coppro
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 1309
Registered: 11-24-2005
IP: Logged

You know what I want. As of yet you cannot make a script that actually completes speaking before moving on.

eytanz
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2708
Registered: 02-05-2003
IP: Logged

This is impossible without totally rewriting the game engine. The speech is on a real-time based system that works totally independantly of the turn-based system the gameplay is on. You can start speech events, but you can't check for anything that happens speechwise. I think it is highly unlikely that this would ever change.

____________________________
I got my avatar back! Yay!

Swivel
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 236
Registered: 09-14-2005
IP: Logged

Clayton Weiss wanted this, but I agree w/ Eytan.

eytanz
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2708
Registered: 02-05-2003
IP: Logged

I should point out that I want the feature request too, it's just technically impossible.

____________________________
I got my avatar back! Yay!

stigant
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1182
Registered: 08-19-2004
IP: Logged

What about setting the maximum turn duration of a particular bit of speech. The problem here (as I see it) is that the player moves through the room too quickly and the speech gets out of synch with what's going on in the room. If the architect could set the maximum number of turns to play the speech, the sound engine could cut off the speech when it no longer makes any sense (because the player is moving too quickly)

____________________________
Progress Quest Progress

---

[Last edited by stigant at 01-30-2006 01:53 PM]

eytanz
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2708
Registered: 02-05-2003
IP: Logged

stigant wrote:
What about setting the maximum turn duration of a particular bit of speech. The problem here (as I see it) is that the player moves through the room too quickly and the speech gets out of synch with what's going on in the room. If the architect could set the maximum number of turns to play the speech, the sound engine could cut off the speech when it no longer makes any sense (because the player is moving too quickly)

That's possible right now - just add a script that waits for a certain amount of turns after the speech was inititated, then flushes speech.

____________________________
I got my avatar back! Yay!

coppro
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 1309
Registered: 11-24-2005
IP: Logged

I think I understand the basic idea behind the speech engine: The script adds a piece of speech to the stack, and then it goes from first added to last added. The flush speech empties the stack, but how come the speech couldn't add to the standard event cue upon completion?

eytanz
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2708
Registered: 02-05-2003
IP: Logged

coppro wrote:
I think I understand the basic idea behind the speech engine: The script adds a piece of speech to the stack, and then it goes from first added to last added. The flush speech empties the stack, but how come the speech couldn't add to the standard event cue upon completion?

Because the gameplay engine is strictly turn-based - it only updates when Beethro makes a move. The speech engine goes on regardless of the moves. If you just don't do anything, the speech will keep playing.

Also, the speech can be manually flushed by the player by pressing space, which further makes it unpredictable.

Now, it seems to me that, in theory, it could still be possible to have a "check whether speech ended during last turn" command, but when a similar request was made back in the days of JtRH development (it's not like it didn't occur to people at the time), Mike assured us that that's just not possible the way the current engines are coded. If I understand correctly, then if DROD were rebuilt from scratch yet again, then maybe it could be done, but the DROD 2.0 engine just cannot be expanded in this way.

DROD 3.0 is not a rebuilding from scratch of DROD 2.0, so it still won't have this ability. I will say that you'll probably still be happier with what it allows you to do in this regard.

____________________________
I got my avatar back! Yay!

Mattcrampy
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2388
Registered: 05-29-2003
IP: Logged

I'd hope that a total rewrite of the DROD engine won't ever be on the cards, and that if it is Erik and Mike would look at developing a new game.

____________________________
What do you call an elephant at the North Pole?

---

[Last edited by Mattcrampy at 01-30-2006 11:26 PM : Less definite, more opinionated. It's like a microcosm of American media.]

AlefBet
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 979
Registered: 07-16-2003
IP: Logged

Eytan has the right of it. The game engine is designed in such a way that scripting events just can't respond to realtime events. One way to see this is that the save-game system works by saving your move sequence. If while you play the game, it takes 10 moves for a speech event to complete, but during restore it takes 12 moves (ignoring the fact that speech effects, like other effects, are discarded during game-restore), the room state won't match after the replay.

Also, if the game did have an event "wait for speech to complete," it would open the door for possible finger-twitch rooms that have to be completed in a certain amount of time. Consider:

speech Beethro "This takes three seconds to say"
wait for speech to complete
close door at <room-exit>

Now Beethro has to complete the room in 3 seconds and get past the exit door, or he can't get out.

____________________________
I was charged with conspiracy to commit jay-walking, and accessory to changing lanes without signaling after the fact .

++Adam H. Peterson

Dali
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 174
Registered: 02-05-2005
IP: Logged

I'll add another problem of the speeches.
Remember that when someone make an undo move, the speeches suddenly stop. It would be better to try to program something to solve this problem, that means continue the speeches even after an undo move. Hard to do, though.

Swivel
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 236
Registered: 09-14-2005
IP: Logged

AlefBet wrote:
Also, if the game did have an event "wait for speech to complete," it would open the door for possible finger-twitch rooms that have to be completed in a certain amount of time. Consider:

speech Beethro "This takes three seconds to say"
wait for speech to complete
close door at <room-exit>

Now Beethro has to complete the room in 3 seconds and get past the exit door, or he can't get out.

Heh heh... I was actually planning on doing that for the 6th room I ever designed. This was before members of the ol' DROD.net forum offered me the salvation of sane architecture.