Say, I was thinking about scripting the other day. I do this every day. I thought about some sort of new coding line: a behavior (not behavio
ur
) tag. What this would do would define the behavior of an NPC. For example, if an NPC had its behavior defined as being a roach, it would move towards Beethro, stand in the way of completing a room until Beethro killed it, and kill Beethro if given the chance. This is different from a complete character transformation because the graphic of the character would not change.
Perhaps the following code will whet your appetite for understanding.
This code is for a visible NPC guard.
Behavior: Mimic
Wait 5 Turn(s)
Speech Beethro "Hey! That guard is doing as I do!"
Speech Beethro "I'll bet that that brain is causing him"
Speech Beethro "to act like a mimic."
Wait while monster [brain] is at (13,18)
Behavior: Guard
Speech Guard "Wait, what just happened?"
End on death
End on death would mean that, when the guard dies, its script ends. I don't think that behavior tags should be implemented, but this one seems valuable.
This might render the "
Turn into monster"
tag obsolete, but with some complications. Consider the following script. The character is an NPC Halph at (10,10) with an orb at (20,20). Beethro will bump against a closed yellow door controlled by the orb.
Behavior: Halph
Wait while NPC is at (10,10)
Speech Beethro "Get the door!"
Speech Halph "Got it, Unka."
While for NPC at (18, 18)-(22, 22)
Behavior: Roach queen
Speech Halph "Get away from me, Beethro."
Wait for event roach egg hatched
Speech Halph "Help! I'm surrounded by roaches!"
Behavior: Scripting
Pathfind to [Beethro location]
Speech Halph "What caused the roaches to spawn, Unka Beethro?"
Speech Beethro "Obviously some mad architect who has nothing better"
Speech Beethro "to do with his time than invent stupid scripting things."
Invincibility might add a complication.
Anyway, despite thinking of this new thing, I am opposed to it because unfortunately it can be abused. There is only one way to implement this for me:
1. Learn C++ (easy)
2. Learn Windows programming (hard)
3. Code away!
Otherwise, it could really really be abused. But I said that. This post, anyway, isn't exactly a feature request. If it were implemented, if would not be in TCB. It's all silly. But thanks for reading, anyway.