Temple of Elemental Evil and Python

[O'Neal Computer Programmer]

*** First of all, if there is a previous post on Temple of Elemental
Evil, please provide a link to that/them so in order to create a
larger resource on this game. Thanks! (Merci) ;-) ***

Temple of Elemental Evil is a game for all us that don't know. It was
brought up previously on this board some months ago and recently I had
asked a question on whether this game would contain python scripting.

Well, first of all, Temple of Elemental Evil does provide python
scripting so that right there makes this game one of python success
stories (I believe someone has already mentioned this before on this
news group)

Well, for some of us that don't know about the game, I'll try and pull
up some good information links below.
The main site is found here http://www.greyhawkgame.com/#
The publisher is Atari. Atari is also the publisher of other games
like the popular Unreal series and the Unreal engine was used in the
game Deus-Ex, a personal favorite of mine. Also the Unreal engine is
being used for the upcoming Tribes game, a game that was heavily built
on scripting and has a massive list of supported scripts by Sierra and
the tribes community. Once my favorite game, not anymore then again
that happens to all games as games are just games and talking about
games, I'm going way over topic on a python scripting (pas games)
site. Sorry! But before I end, let me pull up the Atari website URL
(http://www.atari.com/#)

I think the first thing that those interested should do is to look for
and download the demo. The demo in no way suggests that you should
hack it and turn it into the full version. In fact, I'd suggest that
those interested should buy the game at a store, as there are rumors
that the downloaded version when purchased will force you to have your
Internet connection on when you play. This is why that you need to now
look for the game using a search engine. In other words, there's a
problem with the downloaded version. (http://www.google.com/# et
http://www.yahoo.com/# etc). The demo only allows for six hours so be
sure to use the time wisely. I'd suggest reading further and try out
the scripting part of the game.

The game dat files is what contains all the scripts to the game. The
directory system is made up of images, sounds (even a music folder),
dialog and scripts (all that are .py files). The game when ran
compiles these py files into pyc files which explains why when you
first look into the folders they all seem like they are precompiled.
Anyway, most of the py scripts seem to deal with the NPC character
dialog. With the help of the above website, I've been able to test the
dialog scripting system.


Note for below: If you want to try this, you'll need to create a
00212burnebadger.dlg in the /dlg folder and a py00212burnebadger.py in
the /scr directory of the game. Then just paste the appropriate code
in the correct files and modify the .py so that everything looks
right, as all py files are space, indent, return ... sensitive.

*** from the above website forum this was my response:

 I did get something out of this, as I was able to write and execute a
simple py code with a dialog.

Firstly I began by looking into the dat files with the tools offered
here and then I used one of the scripts that I dl here as a base. The
file 00212burnebadger.dlg in the /dlg folder was backed up and then
replaced with this code

code:
{1}{Yes oh cneal sir? How can I help you?}{Yes oh cneal maam? How can
I help you?}{}{}{}{}
{2}{Call script}{}{8}{}{10}{game.global_flags[163] = 1}
{3}{[exit]}{}{1}{}{0}{}
{10}{Talk to me again sir}{Talk to me again maam}{}{}{}{}
{11}{[exit]}{}{1}{}{0}{}
{20}{Thank you for testing my script sir.}{This is the end of the test
maam}{}{}{}{}



I added a file in the /src directory called py00212burnebadger.py and
in that I added

code:
from toee import *

def san_dialog( attachee, triggerer ):
	if (game.global_flags[163] == 1):
		triggerer.begin_dialog( attachee, 20 )
	else:
		triggerer.begin_dialog( attachee, 1 )
	return SKIP_DEFAULT




I then deleted any pyc files relating to the .py file (if I had ran
the script previously) and I tested the script by talking to one of
the soldiers where you start out in the game. Anyway, that's pretty
much what I learned for today. I'm sure there are much better ways of
performing this task that I'm bound to learn soon.

Thanks for the resources! 

*** end.

Note: If you want to try this, you'll need to create a
00212burnebadger.dlg in the /dlg folder and a py00212burnebadger.py in
the /scr directory of the game. Then just paste the appropriate code
in the correct files and modify the .py so that everything looks
right, as all py files are space, indent, return ... sensitive.

If you have any questions, please visit
http://www.co8.org/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=372/# or I can
help you here.

Anyway, that pretty much takes care of the scripting question. This
game defiantly has potential with python involved. But it does have
its disadvantages too. Like every other game, not every computer can
handle the game. Also there is no MP support for the game (thought I
do believe that some kind of support can be written in python to
emulate mp). It's also a 3rd person game that means that everything is
flat but there is the illusion that the game is 3D though shapes and
effects. Oh, and the effects just makes this game supair! Lastly, this
game is a Dungeon and Dragons type game (maybe I should have mentioned
this sooner) but anyway, not everyone will understand the behavior of
this game. In fact it might be a good idea to go out and do a little
reading on this type of game. There's a lot of resources on the net
and there are paper and pencil versions too.

Finally, From the website previously mentioned, there are a lot of
tools being created to unitize and read these py scripts and the
dialog scripts. With that said this has become a success story for the
python group and something that in the future should defiantly be
looked into.

Success!
Legend:

+ est My opinion, a success!
I est information
- est My opinion, a not (pas) success :-(

A shorter version of that read:

+ Special effects makes up for the top camera view
+ Might be other things that I've overlooked. (+3*10^10pts)
+ Python scripting (This should be at the top)
- No internet - Multi Player(MP) support
- Not everyone will understand the game
- Not yet anyway, a top ten game (May change though)
I Game site: http://www.greyhawkgame.com/#
I Downloaded demo of the game on the net *** Issues with the online
billing service so only do purchases from a store and not by
credit/debit card ***
I dat file extractors and tools can be found at http://www.co8.org./#
I Game is 3rd person
I Many tools by programmers being created.

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