ScriptEase II from the U of Alberta was recently updated. Anyone using it? Thoughts?

[Legacy_OldTimeRadio]

               

For the last 12 years, the University of Alberta has been quietly developing a project called ScriptEase which was initially designed to help write scripts for Neverwinter Nights but which has also recently had functionality added to generate scripting for Unity. 

 

About ScriptEase II

 

ScriptEase 2.8 download

 

ScriptEase 2.8 NWN Tutorials

 

Anyway, it's been used in academia for quite a while and is the subject of a handful of scientific papers on behavior and storytelling but I'm wondering- has anyone here used it?  If so, what are your thoughts?  What are its strengths or weaknesses compared to other, exisitng, NWN tools?

 

Thanks!

 

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Tarot Redhand]

               

I'll take a look. My first thought is while this looks interesting there appears to be no information on how to make plug-ins for other scripting languages i.e. NwN 2 (ok not a biggie cos it's supposed to be compatible with NwN), Skyrim, Oblion etc.

 

TR

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Wensleydale]

               

I used the old version and found it to be clunky and not terribly intuitive, but functional. Once you got your head around how it all worked, you could actually create some fairly complicated scenarios, which I found pleasantly surprising. I'll play with this one and see what sorts of improvements they've made. Looks quite a bit fancier from the screenshots.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Tarot Redhand]

               

OK first report. I have been following the instructions in the tutorials. I personally think the first one is excellent. It gets you to set up the elements for a three (small) area adventure. However, during the second tutorial I have come across a problem with ScriptEase2 itself. I have sent a message to them about this problem and rather than repeat myself here is the text of the message that I have sent.

 

 

 

I am part way through "NWN Tutorial 1" and cannot progress because of this problem. I discovered the problem when I got to instruction 16 where, after saving your storey, you are told to test the work you have done by pressing F9. At this point I get a message to the effect that there is a missing file in the directory "C:\NeverwinterNights\NWN\Neverwinter Nights Diamond". This is unsurprising as said directory does not exist. I have Neverwinter Nights installed in "C:\NeverwinterNights\NWN" which is the standard location for it. This wouldn't be too bad if ScriptEase2 error routine actually gave you the option to point it to the right folder or there was a settings option in one of the menus that allowed you to set this essential parameter. Any help at this point would be welcome (and No I will not adjust the location of my files for one tool only).

 

So I now await a response.

 

TR

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Wensleydale]

               

I can confirm what Tarot's already posted. When you go to test the game via ScriptEase (F9), it gives you an error message stating 'ScriptEase: Game Died' and "There was a problem starting the game engine. Sorry about that."

 

Fortunately, you can keep ScriptEase open and run the game as normal from the desktop, but it is an annoyance and a bit of a time waster. Having said that, it seems pretty flexible, though more complicated to get to grips with than, say, Lilac Soul's Script Generator. It's fun to play with and my experiments shall continue.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Tarot Redhand]

               

Report 2

 

Received a reply (see below) which fixed the F9 problem - Yay.

 

once you are in the installation path for ScriptEase (ie: might look something like "C:\ScriptEaseIIBeta7\ScriptEase\translators\nwn" from where you have it installed on your machine) there will be a file named translator.ini. There will be a variable named GAME_DIRECTORY with some value. Change that value to the real path of your NWN installation and that should clear up your issue.

 

The contents of my fixed ini look like

# ==========================================================
#          Neverwinter Nights Translator Definition
# As with all translator definition files, all incomplete
# paths are relative to the directory the definition file is in.
# ==========================================================
 
#Translator Preferences File
#Tue Aug 06 13:09:56 MDT 2013
NAME=Neverwinter Nights
GAME_DIRECTORY=C:/NeverwinterNights/NWN
SUPPORTS_TESTING=true
API_DICTIONARY_PATH=resources/apidictionary.xml
COMPILER_PATH=C:/NeverwinterNights/NWN/utils/clcompile.exe
LANGUAGE_DICTIONARY_PATH=resources/languageDictionary.xml
TUTORIALS_PATH=resources/Tutorials
VERSION=2.8
# --- Optional Data: ---
OPTIONAL_LIBRARIES_PATH=resources/libraries
GAME_MODULE_PATH=io/ErfFile.class
LANGUAGE_DICTIONARY_PATH=resources/languageDictionary.xml
ICON_PATH=resources/NWNIcon_Small.gif
SUPPORTED_FILE_EXTENSIONS=mod

Went to save and scriptease crashed to desktop - Boo. The size of the error log was something to behold (28k with an overflow message) - Woah. Fortunately reading through the error log I noticed that parts of it mentioned elevation i.e. something needed to run as an administrator. Problem - windows does not recognise jar files as executables and so there is no option to run them as administrator. Solution - went into the jre folder (in my case - C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0_31) and right click each and every exe file, open the compatibility tab and tick run as administrator. I did this for every exe because I did not know which exe's scriptease was actually running. While this may be risky (security wise), it worked - Yayish. So I can now progress and will report back either when I hit a bottle-neck or I finish the tutorials.

 

TR

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Wensleydale]

               

Okay, so I've finished the tutorials, and despite a few logic errors and general inconsistencies (in the tutorials, not ScriptEase), everything seems to work as advertised. (Oh, and thanks Tarot for sorting out that F9 bug. Works like a charm now.) I've had to go back and plug a few holes in the way the tutorial instructed me to do things, but other than that, ScriptEase pretty much does what it says on the tin, and is relatively easy to use once you've spent an hour or so messing with it.


One of the best additions is the 'story graph', which works like a sort of flow chart tracking the progress of your plot through 'story points'. You can join story points together in groups (each section of the tutorial's parrot quest for instance), ungroup them, and 'fan' them -- which basically means to take a side quest unrelated to the main plot thread and connect it to a story choke point further along the story graph to ensure that certain quests are completed before the main plot thread will advance. Interesting way of doing things, and quite effective from what I've discovered tinkering with it.


The number of 'cause and effect' scenarios included in the program has also dramatically increased; the developers obviously spending a lot of time thinking about the various scenarios a builder might want to construct/modify during module creation. Previous iterations of ScriptEase were somewhat lacking in this regard. One thing I don't particularly like is the way the program takes control of the journal. Journal entries are done through drag and drop and text entry in ScriptEase, and the program will overwrite any journal entries created in Aurora. This works well enough in practice from what I've observed, but I do like to retain control of things in the toolset.


ScriptEase is never going to replace the down and dirty coding that a lot of NWN veterans prefer, but for those uninterested in learning to script, or unable to get their head around program code (and I'm quite happy to include myself in their number), it's well suited. If you can use Microsoft Word, you can use ScriptEase II. It's progressed by leaps and bounds, and I'm unashamedly impressed. In fact, with a combination of ScriptEase, Lilac Soul's Script Generator and Gestalt's Cutscene Scripting System, there's probably very little even a novice won't be able to accomplish. And that's got to be good for the game, given its not inconsiderable age.


And now, I'm going to try to cobble together a small module using only ScriptEase, (or as much of it as I can realistcally get away with). Wish me luck.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Tarot Redhand]

               

I'm currently about to start Tutorial 3 and apart from a little annoyance, all seems to work well. The little annoyance is that I quite frequently (but not always) get an internal error message when I go to save the story. This message box invites you to send in a report. Now this is all well and good if you are on an always connected internet plan. I am not. I use a mi-fi (connects via mobile/cell phone network) with a monthly data allowance (believe it or not, the cheapest way to connect to the inet in the UK). So I have sent in the report for the first occurrence of this bug but not the rest. Fortunately saving a second time seems to work without the bug re-occurring. Also, test and display code seems (at this point I can't be certain) to prevent this bug rearing its head.

 

Apart from that the only other thing I've noticed is that the illustrations in the tutorials do not always match the descriptions.

 

Oh and Wensleydale - Good Luck (you may need it '> )

 

TR

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Wensleydale]

               

Further to my irritation with ScriptEase assuming control of the journal -- I've just discovered that if your journal entries are too long (from experimentation, anything longer than three short sentences), the program refuses to compile the scripts. It doesn't tell you why; it just says it's unable to compile. I only figured it out through trial and error. From past experience, I can write entire novels in Aurora's journal editor and it will compile just fine. Seems a bit odd that ScriptEase can't handle a few verbose journal entries.

 

Or maybe I'm just long-winded.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_OldTimeRadio]

               

I appreciate you guys kicking this around!  I'm more than a little puzzled at the problems you're encountering, though.  I did a little more research and this gets quite a bit of use, both in academia/U of A courses and a summer games camp the university hosts for kids. 

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Tarot Redhand]

               

I realise I am a bit late in coming back to this, but have been formulating my final thoughts on it for a while. So here goes.

 

This will not replace scripting per se. What I do think it would be good for is a more complex replacement for NwN's plot wizard. As such you really, really need to know what you want to achieve before starting to use it i.e. have some sort of plan of the module story before you start. Also you need to use this before doing any other plot/journal related activity and once you have started to add your own material to the plot(s) do not use scriptease 2 again for that particular module as you will in all probability lose it otherwise.

 

Like most other script/code generators this would seem to create a lot of script for the outcome achieved. However, on the plus side, the scripts produced are eminently (on the whole) readable, unlike those of the NwN plot wizard. This should make editing them when/if the need should arise. One minor niggle is that the authors have chosen to rename pseudo heatbeats as SuperHeartBeats. Also the generated script has a lot of functions commented out thus leading to bloat.

 

Now on to my usual gripe - documentation. While the tutorials are quite good (ignoring the number of images that do not entirely agree with the instructional text), there does not appear to be any other user documentation. Given the level of complexity of this tool, there really should be some even if only to list what is available within it i.e. I am not asking for "war & peace" here, just enough information to be able to make use of all its features.

 

There are one or two other minor niggles but I won't go into details here.

 

Overall, not a bad package by any means as long as the points I outline above are born in mind. That said, I am not really the target audience and I would like to see what someone who has never scripted before makes of it and if it leads to them actually getting their hands dirty with actual scripting later on.

 

TR