First and foremost, I hesitate to call this a guide, and instead use the term handbook.Only because I am creating this, not with an intention of taking you through step by step on how to create mods; instead this is a compilation of the requirements and effects of various code. By the end of reading this, even a diggle could make a mod! P.S. The perspective of the Handbook is as if you are a diggle. It's easy to understand though. For the sake of keeping things together in an orderly fashion, I will be uploading PDF's to go along with each section.A complete list of PDF's can be found at the bottom of this post. Just HatchingYes, that's it! Tap your, err...beak? Against the shell until you break out! Now once that's done you’re going to need to build a shell for your code. This is where all your hard labor is going to be nested in. Thankfully, Essence wrote a guide to get things set up. In addition, Daynab was kind enough to put it here. Flapping AboutAt this point, I recommend you spread your arm flaps, and whack your keyboard a few times as you try and explore various code yourself! At first things will be confusing and mind boggling; nothing will seem to work or will seem overly complicated. But this is ok because you don’t have any fingers, you’re bound to make mistakes! Spreading Your Arm Flaps (Creating Rooms)You may have noticed you’ve run out of room. You need more space to continue your adventure. Or simply that Lord Dredmor needs to hire some Interior Dredmorators. If that’s the case this section is for you. Everything Has a Name (Creating Items)Being of the most inteligent sort of diggle you may wander about and wonder what things are! Well thankfully these "things" are indeed items, and as luck would have it these "items" have names, and purpose. That's right, you can do stuff with them, even make stuff with them, even eat some of them. Ahh, but look what I've done, you're all excited now, this might just be what you're looking for. I Heard You Like to Read (Creating Scrolls)I'm sure you've stumbled upon a piece of parchment before and wondered what all those strange symbols meant. Well its time to learn your A,B,C's and not only read scrolls but write your own! This may be of use to you if you want to make some scrolls. It's a Bug!(Debug Mode)As you flap those wings on your keyboard and get things to work, you may wander through a dungeon and find a nasty bug! Squash it you must; it just so happens the easiest and quickest way to find these bugs and get rid of them is with a debugger! Find out about it here! List of PDF's rooms.pdf Official roomsDB.html documentation Here(credit goes to Nick Alexander) itemsDB scrollsDB (Finished, but not implemented in the game it seems) Debug Mode everything else(not started)
Don't Forget to Vote! News & AnnouncementsUPDATE Added the "Its a Bug!" handbook! It got a sticky!! Want to Help? I'm in the midst of also creating a modding template, if anyone wants to assist in creating it I would appreciate it. Vote and Comment, this is how I know people are interested! Not to mention it adds a boost of morale so as to motivate me to complete it all the faster! General Vote! If you notice a mistake in a handbook let me know! Discovered something cool? Share it so it can be put to good use! Need help with a mod or have a pressing question? Ask in a comment and people will be glad to help! The solution might even make it into a handbook or template!(if you want)
special="1" appears to be a code that prevents a particular room from loading more than once on any given level.
^ is another text thing that I'm rather certain signifies a possible displacement glyph (maybe more generic but I'm pretty sure of that). P is a possible staircase (or wall if not a staircase) visblock is put on blockers, if 1 it means that it blocks the player's vision, if 0 it doesn't. It could probably also go on engravings but that makes little sense.
Are you sure about that? Did you test it extensively? It doesn't match my anecdotal observations. I've seen plenty of staircases in places where those P's are _not_ at. What I have noticed a correlation between is the P spots are the only places I believe I've seen Paintings appear on walls. So I've been operating under the assumption that P means Painting.
Great document! Thanks for compiling it. Here's a few things that could use updating, though: I find that really doubtful. I know for certain that the @ symbols were in rooms as of 1.0.7, which predates the mysterious portals. While I could believe it's a spot where random blocker of some sort is placed, it's definitely not just something specific to the portals. I know for certain what this one does. I've tested it. ! creates a wall that looks normal, but can be destroyed. If you hit it with most bombs or area attacks, the wall will vanish. This allows you to make secret passages and rooms. Which, by the way, the default game is full of. You just have to know where to attack. Since some readers might not be boolean savvy, it might be a good idea to include a statement somewhere that 1=true, 0=false. For most of these booleans, the default is 0. That is to say that in most cases you only need to include statements where the variable=1. If it =0, you can just omit that from the code and it's the same as including it with the =0 value. Also, in several places you refer to "non-symbol", which doesn't come across particularly clearly. Every instance I've noticed in the files uses a single digit numeral (1 to 8 that I remember seeing). Unless you've tested it with other random non-numeric symbols, it'd be useful to have the text reflect that it's used for numbers in the default code. Swapping in random "non-symbol" symbols might have unexpected results. Just sayin'.
Oh, yeah, probably worth mentioning: Room coordinates start at x=0, y=0 in the upper left corner. As you go towards the right, x increases, as you go down y increases.
Thanks for all the feedback r_b_bergastrom! And there were bound to be some symbol mistakes, as I hadn't had time to test all of them, hence the -----line dividing the symbol section. Will be updating soon as time permits. Planned Changes: Update Symbols Complete the <script> and its sub sections Add a Good to Know Section Add a Sample Map that shows use of all the sections. Add a Helpful Diggles section...so that all you Diggles that gave helpful feedback get appreciated Finish Rooms Handbook Start Lonely Diggles Handbook(monDB) or Super Diggle Handbook(skillDB)
Is THAT how that works? I've been using that corner as 1,1 and been wondering why things aren't coming out right. Thanks.
Further testing indicates that "@" generates a random blocker. A room that has just one @ will end up with either a statue, or a vending machine, or a candelabra, or table (and probably a few other possibilities I haven't seen yet). It will usually be in that space, but can sometimes be in one of the eight spaces adjacent to it. A room full of @ symbols ends up a suprising mish-mash of different objects. All the blockers mentioned above, plus tons of treasure, chests, teleporters, etc. I tried this with a room that had two rows of @s, with a row of "." between them. Same thing, but worth noting that the many objects the game placed in the room did not correspond exactly to the rows. Like how I said sometimes the blocker at a lone @ symbol will be displaced a little. Well, with a lot of @ symbols you end up with more displacement. I'm guessing it's some sort of random percent for displacement. Since Dredmor's RNG is pretty notorious, when it rolls up displacement it tends to do so several times in a row. EDIT: The conclusions I drew here were inaccurate. While the various blockers did spawn, that had to do with it just being a large empty room with lots of space away from the walls (which the games' random stuff generator favors when placing loot and blockers). A "@" symbol will generate a statue, but only if the room name is right. See my post on the next page for details.
Testing has not, however, given me any insights into what the "^" symbol means. I made a big room with the west half all ^'s, and the east half all .'s Despite the room spawning three times on the level, not a single instance of anything unusual was in any of the copies of the room. All three were completely empty. EDIT: Further testing revealed that "^" symbols become lava grates, if the room name has lava or magma in it. Again, see my post on the next page for details.
"P" making a painting is further confirmed. The two small walls inside the archery range rooms both end with Ps as their southern end. If the game generates an archery room whose name ends with "lutefisk" both of those walls have a painting of a fish. I saw it twice in the last couple days. I suspect something similar will happen with the @ symbol if you get a room name that has a statue associated with it in text.xml. I just haven't had any luck given how long the name list is, and how few of them have statue images. Mandrill, Blocks, etc. The list with statues and painting associated in text.xml is very short. I'll be expanding it significantly in the room mod I'm making.
Apologies for my lack of updates. Had nothing to do with Skyrim or anything of the sort *cough, cough* Ehh, that aside...Time to get things back on track! Expect updates over the next few days, including the all new "Super Diggle handbook!" (skillsDB) This will be accompanied by a mod that will add varrious new rooms and skill tree!(this may take a few weeks)
UPDATE ItemsDB started and uploaded(more complete version to be uploaded soon) RoomsDB full documentation Modding template started but not ready to be uploaded. edit: The item handbook from a diggle perspective has now been added My Mod Status Started! 3 rooms created(going to add at least 15 total) THREE thats right THREE new skill trees planned out, but not started. If any artistic people out there would be willing to help draw some art for them I would be very grateful. Help Requested Items have many Buff Id's if anyone can help go through varrious I'ds and verify what they do that would help speed things along greatly. Artists, read my mod status. I'm in the midst of also creating a modding template, if anyone wants to assist in creating it I would appreciate it. General Vote! If you notice a mistake in a handbook let me know! Discovered something cool? Share it so it can be put to good use! Need help with a mod or have a pressing question? Ask in a comment and people will be glad to help! The solution might even make it into a handbook or template!(if you want)
PrimaryBuff: 0: Burliness 1: Sagacity 2: Nimbleness 3: Caddish 4: Savvy 5: Stubbornness SecondaryBuff: 0: HP 1: MP 2: Melee Power 3: Spell Power 4: Critical Chance 5: Haywire Chance 6: Dodge Chance 7: Block Chance 8: Counter Chance 9: Enemy Dodge Reduction 10: Armor Absorption 11: Magic Resistance 12: Sneakiness 13: Health Regeneration 14: Mana Regeneration 15: Wand Use Affinity (depreciated after Wandcrafting was invented; does nothing.) 16: Trap Affinity 17: Trap Sight Radius 18: Visual Sight Radius 19: Smithing Level 20: Tinkering Level 21: Alchemy Level and 22 and 23 are Magic Reflection and Wandcrafting Level, but I'm not sure which is which offhand.
