My Position for keeping A_ChangeFlag in ZDoom

[SPZ1]

Well, basically I have this custom weapon... Lets call it 'Cupid's Bow'... and it converts its target from an enemy and into a friend. It does this with a custom projectile damage type by setting the PainChance of it's damage type to 255 and using A_ChangeFlag to set the "friendly" flag to true in the enemy code. And this is why I think that it should be preserved.

[Matt]

All Decorate is officially deprecated last I heard, so the fact that it's labeled as deprecated doesn't mean any imminent future GZDoom release is going to scrap it altogether - there are far too many old mods that rely on this stuff for that.

For what it's worth, I came up with the ZScript version of what you described in literally a minute, with no changes required for the monsters:

Code: Select all

class cupidarrow:rocket replaces rocket{
    default{
        +hittracer
    states{
    death:
        MISL B 0{
            tracer.bFRIENDLY=true;
        }
        goto super::death;
    }
} 

That "bFRIENDLY=true" usage should be available in a Decorate anonymous function as well, so if you really want to go that painstate route that can also be done without A_ChangeFlag:

Code: Select all

actor painfriendly:cyberdemon{
    states{
    pain:
        "----" A 0{
            bFRIENDLY=true;
        }
        goto super::pain
    }
} 

[Nevander]

Did I miss something? A_ChangeFlag is being removed?

[Mikk-]

No. It's just people not understanding what deprecated means in the context of GZDOOM's development.

[Rachael]

Deprecated means the feature will no longer be enhanced or improved upon.

It does not mean that it will be removed.

[Graf Zahl]

A_ChangeFlag is deprecated for ZScript, not for DECORATE. The reaason being that in ZScript there's more efficient ways to do the same stuff.