Making a NPC cast a spell or visual effect on entering area (aurora)

[cloud88]

Hi. I´m making a module whit the aurora toolset and have run into a problem. I want a wizard to stand infront of a summoning circle, trying to summon a demon when i enter the area/room. And i cant figure out how to make the visual effect of him trying to summon it. Can someone help me with this or perhaps point me to somewhere i can get help.

[Legolas]

You'll want to use some scripting, and then one of the following functions to achieve the conjuring effect:

ActionCastFakeSpellAtLocation
ActionCastFakeSpellAtObject
ActionCastSpellAtLocation
ActionCastSpellAtObject
ActionPlayAnimation
PlayAnimation

They all work in a slightly different way depending on what you want.

The script itself would probably be best placed on a trigger by the room's entrance.

You want it to fire only once, so use an integer on the trigger to keep track of that.

GetNearestObjectByTag lets you find the wizard in your script.

ActionCastFakeSpellAtLocation is probably the best function to use. It helps to set up a waypoint where the daemon is summoned.

In addition to casting the fake spell, you might want to copy the visual and spawn-in effects from the Gate spell, changing the creature to be summoned.

If you need more help just ask; in the long run this might be more helpful than giving you the entire script though.

[cloud88]

Yes, i like to figure out some parts for my self so thanks for the tips. just one more thing, i dont want the wizard to actually succsed in summoning the deamon, so i want him to try over and over again. Is there some way to make the script repeat itself?

[Legolas]

There are a few ways to do that, but loops will of course have an effect on your module's performance.

One method is using the DelayCommand(10.0,ExecuteScript("scriptname")); command at the end of your script. This makes it fire 10.0 seconds after it last ran. You can change the value of course.
The danger here is that the script may keep running even when there are no players in the area, so you'd have to build in a check that stops the script when the player leaves. This could be on (a trigger by) the area's exit, or a check of PCs in the area. The latter is less efficient, but the OnAreaExit script does not run when a player logs off in the area so it may be necessary depending on whether the mod is single- or multiplayer, and if you're telling a story or creating a world for player characters to 'live' in and pick their own directions.

A second method is using the area's or the creature's heartbeat script. This makes the script fire every, roughly, 6 seconds but only if a player is in the area. You can script it not to fire every other turn of course, making it every 12 seconds if that's more convenient.

A third is delaying commands within the script and using a 'while' condition. This also comes with a built-in safety in that you can set the script not to loop more than, say, 50 or 100 times. In the other cases, it's the player leaving that terminates the operation.

You might also set up a series of triggers, each of them firing the script, which make the wizard retry as the player draws closer. That might give trouble with players running vs walking though, or standing still for that matter.

Short of the latter, heartbeat would likely be your best choice

Something else to take into account is that multiple players entering can start the script off several times, when you only want it to run once per howevermany seconds. Check for that too.
Finally, don't make the script run if the wizard is dead.

[ 04-17-2005, 06:04 AM: Message edited by: Legolas ]