[No] Named TIDs (or similar)

[XutaWoo]

...That's because that's exactly what it's used for.

[Enjay]

True, true.

Some scripts are more complicated than others. Many merely wait/loop until everything with the tid is dead whereas others do complicated stuff in the middle but, yes - fair point, the Thing_Counts are all just checking to see if the specified things are alive - which is exactly what is is for.

[randi]

I wonder if there is any merit in adding an optional extra parameter for "only check living" (default to 0 to check living and dead) so that a check for living things only could benefit from the more efficient search too?

The only reason it's more efficient is because it can stop after finding one actor with that TID. If you have to test for live-ness too, then you potentially end up having to check them all, especially as the number of living ones decreases. By the time they're all dead, it would be the same as using ThingCount.

[Enjay]

Fair enough. Makes sense. Thanks for the explanation.

[cypherphage]

I hate the fact that TIDs are used both as unique identifiers and as groups but can'don't allow for both on the same actor. For instance if I make a monster that gets a unique TID it can be affected individually with things like thinghate, but I have to assign it to a shared TID to use it with things like thing count. It makes me wish the monsters could have several TIDs at once (even if it is possible with a shitload of arrays to get around the problem, its a pain).