Re: Custom Map #1314: Spiral Galacrazy. By: Pastor.Healer

[pastor.healer]

You know I would like to get to know the code for this game, but I just don't think I want to go through the learning curve.  What would be awesome is
if more code was built into the editor.  For example, I think it would be great if we could place different emitters during game play without having to learn
the code.  Also, if we could change the terrain during map play, that would be amazing.  Can you imagine mountains changing size and elevation during the
game?  That would be a wow.   And I think it's time for more pieces.  But until then, the game works. 

And thanks both of you for the encouragement for the maps.  I also have a busy ministry and CW3 gives me some down time.  It's been a nice distraction.  Thanks
also to Virgil for the hard work over the years to make this a solid game.

So to both of you, stdout and helper, thanks for your continuing comments.  They stir me to go on. 

Blessed week to all.

[pastor.healer]

Thanks Teknotiss.  You rock!

[stdout]

I think it would be great if we could place different emitters during game play without having to learn the code.

Unless I am misunderstanding you, this is do-able in the editor right now without any extra code.

Just place the emitter, and double click on it to change it to a different value.

Then create a second emitter, double click it, and you can have it be a different emitter (different strength and time.)

Or did I misunderstand you?

Also, if we could change the terrain during map play, that would be amazing.  Can you imagine mountains changing size and elevation during the game?

This is pretty simple to do. If you want, make a map that you want made and send it to me, telling me the details of what you want done (where you want the elevation to change mid-game, when to change it, etc.) and I'll be glad to take a stab at it. Then I can send it back to you so you can submit it to CS if you like it. It can be a sort of miniature pass the map. :) I can pm you my email or you could post the thing somewhere on the forums here. Just offerin'. :)

[pastor.healer]

What I was implying is that I would like to be able to do what writing custom code would do without writing scripts.  For example...

Wouldn't it be more interesting if we could insert things like emitters during game play without doing any custom coding?

What about moving mountains or at least being able to add dimensions to the map during game play.  Again without writing scripts.
We used to be able to do this type of map building in CW2.  We could just insert what we wanted the map to do into variables and
the software would do the coding. 

Without being able to learn the scripting language, I am at the end of map making creativity.  I can keep adding maps that challenge
the user, but I don' t know, maybe some new game pieces would be nice.  Black holes?   Meteors?   Ship crashes?   People on exploratoin
who leave the ships to retrieve or place weapons.  Anyway, just some ideas. 

The real issue is I like to make creative maps, but feel like I am hitting the creativity wall without learning how to code in this language.  I
will probably never take the time to do that.  I'm just too busy.

Am I alone in thinking this way?

The other thing that I was thinking that might make the maps more interesting, especially for the new people is if they could click on a
button on the play menu which would cut all the creeper in half by value so that they can get through the learning curve.  Then they
could go back and play the map at full power. 

Am I rambling  :)

[planetfall]

Well, there are a lot of scripts already. (Turkos Prime alone has around 50. Not that I'm bragging or anything ::)) You can always extract scripts from maps to provide the extra game pieces if you don't mind being limited to the things already created. Or, forum members will usually be glad to make requested scripts for you.

[stdout]

planetfall is right that there is a lot out there already that you can draw from.

I know what you mean about not being able to take the time to learn the programming language. I'm largely the same way and as much as I'd like to, I haven't spent more than a few hours total in learning CRPL. I'll never make awesome scripts like planetfall, stewbasic, warren and others. But I can make simple little tools that enhance the game and I think you could, too.

You mentioned making emitters appear during a map. That is unbelievably easy and requires just a few lines of code. I and many others would be very glad to hear your requests and give you a script that you can add to your future map. Then all you have to do is create a CRPL core and attach the script you want to it. It's really easy.

Helm's Deep (one of my earlier maps) has a custom ally (Gandalf shows up mid game and helps destroy the enemies) but it only has like 15 total lines of code.

PH I just put together an example map for you to download and look at. Copy it to your WorldEditor/UNSET/save.cw3 and then load it up in your projects CW3. Once it's loaded, look under WorldEditor/UNSET/scripts/ and you'll see the custom emitter script. 4 lines of code total. This map creates an emitter at exactly 60 seconds into the game.

[Stave]

Helm's Deep (one of my earlier maps) has a custom ally (Gandalf shows up mid game and helps destroy the enemies) but it only has like 15 total lines of code.

Gandalf is adorable, by the way. I loved that cute little blue ball of AC just rolling through the creeper.  ;D

[pastor.healer]

Excellent!  Thanks so much.  I will do that and look at what you have sent me.  Well, maybe this will add a new
dimension to my maps. 

I will let you know how this turns out....

Blessings

[stdout]

I can't wait!  :)

[pastor.healer]

Oh wow!  We have a new player on the horizon.... Nicely played!

[pastor.healer]

Thanks!  I will try it  :)

[pastor.healer]

So I did what you instructed me to do but for some reason I don't see any scripts or see an emitter show up at 60 seconds.  The game plays yet I don't see any corep on the map.  I wonder what I am doing wrong?

[stdout]

The core is kind of invisible. After 60 seconds the emitter will appear in its place. Did you bring the file into the editor?

[stdout]

More info. Go into the Edit mode (where you can build the terrain and units) and you should see the crpl core show up. It is transparent in edit mode and completely invisible in playing mode.

The coords to the core are 74,12

Go to the Units menu and double click on the core to see the attached scripts window. Let me know how that goes.

[teknotiss]

What would be awesome is if more code was built into the editor.  For example, I think it would be great if we could place different emitters during game play without having to learn
the code.  Also, if we could change the terrain during map play, that would be amazing.  Can you imagine mountains changing size and elevation during the
game?  That would be a wow.   And I think it's time for more pieces.  But until then, the game works. 

you and me both dude!  :'(
i did suggest adding some basic CRPL cores etc to the editor but V was rushing to finish the game at that point.
i wanted something like the fields in CW2 but much more so, imagine a user can just draw a shape freehand or with straight edges and within that area choose an effect or multiple variable timed effects. you could have (multi)directional push/pull fields, conversion effects, wave and swirly stuff, and prob others i haven't thought up!
i still live in faint hope. :(