[Ohrrpgce] A few ideas and things

[Mike Caron]

On 6/5/05, TeeEmCee <teeemcee at gmail.com> wrote:
> > 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.

What about if the player startes a *new* 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.
> 
> 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.

That's what I meant by "other special plotscripts"

> 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.

You would be affected by this if a script relied on a variable
starting out as 0, or if you used a local variable before anywhere
where it might get a value. I can only think of a few places where you
would do this (really, 0 is such a very boring number...)

> 
> Now, please, any clues on gen()?

I suspect the list on the Wiki is the most comprehensive list.

> 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
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Ohrrpgce-motherhamster.org mailing list
> > > ohrrpgce at lists.motherhamster.org
> > > http://lists.motherhamster.org/listinfo.cgi/ohrrpgce-motherhamster.org
> > >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Mike Caron
> > Final Fantasy Q
> > http://finalfantasyq.com
> >
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-- 
Mike Caron
Final Fantasy Q
http://finalfantasyq.com