Kilroyfx found, alive and well!

[kilroyfx]

Ok, easy question first. The light switch is an illusion. The switch on the wall hides/reveals an object. That object is a black box shaped exactly like the dimensions of the room, and some parts of this box have graded transparency so that when you walk downstairs into the basement the lighting gradually gets darker. When you find the switch and activate it, the black box is hidden and it looks as though you have turned the lights on.

As far as using autoit3, and starting a new thread (do you mean topic) or can you start one for me....I really don't have much experience on forums. I can try to explain what I have done and how it is useful. All I know is that I was able to streamline the process entering data into the SOM event editor, If I designed a certain type of logic that I wanted to apply to all my characters (with a bunch of counters, if statements, branching dialogue, and taking advantage of the 15 leafs) I was able type my dialogue as text into a text document for every character and quickly inject that text into my SOM characters, over and over again very quickly....I'm probably not explaining it well. If you could try it out, I made the 2 tutorials very easy to use and understand. You may be able to explain it better.

Oh, and I was able to get rid of some annoying features like words getting split in half, or turning 1 "display message" command into 2 or 3 automatically if you entered too much text. I found myself continually adjusting my dialogue to get it to "look" right. But a script can count your words and justify the lines for you, count your lines and add in another "display message" command thus making the game flow....

[Holy_Diver]

So, it sounds like you were just making mouse/keyboard (possibly "resource" manipulating) macros to help you do repetitive tasks more quickly. Correct me if that does not sound right.

I wonder if with the room object, you never ran into the object wanting to disappear even while it should be in view.

[kilroyfx]

The room object does want to disappear if it is too big and not centered, to overcome this....(but I never had to), would be to make 2 room objects. Yes I
even built a "second floor" over the first floor using this technique to hold a telescope and starfield dome (looks like you are on a second floor observatory).
The second floor object (which looks like my clip on youtube "before melanat") is simply a grid for a floor and 4 short walls with a rockwall texture. Oh yes
I think I had to put in some invisible collision objects to keep you from falling through the floor. I sent Todd the game source code.

In essence the keyboard/mouse macro is correct. But I have taken the work out of coding in the mouse and keyboard , and turned the commands into
functions that you call with parameters....so you can actually create a series of IF statements with variables, random numbers etc...by using
FOR NEXT loops and other commands in autoit3. I wouldn't mention this as a tool if I didn't think it was powerful. Maybe I should try recording a video
of me using the tool, but thats a pain....I found that most macro programs are horrible and make mistakes, this does not - once you get it to work it
is so reliable you find yourself automating a lot of things inside/outside SOM.  Also it is very easy to use and change.

For example, I have scripts that take models out of maya, bring them into Milkshape, then into Kingsfield almost instantly....so as I tweak a model in Maya - I can run
SOM (keeping it open) and test the models immediately. This allows me to make perfect alterations in minutes rather than hours. Autoit3 has a lot of commands
(more than mouse/keyboard) probably similar to visualbasic,tk/tcl, or c#. So you can program/compile the scripts if you want to go that far. I like to keep them uncompiled.

[dmpdesign]

"This allows me to make perfect alterations in minutes rather than hours."

Perhaps one of the most important additions to the SOM library there could be is to have things that are repetitive be quick and easy rather than consuming huge amounts of time.

One of the biggest pains Ive had is realizing the need for literally 20-30 necessary event scripts to be active on 20 or so maps after I have created them all...what i would have given to have something to pump them in easily to all maps rather than doing it by hand...

The other useful thing you mentioned to me on the phone was the ability to automate adjustments to very complicated object moving events, such as your telescope events.  Making events that tweak object movement takes forever to perfect.

I will get some links to your project space soon, and I will strip out the customizations and put a download pack up for them...I will make sure there are no duplicates or anything that will overwrite the current extra parts we have on the site.  I may have to rename models/textures/profiles etc before i post them, so give me some time.

[kilroyfx]

Thanks,

I think what I gave you is a huge mess....I never figured out how to sort out what was mine, what was original SOM material. Did you ever get to
my project up and running?  There are some neat tricks in there I would like people to see and hopefully garner inspiration by....

[dmpdesign]

When I get my game in beta test mode in Tom's hands I am going to load up your project and peek at the goodies.  That way when Tom is done telling me about the hundreds of bugs I will have been away from my game for a bit and concentrating on another one.

I suspect I will be through your project in a couple weeks, but I want to help holy find his warp bug first.

[Hguols]

I eat bugs.

*picks them off a tree*

[Holy_Diver]

When I get my game in beta test mode in Tom's hands I am going to load up your project and peek at the goodies.  That way when Tom is done telling me about the hundreds of bugs I will have been away from my game for a bit and concentrating on another one.

I suspect I will be through your project in a couple weeks, but I want to help holy find his warp bug first.

IF you'd been paying attention, you would've noticed I was able to make the "warp bug" go away. However in order to do so I had to remove an item, which ultimately I want (more so now than before) very much to have in the game in the end. However it's an easter egg item, so for now it isn't important. It's definitely caused by having this item this way, but the item is just the large katana and everything is totally legit, so it really makes no sense what is going on (other than the cursed katana really is cursed)

[dmpdesign]

Sorry I havent read every post on the site....you can oftentimes come off as a dick you know 

[Holy_Diver]

Sorry I havent read every post on the site....you can oftentimes come off as a dick you know?

You should read every post, especially in reply to your own posts... try the "Show most recent posts to the forum." link atop every page. It's the only way I ever read the forums/all any regular needs to keep up.

One man's dick is another man's delight

^Besides, at least I read your posts~