ZDoom

Is it possible to simply or at all, and if so, how, to make a character swap control to a character, a different PC, in a different position, suspend the MONSTER that the character swapped to is representing, and spawn a temporary substitute actor to fill the player's place until his return; AND all this without starting a map, as in ingame seamlessly, without ending it?

Sorry, I'm trying to make a single level wad that has pre-scripted situations where the player can control different player classes than the main one, while not replacing his character, but leaving the class inplay. Think Worms, where you cycle the units control, with the addition of multiple Player Classes.

Drake Raider wrote:Is it possible to simply or at all, and if so, how, to make a character swap control to a character, a different PC, in a different position, suspend the MONSTER that the character swapped to is representing, and spawn a temporary substitute actor to fill the player's place until his return; AND all this without starting a map, as in ingame seamlessly, without ending it?

Sorry, I'm trying to make a single level wad that has pre-scripted situations where the player can control different player classes than the main one, while not replacing his character, but leaving the class inplay. Think Worms, where you cycle the units control, with the addition of multiple Player Classes.

I think ACS could do it, but that's WAY too complicated for me.

I have a general idea of how to do it, but I agree on the complicated part, but I don't wanna mangle my pre-existing ACS in the level. So I would prefer to have guidance/advice from a more experienced ACS-er, if possible

ZDG wrote:
I think ACS could do it, but that's WAY too complicated for me.

Why do you bother even posting in this thread, then?

Me or ZDG? I could do it, I would just like to have guidance on how to do it.

ZDG, he's been being a little less than helpful lately (nothing personal).

The purpose of this article is NOT to reprimand ZDG, but I still need the advice.

I once had an idea on how to do this for a 3rd person mod, but that involved having the player controlling the current character through ACS anyway, and not very sane for a standard doom environment.
What you want here, is a method to swap the positions of the characters, then make sure the player gets the stats (health, ammo, whatever) of the character he just became. Simply, you don't become that player, but you swap positions and stats. I would try to code this for you, but I'm not exactly free to do that for the next few days.

I'd also need to give the character the player's previous stats to replace him. By stats I mean: arsenal, sprites, and sounds, and modify the player's speed to match as well. I still am unsure how exactly to do this, so any help would be greatly appreciated. In the meantime I will add some of the mod's other features.

I've been wanting this for my mod too. So far, closest I found is EyeCam.pk3.

It requires mod-specific bindings though, lots of hassle.

Drake Raider wrote:I'd also need to give the character the player's previous stats to replace him. By stats I mean: arsenal, sprites, and sounds, and modify the player's speed to match as well. I still am unsure how exactly to do this, so any help would be greatly appreciated. In the meantime I will add some of the mod's other features.

By this you mean each class following you has their own unique inventory, health etc? I think the best way would be morphing (for the attributes) into the other classes, even if it means replacing the actors following you. You'd have to store each individual class' health, inventory etc in ACS and return each set on the switch. Unfortunately this won't be easy, but I can imagine it's very possible. I don't have time to do this right now but it sounds like it could be an intriguing concept

You may bump into an obstacle in your way though: what happens when the class you're playing as dies? Zdoom doesn't like resurrecting the player on the spot (as far as I know), unless it's in multiplayer mode.

yes, morphing. i do this for my drivable car script, when you want to jump in the car, get the cars position, angle and health. then morph the player into a car actor that gets the cars position, angle and health (and its stats for speed and such) and store this info in integers. then when you jump out of the car, get the morphed players position, angle and health, and place a car with those stats in the position, and then morph the player back to its normal form, and spawn him beside the car.

apapt this to your needs. place a dummy player somewhere else. then when you want the player to control that one, get its position, health and angle. remove the dummy guy and move the player there, morphing is actually not needed if the player is supposed to be the same looking marine. and remember before you move the player to the dummy guy, spawn another dummy guy where you originally were, that gets your current health angle and position.
one probablem will probably be the inventory. you could ofcourse make a counter in acs for every single inventory item you could possibly have (ammo, armor, puzzleitems) and store those somewhere too

then when you want to switch back, do the opposite.
this takes alot of trial and error, and may take days to execute, but im sure the outcome will be neat.