Flags

[dominions]

In my design I use alot of minor 'one situation' checks i.e. Have the party entered this area before?, has the party spoken with an NPC?, etc..
It gets a little cumbersome using the quest stuff for this kind of thing. I was wondering if a system of boolean flags could be implemented.
For those not into programming all means is that you would be able create a name (much like a quest) and assign the value of TRUE of FALSE to it. You could then do a check on this name.
This could be tested by using the checks normally used with any Event (much like Is It Daytime, etc.) and assigned using the Utilities Event.
Internally, these 'names' could still be listed as quests, but they would only ever have a value of 0 or 1. They would also work well with the the Logic Block Event.

Just an idea.

[Harri Polsa]

But wouldn't those 'flags' be just quests with different names? I'm using quests pretty much the way you describe the 'flags', ie. lots of simple checks whether something has happened. Nothing 'questy' about most of them... I'm not sure if another different set of 'quests' is needed.

[Steve McDonald]

What are the numbers you need to set quests to (eg using "Utilities") to signifiy that they are failed or complete? When a quest is set to failed or complete this is basically the equivalent of a true/false flag (but it gives you four rather than two options - failed, complete, not possessed, and in progress).

[Arrowhawk]

The first time I designed a mod with UA I had the same thought as Dominions, why not have local and global flags to indicate the status of certain events or quests. However, with the Quest event and the old faithful Chain event you can simulate just about anything. In the first Gold Box game, "The Pool of Radiance", the clerk event that gave out the quests and rewards was made up of nested chain events about 25 deep. I just wish there was an easy way to Beta test complex chains/quests.

[Harri Polsa]

Basically there are two ways to do the 0/1 check with quests. Either the complete/failed way, or the 0/1 way. I mostly use the 0/1 way. In other words, the quest is either with the party (value 1) or not with the the party (value 0). To check the c/f variable, the quest is 'complete' if the variable is 65000. The quest is 'failed' if the variable is 65001. Either way is quite simple, though the 0/1 is simpler of the two. You only need an event to set the value from 0 to 1. Otherwise, it's always 0 until you need to change it.
To test these chains... Well, I'm a grumpy and old fashioned UA veteran who thinks there should be no -easy- way to test these things... To test these things you need to do it the hard way, ie. play the design yourself, from start to finish.

[CocoaSpud]

In addition to quest variables, you can also use the Logic Block event to set or check custom variables. The lingo for custom variables in DC is 'attribute'. There are several different collections of attributes such as global, per level, whole party, per character, and so on. Each attribute has a text label and a text value.

When the party does something you want to track, use Logic Block to set a global attribute of 'partydidthis' to 'yes' (or '1'). The label and value are free form, any length, and there is no enforced limit on the number of attributes created. They are included in a saved game position. Later, you can use Logic Block to see if a global attribute called 'partydidthis' has the value 'yes'.

The Logic Block is a generic event that has some powerful features, but it is also a harder event to use. There is info on it in the DC help file.