Changing dropitem without making a new monster

[Jarewill]

Let's say I have a shotgun replacement that isn't a shotgun at all, like an ability or something.
However I don't want zombie shotgunners to drop that ability, but instead drop their shotguns.
I also don't want to create a new monster to replace them, as that would break compatibility with monster changing mods.
How exactly could I do it and is it even possible in Decorate or ACS?
Thanks in advance.

[m8f]

A very simple solution comes to mind, but it's not Decorate or ACS.

[Dan_The_Noob]

can you be more specific about what you are trying to achieve overall?

[wildweasel]

I must credit Ed the Bat for this trick, but I did something like this with ww-mixed3; Chaingunners drop a weapon that differs from the weapon that appears on Chaingun spawns, but the Chaingunners themselves are not replaced at all.

Firstly, neither your new ability nor the shotgun will have the "replaces" tag on them. Replace the weapon instead with an actor like this one:

Code: Select all

ACTOR SMGSpawner : CustomInventory replaces Chaingun
{
	States
	{
	Spawn:
		TNT1 A 0 NoDelay A_CheckFlag("TOSSED", "DropSMG")
		TNT1 A 0 A_DropItem("PPSH41")
		Stop
	DropSMG:
		TNT1 A 0 A_DropItem("OuchSMG")
		Stop
	}
}

The important part is that this actor, on spawn, checks itself for the +TOSSED flag, which means it is checking whether it has been placed in the map, or if it's been dropped by an enemy. In this case, if TOSSED is true, jump to the other state and drop the shotgun. If it is false, it falls through and drops the ability instead.

[Jarewill]

Thank you WildWeasel!
I was planning on using a custominventory anyways as I wanted the ability to be only picked up once and then the regular shotgun would be spawned.
And I was also hoping for a way to check if the actor was somehow dropped by an enemy, as I knew that those have different properties than regularly spawned actors.
But I had no idea if that was even possible, so thank you for the great help!

[Ac!d]

It is possible to make this system in Zscript ?

I've tried to do this but i got a script warning :
Accessing deprecated function A_CheckFlag - deprecated since 2.3.0

[SanyaWaffles]

you'd use

Code: Select all

bTOSSED == true

within an anonymous function instead.

[Ac!d]

you'd use

Code: Select all

bTOSSED == true

within an anonymous function instead.

I'm sorry but I need an exemple, I'm feeling stuck.

[SanyaWaffles]

Using the example posted, this is how you'd do it in ZScript.

Code: Select all

class SMGSpawner : CustomInventory replaces Chaingun
{
   States
   {
   Spawn:
      TNT1 A 0 NoDelay
      {
            // all pre-existing flags are prefixed with b
            // and are boolean values
            // you use return ResolveState(state) for jumps
            if (invoker.bTOSSED)
                 return ResolveState("DropSMG");
           
            // to not perform a jump, simply pass null
            return ResolveState(null);
      }
      TNT1 A 0 A_DropItem("PPSH41");
      Stop;
   DropSMG:
      TNT1 A 0 A_DropItem("OuchSMG");
      Stop;
   }
}

[Ac!d]

I tried with your exemple, but I got a script error :
Self pointer used in ambiguous context; VM execution may abort!

[SanyaWaffles]

try using invoker.bTossed instead. I updated the code. It was late at night when I wrote it, apologies.

[Jarewill]

I deeply apologize for the long bump, but there's been something that's been plaguing my mind, but I didn't know if I should post about it or not.

Some time ago I've sent a test build to my friend who, because of hardware limitations, had to use an older version of GZDoom.
And they told me about a worrying message spam in the console. The message being:
UNKNOWN FLAG 'TOSSED' in 'ACTOR'

I've tested it with the newest LZDoom version (3.84) and the issue is also there.
I wanted to ask if there is a way to fix it without creating an LZDoom-specific version with those checks removed.

I'll provide a working example in case it should work, but I just did something wrong. Use with LZDoom or pre-4.x GZDoom.

EDIT: As it turns out, checking for "TOSSED" flag wasn't needed to begin with.
CustomInventories have a state designed for just what I've been looking for.
The Drop state. It's entered if a CustomInventory actor is dropped by a monster.