Wait button?

[Dinonykos]

Concerning the "WAIT" thing: Is it possible to also have an event in the event editor (or at least a script) that does exactly what we discussed above (the "zero-step")?

I think this could be crucial for event loops like those I used for the combat in Friedrich's Quest. Therein, I used transfer events to make events at the beginning of an event series happen again. A "0-step event" could be much more effective and less complicated...

[manikus]

I am not quite clear on what you are trying to do, but mightn't a Pass Time event do the trick?

[Dinonykos]

Originally Posted by manikus I am not quite clear on what you are trying to do, but mightn't a Pass Time event do the trick?

Unfortunately not, since the Pass Time event does not "re-trigger" events. It sets the party time to another value, not more. I assume that step events, for example, will also not be triggered after a pass time event.
But my "problem" are events triggered by party time.
If you have a certain event which is only triggered, e.g., at party minute 10, and your current party minute is 9, than a pass time event of 1 minute will set your party minutes to 10, but the certain event normally triggered at minute 10 will not happen - even if it works perfectly otherwise if you make 1 step or teleport the party after minute 10 is reached...

[Paul Stevens]

What you want to do is cause a minute
to elapse from within an event chain. This
elapsed time will cause other events to
occur within the original chain of events.
This is a sort of recursion and it frightens
me greatly to think about implementing and
debugging such a thing. It might be easy
once we understand it completely. But
the understanding itself would be a major task.
I am not up to it.

Perhaps we could provide a way that an
event chain could force a 'WAIT' after the
entire chain exited. Pretend that the player
pressed the space bar once immediately after
the event chain is completed. Then your
step event would run again and you could
force another 'WAIT' until you were
satisfied that you had waited long enough.

[manikus]

If it frightens Paul... Yikes!

I do understand at least what you were meaning, Dinonykos.

I like Paul's solution, especially since by offering it, he is implying it is something that he is not frightened of and can possibly implement.

[nologgie]

Hmm. Okay, let me inject my probable misunderstanding to see if the waters muddy or clear.

As to returning to the top of an event chain, there are two utilities for FRUA that do this, GeoAid and SCRUAdat, and both do it in the same manner. They allow any event on a map to chain to any other event on the same map. (This is a great boon when limited to 100 total events.) It is possible to create inescapable loops if you aren't careful, but it greatly streamlines things like trap detection/disarming/activation when multiple possible variables are allowed. (Magical trap detection OR searching AND thief in party [%chance] OR searching AND dwarf in party [%chance]). Any result giving DETECTED will chain to the Disarm/Avoid chain rather than the Fall Down The Pit event.

A Who Tries event would require player interaction in FRUA, but in DC all the possible outcomes could be calculated behind the scenes, leaving the player with either "You avoid a pit trap," or "You fall into a pit." And unlike most FRUA traps, either outcome would be fair.

[Dinonykos]

Originally Posted by manikus I like Paul's solution, especially since by offering it, he is implying it is something that he is not frightened of and can possibly implement.

Yes! That solution reads good...

The possibility described by nologgie is interesting also. Seems superior - as long as you are able to follow all your cross-links between events...

[Paul Stevens]

[Cross Chaining ] Seems superior

But does it do what you originally asked?
Does it , for example, pass time and
automatically run any active step events?

Chaining to another event is a lot different
than running them and then returning to
an active chain.

[Dinonykos]

Originally Posted by Paul Stevens But does it do what you originally asked? Does it , for example, pass time and automatically run any active step events? Chaining to another event is a lot different than running them and then returning to an active chain.

You are right. I combined two different questions.

The reason why I started this thread was that I wanted the player to be able to wait at the same square for events triggered by time. E.g., watch a guard pass by whose movement is done via changing "NPC walls" (simulating a walking character) and triggered with "Get party minutes", all this connected to a step event. Concerning this question, I can be happy now since you have already built this option into the new DC version. If I got it right, the player can now simply press the spacebar to wait one minute, and the events triggered by party minutes will be executed.

Another thing I also try to achieve is a simplified combat based on questions and logic block events.
For this purpose, I used transfer events to make events at the beginning of an event series happen again. So that e.g. the party can win a round against an opponent, is teleported to the same place again, win another round and so on until a certain Quest value is reached and the party has won/lost. However, using transfer events forced me to change the coordinates for every combat. A combat at a random square is not possible with this approach, since at the moment there is (to my knowledge) no way to GET the party's x,y coordinates and use them for a transfer event.

For this problem, the "wait and trigger events again" option would be useful since there would be no need to get the x,y coordinates. Additionally, one combat round should last one minute. Thus, I assumed that the "wait-and-retrigger option" could be a good solution to my problem, and perhaps easily be added somehow to the event chains.

However, for things like the event-based combat (or similar event series), also the possibility to link back to the event at the beginning of the combat would be useful.

[nologgie]

Originally Posted by Paul Stevens But does it do what you originally asked? Does it , for example, pass time and automatically run any active step events? Chaining to another event is a lot different than running them and then returning to an active chain.

Indeed. I thought the topic had shifted slightly.

Originally Posted by Dinonykos I think this could be crucial for event loops like those I used for the combat in Friedrich's Quest. Therein, I used transfer events to make events at the beginning of an event series happen again. A "0-step event" could be much more effective and less complicated...

This sounds like what I've encountered while designing in FRUA. A "0-step event" is simpler (with fewer chances of human error) than a transfer event and passes one minute. If you don't need to pass that minute, cross-chaining will accomplish the same thing without an additional event.