The cake is baked. Let's frost it.
If anyone cares, I'm having some unusual quandries for the unusual mechanics of my game,
so I'm wondering if by chance anyone knows of any functions that could help.
//Begin Irrelevant Personal Background: (why I'm doing this)
--[my gf said I need (yet another) hobby and so I decided I'd just get another smartphone app game but nothing struck my fancy. I went back to some old favorites from every console and some old PC games too, but couldn't find a good top-down view sandbox or X-Men game, and one in the same straight up did not exist. I wanted this for so long it became a quest of its own. They had one in Spider-Man 2 on PS(2?), and it was amazing with TONS of alternate costumes; X-Men Legends and Marvel Ultimate Alliance were close, but didn't cross the finish line.]
//Begin Irrelevant ZQuest background: (what I know)
--[I looked into making Zelda-type and Final Fantasy Tactics-type mods a year and a half ago or something and looked into this old program called ZQuest I used to play and kind of edit fan-made Zelda quests on [because I just couldn't get enough at the time,] specifically to see if it was possible to switch characters and if so, how many. (You've got to remember, the only relevant tech experience I have is first level tech support I had to use a checklist and transfer button for; programming is a complete unknown to me, I typed commands out of a book to move a turtle on an ancient computer in 1992 and that is it. I can customize every setting on my smart phone, but I'm not really into rooting, if you catch my drift. Anyway,) I checked out the basic functions of the program and saw that you could switch a few characters by changing rings, and then one day I read that LTMs could be applied to every item and that was just game on. I went through the entire user guide step by step, taking anal notes on relevant functions as I followed the instructions to create a fully working custom quest from scratch. I changed Link into Wolverine as a test,]
//Begin Barely Relevant Game Mechanics: (what I've done)
--[stripped the system of available item slots, made a handful of item shops that switched characters into X-Men characters and gave you their powers and used modified Like-Likes into telephone booth Shield Remover (with a crap in-story excuse for having to run to a phone booth to change every character). All of that kind of ruined the flow of an otherwise smooth continuous flow of cartoon comic cartoon characters fighting on-screen and then suddenly directly under the fan's control. I scoured the internet devouring everything about directly switching between characters, and got nowhere. I looked into scripting but wasn't confident with even my basic ZQuest skills, and despite the 160 playable characters I'm 3/4 through putting into my game (don't think I can fit them all, but most definitely) and obscene number of DMAPS and hours planning I am still not. I've only used two of the three of l've only recently begun to even take a look at seriously in my current game mechanics, and I've come across the answer I've been looking for ONE WEEK AGO (after a year and a half of working on this on average every other day for at least three hours- in intense bursts of activity whenever I feel like it and have time and energy). So,]
//Begin Relevant Game Mechanics: (scripts used)
--[I copy and pasted scripts for an ***ITEM BUNDLER*** to give powers at the same time as picking up a character icon that changes LTMs (thus taking away the necessity for undesired character shop mechanics), signs (currently unimplemented and irrelevant at present), and an ITEM RESPAWNER for character icon items so you can switch back to the same character twice in-game. Both of those used are FFC ITEM SCRIPTS.]
//Begin Important Game Mechanics Background: (CHARACTER SWITCHING!!)
1-- [I found a tiny little reference in the ITEM BUNDLER's Set-Up notes as I was figuring out how to set up a script for the first time (last Saturday) that an additional feature is included: If you put "-" followed by a Message String # in the first D0 argument it prompts a message. I thought it was barely neat until later that same lucky day during an unrelated ZQuest research binge,
2-- I read that you can type in codes \16\# and \17\# respectively at the beginning of messages to give and take away items. After some planning I began rebuilding the first few screens of the quest so that
3>>>>respawning Screen Items upon pickup prompt a message encoded to remove all current character icon items with LTMs and then apply new ones<<<< so you could running around switching characters in the Overworld, but
4>>>>upon deeper thought I realized switching characters and their powers would be MUCH more preferable via subscreen. The overworld item demo seemed inefficient to me because the character switching wasn't truly free and mobile as desired, and though there was an immediately recognizable way it was a pain in the ass, but I started anyway. I started making two versions of every icon: 1 one temporary Screen Item with LTMs that takes away all other temporary Screen Items with LTMs then give the appropriate character's LTM with a new item, and 2 one permanent dummy icon for the inventory that upon use would trigger a message that takes away current LTM items and gives new ones. In this way you could change into anyone you encountered and do so thereafter at will once collected, but also return and change back into the character again later. But I want to make full use of all the fat I trimmed from the tiles and the Item slots aren't infinite, so]
//Begin Important Game Mechanics: (LTM BUTTONS?!!!/ getting more LTM changes than available Item slots should allow)
1>>>>>>>>[I started wondering about more efficient ways of doing LTM changes. I played with the idea of doing Mystique and Morph's shapeshifting via entering codes by using shared items represented by different letters that changed your LTMs in bigger chunks to reach the same end goal, like using coins instead of a single dollar bill to achieve the same number. I didn't want to do that for every character, but to include 160 playable characters, you know dang well I considered it.
2 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Eventually my focus coalesced around the subject until I wondered some time around this last Sunday if I could make the LTM button Items internal, not at all visible or used consciously by the player. I planned out 22 item spaces to replace ALL of the LTM items needed in the game by using: ********>>>positive and negative chunks of something like 100, 50, 25, 20, 10, 15, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 pages of LTM movement with each item's reception via coded Message String<<<********. So now, a) I start as Professor X with his *permanent* astral form icon (since he's the default character) and a stun blast wand. b1) I pick up Jean Grey and as it will every time the Item Bundler script prompts a message *upon pickup* removing any currently collected internal LTM button Items, b2) gives the proper LTM buttons b3) and powers, and also b4) gives her (or 78 other characters later) a permanent icon. b5 That 2nd permanent Jean Grey character icon *upon use* does the same 'clear all LTM Buttons, give appropriate LTM buttons, give appropriate powers' function.]
//Begin Personal Interlude: (background thrills and chills)
[After that massive success a few days ago I was super-stoked, but wanted to try to fit more subscreen inventory slots, so harrowing story short I finally got a HUGE subscreen built with room for 80 characters, and all the basic powers. And it looks COOL. X-Men First Class Mystique changes into the comics/ cartoon version from bottom to top and back again, Colossus transforms, it's amazing. I got the subscreen working TODAY, as you know. This same day, I also got a great job offer and my mother's terminal cancer is miraculously shrinking to a ridiculous degree. Anyway, I digress.]
//Begin Current Development State: (this is what I can do and manipulate so far, does this help?)
[I can now (or will post-development, I've only begun re-structuring now that these core problems have been fixed and ideas been proved solid):
-use internal LTM Buttons to fit tons more characters
-switch characters/ Team Leaders mostly at will, still fitting in every playable character the graphics tiles pages allow with half of the characters permanently available
-use a 'Dismiss Field Team' command Item/Message/code to remove all collected powers,
-use a 'Disband X-Men' Item to similarly remove all powers and applied LTMs.
-use an 'Assemble Gold Team' or 'Assemble Blue Team' button
-and just for fun use No Enemy Flags to add enemy behavior by having them guard areas and hold formations]
//Begin Quandry 1: (Shapeshift Item)
[... And today I began work on a Shapeshift Item I'd been thinking about for days that can be used repeatedly like an LTM Button Item to push your sprite one page to the right at a time (or left for a second button)... And then I found out that you can't stack LTM buttons of the exact same type DESPITE IT HAVING WORKED ON CYCLOPS WHEN I DIDN'T WANT IT TO DURING MY FIRST 'CHARACTER ITEM SHOPS' VERSIONS OF THE GAME. Or at least I know that I don't know how to do it, and don't know what factors would be relevant. Would 'upgrade upon picking up twice' allow for a single twice-collected item to apply double the LTMs? I REALLY want to Shapeshift at the push of a button. Please. This would be amazing.]
//Begin Quandry 2: (Allies)
[So, at this point I'm 50/50 on whether this next bit is fantasy or plausible, but, it would boost my satisfaction with this game I've nearly got working another 40%, so I will work to attain ths goals if at all feasible. Get ready.
1 Multiple (is that possible?), like up to twenty (is that large a team possible?) 2 collectible (upon pickup) 3 NPC (I've heard possible) 4 allies (I've heard indifference, but maybe enemies scripted to recognize non-NPC enemies as Link with the trigger for recognition that snakes use?) 5 activated and deactivated at will (via new inventory 'expand NPCs' Item use triggering script to trigger release of allies). 6 They would represent only the currently selected team (represented by current accessible/ collected library of powers selected from any of those character icons already collected) (via giving a permanent item during the first (and forced) character icon pickup that during use spawns the scripted allies. Additionally, or as a 3% consolation prize, I'd like to 7 have some caught villains NPCs following that have to be brought back to the X-Mansion you start out at. On a related note, I think it would be neat as heck to be able to release these following NPCs (or just collected characters without NPCs expanded) which would spawn enemies and take away the characters from inventory, as if you were unchaining Sabretooth or something.]
//Begin Quandry 3: (Player-selected inventory items in overlapping places)
--[I currently have my first three rows of 16 inventory slots each filled with heroes, the next with villains, and ****the next row I wanted blank so the player could collect whichever 16 characters they want to have ready at a moment's notice**** (rather than one empty slot to share between all the other character icon items that can't fit on the subscreen (prioritized by level), but in order to place items in the inventory at all >>>>>>>>>>>>It looks so far like when you collect items they always have to go to dedicated subscreen inventory slots, not in the first unoccupied ones (is that true?).<<<<<<<<<<< Basically I want a row (or entire character icons library) to be the same class being able to drop multiple items in there without one item taking every space because they're all the same item type (can this maybe be accomplished by stacking selectable subscreen Elements for each item type on top of each other?).
//Begin Quandry 4: (conditionally-spawning enemies)
And finally, I'd really like to see screens that truly change states after conditions are fulfilled (rather than warping to duplicate DMAPs) using conditionally-spawning enemies such as guards that spawn if you set off an alarm, police follow you to the current screen with a 10 second delay when wanted, enemies that don't spawn after their boss has been defeated, etc. (Any chance of this?)
Thank you for reading and helping if able.
Edited by Thunderfist, 26 September 2019 - 01:24 AM.