The DO command, Esacpe Area and function calls (1)

[lennon]

I've just reviewed Mazzy's '.d' file and discovered

       DO ~EscapeArea~

Is this the command to use after a 'kick out' dialogue, when they or the PC says that they're not hanging around? (I reckon by using state variables I can write an area script to spawn or respawn the character where required in these circumstances (possibly using the Delainy tutorial techniques).

Is their a list of permitted functions that can be invoked by the DO clause, or is their a site or page that might help?

TIA

[jcompton]

EscapeArea() is used primarily for "leaving the game forever" situations. It would not be used for a standard NPC kickout.

[lennon]

What should be used to make the character walk away from the group as if to return to their home? e.g. When Mazzy says to look her up in Trademeet.

[Kismet]

I belive you'd want to use MoveGlobal()

[Ghreyfain]

MoveGlobal() doesn't do the walking thing, though.  EscapeAreaMove() might do it, or MoveBetweenAreas(), but that last one needs coordinates for the NPC to walk to.

[Andyr]

Perhaps you could try RandomWalk() for a few seconds then MoveGlobal to get that effect?

[Ghreyfain]

Or, y'know, you could just use EscapeAreaMove().

From action.ids:
108 EscapeAreaMove(S:Area*,I:X*,I:Y*,I:Face*)

So that's be EscapeAreaMove("ARxxxx",[xcoordinate.ycoordinate],0 to 15)

[lennon]

Cut out of Mazzy's *.d file, which I extracted using Weidu

DO ~SetGlobal("MazzyHappy","GLOBAL",1)
       RevealAreaOnMap("AR2000")
       EscapeAreaMove("AR2002",341,400,11)~

However, given the problem I am trying to solve, and my assumption that  EscapeAreaMove takes arguments as to the destination, how do you select the area parameter (although destination is OK) and the X,Y parameters when you don't know where you are going to be when you execute this code?? [ I suppose that one could choose area corner and hope that your not in view of the area corner.

I'm off to IESDP to check the definition of EscapeAreaMove but hlp from you guys would be good.

Also, if its questionable as to how to do this, how is the "kick out for rejoin" done by those of you who've finished, (I know I could download & examine, and maybe I will) 

TIA

[Ghreyfain]

You mean you want the person to escape to the corner of the current area you're in?

MoveToPointNoInterrupt([x.y]) would work for that.

[Diana]

Back from dissection so if anyone can shed some light on what is happening here I'd apreciate it.

This is what I culled from a mod which I think assigns dialogue to a script file via the .tp2.  (I really don't know WEIDU all that well)

COPY ~myfile/bcs/copy~ ~override~
REPLACE 999994 @1
REPLACE 999995 @2
REPLACE 999997 @3
REPLACE_TEXTUALLY 999996 ~%Sdrem%~
REPLACE 999998 @4

I figured out that the @ references are coming from the setup.tra files.  but how does WEIDU know to assign each of the text strings properly to the DISPLAYOVERHEAD or DISPLAYSTRINGHEAD in the appropriate  bcs?  Does it know it from the first line to associate all the succeeding commands to that particular .baf/bcs file?

That is what is holding me up on doing cutscenes.

And this REPLACE_TEXTUALLY, I've never seen this before.  Is this is the WEIDU documentation so I can study it some more?

Thanks.

[Kismet]

You don't need to use REPLACE to put dialog into a .bcs file.  In a cutscene, CutsceneId() determines who the owner of the script is (quite frequently it's Player1, but it doesn't have to be.)  If someone other than CutsceneId() is doing the action then you need to use ActionOverride).  DisplayStringHead() doesn't need ActionOverride because the actor is implicit in the command: DisplayStringHead("SomeNPC",~Some text~)

Take a look at Cloakwood Squares for examples.  That's one big cutscene with DisplayStringHead() stuff all over the place.

[jcompton]

Back from dissection so if anyone can shed some light on what is happening here I'd apreciate it.

This is what I culled from a mod which I think assigns dialogue to a script file via the .tp2.  (I really don't know WEIDU all that well)

COPY ~myfile/bcs/copy~ ~override~
REPLACE 999994 @1
REPLACE 999995 @2
REPLACE 999997 @3
REPLACE_TEXTUALLY 999996 ~%Sdrem%~
REPLACE 999998 @4

I figured out that the @ references are coming from the setup.tra files.  but how does WEIDU know to assign each of the text strings properly to the DISPLAYOVERHEAD or DISPLAYSTRINGHEAD in the appropriate  bcs?  Does it know it from the first line to associate all the succeeding commands to that particular .baf/bcs file?

This method of coding is mostly obsolete and discouraged now, but back before WeiDU had things like script-compiling and the ability to insert text strings in compiled scripts and dialogue actions, the way to get new strings into a script was to put a placeholder strref value in there (like 99999) and then use TP2 REPLACE to replace that value with a string. WeiDU would add that string to the .tlk (so let's say it became strref 80001 in this example), and automatically take that new strref value and replace the 99999 with whatever the new value was (80001.)

And this REPLACE_TEXTUALLY, I've never seen this before.  Is this is the WEIDU documentation so I can study it some more?

Everything is in the WeiDU docs at least a little bit. REPLACE_TEXTUALLY does basically what it says: rather than trying to compile a new text string it literally just replaces one chunk of text with another. However, I can't immediately guess what's going on here and I don't recognize the code.

Suffice it to say that you really should avoid coding like this whenever possible. Generally you can just design your BAF with things like

IF
(blah)
THEN
RESPONSE #100
DisplayStringHead(@1)
END

and compile the BAF with a TRA file attached to it, and voila, @1 gets assigned from the TRA and you have a string.

[Diana]

and compile the BAF with a TRA file attached to it, and voila, @1 gets assigned from the TRA and you have a string

And that's the clinker.  I'm trying to debug an old mod and I'm not as far along the WEIDU path as most of you.  And most of the examples i've been studying still use what I posted above.

Thanks for the Cloakwood Squares suggestion.  I'll download and take a look at how it was structured tomorrow when I have access to a printer at work so I can study it on paper.

Thanks all!  And like they say...Allez modding!