From kevinz5000 at gmail.com Mon Mar 18 22:18:38 2013 From: kevinz5000 at gmail.com (Kevin Zheng) Date: Mon, 18 Mar 2013 22:18:38 -0500 Subject: [crossfire] Keeping capitalization consistent in maps Message-ID: <5147D90E.3050506@gmail.com> Hi, I've recently started to do a bit of map editing, trying to focus on sprucing up existing places to make the game look a bit nicer. I've come across the interesting issue of capitalizing names, especially those of NPCs. Proper nouns should be capitalized, but "Arena Guard" appears capitalized. On the other hand, "ticket vendor" is not capitalized. Where do we typically draw the line between a generic noun and a proper noun? Thanks, Kevin Zheng From om at iki.fi Tue Mar 19 03:46:08 2013 From: om at iki.fi (Otto J. Makela) Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2013 10:46:08 +0200 Subject: [crossfire] Drop confusion with spooky action at a distance Message-ID: <514825D0.4070203@iki.fi> I believe I've found an interesting (server side?) bug. If you have a container on the ground (let's say a quiver), you open it while standing over it, and attempt to drop something into it with "drop xxx" ("drop arrows", even if no objects match) something strange happens and the container disappears from view while remaining open. Dropping an item with the mouse from the inventory doesn't do this. Moving away from the (unseen) container will normally close the container and it will appear back in sight. But if you open a second container on the ground while the first one is unseen, the first container never gets closed correctly when you move away from the spot (rather strange messages get displayed "You close second container (open) (active)", "You open quiver (open) (active).") and spooky action at a distance ensues. At this point, trying to pick objects other than which fit into the container will result in "You can only put arrows into the quiver (open) (active).", picking up arrows from the ground will magically transfer them to the open container and using the keyboard comma (which usually picks an object from the ground) will retrieve arrows from the quiver into your inventory. -- /* * * Otto J. Makela * * * * * * * * * */ /* Phone: +358 40 765 5772, ICBM: N 60 10' E 24 55' */ /* Mail: Mechelininkatu 26 B 27, FI-00100 Helsinki */ /* * * Computers Rule 01001111 01001011 * * * * * * */ From om at iki.fi Tue Mar 19 03:39:07 2013 From: om at iki.fi (Otto J. Makela) Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2013 10:39:07 +0200 Subject: [crossfire] Keeping capitalization consistent in maps In-Reply-To: <5147D90E.3050506@gmail.com> References: <5147D90E.3050506@gmail.com> Message-ID: <5148242B.9060307@iki.fi> On 2013-03-19 05:18, Kevin Zheng wrote: > Proper nouns should be capitalized, but "Arena Guard" appears > capitalized. On the other hand, "ticket vendor" is not capitalized. > Where do we typically draw the line between a generic noun and a proper > noun? There is also a long-standing problem that there are objects which are "keys" and objects which are "Keys". Same with swords and some other categories. This of course comes up with the command line commands like "drop". -- /* * * Otto J. Makela * * * * * * * * * */ /* Phone: +358 40 765 5772, ICBM: N 60 10' E 24 55' */ /* Mail: Mechelininkatu 26 B 27, FI-00100 Helsinki */ /* * * Computers Rule 01001111 01001011 * * * * * * */ From kevinz5000 at gmail.com Tue Mar 19 11:55:40 2013 From: kevinz5000 at gmail.com (Kevin Zheng) Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2013 11:55:40 -0500 Subject: [crossfire] Time delay in maps Message-ID: <5148988C.7000408@gmail.com> Hi, I'm trying to implement time delay in one of the maps I'm working on. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to approach this. I suspect I have to do something in Python, but I've never done this before, either. Basically, a magic ear will activate a connection, which needs to start a timer. When the timer runs out, it should activate a different connection that opens a door. Any suggestions? Thanks, Kevin Zheng From mwedel at sonic.net Tue Mar 19 23:21:48 2013 From: mwedel at sonic.net (Mark Wedel) Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2013 21:21:48 -0700 Subject: [crossfire] Keeping capitalization consistent in maps In-Reply-To: <5148242B.9060307@iki.fi> References: <5147D90E.3050506@gmail.com> <5148242B.9060307@iki.fi> Message-ID: <5149395C.3090405@sonic.net> On 03/19/13 01:39 AM, Otto J. Makela wrote: > On 2013-03-19 05:18, Kevin Zheng wrote: > >> Proper nouns should be capitalized, but "Arena Guard" appears >> capitalized. On the other hand, "ticket vendor" is not capitalized. >> Where do we typically draw the line between a generic noun and a proper >> noun? > > There is also a long-standing problem that there are objects which are > "keys" and objects which are "Keys". Same with swords and some other > categories. > > This of course comes up with the command line commands like "drop". > For normal objects (swords, keys, etc) I would say they should all be lower case. Normal English would dictate that things like Arena Guard, ticket vendor, etc, should all be lower case, since as noted, they are not proper nouns. OTOH, if other conversations refer to these NPCs, it would be nice to give them a proper if a particular one has to be talked to, eg, 'talk to arena guard John'. Otherwise, if there are 5 'arena guards', but only the 'Arena Guard' holds a conversation, that just gets confusing. From mwedel at sonic.net Tue Mar 19 23:16:12 2013 From: mwedel at sonic.net (Mark Wedel) Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2013 21:16:12 -0700 Subject: [crossfire] Time delay in maps In-Reply-To: <5148988C.7000408@gmail.com> References: <5148988C.7000408@gmail.com> Message-ID: <5149380C.9020906@sonic.net> On 03/19/13 09:55 AM, Kevin Zheng wrote: > Hi, > > I'm trying to implement time delay in one of the maps I'm working on. > Unfortunately, I have no idea how to approach this. I suspect I have to > do something in Python, but I've never done this before, either. > > Basically, a magic ear will activate a connection, which needs to start > a timer. When the timer runs out, it should activate a different > connection that opens a door. > > Any suggestions? In the past, people did things like this with clever use of boulders, connected spike traps, etc. I'm not sure if there is any simple way to do this. The way it works with boulders is that first connection (magic ear) activates the spikes under the boulder. IIRC, you can set the speed of the spikes, so can control the timing to some extent. The spikes push the boulder onto a button which then activates the next step (could be another set of spikes with another boulder). The initial spikes, button, and boulder are in a hidden 1x2 room so that the boulder can only get pushed onto the spikes. Now if you want this to reset in some time, you then need a set of spikes beneath the boulder to push it back to its original location (and some logic to lower those initial spikes). Or you could do with this with a script - I'm not sure the details, but I'd certainly imagine something like having the script tied to some normally inactive object that is linked to that ear. On magic ear activation, the script updates the speed of another object to be non zero, and based on the speed and speed_left value and pretty precisely set a time. When that second object gets an action, it runs a different script/pushes a different button. This could probably be done in one object by toggling the speed - one just has to also design that script to behave properly if it gets activated multiple times. From subs at eracc.com Wed Mar 20 15:52:00 2013 From: subs at eracc.com (ERACC Subscriptions) Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2013 15:52:00 -0500 Subject: [crossfire] Time delay in maps In-Reply-To: <5148988C.7000408@gmail.com> References: <5148988C.7000408@gmail.com> Message-ID: <20130320155200.4aab3e6b@era4.eracc.uucp> On Tue 2013-03-19 11:55 Kevin Zheng wrote: > Hi, > > I'm trying to implement time delay in one of the maps I'm working on. > Unfortunately, I have no idea how to approach this. I suspect I have to > do something in Python, but I've never done this before, either. > > Basically, a magic ear will activate a connection, which needs to start > a timer. When the timer runs out, it should activate a different > connection that opens a door. > > Any suggestions? > > Thanks, > Kevin Zheng Hi Kevin, It has been a l-o-n-g time since I mapped for Crossfire. I do recall doing something with timers, though I do not recall the details. Look through the maps I created and check them for timers. You may find what you want in one of them. Gene Alexander -- ERA Computers & Consulting - http://www.eracc.com ERACC Subscriptions Order a computer: http://shopping.eracc.com/get-a-quote Voice messages: 1(731)256-0973 [E-mail preferred. Please reply BELOW quoted text.] From kevinz5000 at gmail.com Wed Mar 20 16:29:06 2013 From: kevinz5000 at gmail.com (Kevin Zheng) Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2013 16:29:06 -0500 Subject: [crossfire] Time delay in maps In-Reply-To: <20130320155200.4aab3e6b@era4.eracc.uucp> References: <5148988C.7000408@gmail.com> <20130320155200.4aab3e6b@era4.eracc.uucp> Message-ID: <514A2A22.9050702@gmail.com> > Hi Kevin, > > It has been a l-o-n-g time since I mapped for Crossfire. I do recall doing > something with timers, though I do not recall the details. Look through the > maps I created and check them for timers. You may find what you want in > one of them. > > Gene Alexander I'm managed to figure out how to get timers working with Python and the EVENT_TIMER archetype. Thanks for your help, though! Thanks, Kevin Zheng