Castle Paradox

Bagne · Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2009 6:31 pm Post subject: Items and scripts and shops

Two questions here:

1)
How customizable are shops?
I want to make a wishing well where you select an item and throw it off.

I was thinking I'd make an item called "wish", and so when selecting an item, you could "trade" for it, and you'd see the text:
"Worth 1 wish".

This only sort of works.

When you make the trade, it says "Sold item" (which I don't want the player to see).
Also, the player gets a wish item which I could automatically remove later, but the player will see it too before it's removed.

What I really need is a plotscript command which opens up an item menu, and the player can select an item. The item ID would then be returned and you could use it for whatever... throwing it down a well.
Does such a thing exist?

2)
I could write a wrapper script for every usable item, and have it check if I'm next to the well... (and if not, the item is used normally).
That's not such a bad idea, I plan on having many scripts called by items, and I'll need to do a lot of checking.

However, this is only effective if I can pass an argument which identifies the item being used.
I don't want to write a different wrapper script for every-single usable item... that's crazy.

Items can't call scripts directly - you'd have to use a text box that says "Always use script X instead", and so an argument can't be directly passed ... but can a text box pass an argument?
If not, is there any way a script can learn the ID of the text box that called it?
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msw188 · Joined: 02 Jul 2003 Posts: 1041

Sorry friend, items and shops are among the least plotscripting-friendly things in the neighborhood. I wrote a wiki bit about items that clarifies your problem exactly - items can in no way call scripts with arguments as long as you are using the standard item menu. See here:
http://gilgamesh.hamsterrepublic.com/wiki/ohrrpgce/index.php/Items

This means that your wishing well is going to be nothing less than a massive pain to script, unless you're willing to wait for some of these kinds of commands, which TMC was supposed to have written and re-written years ago. See this bug:
http://rpg.hamsterrepublic.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=535
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Moogle1 · Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2009 11:31 pm Post subject:

You might try using a custom menu instead of a shop.
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Bagne · Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 3:38 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the info on items.

Moogle1, what's all this custom menu witchcraft?
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TwinHamster · Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 4:05 pm Post subject:

The Wishing-Well can be done with no plotscripting.
It'll just take a bit of effort on your part.

Instead of assigning monetary values for your items, you can allow them to be traded for items when "sold".
This only works in the specified stores, and you'll have to set this up for EVERY item you plan to make tradeable.

Instead of having it show "Sold", you can change it from the 'Edit Global Text Strings' menu.
Changing it to "Lost" would probably be the most consistent.

Bagne · Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 6:36 pm Post subject:

Would this affect every single shop in my game?

If so, can these strings be changed with a plotscript?
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Moogle1 · Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 7:43 pm Post subject:

Yes, it would affect all shops, and no, you can't change them via plotscripting.

Custom menu: Go to "Edit Menus" in CUSTOM. You can do this without any plotscripting, but I find it convenient to do something like this:

Guest · Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 10:20 pm Post subject:

Yeah, I figured the reason you didn't go with the global text string was because you were using other shops normally.

Although custom menues are indeed quite beautiful things, they don't do a lot of good for items because there are no simple plotscripting methods for things like finding out what items the player has. That said, if you are willing to make the plotscript for it, you can have a custom menu empty in custom.exe, and then have a plotscript 'populate' it on the fly with all of the items that the player currently has. This will not be fun, ESPECIALLY if the player has access to more item types than there is room in a single custom menu...

Moogle1 · Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 10:31 pm Post subject:

TMC · Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2009 6:22 am Post subject:

Bagne · Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2009 2:55 pm Post subject:

Eh? 22 item limit?

I thought you could have zillions now.
I think I'm misunderstanding you.

I'm going to have other shops - I don't want to meddle with that stuff.

I'm beginning to think now that it won't be such a big deal to write a script for each item...
I'm likely going to have all sorts of scripts for most of my items anyways, and I can make subroutines to check for wells and other situations... and in those situations, since each item will have it's own script, I'll be able to pass arguments.
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Bob the Hamster · Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2009 3:53 pm Post subject:

Moogle1 · Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2009 4:17 pm Post subject:

Raising the menu item limit would make me happy! I foolishly used the same magic menu for all four heroes in DYWTBAH, and as a result, there are exactly 21 hero spells and a Back button. There were a few more I'd like to have added, but not many.
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