[SCRIPT] Some questions regarding modding

[brunoalysson]

Hi,

I'm really looking foward to create an amazing mod for Amnesia, but i'm concerned, how far can i actually go ?

It seems that most of the core game code are hardcoded, i really don't understand why since i'ts a singleplayer adventure game, maybe is to avoid people to use the engine without proper permission ? Is the engine code not separated from the actual game code ?

How crazy can i go with animations,events, AI and scripting ?

[Mudbill]

It's limiting, but if you use your creativity you will find workarounds and alternatives for most of them.

Events are pretty much completely up to you in the scripts. You're only limited to the engine scripts but there are many to use, so combining them in your job. Animations are tricky but very possible. I'm not very experienced but you can use NPC and Enemy types to play animations on characters. As for AI, there's not much you can do. There are only the few settings in User Defined Variables, within the model editor when the type is set to Enemy.

[7heDubz]

But if you go play with SOMA instead there's a lot more script control.

As for why, it's just because it's an in-house engine made by people for the sole purpose of this game, so they only coded in what they needed.

[Romulator]

The game's pretty limiting on certain aspects, for example;

In Amnesia you can't even check if the player is crouching!! What's up with that?
I'm lacking some serious checks here...

But you can still make some pretty impressive things with what you can work with.

[Spelos]

Hey brunoalysson,
I'm actually really glad you want to create mods for this amazing game.
As to answer your question...

Most of the limitations can be avoided all-together with a good Level Design.
What I mean by that is, sure, you cannot check if the player is crouching. But you sure as hell can A) Make him crouch and B) Prevent him from crouching. Now depending on what is your goal, I'm sure you can achieve it using those.

Yes, a lot is hardcoded into the game. That, however, doesn't mean you have to use it, or use it in the intended way. For example, if something is supposed to be a door, there is no reason you cannot make it an open-able laptop (like MudBill).

And finally, I don't want to boast, but here's what I achieved in Amnesia:
- Human NPCs with walking animations and dialog
- Re-Programmable rail-machine (tech demo download)
- Time handling, day of the weeks, months and years... Basically, time.

If you actually get into making something, you'll get a sense of what is and what isn't possible.

I wish you luck... It is people like you who keep the community going. And I won't be here for long. (not to say I'm keeping anything going xD)

[brunoalysson]

i've be doing a research since yersterday, watching and playing some custom histories, maybe i already have an idea of what can i create with this game.

I'm the old level designer of the "Mansion" in Amnesia Fear In Hands Mod, because health problems i've been in the dark of game development for years, and now that i'm back, i want to start from the beginning. Amnesia is one of my favorites games out there, and i want to create this mod, soon i will be posting my progress here on the forums. Thanks everyone who answered this post, especially Spelos and Mudbill for giving me an overview of what i can achieve.

You can check some outdate stuff here :

Spoiler below!

[Mudbill]

Looks good mate
Good luck with your project!

Also, regarding AI that I forgot to mention: You could potentially modify it slightly by scripting up certain conditioned events in the map. Things like "Every 10 sec, the monster will know where you are if you are within a certain area"-kinda thing. Not too advanced but it's something.

[Slanderous]

Looks good mate
Good luck with your project!

Also, regarding AI that I forgot to mention: You could potentially modify it slightly by scripting up certain conditioned events in the map. Things like "Every 10 sec, the monster will know where you are if you are within a certain area"-kinda thing. Not too advanced but it's something.

Just some more extra info I thought of adding to Mudbill's idea:

The latest patch adds a function that alerts the enemy of player's presence:

Code: (Select All)

void AlertEnemyOfPlayerPresence(string &in asName);
Gives the specified enemy the player's current position and makes it search the area.

Also, the function that shows the player's position to the monster can be of help:

Code: (Select All)

void ShowEnemyPlayerPosition(string& asName);
Makes the enemy run to the player, no matter where he is.

[Spelos]

About the AI.
I've been thinking of this for quite some time and I even managed to get some working prototypes done and I can safely tell you, that using monsters is not a way to go.

I started with exactly that, making a monster that would not hurt you, but I soon realized that it's much more comfortable to use the "NPC" class of entities.

NPC already has the (perhaps) most important feature, "head tracking", meaning the NPC (or the bones you select) will turn toward the player if he's in a certain area. And that happens regardless of the animation.

Using the NPC entity and PlayPropAnimation("entity", "animation", 1.0f, false, "finishCallback"); you can even achieve walking.
I did that with Rotating the entity the way it's supposed to go (or play animation of it turning) and play the animation of walking I used the on finish callback (string &in asProp) to stop the animation and move it to the exact spot it went to. Sure, there are some collision problems, but it's still probably easier than managing "friendly" monsters. (depending on what you need to accomplish).

Sorry for the rant...

[DanielRand47]

I look forward to your mod!!