Mappers, put your thinking caps on

[HotWax]

Alright, people. I need to know the easiest and most effecient way to accomplish this seemingly simple task:

When the player summons a monster into the map, the script sets the monster's TID to a given value depending on where it's being spawned.

Any ideas?

[Eevee]

Uhm, I don't think there's really any way to capture manual summons...

[Graf Zahl]

If you mean the console command 'summon': no chance.

[HotWax]

You can detect when any Thing enters the map by running a loop that constantly compares "ThingCount" to the old value (stored in a variable). Is there no way to act on this information?

Secondly, I can think of at least one (bad) way to do this. A monster-cross line that sets the TID of the activator when it is crossed, but only if it already has no TID. (Is this possible? I think it is, but I'm not sure.) The player could summon the monster in a box-like area and let it come forward to attack him, triggering the line. The script within could then teleport the monster elsewhere, deactivate him, and give him a TID until later needed.

I don't like this idea, however, because the monster might attack the player. Although, I suppose I could just make the player invurnerable. However, I still don't like it because it feels sloppy.

Is there no other way to do what I want?

[Cyb]

you can set the tid of something:

Code: Select all

script 1 (void)
{
   if(activatortid() == 0)
      thing_changetid(0, newtid);
}

as long as the line is a monster cross line

other than that, there's no way to randomly grab a monster summoned from the console any more than there's a way to randomly grab any monster without a unique tid, so in other words, no (but why not just have the player hit a switch that spawns a monster instead of summon)

[Eevee]

There's a function called activatortid()? o.o

er, anyway.. yes, you can detect when something (at ALL) enters the map, but you can't tell how it got there or what it is.

Perhaps.. an Actor Hits Floor would be useful?

[HotWax]

but why not just have the player hit a switch that spawns a monster instead of summon

Because that limits what the player can bring into the arena.

Perhaps.. an Actor Hits Floor would be useful?

THANK YOU EEVEE! I LOVE YOU!!!!

/me runs off to experiment.

[HotWax]

Dammit. Neither Actor Hits Floor nor Actor Enters Sector trigger when something is summoned into a sector. I wonder if changing this would break compatibility with other things?

Time to go try to see if I can drop a summon over a ledge. ^_^;

[EDIT]Uhhh... If I'm flying over a sector with an "Actor hits fake floor" Thing in it, and I summon, the thing appears in midair and drops, but doesn't trigger the sector action when it lands. Why not?[/EDIT]

[EDIT#2]UHHHHH... If I summon an Imp on a 24-high ledge and let it fall into the sector to chase me, it doesn't trigger either. WTF?![/EDIT]

[EDIT#3]Nevermind, it's because the Deaf flag controls whether a monster can activate or not. Go me.[/EDIT]

[EDIT#4]CURSES!!!! Actor hits floor works PERFECTLY except that flying enemies don't hit the floor when summoned! And Actor enters sector doesn't work at all! Why, God, WHYYYYYY?!?!???[/EDIT]

[Eevee]

Oh. Right. I was even thinking "make sure monsters can activate it" when I wrote that post, and then thought "silly, that only applies to lines" for some reason. Forgot the Deaf flag. heh. erm.

THANK YOU EEVEE! I LOVE YOU!!!!

Should I be scared when naked people say this to me?

[HotWax]

/me makes a sacrifice to Randy and humbly requests that summoned Things trigger "Actor Enters Sector" scripts.

If this change isn't made, I've determined that I'm going to be relegated to using wind tunnels to fling the newly summoned enemies across trigger lines.

[EDIT]And... monsters... aren't... affected by...... wind....

ARGHGHHGHGHBHBLBLBHLBHLBHBLBHHBHBBHBB[/EDIT]

[Eevee]

Does an Actor Hits Floor work if you summon the monster in the air? I know this wouldn't help too much, I'm just curious (and lazy).

[Mundungu]

Don't feel too bad... I've got a spot in my map when enemies break through the ceiling and drop around the player to attack... fortunately when this happens, the player won't be looking in that direction, otherwise the player would notice just how stupid it actually looks.

[HotWax]

It works even if the monster is summoned on the ground, but it doesn't work with flying monsters.

[EDIT]How do the Boom point pushers and pullers work? I set a sector to allow pushers, and put a pusher in the sector, and nothing happens. Eh?[/EDIT]

[HotWax]

Ummm... Why is this line causing a message that never leaves the screen?

Code: Select all

HudMessageBold(s:"Team ", d:team, s:" now has ", d:count[team-1], s:" players."; 0, 0, -1, 0.0, 0.0, 10);

Also tried with the last argument set to 2 and 0.01, no change.

Also, can Lost Souls not be deactivated? I give one a TID as it flies across a line, and then deactivate that TID, but it contines attacking etc. I can tell that the TID stuck because further activations of that line don't work (I have the script set to skip the rest of the code if the actor already has a TID). Maybe just while they're attacking?

[EDIT]Sigh... Brick wall after brick wall...

Tell me why this isn't teleporting the activator:

Code: Select all

do {
     Spawn("TeleportDest", random(xmin, xmax), random(ymin[team-1], ymax[team-1]), z, 3, angle[team-1]);
} while (ThingCount(T_NONE, 3) == 0);
		
Teleport(3);

I've already confirmed that the destination is being spawned by replacing it with "Cacodemon". Sure enough, a caco appears in the target area.

I know that TeleportDest is a legal Thing name because otherwise the while loop would repeat forever and ZDoom would report a runaway script.[/EDIT]

[Eevee]

Ummm... Why is this line causing a message that never leaves the screen?

Code: Select all

HudMessageBold(s:"Team ", d:team, s:" now has ", d:count[team-1], s:" players."; 0, 0, -1, 0.0, 0.0, 10);

Also tried with the last argument set to 2 and 0.01, no change.

welll, the last argument should be fixed.. but if it's not zero the message should still leave eventually.. o.o;

Also, can Lost Souls not be deactivated? I give one a TID as it flies across a line, and then deactivate that TID, but it contines attacking etc. I can tell that the TID stuck because further activations of that line don't work (I have the script set to skip the rest of the code if the actor already has a TID). Maybe just while they're attacking?

Lost Souls act as projectiles while they're attacking, so they don't just stop dead if you deactivate them. They ought to not attack AGAIN after that, though. You could try giving another line just in front of that one some id; then after you assign the Lost Soul an id and deactivate it, make the second line block everything, wait a moment for it to hit the wall, and then make the wall passable again..

Tell me why this isn't teleporting the activator:

...that one I have no idea. Try spawning a MapSpot instead?