[Ohrrpgce] A few ideas and things

[TeeEmCee]

> I mentioned this a long time ago, when we first discussed this.
> Perhaps when you bypass the loading screen, you end up in save slot
> "-1", which really means "no game". That would indicated to show the
> menu. Then, when you actually load a game, it's save slot <whatever>,
> and you bypass the menu.

I don't quite follow you. But I realised it's no problem: I was
mistaken. If the loadgame screen was skipped, the newgame script would
run, and if the player then loaded a game, the loadgame script would
run.

> Or, maybe, a title screen plotscript, so that you can cycle through
> your movie on the title screen itself. I don't want to think about how
> to implement this, though.

Maybe that too, if possible (have both?). Would have to jump straight
into a new game with intro script, set a special tag, and quit the
game on a keypress. Actually, this might get complicated - there are a
bunch of things would would need to disable. For instance, you
probably don't want stepon activated npcs
or battles to trigger. This might be too much bloat.

> I believe that James mentioned that the reason we can't already do
> this is because he didn't want to upgrade the menu code to handle more
> than 4 slots. :P

I meant, I would write the code :)

> That's interesting. I had no idea this happened. Perhaps it's because:
> 
> A) if you don't care about the argument, you leave it at 0.
> B) variables default to 0
> 
> Thus, no one would notice. However, I assume this happens in the other
> special plotscripts too. Thing is, no one uses a variable without
> initializing it, so it's not that big of a problem.

Actually, some of the scripts are passed non-zero arguments, like npc
ids or coordinates and battle formation numbers, which are not
optional.

What? I initialise none of my variables, except those that need to be
initialised to something other than 0. Most people don't, from my
experience, and I don't see the point of doing it either.


Now, please, any clues on gen()?

TMC

On 6/5/05, Mike Caron <caron.mike at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 6/4/05, TeeEmCee <teeemcee at gmail.com> wrote:
> > A few ideas. If unopposing/unimproved I might start on them soon (for
> > many, I need to get to reading through and understanding custom
> > first):
> >
> >
> > A command to run script by id number, and return the return value. I'm
> > actually quite shocked by how many people have requested this,
> > including me a few years ago (or maybe it's the same 2 people
> > complaining :)
> 
> I'm not sure why this is so popular, but I think it's a good idea.
> 
> > An option to skip the load screen (go straight to a new game), and
> > also a command to show the load game screen (with an option to not
> > actually load- like savemenu). The only problem is, if you do this and
> > have an option to load in the newgame script, when the player does so,
> > the game will be loaded and the newgame script run again! Any ideas on
> > getting around this? Maybe something better than this option.
> 
> I mentioned this a long time ago, when we first discussed this.
> Perhaps when you bypass the loading screen, you end up in save slot
> "-1", which really means "no game". That would indicated to show the
> menu. Then, when you actually load a game, it's save slot <whatever>,
> and you bypass the menu.
> 
> > An option to set an automatic proceed on the title screen after a
> > delay: Set it to 20 seconds, after which the title passes. You could
> > actually use this to create intro movies: have as title "such-and-such
> > presents:", set it to show for 5 seconds, skip the load game screen,
> > and play a looping demo until the player presses a key, then get into
> > the game.
> 
> Or, maybe, a title screen plotscript, so that you can cycle through
> your movie on the title screen itself. I don't want to think about how
> to implement this, though.
> 
> > Finally, what about an ability to set the number of saveslots
> > available to the player at the save/load game menus, range 1 to 32. It
> > would default to 4, incase someone is using higher save slots for
> > other purposes through scripts.
> 
> I believe that James mentioned that the reason we can't already do
> this is because he didn't want to upgrade the menu code to handle more
> than 4 slots. :P
> 
> >
> > Where would this new data go? In the range 61-92 in gen()? I can't
> > find any documentation of gen() that I trust- the one in custom.bas
> > includes 60 where one in game doesn't, and I remember MCW pointed out
> > that the wrapper scripts in plotscr.hsd alter generals that weren't in
> > something James posted on CP a while ago.
> >
> > Also, some script calls (as in, npc triggered, autoload map scripts,
> > etc) allow you to pass arguments to the scripts. Looking at the
> > source, I realise that I was mistaken the whole time that if you don't
> > want them, you don't have to declare arguments on the script? It seems
> > that if you do this, they will get placed in local variables. I wanted
> > to have true or false passed to the newgame script depending on
> > whether the player pressed a key at the title (above), this might
> > interfer with newgame scripts with locals, would this be a problem?
> 
> That's interesting. I had no idea this happened. Perhaps it's because:
> 
> A) if you don't care about the argument, you leave it at 0.
> B) variables default to 0
> 
> Thus, no one would notice. However, I assume this happens in the other
> special plotscripts too. Thing is, no one uses a variable without
> initializing it, so it's not that big of a problem.
> 
> >
> > TMC
> > _______________________________________________
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> > ohrrpgce at lists.motherhamster.org
> > http://lists.motherhamster.org/listinfo.cgi/ohrrpgce-motherhamster.org
> >
> 
> 
> --
> Mike Caron
> Final Fantasy Q
> http://finalfantasyq.com
>