Histories expanded

While reading through all the histories I had the following idea.

Would it be possible to send the characters some form of email from their past? So depending on what a character has picked at the start he will recieve an email or two during the game about things from his former life. Maybe the library emails him, about that book that is still overdue or whatnot. This would add an additional layer to the histories as you get reminded about your past. Of course this would not suit all character histories, but some could be nicely implemented.

I love where your minds at on this idea, very very clever, I LOVE IT!! Hmmm... implementing it though, I would need Malkav's help on how to set something up because I'm not sure how to make python check a history. I did something similar when you get the email from Silvia, she addresses you according to your clan which was awesome! But I knew how to check what clan you were, but not sure on your history.

Great idea, if I can put this in for 1.4 I will. Keep pushing ideas like this my way, I love it.

Sorry to disappoint you. But I haven't yet found a way to get the history into python. There's no character stat "history" and "vhistory" is a console command, not a console variable, so you can't read it out into a python function.
But there are of course some more or less dirty hacks to get around this.
One idea is giving history specific starting equipment, and set a global for the history according to the items the character owns at the start of the tutorial.
And there is another possibility that needs more testing. If it is possible to expand the list of attribute or ability priorities (physical_social_mental...), you can use this as an indirect way to determine the history with a python script.

Well, the priority lists work only in a very limited fashion. You can use the existing "No_order" entry, but you can't create more. That's good for two histories, more if you use it for histories that belong to different clans. But they need the same attribute or ability priority order.

So the better choice is probably starting items. Can be any item, a watch, a ring, a drugbox for the lab rat...

This is good to know Malkav, it saves me the time rummaging through files trying to figure it out. I've got around 10 unused items so this may actually work. I'm not going to try to fit it into the 1.3 release because I don't want to screw anything up, right now 1.3 is very stable and I want to keep it like that, but for future releases I may be able to do something like this.

As I said, you can use any item, so I wouldn't create new ones, but instead give some cheap common item like a watch or a ring. Or you can give a few bucks right at the beginning and detect the history by the amount of cash the player has at the beginning of the tutorial.
The starting equipment, including money, is set in clandoc, and can be overwritten by a history in traitseffects. The lists are in /vdata/system/items.txt.
There's just one thing I haven't tested yet. Maybe changing equipment triggers the same bug that changing stats does...

I wouldn't create 'new' items, I would use old items we aren't currently using and call them something else. For example, if you choose background A, you start the game with an old locket you kept from your previous life to remind you of the life you once had. You can't drop it, it's with you the whole game. This way, we can call on that item any time we want throughout the game and create plenty of scenarios where your old life is mentioned or brought up somehow. Basically expanding on the 'Samantha' scenario.

Sound like a good idea? We could create a 'special' item for each history or designate an item for several similar backgrounds. The more vague we keep it, the more we can use it.

Why not to give two objects and check for a story specific combination? That way you could cut the number of new items to be created considerably?

Check once at the beginning of the tutorial and set a G.variable. Then you can use any common item you like, and don't have to worry about the item to stay in the inventory forever.
While a memento from your former life is suitable for some histories, I don't think it's a good idea for all of them.

Wow, good ideas both. You guys have my brain gears turning for sure.

And for further reducing the number of necessary items, IsClan and IsMale are completely valid parameters to check. So you can use the same item for two histories, provided the histories can't be taken by the same clan or gender.

To be honest I do like the money dirty hag. With 28 histories and even more incoming (The emails is maybe just 1 way to further improve those histories) adding 1-48 $ (depending on the history number) sounds good to me. If you want to void that money Just remove that much money after you have checked for the history to be in effect and then set the haggle bonus money to the value you want. Hope this works. This system could be much easier and more variable for future additions.

kyoden wrote:

To be honest I do like the money dirty hag. With 28 histories and even more incoming (The emails is maybe just 1 way to further improve those histories) adding 1-48 $ (depending on the history number) sounds good to me. If you want to void that money Just remove that much money after you have checked for the history to be in effect and then set the haggle bonus money to the value you want. Hope this works. This system could be much easier and more variable for future additions.

That sounds like a scripting nightmare, lol. Malkav?!?!?!?! LOL

Zer0Morph wrote:

kyoden wrote:

To be honest I do like the money dirty hag. With 28 histories and even more incoming (The emails is maybe just 1 way to further improve those histories) adding 1-48 $ (depending on the history number) sounds good to me. If you want to void that money Just remove that much money after you have checked for the history to be in effect and then set the haggle bonus money to the value you want. Hope this works. This system could be much easier and more variable for future additions.

That sounds like a scripting nightmare, lol. Malkav?!?!?!?! LOL

I wouldn't say that. A bit repetetive, but no nightmare...

First you have to create starting equipment lists for every history. Just the usual stuff (fists, physcannon, clothes, wallet, keyring) plus the money.
Then add the equipment to the history in traitseffects.
Last step, call a function OnMapLoad or from Jack's dialog:

Code:

def checkHistory():
    pc = __main__.FindPlayer()
    G = __main__.G
    if pc.CurrentMoney() == 0:
        G.Player_History =0
    elif pc.CurrentMoney() == 1:
        G.Player_History =1
        pc.MoneyRemove(1)
...

And then, every time you need to know the player's history, just check G.Player_History

This will check at the beginning of the game correct? Then can I add a variable and assign a number to it that I can use throughout the whole game? Like this...

Assign $1 to History 1
History = 1
Remove $1

Now I can use If History == 1..... throughout the whole game?

That's the idea. If you don't want to remove the money again, you can also calculate the starting money after checking the history, and include the money the player already has in the calculation. In that case better assign the high numbers to histories with haggle boni.