standard command box. The text for the panel will be in the large area to the left, and there is a small info display at the bottom left. Commands : 1, 2, 3, 4 : This selects which of the 4 possible panels you wish to edit. EDIT : Lets you edit the current text panel. A green cursor will appear. Remember, this is primitive stuff as far as word processing goes. No word wrap, no block ops, no undo. The only editing keys really are the backspace and the arrow keys. But, its not like your writing a book here either. Its functional. THE ONLY WAY TO EXIT IS BY PRESSING THE ESC KEY. CLEAR : Clears the text for the current panel. DELETE : Deletes the current panel. Two things to remember: one, panels MUST be contiguous. You cannot have panel 1 defined, panel 2 undefined ( deleted ) , panel 3 defined and expect it to work. It wont. Two, after deleting a panel MAKE SURE you save the creature or item associated with the panel. SAVE : This saves the current panel file. Always make sure that you select save in the editor where you called the panel editor from also. That is, if you are in the item editor editing a sign, not only save the text panels ( this command ) but MAKE SURE you save the item file ( the item editor SAVE command ) IMMEDIATELY ( so you wont forget ) after coming back from the panels editor. This is because I have some shaky code in the panel assign functions. I will tighten it up later, but for now please take my advice. QUIT : This takes you back to whichever editor you called the panels editor from. --------------------------------------------------------------- Section XV. Effects. Spells and items can have certain EFFECTS on the player. Here is a list of the effects and what they do : Effect 0 - None : A place holder. No effect at all. Effect 1 - Affect ATTR : This means effect one of the 5 player attributes ( strength, mental, etc. ). It will raise or lower the attribute by a specified number of points. It is lethal for an attribute to go below 0. Effect 2 - Affect LP : Raise or lower the players LP's by a specified amount. Effect 3 - Affect PF : Raise or lower the players PF by a specified number of points. Remember, a LOWER PF is better than a HIGH one. Effect 4 - Affect Hit % : Raise or lower the HVPF0 of the player by a specified number of points. The HVPF0 will be affected in units of 5% for every point specified. Effect 5 - Protect : Raise or lower the players ABSOR level by a specified number of points. Effects 6,7,8 - Poisons, diseases, and drives insane the players, respectively. Effects 9,10,11 - Undoes the above effects. Effect 13 - Spell : Allows you to specify a spell as the effect instead of one of the above types. --------------------------------------------------------------- Section XVI. Notes Study the demonstration dungeon, THE SEARCH FOR THE STONE. It has examples of almost every thing you can do with the DCS. I know that this is a very complex program and hard to understand, but I think careful study of the demo dungeon will help. When creating your dungeons, keep in mind that a good game is a balance of frustration and reward; if its too easy or too hard it won't be liked. The demo dungeon was saturated with items and exp points because I wanted to keep it small and show off as many features as I could. You might want to make yours a tad harder. Make sure that important items can be gained only after solving a puzzle or fighting a particularily hard battle, and a monster that is easy to kill shouldn't give lots of exp points. Be stingy. Also, use your imagination. You are not stuck with the classic 'dungeon' format of levels going down into a stone castle. With appropriate images and names you could have a wild-west open air type of thing, or a spaceship, or whatever. Please contact me with any problems or questions you have. I am interested in releasing a quality product and improving upon it. You can reach me at 402-292-7174 or genie D.Winslow or compuserve 72637,1044. The DCS and HERO_II were developed with GFA BASIC 3.0, a truly excellent product for the ATARI and AMIGA line of computers. Thank you Dan Winslow P.S. The dungeons you create are yours. You are free to upload, transfer and copy them, and even charge for them if you can get away with it. The only thing I ask is that if you like the system, please say so in public on the boards.