Making a monster keep special and tag after death?

[Amuscaria]

Is it possible to make a monster keep it's tag and action-special even after it dies? So that when it respawns it will have the same tag and special that be used again? Thanks.

[Cutmanmike]

---

Not sure about action special but in you could give it a dummy inventory item based on it's tid in it's death state (A_GiveInventory("DummyItem",tid)), and then have it execute a script that changes it's TID based on the inventory (Thing_ChangeTID(0,CheckInventory("DummyItem")).

^This depends on what point the inventory gets taken away from a dying actor, if at all. I'm not sure when or if inventory gets taken away ATM. There's also probably a better way to do it, I'm just spouting ideas here

[Ghastly]

I think the TID is kept (else, how would Thing_Raise work?), but I don't know about the special.

[Gez]

Excerpted from AActor::Die():

Code: Select all

	// [RH] If the thing has a special, execute and remove it
	//		Note that the thing that killed it is considered
	//		the activator of the script.
	// New: In Hexen, the thing that died is the activator,
	//		so now a level flag selects who the activator gets to be.
	// Everything is now moved to P_ActivateThingSpecial().
	if (special && (!(flags & MF_SPECIAL) || (flags3 & MF3_ISMONSTER))
		&& !(activationtype & THINGSPEC_NoDeathSpecial))
	{
		P_ActivateThingSpecial(this, source, true); 
	}

And so:

Code: Select all

bool P_ActivateThingSpecial(AActor * thing, AActor * trigger, bool death)
{
	bool res = false;

	// Target switching mechanism
	if (thing->activationtype & THINGSPEC_ThingTargets)		thing->target = trigger;
	if (thing->activationtype & THINGSPEC_TriggerTargets)	trigger->target = thing;

	// State change mechanism. The thing needs to be not dead and to have at least one of the relevant flags
	if (!death && (thing->activationtype & (THINGSPEC_Activate|THINGSPEC_Deactivate|THINGSPEC_Switch)))
	{
		// If a switchable thing does not know whether it should be activated
		// or deactivated, the default is to activate it.
		if ((thing->activationtype & THINGSPEC_Switch) 
			&& !(thing->activationtype & (THINGSPEC_Activate|THINGSPEC_Deactivate)))
		{
			thing->activationtype |= THINGSPEC_Activate;
		}
		// Can it be activated?
		if (thing->activationtype & THINGSPEC_Activate)
		{
			thing->activationtype &= ~THINGSPEC_Activate; // Clear flag
			if (thing->activationtype & THINGSPEC_Switch) // Set other flag if switching
				thing->activationtype |= THINGSPEC_Deactivate;
			thing->Activate(trigger);
			res = true;
		}
		// If not, can it be deactivated?
		else if (thing->activationtype & THINGSPEC_Deactivate)
		{
			thing->activationtype &= ~THINGSPEC_Deactivate; // Clear flag
			if (thing->activationtype & THINGSPEC_Switch)	// Set other flag if switching
				thing->activationtype |= THINGSPEC_Activate;
			thing->Deactivate(trigger);
			res = true;
		}
	}

	// Run the special, if any
	if (thing->special)
	{
		res = !! LineSpecials[thing->special] (NULL,
			// TriggerActs overrides the level flag, which only concerns thing activated by death
			(((death && level.flags & LEVEL_ACTOWNSPECIAL && !(thing->activationtype & THINGSPEC_TriggerActs))
			|| (thing->activationtype & THINGSPEC_ThingActs)) // Who triggers?
			? thing : trigger), 
			false, thing->args[0], thing->args[1], thing->args[2], thing->args[3], thing->args[4]);

		// Clears the special if it was run on thing's death or if flag is set.
		if (death || (thing->activationtype & THINGSPEC_ClearSpecial && res)) thing->special = 0;
	}

	// Returns the result
	return res;
}

In case of death, special is set to 0.

The TID is left alone.

However, if you give the actor the THINGSPEC_NoDeathSpecial [wiki=Actor properties#Activation]activation flag[/wiki], then the special is not run and removed at death.

[NeuralStunner]

[wiki]Thing_SetSpecial[/wiki] could help - If you need to, you can set it directly in Decorate.

[Amuscaria]

[wiki]Thing_SetSpecial[/wiki] could help - If you need to, you can set it directly in Decorate.

Ah thanks, this is what I need.

[Apothem]

[wiki]Thing_SetSpecial[/wiki] could help - If you need to, you can set it directly in Decorate.

Is there a Thing_GetSpecial? I have a feeling I may have asked this before, but it seems really weird you can set the information but you cant see what it is.

[NeuralStunner]

The Special property (And Args[]) can be accessed via [wiki=DECORATE_expressions]Decorate Expressions[/wiki]. Not sure about ACS.

[Gez]

Not in ACS, nope.

[NeuralStunner]

Not in ACS, nope.

Weird.

[Gez]

See this thread for a potential workaround.

(Also, keep in mind what I said earlier about THINGSPEC_NoDeathSpecial. May be simpler than resetting the special in the death states.)

[Apothem]

I'd rather there be a more direct way to access this information, via a Thing_GetSpecial(argnumber), but that fix covers what I need. Oh well.

Ty Gez