Objectives Editor as Controls Editor

[Fidcal]

This is for the more advanced and/or more adventurous mapper.

 

The Dark Mod objectives system and its editor in Dark Radiant are very powerful and flexible. So much so that they go beyond objectives useage. At one time I wondered if we should rename that editor the 'Controls Editor' or similar, with the objectives just one use of it.

 

I'm not going into details here but just raising awareness both of it and a possible glitch. Suffice to say, you can study the wiki article at http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Objectives_Editor for useage.

 

To use just to control things you would create a non-mandatory and non-visible objective. I recommend you create a separate atdm:target_addobjectives (using the top Add button in the editor) and keep all your special non-objective controls on this; it's easier to manage as it doesn't clutter up your nice list of ordered objectives. Give the entity a nice name like 'ControlTriggers' while the main objectives atdm:target_addobjectives entity can be say just 'Objectives'.

 

For the description you just put in your own comment as it will never show in the game. Now you use all the powers of the component types: KOs, kills, alerts, get a special object, etc. etc to trigger other stuff via the 'Completion script' or 'Completion target' in the Edit Objective dialog. There is also their complementary 'Failure script' and 'Failure target'.

 

'nuff said for now except for the glitch. Make sure you create your objectives atdm:target_addobjectives FIRST before the controls one (or any others.) This is because if you have an invisible objective that is displayed later using a atdm:target_setobjective_visibility then the numbering may go wrong. You may find the wrong objective number shows. If already done just save the controls one as a prefab, delete it, then import the prefab again (don't insert but import then it goes exactly back where it was.