Sir Taffsalot's mapping thread

[Sir Taffsalot]

Cool! I think I did something simular when I got the book of the dead to explode on a Builder holy symbol in Sleeping Thieves. I forgot how I did that so I'll open it up in DR and have a look.

[grayman]

is there a limit to the amount of targets I can assign to a single entity? At the moment I want to assign 50. Maybe more.

 

No.

[Sir Taffsalot]

That's good to know

[Obsttorte]

Why do you actually want to target 50 entities from one. This sounds rather strange to me (thus meaning I have no idea where this could be useful ).

[Sir Taffsalot]

Just brain storming at the moment. At some point in the future I would like to do a haunted house FM. The player has to steal a scepter from an abandoned manor. It's quiet and empty at first but once they acquire the scepter the fun begins. AI, models, readables, lights, plus lots of other stuff gets teleported into the manor.

 

An alternative idea would b e to have two manors. One that's empty except for the scepter that the players starts in and another with all the AI, models and stuff already in it. When the player acquires the scepter they get teleported into the other manor. Only problem is The position they get teleport into might not be the same as the position they were standing in when they frobbed the scepter. That would break the illusion. It seems like the first way makes more sense even though it might mean more work.

Edited October 8, 2013 by Sir Taffsalot

[Obsttorte]

Sounds funny. Maybe add some random spawning. And doors get replaced with walls and vice versa. Anyway, I think triggers would be quite error-sensitive in that case.

[Sir Taffsalot]

I want to do a TDM FM that's inspired by my favorite Thief FM which is Rose Cottage. It will in no way be as large or as beautiful but It's something I want to do and I think it will be fun. Plus I think I have a cool disturbing story to go with it.

[Moonbo]

is there a limit to the amount of targets I can assign to a single entity? At the moment I want to assign 50. Maybe more.

 

I never assigned more than ten targets to an entity. If you need to trigger multiple entities, you can do that via a conversation. Just have an AI up in the blue room and have him target each entity in sequence in the convo editor. All the complicated events in Requiem (including two that triggered about fifty targets) were done this way.

[Sir Taffsalot]

Thinking outside the box. I like it.

[stumpy]

you could always use a trigger_relay to trigger a bunch of trigger_relay's either from a script, stim/response, conversation, dummy objective, trigger brush.

[Sir Taffsalot]

Thank you. I think I can do this.

[Sir Taffsalot]

Is it possible to get an AI to spawn into a map once an object has been frobbed? I thought about putting the AI into a blue room and using a teleporter to get them into the map. But as there is a patrol route wating for them in the map, I assume that this will cause "AAS out of date" warnings at the start.

[Goldwell]

Is it possible to get an AI to spawn into a map once an object has been frobbed? I thought about putting the AI into a blue room and using a teleporter to get them into the map. But as there is a patrol route wating for them in the map, I assume that this will cause "AAS out of date" warnings at the start.

 

I think the teleportation thing is a good idea, perhaps you could have it so that after they teleport it activates the AI to start their route which starts with a path_waitfortrigger and then follows onto a normal patrol route.

 

 

So it would play out like the following (at least how I see it)

 

AI is targeting a path_waitfortrigger which targets a Path_corner_1 <that targets> Path_corner_2 <that targets> Path_corner_3 <that targets> Path_corner_1

 

So the AI gets teleported to the location then the AI gets triggered (you could use a trigger once) then the AI starts the patrol route and of course he only uses the path_waitfortrigger once because after that he is looped on the path_corners or whatever you use.

 

Does that make sense?

Edited December 16, 2013 by Goldwell

[Sir Taffsalot]

I didn't know there was a path_waitfortrigger. I'll have a look at it in DR when I get home tonight. It sounds like it will do the job. Thanks GW!

[Springheel]

I did that in A Score to Settle....at least two guards are teleported from a blue room into the map, and one of them has a patrol they follow once appearing. Forget exactly what method I used though, but it is possible.

[RJFerret]

An (triggered) 'atdm:teleport' targets the AI in 'blue room' ... AI has 'target' to a 'path_waitfortrigger' entity which is targeting the first path_corner in the 'next' room.

No need for a script. I did this for spiders and wraith in the tomb in Samhain.

 

I almost forgot... The trigger targets a 'trigger_relay' entity, which in turn targets the 'atdm_teleport'

 

So... trigger > trigger_relay > atdm_teleport > AI > path_waitfortrigger > path_corner

 

The AI, trigger_relay, and path_waitfortrigger are all sitting in the blue room... the rest are all in their appropriate places in the map, with the teleport at the location of the first path_corner

 

@ Fidcal - I was (finally) able to make the teleported AI work again, by remodelling several elements on his path (monsterclipping and visportaling for ease of pathfinding) and/or by adding a connection between the trigger and the AI through the trigger relay, though I'm sure this wasnt needed on the test map (in fact, for all I know it might not even matter, and it was the pathing problem all along), so the sequence would be:

 

Trigger > trigger_relay > atdm_teleport > (AI)

(Trigger > trigger_relay) > AI > path_waitfortrigger > path_corner

[Sir Taffsalot]

I just created the chain in a test map. When the trigger was activated the AI was teleported from the blue room and into the map. However he just stood still and did not go on his patrol route. I deleted the path_waifortrigger and the AI teleported in and immediately went on his route. Suprisingly this caused no problems with writing the AAS file.

 

I'm confused. I thought that if AI could not access their patrol route (eg they are sealed in a blue room) while compiling the map it resulted in "aas is out of date" warnings at map start and AI patrol routes would be all buggered up. Maybe Grayman or someone who understands this could explain? Although as this is a non issue and it seems I can achieve what I want without errors it's no big deal.

 

Many thanks for your help chaps!

[grayman]

If your AI was the only one in the map, the only room that would receive AAS areas would be the one he's standing in. Then, if you teleport him elsewhere, that elsewhere will need an aas32_flood entity to tell the AAS compiler to produce areas there.

 

If your AI is not alone, and other AI would be able to reach the room your AI will teleport to, then the AAS areas are already in place because the compiler found the other AIs, and you don't need an aas32_flood.

[Springheel]

So what happens when the AI can't reach his current pathnode because it's in an unreachable area? Does he just stop at the last reachable node and stop patrolling altogether, or does he stop only until the next pathnode becomes available? Could you, for example, have an AI target a pathnode that is blocked by some monsterclip, and then teleport the monsterclip away when you want the AI to proceed?

[grayman]

Off the top of my head, I don't know the answer to that. Someone could construct an experiment to find out, though.

[Sir Taffsalot]

If your AI was the only one in the map, the only room that would receive AAS areas would be the one he's standing in. Then, if you teleport him elsewhere, that elsewhere will need an aas32_flood entity to tell the AAS compiler to produce areas there.

 

If your AI is not alone, and other AI would be able to reach the room your AI will teleport to, then the AAS areas are already in place because the compiler found the other AIs, and you don't need an aas32_flood.

 

There are other AI in the room so that's why the AI path finds once he is teleported in. However, Once the map is complete there will be no AI in the room at start as all of them are to be teleported from a blue room. If I put an aas32_flood into the main area of my map, where the AI are to be teleported into, they will be able to path find perfectly once teleported in?

[Springheel]

That would fit ideally for a speed-build I'm working on, so I'll give it a test.

[grayman]

If I put an aas32_flood into the main area of my map, where the AI are to be teleported into, they will be able to path find perfectly once teleported in?

 

Yes. The flood entity forces the AAS compiler to build the areas needed for pathfinding.

[Sir Taffsalot]

That's brilliant! Thanks for the help Gman!

[Springheel]

at. Someone could construct an experiment to find out, though.

 

Doesn't appear to work. Surrounding the path with monsterclip just results in the AI walking into and around it looking for a way to get to his node.