13 replies to this topic

[hoogan]

Got this game from my son for Christmas. I've been having more fun playing with Worldbuilder than the game itself. Now I have run into a problem and I need a little help... How can I place scorch marks during game play through scripts?

[_Haldir_]

What exactly do you mean by placing scorch marks during the game?
As in, have scorches appear in set spots thoughout the game? Or have the ability to place scorch marks (like in WB) during the game..?

[hoogan]

What exactly do you mean by placing scorch marks during the game?
As in, have scorches appear in set spots thoughout the game? Or have the ability to place scorch marks (like in WB) during the game..?

As in being able to script scorch marks to appear at certain times in certain places based on actions during the game. I am creating heavily scripted games with large detailed realistic maps for my son to play. I like to make them realistic and difficult, and I do not like destroyed buildings etc to just sink into nothing. I want to leave rubble and scorch marks where the buildings and fights were.

I have set the maps to be completely dark (black) except where he has line of sight (men and/or buildings) and no mini-map in the planatir. If he cannot see the area, it is invisible to him. I need to leave some rubble and scorch marks so he can orient himself as he retravels the same ground and know where he is. He has to make his own map based on what he has seen.

[hoogan]

I understand the scorch marks must be part of the particle fx system. This must be for them to conform to the landscape rather than remain flat and just hover over the ground. Same with "taint". I know these have to have objects assigned to them, look at rocks thrown by ents, flaming arrows, etc. But I cannot find these objects within Worldbuilder. Does Worldbuilder maintain a separate and edited listing of available objects? Is it possible to add additional objects from the game to Worldbuilder?

The only option I have come up with so far is to give up and just create a weapon with no image, only the scorch mark as it's fx, and zero damage, and then just fire that damn thing when ever and where ever I want a scorch mark. But then I need six weapons, one for each type of mark, and I sure don't want to be too consistent by only using one. There has to be a simpler way. Where are the rest of the objects not in the listings of Worldbuilder???

[Crusard]

Yep, you'd need to create a weapon that fires and leaves a scorchmark with FX as hoogan mentioned, but that's iniwork and cannot be done with just scripting, sorry

[Pasidon]

Speaking of the scorch mark tool in World-Builder... someone should patch that stupid cap on how many you can put. At least it only let me place 20 or so...

[hoogan]

Speaking of the scorch mark tool in World-Builder... someone should patch that stupid cap on how many you can put. At least it only let me place 20 or so...

I don't know that that would be possible. The fx system is apparently very graphic intensive, even for non moving scorch marks. I have found there is apparently some kind of limit on how many fx effects can be running at any one time. As the number of scorch marks went up I found I was having trouble with the "radiating" skull totems for Goblins, which as also part of the fx system. My non-damaging "spray paint weapon" is a bust.

So much for the scorch marks to identify former battle areas.
Have to come up with something else.

[Kwen]

What about the scorched ground texture the MordorCatapult leaves behind after it's weapon impacts the ground? If I recall you are able to have a lot of those. But they do go away after a while as you can only have so many.

[Lord Eniam]

Yea, as Kwen was saying about the catapult- I don't know much about forging, but couldn't you "borrow" a part of the code from that, or at least the script that causes/leaves the scorch mark from it?

EDIT: What if you placed a scorch mark underneath a building/base/camp/ whatever, since it's covered up it won't be shown until after the land's demise.

Edited by Lord Eniam, 24 February 2010 - 08:57 PM.

[Puppeteer]

As the number of scorch marks went up I found I was having trouble with the "radiating" skull totems for Goblins, which as also part of the fx system. My non-damaging "spray paint weapon" is a bust.

If by this you mean that the FX was not showing while other FXs were taking place, that's more to do with a priority than a limit. Setting the FX priority to ALWAYS_RENDER will... always render it! As far as I know there is no 'limit', only what your computer can handle.

[Kwen]

Yea, as Kwen was saying about the catapult- I don't know much about forging, but couldn't you "borrow" a part of the code from that, or at least the script that causes/leaves the scorch mark from it?

EDIT: What if you placed a scorch mark underneath a building/base/camp/ whatever, since it's covered up it won't be shown until after the land's demise.

Forging?

[Crusard]

The fx particle limit is defined in gamedata.ini (10000 particles by default... you won't see any of then unspawn).

And I'll say again (read), the only way to spawn scorchmarks is to code a new weapon and FX via map.ini. It cannot be done via scripts.


I'm not sure what your map is about, but if you need to "mark" a battlefield as "used" it would look unnatural to just spawn a lot of scorchmarks all of a sudden...
If the player has no vision of the area at the time of the "scorching" you can also spawn placeables such as broken wagons, dead soldiers, and even smoke-spawning particles. Check the object lists hoogan!

[Lord Eniam]

Meant modding, talking about mapmaking and such Too used to halo I guess >.<

[Kwen]

I wasn't sure if you were talking about mapping or modding, lol.