Building variation into mod - design idea

[csbx]

2 parts to this post: 1st, the concept. 2nd a question re basic script.

 

1. The concept:

 

Here is a technique that I'm sure has been used before, but which I haven't really seen in vanilla or modded gameplay. Rather than simply placing items for a given quest such that they remain static across all playthroughs, the idea would be to set up different possible instantiations of their location so that gameplay will remain at least somewhat varied, and exploration still facilitated.

 

The shorthand of this approach is:

- make multiple copies of quest item setting all as initially disabled

- place these in different locations (in world, or in cell)

- when quest begins (or upon entering relevant cell), use GetRandomPercent to choose between, say, 3 options, where each option then enables only one copy of that item. This essentially results in the quest item being in any of 3 places rather than always in the same place.

 

2. Would this work ?

 

Short rnd


set rnd to GetRandomPercent


If rnd < 33
  run option 1 (ie. enable the quest item copy at location 1)
elseif rnd > 66
  run option 2
else
  run option 3
Endif

Edited May 25, 2017 by csbx

[Mktavish]

Ya the concept and script looks fine ... but how you implement it could be a question of concern.

 

If you put it into a result script , like quest stage or dialogue. I'm pretty sure you can't declare a variable there.

In which case you could make a global variable to call to within the result script ...

 

Set MyGlobalRnd to GetRandomPercent

 

And you can just keep using the same global over and over for when these script results execute.

Edited May 27, 2017 by Mktavish

[csbx]

@Mktavish - This script is currently running attached to a volume trigger using onTriggerEnter player. In short, player enters the relevant area for the first time, I perform this dice roll to randomize item placement, and then the volume trigger is disabled (rendering it DoOnce basically).

 

But there will be times when I will need to run this in a quest / dialogue. Thanks for the tip re: global modifiers for this purpose.