Campaign creation advice/tips needed

[Lavarinth]

To my knowledge what you just had occur there isn't possible through triggers.

[Whiplash!]

Haven't seen anything like this before. Very impressive!

[Death_Wing]

Can't.... freaking... wait....!

Was that inserted through a plugin? Jus curious.

[bajadulce]

Ahh thnx Lav for editing that to show how its done.  I'm new to the whole .swf/.flv creation process and couldn't seem to figure out the control panel stuff.  Will need to read up on this. (It keeps running the entire time I am writing this reply.  And wow talk about annoying)

@ collapsing bridge
No plugins or anything out of the ordinary.  Similar to the Old witch/Young witch image, your mind only sees one image at a time and is playing tricks on you  .  When you see how it was done, you'll laugh at how simple it really is. 

Another Question:
It seems that if there are more than one wait involved in a particular trigger, any subsequent wait seems to take forever to activate?  This seems to apply to the center view trig as well as wait?  For example:
Do something
wait(500) mseconds
Do something else
wait(500) mseconds
Do something  <-- and this doesn't follow the above wait command values?

It seems you have to split the above into 2 triggers?  Any validity to this or am I just not doing something right?

[Dem0nS1ayer]

You probably have wait blocks.  If you have more than one wait action occurring at a time, then some of the waits will take extra long.  You could alternatively use death counts, which will make your wait block problem go away.

[bajadulce]

The mod proper uses many deathcounts but are tied in with a countdown timer and other dynamic events.  I can't seem to picture how these would be used for something as simple as the example that was posted above.

EDIT:
Well I located a map called Labryinthos that uses death counts to replace wait blocks and now understand what you were referring to.  ...sssss this probably is going to take awhile to get all sorted out. thnx for the heads up.

[bajadulce]

Well I finally got my "wait blocks" all straightened out!    Guess I never experienced these in my mod because all triggers were made for a single player.

I also finally found the "rename switches" button in SCMDraft as well. 

More questions:
Is it possible to place/orient a unit to face a particular way?  I seem to remember reading about this somewhere but have no recollection of where.  I'd like my "ultralisk" to be placed on the map facing SEast for instance.  (it has no idle iscript commands that would otherwise turn it btw and will remain as it is placed).  Can the unit be told to move to a location/s to accomplish this maybe?

[Laconius]

For permanently instituted standing positions, iscript is the solution:

[imgwh 640x480]http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff13 ... y/tut1.jpg[/imgwh]

[imgwh 640x480]http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff13 ... y/tut2.jpg[/imgwh]


For a temporary application, common triggers are the way to go:

[imgwh 640x480]http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff13 ... y/tut3.jpg[/imgwh]

[Lavarinth]

I must be old school, the last example you gave me was the only one I knew of, hah!

[bajadulce]

Laconius thnkyou again for the exceptional screenshots.  If a picture tells a thousand words, one with meaning must tell a million.  I can't say I've meet anyone quite as helpful as you in any other forum.

Teleporting the unit after it has moved in an unused area of the map is precisely what was needed.  This particular unit is backed up against a cliff and I didn't see how it could be "moved" into this position (without backing up).  Thnx again.

The iscript modification would work equally as well, but wouldn't that mean the unit was static in its orientation?  Tho I suppose this would only apply to the initial placement or spawn if this was only used prior to the idle loop blocks.  The move/teleport trick could still be used in conjunction with the iscript modification for additional directions. 

[Laconius]

The iscript modification would work equally as well, but wouldn't that mean the unit was static in its orientation?  Tho I suppose this would only apply to the initial placement or spawn if this was only used prior to the idle loop blocks.  The move/teleport trick could still be used in conjunction with the iscript modification for additional directions. 

Not necessarily.  You could give a unit a "setfldirect" input on its iscript, and then use an "idling" system similar to Terran infantry units or many of the Zerg ground units.

Example:

[imgwh 640x480]http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff13 ... tut1-1.jpg[/imgwh]

Coupled with this:

[imgwh 640x480]http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff13 ... tut2-1.jpg[/imgwh]

The end result is that the unit would always spawn facing whatever direction "12" is and would constantly fidget around afterwards.  Not sure if that's what you're after though.

[bajadulce]

This particular unit is one of the few that doesn't have any random turning commands for its idle animation block.  Almost all other units do, but this one never got updated.  The unit is a large neutral golem that is to stand guard to key structures.  In this first scenario, it guards a SWest facing cliff passage.    Not having any random turning commands will preserve the sentry like qualities of the unit and it will probably remain as it is. 

Currently the unit spawns facing SEast as this is probably the default setup?  I could orient it to spawn a different initial direction as you demonstrate via iscript, but then I'd have to use the move/teleport trick whenever it needed to stand guard SEast it would seem.   The information you've provided on achieving this desired effect via the triggers has been very helpful.  Thnx again.

@ 1st map's progress.
Things go really slow, but am having a lot of fun.  I'm not cut out for all the creative writing that goes with "campaigning" that's for sure.  Talk about time consuming!  A Sons of War mapper has offered to help and am not sure how much time/energy he's willing to spend on this.  My goal is to finish this first map  to at least have something to show for the campaign before releasing the mod and making any kind of post about it. 

I am open to any outside help when it comes to this and would work hard to support anyone who had any free time to contribute in any way. 

[Death_Wing]

I suggest you don't release a map of the chapters but more of a prologue? I don't want spoilers. I'm sure none of us do. But a prologue can represent how good your campaign might be and we can give some constructive feedback on it. This ,I'm sure, will help a lot more than a spoiler.

Just a thought.

[bajadulce]

PEAI is a mod 1st, 2nd, 3rd.. etc etc before a campaign.  

This campaign is only an afterthought and its main purpose is to introduce users to the mod proper rather than a traditional story driven campaign.  I have been around the block a few times and know that mods in general die a fateful death because they never included a single player experience (plus I wanted to try it out just to say I did!  ).  And so this campaign is also a means to attract users that might otherwise never download a "mod" by camouflaging it with the campaign label    As the player progresses in the campaign, more and more of the mod's content will be introduced.  Eventually the player will be playing the standard mode of the mod (albeit in single player). 

There's just a shitload of content and gameplay/techtree to try and cover and my limited mapping experience is proving to be quite a hurdle.  Thnx for the interest as well as all the help/support.     

[Lavarinth]

Sons of War? That's still going?