and some other questions (DMBuilder)

[Florian]

about DMBuilder

1) when designing a new champion with DMBuild (and HeroStat), I don't really know how to calculate the levels in fighter, ninja, priest, wizard... I don't think the four "skills" (ffff, nnnn...) are made to be considered as a whole hexadecimal number (such as a number of experience points)... so does anyone could explain how is this level description written?

2) something totally different, in the level graphism design ("F2"), in the examples (chaos.dat, master.dat), some of the first (on the left) graphics for walls or floors are shaded, while the others (on the right) are not. is there a difference between them or not?

thank you...

[Sphenx]

1) Each skill are subdived into four skills. That why there are 4 letters for each. I don't know very well how to calculate the final level (the one displayed in the character stats panel). Maybe the simplest way to think about it is to say "Final XXX level = (x1+x2+x3+x4)/4. Considering 'a' value is the lowest level (none) and 'f' value the hightest (archmaster) than can be given to the xi letters.


2) The shaded graphisms on the left tell these graphics can be randomly set in that level. There are generally simple decorations and never graphisms such as locks ..
And if you modify a dungeon which has random graphisms, be careful to put only decorations on the shaded slots.


It is not yet easy to deal with random graphisms and I don't know the randomizer algorithm. Talking about hex values, if you keep a wall in form 00 (or 10 when object on it), it will not generate a random graphism. If you put other values, you may get random graphisms on this wall (depending on which random graphisms are set in that level)

[beowuuf]

Yes, it seems to be a VERY weird algorithm...it's best to try and check out existing random graphics, and use those hex values to see if you can duplicate it on other walls (it could have been my imagination, but facing seems to come into it, so if you have an east facing random graphic with hex 16, then you can only replicate it on east facing walls, and usually only a few of any tried).
Vice versa, if you find a random graphic you didn't want, altering the hex back to the 00/10 will remove it