Difference between revisions of "TRIGEDIT-ADVANCED-TUTORIAL"

Latest revision as of 11:28, 14 July 2017

TRIGEDIT-ADVANCED-TUTORIAL

This section is a step by step tutorial to explain the writing of scripts

(triggers). It goes through the script creation process developing a practical

script.

Decide what you want the script to do.

Consider how your mob, item, or room should behave. Doing this before

worrying what can be done prevents you from limiting yourself to what you have

seen other scripts do, and allows you to produce a more interesting script.

For example, I want to create a gate guard for a small walled town. The ruler

of the town has decided that each group of people will be charged ten coins to

enter his domain. The gate guard must notify travelers of the cost to enter,

collect the money, allow people who have payed to enter the city, and close the

gate after them. This will be a mob script.

Decide what trigger types you need.

Look through the section on triggers to see the currently available trigger

types. New trigger types can be added by one of the implementors if needed. All

types are listed in the help files {cRHELP TRIGEDIT-TYPE{c0.

Our gate guard needs to react to five different events:

1. A character entering the room from the south, the road leading away from the

   town, needs to be informed of the price for entrance. This will be a greet

   trigger.

2. When the guard is given ten or more coins, the guard must open the gate. This

   is done by a bribe trigger.

3. If the guard is given less than ten coins, the guard needs to inform the

   character that it is insufficient. This is also a bribe trigger.

4. When someone passes through the gate into the city, the guard must close the

   gate behind them. This is done with an act trigger.

5. When the gate is opened from the other side, the guard must eventually close

   it. This will be another act trigger.

Determine the argument and the numerical argument of the triggers. Read the

specifications on trigger types, and decide what the values for argument and

Numeric Arg must be for the trigger to react appropriately to the events.

{cRHELP TRIGEDIT-MOB-GREET{c0

Argument  : not used

Numeric Arg : the percent chance that the trigger is run when checked. Since I

want it run every time someone enters the room, it should be 100.

{cRHELP TRIGEDIT-MOB-BRIBE{c0

Argument  : not used

Numeric Arg . minimum number of gold pieces required to activate this trigger.

The guard should only open the gate when given 10 coins, so it

should be 10.

For the second bribe trigger, the guard must respond whenever someone gives

him 1 or more coins, so Numeric Arg should be 1.

{cRHELP TRIGEDIT-MOB-ACT{c0

Argument  : the text the mob should react to. Since I want the guard to

react to a character going north, argument should be "leaves

north."

Numeric Arg : Since argument is a phrase, NArg should be 0.

The second act trigger should trigger on text "The gate is opened from the other

side", so it is triggered whenever someone opens the gate from inside the town.

Again, Numeric Arg should be 0 for a phrase.

Write the list of commands for the trigger.

This is the most complex and time consuming part of a trigger to write. The

valid commands are explained in the help files and on the webpage. Variables

and expressions are also used in the commands list.

For the greet trigger, I want the guard to inform anyone entering from the

south how to get into the city. First, I must check if the character is

entering from the south. If they are entering from that direction, the guard

should tell the character the cost of entry. The command list for this trigger

will be as follows:

if (%direction% == south)

wait 1 sec

emote snaps to attention as you approach.

wait 1 sec

say Admittance to the city is 10 coins.

end

Checking the specifications of the greet trigger, we see that the variable

"direction" is set to the direction that the character entered. The percent

sign surrounding direction means it is a variable. The two equal signs together

compare the value of the variable to the word "south". If these are equal, the

statements between this line and the line "end" will be executed. The "wait 1 sec"

pauses briefly while the character finishes his move. (The greet trigger is

actually checked before the character enters the room, so if we did not have

this line, he or she would never see the guard snap to attention.) After

another brief pause, the guard announces the cost to enter the town. The

indentations are not needed, but make it easier to read.

The guard must open the gate if ten or more coins were given to him. The

command list looks like this:

wait 1 sec

unlock gate

open gate

wait 10 sec

close gate

lock gate

After a brief wait (so everything doesn't happen at once), the guard unlocks

the gate and opens it. The guard will close the gate after 10 seconds, even if

no one passes through it.

The guard must inform the character that his payment was not enough, and

return the money. The commands list will be:

wait 1 sec

say This is not enough!

give %amount% coins %actor.name%

For the line "give %amount% coins %actor.name%", the variables amount and actor,

both set when the bribe trigger is called, are substituted into the line before

the guard performs the command. The gate guard returns the number of coins he

was given.

For the first act trigger, I want the guard to close and lock the gate after

someone passes through the gate. The guard should wait briefly so he isn't

shutting the gate on the character's back, and close and lock the gate. The

command list will be:

wait 1 sec

close gate

lock gate

For the last act trigger we want the guard to close and lock the gate when it

is opened from the other side. The commands will look like:

wait 5 sec

close gate

lock gate

The "wait 5 sec" gives time for someone on the other side to get through the gate.

Decide the order of the triggers. The triggers are checked from first to last.

If there are two triggers of the same type, the first one run will be the only

one run.

There are two sets of triggers which are the same type, the bribe triggers and

the act triggers. If the bribe trigger with the Numeric Arg of 1 is first, the

other trigger would never be run, since ten or more coins is still one or more.

In order for my triggers to work right, the trigger with Numeric Arg of 10 must

be before the trigger with the NArg of 1 in the list. The other possible

conflict is with the act triggers. Since both have arguments that will not

occur together, the order does not matter.

Create the trigger file.

Simply use trigedit to create your triggers and they will be saved for you

when you exit the editor.

Put the triggers into the game.

In the OasisOLC medit / redit / oedit menus, use menu option S to enter the

script editor. Then select the triggers that will be part of your script. Note,

that order is important! If there are two possible triggers that could both be

executed at the same time, only the first one found in the list will be

activated. In this example, it means place the bribe trigger for 10 or more

coins BEFORE the bribe trigger for 1 coin.

Test the script.

You should see how the script actually works in the game, and watch other

people interact with it. Often you will see ways you can improve it.

{cRGOTO 1310{c0 and work your way north to test these out. Triggers 4-8.